Nae's Notes

There’s a lot of answers to that question. At the end of the day, the important thing to remember is that you matter to God. There’s so many things in this world that will come and try to pretend they are more important than that. Sometimes people come into your life that try to tell you other things. They make you think that there are things that are more important than your relationship with God and following what He has told you. Only you know what path is right for you when you are following God. Don’t let the noise of the world take you off your path. Jeremiah 7:23 has some simple advice:

“ But I did say this, commanded this: “Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.””
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭7‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭MSG‬‬

God commanded that we obey Him and live the way He tells us to live. Some people might mistake life going well for never having any problems. That’s not realistic. Our lives will go well in the fact that when we obey Him we will end up where He wants us. The only thing that matters is that we matter to God and do whatever He wants us to do while we are here. We will survive the times we miss the mark and get distracted by the noise. We will thrive when we live the way He wants us to live and obey his commands!

Nobody likes carrying heavy objects for long periods of time. It causes fatigue and soreness that interferes with our plans. Being anxious is similar to carrying heavy things around for long periods of time. We become tired more quickly and cause ourselves unnecessary pain by worrying about what is going on in our lives. Proverbs 12:25 says, “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” (NIV) Many times others don’t know we are anxious and feeling weighed down, so they can’t provide the kind words we need in order to cheer up. What do we do then? Open the Bible and look at the words God says about us. Be your own cheerleader by speaking the kind, encouraging words over yourself. Some examples are:

“Trust in the Lord…and enjoy safe pasture.” (Ps 37:3)
”Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps 37:4)
”…those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”(Ps 37:9)
”If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall
for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Ps 37:23-24)

Don’t survive this week carrying the weight of your anxiety with you each day. Thrive by speaking God’s word into your mind, so you can cheer up and drop the extra weight!

Psalm 34:14 says, “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” (NIV). Are the two parts meant to be separated or do they go together? An argument could be made for both. Lets take a moment to view them together.

Seeking peace is turning from evil? That seems a little harsh. When you think about it, though, we tend to do things that aren’t good when we don’t seek peace. It may not be intentional, but there is turmoil when peace is absent. Sometimes turmoil causes a loss of peace or losing peace causes turmoil. When we are in turmoil, we don’t gravitate toward good things in our words and actions. I recently allowed something out of my control to steal my peace. In the midst of it, I felt turmoil and did not want to do anything good to help others. I wasn’t intentionally doing evil and most people probably didn’t even know how I felt. In the moment I was all about myself and how I felt and not focused on how I could serve and bring glory to God, which is why we’re here.

The New Living Translation states, “Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬. Working to maintain peace indicates it requires constant action, focus, and discipline in order to stay in a state of peace.

The Message version states, “Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away!” Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭14‬ ‭MSG‬‬. Picture a child with his/her favorite stuffed animal. They hug it tightly in order to keep from losing it or having someone else take it away. It is with the same passion that child has that we should work to embrace and hold on to our peace. We will survive each day with diminished peace. Wouldn’t it be better to thrive by embracing peace and not letting something steal it away from us?

And third and fourth and fifth…..

How many chances will we get to do the right thing? That depends on what the right thing is and who is defining the right thing. Chances are different than redos.Websters dictionary defines chance as “something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention”. A redo is something “to do over or again”, (Webster’s Dictionary). A redo is something that takes place when we realize we missed the mark or may have misstepped. It’s intentional. A chance is something that is not intentional or planned by humans. Sometimes they go together. For example, throughout the Old Testament the people of Israel miss the mark and seek other gods and help from sources that are not God. Jeremiah chapters 2 and 3 are just 2 of the places that Israel’s foolishness is documented. At the time of their sin, they didn’t realize they needed to redo anything because they justified their actions. Our lives sometimes follow that path as well. That’s where the chance piece comes enters the picture. God gave them another chance to do better and stay focused on what He wanted them to do in order to have what He promised them they could have. Those chances came at times the Israelites were not expecting them and usually at their lowest points. God in his mercy and grace brought about opportunities that they didn’t know about in order to get them back on track. He didn’t just do it once; He did it as many times as needed to get their attention.

