Tag: Matthew 6:34

When Success Isn’t Enough: Finding the Way, the Truth, and the Life

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When Everything Looked Right—but Something Was Missing

When I was only twenty-three years old, my life changed forever.

I was serving on active duty as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and the Battalion Maintenance Officer, a job normally held by a senior captain. By almost every outward measure, life was good.

I had a beautiful and intelligent wife. Our first child had been born in January of that year. Professionally, things were going extremely well. My maintenance program had received a commendable rating during the annual general inspection, and because of that achievement, I was named an Outstanding Junior Officer in my Army division.

I was ambitious, detail-oriented, competitive, and something of a perfectionist. I worked hard. I wanted to excel. I wanted to do things right.

And yet, underneath all the accomplishments, I knew something was wrong.

There was an emptiness I could not explain.

Beginning during my university years, I had tried many of the things our culture says will bring happiness. I tried drinking, partying, relationships, material possessions, social connections, and surrounding myself with the “right” people.

Some of those things provided temporary enjoyment, but none of them filled the emptiness inside me.

Something was missing.

I just didn’t know what it was.

Discovering That Achievement Cannot Save Us

At the time, I was attending church. There I noticed a group of young men about my age who seemed to possess something I did not have.

There was a peace about them.

They had a sense of direction and purpose that intrigued me. Eventually, I began attending a Bible study with them.

That Bible study helped change the direction of my life.

I began to understand that the Bible was more than an ancient religious book. It was God’s Word—a guide for life that addressed the questions, struggles, failures, hopes, and emptiness of the human heart.

I discovered that I was not here by accident.

God had created me for a purpose.

More importantly, I learned that Jesus Christ loved me and desired a personal relationship with me.

But there was a problem.

Sin separated me from God.

1. I Realized I Had a Sin Problem

The Bible says:

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Romans 3:23

That word all included me.

I had spent much of my young life trying to be successful, disciplined, responsible, and good. But Christianity is not based on whether we are better than somebody else.

It is based on God’s perfect standard.

And no one reaches that standard.

Not even a perfectionist.

I could not save myself simply by trying harder or living what I considered to be a good life.

2. I Learned There Was a Penalty for Sin

Scripture says:

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

Sin has consequences.

But notice the second half of that verse.

God offers a gift.

Salvation is not something we purchase, achieve, deserve, or earn. It is something God freely offers through Jesus Christ.

3. I Discovered God’s Incredible Promise

Perhaps no verse summarizes God’s love more clearly than John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 John 3:16

God did not look at humanity’s brokenness and turn away.

He came toward us.

He loved us enough to send His Son.

And that included me.

It includes you too.

4. I Learned God Had Already Made Provision

The Bible explains how we respond to God’s gift:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,

and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:9

The answer was not another achievement.

It wasn’t another promotion.

It wasn’t becoming more religious.

It wasn’t trying harder to become a better person.

It was trusting Jesus Christ.

The Prayer That Changed the Direction of My Life

I reached the place where I understood that I needed Christ.

I prayed a prayer much like this:

“Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that You died for my sins and rose from the grave so that I might have eternal life with You. I repent of my sins and ask You to come into my heart and life. Take control of my words, thoughts, and actions. I place my trust in You for my salvation. I accept You as my Lord and Savior and receive Your free gift of eternal life. Amen.”

There was nothing magical about the wording of the prayer.

The important thing was the decision of my heart.

I placed my faith in Jesus Christ.

And the direction of my life changed.

What Happened After I Became a Christian?

My life did not suddenly become perfect.

Far from it.

Over the years I have made mistakes. I have made poor decisions. I have failed at times—occasionally miserably.

Becoming a Christian did not make me perfect.

It gave me a Savior.

It gave me direction.

It gave me a foundation.

It gave me Someone to turn to when life became difficult.

The Bible became a source of principles for daily living. Prayer became more than a religious exercise. Faith became something I could carry into marriage, family, career decisions, disappointments, grief, uncertainty, illness, and all the unexpected turns of life.

Most importantly, I learned that I am never truly alone.

The peace I had tried to find through achievement, recognition, relationships, possessions, and experiences could finally be found where it had been all along—in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Can an Intelligent Person Believe in Christianity?

