Articles
Browse every published article connected to Frances Lucas, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
Articles
Browse every published article connected to Frances Lucas, or search within this exact expert archive.
Acts 20:22-24 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
Many times, as we get older, we begin to feel our bones and muscles ache sometimes for no reason except for the fact that our body is getting older. Or it may not be that we are old at all, but we may have done something to strain our bodies and we are feeling that pain the next day. However, no matter what we begin to feel, no matter what pains we have or what issues we are dealing with in our health, we still have something to be grateful for. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
When things happen to others everyone seems to want to reach out to help. When countries are hit with devastations, when families lose a loved one, or when people are in need for whatever reason, we all want to pitch in and do what we can. It is great we are people who care but why do some of us need a crisis to occur before we decide to help someone?
Many times when we hear a message, read a book or see a movie that really makes us think about life, how short it is and what more we should do, we have a good feeling for a while and then we get back into our every day routine. Other times we hear something and we think it would be really good for someone else to hear that same message or read that same book so they can apply the lessons learned to their lives.
There are times when things just don’t go the way we want them to go. We want to help others but we aren’t able to for whatever reason. When someone needs us to do something for them and we aren’t able to due to time, money or other obligations, we may have to turn them away.
It is so easy to get aggravated with another person who does not do something the way we believe they should. It is so easy to get upset with what someone says or does and want to react in a hurtful way. It is so easy to get annoyed when something happens to us we feel is unfair. However, when we feel others hurt us we really need to look at the bigger picture and think about how it would be if we were in their shoes.
When we start something new and are all excited about it, we think about it day and night. We talk to others about it and we want to work on it all the time. If it is someone we just met, we may want to be them all the time and we enjoy their company. If it is a project we are working on, a new school, job or a hobby, we want to absorb as much as we can and do our very best.
We have a book of instructions from God. The Bible gives us instruction on what to do in hard times. It gives us instruction on how to live. The Bible teaches us from history about men and women who faced problems we face now and how they handled them. We can use the Bible to help us or we can let it sit all week and just use it for church. The choice is up to us.
There are some days when we feel like nothing really significant happened. We go through the motions of the day and go to bed at night thinking how tired we are but not really realizing how great the day has been. We wake up the next day feeling like we wasted a day; however, we need to stop and think about our day and how well we were provided for.
Technology is so great now that we can play games with each other through our cell phones. There is a popular game out where friends can create words and connect to other words their friends play. They play against each other and try to get the most points so they can win. Playing on each others’ words is an old game which has been used for many years; however, not just electronically or on the traditional board.
There are days where we have plans to do things but by the end of the day nothing we planned to do was accomplished. It could have been due to distractions, other people’s situations or something even greater than what we could have ever imagined. Plans don’t always go as we would like for them to go so we have to plan ahead understanding what we want to do may not always be what God wants us to be doing.
Poverty and scarcity can happen while we are sleeping. Not only poverty for ourselves but for others. When we choose to sleep and rest, we are allowing poverty and scarcity to happen to others as well. Sleeping and resting is not just about laying or sitting down, it is about continuing in our own routines and doing nothing to help others. When we choose to rest because we think we lack in certain skills and abilities, we are simply looking for excuses not to help.
If we were honest with ourselves, we could say there are times when we feel inadequate and worthless. There are times when we feel we aren’t good enough to do something or be who we feel we need to be. We feel worthless at times because we fail or have struggles and we think no one else has to go through what we have to and no one else will understand.
We all have moved something around in our house or cleaned out an area of our home just to make things a little different. We may have wanted to get rid of something. We may have wanted to add something to the room so we had to shift some other things around. Or we may have wanted to get a new and fresh look. For whatever reason, after we do this, we feel a little better about the new look and enjoy the fruits of our good labor.
There will be times in our lives where others will need our help or will ask for our opinion about something they are dealing with. Either the person will reach out to us for some advice or we will see they are having some issues and we have an opportunity to help. When these opportunities come about we need to be sure we do and say the right things so we are truly helping them and doing as God wants us to do. 2 Corinthians 6:4 “In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.”
There are times in our lives where we don’t think we can do something but we go ahead and do it because we have to or we really want to. We step out in blind faith and attempt whatever it is and find out it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We had been putting it off thinking it was going to be too hard or we didn’t have all we needed to complete the task; however, after we started we found out it wasn’t as hard as we thought.
