What are You Thinking?

Psalm 73:1 “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart! But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling”.

Today I am sharing some thoughts and wisdom from an encouraging and timely devotional I read this morning. It was written by Tony Evans. Pieces and parts are my words intermingled among his.

There will be days when you find that you just don’t feel like worshiping God. Perhaps the temptation to compare yourself to someone else has caused you to feel down and even depressed. Driving home from work on Friday, you tell yourself you are glad the week is over because it has been a rough one. As you lament over how tired you feel, satan blindsides you with the thought that your coworkers do not really appreciate you.

By the time you open the front door of your home, your eyes have narrowed and your forehead has tightened. You decide your family doesn’t know or appreciate all you do for them either. You are frustrated and ready to give up. Still, you do not pray and ask God for His perspective. You just keep repeatedly thinking through the day and rehearsing your negative feelings and look for something, anything to numb you to your reality. Saturday morning you get up feeling haunted by the same emotions. You start to resent all the things you need to at home, too. The demands just keep piling up! By Sunday you force yourself to drive to church, but you certainly don’t feel like singing or praising God.

Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, would understand your plight. He allowed discouragement to grow in his life to the point where he was deeply disturbed. The key word in the last sentence is ‘allowed’.

Whenever we take our eyes off of God and His faithfulness, and begin to compare our lives with those around us, we either end up feeling defeated or prideful. God has created each one of us for a unique purpose, which includes worshiping Him.

Psalm 73 is a rambling account of what Asaph was feeling, but by the end, he realizes the truth and puts an end to his negativity. “As for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all (of) Your works” (v. 28).

Sometimes God seems so far away that you can’t talk to anyone else but Him—because nobody else will understand what in the world you are talking about. The closer you are to God, the less likely the enemy will have a shot at your emotions. Stay focused on what God has for you to do. You are His beloved child, and He has an amazing plan for your life. Will you praise Him for this?

Joshua 24:15  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors (work*) served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods (the flesh*) of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

*Italics - I added

God is Still in Control

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

God is still in control. God is still in control. God is still in control.

That five word phrase, simple and straight to the point, is one of the foundational blocks of my faith and strength. GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL. It doesn’t matter what else is going on around us, God is still in control. The evening news spews bad news daily but God is still in control. Our health may become shaky and scary but God is still in control. Our finances may be non-existent but God is still in control. Our family and friends may have turned their backs on us but God is still in control.

I can’t count the hours, days, years of my life that I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to solve my problems, trying to figure out something to make a bad situation better. I believed in God, called myself a Christian and yet, I never felt the peace and security I have since I let that little five word phrase soak into my heart, mind and spirit. God is still in control.

My body has ‘issues’…God is still in control. I figure if He is allowing it to continue in my life, He has a purpose and reason for it and will use it to His greater glory somehow. That’s all I need to know. I do my part to take care of the body He gave me and He does all the rest. It makes no sense to me to sit around whining about it all the time since God is still in control.

I will be the first to admit I have times where some things in this world give me pause and I feel weak against them. My weakness is not the issue, I am not in control. We feel weak against those things that hover over us…we usually feel the weakest over things which we have no control. Shout it aloud with me…God is still in control…we don’t have to be. What a burden lifter that it!

Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Cowboy or Sheppard?

John 10:27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

What exactly does it mean to ‘follow Jesus’? Sounds like a pretty basic question but I think we sometimes lose sight of what following Christ means.

In our western world we see cowboys moving a herd along by riding behind them, ‘driving the herd’ and they only ride up ahead if some of the cattle or sheep start to stray from the direction they desire the herd to move.

In the eastern part of the world, as well as in Biblical times, the Sheppard walked in front of his herd and they followed. Sound familiar? The words of Jesus in John 10:27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

As Christians, we can far too easily move in any direction we want, all that ‘free will’ stuff, you know. Once we have decided, in all our sophisticated and worldly wisdom, what we want to do we ask the Lord to bless it…whatever IT may be. We like to think that calling ourselves Christians means God will bail us out of whatever mess we get ourselves into…after all, we asked Him to bless our mess, didn’t we?

In that regard, we are no more following Christ than a herd being driven are following the cowboy. The old saying about ‘getting the cart before the horse’ comes to mind. We are putting ourselves before Christ when we make decisions and plans or take actions or behave the way we want before taking it up with the Lord. I can look back on some of the things I wanted or did on my own and it makes me shudder to think how arrogant I was to think I knew what was best.

I don’t think we have to ask the Lord if we should choose Del Monte or Van Camp canned peas; He did offer us common sense and wisdom to think, but how we live, how we worship, how we serve Him, how we behave and speak…those are biggies.

We know more about how the Lord would have us live by reading and studying His word. We are to live and walk and talk more and more like Jesus as we grow as Christians. Take a moment to stop and reflect back on yesterday alone. Did your actions and words reflect Christ or worldly man/woman? Were you following Jesus or bolting off like a wayward bull hoping He would come running if you fell off the cliff?

