Tag Archives: Bible Reading

We Don’t Waste Our Trials When We Pray to God

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I have been thinking about Daniel and how much we can learn from him, from his undivided life, his character, the way he stood firmly on his convictions on the face of frightful threads (by a tyrant government), and also about how great example of a praying life he set before us.

And that brought me to consider that it was precisely his prayer life, his devotion to God that, in a way, was the cause that led him to the lions’ den.

Think about it for a minute. Daniel had a fervent prayer life, even with fixed times to pray through the day before he was thrown into the lions’ den. Daniel didn’t start seeing the need to have a solid prayer life when he was about to be thrown into the lions’ den, no, he already was a man of prayer. And his strong prayer life didn’t spare him from that horrible trial, but prepared him for it. Because Daniel was a man of prayer, he knew that God hears the cries of His people even in the midst the most horrible and frightful circumstances. Because Daniel was a man of prayer, he knew what to do when the lions were roaming around ready to devour him and so he prayed.

Sisters, let’s strive to become women who pray, women who know how to pray on our knees with thanksgiving not only when the trials come, but even before the “big” trials come. Being in the Word and persevering in fervent in prayer are necessary to prepare us for the next trial, the next temptation we´ll face, and the next deliverance we’ll see. Let us strive to become women who pray at all times.

Like Daniel, the only way to live without fretting over the evildoers and the apparent victories they have over the righteous is to live by faith, with our eyes fixed on God’s promises and on His commandments and praying with our hearts and Bibles open.

It is true that the lie of a “perfect quiet time” has kept many away from the Word and the prayer closet for years, but let us remember that there is always another side we want to avoid, and that is being too casual about our relationship with the Lord. Always running around and never setting apart time to pray and meditate on the Word.

In the 1800’s James Alexander wrote to his younger brother a letter about the importance of having the habit of prayer; he wrote: “There is a great advantage in having a set time for secret prayer. You have often heard it said, that what is left to be done at any time, is commonly done at no time. This is true. If you rise in the morning, and put off your devotions until you feel more in the spirit for them, it is likely that you will be less and less in the right temper. When you become hurried with your studies, your work, or your play—you will be less disposed to pray than when you first arose. Besides, if you have a fixed hour for your private devotions, whenever the hour comes, you will be put in mind of your duty. You know that in a family where the meals are served up at regular hours, everyone is reminded of breakfast or dinner whenever the hour arrives.”

We don’t want to waste our trials, friends. Who can afford doing that? This is not a time to be spiritually slothful, it is a time to get on our knees (literally) and become women of prayer., women of the Word, women who in the face of hard Providences know where to run for help. We want to be women who seek God in prayer, who abound in thanksgiving, and read the Word to know God and His ways.

Let us learn from Daniel and pray to God wherever God has us today.

J.C. Ryle wrote, “Fear not because you sometimes walk in darkness and have no light. Remember that you cannot understand the mind of the Lord, nor the meaning of His dealings. But when the clouds compass you about, believe in God as Daniel did; trust in the Lord Jesus at all times; sing to Him in the dungeon, as Paul and Silas; sing to Him even in the fire, as the three Hebrew children did; be sure, be very sure, he who believes shall never be ashamed.”

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky P.











God Gave Us His Name So that We May Know Him

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“The Divine image is stamped upon every page [of the Bible]” wrote A.W. Pink. But in some places we see it more clear than others.

Let’s take a closer look at a couple of stories from our Bibles to see how God gave us His name and His commandments so that we may know Him.

In the land of captivity those whom God had called to be His, those whom He had led to Egypt about 400 years before, were now crying out for help. And we read (Exodus 2) that God heard their cries, remembered the covenant He had with them and turned His eyes to see them. God knew them and their circumstances. And what happened next? Yes, God came to make a way. In the midst of blind and mute gods, God saw and God spoke. He came to make Himself known because He loved them even when they did not even know His name.

In the next scene (Exodus 3) we see Moses, a burning bush and God. God speaks and Moses tries to figure out what is happening. But God, the Holy One, doesn’t let Moses try to find the meaning of the words he hears. Remember, God wants to be known, so He gives Moses instructions on how to approach Him. And so God speaks, “Take your sandals off your feet first, don’t come near yet!” And why did God speak these words specifically? Because God wanted to make it hard on Moses to draw near? No, God spoke because He wanted to teach Moses something about Himself: God is Holy and He establishes how we are to approach Him.

