Walking With Jesus

God’s Answer to Loneliness

“Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins. See how many enemies I have and how viciously they hate me! Protect me! Rescue my life from them! Do not let me be disgraced, for in You I take refuge. May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in You, O God, ransom Israel from all its troubles.” (Psalm 25:16-22 NLT)

Do you ever get lonely? Most often being lonely is more a mental state than a physical reality. We can be in a crowded room and still feel very alone. We can have lots of friends and acquaintances, yet still not feel a strong connection to any of them. Even family members, as important as they are, cannot always fill the void of closeness that we each seek and need. So, what’s the answer?

The short answer is intimacy with the Lord which fills every void and gives us a sense of belonging that no human relationship can give. Yet, the Lord realized that Adam, as perfect as he was, had a need for human companionship and love, so, He gave Adam a wife, Eve. Did that solve Adam’s problem of loneliness? On some levels it compounded it, but the point here is, loneliness isn’t going to find its resolve in any one person, even the Lord.

Ruth Graham gives us insight when she writes: “There’s no better place to discover the healthiest possible response to loneliness than the Word of God.” The Lord has a way of wrapping His holy arms of love around us as we embrace His Word and spend precious moments seeking Him through its pages. I think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28 when He said: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” The Psalms are filled with invitations to rest, find hope, consolation, contentment, and peace.

An article in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago summed up their study by saying the most significant contributing factor for physical health, mental health, and longevity is close personal connections. If you want to make one decision to ensure your own health and happiness, thus, the antidote to loneliness, develop and build close relationships with a variety of people.

David Jeremiah adds: “Cast out the temptation to move from loneliness to self-pity. Use your lonely feelings to push you toward someone lonelier than you are. The God who blesses you will make you a blessing!” Here’s the irony, when we’re lonely, we most often like to be left alone. Rarely does our loneliness drive us to others, which is exactly where we need to be.

By the grace of God and with His help, we CAN move to community. Too often loneliness isn’t caused by being alone, but by being so wrapped up in ourselves it becomes difficult to let anyone else in. In my own life, the only cure for such blatant selfishness is forcing myself to include someone else, often by attending a small group meeting I didn’t “feel like” attending. Pushing others away begets loneliness and loneliness begets self-pity.

Too often we end up lonely because we push people away to the point no one wants to risk coming around us. Force yourself to risk asking someone to meet you for a meal or simply for a cup of coffee. Share how dreadful you feel and ask them to pray for you, but more importantly, ask them how they are. Ask them if you can pray for them.

Often the greatest cure for our loneliness is to enter into someone else’s pain. Perhaps it could be the Lord’s answer to your loneliness.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Faith

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.” (Hebrews 10:23 NLT)

What is the basis of your faith? There are many “faiths” in the world today, but only one of those faith systems will get you to heaven. But isn’t that awfully “narrow?” If you bought a property, sight unseen, but when you came to claim it as your own, rather than one key to get you in the door, there were 1,000 keys in a series of buckets. What would you do?

Most of us would walk away or break down the door and install a new lock, but that’s not how heaven works. There’s only one way, though there are many “keys” which claim to give you access. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) The miracle isn’t that there’s only One way, the miracle is that there IS a way!

One of the obstacles to placing our trust in the simple plan of salvation that Jesus offers is that we tend to think more highly of ourselves than we should. We want to pick the Bible apart and try to “prove” certain parts are false or wrong, thus hoping to discredit its Author. We want to take it out of its original context and pretend it’s some kind of modern “western” religion.

John Stonestreet speaks to this idea when he writes: “This caricature of Christianity as a sort-of tribal faith of Westerners is flawed at the core. As Philip Jenkins argued in his book The Next Christendom, it took nearly a millennium and a half before the majority of Christians were Europeans. Even today, that is no longer the case. If we were true to the actual demographic realities, the ‘stereotypical’ Christian would not be a white male but an African woman. In fact, from its inception, Christianity has always been a multiethnic, multilingual, and multicontinental faith.

