ApprehendingGrace.com

I love the Lord! This is a super crazy week! A super crazy week. Long, long work hours. It will probably be our busiest week of the year at work. Our community is engaged in a 24/7 prayer watch with community worship every evening. I’m involved in planning a ladies’ retreat that will be this Friday and Saturday. I didn’t get my grocery shopping done last week so we have no milk, bread, bananas (a staple in our house) and a long list of other things. My husband has been fighting a cold and I have felt the fatigue from it, although thankfully not the sinus and chest congestion. It is a super crazy week! And I’ve wondered how I would be able to write a blog (or two!). Writing blogs on a regular basis is a priority for me…but so are lots of other things!

So mostly, I’ve committed to not worrying (the theme of our retreat, coincidentally) and to do my best to sit back and watch God work it all out…all the while moving with what feels like warp speed from one task to the next. Are those two things possible in the same moment? Can I sit back and watch God work while I’m working and moving at a high rate of speed? Well, watch this space for more on that. There’s bound to be a future blog about it.

But back to loving the Lord. Now that you know the back story, let me tell you how the Lord is surprising me with joy. Sunday was the last day for signing up for our ladies’ retreat. There were at least 50% more people signed up than we expected! Praise God! (Right?) Well, we had planned a retreat that was going to be small and intimate in nature – one in which we sat together and shared what God was teaching us. One with lots of time for laughter and tears. No lecture format. There’s a point at which that format doesn’t work, though, and I’m afraid we’ve passed that point in attendance, so I’ve been wondering how to deal with it. It’s the top item on our prayer list for our next and last retreat planning meeting (which begins in less than two hours).

Yesterday as I mused about the situation (notice I am specifically not using the word “worry” because I am refusing to do so – I was simply wondering what God might do and I was beginning to pray for creativity) – anyway, yesterday as I mused about the situation, God made me laugh! He impressed upon me what His perspective must be of all the little plans we make. We’re almost like children playing grown-up – like the little girl playing “mommy” or the little boy playing “daddy.” He’s not deriding our efforts, in fact, I believe He is blessed and honored by our best efforts to bring Him glory. But we are His children, and I think sometimes He watches us in amusement as we “play” grownup. I’m OK with that. In fact, I am happy to bring my Savior amusement!

Then this morning…Late night, early morning, but I sat at my desk, bowl of oatmeal/12 grain hot cereal in front of me and water at my side, ready to greet the day. I took a deep breath and opened my Bible. I took a deep breath to help me resist the cry of all that was to be done and decided to continue my reading in Isaiah. I made it nine verses. Isaiah 19:9 struck me:

^“Those who work with combed flax will despair,
the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.”

Improbable verse to be struck by, right? Well, what struck me was not some deep spiritual significance or detailed meaning of any of the words…well maybe some of the latter…what struck me was that I read the first line as “those who work with com-bed flax will despair.” What in the world is com-bed flax? What is com-bed? Is it some different kind of flax? (That would be the two syllable kind of flax – you know the com-bed flax!) I must have blinked then because as I was scrunching my brow try to figure out what the word com-bed meant, I finally saw that it was the word “combed” – as in comb your hair which is something I barely did this morning! It made me laugh out loud.

Thank You, Lord, for laughter in the midst of deadlines. Thank You for helping us see that life is not so serious and important that there’s no time or room for expecting  joy and laughter.

Now I’m going to go greet the day with a smile on my face. How about you?

Christmas is Coming – Soon!

We’ve planned the Resting at the River’s Edge readings to bring us into the Christmas season with a focus on Christ – prophecies about His coming, His birth, life, death, resurrection and second coming. If you have fallen behind or perhaps have stopped reading along with us, may I encourage you to begin the pre-holiday season by following our recommended reading plan.

In November, you’ll read Isaiah and find the very verses of Scripture that Jesus read aloud in the temple and then declared that He fulfilled:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
Isaiah 61:1

²⁰Then he [Jesus] rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:20-21

In Habakkuk, we’ll read that the righteous will live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4), and we’ll end the month with the first eight chapters of Luke – the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus…

¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2:10-14

…and Jesus’ early life and ministry. It will set the stage for moving into the month of December.

