Comfort for the Stuck

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans 

I have for you,” 

declares the LORD, 

“plans to prosper you 

and not to harm you, 

plans to give you hope 

and a future.

Today we are back to the refrigerator verse collection. You know those verses that everyone loves and you often see on plaques, magnets and cards. We all to often see those verses standing all alone and out of context. So today I want to bother to look at the story surrounding Jeremah 29:11 It is part of a letter sent by the Prophet Jeremiah to the exiles of Jerusalem.  He is pretty much writing to tell them they need to make the best of their situaltion because they are going to be stuck there for the next 70 years. He tells them they need to build houses and plant gardens. Encourage their sons and daughters to marry so they can have their own children.  They are to seek the peace and prosperity of the place that they find themselves stuck in because as that place is at peace and prospering so will they.

There are sometimes things set in motion in our life that have to play out before God will release us from those obligations. For the people of Jerusalem God wanted them to know that although they had just gone through this horrific up-rooting from the life they had known. They had been taken in to captivity or exile in Babylon. Many of the so called Prophets were prophesying that this was all just a temporary thing and they would be back home soon. So who should they listen to in their situation?

They were in this place of exile because for a very long time as a people that had refused to listen to God. Their relationship with God had become a show at best and they were consumed with foreign idols and had taken on the ways of the cultures around them. God got to a place of having given them one opportunity after another to repent and change. To stop living life on their own terms and to start living life on His. They consistently refused to listen, to turn and repent. At some point God said enough and the army's swept in and the life they knew came to an abrupt end and now they found themselves in Babylon.  God is trying to tell them through Jeremiah that he has a good plan but they are stuck in their circumstances for the next 70 years. God may be saying that to you today as well. There are some yokes that we must submit to wearing and walking out. If we stop fighting those things and begin to make the best of them, we will begin to see what Jesus said in Matthew 11:30.  My yoke is easy and my burden is light. I particularly like it in the Message.  ^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Is it time for you to "Get away with Jesus and to recover your life?"
Have you been fighting a circumstance that God seems un willing to release you from, though you have prayed and pleaded.  There are things in our life that sometimes we just can't do anything to change. While I believe God wants to give us the desires of our hearts, sometimes like the people of Jerusalem, we have to accept that we must now walk out the consequences of our long rebellion and refusal to draw close to the Lord. It is easy to blame everything and everyone around us for our troubles, when we need to accept that we have not really turned to God. In our pride we have turned to every other option to try and solve our problem and God is our last resort. He wants to be your first resort and He is still calling you to turn to Him and allow Him to help you to make the best of your situation. Allow it to work in you the heart changes He desires. Allow him to carry it with you. 
I, by no means, am saying that you should give up faith that God will heal and restore - it is more a question of how you will function in the mean time. For the exiles in Babylon it was 70 years that they could spend fighting God or they could accept their lot and make the best of it.
What about you?  Are you listening to God in this season or are you still trying to find the answers on your own? Turn to Him and submit to the yoke He has you in presently.

One of the nice things about a yoke is it keeps the oxen together. They have to cooperate if they want to get the job done and get back to the barn.  Your yoke circumstance, in many ways is doing the same thing. It is keeping you close to Jesus. You are learning in and through it, that you really do need to know Jesus and you do need to be learning to be led by the Holy Spirit.  Change your focus from trying to change your situation to learning to know Jesus better in it. In His time He will get you back to the barn and out of this present yoke. If you will stop fighting Him - and follow Him you will get through this much faster. He wants to help you carry the weight of this burden. He wants go with you step by step, day by day until the work in you is completed. Trust Him.

Prayer: 
Dear Lord,
You know the places where I feel stuck, the burdens that I have been trying to bear on my own or only allowing you to partially help me with. Help me today to stop resisting you and to accept my present circumstance as a yolk that is keeping me close to you in this season. Help me to turn to you and to stop fighting you to get free, when you are wanting to use this to draw me close to you. I do thank you that your plans for me are good even when my time line does not match up with yours.
Today I choose to stop fighting you and I choose to trust you. Help me to know you more deeply because of this burden.

Selfish Ambition

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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  Philippians 2:3-4 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition 

or vain conceit, 

but in humility consider others 

better than yourselves. 

Each of you should look not only 

to your own interests, 

but also to the interests of others.” 

So where do we begin with selfish ambition?
There is a story in the book of Numbers about a guy named Korah. He is one of the Levites during the time of Moses who is a good example of selfish ambition.

