Recently at church, we have been going through the book of James.  Personally, the book of James is one of my favorites.  This last week we were in James chapter 4 verses 13-17 as well as chapter 5 verses 1-6.  The last few verses of chapter 4 discusses our ability to focus a lot on our plans.  We can make plans and decisions, very far in advance.  We can believe very heavily in our plans.  However, sometimes this can hurt our relationship with God.  Similarly, The first few verses of chapter 5 discusses our relationship we can have with money.  We as people, even as Christians, can make a lot of decisions around money, which can also in turn affect our relationship with God. 

It is important to focus on things like plans and money.  We don’t have to be completely flippant with either one of these items.  We should make plans and can even sometimes make promises to one another.  We are in a society, sanctioned by God, to do our jobs and follow through on those.  We also have been given resources such as money by God.  This is something we should be wise with.  We need to make sure we are using these resources wisely.  However, we need to make sure we are not letting either one of these things become a god in our lives. 

I am personally a planner.  I am a planner to an uncomfortable degree for a lot of people.  When I first started dating Cole, he really noticed how many plans I would make a long time in the future. He would find it hard initially to plan out the dates with me, especially any fun surprises.  I have really been working on this.  I still plan a lot of things in advance, but I have tried to be more conscious of planning too many things.  I try to keep a lot of Saturdays open, so there will be time for Cole and I to spend time together, or at least go and do our hobby of Pokemon together. 

However, I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about how important it is for God to do my planning.  I almost over plan to the point that I don’t necessarily spend time thinking about how God wants me to spend my time.  This will be sometimes when I feel I am too busy when I am getting called to do something in church. I will have too much to do.  I have been called through this sermon to offer my time more to God.  

This can remind me of the verse in Proverbs 16:9 which says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”  Plans are not a bad thing.  We can make plans.  We can follow through on our promises, these are very important.  However, it is also important to be aware of what God has in His will for us.  We need to be willing to change our plans and our steps when the Lord calls us.  This is being willing to listen to his thoughts before we make the plan initially.  Spending time in prayer before we establish big life changes and plans is important and essential for our daily walk with Christ. 

The other way we can play God is with our money.  Money is such an important piece of our life.  It is the currency of how we are able to establish all of our needs-food, water, shelter, clothes, etc.  However, this is also the thing that often controls a lot of people’s thoughts and actions.   For a lot of people, especially today, there is a lot of fear associated with money and paying for things and having security.  

I will be honest when I say I wasn’t  the best at money when I was a young adult.  I kind of just spent money as I wanted when I was working a full time job.  I did pay for my student loans, and paid all of my other bills, but I spent a lot of money on stupid things.  I did give donations, but sometimes I would overgive money on gifts for other people.  Now today, I am working on making a lot of better changes and spending my money wisely and spending time working on my budget plan.  My husband has definitely been a big part of this as well.  He is very wise with money and has taught me a lot of tips and tricks.  

I also have a job now where I teach financial literacy lessons to kids who have grown up in poverty.  I don’t want them to make choices to also land them into poverty.   I want them to put themselves in better positions.  I also hope they don’t let money dominate their lives.  It can be easy to do either when you grow up in poverty or when you grow up in wealth.  It is very important to learn the balance between making wise choices with money while also not letting it become a god in your personal life.  

The challenge for this week is to spend some time in reflection and prayer.  Are there times, you personally try to play God, especially when it comes to things like time and money?  Are there times you believe you can make better choices and plans than God when it comes to money and time? If so, spend some time in prayer asking God to help you overcome this desire to have these thoughts.

Throughout this last year, I have been reading the Extreme Devotion from the Voice of the Martyrs.  This goes through personal stories of those who were willing to devote their entire life, even if this meant death for the sake of the Gospel.  This has been incredibly inspiring to me, even if I still have a lot more fear in my heart of death and suffering than those who are mentioned in this book. 

Something I love about this book is the encouragement at the end of the daily devotional.  One quote from this was, “Define your faith by what you do, not simply by what you do not do.  Are you known for merely being a good person or for being a good person with an outspoken faith?”  (pg.284)  This is maybe a good thing to consider.  Do I spend a lot of time considering what kind of a Christian I am?Would I say I believe I am a Christian who is considered very faith forward?  Would I say I am known for my outspoken faith, for my love of Jesus that just spills out of me whenever I’m talking to others?