I pray that as you read during the month of November, God prepares your heart to see Christ during the Christmas season in a way that you have never seen Him.

Be blessed as you read!

Be blessed, all!

To download a PDF of November’s reading schedule, click here.

Living in the United States, many have come to value freedom over all else. Further, we have come to equate freedom with individual rights and the moment that my rights have been even slightly bumped, we cry foul. We then turn to our democratic government believing that it is their responsibility to protect our rights and we join political parties and various political organizations to make our rights a priority and to protect them.

The problem is that this wars against much of what we ought to be living as a follower of Christ.

 Let me say at the outset, I am a proponent of being involved in our government. I do not in any way shape or form believe Christians should eschew government involvement. Further, I am in favor of all people, regardless of race, creed, ethnic background, gender, or sexual orientation being treated fairly and equitably. As a woman I’ve faced way more discrimination and demeaning treatment than I would wish on anyone.

As a Christ-follower, however, I see two serious issues with the attitudes that can take root deeply in our psyche, when we allow democracy to go too far.

It’s Not About My Rights
First, as a Christ-follower, it’s not about my rights. It’s about Christ, having Him formed in me and living my life through Him.

When I read the Gospels, I don’t see Christ standing up for His rights. I don’t see Him demanding anything except a respect for and honoring of God. I know the moment that attitude rises up in me that says “what about my rights?” or “I deserve…” – I know that in that moment I’ve lost sight of Christ. Democracy has gone too far when it fosters the idea that my rights are superior to all else, when it causes me to have the default position that being wronged is an actionable offense.

I do not see that in Christ. I see Him laying down His life for His sheep. I see Him forgiving offenses and not keeping score (thankfully). I see Him taking the punishment I deserve and saying “I forgive you.” That ought to be my default position, not “I demand to be treated equal or I will take action to force you to do so.”

We have become an overly litigious society because we have allowed the world to convince us that our freedom is more important than our walk with Christ. That having my rights respected is more important than walking in forgiveness. Essentially, we have allowed the world to influence us to the point that we often establish “our rights” as our god. Lord forgive us.

We Live in a Kingdom
Secondly, when we live with the “democracy” mindset, it is very easy to forget that we live in a Kingdom that is ruled by a King. In our democracy, we live our lives from the perspective of organizing to get what we want (or at the very least arguing interminably to get what we want). It’s a perspective that wars against an attitude that says “here I am, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

As Christ-followers, we are not only children of the King, we are also subjects of the King. In the United States we struggle to understand the King/subject relationship because our very development as a nation plants in us the DNA not of a slave, but of independence – of one who glories in their freedom. Being independent is not a good quality for a Christ-follower. God wants us to be dependent on Him and it is a very hard practice to learn when everyone around us preaches independence and freedom. Yes, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1), but read the entire book – He has set us free – released us from the “curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13).

We live in a Kingdom, and in a Kingdom the King rules. I am thankful that I serve a loving, merciful, compassionate King. But I must regularly be reminded that I serve a King, and what He says and wants is far, far more important than what I want.

Final Words
Again, please do not read into this that I believe we should not work to improve our government or that we should not pursue equitable treatment for all. Let’s work hard, however, to follow Christ first, embracing His attitudes and purposes. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
          Philippians 2:5-8

Lord, help us to stay Christ-focused in heart and mind and attitude.

God bless America.

Enjoy your 4th of July celebrations!

 I hope you’re enjoying this “Heart of a Worshipper” series (HWS). We’re about half way through the series, so this blog begins with a review. You can click on any of the topics to go to the blog on that topic.

A Willing Heart

Time for review. When this series is completed, I’ll have written about seven characteristics of the heart of a worshipper. We’ve covered four so far. How many of them can you remember? Can you name them? Let me help. Reading about them interspersed with “life” can make it difficult to see the natural progression, so let’s review the first four.

