worry

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A Time of Rest

August 23, 2022September 1, 2022 krisshetter

“To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.”  Romans 16:27

Thank you, Lord for a good night sleep. As I wake today I recognize the wisdom of the gift you gave us of sleep. So that I may be re-charged each day to serve you, to spread your message of love and to give you all glory. Amen

When I woke up this morning my first thought was of God’s perfection and wisdom. His perfect plan for us and all the animals that roam the earth. It wasn’t an accident that there was night and day. There first was the darkness and then God created our alarm clock – the light.

²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light." Genesis 1:2-3

God’s plan for us has always included a time for re-charging. Haven’t you ever contemplated on the fact that we have a world-wide understanding that at night the majority of the world sleeps? If there’s anything that we have all mostly agreed to do as part of His plan is to tuck ourselves in and give it a rest.

The restless nights, worried-filled staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning are not, however, part of His plan. He tells us over and over in His Holy Word to turn it over to Him so we can be at peace. So we can rest. So we can sleep.

Friend, we can be so thankful to God for giving us the night. For weaving into His plan a time of rest. When you lay your head down think on what He has given you as the light turns to dark. And when His alarm clock rises, give Him glory for another day to serve Him well.

His Abundance

August 17, 2022August 29, 2022 krisshetter

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27

Father God, your riches are boundless, your love endless, and your provisions unending! While I go throughout my day today help me to take my thoughts off the world’s insufficiencies and turn my eyes to your plentiful ways. Amen

It was only a short time ago that most of us worried about the scarcity of one product – toilet paper. It was a man-made problem borne out fear and selfishness. In fact, one day while at a home improvement store I witnessed a man and woman gleefully overloading their pickup truck with hundreds of rolls of toilet paper. I’m sure their plan was to sell most of it and their excitement was over the thousands of dollars they would make. A small part of me hopes they still have a garage full of toilet paper. My husband’s solution to this dire 21^stcentury problem was to install bidets in our bathrooms, therefore eliminating the need for toilet paper. Two points-of-view to the same problem. Scarcity vs. abundance.

We humans have a tendency to always worry about not having enough, whether it be food, water, fuel, trees, love, friends, money, work, or even toilet paper. But God’s plan for us is so completely different. He is always wanting us to model our lives, actions and thoughts to His kingdom—which He shows to be the opposite of scarcity thinking.

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.
⁶Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
    your justice like the great deep.
    You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
⁷How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
⁹For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light."  Psalm 36:5-9

You might be thinking, “that all sounds good but what about droughts and food shortages and waning oil reserves?” To that I say, trust God first for He is always about abundance. Throughout scripture, especially in the letters to the churches, we are reminded about the basic lesson of childhood – sharing. (Something the folks in the pickup truck forgot) You see, God provides. He may provide more to you than you need so that you can give to another. He also provides others with knowledge and skills to discover new ways for God to meet our needs. Abundant thinking is always solution-based rather than fear-based.

I learned a valuable “point of view” lesson once from Dr. Laura Schlessinger about marriage. If you always have the perspective that divorce is not an option then you will always find new solutions to marital problems (barring issues with violence and other abuses). It’s the same with God. If we always have the perspective that God is a god of abundance – overflowing with unending love and grace and mercy for us – then we will seek ways to see Him at work. We will see our own abundance as His tools to serve others.

Friend, God’s kingdom is overflowing with milk and honey. When we see the world in a panic over the latest scarcity-based fear we need to turn our eyes to God. His kingdom of abundance is open to all who call Him Savior and for that we should give Him all glory and honor!

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A Time for Everything

May 30, 2022May 31, 2022 krisshetter

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.  A time to be born and a time to die.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

As a kid living in southern California, I had the opportunity to go to Disneyland a number of times. Before each visit my brother and I would plan out how to strategically use our tickets – yes, back then we had ticket books for rides. That’s where the saying, “It’s an E ticket ride” comes from, meaning the best ones. In the ticket book there’d be loads of A tickets for the kiddie rides and shows. But only a few, valuable E tickets. I imagined how much fun I was going to have spinning around the tea cups and travelling through the Haunted Mansion. But when I got to Disneyland all I could think of was the next ride. And the next. When we would leave, I felt a sense of disappointment. Like I hadn’t really been there at all. So, I looked forward to the day we could go back and begin the process of yearning for something better around the next bend all over again.