The people of Israel had just come out of a life of slavery in Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land. The tabernacle was kind of like portable church and Korah and his family had the special job of moving it. When it was time to move to a new place they had the job of taking down the tabernacle and carrying all the parts and pieces to the new place and setting it up. It was a special job and only members of that particular family line were even allowed to do. In those days there were jobs that the Levites could do and there were other jobs that only priests could do. Korah has the job of moving the portable church but he thought he was just as capable as Aaron and the priests and could certainly burn insense as good as they could.  Korah and some of his buddies got a notion that Aaron and his family had set them self up as the high and mighty ones. So Korah and 120 other leaders rise up against them in Numbers 16:3 ³ They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”

Well the story goes on and Moses stands up for Aaron and lets the mutionious group know that its not Aaron they have turned against but God. 

Numbers 16: ⁸ Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! ⁹ Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the LORD’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? ¹⁰ He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. ¹¹ It is against the LORD that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

Things don't go so well for Korah and his rebellious bunch. Sometimes we can set our selves up against God by not being satisfied with the things he has given us to do an wishing we could have someone elses calling or annointing. Jealousy begins to grow and we look for ways we can take matters into our own hands. We refuse to heed wise council or Gods word or instruction to us and we insist on having things our way. A selfishly ambitious person will try to achieve at any cost the things they feel they should have that God denies.

James 3:¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

I'm not saying that there is no place for ambtion or dreams but when our ambition becomes all about me, me, me and we have no concern for how it will effect others we find ourselves walking in a dangerous place.  It is hard to feel we have been passed over, particularly when we have been doing the job with out much recognition. It is in those time we must resist the desire to be selfishly ambitious and ask God to help us trust his plan.

So on with the story of Korah and the gang.  In verse ²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave,^[c] then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”

Well, if you read on you will find out that the ground did indeed open up and have Korah and the rest of the selfishly ambitous for lunch. It was pretty clear that they did not die of natural causes in the usual way.

It is important to remember that you are not your own; you were bought at a price. (1 Corinthians 6:20). Sometimes we can be doing a job serving the Lord and someone else around us can be promoted to a more important job and we can feel slighted by God. Its important to remember in those times that God lifts some up and bring others down. He shifts people around to accomplish his greater pourposes. We often are looking at things from our own perspective and while we might be quite capable of doing the job we might not be the one God is calling to do it. We need to be careful to not become like Korah, by learning to trust that Gods plans for us are good. Even the hardships we are facing are often grooming us for his future plans for our lives. 

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help me to see where I am selfishy ambitous. Help me see where I am pushing for things that perhaps are not mine to have at this time or maybe ever. Help me Lord to be humble before you and to accept your plan. Help me to not be jealous when others get opportunites that I think I am better able to do.  Help me to not only look to my own interests but to the interests of others. Help me to seek your Kingdom first and to trust that you will take care of the rest. 

To Walk Humbly with your God

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Photo by Margot Cioccio

Micah 6:8 (NIV1984)  

He has showed you, 

O man, what is good.  

And what does the LORD 

require of you?  

To act justly and to love mercy

   and to walk humbly with your God. 

I think we often over complicate things. What would it take for you to feel like your walk with the Lord was good enough. How much would you need to read your bible, or how much time would you need to spend in prayer? How many acts of kindness or how much self-sacrifice or good deeds would it take to put you in right standing with God?

The truth is that if you are approaching your relationship with the Lord on any of those levels you have missed the point of His free gift of grace. While I want to encourage you to spend more time with the Lord, more time in the word and in prayer. I want to be careful that your devotions do not become "works"by which you hope to win the Lords favor. Ephesians 2: ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

While it is important to spend time with Jesus it should be more like when you fall in love with someone. You look forward to every opportunity to be together. When you are apart your mind is quick to wander to thoughts of the one you love. The Lord desire is a relationship of love not one of works. Our acts of service and devotion should be more from a place of thankfulness than one of constantly trying to earn Gods favor. Your salvation is a gift of God's love and grace. It is un-deserved, it can't be earned.

Mark 12:33 (NIV1984)

To love him with all you heart, 

with all your understanding and with all 

your strength, and to love your neighbor

as yourself is more important than 

all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

 Knowing that there is nothing you can do to cause God to love you any more or less should help to free you from the task master of religious obligation. When we walk humbly with our God. It is from a position of acceptance of the great gift of His mercy, grace and love that has been provided for us through the sacrifice of Jesus. He took the punishment that we deserve.  

