There are times in our life when the things we need the most are often those things we’ve taken for granted, they are frequently things we see having little value, until we actually need them. We often don’t know how much we need something until we actually need it.  

Picture yourself enjoying a quiet evening at home, having a glass of wine with old friends, telling stories of days gone by. Suddenly you see lightning outside the window followed by a loud crack of thunder, then another, and first the lights just flicker before going out altogether. You find yourself in complete darkness and about now the flashlight app on your cell phone would come in handy, but you aren’t sure where you last laid the phone. So, you feel your way to the kitchen to grab the candles from that catch-all drawer that everyone has, but now you need to find matches. After some desperate searching, and a few choice words mumbled under your breath, you finally find them in that same drawer under the carry-out menu from the pizza parlor down the street. All of a sudden, those free matches that you got at your nephew’s wedding seem pretty valuable. Sound familiar?

Maybe you are camping and your daughter has to go the bath house in the middle of the night. You’ve made that same trip every night you’ve been at the campground, so you don’t need a flashlight to illuminate the path. But on this night, for some reason, you take the flashlight anyway. About halfway into your trip to the bath house you hear a noise rustling through the leaves in front of you. You flip on the light just in time to see a snake slithering across the path. At that moment, your old cracked flashlight held together with duct tape is worth a great deal. Have you ever found yourself on a dark path, even a familiar one, thankful for light, any light?

Many of us wander through life never really tapping into the light that can brighten our path and illuminate the darkness for us. We stumble and fall, we wander off the path, and we trip over objects in front of us, all because we try and walk through life’s journey without God’s light guiding our steps, even those that Light Source is readily available to us at all times.

God spoke light into existence from the very beginning – “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:3-4). Throughout the pages of Scripture, there are numerous references to God as light unto our path. Here are three of those verses…

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105).

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

In John 8:12, Jesus said this about Himself – “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So, today, I encourage you to seek God and His light – the light of the Holy Spirit – which is the light that will help point out sin in your life, the light that helps you walk in truth, and the light that will also help you navigate those dark nights when you find yourself walking on an unfamiliar (or even familiar) path. Ask God to give you faith to walk in His light and also for His fresh batteries for your dim flashlight.

Do you lay in bed at night, unable to fall asleep, kept awake over what has already happened? Do you spend too much time and energy wishing yesterday had been different? You’ve heard the saying, “that’s water over the dam,” right? Think about it, as water flows over a dam, through its spillways, it is forever gone, never to return. What you did, or was done to you, yesterday or even ten years ago, is like water over the dam – can’t be changed.

Every one of us has a past. That past is filled with successes and failures, both big and small. That past is filled with smiles and also with tears. It is filled with things we are glad to share with others, and it is filled with things we keep hidden from others, or at least “hidden” until the it shows up on social media.

In part, your past makes you who you are today. While we are all influenced by our past, we do not have to let our past dictate the present or the future. This does not mean forget your past, instead, it means a conscious refusal to let it absorb all your attention and impede your progress. It means letting the water that has gone over the dam to be just that, gone forever.

You might right now be thinking, “Oh you don’t know my past. The pain is too great, or the hole is just too deep to climb out of.” You are correct, I do not know your past, but what I do know is that Jesus came into this world to bring you a future, a glorious future grounded in hope (Titus 2:13). He loves you and is interested in redeeming and restoring you, no matter how broken you feel, how ugly your past was.

We find that God-initiated restoration put this way in Joel 2:24-26 – “The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust ate, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust – My great army that I sent against you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied. You will praise the name of Yahweh your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. My people will never again be put to shame.”

The immediate meaning of those verses is that for years Israel had seen their crops eaten by swarms of locusts, complete destruction of their harvest year after year. I am sure all they could see was more of the same in their future; they likely could not stop seeing the water that had gone over the dam. But here we see God is promising that their future will be filled with hope, abundant harvests, plenty to eat and drink, and a future in which the people will have reason to praise and worship their God.

Just a few verses earlier, we read – “Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people … Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied (vv.17-18a).”

[“Jealous” in this context means “to be zealous for or concerned for.”]

You do indeed have a past, but because of Jesus, despite what that past looks like, you also have a future, a glorious future. So, today, regardless of what is in your past, allow the water that has flowed over the dam to be gone forever, and look to Jesus help you have a better tomorrow.   

