Hope For Today

We can confidently come to God today and ask for His help.  Too many people think it’s “self-centered” to ask God for help and to bring our concerns to Him.  The opposite is true.  God is eagerly waiting for us to invite Him into our circumstances so He can provide the help we need.

Today we are encouraged to recognize how much influence we can have and how much good we can do even though we may not have a lot of money or prestige.

Praise the Lord - why would someone do that, especially when times are tough and complicated?

To grow and mature well individuals need good role models.  Role models provide inspiration, guidance, and a framework for growth by demonstrating how to navigate challenges and achieve goals.  They show us by their example, how to think and act well so we achieve goals and when we face the challenges we inevitably will along the way. Truth is, we all have some that are good and some not so good. If we’re not careful, our maturity can be stunted by following the ideas and behaviours of poor role models. 

What is something you procrastinate about doing? Most experts in dealing with procrastination would tell us that by taking things one day at a time, one step at a time, even tasks that seem overwhelming become possible. Character building and developing our relationship with God is something else that we can procrastinate about.  However, if we focus on what is before us and do the next right thing, we can trust God to empower us each step of the journey.

If we treasure something, we usually take special care of it. We don’t neglect it or leave it where it could get damaged or stolen or forgotten about. As God awakens our hearts and our consciousness to new and wonderful truths – what many would call a spiritual awakening - we need to cherish what we have learned and let this truth nourish our hearts and strengthen us to act in new and God honouring ways.

An important character strength to develop is tolerance – being patient, understanding, and accepting of something different.  We live in a world where there is a mixture of many cultures and behaviours, traditions and beliefs.  For many of us, part of the challenge to be tolerant is learning how to be around others who are at a different place in their life journey than we are in ours.

We were created to live securely by living in the care of God – the God who loves us perfectly, weaknesses and all, and yet we’ve all been in stressful or frightening situations where the “fight or flight” response has been activated in us. What does Jesus have to say to us in these kinds of situations?

"Nevertheless" - what kind of word is what? We don't hear it so often now but it meant something very significant to folks in our parents and grandparents generation and has something wonderful to remind us about today.

What does it take to be in right relationship with God? Some say, "Faith." Others say, "Good Work." What does God say? That's what really matters, isn't it?

What priorities do we give to our communication in whatever form we send it out - phone, text, social media etc? What kind of words really matter as we make contact with others?

We don’t often hear that word “fret” anymore. It was much more known in my grandparents and parents generation. But the anger and anxiety, the obsessing over a problem or something we don’t like  - that “fretting” - is very much a part of our generation and our time. What can we do about it?