Christian – Page 5

Staying close

What my dog teaches me every day.

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 Kelley HuntLeave a comment

John chapter 15 is a favourite chapter of mine. In this passage, Jesus invites us to move in closer. He invites us to abide. The Greek word used here means living, staying, remaining.

There is nothing frantic here.

My Labrador, Buddy, sleeps all day under my husband’s desk. If Buddy could be on his lap he would be. He gets as close as he can to his master and then he just stays there. However, when Buddy goes for a walk, he does not stay. He runs off, sniffing everything in sight, chasing squirrels and birds. He is with my husband but he is not abiding. If he hears his name he will come back, only to run off again.

I see myself in both these pictures.

But with all my heart I want what John 15 is offering me. I want fruitfulness, not withered branches.

I want the kind of joy that fills me up, gives me strength and blesses those around me.

I want Jesus to call me his friend. I want to know what He is up to. I want to partner with Him in His plans for this earth. I want to be right smack in the middle of everything He is doing.

But first, there is John 15 verse 5 where Jesus lovingly reminds me that without Him I can do nothing.

Perhaps the key to abiding is believing that is true.

When I become convinced that without God’s presence, power and provision I cannot live this life, then I will seek Him. When I am desperate for wisdom I will go to His Word. When I really need answers I will pray. I will seek and knock and remain and there will be no time for chasing squirrels.

When I know that every single thing I need is found in Him I will spend time with Him. I will sit close and listen and love Him and let Him love me.

Beautiful buildings

August 22, 2018 Kelley HuntLeave a comment

‘It takes wisdom to build a house, and understanding to set it on a firm foundation; it takes knowledge to furnish its rooms with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.’ Prov. 24:3-4

I don’t know if you have ever worked on a building project. It is all-consuming.

Eighteen years ago this month, my husband and I bought an ugly house on a pretty street. It needed to be completely redone but we saw the potential for our growing family and so we took a leap and embarked on years of redecorating, building work, dust and dirt.

And, this summer my brother and his wife finished a monumental project. For three years they managed the building of a new medical clinic in Mexico and it completely took over their lives. They are incredibly proud of the end result but so happy to be finished!

Building a clinic can teach you a lot about life.

That is because there are so many darn decisions! Some are really, really important and some are not and you have to know which is which. Some decisions take a lot of thought and some just need to be made quickly so you can move on. Sometimes those decisions have a knock-on effect that you didn’t anticipate. Building projects of any kind can have tricky junctures that need to be navigated and problems that block your forward motion until you solve them.

And so it is with our lives.

Proverbs 24.3-4 beautifully reminds us that we dare not built without God’s wisdom, knowledge and understanding. It is above our pay grade.

In Exodus 35.31 we see that the craftsmen working on the tabernacle needed supernatural wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3.19-20 tells that creation was formed using wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

If you look up the meanings of wisdom, knowledge and understanding you will see definitions like skilful, shrewd, insightful, intelligent, cunning, aware of the facts, thoughtful, sensible, practical, well-fitted and stable.

Like Proverbs 24.3-4 so beautifully describes, we are all building things. We are building marriages and families and ministries and careers. We are helping our children build their futures and faith-walks. We are constructing relationships and characters and legacies every minute of every day, either consciously or unconsciously.

These precious projects need insight, skill and thoughtfulness. They cannot be thrown up or they will fall down. Foundations need to be laid well, structures need careful planning and layouts have to practically work or they are no good. There is so much to think about, how do we manage it all?

We read in Ecclesiastes 4.12 that there is a strength in the number three and I believe there is a durableness to our lives when we look for our wisdom, understanding and knowledge from three places –

God’s wonderful, perfect Word,

really great advice from good people

and the personal promptings of the Holy Spirit

Now, we all have our natural tendencies. Some of us are quite independent and so we look to God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit but we are not particularly interested in advice from others.

Others of us thrive on advice from books and friends but don’t take the time to seek God’s will for ourselves in His Word and in prayer.

And some of us read and follow the Bible but haven’t yet discovered the whispers of the Spirit that can help us apply Bible verses or advice for a specific situation in a really personal way.

I think that if we neglect any of these, it can make us weak and unbalanced.

