God grant me…

I worked on an article for over an hour, the subject was ‘Strength’. I decided to take the computer upstairs and finish it, so I settled myself in my bed and propped it on my knees to finish writing. I don’t know what happened next maybe I had said something that God didn’t approve of me saying, but as I was getting my last scripture, the one that brought it all together, my computer froze, and I mean I couldn’t make it budge! The little indicator that it was waiting just kept making a circle and I couldn’t change pages, minimize, or anything that would help me get back to the article! I had to force quit so that when I went back to my page the entire article was gone! No way to retrieve it. I could have gotten upset but decided it must have been providence, God’s will, that’s when I realized I would have to do something else! There was a time when if that happened to me it would have sent me into hysterics and I would have gotten very upset, but I have lately practiced a calmer approach to things that are upsetting, and the prayer I prayed will be familiar to a lot of you, it is called the “Serenity Prayer” and begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

James 1:2-4 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way. V. 12 Any one who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.”

We tend to be fickle in our love lives and also in our friendships, we think a person is “cool” one day and a “dud” the next, I am surely glad that it isn’t that way with Jesus! Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

He loved you before you were ever born and still today He reaches through eternity to us, to invite us to come and live with Him for ever in His Father’s house, heaven!” Words from a musical by the Gaithers “His Love Reaching” come to my mind right now, I feel so touched while I sit here typing remembering all the love we in the Choir felt as we sang the words which fit here perfectly, “His love went on longing, and His love went on reaching; right past the shackles of my mind, And the Word of the Father became Mary’s little boy and His love reached all the way to where we are.”

Let Him reach into your heart and life to make all things new again, and if you reach crisis status the way I did last night, just remember to say the prayer penned by Reinhold Niebuhr, and simply give God a chance to work serenity, courage, and wisdom, in your life, and keep the faith, fight for it!

I will end this with Matthew 6:34 which were Jesus’ own words, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”