Simple things

12 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith. ~Galatians 6:10 (CEB)

A smile and a kind word, I would say that this is my mother’s ministry. I grew up with my mother always smiling at those she met and giving a kind word. It seems like such a simple thing. It seems that it couldn’t really make a difference, but I have seen many eye light up when my mother smiles.

Often I forget that we are called even in the little things of life to serve Christ. If I put on God’s eyes and look around, His ears and listen, He is calling me to reach out every day even in the little things. Acknowledging a cashier and asking them about their day, holding open the door for someone, letting someone ahead of me in line who only has a couple of items, a smile, these are all things that I can do to serve Christ. Sometimes these “small things” can impact someone greatly. I will probably never know how my small actions may impact someone’s life this day but I am called to be Christ even in the small things that I do.

Lord may I not be so caught up with my own life that I forget to look out beyond myself. May I notice those around me with a smile and a kind word today. Amen.

Thanks in every situation

07 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

 

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1 Thessalonians   5:16-18

Here in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-21 it lays it all out pretty simply. Rejoice always. It doesn’t say, only when you feel joyful, it says rejoice ALWAYS. Pray continually, not just sometimes but in everything I should be in prayer. Give thanks in every situation… hmm. That one is harder.

Last Sunday morning I got in the car to head to church. The car didn’t start. I am to be thankful in this Lord? Well, I could have been an hour from home like I had been a few days before. I could have been at the grocery store with frozen food melting in the trunk while I waited for help. So, I was thankful. I was thankful that this didn’t happen while I was visiting my parents in West TN, 6 hours away when I had a tight schedule for getting back, not just for the day I was traveling back but also for the next two days after I got back. The few days I was without a car I only had to rearrange a handful of things and for this I was thankful too. No, I wasn’t happy about having to spend money on my car for repairs but I was thankful that I had money to pay the repairman. I was also thankful that I have a repairman that I trust. After I thought about it, I realized that I had a lot to be thankful for in spite of my car troubles.

Because I took the time to look for the things that I was thankful for despite the car troubles and the impositions it caused, I was able to handle this “crisis” I little better this time.

Heavenly Father, help me to remember to rejoice always, to pray continually and to always remember to give thanks in every situation. Amen.

A little goes a long way

30 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just like you are doing already. ~1 Thessalonians 5:11 (CEB)

The power of thankfulness doesn’t just stop with thanking God for the things in our lives it also applies to thanking each other. Sometimes it feels to me that people don’t notice each other anymore. There was a time when we passed people on the street we would say hello. People held doors for each other. Thanked each other for small courtesies like coffee being refilled at a restaurant.

I know that there have been times when I have been guilty of passing people as if I didn’t notice them. Especially if they were strangers to me. I forget how much God has made us for relationships. I forget how much we need each other and those passing moments are important for my well-being as much as the person with whom I have walked right by not noticing.

At a retreat that I attended the speaker told us how important hugs were to our well-being. We need 27 hugs a day for our mental and physical health. I think we need to take that a step further to glances toward strangers with a smile and a good morning, to thank yous for small tasks done. Who knows who we might touch in a way that betters their day. Who knows how much it can better our day. A little encouragement goes a long way in adjusting attitudes. That can be some mighty power!

Heavenly Father, I can be so guilty of forgetting the importance of relationships. Please give me courage this day to lift my head and notice the people I come in contact with today.  Help me to make someone else’s day better with my hello or my thank you. May I remember Lord that I am to be your hands and feet to the world even in the smallest of deeds. Amen.

Taking life as it comes

25 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 (CEB)

Sometimes I think I hold the market on worry. I get so pulled into all the possibilities all the” what ifs” that I sometimes just wear myself out. As a child I would almost make it a game. If I could think of all the “what ifs” then maybe I could keep them from happening. Even though I know the odds of really being able to control things in that way I still find myself in my old habit of worry. Maybe that is part of the key to the problem. I have let worry become a habit. I do it without even thinking. It has become part of a thought process that I need to unlearn.

Just before verse 34 in Chapter 6 of Matthew we are told that God knows what we need. He dresses the earth in splendor, He feeds the sparrows, He knows the number of hairs on my head. Can’t I trust Him to know what I need as well? How I can learn to set aside my worry is to just deal with things as they come. God has equipped me to do this which is why He tells us to focus only on today. Worry only brings frustration and frustration is the first clue that God isn’t in my situation.