It is vitally important that we understand the true nature and history of Christianity if we’re going to engage the wider world. The first founders of Christianity were not powerful European rulers hoping to oppress the world. They were Middle Easterners, mostly ‘blue collar,’ almost all of whom died a violent death at the hands of the ruling elite. In fact, the only Europeans who make it into the biblical accounts are the Philistines in the Old Testament and the Romans and Greeks in the New.

As historian Tom Holland and evangelist Glen Scrivener have repeated for years now, this faith so captured Western civilization, we struggle to see just how alien it was to the Western imagination at the beginning. The best of the West—the priority of the individual, the importance of science and reason, the check on state power, the care for the poor and the sick, the dignity of women, the abolition of slavery—is a consequence of the blessed cultural imperialism of an originally Middle Eastern deity.”(See BreakPoint Christianity Isn’t a Western Faith // Hijacking the Pro-Abortion Movement – 02-02-23)

We need not fear the historical accuracy of the Bible or the firsthand documents that teach us of our Faith. Jesus rose from the dead to prove His deity and the power He possesses to change our lives forever. The Bible is filled with stories to verify and identify the strength we can have in the Christian Faith that speaks to us whoever we are or wherever we live.

Admittedly, it seems strange on a lot of levels that the Lord would even allow all the different religions, all the seeming “paths” to heaven, but it just goes to prove the Bible when it says in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Every road is a dead end except one. Please come to Jesus today.

Go to aNewstory.com and find the answers you’ve been searching for.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Clarity

“Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods.” (1 Chronicles 16:25 NLT)

The god in whom we place the most trust; the one who puts us to the ground and holds his relentless knee to our neck is not the God of the Bible, but the god of self-reliance. Even for many Jesus followers, the first statement when trouble comes isn’t: “O God, please help me!” it’s a question: “O my, what am I going to do?”

In the details of our lives, we long for clarity. A clear path that enables us to see far into the future; a clear vision of what our life will look like for years to come; a long, unencumbered life that will enable us to coast into heaven without a single care. That’s why the unexpected rattles us so violently. The cancer diagnosis or the death of a loved one; the loss of a job or the end of a long-term relationship.

While intellectually we know these things happen to others, we somehow feel we’re supposed to be immune, but we’re not. Loving Jesus isn’t a protective blanket that shields us from the pains of life, it’s an assurance that we never face them alone, and a confidence that ultimately God will use them for our good and for His glory.

The clarity we need as believers is first and foremost that we are not in control of our life. That the God we profess to love and serve is the Creator of all that is; that He’s all powerful, all knowing, ever present and all loving, but He’s also Sovereign. He’s the ultimate source of authority to whom everyone and everything will one day give an account.

Ray Majoran’s prayer encourages me as he prays: “Sovereign Lord, You are not shaken by the things that rattle us. The ground may shift, the ice may crack, but You remain — unmoved, unchanging, and entirely sure. Your faithfulness is not fragile. Your wisdom is perfect. You are not a fallback when our plans fail; You are the foundation beneath every step we take, whether we acknowledge it or not.

And yet, we often place more trust in what we can analyze than in You —the One who holds everything together. Like Peter stepping onto the waves, we start strong, our eyes locked on You, but when the wind howls and the surface wavers, we panic, calculate, and look down. We lean on our own understanding, hoping our instincts will save us, forgetting that clarity is not the prerequisite for obedience, and that the safest place we could ever stand is exactly where You’ve called us, even when it doesn’t make sense (Matthew 14:29).

By the power of Your Word and Spirit, please challenge us. Disrupt the patterns of self-reliance that keep us standing still. Let our confidence be rooted not in circumstances or outcomes, but in Christ alone — the One who walks where we would sink, and invites us to do the same.(See Glimpse of Infinity Confidence in Christ -03-31-25)

Understanding that our clarity will never come from within will hopefully drive us to our knees in humble submission to the One who knows all, sees all, understands all, and will not only guide us, but walk with us every step of the treacherous paths of this life. When the future frightens and seeks to paralyze us, may we relax as we take the hand of the One who will never leave or forsake us. May we trust Him instead of ourselves as we walk on the waters of our future, whatever it may hold.

