“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31

We look forward to going home one day. This hope is based on what Jesus did on the cross and rising from the grave; and said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

This is our hope, a hope that we have something unimaginably better to look forward to – a home with and being like Jesus.

Peter puts this hope into perspective, “Since you are looking forward to this (i.e. the hope of the Lord’s return), make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him” (3:14). Peace. Hmm.

So, I was talking with a brother in Christ of a different Christian flavor who not only reads through the Bible in a year, which I do as well, but also goes through a prayer book based on the Psalms in the morning and at night.

This got me thinking. I know, dangerous, right? Why not pray and praise my way through my Bible reading? Peace. Hmm. My wife and I read a Psalm each night before sleep. Why not pray and praise our way through it? Peace. Hmm.

We will praise Him for whatever the passage talks about Him. And, we will ask Him to transform our lives using whatever truths were in the passage.

Hmm. Peace is increasing. Why? More of Jesuz. This is not a typo. I spelled it this way to remind myself that Jesus is the Aleph and Tav (Hebrew – 1^st half of the Bible), the Alpha and Omega (Greek – 2^nd half of the Bible), and the A and Z (English versions of the Bible). He is the Beginning and the End.

As I’ve done this, it’s amazing how many days I wake up in the morning worshiping Jesus with a song in my head. Hmm. Peace.

It’s all based on the hope Jesuz gives. The more life becomes about Jesus, the more our lives will be transformed, which means the more peace we will experience.

“It’s not that God is silent. It’s just that sometimes our distractions are too loud.”

The Lord led me on a prayer walk this morning to finish a dedicated time of meditation on and with Him. I’m having a great time praying/talking with the Him through Proverbs.  

Yet, it was definitely brisk outside. And if you know me, I really hate being cold. Mud puddles had to be navigated around due to recent rains. Dogs barked, even one who tried to chew through a chain link fence to get at me. Houses were upgraded. Cars came and went. Signs needed to be read.

All were distractions that lead my attention away from talking with the Lord. Want to know what distraction I didn’t have? My phone. I purposefully left it at home. I know me. If a text or call came in, I’d probably answer it. How rude, right?

Question, how important were those activities going on around me that I allowed them to take my focus off the Lord, even for 15 minutes?

I gave those distractions power. I choose to divert my attention away from the Lord to them.

Jesus had me take that walk for a reason. I had just read 1 Peter 2. It states that the world will be full of activities that can divert our attention from Jesus (“fleshly lusts”) that will “wage war against our soul” (vs. 11).

What in your life are you giving power to that wages war on your loving Jesus? That distracts you from making the choice to follow Him in the moment, a choice that leads to life transformation?

Use the 2% rule. Focus on just one distraction today. Choose to replace it with the choice to follow Jesus in the moment, which could just mean going on a prayer walk.

“Small daily practices accrue over time and become transformative.”

“How do you eat an elephant?” You already know its meaning. But how many of us get frustrated with ourselves in the midst of our love for Jesus not matching our transformative obedience?

I raise my hand to that one. Yet why am I frustrated over something that is beyond my control? 1 John 3:2 states that being 100% like Jesus is an impossible goal…this side of heaven.

So, if you raised your hand, we both need to live out the 2%/100% rule. The only choice we have control over is the one that lies before us.

Therefore, lets focus on the small bite now or the 2% obedience gain of the moment. The Father, who already knows about the full day’s choices that we will make, has us 100% covered by His mercy and grace.

Focus on the small step of the moment. He’s got you covered.

Love is the power that leads to a transformed life.

We know for a biblical fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah in Israel. It is also a biblical fact that Joseph, a Jewish man who loved God, wasn’t Jesus’ biological father, though a wonderful example to all fathers raising children by another man.

Ephesians 1:3-10 tell us why.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Messiah, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Messiah.For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Messiah, in accordance with his pleasure and will –to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Messiah,to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Messiah.”

The day of Jesus’ birth is a true love story. Take a minute and read the above passage again to identify who is who. Verse three is crucial to all the hes and hims. Then think about what is being said.

This passage is a love story within the single-plurality of God – the Father and the Son, Jesus.

Scripture tells us that our followship should be based in love for the person we follow with Jesus being the example (Jn. 14:31). God the Father loved the world so much that He would send Jesus.

Jesus as God knew the full impact of that decision – what His creation, humans, would do to Him. Jesus as a man knew the cost of following that decision would end with a cross. Both times He chose to love God, His Father, and followed.

We know love is a continual choice to let it grow and deepen. Let your love grow. Jesus did. And by the way, so did Joseph.   

The struggle is part of Jesus’ story through you.

It’s okay to struggle with God, Abraham did. It’s okay to laugh at God, Sarah did. It’s okay to wrestle with God, Jacob did. It’s okay to disagree with God, Moses did. It’s okay to question God, Mary did. It’s okay to fail God, Peter did. And it’s also okay to hide from God, the Eleven did.

Each person only knew what they knew when they knew it. And they couldn’t know anything different until their brains were exposed to something new. Until then, they could only make choices consistent with what they knew at the time they knew it.

It wasn’t until the Spirit, however, brought a truthful thought into their brains that they would struggle, laugh, wrestle, disagree, question, fail and hide from God with this new truth encounter with God.

They had to come to the realization that their choices were not consistent with the truth that would bring life, joy and ultimate fulfillment into their lives. And when they did, they now had a choice to make, a very hard one indeed. They could now choose to kill the old lie based thought in their brain by thinking and choosing to act on the new truthful thought entering their brain.

Oswald Chambers stated this choice so eloquently when he wrote, “If you do not put to death the things in you which are not of God, they will put to death the things that are of God.”

Each person resolved to put to death the thoughts that were not of God in order to experience the new life God had for them to know in their everyday lives.

This will not be easy. But know this. Each one allowed the Spirit to build their faith, a little at a time, in order for them to experience the Father in ways they could have never imagined.

They did. And so can you and I.