Fingerprints

On April 13, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 28: 6

“Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.”

An apt description of what this verse means in practical terms is that you see Jesus’ fingerprints on the fabric of your life. Or perhaps you like footprints running across the landscape of life. Whichever metaphor you choose, the effect is Jesus’ influence all over one’s life; little drops here, little touches there. Of course, there are the tidal waves of blessing too, but it is the dew drops on every leaf of life that have caught my attention. They could easily be ignored but when you lift your eyes, you see that Jesus is very gently watering every corner of your life. So many of life’s daily matters are simply taken care of, things about which one has not even prayed, things we would not even think to pray about are simply taken care of. It is like the most beautiful of spring days when you open your eyes to find flowers have bloomed where you did not plant.

I have been overwhelmed recently by the sheer number of details Jesus and Father have taken care of for me. It is humbling because these golden touches have nothing to do with my prayer or anything else I have done right. All glory to God, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. Father, in His goodness, knows issues which need attention, and He has been taking care of these things Himself. When I recently lifted my head, I saw Jesus fingerprints were all over my life. He has been busy blessing me. Some of the “little” touches have been nothing less than miraculous. Beyond Yahweh’s kindness is His attentiveness and I praise Him that He is paying attention to the details of my life.

The other side of this is the sorrow that people who don’t have Jesus don’t know how much they are missing. When I see all the little things Father does for me, I realize how barren their lives are. How does one explain the blessing on one’s life? How do we convey the love that Father pours out in even the smallest details? There is such a release of stress, stress we might not even realize we are holding when Father takes these things off our plate. You look around and find matters have just been handled, even matters which haven’t made it to your to do list yet. Problems are resolved before you realize there was an imminent issue. I wish that for everyone. I hope others will see the beautiful grace of Jesus upon our lives and join the club.

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Lord of the Lunge

On October 4, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 3: 6

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

I was inspired, yesterday, by a group of athletes at the YMCA. Their enthusiasm for their workout is eclipsed only by their enthusiasm for their God. Recently I wrote a devotional about functional fitness and questioned what functional Christianity looks like. Yesterday I received my answer. Functional Christianity is in acknowledging God in all you do. For many of us, exercising our bodies is a singular task but what I found with this group is that they also exercise their spirits and their fellowship while flexing their muscles. After class, we were invited to pray together. What a blessing that was to me and I think God was honored to be a part of our workout.

When we go to work, to the grocery store or even when we are sweating and grunting with weights or a bicycle, there must still be space in our lives to acknowledge God. There should still be room in our hearts, minds and even our expressions with others to acknowledge and recognize our God. It is easy for us to get wrapped up in everything we do during the course of a day and never involve our Lord but if He is truly the Lord of our lives then He ought to have a place in everything we do. Whatsmore, His lordship ought to leave footprints on the paths of our life. His life leaves marks on our lives and those marks are, hopefully, visible to others. We begin in acknowledging God in all we do and then we start acknowledging God to others. We then find that we begin to leave footprints in other people’s lives. Our inclusiveness of God in all we do eventually envelopes people we encounter along the journey. The goodness of God is then expanded beyond its initial borders until eventually it reaches every person on earth.

It all begins with involving the Lord in all the activities of life. Take Him to work, take Him to the mall and definitely take Him to the Gym. Life is better when God is present. You may not be fond of lunges but they go much better when God is the Lord of the lunge.

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