Category: God

Found in Translation

I was looking up some Bible verses last weekend and stumbled across a familiar verse.  It stuck out because I looked it up in the Message Bible, for a modern version of familiar words.  This is what it said:

But the Master said: “you don’t need more faith.  There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith.  If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree ‘Go jump in the lake’ and it would do it.

I always thought that verse was talking about the amount of faith you had.  But since reading it in the newer translation, I realized that I was sort of off the mark.

It’s about having faith, period.  We just need to believe.  Assigning a quantity to it doesn’t make it any more or less effective, since we tend to think that answers to prayer are a direct proportion to the size of our faith.  As long as we have faith–as long as we believe in God, we’ve got power.  I think the mustard seed vs mountain comparison (or poppy seed vs sycamore tree, in this case) is trying to help us form an idea of God’s grandeur.  God’s looking to us to believe, to trust Him.  He doesn’t have a faith sizing chart, that puts us all on different levels in our spiritual journey.  As long as we believe, He can move.  And move He does! 

I’m so glad to have found this verse.  It was liberating.  No longer do I have to worry about whether or not I have enough faith.  We can give ourselves complexes in trying to “get more faith” in order to see results/changes in our lives.  But that’s not how God works.  I just need to trust Him and give Him space & time to do His thing in my life.

This renovated thinking doesn’t change certain points though.  Having faith does not guarantee an immediate response to prayer.  God’s not going to do seemingly bigger or smaller things in my life because My faith is bigger or smaller.  But having faith does means that I will trust His works & His timing.  It means I’ll have more of an understanding and respect to His timing.

Day 23: It Made Me Think

I just read an interesting comment in an article that made me stop and think. My first thought was that I was in agreement with the quote. My second thought was that this would make fantastic blogging material. My third thought was, do I really want to put that in the blog? I’ll risk alienating some readers or worse yet, lose some.

The short answer to the third question: yes, I do want to put that in the blog. I’m allowed to share my inner thoughts on my own blog, n’est-ce pas?

Now for the thinker comment. Someone was quoted as saying “Sometimes I am so grateful to God, that I don’t even ask Him for anything; all I can do is thank Him”. Sometimes I too am so grateful to God that all I can and should do, is thank Him, but I don’t always do that. I do stop and thank Him when I see answers to prayer or see ways that He’s intervened in my life for the best. Yet, that’s very easy and almost kinda basic to thank God for answering a request. But sadly, I don’t just thank Him for His goodness and sovreignty and mercy and unconditional love often enough. I really should, though, because He’s God and He truly has been so good to me, even without my requesting it and especially though I can’t even do anything back to Him as repayment for what He does and will do and has done for me. I’m glad to have recognized this before though and am trying hard to just give thanks regardless of what went on in my day.

God’s the only One I know that doesn’t require a reason or day or special event in order for me to thank Him. He’s just cool–that’s enough for me to just do it.

And now a couple pics to end off, as we’ve tamed Jamayia’s hair.

Day 9: Peppermint Tea

Did I mention that chocolate chip cookies go very nicely with peppermint tea? Yes, we’re still very much into our cookies here. Gotta love that Pillsbury cookie dough.

Late post tonite, but one nonetheless. I was just upstairs with the sistahs & hubby, chatting away. We started off catching a poor excuse for a joke from an email that a sista received today. It was a (clean) proposition, which she had to turn down. And well, convos evolve and we had a great discussion. Prayer really does make such a positive difference in one’s life. We made a pact; to pray together on a regular basis. While we’re all living together, we should be constructive with our time. It’s no accident that we’re here at this time. I can’t see the future, but I can make the most of the present.

Had a busy one today. Baby slept in nicely–yay! I was able to get up before she did, but not too early. Got a head start on my dish for potluck tomorrow. When she awoke, I got her dressed and we went to run a few errands. Got back, and organized a few things for church tomorrow. I’m so glad to have those Veggie Tale Silly Songs DVDs. It provides me with a nice diversion for Jamayia on the occasion when I have pressing matters to tend to. Since she refused to sleep, we ventured into the kitchen and made supper for the family.

I did manage to catch some of the Osmonds on Oprah. It was quite interesting. I didn’t grow up in the Osmond era, so I missed all the hype. But, watching the clips and hearing the music, they were almost similar to the Jacksons, minus the drama. It was encouraging to see that a large family can live through the entertainment industry and still stick together. It was also very nice to see that they weren’t pathetically sad over the death of their father. There were moments of sadness on the show, but in a touching way. That’s probaby because they seemed to have no outlying regrets of their lives growing up. Not to say that none of them had any mistakes or shadows in their pasts. I know that there’s no way the Jackson family would’ve been able to make it through the Oprah show in a comfortable manner.

I’d love to see moments like that in my family. Looks like I’ve got some loving to do.

God Care About My "Little-Big" Deals

My computer went down a couple weeks ago. Not good when it’s like a basic lifeline to the outside world. I had used it one Thursday morning and everything was normal. I took a couple cutie pics of baby and went to upload them, and found the machine frozen. So, I rebooted….but there was no connection the screen.

It may sound like a little thing, but it’s a big deal to me. It’s kinda hard to understand unless you’re in the situation. But tv is dull and very limited during the day and I’m so not a phone person. So, the PC is the next best thing. However, it’s not at it’s best when you can’t see what’s going on!!

When hubby came home, I explained what had happened. (See–I can live without it–I didn’t even call him at work to tell him about the PC malfunction). He took it in for service that same evening.

(Here’s where the story gets cool!!!)

While Jono was at the repair place, our church treasurer called. He wanted to drop off the church laptop for Jono to work on some software stuff.

The laptop doesn’t work like my home PC–it was dreadfully slow. However, I didn’t complain. It sure beat having nothing at all.

This was a nice reminder though, that God cares about all kinds of things that affect us.