Graceful living

A Christmas Gift every day

/ RedeemedInGrace / Leave a comment

There seems no end to the rush- from Thanksgiving, to Christmas, on into New Year’s. I’ve become a bit of a Grinch this season with the avalanche of activities, filled with HIGH expectations. Christmas is the one time of year where nostalgia perfection rules. We want to “remember what it was like when we were kids” and create those kind of memories for our children too.

It’s exhausting.

Maybe because we just moved the first week in December, Christmas has felt more like a to-do list on top of the normal day to day things, and oh, did I mention we just moved?!  Let me just hibernate like the bears do and emerge come spring?

Cynical, yes.

Even though the busy pace has threatened to undo me, God is lately at work tilling my heart.

I don’t want to miss the wonder of Christ’s birth.

Heaven met earth in a stable suited for farm animals, witnessed by only Mary and Joseph, then shepherds, and later on the wise men. Christ came without excessive decorum, but as a baby, the most helpless and vulnerable a human can be.

I pray to not get lost in the frenzied swirl of distractions or my own pessimism.

Because honestly, Jesus never asked us to wrap 1,499,586 presents this season, or send Christmas cards with a picture of your family to every. single. person you’ve ever met, or attempt that cake from Joanna Gaines’ cookbook because it looks “Christmas-ey”.

All we’re asked to do is receive Him- the Greatest Gift.

It’s hard for us to be on the receiving end of things sometimes. In a self-reliant, self-made, autonomous modern Western world, we have to do something before we get, right?

God’s economy doesn’t operate that way. We don’t have to perform or earn anything. It’s not a rewards system like in kindergarten.

It’s all grace.

Does it mean we can’t be light-hearted and enjoy fun things during the season? Of course we can. We should celebrate, especially as Christians! But it does mean that we are free from having to tie one more ribbon or buy one more gift for the sake of a “perfect” Christmas.

You do not have to perform to be loved by Jesus. 

Yes, there may be pies to bake, rooms to clean, and even a few presents to wrap. But how we view Christmas is what matters in the hustle of the holidays. We can posture our hearts to worship knowing that we already belong in God’s family, no matter if the ham burns or you forgot to send a Christmas card to Aunt Martha, or that hard to buy for person hates what you got them.

Whether you’re familiar with the loud and busy of Christmas bustle or tucked away lonely, wishing you had someone to buy a present for, remember that Christ came for you too.

Jesus is the Greatest Gift we can have (and all we truly need or want) not just this Christmas, but every Christmas, and every day. One day we’ll see the Son of God who risked everything to save us from ourselves. He’s the Only One who can satisfy our cracked hearts, not things or experiences. When see Him face to face, that will be the best Christmas of all.

 

Grace upon grace,

April

Moments of grace

/ RedeemedInGrace / 3 Comments

About once a month Jason and I will go to the actual theater if anything good is playing. Last time we saw Unbroken: Path to Redemption, the sequel based on a true story from Louis Zamperini’s life experience in WWII. This movie picks up right after the war as Louis tries to adjust to normal life again.

If you haven’t seen the first movie, Unbroken, I highly recommend watching it first. But if not you still get the idea of the horrors he went through during the war. Louis was captured as a POW by the Japanese after spending 47 days at sea on a raft. He was tortured specifically by a prison guard, known as “The Bird” who specialized in cruelty. Years after the war ended, Louis was still plotting how to murder this man. He lost touch with reality succumbing to hatred, depression and alcoholism.

For the first half of the film we see the demons he wrestles with- and it looks kind of familiar.

I have battled depression since I was fifteen.

It took me about ten minutes before writing this next sentence, because I don’t talk about it often- if at all anymore. The first six years as a teenager were the hardest, because all the emotions. Now it is more of an unexpected, unwelcome guest that shows up on my doorstep from time to time.

FullSizeRenderIMG_4301

It’s been said that depression is our anger turned inward. I believe that’s partly true. There’s so much more to understanding depression than just letting go of anger, but this is where I needed to do some soul searching. When we withhold forgiveness from someone, our insides begin to calcify. We lose a tender, pliable heart desiring to conform to Jesus.

