jesus

Near to the heart of God

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

In times of uncertainty and pain as well as seasons of joy and calm, our daily goal as believers should be to draw nearer to the heart of God. We do this though paying attention to our emotions, filling our minds with Scripture, serving others, and lifting up our hearts in prayer.

I offer this prayer this week, and I hope you will use/adapt its words to fit the particular challenges and celebrations you may be facing today.

Lord, we ask to receive and acknowledge the appointed blessings You offer us this day. Help us not to grasp and grab, but to open our hearts and our hands to gratefully accept all that You seek to provide.

Grant us the ability to see the good around us and to praise You for it.

Help us to see blessings even in the midst of life’s burdensome seasons. Give us the awareness to appreciate grace even when it comes disguised as hard work, disappointment, or loss.

We would ask for the ability to see and discern what is best and most aligned for Your will for our lives.

Lord, help us to see ourselves.

Allow us to be honest and open with both our gifts and with our shortcomings.

Help us to realize and repent when we embrace paths that do not lead us into closer communion with You. Strengthen us to turn from such dangerous distractions and self-focused aims.

Only in appreciating our own weakness can we truly recognize our need to walk in continuous relationship with You.

We ask that our hearts would continually be open to Your nearness, and in this awareness, may we seek to share our hope with others.

We pray for the people we encounter each day- whether family in our homes or strangers on the street.

For those who do not know You, we pray for open eyes, open hearts, and opportunities to be impacted through the goods news found in Christ.

If we are knowingly living in rebellion to Your will, please draw us to Yourself through the message of the Word, faithful friends, and the conviction of conscience.

Give us the ability to live by faith- not rooted in our own self-will, but in every way aligned more and more to Your will for us.

Help us to praise the good works going on around us regardless of who will receive the credit. Allow us to be people who look to encourage rather than those who constantly seek to find fault. Help us to stay caring and curious as we navigate our way through this life.

Do not let us grow weary in doing good, but rather help us to develop the rhythms and practices we need to remain healthy even as we seek to serve the struggling. Give us an openness and awareness of people’s needs as we walk through life. Help us to observe and to inquire for ways to help and let us do this for people’s good and Your glory.

As we draw near to You, help us to see that such a focus allows us to draw near to others. Help us, like Jesus, to offer welcome and hope to the world that arises out of an assurance and connection to You.

In Christ’s name, amen.

All I Want for Christmas

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

Christmas is almost here, and many children are sharing in the holiday rituals of class parties, baking cookies, and sending letters off to Santa Claus. While we expect our children and teenagers to look forward to the exciting gifts that fill this season, what if we adults came to remember and appreciate the anticipation of Christmas?

If you could have whatever you wanted this Christmas, what would you ask for?

Peace on earth. While it has almost become a cliché, one of the hopes that has marked the Christmas season for generations is the longing for peace. Whether wars and conflicts around the world or the strains and stresses of the relationships in our own homes, we recognize that not all is as it should be in this life. Near and far, people of good will long for peace- peace that comes when we lay down not only the weapons of violence but the fear, anger, pride, and greed that drive conflicts great and small.

In this longing, we reflect the same hopes of our spiritual ancestors. The coming Messiah was foreseen as the Prince of Peace, and Jesus’ arrival was as heralded as the coming of the Christ, the Savior, and the Lord, yet the ministry of Jesus was met with resistance, ridicule, and violence. As followers of Jesus, we commit to constantly seeking the path of peace even in a world that often confuses brute strength with true power.

Presence of those we miss. In a time so often centered on community and kin, many long to be united with loved ones once again. We each have those we care for whose absence is especially hard during this season of togetherness. There are different reasons for our divisions- physical distance keeps many of us apart while discord keeps some from being able to simply drive across town and say, “Hello.” Depression often isolates, disease can drain us, and divorce can lead to withdrawal and bitterness.

Ultimately, death deprives us of each other’s physical presence, and as the years pass, we come to recognize this more and more. We each reach a certain point where more people we love are absent than present. How we long for reunion when all things are made whole and painful absence is replaced with constant presence! We take comfort that such sorrow is known to God, and that He too longs for His children to be reconciled and present with Him.

Possibilities of better things to come. Not all of our longings are based in what we lack. The arrival of Christmas also marks the passing of one season and the coming of a new year. As believers, we are not to be only mourners of what is lost, but to live as celebrants of the new life to come. We believe that the best is yet to come, and that God is even now working things together for the good of His people and the glory of His name. We lean toward the fullness of this better, living way that is already present but not yet fully realized in us. We desire that the kingdom of light Christ entered our world to bring and sacrificed His life to birth be brought more and more fully into our world and our own lives in the coming year.

As a fellow grown-up, I urge us not to leave Christmas longings to the kids and grandkids. May we claim a share of this season’s spirit of anticipation for ourselves, and allow our thoughts, words, and actions to be shaped by the reality of Christ’s presence among us.

Out of the overflow…

/ Will N. / 1 Comment

Over twenty years ago during my first college semester, I took a required course in public communication. While our professor detailed many concepts about developing and outlining different types of effective presentations, one idea especially stuck with me. He reflected on the fact that the most impactful sermons, speeches, and even sales pitches were often those that were less scripted and simply overflowed naturally as the speaker shared freely about a truly personal passion.

“Learn all you can about whatever you love, and you can always speak from the overflow.”

Some people seem born to speak from the overflow.

As a young boy, I listened to my dad’s friends and their seemingly endless streams of sports conversations. Anything from obscure Major League Baseball records to the local high school basketball tournament brackets from 30 years before, these men knew all the details. In that pre-Google world, they had no need to look up information each time a question arose- their lifetimes of passionate fandom had prepared them to respond quickly and accurately on almost any matter sports-related. They loved sports, and they willingly spent their time discussing and debating their passion with anyone who would listen.

Having both heard and given thousands of sermons in my life, some of the most memorable came from the overflow that welled up from within the preacher- those moments that went “off script” and poured out from the depths of the heart. Even the timeless closing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech happened when he departed from his prepared notes and blended rhythmic cadence and lofty words to deliver a summation that has echoed down through the decades.

Scripture endorses speaking (and living) out of our passionate overflow.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance [overflow] of the heart his mouth speaks.”

As we look at people’s lives over time, their guiding principles are revealed through their words and actions. When a person drifts off script or private thoughts are caught on a hot mic, the reality of the heart is seen. While all people can and do fall short at times in moments of stress and frustration, the nature of a person’s overall character will be reflected in their lives over time.

Polished presentation of smooth talking points can mislead the masses for a time, but the heart’s abundance will always reveal our true character to those that know us best.

One of the most difficult aspects of navigating faith, family, and friendship is to be able to acknowledge when our loved ones are unaware of (or worse unconcerned about) the damage their unfiltered words cause to the people in their lives. Such overflow may seem incidental, but it springs from the depths of who we are. Over time in the casual, off book moments of life, the actual inclination of our hearts is seen- for better or worse. Believers must always seek to intentionally abide in the life-giving source of God’s love if we want our overflow to serve as grace-filled blessing to others.

The visible fruit that springs forth and ripens in the words and actions of our daily lives ultimately serves to openly reveal the hidden content of our hearts.

Good hearts overflow with good things that serve as a blessing and benefit all. The only way to overflow with blessings toward others is to fill our own hearts and lives with the goodness we are called to in Christ. If we find our own satisfaction in being filled with God’s loving truth, the overflow of our daily lives will both faithfully reflect divine love and serve as a blessing to each person we encounter.