Author: debo

Patience in the process is something we have to learn to be comfortable with. I don’t think anyone comes by it naturally. We want things now. Just ask any 2 year old. They want it right now. We do have to grow up both naturally and spiritually and patience is a lesson we all need to learn. Our hope is that we are becoming more and more like Christ every day. We call it maturing. Hopefully we are maturing while we are growing up naturally. We can skip over essentials in a project but we will live to regret it later. If you don’t build a house on a good foundation, it will crumble. The building can look good on the outside, and it won’t crumble immediately, but after a while, without a good foundation, buildings fall. We have to plan for the long haul and have patience in the process when we are building a house, or building a life. Doing things right takes patience, we can’t expect excellence in life with shoddy workmanship. Remember we are God’s workmanship. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What is being built in your life is worth the time and effort. Keep filling your life with the Word of God. Keep remaining faithful in every area of life. Let’s be brilliantly excellent in all we do, expecting God to do great things through us.

I am a get it done kind of girl. When I decide to do something, I am ready to make it happen. I don’t have an off button until it is finished. Unfortunately, I have watched way too many HGTV shows where they accomplish 2 months of work in a half hour. It causes unrealistic expectations. If you have served God for any length of time we know that God is more into marinating than microwaving. He is all about process. We think in terms of a frying pan, God likes the slow cooker. Our Christian life is a process. Although we became a new creation at salvation, walking daily with Christ is a process. We learn and grow as we incorporate the Word of God into our daily life. The renewal process, takes time and patience. We work it out, day by day. From our thoughts, to our beliefs, to our actions, it takes a process to change to be like Jesus. Our rough edges get smoothed off and our character is shaped by not only people, but by situations in our life. With any situation that you have in your own life, patience is a necessary. We have to walk in love, make choices to watch our words and live like Jesus is watching, because He is! Be patient with yourself, and be patient with others. Learn to be patient in the process, God is perfecting his work in you.

I’ve heard this before that God is usually waiting on us when we think we are waiting on Him. Who is really doing the waiting? Probably both of us! It can be hard to have patience while God’s will is coming to pass. Life is a process. We hear a word, or feel an unction in our spirit, and we feel like it should come to pass today, and at the latest tomorrow. We might give God a week or maybe two. If you have been walking with God for any length of time, you have probably observed that 11:59 PM seems to be God’s favorite time. We feel like time is almost running out and He shows up. When we were selling our house, everyone kept saying, all in God’s timing. I began to hate hearing that, and lovingly thought the next person who says that was just goning to get punched! That is outside of my character, but it was how I was feeling! Good thing we don’t go by feelings! Sometimes we mess up God’s timing. He may have made provision for us and we passed it by. Or we jump ahead of His timing, and things have to be rearranged so God’s will can still come to pass. The best advice is learn how to be still and patiently wait for God’s provision. He is God. Know that he is working even if you don’t see it. Have patience in the process!

How often do you feel like your patience is being tested? Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. We have been right there with you getting stronger in patience! As I was writing this, I was patiently waiting for my first grand baby to be born. She will be born soon, maternity isn’t eternity, even when it feels like it. By now she is here! We are doing a building project this summer as well. We feel like it will be an eternity until it is done, but it will be finished at some point. Unfortunately much later than they would have hoped. What ever is testing your patience right now, let’s pass the test! If we let patience have its perfect work, James 1:4 says that we will become mature, lacking nothing. Here is your dailyeword encouragement.

How is it working for you? Do you have patience with people or are you still working on it? Some people are easier than others for sure, so I know your answer, we all have to keep working on it. It’s a life long assignment! With what is going on in our world, it is hard not to want to think, say or post everything you want to say to people who bring violence or stir up hatred, but we can carefully choose what comes out of our mouth. We can think new thoughts, take our mind down a new pathway, and only let our thoughts line up with what God says. We keep on loving people. We keep on encouraging people. We keep building and being the solution where ever we are. And then when we do open our mouth, we have a river of life coming out of us. Our words bring hope and healing and help instead of hurt. You have been blessed to be a blessing, not just with finances and things, but with your words. So speak life and keep working on your patience with others.

