Secrets to Life – Part Five

On May 5, 2024May 3, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

It seems that everyone is looking for the secrets to life to increase happiness, joy, peace, love or to attain some other positive state of mind. Each week, a secret to life has been revealed that is intended to lead you to a more peaceful, love-filled and joyous state of being. This week, the fifth secret to life is revealed.

Purpose. You are still here on this earth for a reason. God has not finished with your life; your purpose still lies ahead or you would no longer be here. Discovering that purpose is a secret to life – bringing peace, satisfaction, joy, and love.

How can one find their purpose? Begin with asking a few questions . . .what makes you excited, what do you love doing, what do you feel inspired by or passionate about? Also ask a few friends or family members these questions and see how they would answer about you. Once you have gathered this information, choose the top one or two answers that occur most often.

From there, you can begin to invest more intentionally into those one or two areas. Start with prayer and create a plan on how you can spend more time in your passions and less time in other things. Focusing your prayers, time, energy and/or money into areas that bring you joy and peace is a step on the path that results in you living out your purpose. You can also prayerfully consider what things you spend time or money on that do not support your purpose and determine if you should continue. If you choose to continue investing into things that are not in your passions, identify why and make peace with that decision.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for placing in each of us a specific purpose that only we can fulfill. Help all of us to find that purpose: the reason why we were created the way we are with the specific story and experiences that we have. We know there is only one person like us in all of history and that we have been given the opportunity to fulfill that purpose for You. Thank You for loving us and giving us each an important assignment. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Secrets to Life – Part Three

On April 21, 2024April 16, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

Serve others. Even when you do not want to or you do not feel like serving others. ‘Others’ can be those you live with or they can be complete strangers. ‘Serving’ can be a compliment to a loved one on how helpful or kind they are to you. ‘Serving’ a stranger can be paying for the order of the car behind you in the drive-thru. There are many different ways to serve others.

Why is this a secret to life? It moves the focus from you to another. It reminds us that we are all a part of the same human race on the same planet, all moving toward our individual day to die. Serving others is infectious, you share a compliment, then that person may share a compliment with another and so on. Or in the drive-thru, the person who received the free meal from you may pass that forward and buy the next car’s meal and so on. Serving others results in kindness and the more kindness that exists, the more peace, love and joy there will be for all of us.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to serve others. There are so many ways that I can be a blessing to someone – whether that is a kind word, a smile, sending a card, buying someone’s coffee or many other ways. Please show me today how to serve someone. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Secrets to Life – Part Two

On April 14, 2024April 7, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

Knowing that we have a finite amount of time to live, it makes sense that people would want to know if there are any secrets to life. Last week, the first secret was shared. Today, the second secret to life.

Money and time are two things that most people would say they can never have enough of. Each of these are precious resources that every person can use in a productive way or in a wasteful way. The second secret to life is to give back to God at least 10% of your time and money. James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift comes from above. God gave it all to us to borrow, it is not ours. This includes any money we may receive and each day that we wake up is another gift of time.

Investing into the work of God through the giving of money and/or time guarantees that you will have what you need here on earth and you are storing up treasure in heaven. Matthew 6:19 to 21 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This means that as you invest into heavenly work, your heart will be focused on the things of God. As this world swirls into chaos and breaks down more each day, your heart will be anchored directly to God, His peace and His love.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, please help us to invest into your work through time and/or money. Help us to store up treasures in heaven so our hearts will be there and not buried under all the weight of this world. Thank you Lord that we have this promise to grab onto. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Secrets to Life – Part One

On April 7, 2024April 5, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

It seems that everyone is looking for the secrets to life to increase happiness, joy, peace, love or to attain some other positive state of mind. The reality is that we live in a world that is broken and breaking more each day. There are wars, hunger, poverty, injustice, disease and hurting people all around us. People are being born and dying everyday; humanity is in a constant state of change. Yet one thing remains the same, we are all going to die.

The first secret to life is for relationships and it is anchored in love. This secret works in any relationship: marriage, family, friends, professional and so on.

Each person in the relationship needs to love Jesus more than the other person. In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”. The commandments of Jesus include loving others more than yourself, working to create and maintain peace, treating all people with kindness and showing mutual respect for each other, among many others.

You may be thinking that this sounds great, but what if you are the only person in a relationship that loves and obeys Jesus? Begin by praying faithfully for the other person to exhibit love, peace, joy, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, patience, and self-control. As you are praying for them, ensure that you are living out these qualities, try to be an example. This type of situation is not easy and may take time. If you begin to feel frustrated or disheartened, focus on the fact that you can only control and manage your behavior, it is up to God to work on them. Just keep praying and draw strength from Jesus.