He IS our clarity!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed :😊

The Battle In Your Soul

*Please let these words of Ron Hutchcraft touch your heart as they did mine. I know it’s a few days past Good Friday, but the powerful message is still just as applicable. Please allow the Spirit to speak to your heart. Blessings, Ed

A listener shared a story with me that’s just too powerful not to share with you. A man named George Thomas was a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning, he got up to speak and he set a rusty, bent-up, old bird cage next to the pulpit. You could tell by people’s faces that the pastor had some explaining to do. He said, “Well, I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me, swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little birds who were shivering with cold and fear. So I asked the boy, “What you got there?” He said, “Just some old birds.” The pastor then asked, “What are you going to do with them?” The boy said, “Well, I’m gonna tease ’em and pull out their feathers to make ’em fight. Then I’m gonna have a real good time.” The pastor pointed out that the boy would soon get tired of those birds and he said, “What are you going to do with them then?” “Oh, I’ve got some cats,” the boy said. “They like birds.” What happened next is what puts you and me into this picture.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Battle In Your Soul.”

The pastor had a question for the boy who had nothing but hurtful plans for those little birds. “How much do you want for them, son?” The boy couldn’t believe it. These were just plain old field birds who weren’t very pretty and they couldn’t sing. When the pastor pressed his question, the boy finally answered, “Uh, ten dollars?” The pastor reached into his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill, and the boy took his money and ran off.

The pastor picked up the cage, he gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. He opened the cage door, softly tapped the bars to persuade the birds to come out, and you know what happened. He set them free.

Now the folks at church understood at this point why there was an empty cage on the pulpit. Then the pastor began to tell a story of a conversation between Jesus and Satan, who had just come from his victory with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil was boasting, “Yes, sir, I just caught me a world full of people down there. I set me a trap and they fell for the bait. Got ’em all!” Jesus asked him, “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m gonna have some fun with them,” Satan replied. “I’m gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hurt and hate each other, and how to get hooked on habits that will destroy them. I’m going to teach them to deceive each other, abuse each other, and even kill each other.”

When Jesus asked what he would do when he was done with them, Satan said, “Oh, I’ll kill them.” “How much do you want for them?” Jesus asked. The devil said, “You don’t want them. They’ll just spit on you. They’ll just curse you. They’ll kill you!” Jesus asked again, “How much?” Satan sneered, “All your tears and all your blood!” “Done!” Jesus said, and then He paid the price. Now our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10, “The thief (that’s Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

This very day the life-taker, the devil himself, is trying to hold onto you. He wants to keep you away from Jesus until your last heartbeat, and then you’ll be his forever. But the Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, is fighting for your soul this very moment where you are. He paid the price for your sin on the cross. And now you are in the middle of a tug-of-war on which your eternity depends, Satan trying to keep you on his path to kill you, and Jesus inviting you to give yourself to Him so He can give you life. They won’t decide whether you go to heaven or hell though – you will.

You want to belong to this Jesus? I mean, nobody has ever loved you like He does. No one has the power to walk out of his grave and give eternal life but Him. Go to our website, please. Many people have gone there and found there the assurance that they belong to Jesus Christ from that day on. It’s ANewStory.com.

For 2,000 years, Jesus has been unlocking that cage door of sin and letting its captives go free. He’s waiting to do that for you this very day, this Good Friday.

Fallback of Foundation?

“Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have – Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-11 NLT)

Knowing about Jesus and living in constant and close communion with Him are two very different things. We see someone at church or in another setting and may be tempted to believe our life would be a lot easier or better if only we had THEIR life, but that’s a lie. The best possible life anyone could ever have is to live their life in submission to the authority of Jesus. When He’s the foundational Truth upon which we build our life, we’ll find not only happiness, but contentment, joy, peace, a great sense of wellness and satisfaction, and the promise of an eternal home the likes of which we can only begin to imagine.

