Recently I attended a prayer retreat with the prayer team at my church. For the first hour we met to discuss a book we had been reading, and then we split up to spend the rest of the time in solitude with God. We were free to go into the chapel, into private rooms, or we could also wander the grounds outside. I headed out into the sunshine, deciding between a trail through the woods, the flower gardens, a prayer labyrinth or the stations of the cross.

My feet led me down a trail into the woods, a cool, peaceful refuge from the heat of the summer day. I settled on a bench and quieted myself, tuning into my surroundings and the Lord. Birds called back and forth to each other and a light breeze ruffled my hair. A ray of sunshine penetrated the trees and landed on me, warming my skin. “Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful place,” I prayed. “Help me to hear you clearly today.”

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Then I felt it. The irritating bite of a mosquito. I slapped it away and refocused my thoughts on God. Zing. Another bite. And then another. I snapped my eyes open to see mosquitos swarming around me. Flies soon joined the mosquitoes. Under the bench I saw beetles and a centipede. Uggh! So much for focusing clearly on God. Sheepishly I remembered that before I left that morning, I had slathered on peach lotion. Good grief! The sun was warming my skin, broadcasting the peach scent on the morning breeze to every nearby insect.

I was going to have to move along and find a spot free from pesky insects. I gathered my things when the thought hit me: “Isn’t this what our lives as Christ-followers are to be like?”

The Scent of Jesus

The more we become like Jesus, the more we will emanate the scent and lusciousness of Jesus to everyone, just like a ripe piece of fruit advertises its scent to all who walk by—people and mosquitoes alike. We may sometimes feel that we attract the wrong kind of attention—people antagonistic to our faith may frequently cross our paths. If you’re a person who always seems to be attracting antagonistic or needy people, maybe it’s because you’re doing something right, and they’re being drawn in by the Jesus they sense in you. As God gives you the opportunity, you can then point them to Jesus.

That’s what happened to Jesus. Everywhere He went, people flocked to him. And He loved them all—the tax collectors, the adulterers, the lepers, the little children. All the people groups that society said were outcasts or unimportant, Jesus took the time to love and bring life to.

God impressed upon me that day how important it is for us as Christ-followers to have patience, grace and love with everyone we meet. He allowed me to see that at many different stages in my life, I myself have been a “mosquito” to a believer—and may even be right now!

I think through this little analogy God was telling me we need to expect the mosquitoes in life, and that if we don’t have any, then maybe that’s the real problem, because that means we don’t smell any different from anyone else in the world.

What do you think?

Pray on!

Forest image courtesy of the following:

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was reading through a book on prayer, and I came across this ancient prayer, which I later found out is an excerpt from a prayer called St. Patrick’s Breastplate. I love the cadence and beauty of the spoken words of this prayer.

 St. Patrick’s Breastplate

Christ as a light

Illumine and guide me.

Christ as a shield O’ershadow me.

Christ under me;

Christ over me;

Christ beside me

On my left and my right.

This day be within and without me.

Lowly and meek yet All-powerful.

Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;

In the mouth of each who speaks unto me.

This day be within and without me,

Lowly and meek yet All-powerful.

Christ as a light;

Christ as a shield;

Christ beside me

On my left and my right.

Amen.

This is such a beautiful, simple prayer to start off your morning prayer time, yet so comprehensive. The prayer begins by reminding us that Jesus is our light for the journey of life that we are on (John 1:4-5), and that each morning we can pray for Him to guide us through our day, to help us stay on His path and not wander off of it.

The next verse reminds us that Christ is our shield, our protection, as Psalm 3:3 tells us. And we need only read through Ephesians 6:10-20 to see the importance of having our shield of faith securely in place for the day. It is only with this shield that we can quench all the fiery darts of our enemy.

The next four verses are so lovely. They remind us that Christ has us completely enveloped with His love and presence. This evokes Psalm 139: 7-12 for me. How completely reassuring to realize that Christ has us hemmed in! Sometimes the words hemmed in have a bad connotation, but not in this instance. We can be assured that Jesus is with us everywhere, always. He’ll be with us in that presentation for work, at home with the children, as we travel, when we have that difficult conversation.

