Fantastic Friday #995 - Director

Director

24 A person’s steps are directed by the Lord.
How then can anyone understand their own way? Proverbs 20:24

I heard someone talk about God this week and called Him the Director. I never have really heard this phase used before in such a conversational manner, where my Father In Heaven is a Director. I guess this has not crossed my mind, because I always thought of Him as my Guide as I walk the path of life and my freedom to choose. I freely have walked through my life and felt like I was directing my own life with the choices I have made, but if you look deeper, one can see that not all my choices were completely mine. As the scripture discusses, The Lord directs our steps, and we may not recognize it at the time, but He is always there to direct us when we want to be directed. I know that there are times when I think I am in control, but I know without God I would never be able to make it or find my own way. Just like in a movie, a Director tells the actors what they want, God will tell us what He wants from us in his Word. We then have a choice to try and do our things our own way, or allow Him to direct us in our path. My thoughts are that we probably we need to choose to be directed more by the One in control.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #994 - Enjoyment

Enjoyment

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2: 24-26

I was having a conversation this week with an individual about finding enjoyment, which got me thinking about how much we find enjoyment in our lives compared to finding issues with people or things. It is so easy to find things wrong in this world, because we are bombarded with the enemy trying to make us feel like we aren't enough, or don't know what we are doing with our life. Finding the smallest thing in God's creation to catch enjoyment might be a good start to get ourselves on the path of finding full gratification. Why I start with the smallest thing to find enjoyment in is because if God had the thoughtfulness to create something so small and relatively insignificant to most for us to enjoy. I often think of everything He has done to provide us happiness. God loves us and wants us to find enjoyment in his creation, and He also wants us to communicate our needs to him. I challenge each of you to find ways to enjoy God and His creation, and if you are having trouble, ask Him to encourage and guide you to that enjoyment.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #993 - Communicate

Communicate

15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16

How do you communicate your feelings to others, or in general. Society has changed so much with methods of communication and how we interact with people, but one thing has not changed, and that is God's message to all. I know this week when having a conversation with someone, I became irritated with what they were saying and I kind of snapped back at them. Honestly, there was no reason why I can say this took place, because nothing that was said gave me the rationale to communicate in this manner. I ended up apologizing to this person, when I was reminded of a scripture that God shares in Proverbs 15 about how a gentle answer turns away wrath. I wonder why we don't allow ourselves to focus more on how we communicate, but much of it I believe is due to the lack of interpersonal interaction we have today. As we think about communication, think about doing good and sharing with others your faith that you have and how it impacts your life. Those who know Christ probably need to hear this message, and then others that don't need to see how you live with Christ in your life. Communicate well and don't let wrath take you over.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #992 - Truth

Truth

​3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.​ 3 John 3:3-4

When God shows himself, it sometimes is in the most simple way. For years, I have never really openly shared my faith at my work. Working in a university setting, this is not something a lot of people do every day. Maybe I am not brave enough, or always felt like the threat of my position would be impacted. I was meeting with an employee and they were struggling, and it just came out of my mouth out of nowhere, I thought at first. I said, I don't know where your faith is, but you probably need to surround yourself with people that can support you and help guide you. This employee is a single mother of two and was struggling with the challenges of a new job and trying to meet the needs of her family. Looking back, I know exactly where this came from, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to say something about my faith and the truth that I live by in order to reach this person. We all need to be reminded of the truth daily, because the enemy continues to lurk around every corner to pull us away from our faith. So, God showed Himself in a simple but powerful way this last week, and it is important that when we have those promptings, that we follow through with His lead and what He wants us to say.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #991 - Care

Care

3 Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell. Psalm 43:3

This week I asked God to reveal Himself to me because just like all of you, I struggle from time to time. The struggles may not be visible to others, but they are hidden deep from other people. Why are they hidden, because I find myself on a roller coaster of emotions, that I personally feel I need to deal with myself because some of them deal directly with God Himself. I tend to forget that God has given me the Holy Spirit to deal with these emotions and struggles I may have, and also has given me the communication channel of prayer directly to Him. Everyone needs to have someone to care for them in their life, it may be a spouse, a parent or a friend, but we all need that physical and emotional attachment to help us get through our life. When I struggle, the first thing I tend to forget about, before the Holy Spirit, is God's unending faithfulness. This faithfulness comes with a promise that we lose sight of and I always wonder why my sight is dimmed. It is because the things we hold in are full of the enemy telling us to hold them in and deal with them ourselves and not rely on anyone else. Maybe the first step to self-care is ignoring the enemy and then remembering who our God is in our life. Get around people you love, get around those who care, and let those pull you out of your self-pity and negative emotions. Remember, God is always there and He wants us cared for and loved. He wants us to return to Him, so make that effort to care for yourself, others and God's faithful plan for our lives.

Have a great weekend.

Matt