I don’t have anything new to say today.  Sometimes I think that it would be nice always to be ready at a moment’s notice to share a fresh new perspective on any nook or cranny of Christian life.  The Lord has other plans for us.  Sometimes we’re more eager for a fresh idea than for the abiding truth we already know.  The fact is, He’s already given us everything that we need to follow Him and to know Him intimately.  We have His sweet Spirit living in our hearts.  We have His Word to hide in our hearts too.   Jesus lives forever as our intercessor: telling His Father everything that we need before we know we need it.

In spite of opposition, the Bible is more available today than any previous era.  As for prayer, no one can take it away from us.  Even Corrie ten Boom spent time with her Savior while in a Nazi concentration camp.  Following Christ and building a relationship with Him is simple.  It’s just that we must surrender our entire lives to do it.

Even during Jesus’ time on earth, people had this same struggle against the straightforwardness of the Gospel.  This is why Jesus went out of His way to make His words straightforward to us.

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’This is the great and foremost commandment.The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
~Matthew 22:37-40

That’s not to say we should reject a deeper understanding of the Scriptures.  On the contrary, a deeper relationship with our dear Lord will require a deeper understanding of who He is.  It requires time alone with Him, but also time in service to His people.  If your Christian life seems unfruitful, it may mean coming back to these basics.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
~John 13:34, 35

Never underestimate what it means to the Lord to put others before yourself.  It was Jesus Himself who humbled Himself to birth and death among a sinful race, making Himself the lowest servant of all.  When we imitate that love, we delight His heart.  Not only that, we make more room in our hearts for Him to fill us with His holy love.  It’s nothing new.  He never changes.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
~John 3:30

“I need some ‘me time’.” How often do we joke about this? I know for my own family, if we are about to go take a nap, sometimes we tease and say “I just…*sniff*…need some ME time right now, okay?” Yet, there is a tiny little part of us that actually means it. As a Western culture, we love our “down time”. We protect our vacation times, and are always looking for a chance to “get away from it all”–even if it means closing ourselves in our rooms.

I am a quiet person, so I sometimes love being alone in the quiet, just resting. Yet, so often I find myself getting aggravated when people interrupt my time. My little sister, because we share a room, often felt the brunt of it. Not necessarily outright agitation, but my attention would be reluctantly turned to her instead of being eager to love her 24/7. I was frustrated at people, frustrated at myself, and just…frustrated! Then, the Lord walked me through the gospel of Mark.

“Seeing the large crowds, He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.”
~Mark 6:34

Jesus was 100% God, but in the form of man. He had physical needs just as we have physical needs. He frequently went away “to a quiet place” to pray, or called His disciples away to rest (Mk. 6:31). But at the same time, even from the beginning of His ministry, He was completely swarmed with crowds. No matter the place or even time of day, He would find Himself surrounded again by crowds (Mt. 1:35, 3:7,20). There were times He was not even able to eat because there were so many people, desperate for His healing hand (Mark 3:20).

Can you imagine the physical AND spiritual pull of always being needed and always being asked questions? And yet, Jesus turned no man away who needed Him. “Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion on them”, and went to them. He did not roll His eyes or sigh because He was trying to have some “me time”. Instead, His heart was stirred to mercy. His humble spirit longed to comfort the poor, the widows, the outcasts, and the children abandoned by all. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” was the heart of Christ (John 6:38). Even when He was tired, He truly knew that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Seek to serve others, my friends. Ask the Lord for strength (physical and spiritual) to pour yourself out, even if it means cutting into your “me” time. Do not be so protective of your down time that you miss out on the sweetness of ministering to those around you–especially your family; God has placed you in your family for a reason! Rely on the Father for help and you will see the blossoming fruit spring forth from your labor. May we seek to serve, just as He came to serve us!

By Anna Faith

I have had lots of heartaches and disappointments when it comes to friendships. These things can make me hesitant, at best, when it comes to investing in new relationships. I find myself struggling, wondering if it is worth the time and effort….wondering if (or, more accurately: “when”) this person is going to just move on with their life, making new and better friends, not even remembering I exist. And, it can be hard saying goodbye to someone who has become a new friend – never knowing if I will even ever see them again. And with our not-so-normal lives (always traveling, always at the whim of others as to where we will be, when we will be leaving, how long we will be gone, etc.), I am confronted with these things a lot. There’s just nothing that you can ever count on to be the same from one day to the next. And throughout my life, I have had so many friends who have moved on in life, or moved away, or walked away from the Lord and, consequently, didn’t really want to hang out with me any more.

All that to say….I have a hard time opening my heart to people. It might surprise you to hear me say that, but it is true. I have lost so many friends, that I have a tendency to put up walls in my heart to not let myself get too close, or too attached, so that “WHEN” they leave too, I don’t have to deal with the hurt, and the loneliness.

And so, I have learned to turn off my heart. I cease caring. I don’t want to risk loving. And yet….lately, I have felt so strongly that Jesus has been asking me to let myself love people. And, more, to let HIM love people the way HE wants, through me.

A New Perspective

The other day I was thinking about friendships that had formed, but where God was calling them elsewhere yet again….and, with a bit of grumbling, I asked God, “Why, Lord? Why do we always have to say goodbye? Why does it seem like I can’t ever have friends who stick around? I don’t want to struggle so much to love people, but…aren’t I kind of justified here, in the way I’m feeling? I mean….look — you don’t see any friends here, do you?”

But God just started speaking to me, and gave me a really sweet perspective.  I’ll do my best to try to explain.

He showed me that every moment I invest in a friendship here on earth translates into eternity. Every moment spent loving someone is a moment — a memory — that transfers into Heaven. If I spend just one afternoon loving someone, and making memories with them, and then never see them again on earth during my lifetime, I will STILL recognize them in heaven. And not only will I recognize them, but we will have an instant, meaningful connection that is a deeper connection than with just about anyone else there — because we actually spent time together on earth. As little or much as it may have been, it is still a touchpoint that we will have between us forever. A memory together that goes “way back”.

So God was gently showing me that I don’t have to be afraid of investing in friendships. In fact, each opportunity that I take to pour into someone, and to let myself love them fully will reach into eternity. Loving someone is never pointless or a waste of time, but each time I let myself love them, a bond of friendship that can’t be taken from us is nurtured…and in Heaven, we will meet upon some side street sometime, and immediately have that bond — that connection — from our moments together on earth, that goes even deeper than with all of the multitudes that I never knew on earth (granted, I’ll probably meet them all eventually, and probably become close friends….but there will still be that special connection with those I loved on earth). And we’ll be just as comfortable to run out to a quiet field somewhere to catch up on the past several hundred years, and where God took each of us, and what happened when we were apart.

Heaven-Bound Friendships

And it is just so sweet, because there is no time limit on heaven-bound friendship, like the friendships of this world have. And, being creatures born of this world, we so often feel that same press of time upon us…..that feeling of there being a real end of our lives, and the struggles that come with that — including the struggle of feeling like you’ll never get to see someone again if they move away.

But for those of us who are heaven-bound, we can rejoice that there will always be a “later”. We don’t have to grapple to cling to a friendship on earth, or melt into a puddle of despair when friends leave us (or we leave them), because we have been blessed with an eternity on the other side of the toils of this life, where, when our labors to rescue souls have come to a rest, we will have all the time we could ever want to be able to spend with each and every person there. We can rejoice that, no matter how many years pass on earth without us meeting, there will always be a “later”. We WILL see them again.

And for now, we can rest in our mission to rescue lost souls…..and not just to rescue them, but to LOVE them…..and thus, to be able to greet them in heaven as well, as dear friends — with a shout of joy and a big, big hug!