Broken Hearted

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and 

Saves those who are crushed in spirit. 

Psalm 34:18

Time has a way of freezing in on us when we hear of the death of a loved one. The shock shakes our family and friends as thoughts and feelings slowly start to sink into our hearts and minds that we will never see them again. When we are broken hearted we get a feeling that God is so far away and does not care. We feel all of sudden all alone. We sense we have been suddenly separated from our beloved who was a source of great comfort and strength. 

All the things we used to do with them, we can’t do them anymore. We know for sure that a source of love, joy and peace for our lives has been shut down forever. We also sometimes come under this dark cloud mixed with excruciating pain, choking anger and unsettling confusion. We feel that our loved one was abruptly snatched away from us. We say to ourselves, “Life is not fair! I am feeling so alone. I will never ever see him/her again.” It is at these moments of grief and loss that Jesus assures us that he is closest to us.

You are not alone; remember God is with you. Your beloved is with God; let us continue to abide in him. A thousand years in God’s sight is like an an evening in His eyes (Psalm 90:4). Let us bring those precious memories with our loved one to God in prayer and thank and praise for the times of joy and love we enjoyed with them. We thank God for that he is an omniscient God who sees us in our pain and will pour out his love to comfort us in our loss. Our lives are so short, let us use the time we have sensibly and for the glory of God.

You are not alone remember Jesus is always near. He assures us that if we seek him in thought, word and deed, he will draw near and comfort us. Let us cry out and say, “Oh come, Oh come Emmanuel!” He will come, walk with us, talk to us and assure us that we are not alone. He will continue to transform us and shape us to be instruments of love and mercy. He will assure us that he has overcome death. Are we not all joined together in him? One day we will all be together again at Jesus feet. Let us continue to abide with Christ our Lord and Savior.

You are not alone remember the Holy Spirit assures us that he is in us and empowers us to do all we have to do. He comforts us and enables us to go on because of that promise that one day we will see our beloved again. God has planted eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We can never be completely content with all of earths bounty. We ourselves, along with the earth and all of creation will one day be set free from our bondage to death and decay. Yet God in his infinite wisdom created us in his image and planted in us a desire to know him and be known by him. Today we live under the shadow of his wings, but one day we shall all see him face to face. Let us live faithfully doing his will and hope for the day when everything will be be made new again (Revelation 21:1).

You are not alone, remember the church the Body of Christ (Church community) is with you. They will support you and comfort you through your grief. Look for springs of hope and friendship. Reach out to your friends in church, or join a small group where you can make new friends. Join one of the ministry teams that reach out to the lost, hungry or homeless. Step out of your home and find a friend or neighbor you can go for a walk in the park. Let the sunshine of God’s miraculous love stream back into your life through veins of new relationships of love causing your weakening heart to start to beat back to life again.

Let us never forget that God is our Father and Creator. God loves us and has a plan for all of us. Jesus came to heal the broken hearted and today if you open your heart to him he will bind you with his love. The Holy Spirit is within us and comforts us when we are crushed in spirit. He will guide us all our lives till we meet again at Jesus feet.

Prayer :- In life, in death, oh Lord abide with me. Amen

Fresh Air and Fresh Ideas

Fresh Air and Fresh Thoughts

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9

Prayer is one of the most refreshing ways to get to know God and to meditate on his Word. Prayer as a practice has been at the heart of Christian life over the centuries for all people young and old. Jesus assures us that when we come to him in prayer, he is there for us interceding with the Father for our needs. We are all human and at some point in time we all grow tired and wearied of the way we have to keep doing certain things that we really don’t want to do at all. What do we do when we are at our wits end? In Isaiah 40:29-31, he says even though we may grow weak, God is omnipotent and is a fountain of power and strength. God is always willing to listen to all our fears and concerns, and he renews us with new strength.

 Meditation is one of the most common practices among all faiths in the world today. It is beginning to make a big comeback in the world today, along side Yoga which is another booming wellness industry. In the US from 2012 to 2017 it is estimated the use of meditation increased threefold from 4.1% in 2012 to 14.2% in 2017  while the use of yoga only increased from 9.5% to 14.3%. 

Mindfulness from the little I have read and heard is a type of meditation used by Buddhist monks for more than 2600 years, that helps one break away from the cycle of anxiety, stress, and exhaustion. Today many celebrities propagate mindfulness as an essential part of their lives to stay healthy. It advocates finding everyday 20 minutes out of ones busy schedules to erase all thoughts from the mind and be conscious of one self. To objectively look at the positive and negative thoughts that come to our minds. To identify and let go of the negative thoughts that makes us feel depressed, stressed or irritable. Mindfulness helps to engage with the world without the negative thoughts. It is an exercise rooted in just ourselves and our lives. Mindfulness falls far short of what we have with our life in the Lord. Prayer transcends ourselves and is rooted in God and the Word of God. Our lives begin and is constantly being renewed in Him.