Sometimes I struggle to compare myself to the certain things I haven’t done that are bad for Christians to do.  I will even compare myself to non Christians.  I will, at times, believe I am a better person than those who are doing evil things or degrading things. This doesn’t mean I haven’t sinned.  The bad thoughts, the judgements of other people, the inappropriate words and languages I will use can be just as evil or degrading.  

Also, if I am honest I am not the best at being really outspoken in my faith.  I spend time in the children’s ministry at my church.  I also spend a lot of time volunteering, but I don’t necessarily spend a lot of time telling people about God.  I would like to spend more time telling others about God and really spending time in God with His love with other people.  

There are many verses throughout the Bible talking about faith and how we are saved through grace. The book of James, though, reminds us of how important active faith is.  This is also what we have been talking about lately at Trinity Bible church.  One of the most popular verses from James is James 2:26 which says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” 

This is sometimes considered to be a controversial verse.  It can almost seem like a legalistic verse.  It can seem that it is saying we need to be saved by our works.  This is not what the verse is supposed to say.  It is important to remember we are saved through God’s grace.  The first half of the verse highlights this.  It reminds us the body without the spirit or without Christ is dead.  We can not do work for the Lord without the Spirit of Christ in our body.  

However, this also highlights we need to be changed, or should be changed internally and therefore externally by the Spirit of Christ.  When we become a Christian, we should have a new heart filled with love for God’s people and the people of the world in general.  We should see how God works in the world and how we can have a part in it.   

The challenge for this week is to think of one thing you can do this week to showcase active faith.  Is there one person you can tell the Gospel to? Is there someone who God has been putting on your heart?  Is there a person who you know needs a little bit more love or patience?  Maybe it is a person who you have seen have gone through intense grief or intense trauma in the recent past.

I have been called to show love to a few individuals in my life who are really struggling.  There have been some friends and family members who have really been going through death in the family, health issues, and other major crises.  I have been called to show love.  However, I think I need to also spend some time on how I can show/tell them the Gospel.  

In my free time, I have been reading a book titled, “Becoming Elizabeth Elliot.” by Ellen Vaughn.  For those who are not aware of Elizabeth Elliot,  she was a widow of Jim Elliot who was ministering to the people of Waodani in the Amazon region of Ecuador.  He was murdered by the Waodani.  These people were considered to be incredibly violent to outsiders as well as to their own people.  They both knew the risks and went to minister to them anyway.  This was because they both knew how important the Gospel was to the unreached people groups of the world. After his murder, most would assume Elizabeth (Betty) would leave the people and the country they were in.  However, Betty would find herself for years ministering to the same people who took her husband away.  

She has been a big inspiration to me for years.  I have always heard her story, so I am very happy to be reading her biography.  I am getting to learn more about her story, and her thinking when it comes to the Lord.  She, even from a young age, cared a lot about following God with all her heart.  We also get to read about Jim Elliot and how he was always very devoted to the Lord. 

One train of thought brought up in the novel was this idea of Spiritual Gratefulness. She wrote thoughts in her journals leading to this idea.  It is quoted, “As Betty Howard (later Elliot) wrote, there is a deeper, more mysterious, more sustaining sense of thankfulness: gratitude to God not for what He gives, but who He is.”   This really struck me.  I realized there are many times I am usually grateful for what God has done for me as opposed to just who He is.  I am aware of the blessings He has given me, but not for who He is as an ultimate Godly being.  

I try very hard to be grateful.  Every time I write in my prayer journal, I do spend time to write down a few things I am thankful for.  However, I am now realizing, I don’t spend time praying thankful characteristics about the Lord.  I don’t spend time thanking God for being sovereign, being loving, being holy, etc.  The Lord has amazing characteristics, so it shouldn’t be too hard.  However, I just don’t spend time thinking about this and how it can make a difference in all of our lives. 

Throughout this blog post, I will give a few of the many characteristics of who God is as a reminder for us as to why we should praise His great name in all circumstances.  There are many verses about praising God.  One of those verses is Psalm 7:17 which says, “I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness. And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.”  This verse reminds us to praise God because of His righteousness.  He is completely righteous.  He has complete holiness.  