Marriages and friendships, families and ministries all need a foundation of God’s way of doing things that we find in His Word. You cannot scrimp here because it will determine the strength and stability of the finished product. There is endless wisdom for every area of our lives found within the pages of the Bible, just waiting to be discovered and applied.

But our building projects also need inspiration. Like the dozens of home decoration magazines I devoured when I was working on my house, we can be creatively stimulated by others. New ways of doing things, different perspectives and clever insights are invaluable. So, read good books and articles. Listen to Godly advice and implement it. Ask questions of those around you who are building well. Let wise counsel be a gift in your life that sparks solutions.

And then let the Holy Spirit breathe life into it all. Listen to His sweet voice as He gives you insights that will transform situations with the resurrection power of God. Allow Him to show you not just how to do things but when to do them. Let His voice guide you personally. Listen and follow.

Every day we are building things.

Don’t build alone.

Allow wise people to come alongside you and help you. Let God’s Word inform the design so that every room looks like Him. And, eagerly welcome the still small voice of the Spirit of God.

Opinionated wedding planning

August 15, 2018September 12, 2019 Kelley Hunt1 Comment

In Ephesians 5.15-17 we see that living carefully is equated with wisdom.

No surprises here. The dumbest thing I can do is waste my precious, God-given life on things that don’t matter, right?

Today, as I was thinking about wisdom, I read verse 17 in the Amplified Bible and this phrase jumped out at me, ‘do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish’.

In verse 15 we see the opposite of this when it says, ‘Live purposefully and worthily and accurately’.

If I want real wisdom, the ability to know what is the right thing to do and how to do it, then I have to overcome the barriers to wisdom, one of which is thoughtlessness.

I have written about thoughtlessness before and how a busy and fast-paced life can often cause it. But I think there is another more subtle contributor to my thoughtlessness and it is a strongly held opinion.

The problem is that if I have a strong opinion about something, I don’t feel the need to revisit it. I just re-enforce my idea, occasionally sharing it on Facebook with others who agree with me. There is no room for listening to another point of view or gaining fresh input or even recognizing when I am wrong.

Now, when I talk about opinions, I don’t mean Biblical beliefs. I am not talking about something I have studied in the Bible and wrestled with and prayed about and then made part of my belief system.

I am talking about all the other stuff.

I am talking about the ‘I just really think…..’ stuff.

I am talking about my politics, denominational preferences, parenting style, cultural bias and personal choices.

I am talking about the way I live my life and the way I think everyone else should live theirs.

I don’t think there is anything more humbling than actually doing something that you have theorized about for a long time.

Like for instance, parenting.

Or marriage.

Or church ministry.

Or really anything that is hard.

It is so much easier to be an armchair pundit than to actually play in the game.

Honestly, I feel like my forties have been one long journey of replacing my not-so-great ideas with God’s loving wisdom. It has been humbling, embarrassing and very painful.

And it has been so very freeing.

You see the danger is that when I form opinions about what I will never do or what I will always do, I run the risk of thoughtless behaviour.

I risk automatically living life in a certain way, without ever questioning it.

Being thoughtful means lifting my opinions to God and letting God’s Holy Spirit breathe on them. Then the useless, papery chaff just blows away and the wheat remains.

God, in His great mercy and love, if I let Him, gently removes anything that has no value to my life and He leaves what does. He blows away my foolish assumptions so that only truth remains.

And actually, I can’t have both anyway. I can’t hold onto my opinions and also seek God’s way of doing things. That’s why the Bible tells me that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. I can’t ever really be wise unless I value God’s perspective above my own.

I cannot ask for wisdom with a closed hand or a closed heart or a closed mind.

Here is a small example from my real life today. I am planning a wedding for my daughter. It has been exciting, fun, and hard. And as I look back over the last 8 months I can see that my biggest problem has been my strong opinions about how weddings should be done.

I dread to think how many times over the years I have voiced my wedding theories, saying how things should be done, what I like and don’t like, how the day should go, how the service should be, etc.

Those words haunt me now because it just isn’t that simple. Weddings are complicated and there are many people to please as well as budget limitations and practical considerations.