The Lord satisfies me with good things and makes me young again, like the eagle.

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:5‬  

Davids praise is on all the good things that God is doing in his life. Often we get carried away with all that is wrong with our lives. But as we pray and meditate on Psalm 103:1-5, we see that we have so much that we can be thankful for. David says God is gracious, however far we have wandered away from Him, he will forgive all our sins. He assures us that God loves us and wants the best for us. He also hopes for the day when all suffering and disease will be removed. Above all he encourages us to count our blessings over the years and to praise God wholeheartedly. This act of prayer and praise renews and refreshes us.

Prayer over the centuries brings fresh insight and assurance of God's presence in our lives. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit being a counselor who will be with us (John 14:16-17), help, encourage, comfort, and strengthen us in our daily lives. Paul says in Romans 8:26 the Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses and pray and intercede on our behalf. The Holy Spirit helps us to refocus our hearts and bring our minds to think of what we need to do and how we will do it. We become more passionate about what needs to be done. Prayer done habitually enables us to refresh our hearts and minds. It also unlocks our hearts and minds to fresh ideas and new ways of doing things. Meditation and Prayer done on a daily basis both privately and with one's family is an effective way of refocusing our lives from a very self-centered life to a God centered life. 

Our Lord is great and very powerful. There is no limit to what he knows. Psalms‬ ‭147:5‬ ‭

Let our Roots of Love go deep down within Jesus Let our Roots of Faith stand firm on His Word Let our Roots of Sacrifice grow strong in Love Let our Lives be watered by The Truth Let our Prayers Nurture our love for The Life Bearing beautiful fruits of gratitude on The Way Amen

A Time to Laugh

Joyful Hope

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance Ecclesiastes 3:4

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. Ecclesiastes 3:12

One of Spurgeon’s favorite similes on the issue of infant sprinkling Vs believers baptism, was that he said it is like a hen sitting on a ducks eggs. He used to hilariously depict the distress of the hen as it watched the ducklings take to the water fitting to their nature. Although his critics used to reply, if we were as silly as some old hen, then we are glad we have kept our heads above the water.

As the story goes when a woman questioned Spurgeon as to why he incorporated so much of laughter into his sermons he said, “My good lady, if you only knew how much I restrain myself.” As the great preacher said, with laughter comes the limit to which we must all place restraint to where and at what we laugh. The German theologian said Spurgeon’s preaching made God’s kingdom suddenly spring up in men’s hearts but also in their chests as well. Spurgeon believed that it was not a sin to smile and laugh. He felt it was less of a crime to to cause a momentary laughter than a half hour of slumber.

The following are quotes about Spurgeon ;-

Spurgeon “never went out of his way to make a joke, — or to avoid one” (Autobiography 3:361).

“His fun was so natural, so spontaneous, and so hearty” (Autobiography 3:361).

His face was “brightened by eyes overflowing with humour and softened by a most gracious and sympathetic smile” (Fullerton, C.H. Spurgeon: A Biography, p. 188).

The Bible has always condemned people who mock other people and laugh at them. Laughter may be used for constructive criticism, if we set our boundaries to it, without violating our neighbor’s rights. As the book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time to laugh and a time to cry.

Sarah when she heard that she was going to have a child well past her child-bearing age, broke out into laughter. Sarah questioned God and thought can she bear a child in her old age? God’s amazing answer was, “Is anything too difficult for God.” (Genesis 18:13-14) This was not a time to laugh but to give thanks for God’s goodness and loving kindness.

That is what our attitude should be when we pray to God, we should live with joyful hope, that God will do what he has promised.

Reflection: - Let us not laugh at what God can’t do but let us be filled with joyful hope of what God can do in our lives today and in the years to come. 

Laughter the best medicine?

Tears of Joy

God will wipe every tear from their eyes (Revelation 7:17b).

To those who have been deprived of laughter due to circumstances that they are in, God has assured the world that there will come a day to hope for, when God will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 7:17b).

It is often said that men would rather be lost than ask for direction. It is no wonder that in these hard times when unemployment is hitting new highs the suicide rate of middle aged men was 27.3 deaths per 100, 000 while for women is 8.1 per 100,000 (CDC report 2013). What can we do to halt this alarming rise in suicide rates? Where are we going wrong that people lose sight of God?