Sometimes people ask whether an educated, thoughtful, intellectual, or scientifically minded person can believe in God.

Of course they can.

History is filled with scholars, scientists, philosophers, writers, physicians, professors, military leaders, and intellectuals who have believed in God.

Perhaps the more useful question is not, “Can an intelligent person believe?”

Instead, we might ask:

Why have so many intelligent people chosen to believe?

Christian faith does not require us to stop thinking.

God gave us minds and expects us to use them.

Christianity makes extraordinary claims about God, humanity, morality, history, forgiveness, eternity, and the person of Jesus Christ. Those claims deserve thoughtful examination.

Faith and reason need not be enemies.

For me, the journey began by examining what the Bible said about who I was, who God is, and what Jesus Christ had done for me.

Eventually, the question became very personal:

What am I going to do with Jesus?

Jesus Is Still the Answer

Today’s world offers more information than any generation in human history, yet people remain confused about some of life’s most basic questions.

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What gives life meaning?

What happens when I die?

Is there absolute truth?

Can I really know God?

Jesus answered these questions with one of the most remarkable statements in Scripture:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 14:6 KJV

Notice that Jesus did not merely say He knew the way.

He said:

“I am the way.”

He did not merely claim to teach truth.

He said:

“I am the truth.”

And He did not merely offer advice about how to live.

He said:

“I am the life.”

The Way When You Feel Lost

Life can take unexpected turns.

Careers change.

Relationships change.

Health changes.

People we love leave us.

Plans fail.

Dreams sometimes disappear.

There will be moments when the carefully drawn map of your life no longer seems to make sense.

Jesus says:

I am the way.

You may not know what tomorrow holds, but you can know the One who walks with you into tomorrow.

The Truth When the World Is Confusing

We live in a culture filled with competing voices.

Everyone seems to have an opinion about truth, morality, happiness, success, identity, and purpose.

Opinions change.

Cultural standards change.

Popular ideas come and go.

But God’s Word remains.

Jesus says:

I am the truth.

When doubts surround you, return to His Word.

When the voices of the world become confusing, listen again to the voice of Christ.

His truth becomes an anchor for the mind and heart.

The Life When Your Heart Feels Empty

At twenty-three, I had many of the things I thought should make a person happy.

Yet something was missing.

Success could not fill the emptiness.

Recognition could not fill it.

Relationships could not completely fill it.

Possessions could not fill it.

Experiences could not fill it.

Jesus could.

He still can.

Jesus says:

I am the life.

The deepest hunger of the human soul is not ultimately satisfied by what we accomplish, accumulate, possess, or experience.

We were created to know God.

You Do Not Have to Earn Your Way to God

Maybe you have spent much of your life trying to be good enough.

Successful enough.

Religious enough.

Generous enough.

Respectable enough.

Accomplished enough.

But salvation is not a medal awarded for achievement.

It is a gift received by faith.

Jesus already opened the door.

Scripture says:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13

That word whosoever includes you.

Three Things to Remember Today

1. Success cannot satisfy the deepest need of the soul.
Accomplishments are wonderful, but they were never designed to replace a relationship with God.

2. You do not have to become perfect before coming to Jesus.
You come to Christ because you are not perfect. Salvation is God’s gift of grace, not a reward for flawless living.

3. Jesus offers direction, truth, purpose, and eternal life.
When the world leaves you uncertain about which road to follow, remember His words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

How About You?

Have you ever personally placed your faith in Jesus Christ?

Not simply attended church.

Not merely believed that God exists.

Not merely tried to live a good life.

Have you trusted Christ as your Savior?

That was the decision I faced as a young Army officer many years ago.

Everything on the outside looked successful.

But God knew what was missing on the inside.

Maybe today He is speaking to you about the same thing.

You can come to Him exactly where you are.

A Prayer of Faith

Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned and cannot save myself. I believe You died for my sins and rose again. I turn from trusting in myself and place my faith in You. Forgive me, guide me, and become the Lord of my life. Thank You for being the Way when I am lost, the Truth when I am confused, and the Life my soul needs. Help me walk with You each day and trust You with both this life and eternity.

Amen.