Moses listened the Word of the Lord and believed that God wanted Him to come and not be consumed by His holiness. And believing moved him to respond in obedience. By grace through faith the words God spoke to Moses that day become the threshold of their relationship. Moses now knew God because God knew him and loved him first.

God had a plan to set His people free and we see that He didn’t hide it from Moses, but communicated it to him. And in doing so, He revealed more of His character, including His name to his servant. God speaks so that we may know who He is.

“I AM WHO I AM.” God said, because He wants to be known by name. And now we will start seeing it more clearly; at every turn of the page in our Bibles, in every story from Genesis to Revelation how God wants His name, and all that His name represents and reveals about Himself to be known throughout all the ages and in every corner of the world. We read on and we see it here and there, God does all things for His name’s sake.

In Exodus six we have it recorded for us, God wants to be known as the God who frees and redeems His own people. He speaks again and again His words are clear, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” He frees us, so that we may know Him as our God.

And so the story continues. Plagues come over the people who worshiped the gods whose names were powerless. And why did these plagues come? We don’t have to make up an answer, it is written. Yahweh wanted the Egyptians to know that He is the only true God. He wanted the Egyptians and His own people to know that the True God comes and saves His own.God made His purposes clear (Exodus 7-12), He was not hiding what He was doing here. God even commanded Moses to make sure that Pharaoh understands that in all this He is the One sending the plagues, the judgement, and that there is none other like Him in all the earth.

The Triune God reveals His purposes because He wants His name to be known and proclaimed in all the earth-

And the wilderness awaits and in the wilderness, where we are exposed to our fiercest hunger and thirst, we face temptation like the Israelites did, and we quickly forget our Creator, our Redeemer, the One who has a name and has called each of us by name. In the parched land we dare to break the silence and murmur asking, “Where is God?, Why is He hiding from us?” We quickly forget, like the Israelites did, that God never ever forgets His own. We think that God is like us, that He flees, that He hides from us. But even there God sees us, God hears us, God knows us and so He comes. And for the sake of His name, He comes to us like He came to meet His people in the wilderness. For the sake of His name, He will not break covenant. He has spoken, and we can be assured that His Word will never return void[6]. So in the wilderness we remember the Words of the Lord. We take our Bibles and open them and read on. We meditate on what it is written when the heat is scorching in the day and the nights are freezing cold. We know it, is that or we will soon pass out.

When we steep ourselves in these stories, we can see how God has always come and spoken. He has chosen words to communicate to His people who He is and what His will is. In the Creation we can know God as our Creator, but nothing created tells us how to be saved. We can know God first as Creator and then, as we hear the message of the gospel proclaimed in the Scriptures, we can know Him, by name, as our Redeemer.

So let us take the Book of God and read. May we strive to know Him and make His name known!

Under His sun and by His grace.

Becky Pliego

Read The Word, Pray the Word

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The men and women of God through history are people who pray. And I imagine we all want to know what is it that made their prayer life rich and effective. I would say that one thing they all have in common is that they pray according to the Word of God.

We want to have a rich prayer life too, and having heard of this idea of “praying the Scriptures back to God,” we take a notebook and start jotting down promises, Bible verses that we believe will enrich our prayer life and strengthen our faith. And what a blessing that is. We hold dearly to these words of life. We let them be the last word we hear in our minds to silence our anxious thoughts and fears.

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Ex.14:4

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Is. 40:29

“Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Prov.30:5

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Is. 41:10

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Rom. 8:32

These are only a few, there are so many more promises, more than we can count and all are yes and amen in Christ for those who are His. Each one of these promises is powerful and comforting. Each one is like a lifeline thrown from Heaven to us, as so we grasp them by faith.

But there are times when the trials of life are too deep and too dark, they rage against us fiercely, and the pain is hard to bear. We grab our notebook with Promises, and barely find our breath to pray through them… our voice has drowned under our tears.

It is in those times when knowing the God who gives these Promises will keep us alive. It is then when not only one or two Promises will revive us and give us hope, but when we need the whole counsel of God to be our stronghold.

There are times when our flesh will fail us, and our knees will be weak, and in these times every Word we have read in the Bible, every story in it will prove to be the backbone of our life. We may fall one, two, three, seven times, but we will not be crushed because the Word of God has the power to hold us against the enemy.

Oh, how important is is to be immersed in all the Word of God! How important it is to fill our mind and heart with all the stories of the Bible. Stories in which God reveals to us not only His character, but the way He loves to write stories. The Promises we love and count as precious, are not magic words. These promises belong to some part of God’s  story, and when we know the story in which they were spoken, we gain much more assurance.