• A hungry heart - one that desires to know God more intimately. There are many scriptures we could look at that express this sentiment, but I like these two:

“Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.
          Isaiah 26:8-9

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
          Psalm 42:1-2

• A pursuing heart – one that follows hard after Jesus. Proverbs 16:26 says: “The laborer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him on.” So it is with God. Our desire for Him drives us to get to know Him better – the hungry heart becomes the pursuing heart. 
    
  In His book The God Chasers, Tommy Tenney explains his title like this: “A God Chaser is a person whose hunger for God exceeds his grasp…whose passion for God’s presence presses him to chase the impossible, in hopes that the Uncatchable might catch him.”
    
  And the wonderful thing about our God is that He promises to allow us to catch Him! Review these scriptures if you have any doubts: Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:13-14, Matthew 7:7-8, and Proverbs 8:17. (There are lots more, but these should give you a good start!)
      
• A transparent or unveiled heart – one that allows the Light of Life (Jesus) to shine through it so that He can reveal to us what is hidden in it’s deepest, darkest corners. When our heart is transparent, we can say with David “All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.” (Psalm 38:9) Having a transparent heart allows God to reveal our sin to us.
      
• A vulnerable heart is the logical extension of the transparent heart – it’s the heart that suppresses our “fight or flight” response as we sit at Jesus’ feet and allow Him to change us. It moves from allowing God to reveal our sin to allowing Him to transform us into the image of Christ. It also means total dependence on God – trusting Him to make the right choices for you. It means giving God the right to make the rules and put the ball in play. And it means giving up our right to say “No, I don’t want to be like that,” or “I don’t like those rules.”

A Willing Heart – The Second Half of the Equation 
A key phrase in the last paragraph is “put the ball in play.” In other words, having a vulnerable heart that allows God to change us is only the first half of the equation…we must also have a willing heart that allows God to use us.

Chapter 6 in Isaiah is a fascinating illustration of the vulnerable and willing heart of Isaiah. Let me do a quick outline of verses 1 through 11 for you

Verses 1 – 4: Isaiah is given a glimpse of the throne room of heaven

…I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs…And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty…” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

Verse 5-7: Isaiah experiences conviction for his sin

Woe to me!…I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…

Verses 6 and 7: God demonstrates that Isaiah’s sin has been forgiven by having an angel take a coal from the altar and touch his lips with it

With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Verse 8: God makes a request and Isaiah enthusiastically responds

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Verse 9-10: God elaborates on the assignment, revealing that it won’t be a pleasant one

“Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes…”

Verse 11: Isaiah remains committed to carry out his task

Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged…”

There are no words in scripture to give us an idea of what inflection to put into Isaiah’s response, but we do know that the last thing he said was spoken with enthusiasm or passion: “Here I am! Send me!” It seems reasonable, then, that the next line would continue in a similar emotion. So even though the Lord has told him to go do this seemingly miserable task, his response is “For how long, Lord?”

 I don’t think Isaiah was dragging his feet and saying “Oh man, how long do I have to do this?” I think He was saying with eagerness “How long can I do this for you Lord?” or “I’m happy to do it as long as you want me to, Lord. How long?”

Isaiah sees worship in heaven and his first response reveals his transparent heart “Woe is me, I am undone.” His second response reveals his willing heart: “Here I am. Send me.”

Oh, that I might be as enthusiastic when I receive assignments from God. I’m tempted to pray here, “Lord, make my heart and spirit cry with enthusiasm, ‘Here I am, Lord, send me,’ even when Your assignments mean obscurity or unpopularity or drudgery.” And that would be a good thing…but you know, sometimes my heart isn’t really there!

It’s at those times that I am tempted to feel condemnation because I think my heart should be always willing, no matter what the circumstances or assignment. So I try to get my heart to the right place…yeah, right!

One thing I’ve learned is that I can’t manufacture a change in my heart any more than I could manufacture the heart itself! I cannot rely on myself for such things. Charles Spurgeon made this point well in a book called All of Grace.

If we trust to ourselves for our holding on [i.e., continuing in Christ] we shall not hold on. Even though we rest in Jesus for a part of our salvation, we shall fail if we trust to self for anything…Beware of mixing even a little of self with the mortar with which you build, or you will make it untempered mortar, and the stones will not hold together. If you look to Christ for your beginnings, beware of looking to yourself for your endings. He is Alpha. See to it that you make Him Omega also. If you begin in the Spirit you must not hope to be made perfect by the flesh. Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began…

In other words, don’t look to yourself, look to God.  Don’t trust yourself, trust God. 