Love is seeing others as valuable and precious. How often do we hear those words, you are valuable and precious to me? I hope you know that God values you and thinks you are wonderful! I want to be one person who lets you know today that God does have a wonderful plan for your life, and it is all because He loves you. God is a lover. He loves because it is who He is. It is His nature to love. The new commandment that God gave for us to follow is that we love Him with all of our heart, and that we love our neighbors too – Matt 22:38-39. The Bible states that all of the 10 commandments are wrapped up in those two. I’ve said it before like this, the New Two trump the Big Ten! It is important that we know we are loved, because then we can love others. As believers, our life should revolve around Christ. A Christian is a Christ like one, and Christ should be the center of our existence, our most important Counselor, and the One we depend on in all circumstances. I hope during this month when we are talking about love basics, that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God loves you! His love really is immeasurable, because there is no end. He has placed His love in you, so that you can not only know his love, but you can love Him back, and show your love to others everyday, in every way!

Here’s a prayer for today: Father, thank you for the love you have for your children, and the love you have for your church. I know I am loved by you and I thank you for the church body you have placed me in. Help me to find my place, and serve wholeheartedly, with joy. Thank you for the promise that where I am planted is where I will grow and flourish. In Jesus Name, AMEN.

In Romans 12:9-18, the Bible says this: 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
God loves His body, the church. He is devoted to His body. The same devotion he has, is what we can operate in, because we have His love in us. We can be devoted enough to serve each other. With zeal, enthusiasm, and joy, we should serve others. God loves it when all of the body operates the way he laid out for us in His Word. . He loves to see every joint supply and every one do their part. Church body life is about serving others. It all starts because we have received love from God, and when He placed His love in our hearts, we want to share it. So because we love, we serve. When we serve, we win for God. Jesus was all about serving others, and that should be our heart too. When we are doing His will on the earth, loving and serving others, the people around us will know we are believers. Our actions will prove it! We are to be givers, lovers, blessers, and at peace with as many as possible. Sounds like a loving way to live. Let’s get back to these love basics.

In I John 3:14-19, it says this: 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

These verses talk so specifically about how we are to love our brothers and sisters, both natural and spiritual. Laying down our life for them might seem extreme, but that is what love does. Love gives. God is the greatest example of this. God loved, and because of love, He gave. And He keeps on giving. We are the recipients of His gracious love, every day. Because we are receivers, we are required to be givers. You might not like that word require, but we really are. If we see someone with a need, what does a lover do? They give! So to boil it down into simple terms, it means to put our money where our mouth is. If we say we love, there should be some evidence. Is there enough evidence in your life to prove that you are a child of God, who has been filled up with love from on high? Is there evidence in your home? Is there evidence in your speech? Is there evidence behind the steering wheel. That’s hitting below the belt now isn’t it!!! Let’s be the one who loves in deed and in truth.

This week we are talking about what God loves, and He loves His church. He loves the ones who have answered the call to minister to the sheep of His pasture. Eph 4:11-12 reads like this:

