four minutes with God: Matthew 25:21

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“The basic issue for the Christian, it seems to me, is whether we believe we are stewards or owners of what we possess. A good steward receives gratefully anything his Lord gives to him. But he must account for it and use it wisely . . . If material blessings come to us, we believe they are gifts of God for which we are to be responsible as stewards. The whole earth is really ours as stewards.

Now this is a fact which non-Christians may not understand. Most of the world believes in ownership.

I remember Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes telling about being entertained by a wealthy landowner. He had preached in his host’s church that morning on God’s ownership. Looking over his broad acres and remembering the morning sermon, the man asked, ‘Do you mean to tell me, Bishop, that this land does not belong to me?’ The bishop said the answer came to him in a flash, ‘Ask me that one hundred years from now.'”

Living the Adventure – Faith and “Hidden” Difficulties
by Keith Miller and Bruce Larson

my Prayer:
Lord, I pray that I never claim ownership of my blessings. I desperately want to be a good steward of ALL the gifts you’ve entrusted to me. My financial blessings, yes, but also my spiritual, physical and relationship blessings.

Lord, please help us to spend the money you entrust to us wisely. Please show us how to be able to give above and beyond our tithe.

Lord, please help me to be a good steward of my relationship with you. Please bless me with an unwavering awareness of your presence in the daily routine of my life and with a relentless desire to spend time alone with you – listening AND talking.

Lord, please continue to help me be a good steward of this body. Help me to make healthy choices with my nutrition and to view exercise as something I just DO. EVERY day. Like sleeping, eating and driving my kids around.

Please Lord, bless me with patience and empathy in my relationships. Please guide me and show me what to do and say so that the people I love – especially my children and husband – are filled with the confidence that they are deeply loved and respected.

the Word: His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Matthew 25:21 (NIV)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: James 1:19

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“It is ironic that we try to impress people by saying clever or funny things, yet nothing binds one human being to another more than the sense that they have been deeply, carefully listened to. It is no accident that we speak of paying attention to people; attention is the most valuable currency we have.”
Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them
by John Ortberg

my Prayer:
Lord, help me to listen today. Help me to SEE people you want me to listen to today. Please help me to turn off the auto-pilot I so often find myself operating in and really look people in the eyes. Bless me with patience and empathy today, Lord. Allow me to be an instrument of your unconditional love and to share it authentically with someone else through my silence, patience and eye contact. Help me to hear the real messages behind the words instead just the words – appropriate words, carefully formulated as an expected or proper response.

Please keep my pride in check and help me to remember that I don’t need to try and control how other people perceive me. Help me to be authentic, knowing that not everyone will respond positively to me today. Instead of trying to make sure I don’t look like a fool in front of anyone today, please help me to be real with people, giving you a chance to show someone else that they are not the only one who’s got problems.

the Word: My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak . . .
James 1:19 (NIV)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: Jude 1:20-21

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“. . . daily prayer and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?”
from Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

my Prayer:
Lord, I don’t ever want to drift away from you. I don’t want to ever forget you. And yet, as I pray this so sincerely, I also know, without a shadow of a doubt, that in the not too distant future, I will forget you for an entire day. I will, out of the blue, probably with no definitive cause, go through an entire day without devoting even one moment of thought to you. So I pray that you won’t let me forget for two days in a row. Because it could lead to three. And then I’m the prodigal. Again.

Thank you for your Word. Thank you for my propensity to journal. Thank you for teaching me how to abide. Please help me to stop rambling on and on during my prayer times and abide MORE. Thank you for my love of reading. Thank you for the writers who draw me closer to you through their vulnerability and frankness. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, moving in me to bring me back into fellowship with you when I’ve forgotten you again.

Thank you for your stubborn love.

the Word: But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
Jude 1:20-21 (The Message)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: 1 Corinthians 1:10

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“Instead, make it your goal to love those who disagree with you. Go for the love, not the win.”