Lord help me to practice this day the art of taking life as it comes.  You know what I need and I am assured by your Word that you will meet my every need for this day. Amen.

A heathy hunger

24 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

“Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full. ~Matthew 5:6 (CEB)

Healthy people get hungry. Appetite is a sign of life. Matthew chapter 5 verse 6 tells us that Christians should be defined as people who are hungry for God. In the “Disciplined Life”, Calvin Miller says that our souls should have an excessive appetite to please God. But most of us don’t hunger to this extent. We are perhaps a little hungry for Christ, but we are more consumed with ordinary pursuits for shelter, food, safety, power and sexual appetites. This is part of being human, but can become dangerous when we lose our mastery over them and allow them to take over our lives.

God places within us a hunger for Him. Often I forget that the restlessness that I feel inside of me is because I have strayed away again and I try to fill that hole with other things that will not fit. Those things are just temporary fixes and because it doesn’t come from the true source I will find myself back at the well again. I need to be filled in such a way that I no longer thirst or hunger. I can only find this satisfaction in Jesus. I can only fight the cravings if I try to fill myself up with Christ.

Heavenly Father when I find myself back at the well, fill me with you. Fill me up until I want no more. Satisfy this restless hunger inside of me with your righteousness. Amen.

The cost of sin

17 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

So it is also written, the first human, Adam, became a living person, and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. ~1 Corinthians 15:45 (CEB)

Even though I have been born into sin, I am set free through Jesus. This is not just one of those cliché sayings. It is not just fancy words that Christians throw around. Jesus’ life blood conquers and overcomes the death that works in us through sin. Because Jesus came into the world we can have new life.

God in the beginning created a world where humans had authority over their lives, but Adam and Eve gave away their authority when they took a bite from the “tree of knowledge”. With knowledge came self-awareness and death. God sent Jesus into the world to give us back authority over our lives. He came to conquer each of our deaths that we may have abundant life. To be able to harness the power of Jesus’ blood over our lives we need to understand that through Adam sin entered the world. David confirmed this truth in Psalm 51:5 “Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin, from the moment my mother conceived me.” Adam passed down this sinful blood to us. Jesus because he was born of God and not man has life in his blood. Our lives have been purchased though Christ’s life blood when he died on the cross. Christ is the last Adam and because he became a spirit that gives life.

Sin has a cost. If I hold onto my sin the cost is my life. If I can accept that Jesus paid the cost for me I can live. There is another twist to this. If I don’t accept that Jesus died to give me life did he die for nothing? That reality is a little harder for me to bear. I can easily say I am not worthy, my sins are too great or not now but later I will listen to Christ’s teachings. The truth is Christ died so that even I might have life. When I think about Christ’s suffering on the cross, it pains me to think by rejecting this truth it is as if I am saying, “You suffered this horrendous death for nothing.” This puts any rejection of him in a new light.

Lord, may I not let you have suffered in vain! Help me to accept your truth in my life. Set me free so I may live. Amen.

Satan’s games

15 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

But the LORD is the one who is marching before you! He is the one who will be with you! He won’t let you down. He won’t abandon you. So don’t be afraid or scared!” ~ Deuteronomy 31:8

One of the biggest battles that Satan wages against us is getting us to believe that we are alone. I find myself falling into this trap often. This is a good verse to carry around in your heart. Deuteronomy 31:8 says that God will go before me, He will be with me and He won’t abandon me. This verse tells me that God won’t abandon me so I shouldn’t be afraid.

Recently I read something Joyce Meyer wrote, “Satan wants you to believe you are alone. He wants you to believe that no one understands how you feel, but his claims are false. In addition to God being with you, many believers understand what you are experiencing mentally and emotionally.” Satan wants me to lose sight of the simple truths found in the Bible. It is easy to forget that God wants to comfort us and deliver us when we are in the middle of pain and loss.

Part of the loneliness trap that Satan sets for me is playing the game of not sharing what is going on in my life. Then I get mad when no one notices that my life is falling apart. It is as if I just expect people to see the pain that I am going through but if I don’t open up and share what is going on in my life, then how do they know to reach out to me. I have a responsibility to meet people half way in relationships. Finding people that are “safe” to share my hurts and sorrows with takes time. But if I do not get involved and discover the people that God has placed within my reach then I am falling for the lies that Satan tells me and I will continues to find myself alone.

