Life Apart From God Is Meaningless

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“Life Apart From God Is Meaningless”

John 15:5 NIV

I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

 

John 15 has always been one of my favorite chapters in Scripture.  I really like the illustration of the vineyard to describe how God is Gardener and Jesus is the Vine.  This specific verse has always been important in my life as it clearly states that life without God is empty.  Apart from Him, nothing eternal is possible. 

 

Through the past many years of my life, I have learned more about myself, my relationship with my wife and my relationship with my kids.  In the past few months, I realized that if I didn’t have God in my life, I would not have the life I have now. 

 

My relationship with my wife is the best it has ever been.  However, this has not come without struggles.  We have had many ups and downs throughout our almost 22 years of marriage.  When I look at my wife now, I am beyond grateful for how He brought us together and all that we have experienced.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  I am more in love with my wife now that I ever have been before and it’s only because of the amazing work of God in our marriage.  I can honestly say we would not be where we are in our marriage without God.  It just wouldn’t be at all possible. 

 

My relationship with my kids makes me a very proud dad.  I know that I regret many things through the years of them growing up that I wish I could go back and do better or change.  However, what’s done is done and I can only work on the future to still be the best Godly dad I can be.  I have messed up a lot in things I’ve done and said to them.  However, God is gracious and so are my girls.  They love me as their dad and that often brings tears to my eyes that they still love me. 

 

I cannot imagine life without God.  Life is hard enough as it is even with my faith.  I find myself often doubting and getting frustrated when I can’t understand what He’s doing.  However, I know that I always must trust Him, no matter what.  I am beyond grateful for the faith I have had for so many years and I’ve grown in that faith.  It’s not easy by any means, but I am so thankful for what I have learned and how God has shown up in my relationship with my wife and my girls. 

 

I am so grateful for the community I have at our church.  God has blessed me with great people that I’ve known there for over 4 years.  Some of them have become very close friends and it’s only because of God that those friendships remain strong.  I am also grateful for the worship team I play alongside each month. 

 

Life apart from God would not bring me any of these blessings I have mentioned.  I am so grateful and I truly believe that apart from Him, I would have absolutely no hope. 

Pause Before You Serve

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https://youtu.be/JqJSVrWMOGk?si=36EUBGhxci1gtfrH

“Pause Before You Serve”

Luke 10:41-42 NIV

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

 

As much as we are called to serve throughout Scripture, we are also told that it is very crucial for us to find times where we sit at the feet of Jesus and take His teaching in and just be still. 

 

Martha is doing her very best to get preparations ready for Jesus and his followers.  Mary is usually helping with that, but instead she chooses what is actually better in this situation.  Martha doesn’t get it and gets very upset. 

 

So many of us do what Martha is doing.  We love to serve in God’s Kingdom.  Having a servants heart is exactly what God wants us to do.  All throughout Scripture, we have examples of those who have served others in wonderful ways.  However, Jesus had multiple times in His ministry where He purposely chose to go away and be alone with His Father.  He chose to take time away from people and He spent quality alone time to connect and recharge with His Father. 

 

So many of us have the problem of serving so much that we forget that we also need time to sit at the feet of Jesus and take it all in.  We need those down times where we are doing nothing but reading, praying and just being in awe of Him.  It’s hard for us to shut down our busyness and just be in His presence.  So, there are times when we absolutely need to stop serving and start sitting.  Just like Mary, we need times where we put the busyness aside and just bask in Him.

 

In our culture today, it almost feels wrong to sit and do nothing.  With me having ADHD, it’s extremely difficult for me to just sit and do nothing.  I feel so unproductive!  And, strangely enough, our church just completed a sermon series called “Unproductive”.  It was a great series and really opened my eyes. 

 

I wanted to encourage all of us, who struggle with staying busy all day long, that we need to stop serving and start sitting.  We need to make it a priority to get some alone time with God.  Start small and make it quality time, however long you can make it.  Some is better than nothing and then work your way up to more time.  It’s alone time that we all need.  If Jesus made it a point to get alone with His Father in the midst of His busy ministry schedule, we can make the time as well. 

 

The next time you feel yourself just about to go into auto-pilot on serving, take a pause and ask yourself, “Should I be serving or just sitting at the feet of Jesus?”

Grateful, Faithful, Generous

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“Grateful, Faithful, Generous”

Proverbs 28:6 NIV- Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

Proverbs 28:11 NIV- The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.

Proverbs 28:20 NIV- A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

 

This past Wednesday morning at our men’s Bible study, we were going through Proverbs 28 and picking out passages that spoke to us.  These few verses jumped out at me.  I explained to the group of guys that I have struggled for many years with comparing my life to other people who have more and wishing that I made more money so that I could have more.  As I read these verses, it occurs to me that having more wealth is NOT bad in itself.  It’s what we do with what we have that makes all the difference. 

