Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Don't Let It Fade
“Don’t Let It Fade”
By Zach Wood
1 John 3:1
“How great is the love
the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that
it did not know him.”
We tend to get used to a lot of things in life, do we
not? When something new comes along, we
get really excited and am all pumped up about it, but then after a while the
excitement seems to fade away. Newness
has a strong tendency to wear off after a period of time and things feel
“normal” so to speak.
When we moved to Eagle
Lake Mankato because
we had lived at least 30 minutes away from any shopping places for so many
years. However, after a period of time
last year, that excitement wore off.
It’s still very nice and convenient to have so many shopping choices so
close, but the initial hype of it wore off.
When we recently vacationed in Duluth ,
I was really excited about all the scenery and beauty of Lake
Superior and the North Shore
This same excitement tends to filter into our relationship
and excitement for living for God. There
are certainly times we get really excited, but then the routine of daily life
gets in the way and brings that excitement down for whatever reason. We have excitement about something new we
discover for a while, and then it fades away.
I don’t think there’s a single human being in this world who hasn’t
experienced this “fade”.
As we read in 1 John, we remember how very great is the love
our Father God has for us. He has
lavished love upon us, greater than any love we could ever imagine. We are His children! Isn’t that great?? What could be better than being called Children
of God? However, the way we live our
lives sometimes doesn’t show much excitement.
We seem to get used to the life we have in Christ and the excitement
fades away. This should not be and we
need to learn how to revive our daily excitement and amazement for all God has
done for us.
I hope we can all be encouraged today and the days after to
not let our excitement for living for Christ fade. Let it be rich, exciting and reviving each
new day!
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
See The Beauty
“See The Beauty”
By Zach Wood
Psalm 57:10-11
“For great is your
love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let
your glory be over all the earth.”
As my family vacationed in Duluth
this past weekend, we had the opportunity to travel the North
Shore Lake
Superior . As I stood there,
gazing over the waters and the shores, I just kept thinking about God’s beauty
and how awesome He is! I’ve always been
one to enjoy and be mesmerized by landscapes and scenery. It’s one thing I enjoy most about traveling.
After enjoying this trip and all the beauty surrounding Lake
Superior , I had to think about how often in my daily life that I
forget to take in the beauty of all that God puts around me. I don’t have to take a long trip just to stop
and take in the awesome beauty of what God has created. I should be able to do that wherever I am. You don’t have to travel to the mountains or
to the ocean or to a big lake to see God’s beauty. His beauty is all around us each and every
day. The problem is we are just too busy
and caught up in our own lives to actually stop and see it.
God’s love, faithfulness and beauty are all over the
earth. It’s amazing to think about all
that He has created around us. However,
it’s sad to think we miss so much being so consumed with everything in our
daily lives.
I want to encourage all of us to take the time to stop and
see the beauty each and every day that God has put around us. We need to take time to see and take in that
beauty and be thankful to Him for His creation.
I think it’s easy for us to take in the beauty when we’re on a trip for
vacation because we’re seeing new places we’ve never been to. We need to remember to take in the beauty
each and every day. His beauty, love and
faithfulness are all around us. Are we
taking time to notice?
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
God Is Limitless!
“God Is Limitless!”
By Zach Wood
Ephesians 3:20-21
“Now to him who is
able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power
that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ
Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Anytime I come across this passage, whether it be for a
personal devotional reading, preparing for a sermon or teaching in a small
group study, I am always reminded how often I limit God. I certainly teach and encourage others that
God can work in amazing and mysterious ways, but often I fail to believe that
myself. Sometimes, it’s much easier
encouraging others than actually living it out myself. I’m reminded that I need to also believe that
God can and will do things in life that are beyond our comprehension.
Don’t we so often limit what God can do? We often say, “Oh, that will never
happen”. God is never bound by
limitations. He is so far beyond us and
far greater than anything we could ever think of. Look at the words, “immeasurably more”. Our God is an awesome God who is capable of
so much more than we could ever possibly understand. He works in mysterious ways that we most
often never see and didn’t think would happen.
I’m encouraged by Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus
about how God works in amazing ways and beyond our understanding. I hope you are encouraged by his words as
well. Not only can God do amazing things
beyond our imagination, but He also works amazing ways within us. He does great things all around us as well as
working through our lives and changing us in ways we never thought
possible.
I have to admit that I’m ashamed sometimes at how I limit
what God can do in my life. I often
doubt and see things only from a certain perspective and forget that God is
above my thoughts and ideas. I have to
constantly remember that God is not bound by limitations that we sometimes want
to put on Him. He is beyond us and is greater
than we could ever imagine. I hope we
are all thankful to serve a Heavenly Father Who is so great, awesome and beyond
our understanding!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
We Can Press On!
“We Can Press On!”
By Zach Wood
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
“We are hard pressed
on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but
not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
This past week, I had the privilege of serving at our church
camp for 4th grade week of camp.
I led the music and one of the songs was “Trading My Sorrows”. Each time we sang this song, when we came to
the part where Paul talks about struggles and pain to the church in Corinth ,
those words just really stuck out to me.
In life, it’s no surprise that we tend to get knocked down a
lot from different things that happen to us and around us. We are affected by a lot of negative things,
whether they happen to people around us and stir us up emotionally or if we are
directly affected and we get hurt both physically and emotionally. I am encouraged by Paul as he describes how
we get discouraged and broken down, but that we are not completely hopeless or
destroyed. We have strength in the Lord
to get up and keep on going.
