The Pupose

Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
    on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

    whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth,

    the sea, and everything in them—
    he remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
    and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
    the Lord gives sight to the blind,

    the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
    the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner
    and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
    but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,

    your God, O Zion, for all generations.

                                               (Psalm 146 NIV)

I woke up this morning wondering, again, what the purpose of life really is. We are born. We live. We die. Life, here on earth, is so short! And... there is so much pain and suffering here in this world. The truth is the pain and suffering is mostly brought on by our own desires to be more than we are. It is brought on by our desire to be our own gods. We have a tendency to thing that we can actually achieve something worthwhile. The reality is, without God, there is nothing. Our plans will come to nothing. But, God has a plan... He has a plan because He loves you. We can't always know what that plan is. But, we can trust that He has one. He created us for a reason. We may not know what the reason is; but, we can be sure that whatever it is, He will not be deviating from the reason or the plan.  He will be faithful to it and to us.

Those who trust in His plans and not our own, praise the LORD all the days of their lives. They will find peace in the midst of the most confounded times. Praise the LORD! Praising the Lord is enough purpose for any of us. Praise the LORD; sing His praises as long as you shall live!

 God's Peace - Pr. J

In God I Trust

In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 56:4 NIV)

There was a time when I was accused of being too trusting. Of course, in doing that I was hurt and disappointed way too many times. I learned the very hard way not to trust everyone and came to trust very, very few. That didn't work out so well, either. Not trusting anyone tends to isolate you and people are not meant to live in isolation. 

Not trusting anyone was not working too well for me so I turned to the one that I had trusted as a child. I turned back to God. That works quite well for me. Because I trust Him, I am able to do His will in spite of the fact that others might use me. I can reach out to strangers because I trust that God is with me. Because I trust Him, I do not fear what might or might not happen to me here in this world. I know that in the end, no matter what happens, I will live in His house, in His Presence, for all eternity. I am not and will not be alone.

Life is much easier when we trust Him!

God's Peace - Pr. J

According To His Will

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14 NIV)

According to His will...  Why did this happen? Why did I not get what I asked for? So many times we wonder why God did not answer our prayers totally forgetting that what we have asked for may go directly against His good will. His good will encompasses not just us; but, all people. When we pray we must keep in mind that selfish prayers may not be heard. They very well may not be answered in the way that we would like them to be answered. God has a better view of what all people need, including ourselves, and what we need may not be what we're asking for.

May God help us to better understand His will that we might pray for the good of all people.

God's Peace - Pr. J