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Glimmers in the Fog

Finding Glimpses of Divine Providence in Everyday Life
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Romans 8: God's Christmas Card

12/18/2019

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A Special Christmas Reading of Romans 8
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Romans 8: God's Christmas Card
When we read the Word of God out loud, sometimes the Holy Spirit brings a passage to life in a whole new way. Romans 8 is not traditionally considered an Advent message, but when it's read aloud and set in the context of Christmas and why Jesus came in the first place, another layer of meaning emerges and a bigger glimpse of God's love for us appears. You're invited to sit back, close your eyes, and restfully seek His presence as you listen to this short, dramatic reading of selected verses from Romans 8 in The Passion Translation.

“Yet God sent us his Son in human form to identify with human weakness… There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love. There is no power above us or beneath us — no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One." 
Romans 8:3b, 38b-39 The Passion Translation

Merry Christmas to all Glimmers in the Fog listeners! May you experience the gift of Jesus and the peace He offers in new ways this Advent season!

Music Licenses for background tracks used in the Advent reading:
O Holy Night - Jon Sayles
Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Silent Night - Jon Sayles
Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Romans 8: God's Christmas Card for Humanity
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Gratitude, the Great Antidote

11/27/2019

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Gratitude the Great Antidote for the Heart
Glimmers in the Fog will be taking the month of December off in celebration of the holiday season!
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“Thank you.” Two short, simple words. Yet, often so profoundly hard to say from the heart. Even more difficult to utter when we are in the midst of struggle, anger, or frustration. If most of us were really honest with ourselves, we’d admit that saying it doesn’t come naturally. Why else would parents have to so diligently instruct and prompt small children to get in the habit of responding with appreciation? Even now, so many decades later, I can still recall the sound of my mom’s voice. “What do you say,” she would ask after the bank teller handed me a lollipop, or my neighbor would return a toy left in their yard. I would like to think that I would’ve come up with some nice gesture of gratitude on my own, unprompted by a parent. A hug, perhaps? Or at least a smile. But as cute as they are, kids are born with the instinct to look out for number one, and I think I was no different.

As we grow up, most of us become reasonably competent at expressing thanks when anyone shows us special consideration or offers a gift. Of course, some never seem to acknowledge kindness, which spoils the beauty and purity of many kind deeds or gifts. But on the whole, most people learn to respond with at least a nod of appreciation automatically. So, why then, do we struggle so much to offer heartfelt gratitude to God regularly? Is it that we don’t remember Him? Perhaps it’s because we don’t recognize the constant blessings being poured out on us daily. Maybe all the hardships and disappointments obscure His goodness. I guess the list of reasons for our lack of continual thankfulness could be as endless as the flood of blessings themselves.

The Thanksgiving holiday seems to function as an annual parental reminder to pause, acknowledge our blessings, and say thank you to those we cherish and hopefully to God as well. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all. But I am curious what would happen if more followers of Jesus would spend time expressing heartfelt gratitude to God every single day of the year, not just once a day, but throughout the day, for all things. Yes, not just the obviously good things, but also the difficulties and disappointments because every single one of them will work together for the glory of God… at some point. Maybe we won't see it happen any time soon. Or perhaps not ever. But if we say we believe in God, and if we truly trust Him, then that’s what’s required of us. We must believe that He loves us beyond what we can fathom, and while we may not understand what His plan is, we rejoice in the unseen, unknowable blessings that are to come inevitably.

This kind of gratitude is not naturally within us, but it’s what our souls are longing for as new creations in Christ. And the more we get in the habit of soul-deep appreciation, the more automatic it becomes… the more blessings we will recognize around us… and the more joy will overflow from our hearts. Simply put — Gratitude. Changes. Everything. It is an effective weapon against almost every ailment of the heart, including worry, anger, bitterness, frustration, unhappiness, greed, selfishness, and pride, just to name a few. Like an immediate antidote for poisonous thoughts, sincere appreciation lifted in praise to Jesus works quickly to lift our spirits and shift our perspectives. And this amazing heavenly cure can be applied to almost any situation in every area of our lives, from relationships and careers, to finances and parenting.

It’s a prescription that the Apostle Paul applied to almost every kind of emotional or spiritual ailment. And if his life is any indication of hardship and suffering, then he was a great test case. If it weren’t for his incessant practice of praising God in everything, it would’ve been impossible for him to continue championing the Gospel of Jesus around the world, much less exude infectious joy in the process of doing so. He sang in prison. He joyously declared the Gospel in the face of persecution. He rebounded from great injury only to return to his mission without taking a vacation. He patiently listened to opponents in almost every culture. He laughed contentedly in the pit of poverty and hunger. He followed his own advice from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

One of Billy Graham’s last written messages, “How to Be Thankful in All Things,” was published for Thanksgiving 2017. He passed away just a few months later. It was no secret that Billy was ready to be with Jesus in eternity. He often talked of seeing his beloved wife Ruth again, and said many times that he was excited about the day of his earthly departure. “I’m looking forward to it — I really am. I’ll be happy the day the Lord says, ‘Come on. I’ve got something better planned.’” And so, I think his words about thanksgiving are particularly poignant and wise for those of us a tad bit younger than his 99 years.

“Nothing turns us into bitter, selfish, dissatisfied people more quickly than an ungrateful heart. And nothing will do more to restore contentment and the joy of our salvation than a true spirit of thankfulness,” he wrote. “I don’t know what trials you may be facing right now, but God does, and He loves you and is with you by His Holy Spirit. Cultivate a spirit of thankfulness even during trials and heartaches.” Billy then goes on to tell stories of both ungrateful and thankful people alike, all of whom he’d met or had received letters from through the years. He comes to the conclusion that those who are richest, most joyful, have the best relationships, and enjoy the most rewarding lives, are those who are thankful in every circumstance and throughout each day.

As we prepare to launch into another holiday season, it’s so easy to get crazy busy and put off any thought of adding anything else to our to-do lists. We want nothing else that will add any measure of effort or thinking to the merry-go-round in our brains. “Ugh,” you might be thinking right now, “I don’t have time to add another spiritual discipline to my day.” If that’s you, I totally get it. But perhaps you are not aware of the surprising power of expressing gratitude to God for anything and everything throughout the day. And if you practice it regularly, in just a few short weeks it will become second nature for you. It has some incredible and almost immediate byproducts that will actually help slow the spinning of your mind and give you a greater sense of calm, primarily through the hectic days ahead. While there are many positive changes people experience when cultivating a thankful heart, here are five things that came to my mind when I contemplated my own walk with Jesus.
  • A greater sense of security and peace in God - Philippians 4:6-7, James 1:2-4
  • A more joyful demeanor - Psalm 28:7; Psalm 118:15
  • A greater level of patience with yourself and others - Galatians 5:22-23, 2 Corinthians 4:14-15
  • A more generous and contented spirit - 2 Corinthians 9:10-15
  • A humbler, more gentle heart - Romans 1:21, James 1:14-17

Perhaps you noticed something else about the five effects of cultivating frequent thankfulness and praises to God? All of them will make life better for those around you, as well. And when people feel better about being around you, your relationships will improve, you’ll have more support during times of need, and your reasons to be grateful will increase all the more. If complaining and worry lead to a vicious downward spiral, then being grateful leads to an upward one. You can’t be grouchy, sullen, hopeless, or self-centered when you’re in the habit of being grateful. Taking the first step is always the hardest, of course, because human nature is naturally inclined toward inertia. But if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now, don’t pretend you don’t hear Him or think that it’s just your own mind talking. Instead, take the opportunity to praise God for His presence, and then take a leap of faith into His arms with an outburst of gratitude. If you want to radiate the love of Jesus, thanking Him in absolutely everything is a foolproof way to do it. You’ll be glad you did, and so will everyone around you. 
​
Happy Holidays! Glimmers in the Fog will be taking a break throughout December. 
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Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
   These readings from today’s message can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
  Following each reading, spend time journaling about what you think God might be saying to you through the Scriptures.
Day 1 - When we praise God and give thanks to Him, we will receive a greater sense of security and peace. Read Philippians 4:6-7 and James 1:2-4.
Day 2 - When we praise God and give thanks to Him, we will experience a change in our perspective to have a more joyful demeanor. Read Psalm 28:7 and Psalm 118:15.
Day 3 - When we praise God and give thanks to Him, the Holy Spirit will inhabit our praise and produce spiritual fruit, such as greater patience with yourself and others. Read Galatians 5:22-23 and 2 Corinthians 4:14-15.
Day 4 - When we praise God and give thanks to Him, over time we will find ourselves becoming more generous and content with what we have and the circumstances we are in. Read 2 Corinthians 9:10-15.
Day 5 - When we praise God and give thanks to Him, the Holy Spirit will create in us a humbler and more gentle heart. Read Romans 1:21 and James 1:14-17.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Gratitude, the Great Antidote for the Heart
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Broken Made Beautiful

11/6/2019

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God Makes the Broken Beautiful Again
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It seemed like the day would never come, but on Friday, I finally unpacked the last moving box. Okay, so there are a few boxes that I’m not ever going to unpack. You know the ones… they’re loaded down with cheesy grammar school photos and homespun mementos of summer camping trips. But when it comes to the boxes that should be unpacked, I’m all done. I even emptied a few that I had marked for “deep storage,” which made me feel especially proud of myself. And just as I was reveling in the thought of being completely settled and patting myself on the back for small victories, it hit me how much I had forgotten by storing away dozens of years of my life in the attic.

Pawing through all the layers of memories, I was amazed at how quickly and easily my mind returned to another time. I could see vivid details of my old neighborhood streets and could almost smell the pungent boughs of a Christmas tree framed in the early morning light. Most of the stories that resurfaced were good ones, but a few made me wish I hadn’t opened a particular box. And it was then that I suddenly felt washed in a blanket of mercy. Thank goodness God allows us — and I think sometimes He makes us — forget certain things or experiences until we’re ready… until He’s prepared us… to unpack them again. In His endless mercy and wisdom, He knows that some stories can’t bear to be retold until the road stretches far enough behind us for wounds to be healed, and our hindsight is clear enough to bring appreciation and understanding.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Ecclesiastes 3:11, which begins with, “He makes everything beautiful in its time.” It’s a surprisingly hopeful statement for a book that is largely a downer comparatively speaking to the rest of Scripture. And although I have this verse written on a chalkboard in my office, I had never really thought to apply it to my past. Instead, I’ve been using it as a reminder to be patient while I wait on the Lord to open doors. The verse reassures me that waiting on God without grumbling or jumping the gun is rewarded because our Father never does anything half-heartedly or at the wrong time.

Yet, as I sat there surrounded by mostly silly junk and some 80s photos with my hair teased high enough to reach a ceiling fan, the Holy Spirit brought this Scripture to me in a fresh way, along with the rest of the verse, which concludes with, “Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that He cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” So true to the rest of the theme of Ecclesiastes, one of the most beautiful lines is followed by a frustrating letdown. It makes me smile because it’s like Solomon, the author, is giving the reader this cheeky grin and saying with great sarcasm, “Have faith, cause everything God does is amazing. Even the stuff you think is the most horrible or difficult. He’ll make it all come out in the wash and adorn you in the finest garment you can imagine. You’re going to look fabulous — simply radiant and whole — in His presence. But… before you get too excited… just know that between now and then, you’re not going to have a clue what He’s doing or why He’s doing it.” And for the remainder of that passage, Solomon reminds us that God is going to do what He’s going to do. He then goes on to advise us to accept the Lord’s sovereignty and just move on with life.

And while Solomon’s words ring true as only a pessimistic statement can, we know that God doesn’t leave us comfortless in our seasons of waiting, questioning, hurting, and emptiness. While we may not be able to discern why He is doing something or why He allowed a bad story to be written in the first place, He does pour out new mercies for us each morning of our lives. That means every day of our lives. Not just the days you feel hopeful, happy, or whole. Lamentations 3:22-23 is also one of my favorite passages, and as I pair it up with the verse from Ecclesiastes, the picture of God’s love is complete… extravagant even. Most versions of the Lamentations passage include the phrase, “His mercies are new every morning.” But The Message translation fits with Ecclesiastes 3:11 like two beautiful puzzle pieces, so snugly aligned that it is hard to separate them. It reads, “God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, His merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning! How great is your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.”

So in the two different verses, we hear from people who are at the end of their ropes — Solomon and his father David. They’re miserable. They both endured great hardship, but they also had seasons of great luxury, completely saturated with every pleasure the world has to offer. They both reaffirm their conviction that God is in control of everything, and He loves His people enough to take care of everything in His way and in His time. Both authors assure us that during the “dry” times, it may seem or feel as though He’s left, but His faithfulness will prove itself over and over.

As I traced the outline of faded photos and the edges of old diaries, I recalled how many situations  seemed so tragic, so unredeemable at the time. From that vantage point and with only the experiences of a kid or young adult, the roots of my faith were not as strong as they are today. Of course, I’m not planning to decorate our house with tacky childhood artwork and faded trinkets, and I surely don’t want to spend time re-reading those diaries adorned with glitter hearts and pink butterflies. But I have found a new appreciation for the stories I had intentionally banished to the dark corners of our previous home’s attic. That’s because, from where I sit now, I can see God’s hand in almost every one of them. He did use them. He did redeem them. He did make me whole again.

One relic from my childhood is extra special. It has made it to a prominent position in our home and is on permanent display. However, it is not the original item’s significance or even its physical appearance that makes it worthy to come out of deep storage. I cherish it because of its brokenness. Originally it was a simple, average commemorative baby plate with my name and birthday painted on it. But almost 20 years ago, it was accidentally dropped and shattered in about a dozen pieces. The person who broke it had hurt me in so many other ways, that I seemed to transpose much of my disappointment and pain onto those shattered pieces. They were symbolic of my suffering, some of which I had brought on myself after a few years of very bad decisions. Looking at those small blue and white china pieces was almost like looking at my own heart and soul. At that time, I wasn’t walking close to Jesus. Despite all of that, I couldn’t bring myself to throw the broken plate away. There was some pull inside of me… perhaps just poetic romanticism… or maybe something deeper and spiritual in nature… that made me believe it could somehow be fixed. I wanted my life to be fixed, too, but I had no idea how God could ever bring healing at that point.

Fast forward a decade later, and God has made everything beautiful in His time. My husband’s sweet grandmother had a talent for creating mosaics from broken ceramics and old china pieces. Before she passed away, she lovingly made something completely new out of my broken treasure. With her help, it became whole again and far more resilient than ever before. And with true poetic romanticism, it sits in a place of honor it never would’ve had if it hadn’t been broken in the first place. I’m sure you know where this analogy is going, don’t you? Like the plate commemorating my birth into this world, Jesus had also lovingly brought rebirth to my heart and soul. Just as Grandma Ann gave new life and value to a cheap souvenir, God redeemed my life and restored hope to my wounded heart.

Since the plate broke and Grandma turned the meaningless pieces into a new work of art more than 10 years ago, I never realized until this week that such a beautiful story was sitting on my bedroom dresser. I’ve had a lot of readers and listeners ask me how I come up with ideas and stories for Glimmers in the Fog, and I think today’s message is a perfect example to share. So here’s how the idea came to me. For some strange reason, a few days ago, I found myself staring at the plate while putting on my earrings. And I was reminded of what a precious treasure it is because of who put it back together. That thought lingered for the rest of the day, making me smile when other things weren’t going smoothly. And then yesterday at lunchtime, I was outside squeezing in a much-needed power walk and asking God what He wanted me to write about this week. And as I struggled to tune my ears to Him and not my endless to-do list, I suddenly had a thought. Some stories shouldn’t be unpacked too soon. They need time to mature and mellow before they are opened up and experienced again. Just as a fine wine needs many years on a shelf before it can be appreciated, so God sometimes intentionally keeps things obscured from us until we’re prepared to see them properly. We just have to trust Him and not our own logic or assumptions.

Even more amazing, today is the anniversary of Grandma’s passing, which wasn’t even on the forefront of my mind while I marveled at her handiwork. My husband texted me this morning to remind me when I told him what I was writing about. I know that some people would say it’s merely a coincidence, but because I believe God is the source of all things beautiful, all creativity, and He does love a good story, there’s no doubt in my mind that He authored this poetic ending on purpose. It is the same truth expressed in Hebrews 11:1, which says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” God loves us more than we can fathom or imagine, no matter what our perceptions and senses tell us. And He does make all things beautiful in His time. What an incredible reminder that no story God authors ever ends in brokenness. And the good news? All of our stories can be turned over to the greatest Editor of all time.

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
These readings from today’s message can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Read Psalm 147:3 to focus your mind and eliminate your distractions. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and open your ears to His whisper. Then spend some time in quiet reflection at the feet of Jesus. Don’t say a word in your head or from your lips for at least five minutes. If it helps, you can listen to soft instrumental hymns. Then ask God this question: Father, what brokenness is within me that I haven’t released to you for healing? Write down the thoughts that come to your mind.
Day 2 - Sometimes, God allows difficulties and hardship to come our way specifically to lead us to a place of brokenness. Read Psalm 51:17 and spend time writing down anything that comes to your mind as a benefit of being broken in some way? What kinds of brokenness have you experienced? Are there any sins, rebellious ways, stubbornness, or pride that needs to be released or has been overcome in your life through brokenness?
Day 3 - It can be very hard to thank God for allowing us to be broken-hearted, rejected, and wounded. Yet the Word makes it clear that we are to thank Him in all things. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and James 1:2-4.
Day 4 - After we thank God for all things, the Word tells us to give Him praise. Lifting your heart to God when you’re grieving over difficult things, rejection, or losses takes great effort, but when you do, your heart will be lifted, and your soul will experience real joy. Read Psalm 147:1, Zephaniah 3:17 and Psalm 34:1-3, then spend time lifting your voice to Him — yes, out loud — through words of adoration and songs of praise.
Day 5 - No matter what suffering, pain, loss, or rejection comes our way, Jesus promises that He has already overcome. You can live with hope each day and believe that God will be with you. Read Lamentations 3:22-23, Jeremiah 29:11, and John 16:33 Spend a few moments asking God to give you a glimpse of hope, healing, and strength for whatever you are facing now or any “bad” stories you are trying to forget. Allow the Holy Spirit to unearth things in your heart that need His touch and then write down any themes of hope or encouragement that you hear from Him in the Scriptures or in prayer time.

​
What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Broken is Made Beautiful in God's Time
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Is Jesus Trying to Empty Your Net?

10/23/2019

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Is Jesus Trying to Empty Your Net?
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One of the most shocking things about God is that He not only wants to have an intimate, intensely personal relationship with us, but He also calls us and sets us apart for His particular use. He gives us things to do. He asks us to join Him in His work. 1 Corinthians 7:17 says, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” With all of our flaws, weaknesses, distractions, and fickle desires, the King of the Universe not only sacrificed Himself so that we could have fellowship with Him, but on top of that, He takes the time to engineer a highly detailed plan for our lives. If you haven’t stopped to think about this mind-blowing fact in a while, then I invite you to pause and do that right now.

Although I am currently in a transition phase and actually have no idea what I might be doing for work a month from now, let alone a year from now, I have been amazed at how much the Holy Spirit has been reassuring me that He is preparing me for something specific. During my quiet time, He has been reminding me that nothing is ever wasted, and through the encouraging words of others, He has been continually reassuring me that He has a purpose for me. And I am especially appreciative of the Holy Spirit’s abiding support when the things God is doing to prepare me for the future feel especially difficult and hard to process. But that is the very nature of God. It is consistent with His character. When He takes us through times of realignment, discipline, or change, He reminds us that He never changes. That His presence is always with us. That His mercies will not fail. That He will give us enough to face the day ahead. Most importantly, that if we yield to His course adjustments, He will be glorified, no matter how ugly the path is to get to a new destination.

Sometimes the changes God brings and the adjustments He asks us to make are hard to describe. We can’t put words to them, which is essential for understanding, and humans hate the feelings that come with being clueless or confused. Even if the ramifications are bad, we want to know what is happening and why. And that’s the very reason God often has for allowing the circumstances in the first place — they penetrate to the core of us. They reach us at the deepest level and reveal our lack of trust in Him to not only handle the unknown, but to orchestrate it at His discretion. But oh my, when God does turn the light on in our brains, and the Holy Spirit permits us a glimpse of why and what God might be up to, our primary reaction always brings a tidal wave of humility. Because without humility in our hearts, God will often hold back some or all of the next steps in His plan. Pride is the enemy of holy plans, and sometimes we don’t even know it’s in the way until the Spirit reveals it to us.

For months and months this year, I was struggling to describe and understand what was happening and how God was planning to use a slew of difficulties — both outward and inward struggles — for His glory. And then one Sunday I was sitting in church and heard a sermon that the Holy Spirit used to turn the light on, so to speak. Even more remarkably, the word He whispered to my heart was not even a point the pastor was trying to make. I went back more than a month later and listened to the sermon again and was surprised to see that what I wrote down in my notes — what really struck a chord with me — was not anywhere to be found in the message that was delivered. It wasn’t entirely off-topic, and it had a direct correlation to the scripture passage, but the Holy Spirit uniquely tailored an application from the sermon for me. Even though I’ve seen it happen before, I still never cease to be amazed at the wonder of God and His intimate workings in our hearts.
The primary Scripture passage that spoke to me from the sermon that day is what many title as the calling of Peter in Luke 5:1-11. I know the selection is a little longer than what I normally include, but I think you’ll get as lost in the story as I did. I especially like this version of it from The Message.

Once when He [Jesus] was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret [Galilee], the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon’s [Peter] and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch. Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.

As I listened to that passage, and have re-read it many times since, one thing kept hitting me over and over — Jesus performed two miracles in this story. Most of the time, we focus on the obvious one, which is the overflowing of fish when Peter obeyed Jesus and let down the nets. But what the Holy Spirit illuminated my small brain is the unspoken miracle of the empty nets. You see, Peter was a professional fisherman. He was likely very good at what he did for a living. He and his co-workers were not kids, and they had probably learned the craft of fishing from their fathers, just as they did from their fathers before them. Because his training and experience taught him that working the nightshift was the most productive, he was clearly dubious when Jesus asked him to go out to deep water and lower his nets in the heat of the day. But one look in Jesus’ eyes and Peter was compelled to obey. Something about the presence of Jesus and the power in His voice inspired enough faith in Peter for him to let go of everything he knew to be correct, right, and profitable.