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Jesus gave the ministry gift of Pastor so that we could have an earthy shepherd to teach us God’s Word. God calls people into the ministry so that they can minister to us. If we didn’t need a pastor, Jesus wouldn’t have given pastors to the church! I was actually in a church service at the age of 13, when I knew God solidified in me what I felt was may calling into the full time ministry as a 9 year old. I don’t remember anything about the service, but right in the middle of the preaching, I had a knowing on the inside, that God had set aside my life for service in the ministry. I was never the same from that day on. God used my pastor at that time in my life, as he was teaching the Word to the congregation, to direct the Word, by the Holy Spirit specifically to me, to solidify the call that God had on my life. I was at the right place at the right time, getting the right results. I was in church! As we walk out our Christian life, it is an adventure. The greatest one ever! It is a journey, a pilgrimage, a pathway of following the Lord, directed by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that we will go from strength to strength as we stay on the path, and keep going and growing in the love of God. In the House of the Lord, we experience the love of God. Step by step as God’s love is manifested in us more and more as we connect with God’s people and His presence. We learn to love the Word in the house of the Lord. We learn to love times of prayer as we pray for others and have other believers pray for us in God’s house. All of this happens in church. Where we long to be, because we long for God’s presence and love to be manifested in us. If you don’t have a church home, or you don’t attend regularly, find a way to get connected, and increase your love for the time you get to spend in God’s house.

Ps 84:1-4 is a delightful reminder of how much we should cherish and love the House of God.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
 Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
 for the courts of the Lord;
 my heart and my flesh cry out
 for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
 and the swallow a nest for herself,
 where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
 Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
 they are ever praising you.

David said that his soul longed to be in God’s presence. It sounds like David loved to be in God’s House. Just the wording he used in todays Bible reading makes you think that his heart’s desire was to be where ever God was. David was known as a man after God’s own heart. David loved God and God loved David. God’s passion became David’s passion. God’s heart is for His family. The family of God meets, learns and grows together in church. Jesus gave the 5 fold ministry gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher so that we could grow, and particularly to prepare the people of God for the work of the ministry, and to build the body of Christ. So God places each person in a church body so that they can enter the presence of God, and serve in a church body. He is the good Shepherd that is looking after and taking care of His sheep. Jesus is the chief pastor! Jesus is the one who decides who is called to be a pastor. The interesting thing is that everyone needs a pastor. Even if you are a pastor, you still need a pastor. The word pastor means shepherd, and sheep (the people of God) need a shepherd. Jesus of course is the chief shepherd, but we still need to be “pastured”, in the pasture of the church. In the church is where you get good nourishment to grow in God. It is where we rub shoulder with other believers, and learn how to walk in love, use our faith, and become more like Jesus. It is where we long to be as believers. So my encouragement to you is…..long to be in God’s presence, He longs for you. In His presence you will find, everything you need, life, hope, joy, and buckets full of love!

I love what the writer of Ps 84 says in verses 8-12 about loving to spend time in the presence of God, specifically in His house. When thinking of what God loves, and love basics in general, we know he loves His church, the body of Christ. I love it that David did too. Hear what he said:
Ps 84: 8-12
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
 listen to me, God of Jacob. 9 Look on our shield, O God;
 look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts
 than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
 than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
 the Lord bestows favor and honor;
 no good thing does he withhold
 from those whose walk is blameless.
12 Lord Almighty,
 blessed is the one who trusts in you.

In these verses, David says that he would rather spend one day in God’s house than 1000 days anywhere else. He would rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than to dwell at ease in the tents of wickedness. I love that he would rather serve like an usher or a greeter in church (isn’t that what a doorkeeper is?) than be seen, served or live in a wicked place. He has such great love for the house of God. He also connected loving with serving. Serving is part of church. We get that example from Christ. Love serves! Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve. We shouldn’t come to church to be served, but to serve. We should be asking, how can we help? How can we participate to make things flow smoother? How can we be a blessing to our pastors, or the staff, or the different ministries that are available? How can we keep the building looking nice? How can we participate in services or events to make the ministry more effective? There are so many ways to serve in the body. It takes the up front things, and many more things behind the scenes. Think of prayer and how important it is in the church setting. We want the atmosphere to be ripe for God to do what needs to be done…that happens behind the scenes, because God’s people have a love for His house. Think of all the amazing Children’s ministry workers, or youth workers who make those ministries run. Not only do they make things relevant, they find creative ways to get the Word of God into our kids. That all happens behind the scenes, by people who love God’s house. I hope your prayer aligns with Davids. Better is one day in Your house, than thousands elsewhere.