Tag: faith

Wasted Time

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

I only have so much time here on this planet – I shouldn’t waste it.  If there is one lesson that has been engraved on my mind these last few years, it’s ‘Life is short”.

I truly never knew how extremely short life can be until my son was killed.  One moment he was here and the next he was gone.

My life flipped upside down in that one moment.

Life is short – I have no time to waste.

Just like Jonah – he had no time to waste.  So it’s a little frustrating to read about Jonah going through his big drama of disobeying God’s direction to go to Ninevah.  Jonah decided to go the other direction, got caught on a ship in a big storm, was thrown overboard by sailors and spent 3 days in a huge fish at the bottom of the ocean.  It was there that he repented and reached out to God. (bottom of the ocean, end of our rope – sound familiar?)

God ordered the fish to spit Jonah out on the beach.  And then Jonah finally decided to obey God by going to Ninevah and doing what God has asked him to do in the first place.

That whole first whale trip was just a big waste of time and energy!

Wait a minute – do I do this?

Do you do this?

I have to admit that I’ve wasted a lot of time in the past disobeying God.  I ignored what I knew was right.  I did want I wanted to do and gained nothing from it.  It was useless – a waste of time.

One of my life goals now is to obey God the first time.  I want to stop wasting time and energy while disobeying.

I want to avoid getting hit by the 2×4 that eventually comes our way when we ignore God.  The issue or problem doesn’t go away when we disobey – it grows.  And it continues to grow until it’s too big and bad to ignore any longer.

Have you ever been hit by God’s 2×4 for your disobedience?

I have.  It’s a wake up call.  An enormous red flag pops up and starts whipping through my life.  It seems like everything starts going wrong at the same time but, in reality, this issue has been gradually building steam while I prioritized other things.  Because he is a good Father, God doesn’t ignore me when I’m trying to ignore him.  He lets the consequences of my own actions grow until it’s just like getting hit by a 2×4.  By then, the issue has become too enormous and too awful – I cannot continue to look the other way.  Newsflash from God – attitudes and behaviors and priorities need to change – and they need to change NOW!

I got it, God!  I have learned my lesson and I intend to obey right away from now on.  No more 2×4’s in my life if I can help it!

I have also learned that obedience up front, the first time, brings additional blessings of peace and strength that come from being in line with God and in step with the Spirit.

Obeying right away is never a waste of time.

Thank you for teaching me this important lesson, Abba Father.

Be Still and Watch

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

It’s hard for me to be still and watch.  I’m a doer.  I’m an achiever.  I spent over 34 years of my career “making things happen”.

So I like to skim over all the situations in the Bible where God tells us to “be still and watch”.  And God says this often.  You probably don’t notice how often he says this unless you’re trying to ignore him when he says this – like me.

In 2 Chronicles, King Jehoshaphat tells his people not to be discouraged by the huge, combined army that is marching toward them. “You will not even need to fight.  Take your positions; then stand still and watch the LORD’s victory.”

After saying this, the king and all the people bowed before God with their faces to the ground and they worshipped God.

This creates a great visual picture in my brain because they were acting like they had already won!

Because they had.

Early the next morning, they marched out to their positions singing praises to God.  They were not afraid – God was going to fight for them.

And he did.  The huge enemy army became confused and started fighting each other – killing everybody in their own army.

God’s people won without raising any weapon except their trust in God.  It took them three days to gather up all of the supplies and valuables left behind by the dead army.

Wow!  God is saying to me and you today that there are battles coming at us which he wants to fight for us.  We just need to trust and be still and watch.

I have something in my life that I’ve been ‘battling with’ and God just reminded me yesterday that I need to give it to him. (I actually should have given it to him a while ago).  Today he is confirming that through his Word to me.

I’ve been trying to make it happen but it just hasn’t.  Frustrating!  So now I’m going to be still and watch.  I know I don’t really want it to happen unless God also wants it to happen anyway, so I like this plan.  Everytime I think about it, I’m going to send it up to God in a prayer, “Do your will, Father.”

I trust that he wants the best for me so I will be still and watch.

Thank you for reminding me and confirming this for me, Abba Father.

His Whispers

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

If I’m not careful, I’ll miss it.

I’ve missed it before.

God speaking to me.

Just like with Elijah in 1 Kings, God doesn’t speak to me in a terrible blast of flying rocks or in an earthquake or in a fire.

God often speaks to me in a whisper – a faint breeze of truth and light that flits through my mind.  I have to stop, concentrate and reach out to catch it.

If I’m not careful, it’s gone.

If I’m not purposefully opening up my spiritual eyes and mind, the spark moves on.  And I’m left wandering, ‘When God is going to answer my prayer?   When will I see him move?’

When I am quiet,

when I am focused,

when I don’t let distractions derail my time with God, I hear him loud and clear.

God’s Word is alive – he will underline passages (you wouldn’t see it but I do), he will change the font of a sentence to bold or he will read the words to me in my head to make sure it’s his voice I hear, not my own or anyone else’s.

