When You Wonder If You Matter

“Do I really matter?” is a question we all ask ourselves at least some of the time. It is not narcissistic to want to others to care that we exist, to feel that our life makes a difference. Look at the child who dances for her father, or who tries so hard to master that skill that she knows will impress her parent. Check out the teen who looks for a way to be noticed even as he carefully fits into his chosen social circle. We all look around and measure our lives against those who surround us - wondering if the world knows we are alive.

Notes that express thanks turn into treasures.
Phone calls that bring us word of care warm our hearts. Why?
Because they are tangible reminders that we matter to that person.

Most of us will live our days in relative obscurity and pass from the scene to be largely forgotten within a generation’s time. It is a fact we have differing abilities and opportunities. We need not become a CEO, a world-renowned artist, a best-selling author, or an Olympic medalist to matter. Not all can be superstars, yet we can all matter.  

 We can all LOVE others and God,
and in that faithful devotion,
we will become people who matter! 

There is a story in the book of The Acts, chapter 9, that illustrates the importance of each and every life to God.  A Christian who lived in Damascus enters the record from nowhere and just as quickly disappears, but what a pivotal person he was. Without Ananias the story of Christianity would have to be rewritten. 

"Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied. The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you arrive, ask for Saul of Tarsus. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him so that he can see again.” “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And we hear that he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest every believer in Damascus.” But the Lord said, “Go and do what I say. For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for me.”

So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you may get your sight back and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and was strengthened. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days." (Acts 9:10-19, NLT)

This man’s faithfulness is amazing when we set it in the context of the time.  He knew about Saul, the zealous Pharisee who had made it his life’s purpose to eradicate the Jesus Followers.  Those people spread a message that Saul considered a falsehood, a threat to his religion. Most likely he had heard that this fanatic was coming to find people just like him, to beat them, arrest them, even to drag them back to Jerusalem for religious trials. God, the Spirit, comes over him and asks him to go and meet the man who could harm him, perhaps even end his life!  “I’ve heard about the terrible things this man has done to the Believers in Jerusalem!” he objects.  But, God urges him to go and pray for him! And he does!

What love and faith find their way into the story as Ananias meets the tormenter of his fellow-believers. He speaks to Saul as “Brother Saul.”  He extends fellowship, grace, and love. Most likely Ananias was the one who baptized Saul on that day, too. The rest, as we say, is history.  Saul becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentile world, the inspired author of more than half of the New Testament. 

And Ananias?
He disappears into anonymity but what a difference his cameo appearance in history made.
Yes, he matters.

Who might you love to life, my friend?
Whose destiny might be changed by your investment in their life, if even for a short season?
Your name may not be known a generation from now. 

Your contribution to the ‘story’ may be hidden from view, but it is never overlooked nor forgotten by God.

Our faithfulness is what makes us into a person who matters: faithful in the place where we are given opportunities - great and small - to care, to love, to give, to encourage, to pray.

The word from the Word urges us to make today’s choices in the light of eternity’s promise. May the Spirit guide us into lives that are lived in such a way that we matter in the things that are of true and lasting worth.

"The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen." (1 Peter 4:7-11, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

_____________________________

Find Us Faithful

We're pilgrims on the journey

Of the narrow road

And those who've gone before us

Line the way

Cheering on the faithful

Encouraging the weary

Their lives a stirring testament

To God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great

A cloud of witnesses

Let us run the race

Not only for the prize

But as those who've gone before us

Let us leave to those behind us

The heritage of faithfulness

Passed on through godly lives

 

Oh may all who come behind us

Find us faithful

May the fire of our devotion

Light their way

May the footprints that we leave

Lead them to believe

And the lives we live

Inspire them to obey (to obey)

(Oh may all who come behind us)

(Find us faithful)

 

After all our hopes and dreams

Have come and gone

And our children sift through all

We've left behind

May the clues that they discover

And the mem'ries they uncover

Become the light that leads them

To the road we each must find

 

Find us faithful

Oh may all who come behind us

Find us faithful

Jon Mohr © 1987 Mystic Beard Music; Jonathan Mark Music

CCLI License # 810055

A Game-changer!