I have been there, praying with the Bible open, praying not one or two verses, but story after story back to God.  With my Bible open, I have prayed to the God of the Bible because I know Him, I have read His Word, I have read how He is faithful when we are not. I have read how He is just and holy and at the same time merciful and compassionate. I have read story after story how He loves to redeem and restore His own children. I have read how He disciplines those He loves and how He walks with them through the consequences of their sin. I have read in the Bible how He saves those who don’t deserve to be saved. I know how much He loves to show Grace. I have read over and over, from Genesis to Revelation, stories that reveal to us who God is. I can know Him, because He wants me to know Him. I have my Bible in my hands as a proof for that. I know the Triune God of the Bible in whom millions and millions have trusted before and in whom I will trust too.

I will not stop reading. My life depends on the very Words spoken by God, written for me.

I will keep coming, I will keep reading. I want to know my God more, to trust Him more, to love Him more.

I still carry my notebook with Bible promises with me, but in my heart I carry the whole story that gives life to each one of those promises.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

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Faithful Obedience by Elise Warner

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Elise is one of the of those women that does the hard things with a tender heart. She and her husband have been close friends to my children and they all say that she is a very special friend, a loyal friend, a godly friend. Today I’m honored to have her share with us in our series, Faithful Obedience.

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Perfect Grace and Blueberry Muffins
by Elise Warner

My whole body shivered uncontrollably as I curled up on my side, trying to position the pillow perfectly to cradle my neck without putting any pressure on the screaming nerves and muscles. My husband gently placed the heat pack on my shoulders as he has countless times over the course of our relationship. I smiled, but I wanted to cry. Not this week, Lord. Not this week. Why now? It was Josiah’s first week of medical school. And it wasn’t going according to plan.

If you were a fly on the wall of my home, you would quickly realize that I have a thing for charts. There is a wall calendar, a daily planner, a work to-do list, and an ideal daily schedule in the room with me as I write. My brain craves order. And while that is not a sin, control has often been my idol—an idol that is never satisfied and leaves me filled with anxiety as I try to predict what the next day, month, year will hold.

I was nineteen when the subtle theme of needing to surrender and trust my God became a resounding cymbal. Now I like to joke with my family that my stubborn do-it-all attitude meant God needed to slap me upside the head to stop me from running off a cliff. And he did it through a pinched nerve in my neck that set off a chain reaction leaving me bed-ridden for a short time and physically limited for, well, seven years now.

Josiah and I spent the weeks leading up to the start of medical school carefully preparing. We wrote down principles, guidelines, and (of course) schedules to help us navigate this new season. I thought we were ready. That I had everything in place to control how this week would go. I had even planned out what I needed to pack for his lunches and how I would make him blueberry muffins for his first day as a surprise breakfast item. I had everything ready, all my ducks in a row, and I was going to make starting school easy for my husband.

Instead, I spent the first three days in worst pain than I have been in for over a year—exhausted, unable to stomach much food, barely able to hold my five month old without feeling sick. I got behind in my Bible reading—little boxes left unchecked. The idea of blueberry muffins was laughable. I needed my husband to put our daughter down, rock her, play with her while his pile of schoolwork loomed large on the desk in our room.

Thursday I woke up feeling physically better. Spiritually, I was grumpy. I struggled to pray out my frustration, to confess my anxiety, to find gratitude, to believe that the Lord could work through me. How can I be a good mom if I can’t even play with my daughter? How can I be a good wife, run a hospitable home, bake those stupid muffins if I am so easily debilitated? I grudgingly opened my Bible, knowing that I needed to preach truth to myself. I checked my reading plan to see what I needed to catch up on. 2 Corinthians.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

How gracious is our Lord? He uses my small trial to topple my idol over and over. And when I come back to him broken, frustrated, and confused—he always meets me and reminds me of the kind of God I am learning to surrender to. His grace is always enough. He will do far more with my weakness than I can ever do with my plans and schedules. He is my strength, my shield, my keeper, my redeemer. And when he demands that I surrender and trust him, he is doing it for my own good so that he can bring me more and more into the light of His glory. To surrender to him is to be made strong.