Regardless of what happens in my life or yours, if we know and love the Lord Jesus, we have full confidence that whatever the outcome, it will be good for us and glorifying to Him. How is a fatal accident, a terminal illness, the alienation of a family member, or a thousand other negative things you can think of, good for us and glorifying to the Lord?

“Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com” “Confidence in Christ”

Here’s the point: it’s not the particular circumstance, in and of itself, that is those things, it’s my/your response to those circumstances. As a violent storm tests the foundations of a building, so a “violent” physical or emotional “storm” tests the foundations of our life. That upon which our lives are built quickly surfaces as we seek in our own strength or the strength of the Spirit to handle that which we face.

Ray Majoran’s prayer brings me clarity as I think of these things: “Sovereign Lord, You are not shaken by the things that rattle us. The ground may shift, the ice may crack, but You remain — unmoved, unchanging, and entirely sure. Your faithfulness is not fragile. Your wisdom is perfect. You are not a fallback when our plans fail; You are the foundation beneath every step we take, whether we acknowledge it or not.”(See Glimpse of Infinity Confidence in Christ -03-31-25)

It is a great comfort to me to know that whatever happens in my life, Jesus is the answer. He will guide, guard, comfort, inform, provide whatever or whomever I need to deal with whatever it is that’s challenging me. There’s no need to worry or fret, I just need to call out to my best Friend and Savior knowing He will provide everything and everyone I need to withstand whatever storm may arise.

Do you have that confidence, my friend? Is Jesus more than a word you use when you’re around “religious” people? What’s the foundation upon which you’re building your life? Your wealth, health, family, contacts, intellect, position? Whatever it is, if it’s not Jesus you’re building your life on sand and it will not withstand the major storms of life, the most frightening being death.

With Jesus I can stare death in the face and say: “Give it your best shot, Satan! You have no hold on me. I don’t fear you, nor do I dread you. I invite you, because I know the next step past death is eternal life in my new eternal home with my Savior, the Lord Jesus!”

The Lord isn’t my “fallback,” that one to whom I call in emergencies, He’s my constant companion through every detail and detour of my life. There’s no need to search or call out to Him, He’s so close a whisper will do. Is Jesus YOUR solid, unshakable foundation?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Moving Story

“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.” (Ephesians 5:25-26 NLT)

*Let me be clear. You don’t have to love Jesus to love your spouse or family, but if you do profess faith, loving your family is a top priority. I don’t know the origin or author of this story, or whether or not they knew the Lord, but it’s heartfelt and a very good example for us. I just appreciate this father’s love and faithfulness to his family and hope we can follow his good example to the honor of our Lord and Savior. Blessings, Ed

“My parents were married for 55 years. One morning, as my mom was heading downstairs to make Dad breakfast, she suffered a heart attack and fell. My father, with all the strength he could muster, picked her up and nearly dragged her into his truck. He drove at full speed to the hospital, ignoring traffic lights, desperate to save her.

By the time they arrived, she was gone.

At the funeral, my father barely spoke. His gaze seemed lost, and tears rarely came. That evening, as my siblings and I sat with him, we shared memories of Mom. The atmosphere was heavy with sorrow and nostalgia. My father turned to my brother, a theologian, and asked, “Where is your mom now?”

My brother began speaking about life after death and where she might be. Dad listened intently. Suddenly, he interrupted: “Take me to the cemetery.”

“Dad, it’s 11 at night,” we protested. “We can’t go now!”

With a steely voice and tear-filled eyes, he replied, “Don’t argue with the man who just lost his wife of 55 years.”

Respectfully, we complied. At the cemetery, under the beam of a flashlight, he knelt by her grave. Gently caressing her resting place, he prayed and then turned to us with words that will stay with me forever:

“It was 55 years… no one can speak of true love unless they’ve lived it. She and I shared everything—crises, moves, the joy of raising you kids, the pain of losing loved ones, hospital prayers, Christmas hugs, and forgiveness for our mistakes.