So, one by one, my ‘non-negotiables’ have gone out the window and compromises have been made. And one by one my silly opinions, my judgements, my ideas have been replaced by God’s perfect wisdom for this wedding for this family on October 6, 2018.

And that is so much better, isn’t it?

Because I can’t have both. I can’t have my way and God’s way. I can’t have God’s answers if I worship my own. There is no space for the whispers of the Holy Spirit in life that has it all figured out already.

Living life carefully means even my strongly held opinions must not be off-limits to my loving God who sifts and divides and replaces what is useless for what is true and good.

So I choose to let Him in today. I will let Him walk around my life and touch and restore and replace all that is not of Him. I will let my wonderful God show me how to raise kids, spend my money, love my spouse, plan a wedding and how He has uniquely designed me to change the world. I will learn to let God guide my politics, my doctrines and my decisions.

And then, most powerfully of all, I will learn to give others the freedom to do the same.

Instead of opinions, I want only the voice of the Shepherd saying, ‘Here is the way.’

Wisdom’s value

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 Kelley Hunt1 Comment

The verses that originally inspired this blog are Ephesians 5.15-17.

‘This causes you to realise that you will have to be very careful about the way you live; to be wise, not foolish. Make use of every opportunity to please God by the way you live, especially as there is so much evil in the world around you. How much better to understand what God wants of you than to live in a sinful, foolish manner.’ (The Truth Bible version.)

I keep a bookmark there in my Bible so I can revisit this passage regularly, gleaning all the goodness from it for my life.

Today my eyes settled on a phrase.

‘Be wise, not foolish.’

So often when I need wisdom, (God’s way of doing things, God’s perspective for a situation), I think of James 1.5 that tells me that if I need wisdom, I should ask God. This is a good thing to do and I can testify to the fact that God always answers that prayer.

But it isn’t the only way to obtain God’s wisdom. In this verse in Ephesians, we are told to be wise, not foolish. The Greek verb used here for ‘be’ means to become or to generate something.

So, it is possible to generate wisdom in my life.

I can ask for wisdom, and God loves that, but I can also live life in a way that is producing wisdom too.

This is a far less passive approach, isn’t it? While daily asking my Heavenly Father for His heavenly wisdom, I can also be busy making the conditions of my day to day life conducive for this wonderful gift.

And the Bible is very clear what these conditions are.

Proverbs 9.10 tells us that, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’

Knowing God’s will for me in every situation starts with an understanding of who God is and who I am. There is a wonderful humility that comes from knowing I have the potential, even the tendency, to be wrong about quite a few things, quite often.

Fearing the Lord means dreading the idea of living one minute of my life outside of God’s loving will. It means loving His ways because I love and trust Him.

I believe that I cannot produce wisdom from a heart that is unteachable or proud or independent. It is like trying to grow a beautiful olive tree in a bucket of cement.

When I really know God and how good He is, I will value every word He has spoken. I will treasure every instruction and command and warning. I will love what He loves.

Read Proverbs chapter three today. See how beautifully God’s wisdom is described. It is compared to gold and silver and rubies.

I wonder if, in 2018, wisdom is a bit out of fashion perhaps. We live in times where doing things my way and figuring it out for myself are greatly admired. We pride ourselves on not living life like the previous generation did. We can treat their advice and input like family heirlooms we don’t want to inherit, preferring to head down to Ikea instead.

But what about God’s ways? Are we too independent for those too?

I don’t have a lot of valuable jewellery but I have a few pieces that are precious to me. I have a string of pearls my parents gave me for my high school graduation and a gold locket that belonged to my grandmother. And of course, I have my wedding ring. These are precious to me. They are precious because they are made beautifully from valuable materials but mostly they are priceless to me because of who they are from.

God’s ways, His Words of life to me, should be priceless. His wisdom is like expensive gemstones, rubies and diamonds that are set in gold.

And yet, so often I think I know best and I make myself a pasta necklace like the ones my toddlers used to make for Mother’s Day. Instead of the family jewels in my jewellery box, I wear it, admiring my independence and self-reliance.

But the only way to cultivate Godly wisdom in my life is to value it.