Something that hit me while watching in the dark movie theater was a speech Louis gave shortly before he died. He said, “forgiveness has to be complete”. He was referring to his Japanese captors, even “The Bird”. Louis Zamperini learned to forgive his enemies once he discovered he was fully forgiven in Christ. We see him giving his life to the Lord in the movie at a Billy Graham tent revival. That night became a turning point in his life of letting go.

That phrase sat heavy on my heart as Jason and I walked back to our car that night. Forgiveness has to be complete. Just the night before I felt prompted to pray for people I haven’t seen in over 15 years. Part of my depression stemmed from unforgiveness I had harbored for so long.

I thought I had forgiven them- but maybe it was more of choosing not to remember instead. 

I realized I haven’t been completely free either. Louis knew this too.

There’s a reason God commands us to forgive our enemies and instead bless them, pray for them. Not only is it for their benefit, its for ours too.  Jesus fully forgave me for all I’ve ever done or will do, so how can I not practice forgiving others?

FullSizeRenderFullSizeRender

In his book ‘Inconspicuous Providence’, Bryan R. Gregory speaks of the power of the cross which provides us with the supernatural ability to forgive. He says “the cross assures us that God is still working, even if we can’t see it. The cross assures us that God is with us, even when we can’t feel it. The cross assures us that God’s redemptive purposes are greater than the evil being done.”

We may never know the extent of God’s redemptive purposes as He works through our suffering to work in another life because of how we’ve responded.

Our fellowship with God depends on how we act toward each other. It means we don’t keep a record of past wrongs. The best way to do that is by beginning to pray. With the help of the Spirit, He will supernaturally work in our hearts to forgive even when an apology isn’t given. He will enable us to love those who are hard to love. He will do a good work in us as we seek peace and pursue joy by moving forward and not dwelling on our past sins or the sins of others.

My heart was like a wrung out dish rag by the end of the movie, but it served as a lesson for me to keep moving beyond my depression. Forgiveness. Letting go of past or present wounds. Pray for my enemies.

Our fingers slowly pry from the anger we hold on to so tightly. God says we are free if we are in Christ. It’s not just a future hope, but a present reality that we are free. I am free to transform moments of pain into moments of grace.

Grace upon grace,

April

Creativity takes a lot of brave

/ RedeemedInGrace / 2 Comments

We were meant to be creative.

God’s first actions recorded in Scripture involve creating- the entire universe and us. We are His image bearers, the only thing made to mirror Him. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. We have a gift inside of us we may never have considered before.

I started snapping pictures with my iPhone when Instagram came on the scene. Each square had the potential to be curated art. For someone who loves to create beauty, reflect the wonders of God, this was my jam. I discovered that I liked being an amateur photographer as a way to express the Lord’s glory all around us.

Some of the photos are everyday moments which are good too because life ranges from the breathtaking to the ordinary. It’s all a gift. Each day we get to declare the glory of God in some way, with the talents, abilities, interests He’s given us.

Imaging His creativity in us takes work and a little courage too doesn’t it? Some people may not get what you’re doing. Maybe you don’t even consider yourself this way, reasoning the “artsy” scene isn’t your thing. That’s okay.

Creating not only means to make something out of nothing, or a way of expression. It is also a form of order. God created the world into order (meaning we aren’t flying off the earth as it spins around). There is a certain rhythm, set by God, to sequence the days, nights, and seasons giving us structure for how we live. So isn’t is reasonable to say that those who like to file, organize, clean, and crunch numbers are creatives too?

This is all part of living into the identity Christ bought for us. In her book Made for More, Hannah Anderson says that we “exist to reflect and represent Him on this earth”, living  Imago Dei, “in the image of God”.  There is a level of vulnerability in living this way,  working at something that means something to you, then sharing it with others. It takes a brave heart to do it. But more than that, it honors God when you use the gifts He’s given you.

We keep wonder and beauty alive in a world that aims to pervert what is good. What if creating is like waging war against our unseen enemies? What if we NEED to create as believers are called to fight the good fight? Sharing the Gospel and using your creativity go hand in hand.

So as we image Christ day after day, however imperfectly, we practice creating in our field. It’s how we learn to become people of truth. Because this is your offering to give to the Lord. We become who we already are, or another way to say it, we become more fully ourselves when we create.

 

Grace upon grace,

April

 

Is ordinary okay?

