Let your requests be made known to God

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:6,7) 

It is so easy for us to worry, to be anxious and stress over what is happening in our lives. We worry about our relationships with friends, family and significant others; we stress over our studies and career or part time work, food, fitness, health, money, getting enough sleep, food, finding time to do everything, being happy, other people, and lots more things. The biggest thing that I worry about right now is finding a job. Our lives are full of stress and worry. We become anxious because we feel as if our life isn't working right and it all is going wrong.

But, we shouldn't worry. Paul tells us here in Phil 4 to be anxious for nothing. Nothing. Instead of worrying we should pray and lift our problems to God. In one of the books I am reading right now (A Praying Life, by Paul E. Miller), the author writes about how our worries should turn into prayers to God. Instead of worrying about our job we should instead lift it up to God in prayer. We should let all our worries and fears be made known to God.

By lifting our anxieties up to God we acknowledge that he is greater than our problems and we give them over to Him. We cant do anything with our problems but God can. He holds us in His hands and takes care of our worries and supplications. When we do that and when we rest in that knowledge we can stop worrying. The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds and we learn to trust in someone much greater than us.

Love your Neighbour

I was just going to write another post on loving our neighbour unconditionally. I wrote a part of it and then I realised that I had already written most of what I was writing. So instead of repeating myself, I have decided to think of a list of practical ways in which we can show love to our neighbours.

Loving our neighbours isn't easy to do. It is a big challenge to love unconditionally, to love those who don't show love in return. But if we start in the small ways then our love to others can grow.

Here I've listed three general ideas to begin with, and then following are some of my ideas for practical things that we can do

1. Reach out to others. Don't just talk to the same people that you always talk to - your friends. Step out of your comfort zone and be a friend to others. After church or Bible study, speak to someone that you might not normally talk to. Be a friend to them.
2. Listen. Listening to others is a great way to show that we care about them By this I don't just mean pretending to listen to others and then forgetting what they said, but actually take it in. Show that you understand and even empathise with them if they are speaking about something that might be bothering them
3. Look for needs that can be filled. It's easy enough to talk about filling need but actively look for people that you can help. Things that you yourself can do. Maybe it's mowing the lawn or making a meal or even just giving someone company.

Jesus told us to do unto others as we would have them do to us (Luke 6:27). Its not an easy thing to do but with the help of the Holy Spirit working in us we can. Some of the practical things that this can look like include:

• Smile. At others. It's amazing how a smile can change someones day, show them that someone cares.
• Buy a meal for a homeless person (don't just think about doing it) OR keep snacks in your bag so you have something to give them right there.
• Learn how to change a tire. Instead of thinking that we should help the car stuck on the side of the road, stop and help them. Carry jump leads for the same reason.
• Offer to babysit
• Mow your neighbours lawn
• Bake extra and give it to someone else.
• Pay for the person behind you in the drive through (or the person buying coffee after you etc..)
• Sit next to someone new in your Bible study group. Ask them how their week has been
• Pray for others
• Hold the door open for the person behind you
• visit a local nursing home and spend time with the elderly. They love it!
• Find somewhere local that you can volunteer at. Give as much time as you can however short or long it might be. For WA I found this website that might be helpful http://www.volunteeringwa.org.au/ otherwise your local church might also have some outreach programs set up.
• Ask questions when you talk to people, don't just talk about yourself
• Give up your seat on the train/bus
• Open up to others so they feel they can open up to you. Show that you are also vulnerable
• Be patient with others no matter how long they take
• Donate blood
• Help toursits or others who look lost (I've been on the receiving end here and it is greatly appreciated)

Step out of your comfort zone and reach out to those who God places in your path.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour other, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Unconditional love

We are saved because of God's great love for us. His great unconditional love for us. We didn't do anything, we cannot do anything that makes Him love us yet he loves us all the same.

In that same way we should love others. Because Christ laid down his life for us, because he loves us unconditionally, we should share that love. Christian love then is unconditional. It exceeds boundaries and has no expectations. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We love our brothers and sisters in christ, we love our friends in the work force, we love those who God puts in our path because of the wonderful gift of love that God has given us. 

How do we show that love? How do we show to others that we love them because of the love that we have been given?

God's artwork

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The past several months I have had the amazing opportunity to travel and see some amazing sights. It was truly a real blessing and a wonderful experience. I was able to spend time in Thailand where I was in the magnificent jungles and on some beautiful tropical beaches. Then later in Europe I could see some amazing coutryside in Ireland, Germany, Turkey and Italy. The breathtaking Swiss Alps and the rugged coastline of Northern Ireland (including the Giants Causeway).

Now I love art. I took almost every opportunity I could while in Europe to see the artwork of others and to take as many photographs as i could to inspire my own art. But the beauty of what others have done and what I try to recreate cannot even begin to compare to the magnificent splendour of what God has done. Not only in Europe or Thailand or the amazing places that we have here in Australia, but all over the world he has given us so many different masterpieces and they are all there for us to enjoy.

What a great and awesome God we serve!

Learn to Discern

I will never forget one of the faded dog eared posters that we had hanging in the English classroom at school. I can still see it sitting there with the faded yellow words "Test the Spirits" on it. To be honest I'm not really sure why I remember it maybe it was because of the long hours we spent in that classroom or because we did have a large number of our TEE exams in there throughout year 11 and 12 and I would look around the classroom for inspiration and too see if anything had changed.

The words are important though. We must learn to be discerning,to test what we learn and compare it against what we know. We should all be able to evaluate what we hear, read and see and hold it up against the light of God's word. 

That is not to say that we should look over something because it may possibly have something contrary to our beliefs and understanding of Gods word, but rather we should look at these things and compare it with what we know as right. There may be parts of it that we find are not true or accurate but we can pass over them while still learning from the rest of what we have. Books, movies, speeches  and articles all present us with a collection of themes. We may not agree with all the themes but we can take and learn from those that we do agree with and pass over what we don't agree with.

God has given us the wonderful gift of his word. Study that and know it well so that you can use it to shine light upon what ever else you may read, watch or listen to.