“They like me, they like me, they really like me!” Ah, those famous words once uttered out of sheer excitement and joy by known other than actress Sally Fields after accepting her first ever Oscar award. This line has been mimicked and made fun of by many comics and other actors mocking the awards system and acceptance speeches in Hollywood. But as a former actor for many years, I totally get where Sally Fields is coming from. You see, creative people love it when we get acknowledged. We won’t always express it so overtly like Sally Fields but when we humbly take our bow, inside we are saying “look at me, look at me”! So we creative folk put ourselves out there, we take risks, we wear eccentric clothes, talk loud, we sing off key just to get your attention. All because we want you to look at us and affirm us. Why do you think a lot of the really great actors come from broken homes?  Because they seek what they didn’t get at home, love and acceptance.  You see, money can drive an artist but it’s more of the attention and the approval we seek. Again artists don’t admit this but take it from me, it’s true. I think if we’re honest with ourselves there is a part of all of us that wants affirmation regardless of whether we’re creative types or not. Look at how many of us are on Facebook or have accounts with YouTube. Look at all the bloggers on social media. What are we trying to scream out? “Hey, I’m alive, look at me, I’ve got something to say.” Listen, there is nothing wrong with that but if we’re not careful, this basic need we have can get so out of whack, that if our expectations aren’t met, we can get easily hurt or offended and the next thing you know we’re not growing and improving our lives, we’re using our hurts to hurt others and ourselves. For example, there were times I would write a blog, or a poem or do something creative and share it on Facebook. I expected to get the likes and the comments from my friends affirming my work. Yet there were times, I got nothing, nada, zero response.  What? All that time and effort? Do they not like me anymore? I would sometimes let it bother me and would periodically check to see if anyone liked it. It got to the point where I had to walk away from it for a bit. I had to reavaluate what am I doing? I used to also get upset when friends I would reach out to and really enjoyed being with, didn’t reciprocate anymore. That hurt so much. Why, because I had let myself get to that point where I was putting all my need for validation in my creativity and in my earthly relationships. Each time I would get hurt, I would self medicate my pain with bad habits that only left me feeling worse about myself. I was no longer growing but hindering that growth. But as Christians, we have to always go back to the fundamental truths of who we are in Christ. We have to start by identifying our worth, our value, our significance in God first. You see if we can come from that place of love and acceptance from our identity in Christ, then when expectations from this world don’t get met, it’s okay because we know we are already loved! Just look at most of the letters to the churches in the New Testament from Paul’s letters to even Peter’s. What’s the one thing they have in common? The letters usually start out with who we are in Christ and what blessings we have already because we are saved. The letters always get us to remember what we already have become in Christ and how much we are loved by God. Then the letters transition later to what we are to do and what God expects of us and how to grow. But we can’t obey unless we know who we are. We can’t grow in Christ unless we come from that place of completeness already. Just like babies need love to grow, the same is true for us. Peter saw this and in 1 Peter he encourages us to be like newborn babies and crave milk. In 2 Peter, he urges the church to add to the faith, in other words grow, improve, move forward, mature. But before he gets into that he reminds them in the first verses of their identity and completeness in Christ. He says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.” What does this mean for us? We do not lack anything we need for this life and for the Godly life. So the acceptance, the love we seek, we have it fully because “his divine power”, the Holy Spirit gives us this. Yet, instead of looking inside to what we already have, we think we lack and so we look outside to the things of this world. When we do that, we don’t grow, we only hinder the maturation process. So, whenever we begin to feel unloved and need to be validated, let’s remind ourselves of the promises of God and who we are in Him. His love for us is amazing, His love is all we need, His love is freely available and we have it already through faith in the promises and through the gift of the Holy Spirit. So stop checking your Facebook for likes, no need to prove yourself to anyone, stop seeking the applause of man either.  I’m sure you’ve seen the bumper sticker but it’s true, “God’s crazy about you!”  He doesn’t just like you, He loves you! You are His prized possession, His trophy. He gave it all up so that He could win over your heart and on that day when you see Him face to face, He will take you in His arms, hoist you above His shoulders and have himself a “Sally Field moment”!  With tears in His eyes, you’ll hear Him shout with great joy,  “I love you! I love you! I really love you!!!!”