We are then reminded to pray for ourselves and those we meet throughout the day as James 5:16 says, to remember that life is not just “all about us.” Christ wants us to shift our focus onto the people in our circle of influence.

Finally, this prayer points us to Jesus’ character and attributes. Though he was born to a lowly family, He is the All-powerful One as seen in Ephesians 3:20, which means that nothing we face is beyond Jesus. He can handle it all and, consequently, so can we. Actually, His word says we can do above all that we think possible with Him by our sides.

I love praying some of the ancient prayers of the faith. They encourage me in my walk and then inspire me to tell God the thoughts and prayers of my own heart.

I hope they do for you too.

Do you have a favorite prayer? Share it below if you’d like.

Pray on!

Do you love God with all your heart? The Bible tells us that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind! To do the study “Heart and Soul” please click on the link!

Jesus teaches us to love our enemies as well as our neighbors. To find out how this radical concept is possible, please click on the link!

Jane VanOsdol

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. Matthew 26: 6-7

As I look at her example, she causes me to think about my own reaction to and for Jesus. Am I as brave as she was? Would I do something for Jesus if it caused others to look down on me or think I was weird? Do I care more about Him than about my own reputation?

One brave woman whose example is forever captured in the Bible has given me much to think about this Easter week.

Rest in His Love

by

Jane VanOsdol

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

~

It had been a rough week. Friday rolled around and I could feel the exhaustion of a week settle in on me. My time had been filled with homeschooling the kids, cooking, keeping up with loads of laundry, teaching at the co-op and preparing my lesson for my Sunday School class. I still had to pack all of our clothes for a weekend trip to visit family. As the afternoon wore on, I felt progressively worse and a fever and chills set in. It quickly became apparent that I wasn’t going anywhere.

My husband decided to still take the kids to see their grandparents so that I could stay home and rest. As my family was heading out the door, my six-year-old son came over to me with his sad face on and hugged me. “Mommy, I feel bad you’re gonna be here all by yourself. Won’t you be lonely?” he asked me. I assured Jesse I would be fine, actually feeling a little guilty over how excited I was becoming at having a whole weekend with nobody that I had to take care of but myself. It had been years since I’d spent a weekend by myself.

The door closed behind them and I heaved a sigh of relief. Silence. Now what to do? I decided before I felt any worse that I would make a quick trip out to grab a few library books by my favorite author and some soup from the deli so I didn’t have to cook.

I drug myself out the door and was back in an hour. Popping some Tylenol, I settled onto the couch with my blanket, pillows, pile of books and turned on the classical radio station. Bliss. I spent the entire weekend holed up in my house reading, listening to music, sleeping and praying.

It’s been 12 years since that weekend, but I still remember it and how God used it to recharge one tired, worn-out mamma and wife. As I am now going through another busy stage in my life, I am trying to learn how to rest in God’s love on a daily basis. What does that look like? For me, part of it means slowing down long enough so that I can enjoy God’s presence and give Him my full attention. I try to do that in the morning before I start my day. For me it also means taking a walk in a park or the woods. The quiet and the beauty of my surroundings seems to help me focus on God.  Unless I do these things, I can’t hear Him or notice what He wants to teach me because my mind is too full with my own thoughts. Maybe you struggle with that too. Not much in our society encourages us to slow down, to cultivate quiet, to seek God. It’s time to change that.

As we go through the month of February, let’s practice resting in God’s love and letting Him refresh us from the burdens we carry every day. This may look a little different for each of us. That’s not important. What is important, is that we try to carve out some time to rest in Him and to listen to Him. Let’s pray for each other to find this time.

Prayer:  Thank you Lord, that You give us rest for our souls. May we find and take the time to seek You out and just be … with You. Amen.

Copyright 2010 Jane VanOsdol All Rights Reserved