Today’s Thought

You may spend years searching for purpose through achievement, possessions, relationships, education, status, or success only to discover that the deepest need of the human heart cannot be filled by something.

It can only be filled by Someone.

His name is Jesus.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:13 KJV

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author. 

The Last Cup

Posted in @jimmiekepler, Ancient Wisdom for Today, Bible, Blog, Christian Living, Christian Writers, Jim Kepler, Jimmie A. Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Jimmie Kepler, jimmiekepler.com, Poet, Poet's Life, Poets, Writer's Life, Writing1 Comment

There is a particular kind of silence that hangs over an office break room around two in the afternoon. Everybody’s running on the fumes of lunch, and the coffee pot sits there like a small, sacred machine holding the rest of the day together.

My Story

I have stood in front of that pot more times than I can count, staring down into it, watching that last half inch of coffee swirl like it’s got something to say. Just enough for one more cup. Just enough for me. And if I pour it, that’s it. Pot’s empty. Filter’s cold and used up in the trash. I walk back to my desk three minutes richer and never think about it again.

Or I don’t.

There’s another way to stand in that room. You look at that half cup and you think about whoever’s coming in behind you, some tired soul who’s had a morning worse than yours, who was counting on that same pot the same way you were. And something in you says, leave it. Pour a new one. Wipe the counter down while it drips, and walk away without telling a soul you did it.

Nobody hands out medals for a fresh pot of coffee. Nobody’s writing your name on a plaque in the break room. That’s exactly the point. It’s a small enough thing that it costs you something real, your own three minutes, your own small comfort, and it’s also small enough that you could walk right past the moment and never notice you’d failed it.

I think that’s where most of us live, somewhere between the two responses, not cruel, just hurried. Just looking out for our own cup first, the way most everybody does, the way the world kind of trains you to. Nothing evil in it. Just narrow. Just small.

Scripture

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Philippians 2:3 (KJV)

Paul didn’t write to the Philippians about coffee pots, of course. He wrote about a Savior who had every right in heaven to keep what was His, and instead poured Himself out to the very last drop for people who never asked Him to. He didn’t hold His hands over His own portion. He walked into the empty room of our need and filled it, and then He wiped the counter down and told nobody to make a fuss over it.

That’s the strange math of grace. It doesn’t announce itself. It shows up in the little decisions nobody’s grading you on, the ones only you and God will ever know about. A fresh pot of coffee. A kind word held back when a sharp one would’ve felt better. A little patience spent on someone who wasn’t even watching.

Most days I fail that test in ways too small to notice and never atone for. But every now and then, standing in front of that half-empty pot, something quiet in me remembers who filled the pot for me first. And I brew a new one.

Prayer

Lord, soften the hurried places in me today. Let me see past my own cup to the ones who are coming in behind me, tired and thirsty in ways I may never know. Give me a heart low enough to notice small chances at grace, and the humility to take them without needing anyone to see. Amen.

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author.

The Better Choice

Posted in @jimmiekepler, Ancient Wisdom for Today, Bible, Blog, Christian Living, Christian Writers, Jim Kepler, Jimmie A. Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Jimmie Kepler, jimmiekepler.com, Poet, Poet's Life, Poets, Writer's Life, WritingLeave a comment

The Better Choice

Rachel had the whole weekend mapped out before her old college friends even packed their bags. Linens washed, flowers cut, a dinner planned down to the last dish. She wanted it perfect, the way she wanted most things.

Her sister Amanda showed up to help and got handed a list before she’d shed her coat.

Then the women arrived, tired from the road and loud with laughter, and something in the living room shifted. Nicole told stories nobody remembered right. Jennifer pulled up old photographs. Melissa talked about aging parents and marriages that had worn thin in places and dreams that hadn’t died, just gone quiet. Marie shared how her husband had left her for a younger woman.

Amanda set her phone face down on the table and stayed.

Rachel ran the kitchen alone. Sauce boiling over, a missing ingredient, her phone buzzing like a hive. She could hear the laughter over the kitchen island. She could see her sister sitting easy among the guests, and something hard and tired rose up in her.

She came out in her apron, spoon in hand, and said what tired people say.

The room went quiet. Nicole touched Amanda’s arm and told Rachel gently that nobody came for a perfect table. Jennifer offered to order pizza. Melissa already had the schedule on her phone. Marie smiled.