/ RedeemedInGrace / 2 Comments

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.” -C.S. Lewis

Yesterday Jesse had a half day of school, so I drove there to pick him up at 11am only to get home some time after 2pm. What happened in between was this.

I was buckling Jesse in the car of the school parking lot when another parent came over, remarking that I had something in my tire. Well you could definitely hear the air hissing out with a thin, sharp metal object pierced in the rubber. I called Jason to see if he could come check it out and later he determined the tire needed changing.

He changes the tire then makes the executive decision for all of us to eat a late lunch at Chic-Fila (which why would anyone ever oppose that?). After lunch and Jesse playing in their indoor jungle gym (I make a mental note to use a ton of hand sanitizer afterward), we head over to the car shop.

I’m informed that they can’t even look at the tire or replace it until tomorrow morning. So, weary and with a slight stress headache, we head home to watch Frozen for the hundredth time.

This was not a normal day for us, but not anything extraordinary either. It happens every day to people. Most of life isn’t flashy and exciting and like life on vacation. We get up, go to work or school, meal plan, buy groceries, laundry, clean, etc. All to do it over again the next day.

But here’s the thing. Sometimes the subliminal message in our culture seems to be that ordinary is boring and therefore to be avoided. There is a push to be “unique” and in one sense we all are because God didn’t create any of us alike. Even twins develop different personalities (ask me how I know). But if everyone is striving to stand out and be “different”, isn’t that just another kind of conformity?

In Paul’s letter to Titus he says, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives” (Titus 3:14).

We still have to work, eat and sleep. Our basic needs still apply and often this includes taking care of others too. My hope is that you and I learn not to despise ordinary living. That even being ordinary is okay even as you use the unique gifts God has blessed you with.

Because it really sums up most of our lives. The moments each day add up over time and turn into weeks, then months and years. It would be a tragedy to have wasted your one life, always seeking the next thrill and not appreciating the commonplace. Our worth isn’t calculated by how “exciting and interesting” we are is it? It’s so much more than that.

So what does Paul encourage Titus and the church to do?

Do good. Live your lives.

I think this is part of “keeping your eyes on your own paper”, to stay faithful right where you are.

When we are faithful to do this, we begin to realize that we are exactly where we need to be. You and I have a different ordinary, but it doesn’t make mine or yours less significant.  Our kingdom work happens here.

 

Grace upon grace,

April

Strangely Glorious

/ RedeemedInGrace

The more I press into God the more I realize how little I know of Him. You think it would be reverse. Yet He is so vast, so rich and inconceivable to the human mind and heart. The Lord reveals to us as much as we can stand, to behold His Glory.

Just like my sin, if I really understood the horror and magnitude of it all, it would crush me. So God graciously puts believers under the knife of life-long sanctification. Some incisions cut deeper than others, but all are necessary to shed the dragon layers that keep us from complete intimacy with Him.

As when Moses’ face shone with the glory of being in God’s Presence, God knows His Shekinah Glory is more than mortals can bear (Exodus 33:12-23; 34:29-35). Instead, He mercifully shines His reflection in the face of Jesus- and there we behold Him. It is through the loveliness of Christ we see who we really are.

I am covered by His blood and can say I am His daughter. Simple though I am, He is patient to teach me for eternity (Isaiah 54:13).

 

Grace upon grace,

April

A Gracious Receiver

/ RedeemedInGrace / Leave a comment

 

I just finished a Bible study in the Gospel of John with a group of women all over my city. One of the questions in our lesson asked, “How have you seen the Lord’s love and knowledge of you in the way He tailors His correction especially to fit you and your circumstances?”

For me it continues to be a lesson of accepting God’s grace and forgiveness. I’m no longer “just a sinner”, but covered in Jesus’ righteousness. God wants to show me the freedom I have in His forgiveness over my sins, yet I stay wrapped up in all the ways I fail Him. Isn’t that silly? He has made believers as new creations but I cling to dust and ashes. I resist receiving what is already mine.

The past few months have been painful to learn this lesson. I feel like it should be the easiest one to have down pat. Grace is grace and believers live in a “sea of grace” (BSF Notes, Lesson 28, p.4). Yet growing in spiritual maturity is sometimes remembering that we forget the easiest lessons. And I need to remember every day.