2 Peter 1:3-5 New International Version (NIV)
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Godin Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:37-39

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved. – Ephesians 2:4-5

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. – 1 John 3:1

I hate getting sick. Especially when I get the cold or so, it completely wipes me out. All I ever want to do is just sleep. I can’t talk, I lose my voice almost completely, I can’t breathe through my nose, and hearing is not all too good because of my clogged up ears. Let’s face it, I’m a complete baby when I’m sick. I have no patience whatsoever and all I want is to get back to normalcy as soon as possible. I want to be back to work, back in the gym exercising, back to doing normal activities again and functioning like a normal person. I feel restless, get me out of the bed covers I want to live again! But my body tells me to slow it down, hold on , not so fast. Our body needs time to rebuild its immune system. We have to rest knowing that our body is working to fight the virus but if we get in the way, and try to hurry and get ahead of our body’s time schedule, we only make matters worse and it’s only going to prolong the healing process. In the same way, as Christians in our spiritual journey, sometimes we find ourselves in rebuild mode. Perhaps it’s because we have sinned or because of this sinful life, sometimes it’s hardships that come our way and we discover ourselves lying in our beds unable to function.  We look at our situation and we get frustrated, discouraged and we even doubt whether the path to recovery is even possible. For some of us it’s an addiction that we have been battling for years and it has set us back in our spiritual progress and so we get impatient and instead of resting in God’s strength to fight it, we get in the way by trying harder. We read our Bibles more, pray more, fast more but what we really need to do is rest in the promises of God and let Him fight the battle for us. Yes, there is work we have to do, but if we try to do it outside of the doctor’s orders, we will only make it worse. Whatever our situation is, we have to remember that rebuilding our lives does not happen overnight. Jesus says to consider the birds. Let’s take a look at the sparrow. When a storm comes and blows her nest, she doesn’t panic, doesn’t get bitter, doesn’t complain. She just dries off her wings the next day and begins building again, one straw at a time. We need to learn to pace ourselves. We want to rush things but we need to learn to “Be still and know that He is Lord”. Be still? That’s very hard sometimes for me to do but if He says wait, be patient, be still, than that’s what I’m going to do. Remember, scripture says, “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” So where are we? Do we find ourselves in recovery mode, tucked under the covers, unable to move? Don’t worry, you’re in good hands. Jesus, the Good Doctor is the ultimate healer. Don’t try and rush the process, you’ll only get in the way. Let God do His work, follow the Doctor’s orders. When He says rest, we rest in His promises and when He says get up and move, we move. We must “keep in step with the Spirit”. We may not like how long it might take but if we take it one day at a time, eventually the day will come when we will be leaving our bed covers for good, at full strength again, running the race we were meant to run.

Psalm 46:10 New International Version (NIV)

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

Isaiah 40:31 King James Version (KJV)

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

“The Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Up came the sun and dried up all the rain and the Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the spout again”. I was singing that the other day in the car with my three year old son and eight year old daughter. We were actually listening to the classic song “Come Around Again” by Carly Simon. Remember that one? Her song is based off the lovable nursery rhyme. What I get from her song is that things in life, like relationships can fall apart but like the sun, love will come around again and give us little spiders another chance to climb that spout again. As Christians, we too are like the spider. We venture out on our God given dreams or our path to holiness and we’re climbing up that spout but of course the rains in life come down to wash us off. It’s easy to get discouraged and give up thinking there is no way to climb that spout again. But thanks be to God for His Son who rose from the grave and conquered death so we can overcome too. I don’t know what that water spout represents for you. Maybe it’s a dream, a relationship or maybe an addiction you’re trying to overcome and the rains of life keep washing you off. Don’t give up hope, keep fixing your eyes on Jesus, whose love is more constant than the sun and focus on the promises of His word. Remember, His word is a “light unto our path”. Allow that light to burn so bright that it dries up all the rain and before you know it, you’ll find yourself back on that water spout again.