 

As I explained to the group, I see two people.  One person that has a life of simplicity and doesn’t need much and then another person who has way more and is always longing for even more.  Again, being wealthy or having a lot doesn’t mean you are making any bad choices, but when you have more in your life, it’s then much easier to have an attitude of wanting more.  It can very well make you greedy and change your attitude on life. 

 

As I considered this, I realized that God is calling me to first be grateful for all that I currently have.  I am not to wish I had more or long for more, but to be grateful and content with where God has me now.  Next, with what resources I have, I am to be faithful.  Lastly, God is calling me to also be generous with what I have been given.  This hit me pretty hard Wednesday morning and I’m striving to live with this attitude toward what God has blessed me with in my life. 

 

It’s so often easy to see what others have and long for that as well in our lives.  It’s not wrong to see something someone else has and think, “Hey, that would be cool to have someday”.  It’s definitely ok to see things we might like to have one day.  Our issue is when we obsess over having it and want to have what others do all the time.  We become obsessed easily and we often try to deny that.  As I mentioned before, I have spent many years longing for things other people have and getting bitter and jealous when I have not been blessed as they are. 

 

My focus needs to be on being grateful, faithful and generous with what God has given to me.  And, He has blessed me with a lot!  My focus needs to be one of appreciation and gratitude instead of focusing on what God hasn’t given to me and longing for that instead.  A life of being grateful, faithful and generous will NEVER come from comparing our lives to others and always wishing we had more. 

 

We need to be grateful, faithful and generous with what we have been given.

None Of Us Are Exempt

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“None Of Us Are Exempt”

Romans 3:22-24 NIV

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

 

Our cats all have very different personalities.  One of our cats is notorious for getting into almost anything and everything she can.  So often we find her jumping up where she’s not supposed to be and, when something gets messed up, we usually blame her because she so often gets into what she’s not supposed to mess with.

 

I’ll often find her getting into something and say, “Why do you have to get into everything you’re not supposed to??”  We are often pulling her down from where she’s not supposed to be and trying to find ways to keep her from getting into things.  It’s not easy, but we do try.

 

As much as this annoys me and as often as I catch her getting into something, I’m often reminded of how this relates to our lives with God.  So often in life, we are getting into things we are not supposed to mess with.  God often tries to get our attention and tell us “NO”, but we do it anyway and we suffer the consequences.

 

Through my years of life, God has used many people in my life to warn me of possible trouble if I go a certain route.  Sometimes I’ve listened, while other times I have not.  As I continue through my years of life, I am learning from some past pain experiences.  I try hard to be wise and remember what decisions and routes have brought pain so that I don’t continue to make those same mistakes. 

 

The enemy is really good at distracting us from where we should be going and tempting us to follow routes and paths that will bring us to the exact same pain we’ve experienced in the past.  Just like Proverbs 26:11 that talks about a dog returning to its own vomit.  Yea, that’s a pretty gross visual, but it’s so true!

 

As often as I find myself yelling at our cat that continuously does things she’s not supposed to do, I am reminded often that it’s exactly what I do in my relationship with God and so many of us also do.  It’s easy to get onto others, but so often God reminds us through those experiences that none of us are exempt from doing things over and over again that we are not supposed to do. 

 

We are all sinners and we all desperately need God’s grace and forgiveness more than we know.  It’s my prayer that we would all learn from our past experiences and not choose the same routes over and over again that have brought so much pain from the past. 

Slowing Down For The Long Run

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/kOou4ouMeok?si=3Erh6ZiT0kz2CfJ4

“Slowing Down For The Long Run”

Psalm 46:10 NIV

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

 

I know that I have shared in the past year that I got back into running April 2024.  It’s been a great experience as I’ve learned more about running than I ever have before.  For about the first year, I was focused a lot on shorter distances and increasing my speed so that I could improve my 5K time and 1 mile time.  After a while, a running friend of mine recommended that I try slowing down my pace and try running more. 

 

It took a while to adjust, but I found that as I started slowing my pace and increasing my distance more and more, I started enjoying my longer runs even more.  I’ve also learned that depending on the distance I run, I either go faster for shorter distances and slower for longer.  When I practice my 1 mile, I’m usually running very fast so that I can improve my time. When I run the 5K, I have to pace myself a little more, but still decent speed.  When I ran the half marathon in October of this year, I had to really train to pace myself at a specific speed.

 

If I started my half marathon at the speed I run my 1 mile, but mile 2, I would be done and have no steam left to finish.  That would be crazy!  I’d have to take a while to rest before starting up again.  When I started my half marathon, I had to look at my watch a lot to make sure I was keeping a good pace, but also I was running with a pacer, so that helped.

 

So many of us are living our daily lives running at break-neck speeds!  We live in a culture of go, go go!  It feels wrong to slow down because we don’t feel productive.  What if we applied the long race pacing mindset to our daily routines?  Instead of rushing from one thing to the next, what if we were more intentional about slowing down and enjoying life more? 

