On Gratitude

I find gratitude to be hard found lately. We’re busy, circumstances are hard, life seems to continually throw a curve ball. But this is not the existence/mindset meant for us. I just don’t believe it!

It’s all about Perspective. I think Holocost Survivor Corrie Ten Boom said it best:

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”

God IS good. God DOES have a plan. Hurt, grief, hardship are a part of life. But facing these impossibilities with a heart full of gratitude, makes the hard small, and the love of our God big!
So, today let us be grateful we never have to walk the hard parts of life alone. Thank you God for being there every step of the way.

 

Blessings,
~Rita

Uncommon God

What do you think about when you think of God?

Do you think of Authority? Holiness? Loving?

What about the fact that he is UNcommon?

This idea of God being uncommon was shared with me recently and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

I’ve been reading the Sermon on the Mount for almost a year now. I can’t seem to get away from it. Every time I read it, it’s like Jesus himself jumps off the page and begins speaking directly to my life.
A while ago I began sharing some of what I’ve been learning, but then I got stuck.

The fact is I feel so inadequate to expound on what Jesus said so well himself. However, this passage of Scripture is so powerful I hope Every one of you will open your Bibles and take it in!

Need the Reference again? It’s Matthew Chapter 5 through Chapter 7.

In every nook and cranny Christ declares his authority. He teaches the people, and He responds to their most frequently asked questions.

How much love is that? How much love is it that God himself came down to our level to teach us the most basic principles of his plan to restore fellowship with his creation?

How much love is it, that even after he sent prophet after prophet, that even after his people turned their back on him again and again, he still… I said, HE STILL came down to us and put an arm around us. He took on our flesh, he walked in our shoes, he made sure he understood every facet of what a human life entails, and he taught us how to fellowship with him.

Does that even sink in?

Who does that?

We certainly don’t do that for each other very well. Then again, we are common.

We have this commonality to tear one another down. We have this commonality to turn our backs on each other. Even those we love dearly. We have this commonality to loose our patience and react in anger. We have this commonality to want to preserve ourselves or put ourselves above another. We have this commonality to sin in a myriad of different ways.

But, God…

God is NOT common.

His son Jesus showed us just how uncommon by coming to this earth, not to toss the principals and demolish the law he so carefully laid out for us, but to fulfill the hope and restore the relationship.

He came to restore us. Not turn his back on us.

He came to invite us into an uncommon relationship with him. A relationship that is so different than the most common ideals of the world. A relationship that frees us from the chains of  worldly conformity. 

How great is it we have such an UN-common God?!

 

Blessings,

~Rita