We live in a society where there are odds placed upon almost every activity; from sporting events to lotteries to the likelihood of being struck by lightning or being in a plane crash, and for some people, even when the next Royal Baby will be born. Odds are nothing more than some numerical expression, often in the form of two numbers, that gives the likelihood that something will or will not occur. So, then, just what does it mean to have odds of 2 to 1 or 30 to 1? The former means there is a 33% likelihood of occurrence, whereas the latter gives just a 3% likelihood.      

We see odds being put on lots of things, sometimes not even recognizing it since they aren’t expressed in numbers. Opening a new restaurant might be considered a “roll of the dice,” meaning the odds could tilt in either direction as to whether or not the venture succeeds. Or how about, “Against all odds she beat breast cancer.” After bumping into an old neighbor who moved away years ago, you get home and say to your spouse – “bet you can’t guess who I just saw,” meaning you see it as unlikely (odds are low) they will know. Sometimes we are just happy with any chance of success. In the movie Dumb and Dumber, after Mary tells Lloyd that there is only one out of a million chance that they will end up together, he says this – “So you’re telling me there’s a chance. Yeah!!!”

We even see odds in weather forecasting every single day. You turned on the television this morning and might have heard this, “There is a 40% change of rain today.” Those are odds placed upon the probability of rain by the forecaster, using several factors, namely confidence (likelihood of rain) and coverage (how much of a given area will see measurable rain). So, if the weather forecaster is 50% confident that it will rain and that 80% of a given area will see that rain, the probability of precipitation is 40%.

Maybe right now you face some obstacle that seems insurmountable – the hole is too deep, the pain is too great, the mistake is too big, it is as if the “odds are stacked again you.” You just don’t see any way out; fear leads to despair which leads to hopelessness.

In the midst of what you are facing, no matter how big or how small, we have a God who gives strength to the weary and power to those who are weak. He gives hope to those who find themselves without hope. You might be familiar with these words – “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).

Throughout Scripture, in times of real doubt, when the odds were stacked against someone or a people group, God asks them, “Is anything too hard for me?” Two examples – to Sarah when she questioned how an old lady could have a son (Gen 18:14) and to the prophet Jeremiah as Jerusalem and its inhabitants were about to lose everything (Jer 32:27).

So, today, maybe against what seems like insurmountable odds, when you feel as if the odds are 100 to 1, or even 1000 to 1, against you, you can have confidence, you can rest assured, that you have a God who is bigger than the odds, a God who promises to be with you every step of the way, through good and bad, thick and thin, when the odds are in your favor, and when they are stacked against you. He says to you right now, Is anything too hard for me?

We all know people who are unavailable and often unapproachable. You know, those people who are seemingly too busy or too distracted to listen to you. For many people, you need to get written onto their calendar, usually in pencil so it can be changed, months in advance just to get a few minutes of face time with them.

My first academic advisor in college had office hours from six to seven in the morning, two days a week. And not just that, if I wanted to meet with him I needed to make an appointment, by coming during those two hours he was in his office to schedule the meeting. There was no emailing or texting in those days. One time I did finally get a few minutes with him, and entire time he was grading papers while I was talking. So the message he seemed to send: I’m not too interested in meeting with you.

On the other hand, my college head football coach had an open door policy. Anytime Coach was in the office, his door was open, he was available, and no matter how busy he was, if I sat down in front of his desk, I had Coach’s undivided attention.

While it is often hard to get people to listen to you, let alone give you what you might be asking for, we have a God who is always open for business. Early in His ministry, Jesus was on a hillside teaching those who came to taught, in what is called the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew Chapters 5-7. One of His many teachings that day was really an invitation to approach God with your needs. This went against the norm of that day; kings and rulers were not approachable without first being invited. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.” 

If you are a savvy Christian, then you probably say: “Oh no no no, that ask-seek-knock comes with a lot of caveats” Yes, while it is true that there are exceptions and we can abuse or distort that invitation to ask-seek-knock, the thrust of Jesus’ message is that we have a God who is approachable and responsive. And yes, our requests do need to be in alignment with “let your will be done,” but again, the thrust of what Jesus is saying is that we have a God invites us to commune with Him. Jesus is sitting on the hillside teaching the rule, not the exceptions.  