I don’t know if my head injury will ever be healed—if I will ever be able to play a game of volleyball or go on a run without meeting pain the next morning or if I will ever be able to do a small morning workout without wondering if it will throw my daily plans out the window. I wish that I could entirely predict what will cause a horrible episode like this week. I pray that one day it will simply be gone. But even more than I wish for healing, I wish that I never forgot His promises. I wish that I could wake up one day and never doubt His goodness, never question whether I really should trust Him. I pray that I will be a woman filled with peace and freedom, knowing that my God is in control. My flesh and heart fail me daily. But God’s grace. God’s grace never fails and never runs out. It meets me in my need through His Word, pointing me outward and upward towards Him. It meets me in my daughter and husband and all the gifts I have to rejoice in. It meets me in medicine and doctors and heat packs. When I faithfully open my eyes to find his grace, it overwhelms every aspect of my life. Even in blueberry muffins baked just a few days late.

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“It Is Written” And So We Read

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How  else will we know what a great love the Father has for His own children, if we don’t open our Bibles to read them?  How will we know how immeasurable are God’s grace and mercy towards us if we rarely read the Scriptures? How will we know how deep our sins are and how great our Savior is if we don’t read the Holy Scriptures? How will we know what the Father promises to us if we keep shutting our eyes and ears making no room in our hearts for the Word of God in our lives? How will we know God, how will we taste and see that He is good, if we are just too busy for that? Friends, All these things have been written so that we may know them and the Author of Life. These things have been written so that we may read them! Each of these words has been written so that we may believe them and live by them!

Because “it is written” we know the wonderful news of the gospel. Because it is written, we know that if we repent and believe in Jesus and His words we can have eternal life. It is written that those who believe in Him have passed from death to life, what a joy to read what God has determined for us to read. Think about this, you and I would have never known these news, news that carry eternity within them, if Jesus had never spoken and if His words had never been written.

This world neither would have ever been if Jesus had never spoken it into existence. God’s Word created galaxies with planets and stars and waves that make music in the heavens for us to discover. God spoke and His Word created creatures under the seas that even now are hidden from our eyes. Today, this minute, this world keeps spinning and your nails keep growing, and flowers keep blooming and babies keep crying, because Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God “upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1).” Jesus “is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Col. 1).

There are more riches in the Word for us to discover than galaxies in the heavens. There is more to know about God and His ways than we can possibly imagine. The vastness of the treasures to be found in the Scriptures and the hugeness of God should not keep us from pursuing our desire to know them. On the contrary, to know that these treasures are waiting for us, should encourage us to seek more diligently, to read more attentively, and to pray more fervently asking God that we will not miss any of them. It is written so that we may read and believe. And as you immerse yourself in the Scriptures, “think every line you read, that God is speaking to you,”[1]

And so we keep coming and keep opening our Bibles, and keep reading, because, really? Who doesn’t want to know the Triune God? Which Christian who has been called by name before the foundation of the Lord, doesn’t want to know more about God? The fact that we can know God is such good news that it starts to sound almost like a big bang in the ears of those who try hard to suppress the truth of God with lies. But nonetheless, it is true, it is written: God wants to be known! So we will keep coming to our Bibles each day because we want to keep breathing, living, discovering, knowing, worshiping. God wants to be known! It is written! Thanks be to God!

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego

[1] https://gracegems.org/Watson/reading_the_scriptures.htm Accessed Sept,14 ’18
Photo credit: Lilian Dibbern via Unsplash

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Faithful Obedience by Emily Abens

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I am so happy to have my friend Emily Abens writing for this series today. She is such a fun and thoughtful friend who makes the yummiest meals ever. When we get to have lunch together,  I always find it a delight to see how the Lord is at work in the lives of all His children. Emily’s love for God and His Word are evident in her life and that is always contagious!

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A Roadmap to Walk in Faithful Obedience
by Emily Abens

What does faithful obedience look like in my season of life? I have a “roadmap” of sorts that helps me as I do my best to live a life of faithful obedience. These are big picture concepts and they will apply in the tiny details differently for each person. How this roadmap plays out in the nitty gritty, everyday, practical ways of my life will not be the same as how it plays out in the details of your life. Nor will this roadmap play out the same for me tomorrow as it did 10 years ago. This is a beauty of life, yes? The practical details of faithful obedience differ from woman to woman and from season to season, yet the big picture concepts remain. So let’s dive in.

We ought to take care how we build our foundation, and Christ needs to be the cornerstone (1 Corinthians 3:10–15 and Ephesians 2:19-20). Building and keeping a firm foundation is one of the most important things we should do as Christians. If our foundation is off or needs work, we need to fix what is faulty before moving on. Our foundation centers in Christ and throughout the years I have found that these three things help me maintain and strengthen my foundation:

First, live your life knowing that no amount of works can save you. Nothing you do will get you into heaven. It is only by Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Salvation is a gift–the most amazing gift–and nothing we do allows us to boast in anything other than the Gospel.