Some other characteristics to remember of who God is: He has complete love.  God is love.  He doesn’t just possess love, but He is love.  Everything He is and does comes from love.  He created us out of love.  He gave us free will out of love, and He died on the cross for our sins out of love.  Every interaction and every action God does is through His love, even on the times we don’t completely understand it.  

God is Merciful and God is filled with Grace.  As we know, grace is being given something we don’t deserve and mercy is not receiving something we do deserve.  They work together.  We weren’t just given mercy.  We deserved death for our sins and no relationship with Christ.  However, we were given mercy because we do not have to die and immediately go to hell for the rest of our eternity.  We were also given grace because we have an opportunity to have eternal life.  God possesses both of these characteristics, giving us the Gospel story. 

He is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.  Omnipresent means He is present at all times.  He is everywhere all the time.  With that, He is also omniscient which means He is all knowing.  This means He knows everything going on with our lives and is with us all at the same time.  Then he is Omnipotent which means He is all powerful.  He has the ability to do complete miracles and do complete and powerful things.  

The challenge for this week is to spend time praying and thanking God, not for the things He has done (Although that can be included as well) but rather for who God is.  Being grateful for all He is.  This is spending time praising Him for his Power, for his sovereignty, his overall presence, his mercy and grace, and of course his love.  There are many qualities and characteristics to give praise to God over.  I hope you have a great week praising God for everything He is.

The last few weeks I have talked about fighting temptations and putting on the full armor of God.  It is important to be focused on putting on the full armor of God for ourselves and to pray for other believers to have the full armor of God and to be fighting against temptations and trials.  One other important piece is spending time in the word, both for yourself personally and with other believers.   This is why I am finding it is so important to spend time in the word with my spiritual partner and husband, Cole.  

Cole and I got into a really good habit as we were dating about going to church regularly together.  In fact, I was incredibly excited when he asked the first time to go to church with me.  We have definitely kept this up in our marriage.  Then we started praying together over our meals which has also been a really good habit to get into.  Now, we are taking the next step with this daily devotional.  I have really enjoyed this time with God and Cole.  Currently, we are reading the devotional book about the different characteristics and names of Jesus.  One of those being this first section on God being the bread of life. I hope it can go even farther and maybe someday we will spend the mornings together, reading about the Lord to start our day.  It can be a lot to get schedules to align in the morning, but one day, I can only imagine how good of a start to the day one on one time with God and Cole could be. 

I think this is a reminder for many of the people who are in the state of marriage to spend this time with your partner.  It is really important to spend this time worshipping God together.  Marriage can be hard, there is no other way to put it.  You have to learn to trust and love another person with your whole heart.  You have to learn to sacrifice what you always want to do for the betterment of the other person.  

In some versions of the Bible, fellowship the word is mentioned at least 17 times.  However, even though that isn’t the highest amount of time as other words, there are still instances when we see fellowship shown, even when it isn’t stated.  Jesus was with his disciples a significant amount.  One of the verses mentioning fellowship is pretty popular and this is Proverbs 27:17 which says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”  This is a good verse about how helpful believers can be to other believers.  We can use each other for comfort and encouragement, but we can also be there for one another to grow deeper and deeper into our faith and love of Jesus Christ. 

There are also many instances of couples working together in their love and care of Jesus.  For a few examples, there is Mary and Joseph (Jesus’s parents), Elizabeth and Zechariah (the parents of John the Baptist), Aquila and Priscilla (who partnered in ministry), and Boaz and Ruth.  Even the Bible’s first couple, Adam and Eve, while they did show moments later in their life of being dedicated to God, originally were examples of what can happen when you do not put God at the center of your marriage.  There are a lot of opportunities for the evil one to come in and attack, tempting you and your spouse, so spouses need to be on high alert with one another.  

The Lord talks often about the importance of marriage as well. Honoring God in marriage is found throughout the Old and New Testament.  In Ephesians 5, there is a big description of how men and women should treat and love each other, which I believe is only created through their love of Christ and what He has done for them.  I will include a few of the lines, which span from the test of Ephesians 5:22-33.  

