Faithfulness

2Thesselonians 3:3  The Lord is faithful and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Faith is believing without seeing.  It is like the sun, that although absent from our vision at night, it always comes up each morning. God is as faithful and as powerful as the sun, penetrating the darkness in our lives.

Faithful is one who doesn't change.  Hebrews 13:5 says He will not leave you or forsake you, let you down or relax His hold on you.  He is faithful. He can't change, any more than the sun can stop shining and the earth can stop its rotation around the sun. 

Faithfulness is a description of the character of faith that truly equates to love.  "I will be faithful and true" is a promise that we make to our spouse when we marry - even on days when we don't like them very much.  Faithfulness is God's very nature.


Unconditional love is faithful.  It strengthens and protects, no matter what. 

Lord, help me to love unconditionally and to be faithful to those around me, strengthening and protecting through what I say and do.

They will know you by your love

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you may also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

So often we look at the outward things - even the religious things (going to church, study and prayer) as measures of our service. But those can all be done with an impure heart and self-centered motives (pride) and as such are not effective. He wanted us to mirror His behavior, His love.

I need to look at my heart and my motives for each act of service. I need to love without condition as He loves me. True service comes out of the heart, not out of the action itself.

Lord, may your love be visible in me. I pray that those that you have put in my path will be touched by your love, through me. Send your Helper to teach me how to love the unlovable. Show me how to serve the homeless.

Thank you for your unfailing love.

His unfailing love

Psalm 32:10 Many are the woes of the wicked but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him.

All we have to do is read the paper, online headlines or listen to the news to hear the woes of the world.

Perhaps you think the word "wicked" is too harsh, but at the core we all suffer from the wickedness of our natural self.

As verse 7 says, our deliverance from that wickedness comes not from our own strength, but from trusting in His unfailing love. He is our hiding place, He will protect us from trouble and surround us with the songs of deliverance and victory.

Let the song be heard in Tampa today Lord! Thank you for your unfailing and unconditional love.

The Source of Significance

Significance. A very important word in the English language, but not one that we spend a lot of time pondering.

I love this image of a person searching for significance. Keep this in your mind as you read this post.

Wikipedia defines significance as it relates to people as:

• People who are the world's best at something significant.
  
• People who have helped us understand or think about who we are.
  
• People who have made a significant, lasting difference or impact - meaning that the world is a different place because of them.
  
• People who have captured the public imagination over a significant period of time.
  
• People who have created, invented, inspired or contributed something of long term significance.
  
• People who have achieved something.
  
• Those admired for rolling up their sleeves and doing something .
  
• People who have achieved something, rather than drawn attention to themselves and maybe achieved some passing fame in the process.

Let's look at each of these. Think about where you are in each of them and who comes to mind as you read each one.

Being the best in the world at something takes an investment in time and sometimes in money. And once you've achieved that level of significance, it takes more time and hard work to maintain that level. Finding significance in something you have done is often fleeting.

Being the best at something significant, well that is a little more difficult. First you have to find someone to help you understand who you are and how what you are relates to others. Usually that would be someone who in and of themselves were significant, making the world a better or different place just because of who they are. It could be anyone, it doesn't have to be someone famous.

Mine was my mom. She was the best in the world at the most significant thing of all, unconditional love. She made me believe that I could be or do anything that I wanted, just because she loved and believed in me. She planted significance in me when she planted love and didn't attach it to performance or achievement.

In history, think about those that have made a lasting impression, capturing public imagination over a significant period of time. Often it is those that have created, invented, inspired or contributed to our world. Each of them are remembered for achieving something special and are often famous, such as those winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

If rolling up your sleeves and doing something were the only measure of significance, much of the world's unsung heroes would find themselves in the "significant camp". Often these are the ones that allow others to achieve something because of making it possible by something they have done (while not attracting attention to themselves). My mom again....

Lasting significance would appear to be the most elusive of the bunch.

As I was out for my walk this morning, I was listening to a song (I could sing of your love forever by John Tesch, from his album "A Deeper Faith") written about the most enduring and significant thing on our planet - love, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 13. Love you say? Yes love.

Creation is an act of love. God created the world itself and has spent the rest of time since creation trying to show Himself to us, to show us His love. He sent a piece of Himself, Jesus, who Himself made a lasting impression. He not only captured public imagination over a significant period of time, but we even mark time with his birth (BC) and his death (AD).

I have enjoyed a life of personal significance and yet, have had the privilege of seeing and knowing that everything that I do is not of my making. All of my talents are a gift from the creator of the universe Himself. And if He uses me to start something, He doesn't need me to finish it!

Most of the things that we do in life eventually fade from memory. In some cases, other people even take credit for what we ourselves have done. Finding significance in titles is fleeting, as jobs and companies can easily disappear. Thousands of people daily lose their jobs. Finding significance in a relationship can be equally disappointing. Divorce is rampant in our country. Even the various roles in our lives (mother, sister, brother, daughter, son, friend) that provide a source of significance can change overnight when loved ones are taken from us.

As you continue on your search for significance, I encourage you to not start with WHO you are, but determine WHOSE you are. Like the picture on the cover above, look up, lift your hands to the heavens.

Serving the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob provides not just significance, but eternal significance. Being a daughter of the King of Kings, who owns the cattle on 10,000 hills is just about as significant as it gets.

Who I am can change over time. What I do can fade away. But I am HIS forever and the beauty of that is that He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

My significance is sealed in Him.

Chicke Fitzgerald

LOVE as an agenda

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love Never Fails

Over the course of the past few weeks, I've been going through a particularly challenging set of negotiations in my company and my husband and I have been seeking God's direction in what often felt like a desperate way.