Heavenly Father, help me to hide in my heart the truth. You are with me and will never leave me alone. You provide for all my needs. Open my eyes to know the friendships you have set in place for me and close my ears to Satan’s lies. Amen.

Dissapointments

14 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ~ James 4:7 (CEB)

One area that Satan can get at me is through my disappointments. Satan is right there waiting to attack me when I am at my lowest. When things don’t go the way I thought they should, I wonder “why did I get my hopes up so high”, “I know better”, “I am worthless”, “I should have known nothing good is meant to come my way”. These are lies that Satan feeds me. This is not life as God means for us to live. He wants us to have joy, even among the pieces of our shattered hopes and dreams.

Jesus came to minister to the broken hearted, the oppressed, the hopeless. He came so that I might have life. Satan doesn’t want me to live, so he feeds me lies to keep me in death. Jesus wants me to live so He came into the world to breath new life and hope into my heart. If I believe the lies that Satan feeds me then I will stay defeated and my heart dies slowly bit by bit every day. If I hear God’s truth that I am worthy and that He wants to bless my life beyond what I can ever imagine than I can LIVE. My disappointments don’t define who I am. God’s love for me is the only definition that I need to know.

Jesus is waiting on the sidelines offering me hope amidst the disappointments of life. Satan wants me to stay defeated. Christ came so that I can have hope. Christ came so that I can live. I need to hide these truths deep within my heart so that I can resist the lies that Satan wants to feed my soul.

Sometimes Lord, the lies seem louder in my ears than your promises. Help me hide your truths deep in my heart so that when the noise of Satan threatens to overwhelm me Your truth will bubble up and overflow until I can no longer hear anything but Your love for me. Amen.

 

Offspring of the Creative One

10 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

When I look up at your skies,

at what your fingers made—

the moon and the stars

that you set firmly in place—

what are human beings

that you think about them;

what are human beings

that you pay attention to them?

You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,

crowning them with glory and grandeur. ~Psalm 6:3-5 (CEB)

One of the things that I love about running first thing in the morning is that it gives me time and space to see the beauty around me. Running is about as “still” as I can get sometimes. What I mean is that there are so many noises around me. So many things that pull at my attention. Most of it seems to stem from technology. Technology is a wonderful,but it is hard to get away from it. Sometimes I even feel enslaved to it. When I run,it is a time that I can truly get away from all screens and distractions and my mind begins to wander. I think my best talks with God and observations about the world around me happen when I run. When I run, I can find that still quiet voice that lives inside of me.

Because technology seems to crowd into more and more of our “still” time, I can’t help but be aware of the dangers of losing touch with God. Time is given less and less in creative endeavors. Writing, drawing, painting, and gardening all tap into that part of me that reminds me that I am the offspring of a Divine Creator. When I create, my soul converses with God. When I create, wisdom often emerges out of my soul’s conversation with The Creator; the truth is smaller and less universal.

Karla M. Kincannon, in her book Creativity and Divine Surprise says, “While we exile creativity to distant corners of our existence, our ability to perceive the things of God in our life and in the life of the world radically diminishes. Without creativity we are deaf to God’s call; what we are to be and do remains a conundrum. The truth of our existence lies in the heart of God, and if we cannot perceive the Divine Presence, we cannot make meaning of our days.”

Lord, help me find meaning in this day. Help me search for Your voice in all I do. May I take time to look around me at all Your creation so that I may remember that You have formed us to join you in the work of shaping the world. A world that reflects Your design for unity in diversity among all your creations. Inspire in me today a holy creativity greater than I could ask for or imagine. Amen.

For the lost and the least

30 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

“Now when the Human One comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his majestic throne. All the nations will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right side. But the goats he will put on his left.

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’

“Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me, you who will receive terrible things. Go into the unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels. I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.” ~Matthew 25:31-46 (CEB)

I have never felt ashamed to look at the cross until one day when a young woman came with her child in her hands. She said to me she had gone to two or three different convents asking for a little bit of milk for her child.

She was answered, ‘You are lazy. Go and work!’ And so on.

By the time she came to our house, when I took the child it died in my hands. I felt ashamed to look at the cross because Jesus has given us so much and we could not give even a glass of milk to this little child.” ~From My Life for the Poor by Mother Teresa

Almighty God, in every age you have called out men and women to be Your faithful servants. We believe You have now called us to join that great company who seek to follow You. Grant unto us today and always a clear vision of Your call and strength to fulfill the ministry assigned to us. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.

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