And this is where the Holy Spirit allowed me to see myself in Peter’s predicament. Jesus was about to call Peter to an entirely new life. Therefore, Peter’s nets had to be emptied of his own efforts, talents, skills, and self-reliance to be filled with complete dependence on God. Peter had known what he was doing, so there is no reason at all for us to believe that he didn’t normally catch fish each night. In fact, it would be nearly impossible for his nets to not contain at least a piddly amount of fish after a night of fishing. Jesus miraculously intervened to prepare Peter’s heart for his calling. If given a choice, Peter — just like you or I — would have gladly asked for and received the miracle of abundance. But none of us would have asked for the first one… the miracle of emptiness. Yet, Jesus knew it was the very thing that Peter needed to be prepared for greater things to come. Without it, Peter would not have been humbled, vulnerable, and ready to receive Jesus’ invitation. He would’ve continued to cling to himself, his experience, talents, skills, knowledge, and previous accomplishments. Without the miracle of Jesus emptying his net, Peter would’ve remained a fisherman rather than the fisher of men and women which he became.

Sometimes, Jesus has to empty our nets, my friend. And it’s a hard miracle to watch and receive. But regardless of the difficulty, confusion, and sadness associated with letting go of ourselves, including the very things that God seems to have blessed us with, it’s still a miracle in which we are called to embrace and rejoice. Americans pride themselves on their work ethic. We sing about our independence. We’re taught to “pull ourselves by our bootstraps” and achieve the American dream. Even as Christians, we often assume that God’s calling on our lives includes the use of what we’re good at… what we know… what we have skills for… Logic tells us that God brings us life experiences and bestows talents upon us to outfit us for His calling. We use the phrase, “I was born for this,” like we can predict the future. I think Peter thought he was born to be a fisherman. But Jesus turned his world upside down and made Peter realize that he was born to follow the Messiah and do whatever the Spirit filled him to do.

It’s not what Peter thought he would be doing, but I don’t think he ever sat around an evening fire with the other disciples lamenting the waste of not using his professional skillset. And this is where conviction flooded my heart. If Jesus has been trying to empty my net and I’ve been gripping the ropes unwilling to let Him have it with all it contains, then He won’t perform the next miracle. While many of the things in my net — or yours — may not be wrong in and of themselves, they may be things that weigh us down or blind us to our true calling because we think we were born to do them. We hang onto them and drag them around with us, rather than letting them go and trusting God to provide what is needed for the tasks that lie ahead. Later on, He might bring some of them out of the ashes to use for His work, but He asks us to be willing to sacrifice all of them for the sake of the call.

Many years after Peter’s calling by the Sea of Galilee, the Spirit of Jesus inspired him to write these words in 1 Peter 5:5b-7: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” In his earlier years, we know from the Gospels that Peter, along with the other disciples, had wanted Jesus to exalt him… to raise him up in leadership. To give him a grand and glorious dream to achieve in God’s name. By the time he wrote these verses, Jesus had clearly performed many more miracles of emptiness within Peter. I like to imagine that as Peter’s pen obeyed the Spirit’s leading, he also vividly recalled the day Jesus performed a miracle to kick off Peter’s process of being humbled himself. Within and of ourselves, human beings generally don’t have the spiritual fortitude to choose a humbling experience. Nor can we muster up enough faith to believe the impossible. It is always the miraculous work of God.

So today, I’m not only trying to embrace the emptying process, but now also asking Jesus to remove whatever I’m dragging around in my net that gets in His way. And I find myself continually returning to the verses from 1 Peter 5 to help me remember that my calling ultimately is to become more like Jesus, rather than achieve great things for Him. Our aim should be to love God and be transformed by Him into new creatures, not to serve Him. As we become more like Him, His infilling and transformation will produce the works He’s called us to do and fully glorify Him.

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
These readings from today’s message can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Re-visit the passages included in the message and read them in at least two different versions. Spend some time inserting yourself into the story of Peter. Ask God to reveal to you areas of your life that need to be emptied or He has emptied in the past. Sometimes we recall difficult times in our lives negatively, completely missing the signs of God at work. As you ask the Spirit to reveal truth to you from His Word, write down any thoughts that come to your mind.
Day 2 - Offer up prayers of thanks. If you’ve recently been through a season of having your net emptied, then spend the next few minutes thanking God for taking you through the process and ask Him to make you humble enough and have the eyes to see when it needs to happen again. If you’re yet to go through this experience, ask the Lord to prepare your heart. Give you the courage to accept the emptying when it comes. To thrive in the emptying. If you’re in the midst of it now, rest my dear friend. Stop trying to figure out what’s next and why He’s emptied the net. Instead, embrace the unseen that He is bringing to you. It may not seem like your net could ever be filled again, especially if part of your net emptying includes a dream you’ve always wanted. But when you spend time thanking God for His sovereignty over your life and His love at work in your heart, you will be strengthened for the road ahead.
Day 3 - Offer up prayers of Release. Spend time confessing and asking God to help you let go of anything that could be in the way of His plans coming to fruition in your life. Whatever it is, open your heart up to Him and ask Him to help you live with open hands rather than clenched fists, gripping your net to your chest.
Day 4 - Offer up prayers of Reliance. Jesus wanted Peter to rely on Him and not Peter’s own professional skills, talents, or experiences. Offer up to God your prayers for humility and dependence, asking Him to help you embrace the process of learning to lean on Him completely. He alone is responsible for results and outcomes. No matter how much hard work you put into it, Jesus is asking you to release the results of your labor to Him. The responsibility is all His. You can rest and trust in Him.
Day 5 - Offer up prayers of Renewal. The process of having your net emptied is a humbling learning experience. It takes courage to live fearlessly based on the Spirit’s strength and power, and not what you know best and what you know you’re good at. But when you release your control and all that you have to Jesus, followed by reliance on Him for your every dream, comfort, and need, He promises renewal. He promises peace. He promises joy.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Is Jesus Trying to Empty Your Net?
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Choosing Desire Over Duty

10/16/2019

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Choosing Desire Over Duty
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I’ve been a Christian for a long time. This year marks the 40th anniversary of my soul becoming the bride of Christ, and like any other monumental day in my life, some things about the salvation moment are burned in my memory. The sweltering heat of the school gymnasium packed with people seeking revival. The insistence of my mother that I didn’t understand enough to respond to the altar call. (She changed her mind when I practically crawled over her to get to the aisle whether she wanted me to or not.) And — perhaps most vividly --  I remember the camel-colored leather half-boots of the preacher walking over and kneeling down to my level to lead me in prayer. With all that detail, you’d think I’d remember what happened next, but I don’t. That’s where the memories leave me, but the impact of the decision has lasted a lifetime.

And so, the headline of today’s blog post might seem shocking, disappointing, or perhaps expected for those who are particularly pessimistic. We’ve all learned the hard way that even the most memorable and enthusiastic beginnings can still burn out and fade when tested by life’s battles and cynicism. But my story is a testimony, as it is with so many other long-term believers, that what God starts, He always promises to finish. (Philippians 1:6) We may have many stops and starts in our faith journeys. We may fail miserably, not just once but over and over. We often drift. And we may even walk away entirely, or go as far as some have done in a very public manner, and announce our “de-conversion.” But if we truly gave our hearts to Jesus in the first place, then we will always return to Him. Not of our own doing or effort, but entirely by His powerful and relentless pursuit of us. It may take months, years, or even decades, but the Father always comes for His child. Always. (Matthew 18:12)

While I never announced my intention to walk away from God, there was a season where I tried. And I definitely made some great time running in the wrong direction. Suffering from the fallout of a major life mistake often has a way of bringing us to our worst selves, showing us just how depraved we are when intentionally try to remove Jesus’ covering of grace, mercy, and love. It is in these moments that God allows us to know exactly how the prodigal son felt sitting in the pigsty of his own doing, covered with the filth of his greed and rebellion and absolutely famished for real nourishment. Sometimes, the mud of our mistakes, sins, and bad choices has to run into our eyes before we’re ready to see Jesus standing before us with a basin of hot soapy water, a big fluffy towel, and a radiant change of clothes.

Many similar stories of redemption stop right there with a vision of the restored child. We breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Thank God the prodigal found her way back. Whew!” But we all know the actual process of restoration is just beginning. The prodigal may have turned the corner, but the baggage she collected along the way still lingers, slowing her down, and threatening to pull her back at any moment. While some of my baggage was collected during my wanderings, one of the biggest weights I carried around pre-dated my prodigal drifting. In other words, it was something I picked up, or rather learned from those I respected as teachers and leaders in the faith. And when I walked away, Satan twisted and then used the very things I was previously taught as a barrier to coming back.

Before my major life mistake came crashing down all around me and triggered my season of divergence, I never missed a quiet time with God in the morning. I never skipped a volunteer opportunity that suited my gifting. And I most certainly attended church or went to a Bible study every week, unless I was ill or out of town. In short, I had a deeply ingrained sense of duty to follow the formula. I wanted God’s approval for doing everything He told me to do as perfectly as possible. But when my life crumbled despite following “the Christian formula,” I found myself falling down through the scaffolding I had erected by building my life with the wrong materials. It may have appeared that I loved God with all my heart and mind, and it definitely started that way, but somewhere between childhood and the latter half of young adulthood, I had begun to perform for God rather than love Him. I was seeking and serving Him out of duty, instead of desire. Rather than hungering for Him, I denied myself to please Him.

But as I said, the Shepherd always comes for His lost ones. So when I left the pigpen of my own design, I didn’t know what to do with my big suitcase of guilt, which was filled with duties, obligations, and performance criteria. Like an accident victim learning how to walk all over again, my spiritual legs were clueless on how to walk in faith without the shoes of legalism. I discovered that I didn’t even know how to pray, read the Word, or worship purely out of a desire for God and not because they were disciplines I was supposed to do. For months, I would try to do the things that Christians typically do and just give up in tears because I couldn’t do them without the habit of keeping track or feeling guilty if I skipped anything. The reality was I simply didn’t want to do any of it anymore. I had reached a place where spiritual disciplines designed to draw me closer to God were pushing me away because of my own expectations and fear of breaking the rules. Previous sin leading up to my life’s collapse had taken my faith with it, and the only way I would be able to find it again — to find my real identity in Christ — was for God to bring it out of the ashes.

Finally, out of desperation, I remember trying to pray and blurted out something like this to God: “If can’t pray because I want to… because I desire You and not because I want to please you or achieve some standard… then I’m not going to pray at all. And the same goes for reading the Bible. I won’t fight You anymore. I won’t run from You. If You work a miracle in my heart and cause me to want You, then I will surrender. But I’m not doing anything out of duty, rules, or because I’m supposed to anymore. Enough is enough, and I’m tired.”
And then I stopped. I mean really stopped. If I didn’t feel like reading the Bible I didn’t. If sleep beckoned me to linger in bed on a Sunday morning, I gave in. And praying? Very infrequent. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening in me spiritually. But my heart had changed, because, for the first time, in many years, I woke up each day with a blank slate for God’s use. I was daring Him to fill it, rather than going through the motions of a pre-defined list. I had seen His power in my younger years. I had known the sweetness of His presence before I had begun to layer on the callouses of my own performance. So I waited on Him with a pained and timid hope.

About that time, the book Desiring God by John Piper found its way into my heart’s fragile restoration. The reality was, I wanted to want God. My spirit was longing for communion with my Creator, so when I saw the title of Mr. Piper’s manifesto to Christian hedonism, I was hooked. But I was not prepared for the magnitude of what I read, and it took me months of reading and re-reading it to even grasp the concept of glorifying God by being satisfied in Him, rather than following a formula or finding ways to please Him. And the battle Satan waged to prevent me from understanding that God wants me to experience delight without strings attached was a fierce, relentless one. I don’t think Satan cares if I’m Christian. What he cares about is if I live and act like a Christian without chains… a follower who chases after Jesus not because she has to or because she’ll get anything from it, but simply because she wants to be with Him all the time. John Piper puts it this way in his book, “He beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty or to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve or to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain, but rather to manifest, in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of His all-satisfying promises.” I had to let go of the idea that there was anything I could offer or do for God, and instead let Him do everything and anything through me and within me for His glory.

Also vital to my healing, I had to shed the notion that being happy was wrong. It took years for the idea to sink into my soul that God wants us to find so much delight and satisfaction in Him that we not only discover what real happiness is all about, but that we can relish in it without any payment or punishment on our part. Because I grew up hearing the opposite from an important and involved family member, I had years of negative thoughts built up in my mind and shackling my heart. I had been taught that the other shoe would always drop, meaning if you’re happy and things are going well, you better watch out because something bad is coming. This, of course, is the opposite of how Jesus wants us to react to the truth about suffering. When He acknowledged that the world brings us trials and pain in John 16:33, He included the key to happiness right along with it. “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

The problem with expressions like “the other shoe always drops,” is that it stops at half the truth, making it a full lie. And that’s how Satan wraps chains around hearts, creates fear, and fuels our doubts. He feeds us enough of the truth to make us believe the whole lie. He twists what is life-giving into what is life-stealing. We often falsely believe that the absence of suffering is the path to overflowing happiness and satisfaction in life. And that’s why I spent most of my life living in fear of the unknown… an imagined future suffering that was always on its way. No, the Spirit of my loving Heavenly Father has been teaching me for the last 16 years or so, that happiness is having every desire of my heart fulfilled. And when the desires of my heart are fixed on finding satisfaction in God, then He will replace any that shouldn’t be there with His desires for me. The essence of this truth is found in many places throughout Scripture, but my favorite is Psalm 37:4, which tells us to delight in the Lord, and He will give us the desires of our hearts. Through the years, that verse has helped me combat fear and disappointments. It has also guided me through major decisions and career changes. And right now, it’s teaching me how to break the stronghold of seeking validation, comfort, and reward from anything or anyone other than Jesus.

I didn’t stay away from having a daily quiet time with God for very long. The Lover of My Soul was faithful to woo me back. I can’t say I was instantly consistent or that I don’t ever go through dry seasons, but over the years since, the Holy Spirit has been kindling my desire for Him and not what I can do for Him or receive from Him. I’ve also learned that being a Christian hedonist isn’t just about seeking joy by choosing to embrace suffering and trials on behalf of Jesus. It’s not just about avoiding sin because we love Him. It’s also about choosing the best portion — making choices between what is good and what is best. When we seek satisfaction in Jesus more than the “good” offerings of this world, the Holy Spirit teaches us what true freedom is all about. He teaches us how to be less distracted and less controlled by our emotions, passions, and pleasures, whether they be outright sinful or entirely healthy in moderation. But God also encourages us to have feelings, not to deny them or stuff them down. The difference is that He transforms our feelings from controlling forces into beautiful, fulfilling experiences in His presence. I love how it’s written in Desiring God: “Minimizing the importance of transformed feelings makes Christian conversion less supernatural and less radical. It is humanly manageable to make decisions of the will for Christ. No supernatural power is required to pray prayers, sign cards, walk aisles, or even stop sleeping around. Those are good. They just don’t prove that anything spiritual has happened. Christian conversion, on the other hand, is a supernatural, radical thing. The heart is changed. And the evidence of it is not just new decisions, but new affections, new feelings.”

While I’m sure my story is different from yours, and I would never advocate for anyone to stop having a daily quiet time, I can tell you this without reservation — God desires your willing heart over and above any other thing, act of service, money, or discipline you can perform. None of that matters if your actions are motivated by anything other than love without strings attached. So God’s direction to you will be as unique as you are. Maintaining key disciplines of the faith is the right thing to do for most people, and are often a crucial part of rekindling your desire for God even when you don’t feel like doing them. However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to God’s extravagant love for us. Seek His help, expect Him to reveal the path to you in unexpected ways, and be obedient to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

When I was a child, my feelings were far more exciting than they are as 40-something. When I was seven, every day was a fountain of new experiences and mostly enjoyable emotions. And while I may not remember what happened right after I asked Jesus to come into my heart on that hot summer night, I imagine my kid-self being exhilarated and overjoyed. Though I can’t attach a specific memory to it, the deepest place of my heart also tells me that Jesus comforted me and brought me peace in a season of confusion and change. My parents were going through a separation at that time, which led to their divorce a year later. So God’s timing for drawing me to Him was perfect and couldn’t have been more critical. I was a daddy’s girl, and my Heavenly Father stepped in to walk beside me and whisper to my heart that I didn’t do anything wrong, that I wasn’t abandoned, and that I was loved fully and completely by the One who would never go away. And this is why I think I remember so vividly the shoes of the preacher who prayed with me on that night so long ago. They were just like my daddy’s shoes. He used to wear them all the time. So in the absence of my earthly father, whom I loved and trusted so dearly, God sent His love to me in the perfect messenger. He knew just what I needed. He knew me better than myself. Leaving no detail to chance, my Father stopped at nothing to come get me. And He would do it a million times over to bring me home.

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
These readings from today’s message can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Any follower of Jesus can become the prodigal child given the right circumstances, heart position, and status of our walks with God. That is why humility is so important to cultivate in our lives. Being aware that we live by the grace and mercy of Jesus, makes us more resistant to Satan’s schemes to pull us away. Read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32 and write down what God whispers to your heart. Who do you identify with the most in the story (the dad, the older brother, or the prodigal) and why? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything hiding in your heart that might diminish your desire for being with, or returning to, God.
Day 2 - Read Psalm 16:5-11 and if you have time watch John Piper’s first video on the foundations of Christian hedonism (it’s 13:30 long). Ask the Lord to instruct you (verse 7), assure you (verse 8), and remind you of the last time you experienced fullness of joy in His presence (verse 11). Write down any words He whispers to you.
Day 3 - Read Psalm 37:4 in at least three different versions of the Bible. Commit your favorite version to memory and then spend time in prayer asking God to change the desires of your heart to match His.
Day 4 - God always finishes the work He starts in our lives, but sometimes we get in His way and cause delays or detours. Read Philippians 1:6 and ask God to reveal to you anything that you might be hindering and why. Write down what He’s asking you to do next.
Day 5 - The pleasures of God are far better than anything we can find or anyone else we can be with here on earth. Sometimes, however, we struggle with the words used to describe pleasure or even feel guilty about experiencing it. Read Psalm 4:7 and Psalm 19:8,10 and then read this short article on the Desiring God website. Finish by ask God to heal your tainted perceptions of pleasure and redeem them for His glory.
Recommended Resources from DesiringGod.org:
  • FREE book and Bible study: When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy
  • Desiring God the book (updated and expanded) - You can download a free study guide here or purchase the book on Amazon.
  • Multi-Part Video Series: The Foundations of Christian Hedonism

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

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When to Sweat the Small Stuff

9/25/2019

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When to Sweat the Small Stuff
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Sometimes an expression or truism takes off in our culture and morphs into something way more than the person who coined the phrase ever intended. For example, it happens with brand names all the time. Use of the word Google is now commonly used as a verb instead of a proprietary brand name. People often ask for a Kleenex rather than a tissue. Words as common today as a zipper, trampoline, and dumpster were all once brand names. In the advertising industry, this evolution from a unique brand name to a commodity category is called a propriety eponym, or a generic trademark. I think this phenomenon represents the greatest irony in all of commercialism because every company, organization, or charitable cause longs to have its flagship brand or product become so popular that it becomes a household name. When something becomes so successful that virtually every American has tried it, owns one, or supports it, then the provider of whatever it is has reached the pinnacle of success. But then irony steps in and radically alters that picture of success when the popular thing becomes so ubiquitous that virtually no one recognizes its uniqueness anymore.

The same paradox occurs with famous expressions and adages, but with one very powerful and often dangerous difference — it doesn’t only morph into a widespread, unattributed cliche, it eventually becomes a culturally accepted excuse. While these buzzwords, mottos, and quotations have their genesis within the realm of a specific incident or application, they quickly explode outside of their originally intended use. Think about sports idioms and analogies. Some clever commentator or coach frequently starts using a catchy remark in the ballpark or on the field, and before you know it the rest of the country is repeating it as a sports metaphor that applies to the arenas of business, politics, and general culture. Often what was intended as a memorable or funny way of summarizing a motivational concept or crystallizing a compelling truth, becomes so commonplace that people start to see it as a societally acceptable way of dismissing or laughing off something that actually should be addressed or managed.

And so we come to the incredibly relevant and well-meaning expression of “don’t sweat the small stuff.” First let me say, the original intent of the phrase when used in context is spot-on: We shouldn’t overreact to common occurrences and get ourselves all worked up over things that don’t have lasting significance. And just a quick side note … Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t the series of books of the same name by Dr. Richard Carlson that launched the use of the phrase. Developed as a motto for stress reduction techniques, the statement was first coined by a cardiologist named Robert S. Eliot in 1983 when being interviewed by Time magazine in an article about the rising stress levels of Americans. Over the last four decades, the work of both Dr. Eliot and Dr. Carlson has effectively raised our collective consciousness of the need to let go of the things we can’t change and let life’s irritations and frustrations roll off our backs instead of internalizing them as mounting rage or bitterness in our hearts.

As true and necessary as the concept is behind the expression of not sweating the small stuff, the ubiquitous phrase has indeed reached the level of saturation where even followers of Jesus can fall prey to using it as an excuse. And as it goes with all excuses, people tend to use them when it’s convenient for their circumstances or particular weaknesses, rather than applying the truth behind them as it was intended. Unfortunately, I’m the perfect example of this. I get frustrated, impatient, and worried at some of the “smallest” inconveniences and delays in life, yet I am the first one to reach for God’s grace with a comparably small sin or so-called harmless bad habit. And I know it’s not just me that struggles with making excuses for what most of us view as minor or trivial missteps or disobedience. Sometimes, as Christians, we fall prey to the enemy’s lie that the endless flow of God’s grace excuses us from whatever we’ve deemed in our own hearts and minds to be insignificant. And goodness knows, none of us wants to endure the discomfort of re-examining what we’ve previously determined to be a small matter, since it might make us question a much longer list of weaknesses. And this insidious and commonly accepted lie is only further entrenched when those we place in high authority or esteem are just as dismissive of what our culture deems as little sins or inconsequential habits. Or, when they go to the other extreme and only address the most societally maligned, morally egregious, or significantly harmful sins among those God has given them to shepherd and encourage.