Quick to acknowledge that I’m a depraved sinner, I often miss the very real truth that because of Jesus I am forgiven; redeemed. How many times we miss this life giving principle. When we can’t even accept our own failures as forgiven, how in the world do we forgive someone who has wronged us? Or ask for forgiveness from someone else?

We are hidden in Christ, cleansed from all shame. And the best part is that we have done nothing to deserve such mercy- it is all by the grace of God. That is the most humbling and gracious news.

lightstock_226842_download_medium_april_box_lightstock_319896_download_medium_april_box_IMG_0589

The Lord is actively at work in us, in the world, through all the brokenness. He is redeeming all things for His Glory, and He first starts with His Beloved- you and me. If we want deep faith than acknowledging our deep sin that cannot be cleansed apart from Christ is the first step. Then we move forward and receive the gracious forgiveness extended to us, bought for you and me on the Cross.

Live in freedom.

Walk in freedom.

Satan thrives on paralyzing Christians with our failures, but we have an Intercessor who prays for us- Jesus Himself (John 17; Luke 22:31-32). Even though we might stumble and fall, God is faithful to love us perfectly and patiently. All praise belongs to God, because anything we have already comes from Him, even faith. You and I can receive His grace and not live as one condemned.

 

 

Grace upon grace,

April

 

 

For the Overwhelmed Christian

/ RedeemedInGrace / Leave a comment

lightstock_35237_download_medium_april_box_

I sat next to a woman in my Bible study group that spoke words of freedom to me. She was addressing our entire small group, but what I heard was permission to live guilt-free as a Christian. A lot of my life as a believer I have felt the need to serve whenever the church doors were open.

Being a Christian meant serving at all times.

While there is truth in this, it isn’t the full truth. We as Christ followers must serve others because we are the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world. However, when we read about Jesus’ earthly ministry, He did only what was right in front of Him. Jesus didn’t multi-task, healing every single person with disease and sickness. He stayed on the tasks that were given to Him, doing the Father’s work at all times, perfectly obeying.

The woman in my group talked about how she and her husband intentionally prioritize their service to others. Each New Year, they write down a list of responsibilities first that are non-negotiable, like being a wife and mother to young children. Then she lists a few passion and gifts, and together they pair down realistically what works within both of their schedules. If it can’t fit inside the square calendar box, it’s thrown out for that year.

What a genius idea, I thought, because honestly I can often become over-zealous in my desire to do everything, wanting to “save the world”. I forget that Jesus already did that, and I’m merely called to participate in service right in my little suburban neighborhood.

IMG_0174IMG_0204IMG_0181

So I went home that day after Bible study and wrote a small list of areas I can practically serve in. The first two are my husband and son because I believe the family God has given me is my first priority. Then I left room for 3 other things that I can do, some of which I am already doing but never really viewed them as ministry opportunities.

The point is that the list shouldn’t be immense but instead focus your service. Sometimes we place false guilt on ourselves, or unfortunately sometimes the Church does. There are endless needs around us and it can feel overwhelming. When I try to do it all I end up fragmented and depleted. I forget that there is no output of eternal value without input as well.

Service first starts with my own heart seeking the Lord, growing deeper in knowledge, faith, and love. When I expend all my energy and time in service production mode I leave no room for God to teach and speak in the quiet.

Believers end up doing ourselves a disservice when we think we can fill every opportunity.

It is a privilege to participate with the Spirit in His work but God doesn’t need me or you. He wants our obedience not our guilt to love in His Name. This was so freeing for me to realize. I’m called to be faithful in the place, the responsibilities and the gifts God has given me. My tasks won’t look like yours and yours won’t look like the next woman’s.

Still feel overwhelmed?

Think about where you spend your time each day and how you could make an impact. Are you already in a Bible study? Maybe start investing in some of those relationships or perhaps they need a greeter at the door in the mornings. It doesn’t have to be big to be life changing. We can encourage through writing notes to people who may feel forgotten, or mentor the young woman on the brink of marriage or teach the 3 & 4 year old Sunday school class.

lightstock_353593_download_medium_april_box_

Also leave room for the small, one-time opportunities to obey. Those acts of kindness are just as sweet to the Lord; a bottle of water for the over-heated air conditioning guy in the middle of August, opening the door for a mom juggling a baby stroller and toddler in tow, greeting a stranger with a smile.