Now she’s gone, and you know what? I’m at peace. I’m grateful she went first. She didn’t have to bear the pain of losing me or face the loneliness of my absence. I’ll take that burden because I love her too much to let her endure it.”

As he finished, tears streamed down our faces. He pulled us into a hug and said, “It’s okay. We can go home. It’s been a good day.”

That night, I understood the essence of true love. It’s not just about romance or physical attraction. True love is found in shared struggles, unwavering care, forgiveness, and the bond of two people deeply committed to one another.

Love like this leaves a mark on the soul forever.

Food for thought.

Addition or Exchange?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

It always amuses me when I meet someone who thinks they’ve done Jesus a favor giving Him their lives. It also saddens me to realize someone would be so insensitive and blind to the ways of God. He doesn’t need us for anything. He’s perfect in every way in and of Himself. He needed no one to help Him build a universe, just the power of His voice.

His thoughts can manifest universes beyond number. Do we really believe He NEEDS us? Yes, of course, He wants us and desires a relationship with us, but that’s not to add anything to Him, it’s to complete us. We were never meant to be alone, as Genesis 2:18 suggests, but to believe that Eve completed Adam is to be blind to why God created us.

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God plus nothing equals completion, fulfillment, the NEED for nothing more; however, us plus nothing equals depression, defilement, and desperate need. The Lord created us for intimacy with Him as the only means of true fulfillment and completion.

The Apostle Paul understood this, that’s why he counseled others not to marry. It’s certainly not wrong to marry, actually it can be quite good, but it’s always going to be less fulfilling than being “married” to the Lord. The point is, we don’t need an addition to our life, we need an exchange.

Paul Washer wrote: “The true convert does not receive the gospel as an addition to his previous life, but in exchange for it.” To believe we can be “more” with Jesus is to misunderstand the Gospel. God’s intention for us isn’t that we would become more, but less. The more highly we think of ourselves, the less we think of Jesus.

To allow Jesus only part of us, believing He’s an addition to us, is to misunderstand our role in the relationship. He’s the Master, we’re the slave; He’s the ruler, we’re His subject. To believe otherwise is to misconstrue the role the transformation of our being plays in our development as a believer. We’re molded to be HIS instrument in the world, not our own; to build HIS holy Name, and to extend HIS eternal Kingdom, not our own. To make a name for ourselves may be our goal, but never His, and to believe we’ll accomplish our purposes more effectively by using His name is not only a mistake, it’s sin.

We exchange our sin for His salvation; our inadequacy for His supremacy in and over all things; our need for His bountiful provision; our shame for His victory; our weakness for His strength; our earth for His heaven; our death for His eternal life! We bring nothing to the table but our lostness and need of a Savior and to believe anything else is to believe a lie.

The Lord doesn’t need me (or you 😊), but He’s so kind He never “rubs it in our face.” He never tells us it’s “His way or the highway,” He simply invites us to share in His grandeur and greatness; to be a small part in the accomplishment of His eternal purposes on earth; for the gift of spending all eternity in His eternal home.

It’s taken me a lifetime to realize I’m nothing . . . without HIM! He IS my life! Apart from Him I’m not only nothing, I can literally do nothing. But with Him, I have no disease, no weakness, no infirmities of any kind that can prevent me from being everything He desires me to be in this season of my life. And neither do you, child of God, neither do you!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Shaped By Design

“I am sending you a master craftsman named Huram-abi, who is extremely talented. His mother is from the tribe of Dan in Israel, and his father is from Tyre. He is skillful at making things from gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and he also works with stone and wood. He can work with purple, blue, and scarlet cloth and fine linen. He is also an engraver and can follow any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and those appointed by my lord David, your father.” (2 Chronicles 2:13-14 NLT)

When Solomon became King of Israel the timing was perfect for the construction of the Temple for the Lord that David had longed to build, to begin, but the Lord told him to let Solomon oversee it. However, David did much to not only make sure there were adequate materials, but also excellent craftsmen to see it to completion.