When I can see just how beautiful God’s ways are compared to my human logic, I am in a good, safe place. It is the place where I can hear what God is saying and see what His is doing and make choices and decisions that produce life.

Summer’s rest

July 24, 2018 Kelley Hunt2 Comments

For as long as I can remember I have been head-over-heels in love with summer.

All my vivid childhood memories are summer ones. Even now I can remember the taste of the blueberry ice cream I enjoyed while watching ocean sunsets and the fresh corn on the cob my grandmother would make for dinner. I can smell the pine trees that framed our Colorado camping spot and the pink calamine lotion that calmed my poison ivy rash.

One unforgettable summer we had a month-long road trip and we visited several national parks. Each day’s driving would end in a different KOA swimming pool before I would fill a scrapbook with ticket stubs and postcards.

As a teenager, there were hot July days spent floating down the creek behind our house, baseball games and endless attempts to tan freckly skin.

Becoming a parent only deepened my love affair. Maybe it is because I am not naturally a routine person, but I could hardly wait until my children were done with school for the year. I just loved the lazy days of August with pyjamas until lunchtime, trips to parks and pools, and backyard shenanigans until the light faded. No homework or school uniforms, just lemonade and flip-flops.

This year has been unusual for the UK with little or no rain for months. We have had weeks of humid, hot days that start before we wake up and end long after we have gone to bed. And I have loved every minute.

You see, my kids are all grown up and I am counting down to my daughter’s wedding in October. My husband has been facing the toughest work pressure of his entire career. The days are full, the emotions are high and the temptation to worry is relentless.

But there is something about summer, something about the sunshine and the long days that remind me that there is a remedy for mother-of-bride fretting.

The remedy is rest.

And really isn’t that why we love summer so much? Isn’t that why vacations are so often the highlight of our year and our sweetest memories often involve sand and swimming and bare feet?

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It is because deep inside our hearts, we long for rest. Not a nap or a late morning start, but God’s rest. His rest is an inside-your-soul kind of summer where life feels carefree because daddy has got it all in His hands. It is permission to laugh and to play and to let go of what you can’t control.

It is an invitation to enjoy being a child of God every day, in every circumstance.

We were, of course, created for that kind of rest. Adam and Eve tasted it in the garden and they didn’t appreciate what they had until they lost it.

We know that one day we will enjoy again this God-given gift. And it won’t be a harp playing, floating-on-clouds rest. It will be an ‘it is finished’, death-swallowed-in-victory rest.

But what I so often forget is that this victory rest is actually available to me now, even as I sit in my garden writing wedding to-do lists and dreading my empty nest.

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When life wears me out, when the future looks scary or when decisions overwhelm me, there is a place underneath God’s wings that is forever summer.

I will find that place today, put my toes in the sand and enjoy being His kid.

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Its OK to stop

July 18, 2018 Kelley HuntLeave a comment

A few years ago our family decided to hike up to the top of Mount Snowdon in North Wales. It was a beautifully warm August day and the conditions were perfect. The path that we chose gently inclined and the scenery was beautiful. It was all so pleasant, so easy.

243529_608306497399_1559077759_o Then our way took a turn and I found myself hiking/scrambling straight up a verticle trail. I needed all my strength just to keep up with the others and within an hour my legs just gave out.

They felt like jelly and I couldn’t take another step without risking a fall. At this point, a little panic took over. My teenagers had jogged to the top already and were looking down wondering what was going on. I could see the end of the trail and the top of the mountain but I couldn’t think of any way to get myself there. Unfortunately, going down the mountain was also out of the question. I was well and truly stuck.

So I did the only thing I could do, I sat down. I drank some water and had my protein bar and laughed a little. And do you know what? In half an hour I was at the top.

To live life carefully in this world, we need to know when it isn’t safe to take another step.

We need to know when to be careful with ourselves.

There are times when disappointment or loss leave us wobbly. Shaky souls need time to recharge in God’s presence and refuel in His Word. Life decisions can wait. This is not the moment to try and figure everything out! Worship first and then you will be ready to walk.

Know yourself well enough to recognize spiritual and emotional fatigue so that you make time to rest and recover.

Allowing ourselves to stop means that before we know it we will be back on our feet and hiking to the top of that particular mountain.

