Author: Christine Wyrtzen

THE FUEL LOVE PROVIDES

            So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Genesis 29:20

            This is one of the rare moments in the Bible where sentiments about romantic love are expressed. Does love at first sight exist? Yes. Is there such a thing as people just ‘clicking’ when they meet? I believe so. It happens in friendship. Why not romantic love!

            Jacob so loved Rachel that working for seven years to acquire her as his wife was hardly a sacrifice. If we were to ask Jacob about it in today’s vernacular, he might reply, “It was nothing!” And we know what he means. When I love to do something, the time that expires as I engage in the activity is irrelevant. Hours go by as if they were minutes. This is how I feel as I do many things; record in the studio, engage in the graphic design of new marketing materials, organize drawers and closets, even explore colors, textures, and fabrics.

            There are people that I love deeply and serving them also seems effortless. I wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing in some way for them. I love to see them happy no matter what it costs me.

            What is Jesus asking you to do today that seems steep? There is a cost. He said there would be. It is cross-shaped. Paul said that it was love that constrained him to endure hardship. It is lack of love that causes many to abandon their faith. When things get difficult, there is no relationship to sustain them. Knowledge of God without experience does not build emotional and physical endurance in Christian service.

            I’ve been engaged in something very difficult related to ministry. The cost has been steep but nothing compared to the ways other believers are suffering throughout the world. Nonetheless, I’ve been asking myself if Jesus is worth it. There is no question for me. I love Him and can’t keep quiet about the things He’s taught me. I love the truths, believe in them, and have learned them at such a high price. We’ve come too far together to stop now.

            There are days each of us lose perspective. They are related to the moments Jesus spent in the garden asking His Father if He might be spared the cross. But one day, no matter what we’ve suffered, I believe we will all say something similar. “I loved Him so it was easy to spend my life.”

Internal pep talks fizzle out quickly, Lord. It is Your voice and the memories of our time together that give me supernatural strength. Amen

Journal Question: Have you lost your way? Are others guilting you into more service? Seek God’s heart and get a fresh word. It is the only experience that revives the dead.

DOES LOVE AUTOMATICALLY RUN IN THE FAMILY?

As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. Genesis 29:13-14

         Jacob announced who he was to his uncle as Laban threw his arms around Jacob, confirmed that he was his own flesh and blood, and feigned a depth of affection that wouldn’t materialize when tested. Did Jacob let his guard down when he was embraced? Probably so. That’s what we tend to do when we are among family. It will turn out that Laban is generous with Jacob but only in a way that is self-serving.

         In this fallen world, love is just flawed. No one loves perfectly. Family relationships are messy and sinful human nature acts out constantly. What makes the road so treacherous is that love can exist one minute and disappear the next when it requires something in the relationship that is too steep. A generous person becomes stingy in a moment over the right issue.Unless you know them well, you might not know the limits of their fidelity and at what point they will serve themselves instead of you. Jacob will find out the hard way about the heart of Laban and suffer under his selfish scheming. But then again, hadn’t Jacob just done the same thing to his own family? He schemed to extort a blessing from his father. What he has sown, he will reap.

         How should I function in a normal family? I don’t want to live suspicious of everyone but I also don’t want to be naïve and trust indiscriminately. I will err on either side if I try to live by my own gut. Sometimes I’ll get it right but there will be just as many times I am taken in by another’s ability to deceive. “My brother, we’re family!” goes a long way to melt a misgiving that might be warranted.

         God promises wisdom to all who ask and who seek it like gold. God will guide me right as I navigate relationships with others who share my bloodline. I will get it wrong sometimes. That’s life. And when I do, I can’t get bogged down in the mire of resentment and revenge. I’ll grieve my losses, forgive, embrace the lessons I’ve learned about the hearts of people, and move on to love with my eyes wide open.

Continue to heal my fear of people. Amen

Journal Question: Do you need to make a course correction in your approach to family? Do you err toward caution instead of openness? Or trust instead of wisdom? Ask God for the wisdom to walk in balance.

EVIL AND THE GLORY OF GOD

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  Romans 9:17-18

         The Egyptians oppressed the people of God for 400 years.  Great evil was perpetrated upon them.  The Hebrew people were beaten, suffered injustice, and everything else that makes up the stuff of slavery.  Rage and hopelessness simmered beneath the surface of every soul.  They took on the mindset of a slave and just accepted whatever came their way.

         Can God be glorified when suffering exists?  Are those who perpetrate such evil subject to the sovereign hand of God?  The comforting answer to both questions is “Yes!”  Continue reading “Evil and The Glory Of God” →

PAIN IS NOT THE ENEMY 

Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.  Psalm 119:67

            Afflictions come in many shapes and sizes.  The prodigal son’s pain brought him home to his father with humility.  Paul’s thorn in the flesh fostered humility and dependence on God.  Prodigal affliction brings God’s children home; sanctified affliction deepens the faith of the saints. Continue reading “PAIN IS NOT THE ENEMY” →

COINCIDENCE OR NOT?

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. Genesis 29:1

         Jacob is about to meet the woman he will marry. And, it will happen at a well. So many significant spiritual moments happen at wells in the Bible. Divine appointments occur there. Treaties are made there. Revelations of God are discovered there. And it was there that Jesus disclosed His identity as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman.

         The people who came to a well never knew they were entering a divine moment. It seemed so normal to each of them. Scripture often says, “He happened upon a well…” yet God had woven circumstances together to make that moment pivotal to that person’s future.

