I asked Thomas to help me get the mail from the mailbox. Our box is exactly his height at present because of an incident the week we moved into our home. The postal carrier back over our box, taking the entire post down. My dad and my husband repaired it but as a result, the door sticks and the bracket holding the box in place slips slowly downward until it hits the brace, effectively making it a toddler sized mailbox.
“I need help, I shouted!” Thomas bellowed from the curb. He was pulling with all his might, unable to open the mailbox door, and as usual these days, he was narrating his own dialogue. We read lots of excellent books together and we discuss everything from the punctuation marks to the background colors. He particularly loves verbs like bellowed, scowled, and shouted. He has a monster voice he uses when he’s feeling especially frustrated.
Thomas was frustrated a lot today. His bites of chicken wouldn’t stay on his fork at dinner, his boots wouldn’t come off his feet when he came inside, and his jacket wouldn’t unzip. It seemed like every time he tried to be a big boy and manage on his own, he needed help. It’s hard to ask for help. Whether you’re two, twenty-two, or one hundred and two, there are just certain things we’re convinced we should be able to handle. Even the most patient among us feel the blood rising to our faces as we begin to hold our breath, fighting back the frustration, not just of being unable to do something on our own, but of allowing ourselves to voice the truth; I need help.
Thank God, He provided a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell with every believer, who through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross surrenders his or her will to His. (John 14:15) Also known as the Comforter, our Advocate and Intercessor before the Father, God’s Holy Spirit enables each believer to be clothed in the armor of God, (Ephesians 6) and to exhibit the fruit of His Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
”Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!
We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.
So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.
With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.
Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice of you. Don’t put it off; do it now.
Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.“
2 Peter 1:3-11 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/2pe.1.3-11.MSG
”Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.“
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.5.7.NIV
This is Thomas’s C verse. His dad and his grandads are fishermen so he’s familiar with casting. When he begins to feel frustrated, his mom asks him to remind her of his C verse and then they practice casting. A fisherman in Jesus’s day would cast a net into the sea to draw in a catch of fish. He would bundle up the enormous net and toss it into the sea and draw it back again, sometimes empty but sometimes full. Too often we bundle up our cares and toss them toward Jesus in prayer, but we immediately pull them back again, never fully releasing those cares to His Sovereignty.
Peter was one fisherman who Jesus commissioned to fish for men. He was headstrong and impetuous before His experience with Jesus, but by the gracious patience of our Lord Jesus, he became a great man of faith, leader of the Twelve and a powerful preacher of the gospel. He gave us, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit these words.
”Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.“
1 Peter 5:7 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.5.7.TPT
”Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions.
With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make.
Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go.“
Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/pro.3.5-6.TPT
Peter heard Jesus say, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.
Separated, you can’t produce a thing.
Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.
This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.“
John 15:5-8 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/jhn.15.5-8.MSG
”So here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you.“
Psalms 55:22 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.55.22.TPT
Whatever it is, throw it, really throw it, at the feet of Jesus and trust Him to manage it, forgive it, or carry it. Don’t go chasing it down again. Don’t draw it back as soon as you release it. Learn to live with the tension of unanswered prayers, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)
”By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.
We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.
These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.
Do these things, and you will never fall away.
Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.“
2 Peter 1:3-11 NLT
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