Returning to our passage in Isaiah, we see that he didn’t work up his own obedience – it was a natural response to having seen the glory of God. So perhaps my prayer shouldn’t be “Lord, make my heart and spirit cry ‘Yes Lord’ with enthusiasm;” perhaps the secret lies in sitting at Jesus’ feet in worship and praying “Lord, give me a glimpse of Your glory as you gave to Isaiah.” And that brings us full circle – it all starts with having that heart which is hungry for God and it leads to the wonderful privilege of being used by Him.

If your response to God isn’t as whole-hearted as you’d like it to be or you’re feeling condemnation from the enemy for lacking enthusiasm for the things of God, let me encourage you to take time to sit at Jesus’ feet in worship. Just for a while, stop doing things for God and simply spend time with God. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a new way. He delights to do so!

In the first four blogs of this series called “The Heart of a Worshipper” series, or HWS, we’ve looked at various definitions of worship. A predominate theme in each article is that worship transforms us – as we look into the face of an almighty God, we are changed. Yet there are attitudes of the heart that put us in the place of searching and submission that make us ready to see God and be transformed by Him. In the next several blogs of this series, we’re going to look at the qualities of the worshipping heart. May you be blessed and transformed as you grow in your own worship of the King of Kings.

A Hungry Heart – My Soul Yearns for You 

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.
          Isaiah 26:8-9

A worshipping heart is a heart that hungers and thirsts for God. It yearns for God. Regardless of how well we know God, the hungry heart longs to know Him more. You will find this attitude throughout Scripture.

Many of the hymns and worship songs we sing are based on the Psalms, and the Psalmists understood yearning for God. Come on, sing along with me…

“As the dear panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after You.”

That’s Psalm 42 written by the Sons of Korah. The Book of Psalms was essentially a hymnal, and the Sons of Korah were Levites who were temple singers. Let’s look at the passage:

¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
  so my soul pants for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
  When can I go and meet with God?
          Psalm 42:1-2

I love the end of verse 2: “When can I go and meet with God?” That’s the cry of the hungry heart. I’m reminded of the child who has been told that he’s going to a party on Saturday. Each day, he will ask his mother “Is it today, Mom? Can we go today? When can we go to the party?”

In the bustle of life, it’s easy for things to crowd God out. Pray that God would give you such a desire for Him that you cry out “When can I go and meet with God?”

Psalm 84 contains part of another song some of you may know:

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
          Psalm 84:2

Then there’s Psalm 73. Your Bible probably describes it as “A Psalm of Asaph.” Asaph was another prominent group of temple singers. My Bible has been slightly altered to read “A Psalm of Sandy,” not because I wrote the Psalm, but because I adopted it as “my psalm.” The first time I read this psalm, many years ago, I jumped up and said “That’s me, that’s me.” It begins “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (v. 1-3) That describes my life before coming to Christ. But the psalm goes on and in verses 25 and 26 it describes how my desires have changed.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
          Psalm 73:25-26

Verse 25 describes someone with a hungry heart, a heart longing for the Lord. The exciting thing is that when Psalm 73 became “Sandy’s Psalm” about thirty years ago only the first verses were true. It wasn’t until I went back and read it many years later that I realized that the entire psalm had become true in my life. God, in His goodness, has turned me into a worshipper of the Almighty.

God Makes us Hungry for Him
God works in us to transform our thought patterns and desires. Deuteronomy teaches us that God has wanted His people to hunger for Him since the very beginning. Moses is talking to the Israelites in this passage and says:

He [God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
          Deuteronomy 8:3

God desires that we be hungry for Him. This passage tells that God purposefully made the people of Israel physically hungry so that they would be reminded of their dependence on Him. God is using the physical condition of man to point to the spiritual condition. He longs for us to long for Him.