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help us to approach you from a position of humility and thankfulness. Help us to put to death once and for all the idea that we could ever do enough to earn your favor. We do not deserve your mercy, grace or love. Yet you have reached out to us with arms of love and have made a way for your justice to be satisfied through the price paid once and for all by Jesus. It is ours only to accept or to reject. If we choose to reject that gift of love, we are already perishing. Help us to more fully realize that you desire our love over sacrifice or religious duty.

The Up Side of Suffering

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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Romans 5:5 NIV 1984
And hope does not disappoint us, 
because God has poured out his love 
into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, 
whom he has given us.

I love this verse, God has given us His Holy Spirit and poured out His love to us by the Holy Spirit. Hope does into disappoint us.

I know some of you who are reading this are struggling. Your life is hard and some to the things you are facing seem unfair and impossible. I want to share the rest of this passage with you today.

 ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope.

I suppose you probably don't want to read about the up side of suffering. Most folks would just assume avoid suffering.  While I don't suggest that anyone go looking for suffering, because we all do suffer at various times throughout our life. While its no picnic it does produce perseverance as we do our best to walk through those difficult times and season. That perseverance produces character.
How exactly does hope fit in. Is it simply a hope for things to get better. Or is it that those things remind us that this world is not our home. We are on a journey and we have not arrived at our final destination. 

I am reminded of how pearls are formed. A bit of sand gets into the oyster shell. That sand produces suffering for the oyster. What does the oyster do? It coats the sand or other irritating foreign substance with the same substance that coats its shell. Over time it forms a pearl. 
I think like the oyster we were designed to be able to deal with the sand like troubles that come into our life.  Why not just take us home as soon as we accept Jesus. Why does God leave us here to wade through the trials and troubles of life.

Trials and trouble help us see what we are made of. I think we often find we are stronger than we think. Even when we fail, hopefully we are learning and adjusting and have given ourselves permission to experiment until we figure out what works for us. Trials either turn us from God or turn us to God. I think God allows them to help us discover where our hope lies. Does it lie in our own strength and ability or does it rest in God? 

Everyday we have opportunities to discover if our foundations are built on shifting sand or if they lie securely on the rock of trust in Jesus.

I like the old hymn that says

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain: On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

If my hope is in anything but Jesus it will be shaken. That hope will likely fail us. Hope in Jesus and resting in the provision of His grace, helps us to view the trials of this life with different eyes. 

Every difficulty we face is an opportunity to not only turn to God but to create a pearl.  

God knew the oyster would encounter sand and foreign substances and He created the oyster to have a way to deal with it in a positive way.  He also created you knowing you would go through hardships and trials and He has equipped you just like the oyster, to turn them in to something of beauty and value. 

Prayer:

Dear Lord, 

You see the things that each of us face. You know how those things are working your perseverance and character into our lives. Help us to turn those things over to you and to trust you in them. Help us each to place our hope in you. Cause that hope to grow and become a testimony of your love and grace working in our lives.   When we put our hope in you, we will not be disappointed.

God is in the Midst of Her

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Colorized Photo by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 46:4-5

There is a river whose streams 

make glad the city of God,

The holy dwelling places of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;

God will help her when morning dawns.

Even my quiet time was busy today.  I spent much of it worshiping and practicing the song As The Deer on the piano, part of it bike riding and then I have been on the move all day with meetings, running errands, work, parents meetings. It has been a non stop kind of day. As I started out in the morning the words of Psalm 46 came to mind and have steadied me through out the day. "God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved."

In the Psalm it is a river that flows from the presence of God's throne. That river makes glad the dwelling places of God Most High. You and I are dwelling places of the Most High God and the river from this thrown makes us glad. It brings joy, refreshing and cleansing. It flows in, around and through our lives. Much like the rivers of the earth over time the river cuts a path through the land, changing the land it passes through. As God passes through our life the steady stream of his presence also changes and shapes us. The river will not be stopped, it will not be moved.

I could have allowed the business of the day to keep me from the presence of God. That choice confronts us in busy times and in slower seasons of solitude. Will I allow God to be part of my day? or will I try to navigate it on my own terms?

Today I have tried to practice God's presence with in the things I have been doing. I am little by little finding my center of balance with in this season. I've had concerned friends tell me that they think I take on too much. They are probably right, but I don't think the answer is quitting any of the things I am presently involved in. The Bible talks of believers having an abundant life, a full life. I will have to account for how I used the time that God gave me in my life. What did I do with the gifts, talents, abilities and challenges given to me. Did I make time to love and care for those around me?

