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ZMI Today’s Dose

Who Cares?

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“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
1 Peter 5:7 NLT

Woman_comforting_young_woman, Who Cares?“I don’t know why I’m even bothering to tell you this, I mean it’s not like anybody cares,” screamed my new friend! “Just because I got into trouble, nobody will help me! They won’t even listen!”

Sometimes, as a result of our histories, we find it hard to believe that anyone else cares about us. We may have made poor choices and we start to worry about our stuff. After all, if we don’t who will? But worry won’t bring about the changes that we really desire. Changes that bring about the belief that someone truly cares about us comes from our willingness to place our trust in the hands of someone other than ourselves. However, we often hesitate to do that because, like my friend, people have let us down in the past and will likely also let us down in the future. So we plod on in our struggle until we become overwhelmed. Read today’s Dose verse.

God cares for us through all of our struggles. When we really believe this, we turn over our anxieties and concerns to Him. But we also need somebody “with skin-on” in order to help us along our path to complete trust. It can sometimes be difficult for us to totally trust God after what we’ve experienced and come to believe. He has provided for that need.

Once we initially trust Him as our Savior from sin, we can grow our trust in Him as Lord of our lives, by pairing up with someone who is farther along in his or her walk with the Lord. This would be a mature Christian—somebody from whom we can actually learn to trust. They take the time to listen to our struggles, pray with us, show us Bible verses that speak to our situation, and show us how we can apply them in our lives. They share some of their own struggles and how God has shown them that He cares.

It’s been several years since I had the conversation that opened this Dose. I simply told that young woman, “I’ve been in trouble before too and I’ll listen to you.” God did the rest. He allowed me the privilege of being a godly example in her life and He opened a willingness in her heart just wide enough to trust someone by faith.

God’s care and concern is so much greater than we could ever imagine or possess! He’s listening!

Are you trusting in His care for you today?

By grace through faith,

Rita

 

That’s Not Fair, God!

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“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.  
Romans 5: 12, NLT

Girl_with_Not_Fair_sign
“You can’t do that!”

“Oh, yes I can!”

“Well… you wouldn’t …right?”

“I don’t see why not?”

“Because anyway you slice it, it’s simply not fair!”

“Not fair? Oh grow up! Life’s not fair! Didn’t your mama ever tell you that?”

“Just know that when this thing goes badly (and it will), I’m telling everyone that it’s your fault!”

Can you relate to that conversation? Maybe you’re in the that’s-not-fair camp. Or, if you’re a little rougher around the edges, perhaps you’re in the life’s-not-fair-so-get-over-it camp. Either way, we’ve likely all believed at some point in our lives that something wasn’t fair. And what’s the next natural step that we take? We find someone or something to blame for it, right? This is exactly what has happened since the first sin was committed in The Garden of Eden. Read today’s Dose verse. I know for a fact that I’ve heard more than one woman mention her intentions to have a “talking-to” with Eve once they get up to heaven over her part in this sin-thing that led to pain in childbirth! I suspect that even though the men haven’t vocalized it, some of them likely thought something similar for Adam!Group_with_Mercy_sign

The question might be asked, why should we be penalized for what Adam did? How can that be fair? After all, he started it, didn’t he? We say, “That’s not fair, God, give us something fair!” God should be fair to us and just blame Adam! And that’s how it happens. A lot of us consider it simpler to accuse others for our troubles. We say they are the reason for our mistakes, faults, and sins.

But, demanding fairness from God and calling out the sin of those who sinned before us shouldn’t be our focus at all. Just because our ancestors sinned before us doesn’t negate the fact that we fell right into the same footsteps as Adam and Eve.

We are naturally of a mind to go counter to God and his plan. So perhaps our focus ought to be that we’re sure to face the inevitable result of our sin (death) unless God does something!

The good news is He already has! God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for our sins!

God doesn’t owe us fairness but we do require His mercy! God’s mercy is what He extends to all who believe in Him!

Are you seeking fairness or mercy today?

By grace through faith,

Rita

 

From the Inside Out

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“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7b NIV

Dressed-Up_GirlA mother and daughter were riding along in the car when the daughter asked, “Mommy, what part of me do you love the best?”
“Oh baby, that’s an easy question! I love your heart the best”, the mother answered. “I hope it never changes.”

“Hmm”, said the daughter, and sat there with a puzzled look on her little face.

A day or two passed, when the daughter asked, “Mommy, what part of me do you love second best?”

“Well, sweetie”, the mother said, “That’s another easy question! I love your wonderful spirit! I hope it never changes either!”

She sighed, with a look of perplexity on her face.

After a couple more days, the daughter then asked, “Mommy, what part of me do you love third?”

The mother answered, “I’d have to say, your personality. I love your personality third. It’s one of the happiest personalities I’ve ever seen and I expect that it’ll never change!”

Finally, the little daughter asked, with some bewilderment in her expression, “Mommy, don’t you love any parts of me that you can see?”

What the mother had noticed, in all of those instances, was that her daughter had styled her own hair and put on several different flattering outfits, in an attempt to get her mother to focus on how beautiful she looked on the outside.

How often do we do the same thing? We dress ourselves up so that everything looks good on the outside in order for others to value us from that point of view.

But God doesn’t do that. He judges the value of people by what’s in their hearts. In today’s Dose verse, Samuel didn’t expect that God would choose David to succeed Saul as King. David was good looking but he was a smaller, young, man. (1 Samuel 16:11-12) Saul was tall, handsome, and towered over the heads and shoulders of other men. (1 Samuel 9:2) He had all of the outward looks of a leader. But God looks at the heart!

God loves all of our parts, the seen and the unseen; but he values godly hearts! That mother saw her daughter from the inside out. God sees us that way all of the time but we don’t see others or ourselves that way naturally.

When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we receive the Holy Spirit, which allows us to view others and ourselves from the inside out instead of through outward appearances.

How are you viewing yourself and others today?

By grace through faith,

Rita