You might be reading this and thinking “That sounds great, but I’m just not there. The truth is that I don’t hunger for God. I go through my devotions from a sense of duty and sometimes I don’t even do that. I want to want more of God, but the truth is that I’m tired and my spiritual life is stale.”

Been there, done that! You are not alone. There can be many reasons for spiritual staleness, but let me encourage you in two things:

1. Ask God to make you hungry for Him. Pray “Lord, make me hungry for You, today. Father, I give you permission to do whatever it takes to make me desire a closer relationship with You.” There can be no question that this prayer is in God’s will. He will answer it.
2. Pursue God. Keep doing the things you should be doing. Make your devotions a priority. Don’t forget to pray. Trust God to restore you to your first love.

Next week we’ll look more at the concept of pursuing God. It’s the natural response of a hungry heart. In the meantime, ask God to increase your hunger for Him. You won’t be sorry you did!

But Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children. So Sarai took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar, and gave her to Abram so she could bear his children. “The LORD has kept me from having any children,” Sarai said to Abram. “Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed.
          Genesis 16:1-2 (NIV)

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
          Exodus 32:1 (NIV)

It was out of impatience that Abram and Sarai pursued having a child in an unnatural way.  It was out of impatience that the children of Israel asked for another God to worship. In both cases, the participants were looking at the situation around them not at the Lord. Had they been looking at the Lord, their hearts would have been renewed, their faith and bodies strengthened.

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
          Isaiah 40:31a (KJV)

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
          Isaiah 40:31a (NIV)

1 Corinthians 13:4 teaches us that “Love is patient” God is everlastingly patient with us, can we be anything else with Him? Let’s wait upon Him, put our hope in Him. Read what Scripture says about the promises of God:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 
          2 Corinthians 1:20

God is faithful to His promises – they are “Yes” in Christ – but the “Amen” is spoken by us through Christ to the Glory of God.

Let’s not be tempted to sin during the waiting but instead say “Amen” to the promises of a God who is faithful to fulfill them.

How very hard it can be to trust the Lord when we are in pain! It doesn’t matter whether the pain is physical, emotional or spiritual, it can be difficult to rest in God’s peace when the questions of “why?” and “when?” and “will He?” jab at our souls at every turn.

There was a time when I unequivocally said that I had the gift of faith. My ability to trust God went beyond myself — I just knew He was trustworthy and I could count on Him. That deep-down-in-your-spirit kind of knowing that you can’t really explain. That peace that surpasses all understanding.

Then life happened. Significant life. Significantly bad life. Don’t get me wrong. I am blessed. But in the midst of that blessed life, I experienced life circumstances that challenged the farthest reaches of my gift of faith.

I am on the recovery path from those circumstances. My path hasn’t been a straight one, by any means — I didn’t always do the right things — but I have learned some things along the way that might be helpful to others who are in the midst of “life.” In the following discussion, I continually use the word “healing.” Please realize that I am not necessarily talking about physical healing. If you have suffered a significant emotional blow, I mean emotional healing.

