Episode 657

TODAY’S READING

2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

psalms 89:2

We’re talking about the declaration that his love stands firm forever. And that is, I feel like the continuation or what has been on my heart for the last couple of weeks as we were preparing for Christmas. And it’s the idea that we need to be shouting from the mountaintops the goodness of God, that we need to be declaring that his love stands firm, and we need to be sharing the story of Jesus with those around us. We need to be guiding them. We need to be giving them grace; we need to be showing them the goodness that God continues to show us and to bless us with so that others may get to know him as well. 

This weekend, Manny and I got married. And like I said yesterday like I’ve been talking about for the last week. It’s really been such an emotional roller coaster. We got married by our pastor in the Corps in June, but this weekend was our wedding celebration. So really, we got married all over again. It was amazing. And in our ceremony, we had a moment of worship, and I just felt the Holy Spirit there. One of my good friends, Kirsten and Lewis, was able to perform. And to be honest, I don’t know how many people in the room knew Jesus or no Jesus. I know that I have a lot of family members that don’t know him. I have a lot of friends that practice different religions and have a different faith. And the reality is that of the 140 people there, maybe a quarter or half of them know our Lord. And so the other half got to experience Jesus in our ceremony, probably for the first time. And I say that because it was so special to witness that or to feel the spirit in the room and to see how others are able to just share a second of God’s faithfulness and goodness with us. And even if they didn’t understand it, they respected it. And I think that that is the outcome that we should have in all of the conversations that we have with those around us. Even if they don’t understand what we believe, why we believe the way we do, and why we practice the way we practice in our prayer life. In our scripture readings in our prayer journals in the way that we pray over others. If they don’t understand me, they at least respect it. And in order to respect something, you have to be respected back. So what I’ve been trying to pray about what’s been on my heart is the idea that we can spread the love of Jesus can introduce other people to him. We can show him his good Abella goodness, but we don’t have to be disrespectful. We never have to force it on someone. We can open the conversation with the most gentle heart and watch how God continues to do the rest.

Prayer:

Father God, I thank You, Lord, for the opportunity of sharing your goodness with people who may never have had the opportunity of knowing you before. We thank you that you continue to make a way to make another person’s life different. God, in a positive way, we continue to bless other people because you first blessed us. The Lord is an honor to be your hands and feet. It is an honor to do your work on your behalf. We know that every day. You send this out into the world, and we have the opportunity to work on your behalf; you have the opportunity of being your hands and your feet. So today, we take that with full pride. And we continue to look at the day ahead of us, and we put you first; we put you in the front of our conversations. That means we extend the grace we show people love, courtesy, and kindness. And we continue to make the day of another person, and hopefully, little by little, we will contain to spread light in this world. We love you. We pray this law in your son’s mighty name. Amen.