e do to help them? What if they do not want our help? What if we don’t want to help them? How do we do what we don’t want to do? Where do we go for the answers to what we should do?
In
His Word- Rewind back to May 2006.
Preach the word!
Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all
longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching
ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears
away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all
things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry.
2 Timothy
4:2-5
I
thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as
without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to
see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I
call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your
grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the
laying on of my hands. For God has not
given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:3-7
Today
is Memorial Day, I am spending time with my family remembering special things,
as well as thanking the Lord for giving me this day in which to remember. If it
were not for Him, I would not have had such a wonderful day last Memorial day.
It was a day that will be etched in my mind forever.
The
last great memory with my dad.
Funny
thing about it was that my niece and I went to his house to visit him that day.
I had been in town taking care of my mother inbetween the hospital and rest home
and helping my sister to get a break as well. For those of you who do not know
she has been helping my mom, and vice versa as able for the past ten years.
This
year my mom is in better health, able to
walk a bit and get around to do things around the house, thank the Lord! God is so awesome!
As
for my Memorial Day, Sonya and I had shown up to visit, not exactly dressed for
work but dad needed the help obviously! We arrived to find him trying to move
cars and a trailer around his back yard by himself. He was sick even then, and
it showed in the way he breathed, so we could not allow him to work alone. We
both jumped in to help him out.
Before long he was giving us orders and we were
moving, tarps with hornets’ nests and live hornets on them, as well as engine
parts, car doors and fenders. I have to mention the bees because there was a
point when I picked up one end of the tarp and moved it, when I placed it back down,
we noticed I had been holding a nest in my hands! Sonya was so brave, she just
stomped on it and the bees inside of it! I am allergic to bees, and so this should have made me stop. But I
felt such a peace and joy in helping my dad that we just kept going. We checked
for bees from then on though!
Overall
that day I felt so helpful being able to be with my dad and do what he could no
longer do.
I
remember so many times that Dad worked
while I watched him from the truck or from the house window . He never asked for
my help, nor had he allowed it when I
offered. This was a special day; my father was allowing me to help.
Okay so how will this fit into our
scriptures today? Today’s message for the week is on serving.
I
will remember my father as a man who was always there to help someone out, I
don’t think he ever said no when someone asked him to do something for them. I
know my heavenly Father is the same way. When I need help, He is ever present
ready to help me! Ready to help you!
We need to be more like Him. We need
to be ready, instant in season and out to do the work of the Lord. Just as we are full of things in our life
that reflect the good things and some not so good, from our parents we also
should show how much we are like our Abba Father. Our daddy God is longing to
see us offer to help in His cause. He longs to see us going about our Father’s
business! We need to work to spread the Gospel of Christ as often and as
regular as we can.
But that is not all we need to do, we need to walk in Love, we do this by serving one another did you know that?
When
we walk in love, we are able to see the needs of one another and to answer
these needs without hesitation. That means sharing what you have, but also
doing for one another. Wash your neighbor’s car, bring a meal to someone who is
low spirit.
Bring some flowers from your garden to share
with someone at your Bible study.
Someone did this with me two weeks in a row! Different people, and both times I
was totally blessed that someone actually thought of me enough to cut the
flowers and bring them to me!
You
see the thing that blessed me the most in helping my dad was that he thought I
was able. The thing that God knows about each of us is that we are able to do
above and exceedingly beyond what we think we can do.
He has planned for us to use what He
has given us. For instance, some of us have been given a gift of gab, so He has
used us as teachers or preachers. We are able to get the point across to those
listening that the Lord wants us to give. Some He has blessed with the ability
to cook, so He has allowed them to help the hungry with soup kitchens and such.
Whatever the gifts are that God has
given you, He has a plan for you to use them to serve His purposes not our own!
I could be selfish and not share
what God has given me each week. I could just think on it, have a Selah moment,
and then go on…. Or can I? God has given me such a burden each week that even
today when I tried to ignore that I had a devotional to write it kept sneaking
up on me! I kept thinking these thoughts of what I could write about, and how
good God is and about my day with my dad.
Today, as we take time to remember
those who have died for our country’s freedoms, we need to also think about the
One who died to give all of us Spiritual Freedom from death! We no longer have
to suffer eternally-- for our sins have been removed! We will still live in a corrupt
world though and we need to work to focus on doing what God would have us do.
In our humanness we still have selfish thoughts and selfish wants. I wanted to
visit with my dad, I did not go there intending to work. But yet I did as my
dad needed. The funny thing is that I had a better time visiting with he and
Sonya while working than I had when we would sit and eat together or sip coffee
and chat.
It is the same way with working for
the Lord, doing our Father’s work. When we are doing the will of the Father, we
will find that the little things we found were bothering us before will seem
small. I know that this is true, because that time that I was spending with my
dad, helping him move heavy stuff and organize his yard … I was walking on a
sprained ankle. I hardly noticed it but because of all the walking I had done
there and in helping my mother, my ankle too a year to heal. But I hardly
noticed the pain on those days because my mind was focused on helping my dad!
When
we focus on helping our Father in Heaven, we will not be bothered by the
hornets and the sprains of this world, we will only see the joy in His face in
knowing that we are serving Him! We will know that we have made Him glad, just
as He makes us glad. When we serve the
Lord, it is not a hard thing to do, it is easy it is enjoyable, and it is fun!
Even things we thought were nasty to touch, such as greasy old engines, are fun
to pick up and hook onto a Boom Truck!
So maybe you are not wanting to
reach out to the homeless to feed them today? Maybe you think that the people
who do have a special gifting to encourage so many people who are down and out,
and that that is not what God has for you? But then again, maybe you can feed
them by cooking for them, or if you are not into cooking, maybe you can serve
them by singing for them. Or maybe you can speak to them and give them the joy
of the Lord through His message?
There are many ways to help feed the
needy, the poor and hungry, with the Word of God, with money, with prayer, with
serving. There are many ways to help
those who live around you to come to see Christ in you, and in that to see
something they want to have too. Our job as Christians is simple, do the work
of an evangelist until Christ comes again.
To
serve them, to share the Gospel with them, to encourage them, to do the
Father’s Will. To love them as He would love them, this is walking in His love!
Next
time you are asked to help out in some area, with feeding homeless or poor
people, or helping your neighbor or family member with their yard, think on
these things!
Think
on how you can relate this to Christ and helping others. Think of how much of a
blessing you will get in helping them! What a joy is was to be able to help my
dad, and that is so small in comparison to helping my heavenly Father!
Dear
Heavenly Father, thank you for today, that we might remember those who have
served Your purpose to make each of our
life’s free to do Your will in them. Bless others through us today, In
Jesus name, amen.
Suggested Readings.
Monday:
Hebrews 8:1-13
Tuesday:
Hebrews 12:1-29
Wednesday:
Hebrews 13-all
Thursday:
James 1:1-27
Friday:
James 2:1-26
Weekend Readings; The rest of the book of
James.
In
His love,
Teresa
M. Wilson
Copyright
© 2006
by Teresa M. Wilson.