Rachel looked at the room. The meal unfinished, the list still long, and four women she’d loved for twenty years sitting right there, telling the truth to each other.

She took off the apron. Silenced the phone. Sat down beside her sister.

Dinner came late and simple. Nobody minded.

Scripture

“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42, KJV from the story of Mary and Martha found in the Bible, the gospel of Luke (Luke 10:38–42), where Jesus visits the home of two sisters in a village.

Reflection

Rachel wasn’t doing anything wrong. Martha wasn’t either. Jesus never scolded her for the work. He named what the work had cost her: she’d grown worried, distracted, resentful. The serving had eaten the peace right out of her.

That’s the trouble with good things. They don’t announce themselves as thieves. They just quietly take the seat meant for something better.

Mary chose to sit down and listen. That choice still costs something now. A phone left face down. A few dishes left in the sink. The nerve to believe the world won’t end if the list stays unfinished a while longer.

There’s always another task waiting like a dog at the door. But some moments only pass through once. A friend across the table. An evening with family. A quiet minute with God. The better choice isn’t doing more. It’s stopping long enough to notice who’s already in the room.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
My days fill up fast with tasks and noise, and even my good work can turn to worry in my hands. Teach me to set it down when it’s time. Let me be as present with You and with those I love as I am busy for them. Give me the sense to choose peace over perfection, and never let my serving crowd out the sitting still. 

In Jesus’ name, 
Amen.

When Money Promises More Than It Can Give

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The Life Jessica Thought She Wanted

I have known Jessica since she was a girl of four, barefoot in her mama’s yard, telling anybody who’d listen about the house she was going to have one day. Biggest one on the block, she said. A pool shaped like the state of Texas and a car with a name too fancy for a child to pronounce right. Most kids dream in crayon. Jessica dreamed in blueprints.

She grew up and went and got it too. The right school, the right sorority, a young lawyer for a husband who’d passed the bar the same summer she did her hair different for the wedding photos. But when he took a job defending folks who couldn’t pay him, she looked at him different. Called it a lack of ambition. Filed the papers before the ink dried on their first anniversary card.

Two years later she married a cardiologist, a good man raising two kids from a marriage that hadn’t worked out either. “He can provide,” she told her sister, like she was reading off a spec sheet. “I like him fine. Reckon I’ll grow to love him over time.”

For a stretch of years it looked like she’d won. The mansion sat up on the hill like a promise kept. The car in the driveway caught the morning sun just right. She had a membership card that opened doors most people never even see.

Then somewhere past forty, the process server showed up at that big front door with papers in his hand. Her husband had found somebody younger, thirty years old, and decided the vows were negotiable after all.

The mansion went the way mansions go when the marriage does. Jessica found herself in a little apartment, dusting off a resume ten years old, doing arithmetic on the kitchen table late at night. Car lease. Rent. Club dues she was too proud to cancel. A trip to the resort at St. John in the US Virgin Islands already paid for that she couldn’t back out of without everybody asking why.

Everything she’d built her peace on turned out to be sand the whole time. She just hadn’t waded out far enough yet to feel it move.

Scripture for Today

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” – Hebrews 13:5 (KJV)

The Trap of Trusting in Wealth

Now I want to be careful here, because money itself never asked to be the villain. It puts groceries on the table and a roof over a family and it can do a world of good in a hurting world if you let it. The trouble starts when money quits being a tool and starts being an identity. When it’s not just what’s in your pocket anymore but what you think you’re worth.

That kind of hunger never eats a full meal. There’s always a bigger house down the road, a S-class to replace your E-class Mercedes in somebody else’s driveway, a neighborhood with a nicer yard art. You can chase that horizon your whole life and die still running toward it.

And here’s the cruel joke of it. The very things we buy for comfort end up costing us our rest. We lie awake guarding what we own instead of enjoying what we’ve been given. What was supposed to set us free starts locking the doors from the inside.

Money can buy a lot of comfort. It has never once bought permanence. It cannot promise a marriage will hold, or a heart will heal, or a person will stay through the hard seasons. Only one voice in this world has ever made that promise and kept it.