We do the next thing right in front of us. Not everything is Tweet-worthy and that’s just fine because the One who sees it all is the only One worth pleasing.

God is always at work and we get to join Him, but He hasn’t called us to “save the world”. The Lord desires for you and me to live out of the unique personality, circumstances, and calling He has given us. Our concentrated list might even change over our lifetime. What matters is how we love, how we are faithful with what is right in front of us. Only then does our joyful obedience blossom into fruitful obedience. And that aroma is very sweet to our precious Savior.

 

 

Grace upon grace,

April

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Delight of Duty

/ RedeemedInGrace / Leave a comment

lightstock_366519_download_medium_april_box_

Some of us make New Year’s resolutions to signal a fresh start or to throw off last year’s excesses and failures. Something I’ve done the past few years is to pick a word to meditate on. My senses are heightened as I notice the word popping up in whatever I’m reading or listening to.

In 2015 it was ‘grace’, which was partly responsible for the birth of this blog. Last year’s word was ‘joy’ and for 2017 it is ‘delight’. Now, I know that joy and delight are very similar. Here’s where I make the distinction: Joy is a picture of what I want my Christian life to look like. That continues to be a life-long journey. Delight, on the other hand, is focused on how I love God. Do I delight in Him? His Word? I want to take pleasure in knowing Him more. Again, this too is a life-long journey and isn’t tied in a pretty pink bow at the end of the year. But it’s a start.

“Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.”
-Psalm 119:35

I prayed about having something to help me desire God, out of duty AND love! I forget that we are commanded to delight in the One who created us and keeps us alive with every heart beat, every breath we take. Just as I enjoy spending time with my son and husband, I learn to love God deeply when I find my pleasure in Him. John Piper terms this as Christian Hedonism. Jonathan Edwards personally resolved, “to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can”. That obtaining happiness in God starts now for the believer, whose real life didn’t even begin until the moment of salvation.

http://egoodography.wix.com/homeimg_0057

img_0042

I’m hoping to practice my delight in God this side of heaven, learning of His character, and trusting Him even when life is hard or I don’t understand the circumstances. God graciously showed me last year that I was still striving “to be good enough” for Him instead of just enjoying His love, His goodness, His presence within me. I was angry in the moment, when God laid me low, but now I look back and see it was all a work of His kindness. God continues to be faithful even when I am not. That is grace and in looking back over my personal experiences with the Lord, I now can delight in Him!
This doesn’t mean that all of life is fluff, butterflies and unicorns. Life is still full of disappointments, sorrow and pain. Douglas Wilson, pastor and apologist, discusses delight as:

“true joviality […] as an act of defiance […] It’s the recognition that this is how we fight. We are the cheerful warriors, the happy warriors, the cavalier […] We need to fight. We must fight, but the person who fights like a cavalier is an attractive leader. He’s going to attract more people to his side. He’s going to be more effective.”
(The Romantic Rationalist p.166)

I have not always thought this way. I tend to get frustrated with people who don’t see things “my way”, even if my thinking is aligned with Truth. If I’m not delighting in God, then I’m not worshipping Him, and where there is no worship there can be no joy. If I am not joyful, then who wants to listen to what I have to say anyway?

Wilson elaborates that we don’t live as schizophrenic believers either. We “rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). Christians know how it all ends and that is our hope. Delight has many faces, I’m learning. We can comfort the hurting and celebrate with the joyful because God is our ultimate satisfaction.

 

“Let thy unexampled love constrain me into
holy obedience,
and render my duty my delight.”
(Valley of Vision p.213)

 

Grace upon grace,
April

 

 

 

 

 

A Matter of the Heart

/ RedeemedInGrace / 8 Comments

lightstock_365881_download_medium_april_box_

I failed with flying colors. This is not the Christian success story you were hoping to hear. Instead, it is a story of failure, failure to respond biblically and maturely. I don’t like admitting that about myself, but I am beginning to see how even my response in the midst of affliction is grace. Exposed and raw, I saw my sin amplified more than I thought possible. So God does this work of “letting bad things happen” to reveal our sin nature. I find out who I really am before He can rebuild again.

Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Before He can use us He must gently crush us.” This is part of an ongoing story because faith is never wrapped up in a neat little bow this side of heaven. Life is messy and unpredictable. That is when we are called to simply trust, working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) until Jesus takes us home.

Tuesday, October 25th I kept Jesse home from school due to a sleepless night before. There was nothing out of the ordinary that day as Jason went to work and I set about getting house chores done while Jesse quietly played. I felt completely fine with no warning signs to indicate the rest of the day. Shortly before noon I read a text from a friend when suddenly I became horribly dizzy and nauseous. The feeling sent me reeling, as I hit the floor to keep the room from spinning (which did not help). Right before falling to the ground I had the forethought of grabbing my phone if this became an emergency. It escalated to emergency status within seconds as I started vomiting uncontrollably. Jesse found me and started crying because he knew I was in distress. He ran to another part of the house, where I listened to him cry, and I didn’t see him again.

By God’s grace Jason answered his phone when I tried to call him. I remember feeling like I might pass out or die, because I’ve never experienced either until that moment. My body shut down as I lost control of my senses, becoming incredibly weak and incoherent. Jason called one of our neighbors to come over before he could get home. She was also an agent of grace, occupying Jesse while Jason took care of me. The paramedics soon arrived and took my vitals, which were fine even though I was the worst kind of sick I have ever felt. They noted my electrolytes were low and concluded that it must be a virus of some kind. So my very first ambulance ride I missed because I wasn’t all there to say the least.

img_7113

I remember the ER room. It was like a dream I wanted to wake from, being poked with needles, beeping machines, T.V. noise, endless emergency hallway chatter, and so many nurses in and out of a space that could have been a walk-in closet. Everyone hovers over the bed like I’m a riddle to be solved. But the medical staff is there to save lives no matter the cost, especially sans dignity. I’ve not had many hospital encounters, but there is none of that whatsoever and it doesn’t really even matter at that point. Everyone is there to do his or her job.

I’m told my heart went into an abnormal rhythm in the Emergency Room. Atrial Fibrillation. My heart was off running a marathon, leaving me in a hospital bed. The anti-nausea medicine finally kicked in and I became more lucid. Finally, I started to notice my surroundings more, trying to comprehend all that had taken place in the last few hours. My poor, sweet husband was wrestling with that same question too. He bore the brunt of my drama trauma fielding phone calls, text messages, and questions from paramedics, nurses, doctors, friends and family.

I wasn’t angry until the next day, even after God had answered many prayers from loved ones allowing my heart to convert back again to a normal rhythm. I was still grasping for answers, trying to wrap my mind around everything. I barely kept my head above water each day before all of this happened and now I was completely knocked down. I was tired. Tired of striving. Tired of wanting God to care because I thought he must not. I started listening to my fickle emotions instead of firmly setting my hope in the promises of God:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” He says in His Word over and over (Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:6, 8). I forgot that God is always faithful, even when I’m wretched and hostile. But He calls me to be faithful as well, and I instead turned the other way. “How could God do this to me?” I asked in pride and anger. “Is it not enough to take care of an autistic son, sleep very little and live a stress-filled existence without this on my plate?”

fullsizerender

I was trying so hard to pursue God, and I believe I was, but at the same time I left little room to just rest. Rest in His grace that doesn’t require a juggling act or high marks.

Jesus used Peter, a common fisherman, hotheaded and impulsive to later become the rock of the church (Matthew 16:15-19). He called Saul, and renamed him Paul, from persecuting Christians to preaching the gospel to them. These two men were imprisoned for their faith and died because they followed Jesus Christ, knowing that the hope they had would be made sight. And it has for them.

I hope that for you and me too. Sometimes living out our faith feels more like a boxing match. But in the end, I want to say along with Paul that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). If anything, I’ve learned that we are not meant to have all the answers. There is still no explainable medical reason as to why all of this happened on that Tuesday – just a bunch of guesses.