 

We were never meant to live life as fast as we are living in our modern age.  So many of us are going so fast and then we burn out and wonder why.  We rely on drinks and meds to give us energy and don’t think twice about the possibility of slowing down to a slower pace.  You might say, “Zach, I get what you’re saying, but I just can’t slow my pace down.”  Well, that’s a choice you have to make.  It’s going to take adjusting and some routine adjustments to make this happen.

 

As we close out another year of life, let us begin the new year with a mindset that we are going to do better about slowing down the pace of our lives.  Instead of full-blast mode from the time we wake up till the time we go to bed, let us be very intentional about slowing down and taking the time to really enjoy the moments God gives us each day.  This is the mindset I have on my long runs now.  I just enjoy being out in nature and taking in the beauty of the long time I’m on my run. 

 

Let us make it a goal in the New Year to slow down our daily pace for the long run!

Choosing Gratitude

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/NquqBb34Zoo?si=cg9z5T1varI1V30b

“Choosing Gratitude”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

The past couple of weeks, I’ve had the phrase “choosing gratitude” on my mind and heart.  Recently, after some conversation with others, it really occurred to me and stuck out that I literally have the choice, not only each and every day, but also each and every moment to choose gratitude or to be negative. 

 

For the past week, it’s been heavy on my heart and mind because I’m just naturally a cynical person.  It’s not my desire to wake up each day and be this way, but I’m just more of a serious person by nature.  My wife, on the other hand, is a very positive and encouraging person and I am forever grateful for her patience and love to me for the past almost 22 years of living life together! 

 

There’s two things I want to point out regarding this phrase of “choosing gratitude”.  First, it is way easier to be negative and see negative things around us and to point them out and complain.  Second, it’s often harder for us to focus on the positive and all the wonderful blessings God has already given to us. 

 

If we let ourselves focus on the negative and let those thoughts and feelings dwell day after day, bad things happen with our attitude.  I’m finding myself dumbfounded lately at discovering how a negative attitude can really affect your personal life and those around you. 

 

As we close out this year and look to a new year, whatever your possible New Year’s resolutions may be, I pray that each of us would make it a point to choose gratitude every moment of every day.  I know that this is a challenge for many of us, myself included, but it is possible.  When we choose gratitude, we are focusing on the amazing blessings we already have been given by God.  We choose NOT to focus on what we don’t have or wish we had, but instead focus on the great things we’ve been blessed with. 

 

My prayer for all of us is that we wake up each day and do something to start our day that helps us focus on being grateful instead of letting ourselves go into a negative mindset spiral.  Those spirals are very dangerous and I have a known history for allowing myself to experience those.  They are not fun and give no quality of life. 

 

Let us all strive to choose gratitude!

It's Okay To Ask For Help

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/L6Euvcwo9ks?si=QJSZ0k30Dsg8nPNF

“It’s Okay To Ask For Help”

 

For the past several weeks, I’ve had something on my heart that I wanted to share with you all as kind of a different devotional.  I know that I have shared with you all in the past months about my journey the last couple of years with going to therapy and I wanted to share something on my heart about my experience.  Before I started going to therapy, my wife had recommended it to me and I hesitated a lot.  I was scared of what I might face or have to bring up from my past.  We were also having a lot of challenges in our marriage and I just needed some guidance with things I struggled with in my past.

 

After much resistance and hesitation, I agreed to go and I am SO VERY thankful that she encouraged me to go.  I am nowhere close to where I need to be, but I have come a long way since I began my journey with therapy.  It’s been a big God send.  The guy I go to is a Christian and it’s so great that we each share our faith journey and our experiences with the Christian walk. 

 

I wanted to encourage all of you, that if you are going through some hard times and you need to get some stuff figured out, please don’t hesitate and seek out a therapist if you are really struggling.  I would highly recommend a Christian therapist.  If you can’t find a place that practices Christian therapy, then look up someone with a bio that is a Christian and take a crack at it. 

 

Going to a regular therapist isn’t wrong by any means, but I personally believe in having a Christ-centered therapy session.  I know some of you out there are really struggling with things in life and there comes a point when you sometimes just need to talk to someone and get things sorted out mentally.

 

So I’m taking this opportunity this week to encourage you to seriously and prayerfully consider therapy if that’s something you feel you need.  Don’t be afraid and give it a try.  A lot of people hesitate about going and I did for a long time.  But I am so thankful I did and it helps to just talk through things and be encouraged that I’m not crazy. 

 

If you are struggling in life, pray about it and ask God to lead you to someone you can go talk to.  It’s ok to ask for help.  Yes, even us guys need help sometimes!  We all need guidance, whether that’s just a mentor we spend time with or a professional therapist.  I just felt like sharing this with you all and my experience and how God has used this to help me with my issues and my faith.