Psalm 119:105-112 King James Version (KJV)
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Hebrews 12:2 New International Version (NIV)
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I’ve been in a few relationships, where we had to reach the point where we couldn’t go on the same path anymore. She had to go her way and I had to go my way. Of course that dreaded word “goodbye “ was always uttered every time and usually it was as cold as ice. What happened? What went wrong? Each relationship had its own unique and different reasons for the breakup but it always had one common denominator and that was me. Sometimes we don’t want to admit it, but we play a role too in the demise of our broken relationships. I’ve been to divorce groups and I’ve talked to many going through a divorce and it’s always about their spouse. Their spouse did that and their spouse did this but very rarely did I ever hear what their faults were. I know it’s hard to admit or sometimes share because who wants to tell someone that their marriage ended because they were at fault. I know there are cases where the other spouse is more to blame but it still takes two to tango. If you are one who is going through the aftermath of a divorce, or a breakup in a dating relationship, my encouragement to you is to stop finding faults in your ex partner and begin to seek inwardly and take a serious look at what role you may have played in the breakup. Ask God to show you and confess it and then give to Him. The anger, the bitterness will eventually fade and that’s when the real healing takes place. It could be an addiction to alcohol, pornography, sex, whatever the area of sin, we must learn to first come to terms with ourselves, humble ourselves before a holy God and confess our sin. We must give up holding on to thinking we got this, there’s no problem with me and humbly admit to ourselves that we don’t have it altogether. When we do this, that’s when we will start to see the healing that God wants to do in our hearts. If we do reconcile with our ex partner or begin again with another person, we will then not be bringing the same baggage we carried before into the next relationship. Remember, scripture says you can’t love your neighbor unless you love yourself. Now I know there are two different interpretations of this. There’s the one that says, love others like yourself because we are really good at doing that. We think of ourselves all the time and so it’s easy for us to love ourselves. So love others in the same way. But there’s another view. Sometimes we self sabotage ourselves and make decisions that hurt us. Too many of us hurt others simply because we are hurting. If we can learn what it is to help ourselves we can get to a better place of empowerment and this will in turn help us to love others. Both views are right and I believe that both are applicable here. I believe that the reason we find ourselves checked into heartbreak hotel is that we failed to follow this golden rule. May God show us the areas of our lives to give up to Him so He can heal our hearts and we can love others the way God intends us to. Remember if we have put our trust in Jesus, then we have the Spirit of Love who can help us to love like Christ. Just let the God of love have your heart, stop holding onto the past hurts, give Him your baggage, he’ll know what to do with it and when someone you love says goodbye, don’t cry. Learn to let go or you’ll miss out on your next hello.

Mark 12:30-31 New International Version (NIV)
31 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Galatians 5:22 New International Version (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love

