Soul Sister Time

              How does God do it?  How does He give mercy to those so undeserving like me?  His mercy is incredible.  David, the man after God’s own heart, praises God for His mercy over and over.  I wonder, why aren’t we all more amazed by God’s mercy?  This thought leads to another important question “Why?”  Why does God flood this world with mercy?               Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”  Mercy is the only answer if you love the world you created.  And God does.  He loves the world for sure, and most of all He loves the people He created in His own image.  These people are hopeless without His mercy (I agree with Einstein there is no limit to human stupidity).  The people that don’t reco...

              Jesus was strategic in teaching us a prayer that can unify Christians.  We call this prayer “The Lord’s Prayer.”  The prayer begins with the words, “Our Father.”  When Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father,” He is teaching us to understand that we are dearly beloved children of God.  Learning to know your true identity as a dearly beloved child of God will free you to become the mature Christian that you long to be. It will guide you to see other human beings as His children too.  When you pray to God as your Father, you will recognize that His enemies are your enemies.  His enemies are Satan and his fallen angels.  He loves His children created in His image.  Praying to God as your Father helps you make sense of His instructions like—love your enemies.               We celebrate our earthly fathers on...

              Never miss a chance to be kind to others.  Kindness is good for the soul.  In these days kindness is so unexpected that it makes a huge impact.  My recent emphasis into kindness developed after I had been cruelly treated.  After I found myself so dumbfounded by why someone would be so cruel, I started focusing on kindness.  Rather than be brought down by the unreasonable reality, I fought off my natural tendency to obsess over my wound by being kind to others.  I was surprised by what happened.  By not missing a chance to be kind, I distracted myself from my pain and I built up my own soul more than any kindness portrayed.               No wonder God’s Word is so full of admonitions for us to be kind to one another.  He loves us so much He doesn’t want us to miss out on anything that will soothe our s...

              When you let God bind up your broken heart, an amazing thing happens.  Your heart’s capacity to love is increased in incredible ways.  It almost makes you grateful that your heart was torn because the after effects of observing God’s love gaining more and more power in your soul by His healing touch were probably impossible had your heart not been severed right down the middle.               The largeness of a broken heart reminded me of one of my favorite books.  It is Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son .  In this book Henri Nouwen is inspired by Rembrandt’s painting by the same title.  A poster of the painting captured his attention and led him to the parable in Luke 15 that inspired Rembrandt to create the characters on canvas.  His book basically has three lessons.  First, we are all like th...

              Jesus taught us to pray that God would lead us not into temptation but protect us from evil every day.  Most of us do not deeply connect with the spiritual reality that is around us all the time.  We don’t consider the reality of temptation.  We don’t recognize that we have an enemy of our soul whose main goal is to destroy any connection we might form to the love and protection of God.  This is how we become our own worst enemy.  We do not recognize what is at stake every day.                There is an invisible foe to conquer every day.  This mostly undetected force of evil is very skilled at remaining anonymous.  He comes to steal, kill and devour (John 10:10) but most of the time in the most subtle of manners.  Since we are creations of God and bear His image, it is difficult for us to stoop...

              Overseeing the ministry of prayer at my church has opened my eyes to the reality of ambitious prayer.  For many years I didn’t realize that I had a spiritual gift of faith.  All Christians have faith; that is how we become Christians.  It took many decades of praying before I realized that God had gifted me with faith from the time that I was a young woman.  When my youth minister asked me to pray for him and his wife to have a baby, I wrote his request on a list.  It never occurred to me to take that request off my list until seven years later when I received the news that his wife was pregnant.  No one taught me to be consistent in prayer.  No one taught me that God wants us to keep asking;and when we don’t seem to be getting an answer, He is calling us to increase our faith.  No one taught me, except the Holy Spirit.  He taught me this lesson again through th...

              I’ve just returned from a mission trip where I witnessed a group of women expressing utter love and humility to one another when nobody was looking.  It reminded me of why I lead these mission trips.  The first step of spiritual growth is humility and the second is love.  You will never be lost from intimacy with God when you place your feet firmly on these stepping stones in whatever circumstances you find yourself.               Humility is not about saying I am not a writer when you clearly have a gift at communication.  Humility is about getting yourself out of the way so that you are willing to write whether your writing is read, acknowledged or rewarded.  Humility is about offering all that you are and all that you have for God’s glory and His purpose.          ...