Because He Lives
Recently when I went to church, one of the things that the minister said right before prayer time was, “Now take some time to reflect on and thank God for the ways in which He is showing Himself to you today.”
And that got me thinking – of all the many ways in which God shows Himself to me every day. To name a few, because of Jesus:
- I wake up in the morning and give thanks for the day He has given.
- I see the new leaves coming out of tree branches and praise God for His beautiful work in creation. My dear mom likes to say, “God is so rich that He can make all the leaves disappear every fall, because He’ll just make new ones grow back in the spring.”
- I can confess to a forgiving God when my selfishness and pride take over (which happens many times a day, sadly)
- There is freedom in my work because I know that my identity is not synonymous with my performance on the job, and the praise of my bosses–while nice–do not speak to my inherent self-worth. In a strange way, I think that knowledge actually frees me to perform better than I otherwise would.
- When I feel icky (as I had for the last three days due to severe seasonal allergies) I can always pray for help, and know that God is sovereign over everything — even my hypersensitive sinuses. (I also stop and wonder sometimes whether Jesus had allergies)
- I am reminded that every person has inherent worth, not because I say so, but because God says so. So when I find it difficult to love someone, because of Jesus I am more inclined to remind myself, or ask God to kick me in the butt and remind me, that He loves them infinitely, so I should too (although admittedly, and sadly, sometimes it takes a long while for me to get to the asking part)
- When I see bad things happen, I can mourn to a God who knows already and is also grieving the suffering and injustices of the world. And I can pray for Him to make things better, and trust that one day — for certain, in His good time — He will.
- I know my future is secure in the hands of a mighty God. I confess that I don’t always “feel” this, but deep down, I know it’s true, and it is comforting.
Those are just some of the thoughts that came to mind…