I read once that your life is made up of a sum of your choices. Looking back on my life, I find this to be so true. Especially when it comes to my career path and the relationships I have had with other women. In my journey in life, I have come across many a fork in the road where I was forced to make a decision. I would like to say that every choice I made was the right one. Sometimes the path I would take would lead me to green pastures and satisfaction but often the paths I took led to hardships, loneliness, and a broken heart. Then out of that broken heart, I would find another path to take and that would lead me to rejection. Then from rejection I would take another path and that would lead me to a place called addiction. Then from addiction that path would lead me to a place called shame and guilt. Then from shame and guilt that would lead me to a place called desperation and from desperation to hopelessness and eventually I would settle in a place of broken, messed up relationships and unfulfilled dreams. How about you? Do you find yourself lost, meandering in the woods, taking any path you find that comes your way? Are your choices made out of impulses and emotions? I think if you’re anything like me you can relate to this. So, why do we do the things we do? How can we stop the cycle of repeating the same toxic relational choices, career decisions or self sabotaging habits we form that make us live in our world of regrets?  I believe in order to truly find a way out of our woods, we should all start to take an inventory of our lives and ask ourselves the question, is the reason I want to be with this person, based out of fear or faith? You see whatever the choices we make, we either make them out of those two things, fear or faith. Fear says I’m lonely and afraid that I’m getting older and no one is going to want to marry me, therefore I’m going to settle with this person who loves me even though I’m not madly in love with this person. Fear says, it’s too risky for me to go for my dreams, get your head out of the clouds, get some stability in your life and stay in this job that’s safe and secure. So what do we do? We spend years of our lives, counting beans in a corner, unsatisfied, when deep down there’s this burning desire to be writing the next great novel which will inspire millions around the globe. Faith says, I’m not going to settle and rush into this relationship because I don’t need anyone to complete me. I’m content in my singleness, I’m loved by God and He completes me. Faith says I’m not going to just take the easy paths, I’m going to choose the road less traveled. I’m going challenge myself and not run from obstacles but see them as the bridge to opportunity that will eventually lead me to my God given destiny. Faith says that all things are possible with God, so I don’t have to settle for mediocrity, I don’t have to accept an outcome of defeat but one of victory. Remember, scripture says “Perfect love casts out all fear.” That perfect love is only found in the one who gave it up for us all on the cross and who rose again defeating the grave. For Jesus to live in our lives and drive out fear it’s got to come from faith and trusting Him to achieve this. It is not up to us to muster up the strength. We must give up trying and give up leading our lives. The scripture says, “that those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God”. This verse is not saying that a genuine believer is always led by the Spirit because we know that even genuine believers can at times make choices being led by something else. Scripture is full of examples of men of faith like Abraham for example, who was led at times by fear. His impulses led him at times to deceive others about his relationship with his wife Sarah and also his fears led him to have intimate relations with his mistress Hagar to try and bring about God’s promise of a child. He tried to do it in his way and as a result, God couldn’t bless his works. But whenever He let faith be the starting point, God always blessed him. Many times we too fail to trust and let faith lead us, but don’t beat yourself up, you are in good company. Just read Hebrews 11 and just about all those listed in the “hall of fame” of faith, were people like you and me who were not perfect at all. However, as a child of God there is grace and He will enable us to achieve His dream for our lives. All we have to do is give up trying in our own strength and let Him lead our lives through His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is spend time with Him in prayer and worship so that He fills our love tank, and we won’t have to fill it with something secondary. So the next time we are faced with a major decision in life, let’s tell fear to go back to where it belongs, in the grave, where Jesus left it. Wait for His leading and then move. When you follow Jesus, His path will always lead us to a place of empowerment.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Romans 8:14
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