• There probably is no straight path to healing. Expect that you’ll take two steps forward and then fall back a step. Over time, the number of steps you move forward will begin to outweigh your backwards steps at a much greater ratio.That might mean measuring your progress in terms of months at first instead of weeks or days. Physical issues demonstrate this well — for the common cold, people expect to feel a little better each day, but recovery from abdominal surgery might take six weeks, and recovery from a stroke might take six months. When recovering from the surgery or stroke, you won’t sense that any healing has taken place on a daily basis. For those more significant setbacks in life, don’t even try to measure your progress toward healing on a daily basis — measure your progress in weeks or months.So don’t think of your goal as being past your current circumstances. Make your goal to move closer toward healing each week. Your ultimate goal is to be healed, but work toward the smaller goals and celebrate those incremental victories. There was a time when I said to my husband “I haven’t been angry for a week.” That was a step in my healing that took several months to achieve. It was worth celebrating.
• Don’t let setbacks discourage you. Don’t live in them. Don’t overly coddle yourself. Accept them as reality, set aside the disappointment, and continue moving forward. There is so much to be learned from the physical realm here: I am always shocked by the fourth day of a cold. Colds typically run something like this for me:     Day 1 — feel yucky
       Day 2 — feel like I’m going to die, or wish I would
       Day 3 — I’m amazed at how good I feel, Praise God that this cold was so short-lived
       Day 4 — feel only slightly better than I did on day 2 – what happened to yesterday?
       Day 5 — almost better
       Day 6 — back to normalThat’s the cycle that colds have run for me for the past 30 years. Yet each time I get a cold, I’m shocked at day 4. “How can I feel so bad when I was doing so well yesterday? I must be really sick!” Don’t be like me. Don’t be shocked by day 4. Don’t look forward to it, but don’t be shocked when you get hit by it and don’t be derailed by it. Set your discouragement aside and look toward tomorrow.
• Have someone that you can confide in who will reassure you of God’s goodness and of His continued love for you. I needed this more than I could have imagined. I needed someone to say, “Sandy, this is an aberration in your life. God is still being faithful to you. He still loves you. He will still use you in His kingdom.” It greatly embarrasses me to admit that my faith wavered so much. Like I said, I was a woman of faith. I had the gift of faith. I had always been able to believe God for things that others couldn’t see. In the midst of my pain, though, I couldn’t even see the things He was doing right in front of my eyes. I needed regular encouragement. And throughout the long process, I was continually reminded that my strengths were not my strengths after all. Qualities that I considered to be my strengths were fractured and broken, teaching me that I didn’t “own” my strengths — that I couldn’t sustain them, but that they were loaned to me by God and were sustained by Him alone.Notice that I wrote “have someone.” It is not healthy to go over your story again and again, even though that may be what you want to do. Have one person that you trust to whom you can pour out your heart and reveal your fears, and with whom you can celebrate your successes.
• The body requires rest to heal itself, whether from physical or emotional issues. Sleep often and don’t beat yourself up about it. Quit being superwoman or superman for awhile — drop some of your activities so that you have plenty of time to rest.
• Consider the importance of play! Be sure your schedule includes some things that bring you joy. Whether dancing or drawing, watching a movie or playing with the dog, be sure you take time for these things. You need the positive endorphins that your body releases when you are enjoying yourself. Make time for it.
• Be proactive about spending time with friends — probably in short duration at first, but be careful not to shut yourself off completely. The tendency when we feel pain is to draw back. If the pain is emotional, that means withdrawing from those who love us. Work hard not to do this.
• Don’t rely on your emotions. Your friends are still your friends, God still hears you and He still loves you, those closest to you still love you. Your world is not closing in on you. It may feel like it, but your emotions are not reality.
• Practice kindness and forgiveness in situations where kindness and forgiveness are easy. No matter what healing you need, forgiveness will play a part. You may need to forgive someone who hurt you, you may need to forgive yourself for past decisions or actions, and you may even need to forgive God. That doesn’t mean that God sinned against you. He didn’t. However, you may be laying things at His feet that cause you to be angry with Him. The process of releasing that anger is for you to forgive God for allowing you to go through the circumstances you’re in.
• In your heart, you will need to recognize that God’s ways are above your ways and that He is accomplishing His purposes through whatever has happened to you. But during that process, you may need to say, “Lord, forgive me.” ….. Grow your forgiveness muscle by forgiving all the little things that need to be forgiven. Some day you’ll be able to forgive the big things, too.I’ve learned that wounded people bruise easily. I caught myself becoming quite angry frequently during the process of healing. My latent anger turned into impatience at those around me. I needed to practice regular forgiveness for little things during that time. For example, a person who said something unkind offended me when in my “normal life” it wouldn’t have even registered. I needed to forgive her. The people around me in the grocery store all seemed more incompetent than they used to be. No, I was just less patient. I needed to confess that sin to God and extend kindness to every one of them.
• Don’t forsake God. Stay in church. Find a new church if you need to. Continue to read Scripture regularly, even if it’s just a few verses at a time. Continue to pray, even if you feel like your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. Do those activities that make you feel closest to God. For me that’s worship; for some, it’s study, and for others it’s service. Feed your soul. Your pain will rob it of it’s stored energy, so feed it often.

