Prayer Meeting

We are without a pastor right now and those of us willing to do so, are taking turns bringing a short devotion for prayer meeting.
Tonight was my turn and this is what I shared:

Several years ago, before my g’ma admitted herself into the nursing home, she decided one day that she needed to come live with us.
Fine.
What wasn’t fine was all the stuff she needed to bring. We had a spare room which we fixed up for her a bedroom. But she wanted her tv, her dishes, her recliner, her refrigerator and various other cherished and to her, much needed items.
So, we took the room I had used to paint my woodwork in, moved all our den furniture out there and set her up her own living room, complete with a dining table in it. It totally changed the way we were used to looking at our home.
While g’ma’s stuff was familiar to us, it wasn’t familiar in the setting of our own home. Our furniture was crammed into a room not nearly big enough for it and necessitated our moving some of my craft items out to the shed.
I really didn’t mind doing all this, I did mind undoing a month later when she decided to move back home, where she lived alone for another year before entering the nursing home.

Now during the month gma stayed with us, the rooms inside my home told anyone who came to visit a lot about us. It told them that we loved and respected g’ma enough to move as many of her personal items into our home as we could, so she could be comfortable and feel more at home. It told people that we valued family far more than we valued the ‘proper’ look of a room.

So the rooms inside our home told a lot about the way we lived our life.

But what do our inner rooms tell us about the way we live our lives?

Galatians 5:22, 23 says:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith
V.23 Meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.

Let’s take love—do we have love in our heart for everyone, whether they are a family member, friend or foe? Do we truly love them the way God loves them—desiring that come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; or do we compartmentalize our love?
It’s usually easy to love our spouse, our children, our grandchildren, parents and grandparents. *note I said usually*
But what about those people who simply rub us the wrong way?
What about those we know are living a life of sin?
Do we love them? Or do we judge them, gossip about them, shun them?

Let’s look at joy. Are we always filled with joy, or just when things are going our way. It’s easy to be joyful when life is good, the bills are paid, there’s extra money and all looks good. It’s easy to be joyful when the kids are healthy, and everything is going fine.
But that joy is dependant upon our circumstances, our surroundings. As Christians, we are to be filled with joy, the Joy of the Lord, and we are to be joyful regardless of what is going on in our life because *greater than He that is in you than He that is in the world.

The same goes for peace—if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then regardless of what happens in our life, we will have the peace that passes all understanding. Do you have inner peace, regardless of what is happening in your world? Do you believe the promises of God? Do you claim those promises? Are do you go about worrying and fretting because you have problems and trials?

Longsuffering-or patience. Oh this is one I often struggle with. I never have been the most patient person in the world-I don’t like to wait on something, I don’t like to be around a lot of noise or arguing and as a mother could be very impatient with my children. I often find myself, even today, impatient with people who simply don’t seem to want to do what is needed to fix the problems in their life.
And I imagine there are many like that—yet when we are in public-be it church, town, a social gathering, where ever—we can pretend to be patient. Never would we dream of losing our cool in public—but what happens when we get home?
How many of you have spent the better part of a church service dealing with a wiggling, noisy child. Patiently you corrected that child, you even took the child out and maybe spanked him or her, but always in a low voice and with awesome control.
But get in the car and on the way home and let that child do one little thing that ‘breaks that thin thread you’ve been hanging on by for the past hour’ and what happens?

What about gentleness? Goodness?
It’s so easy to be gentle in a public setting with acquaintances and strangers, but are we always gentle with our family? Or do we often respond to them in sharp tones, say sarcastic things to them, ignore them even?

And there is faith—how easy it is to spout faith to a hurting friend; how easy it is to portray a life of faith in front of others when you are in that faith room of yourself. Do you remain in that faith room when you are home alone; or does fear, worry and heartache burden you down and cause you to lose sleep, doubt not only yourself, but God?

And then there is meekness—or humility. Oh, so many of us only have a tiny room in ourselves for meekness. NO, we have to be right, we have to be in control, we have to be top dog in whatever we’re doing. Our name best be mentioned in public for all the good deeds we’ve done.

Lastly, what about temperance. Temperance is actually moderation, be it in reference to what we say, what we do, or what we consume.
Proverbs 16:32 says He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he taketh a city.
So how moderate are we in what we say?
What we do?
What we eat or drink?


Is our room of love large enough to include everyone?
Does our joy and peace room give off a steady light for all to see?
How large is our room of patience and faith?
Do we have a room of gentleness, goodness, meekness and temperance which we only visit when we’re in public?



What do the rooms inside our homes and ourselves have to tell us about the way we live our lives?