BFF! What Can I Do to Bring You Joy, Today?

I'm sure God loves when we come to Him in prayer, but usually, when we check in with Him, it is only to give Him our long prayer request and wish list. Can you imagine how He must feel when the only time we go to Him, it is only to present Him with our wants, desires, and needs? Then there are those who never ask anything of Him. They take pride in not having a “wish list”, but a “thanksgiving list”. God is such a good, good Father and He is receptive to each request we make and He loves our hearts of gratitude and thanksgiving. If we know He sees and hears us every time we pray and every time we come to Him with hearts of gratitude, can you imagine how He would feel if we visited with Him as truly our best friend who had wonderful friend-to-friend conversations with each other?

The idea of God as a friend doesn’t diminish the fact that He is our Heavenly Father. He is also our closest, best friend. I would never go to my best friend and just ask her for things and tell her what I need her to do for me. Neither would I incessantly thank her for being my friend. I would tune in to my friend’s heart and we’d mutually share about our families and what’s going on in our world. I’d ask her if there was anything I could do to help her.

God is our Friend Who is ALWAYS loving, caring, guiding and directing us, so maybe our conversations should start with “Lord, what can I do to bring You joy today?” That simple question will lead to answers. Here is how He answered me. I took a friend to lunch to encourage her. I heard His still small voice say: “This brings me joy.” Those words came from deep within. It confirmed that God was delighted by what I was doing. He saw something I didn’t. Perhaps it was the fact that I was encouraging His girl and building confidence in her. I’ll never know for sure, but I like to think I brought God joy and that was enough.

On another day, a friend messaged me. She was having a bad day and having to move out of her home immediately. I went to her, helped her pack and carry loads in my car for her. There it was again, an inner knowing that I brought God joy. It’s easy to assume that it’s the bigger things that bring God joy -- like telling someone about Jesus or changing the world. Certainly, these are beautiful in our Father's eyes, but these small moments matter to God, too.

As we begin our everyday conversations with God asking, “What can I do to bring You joy today?” our spiritual ears will open. We will discover that some of the smallest events of our day are actual miracles as we partner with God to love people.Coming to God as a friend as well as our Heavenly Father draws us into the wonderful relationship Paul talked about in Romans 5:11: “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

When we ask "What can I do to bring You joy today, Lord?" We just might be surprised at the answer.

John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Satisfy Me, Oh Lord

Satisfy Me, Oh Lord
Satisfy: meet the expectations, needs or desires of someone; gratify, fulfill

I've returned home to Frisco, after a packed-full week in Tulsa, and before that, many trips there and back to get Mom's estate sale all ready to go and completed. Our customer, Mom, was completely SATISFIED with the sale that brought in wonderful opportunities to bless a lot of folks with her lifetime of treasures and with the proceeds that came from the sales that will definitely help with her care and budget. Now, her grandson and family can close on the home, get the house ready to move in to make new memories in that wonderful home. All around satisfaction!

As customers shopping and buying in the marketplace, we shop until we drop and we get home and find that important item we purchased to be defective. We have to return to the store and we get less than great customer service. We wait and wait for a service technician to come and repair something in our home, and when they get there, they don't have the part or don't know how to repair it. We just want to be SATISFIED.

We drink a protein shake as a meal to help with weight loss but within minutes, we’ll say “That meal sure didn’t SATISFY me!”

As employers who are responsible for the products or services they represent, they want and must have respectful, efficient, and trustworthy employees. They want to be SATISFIED.

Let’s be real -- from the Moms whose day-to-day activities are mind-boggling -- feeding kids, running errands, wiping faces and bottoms, checking homework, driving carpool, scrubbing toilets -- to the Dads that work from sun-up to sun-down on a J.O.B. to make ends meet for their growing family -- they want to be SATISFIED with their accomplishments.

In the midst of all of that -- we ALL want and need the Lord to SATISFY us, feed us and make us full before life empties us.
The Psalmist David wrote "Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. SATISFY us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Psalm 90:13-14. That's a paraphrase of Moses’ words when he was pleading with the Lord for relief from those demanding, whiny, difficult people.

Moses gives us valuable insight for how to pray those desperate prayers: "Satisfy us in the morning." He knew about the Lord’s daily satisfaction. Each morning, the Israelites would gather enough manna for the day. They were fed, filled and satisfied by the Lord’s supernatural provision of food in their desert wanderings.

Moses knew the Word of the Lord would give him hope for the day’s struggles with those complaining people. God’s Word would give him patience as he waited. God’s Word would turn his eyes from his day’s circumstances and fix them instead on the character of his Lord.

God's Word is the answer for our SATISFACTION, too. It is powerful – so powerful, in fact -- just reading a small portion of the Bible every day will be like the Israelites receiving the Lord's satisfying care every day, and that's what we need, too. We don't have to read chapters and chapters to sustain us for the week. We just need our daily portion. And just like the Lord was faithful to the Israelites, He is faithful today to all who turn to Him.

Oh Lord, we feel like we are running on empty. We need to be filled, but sometimes we try to fill ourselves with rest, television, social media or food. Nothing fills and prepares us for today’s demands like Your Word. Help us feast daily on Your Word so that we are SATISFIED. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Count It All Joy!

Ever seen a baby that was laughing and so full of joy, that you were just magnetically drawn to him / her? You may have remarked, "What a joyful baby!" Of course they are, they have no worries, no concerns, all their needs are met, and they just live in their own world of comfort and pleasure.

So do you exude joy so much that people are drawn to you? Joy is NOT happiness. Happiness is typically what we receive or see in the world around us -- what's going on outside us -- when skies are blue and birds are singing and bills are paid and relationships are fine and we're all healthy and strong. But, JOY comes from deep within, and we have it in spite of gray skies and tough circumstances.

James 1:2 says: "My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various trials....", REALLY? Count the trials for joy??? As we mentally shift from the “woe is me syndrome” into the “count it all as joy mentality,” then our inner joy will be released from the inside to the outside. Our actions will mimic our thoughts.

Psalms 28:7 says: "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for JOY, and with my song, I praise Him."

Yes, like that sweet baby, knowing that our God IS our strength, we can trust in Him, and our hearts will leap for joy and our outside will radiate what's on the inside. After all, we know our Father has it ALL under control. Indeed, we can be JOY-FULL and FULL of JOY!!!!