poetry

Five Minute Friday is upon us again.   Yesterday I needed to work so I didn’t have time to set down and type something up.  And I know that the thought the doubt resides has been brought up before with Five minute Friday even if I can’t find the post! 🙂   But its good to reconsider words isn’t it?   To look deeper and see who God is indeed eh?   🙂 

Doubt Resides

Throughout my life
Doubt resides
Can I do it?
Is my faith enough?
What will I do if something bad happens?
At the end of my days will people say
she could have done so much more?
Is living a simple life really okay?
Do I show my hubby enough that he
is a hugely important part of my world?
Do I tell my son enough that I love him
and like the person he is becoming?
Is having a simple faith enough or
do I need to work out my faith harder,
Developing a more complex knowing faith
in the God who created me?

Sometimes I imagine that
my faith is simply a figment of my imagination,
that God talking to me directly
is just something I make up.

And then I’m reminded in his word
that those who seek him find him,
and the quietness in my heart that
resides after I’ve sought him out
suggests to me that it’s not all my imagination.
The directness of his word telling that
one isn’t drawn to seeking him without his action in one’s life first.

And since that reassurance lives
I don’t have to doubt what I’ll
do or how I’ll behave or if my
faith, as it stands, is sufficient.

So should you have doubts in your life
consider this.
He who called you is strong
enough to save.

What does God have to say?

Romans 8:38-39

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

1 John 4:4

“Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

1 Peter 5:8-10

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” 

So here I am, sitting at home on a Friday.  I’d intended to go out to the doc to get a thing on my foot looked at.  This would have been followed up by buying a couple of new-to-me shirts.  Instead, I’m at home, nursing a bad cold.  It sucks!   But you know what happened?  My boss, one of the sweetest girls I know, just a young thing.  Texted me asking how I was doing and asking if I needed anything.  I said “ice cream”… so she brought me ice cream.  It’s making my throat feel better.   When I saw the prompt of witness I thought wow… my boss is being a good witness of how to be kind.   She grew up going to church, but her faith… well, let’s just say other aspects of her life fill me with questions.   So it makes me ask more seriously of myself, what does it mean to me to be a witness?  Can people understand I’m a person of faith by what I do and say?  Can they see that knowing God matters? 

To be a Witness

Wondering why it is
necessary to provide
a witness.
Won’t God just call
whom he will through
signs and wonders and
nature all around us?
Can’t people just read
His words written out for us?

Incredibly I find
in God’s word this call
Go out into all the world
telling them about me,
telling them about how I have
worked in your life, time and again.
Initiating conversations about
the spiritual.

Telling people, in action as well
as with word, for without
the word, will your actions be
understood for what they are?
God at work in your life
and through you, in theirs!

NOW is the time, not
tomorrow or the next day or
filling your mind with regrets
about all the actions and words you
didn’t take the day before or in any
of your yesterdays. God says GO.. that’s an
action word calling us to get going
today. Move, talk, and witness to those
in your sphere of influence.

Expand that circle,
yes I know it’s hard, to
reach out to people outside your
norm. But God didn’t say to just
go to your friends and family but
to go out into the world.
That’s a bigger sphere than
you might want it to be, but
God didn’t say pretty please,
he said Go, tell.

but how to be a witness?

Say it. I know, it’s hard.
but consider this:
Going involves so much more
than we might think. I know that for
some going is making good videos
explaining complex spiritual truth in a
simple manner. Others are financially generous
and others indeed are magnificant prayer warriors
all in support of those who can actually,
physically get up and go.

Stamping envelopes, writing letters,
prison ministry via letters and bible
courses, and babysitting for the pastor
so he and his wife can visit people in need
more easily. Baking meals, manning
a food kitchen/pantry, so many ways
for people to take their time, to
follow God’s command to go
and tell. To be a witness.

God Speaks to Us

Philippians 3:13-16

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Isaiah 43:10

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
    “and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
    and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
    nor shall there be any after me.

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Oh, it’s five minute Friday time!  I was saddened to hear of a three-week imposed break over Christmas.  But ah well, I might just come up with my own thing!  After all, it’s my blog and I can do that if I want to can’t I?   🙂  Anyways, we have a word prompt “instant”.  Let’s see where this word takes us today.  And so we are given “in an instant”.   Life can instantly become something other than what we have planned.   Are we grateful for the impact it can have on us? 

In an Instant

In an instant
my day changed.
From doing dishes
and waiting to pick up my car
to listening
to a friend.
Grief-torn, and
needing to walk.
I’m grateful God
prompted me to call, and
giving me the freedom to
just stop and go.
A walk needful.

In an instant
my day changed.
A boy texts
I’m home from school sick!
I’m grateful for technology
that allows me to work
and yet, take a moment
to check in with a lad,
and that my work allows me
that time to take note
of my lad and his needs.
It allowed me to take home
some lipton soup that he
can eat and stay down.

In an instant
my day changed.
A friend messaged
saying thanks.
Because I write my
devotion verse on facebook.
a determination on my part
to try to focus on one part
of God’s word throughout the day
and a friends’ like encourages
to revisit that verse
in an easy to access manner.
She said they encourage her to
“stop and read carefully,
thoughtfully and slowly”.
And suddenly, what was starting to
feel like a selfish thing to do
became a God thing,
and my heart was lifted.

God speaks to us

Proverbs 16:9

The heart of man plans his way,
    but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 27:1-2

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.
² Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
    a stranger, and not your own lips.

 

I try to be a person of ready laughter, happy to delight in the joys of others.  I do admittedly get frustrated with some of the inexplicable things people do.  My son has this amazing ability to see a different perspective on situations, which helps me then to laugh at my own folly in often having the wrong perspective on a situation. When this word prompt of laugh came up it brought to mind all the times I imagine God smiling at me, or at his people.  Smiling isn’t the same as laughing, so I wondered about God’s laughter.  Here it goes!

God’s Laughter

I wondered about God’s laughter
as his smile I oft have felt
but considering his laughter
I felt a bit left in the dark.

Does God laugh?
I rather assume he did,
after all, created me
in his image, through Adam
the Bible says.

AND I LAUGH!
My sisters laugh,
my hubby laughs,
and even the lad
a time or two.
Everyone I know
has shared a giggle or two.

But then again,
Humans lie,
and that’s something
God never does, so
perhaps that assumption
is simply that.

What then does scripture say?
It says often in the Psalms
how God laughs at nations and
at people who make their own plans
thinking that God pays no heed.

Yet Jesus tells us
that one day
those of us who weep
will one day laugh.
Such a great promise and comfort!

In fact, in Job we
read how God promises to
again fill our mouths with laughter.
Job went through so much, and God
promised him laughter.

So I learn that God laughs,
mocking the scoffers, and yet
he promises us laughter,
a laughter that comes after
hard times, after mourning,
and so laughter does indeed
come from the Lord.
It’s a goodly thing eh?
And more than an
assumption I find.

So then.
Let us laugh.
Perhaps not at the mockers
and scoffers of the world
lest we cause difficulties in
people seeing the Lord.
But let us laugh after
hardship and mourning
seeing the goodness and
mercy of the one who
gave us this laughter in
the first place.

God Speaks

Psalm 59:7-8