The three verses (vv.9-11) that follow the ones I just referenced tell us – “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

So, today, take Jesus up on His invitation to ask, seek, and knock. God invites you into His office every time you come! He always has an open door policy. And in the midst of that interaction between you and your Heavenly Father, let Him work out what is and isn’t in His will. Based upon my experience, I have confidence that you and He can sort it out.   

Are you a person who lives by the adage, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” or do you flip that around and say, “Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow”?

We live in a world of procrastinators. Cats never seem to be in any hurry to do anything; the same can sometimes be said of us. Have you ever waited until the night before an assignment is due to begin working on it? You need to get a colonoscopy but you keep putting it off. Several days ago I walked by the card store while doing errands and it was full of men, many with panicked looks on their faces, scrambling to find a Valentine’s Day card. You keep finding better things to do than wash windows. You put off calling a loved one until one day it is too late.

Pablo Picasso once said, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” We live in a world of procrastinators. The word procrastinate comes from the Latin verb “procrastinare” which means deferred until tomorrow. Most of us eventually do the things we need to do, we just seem to usually put them off or wait until the last minute.

When God calls upon us to do something, He expects us to respond immediately, in His timing, not when it fits our schedule. Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is. Delayed obedience is really nothing more than disobedience. In Genesis 17, when God made a covenant with Abraham, promising to “greatly increase your numbers,” He also asked Abraham to also keep a covenant of circumcising every male in his household (see Gen 17:1-14). How did Abraham respond? He could have waited until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to call the doctor’s office to schedule the procedures, but here is what we read in 17:23 – “On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.”

When Jesus visited Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew as they were fishing, He invited them to become his disciples. In Matthew 4:19 we see Jesus say, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Did the two men ask to go home and think about it for a few days before giving Jesus an answer? You be the judge; here is what we read in v.20 – “At once they left their nets and followed him.” In the very next verse we see Jesus also invite James and John to join Him, and they too “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”

It might be okay to procrastinate completing an assignment, washing the windows, buying your sweetheart a card, or even scheduling that uncomfortable medical test, but when it comes to responding to God, the only way to be obedient is to obey Him completely and without delay.

What is God calling you to do that you keep putting off?

It is safe to say there is no more enduring symbol of love and beauty in Western culture than red roses; it is often a way to express your deepest affection, longing, desire. Giving or receiving a bouquet of red roses is a message of love. Red roses appear in music, poetry, literature, classical artwork, films and everywhere in between. Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote this – “O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June: O my Luve’s like the melodie, That’s sweetly play’d in tune” (“A Red, Red Rose,” 1794).

Among other things, one thing genuine love does is forgive (read 1 Cor 13:4-6). We live in a world that often does not easily forgive and tend to hold grudges and look for ways to get even with the person who we think wronged us. We might not say it out loud, but we think to ourselves those words spoken by the Wicked Witch of the West to Dorothy, “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!” (The Wizard of Oz)

Most often the person we fail to forgive is ourselves. We have asked the person we wronged for forgiveness, they have granted it, but we look in the mirror with remorse and regret, never allowing ourselves to climb out from under the weight of guilt. If you are a Christ follower, once you ask God to forgive your sin, He does, never to hold it against you. Do you believe that? Read Micah 7:19 (in context, Micah 7:18-20) and Psalm 103:12 (in context, all of Psalm 103).

The problem is when we fail to forgive ourselves, even after God and others have, we begin to feel unlovable and we spiral down a dark path from which there is often no escaping. The Bible’s overarching theme is that God loves you and is pursuing you! You were made in His image (Gen 1:27) and He allowed His only Son, Jesus, to be crucified and die (Rom 5:8), then resurrected Him, in order to restore a personal relationship with you (John 3:16), one that was broken due to sin (Rom 4:25).

If the truth be told, we are more convinced of God’s love and forgiveness for others than for ourselves. Many times we hear that internal whisper, “Yes, but…” after every declaration of God’s goodness and kindness to us. We see ourselves as unlovable and unforgiveable.       

You probably know the first few words of the most recognized verse in the Bible – “For God so loved the world…” The world; that excludes no one! Sensing God’s love – grabbing hold of it, letting it fill your lungs, swimming in it – is foundational to God’s Kingdom. The truest expression of God’s character is His love. The gospel message is a message of love.

In 1 John 3:1 we read this, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

So, right now, no matter how you feel, no matter what your past looks like, open your heart and accept God’s extravagant and lavish love; a love greater than that expressed by a dozen long stemmed red roses.