The reality we all need to face, however, is that Jesus does indeed sweat the small stuff and His Spirit living inside of each believer won’t be satisfied with 90 percent obedience. Not even 99.5 percent. We can take one glance at the Gospel accounts of His interactions with the religious leaders of the day and immediately realize that God is asking for perfection. Matthew 5:48 states simply: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus knew when He said it that no one can be perfect of their own accord. No human could possibly sweat 100 percent of the small stuff to live a life of consistent obedience in everything. No one, except Jesus, of course. His blood, sweat, and tears poured out for us so that we don’t have to do so, that is the utterly beautiful and incomprehensible outcome of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. When we think of it that way and recognize His Spirit dwelling inside of us, then how can we not feel the weight of love, which is trying to seep into every pocket and corner of our being? How can we not see that every detail of our lives and every desire of our heart should submit to His plan for His glory alone? When we hold back a piece of ourselves — even something that is not in and of itself a sin — we are not yielding to the Spirit who, by His very nature, will seek to sweat out everything in our lives, from the so-called big things to the tiniest grains of mistrust and self-centered ambitions.

Oswald Chambers, author of My Utmost for His Highest (my favorite devotional of all time), once said, “You were looking for a great thing to give up. God is telling you of some tiny thing; but at the back of it lies the central citadel of obstinacy: ‘I will not give up a right to myself’ — the thing God intends you to give up if you are ever going to be a disciple of Jesus.” This sounds so extreme, doesn’t it? It feels so heavy and burdensome. But Oswald further explains the power and role of grace: “God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along that line always.”

I have no idea what your tiny thing is. Personally, I have lots and lots of tiny things. On any given day, at least half a dozen tiny things distract me from surrendering, fully loving, and obeying Jesus. And that’s on a very good day. But the same Spirit who moves in my heart to trigger conviction about tiny things is the same Spirit who covers me in grace through the blood of Jesus. With that kind of outpouring of love, I am praying that God helps me respond with a heart of surrender, ready and willing to allow the Spirit to keep revealing, convicting, and removing anything that is more comforting, more important, or more motivating than Jesus is in my life.

So, should you sweat the small stuff? Well, the second part of Dr. Eliot’s original motto often gets left out. The full statement ends with, “And it’s all small stuff.” In other words, his advice as a cardiologist is that you need to learn how to let everything go. Don’t sweat anything, because doing so is never helpful. That’s because every little thing can be stressful if we allow it to be or perceive it to be. Stress is our reaction to a situation. As hard as it is to believe, freaking out, erupting in anger, worrying, being short with people, or becoming exasperated is not actually a requirement to solve any problem. None of our natural reactions like those are helpful. They don’t do anything to help us achieve Jesus’ command to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls. Nor do they help us love others.

On the other hand, nothing about us or what we do is small to God. It all matters to Him. But the great news is Jesus will take care of sweating the small stuff for us. Only He can do it the right way. However, we have to stop using excuses to prevent His Spirit from penetrating, revealing, and dealing with any little things that get in the way of being fully used for His glory.

Over the next several days as you ponder this topic, the most important thing is to be transparent with the Holy Spirit. Jesus already knows about your tiny things anyway. But the Spirit won’t force a change in you until you’re willing to loosen your grip on the covers concealing them or the rebellious streak that attempts to hide them. Here are some powerful Scriptures to meditate on and journal about in the days ahead. As you listen to them, think of them as mirrors on your soul. When you hear them, what do you see in your life? That’s the Holy Spirit searching your heart and preparing you to receive God’s instruction.

Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Colossians 2:8-10 “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Matthew 11:26-29 “Yes, Father, your plan delights your heart, as you’ve chosen this way to extend your kingdom—by giving it to those who have become like trusting children. You have entrusted Me with all that you are and all that you have. No one fully and intimately knows the Son except the Father. And no one fully and intimately knows the Father except the Son. But the Son is able to unveil the Father to anyone He chooses. Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in Me.”

I usually provide a five-day devotional guide as a companion for every podcast, but this week, instead, I want to encourage you to revisit each of the verses I just read and spend time in prayer with each one. If there’s a verse that just won’t leave your thoughts, then commit it to memory and spend some time writing down both the small and big stuff that is stirred up in you when you read that passage. Take some time to simply sit still in the presence of Jesus and let Him sweat out the small stuff in your heart, mind, and soul. The more He clears out what doesn’t belong there, the closer you’ll be to loving Him with every corner of your heart and not just carefully selected pockets of your life. Our God is big enough to care about even the smallest details of your life. And the more of you, you give back to Him, the greater His presence will be in every aspect of your being.

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
These readings from today’s message can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Day 2 - Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Day 3 - Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
Day 4 - Colossians 2:8-10 “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Day 5 - Matthew 11:26-29 “Yes, Father, your plan delights your heart, as you’ve chosen this way to extend your kingdom—by giving it to those who have become like trusting children. You have entrusted Me with all that you are and all that you have. No one fully and intimately knows the Son except the Father. And no one fully and intimately knows the Father except the Son. But the Son is able to unveil the Father to anyone He chooses. Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in Me.”

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What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

When to Sweat the Small Stuff
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Praising God Past the Point of No Return

9/11/2019

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Praising God Past the Point of No Return
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A few weekends ago, my husband and I took a much needed day away from a long list of household chores to enjoy a leisurely scenic drive to the Northern California coastline. Since we live in what seems like an endless sea of suburbia stretching for 60 miles between our house and San Francisco, it’s easy to forget that vast areas of rural land still exist just a short drive away. Given that California ranks third for the highest real estate prices in the country, it was both surprising and somewhat hope-inspiring to drive by grazing fields on the bluffs high above the ocean ridge. As I marveled at the breathtaking view and wondered if cattle even could appreciate it, my husband interrupted my thoughts by stating calmly, “I should’ve filled up the tank when we stopped for breakfast.”

Yes, again, I know it’s hard to believe, but there we were … no gas stations for about 60 miles, almost non-existent cell coverage, and only one way we could go unless we wanted to backtrack significantly. Our only goal for the day besides relaxing had been to drive over to the coast just north of the bay, take Route 1 up the coastline, and then eventually zigzag our way back through the mountains to wine country before heading home. Being the fraidy-cat I am, I instantly replied, “Well, I guess we’ll have to go back then.” Of course, I knew he would probably disagree with me. Sometimes I think he likes to see how far we can run on fumes just to watch me squirm a little bit. But this time was different. Once we began winding our way through this remote mountain pass, we would be past the point of no return. We’d have to go all the way through. There would be no alternative routes ahead. There was only one way through to the other side, and we were on it.

“Let’s go for it. I think we can make it,” he says with a playful wink. I would have preferred him to leave out the word “think” in that statement, even if it were a lie. As we began winding our way through towering trees and around sharp cliffs without guardrails, I tried not to think about the fuel situation. I tried to enjoy one of the curviest, narrow, and most beautiful roads I had ever been on. But one thought kept gnawing at the back of my mind… We were now past the point of no return. We had to see this through.

At one point, when we still had about 20 miles to go, I could feel panic creeping into my thoughts. The cool, moist ocean air was long gone, and we were driving through what was almost a high dessert. As the 100-degree heat bore down through the windshield, I suddenly recalled a story from the nightly news about some motorists out West getting stranded in the mountains, fighting off a mountain lion, and getting severely dehydrated before another car came along. Not good things to flash through your mind when you’re running on fumes. Of course, I instantly counted in my head how many bottles of water we had with us. I also started keeping track of how often we passed another vehicle. Or at least I tried. I think we encountered only two the entire trip.

Well, you get the idea, so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. We made it. But barely. I think even my husband was getting a teensy bit nervous when he asked me several times if I had a cell signal and could I tell how far away the nearest gas station was. During that time, he remained incredibly serene and totally enamored with the route and the epic scenery. I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want him to know I was so distracted by the “what if’s.” When it was all over, I was relieved, of course, but in the weeks since I have also come to realize how much of life is about living beyond the point of no return. Each and every day. Not only the ones filled with obvious reasons to panic. Every second that ticks by of our lives cannot be repeated. There is no turning back. Ever. So why is it we so often live as though we can do things over and over? Like we always have another day, another year, to love someone as we should. To apologize. To make things right. To pursue our dreams.

I love how there’s story after story in the Bible to teach us how to live each day with an understanding that we’ve passed the point of no return. And if we have eyes to see them, there are stories happening all around us right now, each with their own remarkable lesson to learn. I don’t know why this surprises me, but I had to reach my own point of no return to understand the power and impact of praising God in the heat of spiritual battle. But just to be crystal clear about what I mean by praising God, I am not talking about simply having an attitude of praise, or giving Him prayers of thanksgiving, or even spending time on my knees telling Him how much I honor, love, and worship Him. Turning to God in our moments of need is often composed of spiritual disciplines that feel comfortable in our solitude. After all, being vulnerable is usually something we prefer to do alone. And prayer is powerful. Meditating on the Word is life-changing. But we often miss out on one of the most immediately effective weapons in our arsenal — singing praise to God. Yes, I mean singing out loud with all your might all by yourself. Anywhere you are. Any time. Ok, maybe not in the middle of the grocery store or the office break room, but just about any time you get the chance, especially when you are walking through the middle of a life storm, a major decision, or feel a spiritual attack.

More than spiritual icing on the cake after a good sermon or a spontaneous response to an outpouring of blessings, singing to God is a no-kidding, get-serious weapon to fight a myriad of spiritual problems within our hearts, in the world around us, and against the very forces of evil that want to destroy our souls. If you typically reserve out-loud singing for Sundays or would never dream of bursting into song all by yourself, which is how I have been most of my life, then you may not have experienced the miraculous power of singing praises in the midst of spiritual warfare. And if you’re like me, you may not have a good voice. But talent is completely irrelevant when it comes to the effective use of singing to fight your battles and bring joy to the heart of your Creator. For this, I am incredibly thankful. However, once you experience the miraculous results of singing during an onslaught of anger, suffering, frustration, pain, heartbreak, rejection, or injustice, and learn to wield the weapon effectively and consistently, you’ll never want to be without it again.

One of the best things I’ve ever read about fighting spiritual battles with praise is a sermon entitled “Ambushing Satan with the Power of Song,” delivered by John Piper back in 1985. With triumphant delivery and filled with powerful anecdotes both drawn from the Bible and everyday experiences, Piper explains why singing is so necessary for the power of God to be unleashed and how it works. “Singing is not merely a response to grace. Singing is power. I promise you [singing] will bring a new power to your fight of faith. Satan cannot bear the singing of the saints. You can drive him away with song. And don’t fall for his lie that you can’t sing. Everybody can sing. Not everybody can perform. Not everybody can lead. Not everybody can read music or even stay on the right keys. But everybody can sing to God.”

He goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit residing in believers is our “great hope against Satan” and that one of the primary ways we release the power of the Holy Spirit is through song, according to Ephesians 5:18b-19. “Be filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord with all your heart.” Then, Piper tells four powerful stories — two from the Bible, one about missionary Jim Elliot, and one from Piper’s own ministry — which demonstrate the miraculous effect of singing. Here’s a quick recap of the stories Piper tells, but I strongly encourage you to listen to or read the full-length sermon.
  • Jehoshaphat — First up is Jehoshaphat, one of the Godly kings of Judah who began his 25-year reign in 870 BC. When his enemies rose up against him, Jehoshaphat and the people sought God’s help through prayer and singing, ultimately sending the musicians and vocalists to the frontline of the army rather than the soldiers. 2 Chronicles 20:22 tells us how the battle went. “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.” This story also reminded me of Jericho from Joshua 6:20, and how the walls fell before the Israelites when they blew their trumpets.
  • Paul and Silas — Next, Piper recounts the story of Paul and Silas suffering in prison after being flogged and publicly humiliated. As Piper points out, most of us cry out in prayer when we are in pain or hit bottom, but rarely would we turn to something as simplistic or Pollyanna-ish as singing. Yet, according to Piper, Paul and Silas new the simplistic solution was the best one. They needed a display of God’s power and knew that He would inhabit the praises of His people. So they sang. And it worked. Acts 16:26 says, “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.”
  • Jim Elliot — Just before being killed for his faith, missionary Jim Elliot and his companions spent time singing praises to God as they prepared to take the Gospel to the Auca Indians of Ecuador. Like me, when you read that, you might immediately recoil, wondering why Piper would use that story as an example of the power of praise in spiritual warfare. It sounds like a complete failure to me. But Piper explains why Jim Elliot was triumphant through song this way: “All five of them were killed that afternoon. But they, too, were protected by God — protected from a fate far worse than death. They were protected from cowardice and unbelief and fear. And I think it would be fair to say — protected with song.” I think we could say the same for Horatio Spafford, who wrote the timeless hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” following the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire, which ignited a chain of events that utterly broke him financially and led to the death of his four living children. Song miraculously sustained Spafford and his wife through the most horrendous seasons of grief and loss.
  • A Demon-Possessed Woman — Many of us have never knowingly encountered a person possessed by evil spirits. We read about such things in the Bible and wonder how it could be any more than a riveting movie plot in today’s world. But Piper includes a personal experience in his sermon that is both stunning and incredibly educational. As a pastor, he has counseled people struggling with all kinds of battles, but in this case, he had been called by a group of believers trying to help a woman displaying all the characteristics of possession. As hours and hours pass, the group reads scripture to her and prays for her. She grows ever more violent, but doesn’t seem to make any real progress toward healing. Then, everything changed in a split second with the addition of song. Here is how Piper tells it: “At one point, about one in the morning, when the conflict rose to a fever pitch between the Word of God and the satanic force in this woman, someone in the group began to sing. It was one of our familiar worship songs. We sang it again and again and the Lord gave us new words for it each time. The effect on her was dramatic. She began to tremble and threaten us if we didn’t stop. Then she threw herself on the floor and screamed for Satan not to leave her. She went into convulsions and then went limp. When she came to, she remembered nothing of what happened and was willing to read Scripture and pray.” Singing was an instrument in this woman’s healing and the believers’ fight against Satan for her life.

Maybe the idea of singing praises sounds too simplistic to you. Honestly, it kind of did for me too. Sure, I’ve experienced a fresh outpouring of joy and strength when I’ve spent time praising God, either at church, or at home, or singing aloud in my car where no one will suffer from my off-key strains. But until recently, I hadn’t tried singing when I was angry or bewildered. I don’t know about you, but singing is absolutely the last thing I feel like doing when I’m angry or discouraged. But after a series of one frustrating or disappointing situation after another, I felt as though I was at the point of no return. Then the thought occurred to me to get angry — righteously angry, that is — at the source of all the trouble. Yes, prayer, speaking the Word, fasting, and saying the name of Jesus are all critical components in defeating Satan, but song is sometimes the very ingredient — when added to all the others — that seems to take our defense to the stratosphere. Why on earth would something that on the surface seems like the antithesis of strength and force be so powerful? How does praise work? According to Piper, the praises of God’s people lifted up to the throne of the King throws the enemy into confusion. It happened with Jehoshaphat and with the demon-possessed woman. I’ve always believed in the necessity to be a warrior in the fight against Satan, but it’s never been as real, or as visceral, as it is now.

This week’s five-day devotional guide, which is included at the bottom of the blog post, is a little bit different than I normally provide. But if you’re ready to do some battle through song, then I encourage you to check it out. You may not have time to do all of it, nor may you be ready to try everything it suggests, but here’s one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you’ll come out of whatever you try in a better place spiritually than before you started.

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
  • Day 1 - Watch this inspiring three-minute video from Desiring God which is based on the original sermon by John Piper. Then after spending time in prayer, sing your favorite praise chorus or hymn to God.
  • Day 2 - Listen to a few songs you know from this playlist and sing along as the Holy Spirit leads you. Following your time of worship, read Psalm 5:11 and ask God to keep the power of praise alive in your heart throughout the day.
  • Day 3 - Revisit the story from Joshua 6 about Jericho’s walls falling and then journal about the walls you need to fall and why. Ask God to give you a song in your heart to sing until the walls fall, whether it’s hours, days, or weeks from now.  This song from the playlist on Day 1 will encourage you.
  • Day 4 - Write down your greatest fear, whether or not it’s something that’s actually interfering with your life right now. Read Zephaniah 3:17, then Listen to the song “You Make Me Brave” from the playlist. In that spirit of worship, go to the Lord in prayer.
  • Day 5 - Revisit the story of Paul and Silas in jail from Acts 16. What is remarkable about their ordeal and what role did praising God play in helping them? Ask God to help you turn to Him in song more often. Jot down any situation that comes to your mind that needs the power of praise. Spend time in prayer asking God to help you react in praise rather than anger, frustration, guilt, shame, or bewilderment.
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What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Praising God Past the Point of No Return
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Three Ways to Draw Closer to God

9/4/2019

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3 ways to draw closer to God using your imagination
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Gardenias are one of my favorite flowers. With an intense, unmistakable, and almost intoxicating scent, one deep inhale instantly transports me to a tropical paradise. When I was a young teenager, I remember buying a very cheap gardenia perfume, naively thinking that a manmade chemical would smell as lovely on me as the real deal. Of course, it didn’t take long for me to realize that only the genuine article could emanate the kind of sublime sweetness and allure I desired.
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So all of my life, I have wanted to have a gardenia bush in my yard, and until recently, that desire was impossible. But now that I have given up living among Northeastern pines for the temperate climate of Northern California, I finally have my wish. Just outside my office window sits not one, but two large, mature gardenias. I was elated when we first moved in, but was soon disappointed to find that the blooms would wilt and turn brown within hours of being picked and placed in a vase with water on my desk. Without a direct connection to their source of life, both their sweetness and beauty faltered quickly.

If you’ve been reading Glimmers in the Fog for a while, I’m sure it will come as no surprise to hear what happened next. For a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of God in the petals of that gardenia on my desk and thought of how similar it is to the human soul. Without a constant connection to its Source of life, the inevitable comes quickly. In seemingly no time, we wilt, fade, discolor, and lose our Christ-like fragrance. We may think we can survive with a bland substitute for nourishment, but the even the most attractive of settings and adornments are no match for the life-giving act of abiding close to God.

But what can we do when we don’t feel close? Well, if you’re already leaning into Him through the daily habits of reading the Word, prayer, active listening, and Holy Spirit-directed meditation, a sprinkling of a little imagination might be precisely what you need to reinvigorate your attachment or help you overcome obstacles, such as distractions, in your quiet time with God. If the idea of using your imagination seems silly, then consider this quote by Presbyterian minister Henry Ward Beecher from the mid-1800s. “The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.” In other words, we can only achieve our God-given purpose in life if we regularly engage our imagination.

Beecher, who was a tireless abolitionist, went so far as to say, “the imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.” While I wasn’t able to find the context surrounding that statement, I suspect that he must have been inspired by the many stories in the Bible where God called people to take a step of faith off the ledge of life… to have the kind of courage that most of us can only imagine. Beecher spent most of his life risking everything to free slaves, so I am sure he found the strength to follow his calling through the stories of the Biblical greats who were called before him. Abraham had never been anywhere. Yet God called him to pack up his stuff and simply “go.” Where? “To a land I will show you.” Ok, translated into modern life, God basically said to him, “Well, that’s for me to know and you to find out.” Romans 4 tells us that Abraham “in hope believed against hope.” And through him all humankind was blessed.

In our quest to know God better, depend on Him more deeply, and see His glory radiate through our lives, the cultivation of our imagination is absolutely critical. I like to think of Ephesians 3:14-21 as the great “imagination manifesto” of Paul the Apostle. Sure, there are tons of other often quoted verses, like placing our trust in the unseen and betting the farm on future hope, and they are all useful and encouraging. But I love the passage from Ephesians because it directly ties the unwavering strength we long for and the deep understanding we crave to the use of our imagination. We have to use our imagination to even begin to fathom the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ's love for us. We have to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and humble in order to envision, or dream about, the glorious riches of God and His kingdom. The Message version of that passage describes God as “the magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth.” And this same mighty Father accomplishes more than we can imagine, “Not by pushing us around, but by working within us His Spirit.”

So how can we use our imagination to help us draw closer to our Heavenly Father? I suppose the possibilities are as endless as God is, but here are three that came to my mind once more as I enjoyed the scent and sight of that fading gardenia sitting next to my keyboard.

#1 — Imagine His promises being fulfilled in your life.
The Bible is packed with more than 3,500 specific promises. When God says something, He means it, and He doesn’t discriminate based on your eligibility or desirability. He wants us to have wisdom, joy, peace, and hope in every circumstance. There aren’t any exceptions. However, we often fail to see some of God’s promises come to fruition in our lives. And, I don’t know about you, but it’s when I am most desperate for His help that the promises seem to evade me. I’ve pondered this a lot through my years of faith, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am the problem, not God. When I feel like I am at my wit's end — or have drifted far away from the Source of life — those are usually the times where I don’t allow the Holy Spirit to come in and calm my crazy mind and fulfill His promises.

When I flail about mentally, I am the equivalent of a drowning swimmer who doesn’t see the lifeguard reaching for her. Here’s the key: God is calling us to act on the promises we haven’t seen, felt, or experienced yet. For example, if I am feeling anxious and pray for peace, God then wants me to call upon my imagination and envision receiving that promise of peace in full measure. It's that first step of envisioning the promised peace coming to fruition, which then allows me to begin acting like I’ve received it. And when we take action, our minds eventually follow. But it takes courage to believe that peace is there — we just need to stop future-tripping, over-analyzing, and pondering all the “what-ifs.”

Philippians 4:8-9 clearly instructs us to stop thinking about the what-ifs and focus only on those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and worthy of praise. That pretty much rules out future-tripping, because what you think might happen is not actually true yet. Period.  Proverbs 3:24, for example, is a promise about sleep. ”When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” Now certainly there are times where extenuating circumstances may prevent us from going to bed. There may also be situations where God might be urging you to stay up and pray, but generally speaking, He wants to bless us with good rest. You know those nights where you’re lying there worrying or your mind is just racing about your to-do list? Those aren’t His will. Next time, try imagining what it feels like for the promise of Proverbs 3:24 to wash over you. Take the leap of faith and believe that He wants that for you. Envision His canopy of stars displayed over your bed, and as you imagine yourself looking into the night sky, meditate on the verse. Your imagination can help you commit to your belief and lead you to the action of trust. And, with a little bit of practice, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to rest more peacefully.