There are situations where he simply opens up my eyes to how he has already answered my prayer.  He has taken care of the issue and moved on.  Keep up!

That’s when I realize how much I miss when I’m not quiet,

when I’m not ‘zoned in” enough to hear the whispers and feel his breeze of truth ruffling the pages of my Bible.

Please open my eyes, open my ears, Abba Father.

Meaningless

On By Judy GlasserIn June2 Comments

“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, ” completely meaningless.”

Do you ever feel that way?

Obviously this emotion is spreading rapidly through our culture today as we see the suicide rates and mass shootings multiply.  To many people, tomorrow seems to be meaningless and not worth sticking around for.

“What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? ” asked King Solomon, the Teacher.  He was the wisest man who ever lived and he wrote Ecclesiastes.

“I observed everything going on under the sun and, really, it is all meaningless – like chasing the wind.”

Pretty depressing, isn’t it?

The futility of pleasure – fleeting and never gives us lasting  contentment.

The meaninglessness of work –  we put so much effort into work that we leave behind to others who have not worked for it.

The injustices of life – evil is very real.

The futility of wealth – those who love money will never have enough.

The limits of human wisdom – “wisdom is difficult to find.”

Death comes to all – “the same destiny (of death) awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad.”

Solomon’s final conclusions are that we should enjoy life while obeying God – real freedom and happiness come exclusively from him.  Evil and injustice will always in a part of life on earth.  We should live in faith knowing God wins in the end and will judge all things.  We are responsible for our own actions in relation to the evil of this world.

Meaning and purpose will only be found by being faithful to God.

That alone is not meaningless.

Thank you for giving my life meaning and purpose, Abba Father.

Satisfied

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Am I ever satisfied?

Are you?

We live in a culture where it’s very difficult to be satisfied because there is always bigger and better.  There is always more.

How do I find satisfaction when I am surrounded by all of this?

God tells me through King Solomon in Proverbs 3 how find contentment in my life.

  • Never forget what God has taught me.
  • Be loyal and kind.
  • Trust in God – be dependent on his understanding, not mine.
  • Make fulfilling God’s will for my life my goal.
  • Keep on the path God directs me to take.
  • Turn away from evil.  Respect and honor God and never get too impressed with myself.
  • Honor God with my time and treasures.
  • Accept my Father’s discipline.  He loves me and wants the best for me.
  • Ask God for wisdom – it is precious and nothing else will bring me satisfaction.
  • Hang on to my common sense and discernment – they will help make me safe and secure.
  • Encourage others.
  • Don’t make a big deal out of small things.
  • Don’t envy violent or wicked people.  At first, I would say that I would never envy violent or wicked people.  But then, I think about some people I know who have ‘gotten away’ with things that were not right but it brought them pleasure or financial gain.  Did I ever wish that was me?

That’s a great list!  It’s interesting to me that things like ‘get an education so you can get a good job and make a lot of money’ aren’t on here.

There’s nothing on this list that tells me that buying stuff and owning things are going to bring me satisfaction.

This list is all about me and God working together to grow my faith, grow my character and grow my wisdom.

Amen.  Let it be so, Abba Father.

How Happy!

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Have you heard about the Queen of Sheba?  She is pretty famous in ancient secular history so its interesting that she also shows up in Biblical history.  In 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, God tells us about the Queen of Sheba’s visit with King Solomon.

King Solomon’s reputation as the wisest man on earth had spread over the known world so the Queen of Sheba came across the desert with her huge entourage to test him. (I can’t imagine what this journey was like)

She asked Solomon all of the questions she could think of and he answered them all.  Then she said, ” How happy your people must be!  What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day listening to your wisdom.”

How happy!

This makes me think about how happy I am when I’m around people who care about honesty, good character, loving God and loving others.  Being positively influenced and encouraged by them feels good.  It’s a privilege to be around people who stand for doing what’s right and use God’s word as the one true compass in their lives.

How happy!

I am reminded of one of my ‘mom lectures’ to my son and daughter as they were growing up in this confused and crazy culture we live in.  I told them (several times) that peer pressure is not always a bad thing.  There is such a thing as positive peer pressure – encouraging and challenging those around us to be better, to do what is right and focus on making our world a better place.  That’s the kind of peer pressure I expected them to have on the kids around them.

That’s the kind of peer pressure God expects me to have on the people around me.

We all have influence on the people we touch in our world.

Is it good?  Positive?  Based on God’s truth?  Helpful?

Or not?

It’s our choice.

Please help me have a positive influence on the people in my world, Abba Father.

How Often?

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

How often do I kneel before God as I pray?

How often do you?

In 1 Kings, King Solomon – the wisest man who ever lived – kneeled in front of the altar of the newly built Temple of the Lord as he dedicated it to God.  Solomon did this in front of the entire Israelite community with his hands raised up to God.

What a sight!

What a statement of Solomon’s submission to God and worship of him!

I have to admit – I don’t kneel in prayer as much as I should.  For several years I was a part of a Bible study group which started every meeting praying on our knees.  I really liked it.  It put everything into a better perspective for me.  God created all things, he owns everything and he is in total control.  Humbling myself before my Eternal God makes sense and feels right.

