I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who have been supporting me on this journey. I am humbled that anyone would get anything out of this blog when it truly began as my way of being obedient to the Lord and letting Him speak to me. I see this as my personal journal of sorts, allowing me to be vulnerable so God can have His way. Some of you have shared that God is also speaking to you in many different ways as well. I am always amazed by how God pens the words for me. I am usually shocked by the direction He takes, as I am today. This must be exactly what He wanted each of us to hear so, if I may, I would like to especially dedicate today to each of you who have personally shared something about yourselves with me. God has heard your hearts and is so proud that you share your own struggles with others. I am thankful that God is doing a mighty work in each of us and pray that His words will continue to grow us all closer to Him. He alone is glorified in what He is doing. Please open your Bible and read Deuteronomy 23 or just click here.
"Leave what remains for the foreigner the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do so." (v.21-22) It's interesting how God keeps mentioning these three groups of people in this chapter, and in many other places in scripture. I believe this is because He is our God of compassion. Jesus was always hanging out with the people nobody wanted to be around. He was always trying to teach the disciples what it meant to truly love and reach the people. He wanted them to stop focusing on their own lives and situations long enough to see the people God placed in their lives around them. The Israelites could relate because they had been the foreigners in Egypt. Some of the Israelites were the fatherless orphans. Some were widows who had lost their husbands. These people could not be property owners and had no means to make a living. They had to rely on the people around them and these people needed to take time out of their busy lives to show compassion for those who needed it most.
So often God allows us to experience things that we will later be able to use to encourage and uplift others with a similar experience. He presents us with an opportunity to reach out and love that person. It is our choice to accept the blessing of being a blessing. This is one way that God can take the broken and ugly parts of our lives and turns them around to use for good. He allows us to relate so that we can then show compassion.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
I remember the morning I heard that verse for the first time and it came alive to me. It was over ten years ago. Someone read the words at church and instantly one person came to my mind. She was a sweet woman from that church who had just been diagnosed with cancer. I felt I needed to share what I had just received with her and tell her that I believed God was going to allow her to love and encourage many other people because of what she was going through. She was a very faithful woman and I'm sure she already realized this but I think in that moment it helped me to see how God can take our sorrows and turn them into something beautiful if we choose to let Him. That woman ministered to many, many people before the Lord chose to take her home almost 5 years ago. She chose to be used. Are we willing to do the same?
My weight issue is nothing like cancer. There is a cure. It can still be my own battle though and maybe it is someone else's too. Maybe you have a different battle all your own. Whatever you're thinking about right now, someone else is thinking it too. Someone else is struggling. Someone else is hurting. Are we will to let God use our struggles to love others through their own struggles? Maybe that's part of His purpose for this blog. I just know it is a part of my healing and freedom but maybe God has more He wants to do with it. Maybe there are people I will relate to on this journey that God will allow me to bless. Maybe there will be people who relate to me and will bless me. I must admit this is already happening but I look forward to the more of what God is doing for us all. But you can write your own blog with your own life. It doesn't have to be written with words on a page. It can be written by the words you speak or the actions you take in the land God has placed you in. Don't forget about the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows. Let's commit to always looking out for the people God has placed around us that either literally fit into this category or maybe have circumstances in which you personally can relate. God gives us a heart for certain people for a reason. Let compassion overflow in your life today.
Father, thank you for being the God of compassion. I so covet your heart that loves to deeply. Let me love better today. Let me show it not only in words but in action. Thank you for the people you have placed in my life. Let me always look for opportunities to use the struggles in my life to help others, just as You have helped me. Thank you, Lord. I love you. Amen.
Now Choose Life.
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