#2 — Imagine what He’s calling you to do.
When your imagination and a divinely-directed purpose are combined, your motivation, courage, and understanding of God’s power are ignited. Set ablaze. Pumped up. Pick whatever phrase makes you excited about God’s adventure for your life. David had to imagine himself defeating Goliath. He envisioned putting the stone in the slingshot and felling the giant on the first try. (The story is found in 1 Samuel 17.) Queen Esther had to summon the courage to go before the king and beg for the life of her people. In that culture, people were put to death who dared go before the king without his request — especially a woman. With prayer and imagination, she envisioned doing what God told her to do. Her imagination helped fuel her courage. Both David and Esther first had to see themselves trusting God and acting on what He asked them to do. So whether God is asking you to talk to the grocery store clerk, leave your job, or save your marriage, imagine yourself doing what He asks you to do, filled with His Spirit, and then walk onward boldly — all for His glory, and not your own. Colossians 3:2 reminds us to “set our minds on things above” as we live out our daily lives. That command can only happen if we integrate our imaginations into our pursuit of God.

#3 — Imagine His splendor and majesty daily.
When we ponder the greatness of God in a new way on a daily basis, many amazing things happen. First, we are humbled and our perspective shifts from our immediate world and our own agendas, to His grandeur and higher plan for our lives. Pride lurking in our hearts and behind our motivations, will always taint our imagination and turn it away from envisioning the truth of God’s Word and what He has planned for us. Second, we become thankful. When we meditate on the power, love, and wisdom of the King of the Universe, we can’t help but bow in worship and gratitude that He cares enough to commune with each of us on a personal level. Third, taking the time to meditate on the splendor of God and praising Him for His attributes and character, will help you to develop more self-control and mental discipline. Using your imagination to envision what it’s like sitting at His feet or worshipping before His throne takes practice, but we are commanded to do it. How else could we “enter His courts with praise” (Psalm 100) or be creative enough to find a new way to praise Him every day (Psalm 96:1)? As believers in Jesus, we are transformed into sons and daughters of the King — and that’s not just in eternity. God is calling us to act like the chosen ones we are, here on earth, so that we reflect His glory in heaven to others. And if we are not spending time letting our minds explore the vastness of who He is, then how will we ever become familiar enough with our King to resemble Him?

Using your imagination regularly as a part of your worship and quiet time with God will not only make the connection feel stronger, it will fortify your spirit to face all that life dishes out. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 gives us this encouragement: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Next time you pray, imagine yourself sitting with Jesus in your favorite place. And if you have the privilege of sitting in a beautiful spot, ask the Holy Spirit to open your spiritual eyes to see evidence of Him in the sights around you. But whether you’re in a lush garden or in cramped closet, your imagination can take you to the feet of Christ. Spend time really listening for His voice in the stillness of your heart. Imagining a peaceful place free of distractions and to-do lists will do wonders for your concentration and listening power. Once you’re completely still in your heart and mind, ask Him to show you something new about Him today. And then believe that He will. It may happen right then. It might happen later on your drive to work. It could happen in while you’re making dinner or during your morning run. But the more you train your mind to focus on Him — through the help of your imagination — the more likely your ears will be working, and your heart will have eyes to see that which is unseen.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts on this post! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Spend some time picturing what a grape vine looks like just before it is ready to harvest. Use your imagination to gaze upon its root system, abundant leaves, vines, and finally, the grapes. Think about the weather, too, as you look at the vine. Are the grapes glistening in the sun, or is it perhaps misty and rainy? Once you feel immersed in imagining the grapevine, read John 15:1-11 and then write down anything that comes to mind while you absorb the passage. Spend time in prayer.
Day 2 - God frequently appeared to people in the Old Testament through visions and unusual transformations of nature. When He first reached out to Moses, He spoke from a burning bush. Read Exodus 3:1-6 and envision yourself in the story in place of Moses. What thoughts cross your mind when you get close enough to feel the heat of the flames? What about when you hear His voice for the first time? As you imagine yourself taking off your shoes and kneeling before God, be encouraged. Like Moses, you may feel ill-equipped to know God, follow Him, or be used for His glory. But also like Moses, God will bring about great things through you if you’re yielded to His hand in your life.
Day 3 - Psalm 1:3 gives us a beautiful picture of a believer devoted to God. Read it in a few different versions. Pray your favorite one back to God and then write down anything you sense Him whispering to your heart.
Day 4 - Jesus often used word pictures to help us “see” an invisible spiritual truth. Read Matthew 7:24-27 and contemplate what Jesus wants you to see in this passage? Write down how you think it applies to your life right now. Then spend time in prayer asking God to reassure of His promise to set your feet on the solid rock.
Day 5 - Psalm 23 is paints one of the riches pictures of God’s tender care and provision for those He loves. Spend time reading the psalm in several different versions of the Bible, including The Message for a fresh perspective. Then spend time visualizing yourself as God’s child resting in the pasture. Meditate on the promises He’s made to you. ​

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How to Choose joy when You Don't Feel Like It

8/28/2019

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If you’ve seen the movie Unbroken or read the book of the same name, you may recall a scene near the beginning where the young main character, Louie Zamperini, is training for his school’s track team to ward off the constant bullying and teasing by his classmates. In the beginning, he is riddled with self-doubt and floundering under the weight of discouragement. Louie didn’t feel like competing. Initially, he wasn’t motivated to take the actions necessary to persevere in extenuating circumstances. Seeing that his mental state of mind was going to kill his physical ability to perform, his older brother Pete gives him a pep talk, which concludes with this encouragement: “If you can take it, you can make it. Louie, a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”

One of the hardest things to do is feel something that you don’t, or to act a certain way when you have no motivation to do so. Yet, when we are depleted of joy and feeling down, stepping out on faith to express joy seems as hard as walking off a cliff and expecting God to supply a footbridge miraculously. Yet, as believers, that’s exactly what we’re called to do. Rejoice in suffering. Delight in God in all circumstances. Worship Him even when we don’t understand. Like Pete’s encouragement to Louie, Scripture essentially tells us to do something even when we don’t feel like it for the hope of victory down the road. But how on earth does God expect us to obey Him and experience joy in these types of situations? Are we supposed to be fake? Is God calling us to pretend? Well, yes and no. Now before you quit reading, I’m not at all saying that you should be inauthentic in your faith or actions or be disingenuous in any way with God. After all, last week I wrote about the topic of authenticity and how important it is for us to be real with ourselves, God, and others. But the old expression, “Fake it until you make it,” has some merit when applied the Biblical way. Unbroken is based on a true story, so kudos to Pete Zamperini for changing just one letter of a phrase that had already been around a long time and turning it into a battle cry that would ring in his little brother’s ears throughout years of his brutal hardship during World War 2.

We often choose NOT to feel the joy God is offering us because we disagree with God. We disagree with the circumstances He is allowing us to go through. And while we certainly don't want to be phony — like the dirty cups Jesus called the Pharisees in Luke 11:39, we also don't want to wait until we feel the internal desire to obey because having a joyless heart is not any way to live. It really comes down to acting on what God asks us to do because we love Him, whether we feel like showing that love or not. Whether we agree with Him or not.

In this fascinating Psychology Today
article, compelling research proves that our behaviors can dramatically change our emotions. “Many people assume that the link between emotion and behavior is one-way: Emotions shape behavior. You love him, therefore you kiss him. You hate him, therefore you hit him. This view is incorrect. In fact, the relationship is reciprocal. Much of the time, behavior actually shapes emotion,” said the article’s author Noam Shpancer, Ph.D. “Recent research in clinical psychology has shown that the fastest way to change an emotion is to change the behavior attached to it.” And he closes the article with this straightforward advice: “The shortest, most reliable way to change how you're feeling is to change what you're doing.”

As I read the rest of the article, it hit me that my intrinsic ability to feel joy or feel love for God is mainly grounded in biology and not spirit. We are also far more conscious of our human instincts and subsequent reactions, which is why the article points out that we’re all walking through life mostly based on feeling-driven assumptions versus intentional actions. How can we help it? After all, it’s what feels right… instinctual even. But Jesus came to show us how to live above feeling-driven human instincts. In stark contrast, He came to show us how to move beyond mere reactionary existence in this turbulent and challenging journey. He boldly declared that we are to walk in the Spirit, intentionally pursuing and experiencing an abundant life marked by the fruits of our love and trust in God. Scripture outlined a clear path to real and lasting joy long before psychologists had proof that behaviors can produce or change feelings, but it’s so satisfying to see empirical evidence of these invisible truths.

Take, for example, Sara Frankl, who wrote the book Choose Joy: Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts as a response to living with a terminal illness. She said, “He (God) fixes the problem when I ask Him to fix me. I believe He can do anything. I think He can physically heal me, I think He can stop a tornado and halt a flood. But I think what is most powerful is when He lets natural things happen and lets people use their free will, and at the same time fixes my heart and spirit to handle them.” God didn’t heal Sara. But has used Sara’s story to heal countless hurting hearts around the world. I agree with her, what is most potent is the display of God’s power through our tragedies and weaknesses.

As someone struggling to delight in the Lord right now, although I realize things will eventually get better with my current situation, I am learning not to pin my joy to a future hope of feeling better. Clearly, Sara learned that lesson as well. As her health deteriorated, her joy never wavered because it was pinned to something unchanging. Unlike Sara, I am just now realizing how often I have pinned my hopes to that which is likely to change. When times get tough, I have found joy more often than not by visualizing a better future. While there’s nothing wrong with imagining things getting better and drawing encouragement from that, God has been revealing to me how incredibly self-centered it is for me to rely on that kind of hope so heavily. He’s also been changing my perspective to see that I have often depended on my own natural bent toward optimism to get me through the hard times. So here I am learning what it means to be joyful in an entirely new way. And I feel like a kid getting on a bicycle for the first time. It’s a bit exhilarating, but also incredibly scary and awkward. And frankly, I am not any good at it. Just as I’ve never been athletically inclined, so I’m discovering that despite my generally cheery disposition, a day-to-day reliance on Spirit-generated joy is a learned behavior that takes careful nurturing and consistent implementation.

While I believe the time is coming once again when I will actually feel great joy bubbling up and overflowing spontaneously, I am now just starting to understand what it means when Paul says in Romans 15:13 (The Passion Translation), “Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you radiate with hope!” Yes, it is God’s responsibility to fill us, but notice in that verse that there are actions required on our part. It says, “As you trust in Him.” That’s the first behavior we must exhibit. We must choose to trust. Then, as the infilling of joy and peace comes, we are responsible to “radiate hope.” God’s actions are in partnership with ours, and that often means we have to get out of His way and let go of our own needs for comfort, agendas, expectations, and even our natural inclinations. All of which feels awkward and uncomfortable. But just like learning to ride a bike, something almost mystical happens when we finally get the hang of it. The untrained awkwardness gradually fades into smooth second nature, so much so we no longer think about balancing. We are no longer fearful of riding fast. We no longer fumble around with the gears. And suddenly, almost before we realize it, we’re simply enjoying the ride.

That’s what I think Jesus had in mind when He said in Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message version), “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” There’s no question it takes great effort to obey God when our feelings and flesh are screaming the opposite. But Jesus promises us that when we choose — when we take action despite our desires or inclinations — He will teach us the second nature of living through the power of His Spirit and not by the flesh.

All of this sounds great of course, but if you’re like me, then you’re looking up at heaven in the middle of whatever life has dealt you and asking, “Okay, I believe you, God. But how? How do I actually make myself choose joy when I feel anything but that? I understand that it comes through the power of your Spirit alive in me, but how do I even get on the bicycle when I don’t even feel like riding right now?”
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Well, when the motivation isn’t welling up inside, then I say let’s go get some. Focusing on my current situation, its litany of exhausting details, worries, and unknowns, is certainly not going to spur me to any healthy actions. Indeed, I’d rather wallow in complacency on the couch of idleness with a spoonful of unhealthy comfort. However, I am beginning to discover that although my current feelings don’t motivate me to choose joy, when I focus on the compelling reasons to do so in spite of my emotional state, something remarkable happens. Rather than reacting to the situation with discouragement, I start to feel a spark of determination based on the compelling reasons themselves and not the circumstances. I think the compelling reasons to choose joy will vary wildly from person to person, but in case it helps someone, I thought I’d throw out a few that are stirring up newfound motivation in me. Now, I’m not feeling like Rocky at the top of the steps of City Hall or anything, but these thoughts are helping me take the first action required from Romans 15:13.

Compelling reason number one: do it for the sake of love. I know this sounds like a cop-out. Mushy even. But if you’ve told Jesus that you love Him, then make every endeavor to be the man or woman who keeps her word. Try this. Use your imagination to picture yourself sitting on a park bench somewhere. Now envision yourself staring at people doing something beautiful, like an elderly couple walking hand-in-hand in front of a fiery sunset or a group of little kids giggling as they chase each other around a jungle gym. Whatever whispers to your soul of pure, undefiled beauty. As you’re immersed in the site of something utterly perfect, imagine Jesus walking up and sitting down beside you. Don’t worry about what He looks like or what He’s wearing. Just focus on His presence. Allow yourself to sit there wordlessly with Him and gaze at the sight before you. Feel the unforced rhythms of grace as you effortlessly relax into the moment. You’re now observing the most beautiful display of humanity you can imagine with the most amazing person in the universe. And then He gently and tenderly asks you the same thing He did of Peter in John 21, “Do you love me?” Turn and look at Jesus full in the face and see if you don’t find the motivation to choose joy out of pure love for Him and unconditional love for many hurting people around you who will only see Jesus if you’re willing to let Him shine through you. (To make it easier, click the play button at the top of this post to listen to the audio version of this message.)

Compelling reason number two: don’t let evil win. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” So I hate to lose. Who doesn’t? But unlike playing cribbage with my father-in-law, I am promised a victory in Christ against an adversary who has made it his life mission to make me miserable. Each time I don’t choose joy, Satan wins a skirmish. I want to be a victor. I want to honor the One who has made me a champion. I will choose joy, even though it is not natural or logical. I will fight for joy by taking the actions that lead my heart to joy. 

Compelling reason number three: focus on eternal hope rather than temporary relief. If we return to the story of Louie Zamperini once more, we’re reminded that fixing our hope on something unshakable changes our perspective and keeps us motivated. When Louie is stranded at sea with his fellow soldiers, he turns to God instead of dwelling on his circumstances. This helped him view even the smallest things as blessings, versus dwelling on every detail of their life-depleting conditions.  Hope birthed endurance, and endurance helped him survive.
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The reasons that motivate you to choose joy even when you don’t feel like it may be different than mine. I expect mine will vary from time to time, depending on the cause of my struggles, but one thing remains sure for either of us — we are 100% incapable of giving up… throwing in the towel… taking our ball and going home… if we are willing to make ourselves do what the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk did following a series of tragedies in Israel — he rejoiced. I’ll close with his words from Habakkuk 3:17-19. Let them wash over you, soothe your bitterness and pain, and trickle down into the depths of your heart and soul today. As you read them, go back to seeing yourself in the park with Jesus. Say these words to Him and then let Him respond to you. “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places.” Amen.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide for Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - I didn’t want to write about joy this week. I seriously questioned whether or not I could even be authentic with the words if I did. But something within me felt so desperate for it, I had no choice but to ask God to lay words on my heart, even if I didn’t like them or feel them. Have you ever felt that way with God about something you need or feel deprived of? Have you humbled yourself and asked Him to give you what He knows you need instead? Read the words of Matthew 11:28-30 in The Message Version, The Passion Translation, and then in two more literal versions like the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible. Write down what you sense God whispering to your heart.
Day 2 - Using your imagination as a part of your daily quiet time with Jesus can be a very effective way to help you focus and listen to His voice. Read Philippians 2:1-18. Pick one verse resonates with you the most and then visualize hearing it from Jesus Himself as you sit together in a peaceful place.
Day 3 - When we pin our hopes to the unshakeable Rock who is God, we are less likely to be swayed or spiritually damaged by our circumstances. In fact, just the opposite happens, we will grow stronger and closer to Jesus every day. Read Matthew 7:24-27 and James 1:6. Ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what to do to get stronger in Christ.
Day 4 - Sometimes we fabricate joy by seeking comfort and happiness in things versus God Himself. Read these two passages — Psalm 42:1-3 and Romans 14:17 — and then pray them back to God. Ask Him to show you anything that is bringing you more comfort and joy than He does.
Day 5 - Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love others. Read these four Scripture passages and ask the Holy Spirit to help you love with a greater capacity than you ever have before. Spend some time writing down any barriers that might be standing in the way of love right now and then ask Jesus to help you remove them one by one.

How to choose joy even when you don't feel like it
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How God Sees You

8/14/2019

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How God Sees You and Cares For You
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I love just about any movie with Tom Hanks in it. Yes, I know everybody loves Tom Hanks, so my statement is certainly not profound or controversial, but just for the record, he was one of my favorite actors long before “Sleepless in Seattle” was released in 1993. I can remember watching “Bosom Buddies” reruns after school and being hooked on his one-of-a-kind comedic timing and boy-next-door charm. And, of course, when “Splash” came out in 1984, I begged my Mom to take me to the theater. I mean, what girl wouldn’t want to see a live-action movie about a mermaid?

So when interesting things happen in life, as you can imagine, I often think of a Tom Hanks film. While adjusting to our new house is not nearly as bad as the absolute debacle in the film, lately I have been pining to revisit Mr. Hanks’ first-of-many collaborations with Steven Spielberg — “The Money Pit,” which tells the hilarious story of a couple pouring endless amounts of coin into a fixer-upper that is clearly never going to be fixed. Since it’s one of the few Hanks movies I don’t have in my embarrassingly large DVD collection, I have to admit that part of me is afraid to go digging online for it because watching it might actually hit too close to home. More than anything else, it’s a recent experience cleaning up some construction debris that made me think of Tom’s most famous line from the movie: “Here lies Walter Fielding. He bought a house, and it killed him.” No, our new house is not going to kill us, but I think the number of unexpected problems we’re dealing with has quite possibly shaved a few years off our lives and undoubtedly increased the percentage of gray hairs on my head.

One of the messiest projects currently underway at our house is the repair of a broken pipe underneath our back patio. Since the demolition of cement slabs is required to get underground and fix the issues, we have a long way to go yet before the process of restoration can begin. Round one of the deconstruction to find the breaks is over, but the second wave of work needed to completely expose the affected area surrounding the bad pipe is coming next week. Given that construction dust is not good for the surrounding foliage we had just planted along the back fence, I went outside the morning after the initial demolition to rinse off the leaves, branches, and flowers. Besides making a mental note to gently cover them before the next round of chaos begins, I noticed that the dust seemed to cling unusually well to one new plant in particular — the star jasmine, which is a thick, flowering vine prized for its fragrant white blooms. Frustrated by the stubborn stickiness of the dust, I rinsed the leaves three times, only to find them still coated in a thin film of white hours later. It was clear a quick rinsing wasn’t going to do the job. If I wanted to give this young plant a fair shot at life, I was going to have to get down on my hands and knees and gingerly wipe each and every leaf.

As I began the tedious chore, I quickly realized that for such a small plant, this star jasmine already had what seemed like a thousand leaves. This was going to be way more work than I wanted it to be. So as my frustration levels rose along with the heat of the day, I teetered on becoming downright cranky with the whole situation. I grew angry with myself for not remembering to cover the new plants in the first place, and I began to stew all over again at the unfairness of having to correct the previous owner’s apparent neglect. And just as I was sliding into an abyss of bitterness for the day, I remembered a request I had asked of God a few weeks earlier when we realized the scope of problems with our new house. I had prayed for His perspective on these problems, not mine. I had asked Him to give me eyes to see His blessings, purpose, and patience through this season. I asked Him to draw me closer to Him in the struggle, rather than leaning on my own resources (of which I had none left anyway), wisdom, and resilience.
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“Here’s your opportunity,” a still small voice whispered in my heart. “How would I see this task? What can you learn about Me at this moment?”

I smiled when the whisper came, and that small recognition tenderly pulled me back to a sitting position, right down into the dust with the star jasmine. In my bitter, inward ranting, I had previously refused to sit down during the process and had instead chosen to bend over or squat while rubbing leaves one by one. I hadn’t wanted to give in to the task, nor had I wanted to get dirty myself. Almost like an unconscious protest, I had opted for the aching back and leg cramps, rather than finding a comfortable position to do my work. Now, as I sat down in the dust with the plant and felt relief slowly rising in my extremities, I shook my head in wonder at God. Right there, sitting in the rubble and mud, I caught a glimpse of Jesus. Not only does He get down in the grime of our messes to help us come out of them, He walks through each phase of the construction process with us — demolition, clean-up, and full restoration. We not only get to know His character during these seasons, but we also learn how to tangibly rely on Him for everything in life with ever-increasing intensity.

It would have been so easy for me to opt for the quick solution with that small star jasmine. It had just been planted, so going to the greenhouse and buying another one would have been far easier than cleaning hundreds of leaves one by one. But God had a message for me that He could only deliver through the dust and the sweat. His Word tells me to be a good steward with the resources He’s given me, and discarding a perfectly good plant for the sake of my convenience wouldn’t honor Him. And I think it was that initial obedience to do the work — although reluctantly, I admit — that ushered in His ultimate purpose for that moment: He wanted me to see me as He sees me. And through that vision, He wanted me to draw closer to Him. And how does He see me? How does He see you? Well, frankly, we’re like a fledgling young plant with great potential but almost always covered in some kind of construction dust. Sure, there are moments where most areas of our lives seem to be going well, and we’re growing by leaps and bounds. But more often than not, we are always going through some kind of demolition or construction project in one area or another. Sometimes the demolition phase is for our own good, and other times, it brings widespread damage because of our own destructive choices. But regardless of the cause, Jesus is there in the midst of it all to shepherd every detail of our restoration. That’s because God sees us as a part of Himself. Made in His very image and created to be one with Him, His spirit dwells inside of all those who believe and follow. We are His temple. His earthly home. His child. His heir. We are called to walk in the very likeness of His Son. So, no matter the cause of the problem, whether we’re covered in the remnants of our own sins and mistakes, or we’re coated in suffering through no fault of our own, Jesus will always be there to wipe off the construction dust and expose us to the light and nourishment of His presence.

