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ZMI Daily Dose

Are you all ears?

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 “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
James 1:19

all earsHave you ever been talking to someone and feel like they aren’t listening to a word you’re saying? Can you think of a time where you became quick to anger rather than taking a deep breath and remaining calm? What about saying something too quickly and then immediately regretting it? We have all been there, and I am here to tell you that the word of God provides wisdom on how to help us. In James, we are commanded to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. More often than not, when someone is speaking to us, we aren’t really listening to what they are saying, but rather thinking of what our response to them is going to be. God wants us to be better listeners rather than just “hearers”. As everyone knows, the tongue can get you into trouble, and we all know that once you say something you can’t take it back. This is why we are commanded to be slow to speak, so that we can be careful with the words that we choose to use. Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, I can be a better listener, and I can try to be slower to speak, but this slow to anger thing is going to be difficult.” Being angry is not a sin, it’s an emotion. With that being said, your anger can turn into a sin by the way that you handle it. God warns us to use wisdom in handling our anger, and through His word He encourages us to show love and grace instead of lashing out with emotion.

My challenge for you is to first be a better listener. Then, when you find yourself with something hurtful to say, think through how it’s going to affect the other person. Lastly, be slow to anger because God has blessed you in so many ways. Respond in love, instead of reacting in anger. I’ll leave you with this, “In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you’re still angry, and don’t let the devil grab a foothold.” –Ephesians 4:26

For His Glory,

Morgan Drake

 

Dreams for the Good Life

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”  
Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT

GoodLife_SignI was sitting around with a group of friends, talking about our lives and how we’d gotten to where we were when one friend declared, “This is definitely not what I had in mind when I made my big plans to live the ‘good life’!”

Many of us develop big dreams of what we’d like our lives to be in the future.

But how often do we look back on those great dreams and have to admit, that for whatever reason, they’d never come true? I mean, when was the last time you looked at your life and said, “I’m doing exactly everything that I’ve ever hoped, wished for, and dreamed of doing”? If you’re like me, the answer is…never!

Generally, we can stand to relinquish some dreams without much regret. But what do we do about those unrealized dreams for which we simply have a very difficult time letting go? Maybe we missed out on having a spouse, child, or children. Maybe we longed for but never received a certain education, career, retirement, house, or car. Maybe we lost a marriage, friends, or family member too soon to bring closure to the relationship. Perhaps, we even think that we found out about God’s love and grace too late in life to really do something useful about it. Have we simply missed out on our opportunity for the ‘good life’? Has God let us down by refusing to honor our dreams? Read today’s Dose verse.

Often, our ‘big plans’ don’t take into consideration God’s will for our lives. We envision what we’d like due to our own interests, passions, and knowledge. We don’t realize or we forget that, our knowledge is limited and our truth is not God’s truth. When our plans aren’t realized, we don’t understand and we can become discontented. But take heart, my friend, God has not abandoned you or allowed you to miss out. He has the ultimate good life planned just for you!

The Lord will lead us on the correct route in life so long as we place our trust in him instead of ourselves. Placing God as number one means readjusting our will and life to his. Then, our dreams will move in line with His plans for our life. Yielding to his leadership is often a humbling experience but it’s our one and only shot to have a truly ‘good life’. Don’t you want that promise over anything that we can dream up? It’s not too late. Why won’t you trust Him today?

 

 By grace through faith,

Rita

Good Looking Out

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“Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
Philippians 2:4, NLT

Girl_in_wheelchair“Oh my goodness, how did I miss seeing her need?”

These were my words after I’d failed to recognize the need of a woman I’d encountered in a store. While reading labels to ensure that I’d get just the right hair products, I was vaguely aware of a woman who’d rolled into the aisle in a motorized wheel chair. I briefly glanced at her, smiled, and said “hello”. She appeared to be waving and was making sounds, which I took as her version of a return greeting. There was another woman standing just behind her wheel chair and I thought the two were together. After a time, I noticed that the wheel-chaired woman was still in the aisle, moving her hand and making the sounds. I glanced up again briefly, and nodded thinking; “she’s waving at me again, how friendly”! Then I returned to looking at product labels as I headed down the aisle in her direction. When I got close to her, I noticed that everyone else was gone. The woman in the wheel chair was moving her hand again, repeating the same sounds and looking intently at me. Just then I heard a voice from behind me ask, “Ma’am do you need something from that shelf? I spun around to notice a woman talking to the woman in the wheelchair. The woman in the chair motioned excitedly now and then it dawned on me! She’d been siting in the aisle all of this time trying to get an item she couldn’t reach from people she couldn’t communicate with! Save for the woman who’d finally asked her if she required assistance, we’d all missed her need! I got the item off of the shelf, put it in the woman’s bag, and apologized to her. Inside, I wanted to cry.

After she wheeled away, I asked the question that opens this Dose to the woman that saw the need. She had some good looking out!

We aren’t meant to be islands unto ourselves but a part of a whole, members of the body of Christ. When we get too preoccupied with what we’re doing, and ourselves, we can easily miss seeing the needs of others around us. We miss opportunities to allow the love of Jesus to show through us to others.

Are you seeing a need today that The Lord can use you to fulfill, or are you too focused on self, like I was that day in the store?

By grace through faith,

Rita