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Proverb 27:1

That has been a lifelong problem for me – always looking for tomorrow to bring me joy and peace. It’s also brought me a lot of worry. And although God wants us to be good stewards of our life, planning and preparing, He doesn’t want our hearts and minds to be absent from today. Or worse, trapped in the past. During difficult seasons we can so easily project our life to what we hope it to be or catastrophize our life to what we are worried it will be. We often also wish we could just go back to the way things were. Back home, back to a perceived better or safer time.

On my rides home from the Magic Kingdom, I would wish I could go back. Go back and relish each ride, each experience to its fullest. And while I was doing that, I was probably missing out again on what was happening right then and there. I can only imagine Elijah, a quiet, rugged mountain shepherd on day 50 or 100 or even 200 in Cherith Ravine letting his mind wander back home to Gilead. Being just a man, he probably once or twice longed for his old way of life where kings and queens weren’t threatening his life. Where he could pick berries and drink fresh goat milk each day instead of relying on ravens for food. But God needed him right there, right at that time paying attention.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

It’s a hard lesson when we are in pain, suffering through bad news, or being persecuted. We are admonished to trust in God for tomorrow and not yearn to go backwards to home. And yet, in the midst of my Cherith I found myself doing just that.

Both my children had returned to their own homes after saying their final goodbyes to their beloved grandmother. My husband too had returned back to a job that needed his presence. That next day, after a particularly hard few moments and, to be honest, watching my brother-in-law’s little family gather closely together, I needed to escape. I felt so alone and incapable of the task of helping shepherd my mother-in-law through her final days. I took my eyes off the Lord and placed them back on myself. A phone call home had me crying out to my husband, “I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough. I want to come home right now.”

I wanted to go back to before the cancer. I wanted to envelope myself in my comfortable routine back home. Fear and loneliness wrapped around me like a heavy blanket. And then I remembered Elijah. I looked toward the majesty of the Colorado Rockies and remembered God can do all things. And He needed me right there, right now. Not longing for home or better times. Not worrying about the future. Instead, paying attention to the beautiful moments and lessons He had placed before me for today.

²²So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22

I still will battle looking for the next “better thing” around the corner. But the time between that search and remembering to enjoy this day has reduced to mere moments as I pull my thoughts back to looking for Jesus right now. There is a time for everything. To prepare and to sow, to cry and to laugh. To keep and throw away. To mourn and to dance. When we step outside God’s timing we find ourselves at odds with His plan. But when we live in His moments, His seasons, we find ourselves in harmony. That is God’s promised peace. And that my friends, is exactly where the joy is.

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His Next Chapter

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 krisshetter

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10

I was asked recently in a Bible study to list all the religious and “good works” activities I do. This included serving my family and friends. After making the list we were then to write who we do those activities for – other people, ourselves, or God. I have to admit that my list was mostly things I do for myself. Including said Bible study.

How often do we go to church to “fill ourselves up?” When we join a small group or Bible study is it in service to God or to help us learn more about ourselves? Or worse still, out of some obligation? When we clean our floors is it to please our spouses? When we volunteer to help in the church childcare, usher, fill bags for the needy, is it to elevate ourselves or check off our boxes?

I recently had a bit of a perspective shift about why I should devote myself to my Bible studies. In the past, I’ve taken the point of view that they help me either “fix myself” or learn more about God. But what if instead we view our study time as just the first, necessary step to then fulfilling our obligations to God? To be prepared for Him to use us in ways He has planned? The last step isn’t to die daily to sin. Our last step is to be His implements, His well trained workers. Like students at medical school. They take classes to become medical doctors. Students don’t stop at just the classes. They have a goal — to cure people.

