Don't Worry

1 Thessalonians 5:16-28

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good,²² reject every kind of evil.
²³ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

²⁵ Brothers and sisters, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. ²⁷ I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.


Thank you Lord for waking me up this morning. Thank you lord for giving me the insight into how to handle the people around me that I have to deal with today. Lord its not easy for me and I try to get along with them but its very difficult. I hold my tongue, try to be assertive and not aggressive. I wander around with too much to do or not enough to do

. Lord, I know all of my blessings are from you and I am not a fool. I am thankful to have the opportunity to serve you daily. What ever comes my way today, I pray that I am ready for it. Lord, please hear the prayers of your people.

I have just finished reading Paul Lawrence Dunbar's The Uncalled. I have never read it before and I found it to hit home in certain areas. It was written in the late 1890"s, dialect common to black folks at the time. It requires a bit of translating in your head to hear the sounds and get the meaning of the text, but it was good reading.

 I continually came back to it to try and finish the 122 pages as quickly as possible. I wanted to find out what would happen to the boy. Seeing that I have a small boy in my charge now.

 Briefly its about a boy who is orphaned by  alcoholic parents. The story opens with the mother dead, the father abandoned the family and the boy is taken in by one of the ladies in town. This is a small, gossipy, poor town.

Out of duty, she takes him in. Treats him with not one bit of loving kindness, she is only doing her duty. Small towns are full of gossip and opinions. Just  like a school, a church, workplace environment.

The boy grows up, goes to school to be a preacher, out of respect and duty to the one who raised him but he takes a stand and decides to rebel against the town and its way of thinking.

 He leaves, encounters his father and returns, only to leave again. He finds freedom in a different kind of church and finds a girl. He finds a way to come back home, if he wants, yet he is changed and much happier.

 Should we not have the right to pursue some kind of happiness in life? Is our life only about duty and unhappiness?

 I am doing my job today, because its my duty. I am grateful for it but I look on it as my duty.

 There is no joy in this. Lord help me to see you in my daily walk.

Meditate on the word day and night. Lord know that I pray for  release from this situation.

Widen my gaze, help me to enjoy my day today at a new place.

 Lord, everything is not about me. Life is troubling for us all. Hear the prayers of your people.Take them to heart. Love us for our frailties and our strengths. Have a blessed day today and be a blessing even when its not that easy.