One of my favorite stories growing up as a child was “Peter Pan”.  As a boy it appealed to me because of the interesting characters like Captain Hook and the pirates but it also was fascinating because I always wanted to be able to fly like Peter Pan, and just soar above the clouds.  As an adult now with two kids, the story still fascinates me but for different reasons. I love the theme about never growing up, and staying young at heart. Sometimes as adults we lose that as we get older. We lose that spark we once had when we were young. We get stuck in the mundane of life, just going through the motions. I once was alive like Peter Pan, full of life, full of dreams and ambitions. I wasn’t afraid to dare to fly to my Neverland. However, over the years I sadly have to admit, I was settling for what I thought was the real world and eventually the dream to fly to Neverland became foolishness.  Suddenly, pixie dust no longer worked its magic, suddenly, the lost boys I once hung out with were distant and instead of playing in the woods and being free, I began to listen to the naysayers, the pirates, and the dream of walking in the clouds was replaced with both feet securely on the ground. I bought the lie that says it’s safer to live your life in reality and not in the clouds. Life’s challenges and rejections began to wear me down. I started to think of myself as a man who is talented but will never see my dreams come to fruition.  I started to believe that I would never set foot in my Neverland. But thankfully a good friend of mine, reminded me of what I once was. She held up the mirror of scripture and got me to look intently at my own wrinkles. It was a hard pill to swallow. How did I ever let myself grow up? I never thought it would happen to me but it did. I had lost that child like spirit. I was now a pirate. It seemed like I was living the plot line to the Robin Williams movie, “Hook”. Thankfully, God’s Word reminded me the truth that to follow Jesus we must become like little children. Only when we become like little children can we enter the kingdom of God. I’m convinced that the spiritual development of a Christian is the exact opposite from the regular maturation process we experience with our earthly bodies. When we are born into this world, we are dependent on everyone but as we mature, we become less dependent on others and more and more independent so we can become functioning adults. However, in the Christian life, we are told to make it our goal to become like kids. When we are born again spiritually we are adults, full of ourselves, independent, making our own choices but as we grow up in Christ, we should become more and more like children who are humbled, dependent on their Heavenly Father for everything, and trusting Him to make the decisions for our lives. When we get to that place where we are totally relying on God for everything, then I believe we will find ourselves soaring to places only God could ever imagine for our lives.  When we follow Jesus just as a child follows His parents, Jesus will take us on an adventure. You’ll notice in the scriptures there was never a dull moment with Jesus. When Jesus said follow Him, it meant walking on the waves. He wasn’t in the boat playing it safe and secure and even when He was in a boat, He slept during storms. He didn’t let fear or anything in reality stop Him from believing in His reality. He didn’t listen to the naysayers who shouted out to crucify Him and ridiculed Him for claiming to be the King of the Jews. He became a child and believed everything His Father told Him that He was. He stood firmly in His identity from the baptism to the cross and three days later defeated the grave of reality, eventually ascending into the sky, with His two feet touching the clouds. He now looks to us and invites us to come to Him as little kids. He welcomes us like lost boys and gives us a home. He wants us to follow Him into an adventure that He has planned for us. An adventure that can only be experienced when we learn to grow young, and believe. So where do you find yourself?  Stuck and going nowhere with two feet on the ground of reality? Just set your hearts and minds on things above, and you will find yourself leaving the ground for good, soaring towards your Neverland, following His footprints in the clouds.

Matthew 18:2-4 New International Version (NIV)
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“People stop and stare
They don’t bother me
For there’s no where else on earth
That I would rather be
Let the time go by
I won’t care if I
Can be here on the street where you live
Let me be on the street where you live”