Our lives can be similar to this. We lose focus or follow the wrong path and needs a redo. Often times we don’t realize we need this redo until well into the mistake. There are times God brings those second, third, fourth, etc. chances about before we know we need it. Grace. Mercy. Redirection. We don’t know we need these things yet because we are simply surviving on the path we chose. We will thrive when we accept and follow God’s second chances and maybe not need to redo that lesson again!

Plants need water and light to survive. Some die immediately when those things are withheld. Sometimes the death is gradual. The flowers stop blooming or the leaves start to shrink and wither. This is a sign that the plant needs attention. At that point you have a choice-you can water the plant and expose it to more light or you can ignore it, and let it die.

This is not unlike our relationship with God and the things He has promised. God plants a seed in us, and we are excited at the prospect of what this seed will bring. We spend time helping that seed grow into what God intends for it to be. We worship, pray and read His word to assure the seed grows. Without our attention to the seed, it has the potential to get lost in all the things going on around us. We get busy and forget to give the seed the attention we did when it was first planted. It is then we forget what that promise was in the beginning. The seed begins to die. If it is only starting to wither, you can bring it back to life by watering it. God’s promises work the same for us. We can bring those promises back to life by returning to worship, prayer, and reading His word with the same enthusiasm we had at the beginning. John 15:4 says,”

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.4.NIV

We can survive the waiting time to the promise. We will only truly thrive by remaining in God, so he can bring about the fruit of the promise.

Spring…blooms on trees and flowers. For a season, these plants are dormant, resting, not living to their full potential. This period of rest is essential for the plants to be everything they are created to be when the season changes and it’s their time to shine. We are not unlike plants in this way. There’s an appointed time for us to bloom-to move into the next season God has for us. Instead of being dormant during this time, we should continue to seek God in order to know when it’s time for us to bloom. Ps. 105:4 says, “Search for the Lord and His strength; continually seek Him,” (NLT). We aren’t supposed to just seek Him when we need something. If we seek Him continually we will know when it’s time to move to the next season.

In addition to seeking the Lord, we should also rest in Him and recharge for the next season.

“The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.””
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭33‬:‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.33.14.NIV

The verse says His presence is with us. His presence is with us when we are resting and waiting and then goes with us into the next season.

The danger with resting is that it can lead to complacency and keep us from living to our full potential in the waiting process. In our rest, we are not to stop seeking God and letting Him work in us and through us. Rest in this case is not “freedom from activity”. Instead it is “a peace of mind”. (Webster’s Dictionary). It can be difficult to rest and remain at peace when it feels like there is no movement forward especially if we think we are ready. When plants bloom early there is danger that a frost will come and damage their blooms and leaves. This leaves damage that is visible and takes time to overcome. The same is true for us. We can survive moving into the next season before the appointed time and skipping the resting season. We will thrive if we seek the Lord and His rest in order to move into the next season at just the right time!

According to the dictionary, a pitfall is a pit flimsily covered or camouflaged and used to capture and hold animals or men; a trap or snare (Websters dictionary). That is what comes to mind when pitfall is mentioned to most people. The second definition given is somewhat more intriguing, “a hidden or not easily recognized danger or difficulty”. It is not unusual to associate danger with pitfall. Most people work hard to avoid danger, so you might think that pitfalls aren’t a problem. Then you look at the word “difficulty”. Difficulty seems to be something that is not anticipated-not easily recognized. This makes them unavoidable. Sometimes falling into these hidden difficulties does lead into the first definition of being captured and held in the pitfall.

Hidden difficulties cannot be avoided. Focusing on the difficulty will allow you to remain there. Switching focus from the pitfall to God and His word can help get out of the pitfall faster. Consider the following verses:

“For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭36‬:‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭97‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God gives us life and shines his light on us when our hearts are right, and we focus on Him. We can survive the pitfalls, or we can thrive by staying focusing on God and letting Him light our path!

Know. Everyone knows different things. Using the statement “I know” implies that it is settled or something that is sure. Webster’s 1828 dictionary says to know is “to understand clearly”; “to not be doubtful”. In this world, there are a lot of things to “know” but that don’t necessarily match the words quoted about. Let’s consider “know” using the following acronym.