The Wealth That Cannot Be Taken Away

Hebrews doesn’t just tell us to quit coveting like that’s some kind of discipline we can white-knuckle our way through. It hands us the reason underneath it. God said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” That’s not a suggestion for better living. That’s bedrock.

Being content doesn’t mean you stop working or stop dreaming or stop trying to do better for your family. It means your joy quits living and dying by what’s sitting in your driveway or your bank account.

A small apartment with peace in it beats a mansion with dread creeping through every hallway. A modest car driven without fear of losing it beats a luxury one that’s really just a nice cage.

Real wealth is knowing Somebody stays when everything else packs up and leaves. Jobs end. People we love disappoint us, sometimes on purpose. Money comes in like the tide and goes right back out again just as fast. Possessions wear thin, the money for international dream vacations runs out, and the invitations stop coming eventually, every single time.

But God stays. That part never changes.

Peace shows up the day we stop asking dollars to do a job only the Lord was ever built to do. When we trust Him instead, we find out what freedom actually tastes like. Contentment that isn’t for sale, and can’t be repossessed either.

Three Takeaways

  1. Ask yourself honestly what your peace is really standing on. Is it God, or is it your paycheck, your title, your address?
  2. Practice thanks today, right where you are. Don’t wait for the next thing to arrive before you’re grateful for what’s already in your hands.
  3. Remember what can’t be taken. Houses burn, cars wreck, and marriages sometimes end even when we did our best. God’s presence and His promises are the one inheritance nobody can repossess.

Prayer

Father,
Forgive me for the times I put my trust in money and things instead of You. Teach me gratitude for what I already hold in my hands. Remind me, on the hard nights especially, that You promised never to leave me nor forsake me, and that Your word has never once come back void.
Amen.

 

Finding Peace in the Right Now

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The Woman Who Was Waiting for Tomorrow

There is a particular kind of tired that has nothing to do with sleep. Addy knew it well. She sat at her desk one afternoon with a spreadsheet glowing in front of her, numbers lined up neat as tombstones, and she could not have told you a single figure on it. Her mind had wandered off somewhere down the road, chasing a life that had not happened yet.

She ran the list the way folks do when they are dissatisfied and do not quite know why. The job paid too little and asked too much. The apartment had grown smaller every year without changing size. The savings account looked thin under the light. Friends who used to know her secrets now only knew her weather, fine, busy, hanging in there. And the man she loved, the one whose coffee she still made every morning, had gone quiet on the subject of forever.

She had a sentence she repeated to herself so often it had worn smooth, like a stone carried in a pocket. If I could just get the promotion. If we could just move somewhere better. If he would just ask me to marry him. When I finish my MBA. Then I could be happy.

Happiness kept its address just around the next corner. It always does, for people like Addy. For people like most of us.

The Cross-Stitch on Grandma’s Wall

One evening she drove out to see her grandmother, the way she did every few weeks out of duty more than desire, if she was honest. The house smelled the way it always had, coffee and cedar and something like the past. On the wall hung an old cross-stitch, the fabric gone the color of weak tea, the thread soft with fifty years of dust. The words had not faded, though. Words like that rarely do.

Her grandmother had lived in that same small house through every kind of weather life can throw at a person. She had buried a husband. She had counted out grocery money at the end of hard months. She had outlived most of the friends who once sat at her table. And yet there was something steady in her, something Addy had been hunting for in all the wrong corners of the future. A quiet joy that did not depend on the circumstances lining up right.

Her grandmother’s life had never been perfect. Her peace had never asked it to be.

Addy sat with that a long while, longer than she meant to. She began to see that she had spent years chasing a mirage, waiting for her circumstances to get good enough before she would allow herself to feel grateful. While she kept her eyes fixed on some better tomorrow, she had been walking right past the mercies God had already laid at her feet today.

Contentment, she came to understand, was not a place you finally arrive at once every piece falls into line. It was a choice you make in the room you are standing in right now.

God may still change things. He may open doors nobody expected, mend what has been broken, or carry a person into a whole new season. But we are not required to put our peace in storage until He does. We can trust Him with the waiting and still live wide awake in the present.

What Scripture Says

Paul wrote from a prison cell, of all places, when he said:

“Not that I speak in respect of want:

for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

Philippians 4:11, KJV

A man in chains, teaching the rest of us about freedom.

