March 16, 2009 by Teri Frana.

Life has thrown us a few curves lately and I’ve been using all my energy just to cope through them. Today, I’m trying to get back on my routine of spending significant quiet time with God. I find that I have to “catch-up” with God a lot. Just when I get into a solid rhythm, something happens which I allow to disrupt the flow.

It seems like the very thing I want the most, growing in my relationship with Jesus, is the first thing which falls off the plate. The first to go is my daily Bible reading. That slips off and falls “splat” on the floor. The second is my quiet prayer time. I often don’t realize I’m forgetting to do it. Days might slip by before I realize why my heart feels so heavy.

When life becomes too hectic, my “wander in the wilderness” time with God suffers. Sundays are my day to enjoy a sabbath with my Lord. These are the days I spend in study, meditation, prayer, and journaling. Wisdom is my strongest spiritual gift, so studying and seeking wisdom is the most effective style of worship for me. I revel in the vastness of God’s love and power on Sundays.

Lately, in those moments when I don’t let the important things fall off the plate, I’ve been hearing God speak to me about “self-discipline.” I believe what He is getting across to me is that I’m at a place in my walk when I cannot let those things fall off the plate. When life gets the craziest is when I need to put my energy and time into God first not last.

I’m definitely a spontaneous person. I love riding the wave of life and enjoy when new things come my way. Self-discipline and steadiness is not a strong point in my character. There was a time in my life when I forced myself to be disciplined. However, I used guilt as the “whip” to keep myself in line. Over the last few years, God has freed me from the performance driven guilt which used to keep me captive. However, now I can’t seem to find a good enough “whip” to keep me on my toes.

When I don’t understand something, the only thing I know to do anymore is go to God’s Word. I’ve been doing a search on “self-discipline” and reading the whole context of each instance of the phrase. Today as I spend quiet time with God, the answer is starting to come. It’s still only a fuzzy outline of the whole picture, but if I squint really hard I can just make it out. LOVE. Love is the motivator which helps me keep God first and life second. LOVE is what compels me to read His Word, pray, and seek His will above all things.

His love for me is the most gentle, loving, patient “whip” I will ever know.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

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March 1, 2009 by Teri Frana.

I find myself revisiting all the Disney classics lately. That’s what happens when you have a three year old. Lily and I were watching a Winnie the Pooh episode the other day when Winnie was yet again trying to get another smackerel of honey from the honey jar. He says, “Oh bother! Empty again…only the sticky parts left!”

Immediately I got this image of most Christians trying desperately to serve their lives away operating only on the “sticky parts” of their honey jar. Their jars are emptied of the smooth flowing sweetness which God provides in abundance. Instead, they are trying to run off the power provided by hardened junk at the bottom of the jar.

Have you ever grown weary doing good? I have! It’s my cue that I’m trying to accomplish God’s will by my own power. I want to do good, yet I haven’t taken the time to fill with God’s goodness. I’m trying to scrape the goo off the bottom and make it taste sweet.

There is only one way to keep your honey jar perpetually filled and that is to be consistently getting filled by God. We need to be resting in Him, reading and studying His Word, praying to Him, partaking of His blessings, claiming His promises, and basking in His love. The more we fill up, the more honey there will be to give away.

One caution here is to avoid the opposite from happening, we fill our honey jars and then keep the goodness for ourselves. Honey left on the shelf doesn’t do any good to anyone. It will simply rot over time.

Jesus told us that if we ABIDE IN Him, meaning put our relationship with Him first before all things, then we will produce much fruit. I’m talking more than just doing a 60 second devotional each morning. I mean praying, talking, studying, seeking, asking, and knocking on a consistent basis. When we do this, our lives will be overflowing with honey.

We need to allow God the time and space to love on us. He wants to show us in miraculous ways how true His love is. When we continually experience God’s love, we won’t be able to help giving our lives to others. We won’t be able to stop serving them. It will simply flow from experiencing God’s love in our own lives.

So, how full is your honey jar?
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” John 15:5 The Message

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