LOVE IS IN THE AIR

The second month of the year has a way of bewitching us with its promise of romance. But all the excitement of this season is short lived depending on your relationship status. There are only two ways to play February's "Love Song."

 If Cupid was kind you will celebrate Valentines Day with roses, champagne, and chocolates. But if the arrow of love missed its mark you will be hiding out in your room eating a quart of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream depressed and alone.
I have been on both sides of this melody.

In reality there is only one love that really lasts...the love our Heavenly Father has for us. His love is unconditional. Our good or bad performance has nothing to do with it. He doesn't take his love away because we have made some bad choices. He doesn't stop caring about us because we have bad habits that we can't (or won't) give up. He loves us even though we don't deserve it.

Many of us have a very rigid view of God and tend to think he is angry with us most of the time. As hard as it is to imagine God actually sings over us. He rejoices over us! Faulty and messed up as we are the Lord faithfully loves us, forgives us, encourages us, and patiently leads us into a life of freedom and peace 365 days of the year.

The Lord your God is in your midst,

the Mighty One will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will quiet you with his love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 (NKJV)

ESCAPE THE WHEEL...THE 2020 CHALLENGE

January is the official month of fresh starts. Across the world we frantically try to gather up all the loose ends we left dangling and unaccomplished from last year and stuff them into our to-do list for this year. Like hamsters on a wheel we keep running in circles  getting the same disappointing results.

Romans 12: 1-2 was written to encourage us to make little tweaks in our spiritual growth and gain lifelong satisfaction. After all, transformation is at the heart of our New Year's resolutions...right?

"Take your everyday, ordinary life-and place it before God as an offering." Romans 12:1 MSG

The best thing we can do is intentionally place our lives before God. Ask him to direct us daily and show us how to live a life of victory. Spend time with him in prayer, look for answers to life's issues in the bible and trust him with the outcome. When we shift our attention to what God wants, he changes us from the inside out. Our thoughts and desires mature and we learn to understand what he wants us to accomplish in the future.

Get off the wheel of good intentions and seek something better. God's resolution is to make our ordinary lives extraordinary in 2020 and beyond.  "For I know the plans I have for you." Declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11