His goal was to build something exquisitely designed and constructed, because, in Solomon’s words: “This must be a magnificent Temple because our God is greater than all other gods.” But as magnificent as it actually was, it was only a temporary symbol of the dwelling place of God. The “temple” of God today is you and me and every other believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Compared to the Temple Solomon had constructed, having to live in a human body seems a far step down. But is it?

According to Psalm 139:14: “Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.” We may not be as awe inspiring when someone looks at us, but we can live, breathe, speak, think, obey, defend, and actively pursue the God of the Bible. If you’re a building, all you have to do is sit and look pretty, which, unfortunately, a lot of believer’s seem to think is their role today.

The fact is, God took special care when He created each of us. We’re no accident, and the details of our lives tell a story of, not only who we are, but why we are. Too often we blame God for making us the way He did because we don’t take the time or make the effort to see the detail with which He formed us. No one looks like us, thinks like us, believes like us, has the capacity to obey God as we do.

I think of Samuel when he followed the Lord’s command to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as King. Eliab, the eldest, was large in stature, a strong warrior, a seeming perfect choice for king, but the Lord said “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Even Samuel, the seasoned saint of God missed God’s heart when it came to choosing a king, and we do as well when we look in the mirror and fail to see greatness, confidence, competence, valor, and victory. And please don’t misunderstand, those aren’t our characteristics, but the Lion of Judah who resides in us.

We’re nothing apart from Jesus and can do nothing of eternal value. When we think more highly of ourselves, we become Samuel misjudging the sons of David. It’s only when we understand how intricately interwoven our inmost being is; how our great Creator God shaped and designed us to be more than we ever dreamed we could be, that finally the pieces begin to fit together and we see that our partnership with the living God results in a “dynamic duo” that the enemy, Satan, is powerless to defeat.

You’re more than you ever imagined you could be. Stop staring at yourself and start gazing at the beauty of your Master Jesus and you’ll marvel at the things He will enable you to see, think, and do for His eternal glory.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Dark Night or Resurrection Morning?

“For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.” (James 5:10-11a NLT)

The outcome of our suffering depends largely on our attitude as our suffering begins. It may be the loss of a loved one or long-held position; it could be the news of a serious illness or disease; it could be broken or damaged relationships with loved ones or friends. It can even be persecution for our faith. Whatever the cause of our suffering, there’s only one “cure,” and His name is Jesus.

“Whoa!” you may be thinking, “isn’t that a bit naïve?” Not if you’re a Jesus follower. Understanding that nothing touches my life except it passes through the filter of God’s permission tells me that suffering in whatever form it takes, is no accident and His timing is perfect. “Perfect for what?” you may wonder. Perfect for the instruction the Lord wants to give me in this season; perfect for the opportunity to grow in my faith, to be closer to the Lord, to enable the Spirit to speak to me more clearly, to hear His voice more easily, to use me more effectively.

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

There can be dozens of reasons the Lord has allowed what He allows when He allows it. Our job isn’t to question or second guess Him, our responsibility is to submit to His authority, His Lordship over us and say: “Okay, Father, You’ve allowed this, how would you have me respond? How can I most effectively position my heart to hear Your voice and obey Your directives? What are You seeking to teach me? Whose life or lives are You wanting me to positively affect because of what You’re bringing into my life? Who might listen to the message You give me now that wouldn’t hear it before?”

Recently, while in a prayer service at church, a young woman sat by me and a close friend of mine. As the service continued it became apparent that she was distressed, so, as opportunity was given, a few of us who were sitting close, formed a small circle and began to share concerns. This young woman quickly spoke up and let us know she’d just been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.

It was hard for her to speak about it, but my friend spoke up and let her know that he’d just come through a bout with Stage 1 cancer and he was now cancer free and didn’t have to undergo any chemo or radiation treatments. He attributed his good fortune to the Lord and prayer. Her countenance lifted and as we prayed for her it was if she was seeing a light of hope that had been hidden.

