The Flow of the Spirit; July 16, 2018

Posted on July 17, 2018 by jgarrott

John 7:37-38 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

This is a very famous passage for an excellent reason: it is the promise of the Holy Spirit to all who will believe. John clarifies that in the following verse, but I want to focus on what Jesus said. In the first place, He said it in a loud voice in a very public setting, and not even in a house of worship. In other words, this promise isn’t limited to a select few, to some sort of inner circle. Jesus’ words reinforce that. He didn’t say, “If any righteous person,” He said, “If anyone.” I’m reminded of what one evangelist reported Jesus said to him: “You catch ’em, I’ll clean ’em.” The only prerequisite Jesus mentions is thirst, that is, perceived need. We miss out on a lot of God’s blessings because we don’t recognize we need them. I think that is perhaps the major reason God allows all sorts of trials into our lives: to teach us how much we need Him. The devil would love to make our lives a living hell, but God never allows more than we can stand, if we will trust Him (1 Corinthians 10:13). Another thing that stands out to me in this is the quantity. The NIV tones it down slightly to “streams,” but the Japanese sticks with “rivers.” That’s not limited! John the Baptist specifically said that God gives the Spirit without limit. (John 3:34) We see what a life empowered by the unlimited flow of the Spirit looks like in Jesus. If we take John’s explanation of this declaration by Jesus along with what Jesus said to the disciples just before His crucifixion, (John 14:12) we realize that our lives should look a lot more like Jesus than they do today. We back off from that sort of promise, giving all sorts of excuses, but none of them hold water, if you’ll pardon the pun. By making excuses, we are rejecting God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, whom He wants to pour through us for His glory.

Wow and ouch! I certainly didn’t expect to receive such a strong Word this morning. Just yesterday in the message the Lord reminded me that it’s not just the gift of tongues that requires the will of the speaker, but also prophecy. I have bemoaned the fact that I have spoken very few prophecies in this church, when I am used that way often enough in other settings, but the Lord pointed out that it’s been because I’ve been afraid of offending people I will continue to deal with on a daily basis. At a meeting off somewhere, I might never see that person again, so I’m free to speak whatever the Lord puts on my heart. Here, I’ll have to deal with their questions and their follow-through in relation to whatever the Lord says. I must not fear man! The supply is unlimited, but if I turn off the spigot, nothing will flow. I do need to be very careful I don’t speak out of my own mind and imagination, but I have blocked blessings from people out of being afraid those blessings wouldn’t be received as blessings. I am to be fearless in my obedience so that God may use me freely, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this opportunity for repentance. Help me follow through in consistent obedience, and not deceive myself by just saying yes, yes, without acting. Keep me from any sense of self-importance, but rather help me stay fixed on You, so that I may be fully available to do whatever You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Attitude; July 15, 2018

Posted on July 17, 2018 by jgarrott

John 7:17 “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

Sometimes attitude is everything. Those who choose (or desire) to do God’s will recognize fairly easily what He is saying to them, but those who have their hearts set on going their own way are “as deaf as a stump,” to use an old colloquial phrase. As Jesus said right after this in verse 19, no one is perfectly obedient to God. However, if our honest desire is to obey Him, He will help us in that, speaking to us in a wide variety of ways to guide and encourage us as we need it. Not long ago a public figure in the US was derided by some for saying they had heard something from God. The attitude was that even if you were so foolish as to believe in God, it was delusional to the point of mental illness to think He talks to you. Such an attitude will indeed make you as deaf as a stump! From Genesis through Revelation the Bible tells us that God speaks to us and He desires that we listen, for our own good. The ways He uses range from a burning bush (Exodus 3) to a donkey (Numbers 22) to a still, small voice, (1 Kings 19) so we’d better be listening!

I couldn’t count how many times I’ve had people tell me they wanted to receive God’s guidance, when actually they already knew what He wanted them to do but didn’t want to do it. It can even be amusing sometimes that they don’t realize how obvious the situation is. It all boils down to attitude, a humble recognition that God knows far better than we do what is best for us, and faith that He desires the very best. If that is our attitude, we will recognize what He is saying to us. Joy Dawson taught that we need to “die” to the issue at hand. That is, a dead person has no preferences, and we need to release whatever the issue is completely to God. That’s not always easy, as I know full well from my own experience. We can want something so strongly that we can’t grasp, much less accept, that God might have something even better for us. As a pastor I often counsel others, but I’ve got to be submitted to God myself or my counseling will miss the mark. I regularly speak the Word, from the pulpit and otherwise, but if I’m not listening to it as God speaking to me, I stray from the path and lose the benefit for myself. I desire that every believer in this church have a vital, growing, intimate relationship with Jesus as Savior and Lord, but if my focus is on their “performance,” I will lose the vitality of my own relationship with Him.

Father, thank You for speaking to us so faithfully. Help me, help each of us, hear You clearly and follow You fully, so that Your perfect will may be done in and through us, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Word of God; July 14, 2018

Posted on July 15, 2018 by jgarrott

John 6:68-69 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter had been paying attention! It took more than some difficult teaching to scare him off. Jesus had just said (verse 63) that His words were spirit and life, and Peter knew in the depth of his being that was true. A major problem today is that many church members aren’t totally convinced of this. Since about a hundred years ago it has seemed “smart” and erudite to question the veracity of the Bible in various ways. Advances in archaeology and the like had turned up differing manuscripts that called into question what was the most authentic version (even though the over-all thrust of the content wasn’t changed significantly). Textual analysis showed that editors were probably involved, and it became all the rage to consider the Bible as literature, rather than as the Word of God. The devil was certainly delighted with that! As a result, far too many churches today pick and choose what they want to follow, carving loopholes for whatever their favorite sin might be. How tragic! We need to be like Peter, knowing that nowhere else will we find the words of life. As a man said to me after attending a Bible class for a year, “This book wasn’t created just by people, and if God caused it to be written, then I’d better believe it!”

As I am frequently reminded, I grew up immersed in the Bible, and am deeply grateful. I’m from a very scholarly family, with my father and my maternal grandfather both teaching Biblical Greek, so the assorted textual and translation issues were something I was aware of, even as a teenager. However, that didn’t detract from the conviction that this Book was (and is) God speaking to us through human instruments. I too can recognize different literary styles among the different writers, but there is an amazing unity of truth across the whole Bible. Growing up in Japan, difficulties of translation were understood far better than they would be in any monolingual household. As a result, I have always been interested in new translations, particularly since I don’t personally handle either Greek or Hebrew. That said, my desire is always to hear what my Lord is saying to me through the printed page. Comparing different translation often helps with that, and in my case, I compare the English with the Japanese, and sometimes differing translations in each language. I recognize that each writer/translator has their own style and even bias, but God is greater than all of that, and He can and does speak to me through it all. I’ve got to keep in focus that these are the words of eternal life, just as Peter said, and so seek both to live by them and to communicate them to others, so that they too may gain eternal life.

Father, thank You for the Bible. It is nothing short of miraculous that it exists as it does, but then, that’s who You are! Help me use it as You intend in every respect, so that Your Word may indeed accomplish that for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:11) for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Sovereignty of God; July 13, 2018

Posted on July 15, 2018 by jgarrott

John 6:44-45 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

This puts a different slant on evangelism. There are many things in the Bible we can’t sort out by human intellect, and the conflict between free will and the sovereignty of God is certainly one of them. If free will were not genuine, we would bear no responsibility for sin, because we would only be acting as we were programmed to do. However, if God were not sovereign, He wouldn’t be God. Just yesterday I watched a video of a child prodigy neatly proving from the laws of physics that there had to be a Creator, flatly refuting the arguments of Steven Hawking, among others. We are faced with having to trust that such a Creator is benevolent, but if He weren’t benevolent toward His creatures, why would He have created us in the first place? The Bible states in many places and in many ways that God wants “everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) As Paul pointed out, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:9-15) In other words, as Jesus said, no one can come to Him except the Father draw him, but we are to be instruments in that process, or it will never come to completion. We can save no one, but we are not to rest until all have had the opportunity to respond to the Father’s call.

This is my conflict in a nutshell. I have been called and sent to present the Gospel in Japan, the one nation on earth that has the absolutely lowest rate of return on time, resources, and personnel invested in evangelism. I cannot give up, because that would be denying the Lord who commissioned me, and besides, He has given me a love for the Japanese people that I believe mirrors His own, and I earnestly desire their salvation. Humanly speaking it borders on the impossible to apply myself fully and at the same time release everything into God’s hands. I feel I am constantly failing on one side or the other of that. My comfort lies in two things Paul wrote to the Philippians. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13) “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) I can’t do it – I don’t even know how – but God can be trusted, both with me and with the task He has assigned to me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for telling me years ago to rest, relax, and rejoice in You. I struggle with that! Thank You for all that is on the schedule for the next week. Just thinking about it is overwhelming. Help me take it one step at a time, allowing You to work Your will in and through me in each detail, for the blessing of everyone involved and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Death; July 12, 2018

Posted on July 13, 2018 by jgarrott

John 6:40 “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

We tend to agonize over “What is God’s will,” when here Jesus states it very clearly. When we have this much firmly in our hearts and minds, nothing can shake us. As Jesus warned us in John 16:33, in this world we have all sorts of junk thrown at us, but when our hearts are fixed on the finish line that Jesus has already provided for us, we can rejoice in the middle of it all. A brother in the Lord just contacted me via the Internet to ask for prayer for a health situation that his doctors aren’t sure how to label. Such things aren’t easy to deal with, because of our perspective in the middle of it all. However once we have God’s will, as expressed in this verse, ingrained in the depths of our being, everything else pales in comparison. That’s why Paul could call such things “light and momentary troubles.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) He said that in the context of beatings, shipwreck, and martyrdom! He himself had a physical issue that really bothered him, but God used it to make it very clear the power was from Him and not from Paul. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) It was the early Christians’ assurance of what Jesus said in this verse that caused the Romans to note that “They really know how to die.” When you know to the depths of your being that death is no more than a transit point, regardless of how much suffering might be involved, then you can face it with peace and even joy. That’s not at all to say we are to seek physical death, but it is very much to say we aren’t to be in the least afraid of it.

I was not physically present for the death of either of my parents, but I do know how they died, and it was with great peace. I have been present at the death of several other people, and some of those have been very different from my parents indeed. I have seen that without faith, death is torture for the one dying, but that with faith it is often a relief. The same may be said for those left behind who mourn the one who has died. Separation isn’t easy, and the closer the relationship, the less easy it is. However, without faith it is devastation. I am sometimes mystified at the response to death of people who claim to be Christians, because they certainly aren’t demonstrating faith that what Jesus said in this verse is certainty. I am already well past the age at which my father didn’t wake up from heart surgery, and my wife has a laundry list of significant medical issues. Each of us wants to “hang in there” for the sake of the other, and to accomplish that for which the Lord has sent us here, but otherwise, we certainly identify with Paul when he said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” (Philippians 1:21-24) Sometimes in the middle of things, our feeling is, “Any time would be fine with me, Lord!” At the same time, we experience His grace and blessings in various ways, and rejoice to be used by Him. In the final analysis, to use the words of Jake Hess, “Death ain’t no big deal!”

Father, thank You indeed for this assurance. I see so many around me who don’t have it, nor do they have reason to. I ask You to use me more and more to draw people to repentance and faith so that they may have that assurance because they have indeed received Your eternal life, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Andrew; July 11, 2018

Posted on July 13, 2018 by jgarrott

John 6:8-9 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Andrew was a good kid. Probably still a teenager, he was perhaps the second youngest after John. He was obviously a God-seeker, being listed as a disciple of John the Baptist and leading his own brother Simon to Jesus. (John 2:40-42) Faced with an overwhelming need/task, rather than freezing up, he offered whatever was available to Jesus, even though he himself had no idea what Jesus would do with it. Of course, what Jesus did with it was spectacular, being told in probably every Sunday School on the planet. The point for us, I think, is to be honest about whatever resources we have at hand, but trust that God can do more with them than “all we could ask or think.” (Ephesians 3;20) Andrew had a level of trust that led him to action. He didn’t seem to spout off at the mouth like his brother did, but he didn’t hold back when things needed to be done. Andrew is quoted mostly in reference to evangelism, but it was the trusting obedience that led him to do it. Like Paul, he “knew whom he had believed,” (2 Timothy 1:12) and that knowledge let him to full obedience and the desire for others to know Jesus as well. If we try to evangelize without the foundation of obedient trust, we will fail. The irony is that such failure destroys some people’s faith, showing that it wasn’t secure in the first place. We need to remember that faith and love are intertwined, and will always produce obedience. We can’t generate either faith or love, but we can decide to obey, and that’s an excellent place to start.

Wow! I didn’t expect that when I started reading! I’ve certainly had my struggles with obedience, even though I haven’t doubted the Bible since I was a child. I proclaimed my love for Jesus by the time I was five and was baptized at seven, but my obedience was certainly spotty. Even today I have to keep watch over my obedience. If God says to do something, He will provide everything necessary, and the results are up to Him. Sometimes His purpose in having me do something isn’t at all what I imagine, and sometimes it is a complete mystery. My job isn’t to figure it all out, but to obey, trusting that His plan is excellent, even if I don’t seen the fruit of it in this life. That can be really difficult at times, but God is more interested in my character than my comfort, and I am grateful.

Father, thank You for Your perfect faithfulness. Thank You for the awareness that I am far less than perfectly faithful. Help me keep growing, keep drawing closer to You, so that Christ may indeed be formed in me, (Galatians 4:19) drawing many to Your salvation for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Word in Us; July 10, 2018

Posted on July 12, 2018 by jgarrott

John 5:38 “…nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.”

This is a fascinating, and deeply meaningful, statement on the part of Jesus. He was talking to the scribes and Pharisees who, as He says in the next verse, diligently studied the Scriptures. However, those very Scriptures that they knew so well, memorizing huge chunks of them, didn’t dwell in them because they refused to believe in Jesus. This brings to mind not only Jesus’ remarks along this line in the Upper Room Discourse but also Paul’s famous admonition to the Colossians: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16) However, this applies in the other direction as well. As Paul famously wrote to the Romans, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) For God’s Word to dwell in us we have to accept it as exactly that, the Word of God to us, but for that to happen, we have to hear it in the first place. In countries like the US, people are exposed to the Bible in various ways, but it doesn’t dwell in them until they receive it in faith that it is God speaking to them personally.

This is extremely applicable to me because I grew up immersed in the Bible, and read it through (RSV) by the time I was 10. It wasn’t that I disbelieved any of it, but I obviously had problems with whether it was speaking to me personally. I had plenty of excuses for ignoring it! It was in 1972 that God broke through my foolish facade and I repented indeed, and since then, the Word has truly been dwelling in me more and more. This whole issue certainly brings to mind one of the potential candidates for the US Supreme Court vacancy, because when she was being confirmed for a lower court position last year, one of the senators grilling her said, “The dogma lives in you loudly,” referencing her strong Christian faith. The senator meant it as a negative, but to me it was the highest of compliments. By using “dogma,” it is clear that the senator was referring to organized religion, in this case Catholicism, but the judge’s lifestyle makes it clear that it’s far more than that with her. I pray that God’s Word would be loud indeed within me, speaking to everyone I encounter, whether I open my mouth or not.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I pray that Your Word would indeed dwell in me more and more, accomplishing everything for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:11) for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Independence; July 9, 2018

Posted on July 12, 2018 by jgarrott

John 5:30 “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

The Bible has sections that are as easy to eat as cookies and milk, but this part of John is more like steak, requiring a sharp knife and careful chewing. (1 Corinthians 3:2) What strikes me about this verse is that even Jesus wasn’t independent. He was the physical manifestation of the Trinity, but considered Himself no more independent than, say, a hand is independent of the person it is attached to. He told His disciples, and by extension us, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Even when we accept that, we forget that Jesus operated under the same rules, which He referred to several times, not just here. That should squash any complaints we have, but unfortunately it doesn’t. To use one of my mother’s expressions, we tend to be “independent as a hog on ice.” Not only will such a pig not go where you want it to go, it can’t even go where it wants to go! America has just celebrated Independence Day, but we’ve got to remember that in no way are we independent of God. That was a major part of the original sin in the Garden of Eden. Succumbing to the devil’s temptation, Eve and then Adam decided to do something that God had expressly forbidden, placing themselves on His level in terms of authority. That was not only tragic, it was incredibly stupid. Sadly, that strain of stupidity runs in us today, and as the saying goes, “You can’t fix stupid.” That’s why we have got to stay humble, repenting of our stupid mistakes as soon as we realize we’ve made them, striving to listen to our Father at all times so that we may do as He directs, knowing full well that on our own, we’ll get it wrong.

This is me to a “T”. I have a high IQ, which make it all the more tempting to decide things on my own, without listening to God. It wasn’t that many years ago when God really got it through to me that He’s smart and I’m not. Comparing myself to others not so intellectually blessed, I operated in conceit far more than I even realized, and that is dangerous indeed. That makes it fairly easy to spot others in the same trap. I have been shocked at some of the comments on my blog by people who deny the Trinity. Granted, Three being One is beyond our grasp, but that’s no reason to deny John 1 and the whole Upper Room Discourse (John 14-17). We try to fit God into our framework, and that will always fail miserably. I am to rejoice that I can’t figure God out or explain Him, because if I could, I would be limiting Him to me and my abilities, and that would be tragic.

Father, thank You for my dependence on You. Thank You for helping me grasp it more and more. Help me not try to run off on my own, like the proverbial pig, but rather listen obediently to You at all times, fulfilling the plans that You have for me, (Jeremiah 29:11) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Valuing People; July 8, 2018

Posted on July 11, 2018 by jgarrott

John 4:25-26 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

This incident is astounding on several levels. In the first place, Jesus demolished several societal barriers in the process. It was not “proper” for a man to speak to a woman without introduction or chaperon, but Jesus did it anyway. It was not accepted for Jews to be accepting of Samaritans, but Jesus did it anyway. However, this Samaritan woman, whom even Jesus acknowledged didn’t really know the God she claimed to worship, (verse 22) was looking forward to the Messiah with enough anticipation that she recognized that Jesus fit the bill. In response to that, Jesus gave an unequivocal declaration that He was indeed the Christ, and that was something He refused to do repeatedly after that. Jesus didn’t fit in boxes, and He still doesn’t. Political liberals today accuse Christians of being oppressive toward women, when actually the very idea of the equality of the sexes comes from the Bible. (They are equal but not the same, but that is a different, and rather long, discussion.) Jesus opened His heart to an immoral woman in a way that He hadn’t yet done even with His closest disciples, and we need to learn from that. Jesus certainly didn’t sink to her level in the area of morality, but He treated her as a fully valuable human being, which she had perhaps never experienced before in her life. We need to understand, really, that God doesn’t look at people the way we do. We pay that concept lip service, but we have an awfully hard time really getting it through our heads and hearts. Ascribing to people the value their Creator does is both the most fundamental and the greatest thing we can do for anyone.

I find myself wondering how this incident came to be recorded, since Jesus and the woman were the only people present, but I’m guessing that Jesus told John about it as they walked along the road at some point after this. The point for me, however, is to treat people as Jesus did, seeing them not as whatever wreck they might have made of their lives but as God sees them, precious and valuable and with enormous potential. Frankly, that’s not always easy! I do have the advantage of having rubbed shoulders with “bigwigs” throughout my childhood, so I’ve never been overly impressed with titles and degrees. I know they’re just as human as anyone else! However, Jesus didn’t bring people down to where He was, He lifted them up to where He was. I’m not to look at people as no more valuable than I am, but rather, just as valuable as I am. I have to fight with being self-centered just like anyone else does, and I lose that battle far more often than I would like. I am to remember God’s amazing grace toward me and willingly extend that grace toward everyone, so that God may be pleased to touch them and draw them to Himself through me, for their salvation and His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me never forget it! May I be Your agent of love and grace in the service this morning and in everything to follow, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Receiving from God; July 7, 2018

Posted on July 11, 2018 by jgarrott

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

This has always been a very interesting part of this famous story to me. Jesus used water as an opening conversational gambit, and then flipped it around to talk about what was really important. He was certainly the ultimate expert in personal evangelism! However, one thing He says here really speaks to me. People don’t ask about Jesus/salvation/eternal life because they don’t know to. Non-Christians don’t look at Christians as representatives of their loving Creator God, but that’s what they are. People ask, and often receive, in direct relation to whom they think they are talking. That’s why there are sometimes very real, miraculous healings when the “healer” is as fake as a $3 bill. I remember the story of a Christian camp counselor who didn’t believe in miraculous healing and wanted to teach the children a lesson. They had a meeting, and at the end he got up and said he was going to pray for anyone who wanted healing, and when children came up, he put his hand on their head and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, be healed!” He had wanted to show that such things were fake, but to his total shock, several of the children really were healed! He had no faith but they did, and God honored it. The lesson for us is that God is bigger than our weaknesses, but the larger lesson from this verse is that people don’t receive God’s infinite blessings out of simple ignorance that they exist and are available to them. I keep coming back to the fact that evangelism is both helping people know what they need and then sharing the One who is the supply for that need. If we will live with that awareness, God will give us opportunities to apply it.

Of course this applies to me. I have found that when I am at a meeting away from here, people ask for things from God through me, and they often receive, whether it is a word of prophecy, healing, or something else. However, that seldom happens in this church. Jesus’ remark that a prophet has no honor at home (John 4:44) is certainly true! I am not to let that tear me down, but rather keep myself available for God to use me whenever, wherever, and however He chooses. I am to pray for those around me, not that they would think I am great but rather that they would realize how great God is, and that He can and will use me if they will ask Him.

Father, I’m back to the need for patience and trust. Keep me from demanding, even subconsciously, that people do as I would like. Rather, help me be Your agent as I pray for them and serve You through serving them, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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