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”

The challenge of this week is to spend time with God and with someone else. Yes, if you are married and are both believers, this can be through spending time with your spouse. Spending time with the Lord one on one is incredibly important, and I will always believe that.  However, I do think spending time with another believing, intimate time, with God and fellowship is also highly important.  God finds it important and brings it up on a regular basis, so He must find this an important piece for our overall spiritual health.  

I have been continuing to do some reading about the armor of God for my early morning devotionals.  The book I have been reading has been “Stand Firm: Putting on the Full Armor of God,” by Katie Linstrum.  I have enjoyed the reminders of putting on the armor of God in order to protect ourselves from the evil one, whether he tempts us with trials or temptations.  Last week I wrote a blog post that was all about the importance of putting on the armor of God.  I talked about how God showed us how to put on the armor of God because He himself put on the armor of God before He came down to the earth.  This week, I am going to talk about how we need to make sure our brothers and sisters in Christ are also putting on the full armor of God, so they can also avoid any temptations coming to them in their life.  

Today the reading was over Ephesians 6:18.  This verse says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”  This was a reminder to pray over the Lord’s people.  However, we are not just praying for their physical health or needs.  We are praying for them to be able to fight against the trials and the temptations coming their way as well.    

One quote from this book was “The Battle against sin and temptation is not only a personal fight but a fight for all Christians face together.” (pg.71) I loved this.  It reminds me that we should be in the corner of each believer’s life.  We should be helping them out, being a big piece of support for each of the fellow believers.  This should often include praying over other believers, especially when we know there are sins or temptations in one another believer’s life.  It can be hard to fight these trials and temptations, and we shouldn’t do this alone.  

I have said this often before throughout my blog, but sometimes we as Christians can really get competitive with other believers.  We can start to think we should be the best Christian, which means when others stumble, we can start to believe that we are doing better.  We can start to think of this as an individual competition.  However, since we are a body of Christ, we need to work together more as a team.  When a piece of the team is hurting or struggling, the whole team suffers.  Our jealousy and comparison tendencies may want to start rooting for the downfall of other Christians, but we can know in our heart, this isn’t actually a benefit to us or the overall mission of Christ.  

This also serves as a reminder to ask other Christians to pray over certain sins we are struggling with.  It is often that many believers wouldn’t know about the sins or the temptations coming our way or in our lives unless we ask for prayer.  I know sometimes we can feel the shame of the sin or the temptations, but we can know every believer experiences temptations.  We even talk about how Jesus suffered from being tempted.  He spent a lot of time in prayer when he was in the desert being tempted by Satan, so he wouldn’t fall into sin.  Then when it was getting close to the end of his life and his sacrifice for all human kind, he went to pray in the area of Gethsemane.  He brought along the disciples to pray with Him.  They may not have known everything going on, but they knew he was going through hard times, and He asked for them to pray with and for Him.  

There are two challenges for this week.   The first is to spend time with another believer and let them know any sin, temptation, or trials you are experiencing.  Again, there can be fear of shame and embarrassment, but ultimately if we want to overcome this evil one, we are going to need a full army of God.  We need to be ready for battle.  This doesn’t necessarily need to be every single person in your life, or every person at church.  It can be just a few trusted brothers and sisters in Christ who we know will be the ones willing to pray for our safety from temptations.  This also may open the floodgates to have other believers open up about their sin as well.  It is not for shame or for hurt of the other individual but rather to help us all become closer to God.  

The second challenge for the week is to spend time praying over other believers, specifically if you know of any sin in their lives.  Hopefully, this will be the person you were willing to share your sin or temptation struggles with.  This way it can be a good time to spend time praying over one another.  It is obviously important to spend time praying over this person on your own time but doing it with the other person one on one is a great way to grow fellowship.

I have started to read the new devotional about the Armor of God.  I have already learned a lot through this devotional book.  One thing I have learned through this devotional is actually that God himself when He came down from Heaven, armed himself with the armor of God.  He did this because he was going to be fully man.  This fully man part meant he could fall under temptation and trials.  In order to fully protect himself from the evil one, in order to be the perfect sacrifice for Him to die on the cross for our sins for our salvation, he protected himself from sin.  

There is a section in Isaiah describing the prophecy of the Messiah coming to earth with the whole armor of God.  This is found in Isaiah 59:17  which says, “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”  I read this verse, and I was very surprised.  These are again, the same words and the same pieces of clothing being put on that we have been asked to put on in the future.  God showed us how to protect ourselves from sin through his son Jesus putting on his armor.  

This reminds me of how Jesus was tempted just as we are.  There was a time Jesus was tempted with food by Satan when he was in the desert and had been fasting for forty days.  However, he never did eat the food.  Jesus was also tempted when he was around people.  There were so many people who turned against him, but Jesus never decided to go against them or turn his love away from them.  Then lastly, Jesus was tempted when He was hanging on the cross dying for our sins.  He was told to rescue himself, so he wouldn’t have to experience the pain.  However, he knew this would go against God’s Will, and therefore He chose to continue to follow this pain till the end, completing the sacrifice that gives us our salvation.  

This reminds me that God wouldn’t do anything He doesn’t expect us to do.  The way Jesus was able to guard Himself against the temptations and the sin was because He had the full armor of God.  He kept God with Him, the whole time He was on earth, and this is the desire He has for us all as well.  Sometimes, I can believe in myself too much.  I can believe in my ability to avoid temptations and the desires of the flesh without the help of the Lord.  I don’t know if there are times you do this as well.  However, it is important to realize the truth.  We need God’s armor.  The devil is sneaky and is able to trick a lot of people.  We need to be safe in God’s armor.  

So what are the pieces of armor of God?  There is the 1. The Belt of Truth 2. Breastplate of Righteousness 3.The Gospel of Peace on one’s feet 4.Shield of Faith 5.Helmet of Salvation and 6.The Sword of the Spirit.  This covers the whole body, from the head to the toes.  There are garments filled of truth, peace, and faith.  This covers our body to avoid us from the temptations from the evil one, but at the same time reminds us how we can best spread the Gospel of truth to others around us.  

The challenge for this week is to spend time reading about the body of armor.  This is found in Ephesians 6:10-17.  This is just a very good passage about the importance of guarding ourselves against sin and evil.  This gives a description of the reasons we need to put on the full armor of God because there are often temptations and trials coming our way, and we need to make sure we are ready.  This also reminds us to spread God’s Word and to be a light for all those we encounter. 

Then the second challenge is to spend some time in prayer over the armor of God.  This is maybe going to take some reflection on which part of the body of armor we better have but which parts of the body of armor we need to work on.  I know for me personally, I know I have the belt of truth.  I know who God is.  I haven’t really ever struggled to believe in who God is and what He has done for me.  Although there are times I doubt his plan, I have never found myself not believing in God.  However, I am not always ready with the readiness of peace.  I find I can become very scared to share the faith story that I have and love so much! While I know the message of faith in the Gospel, I am not the best at showing it.  

Jesus showed us the way to cover ourselves in God’s armor.  Jesus showed us the way to protect ourselves from trials and temptations.  We can always look to His example and cover ourselves with the full armor of God to protect us from any issues we may encounter. I pray you are able to put on the full armor of God and are able to protect yourselves from any of the trials and tribulations coming your way. 

I have been continuing my study of the book of Job for my early morning devotional time.  This devotional book is called “Sacred Suffering” by Katie Davidson. I have really been enjoying this study, and I have learned a lot so far.  Job was and is always considered a good example to Christians, especially when they are suffering, so I am happy to do some more learning from his example. 

However, even with this being said, Job wasn’t perfect.  There were definitely things he thought and said which were not the best.  Job did his best to honor God in his life, and he knew this.  When he started to suffer, he started to really question God and his goodness.  Job was not humble during this time of suffering.  He never dishonored God or turned his back on Him, but Job did complain and believe he was not deserving of this misery. 

Jesus was also a man who suffered.  He was a man who grew up and was turned on by those he had served.  He was a man who was beaten to death, even though he had never sinned or gone against God.  He was completely perfect, and He was completely humble, willing to take his beating and killing in order to do it for the people.   Overall, we can see through this book of the Bible, Jesus is the better Job.  He was able to handle suffering with complete humility.  

Humility is something highlighted often throughout the Bible.  The Lord discusses Pride as being a major sin that can bring a lot of people down and become taken away from the Lord.  One verse discussing humility is James 4:10 which says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”  The Lord is pleased with those who decide to humble themselves. 

The Lord had to spend some time humbling Job.  Job again was a good man who did care about honoring the Lord.  However, he did need to be humbled before the mighty power of God.  He needed to learn he was not the one who was in control of his destiny, and even though he had chosen to live an innocent life, this did not mean he was never going to experience any form of suffering or pain.  

I will be honest of the times I can think and be as prideful as Job.  I can have moments where I believe I need to be honored or only receive rewards for my behavior as opposed to receiving punishments.  “I have done the things I am supposed to.  I have done a fairly good job following God’s laws.  I go to church regularly.” These are the thoughts I can sometimes think to myself.  

At the very end of Job, God comes and speaks to Job.  He comes to him and talks about His glory and his sovereignty.  He reminds Job that He is the only one who has power and has control, and there should be no person who tries to demand attention and control from God.  Job repents of his behavior and of his pride.  He becomes very aware of the glory and the power of God, and He is now more understanding of his relationship with God.  

The quote I absolutely love from this devotional is, “Like Job, in order to humble ourselves, we must allow ourselves to be captivated by God’s glory.”(pg.167).  We all like I mentioned have a tendency of becoming prideful and believing we deserve more than we actually do.  We start to demand answers from God and may believe we are innocent enough to deserve all we desire.  In order to really understand the Lord and our relationship with Him, we have to spend time with God and his presence.  

I will challenge you to be a bit reflective this week.  Is there any part of you that is incredibly prideful, especially when it comes to the thoughts of your innocence?  Are there times you are believing that you, like Job, are not deserving of any punishment or issues?  If so, maybe spend some time in prayer to God about this pride.  This can be to spend time being completely honest about the prideful thoughts and asking for God to guide you.  I know I personally need to spend time in my prideful thoughts.  There are definitely times when I am prideful about believing myself to be a strong Christian and therefore, I should have some things going really easy.   I need to be aware that I may experience suffering even if I am following all God’s rules, and I need to remember to still be captivated by his glory when this happens. 

I am praying no one who is reading this is struggling or suffering like Job experienced throughout the Bible.  However, I am also going to be praying when you are experiencing any kind of suffering, God will show you a new way to devote yourself more fully to the Lord.  I am praying God will show you new ways to love Him and to see Him, just like Job experienced when he came face to face with God.

The past two weeks at church have been a bit different than the typical sermons we hear.  My church has been participating in a missions’ conference where they host and hear from many of the missionaries we support throughout the globe.  Some of these are our local missionaries who work on our college campuses nearby ministering and guiding the local college students.  Some are a few states away doing God’s work through various projects or church plants, and then some our global missions who are spreading God’s Word throughout the world and the unreached people groups. 

I do enjoy hearing from the various missionaries.  I love getting to hear about their heart and their joy for spreading God’s Word.  I really enjoy getting to hear about their passion for the people they are serving, and the joyful moments where they have really seen God at work.  There are times I am a bit jealous.  I will be honest about this.  Sometimes I will feel the inadequacy in my own work, but I am continuing to work through my feelings on this.  

I don’t always do the best job supporting the local and global missionaries though.  I have a few local missionaries I support financially, most of these being my friends who are continuing to serve on our former college campus and the other local college campuses.  I am very proud of their work, and I am glad that our college ministry was such a calling for them.  However, I will be honest, when I say I don’t do the best job praying over their missions and the students they are meeting with on a regular basis.  This is the same for the global missionaries I know who need prayer for the work they are doing. 

I think I often forget the importance of prayer-especially when it comes to missions. Sometimes we can think of prayer especially in the case of missions as not being enough.  We aren’t really doing any good.  However, we can sometimes forget the work God can do, and He uses us, both in our actions and the ways we pray to God.  Praying to God over these missions is believing he can do the impossible work of leading millions to Christ. 

There are verses about praying over others.  One of them is James 5:16, which says, “”Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I love this because it does remind us to pray for one another.  This can be praying for their health, prayer for their mental and emotional thoughts, and then lastly praying for their missions and their relationship with God. 

There are again two challenges for this week.  The first is to know the missions around you.  Are you aware of the missions going on in the world, or your area?  If you go to a church supporting missionaries, do you know much about them or their work?  Do you know about their prayer requests?  If not, spend a little more time getting to know about the missions around you or in the world.  Again, see if your church does support and sponsor some missionaries, and if so learn about them and their work.  Discover what their prayer requests are.  