I have precious memories of my mother kneeling beside her bed every night as she prayed.  Without fail – every night.

My mother had a series of clinical depressions the last 40 years of her life.  When she was depressed she was a sad and quiet person – so different from the happy, people-loving woman she really was.  After going through several long periods of depression, she realized that seeing a good doctor right away was the only way to deal with this issue positively and not lose years of her life to this problem.

Even through the darkest days of her depressions, I would see her kneel before her Father God every night.  It gave me hope.  God was working on this.  There would be an answer.

And there always was an answer.  Slowly, with God’s help and the doctor’s help, she would return to the amazing woman that I knew as my mother.

For me, I have discovered that laying face down on the floor before God is a good way to get an answer when I really need it.  After I lie down on the floor, I totally give my concern to him – “God, I have a decision to make and I need to know what you want me to do.  I don’t care which way this goes and I don’t need all the details – just tell me the direction I need to take with my next step.”  And he always answers.  Sometimes he opens up my mind so that I can see how he has already answered.  Other times, right after I say “Amen” something happens that tells me which way to go.

Either way, I know that showing humbleness and submission to the God of the Universe works.  God honors it.

I need to remember that.

Thank you for the reminders you give me in your Word, Abba Father.

They are Gone

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

I’m amazed.

As I read several of the Psalms David wrote, it is unbelievable how in tune he was with the Holy Spirit.  David writes about several topics that nobody else really understood at the time.

David wrote about salvation which would come from God.  David didn’t know how God was going to do it, but he was totally confident that God was going to make a way to save his children from eternal separation from God.  God was going to make a way for his children so he could take them home to live with him forever.

I also love the line in Psalm 103, “He has removed our sins as far from the us as the east is from the west.”

David lived in the time before anyone discovered that the earth was round.  He wrote those words probably looking from the east to the west, thinking that was a long way.  He didn’t realize the truth that you never go west if you keep going east.  East and west never meet.

David didn’t know that but the Holy Spirit knew that those words would make even more sense to us today.  He is telling us that our sins are forgiven.  They are gone – nonexistent.  And, if anybody tells you differently, that is not the truth.

When we accept the salvation God offers us through Jesus, all of our sins – past, present and future – are gone for all time.  There is nothing else to be done – Jesus did it all.  That’s what grace is all about.

Amazing!

Thank you, Father, for your Living Word which, through the Holy Spirit, made sense to David and also makes sense to us today.

How Does This End?

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

Wow!  God is talking loudly to me about his truth in Psalm 39.  First, he reminded me that life is short.  Got it!

Now – what is my legacy?

In this Psalm, David is talking to God and he says, “We are merely moving shadows, and all of my busy rushing ends in nothing.

Nothing?!  My busy rushing ends in nothing?

How worthless is that?  That’s not what I want my life to be about!

Do you?

I know – it’s all about priorities.  We all have 24 hours in each day – it’s the great equalizer.  So, when someone says they didn’t have time to do something or they don’t have time to something else, it really means it’s just not a high priority for them.  Because they have time – we all have the same 24 hours in a day.

How do I spend my time and treasures?  What am I busy with?

How about you?

God is very clear that my priorities need to be loving him and loving others.  I have written this truth in this blog probably hundreds of times and I will write it hundreds of more times – because it’s the truth.

And God’s truth does not change.  It doesn’t change over time and it doesn’t change for different people.

You have the same priorities.

And I am very confident if you and I spend our fleeting time on this earth loving God and loving others, God will bless our actions and our lives will have much more meaning than ‘busy rushing which ends in nothing’.  God has a purpose for our lives and, after we have walked into heaven, he wants to be able to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Dear Father, Please help me keep my priorities lined up with your’s.

Psalm 27, 2019

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

LORD, you are the light of my life.  You have saved me – so I am not afraid.

You protect me from danger.  There is no reason for me to tremble.  When the Evil One and his team attack me, trying to tempt me and distract me, they will not win.  Your mighty army of angels surround me and I am not afraid.  Even when my path gets tough, I will remain confident in you.

The one thing I desire most of all, LORD, is to spend my life with you, delighting in you and listening to your voice.

You hold me close when trouble comes.  I hold my head high even when trials come my way.

I praise you, LORD, with songs and shouts of joy!

I know you hear me, LORD.  You answer me, showing great mercy.  You say, “Come and talk with me”, and my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.”

I know that you never turn your back on me in anger – you are always ready to help me.  You never leave me or abandon me, O God of my Salvation!  When everyone else leaves me behind you are here, holding me close.

Teach me the right way to live my life, LORD.  Lead me down the path you have prepared for me and do not let me wander.  Help me avoid the pain and consequences of rebellion.  Do let me give into the temptation to act as the evil ones act.

I am confident that you are walking beside me – loving and guiding me – here on earth.

Dear Father, I am waiting patiently for you to lead me.  I’m not going to take one more step without you.