As the saying goes older but wiser. We all go through youth, when we are constantly learning from our mistakes. When we are young we make many mistakes. But as we grow older, when we have to learn something new, we make more mistakes. Some when they fail they lose hope and give up. It is our ability to recover and fix our mistakes that makes us effectively rebound.

But the enlightened person who can look back and laugh and teach others about the mistakes they made are the ones who can effectively communicate and bond well with the persons they interact with.

Some of the best sermons I have loved were those given by preachers with a good sense of humor. They would incorporate stories and jokes into their sermon that kept me laughing.  It is a way of sowing seeds of faith sprinkled with a little bit of laughter. Laughter enables those seeds to sprout roots in our hearts and in our minds.

Did you know that the production of laughter involves a circuit that runs through many regions of our brain. There are some people who can laugh and others who are very serious, it’s the truth they are just wired differently.

If any part of our brain is impaired, our response to laughter could also be affected. There are some who see God as angry and judgmental, but if God created us in his image, then there must be a side of God that has a sense of humor. 

Let us learn to communicate effectively with laughter. Let us learn to laugh at our mistakes and with God's help build on our weaknesses as we go through every moment of our lives. Let us shed tears of joy when we see the hand of God helping us overcome or achieve some of the biggest challenges in our lives. 

Reflection :- God created laughter to be a release for our joys and a relief from our sorrows

Prayer for Peace

Times of Worries

We live in times that are filled with stress, worry and anxiety. In the US there has been an alarming increase in the number of suicides among middle age men. In fact there are more people dying from suicides than from car accidents today. We live in a world that is full of noise and demands that over time can cause us to slip into the use or abuse of alcohol, prescription drugs, or illicit drugs. As Christians we have to find ways to keep our hearts and minds open to the warning signs that present themselves in the thoughts and feelings of our friends and families.

The serenity prayer has been down through the ages a healing prayer that has touched many of our lives and brought peace in times of conflict and tragedy. It is a prayer to God to give us the peace to accept the things we cannot change. When tragedy or a natural disaster comes upon us unawares, what do we do? Sometimes there is nothing we can do but pick up the pieces and then figure out with the grace of God to find understanding through it all.

The second part of the prayer is for strength to overcome that, which can be overcome. There are so many situations we find ourselves in, which are difficult that causes us to start to worry. Jesus said could we add a single moment to our lives if we were to worry (Matthew 6:27)? What causes worry? 

Some worries can be bad and others stimulating and useful. All of us carry with us a bag of worries, some, which are chronic, and some that come and go at the speed of thought. There are some of us who are constantly bogged down with financial stress. There are many who feel that they have not achieved all that they hoped they could in their life. There are others who are stressed about their children or parents trials and tribulations.

  

How do we as followers of Christ find ways to stay calm and focused? When our fears overwhelm us we have to find ways to deal with them. If they become a chronic problem, settle on the mind like a cloud what do we do?

Jesus says can the lilies of the field worry about what they wear (Matthew 6:28)? Has not God provided for them? As Christians what are some of the gifts that God has given us to ease our worries?

Do we find time to commune with the skies, seas, trees, rivers and creatures? Do we see in them the loving hand of God working to make something of beauty and grandeur? Do we have a friend or spouse we can confide in? Do we have a support group we can voice our fears and joys?

God has created us to love and be loved. How can we be good stewards of love in our lives? We must build bonds of love that reinvigorate us and enable us to live lives that are thankful in the sight of God. Find time to listen to the soothing sounds of nature, the calming music of instruments, or the hymns of praise and thanksgiving. These will bring comfort and strength in our moments of worry strain or anxiety.

Prayer becomes a healing prayer when we surrender all our anxieties to God and in so doing God fills our lives with peace that transcends all understanding. If we have nothing to be thankful for we are really starved and in tremendous danger of our fears overwhelming us. Integral to the process of healing from our fears and worries is the need for thanksgiving. If we learn to find time for thanksgiving, we will find peace.

We must learn to trust in God and God's goodness. We need to realize that God is watching over us. In so doing we will find that our worries slowly subside through our prayers and petitions. We ask God to ease our fears and anxieties and fill our lives with the gift of peace, love and joy. We pray for wisdom and strength to change the things we can. In so doing we have the understanding to know the difference between the things we can change and those we cannot. In times of tragedy and conflict the meaningful repetition of the serenity prayer can guide us and bring healing to many facets of our lives.