Three Things Worth Carrying With You

Contentment is learned, not handed to you. Paul did not say he was born easy in his own skin. He said he learned it. Contentment is not a lucky temperament some people are dealt at birth like a good hand of cards. It is a discipline, built one day at a time by trusting God through whatever season you happen to be standing in. You practice it the way you practice anything, by noticing His goodness on purpose, by saying thank you before you feel like it, and by refusing to let what is missing drown out what has already been given.

Your circumstances do not get to run the show. Real contentment is not pretending the hard things do not hurt. It is refusing to hand those hard things the keys to your peace. Whether the season is full or lean, whether you are surrounded or you are lonesome, the deepest kind of joy does not come from how things are going. It comes from knowing whose you are.

The word “next” will wear you out if you let it. The next promotion. The next relationship. The next move, the next milestone, the next answered prayer, and then, finally, you tell yourself, you will be happy. But there is always another next waiting behind the one you just reached. That road does not end. Peace begins the day you quit postponing your life and plant your feet in the ground you are standing on right now.

You may not have everything you are asking God for. But He has not left the room. His grace has not run dry. His goodness has not clocked out for the day.

Do not miss today while you are busy waiting on tomorrow.

A Prayer for Contentment

Dear Lord,

I confess I have been restless more often than I would like to admit, dissatisfied with the very ground You have set me on. I have let worries about my work, my money, my relationships, and my future steal a peace that was never theirs to take.

Forgive me for keeping such a careful count of what I lack, and such a poor one of what You have already given.

Teach me the secret Paul knew from that cell. Help me trust Your timing instead of my own impatience. Help me see Your goodness even in the plain, unremarkable middle of an ordinary day. Let my satisfaction rest in You, not in whatever changes I am still hoping for. Give me the sense to keep working toward what is good without making my joy wait on the outcome.

Help me live grateful and faithful in the life You have actually given me. Not the one I keep imagining. This one, right here, right now.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

#ContentmentInChrist #PeaceInThePresent #TrustGodsTiming

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author.

Are You Lonely?

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 Never Truly Alone

There’s a bench outside the old courthouse in a county seat town I won’t bother naming, because it could be any town, and you have probably passed one just like it. It sits under an oak that’s seen more funerals than weddings, and for years it was the busiest seat in the county. Four or five old boys would gather there most every afternoon. Coffee in paper cups. Complaints about the heat. Arguments settled that never needed settling in the first place. It was church without the steeple, and confession without the booth.

Then time did what time does. It took its cut.

One man moved off to live near his daughter. Another got sick and stopped coming, and then stopped altogether. A couple of them are buried now, out past the edge of town where the grass grows a little wilder. The rest got swallowed up by grandchildren and doctor’s appointments and the slow drift that happens to everybody sooner or later.

So there came a day when the last one of them sat on that bench by himself. Alone with the empty spaces where his friends used to be.

A young preacher walked by one afternoon and stopped, the way young preachers do when they see an old man sitting still. “Doesn’t it get lonely,” he asked, “sitting here by yourself?”

The old man looked down the bench at all that nobody sitting beside him. He took his time answering, the way a man does when he’s already made peace with the question.

“Some days it surely does,” he said. “But every morning before I leave the house, I ask the Lord to walk with me. Folks don’t always have the time to sit down next to an old man. But God has never once failed to show up.”

 The Promise Underneath the Silence

I keep coming back to that man on the bench, because I think most of us know exactly what that empty seat feels like.

Sometimes people leave all at once, with a slammed door or a hard word. More often they just fade, the way a radio station fades the further you drive from town. The calls get shorter. The invitations quit coming. A message sits there unanswered long enough that you stop expecting a reply. Folks who once swore they’d stand by you get busy standing somewhere else.

Scripture doesn’t dress this up or pretend it away. It just answers it plain. Hebrews 13:5 puts the promise in words simple enough for a child and deep enough to hold a grown man up: 

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

God never promised us that people would stay. He never promised that every friendship would hold its shape or that every chair at the table would stay filled. What He promised was bigger than any of that. He promised Himself. Not the fair weather kind of presence, but the kind that sits down next to you in the empty places and doesn’t get up.