We are all vulnerable to forgetting how God sees us, especially the most seasoned of believers. Life has a way of hardening us as we grow, sometimes turning our previous trials and hardships into recurring memories that we allow to shape our perspective and cloud our vision. The newness of God’s cleansing presence and the yielding to His surgical precision become dulled based on our own perceived maturity, hurts, failures, and even our successes. We begin to think we know what God will do next based on our personal experience, rather than leaving our hearts and minds open to the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” Sure, our experiences can guide us in better identifying the marks of God’s hand and hearing His voice, but we should never allow them to speculate on what He intends to do or say.

When we remember that God sees us as His son or daughter, whom He always loves, accepts, and restores through Jesus, our response should always be one of awe, humility, and receptivity to whatever He wants. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 18:3, that we are to be like children. I love how the ESV study Bible gives that statement some context: “The humility of a child consists of childlike trust, vulnerability, and the inability to advance his or her own cause apart from the help, direction, and resources of a parent.” Therefore, the mark of growth and maturity in a Christian is not what we would expect, or even naturally desire. We are not to seek the increase of our own wisdom, independence, or ruggedness. Rather, God wants us to become progressively more dependent on Him… for everything. He doesn’t even want us to see or evaluate situations, people, or things around us from our own point of view. He wants us to begin each day and approach every moment with His truth as our point of reference.

Not to say that any of this is easy, of course. But thankfully that’s where God’s promises, like Lamentations 3:22-23 come in, assuring us that for each new day, He will be there immersed with us in the trials of life. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” When you get up in the morning and face a day filled with daunting challenges, you may look in the mirror and see a face weary with frustration or disappointment, but God sees you as you can be under His wing and filled with His strength. While you and I are certainly a work in progress, God can see the finished masterpiece He is forming His child to be over time. So next time you find yourself covered with the suffocating dust and remnants of life’s endless construction projects, and you’re either frustrated with yourself, those around you, or both, Jesus beckons you to take a moment and look for Him drawing close right beside you. The clean-up process may seem overwhelming, but with His tender hand guiding your work, you’ll be restored and captivatingly fragrant like star jasmine blossoming in the afternoon sun.


What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide for Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
​

Day 1 - Part of learning to believe the truth of how God sees you is grasping how much He loves you and the ramifications of that kind of love. Read Ephesians 3:14-19 in several different versions of the Bible and spend time in prayer asking God to whisper to your soul of how much He loves you. Ask Him to reveal any corners of your heart or mind that you haven’t surrendered to His love. Write down what comes to mind and commit it to prayer this week.
Day 2 - Throughout the Bible God promises to protect us, guide us, and be our shield in the storms of life. But that doesn’t mean the trials won’t come. When they do, He will walk through the suffering with us, drawing us closer than we we’ve ever been. Take a moment to listen to this worship song (Another in the Fire by Hillsong) and ask the Holy Spirit to give you courage to step out on faith before you feel His presence. If we step forward, He’ll be there to meet us. If you have time, read Daniel 3 and how God showed up to walk in the fire with His beloved ones.
Day 3 - Read 1 Peter 2:9 several times. What does it mean to you to hear that you are royalty? How should this guide your daily habits, perspectives, and behaviors? Spend time in prayer and ask God to reveal any ways in which you might not be seeing the truth of this verse in your life.
Day 4 - Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 several times. Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to encourage you and convict you in any ways that you have not seen or cared for your body as His temple.   
Day 5 -  Read2 Corinthians 1:3-4. God calls us to comfort each other through the difficulties of life. We are supposed to get down in the dust and debris of life with each other. If you’re going through a hard time right now, find someone to share that with and ask them to pray with you regularly until the trial passes. If you’re in a good place, then ask God to put people in your path who need support and prayer. And if a name is coming to your mind right now, then take a moment and pray for that person right now. Maybe share this podcast or blog with them as an encouragement.

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Does God Want you to Be a Minimalist?

8/7/2019

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Does God Want You to Be a Minimalist?
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From the day you were born, you started collecting stuff that will be with you for the rest of your life. Indeed, stuff was already waiting for you in your room before you even came home from the hospital. There were the super practical things, of course, some of which would come and go within hours (like the diapers) and others that would linger for years until you grew out of them. And then there were the completely non-practical items. These were usually adorable and capable of generating an “Awwwww, how cute,” comment in the most high-pitched tone. Some of them were useless, but entirely sentimental icons of your earliest days, and they might still be tucked away in a box in the furthest corners of your attic or basement, no matter how old you are. If keeping some of your childhood memories isn’t your thing, then I am sure something else is. It may be a weakness for clothes, gadgets, knick-knacks, or books. Even artwork, pantry items, tools, office supplies, or small appliances can mound up through the years.

For most people, too much stuff of some kind in their closets, drawers, or garages is making them feel smothered, constricted, overwhelmed, busy, depressed, or frustrated on some level, whether it be occasionally troublesome or incredibly debilitating. We all exist somewhere on the continuum between minimalism and hoarding. But where does God want us to be? Is joining the minimalism movement, led by the likes of Marie Kondo and Clea Shearer, any different from trying out the latest fad diet to shrink our expanding waistlines? We try them out, only to find ourselves struggling again once we inevitably diverge from the plan. I found myself asking these questions and many similar ones over the last several months of packing, moving, and trying to unpack. Notice I used the word “trying” regarding settling into my new home. Just like getting a huge shock when you step on the scale for the first time in five months (yep, I have that problem too!), I have been both surprised and dismayed at how little storage capacity is available in my house. Having too much stuff combined with an impressive lack of storage options has created the perfect storm of clutter, disorganization, and overwhelm in almost every room.

For those of you who know me, the inability to unpack quickly, organize, and enjoy clutter-free tidiness, is driving me crazy. Bonkers. Nuts. Attach any word to it that makes you picture a woman with her hair on fire, and you’ll understand my state of mind. What’s more, I’m one of those writers who can’t even concentrate on crafting a single sentence until my desk area complies to my own very unorthodox version of feng shui. While I recognize that I am clearly displaying inherited OCD tendencies right now, and I probably need to break into a rendition of a saccharine Disney tune like Hakuna Matata or Let It Go, the truth of the matter still needs to be addressed. I must purge. Purge even more now than I did when I packed up everything. But again, questions come to my mind. Do I purge only enough to ease the madness, or should I take it much further and clear out everything but real necessities? And speaking of essentials, how is that really defined in my life? What is truly necessary, versus what makes life a bit more comfortable, versus what is outright indulgence or laziness? Did God lead my husband and I to this home in order to spur me toward adopting a more minimalistic lifestyle, or is being at some other point on the continuum of stewardship acceptable to Him?

Perhaps you’ve also wondered how much stuff God wants His followers to have. And I am not just talking about the stuff that actually costs money. Most of the faith-driven Christian books, blog posts, and sermons surrounding this topic tend to focus only on the stewardship component of this problem. As a result, I think many believers end up feeling justified in hanging onto a lot of stuff through the years as long as they are honoring God with their financial giving through regular tithing and offerings. After all, as far as I know, there’s no verse in the Bible that says you shouldn’t keep your first-grade finger painting masterpiece or that special dress that you wore to your Sweet 16 party (um, that would be me.) Or how about we head into even more sensitive territory? What would the Bible guide us to do with highly useful items that haven’t been used in a decade? What if we will need them again for some unpredictable project or event in the future? If we needed something once, doesn’t it stand to reason that we will need it again? And wouldn’t God want us to tuck it away in the back of the shed or closet instead of spending money on a new one should the need ever arise again? That last example is the toughest one of all, isn’t it? Maybe that expensive tool will come in handy again. Or perhaps the outfit you bought for that black tie wedding ten years ago might come back in style.

While Jesus didn’t talk specifically about things like that, He did make one truth repeatedly clear during His time with the disciples. He asks us to remove anything from our lives that prevents — and that means even slightly hinders — us from fully and completely following Him. Furthermore, He asks us to live without fear or wondering how our needs might be met in the future. Therefore, I believe we can firmly conclude that Jesus wants us to let go of anything that might get in the way of us drawing closer to Him, experiencing His goodness, obeying His direction and calling for our lives, or dwelling in the states of contentment and mental freedom. While this truth has different ramifications for each unique individual, the scriptures that support the idea of living with an unencumbered heart are uncompromising. Beyond that, it’s up to each of us to prayerfully seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance regarding the boundaries needed in our lives. As I have been seeking God’s instruction in my own self-made chaos, here are a few of the Bible verses He’s brought to my attention in recent weeks.

Matthew 5:29 says, “So if your eye — even your good eye —causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Ouch. Can you even believe I am starting with that verse? I actually tried not to, but the Holy Spirit kept bugging me about it. Here’s why. There is nothing I have in my boxes of stuff, not even my most beloved wedding memorabilia, that is as important as my eyesight. I don’t think any of us would be willing to lose an eye over a possession. And here Jesus is using an extreme example to indicate the kind of extreme love we are to have for God. So even something useful or of the greatest value to us must take second place to serving and loving our Heavenly Father. I love how the verse includes the phrase, “even your good eye,” as if a person would want to give up either eye at all! But yet, that’s how some of us approach sacrificing our stuff in order to follow God. We prioritize it for Him — as if we have the right to do that. We’ll give up that thing, but not the best or the dearest thing. In this way, the Word makes it clear that even valuable, cherished, or useful things sometimes need to be sacrificed for the sake of obedience to — and love for — God. So if God calls you to downsize in order to fulfill your calling, then even something you might — just maybe — need again, probably needs to go. And the next verse offers assurance that if you need it again someday, He’ll provide it when the time comes.

Matthew 6:33-34 is Jesus’ end to all of our arguments about retaining things we don’t need or fretting about needing things we’ve let go of under the guidance of His Spirit. “So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from Him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.” I’m not planning on throwing out my box of wedding memories… at least not right now. There are plenty of other things the Holy Spirit seems to be leading me to let go of first. And what He might be asking you to release may be different now than it will be next year or next decade. And the flip side of that is true as well. You may be tempted to buy something that seems very reasonable right now that God knows will only be a hindrance later. So when the Spirit whispers to you with conviction or direction, it’s far better to obey and trust that your emotional, physical, or financial needs will be taken care of the way He knows is best for us.

In Mark 10:17-31, a prominent rich young man approaches Jesus and asks how he can live forever. When he explains that he has followed all the commandments and lived in obedience to God, verses 21-22 recount Jesus’ reply. “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. ‘There is still one thing you haven’t done,’ He told him. ‘Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” While this story in the Gospels is often used to illustrate our willingness to surrender financial assets, the implication is far more comprehensive. Jesus wanted the young man’s whole heart, and He could see that this prominent and accomplished guy was far more in love with his belongings and his stature than he was with God. When our accumulation of stuff encroaches on any aspect of our ability to love and serve God, then we are like the wealthy young man. Our hearts are clinging to our memories, treasures, gadgets, and clothes more than Him. So if I have so much stuff I can’t create a small, non-distracting space in my house to be alone with Jesus in prayer, read the Word, and worship Him, then something’s gotta go. If I own too many “toys” and their maintenance or use prevents me from serving others, then something’s gotta go. Jesus makes it that clear. That simple.

The apostle Paul said it this way in Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” We don’t like to think of our stuff as sin. It makes us feel shameful. And shame causes us to feel defeated. It makes us feel like not bothering to try. And that’s right where Satan wants us. Shame makes us ineffective for Jesus. Yes, having a bunch of stuff can chain us down and keeps us from being free to go wherever and do whatever God asks us to do. But having shame over our stuff increases the weight upon our shoulders to an unbearable level. And Satan simply loves that. Not only are we weighed down, but we are also unmotivated and bewildered. But as Paul says, Jesus ran the race to demolish our strongholds of sin and shame. So no matter how much stuff I have or any stigma associated with it was buried with Christ, enabling me to run free in His strength and power. That’s how God sees me. Through the power of the cross. And that’s how He sees you too. All He asks is that we surrender our hearts, which means that He has the freedom to clear them out when necessary. Just like our houses, we have a tendency to fill up the rooms of our heart with things that don’t belong there. And everything in our houses first appeared as a desire in our hearts. Nothing shows up in our physical world until we’ve first acquired it in our hearts and minds.

A huge pile of stuff in my bedroom is about to be loaded into bags for donation. Some of the items have been in my closet for more than a decade. Some of the items are fairly new but should’ve never been purchased in the first place. For many different reasons, all of them were taking up space in my heart that wasn’t intended for them. I don’t know what else the Holy Spirit will bring to my attention for elimination in the days and weeks ahead, nor could I ever tell you what things in your life might need to go. But this I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt: with each step of surrender and obedience, Jesus is waiting to usher both of us into a greater depth of love and willingness to serve than we’ve ever known before.


What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide for Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Read Matthew 6:25-34 in at least 3 different versions of the Bible. Spend time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you anything (physical, emotional, societal) that you are hanging onto or long to have that might be creating a byproduct of worry, fear, or greed in your life. Write down anything He brings to your mind and commit to seeking God’s forgiveness and direction in those areas.
Day 2 - Go back to the list you made yesterday and spend time in prayer. Read 1 Timothy 6:6–8 and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what areas of discontentment exist in your life.
Day 3 - Sometimes contentment has nothing to do with material possessions or physical comfort, but rather our emotional or societal desires. We might be bitter over a lost relationship, promotion at work, or a wrong that someone committed against us. Even our state of health can tempt us to long for what we don’t have. Read Philippians 4:10-13 and ask God to reveal any emotions or longings in your heart that are leading to discontentment or mistrust of Him.
Day 4 - When life doesn’t seem fair, we might resort to unconsciously accumulating things or pursuing activities for the wrong reasons. The things or activities themselves may not be sinful, but if they are not God’s best for us, then He wants eliminate the root causes of those errant desires within us. Read Psalm 139:-23-24 and pray it back to God.
Day 5 - Read 1 Chronicles 29:11. Spend time today celebrating all the good things in your life that God has blessed you with, including your special memories, possessions, and most valuable relationships. Give God all the honor and glory for each one. Write down a few for future encouragement.

Does God Want You to Be a Minimalist?
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Are you a Distant Observer?

7/31/2019

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Jesus wants participants not distant observers. Supercharge your faith with this.
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There’s nothing like a little distance to put things into perspective. And while we’ve all heard the cliche that, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” I love Charles Lindbergh’s quote the most. “Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it, but [you] can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.” How his words so aptly describe the effect of distance on almost any feeling or circumstance in life. When we live in close proximity to those we cherish, we are more likely to take them for granted. Just as when we are too deeply embedded in a problem, we are unable to see the solution right in front of us. Like a pair of glasses for a nearsighted person, distance has a way of bringing life into focus that cannot be achieved through any other means.

With my recent relocation across the country, my awareness of distance and its effects on my life has been rolling through my heart like waves on a seashore. With each new wave of realization, a freshly unfamiliar landscape appears, forcing me to think about how far away are so many of the people who have shaped my heart, enriched my life, and impacted my day-to-day existence for more than a decade. As if my affected emotions weren’t enough, distance is also altering my memories. Like repainting a wall, the structure remains unchanged, but it is awash in a new color scheme.

This morning, my distance reminder came in the form of a text from a friend in need of prayer. Yet another reminder that more than 3,500 miles exist between us, but that God intends for me to love her just as completely as if I were there right beside her. The Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, “Distance can become your excuse, or it can be My catalyst. Be a participant, not just an observer from afar.” As this thought rolled around in my mind, Jesus’ words in John 15:12 quickly followed: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” I may be halfway around the world from my friend (well, it feels like it anyway), but God placed me in her life, and she in mine, to take an active role.

Never in Scripture do we see Jesus advocating for passivity when it comes to relationships. Even more impressive is that He clearly reveals that active, life-giving relationships with each other are central to what it means to loving God Himself. In that same passage in John, we read: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” It is simply not possible to separate Jesus’ command to love others from fruit-bearing activities.

Prayer is at the top of the list of fruit-bearing activities for all believers. So much so that Scripture tells us to do it continually, without ceasing, in all circumstances, and for all believers. If we endeavor to be participants in people’s lives, then our activity must begin with prayer before we take any other actions. Philippians 4:6, tells us to pray about everything and Ephesians 6:18 issues this command: “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
As I prayed for my long-distance friend this morning, I also became newly fascinated with the mysterious and powerful interrelationship between prayer for others and our own spiritual well-being. When we pray for others, we are clearly carrying out God’s command to love them well. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Interceding for others in prayer is an act of obedience and an expression of our love for God Himself. And Scripture makes it very clear that being obedient is key to spiritual wholeness and living abundantly in Christ.

Take, for example, the story of Job who perhaps suffered more than any other person in history except for Jesus. After losing everything he owned and loved, he was also shamed and rejected by his friends. And then we read this enlightening verse from Job 42:10: “When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!” When preaching on this stunning passage, Oswald Chambers asserted that if you are struggling spiritually, then you will find a fresh infusion of growth, joy, and hope by interceding for others. “If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God’s word, then start praying for your friends, [and] enter into the ministry of the interior. As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer.”

The way I see it, the best thing you can do for your friends is also the best thing you can do for yourself. Since my new location still feels entirely foreign to me and distance feels more like my constant companion rather than a simple measure of space, praying for those I love even when I don’t feel like it, is doing just as much work in my soul as it is theirs. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Notice that James says, “that you may be healed,” not that they may be healed. Granted, he is using the collective form of the word “you,” but Scripture is consistent in how it describes the far-reaching effects of prayer on both the one praying and those being prayed for. Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”

But prayer is a tall order, isn’t it? Praying for those we love with consistency takes both time and a serious level of commitment. Even though it takes far more effort physically, most of us would rather do something for a friend than take the time to pray for them throughout the day during their time of crisis. Human nature screams at us: just solve the problem for them, and you’ll feel good about it too. Throw money at it. Maybe even give a little of your time on a Saturday morning. Oh, and definitely meet them for a yummy lunch and offer your sage wisdom on the situation. These are all things that come naturally to us, and while doing something may be exactly what God is calling you to do, praying for your friend in need is always what God wants — whether or not physical participation is needed as well. Anything done without the covering of prayer is vulnerable to our own motives, misguided perceptions, or uninformed perspectives.

However, under the power of prayer, the Holy Spirit can reveal the otherwise unknowable to us in loving and serving others. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” And James 1:5 gives us this assurance: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” We all know someone who would be harmed more than helped by receiving certain kinds of aid. Likewise, we all know someone who really needs our assistance, and our selfishness may be stopping us from serving them in the way Jesus reveals to us in prayer or commands us in Scripture. Corey ten Boom famously said of prayer, “We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.”

God puts us in — or makes us aware of — circumstances to be a participant, not an observer. The minute you hear of someone in need, it’s never a coincidence. If you believe God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and wants to be intimately and personally involved in our lives, then you must also think that nothing happens without His intention or knowledge. Therefore, we must conclude that praying for someone is always what God desires. He wired us to need Him and each other. When we go to Him in prayer for others, heaven touches earth, effectively drawing us closer to our Savior and to each other… no matter what the distance, emotionally or physically.

Today, whether you’re feeling distant from God, or feeling distant from someone else, the gap for either is closed in the same way: prayer. And if you think you’ve been away too long to pray, trust me, you haven’t. If you think you need flowery language to pray effectively, you don’t. If you think you’ve done too much wrong to pray, thankfully, you’re wrong. Prayer is simply talking to God without a filter, pretense, or agenda, and then waiting in stillness for Him to respond. Prayer is spending time with the One who loves both you and the person you need to pray for, no matter what either of you has done or not done. And, bonus, no matter what you say, according to Romans 8:26, the Holy Spirit will turn it into a pleasing aroma to your Heavenly Father. God designed prayer to lavish us in His love and teach us to abide in that all-encompassing love. And if His perfect love can drive out fear (1 John 4:18) and has nothing to do with punishment, then why do we so often fear coming into His presence?

No matter what you’re doing right now — whether you’re reading this at work or listening to it in your car — when you’re finished, I invite you to pray for someone you love, someone you’re struggling with, and someone suffering or in great need. That person may be one in the same, or many different people. As their names drift through your mind, recall and imagine this scene when you pray for them: their names are carried by the Holy Spirit into the throne room of the almighty King of the Universe. And as your prayers are lifted up, His wisdom, hope, peace, joy, and direction floods down over you. Every second of every day, our souls are longing to be with Jesus, it’s just that most of us don’t accurately identify that ache we feel as the distance between earth and our heavenly home. Prayer bridges that gap. Prayer puts us in the throne room. Any time. Anywhere. Why not go there throughout the day and take with you the needs of those God has called you to love? Sure, it will change their lives, but it will impact yours even more.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

Five-Day Devotional Guide for Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Read John 15:12-17. In what ways has Jesus exhibited friendship toward you? Which qualities of a good friendship do you wish you could experience more with Jesus? Why do you think those specific qualities came to your mind? Write them down and then present them back to Jesus in prayer, asking Him to show you what changes you need to make to grow closer to Him in that way.
Day 2 - Earthly relationships are incredibly important to our spiritual health. Read Matthew 5:24 and ask God to speak to your heart about any relationships in your life in need of repair. How might they be interfering with your growth in Jesus or your obedience to His Word?
Day 3 - Read James 5:16. In what ways are believers called to support each other in prayer when it comes to sin? How do you know when there is sin in your life that needs to be confided in another believer (who is not weak in the same area) and when you should keep it to yourself?
Day 4 - ReadJames 1:5. In what areas of your life or relationships are you in need of wisdom right now? Pray the verse from James back to God and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in paths of wisdom and teach you to obey His direction.
Day 5 - Read Ephesians 6:18. Praying continuously can sound like a daunting task, but with a little creativity and planning, there are many ways to incorporate simple “breath” prayers into your daily routine. Spend time with God in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you on ways to pray more often. If you’re looking for even more inspiration in this area, the short 78-page book The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence is packed with examples of how to incorporate prayer into everyday habits.

Jesus wants participants. Supercharge your faith with intercessory prayer.
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Reassembling Life Even When You Can't Find the Pieces

7/24/2019

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Reassembling Life By Experiencing Gods Presence
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There is virtually no part of my life that is not in disarray right now. I’m surrounded by pieces. Not broken pieces, thank goodness, but it does feel as though I am surrounded by millions of scattered parts littered across the battlefield of a cross-country move. As many of you know, I have been on a brief hiatus from the
Glimmers blog while my husband and I transition from Maine to California. And while today will be a shorter message than usual, I desperately needed to return to something normal and familiar as quickly as possible, for both my sanity and my sense of belonging.

