ApprehendingGrace.com

³ You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
whose thoughts are fixed on you!
⁴ Trust in the LORD always,
for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock.
Isaiah 26:3-4

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

I woke up in perfect peace this morning. What a wonderful thing! I honestly can’t remember when the last time was that I slept so well and woke up in such peace. Which is a huge God thing because a little more than three weeks ago I had some routine tests that led to some less-than-routine tests that are leading to surgery to rule out some serious medical issues. There’s an 80% chance that I’ll be fine…and a 20% chance that I won’t be so fine.

And the very-cool-very-God-thing is that (for the most part), I have been able to not be anxious about it. No, it goes beyond that – I have had a supernatural peace surrounding me and filling me. Sure, I’ve had my less peaceful moments when I needed my husband to hold me and tell me he had a feeling everything would be all right! But there have been very few of those moments and in between them I have a strong confidence in my God who has promised so many things to me.

I’ve always wondered how to have this kind of peace! I know I don’t have all the answers and I don’t pretend to have it all together, but I am learning some things through the process that I’d like to share. God has been gracious enough to open my eyes to things I’m doing that help me experience what He’s doing in me – giving me peace beyond my wildest expectations! Maybe some of these things will help you keep the peace.

• Purpose to pursue God in your situation. I remember as my husband and I were driving somewhere shortly after my second test. I looked at him and said, “I so want to do this well. I want to trust God in a way that I haven’t trusted him in the past.” God saw the desire of my heart and is giving it to me.

Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart
Psalm 37:4

• Don’t be so proud – ask others to pray for you. I am absolutely certain that the prayers of faithful friends have a lot to do with my peace. I think it was in the same conversation when I said I wanted to do this well when a few minutes later I said something about not doing so well with all this. That’s when my husband reminded me that when I’m weak others will stand in the gap for me. His comment restored my peace. Share your needs with friends, and don’t ask them to pray just for healing. Ask them to pray for God’s presence to be manifest in your life.
• Remind yourself of the promises of God. I wrote the blogs on Ephesians 1 shortly after I learned that more testing was needed. I have been so blessed when I meditate on Paul’s words that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms simply because I belong to Christ.

• Have a rhema Word from God to hold on to. The Bible uses two different words that are translated “word” – logos and rhema. There is not complete agreement on the definition and use of these words: many evangelicals believe there is no difference; many charismatics believe there is a substantive difference. I fall into the camp of the charismatics on this one. Have you ever read the Bible and a specific passage came alive to you and seemed to have supernatural application to your life at that time? That is what would be called a rhema word. A rhema word is a word from God that has immediate and significant, even supernatural impact in your life at that time.

One of the characteristics of a rhema word is that it is life-giving. It is the word used in Matthew 4:4:

But he answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

Guess what! You and I can’t control God (for which I am quite thankful!). That means we can’t demand or manufacture a rhema word from God – He has to reach down and give it. But you can put yourself in a place where you are more likely to receive it. We all hear from God differently, so pursue God diligently in the way you are most likely to hear from Him:

• • If you most often hear from God through His Word, be especially diligent to study God’s Word.
  • If you hear from God most clearly during worship, add times of worship to your week. Listen to worship music, attend your church’s worship team’s practice session.
  • If you experience God most often while serving others, serve wholeheartedly.
  • In all these things, ask God for a word or promise to hold on to. God will speak to you.

• Stay connected with the Body of Christ, particularly those people who tend to hear from God prophetically (or those who are prophetically gifted). My pastor prayed for me last Sunday and during the prayer he spoke prophetically that God was going to show me His goodness and grace in the coming months in a way that I haven’t known in the past. WOW! Does that mean my diagnosis will be the one I don’t want but He’ll walk through it with me, or does it mean I’ll be in the 80%, which would be showing wonderful goodness and grace to me? I don’t know. But I know He’s going to show me His goodness and grace beyond what I have known in the past and that’s a promise that fills me with hope and peace. It is a promise that makes me look forward to whatever God has for me in the coming months.

• Limit yourself when it comes to learning about what might happen in the future. I’ve talked with doctors and they are very careful to only give you enough information to get you to the next test. The Internet, on the other hand is happy to let you spend hours reading about all the what-ifs that might come into your life. The doctors know what they’re doing in this regard. I’ve learned to recognize when I’m approaching that tipping point where information is about to rob me of my peace, joy and faith, and I back away from the edge. I’m not deceiving myself or not facing the truth. I am just acknowledging that dwelling on the details can quickly overwhelm me so I back off and run to my storm shelter. I know the truth about my situation and choose to dwell in the shadow of the Almighty instead of staring down the barrel of possibilities that may never materialize. To do the latter is to invite the enemy to wreak havoc with my peace.

• Limit yourself when it comes to talking about your situation negatively. This is very similar to the point above. I process things verbally, so the temptation for me is to talk, talk, talk about it. Anytime someone says “how’s it going?” or “what’s new?” my mind immediately jumps to these tests which occupy the major portion of a couple of days each week. It doesn’t take many sentences, though, before I can hear the strain in my voice. There’s that tipping point again. Back away from the edge – most people don’t want that much detail anyway.