Recognize those lyrics? It’s from one of my favorite musicals, “My Fair Lady”. This particular song was sung by the character Professor Henry Higgins, a pompous phonetics professor who made a wager and took it upon himself to transform a Cockney working‑class girl into someone who could pass for a cultured member of high society. Little did he know that as she transformed from caterpillar to butterfly, his heart began a transformation as well. He began to fall in love. The lyrics are all about a man who wants nothing but to be in the presence of the woman who makes his heart skip a beat. Just to be on the street where she lives was enough for him to know that she was near. I have talked about this before but after a worship conference I recently attended, I’ve been recently pondering this notion of longing and seeking out the presence of our God with the same passion as one who was madly in love with the person of their dreams. What if our hearts longed for God with everything we had? What if we desired and pursued Him like our lives depended on it? Yes, it is true that God’s presence is all around us and He is near but there is a difference though when it comes to “seeking His Presence”. The Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 22:19, “Now set your mind and heart to seek the LORD your God.” Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Seeking His presence is us giving our wholehearted attention to meeting with Him and us experiencing Him through prayer, worship and meditation on His Word. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6 “ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Notice it says He rewards those that earnestly seek Him. Not halfheartedly but diligently. When we focus all our attention on being with Him more than anything, without any distractions, the Bible promises us we will be rewarded. That reward is simply His manifestation in and through our lives. It’s not just an emotional experience too. It can be at times but spending time with Him is based out of our faith not simply an emotional high. Sometimes you’re not going to get that fuzzy feeling and that’s okay. What’s more important is that you are making every effort to seek Him more than anything else. When we do this an amazing thing begins to occur. Jesus’s love begins to manifest itself in our lives. What does that love look like? It’s found in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Many scholars think that there are many fruits of the Spirit but I believe that there is only one fruit. For the Bible calls it the fruit of the Spirit not the fruits. Love is the fruit and the characteristics of the fruit of Love is joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, patience, gentleness and self control. You know it when someone has encountered the living God not because they fall over backwards and get all overly excited but because you will see the reflection of God’s love in their lives. This is always a good measuring stick for how to know we have been in His presence not some stirring experience. There are many Christians who have this incredible emotional high and look I’m not against passion but there are some who instead of seeking God, they end up seeking the feelings or the miraculous signs and they actually miss out on a real encounter with the Living God. There are those that just seek out God for His hand. God is like a Genie, rub the lamp, say a few prayers and hopefully God will give you what you want. In Psalm 27:8, David talks about seeking God’s face not His hand. “My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.” David longed to be with God. He didn’t just seek Him because he needed something from God. Christians that seek after God for the wrong reasons tend to be more selfish and struggle more with the fleshly desires. When we are truly experiencing His presence we will truly be reflecting His image. So the next time we approach God to spend time with Him, let’s pursue the relationship with everything we have. Let’s chase after Him with all our hearts, soul and minds. Let’s not go before Him chasing feelings nor go to Him just wanting stuff. Let’s just enjoy being with Him because our lives depend on it and nothing else matters. Let’s expect to be rewarded with the manifestation of His presence and be transformed to exhibit more and more the fruit of His Love. Let’s praise Him, fall down before Him in awe, because there is nowhere else on earth that we would rather be. May our hearts ache like a heart sick lover longing to be with his love. May we too sing out to the top of our lungs before our God, “Let the time go by I don’t care if I can be near on the street where you live.” Oh, God, let me be on the street where you live!

Remember the phrase, “Be Kind Rewind”? If you know what that means then congratulations, you’re a dinosaur like me. If you don’t, basically there was a time before Netflix and Hulu, people would flock to a Blockbuster to rent and take home VHS tapes of their favorite movies to watch. On the cover would be a simple reminder from your friends at the video store, that after you watch your VHS movie of the week, before returning it, make sure to rewind the tape for the next person to watch. I remember there were times I would be so annoyed after putting the tape in the VCR for the first time and finding out how the movie ended. I remember thinking horrible thoughts that I’d like to do to that person for being such a rude inconsiderate idiot. How dare they make me rewind the whole thing which maybe took a whole five to ten minutes of my life! Now this is a lighthearted illustration but there will be many times in our lives when we will have to face morons and when we do, we will be faced with one of two choices. Will we be kind, or give them a piece of our mind? As Christians we are reminded everyday to “be kind and rewind” in our dealings with others. Jesus commands us to “Treat others as you would want to be treated.” This is the famous Golden Rule, and one that most people are familiar with and would agree on. However, where most people fail in this area, is that we only think we are to show kindness to those who are kind back to us. That’s not at all what Jesus is saying here. Jesus isn’t referring to just loving lovable people. If that was the case, who would need a Savior to help you do that? It’s easy to treat people with respect when they are nice to us but what about those that are just plain rude or hurtful? No, this verse is applying to everyone especially our enemies. For Jesus goes on to ask in Luke chapter 6 verses 31-36, what good is it to love others who love you? For even “sinners” do that. He then goes on to point out that we should do whatever we can to show our enemies love to them, even lend them the cloak on our backs. This is not easy but God promises us that He will reward us. You see, too many people practice love to others who will love them back because they know they are getting something in return. But Jesus doesn’t want us to love others to expect anything in return from anyone. He wants us to be totally dependent on the Father’s love for us, so that the only expectation we should have is that our Heavenly Father will provide for us. In doing this we prove that we are truly sons and daughters of God. How did we become children of God? It is only by God’s mercy. Scripture says “when we were still sinners, Christ demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. We were once objects of His wrath but His unconditional love rescued us from sin and death. Remember, His kindness leads us to repentance and only those who have been loved much can love much. Is this easy? Absolutely not and sometimes we will fail to respond in love but take heart, you weren’t saved because of your goodness. God is gracious and kind and will always rewind, giving us another chance to start over.