When the house goes quiet in a way it never used to, He’s there.

When the phone stops ringing the way it once did, He’s there.

When your own family looks at you like they can’t quite make sense of what you’re carrying, He’s there.

Loneliness has a voice, and it likes to whisper that nobody’s coming. But the old promise answers back quieter and steadier every time: “I am still here.”

You won’t always feel it. Feeling isn’t the measure of it. The same God who carried you through yesterday’s grief is the one waiting in today’s silence, and He’ll be the one walking you into tomorrow, whether you can feel His footsteps or not.

People come, and people go. That’s just the nature of a life lived among other broken folks doing their best. But God stays. That part never changes.

 Three Things Worth Carrying Home

  1. Your loneliness is not proof of abandonment. A quiet season isn’t the same as an empty one. God does some of His deepest work in the silence, teaching a man to listen for a presence he’d stopped noticing.
  2. People will fail you. God’s faithfulness won’t. Don’t let another person’s absence set the measure for God’s love. His word doesn’t bend just because a relationship did.
  3. Your lonely season might be somebody else’s answered prayer. Once you’ve sat on that bench by yourself, you start noticing who else is sitting there too. A phone call, a short message, an open seat at your table, these things carry more weight than we ever give them credit for.

 A Prayer for the Quiet Places

Heavenly Father, 

Some days this loneliness sits heavier on me than I know how to carry. I confess I’ve let the silence of other people convince me I’d been forgotten.

Thank You for the promise that You will never leave me nor forsake me. Help me feel Your presence in the quiet rooms of my life. When friends or family drift further than I’d like, remind me that my worth was never tied to who stays and who walks away. Heal whatever’s been wounded in me by rejection and by disappointment.

Give me courage enough to reach toward somebody else. Give me the wisdom to build relationships that can bear real weight, and the eyes to notice the ones sitting alone on their own version of that bench. Walk with me today, Lord, close enough that even in the silence, I know You’re there.

In Jesus’ name, 
Amen.

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. This original inspirational thought is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it for the purpose of spreading God’s message, provided proper credit is given to the author.

What Does The Bible Say About Worry?

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God Has This

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True Peace

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peace

How To Have True Peace of Mind

Do you want peace of mind?

Everyone wants peace of mind. All seek a life of rest, no worries, and being able to enjoy life, family, friends, work, church, hobbies, entertainment, etc. We want to be able to enjoy ourselves and not be burdened down with worries that rob us of vigor, life, and purpose.

Sometimes when we can’t find peace of mind. We get depressed. We often get angry. At times we even lash out at God or someone else near to you.

What do you do to get peace?

I mean real peace in your life. Where do you start? What do you do?

The place to start is with God.

In the Bible in the book of Philippians, chapter 4:6-9 teaches how to have true peace in your life.

Philippians 4:6-9 (NIV) tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, 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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Point one – God wants you to have true peace by having you not worry – about anything (the act of thinking)

Worry shows you are not trusting in God. God says in verse 6, “Do not be anxious about anything.”

That means don’t worry.

The word for “anxious” in the Greek here means to be troubled with cares He hasn’t given you that command without you being able to carry it out.

He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand” (Mark 3:5)

But the man could not–yet He obeyed and did it!

Because the Holy Spirit is in you, you are able to live by faith, and not worry…no matter what happens. Because the Spirit empowers you to be faithful, to trust, to yield to the Lord’s will. With the Spirit, you are able to trust God beyond your ability to know what will happen in your life.

Matthew 6:25, 27, 31, 33, 34 teaches, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? … Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? … So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ … For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. … But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. … Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety (same word) on him because he cares for you. (NIV)

John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. (NIV)

God doesn’t want you to worry because worry means you do not trust God that you are not taking Him fully at His word. God has been providing for you all along – look at the cross. God wants you to have true peace by praying – about everything (the act of doing). v. 6 “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

All things in your life are of concern to God.

The big and the small: where to move, who to marry, what job to get, even your hobbies, and leisure times. The peace that God gives you will guard your minds. The peace that God gives you will strengthen you.

Because of the cross, you have access to the throne of God. We are to approach it “with thanksgiving,” because of the cross, the proof of God’s faithfulness. In the presence of God, there is peace.