If this is you today, if you need rest and encouragement and renewed hope, please know that it is okay to stop as long as you know where to sit.

mount snowdon

Tending Treasure

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018 Kelley Hunt1 Comment

As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

My mom, Barb, and I share many qualities. We both love to read and write. We are deep thinkers, life-analysers and daydreamers.

Unfortunately, that means we are also both serial pot-burners.

Both of us, on more than one occasion, have left a pot simmering on the stove before leaving the house for the day. Both of us have had the awful discovery of opening the front door and being greeted by a cloud of decimated-stew smoke and both of us have had to look up ‘how to get rid of the smell of smoke’.

So, as you can imagine, I am now an enthusiastic owner of a slow cooker, or as Americans call it, a crock pot. This is the stew-making gadget for dummies. I don’t need to worry about stirring or turning down the heat or leaving the house. I just put everything in and forget about it for hours. Perfect.

But not all of life is this simple.

In Genesis 2.15, God gives Adam responsibilities in Eden. Notice that even before sin has entered the picture there was already important work to do.

‘Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.’ Genesis 2.15

We were created to tend. Other translations say work, take care of, cultivate. God created a world where humans would have responsibility. His will is that we would know Him as our God and then partner with Him in tending to things that matter.

And by implication, we see that God has created a world that needs cultivation. Things can’t be just left. Our relationships, our walk with Jesus and our own hearts need to be carefully treasured and cared for. They need our time and attention.

Like flower beds and pots on the stove, areas of our lives that we neglect can end up overgrown or burnt.

But the problem is that when life gets crazy, tending is often the first activity to drop off the to-do list.

That is because the urgent always shouts louder than the important. Before we know it, we have neglected the areas of our lives that we know are a priority but seem to be okay. As the saying goes, it is the squeaky wheel that gets our attention and our oil.

It is so easy to take for granted our good marriages, happy children, close friendships or a strong faith.

But, if we can learn to tend the most precious areas of our lives we will save a lot of trouble in the long run. It is much easier to just give the pot a stir than to get the smell of smoke out of our curtains!

Take a moment today to think about what most matters to you and then give it a stir.

Hug one of your kids, call a friend, kiss your spouse.

Make time for the people that you love. Eat with friends. Laugh with kin.

Fill your days with thoughts of gratefulness and worship.

Believe God for big things.

Pray. Forgive.

Be generous with your time and your money and yourself.

Treasure what you have and live life in such a way that everyone around you is in no doubt about what most matters to you.

Unattended thoughts

July 3, 2018September 12, 2019 Kelley Hunt6 Comments

There is a verse in the Bible I am in the daily habit of disregarding.

It is a very well-known verse. Walk into any Christian bookstore and you will see it on bookmarks, coffee mugs and t-shirts.

Philippians 4.8 says, ‘Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.’

How lovely and inspiring! What a wonderful verse to write out and put on my fridge.

What an easy verse to completely ignore.

Because so often thoughts are like the mouse in my attic.

A few weeks ago I went up into our loft space to get our summer clothing down and I discovered to my horror that a mouse had been living up there, making a nest and eating my favourite handbag. I didn’t know he was up there until it was too late.

Unattended lofts attract mice like unattended gardens welcome weeds.

Unattended minds are vulnerable to similar intruders.

If I never listen to my own thoughts and question their truthfulness, I am probably making a home for ideas that are contrary to God’s truth and they will be destructive in my life.

I need to decide to set high standards for what I think about because my thoughts become my beliefs and my beliefs become my actions. Like a burly bouncer standing outside a nightclub, I must be discerning about what I let into my mind each and every day.

Because lies always entangle and confuse us. Truth brings freedom and fruitfulness.

Whether we believe it or not our thought life is strongly influencing us. It is affecting who we are and how we see everything and everyone around us.

Psalm 51.6 is a powerful verse. In it, David writes that God wants truth in our innermost being.

One of the commentaries I read described this as being so full of truth we are incapable of self-deception. I don’t know about you but I need a whole lot of this kind of truthfulness in my life. I need God’s truth to reach every part of my soul. I need it to touch my mind, my will and my emotions so that pesky vermin are caught, weeds are eliminated and the good stuff can grow.

