The End of Another Year

This final week of December is filled with reflection on the past year and anticipation of a new year. The Christmas season is behind us and celebration plans for the new year are in full-swing. Facebook feeds are sprinkled with remembrances of the year. Television programs are doing year-end reviews and reminding us of the top stories of 2014.

photo courtesy of www.incourage.me

Reflection on the past is a good thing. During this past week I was reminded not of something that happened this year, but something that happened exactly three years ago on the 26th of December. In an effort to maintain some privacy I won't share the event on this blog, but I will say that a God-timed moment reminded me of how good He is.

Three years ago I made a decision to take a step out of my comfort zone. What happened after that decision set off a chain of events that, had I known what was coming, I might have opted to hibernate and leave well-enough alone! However, what happened was both wonderful and downright painful. For the record, my decision was morally neutral--neither right or wrong. But it did open me up to some new experiences which grew me up spiritually and emotionally.

This blog was birthed during those difficult days and I chronicled some of the ups and downs right here. Someone once asked me if I could go back and change things, would I do it? My answer then (in the midst of the difficulty) was no. And my answer now is still a resounding NO!


This God-timed moment a few days ago reminded me...

of my FREE WILL, given by God. God doesn't sit up in the sky moving me around like some chess piece on a game board. Sometimes my life would be easier for Him to make those moves for me, but He gives me a sound mind and sense to seek His will and make my own decisions. Whether my choices are good or bad, He still uses my choices to accomplish His will for my life. It's amazing what He can do! 
Genesis 50:20 "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."


that God has a PLAN for me and it's a good one. I've written about this many times on this blog. Going back to the first point: no matter what I do it's not going to "mess up" my future because God already knows before I do what my choices will be. So even when my life looks messed up beyond belief, I can trust that God has everything all figured out. Will He "fix it" for me? Uh... well, not necessarily. It depends on the situation. I need to take responsibility for my choices and pay the price for whatever my part is in my current situation. But He will be there to walk through it with me. Anyway, God can redeem ANY situation if I seek Him.   
Jeremiah 29:11-14 "For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’"


of God's merciful LOVE. Like any parent who loves a child regardless of their behavior, God loves me even more than that. His forgiveness is there when I seek it. God's mercy and blessings are there for me when I run to Him. 
Lamentations 3:22-23 "The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness."

WAITING on the Lord is never a waste of time. This is a big one! As someone who likes to keep busy, waiting on someone else is not easy for me! But, this is a lesson that the Lord wanted to teach me during this period. Over and over again God reminded me to Be Still and Know that He is God (Ps. 46:10). He wanted me to cease striving and stop trying to be independent. God wanted me to stop trying to be my own god. (gulp) Instead, God kept hammering home this point of "get to know ME and trust ME." It took a lot of time, but that lesson finally took hold. I finally learned to Be Still and to wait and to trust Him. I learned, as Psalm 37:4 said, to delight myself in the Lord and trust Him for the desires of my heart.

Psalm 37:4-7a "Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him."

There were many, many lessons learned during these past three years. Waiting on God and trusting Him has been worth it. I've seen God do some amazing things! I expect there to be many new lessons to learn in the coming year as I continue to be His student, the daughter of a King, and His beloved. Here's a toast to the past and to the coming new year! 

 

Give What You Have

I was reading this VERY FAMILIAR Bible story last week. Some Bible stories are so familiar to us that we have a tendency rush through them with the "been there, done that" mentality. Really, the feeding of 5,000 is one of those Bible stories we learn as children and hear over and over and over. It's a great story of a miracle, but often the focus of the story is about the miracle of Jesus.

For your reading pleasure, here's the account of this story from the passage I was reading. Go ahead, I'll wait until you're done...

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand - Matthew 14.13-21

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. 

But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot 

 from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, 

and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, 

and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go 

to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.

“Bring them here,” he said. Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. 

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, 

and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, 

he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people.  

They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up

 twelve baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day,

 in addition to all the women and children!

So, did you see anything new in this passage? When I was reading this story last week, I suddenly noticed something I hadn't seen before. I don't know if it was the translation I was reading (NLT), if it was the Matthew passage instead of another Gospel, or maybe it was the Holy Spirit teaching me. Perhaps all three!

Here's what jumped out at me while reading it this time...

The disciples had this extremely practical idea: Let the people go home before dark to eat. I'm sure the disciples were shocked when Jesus told them, "You feed them" (verse 16). I'm imagining the disciples were a bit puzzled by that response. They already knew they did not have enough food available to feed that many people. Jesus asks them to bring what they have.

Just bring what you already have...

What you already have is enough...

Whatever God is calling me to do, I have enough. Just bring it.

You and I may not feel we are fully prepared, fully trained, or fully funded, before setting out to do something the Lord has called us to do. I know I often feel woefully inadequate, but actually that's probably a better place to be because God gets the glory in whatever happens instead of me.