“We don’t always have to agree to get along. Our verse today says, “Let there be real harmony.” In an orchestra, there’s a big difference between unison and harmony. If all the musicians played in unison all the time, the music would get pretty boring. It’s the harmony that creates beauty in music, with different players playing different instruments and different notes, but all under the same direction of one conductor. The goal of each musician is not to play louder than the others or to finish the piece first; the goal is to ‘be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.‘”
from Better Together: What on Earth Are We Here For? Devotional and Journal edited by Rick Warren

my Prayer:
Lord, please help me find harmony with the cranky person I have to work with today. Please bless me with patience and a calm temperament. Please remind me to pause and respond instead of react when he speaks condescendingly and sarcastically. Thank you for the discernment you’ve already given me. Thank you for showing me that source of crankiness has little to do with the work, and more to do with his fear of losing credibility with our mutual client. Please break down our pride – both of us, so that we can work together, bringing the best of both of our capabilities to solve our client’s problem. Regardless of whether he is a Christian, please open his mind and make him receptive to this idea of combining our knowledge openly with the common goal of serving. Please let my freakish love of harmony cross over from my music to my work today.

the Word: I beg of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.
1 Corinthians 1:10 (LB)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: Ephesians 3:17-19

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“One of the most important life-changing prayers we can pray for other people is that they will really know God’s love in a powerful, personal way. Paul did not pray that people would love God; he prayed that people would know and have Revelation of God’s awesome love.”

“When someone tells you about a Biblical principle or spiritual truth, that is a piece of information. But when God helps you understand it, it becomes revelation.”
The Power of Simple Prayer by Joyce Meyer

my Prayer:
Lord, I pray for revelation of the depth of your love today. For myself, for my family, for my friends and for that person I will never meet. Please bless me with a deep understanding of your perfect and limitless love. I don’t ever want to take it for granted, not fully comprehending the depth and breadth of your affection for me. Please help me to remember that every blessing – and every trial – is evidence of the fullness of your love for me.

the Word:
. . . so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)

. . . And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God
Ephesians 3:17-19 (The Message)

the Lyrics
“How deep, how deep is your love? How strong, how strong is your love?” Healing Is In Your Hands by Christy Nockels

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: Philippians 2:15

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“Moral authority is the credibility you earn by walking your talk. It is the relationship other people see between what you say and what you do, between what you claim to be and what you are . . . There is an alignment between conviction and action, belief and behavior . . .

Nothing compensates for moral authority. No amount of communication skills, wealth, accomplishment, education, talent or position can make up for a lack of moral authority. We all know plenty of people who have those qualities but who exercise no influence over us whatsoever. Why? Because there is a contradiction between what they claim to be and what we perceive them to be.” Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision by Andy Stanley

my Prayer:
Lord, please help me to be blameless today. For even one minute of today. Please help me to represent you well. Please help me to be honorable. Help me to be a woman of my word today, Lord. Please fill me with an awareness of your Holy Spirit and remind me include you in every conversation, every action, every thought. If you are with me every minute, I stand a chance of being blameless. I want to be a credible witness for your grace and glory today. I want to be trustworthy. Please help me.

the Word:
. . . so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
Philippians 2:15 (NIV)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: 1 Peter 4:10-11

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“Where is God leading today? What are the priorities that need to be addressed? Who needs my attention? What do I have to learn? Where might be the landmines in the day’s journey? What needs to change? In asking these questions, I hope to tune my soul to the voice of God so that I will be conscious of His guidance throughout the day. With increasing frequency this actually happens.” A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What by Gordon MacDonald

my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with discernment today. Show me what I need to see, whether I want to see it or not. Lead me where I need to go, give me the words I need to speak and, please Lord, give me an awareness not only of your faithful presence, but an awareness of the needs of others that I so often miss even when they are smack in front of me. Allow me to serve you today Lord, even if I never get to know how you do it. Please allow me to be your hands and feet and voice. Please use me right where I am. Please allow me to be a witness for your grace and glory today.

the Word:
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NIV)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: Ephesians 4:12

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“What if power comes from empowering others rather than dominating them?” The Friends We Keep: A Woman’s Quest for the Soul of Friendship by Sarah Zacharias Davis

my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with the motivation and wisdom to recognize opportunities to encourage those I interact with today. In those opportunities, help me to equip someone by showing me how to freely and graciously share any knowledge, skills or talents you have already blessed me with. Please don’t allow me to miss any opportunities due to my attention to self-focused goals, indifference or the sense of being needed or admired that can stem from knowing, understanding or being able to do something better than someone else.

