LIFT OUR SPIRITS

Philippians 4:8 NIV Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

A bear with bunny ears is not normally what you expect to see and it makes me smile. I believe God has things for all of us that are not what we normally expect in our daily routine lives; things that, if we’re on the look out for them, will make us smile and lift our spirits too.😊

Too often we hear on the media of all the sad things that pull us down but there are good things happening each day as well, we just normally don’t hear about them.

For instance I discovered there are several Good News websites anyone can tap into to read about the good things that are happening round the world.

The Evangelical Alliance reported this: “Ministry analysts and church data trackers indicate that Gen Z is leading a sudden turnaround in young adult church attendance, reversing multi-decade patterns of decline. Many young people report that a search for authentic community and absolute truth in a "post-truth" culture is drawing them to faith.” How encouraging that is.😊

At a local level, Chris was talking with an acquaintance who had recently been made homeless, through no fault of his own, and had been living in a tent, then in a friend’s caravan, but has now been given a permanent home. 

Last week someone had abandoned a beautiful big bouquet of expensive roses on the pavement nearby, so Chris rescued them and brought them home for us to enjoy. We have no idea why they were there and it was something one wouldn’t normally expect, but such a lovely surprise!😊

It’s easy to dwell on all the hard things that are going on in the world, the things that can make us sad, but I believe God wants to lift our spirits each day, to look for the good things, the unexpected, to pass on good news if we hear some, to encourage one another. We can’t solve all the problems of the world but we can celebrate the joy of one person being given a home, or when we hear of one person feeling stronger or better than they did before, of young people seeking God, or of an unexpected gift.

As the Holy Spirit said through Paul, think about those things which are noble and praiseworthy, which are lovely, and let’s give God all the praise and glory while we’re at it.😊

Have a blessed weekend.x

IS YOUR LIGHT TURNED ON?

John 8:12 I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

I was walking up the hallway yesterday morning when I noticed a light shining on my dressing gown and thought it was sunlight reflecting through the window but whichever way I turned the light still glowed and for a moment I couldn’t figure out where the light was coming from! It just shows how dippy I can be because I suddenly realised my tiny torch in my pocket had turned itself on accidentally and was glowing from inside my pocket! I hope you’re laughing with me! What a ninny!🤣

Anyway, it made me think that, as Christians, we all have a light coming from the inside of us because Jesus is the Light and He lives in us by His Spirit. The trouble is we don’t always seem to have our inner light turned on, do we? The troubles and problems of our day are a bit like a dimmer switch and they tend to turn down our Light which is the wrong way round!

Jesus wants to shine His light on those troubles so the troubles become dim and His light shines brighter but it depends on us as to whether we’re turned on to Him to shine through us or not.😊 We know darkness can’t extinguish light and when we choose to trust Him in our difficult times we’re turning on His light, when we choose to put more faith in our fears, than we do in God’s Word, then we dim the Light.

Psalms 18:28 ESV For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. 

1 Thessalonians 5:5 ESV For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

Matthew 5:16 NIV In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

1 John 1:7 NKJV But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

I hope you’ve had a chuckle today but more than anything I hope you choose to turn your inner Light on as you keep looking to Jesus, and let your inner glow shine out for everyone to see.😊 Amen.

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash