December 23, 2024

Lady In Waiting: Meditation: My True Community – Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997)

December 10, 2012 by

 

“Accept whatever He gives— and give whatever He takes with a big smile. You belong to Him.”

Beloved girlfriends, it has been an honor being with you each week throughout our study of the book, Lady in Waiting.  The journey has been amazing and we have learned so many truths together.

This is our last week together and we will be going through some of the meditations that each one of us bloggers has chosen.  However, there are seventeen meditations that you can do throughout the Christmas season as we wait for the next study to begin.  I trust that you have already signed up or are prayerfully thinking of signing up!

Our meditation today is based on a special woman of God, Mother Teresa.  A woman who dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor in India.  Mother Teresa is one example of what a single woman who took advantage of her single status to serve the Lord diligently.  Her decision to serve the Lord in this way impacted many lives and many more women have joined her cause.

A Lady in Waiting must also be a Lady of Diligence.  Remember what we covered in the topic of diligence in Chapter 2 of our Bible Study?  We were given so many examples of how as single women we can serve our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This statement from chapter 2 still stands out to me today “Singleness is an enviable condition. An unmarried woman has something that a married woman gives up on her wedding day: extra time for Jesus. Too many young women waste valuable years as they wait for life to begin—after marriage. They rarely realize the priceless free time they waste, until it is gone. Have you neglected some mission or ministry opportunities because you feared prolonging your unmarried state?

Being single is enviable because one is free to serve the Lord in whatever way you can.  As we meditate today, lets us allow the Holy Spirit to help us to see in what ways we can minister to others.  You don’t have to be a nun like Mother Teresa to do what she did.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was full of ministry to others; He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and had compassion on all those who were suffering to mention but a few.  As we are in the Christmas season, let us bring Christ to everyone around us by reaching out and serving others.  This is what the Gospel of Matthew verse 4:23-25 says about our beloved Lord. “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.   News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.  Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,  Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”

This is a great quote from our meditation today which is worth remembering.

“Keep giving Jesus to your people not by words, but by your example, by your being in love with Jesus, by radiating his holiness and spreading His fragrance of love everywhere you go. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength. Be happy and at peace. Accept whatever He gives— and give whatever He takes with a big smile. You belong to Him. My true community is the poor— their security is my security, their health is my health. My home is among the poor, and not only the poor, but the poorest of them: the people no one will go near because they are filthy and suffering from contagious diseases, full of germs and vermin— infested; the people who can’t go to church because they can’t go out naked; the people who can no longer eat because they haven’t the strength; the people who lie down in the street, knowing they are going to die, while others look away and pass them by; the people who no longer cry because their tears have run dry! The Lord wants me exactly where I am— He will provide the answers.”

LET’S PRAY

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for being with us each and every week as we studied the Lady in Waiting.  Lord, thank You for teaching us through Your life and the life of Mother Teresa the importance of service.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us to the place where we can be of service to others who are hurting and need our support.  I pray that we will not be comfortable with just receive but we will give of ourselves in Jesus Name.  Amen.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Look around your community, there are hospitals, schools and many other places that you can go to and minister to others.  Let us discuss ways in which we are going to reach out throughout the Christmas Holiday.  Which ministry is the Lord asking you to serve Him but up until now you have not responded to?  He is waiting for you to answer the call!

Be Blessed

Jackie

Our Next Single Women’s Online Bible Study

“Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul”

by John & Stasi Eldredge

Begins January 6, 2013

To sign up for this Online Bible Study, click HERE and follow the instructions. You will also be given a link to where you can purchase this bible study. We’re looking forward to studying “Captivating” with you!!

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Authority and Submission

September 25, 2012 by

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE!!  Last week we talked about putting “First Things First”.  In that discussion we talked about what it means to put God’s Kingdom FIRST.  To do that properly, we need to know why we are to do that.  Last week we looked at Matthew 6:33, “But put God’s kingdom first.  Do what he wants you to do.  Then all of those things will also be given to you.”  Today we are going to talk about the next sentence, “Do what HE wants you to do.”  The only ways we can truly do that is by accepting Jesus’ authority over our lives and submit to that authority.  Those are two pretty scary words, so don’t shut off your brain on me just yet.  J  We can get this…

 

So I looked up the definitions of Authority and Submission for us and this is what I found:

AUTHORITY is the power or right to control, judge, or prohibit the actions of others;  a person or group of people having this power, such as a government, police force, etc; a position that commands such a power or right (often in the phrase in authority ); and  the ability to influence or control others: a man of authority.

SUBMISSION is an act or instance of submitting / to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.

Stick with me here.  I have an issue with GIVING away my authority.  I used to have a problem submitting my will to someone else’s (ok.  Sometimes I still have a problem with submission).  :-/

My Bible tells me that there is One who deserves to have Authority over MY life and I should Submit myself daily to that authority.  There is this man, Jesus that died for my sins.  He knew what kind of person I would be, what kind of trouble I would get into, what I needed to be saved from myself.

In Romans 5:6-8 it says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners, CHRIST DIED FOR US.”

If that wasn’t plain enough, my favorite disciple, Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, TO BRING YOU TO GOD.”

God’s authority touches every area of our lives.  When we get that relationship settled, everything else falls into place.

This is a visual image of how authority works.  I want to see how many verses in the Bible we can come up with to support each of these areas of authority.  What does and where does the Bible talk about how we are to act in our family?  Where should we begin to find out what God says about that?

What does the Bible say about how we are to treat our Government leaders?  Sometimes we don’t agree with the way they do things and we hear some pretty harsh language thrown around.  Is that OK for a Christ-follower to do?  Are we showing biblical respect for their authority?  What about in our church?  Do we give the Pastor, Teachers, and leaders the respect they deserve for offering their service to us?  Some of us have jobs or will have jobs in the future and it would be wise to see what God has to say about how we treat our employers as well.

I would like you to take some time and begin to search out what the Word has to say about Authority and our responsibility to Submit to it.  Post a comment and let me know that you have found at least one verse supporting this topic.

Maybe this is the first time you have attempted to find a certain topic in the Bible.  I’m so glad you are here.  Most Bibles have a section in the back called the Concordance.  It is arranged topically.  You look up “authority” just like you would in a dictionary.  It will give you verses to begin reading to see what God has to say about that topic.  Some of your Bibles will have a dictionary in the back as well, use it when you don’t understand certain words or phrases.

It is my prayer that we can grow deeper in the Word of God together.  We don’t want to meet God in heaven and be wearing our spiritual diapers and sucking on a binky.

I want to leave you with a thought from Mother Teresa (if you don’t know who she is, look her up on Google):

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Mother Teresa

I love you guys.  Mama T <3

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