Let’s pray. Father, please be with us as we work to obey Your commandments. Help all of us to love each other and above all to love Your Son, Jesus. It is in His name that we pray, amen.

My Scars and the Shame I Carry

On March 31, 2024March 26, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

I have scars on each of my wrists, they have been there a long time. When strangers see them, I am sure they judge me. I am sure they have thoughts like, ‘how did they get there’ or ‘it looks like a failed suicide attempt’, and so on. When I see strangers looking at them, I am filled with shame. It is in those moments that I must remind myself that Jesus loves me, no matter what I did in the past or what was done to me – He loves me. Exactly as I am. Messed up past included.

As we celebrate Easter, I thought about the scars that Jesus bore on His body for all people. Every single human on this earth has the chance to be filled with eternal peace, joy and love simply by believing that Jesus died for us. “For God so loved the world that He sent His Son that whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life.” John 3:16 says it all, God loves us so much! All we have to do is believe. Just believe that God loves you, exactly as you are.

The scars that Jesus has were created out of humanity’s shame and sin, not His. He never did anything to deserve those scars, yet Jesus chose to accept them. While His scars represent a horrible and painful death, they are also beautiful – they saved me and you.

When I look at my scars, I need to remember that not only am I perfectly and completely loved by Jesus, scars and all, but I also need to focus on how He sees my scars. Jesus sees someone who was once in terrible pain and struggling to live, but now has Him. Believing in Jesus does not make life perfect, it never will be perfect here on earth. But believing in Jesus makes life worth living; every day there is a peace and love that cannot be described, no matter what is going on around you. As we come upon Easter, consider the scars that Jesus bears for you. Yes, you. All so that you can know without a doubt that by His wounds, you are healed. Let those words sink in my friend, you are healed.

Happy Easter!

Partition in Our Minds

On March 24, 2024March 23, 2024 By JCIn Miscellaneous, Wounded Butterflies BlogLeave a comment

In church and in Christian circles, there appears to be a partition being placed in our minds about prayer. A partition, or wall, placed by the enemy that is a slow burn to turn us away from prayer, our direct connection to God. Just over the past few months, I have encountered three different groups of people that identify themselves as Christians. The first group was people who think they are unworthy to pray and/or God won’t listen to them. They believe in God, but just not that He will listen to them when they pray. When I say ‘I am praying for you’ to them, either they change the subject, or they appear uncomfortable and end the conversation. I found this to be a surprising reaction from someone who labels themselves as a Christian.

There is a second group I have met that call themselves Christians, but prayer seems like a foreign concept or even shocking to them. When I share with them that I am praying for their sick child or a lost pet, they cannot fathom that I should bother God with such things. They say, ‘After all, there are wars going on in the world, why does God care about a lost pet or one sick child?’ Yet, God does care, He cares deeply.

There is a third group of people that when I say ‘I am praying for you’, they immediately freak out and want to know what bad thing has happened that they need prayers. They expressed concern that I knew something they did not and asked me to tell them what horrible thing had occurred to cause me to pray for them. This reaction saddened me. We are to be praying for each other regularly.

If Satan can blind us to the importance of prayer through these or other ways, he disrupts our conversations with the Father and our advocate, Jesus. Prayer is how we grab a hold of the spiritual realm and connect to Jesus.

Prayer is like air, it is needed daily and constantly, prayer is not a nice-to-have. When the enemy decreases your desire to pray or your desire to even receive the prayers of others, you have a problem. When you have a problem, pray. When you try to pray and the enemy enters your prayer life to distract you by luring your mind to wander, you have to fight. Pray for the strength to fight. Use the enemy’s attempts to decrease prayers to instead increase them. Then we really will be praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

When Jesus is Asleep Part 2

On March 17, 2024March 4, 2024 By JCIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

Luke 8:22-25 says, “One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ‘Where is your faith?’ he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’ “

When the storm raged around the boat and the disciples were afraid, they forgot a critical piece of information. Jesus said they were going to the other side of the lake. He did not say they were going to drown or die or maybe they would make it to the other side. He said they were going to the other side. I wonder if the disciples had remembered what Jesus said, would they have been as scared?

How many times have we been scared and forgotten what God has said?

“The Lord goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear.” Deuteronomy 31:8.

God has promised He will never leave us, nor forsake us. God goes before us and is with us, which is why God commands us “do not fear”. That sounds great, but how do we not fear? We cling to His word, we remember His promises, we remind ourselves that Jesus is with us. We remind ourselves and each other that there is nothing to fear, we have the Savior of the world right here with us.

Let’s pray. Father, please help us to remember that You are right here with us. You go before us and protect us as we come and go. You will never leave us. We thank You for Your promises. In Jesus name we pray, amen.