One hundred twenty

All that we have and received is on loan from God.

This is hard to accept sometimes when we lose things that belong to us. Tragedy can hit us in the most unexpected ways. A fire can destroy our homes and all we possess. A divorce can destroy a marriage and a family. An illness can destroy a body. It is hard to focus on the fact that none of it belongs to us.

This computer I’m typing on is God’s. The roof over my head is God’s. My child is God’s child. None of the things you can see will go with you into the kingdom of heaven. None of our possessions will be with us when we see God.

God is dealing with many of us about our material possessions. He is telling some of us we have to let go of things we can’t afford. I want to go shopping today, but I won’t because I don’t have the money to do so. I don’t need anything. All of my needs are met. If I bought anything, it would not be something that I NEED.

Today at Logos Baptist Church the sermon was about 1 Samuel Chapter one and the story of Hannah. She longed to have a child and when she prayed to God for it, God granted her wish, and knowing that the child was God’s to begin with she was able to give Samuel back to God at a very young age. Samuel became a great man of God.

There is a lot to learn about the bitterness that Hannah could not escape from not being able to have a child. Today’s sermon taught us that bitterness grows and any bitterness we feel towards others is also bitterness towards God.

It is such a big concept to grasp that EVERYTHING – our thoughts, our actions, our possessions, our bodies, our families, our children, our spouses, our souls are God’s.

How are you taking care of what God has given you today?
For myself I have to work at my thoughts and bitterness I had towards someone. That same person has bitterness towards me and we are both miserable because of it. Today I took my bitterness to God and laid it at his feet. Several times since I have had thoughts of bitterness, but they did not become feelings of bitterness. God gave me some encouragement about changing my thoughts to thoughts of other things, some happy things. To God be the glory!

It is my prayer that God will change the heart of the person that is bitter towards me and have them have love once again in their heart for me as I am working with God to change my own bitterness to love. It is a gigantic request. It is one that I have little hope for, but it is not up to me to change this person. It will have to be God at work in that person’s life and that is what I am praying for.

Grace and mercy to you from God our father.