We are called to simply trust that God is Good and Sovereign even when we don’t understand our life circumstances. And I am learning that He really is faithful. “Bad things happen even to forgiven people”, says Pastor Stephen Davey, but it doesn’t mean God does not love you or has stopped loving you. What if it means quite the opposite? What if growth can only happen in the storms?

img_7346

When you find yourself there remember that the heart of the matter is how your heart responds to Him. Will you run to Him or from Him? Don’t follow my example of pitching a fit when things get hard. God will show you the exact measure of your faith when life doesn’t turn out right. You might find it humbling. But it’s also grace – the hard places, because my pride and self-reliance was and is being chipped away. And that is very good news.

Grace upon grace,

April

 

When I don’t desire God (and 8 ways to help)

/ RedeemedInGrace / 2 Comments

lightstock_366465_download_medium_april_box_

 

When I lack the desire to pray or read the Bible there’s a problem. My mind turns into a thick fog, unable to hold firm to the truth I profess. My spirit becomes dry so I fill cracked cisterns with other things – distractions.

Studies show that the average adult attention span is less than a goldfish, eight seconds. The rest of modern society and I whip out our electronic devices jumping from one thing to the next. I am restless and unable to focus.

There is something unique in the current era that generations before us did not fight against. We now have the ability to be in constant communication, literally at our fingertips, with every form of entertainment seeping through our lives. There is no room for quiet, so we slowly distract ourselves to death.

I don’t want to paint a broad picture that all of modern technology is evil and we should just retreat like monks. What I am saying is that I think my lack of desire to be still before the Lord has a lot to do with the bombardment of ways to get my focus off of God and onto lesser things. Sometimes these dry spiritual seasons echo the state of my heart. Sometimes God uses these lessons to teach me something about Him, that only He can quench my thirst.

There needs to be a wake-up call in the heart of believers who fall into this trap like me. I noted eight helpful ways to stir our spirit toward God again:

 

  1. Moderation, narrow your search, turn it off.

Eliminate digital clutter by being intentional with how much time you decide to spend online. Stick to it. Time is a precious gift and it would be a shame if you realize at the end of your life how much of it was wasted on social media, Internet surfing, or a Netflix binge.

Beyond that, try unsubscribing to a few email lists you’re on, limit the number of articles or blogs you read. There are a billion zillion things to find online and there just isn’t enough time in the day to take in everything. Be choosy.

When you set time aside to study the Bible, turn off your phone and the T.V. or whatever else might be a temptation for you. These devices are tools meant to serve us, not the other way around. We are losing our ability to be comfortable in silence. Exercising personal discipline in pursuit of our rich God is priceless, I promise you.

 

  1. Read the Psalms.

Read it aloud even. Speak the words back to God like David did, crying out to Him. Highlight verses that the Holy Spirit teaches you. Meditate on it.

 

  1. Seek God in each page of the Bible.

As you read the Bible, look for specific attributes of God. Where is He and what characteristics do you see? Is He Faithful? Creator? Lawgiver? Redeemer? Shepherd? Teacher? Remember that the Bible is first and foremost a book about God, not us, so find Him in each page you read.

lightstock_363792_download_medium_april_box_

 

  1. Pray.

Ask God to help you see clearly again spiritual truth. He is faithful and hears the prayers of His own. Ask for prayer from another believer – a trusted friend or someone else mature in his or her faith.

 

  1. Memorization.

Memorizing a Bible verse to carry with you throughout the week might be the one thing that sustains you. Repeat it frequently and let God use that truth to work in your mind.

 

  1. Work it out.

Taking a walk outside or some form of exercise is a great way to clear my head. I can take that time to walk in prayer, or just slow down long enough to notice God’s beauty around me.

fullsizerender

  1. Worship through music.

When I can’t even find the words to pray, worship music speaks for me. I punch in Chris Tomlin’s station on Pandora and my spirit is lifted once again. The melody soothes my soul and the lyrics remind me to worship the Living God.

 

  1. Write out your blessings, big and small.

Developing a grateful heart naturally leads to praising the God of grace, the Perfect Giver. You’ll be surprised at how blessed you really are.

 

Then wait for God to move. We can’t force the rhythms of grace. We ask, we seek, and then we wait. Even when the tumbleweeds blow in the desert of your soul, hold on to what you know to be true. God is keeping His Beloved. Sometimes we wander away and the Lord uses those seasons to grow us up in maturity. I usually learn the hard way. However the Lord of all decides to work in our fellowship with Him it is always for our good and His Glory.

 

Grace upon grace,

April