God can do it…

 

Planning this big event, our family reunion, has been a learning experience. In the past few months God has shown me that even though my faith moves from strong to weak and back again, He hasn’t changed at all. A life-long lesson for me and one that took forty years of wandering, and the death of an entire generation, for His people to learn.

They came to the land God promised but failed to enter. While they were weak and saw themselves as “grasshoppers” compared to the “giants” that lived there, it was not their weakness nor their enemies’ strength that kept them from going in, but their unbelief. The Lord was able but it took a long time for them to realize it. I can relate to that slowness to learn.

After their wandering, when most of them died, they trusted the Lord and took the land, but what is interesting is that they knew after leaving Egypt that God was capable. They sang an amazing song of praise (see Exodus 15:3ff) yet when they saw the giants, they forgot or neglected to act on what they knew and turned back.

How many times have I done the same. The reunion task is too big for me. In discouragement and feeling great fatigue just thinking about it, I often want to quit. Then God reminds me, sometime subtly and sometimes with a 2x4 at the side of my head, that this was His idea and it will happen. Curves come. Some who said they would help back out, the to-do list has too many items, well-meaning friends say “you can do it” without realizing that “no I cannot” is theologically correct. I cannot do it. But God can!

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? … You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode… You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever.” (Exodus 15:15–18)

 Two days ago, I had no problem with the curves, the too-many to-do items, or believing God was at work. This morning I work up feeling like a grasshopper and wanting to run and hide. Nothing has changed except the way I’m thinking — in fear instead of faith. The task is the same and so is the God who entrusted me with it. Like the children of Israel, do I really want to wander in the wilderness or go at this with confidence?

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21)

This last passage is revealing. It reminds me to watch out for a “little fox” that tends to mess me up — whenever God does amazing things, it is for His glory. If I get even the tiniest notion “that it will be glory for me” then He stops working on the ‘amazing things’ and puts His focus on my self-centered attitude with determination to change it to what it should be.

PRAY: Jesus, this task was Your idea and You are making it happen. I need to back off and have no thoughts of any sort of personal gain or fame from it, not even the glory that “oh, she trusts God” or anything else that puts the focus on me. Again, I’m my own worst enemy, foolishly trying to make a giant out of a grasshopper instead of looking to You — the One greater than any adversity or bad attitude.

Always the Same

Myself and two other women met on Thursday to pray. Most of our time together was marked with praise. God had answered our prayers for several people and we rejoiced. During that time, one person’s phone rang. It was her husband. He’d heard so many answers to prayer that morning that he had to call and tell her. On my way home, I was filled with joy and humbled by the incredible goodness of God.

Today’s devotional offers the observation that Christians who experience a morning like that can see wisdom, strength, or spiritual riches of one kind or another in which to glory. But when we come down from this “high” into ordinary life, these thoughts vanish as if we had nothing left to glory in. As I read that statement, my reaction was mixed. If I am rejoicing in only the good times and what I can see, is not my focus off God and more about the pleasant blessings He bestows and the comfort of His care rather than the reality that He is good all the time — even when I cannot see it?

When the disciples were out on a boat with Jesus, He was asleep and they were afraid they would drown. Before they started this voyage, He told them they were “going to the other side” but they seemed to have forgotten that, and did not think that He the has power to get them where He told them they would go.

This is what the Christian life is filled with — days and times of total uncertainty. Our situation and feelings go up and down, but that does not mean that our God is bouncing us on a yoyo string. In all of the ups and downs, I am learning that He is unchangeable. What we call “spiritual blessings” are not the same, at least unchangeable to my vision, but they ought to be like that in my theology. Truth pulls the train, faith follows — then emotions. If I let emotions take the lead, then when prayers go unanswered and life is full of uncertainties, my faith falters and what happens to truth? It gets shoved into a corner and I need a rebuke, or a pointed sermon, or some discerning soul to give me (and those emotions) a good boot back to where I should be thinking.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

If joy is lost, then I’ve forgotten that my joy is in the truth about God. Life may seem as if all is lost except the desire to have my comforts return, yet God is still with me, and still the same as when I am aware and focused on His goodness. He didn’t move; I did.