However, even with the deep longing in my heart to serve God as He has called me, the almost addictive craving to keep working and achieve complete order from my chaotic surroundings was surprisingly and overwhelmingly alluring this morning as I stood in the shower and contemplated the day ahead. At least today wouldn’t feel like Groundhog Day (a reference to the classic Bill Murray movie, not the date in February). Today, I mused as I stood in my new bathroom wondering again which drawer I put my hairbrush in, I would at least do something other than deal with boxes, service contractors, and address changes.

Of course, I am also a planner and organizer by nature, so even though I color-coded, labeled, meticulously numbered all my boxes, and can search their contents in a master spreadsheet (yes, I really did that), my life is still utterly unorganized right now. Despite my best efforts to make the move easier, my excessive organization didn’t prevent my being overwhelmed by the deluge of boxes in every room, nor could I have anticipated all the work being compounded by 10 once we arrived and realized how little the previous owners had done to maintain their home.

Even the furniture we purchased and the accessories we bought to make life easier are all in pieces. Take, for example, the beautiful new cherry-finish step stool I bought to match my ultra-tall kitchen cabinets. I’ve always acknowledged that I am on the short side, but my new kitchen makes me feel absolutely minuscule in height. Since I can barely reach the second shelf in the majority of my cabinets, I figured a matching step stool sitting in my kitchen would be better than our old metal one with its paint dribbles and emerging rust lines. But, like everything else it seems, I can’t take advantage of the stool’s better height and attractiveness until I take the hour… or two… or three… required to assemble all 57 pieces. You read (heard) that right. 57 ridiculous pieces for a simple step stool. I’ve never been fond of puzzles. So as far as I’m concerned, the path to reaching new heights is paved with tedium and irritation.

But as I spread out those endless pieces on my kitchen floor and pondered whether I had it in me to begin the assembly process (yet again), I suddenly became acutely aware of the cool, solid feel of the tile beneath my feet. My floor didn’t need assembly. It had needed a deep cleaning, which it received, but it was not in pieces when we moved in. It was steady and doing a simple job well. And at that moment with temperatures outside soaring near 100, it brought me comfort. Like the shade Jonah sought in the overwhelming and sweltering landscape of Nineveh (Jonah 4), the cool tiles reminded me of God’s endless provision. He is the solid, comforting foundation that never moves. Always stable. And beckoning me to take a break and find refuge in His unwavering strength and the refreshment of His Spirit. Like Jonah, God had told my husband and I to come here to this new place, and just like the pouting prophet, I wanted to run away from the job and throw up my hands in exasperation. Over the last few months, I have certainly related to Jonah’s words in chapter 4, verse 5: “Just kill me now, Lord.”

But God is faithful to complete the good work in us — and through us — every time. And even during the hard lessons and excruciating work, He loves us enough to comfort us and teach us at the same time. Even though Jonah was angry with God for sending him to serve in Nineveh and even more resentful when the entire city turned away from evil to receive salvation, God patiently, but firmly,  comforted and corrected him. In the passage from Jonah 4, God used everyday things to speak to Jonah’s heart — a broad-leafed plant, a worm, and a blistering wind. Everything and everyone is under God’s dominion, and He uses whatever it takes to reach those He loves. The key, of course, is that we are open to seeing and hearing Him through all those things… big, small, difficult, pleasurable, tedious, frustrating, and simple.

The Holy Spirit used a cool tile floor to comfort me and correct my attitude. An everyday structure became holy ground at that moment. Like Jesus squatting down in the dirt to touch the blind beggar or raise the chin of the teary-eyed adulteress, God gets down on our level and in our muck to love us. There’s nothing too scattered, overwhelming, or damaged for Him. And if that isn’t remarkable enough, we can find Him with us in the trenches every day, not just when we’ve reached the end of our stamina, patience, or hope. The problem is we usually wait, like Jonah, until we get into that predicament to see Him.

Growing up in a somewhat religiously legalistic culture, I used to believe that if I wasn’t having a perfect daily quiet time with a specific amount of Bible reading and praying, that God wouldn’t show up. I treated my relationship with God as if it functioned under a contract. If I do this and that, He will provide specific things. But if I were to fall down on my end of the bargain, He’d find plenty of other more deserving people to lavish His love and presence upon. And although that faulty and highly dangerous perspective is mostly behind me, every now and then I hear ghostly echos of its voice whispering doubts in my head as if there is anything I could do to change, validate, or increase God’s love for me or His involvement in my life. But on days where the tasks or struggles of life force you to get out of bed at the crack of dawn and not stop until the stars are long since out, Jesus doesn’t withdraw His Spirit just because the most you can eke out is a 30-second prayer as you fall asleep. The difference is how you seek Him on the whole, and moment by moment. The difference is that when life is somewhat normal and routine that you choose Him when you have the choice. Spending quality time with Him becomes your priority. You choose Him because you long for His presence so profoundly, so genuinely, that you can almost feel the need physically, like thirst or hunger. That’s the desire that the Psalmist is talking about in Psalm 42:1: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?”

Notice that David is asking the question to himself, more so than anyone else around him: “When am I going to be able to take a break from all of this to just go be with God?” That’s not what I usually find myself asking. I usually pout like Jonah and mutter, “God, when is this going to end?” Or perhaps, “God, this stinks. And I’m tired of it all.” And I think that’s why David is called the “man after God’s own heart.” Even when he had every reason and obstacle in his way, he didn’t let it taint or distract the longing in his heart for God, even when it meant his ability to formally worship God in a dedicated moment was impeded. He let that longing take precedence in his heart so that it filtered his vision, guarded his perspectives, and sensitized his heart to an awareness of God’s presence… anywhere and at any time. Certainly, some of David’s most compelling Psalms were written amid the chaos on a battlefield littered with destruction and despair. Poetry isn’t something most of us think of as being written in the midst of disarray and danger, but for David and many others since him, inspiration can always be found in the muck and hardship of life if our hearts are open to looking for God to show up.

So, as I finish up this message today, I’m fighting the urge to rush so that I can return to the wooden puzzle of step stool pieces laying on my kitchen floor… or the boxes of clothes sitting in the middle of my bedroom… or the stack of forwarded mail that needs to be sorted… goodness, even choosing which thing to do next is hard. But this time as I go back into the fray, I’m taking a deep breath and inviting God to interrupt me and my agenda with His presence. To remind me that even in the drudgery, there is joy. In the frustration, there is hope. In any moment… He. Simply. Is. In any moment, the great I AM is there for me. He is there for you. Now, the decision is up to us. Will we have hearts like David that long for Him enough to get past our own perspectives and attitudes? Will we see Him sitting there with us among the boxes, battlefields, and new beginnings? Are we open to being taught, or are we just seeking the comfort of His shade and the provision of His hand? In all these things, Scripture encourages us to trust before we can see. To believe before we can walk. Ephesians 3:17-18 says, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” In verse 17, I love the phrase, “as you trust Him” because it reminds me that our ability to experience Jesus is a growth process. We get better at seeing His hand and leaning into His constant presence over time and with repeated practice. So let’s keep going, my friend. We have a holy incentive better than any comfort on earth to stay the course and anticipate His presence every step of the way.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

5-Day Devotional Guide For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week. Before you begin reading the passage for each day, spend some time asking God to open your heart to His truth and hearing His voice.
Day 1 - Read Jonah 4. (It’s a short chapter.) God told Jonah several times to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, but he didn’t want to do so because he knew God would offer them salvation if they repented. When have you avoided spending time with God or disobeyed one of his commands (either directly to you or found in Scripture) because you didn’t want Him to do something you didn’t like? Even in the face of disobedience or avoidance, how did God still show His love for you and draw you back to Him?
Day 2 - Read Hebrews 12:11. Recall a time when you went through something painful, but the Holy Spirit helped you see that it was for your good. What did God teach you through the difficulty? How was He faithful to be with you? How has God used your experience to help others?
Day 3 - Read Philippians 4:8-9. The presence of Jesus brings peace. How can this passage help you to experience more of His presence in everyday life? What areas of your life or habits does God want you to “filter” through this verse more often?
Day 4 - ReadPsalm 16:11. There is no ambiguity about God’s promise of His presence. Meditate and memorize this verse, recalling it as a prayer in moments of stress or weakness. Ask God to reveal any changes you need to undertake to make this verse a more frequent reality in your life.
Day 5 - Read Romans 8:28 several times in a few different versions. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal to you in any ways in which you don’t believe this statement to be true. Ask God to help you see all things through the filter of this verse and comfort you with His presence as you trust in this promise.

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How to Hear the Voice of God Part 2

6/5/2019

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How to Hear the Voice of God Part 2: 6 Hallmarks of His Voice
How to Hear the Voice of God Part 2: Six Hallmarks of His VoicePlease Share on Pinterest!
Last week’s blog post highlighted the four ways we need to prepare our hearts to hear God’s voice and eight of the most common methods He uses to communicate. To get the most out of this week’s message, I would suggest listening or reading to part 1 first.

Have you ever misinterpreted an email from a friend or co-worker? It’s such a common occurrence, I bet every single person on earth who uses email has made inaccurate assumptions or has misinterpreted what the sender was trying to say. Then we all know what happens next. Either we sit and stew on it because we don’t want to call or visit the sender in person to clarify the meaning, or we do the most dreaded thing we all know we shouldn’t do (but we do it anyway)… we hit the reply button and send back a completely inappropriate response based on what we assume we heard. As we have all painfully experienced, mistakes happen when we assume. (And, yes, I think the acronym for assume fits, but I won’t repeat it here. Ahem.)

This is kind of how listening to God can be. When He speaks to us, it’s not like receiving a phone call from your best friend, whose voice you can often recognize just by the way she breathes or the way he clears his throat. With the Almighty’s voice, there’s no audible tone or style to hear. No inflections to indicate humor or anger. In short, most of us have so little familiarity with what He’s saying — either because what He’s asking us to do is so surprising or because we’re simply new or out of practice with hearing His direction — that after He’s spoken, we may spend minutes or hours second-guessing what we’ve heard. We can make some radically wrong assumptions. We can jump to conclusions. Sometimes we miss out on a blessing because we were too unsure to act when He spoke.

As you become more and more familiar with His unique voice in your life, which happens over a long period of time and with frequent practice, you will begin to clearly experience for yourself the signature characteristics, or hallmarks of His voice. These hallmarks are helpful in knowing what God’s voice sounds like and understanding His nature. However, even when you think you’ve heard from God clearly, never skip the step of seeking Scriptural confirmation. As we said last week, God’s Word will never contradict anything He personally lays on your heart. That means the principles and guidance outlined in the Bible must always — without any exceptions ever — must agree with, or support, whatever it is you’ve heard in order for God to even be considered as the source. Here’s an example: If you think God is telling you to go ahead and make a big purchase, but you are currently drowning in debt or struggling to tithe regularly, then the voice you’ve been hearing is either coming from your own desire or Satan’s temptation.

Beyond the principles and guidance, Scripture also gives us clear indications of God’s character, style, and approach. While these are more subjective than a specific command like tithing, these hallmarks of God’s guiding hand can be critical tools in discerning His voice in less obvious and more nuanced situations. While God is too big and simply unfathomable to pin down as a personality type (Romans 11:33, Isaiah 55:9), there are clear indicators of His voice that can be gleaned throughout Scripture. Just as important, the hallmarks of what is NOT His voice also materialize out of the preponderance of evidence in Scripture. Whether it’s your own voice or Satan’s sinister attempt to distract or misdirect you, knowing what the Bible indicates is not His voice is equally important.

Before we get into the six hallmarks, also keep in mind that a secondary confirmation of what He’s saying to you can come through the wise counsel of others. But, seeking input from spiritually mature friends, a Christian counselor, or your pastor, should never carry more weight than — or take the place of — direct Biblical confirmation. If God truly said something to you, then He’ll make sure you get confirmation in His Word in some manner. It may come through a Scriptural suggestion from a friend, in a sermon, or a myriad of other ways. But if you keep your heart open to God’s direction and are willing to surrender any of your own wisdom and desires, He will give you a confirmation in His Word, repeatedly in your prayer time, and secondarily through others and circumstances.

Now on to the six hallmarks. When the many Biblical accounts of God speaking are viewed holistically together, certain patterns, tones and defining characteristics emerge to give us these defining features of what His voice sounds like, as well as what it does not.

1. God pushes us out of our comfort zone, without imparting fear, a sense of foreboding, or worry. Only the wisdom of an omniscient (all-knowing) God who loves you beyond your wildest dreams and knows you better than you know yourself, could simultaneously ask you to step out of your comfort zone while giving you a shot of unexpected motivation and courage. When God asks you to do something, most of the time it will be something that you would not naturally want to do or think to do. Whether it’s a simple command to talk to a stranger or to sell something you value more than you should, when God speaks it goes right to the heart of the matter and the Holy Spirit gently but insistently pushes you to obey. And once you step out on faith — and not a moment before then — strength, courage, and peace flow. Philippians 4:6-7 makes it clear that when we are communicating with God, He gives us peace, even when the task at hand is difficult. Jesus said His peace rests upon us always in John 14:27. He wasn’t ambiguous when He said that. If something is from the Holy Spirit, there will be a sense of peace.

2. He uses repetition to get His message through the noise of life and emphasize His point. It’s a universal truth that human beings need to hear something at least seven times to be able to recall it. Seven! Advertisers know this proven fact, and that’s why you can recall some of the most annoying commercials on television. So if God is trying to get your attention, you better believe He is sending the message multiple times and through various ways. Two or three people might mention the same Bible verse to you. You may then sense His leading in prayer about the same thing and then again in the sermon you hear on Sunday. When you notice that a Bible verse, message, or theme starts popping up repeatedly in your life, immediately begin to pay very close attention. Journal about it and begin praying over it. In the Bible, Jesus repeated things of great importance multiple times. In the book of John alone, the word “believe” is repeated more than 100 times, emphasizing the need to place your trust in God before any of what is promised in His Word can manifest itself in your life. When Jesus explained the path of eternal life to Nicodemus, He began by repeating the word “truly” as a way of indicating the supreme importance of paying attention to what He was about to say. John 3:5 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

3. His direction can always be confirmed, but not through circumstances alone. A message from God will always line up with Scripture. If it doesn’t fit with the Bible, then dismiss it immediately, no questions asked. Don’t even entertain the thought or search for a different verse or interpretation to justify what you think you’ve heard. Secondary confirmation can also come through wise counsel (Proverbs 11:14 and 12:15), especially if it has to do with a decision that may not be a question of right or wrong, but more of a case of choosing between two paths, such as whether to accept a new job offer or move to a new location. The Word tells us to seek the counsel of mature, grounded believers to pray with us and ask for discernment. But I’ve learned the hard way, as have many others, to never rely on circumstances or the input of others to make the final confirmation of what you think God said. Evaluating the circumstances in your life and using your own assessment to make a decision based on that alone is no better than reading tea leaves or flipping a coin. In other words, no matter how tempting it is to be guided by obvious circumstances, don’t do it. Charting a course for your life based on what’s happening around you is one of Satan’s best deception tools for Christians because he can veil himself in light and never be noticed until it’s too late.

4. God usually delivers immediate instructions with authority, but not in a compulsive, frantic, random or bargaining manner. While God still chooses to anoint some with the gift of prophecy, most of His communication with us is about everyday dependence on Him. Usually, He gives us just enough instruction for the next step ahead (Psalm 119:105). The Holy Spirit will lead us day by day, not reveal the long term plan. We are to live in the present, not focused on the future. He gives us new mercies each morning, just for the day ahead. As we learn to listen for His voice throughout the day, what He asks us to do will become clearer over time. As we obey in the small things, He gradually gives us bigger things. On the other hand, Satan, or sometimes our own sinful desires, will throw random or frantic ideas at you that are compulsive or hyper-urgent. Satan loves to give you this intense feeling of pressure, like a used car salesman making you believe that if you don’t act now you’ll miss out on the best deal of your life. James 3:17 says, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” What an excellent verse for testing everything you hear!

5. He speaks to bring conviction and freedom, not guilt. Learning the difference between the conviction of sin versus guilt and shame is crucial in distinguishing God’s voice from the enemy’s. The Holy Spirit will search your heart, especially in prayer, or in a moment immediately following a sinful act, and He will urge you toward repentance. He will push you to ask for forgiveness. Guilt, on the other hand, is a feeling of condemnation, worthlessness, hopelessness, shame, or a sense that you cannot — or shouldn’t — be forgiven. Think of conviction as a revelation that you’ve done wrong with a clear desire to repent and then move forward in freedom. Guilt is a foreboding, heavy feeling that keeps you from forgetting your sin and past mistakes. Guilt will literally rob you of being effective for Jesus, and that’s precisely Satan’s goal. No matter what you’ve done wrong, there is forgiveness in Jesus. Believe it. Ask for it. Receive the gift and move on. Any voice that makes you want to stay in the pit of guilt is coercing you into rejecting God’s best for you. Romans 8:1 gives us this clear, matter of fact pronouncement: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

6. He speaks to draw you closer to Him and to love others more than yourself. He will never give directions that promote human effort, glory, or favoritism. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment. He replied with, “And He said to him, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” So, God is never going to tell you to do anything that would tear down others or elevate yourself above others. And I am finishing up with this Scripture because it is the one you should repeat to yourself the most, especially when you sense the Holy Spirit leading you to do something in the moment, such as “help that elderly lady with her groceries.” According to Jesus’ words, you have all the confirmation you need to proceed. Other times, of course, you need to wait and seek more specific confirmation. But, again, remember that no message from God is too small to ignore. Even the smallest things could be the most significant in either someone else’s life, or even your own spiritual growth. You may think that He’s giving you “junior” level work to do, but He sees it as building blocks to a plan that He may take decades to unfold in your life. Trust Him. Listen to Him. Walk and learn with humility and a teachable spirit (Proverbs 15:31-33).

One of my favorite authors, John Piper, said God speaks to everyone — not just those who believe.  He said, “Oh, unbeliever, God is speaking to you in your pain to warn you, and God is speaking to you in your pleasure to woo you.” But for those who believe, the sacrifice of Jesus turns our pain and suffering into instruments of sanctification, which simply means the process of becoming more holy… more like Jesus little by little. As for our moments of pleasure, with Jesus, they become reminders to praise Him and faint glimmers of the eternal joy that awaits us one day. In either case — in suffering or happiness — the Holy Spirit enables us to live supernaturally by displaying characteristics that could only be from God: humility, joy, gratitude, contentment, and hope in all circumstances. Living in this manner is one of the greatest ways we can speak to others about God. When we become vessels, albeit imperfect ones, that show glimpses of Jesus in everything we do, God speaks through us to a world that so desperately needs to hear Him. And what better way to live, than to not only hear His voice, but also become a conduit for His voice to a desperate and dying world around us?


What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!
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Five-Day Devotional Guide: For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Read Romans 11:33 and Isaiah 55:9. What do these two verse tell you about the nature and character of God? In what ways have you put God in a box? Think of a decision you need to make or wisdom that you need right now in your life. How might your own thoughts or ideas about what should happen or what you should do compare to what God might have in store? Ask God to lead your thoughts and pray for discernment and wisdom that is from Him and not your own.
Day 2 - Recall a time that God has asked you to do something out of your comfort zone. It may be something He whispered to you in the moment or a command in Scripture that makes you nervous or even frustrated. Journal about that experience and then read Mark 10:17-27. Read that passage a second time and substitute your own greatest desire instead of money/possessions. This passage isn’t only about money, it applies to any comfort in life that Jesus asks us to give up to follow Him.
Day 3 - When have you jumped to conclusions about God’s voice or direction in your life based on circumstances? How did things turn out when you did? Based on today’s message, write down and commit to memorizing a Bible verse that spoke to you about seeking confirmation in God’s Word rather than analyzing your situation or listening to other people’s guidance.
Day 4 - Which of the six hallmarks of God’s voice resonated with you the most at this point in your life? How has your obedience to His word impacted your ability to experience God or discern this particular hallmark? Read John 14:23 and James 1:22. Ask the Holy Spirit to convict your heart of any disobedience in your life.
Day 5 - Spend some time meditating on Matthew 22:36-40. Ask the Holy Spirit how He might be calling you to love others more. After spending some time in prayer, in what ways do you sense God leading you to serve others more? How do you think doing so will enable you to hear His voice more clearly? Write them and make an action plan to follow through.


Additional recommended resources for learning to hear God’s voice:
The Art of Listening Prayer, Seth Barnes
Discerning the Voice of God, Priscilla Shirer

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How to Hear the Voice of God Part 1

5/23/2019

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LISTEN to the ENHANCED PODCAST >>>>>>> 
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Or READ the Post Below in 9 minutes 15 seconds
8 Ways to Hear the Voice of God
Note: This is part one of two-part series. Originally published last year, this newly-expanded message is now offered as an enhanced podcast and includes an all-new five-day devotional guide at the end of this post. As the most requested topic from my readers and class members, learning to hear God's voice is crucial to grow closer to Him, share His love more effectively with others, and follow His plan. 
How to Hear the Voice of God; Eight Ways He SpeaksPlease share on Pinterest!
Jesus said His sheep will know His voice. For years, that foundational truth frustrated me. Despite the fact that I made a decision to follow Christ at the age of seven, it would take me another 20 years or so to get to the point where I could unequivocally say I had heard God’s voice. Now maybe I am just a slow learner, or stubborn, or lacked the belief that He actually wanted to speak to me, but most of my spiritual efforts in my twenties were spent vacillating between trying to hear God and figuring out what in the world was wrong with me that I couldn’t. So if you’ve ever wondered what God’s voice actually sounds like, or if you’ve reached the desperation point in your quest to listen for the “still, small voice,” be encouraged that He does want to respond to you.

My A-ha moment came when I realized this: His voice may not come to me in the way I imagined it would, nor would it be what I expected. And that right there was my biggest problem for two decades. I was looking for God to communicate with me in a certain way, and it wasn’t until I began to do four critical things did He begin to slowly whisper truth to my spirit. First, I had to lay aside my preconceived notions, expectations, and desires. I had to realize that God does not fit in the box I designed for Him in my mind. Second, I had to come to grips with my unbelief. Yes, I loved God, but I had tucked away some serious doubts in my heart. It was time I jumped all-in to trust Him with my life — in every area. Third, I had to learn to listen. My prayer life had been entirely about me talking to God. Being still for me was like asking a five-year-old not to fidget when she has to pee, which is related to the fourth thing I had to learn. I had to train myself to wait … patiently. Corrie Ten Boom, an author and Holocaust survivor, once said, “If you want to hear God’s voice clearly and you are uncertain, then remain in His presence until He changes this uncertainty. Often much can happen during this waiting for the Lord.” I’ve now learned that sometimes I need to wait a long time (even days or weeks) and press into Him before He speaks, but the beautiful thing is that the waiting has now become a peaceful time of learning to trust.