We may believe we are good people and we tend to get along with everyone; however, we need to examine our thoughts and judgments we have about others more closely. We need to recognize that our first impression of someone may be based on something we heard they did or something they said we believed was inappropriate. John 7:24 “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”
Philippians 2:8-9 "And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminals’ death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name" The process of being obedient is not always easy. There are many obstacles and barriers that can get us sidetracked along the way. We have fears. We have temptations. We face things every day that keep us from doing what God wants us to do. Sometimes it is the self talk when we tell ourselves that we are really not able or we don’t really want to.
If we were to stop and think how we really feel right now, we would probably use words such as okay, good, been better, or fine. Some of us may even say we are bored, tired, distracted, or aggravated. We can easily turn our feelings from poor or average to above average. To do this, we have to be aware of the moment we are in and think about the blessings and opportunities we have.
We all have had to live with someone at some point in our lives. Some of us grew up with two parents. Some of us only had one. Many of us had brothers or sisters, then perhaps roommates or spouses. We all know after the newness wears off of relationships, issues begin to come out. There are issues about different opinions, ideas and lifestyles. When these issues, begin to surface, it is time to begin working things out.
There are hundreds and thousands of quotes and clips which we have passed down through the ages. We have words of wisdom from men and women who have been through trials and struggles who share their experiences with us through short, yet thought provoking, words. Many of them are similar in meaning but said differently. Some of them are in line with God’s word; however some are not.
When opportunities present themselves for us to make a difference, we may not realize it until the time has come and gone. We may be so wrapped up in the events or the conversations with the people we don’t realize God is presenting a moment for us to share. We can share by openly saying how great He is that He has brought us together. We can share by encouraging others about God and what He can do for them.
We have all heard or even played the opposite game where if we mean one thing, we say or do the opposite until the person guesses what we are doing. It was a fun game to play as children to say no when we meant yes and to say off when we mean on, etc. It just made things a little more exciting and different to us to sometimes beat the boredom we faced as children at times.
We all have, at one time or another, been so tired we felt like we just couldn’t go on. We have had days where we knew we would fall right asleep once our head hit the pillow. We have worked on some things so hard that we were so tired we couldn’t think straight until we found some time to rest. When we are weary, when we are weak, that is when we have to be strong. Matthew 11:28 “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’”
We have many areas of our lives where we can make a difference. Usually they fall into the categories of our relationship with God and with others, our finances, our health, our careers or school and how we help others. In each area of our lives we do have the opportunities to help others. Whatever action we take or words we say can help or can hurt the situation. We need to think about these areas an what we are doing or saying that is helping or hurting.
We all know physical therapists help us work through the pains we have in our bodies so we can get better. Many of us who have had physical injuries have had to do some type of strengthening to help us get back to normal. When we let an area of our body go that has been injured and don’t do what we should to work through the pain of healing, we can do more damage than good. Yes, it hurts to work the affected area; however, the pain is worth it.
Exodus 6:9-10 “So Moses told the people what the Lord had said, but they wouldn’t listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the increase burden of their slavery. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go back to Pharaoh, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave Egypt.’”
The First Move How many times have we been in a situation where we were waiting on someone else to make the first move? We may have been in a disagreement with a friend and felt like he or she should approach us first. We may have wanted to help in the church or another organization and were waiting to be asked. We may have been looking at a new position or wanting more pay at work and were waiting on the manager to just call us in and give it to us.
We can all say we have been obedient at some point in our lives to our parents, in our jobs, in certain situations or in our spiritual lives; however, obedience never stops. We don’t just obey once a day by reading God’s word and then go about doing whatever we please. We don’t just do one thing at work that we are supposed to do and then decide the rest is not really important. If we did, we wouldn’t have a job for very long.
1 Samuel 14:22 “But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” Saul wanted to do God's will and please the people. We can't always do both. God should be our first and only choice. Saul lost his authority due to making wrong choices. As hard as it may seem at times, it is really the easy choice to decide to do things God's way rather than our own.
Psalm 18:30 “Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction.” There are times when a situation happens to someone else and we really don’t know what to say. They may have lost a loved one. They may have a challenge at work. They may have financial difficulties. They may have a broken relationship. They want to talk to us and we listen, but we don’t really know the right words to say that will make them feel better.
When other people do wrong or act in a way that is not pleasing to us, sometimes we feel hurt and want to retaliate or we feel if they can do these things, why can’t we. How many times have we wondered why some people get away with things they do and we don’t? How many times have we tried to do things other people do and we found it didn’t make us happy?
How often do we feel alone? How many times when there is no one around to talk to do we feel like no one cares? When we try to reach out to others whether we have good news to share or bad news to share and can’t find anyone who has time to listen, why is it we feel so down? God tells us to live a quiet life. He wants us to be accustomed to working and minding our own business. He wants us to get use to keep things to ourselves and depend only on Him in good things and in bad. Why is that? Isn’t our first inclination to share something with other people?
When I was younger and couldn’t go to sleep at night, my dad told me when he couldn’t sleep he would close his eyes and imagine a big black chalk board. And every time something was written or drawn on that chalk board, he would quickly get his eraser and erase it so he could focus on nothing. By doing that, his mind would remain blank and free from worry or thoughts that would keep him awake. I used that little trick in the past and it has helped me to forget about things that are going on in my life so I can rest better at night.
There are things we hold on to too tightly sometimes without even realizing it. It is those things we hold on to with all our might that we tend to lose. It is not because we don’t deserve these things, but it possibly because are trying to keep them under our control or because we put them higher than other things in our lives. We have to be careful about what we think about and hold too near to our hearts.
We all know people who always want more. They wonder why they didn’t get the promotion. They wonder why they didn’t get special recognition. They wonder why they don’t have the bigger house, the better cars, and the best of everything. It is so easy to think of all the things we don’t have. With technology, it is so easy to see all the things we don’t have and all the things others have. If we are not careful, we can begin to covet what others have and become so obsessed that we lose focus on what we do have.
There are times when situations happen to others and we don’t really know what to say or do. We feel like we need to something to help them with the hurt they have but our words are just not enough. We want to do something, take some type of action, but nothing we do would really help them. Those are the times we need to just be there for them. Those are the times we need to pray for God’s comfort to ease their pain. Those are the times we need to listen when they are ready to talk. Galatians 6:2 “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”
Think about a time when there were clear directions on how to get to a certain place but we somehow turned down the wrong road. Think about a time when a specific recipe wasn’t followed and the taste was just not as good as our grandmothers. When seamstresses are making clothing, the pattern has to be followed to be the correct fit. If we don’t follow the directions, the recipe or the pattern set for us in life, we can’t do the will of God.
We all know we can’t get everything done in a day, but we can take action on some things in our lives that will help us move forward. What we decide to do and what we decide to put of one more day is an important decision. We need to be sure that whatever decision we make is not to satisfy our own desires but to help others and to do what God wants us to do so that we can make a difference.
There are times in our lives we get tired of things. We get physically wore out or mentally drained. Sometimes we just get bored and want to move on to something else. It’s just natural for things to get boring or monotonous and we feel the need to do something different. We may want to take a detour in life going somewhere else we feel may be more interesting and exciting.
How many times do we wish people would change or circumstances would change? We often remark how we don’t understand how people act how they do or why bad things continue to happen to us. We see others who don’t do what they are supposed to do and continue to get ahead while we are trying to do the right thing and continue to struggle.
We don’t really know other people’s situation or how God has prepared their heart to respond or react to what we do or say. Just as God hardened Pharaoh’s heart when Moses wanted him to let the people go, he prepares hearts to be softened to allow us to witness to them. God knows who will accept Him and reject Him. Exodus 10:27 “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart once more, and he would not let them go.”
Psalm 119:17-20 “Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. I am only a foreigner in the land. Don’t hide your commands from me! I am always overwhelmed with a desire for your regulations.”
There are times in life when we really can’t pinpoint what is wrong but we have a feeling that things just aren’t right. During these times we may feel uneasy. During these times we may feel a little stressed. During these times we may get angry quick. During these times we may not be able to know exactly why but we like we are a little out of control.
Why is it we find time to do the things we want to do but we can’t make time for the things we should do? Why is it when we know there are things that need to be done, we do everything but those particular things? We put off doing what we know we should do. We make excuses why we can’t be at a certain place or help with certain things.
Although we live in an instant world where information is available at our fingertips and we have the option to carry around devices that keep us in immediate contact with others, the real things, the really good things take time. The steps to get the good things in life haven’t really changed at all. We need to understand there is a process and a waiting period to get the good results God wants to have in our lives. Galatians 6:9 “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
There is no doubt about it. We all have certain people who we are around on a regular basis who get on our nerves. For whatever reason, there are things they do which make us angry or aggravated. If we stop and think about it, other people can do the same things these people do but we don’t get upset; however, when certain people do them, we get very annoyed.
It is not hard to find things which cost a great deal of money which we may believe we would like to have or even think we need. There are homes all over the world which cost millions of dollars. There are automobiles of all shapes and sizes which are the price of a small home. There are gadgets created every day that can make life easier, so they say, but do they really?
Deuteronomy 31:8 “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” We are so blessed to have God to lean on. When others have left us or let us down, we still have God. When we feel others don’t care, God cares. When we feel we are being treated unfairly, God will always be fair. God does not want us to be afraid or discouraged because He is always with us no matter how we feel others are treating us.