Second, stay close to God. Pray and be in the Word daily. Even if you don’t “feel” fed that day, you are being nourished. Stay disciplined in this. I find I have days when I do not feel like reading my Bible or praying – even when I do read and pray these days, I still don’t “feel” fed. Yet I know that although that’s how I’m “feeling”, it isn’t true. God is feeding me because that’s what He’s promised to do and we can trust that His word is truth (John 6:35). church membership and weekly attendance are another critical component for my walk with God. These are very important in staying close to God and helps with accountability.

Finally, surround yourself with a team of people who will push you to be more Christ-like. This team will know that works cannot save you–only Christ can. They will walk alongside you, keeping you accountable in your walk with the Lord, reminding you to pray and be in the Word daily. They will pick you up by the bootstraps of your baptism; they will point out what’s right and wrong; they will remind you when you forget who Christ is, what He has done for you, and what that truth means for your life. I’ve found that it is especially important to have people in my life who will notice when I’m in the wrong. These people will graciously come alongside to lovingly correct me by emphasizing Biblical truths when I’m forgetting the love of Christ.. You become like the people you spend the most time with or they become like you. You are either being influenced or you are influencing others in each relationship. Make sure your Christian brothers and sisters are pushing you towards Christ and you are planting seeds of the Gospel in the non-christians in your life. For me this team of people is anchored by the Godly family I have been given and includes close Christian friends. If you don’t have an obvious team–pray for one! Ask God to give you ideas of who might be members of this team and then ask them if they would be willing to come alongside you! This team is especially helpful in fleshing out the details of the rest of the roadmap. They are often the people I give myself to most, and they do the same for me.

Living my life knowing that nothing I do will ever save me, staying in the Word, and being surrounded by Godly people isn’t simply a matter of checking off the boxes and “calling it good.” Rather, these three points are continuous–keeping a firm foundation is part of becoming a better image-bearer of Christ, which is a never ending process. This foundation allows me to confidently jump to the rest of the roadmap, knowing I can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13).

God calls us to live a life worthy of our calling and for the Lord, always giving glory to Him (Eph. 4), so what now? You’ve built and will continue to build a solid foundation, so the next step is figuring out what giving yourself to others looks like. Figuring out what this looks like can often be challenging, but throughout the Bible, God promises that He will act and make our paths straight (Psalm 37:5; Proverbs 3:5–6)! Pray bold prayers–God promises to hear and answer them (Matthew 7:7-11). Pray for direction and ask God to make your next step clear!

However, don’t move towards the next step or responsibility without asking the Lord if you are being diligent with the ones He has already given you. Luke 16:10 tells us that one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. Faithfulness in a lot of little things adds up to a big thing, so don’t be surprised when being diligent with what God has already given you takes a lot of time, energy, resources, and sanctification. What does diligence and faithful obedience look like in your God-given roles (being a Christian, daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, church member, employee, boss, etc.)?
Being diligent and faithful does not mean being perfect. I often ask myself whether or not I’m pushing brothers and sisters in Christ towards Him and whether or not I’m trying to share the Gospel with non-Christians. If you’re unsure whether you’re being faithful and diligent in your God-given responsibilities, don’t be afraid to ask your trusted team of people I mentioned earlier!

If you’re being diligent to the best of your abilities, take the next step God gives you. Pray that God gives you clarity on what that next step is and that He equips you with the wisdom and skills to do that task well to His Glory.

As you look to God for the next step, ask yourself whether you’re equipped with the skills needed for the upcoming stage in your life. This could be preparing to be a student, employee, boss, wife, mother or grandmother. If you aren’t prepared, work on those skills. Titus 2 calls older women to mentor younger women – how cool is that? Find a Godly mentor with the skills you are lacking and diligently watch and learn from her. While receiving wisdom from her, try to help out where you can to assist her with her duties. This can be as simple as helping her fold the laundry while you chat!

For me, preparing for the next stage looks like giving myself to the church, mentoring younger girls, helping my siblings with their kids or watching others run their households, seeing both Godly examples to follow and ungodly examples to run from. Being single gives me more time and energy to choose what I spend time, energy, and money on. Those who are married don’t have this flexibility and although it is my desire to be married, I know God has graciously gifted me this time of singleness to bless those who are around me as much as I can.

