It is nice to now sit and rest, watching a football fill of fun, resting after outside work and pulling out an AC for the season as last night it was chilly and the heat came on! And accomplished the important thing of cleaning up my car from a trunk or treat… and it was bitterly cold yesterday, well not that bad, but the wind was whipping, and the sun had not come out. But when I was interacting with the kids, nearly 100, making slime, I certainly did not feel any bitter cold. I was in the . And it was two hours that passed quickly. And when we were done I felt that bitter cold once again. In the moment there was no bitterness, and I was engaged in instruction, helping the children. My friend with the trunk or treat car next door said “you were in your element!”
And that is the case “in the moment” – one might not notice bitterness at all.
I had to warm up for sure, crashed tired in sleep at 10 after warming up with heated packs, whew… I then had a 1am wake up, I just stirred gently awake and then realized I should check on the location of my youngest, who was attending a friend-gathering Halloween party an hour away. I worried of course, and watched the tagged movement of the car back and forth and realized they were dropping off people. No I couldn’t sleep, but I was not upset, there’s no time for bitterness when you’re praying.
And yes, a time later I saw the turn for home on my screen and a text returned saying they had been designated driver that evening, pleased to have helped, despite the miles and time. There’s no time for bitterness when you’re helping your friends be safe.
And since I had to write the prayer for church in the morning, I started thinking about Jesus being our Designated Deliverer. A Designated Driver and Defender and Deliverer. No time for bitterness when being blessed.
I did get back to sleep, just after hearing the door close, home, mom’s worrying was actually working the prayers. And in the morning I listened to the online feed for one church pastor, who spoke of Moses and the Israelites wandering in the desert (book of Exodus 15). They were bitter and wandered and wondered. They were 3 days in, past the parting of the Red Sea, and came to the first area of drinking water, but the water was bitter. More bitterness in complaining. The Lord told Moses how to make the water not bitter, and the Lord promised to protect them from disease. These wandering people were only three days in and ended up being in the desert for forty years. Ohh, how bitterness works against our ability to see God working for us.
Let us pray for our awareness of our Designated Deliverer from bitterness, and worry, to trust and obey. God takes control and takes our cares away.
Amen and here is the prayer I prepared for church (our scripture was Matthew 6 – about not worrying…):
Lord, we are grateful for your goodness. And as we remember to wait on You, we pray to seek You first- before our fears overcome us. May we praise You when things go well and not so well. May we have appreciation of Your righteousness setting things right in Your Time. We pray for strength to trust You and trust in Your provisions. Your ways Lord are above ours, so let us understand You have already figured out how we will live best lives. You provide and have provided. Let us not worry and please do shelter us Lord when we do.
May the love that You pour into us now to be poured into others, so let us let the Holy Spirit work through us. You have sacrificed for us, may we now know Lord that YOU ARE ENOUGH, and may we not conform to this world but be a living sacrifice for You, to make Your Love known.
Amen
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And here is that bitterness sermon from Pastor Joe, And how God has us where we need to look towards Him – He can turn our bitterness to sweet: http://resources.ccphilly.org/SAM1450
Exodus 15:22-27 NIV
The Waters of Marah and Elim
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
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Matthew 6:22-34 NIV
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Do Not Worry
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