Obviously, I don’t know her level of spiritual maturity, but we exchanged numbers, and I sent her my wife’s number as well. The point is this: without Jesus there’s only hope placed in the help that comes from traditional means, doctors, medicines, etc., which are great, they’re just not enough.

J. D. Greear wrote: “Your suffering may feel to you like a dark night of the soul, but God is working in it the power of resurrection.” Without understanding God’s vital role in everything that touches our life, we have no alternative but to worry and fret, but when we are linked to the Holy Spirit and His limitless resources, we’re free to ponder the dozens of ways God can use our new circumstances for our good and His glory.

After the service I mentioned to the young woman that she may not believe me, but if she will trust the Lord and walk with Him through this process, one day she would view her cancer as a gift. That may seem crazy to some, but that’s exactly how I view my Alzheimer’s. The Lord is closer in this season than ever before and we’re growing in our closeness every day. I understand that every thought, every movement of my body or activity of my mind is a gift from my Father in heaven. I may not know when the end will come or how difficult it will be, but I know with absolute certainty that I will not face it alone.

The journey may be dark, but there is coming for me, and every believer in Jesus, a bright, resurrection morning!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Courage

“David replied to the Philistine, ‘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.’” (1 Samuel 17:45 NLT)

The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 17:4 that Goliath was more than 9 feet tall. He wore armor that weighed more than 125 pounds, yet young David did not hesitate to face him. I think of the thousands of soldiers of the army of Israel, all of whom were bigger, stronger, much more experienced than Joseph, most of whom were critical of a young kid who thought he could defeat a giant. “Who does he think he is?” must have been the resounding theme on the minds of the cowards of Israel.

But David’s focus wasn’t on his inadequacy, it was on God’s adequacy. David’s attitude was, “Whatever I need, God will provide, because it’s His fight, not mine. I’m simply His instrument.” Beloved of God, that must be our attitude as well!

We must not focus on our inadequacies when God gives us an assignment we deem too big for us. Of course it’s too big for us! If it’s not, why do we need God? Cancer, poverty, fear, dementia, chronic pain, the list is virtually endless of the debilitating issues we face as we age, yet none are too big to keep us from carrying out God’s plans for our life.

When God gives us an assignment, regardless of our age, stage in life, health, or any other issue, the only acceptable response is: “Yes, Lord!” “Yeh, but I’m too sick to get out of bed!” Then one of two things will happen. Either He’ll heal you enough to enable you to get out of bed or enable you to do what He’s asked while you’re still in bed. Either way, it will demand your strict reliance upon His strength and resource.

Whenever God asks us to do anything for Him it will likely entail the use of something He’s already given us or taught us. The Lord gave David extraordinary skills with a sling that he honed on lions and bears. What is He teaching you? How is He equipping you to fight His battles? What friendships has He given you that may be the door to reaching people for the Lord you never dreamed possible? How about a new position at work? A new neighbor? Someone you just met at church or while shopping?

Pastor Bryan Loritts wrote: “Courage is the difference between those who want to and those who do.” How many of those frightened soldiers of Israel wished they’d had the courage to do what David did? How many wanted the acclaim, the rewards, just the esteem that came with the courage to do what was right, but lacked the courage to risk?

What has the Lord placed on your heart to do for Him that’s frightening? Too big? Too hard? You and God are a majority! If He calls you to do something, He’ll equip you to do it! Fear will defeat you, but faith will energize you! Focus on your weakness will freeze you but focus on the God who never fails will liberate you!

Courage isn’t something we muster; it’s a gift from God for those willing to risk everything for the reward of His honor and fame. After David defeated the giant, the Army of Israel crushed the Philistines, the same Philistines the sight of whom paralyzed them moments before the God of Israel moved on their behalf in and through the courage of a young boy. What’s it going to take to give you the courage to pick up your “sling” and attack the “giant” that’s taunting you?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