God Is My Mainline, But My Connections Are You!

Good morning on this new day in Christ Jesus! Through prayer, supplication, and faith our main connection is with God, our Savior and Lord. God sends grace, love, peace, and joy down this mainline connection and by sending some of that out to our friends we have connections here too. The world likes to connect with names and trivia. You've seen them on the various social media outlets, just as I have. I wonder what God would say on Facebook? Would He agree with all of the posts you read floating around with His name on them? As with many things in this world, there is good and bad in the social media we use daily. False prophets can get their word out, but we send out the Good News of Jesus Christ too. We make connections in this way that few of us could have maintained even thirty years ago.

Remember the dark days of paper, pencil, and postage stamps? Letters and letter carriers were at one time our primary means of distance communication. Oh, we had telephones for a century before that, but it was hard to compete with the connection made through an inexpensive stamp and a bit of paper. However, writing in this way stopped quite a few folks from communicating right there. Letter writing was a labor of love, with a bit of emphasis on the labor part. Connections are much easier through our computers and social media on the Internet, but these connections can be weak things. How much do we really know about the one who posts only the cute pictures with the pithy saying? We can easily hide behind such things.

Posting a sad-eyed doggy picture with an "I'm having a bad day" on it does not make quite the same connection as calling up a friend or writing a personal e-mail. Strive for some depth in your connections. Make the extra effort to share the good things and the bad things with each other. Do as Jesus commanded and love one another. Love does not hide the bad news saying that everything is fine with me, when in fact that is not the case. We should be suspicious of the Christian who claims that God answers every prayer with a cheerful 'Yes!' and blesses him with all that he asks for. You and I know that everything we ask for is not good for us to have and sometimes God says an emphatic, "No!". What God will grant us is more deep and personal communication with Himself and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, one of the great promises of the Word is that God hears our every prayer. How deep is that?

Bucky