There is a choice we can make that has the potential to completely change the way we live, our relationships with others, and even our spiritual health. Our entire perspective will shift if we learn to live this way. What has such potential?  The choice for true gratitude.  Learning to be content and thankful is not just a mental health issue, it is the will of God for each us who claims to live ‘in Christ.’  Scripture says "No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NLT)

Gratitude reveals a heart that is humble before the Lord. In Romans 1:21, Paul speaks of those who knew God but who “neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.” That awful passage includes a long list of sins showing us the downward slide into sinfulness that flows from the refusal to recognize God as Lord of all and thus, to give thanks in all situations.   

Luke tells us about some who received Jesus’ grace and forgot the source of the blessing. Take a look - "As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, their leprosy disappeared.

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God, I’m healed!” He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19, NLT)

This is not about trying for positivity or saying the right kind of words without really meaning them. Genuine thanks is rooted in acceptance of God’s will, in humility that turns to Him with open hands and heart. When stormy times come - and they will - we can focus on what we lack or on what God provides.  We can choice to turn towards complaint and misery or we can find a quiet place with Him and invite His peace to own us.  

If we choose faith we will find the path of simple gratitude which pleases the Lord
and opens up the possibilities for Him to work in unforeseen ways on our behalf.

Will you invite the Spirit’s Presence to touch your life by giving up ‘a sacrifice of praise?’ (Hebrews 13:15)

The travails of the Israelites during the wilderness would be almost comical if they were not so revealing of our own foibles. God led them out of Egypt miraculously. He opened the Red Sea in front of them. He fed them every day with manna. Yet, they continually complained, focusing only on the hardships, which were real, instead of on God’s provisions for them. Their ingratitude turned into fertile soil for the growth of the weeds of unbelief. In that unbelief grew rebellion and they refused God’s will.  He gave them over to their self-will  and that generation wandered in the wilderness until they all died off; never seeing the Promised Land. It was no joke!

In his final charge to Israel, Moses contrasted the life of blessings found in devotion with the sorrows that come to those who abandon the Lord. Look at this sobering passage. "Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you." (Deuteronomy 28:47-48, NIV)  

The writer of Hebrews brings their negative example to us and encourages us to choose humility and gratitude. "Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ." (Hebrews 3:12-14, NLT)

God is speaking to us- His children – asking us to guard our hearts and minds. We, those of us who are ‘in Christ’ need not become part of the growing statistics of depression, domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and such things that are part of life in 2024. We can be different because of the One who lives IN US, but we must yield ourselves to Him and choose a course of surrendered obedience.

How can we do this? Not just with gritty determination. We do it by allowing faith to grow when we look higher than our circumstances, beyond our ‘light and momentary troubles’ and trust ourselves, our family, our future to Christ.

The word from the Word that I leave with you today is a call to shift our sight higher.
"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!" (Hebrews 12:2-3, The Message)

Take this moment to remind yourself that He knows your place, your difficulty, your joy - and confess - “You are Lord of all!”  Then, choose simple gratitude today, and let God’s Presence find you. It is a real game-changer!

____________

(Video of this blog at this link)

 

Stand In Your Love

When darkness tries to roll over my bones
When sorrow comes to steal the joy I own
When brokenness and pain is all I know
I won't be shaken I won't be shaken

My fear doesn't stand a chance
When I stand in Your love (repeat)

Shame no longer has a place to hide
I am not a captive to the lies
I'm not afraid to leave my past behind
I won't be shaken I won't be shaken

There's power that can break off every chain
There's power that can empty out a grave
There's resurrection power that can save
There's power in Your name power in Your name

Standing in Your love

Ethan Hulse | Josh Baldwin | Mark Harris | Rita Springer

© 2018 Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)

EGH Music Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)

Gateway Create Publishing (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])

CCLI License # 810055

Grow through it!