Today I praise God for His expectations of us. He expects us to learn how to lean on Him and trust Him. He expects us to clean up our hearts and minds for Him. But all that is in anticipation of Him sending us out to fulfill His plans.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  James 2:14

I’ve met Christians who, though they love the Lord and have worked on cleaning up their own house, have stopped at their own doorstep. They are satisfied with not stepping forward and saying, “You’ve worked a good work in me and I’m ready for what you need of me.”

It’s not enough for us to stop being prideful. To stop seeking revenge. To stop worrying. To stop loving money. We need to ask God, “What do you want me to do with this great thing you have done?”

And now that I’m thinking differently about God’s expectations, I’m looking at my time with God in a new light. When I go to church, I want to learn more about Him and worship Him. I want to actively thank God for allowing me to serve my family and friends in His name. And I’m asking, ”what in this text or in this Bible study question can prepare me to serve Him?” I don’t want to stop being a part of God’s plan at the end of the book. I want to help Him write the next chapter of something new.

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The Power In Us

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021 krisshetter

…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

How glorious would it have been to live when Jesus was physically here on Earth? To sit at the Sermon on the Mount and hear His words directly from His mouth? To be in a busy marketplace and bump into Him – turning to see directly into His face? Isn’t it amazing how He spent so little time here with us yet the impact has been so astounding that even our days are marked by when He arrived? And when He ascended, the gift He left behind is something for which we can never be thankful enough.

“If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14: 15-17

When you study the Bible you see how Jesus and the Holy Spirit touched lives even before the time we say God became fully human. Their presence is woven throughout the Old Testament. So it’s not as though they were created suddenly. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all spoke the world into creation and have placed their holy hands on our lives throughout history.

So, today specifically I praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit and for being our constant intercessor, our inner voice, our God whisperer.

It is the Holy Spirit that helps us to pray when we don’t know what to pray – because the situation has gotten so dire. It is the Holy Spirit who whispers to us to get up and do God’s work. It is the Holy Spirit who partners with us when we need rescue.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  Romans 8:26

I shared with my BSGs in the past that when I’m really stressed or worried I have a difficult time praying. My mind is so jumbled and full of negative thoughts I can’t seem to quiet it down. One of my BSGs responded saying, “I’ve just cried out, “help me!” when I don’t know what to say.” That’s great advice. It says it right there in Romans 8. The Holy Spirit will help us pray. Will give us the words to speak to God.

Friends, God is so beautiful and loving that He didn’t leave us orphans. He didn’t leave us grieving because He left us with a piece of Him inside of each of us. I once heard a Christian teacher say that we don’t need to attain patience, kindness, love, etc. We already have all those imputed through the Holy Spirit that lives in us because we believe. We just need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us release those gifts. To help us pray the words to fight back against the devil. To whisper to us “love this person right now.”

We need to believe that God has given us the access to this awesome power. And once we do that, we should pray to unleash it with all its glorious might.

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Free At Last

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021 krisshetter

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

There’s been a lot of talk (and screaming) about slavery the last few years. Some people stating that relatives of people who were enslaved in the United States prior to 1862 – over 150 years ago – should receive financial contribution from people who have never owned a slave. The details of this idea get quite complicated. Which new government department will receive millions or billions of dollars in funding to manage this program? How would it be proven someone was a relative of a slave? Would people whose relatives didn’t live in the United States prior to 1862 be required to contribute? I saw one estimate, based on a city government’s financial proposal, that in the end the recipients would actually receive a paltry sum.

Is slavery bad? Absolutely. Does it go on still today in many forms? Yes. As a Christian we should all know the dirty secret of slavery. Our individual submission to sin causes the most destructive and widespread slavery of all – placing our souls in shackles. In some cases, that sin leads to what we think of as “traditional” slavery – the illicit sex trade, illegal employment practices, and more.