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Practice the presence of God – pray!

Prayer transforms you. By praying, you intern want to think about holy things. That is why…(next point)

Point Two – God wants you to have true peace by meditating on what is holy (the act of thinking)

Your minds have been set free from slavery to sin.

Romans 8:6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; (NIV)

God wants you to fill your heart with what is good.

Philippians 4:8, “whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent worthy of praise. Let your mind dwell on these things.” (NASB)

God wants you to think, to meditate on truth, purity, and excellence.

Psalm 119:78 “…I will meditate on your precepts.”

The precepts of God, the Word of God, is truth, purity, and excellence. Meditate on the Word of God so that you might be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Point Three – God wants you to have true peace by putting into practice what you have learned. (the act of doing)

He wants you to… trust Him for everything.

Philippians 4:6a, “Don’t be anxious for anything.”

Pray to Him for anything.

Philippians 4:6b “but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (NIV)

Meditate on what is holy.

Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, 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. (NIV)

Conclusion

These things are written to you so that the God of peace will be with you. Not simply peace…but the God of peace will be with you.

Ultimately this is about God dwelling with you. He wants you to be holy, pure, and right.

Will you trust Him and not worry? Will you pray about everything in your life? Will you meditate on the Word of God? And finally, will you practice, will you do, what God calls you to do?

You Can Manage Worry Biblically

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When You’re a Caregiver, You Can Manage Worry Biblically

Part of learning to care for a person with a chronic illness is managing worry.

Within the last five years, my wife was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoid and Melanoma cancers. The oncologist informed us if the Melanoma cancer doesn’t kill her the neuroendocrine carcinoid would. The Melanoma cancer killed her in April 2018.

My Story

While I won’t get into her sickness or her chronic illness’s medical details, I will share how I dealt with the challenges. While she was under a medical team of physician’s care and treatment, my focus was on the spiritual, not the therapeutic. 

That doesn’t mean I ignored the medical side for treatment. I did not. I made sure she had the best treatment available and that she followed the doctor’s recommendations.

I am a Christian. My Christian faith is foundational for managing the emotional challenges. I find comfort from reading the Holy Bible, applying the Bible verses to daily life, and praying using the Bible verse(s) as my prayer.

This same comfort is available to you. God, through His Word, the Bible, provides Hope for the Caregiver.”

Bible Verse

Matthew 6:34 (KJV), “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.”

What the Verse Means

What the verse is saying in today’s English is give your entire attention to God. Look for what He is doing in your life today. With the focus in the here and now you cannot get worried or worked up over what may or may not happen tomorrow. While you may influence tomorrow, you cannot control or even guarantee you will have a tomorrow.

There’s a reason why we shouldn’t get worked up.

The reason? God will help you. And with God’s help, I dealt with whatever came our way, no matter how challenging or difficult the trials were. I can testify God walked with my wife and me through every step of this difficult, heartbreaking process.

Pray Using Scripture

  • Father in Heaven, help me to focus on today. Help me see you and your activity in my life.
  • Lord Jesus, help me not to get too worried or concerned about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
  • Almighty Father, teach me how to trust in you and let you take control of my life.
  • I thank you for the promise that you will help me deal with whatever hard things are in my future where I will be as prepared as possible when the time comes.
  • I ask for the grace to handle today.
  • I trust tomorrow to the Lord.

Responding to God’s Hope

  1. Name at least one way God is taking care of you and your loved one today? An example may be health insurance or hospice care. Thank God for caring for you today.
  2. Are you praying and reading the Bible? Part of taking each day as it comes is spending time with God through Bible reading and prayer. I suggest you start by reading a Proverb a day from the Book of Proverbs in your Bible. The Book of Proverbs has thirty-one chapters. That gives you a Proverb for each day of the month. I suggest you begin by reading the chapter of the Book of Proverbs whose chapter number matches the day of the month. As I am writing this, it is the tenth of the month. You would read chapter ten.
  3. Pray for the one your caring for and yourself that you would have a good day. Pray you would be up to any challenges you face today. Pray for how you can make your loved one’s day comfortable.

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This article is from the forthcoming book, “Hope for the Caregiver: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional Approach.”