• Throughout the day when my mind wants to dwell on the what ifs, I return to the rhema Word, other promises God has given me, and the goodness of the God who loves me and blesses me beyond my ability to comprehend.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9

I’m reading a book about grace. In it, I read that Charles Spurgeon, the famous British pastor, once described faith as:

“believing Christ is who He said He was and that He’ll do what He promised to do – and then living accordingly.”*

I want to live in such a way that people see that I serve a God I trust. Otherwise, why would they want to meet Him?

* Captured by Grace, No One is Beyond the Reach of a Loving God by Dr. David Jeremiah, Thomas Nelson, © 2006, page 36.

This post appeared on a blog I subscribe to and seemed the perfect balance for my earlier post today about living your life on purpose.

This blogger has conquered the ability to keep it short, so enjoy her quick balance to my longer blog of this morning.

Two opinions, two approaches – to God be the glory!

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

Teach us to make the most of our time,
so that we may grow in wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 (NLT)

I received a book in the mail the other day. Now that’s nothing unusual, but this book came from a new source. I’ve found a website (booksneeze) that provides books free to authors of blogs in exchange for reviewing the book on their site. If you’re a reader and a blogger that’s pretty exciting stuff.

The title draws me in, it’s got a great cover and it’s by an author I will enjoy reading – just like lots and lots of other books on my bookshelf which I haven’t yet read. The difference between this book and all those others is that I’ve made a promise to someone that I will read this one – I’ve given myself the assignment and I’ve made a commitment that someone else will check up on.

Some people have that built-in motivation that causes or enables them to do the things that are good for them. Most of us do not. Yet with all my heart, I want to pursue Christ every day with more zeal than the day before. I want to apprehend the grace He has for me, and apprehending something – seizing it, takes focused effort. I lose that focus too easily to be totally happy with my efforts. I’m guessing you do to. Life gets in the way of pursuing the things that are truly important. The urgent always wreaks havoc on the important.

To avoid becoming captive to the tyranny of the urgent, we can take actions that align our lives in a way that moves us in the direction of our dreams. We can establish patterns of behavior and relationships that help us to accomplish those things God is calling us to.

Here are ten activities that can help you apprehend all that God has for you:

• Follow a reading schedule to systematically read God’s Word daily. Join us in Resting at the River’s Edge or use the schedule from another organization, but try to find a plan that includes interaction with others about what you’re reading – a group of people that will occasionally ask what God is speaking to you as you read and will share what God is speaking to them as they read the same material.
• Join a church/ministry small group that meets weekly or every other week. They go by different names in different churches – journey groups, home groups, cell groups, small groups, life groups, etc. – but they typically have similar goals: To help the members grow in Christ-likeness and in relationship with one another. This is the group that you’ll share your every day life with. I consider small group participation to be the single-most important element in my spiritual growth over the years!
• Join (create if necessary) a mastermind group. A mastermind group is a small gathering of people who want to help one another raise the bar – do better – in specific areas of their life. I am a part of three mastermind groups – one for ministry, and two for business. We meet monthly and give each member about fifteen minutes to discuss their challenges during the month and get feedback and ideas about how to overcome those challenges. A key component of each group is that each member set a goal for the coming month. Do I meet the goal each month? No. But I always make more progress than I would have if I wasn’t a part of the group.
• Have a prayer partner that you meet with regularly. Don’t limit your prayers to health issues, but include current life struggles and especially your desire to grow closer to God.
• Join (or start) a book club. If you love to read but have become lazy about it (as I tend toward), join a book club. Be sure it’s one that reads the kinds of books you want to read.
• Take a class. I sometimes miss the study requirements imposed on me when I was working on my MCM. I truly enjoyed most of the required reading and paper writing, but without the requirement, I don’t do nearly as much. I can get the same thing by signing up for a single class (not committing to a full program) at a local college or church.
• Attend Sunday School regularly if your church has such a program. Be sure to choose a class that stretches you.
• Identify one to three tasks that you will accomplish each day. You undoubtedly have a very large to do list. Each day select just one to three things from that list which you will focus on. If you have more than three tasks on your shortlist, you’re setting yourself for failure! If you get all three things done and still have a good part of the day left, consider adding another one or two things to your list – after you ask God if this is the time He’s carved out for you to simply kick back and enjoy His presence!
• Periodically set aside time to ask God what your life priorities should be for the coming season. At the very least do this annually, but quarterly is best. I admit to not doing this often enough, but I am so blessed every time I do. I usually try for three days, but it often turns into an afternoon and God is always faithful during that time to bring three days’ clarity in one afternoon. This time away with God helps me to re-focus and energize for the coming season. (What that really means is that I usually go in really confused and come out much less confused – it’s like God has erased all the background noise and things are clearer.)
• Be brave! Venture out of your current world to find or create those groups and find those people who will help you achieve your dreams!

Lest we become an overworked, burnout messes, let me remind you to include as a priority that you ask others to hold you accountable for things like being quiet before God, resting, Sabbath keeping, reflection, meditation…and having fun! This is not a blog about becoming accountable for an over-busy life. It’s a blog about becoming the person God wants you to be – and that includes a child who sits in His lap and a bride who gazes into His eyes.

The wonderful thing is that this isn’t something God doesn’t want for our lives – He wants us to live peaceful, fruitful lives in Him. Be confident that He will help you accomplish it!