Luke 6:31-37 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
31 [a]Treat others the same way you want [b]them to treat you. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, [c]expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36 [d]Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Romans 5:8 New International Version (NIV)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

When your car breaks down do you ever take it for repairs at your local dentist office? If you do, you probably wouldn’t get the desired results you want. Your dentist may own a car but his or her knowledge of how a car operates is very limited. Now if you need your wisdom teeth taken out, then of course the dentist is the person you can trust to conduct the proper procedure because that is what your dentist specializes in. Your dentist knows everything about your teeth and what makes them healthy and what the root issues are that need to addressed. So whether we have a tooth ache, or a leak in our engine, we will call the so called experts in that particular field to fix the problem and offer us the best solution. It’s just common sense. Then why is it as believers, we take our broken hearts and our hurts and instead of going to the only expert on our lives, we turn to something else in this world that is less experienced? Instead of trusting in our Creator who knows us best, we turn to toxic relationships, addictions, and other things in this creation that really only numb the pain momentarily but end up making things only far worse than they were before. The scripture says in Psalm 139:1-6,
1
“You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.”
Notice that God searches us and knows us. In these first six verses just count the number of times it says to know. Observe the words perceive, discern, and familiar. What does this tell us about our God? He is omniscient, He is all knowing. Think about it, God knows everything about us. He knows what makes us tick, He knows our every thought, He knows what makes us happy, what makes us sad. He is familiar with all our ways. That’s comforting news for us who believe in Him. What this tells us is that God understands us. He understands the why and the what that causes us to act in certain ways. When others might not understand our pain or our situation, God does. This should be great encouragement for us that when our lives are a mess, we have the God of the Universe who loves us and knows us completely. He knows exactly what we need. Are you in need of a tune up? Stop trusting yourself to some Gomer Pyle body shop, and trust yourself to the One who knows you more than you’ll ever know yourself.

If you ever listen to any successful athlete speak in an interview, they will exhibit a confidence in their words and demeanor. There is always an inner strength inside of them that carries themselves even through a tough loss. Even successful athletes like quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, has had to face many challenges both in life, and in the game but he always finds a way to overcome.  It pains me to do this because I am not a Patriot’s fan but I have to admit, I have never seen such a fierce competitor like Tom Brady. Down for the count, the Patriots were losing badly to the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl and everyone watching including myself counted them out. I had all but left the Super Bowl party and went home thinking it’s over, only to wake up the next morning to find the Patriots mustered up one of the greatest comeback wins in football history.  You see, what makes an athlete great is the ability to see the obstacles as a means to victory and not a hindrance to the goal of winning. If Tom Brady and the Patriots saw the game as most of the fans did,  they would’ve given up hope and thrown in the towel but they didn’t, instead they saw a greater reality, they saw possibility. So, I got to thinking, as Christians, why don’t we display this same attitude when faced with obstacles that come our way in life?
Ever read 2 Kings 6:14-23? I wasn’t real familiar with the story. It’s about how the Syrians had a massive army sent to surround the city where Elisha was staying with his servant to kill Elisha. And it says when the servant woke and saw the massive army he became afraid and asked Elisha what do we do? And Elisha told him not to fear but prayed that God would open his eyes to see. And then the servants eyes were opened and he could see that there were angel armies with chariots of fire surrounding them. What does this mean for us? Whenever we are faced with difficulties or up against situations that seem overwhelming, we can either look at them from a starting point of defeat and negativity like the servant who was afraid or we can view them through the eyes of faith like Elisha and open our eyes to see the reality of the situation. In every difficulty there is an outcome that is going to bring us a victory. We must renew our minds in this truth and hold on to his promises. May He open our eyes like He did Elisha’s servant to see that He is surrounding us today and no matter the situation we are up against, we don’t have to respond in fear but in faith. He loves us and has nothing but the best for us.