This blog has been a long time in coming. This morning during my devotions I read a verse that finally prompted me to write it:

⁸“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. ⁹For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
            Isaiah 55:8-10, NLT

God is bigger than my pain. He always has been and always will be. His ways take my pain and turn it into a golden treasure. I am not yet at the point of seeing that treasure, but if there’s a progression from pain to treasure of clay, to treasure of silver, to treasure of gold, I would guess that I am somewhere between clay and silver. For that I am very thankful.

God may choose to heal you instantly. Rejoice! Praise Him! I know He can and often does heal instantly. He also allows us to journey through the healing process so that we learn to trust Him more and are able to help others through their healing process. I learned much about myself and God during my healing process. Some of the things I learned were things I didn’t want to know — how very weak and fragile I really am. But then God’s probably been trying to teach me that for years!

Hear the heart of God in the following Old Testament passage:

¹But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. ²When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. ³For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave [your enemies] as a ransom for your freedom. ⁴Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
                                               Isaiah 43:1-4 (NLT)

This passage speaks of how precious Israel (that is, the people and the country) is to God. They are His chosen people and he tells how He sacrificed their enemies to save them, how He gave up some lives to save Israel because she is so precious to Him. God even says simply “I love you.”

Don’t just read the words. Feel the emotion. Imagine that it is your husband or wife saying the words to you. How would you feel? Your spouse is saying that he/she paid a ransom for you – the life of someone else for your life. You must be incredibly precious!

But perhaps you’re a skeptic and think, “Well, they were Israel’s enemies that God gave as a ransom. It’s not like they were important to Him.” Au contraire, my friend. All life is precious to God, and those He calls enemies are those who have chosen to be His enemies. A message that sometimes seems to get lost in the Old Testament is that God called “His people” not only the Israelites, but all who chose to trust Him. Rahab and Ruth, for example, were not born Israelites, but they chose to align themselves with Israelites. As Ruth said, “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16).

God shows the same attitude in the New Testament toward His people as He showed in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, the Israelites have clearly rejected God.

¹⁰But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. ¹¹Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. ¹²But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God.
                                               John 1:10-13 (NLT)

God offers His love to everyone, and those who accept the gift of forgiveness and salvation that He’s offered began to be called “Christians.” It’s the term we still use today.

Let’s look at that first Old Testament passage again:

¹But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. ²When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. ³For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave [your enemies] as a ransom for your freedom. ⁴Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
                                               Isaiah 43:1-4 (NLT)

The concepts and words that stand out in my mind are:

• God ransomed us
• He will protect us
• He is our Savior
• Others died that we might live
• We are precious, honored and loved

Remember those concepts and words as you read the following New Testament passages. In this first one, Jesus describes why He came to earth:

[Jesus is speaking] “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
                                               Matthew 20:28 (NLT)

Peter amplifies Jesus’ words in his first letter:

¹⁸For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
                                               1 Peter 1:18:20 (NLT)

How precious we must be to God, for Him to pay a ransom, not of His enemies, but of His son! God’s own son is the price required to ransom us from the empty life we would otherwise have. What an honor! What love!

⁸But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. ¹⁰For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. ¹¹So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.
                                               Romans 5:8-11 (NLT)

God has ransomed us through Jesus Christ. Praise God! He has delivered us from eternal punishment to eternal life!

¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
                                               1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)

I hope you have the Son! Because being in the center of God’s love is life!

      For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
    And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
                        Isaiah 9:6  (NIV)

I’ve been meditating on the titles given to Jesus in the above passage for the last few days: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We are so blessed to serve a God worthy of these paradoxical titles. I say paradoxical, because I wouldn’t expect the “Mighty God” to also be a “Wonderful Counselor.” The Mighty God upholds me with his strength and power. The Mighty God goes to battle on my behalf. The Mighty God rides in on a white horse as a “conqueror bent on conquest” (Rev 6:2). Read what Revelation 19:11-16 says about my Mighty God, Jesus:

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Are you pumped? I am! Not because I desire war and bloodshed, but because my God is MIGHTY – He is POWERFUL – and He will some day bring justice to this world. Praise God that He has made a way for me to escape His wrath. It’s what Christmas is all about.