There’s really only one answer to eradicating slavery – Jesus. So today I praise God that He and He alone offers us freedom. The true freedom we all need. Freedom from the slavery of sin.

For me, I still have to work daily with God on not willingly putting back on the shackles of fear and worry and doubt. Of pride and selfishness. Of allowing my flesh to rule my life. Giving in to those sins causes me to treat others in very non Jesus-like ways. When I focus on myself, I take my eyes off serving others and helping them out of slavery. When my feelings are hurt, I want to hurt others. When I’m really worried or afraid I might pour myself another drink.

Each day I turn to God and commune with Him He gives me strength to shake off those shackles. Each day when tempted to fall back into my sin I can proclaim with Him that I am free at last no matter my physical circumstance. For some, an extra $100 or so either given out of their pocket or given to their pocket might feel like enough. But for me, no amount of money can ever replace God’s gift of freedom.

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He Prepares The Way

January 6, 2021January 4, 2021 madisondooley36

This is what the Lord says to his 
anointed,to Cyrus, whose right hand 
I take hold of to subdue nations 
before him and to strip kings of 
their armor, to open doors before 
him so that gates will not be shut:
I will go before you 
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze 
and cut through bars of iron.
I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, who summons 
you by name.
Isaiah 45:1-3

When I was 17, I moved across the country, away from my family to the Midwest for college. I was unsure what God had planned for me there, but I knew that I needed a new adventure and was excited to strike out on my own. It is difficult to describe with words that first feeling I had when my parents dropped me off at school and drove away into the distance to go back to California. I watched their car drive out of my university and eventually out of sight. For the first time, I was truly on my own. I felt my stomach drop and tears welled up in my eyes. Reality hit and I began to immediately doubt my decision.

Those first months away from home were difficult. I spent many nights deep with sadness, missing my old life at home. Other nights I would be filled with joy at the exciting new venture I had bravely took head-on. Amidst the rollercoaster of emotions, I always had one underlying questions – What did God have planned for me here?

I wasn’t really a believer at the time, but I had gone to church my whole life and *generally* knew that God had a plan for our lives. Being from San Diego, I knew it was no coincidence that I ended up in Saint Charles, Missouri. It was random and I had zero connections to the area other than being recruited to play field hockey there. Despite not proclaiming Christ as my Savior yet, something inside of me knew there was a reason God brought me to this place.

Rewind back to the initial verse I kicked off with. Isaiah 45: 1-3 discusses a prophesy of Cyrus, who is a pagan leader God chooses to deliver the Israelites from their captivity. These verses were written 200 years before Cyrus was born. Meaning, Cyrus’ life was already planned out way before he was ever a thought in his parent’s minds. God had a plan for Cyrus’ life – He has a plan for yours too.

God planned to use Cyrus in mighty ways, even though he was no mighty person. God chose him, predestined him to be the deliverer of God’s people. God wasn’t particularly favoring Cyrus, rather he was caring for His people as a whole by providing them a way out of their suffering through Cyrus.

I know that God loves me, cares for me and sees me as beautifully and wonderfully made. But just as much as he sees me as His child, He also sees me as an instrument to His Kingdom, a vessel for which he can work through me. Just as he did Cyrus.

I quickly found out that God’s plan for me in Saint Charles was to find salvation in His son Jesus Christ and to dedicate my life to serving Him – no matter where I was living, working, etc. God saved me so that He could use me on my field hockey team, amongst my roommates and in my workplace. Just as Cyrus’s plan for his life was written 200 years before he was born – so was mine, and yours.

When I look back to my years in college, I am reminded of the good and perfect plan God had for me during my time there. Every day was certainly not good and perfect, but the things He brought me through and the lessons He taught me showed me that He truly is a good and perfect God.

Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
Psalm 119:105

God has already prepared a way for us. This truth alleviates me from worry and stress about tomorrow – something to which I still occasionally fall victim. God wrote the story of our lives generations ago, and has every intention of carrying out His good and perfect plan for us. All we must do is surrender control and open our hands to His authority.