Rest assured, God really knows you inside out. He knows what you need before you do. Are you open to God’s care? Or do you insist on going all the way alone? Today I’ve been reading about Elijah (1 Kings 17-21) and I am in awe of God’s gentle care of him. After Elijah delivered a message to King Ahab God sends him to rest in solitude. God knew Elijah needed the time away. God made sure that all his…
Some people assume that God tries to take our freedom and restrict our joy. But they’ve bought the lies of the devil and they could not be further from the truth. Because God made us free. But we have been abusing the freedom by making bad choices from the start. Like Philip Yancey has said “God’s terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though He did not exist, to spit…
Are you marked by joy? Is it evident in your life that Christ lives in you? If he lives in you, your life should be brimming with joy. Because God is joy. God is indeed the source of joy. All joy comes from him. When we stick close to God, joy is present in our lives no matter how dark the world around is. When we dare to embrace the cross of Christ, we are filled with overflowing joy. And…
We can’t force holiness on people. No matter how we would like to do it. There’s no way we can dictate how people should act. That’s not how grace works. That’s law all over again. That’s living like Christ had not died for our sins. That’s like saying Christ died in vain. When we force outwardly changes on ourselves or others, we have not truly understood grace. If we could create a living relationship with God by good behavior, then…
Do you take God seriously? Do you trust God to fulfill his promises? If you do….then be jubilant! Be exuberant! Our God is an awesome God! Why do we then drag along without joy? We forget to remember the good deeds God has done in our lives. We forget to praise God and worship him. But if we do not worship we are “swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose“,…
Are you so busy that you don’t have time to fit God in your life? We tend to get so crazy-buzy sometimes that it feels that we barely have time to breath. It might feel an added burden to find time for God. But guess what? There’s no way you can ever fit God in your life. God is way too big for that. God can never fit in your life. If we want to experience God, we need to…
This is a wonderful time of year in Finland. Our summers are not that hot but we really do have light in abundance. You’ve probably heard of the Midnight sun when the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Those of us who love light have a hard time understanding why some people don’t share our enthusiasm for light. There are people who prefer darkness. Like Jesus said 2000 years ago: “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into…
The word God gave me for this year is devotion. Hence I’ve been trying to learn to sit in God’s presence without my own agenda. Just to enjoy God. Nothing else. In January I wrote: “I want to be seen by God and I want to see God. I want to meet God in his terms. I want to spend time in quiet adoration. I want to devote my heart and mind to God. I want to sit in his…
Do you choose your own comfort over following Christ? What’s your excuse to not to surrender everything to God? Tough questions. But these were the questions that the Holy Spirit asked me while reading these verses from Luke: On the road someone asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said. Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.” Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” He said,…
Is life worth living? Is there purpose for your life? The writer of Ecclesiastes seeks answers for these existential questions. And most of us ask them at some point in our lives. Why on earth are we here for? What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up…