Maybe you are reading this devotional and this is hitting
home with you. Perhaps you are tired and
frustrated from your daily life and all the struggles going on around you and
you don’t feel you have the strength to carry on. We all get very discouraged throughout our
lives. What’s important is to remember
we are never, ever alone. Many others
have gone through frustrations and have worked through them.
It would be wise for us to hold onto these important words
from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth
that when we are shaken up and beaten down by the world, we are not
destroyed. Christ will pick us up if we
reach out to Him and allow Him to get us back up on our feet to continue our
walk in the faith. It’s often hard to
get back up and have the confidence and stamina to continue, but with Christ,
we can do it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Seek Him With All Your Heart
“Seek Him With All Your Heart”
By Zach Wood
Psalm 119:1-2
“Blessed are they
whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and
seek him with all their heart.”
My favorite part of this passage is the last phrase “seek
him with all their heart”. When I
consider that phrase, I think about how God desires for us to serve Him, from
the time we awake in the morning to the time we lay our head to the pillow at night. The question I need to ask myself and that we
all need to ask ourselves is this, “Is the first thought on my mind when I
awake to serve Him?”
We may be quick to nod our head that this is the way we
begin our day, but is it really? Do we
awake with an immediate sense of joy of serving our Lord for another day? Or, do we really awake with stress and
tension and the worries of the day on our minds and hearts? I’ll admit that the latter is what I really
wake up with on my mind and heart each day.
I don’t want it that way, but often times I do awake with many thoughts,
ideas and worries of the day. I think of
all I need to get done and many times I am careless to not ask God to give me
strength for the day.
How can we expect to live our everyday lives in a Godly way,
but fail to even spend time asking God to guide our day as we begin? It seems easy for us to expect wonderful
things from God each day, but then not seek Him with all our heart. We simply cannot expect our hearts to grow
closer to Him if we’re not willing to make the effort to spend time with
Him. It just doesn’t work that way. To grow with Him and in our faith each day,
it’s imperative that our heart’s desire to be commune with Him as we begin our
day and to continue that throughout the day.
Blessed we truly will be when we seek Him with all our heart
and follow His ways only. By keeping our
eyes on the prize and striving for what He has in store for us, then we will
experience a fulfilling life. Our lives
will certainly not be void of problems or frustrations, but we have hope then
knowing we are focused on the eternal rewards.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Staying Alert
“Staying Alert!”
By Zach Wood
1 Peter 5:8
“Be self-controlled
and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Here we have a simple passage from the Apostle Peter
regarding the importance of staying alert to what is going on around us. It’s an important warning for us as we seek
to live our daily lives for Christ and avoid evil.
Anytime we are out somewhere with our daughters and are
crossing a street, my wife and I will constantly remind them, “Look both ways
before you cross!” Often this is not the
case and they start sprinting to the car or across the road in excitement to
get somewhere and we have to remind them that it’s not safe to just cross the
road. This is something we have to teach
kids over and over again because it’s easy for them to forget. As adults, we also don’t always remember to
look when we cross the road.
Why is crossing the road so dangerous if you’re not
looking? Because who knows what vehicle
is out of our sight before we cross?
There can be bushes, trees, vehicles or other things blocking our vision
of what’s coming. It’s important as we
teach our kids to stop and look both ways in order to avoid a terrible tragic
event. We don’t want to get hit and we
don’t want our kids or others to get hit either.
Just as crossing the road is dangerous without looking, also
living our daily lives without being on the alert is very dangerous as
well. Why would we attempt living each
day without being on the lookout for the sly, sneaky, and deceiving enemy? If we don’t remain alert to what’s going on
around us, he will easily slip in and pull us away. When we get pulled away and lose control, bad
things happen. We’re not to live our
lives each day being paranoid of what the enemy might do, but we must remain
alert and know that he is sneaky and deceiving in so many ways and we need to
constantly be aware.
We can become better self-controlled and alert by reading
His Word, praying and being more aware of our surroundings. The enemy attacks when we least expect him
to, so we certainly need to be aware and on the alert at all times.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Are Our Words Reckless Or Wise?
“Are Our Words Reckless Or Wise?”
By Zach Wood
Proverbs 12:18
“Reckless words pierce
like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
In our weekly small group, we are studying the book of James
and we just covered chapter 3 where James talks about taming the tongue. It’s a great and powerful passage encouraging
us that words have such an impact in our lives.
This passage in Proverbs is one we looked at that also talks about how
powerful words can be.
We use words every day and all through the day many
times. Some of us have jobs where we are
talking to people all day long and others have jobs where communication is a
little more limited, depending on where you are and what you do. Regardless, we all use many words each day,
whether we are talking to family, friends, co-workers or even strangers.
I have to wonder how conscious we are all being when we talk
to others. Do we really think about what
we are going to say before it escapes our lips?
Are we being wise in what we say and how we say things to others? James is very clear that our words can be
like a forest fire if we use them in negative ways. Those fires can spread fast! Of course we don’t want that to happen, but
when emotions run high, it’s amazing what comes from us.
This passage in Proverbs says a lot about the things we say
to others and how the words can affect, either negatively or positively. We are all different in many ways and we take
things differently depending on who is talking to us and how the person is
using their voice. Many factors go into
each conversation and the intentions behind the words. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be
encouraging and benefiting those who listen to us as Paul told the church in Ephesus . We should be imitators of the Almighty God
Whom we serve.
No matter what our circumstances, we should be striving to
be positive and encouraging through all our conversations with others. I want to be that way more and I hope that
you all do as well. It’s tough when we
experience difficult discussions with others where we disagree, but we must
always remember to do our best to be encouraging. Reckless words can emotionally scar people
for life. Are we thinking before we
speak?
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