Because I know I am capable of believing lies and even lying to myself.

I do it all the time. Sometimes I lie to myself about why I don’t like someone. I justify my feelings in all sorts of ways when the truth is I am offended or envious or just entertaining unforgiveness.

Sometimes when I really want to do something I decide it is God’s will before I have even prayed about it and then I take the happiness I feel as God’s confirming peace.

Sometimes I am dead wrong and I manage to convince myself that I am right.

Sometimes I accommodate doubt, fear, anxiety or judgementalism. They come and go like lodgers with a key to my front door. Before I know it they are sitting at my table and dictating the conversation.

Have you ever really listened to your thoughts? Try it if you dare. Pick a day when you are not working and set your phone alarm to go off every hour. When it does, stop and listen to your thoughts. What are you preoccupied with? What keeps replaying over and over again? What are you dwelling on?

Be honest, what is the soundtrack of your life?

Tune in. Listen with an objective ear. Be honest with yourself.

I tried this a few months ago and it has changed my life. I discovered that my life, that was marked by anxiety, had a soundtrack of untruths. Why was I surprised?

Do you know that anxiety, fear, anger, worry and bitterness all have something in common? They all start with a thought.

Something will happen in your life, something hurtful or scary or difficult and then a thought arrives and we either invite it in or send it packing.

Decide today that when it comes to your thoughts, you are not a pushover. If it isn’t good or true or lovely or honest, it is not coming in.

It is your garden, your mind, your life and you decide what lives there.

Good enough

June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Kelley Hunt2 Comments

I am probably just like you.

I want to live life well. I want to know Jesus and to follow Him. I want to be like Him. I want to make the most of every opportunity I am given and to multiply it for God’s glory and for the extension of His Kingdom.

But I get tripped up by things sometimes. One of those things is trying to be perfect.

In Luke chapter 10 we see the story of two sisters, Mary and Martha. I love these two women that Jesus loved. Just two sisters trying to serve Jesus and follow Him. Women like you and I. Mary is captivated by Jesus and sits at his feet to hear every word He speaks.

And Martha loves Jesus too. It was her idea to invite Jesus into their home in the first place. But, when Jesus arrives she can’t relax and enjoy the evening. Something is driving her. I don’t believe she loves any less. I think dear Martha lets the pressure of getting everything right rob her of something more important. And it probably wasn’t the first time.

Martha wanted to show her love for Jesus in a practical way. How wonderful! How precious and good! But then she got a little carried away and soon there were elaborate recipes, side dishes and table settings and she was overwhelmed. That is because perfectionism always escalates what is required.

You know what I mean. Like when an invitation for lemonade in the backyard becomes high tea at the Ritz. Perfectionism drives us to make even simple things into elaborate productions until we are completely worn out.

Just look at verse 41 where Jesus rightly discerns that Martha is ‘worried and upset about many things.’ Do you relate to that? I do and if I am not careful, this can become a way of life.

If my value is based on my achievements, then no ball can be dropped and every plate must be spinning. It all has to be perfect or I don’t feel good about myself or my life. I can’t rest or worship or have fun until things are just how I want them to be, which of course is an elusive goal. There is always something more than needs to be done.

And then, perfectionism affects your relationships. It is all so inevitable. We worry and work and wear ourselves out and then we get upset when others don’t share our unrealistic expectations. It wasn’t enough for Martha to turn a simple meeting with Jesus into an elaborate feast, she wanted help with it. How unfair it is when we resent someone else’s relaxation because we don’t know when or how to relax. Mary was able to sit at Jesus’ feet because she was comfortable with rest.

But worst of all, perfectionism causes you to miss out. Just like Martha, if we don’t identify and fight this in our lives, we will miss out on all sorts of God-given opportunities. We will miss out on fellowship because our cooking is average or our home needs redecorating. We will miss out on exciting ministry opportunities because we don’t speak or sing as well as so-and-so. We won’t apply for a job or try a new hobby in case we aren’t good enough. And worst of all, we will miss out on time with Jesus because we are busy icing an unnecessary cake.

Perfectionism makes it very, very difficult to live the careful life, maybe even impossible.