So if our expectations about God’s voice can hinder us from hearing Him, how does He speak? How will we know if it’s Him? Thankfully, that roadmap is clear, but we have to prepare for the journey. AW Tozer said, “God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear.” And I would add, He also speaks to those who are purely motivated to draw close to Him for the sake of knowing Him better for who He is, versus being motivated simply to hear His voice. God doesn’t have the patience for us when we desire the glamorous. If we envision ourselves hearing His voice like Charlton Heston did in The Ten Commandments, or if we long for something big and dramatic so we can feel important, the Spirit of God will not speak. God wants us to desire Him. He wants us to seek Him for who He is and love Him with 100% of our being… just because. God is about the relationship with us, first and foremost, not the plan.

There are many, many ways God can speak to us, but here are eight of the most common ones.

1. The Word speaks loud and clear. We must start with — and become deeply grounded in — the primary voice He speaks with: The Bible. And there are no shortcuts on this. Period. You will never hear Him clearly and profoundly through other means if you don’t first learn to hear Him through Scripture. When we saturate our hearts and minds in the Word, we learn to hear what His voice sounds like. To identify God’s voice, you must first learn to see your identity as being in Christ, and that is accomplished by absorbing Scripture. When you go into God’s Word, expect to meet up with Jesus. You’re not reading for reading’s sake. Instead, you’re training yourself for an encounter with the living God. This was one of my biggest mistakes. I wanted to jump right to hearing God independent of any other means. I both underestimated and ignored the Bible in terms of being an intensely personal, relevant voice to my heart. A serious error on my part, because I didn’t realize the truth of Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Because the Word is alive, it searches your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, making it possible for Scripture to be miraculously and specifically customized just for you and what’s going on in your life… right now. God speaks most commonly through His Word, and if you believe that fact, approach it with that expectation, and be patient, you will not be disappointed.

2. Thoughts that are not yours may be God’s. Sometimes God speaks by planting a specific thought in our minds. This happens to me in prayer, but only when I’m actively listening and being still. If I’m talking incessantly and without a conscious desire to be interrupted, then the Holy Spirit cannot get a word in edgewise because my mind is drowning everything else out. You’ll probably find this to be true as well. If you adopt a heart posture of being humble and interruptible, God will talk to you throughout your day and invade your thoughts more and more. When He does give you a thought, it may suddenly come out of the blue or it may be a gentle tugging at your heart that builds in intensity. It is almost always something you would not naturally think of or be inclined to notice or do on your own (I Corinthians 2:14). And how do you confirm that it is indeed God giving you the thought? I’m going to cover that next week in part 2 of this message, but the short answer to that question is to ask yourself if the unexpected thought lines up with Scripture. If there is anything about it that contradicts the Bible, then it is not from Him.

3. A deep-seated, inexplicable “knowing” can overcome you. There are times when the Holy Spirit may saturate you with an overwhelming peace about a decision or an unwavering conviction about a situation with an outcome that would otherwise be completely unknowable to you. This has very rarely happened to me, but when it does, the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit’s presence and assurance is almost palpable, as well as being the polar opposite of what I should be feeling (or what my mind tells me to feel) at the time. The Bible frequently speaks about the eyes of the heart, and how only the Holy Spirit can cause us to see God’s truth and experience His grace.

4. All creation sings His praise and sometimes we can hear it. When we have the ears to truly be still and listen, we can see and hear God in nature every day. Whether in the awe-inspiring power of a storm or the serenity of a mountain lake, if we take the time to pause and invite God to reveal Himself, He’ll show up every time. The inspiration may not be directional or specific in nature, but the sweet trill of bird’s song or the sheer vastness of the ocean can speak to us of God’s sovereignty, attention to detail, creativity, and so much more. In Luke 12, we find Jesus telling the disciples to consider creation… the lilies, the birds and the grass. God takes care of them in ways that blow our minds. Next time you are outside in some glorious place, pull out your phone and use a Bible app to read Psalm 29.

5. Divinely directed dreams and visions still happen today. Acts 2:14-21 makes it clear that God speaks in this manner and will do so with increasing intensity in the last days. This has only happened to me perhaps twice in my lifetime, but I know other believers have experienced this more often. Dreams and visions are God’s version of virtual reality. With life-like splendor, He may stir your creativity, motivate you, warn you, or invite you into spiritual warfare through your dreams or a vision. Because of the intensity of this kind of communication from God, you may be left feeling a little shaken or awed, as was Moses when He saw the burning bush. But, take comfort that God is with you and run to the Word to test what you experienced and seek God in prayer for final clarity or direction.

6. God plants ideas and changes our minds… a lot. Don’t ever underestimate a change of heart, a new thought process, or a sudden burst of innovation or creativity. Over and over in Scripture, God directly intervenes in human behavior and stirs a sudden heart change or perspective shift — all without the person’s awareness. So the next time you realize that your attitude (or someone else’s) has improved or your desires have shifted to become more Christlike, take a moment and thank God for speaking into your life. Psalm 37:4 promises us that if we delight ourselves in God, which means we find our source of joy and meaning in loving Him, that He will put into our hearts His desires (and slowly remove ours). If you want to know God’s direction, then pursue knowing Him above all else, and His voice will ring loud and clear in your life.

7. There is the (slim) outside possibility of an “outside” voice. What I mean by that, is the Bible makes it clear that God has been known to speak audibly to people. In other words, a real bonafide voice that your natural ears can physically hear coming from outside your own head. So because the Word indicates it can happen, the option remains on the table. That being said, I’ve only met one person who’s experienced this, and most Biblical scholars believe that it is very rare due to the Holy Spirit’s presence within believers since the resurrection. Before Christ, the primary way to hear from God was through a supernatural, physical experience, such as a pillar of fire, a burning bush, an audible voice, an angel, etc. But with the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself has taken up residence inside believers. We all love reading about the physical appearances of God, especially in the Old Testament, but instead of longing for that to happen to us, we should instead praise Him that Jesus is now with us, speaking into our lives 24/7.

8. God may use others to carry His messages. I saved this one for last because it’s the trickiest one to get right. God may deliver a word for you through someone else. It is very common to sense the Holy Spirit whispering to your heart to listen to something specific during a sermon, a blog or podcast, or even while reading a book. I can’t tell you how many times God has spoken to me by grabbing my attention during someone else’s message. As always, though, you want to line up whatever you hear with Scripture to make sure it’s truly from God. Where it gets a little trickier, is when God personally delivers a message just for you — and only you — to someone else. It does happen, but you should be even more hyper-vigilant about vetting that message through the Word and through your own personal prayer time. Never assume that the other person heard God correctly — even if the other person is someone you look up to in the faith.

Next week, I will address this last method more fully, alongside the hallmarks, or key characteristics, of God’s voice. But as you move through the next several days, begin looking and listening more than ever for subtle hints of His voice. A whisper of “I love you,” may gently caress your heart through a warm spring breeze or an incredible sunset. A nudge of direction may suddenly come to you as you wait before God in your quiet time. The important thing is to get alone with Him, commit to spending time with Him, and then working to still your busy mind to listen. He longs to speak to you even more than you long to hear from Him.

What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!
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Five-Day Devotional Guide: For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Read Isaiah 55:8-9. In what ways is God nudging you to better prepare to hear His voice? (See the 2nd paragraph of the blog post.)
Day 2 - Read Jeremiah 33:3, John 9:31 and Romans 10:17. Which of the eight ways have you personally experienced? Take some time to recall them and journal about the experience. Which one do long to experience more of and why?
Day 3 - Go outside in your backyard, to a park, or anywhere that inspires you. Read Psalm 29 out loud from several different versions in the Bible in a place where you can be alone with Him. Then, take the time to praise Him for each of the ways He speaks in that passage.
Day 4 - Read 1 Chronicles 16:11, Lamentations 3:25, and Matthew 6:6. In what ways is God leading you to spend more time in His presence this coming week? Book each one like an appointment on your calendar.
Day 5 - Read Hebrews 4:16. What specific things would you like Him to speak to you about? Using a concordance or search engine, look for verses in the Bible that pertain to your longings to hear His voice.

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Prayer: The Ladder to Heaven

5/22/2019

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Sometimes the topics that come to my mind for the Glimmers blog overwhelm me. They are often far too big for me to even scratch the surface of their spiritual impact within a mere 10 or 15 minutes. But just when I am about to abandon one of these enormous ideas, the Holy Spirit nudges me more insistently to make the attempt. That’s when I usually venture into Matthew Henry’s whole Bible commentary, the unabridged version, for a deep dive into theology accompanied by a prayer for accuracy and understanding. With a type size that would make a contracts lawyer jealous and more pages than the Bible itself, I also ask God to help me get in and get out of the commentary in less than an hour or two.

Today’s topic sent me into Henry’s vast knowledge base, not once, but twice. And though I’ve been thinking about it for several weeks now, I still feel woefully unprepared to talk about it. The reason I’m sharing these feelings of inadequacy is because it’s so important to know that mystery of prayer, its power, its potential, its role in God’s sovereignty, and how it actually changes things cannot be fully understood by anyone. Anyone. Scholars, missionaries, pastors, great authors, and even scientists throughout the ages have all offered incredible theories, but the truth is that we cannot fully explain or comprehend prayer any more than we can fully grasp God Himself.

Prayer is the aroma of heaven itself (Revelation 5:8), the expression of God at work in us (2 Chronicles 7:14), a shield of protection (Matthew 26:41), and the mechanism by which God not only draws us closer to Him (Romans 8:26), but also releases His power here on earth (James 5:16-18). Just as the Word of God is Jesus (John 1:1), so prayer is God’s very hand stirring among the hearts of His children. It is an enigma that I am both mesmerized by and also long to have more of throughout my day. After all, scripture commands that we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), so the closer we can move toward fulfilling that request, the more we will know and experience God.

The germination of this message about prayer all started with a vision I had in the middle of the night several weeks ago. I can count on one hand the number of times God has reached out to me in this manner, so my first reaction was to dismiss it as my imagination, which is particularly overactive in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. But the next morning, during my usual quiet time, the Holy Spirit kept bringing it to my attention over and over. So, after spending time praying, reading and re-reading the Bible passage associated with my vision, I was off to the big fat Bible commentary to explore what the scholar had to say about it.

The vision had come in the middle of the night. I was lying on my back staring at the tongue and groove ceiling above my bed, which was illuminated only by the faint light of a clock radio. Quite suddenly, I noticed something that I had never considered before. The low eave of the dormer, which I had hit my head on numerous times — either getting into or getting out of the bed — was close enough for me touch it, yet it reached all the way to the soaring rafters of our cathedral ceiling. There was no way for me to ever reach the top, but I could indeed touch a part of the ceiling with my fingertips. As I pondered this, which admittedly seems more amazing at 2 a.m. than it does now, the story of Jacob from Genesis 28:10-17 flooded my thoughts in mind-blowing detail. Scriptures coming to my mind are common, especially the ones I’ve memorized and relied on for many years. But Old Testament stories like this one haven’t been on the forefront of my thoughts since perhaps my fourth-grade summer in vacation Bible school. Yet, there it was: Jacob’s ladder in full color.

In case you’re not familiar with this story, I will quickly summarize it. Isaac told his son Jacob to go far from home and seek his bride in the land of his forefathers. Alone and afraid of his vindictive brother Esau, Jacob stopped for the night to get some rest outside under the stars. We pick up the story here, in verse 12. “As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and He said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions — to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you’.”

Like I am sure Jacob was, I lay there awestruck as I thought about the almighty God giving his children a heavenly bridge to connect with Him. For just a brief moment, God gave Jacob a glimpse into the glorious happenings all around him — things he would’ve never seen with human eyes. For weeks leading up to this vision of Jacob’s ladder, I had been seeking God in prayer and asking Him to help me understand His perspective on some troubling and puzzling things happening around me. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” So my belief was telling me that God is at work on my behalf. But my personal experiences were telling me that what I view as good is very different than what God sees as good. At the core of my mental wrestling match was John 15:16, which says in part, “Whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.” But we all know asking God for a candy apple red Ferrari is not what Jesus meant by that statement. Most of us readily accept that God wants us to ask for what is truly good, not what we desire. But what about asking for healing from a serious illness or deliverance from an addiction? Sometimes we pray for those “good” things and they don’t happen. How can those things not be included in God’s definition of good?

So what does Jacob’s ladder have to do with any of this? I also wondered that until I consulted with Mr. Henry on the subject and then re-read the passage from Genesis again. The ladder from heaven gave Jacob a clear glimpse of God’s perspective on the troubling situation, but it also affirmed God’s plan for Jacob’s future. Jacob would not only survive this temporary trial, but he would also be a vehicle for God to bless the entire earth. This occurs through the coming of the Messiah, who was a descendant of Jacob. Jesus would become the bridge from heaven to earth for all of humankind.

After witnessing the heavenly spectacle Jacob exclaims, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” And with his faith bolstered in God’s promises, he then makes a vow in verse 20 to trust God for not only protection on his journey and his future, but even the tiniest of everyday necessities, such as food and clothing. In essence, he was committing to God that he would not worry about anything, no matter how small. He promised to trust God to determine what was good for his life, versus making his own plans. To seal his vow, he built a memorial pillar on the site and committed to giving God a tenth of all that he would gain from that point forward.

Suddenly I realized that I had been asking the wrong question all along. There is no need to ask God to help me understand what is truly good. If I knew all that was truly good before He brought it to me, then I would not need to have faith. To ask God to tell me what is good ahead of time is like asking Him to reveal the future to me. Instead, just like Jacob, I have a ladder to heaven right now. We all do. We can’t actually climb it until He calls us home, but just like my ceiling, we have a low eave that we can touch and gain immediate access to the heavens. It’s called prayer. Jesus is the bridge for our prayers. Through His Spirit, our requests — whether flawed or on target — are transformed before the throne of God as a pleasing aroma. The more we pray and see how God answers, the more the Holy Spirit trains our ears and eyes to discern what is truly good. It is nothing we can do for ourselves. It is the miraculous, transformative work of God.

Romans 8:26-27 explains what happens when we pray: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

I still don’t understand why some prayers take many years, or even a lifetime, to be answered, but I am now beginning to understand — just a tiny bit — that what I think or comprehend is entirely irrelevant. My mind is only a tiny grain of sand on the vast beach of God’s brilliance, power, and love. I’ve realized that my cravings to know anything other than God Himself are all rooted in a desire to please myself, in order to be more comfortable or to avoid waiting on His plan to unfold. It comes down to trusting the Holy Spirit to reveal what I need to know when God wants me to know it. And not a second before.

As I contemplated all of this and wondered if I could possibly capture it into words, God whispered to me, “I will never disappoint you, but your own expectations about Me will. Stop your wondering… allow your mind to stop spinning. Rest now. Rather than trying to guess what I will do, find freedom and rest in the simple enjoyment of expecting Me to do great things. You don’t need to know what they are. You only need to get to know Me more.”
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Like Jacob, I have been given a glorious hope and a future through Jesus. And so have you. He is your ladder to heaven. And no matter what the situation around you looks like — good, bad, or downright ugly — when you gaze up at Him your vision will slowly begin to change.


What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Oswald Chambers once said of prayer, “We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer.” How have you seen prayer nourish the work of Jesus in you? Read Ephesians 3:20-21 and ask the Holy Spirit to help you catch a glimpse of what God might want to do in your life through the power of Jesus at work in your heart. Journal about what that might mean for you and how it should impact your prayer time.
Day 2 - Read James 1:17. How have you doubted God’s desire to give you good gifts? Pray and ask God to help you recall a time when you didn’t realize something that felt uncomfortable at the time was actually a good gift from your Heavenly Father.
Day 3 - Read Psalm 42:1-2. Has there ever been a time when you longed for a gift from God more than you longed for Him? Confess that to God and ask Him to fill your heart and mind with His presence.
Day 4 - Read 2 Corinthians 3:17. What freedom do you need today through the power of Jesus? Like a ladder to heaven, how does prayer help you get closer to that freedom?
Day 5 - Read 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. In what ways are you called to be a fragrance to others on behalf of Jesus? What role does prayer play in being a pleasing aroma?


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The Surprising Truth about Spiritual Laziness

5/7/2019

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On the surface, spiritual laziness looks like not getting up early enough to pray and read your Bible, but it really goes much, much deeper than that. When I searched the Internet on this topic, the vast majority of articles and blog posts focused on the disciplines of quiet time, going to church, and serving others. And all of those things are critically important. But from my personal experience, those disciplines and commitments are almost impossible to stick with unless the root of spiritual laziness is dug up and destroyed. Not praying regularly, reading the Bible daily, and committing to regular fellowship with other believers are usually symptoms of something buried much deeper in our souls. It’s kind of like trying to losing weight. You won’t stick with a diet until your heart, mind, and soul are aligned and motivated to do so. You may persevere for a while based on sheer willpower and stubbornness, but it won’t become a lifestyle until the spiritual battle is won within the deepest parts of your being. 

So what is spiritual laziness if it’s not the failure to regularly implement the classic Christian activities and routines? To discover this answer, we can turn to the Biblical analogy of trees and fruit, which is used more than a hundred times throughout scripture. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” In this verse, we discover that trust in God — a deep, abiding, unwavering, uncompromising trust — is the key to a fruitful life. That means that not trusting in God for anything and everything — i.e., worrying, trying to control outcomes, not submitting to God’s sovereignty — is at its core true spiritual laziness. Therefore, all of those wonderful and incredibly vital habits I mentioned earlier are the fruit of being spiritually active, but they are not the tree itself. The tree described in Jeremiah is fruitful because it’s rooted in the trust of the Lord, day and night, season after season, storm after storm. 

If you feel slapped in the face right now, please know that I am right there with you. If I were to reveal my list of weaknesses, laziness has never been in my top 10. If anything, I am at times too energetic and too driven. A former boss of mine once said to me, “Your level of energy and dedication to your work makes your co-workers nervous.” And she didn’t entirely mean it as a compliment, and now many years later I have come to understand why. I’ve also realized that what shows up in my work habits is just as spiritually-connected as what comes out in my sacred disciplines for the Lord. Outwardly I appear to have it all together. My actions indicate a preponderance of fruitful behaviors and activities, but they only mask a deep, soul-level weakness — an overwhelming need to perform, to do, to achieve — all because I have unrecognized or unacknowledged trust issues with God. This is why being busy with the tasks of proper spirituality or duties of religion has in the past left me feeling drained, empty, and disconnected from God. But until recently I never realized that laziness had anything to do with it. 

If this still doesn’t make sense to you, bear with me a moment more. The connection between laziness and mistrust is simply this: striving to trust God for everything takes great effort, put forth on a continual and consistent basis. And not just for a few weeks or months. Trust grows in layers throughout your lifetime. One decision or trial at a time. That means trusting Him even when we walk through long seasons of waiting, difficulties, or disappointments. When we don’t trust the Lord, it bubbles out into our lives in the form of busyness, trying to control situations or others, legalism, worrying, anxiety, escapism, the pursuit of accolades, or wealth, grumbling and complaining, and a whole host of other manifestations. Eugene Peterson, the editor of The Message version of the Bible puts it this way: “Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness … in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.” 

A recent mental health article in the New York Times illustrates Peterson's point beautifully. “Laziness: it isn’t a characteristic usually associated with the anxious. If anything, people tend to view the anxious as more active and motivated than normal, because they are more haunted by the specter of failure. And yet long experience has taught me that it is laziness ... that is the foremost enemy of the anxiety sufferer, for laziness prevents him from countering the very patterns of thought that make him anxious in the first place.” 

You may not be a worrier. Anxiety may be the last thing you resort to when times get tough. But if you struggle with anger or a need for control, then you also likely struggle with trusting God when difficult people or disturbing situations come into your life. While the article in the NY Times was written without any spiritual connotations or recommendations, it gets to the heart of the matter: every person has a choice to make when confronted with the daily decisions of life. We can make the effort to trust in God, let go of our own desires, and implement His divine recommendations for a healthy, fruitful life, or we can slide down the path of least mental resistance into our comfortable, but usually very detrimental, bad habits. This is why Paul says our faith is like running a race. He doesn’t say it’s like sitting in a meadow on a sunny day having a picnic. Our participation and consistent effort are required. Hebrews 12:1-2a says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith.”

One of the best parables of the Bible encourages us to risk everything we hold dear in order to walk closely with God. Our reputations, our lifestyles, our fears, and even our bodies are to be placed in His hands willingly. In Matthew 25:14-30 we read about the parable of the talents, which tells the story of a wealthy business owner who gives three employees each a sum of money and asks them to take care of it for him while he is away on a trip. Two of them immediately invested the money so that it would earn interest. The third one was fearful of what would happen if he made a mistake, so he simply buried the money for safekeeping. When the owner returned, this is what happened: “But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?” And then the passage closes with this warning: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” 

In commenting on this parable, Oswald Chambers said, “The person who is lazy naturally is always captious (i.e., sully or a whining). ‘I haven’t had a decent chance,’ and the one who is lazy spiritually is captious with God. Lazy people always strike out on an independent line.” Of course, our definition of independence is different today than it was back then (circa 1900). Today we typically use the word independence in a much more positive fashion than Chambers intended. His implication is that lazy believers chart their course separately from God’s recommended path. Therefore when it comes to spiritual matters, they can all too easily use the excuse of independence — or what they believe to be our unique situation — to justify laziness, rebellion, or fear.

Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to be utterly dependent on Him. As Chambers says in his writings, we should never forget that our ability to trust in God and to serve Him with boldness — despite the risks to ourselves — is not measured by what we are capable of or what we desire to do. Instead, our abilities should be grounded in the promises of God never to fail us, leave us, or ask us to do something that He cannot achieve through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. In fact, the greatest miracles of life come when we are at our weakest and trust God to perform His work within us for the benefit of others and His glory. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 says, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” So this verse implies that the weaker or more fearful you may be of what God has asked you to do, the greater the opportunity for Him to work miracles and display His glory.