I’ve had aches and pains this week, partly related to a cold snap that aggravates these old muscles and bones. This is a distraction from the goodness of God. Why do we tend to relate that to our health? Most of the prayer requests we hear are about health. While I understand the desire to feel good, might I be better to pray for an increased focus on the Lord who never changes? He is still sovereign, still loves me, still using all things for my good — to transform me into the image of His Son. That should make me overflow with joy all the time.

PRAY: Lord, I’ve no idea what the day will bring, but ask that You will allow me to focus on You and Your unchanging goodness and find joy in that. May You be the delight of life, a delight that can look beyond aches and pains, unanswered prayer, and any other discomfort that might come along. Use all things, as You say You will do, to change my life and to be stedfast and faithful to You, just as You are to me.


 

Peace that makes no sense at all . . .

 

 

READ Psalm 41-45

These days there is lots of talk about returning to ‘normal’ yet is there such a thing? Life is filled with ups and downs and I often say that normal is only a setting on the clothes dryer!

Today’s reading has very few ‘ups’ in it, mostly ‘downs’ — and those contrasts reveal what is normal, at least usual or common in the life of God’s people. The reading starts out with promises of protection, reputation and good health to those who take care of the poor and weak people in their midst:

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:1–3)

It continues as the psalmist speaks of God’s blessings because of his integrity, but as believers realize, even integrity is also a gift of God’s grace:

By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:11–12)

However, the next chapters tell of the downside. The psalmist is in turmoil because God seems missing and his enemies are making fun of him:

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:10–11)

For emphasis, this last lament is repeated in the next psalm, yet even at the bottom of the normal curve, he realizes that his situation will change and eventually he will again praise God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

The next psalm shows a rise in the writer’s life. His mood has changed for he is praising God instead of questioning Him. His confidence is not in his own resources but in His God:

You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah (Psalm 44:4–8)

This does not last long for soon he again is looking at his problems and feeling as if God has rejected him:

You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (Psalm 44:14–26)

I have the same ups and downs. Life is not a straight line and ‘normal’ is merely a wish. God wants me to be calm, trusting Him and knowing He is with me — no matter what is going on in my world or in the world in general. In Christ, normal is not about the news, nor having constant goodness and acceptable circumstances — it is about having peace in my heart:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7)

This peace surpasses understanding because it is a gift from God that is with me without any relationship to those constant ups and downs of life!

 

 

Only God?

If put in a dark cave without food like the soccer boys in Thailand, and even without another person to talk to, would I be at rest knowing that God is with me? Some days, I think I would be okay with that, but I cannot know for sure unless it really happened. God promises to be enough for me yet could I be content with having everything else taken from me?

Tozer says, “Being lonely in this world will only drive you to a closer communion with the God who has promised never to leave you or forsake you. He is altogether good and He is faithful. He will never break His covenant or alter that which has gone from His mouth. He has promised to keep you as the apple of His eye. He has promised to watch over you as a mother watches over her child.”

His Old Testament people were able to praise Him in many situations. One high moment was when they were delivered from bondage in Egypt. Moses and God’s people sang a song that included these words:

“The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:2)

Life does have its high moments, but there are rough spots too. In the ups and downs of life, my worship tends to a similar pattern. There are great times of sensing His presence and focusing on nothing else. There are lows when I am stressed, forgetful of His faithfulness or worse, indifferent to His promises.

Thankfully, God is not like me. My estimate of my spiritual condition can be based on emotions, thoughts buzzing through my head, or the circumstances around me, but God never does that. He evaluates who I am and what is true about me according to Jesus Christ. As a current favorite chorus says, “I am a child of God.” As the Bible says, I am a new creation, redeemed and safe in the arms of Jesus.

Some days, a strong poke in the ribs or a slap on the side of the head is needed to remind me that God is my strength and my song, that Jesus Christ is my Savior (I am not), and that I ought to be praising Him rather than feeling blue or feeling sorry for myself. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be lacking anything — even if I was alone, in darkness, and without anything or anyone else.

^^^^^^^^

Jesus, there are days when I feel alone, abandoned, helpless and hopeless. You promise to never leave or forsake me. You are my strength and can put songs in my heart. You have saved me from sin and I need to use the energy You give to praise You and lift Your name on high — in or out of the valleys.