Help me to remember how much I don’t know, don’t understand and can’t do. Help me to remember all the people who have helped me, and those who continue to help me. Thank you for those people in my life, Lord.

the Word:
. . . to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.

four minutes with God: Colossians 3:12

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

a Quote:
“Jesus understood that the deadliest sins – resentment, arrogance, judgmentalism, lovelessness – are ones we can commit without lifting a finger.” Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them by John Ortberg

my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with patience and kindness today. Please bless me with empathy and compassion for others. Please don’t let me hurt anyone as a result of my neglect or indifference or pride.

the Word:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

consistent intentional solitude.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Summer is over.

The loss of solitude at the beginning was nearly instantaneous. A shocker and familiar at the same time. A living flashback to before PinkGirl started school. Kid duty every waking moment and sometimes more. Most of my prayers were short and in fragments. I seriously missed consistent, dedicated time spent with the Lord. I seriously missed the time to read. To think.

School’s been back in since Thursday and yesterday was my first day back to routine. Some quiet time, some reading, a cup of coffee in my favorite ceramic mug instead of a travel mug, a workout – I even got some work done! And now, a blog post! Even with a forgotten homework delivery and a horrendous traffic jam during after-school pick-up, this day was great! Top it off with an evening that included a flat tire for FirstHusband and needing to replace the broken lock on the front door?

No stress. No matter what happens, I handle things better after a little solitude and prayer.

I’ve said it before. There are seasons of prayer. Sometimes, my days allow for moments alone and I can choose to spend some of that time with God. Sometimes, my day barely allows for a shower and that’s the only solitude and prayer time I get. Sometimes, my day doesn’t even allow for the shower so I pray while I’m driving a kid somewhere or while I’m loading the dishwasher, cooking dinner or cleaning something.

Summer was a good reminder of what it was like when the kids were little and I had to carve out time for solitude. It was also a hearty dose of empathy for other moms in that situation right now. It was lots of fun. And lots of driving. Summer day camps for kids, sometimes with less than two hours of unfragmented time between drop off and pick-up. And those bits of time were most often spent frantically getting stuff DONE.

But Summer was a season, as were the years when I had small children at home all day, every day, and the years I spent working full-time while going to college, and the years I spent working like a crazy woman when I first started my business. I had to learn and have again been reminded that when the seasons of my life are such that my solitude and prayer time are encroached upon by my daily responsibilities, I have to do two things:

First: Not beat myself up over it, because by doing so, I waste time I could be praying and spending with God.

Second: FIND pockets of time, multitask prayer with chores that don’t need active thought, and consciously include God in my every day moments and conversations, because He is with me WHEREVER I go. (Joshua 1:9)

Thank you God for reminding me that one of the things I really need to get DONE is time alone with You. I need to actively carve it out wherever I can get it.

Lord, please bless me with an unquenchable thirst for intimate fellowship with you. Please bless me with the courage to listen to the truths your Holy Spirit reveals to me during these times of physical stillness and silence.

“To bring some solitude into our lives is one of the most necessary but also most difficult disciplines . . . As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again . . .

. . . Intuitively, we know that it is important to spend time in solitude. We even start looking forward to this strange period of uselessness. This desire for solitude is often the first sign of prayer, the first indication that the presence of God’s Spirit no longer remains unnoticed . . .

. . . As we empty ourselves of our many worries, we come to know not only with our mind but also with our heart that we never were really alone, that God’s Spirit was with us all along . . . “

The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life
by Henri Nouwen