Then the second challenge is to spend some time in prayer for missionaries.  This prayer can also include the prayer to God for a heart for nations.  This can be to open your heart to those who are spreading the word and to be fighters for them.  Maybe set a reminder on your phone or in your planner, just a way to remember on a regular basis, to pray for these missionaries.  I personally have gotten a schedule from my church to pray for 30 missionaries one day of the month and then rotate, and I am going to spend time doing this on a more regular basis. This can serve as a good reminder to keep them in my mind and heart. 

Lastly, I have two examples of missions I know about personally if you need help getting started in prayer for missionaries. One example is my friends Caleb and Oliva.  They are very dear friends. Caleb even graciously married me and Cole this past summer.  I knew he would do a great job at this.  Caleb and Olivia have been working diligently on University of Northern Iowa’s campus for the past few years.  We all went to college there and were in the same Christian ministry.  Using their own experiences of finding God on a college campus, they have dedicated these last few years to ministering to the young college students at UNI.  This is a great time to find young people who are starting out in their individual lives and teaching them about God, so that they may become young Christ followers.  It is an important age, and I need to remember to pray for their ministry to these young individuals. 

Then their other example is a mission I am incredibly passionate about, and this is the International Justice Mission which seeks to advocate, raise funds, and rescue many, many people from Human trafficking all over the world.  This is both those who need to be rescued from slave labor as well as sex trafficking.  This can even be sex trafficking online some kids and adults are forced to be a part of.  I have always loved supporting this organization through giving them funds monthly and participating in Dressember, but I do need to do a better job praying over this work being done throughout the whole year. 

I have been doing some studying and reading of the book of Job in the Bible.  This has been a good book to realize how much people, even Christians can suffer in life.  How we choose to live and worship God in this suffering is the important piece.  The book I have been reading is “Sacred Suffering” by Katie Davidson.  This is through the Daily Grace company, and I highly encourage reading it.    

One section I had been reading about was after Job had lost everything; his good land, his plants, his animals, his children, and his health, his three friends, named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came and visited him. At first, we can really find these friends as great and inspirational.  They had chosen to travel in order to see their friend who had been really struggling and suffering.  They were coming from a long way, when it was not the easiest or most convenient to travel back then.  

However, we can later see that their attitude towards Job was not one of awesome friends. They would eventually turn to blaming Job for his suffering, believing he must have a massive amount of sin in order to have this grave amount of “punishment”.  The Lord must be trying to teach him a lesson, an important lesson. 

Friendships are great to have with those around us. This is especially true if they are helpful and kind Christian friends. We need them for us to develop more fellowship with the church body.  However, they are not as good as Jesus is as our friend.  The Lord offers his comfort and his love to us endlesslessly, even when there are times we do not deserve it, which is often the case. Sometimes friends, because they are human, are going to fail us and/or going to let us down, but we can know Jesus will never let us down in our friendship with Him.

One section I really loved in this devotional is,

 “Yes, the friends went above and beyond in their travels to care for Job, but the depths of their compassion were limited because they were limited human beings. They only did what they knew to do.  Jesus knows deeper.  Jesus knows every corner of our souls and all of our hiding places. Jesus knows eternity past and eternity future. Jesus invites us to accept his limitless comfort that promises help for today and hope for tomorrow.”

I love this section because it really shows how much Jesus takes the time to get to know us and develop a relationship with us.  This shows He will be the present help and He will give us hope for our futures.   

There is later a verse from the book of Job describing a friend who serves as an intercessor. The verse says, “”My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.” I love that Job understands who God is.  I am glad Job knows there is an intercessor who is working on His side.  He may not be fully sure what God is trying to teach him in the time of his suffering, but he knows where he can go for help.  

Have there ever been times you have looked to Jesus as a friend?  Or do you consider him as something really far away and not close to you?  Do you go to him when you are in need of comfort or love, or do you tend to avoid him because you are afraid of him condemning you for sinning?  Do you look to him for guidance like you would your human friends or do you only seek him when in church settings?  It is good to be reflective on this.  How we choose to see and seek God is fundamental for our overall relationship with Him.  

There are two challenges for this week.  The first is to spend some time in prayer to God about the desire for him to be your friend.  This is to spend some time in conversation with him as your friend, talking to him, learning his guidance, looking to him for advice and comfort, and spending time worshiping Him for his righteousness.  