That is because when we spread ourselves too thinly, we end up neglecting the things that really matter. The only way to stop this is to recalibrate our thinking. Our minds need daily renewal so that truth can thrive and lies can be rejected.

You can start today.

Right now, remind yourself that you are a deeply loved child of God. You are really good at some things and pretty average at others. But, you are learning and growing.

Remember, perfection is not the goal, God’s perfecting is, and He is working on your character, not your resume. You are not in competition with anyone else. You are uniquely created and valued by the One who thought you up. You are His idea and He likes you.

God is refining you but that is His job and His business and He will finish it in His time.

There are things in your life today that really matter and things that really don’t. Pray for the grace to know which is which. Then you will work when it is time to work and you will drop everything when Jesus comes to visit.

My daily slice

June 19, 2018 Kelley HuntLeave a comment

Bread gets some bad press.

A growing awareness of food intolerances means that sandwiches are definitely out of style as working professionals choose trendier lunches. Although the UK is a bit behind the US, gluten-free options are now available everywhere and sales of sliced bread are down 12% as compared to a few years ago.

But in the Bible, bread is a wonderful thing. It is used many times in God’s Word as a picture of important truths.

Bread is very often used as a picture of provision. In Exodus, the heavenly bread called manna was God’s provision for His people in the desert. In the gospels, Jesus blessed, broke and multiplied loaves of bread to feed the hungry crowds who followed Him.

In Matthew 15.26 Jesus used bread to describe spiritual blessings, particularly supernatural physical healing.

And of course, bread is a picture of God’s ultimate provision for us, Christ, who describes Himself as the bread of life in John 6.35. Every time we take communion we are reminded that our Bread of Life was broken for us to provide salvation.

And then in the most well-known words of the Bible in Matthew 6 we see the template for prayer. Verse 11 says, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’

The word used here for daily is a very intriguing one. ‘Epiousios’, was not a word that was used in ordinary speech and in fact, it is only found in this prayer and not used anywhere else in the Bible or in any other Greek writings. It may have even been coined by the writers of the gospels themselves which makes it arguably the most difficult word in the New Testament to translate.

Early Bible translators used context and similar Greek words to attempt to derive meaning. They settled on ‘daily‘. They believed the word had a sense of ‘just enough’ or ‘what is sufficient for today’ so that we should ask God for the basics we need to live each day, which of course we should.

However more recently, a closer look at the prefix used here gives a fuller meaning. Rather than just enough for today, the way the word has been constructed has a sense of provision that is above and beyond, bountiful, more than enough for the future.

Make no mistake, this is supernatural bread and the portions are generous.

Like the loaves that Jesus multiplied, there are always baskets of leftovers.

Each time we pray for our needs we can pray believing that the answer will be full and rich. God’s answers overflow into our tomorrow. They are abundant, not just adequate.

It is like there is exponential power in our daily prayer time with God. It builds. I am reminded of Deuteronomy 28.2 where God promises His children that the blessings of obedience will overtake them, like an avalanche of answers that they can’t outrun.

There are answers for you today. There is healing and deliverance and supply. But you can expect that these blessings will also overflow into tomorrow. There are words of direction that will propel you towards callings and ministries in the future. There are solutions to problems you don’t even know about yet. There are words of comfort that you are going to need. There is bread from the Bread of Life Himself. You will be filled up and you will receive enough to share with others.

The God we pray to is a giver. He is a good father. He gives generously out of an endless supply and He always gives enough for tomorrow.

Philippians 4.19 promises us that God supplies our needs out of the riches of Christ.

Matthew 7.11 promises His gifts are good.

Romans 8.32 says God graciously gives us all things.

Psalm 34 promises those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.

God knows what is around the corner. He knows the challenges and struggles and disappointments and loss we may face. He knows exactly what we need today to be ready for tomorrow and we receive it when we make time to be with Him daily.

Trusting, believing hearts can choose daily bread over worry. We can be filled with every word that God speaks and never be hungry again. We can laugh at the future because even in the deepest darkest valleys, there is a table already prepared for us, and our cups and our breadbaskets are overflowing.

‘How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear You. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world.’ Psalm 31.19 NLT