Here’s the paradox – that the mighty God described in Revelation is also a Wonderful Counselor! It boggles my mind a bit to think that someone with the mighty power of God is also compassionate enough to be the Prince of Peace. Yet Jesus gave us the following invitation and description of himself in Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Now that’s the Prince of Peace – One who lifts my burdens, who enables me to rest when I am weary, and One who gives not just physical rest, but rest for my soul. He takes the bits and pieces that are at war within me and brings peace to them. I am so grateful.

The Mighty God is also gentle and humble in heart. He was born to humble beginnings – wrapped in clothes and placed in a manger, visited by shepherds. Of course He was also born to fanfare fitting for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords – An angel announced His birth to the shepherds and then “a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel” to sing praises to God (Luke 2:12).

Isaiah 9 also calls Him Wonderful Counselor and Everlasting Father. The word used for counselor means to advise well or reflexively deliberate or resolve – more like a legal counselor than a psychological counselor. Jesus is our true advocate and gives wisdom that is beyond what we can know from this world. And He is our forever God, not our “here today, gone tomorrow” God. Not only is the wisdom He gives appropriate for us today, but is wisdom for all time. It is the wisdom of a father who sees, understands and knows all things. Our earthly fathers may have tried to impart wisdom in us, but it was wisdom that came from their limited life and understanding of life. That didn’t make it bad. It just didn’t make it infallible – without error. God’s advice has no errors and He will never die. He is our everlasting father.

As I contemplated these many aspects of Jesus, the question that formed in my mind was this: Do I allow God to be these things for me? He is these things, but do I let Him be those things for me?

Do I allow Jesus to be my Mighty God when I need a defender of justice, or do I push for my own justice?

Do I seek Jesus’ face when my burden is heavy and my soul needs rest or do I push on to other things or escape into television or computer games?

Do I seek and follow God’s counsel or do I rely on my own wisdom or the opinions of others?

When I need a father – whether for protection, provision, advice, relationship or comfort – do I turn to my heavenly Father or do I try to find a substitute here on earth?

Ultimately the question that God asked me was this: Am I sufficient? Do you allow Me to meet all your needs?

May I encourage you to be challenged by the same questions? Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Is he that in your life? Are you allowing Jesus to meet all your needs? He has the power, the time, the ability, and the desire. Let Him in today.

It is exactly six weeks until Christmas. Two weeks until Thanksgiving.

I know what you’re thinking…HOW did this happen? (Secretly – or not so secretly – my husband and I have decided that the holidays ought to come every other year! They just arrive too quickly when it’s every year.)

But this year I’m excited for the holiday season. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I started reading Isaiah a few weeks ago and came across this passage in chapter 9:

⁶    For unto us a Child is born,

    Unto us a Son is given;

    And the government will be upon His shoulder.

    And His name will be called

    Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷    Of the increase of His government and peace

    There will be no end,

    Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

    To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

    From that time forward, even forever.

    The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

 I’m reading through the Bible using the New Living Testament (NLT) this year – I like the change it provides from what I had been reading (New International Version, NIV). But what I quoted above is from the King James Version (KJV). I’m old enough to love the sound of this passage in the KJV. But let me quote it in NLT as well, for those who might not have the KJV voice in their head:

⁶For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!

When that verse is quoted, people usually stop in the middle of verse 7. But look at the last line – I had never noticed it before –The Lord’s “zeal,” His “passionate commitment” will accomplish  it, will guarantee it. What will it accomplish? What’s written about in verse 6 and 7a – the birth of a Son, Jesus. What, then, is God zealous or passionate about? Can it be anything other than fellowship with us? If Christ came so that we might have life (John 10:10), so that we might know the Father (1 John 5:20) – if that was his purpose in coming, doesn’t that reveal the Lord’s passionate commitment to us? I think it does. God was passionately committed to giving His son to us so that we might have eternal life with Him (John 3:16-17). Wow!

 How very much God loves us! For unto us a child is born. Thank you, Lord.

I’m praying that each Thursday between now and Christmas, God will give me a Christmas message to blog. Be sure to check back each week.