Theologically, all of this may sound like solid truth to you, but if you’re still wondering what it all means for the day-to-day living and walking with Jesus, perhaps the following words will help you turn these spiritual implications into daily actions. As with most Biblical truth, there is great irony in God’s command to trust Him in Proverbs 3:5-6, which says simply: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” This verse contains two actions for us to follow: trust and submit. We must participate in the process. To bear fruit like the tree, we must remain planted by the streams of living water. Yet to keep ourselves out of spiritual laziness and make the efforts required of this command, we must simultaneously learn to simply rest. Yes, you read that right. To overcome laziness, we have to learn to be still. When we build Sabbath margin into our daily lives — not just on Sunday — we will have the time to breathe, think clearly, and engage our complete being — mind, body, and soul — in the pursuit of Jesus. The tree grows because it is beside the river of life. We will only grow in Christ when we take the time to drink of His strength and learn of His wisdom. So while I said at the beginning of this message that prayer, Bible study, meditation, and worship are the fruits of trust, they also become the building blocks of greater and greater trust as we faithfully apply them. But we’ll never see them appear as long as we allow busyness to proliferate in our lives and numb us to the real laziness of our hearts.

When we allow laziness to dominate our decisions and motivations, we only end up serving a false god, and not the true King of Glory. Laziness, or not trusting God, like any other sin feels good for a season. Other than busyness, it often shows up in the forms of escapism, like mindless TV watching, endless social media surfing, or a myriad of physical indulgences and coping mechanisms, but when we look it square in the eye and call it for what it is, we realize it’s all about trusting the unseen God to do what He says He will do. Today, I would ask you, fellow traveler, where are you planted? Are you putting only a few roots down near the river of life, while allowing others to seek comfort in the tainted soils of self-reliance or personal comfort? If so, ask God to help you find them again, dig them up, and transplant them into His unending goodness and strength. It won’t happen overnight, but when you wake each morning, His mercies will be new and waiting to sustain you through the process.
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What do you think of today's message? Comment and share your thoughts below! And if God brought someone to mind as you read or listened, please encourage them by sharing this post today!

For Further Reflection and Daily Spiritual Journaling
The questions and readings below can be used for a single-day study or your daily quiet time throughout the week.
Day 1 - Describe in your own the words the difference between striving to perform for God (i.e. doing something out of duty or to achieve) and participating in God’s work in your life. Read Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14-26. Why do you think you are sometimes motivated toward busyness or performance? What is God leading you to change? How? Write them out as a prayer to Him.
Day 2 - Read Lamentations 3:22-23. In what ways are you experiencing God’s mercies today or have in the past? How are they new or different to you now than they were yesterday? If you’re in a place of struggle right now, ask God to help you recognize and receive His mercies.
Day 3 - Read the parable of the talents in  Matthew 25:14-30. How are you similar to the good servants? In what ways are you like the fearful servant? Journal about why you think that is, and what the Holy Spirit is revealing in your heart.
Day 4 - Take some time to be still before the Lord today. Begin by reading Proverbs 3:5-6 and then meditating on it. Ask God to interrupt you at any moment with what He wants to whisper to your heart. For more about practicing stillness and what it means, check out this blog post.
Day 5 - Spend some time reflecting on your schedule and your commitments at work, home, church, in your community, and other volunteering roles. Read Luke 10:38-42. Go to God in prayer and ask Him to reveal areas where you are too busy. If you have time, read this short blog post “Busyness is Not a Badge of Honor.”

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Are Christians Supposed to Be Optimists?

1/23/2019

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This has been one of the hardest Januarys I can ever remember. That’s a surprising opening line for a message that’s supposed to be about optimism, isn’t it? With a beginning like that, you might expect me to launch into a list of reasons why the start of 2019 deserves that sad indictment, but instead, I will simply say that I cannot recall a period of time so intensely grief-laden for so many of the people I am privileged to call friends or family. And it doesn’t seem to be just my experience this month. A friend of mine recently attended three funerals in one weekend! Attending just one funeral in a month, whether it is in honor of your own loved one or that of a friend’s, is enough in itself to spark contemplation about the finite nature of our lives and launch us into a re-evaluation of what’s important.

As Christians, when we go through extended or unimaginably difficult times, we often wonder if it’s okay to show our weariness, vulnerability, and discouragement because we fear that our non-believing friends, family, and co-workers might see our melancholy and determine that the abundant hope of our faith has let us down. Even among other believers, we sometimes shy away from revealing our inner struggles with anger, depression, sadness, and disappointment — all because we don’t want any of them to think we’ve lost our hope or aren’t leaning into Jesus.

All of this contemplation has left me wondering… does God expect His followers to be optimists? All of the time? Some of the time? Is being a realist more realistic? And what about people who have a personality type that’s wired to be an outright pessimist? What should they do? As a community of believers, how do we encourage people to be authentic with each other even in times of great pain, doubt, or grief, without crossing the line into complaining, grumbling, and whining?

As I’ve been thinking about this, the concept of hope keeps coming to the forefront over and over. Last year, I had the privilege of hearing Cynthia Ruchti speak at a conference and I was riveted by the theme she uses for her life and her ministry: Hemmed in Hope. As she gave a bit of her testimony, I understood why that phrase has become her banner cry. No matter what hardship she has endured or will encounter in the future, everything that happens is within the boundary of Christ’s love and oversight. And for that reason, every moment of her life brims with hope. And from the little bit that I got to know her, I don’t think that means she wakes up everyday feeling cheery. But I’m willing to bet that she does wake up every day believing that no matter what occurs, God will whisper words of hope to her soul to not only get her through the day, but to help her reveal His hope to others.

But what does that kind of hope look like? How does it behave or emerge in the throws of everyday life? Clearly, hope is different than pessimism. But is it different than optimism or realism? Can hope even be compared to these, or are they apples and oranges? Rather than a lens or filter by which we view the world and the things that happen to us (or worry what will happen to us), I think hope is entirely something different. Hope is a companion. A partner. An enabler. Hope is the voice that never fails to tell us — as many times as we need to hear it — that no matter how grim the situation, we have a glorious destiny where every tear will be wiped away. The journey to our eternal destiny will present us with challenges, but our eternities will be perfect in every way. 1 Peter 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

Even with the promise of a guaranteed reservation at the ultimate resort of all time, most of us, however, have a very hard time “feeling” the hope of heaven when we’re down in the pits of the daily grind. I think most people, even those who claim to have no faith at all, believe in some concept of heaven. But the thought of eventually being restored to perfection in the afterlife doesn't seem to bring much comfort to most people in the middle of an earthly trial, like losing a loved one, going through bankruptcy, or watching your adult child make horrible choices. Many people miss out on the other immediate benefit of hope simply because they don’t ready themselves to receive it. Hope is offered to us continually because the Spirit of Christ lives in us every day. But most of us go through our lives as if the companion of hope doesn’t exist… that is until we hit a major roadblock. Then suddenly we want to feel all that hope offers, like peace and comfort, but we have no idea how to access it because we’re out of practice or we never learned how in the first place. Walking with hope takes practice. We have to learn how to receive and utilize the promises of hope by spending time with the Giver of Hope on a daily basis. Jesus specifically says in Matthew 11:29 to “learn from me… and you will find rest for your souls.”

The hope of Christ isn’t a magic spell. It can’t be activated only when we need it. Hope is something we cultivate deep within us that rises higher and higher the longer we pursue God and yield our need for control to Him. Hope changes our desires and perspectives. Hope doesn’t change what we see, like the lens of optimism or pessimism, hope changes us to withstand the journey this side of heaven with enduring joy, peace, and contentment. So the answer to the question at the beginning of this post, is surprisingly no. People who are hope practitioners on a daily basis are probably much more likely to be perceived as optimists, but Christians aren’t “supposed” to be any particular way other than what God is making them to be.

Christians aren’t “supposed” to be worriers either, but I have an anxiety disorder. And occasionally that causes me to be a pessimist. But little by little, I’m experiencing the brain-changing miracle of hope. Change only happens if I believe it can. Belief only happens if I trust. Trust only happens if I surrender.
Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”As I practice the holy prescription that cures anxiety found in Philippians 4:4-9, God is transforming my mind according to Romans 12:2. And Philippians 1:6 in The Message version says, “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” Now that’s a hope-filled promise we all can count on — optimists, realists, and pessimists alike — no matter what life brings us.

Questions for Further Reflection
  • What are the dangers of being an optimist, a realist, or a pessimist? Which filter do you seem to gravitate to the most? Does it change when you’re under stress or emotional strain? Search for “Bible verses about hope” online and find one that speaks to your greatest tendencies.
  • Read Psalm 71:14-16. What spiritual actions does the Psalmist take in order to help him to “hope continually”? Why are these so important in the life of a believer? Which one(s) is the Lord leading you to do more of today?

***
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Come to the Garden

1/16/2019

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Come to the Garden with Jesus to Pray
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Right now as I look out my window, a frozen landscape is greeting me and looking deceptively beautiful. Ice crystals are blanketing the evergreens and glistening in the sunlight, which is barely giving enough warmth to reach a double-digit temperature. And while there are hardy, winter-loving people who are probably frolicking in the snow under today’s clear blue skies, I’m enjoying the view without venturing away from the snuggly goodness of my roaring wood stove.

With the chilly, sparkling vista before me, it’s slightly difficult for me to imagine a lush green garden complete with just the perfect temperature and humidity for a peaceful stroll down a perfectly designed, wooded path lined with colorful flowers and serenaded by a majestic waterfall in the distance. If I dwell on the thought long enough, I might also be able to see a bench in the garden, waiting for me underneath an expansive shade tree and open to the widest view. Despite the extra strain on my imagination to concoct such a place in the middle of a Maine winter, I know the investment of time to get to the Garden in my mind is worth it. Worth every second… because I can leave all my distractions, fears, and worries far behind for a few precious minutes and focus on the most important thing in life. Most of all, it is worth it because of Who I’m meeting in the Garden, and because He and I have a standing appointment every morning with additional meetings scattered throughout the rest of the day.

I’ve written about heaven before, and while it’s a place we should contemplate often and draw comfort from, it’s not a place that we can access — or even fathom — during our time here on earth. On the other hand, the Garden is a place we can get to at any moment, and from any location. The literal Garden of Eden is long gone from earth, but I believe the existence of it and the fact that we were created for it, is emblazoned on our hearts. Our need for time in the Garden is interwoven into our souls. Somewhere deep inside of every human is a longing for the Garden — almost a kind of “knowing” that we don’t fully belong in our current existence, but rather that we should be dwelling in a deep, abiding fellowship with our Creator.

The problem is that most of us have either forgotten how to get to the Garden, are afraid of allowing ourselves to go there, or simply don’t make it a priority. We often choose instead to search for a counterfeit garden in our current surroundings, always wandering from valley to mountaintop and back again, only to find ourselves worn out, disappointed, and wondering why we cannot secure real peace, lasting happiness, or authentic contentment. We have yet to realize that only in the true Garden can we experience the wonder of being simultaneously on the mountaintop while walking through the valleys of life.

Humankind was created in the Garden and initially walked with God side by side in unbroken fellowship. We know this because Adam and Eve were clearly familiar with God’s arrival in the Garden in Genesis 3:8, and the previous chapters also make it clear that God had given them specific instructions and direction for daily living. But when they chose to trust in their own wisdom and defy God’s request, they could no longer exist in the presence of His pure perfection and holiness.  Forevermore, sin would come between the human race and its Creator unless atonement was made. Humanity may have been escorted out of the Garden, but the longing for the Garden has never been removed from our hearts.

In addition to the Garden of Eden it’s not a coincidence that Scriptures repeatedly mention gardens — both as literal places of great significance and as spiritual metaphors. Many of the Old Testament prophets used gardens as analogies for God’s restoration of His people following their repentance (for example, Isaiah 58:11). Just before His crucifixion, Jesus sought His Father’s help in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1-2), and then He triumphed in victory over sin and death as He was resurrected in the garden of Golgotha (John 19:41). Finally, we will experience God’s forever garden — paradise — when He returns for us as prophesied in Revelation 2:7. Astoundingly, we will be given access to the tree of life, which was originally established in the Garden of Eden.

Over and over throughout the Bible, we are reminded that God created us for garden living, and through the sacrifice and the atonement of Jesus, we can accept His personal invitation that beckons us: “Come to the Garden, my beloved. Come.” When we spend time with God in prayer, studying and meditating on the Word, and practice being still before Him in adoration and submission, we enter into the Garden.

One of my favorite hymns captures the essence of this invitation to us, and it has an interesting backstory. The hymn’s writer, C. Austin Miles, was a gospel singer and music publisher by trade, but one of his greatest passions was photography and developing his own images. One day in March 1912, he was waiting on some of his images to develop in his basement darkroom, so he passed the time by reading the Gospel of John. When he came to chapter 20, he began to let himself vividly imagine what it must have been like to be with Mary when she came to the garden the morning of Jesus’ resurrection. As he imagined what his own words might be to the savior, he was overcome with such emotion that he later said his hands and arms were trembling as he gripped his Bible. His real words came easily after that, and right there, in a cold, dark basement with not even a window, he penned the lyric for In the Garden. Miles once said of the popular hymn, “This is not an experience limited to a happening almost 2,000 years ago. It is the daily companionship with the Lord that makes up the Christian’s life.”

The other truth that overwhelms me about the story behind this hymn is the incredible role that Miles’ imagination played as he read John 20. Jesus calls us to love God with all of our hearts, minds, and souls (Matthew 22:37). And to endeavor to love Him in that way, we must be vulnerable and open to using all of our faculties to encounter Him and get to know Him better. We cannot love someone if we don’t intimately know them. The invitation from Jesus goes way beyond envisioning yourself in the Garden, it beckons you to find yourself in Him. Everything about yourself — what you’re made of, your dreams, your identity, and your very life — all found in Jesus.

As I ponder the hymn and listen to my favorite rendition of it, the word’s of its writer echo in my heart and remind me that Jesus is waiting and whispering to me, “Come to the Garden, my beloved. Put that distraction down and spend your time more wisely with me. Don’t wrestle with that hard stuff by yourself over there… come here with me instead. The empty thrills you’re seeking can never compare to the depth of my love and the satisfaction of spending time with me.”

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Garden of prayer is that the gate into it is open 24 hours a day. Sometimes we are only able to linger there in short intervals, perhaps in the middle of a hectic workday or when taking a quick breath during a difficult conversation. Other times, we may rest in His presence for hours, wishing that moments like these would never end. Regardless of the amount of time, He just wants us to keep coming back consistently so we grow to be completely dependent on Him as our primary source of strength, peace, hope, and joy.

God intends for every day of our lives to include a Garden experience. And He takes delight when we show up. But like anything worth doing, the depth of our experience will take a lot of practice and mental discipline. For the longest time I just expected to feel transported into God’s presence from the moment my lips uttered “Dear God…” at the beginning of my prayer time. But being in the Garden with Jesus isn’t contingent upon anything I say. In fact, there are times when the Holy Spirit impresses upon me to say absolutely nothing. No, being in the Garden is more about what we do with our hearts and minds. It’s about a complete surrender of our wills, agendas, desires, fears, and worries. When we enter the Garden with open hands and a receptive heart, there’s no telling where He will lead us along the path of prayer and deeper into His presence. In the Garden anything is possible.

Questions for Further Reflection
  • When we enter the Garden, Jesus wants us to be willing to lay down anything we shouldn’t be carrying around in our lives. The burdens of sin, distractions, and worries block us from fully hearing His voice and receiving His peace. What are some things you sense that He might be asking you to surrender to Him at the Garden gate?
  • God has given us imaginations for a purpose that extend way beyond the fantasies of childhood. Do you ever use your imagination to envision being with Jesus? If not, what holds you back? Are you willing to try using it more in the coming weeks? You can learn more about using your imagination for God with this previous Glimmers blog post.
  • Try spending some time imagining a walk with Jesus. It doesn’t have to be a literal garden scene. It might be your favorite place to hang out or your childhood playground. Wherever it is, take the time to let your vision fully develop. To get you started, you may want to watch this music video for The Garden by Kari Jobe.
***
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LESSONS FROM A BED OF STRAW Part 3: Joyous Love

12/19/2018

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One of my favorite Christmas movies is The Family Man with Nicholas Cage and Téa Leoni. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it or haven’t seen it in a long time, here’s the basic premise of the film. A very successful and wealthy Wall Street executive (named Jack) goes to sleep one night in his own bed but mysteriously wakes up the next morning as himself but in a different house with a dramatically different life. He goes from being a single, career-driven city-dweller with so much wealth that he can buy whatever he wants to a married father of two living very modestly in the suburbs. One minute Jack is the CEO over a huge company with sweeping international influence and the next moment he is a salesman in his father-in-law’s tire store. At first, he is terrified and hates leaving behind his lavish lifestyle, but once he experiences what true love feels like from a devoted wife and two adoring kids, he realizes that his priorities and desires have been all wrong.

Every time I watch this movie, which admittedly is almost every year, I’m always freshly fascinated by what Jack is willing to give up at the end of the film. Spoiler alert: Unlike many Christmas “fantasy” movies, Jack doesn’t miraculously get what he wants at the end of the film. The real miracle of the story is the transformation of Jack’s heart to the point where he desperately desires sacrificial love over power, prestige, and all the money he could ever want. Giving up himself for the benefit of others becomes more appealing to him than receiving all that his old lifestyle had to offer.

I’m sure the Hollywood writers didn’t set out to illustrate Psalm 37:4 when they crafted The Family Man script, but the truth of that verse swirls in my mind over and over when I think about Jack’s choices. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Jack’s self-centered, self-pleasing choices were transformed by receiving sacrificial love. What a perfect Christmas message to ponder when thinking of what Jesus offers us, starting with the manger in a dank, dirty stable. While there is no movie, novel, or analogy that could truly help us grasp the kind of love that would compel a king to give up his splendor in order to wrap himself in the rags of common humanity, this story comes pretty close. In his wealthy life, Jack only let the finest Italian suits touch his exceedingly toned and pampered body. In the glimpse he was given as a father, Jack was rapidly developing a “dad bod” and wore a cotton-poly blend sales shirt with his name embroidered on the left pocket. I’m sure you get the picture. The dad version of Jack working at the tire store couldn’t afford a tailored suit (there’s a poignant scene about that in the movie), nor a gym membership, much less have the time for it.

But now try to imagine what Jack gave up on a much, much grander scale… a heavenly scale. One minute Jesus was walking on streets of gold and the next he was beginning a long journey on a dusty road to a destination called Calvary. Since before time began, He had been dwelling in endless perfection and unfathomable beauty, and He chose to subject Himself to abject poverty in unrelentingly harsh conditions. Most shockingly, He chose sacrificial love to the point of death over inexhaustible pleasure in the presence of God the Father. As Hebrews 12:2 puts it, He chose to suffer beyond anything you and I could possibly fathom for the “joy that was set before Him.”

But that’s because the joy that Jesus was focused on, is vastly more than we can possibly fathom. And what’s even more astounding is the faith, belief and trust in His Father that Jesus demonstrated while He was enduring the difficulty of his time — and eventually His brutal death — here on earth. Jesus knew the joy that waited on the other side of the cross and triumphant resurrection — was us. You and me. We are His joy. He lived and died solely that our union of joy might be complete in the Father. Being with us forever and abiding with us here in our hearts was worth everything He had to give for us. In John 15:10-11 Jesus said, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” This concept is repeated in 1 John 1:3-5 where it says that the message of Jesus was given so that our joy may be complete.

As a king on Wall Street, Jack could’ve never imagined changing a stinky diaper in the wee hours of the morning, yet he eventually came to realize that all the sacrifices and discomfort of being a father were worth it for the joy of loving his children. Even more so, imagine the love our Heavenly Father lavishes upon us, His children, through the birth and eventual sacrifice of Jesus. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:15-21 that when we offer Jesus a home in our hearts and learn to trust Him, He empowers us to not only grasp how long, how high, and how deep God’s love is, but to also share that love with others at a level that will exceed our wildest dreams and expectations. When we allow the Spirit of Christ to complete His work in us, we become Christmas miracles ourselves.

A week from today Christmas will be over. But after the torn wrapping paper is wadded up and tossed in the recycle bin… after the last bit of ham is eaten… and after the last house guest goes home, will you and I remain unchanged? Will there be anything different about us other than a few additional pounds that need to be run off on the treadmill after New Years? My blog post for next week is already written and it’s entitled “The Day After Greatness,” and ironically, God laid it on my heart to write it before today’s post. I think that’s because He wanted to remind me that the big events, the holidays, the mile markers of our lives, are not destinations in themselves. They are steps on a journey with Him and none of them is without purpose. None of them is a carbon copy of the last one that requires us to only go through the motions. Absolutely none of them is ordinary unless we allow them to be. When we take the time to honor, celebrate, and meditate upon the birth of sacrificial love, we cannot help but to be changed — no matter how many times we think we’ve done it before. John 1 tells us that the Word became flesh in a manger so that the Word could one day live in us. The Word is God. The Word is Jesus full of grace and truth. Scripture is the God-breathed Word that gives us life. The Word is alive in us. If you haven’t already, read John 1:1-17 again several times. Read it aloud. Read it in several different versions, like The Message. Ask the Word to fall fresh upon you this Christmas and then rest. Really rest. Breathe and let yourself receive the joy, awe, and wonder of what only Jesus can bring.

Questions for Further Reflection
  • In what ways do you think happiness differs from the kind of joy Jesus came to make complete in us? What do you think God might be prompting you to change in order to experience this kind of joy?
  • How have you seen God change the desires of someone’s heart in miraculous ways? What desires in your heart do you wish He would change? Are there any that you are not willing to release if He asked you to give them up? In what ways can you delight in Him this holiday season?
  • Ponder how John 1 defines what the Word is. What aspects of its description confuses you? Encourages you? Make a few notes about your reaction to reading that passage and spend time in prayer asking God to help you grasp how long, how high, and how deep His love is for you.​
***
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    Every life is a story, so the big question for every person is: "Who's writing your ending?" Majesty, mystery, and miracles are waiting for us to discover in the most ordinary days if we have the heart to see them. Glimmers in the Fog offers hope and inspiration with spiritual musings, heartfelt confessions, and timely encouragement from a hungry soul in pursuit of the One who set the stars in place yet calls me by name. 


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