There are things like learning piano, and writing this devotional, and getting my life coaching certification, my leadership role at my church, homeschooling my kids, that I know that God has called me to do. When I was sick earlier this year I had to scale back to allow myself time to get well. Even with this current busy schedule I need to make time to rest, and to be refreshed in the Lord. Just because something or some season is difficult does not mean that God has not called you to those things or to that season. It is difficult to ballance it all. I am learning more and more with each passing day that God is in the midst of it. I can and will find my ballance. I will not be moved, I stand secure in Him. While I am no less busy than I have been on many other recent days, I am not feeling as overwhelmed or off ballance by all of it. I am finding the rythem of life in this season. This beat that I am currently walking to is not a leasurely steady beat, it at times is wild and whirling. Yet as I am learning to feel the presense of the Lord with in the rythem of this season. I am learning to embrace the dance and I am thankful that God is taking the lead and I am wisked along by the music and by his hand leading me along in the steps of His magnificent dance.

Prayer
Dear Lord, Help us each find the cadence to the dance of our life in this present season. Take the lead and guide and direct our steps. Draw us near and hold us tight. Wisper in our ear how much you love us and how glad you are to share this dance and this day.

Rejoice

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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Philippians 4:4 Amp “Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; 

again I say, Rejoice!” 

Its early and I am sitting in my favorite chair. Its quiet, everyone else is still asleep. I'm waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.  When I sat down I thought it might be nice to go see what the verse of the day is at Bible Gateway.  It is a great site with many online versions of the Bible. Today I found the verse the verse above from Philippians 4:4. Rejoice in the Lord. My rejoicing in the morning while the family is sleeping are kind of quiet. More of a heart of thankfulness. While I'm thinking thankful thoughts I remember some bible things that I have learned and discovered through the years. I thought I would share some of them with you in this post. I hope you will find them helpful.

I was asked by a friend a while back how I was able to find the verses I was looking for so quickly. I am not a good memorizer - unless it is song words and I can pull up complete song words from my childhood. My brain however, does not remember numbers and so finding verses is not by remembering the verse numbers. I struggle to learn things like my phone number. So it is only the actual Bible verse words that stick in my brain. I've hidden them in my heart through the years by spending time reading and thinking about the passages I am reading,  I write them on index cards and post them in places around my house. I make up little melodies and sing them. Some how they have managed to get planted in my brain. After 30 years of walking with the Lord there are a lot of them tucked away in my mind and heart. I think it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them to mind when I need them.  I may not remember the whole verse, but I take the words that come to mind and search for them using the keyword search option at Bible Gateway. My most used bible version has been The New International Version so I generally start there. Then I try some of the others that I might have been reading. For a while I changed out Bible versions each year and tried to read through the Bible in a year. Its a great goal and Bible Gateway has some wonderful Reading Plans that I have enjoyed using. Its is a site that I have in my bookmark buttons.  Today I have a window open to write this post and another window with Bible Gateway. It's not always how I write, I use a note book a lot of the time too. I am rejoicing over God's wonderful provision of a new mac pro lap top. He provided new computers for my family, through the coke bottle caps that my husband saves. He finally won after six years of saving and turning them in at the coke rewards site. 

I am always amazed at the many ways through which God is able to supply my needs. 

My new computer is allowing me to sit here in my favorite chair and have my quiet time with the Lord using my new computer,  rather than a Bible, a notebook and a concordance. 

My other little trick is to type the words into my browser search bar and see if anyone else learned the verse with that wording. It works a lot of the time.  The other way I use is to have a Bible with a concordance. My favorite is my Thompson Chain reference Bible. Someone took the time when I was a baby Christian to help me pick out a bible with a great working concordance. While I have lots of Bibles that I enjoy reading,  my Thompson Chain Bible it is my favorite for when I am trying to study and don't have access to a computer. 

These are some things that gladden my heart. 

I rejoice in the Lord's presence in quiet of the morning. Not that He is not present in the rest of my day but in the quiet of the morning there are fewer distractions and its just a little easier for me to focus my thoughts on what the Lord is saying to me today.

Rejoicing is a great place to start in relating to the Lord.  Here are few other verses that come to mind. I am thankful also for the reminder to rejoice that came to me today from the Bible Gateway Verse of the day. I like to kind of mix up my times with the Lord.  I like the to change things up, in how I spend my quiet morning times. I rejoice that it does not need to be stuffy or religious. The Lord knows how He wired me and He knows how He wired you. I am reminded of the old old song called In the Garden. I remember the lines "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses... The chorus says : And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am his own..." I hope you will rejoice in your time with the Lord today.