As we asked for support and prayer from various people around us, one of them who is particularly insightful told me last week that the word that kept coming to her was LOVE and that through everything that my husband and I were going through, the words from 1st Corinthians 13, verse 8 kept going through her mind "Love Never Fails".

While I knew that the premise was totally correct, I had no idea how it could play into a business negotiation.

I kept seeking God's face and I kept asking in my prayers to be in the center of God's will. The Lord kept impressing on me that to be in the center of his will was safe, but it isn't always comfortable. So I was prepared that if the negotiations broke down, which could mean bankruptcy for our new company, that somehow God would use that for His own glory. I didn't know what that really meant or looked like, and certainly didn't want that to be the outcome, but my husband kept reminding me that the "How is God's department" and that we had to just trust that He was in control.

On Saturday at a meeting to prepare for serving on the next Tres Dias weekend in April, I felt led to share one of my favorite scriptures with two of the women on my team. It is from Psalm 139.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

The circumstances behind why I shared it with them had to do with something totally different than God was about to use it for in my life.

On Sunday morning, our pastor Dan Dunn shared, you guessed it, from Psalm 139 and talked about this passage in particular and explained that this scripture talks about the fact that before we were even born, God's personal plan for our lives was written, day by day. As Christians, we refer to this as "God's Will" for our lives.

Yesterday I shared with my kids, before the final negotiation call was scheduled with my partner, what being in God's will is all about. I told them about God's book of life for me, their mommy, that had a page for March 4, 2007 and how His ideal outcome for my day was written there. We talked about how much happier their lives are when they do what mommy and daddy ask of them and how we have an ideal way that we'd like to see each of their days unfold. I asked them to get on their knees at 1pm, precisely when I'd be on the phone with my partner and pray that mommy would see what was on today's page for me.

When I got to the office to prepare for the call, I cleaned off my desk and grabbed a couple of packets of sticky notes. I'm famous for using them to lay out various plans and things to be done in my office. One packet was lime green, a color that God reminded me is the shade that a plant takes on when there is new growth. The other was purple, the color of royalty. I was reminded that I am a child of the King of heaven and earth and that I have the right to come before His throne and ask for His wisdom.

On the green notes, I wrote the ideal outcome of the negotiations, knowing that the HOW was still God's department. Then I wrote down on the purple notes, the key words from the chapter of 1st Corinthians that Pastor Dan reminded us that he would be preaching from next week, the chapter on LOVE. I started to see how God would use LOVE as the agenda for my call. I highlight the words that I wrote on each of the purple sticky notes.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails.

The outcome of the call was better than I could have asked for or expected. I was able to share my heart's desire for restoration of the relationship and the place we got to in the business negotiation was a place where I did not feel taken advantage of. In fact, after the call, in the final agreement documents, I found myself putting in elements that my partner hadn't even asked for in the settlement. I was led by a power much much higher than myself.

In fact, the earlier part of 1st Corinthians 13 reminds us that without love, we are nothing.

God's agenda is a good one, a practical one. God's ideal for our lives involves peace and safety and if we ask Him for wisdom about what He wants us to do today, He will show us, a step at a time.

I am still desperate, but it is not being desperate wondering what is going to happen next, instead I am desperate to know Him more deeply and to be totally in tune with what is in the page for March 5, 2007 as his perfect, ideal outcome for today. Let me be in your will, wanting your outcome, not mine.

I pray that if you are facing difficult decisions in your life, that you will seek God's agenda and remember that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Chicke Fitzgerald

Luke 15 - A sheep, a coin, a son

I have been woefully behind in my blogging. I am thankful that God's love for me is not measured by my faithfulness, but by His.

This chapter of the gospel (translated: Good News) of Luke is truly good news. If you do not have a relationship with God, if you do not know his unconditional, extravagant love, then He is waiting for you to be found -- for you to return to him.

The story of the sheep says that if just one sheep in a flock is lost, He will look until he finds it. He won't give up on finding you, until you are back in His tender arms.

The story of the coin talks about a woman that has lost just one of 10 coins. A coin by its very nature is generally of little value. But if you have just 10 of them, losing one is significant. At the end of this story she gets so excited about finding the lost coin that she tells all the neighbors about it!

The final story in this chapter is a familiar one - the prodigal son. Dictionary.com defines prodigal (noun) as a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift. Have you wasted your life? Have you wasted God's gifts or sqandered the love and trust of others. Come home. God is waiting for you to return to Him. He wants to throw a party!

God's love is constant, predictable, unconditional. He loves you. Whether you are lost or you have just wandered from Him, forgetting His goodness and mercy, COME. COME.


Chicke Fitzgerald

Philippians 1 - It's all about LOVE!

Remember the silly game with a daisy - he loves me, he loves me not? Our study this past few weeks of the book of John told us unequivocally that HE LOVES ME!

In the book of Philippians, Paul and Timothy begin their letter to the church in verses 9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

In verses 27-30 Paul exhorts the church "Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people's trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they're up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There's far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There's also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You're involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter."

As Paul writes, he is actually in prison and he speaks of the power that he has been given to witness about the love of Jesus. He isn't speaking theoretically about suffering. He is suffering daily, but still using that to give glory to God and to speak of the power of Jesus in his life.

Today, may I share the good news in all that I say and do. Not flinching or dodging in the slightest if I am up against opposition. The good news is love and acceptance and as we learned about in John 21 yesterday - abundance. Bring it on!


Chicke Fitzgerald