There may be times when we are fully prepared. But, more often than not, we may be called to give from our weakness--inadequate as it may be.

By bringing what we have, Jesus blesses it and multiplies it--for His glory. 

Guard Your Heart

In Christian circles we've all heard the phrase Guard Your Heart. In fact, I've almost exclusively heard it used in reference to single girls/women. As in, Be careful that you don't get hurt. Well, sistah, that's impossible unless a girl completely shuts herself off from relationships. Even if she did manage to avoid all relationships, there will still be a different kind of "heart problem" because the hurt will come from the lack of relationship. The fact is, we were created to be in relationships (See Genesis 2:18). And any sane married person will tell you that relational hurts still happen after the vows are made.


So what in the world does it mean to Guard Your Heart?

First, let's look at Proverbs 4:23 in a couple of different Bible translations.

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life. NASB

Guard your heart above all else,
    for it determines the course of your life. NLT 

Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life. NKJV 

Keep vigilant watch over your heart;
    that’s where life starts. The Message 

Watch. Keep. Guard. Preserve.
To keep secret. To be kept close.

The original Hebrew word is used here in the sense of a caretaker who watches over a vineyard. Picture how a caretaker keeps watch and defends. He would be diligent about carefully defending his vineyard from elements or pests that might harm it.

Okay, so based on these definitions, it's very possible that we may need to guard our hearts from someone, but not necessarily to avoid possible hurt. We should guard our hearts from anything or anyone that can mess up our relationship with God. So it's way bigger than just about a boy/girl relationship.

So what are we guarding our hearts from? I won't go into an exhaustive list here, but basically we should be careful about anything we let into our minds (what we see, hear, etc.) and the people we allow to get too close who may influence us to make wrong choices. Perhaps that children's song Be Careful Little Hands What You Do isn't so far off base. 

Why are we guarding our hearts? Proverbs 4:23 continues by saying...For from it flow the springs of life. Come again? Our thoughts and actions can shape the way we speak and live. Wrong choices can lead us down the wrong path. Springs of life sounds pretty nice in comparison to the bottom of the dry pit. One is refreshing and the other...not so much.

How do we guard our hearts? This whole chapter of Proverbs 4 is advice from a father to his son about being wise. If you keep reading beyond verse 23 it sort of all comes together (that's the beauty of reading this in context). It tell us what we should do and what will happen when we do it.

²⁴ Avoid all perverse talk;
    stay away from corrupt speech.

²⁵ Look straight ahead,
    and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
²⁶ Mark out a straight path for your feet;
    stay on the safe path.
²⁷ Don’t get sidetracked;
    keep your feet from following evil.

P.S. Don't stop reading here. The entire book of Proverbs is full of wisdom!


Ultimately, I believe that we should be like a shepherd over our own hearts. A shepherd leads. Likewise, we should lead our hearts and not let our hearts lead us. It's dangerous to allow our hearts to lead us into making decisions. Think about it. I'm positive that you have made at least one heart choice and lived to regret it. 

While I was researching this topic, I came across this great quote from a blog I recently started following. 

"Guarding my heart does mean 

allowing no one access to that 

most central place of my affections 

but God. It means keeping 

the first commandment first—and 

 loving Him with all my heart, soul, 

mind, and strength (Deut. 6:5)." 

~ Paula Hendricks 

You may read the entire blog post here:

 http://www.truewoman.com/?id=792

 What do you think?

Wordy Wednesday

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28



No doubt, you are familiar with this verse. Sometimes familiar verses are easy to just gloss over because we've heard it so often. This verse is often quoted to us following a disappointment or time of testing. Internally I say to myself, Yeah, yeah, heard it before.

Take a moment to look at it with fresh eyes (and I say this to myself most of all).

We know.
All (every single thing that happens)
Works for His good (not necessarily my good)
For His purpose.

Whatever is going on right now, today, has already been filtered through God's loving hands, and He has a plan that fits His purpose. If you've royally screwed up, God will use that somehow, some way. That's a promise. You may still suffer the consequences of that major mess, but if you love God and dilligently seek Him, He will work it ALL for His good--and ultimately your (and my) good.

Resistance is Futile

Captain Picard as a Borg Drone (Please refer to copyright information below)

As I've written on this blog before, I am a fan of Star Trek. I recently watched a number of these movies during a marathon so perhaps that's why I am drawing on Star Trek as an example for today's post.

If you are unfamiliar with Star Trek (I pity you) the Borg is a fictional alien species who attempts to achieve perfection by assimilating humans and any cybernetic organism into their collective. This species and their advanced capabilities became quite a foe for the Star Trek crew. Their introduction to everyone--before assimilation--was this line, "Resistance is futile." In other words, we have plans to assimilate you, we will accomplish it, and any efforts to resist this effort is futile. So you might as well just believe it.

Have I lost you yet? Stay with me here.