Something to think about….

Pearls of Wisdom

Job 28:18 “Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned: And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls."(NAS)

The ‘holy tap’ on the shoulder came early this morning. My alarm had gone off and I was still snuggled in that comfy spot so hard to leave thanking the Lord for all He has blessed me with and the new day to move forward. It was then the ‘tap’ and I ‘saw’ a line of pearls on my shoulder. With a head still fuzzy from sleep it took a second for me to recognize they were pearls but at second glance, they were strung together like a fine necklace of valuable pearls. Now I’m wide awake!

I love pearls, real pearls, though I’ve never had any… but one day…that however was not where the Lord was going with that. I tried to do my regular Bible reading and study but could not; the pearls would not leave my mind. So I researched how pearls were referenced in scripture. They were considered one of the finest and most valuable jewels in Biblical days.  

In the beginning chapter 28 Job is describing the treasures found in the earth and how men seek them out…for example: iron is taken from the dust (:2); copper is smelted from rock (:2); rocks are a source for sapphires(:6); dust contains gold….BUT…where can wisdom be found? (:12) It’s as though Job is saying…pearls are the most valuable, sought after gem…but wisdom is even more precious.

Matthew 13:45-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

Matthew is using a variety of similes for the kingdom of heaven…a pearl is a perfect simile because a ‘fine pearl’ is a valuable treasure that needs no polishing or cutting by man. It comes to us complete and lustrous created by God through nature, as is the kingdom of heaven, which only God could create and perfect.

All that good stuff and more on pearls can be found in scripture but it just didn’t seem to be what I was suppose to ‘get’ out of the Lord showing it to me. I went back and thought about the timing of it all. I was lying in bed thanking the Lord for my blessings…ah, here it is. I had to smile when it hit me because only God…

A pearl is created inside a ‘wound’ of a pearl oyster. The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

We all have ‘wounds’ in our lives. As believers, we have the blood of Jesus Christ covering our wounds and sins, over and over again. When we hurt it is hard to imagine that anything of beauty and worth can come from it but given time, His timing, all our wounds are healed and covered by the blood and are used for His greater glory. People, most especially family, can wound us yet they are still blessings we are given. Over time those wounds make little pearls which become big pearls when we leave the process to the one created by our Creator.
 
I believe that string of pearls I saw during the ‘holy tap on the shoulder’ this morning was God showing me how my blessings, wounds and all, are still a thing of beauty and value I can wear proudly as I move forward in following Him.

Two or More

Matthew18:18-20 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Early last week I knew I was in for a rough time physically. My body struggles with lupus and there is as occasional ‘flare’ that magnifies all the ugliness, fatigue and pain. I started praying against it, chose not to say anything about it and go on with life. By Wednesday I was in a full blown flare up and could barely function. Mentally my head was foggy and every move agonizing. I am blessed to have a new job I enjoy yet that day it was my need to work that kept me moving. I can deal with the daily chronic pain but flares are another story.

Since I was at work, I wasn’t able to send out my usual prayer request email but I did send a text to my inner circle prayer warriors. There was comfort in knowing these trusted friends and family were standing in prayer for me all at the same time. Prayer power is a mighty thing! By mid-afternoon I physically could feel a difference on the scale of pain level. It was as if it could be measured with the scale tipping toward relief more and more as the afternoon wore on. I knew in the depths of me that the cries of my prayer warriors and the healing hand of Jesus were covering me. I went home in far less pain than I started with in the morning and I used wisdom by resting my body when I got home instead of listening to the yapping chores vying for my attention.

I’ve said all that to say this: I could have and should have reached out to my prayer warriors sooner; perhaps the flare could have been averted if I had. I do not hesitate to pray for those that ask yet I was hesitant to ask for myself…why? Was it pride, was it fear…what kept me from calling on those I knew loved me and would stand with me in prayer? This bothered me and I gave it serious thought. In the craziness and turbulence of my world the last year and a half, I have called on them for prayer so often I think I felt guilty for needing them… AGAIN. What a foolish way to think!

Friends, it was our Lord Jesus saying those words in the scripture: “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Whatever your situation, know that it was God’s plan for us to pray with and for one another. There is nothing you can have going on in your life that is not common to man. Your needs will not shock God. As believers we are suppose to support one another in prayer and lift each other up with the Word of God. My foolish mentality in not reaching out for support or prayer was of my flesh, not my spirit. I knew better but didn’t follow through. The price for my hesitation was high and a consequence of my sin of pride. God didn’t make me suffer; I suffered because I leaned on myself to ‘get through it’ over calling on my fellow prayer warriors and Jesus as I know to do. Make a note and don’t walk in my stupid footsteps.