Each Friday morning, I find a newsletter called Friday Update in my email from a pastor - Mike Woodruff- who collects news of note, adding his comments and wisdom. Today he opened with this good thought. “We can learn much about ourselves, God, and life by suffering. Many say as much. The tuition is high, but some go so far as to thank God for it — i.e., for cancer, unemployment, and similar challenges. Not everyone, of course. And we need to be clear: not everyone gets better via suffering. Some simply get bitter. Growing through suffering requires the right conditions, starting with reflection, humility, and faith.”  .  (click here for a free subscription)

If your life is full of sunshine, love, and plenty - give thanks to God and enjoy it. Know this - sunny days will give way to rainy ones. Because we live in a world where there is sin and brokenness, we will inevitably run into hard times; some the result of our own choices, many simply because things like aging, illness, economic cycles, and imperfect people are part of the world in which we live. How we walk through those days, the choices we make, can make us better or bitter.  I really like Mike Woodruff’s line.  If we want to grow deeper and stronger in life, “the tuition is high,” but the result is so worth it, my friend. Faith grows. Love flourishes. God comes nearer to us. The Psalm says -“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” (Psalm 119:67)

The value found in suffering is revealed in so many of the stories of the Bible.

Joseph would never have become the salvation of his family and the Prime Minister of Egypt without the horrific trip through slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment.

Daniel might well have concluded that his life was over, before it even started, when the Assyrians took him from Jerusalem to become a servant of the court of Babylon, but God turned a slave into a counselor to kings, changing history. Daniel did his part by doing what was right and godly, even when it looked as if he had no reason to do it.

David walked into a face to face challenge that looked ridiculous, a hero on the other side named Goliath, and he, a teenage shepherd from a backwater village. Mocked by the champion, David showed his heart. “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you.”  (1 Samuel 17:45-46)

Jesus was taken down from the Cross, buried by dispirited friends who thought it was over. I would like to know what the conversation among those disciples was like on Saturday. Regrets, perhaps? Recrimination?  But, God was not finished. His Son had entrusted Himself to the Almighty and on Sunday morning, the earth shook, the stone rolled away and death was conquered.

Paul was beaten up by life, opposed by enemies – spiritual and human – and his rivals dismissed him as just a ‘big talker.’ In city after city after preaching the Gospel of Christ he found himself rejected, arrested, and sometimes in peril of death. In Corinth it got so bad that he concluded his life was over. But, God was not finished with him. 

Reflecting on that time later in his life, he wrote -  "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many." (2 Corinthians 1:8-11, NIV)

From my own experience, I can tell you that God is faithful and that He accomplishes His purposes in us when we are willing to wait, to trust, to humbly accept His will, and to lean into His love.  I barely recognize the man I was three decades ago. Success found me early. God blessed me with a beautiful wife, wonderful children, with a fulfilling life that overflowed with good things.  Sadly, I allowed myself to think that somehow I had made it happen.

Pride overtook my heart and choices I made led me into a wilderness I did not seek. But God was there and I grew to know His grace in a way that I could not have known until that time in life. A decade ago, the awful diagnosis of cancer came to my wife, my love, and in 20 months her life here came to an end. It was the worst blow I had known in my life - emotionally and spiritually. But God was there; leading and loving me.  And I know this- I have not yet graduated from the school of discipleship!

Our strength is not blind faith. It is Christ-centered faith. We are not fatalists fumbling our way to the finish. We are people of purpose, called to follow the Spirit, assured of His promise and our ultimate place worshipping eternallly around the Throne of God. So, let’s go make a difference. Finish the game, for the glory of God.

The word from the Word:  "I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 1:16-20, NLT)  And He "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)

Let’s grow on!

____________

(Video of this blog at this link)

Be Thou My Vision

 

Be Thou my vision

O Lord of my heart

Naught be all else to me

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought

By day or by night

Waking or sleeping

Thy presence my light

 

Be Thou my wisdom

Be Thou my true Word

I ever with Thee

And Thou with me Lord

Thou my great Father

I Thy true son

Thou in me dwelling

And I with Thee one

 

Be Thou my shield

And my sword for the fight

Be Thou my dignity

Be Thou my might

Thou my soul's shelter

And Thou my high tow'r

Raise Thou me heav'nward

O pow'r of my pow'r

 

Riches I heed not

Nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance

Now and always

Thou and Thou only

Be first in my heart

High King of heaven

My treasure Thou art

 

High King of heaven

When vict'ry is won

May I reach heaven's joys

O bright heaven's Sun

Heart of my own heart

Whatever befall

Still be my vision

O Ruler of all

 

Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne

© Words: Public Domain