Then the second challenge is to spend time with another person and to spread the love and kindness you are now learning from Christ.  Is there a person in your life who you believe needs a friend?  Is there someone you know who is really suffering who could use a Christ like friend by their side?  I have personally met a few women at my church recently who could really use someone to stand by their side.  I have been thinking about reaching out and finding ways to support them.  I also have a coworker who definitely could use my love as they are struggling with their health.  

This has been a good reminder for me as I actually work at a place called “The Job Foundation,”  (Job meaning like the name not a place of work), so it has been good to study the book of the Bible that  has inspired my working nonprofit.  It is a reminder to me of what my work is all about in many ways.  We are being good friends and being like a guidance for the families in Waterloo who are struggling financially, and hopefully along the way, they learn a lot more.  

I have always been a hobby person, a hobbyist.  I like to do different things in my past.  I have not always been the best at sitting quietly, not doing much of anything.  This has sometimes led me to being too busy.  I have always liked to sing and be in a choir.  I have loved and enjoyed working out or exercising, particularly running and biking.  I have also always loved doing crafts, making cards and painting.  (I really love crafting classes as well).  Then lastly, of course, I have always loved to read books. As I have gotten older, I have also discovered my love of writing and blogging.  This blog gives and fills me with great joy week after week.  

These past few years, I have been finding some new hobbies and loves, and the family members around me have also found some things to love and do in their free time as well.  My mom and I both have tried ice skating.  We went ice skating in Branson, MO and we thought it was the most fun.  Since then, we have gotten to do some practicing on our own and are now either taking or about to take lessons.  Cole has gotten incredibly good at playing Pokémon in the past year and a half and has competed in many different tournaments where he has either won or has gotten high placing. He has taught me and now I have been slowly learning and competing myself.  Then lastly, I have had a growing interest in learning how to sew as well as have a desire to learn how to do baking and cake decorating.  

I am incredibly proud of those family members.  I am very happy and proud of my mom choosing to do an ice skating class.  She did mention to me that she was definitely the oldest person to be trying these lessons, but I am so proud of her for being brave and learning to try something new even though she may be older than the other participants.  I am also incredibly proud of Cole and how he has done in Pokémon.  I am also so glad we have found some friends through participating in it as well.  

I think there are many times people believe they can’t try something once they get to a certain age.  They may believe they are just too old to try something new, and this just isn’t the case at all.  Not only do I have the examples in my life I just mentioned, but I have been seeing a lot of people online who chose later in life to learn how to make and decorate sugar cookies, and they have gotten really good at it, or others who have slowly gotten into the game of Pickleball and compete in leagues.  

I also love when I was a teacher and a coach to see my students try something that scares them.  It fills me with complete joy when I see students try something they never thought they could have done before.  I have had the opportunity to see students go out for the sport of cross country who had never tried running before.  We had a girl and boy in seventh grade who went out this last year and made incredible strides and improvements throughout the season. I am so glad they went out and have had a good time competing amongst the others. 

I do believe hobbies and these interests can be a good guiding tool for our spiritual walk.  Yes, we can share the Gospel while at work.  This is a great place.  However, there are barriers to this.  Sometimes people are stressed or they are overworked and don’t have much time for a deep conversation.  There are times when they may be having to talk to other people at work leaving gaps in conversation about the Gospel when it is brought up.  Hobbies and these fun activities open us up to more people and more conversations we can be having with others about Jesus and about the Gospel.  

There is a verse in the Bible about creation and making a way in the wilderness and I think it can relate to the ideas of trying something new.  When we go out and learn something, we can open ourselves up to a new way of relating and being with people.  We have a new way to create and to be challenged.  This verse is Isaiah 43:19 which says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” 

The challenge for you this week is to spend time thinking about something you can try in the near future.  Is there anything you have seen others do and you want to be able to maybe join them in their community?  I know Cole and I have done some pickleball, but we haven’t found much time to dedicate to it.  I am hoping this spring/summer, we will be able to find some time to exercise in this way.  I challenge you this week to go out and try whatever it is you are most curious about. If it is something more seasonal and it isn’t that season, I challenge you to make some plans to try it when this particular season comes around.