This Borg phrase came to mind recently as I was pondering the issue of keeping the faith. There are many times when I want to believe in God's promises but when it takes so long to see something happening, my faith begins to waver. I begin to have doubts, especially if I do not see any progress. I'm such a visual person that if I don't see something, I have a hard time grasping it. If I see someone building a brick wall, I can look at it going up brick-by-brick and know that at some point that wall will be finished. But, God often works behind the scenes and I don't see the bricks going up. Translated in my brain, Nothing is happening.

This year has been all about faith-building for me. Simply put: Trusting God in every area of my life. If God has told me something that aligns with scripture, I believe it...until my faith wavers. God reminded me that if I believe it, then I need to live like I believe it. Then He reminded me of Hebrews 11:1...

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for 

will actually happen; it gives us assurance 

about things we cannot see.

I have always liked this verse but it takes on a special meaning right now as I walk out this faith. Where does the Borg come into all of this? Glad you asked. I'm getting there.

When I go on reading the remainder of Hebrews chapter 11, I have the opportunity to read about all the ordinary people of the Bible who walked out their faith and were commended by God. This chapter is typically referred to as The Hall of Faith. We tend to look at this people as extraordinary individuals with lots more faith than us. Maybe. Or maybe they started out just like us. But they believed God and trusted Him, stepping out in faith. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses all have some amazing examples faith and trust in God. They were willing to believe, to surrender, and to follow God based on a promise. They didn't know how God was going to work things out. 

All these people earned a good reputation

 because of their faith, yet none of them received 

all that God had promised.

--Hebrews 11:39

True, not all of these people actually got to see their promise fulfilled. But that doesn't mean God didn't honor His promise.

So, Resistance is Futile.

Why am I resisting (not believing)? After reading about all of these great people of faith, how can I not believe? To not believe would be futile. And, to rephrase what I said earlier...
     God has plans,
          He will accomplish it,
               so I might as well just believe it.   

God is good.

What are you believing God for today?
   





The Borg image is a low-resolution screenshot of a copyrighted television program or station ID. As such, the copyright for it is most likely owned by the company or corporation that produced it. This image is being used only to identify the subject for commentary purposes and qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image, might be copyright infringement. The image will be removed from this website should the copyright holder request. I will "make it so."

For Your Own Good...

"I'm doing it for your own good." 

I'm guessing we've all heard this or said this at least one time.

Photo Source http://www.tvcrazy.net/images/beaver.jpg

I turned on the television one Saturday morning as I was finishing my coffee and watched the last half of an old show called Leave It to Beaver. I like watching these old shows with strong values and families that actually love each other. In this particular episode, Beaver had somehow won a contest and the prize was a sports car--a real car!  When I tuned into the show, Beaver's parents, Ward and June, were discussing how to handle the situation. Obviously Beaver was much too young to have a car so Ward decided he would sell the car and save the money for Beaver's college education. Dad was about to break the news to Beaver.

In the next scene, Ward is in Wally and Beaver's room giving them the bad news. Dad calmly explains the impracticality of the situation and finally ends with the phrase, "I'm doing it for your own good." After Dad leaves the room, Wally asks Beaver why he's crying and making such a fuss since Beaver knew all along he wouldn't be able to keep the car. Beaver's reply was, "Just because it's for my own good doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

For your own good. 

Don't you just hate hearing those words? That phrase usually follows something we are enjoying, something that is giving us pleasure. Yet, there must have been something about that "thing" which was deemed not quite right or not the best by someone in authority over us. So, for our greater good, that thing (a privilege, toy, snack, etc.) was removed from our life. No amount of crying, complaining, or manipulation helps.

It occurred to me as I was watching this episode that there might be a spiritual application to this scenario. I immediately thought of something God recently asked me to give up. I have been part of the music ministry at my church for many years and have always enjoyed it. Music ministry is a good thing, right? Why would God ask me to give that up? I don't know the answer to that yet. I do know that in the long run it's part of God's plan and it will be for my own good. Did it hurt to give that up? Yes, a little bit. It's not easy to give up something good, something known, something that is part of my identity. But if there is something I've learned in recent months is that quick obedience to the Lord is much more satisfying that trying to ignore or run from God. As I was preparing this post I ran across this quote which seemed so appropriate to use here:

"Every difficult thing that God has asked you to do

is something that will benefit you

in the long run." ~ Joyce Meyer via Twitter

I'll just have to trust that the Lord knows exactly what He's doing. One day I will be able to look back into my rearview mirror and see that it was exactly the right thing to do. Just as Beaver said, "Just because it's for my own good doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

"A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline,  

a mocker refuses to listen to correction."

Proverbs 13:1

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; 

yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields 

the peaceful fruit of righteousness."
Hebrews 12:11

“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 way 

 and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 

Isaiah 55:8-9

What about you? Has God ever asked you to give up or do something that was good? How did it turn out?