KNOWLEDGE of the
NAME of Jesus followed by
OBEDIENCE leads to
WISDOM

One way to define knowledge is information, power of knowing (Websters 1828 dictionary). The information about the name of Jesus paired with the power of knowing the name of Jesus opens the doors to opportunities we don’t have access to on our own. Proverbs 22:12a says, “The eyes of the Lord keep guard over knowledge and the one who has it…” (AMP). The Lord watches over his children and the ones who believe and call upon the name of Jesus. He guards those who seek to gain knowledge about Him. We open the door with knowledge of Jesus and what He did for us. That continues then as we move along our journey with “obedience”. Websters 1828 says that obedience is “submission to authority”. That might sound a little overwhelming because submitting to others isn’t always a popular idea. Proverbs 16:3 in the amplified version says,” Commit your works to the Lord (submit and trust them to Him), And your plans will succeed (if you respond to His will and guidance).” It doesn’t say your plans might succeed-it says they will. You have to first trust Him and respond to His guidance. So as we trust and obey the things He says, we can then move into having and using wisdom. Websters 1828 dictionary says that wisdom is the “right use and exercise of knowledge”. So knowledge and wisdom are not the same. Wisdom is using the knowledge we have gained. We can only gain knowledge of God by reading His word and spending time in prayer.

We can survive our situations and circumstances by only utilizing part of the acronym above. We will thrive when we put all the pieces together!

Perfection. A dangerous word that fills many people with doubt and anxiety.
Webster’s defines perfection in the following way: “an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence”. Webster’s 1828 dictionary lists the following definition: “an inherent or essential attribute of supreme or infinite excellence”. Excellence-a word found in both definitions, spanning the test of time.

We practice for perfection in many different ways. The most obvious way is in sports or hobbies where you want to reach the highest achievement. We quickly learn as humans that perfection is not possible. That doesn’t keep us from practicing to get closer to achieving perfection. A fair amount of time and money are spent trying to achieve perfection in whatever interest is in our current view. Would it be better to switch our mindset to the word excellence instead? Excellence implies that we are the best we can be in our focused area but seems to remove the pressure of being perfect.

What if the next project we practice for perfection in is our relationship with God? It does take time but not necessarily a lot of money. Our relationship with God will not be perfect, but it can be excellent.

“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.”
‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.1.5-6.NLT

Responding to God’s promises is the beginning of seeking excellence in our relationship with Him. The verse goes on to give a list of things that will keep us moving toward that excellent relationship, things we can practice each day. You can survive with a less than excellent relationship with God. We can thrive if we practice for perfection and move closer to an excellent relationship with God!

If you’ve ever sat on a runway for a long amount of time, you’ve seen planes waiting for takeoff. They have their destination already set, so they’re not waiting for orders or directions. They’re already filled with patrons and equipped with all the fuel and supplies needed for the trip. The planes are all lined up, patiently waiting for word from the air traffic controllers as to when it is safe to proceed. It’s quite an amazing process to watch, as everything seems perfectly planned.

Our life with God is much like this process. He calls us to a destination. Then He prepares and equips us with all the skills and provisions needed to fulfill that call. However, we wait on Him to open the doors and lead us to the destinations when the time is right. Much like airplanes, our destinations are never only one place. He leads us to each destination individually. Similar to air travel, we may go out from our destination, stay for awhile, and then return to prepare for the next assignment. There may be times that we go and relocate permanently when He calls us to a new place. Either way, we must wait for the green light from God in order to avoid unnecessary collisions, just as aircrafts must wait until their turn to safely proceed on their path.

Don’t get ahead of the flight plan. It’s easy to get excited about a new calling and want to rush into it. That will cause collisions. They bible says,

“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.27.14.NLT

Notice that wait patiently is mentioned twice in this one short verse, emphasizing the importance of waiting. That is so against our human nature! We can survive our calling if we rush, but it is better to thrive through our calling by waiting on our air traffic controller for permission to take off!