Hello Friends,

Well, yesterday proved to be a test of my commitment to surrender to the Lord.  I awoke with a solid plan for the day that included what I thought that God wanted me to do and I wasn’t halfway through it when I realized that yes, God was calling me to do what I had planned, but not the way I had planned to do it.  Sometimes the best plans are right, but God has some modifications to make to them.  It is in these times that we must fully surrender.  Accept God’s grace and walk in faith.

My day didn’t look exactly like I had thought it would, but it proved to offer me many things to learn, lots of opportunities for Him to lead, and a bundle of openings for me to allow God to lead and have His perfect will in my life.  Oh, Lord, thank you for eyes to see your will unfold in my life and a desire to walk in your ways.  Because of your God’s great mercy and love at the end of the day my blessings far outweighed my trials and as always, His ways were abundantly better than my ways.  I accepted my challenge to surrender and lived in the peace, joy, grace, and mercy of a day well served!

God revealed to me a simple truth.  Sometimes we write people off because of their age, lack of abilities, personality, or some other superficial reason. Sometimes we dismiss people because they don’t fit into our idea of someone we want or need to be around us.  But the truth is, these are all dangerous criteria for choosing who we serve or serve with, for choosing who we spend time with and who we don’t.  Praise the Lord that God sees deeper than the outside.  Praise God that He sees beyond the here and now and sees our potential.  And as Christians we must do the same.  We must see the heart, the intent, the potential, and the soul of all who are around us.  We must not be hasty in our judgement of who is “worthy” of our time, effort, presence, and friendship, but instead we must see every human through God’s eyes of grace and mercy.  We must allow His perfect love to cast out false assumptions, to look beyond faults, and to enable us to love as He loves. 

I imagine that many of what would have been amazing friendships have been halted at the very beginning because someone, an amazing someone didn’t fit my superficial criteria.  Unfortunately, I am certain that friends who would have been lifelong resources and companions were dismissed because of a misunderstanding or a lack of patience to give friendships a chance. Today I learned that everyone deserves a second chance and that if we could see things from God’s point of view, things would look very different.  Things look different from the Shepherd’s point of view.

Lord give me your eyes of compassion.  Lord put in me your heart of love.  Jesus allow me to be your hands extended and your feet that spreads your love, mercy, and your grace.  Lord create in me a clean heart that truly seeks to have your mind, your heart, and your ears.  Help me to be more like you and less like me.

In His Service,
Kim