1 Chronicles 16:10
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Dear Lord, Today I chose to rejoice in you. I rejoice in the little reminders of your grace and mercy. I thank you for meeting me in the quiet of the morning and for leading me through out the rest of this day. I pray that you will meet with those who are reading this devotional today and draw all of us to fall deeper in love with you. Help us to want to know you more and more and to make time to spend with you.

A Shelter To Every Generation

A Devotional By Margot Cioccio

I had a little help from Gracie to write this post.

 Psalm 90:1-2 (The Message)   

God, it seems you've been our home forever; long before the mountains were born,  Long before you brought earth itself to birth,  from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come"—you are God. 

 

Amplified Bible  Psalm 90:1 LORD, YOU have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all generations .

 

The inner city church I attend has been around longer than the city of Spokane. The church was founded in 1888, so its been around for a few years. I have gone through many of the old archives and photos. Photos from long ago of a thriveing church with a Sunday School classes in the 1950 of more than a hundrend adults lined up in front of the building.  I love history and trying to understand the footprints left by other generations in the stuff others felt important to save. It reminds me that my generation is not the first generation to have followed Christ. There have been many generations of believers who have gone before us. The style of their worship was very different from our own but they served the same Jesus that we do and they have left a legacy of faith.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a woman who's grandparents had been one of the three founders of our church. She had been there as a young child, when her grandmother, who was by then, an old woman, dug the first shovel of dirt for our present building.  At the time she was about five.  This dear woman now in her 70's, was delighted to see what God is doing in this generation. Her name was Sandee Kerr and I met her when she arrived and she told me her family were the founders of the church. At the time it was moments before the services was to start and I had things I needed to attend to but I assured her I would let the pastor know she was here. 

 

I made a point to talk to her after the service and it was then that I started to connect the dots of what she had told me earlier.  In the course of the conversation she wanted to see the baptismal font. She explaned that the silver chalace inside of it was inscribed with her name and the date of her baptism. Her grandmother, the wife of one of the founders had given it to the church at the baptism of her first grandchild. Sure enough there was the inscription she had been telling me about. I small piece of history came alive in that moment.  

I rarely bring my video camera with me to church. Today I had been moved to bring it,  thinking I would take some footage of our first week back to feeding our homeless and poor neighbors. It was a God kind of thing, to be able to go and get it and record some of Sandee's memories of the past. She is probably one of the last of a generation to even remember the founders of this church. 

Sandee's ingraved baptismal

She was in town for her class reunion and made a point to come and visit the church of her childhood. She had been here for weddings and funerals and had seen it change through the years. She was delighed that we had not only survived the wrecking ball as she called it. Her way of expressing how very close we had been to closing, but thats another story.

She showed me the gold ring her mother had gotten as a young person for having five years of perfect attendence. Things sure have changed since then.  

This whole encounter today was such a blessing for me. She admired my mosaic necklace and was tickled when I took it off and gave it to her. She said she would treasure it. You can see her wearing it in the photo. Sandee was able to make a bit of the past come alive for me. She reminded me through her stories that God has been active at this church for many generations. God has been working in this church for 120 years and in some ways I am humbled, that God has allowed us to continue to be a light on this corner.  Here's a link to our history if you are interested.

My heart is thankful that God has been a shelter here for many generations. I am thankful for the legacy's left by believers from the past in books, and music and in the older believers in our midst.  If you take the time to share a bit of your Sunday with those from another generation in your church or with those who come through the doors or your church you might be blessed to see to see the fingerprints of God. 

If you are an older believer, take time to share your stories with future generations. If you are younger reach out to those who are older than you and care enough to listen. I hear you thinking but I'm so shy, or I would not know what to say.  I would tell you that by nature I am very shy and prefer just to observe people. The Lord through the years has nudged me more and more to get beyond myself and to focus on the needs of others in my midst. I have often been suprised by the marvelous people God allows me to meet. You could start small just pick someone you don't know and make a point to introduce yourself and to listen and care. Weather it is a homeless person or someone from another generation or racial group or just someone who looks a little lost. I encourage you to reach out and discover some of God's hidden treasures. I discoved one today and was extreemly blessed.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for being a shelter to your people for all these many generations. Help us to reach out to the people in our midst with your love. We don't need to be a spiritual giant a little kindness goes a long way. Help us to be your hands and feet and reach out to the stranger in our midst.