Showing posts with label expectation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expectation. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Take No Thought



"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking though can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to  morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knowest that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."~Matthew 6: 25-34

Take no thought... It's important to realize what Jesus is saying here. He isn't telling us not to think ahead, he isn't telling us not to plan for the future. The word "thought" in this passage is the Greek word merimnaƍ which means to be anxious about, or worry. What Jesus is telling us is that God has my back, he's watching over me, he will provide for me, he is my Jehovah Jireh.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Receiving the Promises Through Faith

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: That the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
~ Galations 3:13-14


Redeemed is from the Greek word "exagorazo"; to ransom, rescue, purchase out, buy up from the possession or power of someone, to set free from service or bondage. 


What a powerful word that is!  We are no longer bound by the curse of the law but set free by grace. How many of us grew up thinking that we could somehow earn our salvation or earn the promise of the blessings that God's Word holds for us? I know I did -- or at least, I thought I was supposed to be able to. Of course, I always fell short so I always thought that I didn't deserve and couldn't receive the promises because I wasn't "good enough".


The problem is, we can never be "good enough". The good news is, we don't have to be.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Most Ordinary

"Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Day 25 Assignment: Most Ordinary by Patti Digh

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Invent the Future

"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Day 17 Assignment: Invent the Future by Cindy Gallop

My favorite quote of all time is Alan Kay: "In order to predict the future, you have to invent it." I am all about inventing the future. Decide what you want the future to be and make it happen. Because you can. Write about your future now.


I'll take that thought a bit further. Not only CAN we invent our futures, but we DO invent them whether we are conscious of doing so or not.  I firmly believe that yesterday's thoughts created today's circumstances. If I don't like the results, then I need to change my thoughts. God created us with the ability to create what we can imagine. Any image held in the mind long enough, and believed strongly enough, will become manifest in our circumstances.

I apologize for my blog taking such an extreme turn from the type of posts I had been making, but I'm enjoying the #Trust30 challenge and hope that you all find it at least somewhat entertaining. If nothing else, it gives you a glimpse of my personality and who I really am. There are 13 days left, and then "Walk By Faith" will return to its regular programming.  ;o)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Wholly Strange and New

"When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name; the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Day 16 Assignment: Wholly Strange and New by Bridget Pilloud

Can you remember a moment in your life when you had life in yourself and it was wholly strange and new? Can you remember the moment when you stopped walking a path of someone else, and started cutting your own?


Write about that moment. And if you haven’t experienced it yet, let the miracle play out in your mind’s eye and write about that moment in your future.


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Divine Idea

"Imitation is Suicide. Insist on yourself; never imitate." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Day 11 Assignment by Fabian Kruse

Write down in which areas of your life you have to overcome these suicidal tendencies of imitation, and how you can transform them into a newborn you – one that doesn’t hide its uniqueness, but thrives on it. There is a “divine idea which each of us represents” – which is yours?


Saturday, December 12, 2009

Great Expectations: The Effect of Expectations on Your Faith


Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
     -- Hebrews 11:1

Yes, I know I've used this scripture already in my blog. You'll just have to accept that I'm going to use and reuse a lot of the same scriptures because they are really important, key scriptures when it comes to discussing faith.

If faith is the substance of things hoped for, what, then is hope? I turned to Miriam Webster to see what the dictionary definition of the word "hope" is, and this is what I found: