Five Minute Friday

You’ve Got A Friend In Me

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You are reading a Five Minute Friday word prompt. This is hosted by Kate Motaung and is where a group of people write about a given word for that week. This week the word is “friend”.

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I guess most of us have probably watched Toy Story and heard of the song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”. It has been sung at various points in all three of the Toy Story films.

The most poignant time that the song was used though was when Woody saw the episode of Woody’s Roundup in Toy Story 2. It showed the puppet Woody singing this song, which was directed towards the younger audience. Whilst he was singing, a small child is shown hugging the puppet. When Woody sees this, he had a revelation that his main reason for being made was to be there for a child. As well as being a friend to a child, he also realised that he could be a friend to the person that he envied the most – Buzz Lightyear.

What if this was applied to us in every day life though? We all need a friend, don’t we? We all need someone to “round us up” when the going gets tough. We need someone who is going to be by our side.

Do you want to know one sure way to find a friend? Be a friend to someone else first. Why don’t you say to someone today, “You’ve got a friend in me”? You never know that you may end up having a friendship that will never die.

Faith

What do you do if you don’t feel God?

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I am sooooo not good at this Christianity lark! I keep stuffing it up. Wouldn’t it just be easier just to do this all on my own anyway? I mean, how hard is it…This life business? Seriously? Why do I need God in my life? There are plenty of people out there that seem to get on just fine without Him, and yet I struggle. I don’t really feel Him that much anyway, so I might as well be on my own…

“Oh my word”, I can hear you say! Are you shocked that I am writing this? Should I be writing this? I mean, aren’t us Christians meant to show how easy life is once we have Jesus in our lives?

Or, are you nodding your head, with your hands in the air saying “yeah, me too, I getchya!” Are you one of these people that’s been there, done that and got the holes in your jeans for the amount of times that you’ve been on your knees begging for His mercy to start over again?

Do you know what though? Yeah, life isn’t easy. In fact, life is damn hard at times! So hard that it goes through my mind if all this is worth it one day. All the struggles we have in life…

death…

illness…

money…

kids…

…just to name a few! I’m sure that you could add a few more to the list.

Wouldn’t it be nice though if life was just that little bit easier? Answer me honestly. When you’re going through each day in pain and not knowing what is causing it…or you barely have the energy to play with your kids properly…or you are worried about when the next pay check is going to come in and whether you have enough to get you through the next day.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all this would just go away? Is God really here anyway in all of our struggles? When I am facing these hard seasons, this is what I honestly think. How can God let me go through the situations that I experience. Does He really care about me?

A friend recently gave me some encouragement at a time when I needed it…at a time when I still need it…

“I just want to encourage you that just because you are in a hard season right now, it doesn’t mean God is absent. God’s love “feels” more intimate when things are going well, that’s true, but our circumstances aren’t an indicator for God’s love in the same way our feelings aren’t always telling us the truth.”

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I want to encourage you right now too, just like I was encouraged. In answer to my question, “what do you do if you don’t feel God?” Hang in there.

If you feel like your faith is fading, God is there and He will remain faithful towards you. Although we may change our commitment towards Him from time to time, His commitment to us will never change.

 

 

Faith, Five Minute Friday

Alone…But Never Abandoned

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You are reading a Five Minute Friday word prompt. This is hosted by Kate Motaung and is where a group of people write about a given word for that week. This week the word is “abandon”.

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I’ve just finished watching “Miracles From Heaven” and it has left me filled with a sense of hope. I’ve had my own miracles, which I have shared here, but as time goes on, and life goes on, and different situations happen, the miracle seems a little bit further away.

Anyway, the film is about a little girl who has a very rare and incurable disorder. Her mother hopelessly tries everything possible to see if there is a cure for her daughter, but there isn’t. No doctor can help her.

There are a few things that stand out to me in this film. Firstly, that the mother who is frantically trying everything possible to help her daughter is probably feeling abandoned and alone, and that God is not there with her. After all, why would such a loving God let a little girl suffer?

What stood out to me more though was the faith of the little girl. She knew that God was with her, right by her side, and that if she was to die, she was not scared. She knew exactly where she would be going. That is faith.

I often feel that my faith gets tested on a daily basis at the moment. I have constantly not been feeling well for the past 18 months with one thing or another, and quite frankly, I’m getting a little bit fed up with it!

Faith gets tested…in many ways…and when faith is tested, sometimes the feeling of being abandoned creeps in.

Where is God at times when I need Him?

Why am I going through this?

Why is He not answering my prayers?

Is He actually here with me?

God is all around us though, and seeing this film reminded me that He is here, and it’s in the little miracles that we see every day…

Creation around us…

The goodness that we see…

The people we love…

He has not abandoned us.

Faith, Five Minute Friday

Created for a purpose

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The definition of the word purpose is “the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists.” When something is created, it is created for a reason…a purpose.

Sometimes when something is created though, it may take a while to figure out how to use what has been created for its sole purpose. Sometimes, the thing that has been created, has been misused in some way and it is left with marks. This doesn’t mean to say that it still cannot be used though.

I have a potato peeler that has been used so much that it fell apart. I have managed to bind it back together though with tape and I still use it. It doesn’t look great, but it still works…and still does the job that it was created to do.
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I believe that God created me, therefore He created me for a purpose…for His purpose. But sometimes when difficulties happen in our lives it is hard to see what that purpose is, especially when we have been marred. For a long time, because of the abuse that I suffered, I didn’t believe that I could be used for anything. I had been damaged, so why would God use me?

I have learnt though that in whatever situation happens, if I keep my focus on Him, God works through it and will use it for His purpose. He did not create the situations that I had to endure, but He did create me.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Faith, Five Minute Friday, Rest

Slow Down And Take Five

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If you have children, are you constantly saying the same thing over and over again, but they just don’t listen to you? Do you ever tell them to slow down and take five?

My kids have so much energy and are always rushing around from one thing to the next. I’m constantly telling them instructions that need to be done.

Please pick that up…

Please watch where you are going…

Have you done that yet?…

How many times have I asked you?…

We’re not too dissimilar to our children though when our Heavenly Father is trying to constantly tell us something. We are just too caught up in what we are doing and what is going on around us.

I am always too busy. Sometimes so busy that I don’t notice what is going on around me. I miss the smaller details in life that could, and would, make a whole heap of difference in my life.

This week, I prayed to God and asked Him to show me something…anything! So, I have been intentionally looking out for signs. The one constant theme that has been running through things that I have stumbled across to read, or listened to on the radio, was the word listen. For me to listen clearly though, just like I tell my children, I need to slow down and take five!

 

You have just read a Five Minute Friday word prompt. This is hosted by Kate Motaung and is where a group of people write about a given word for that week.  This week the word is “slow”.

 

Encouraging hope in a broken world

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