The next part of my roadmap is something I’m very passionate about–people. Specifically, giving myself to others. Giving to others is seen frequently throughout the Bible, yet it gets run over in today’s age of self-love. John 15:13 says “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”. Christ died for us and calls us to do the same for those around us. To do this, start by asking a few questions:

First, what has God placed in your path? God has called each of us to serve. Every week in this series, we have seen how each woman has a different calling within faithful obedience. I have always felt called to the people God has placed directly in my path; this is how the Lord “wired” me. If God has called you to be a missionary in Timbuktu and your top priority is the tribe that you are serving, glory be to God. If God has allowed cancer to take over your body, again, glory be to God. If God has given you four little souls under four years old to change diapers for, to disciple, to love, yet again, glory be to God. It’s important to examine your sphere of influence and who we are called to serve. For now, I know that I’m called to help equip the Saints and share the Gospel with unbelievers that God has placed specifically in my path such as my immediate and extended family, church, friends, coworkers, clients, and acquaintances that I spend time with on a regular basis (i.e. bible study group, members of various sports teams, neighbors, etc.). These categories are very malleable–there have been times when I spend most of my time with an acquaintance or when a specific friend needs me more than my family does.

Second, what does it look like to give yourself to others above and beyond the responsibilities God has given you? Before answering this, I think it’s important to know the skills you have. Are there things you do that don’t feel like work? Things that come naturally and often bring you joy? Is there something or someone God continues to place on your heart? Something you notice that blesses you when present, but the lack of it bothers you? This could be childcare, cooking, crafts, event planning, communicating, creative thinking, problem-solving, organization/administrative work, networking, including others, empathy, cleaning, car maintenance, medical skills, gardening or landscaping, budgeting, reading, studying, laundry, or other household items. I love what Doug Wilson had to say about this in a recent sermon:

“Recognize that when you see a need, this is not given to you so that you might blame everybody else for not meeting it. Your ability to identify a need should be taken by you as an indication from God on what you ought to be doing. If you look around at the body, and see a bunch of discouraged saints, then perhaps you have the gift of encouragement. If you see doctrinal ignorance, then perhaps you have the gift of teaching. If you see dirty bathrooms, perhaps you have the gift of helps.”

 

This doesn’t just apply to the church – it applies to all areas of life! God has given me a certain set of skills, ones that are unique to me. He has given you a certain set of unique gifts also. Use the skills God has given you. God equips each one of us differently for His Glory and to His Glory. The body of Christ needs every part of the body – we can’t all be ears or eyes. If you aren’t sure about the gifts God has given to you – check with the people who know you best. What do they say?

What it looks like to give myself to others is something that ebbs and flows. Sometimes we are on the receiving end: a friend is working hard to bless us. What a gift! Other times, we are on the giving end and we have the opportunity to be that blessing to someone in need. Again, what a gift! In both circumstances–whether giving blessing or receiving blessing or a combination of both–we are called to be faithful and thankful.
I fail in many things, and often could live this roadmap out much better than I do. There are opportunities to serve that I pridefully look over, or that I’m blind to. There are also times that I serve and God allows me to fall flat on my face! Giving ourselves to others is often hard, but this is one of the things I love about life: we can’t do anything on our own. We need to fully surrender ourselves to Christ and, oddly, there is so much comfort and confidence in that. It’s sacrifice, it’s laying down your life, it’s often enduring hardship, but it’s also important Gospel work.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and when we have a firm foundation, we can confidently live our lives for the glory of Christ, whether on the giving end or receiving end of His perfect blessing. I think faithful obedience can be summed up simply: pursue hard after Christ first and foremost, and then work to make an impact for the Kingdom in what God calls you to–pursue the people God puts in your path, giving yourself to them with the skills God has given you.

Now of course for most of us, none of these concepts are mind blowing or new– we’ve heard that we ought to be in the Word, surround ourselves with Godly men and women, and give ourselves to others. But often the most obvious, basic truths are the ones we most easily forget–everyone wants to change the world for Christ, but no one wants to be faithful in the little, nitty-gritty, often hard things. But what I’m telling you is the way to change the world is to do exactly that: be faithful in all things.
All for His Glory and to His Glory!

Emily Abens (With help from my team of absolutely wonderful God fearing and faithful people whom I love and cherish dearly. They help me stay faithful and help me follow and flesh out this roadmap on a daily basis.)

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