Have you ever had one of those weeks where you’re constantly reminded that you need to depend on God.  Well it’s been one of those weeks for me, which is coming right after a very busy weekend, but good one at church.  It’s as if Satan’s trying to put obstacles in my way to take my eyes off of God, but I’m not going to allow him to prevail.  I will choose to depend.  I will choose to let Matthew 5:3 ring true, which says “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (New Living Translation).  Most versions say “poor in spirit.”  The idea here is that God blesses people who realize that it’s not all about themselves, it’s not all about their gifting.  It’s all about God.  They are people with poor, lacking spirits.  They realize that they need God.

Well I need God.  I’d appreciate your prayers especially over the next couple days.  Thanks!

Tommy

“Will you rub my back?”

“Yeah as long as you rub mine.”

Have you ever had one of those conversations?  I know I’ve had many of them.  At times Karissa will ask me if I will rub her back, and honestly I have to admit that at that moment I’m thinking “Yeah, if you rub my back.”  But what does that attitude say about me?  Does it display the kind of love God calls me to have for my wife?  Does it display sacrificial love?  Certainly not!

In Luke 14:12-14 Jesus says something very interesting to a man who invited him to a banquet.  Check it out:

“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.  You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Kind of interesting huh?  When was the last time you did something for someone who couldn’t repay you?

On May 21-22 our students will be participating in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine.  This is an event where our students go 30 hours without eating to raise awareness for world hunger and seek to raise money to help “feed the hunger.”  This is a great opportunity for them to do something for someone they don’t know.  Someone that can’t repay them.  Someone that they won’t meet this side of heaven. 

So what can you do today for someone who won’t be able to repay you?  Maybe it will be as little as giving someone you love a back rub without expecting anything in return.  Maybe it’s something bigger.

Tommy

This morning I came across a prayer in a book I’m reading called Invitations to a Journey: a Road Map for Spiritual Formation that I’d like to share with you.  So here it is:

“God of our creation and re-creation, you who are constantly at work to shape me in the wholeness of Christ, you know the hardness of my being that resist your shaping touch.  You know the deep inner rigidities of my being that reject your changing grace.  By your grace soften my hardness and rigidity; help me to become pliable in your hands…may there be a melting of my innate resistance to your transforming love.”

So God, “Help me to become pliable in your hands.”  I trust you and want you to do a transforming work in my life.

Tommy