         There are no coincidences in the life of God’s child. None. The steps of a righteous man and woman are ordered by the Lord. God describes His sovereignty in terms of steps, not miles. Every step is under His providence.

         I’m often asked a question that begins with, “Do you think it’s significant that…..?” My answer is always yes. Events are connected. A meeting with a stranger is loaded with implications because it was planned by God. When I chalk something up to coincidence and fail to prayerfully explore the meaning behind a seemingly common event, I am missing out.

         How many planes have I missed but later understood that I got to meet someone I wouldn’t have otherwise met. Or, I crossed paths with four people from Houston in the course of a week and then asked God if I was to be praying for a ministry opportunity in Houston. Some would say this is reading too much into everything but I’ve lived long enough to have disproved that. I’ve arrived at a life principle from my experiences with God. Without prayerful exploration of something that turns my head in wonderment, I miss kingdom .

         This is one of the reasons Jesus said to pray without ceasing. He also said that He did nothing without God’s nudging. That tells me that Jesus was talking about every single day’s event with His Father. He thought nothing was coincidence.

The day is in front of me. With You orchestrating my life, no day is without significance to my future. Amen

Journal Question: Would you be willing to pray for God to re-invent the opportunities you missed? Things you wrote off as insignificant?

 

Turn toward me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.  Psalm 119:132

 

One of the most uncomfortable things an insecure woman experiences is the anticipation of walking into a room full of acquaintances and not knowing whether she will be welcomed.  Will they even see her enter to receive her warmly?  Or, will the group turn their backs to her and leave her to figure out how to enter their conversation?  All these dynamics make a woman’s palms sweat.  The fear of it may cause her to stay home altogether.

I don’t know how confident you are in Jesus’ love.  Perhaps you fear that you are at the bottom of His priority list.  You believe that He’d rather be with anyone but you.  Would you consider this scene?

You enter a room full of high profile Christians.  Jesus is there and He is moving among the people in the room, greeting some, holding meaningful conversations with a few at a time.  You wonder if He even knows you arrived but as you begin to move into the crowd, you feel a pair of eyes on you.  He watches you and reads your fears.  He excuses Himself from those with whom He converses and turns in your direction.  He walks over to you and reaches out to graciously embrace you.  You feel His excitement over seeing you.  He senses how important this moment is to you, how much you’ve looked forward to it and, at the same time, how much you dreaded that it might not play out as you dreamed.  He speaks to you in low tones, inviting you to engage Him as intimately as you feel comfortable.  He does not push but the invitation is on the table to read into the many implications of His words and actions.

David asks for grace so many times throughout this Psalm.  His cries and pleas seem like worn out clichés.  But not to David ~ and not to me if I have experienced the dailyness of my trials and a desperate need for God to turn graciously toward me no matter how many times I’ve entered the throneroom.  The only pre-requisite is desire and a love for His name.

Today, His eyes search the crowd, watching for my first inclination of interest.  When I seek Him, He turns and I hold my breath for the wonders of our engagement.

I am never lost in a crowd.  Never.  Your eyes are ever on me and when I am invisible to most everyone else, I am connected to You.  Amen

 

Journal Question: Was the scene described above desirable to you?  If not, figure out why.  Fear, disinterest, unbelief?  The joy of salvation totally depends on a healthy relationship with Jesus.  Are you willing to push through the barriers of discomfort?

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. Genesis 28:20-21

         Any part of me that has yet to experience God can impair my relationship with God. A wound, a deep fear, my inexperience with Him relationally; all of these can make me skittish to trust Him. Internally, the stakes feel high and I’m not quite sure He’s going to come through for me. The only promises my heart knows I can count on the ones that I’ve already experienced. The others require faith.

         Just so I can learn from Jacob’s story, how was he impaired? He had just had a dream where he saw the heavens opened and angels were coming and going. God spoke to him and introduced Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. God never added, “And I am the God of Jacob.” The relationship hadn’t become personal and real yet. Jacob’s heart was nervous, I believe. He might have rehearsed, “Just because God loved my father doesn’t mean He loves me!” Jacob needs to know where he stands with God and so makes this bargain. ‘If you will be with me, preserve me, provide for me, and bring me home again to the family I just injured beyond repair, then I’ll know that you’re my God.’

         I cannot exist on second hand faith either. Coasting on another’s encounter with God doesn’t change my personal life. I tried it for 40+ years. I surrounded myself with iconic men of God. I heard their stories of spiritual conquest. I read biographies of spiritual giants and admired God from afar. Though I knew a lot and had seen a lot (just like Jacob who grew up in the house of a patriarch), God had never been put to the test in my faithless life. I was always the mute in the company of those who gave testimonies.

         God needed to intersect my story at my places of fear and failure. God began to bring crises that would cast me into powerlessness in order to give me the opportunity to put Him to the test. He is a kind Father and does not want me live with impaired faith. Every promise is meant to be mine but it must be tested where I am broken if God is to become real.

Ah, but I have a testimony now. I’m so glad my heart is spilling over. Amen

Journal Question: Are you bored with God? Would you describe your Christian as disappointing, or at the very least, dull? Connect the dots, prayerfully, with today’s devotional.

WHO ARE THE SCORNERS?

The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.  Psalm 119:51

    Who are they?  Is it the unbelievers who openly ridicule, who name call and attempt to shame us for our faith?  Not always.  The most hurtful critics can be brothers and sisters in Christ.  Passionate disciples draw criticism.  Can ‘hot’ and ‘lukewarm’ coexist?  Not easily.  When a child of God is completely consumed with his spiritual journey and little in this world is attractive to him, his decisions about how to spend his time and money will rub across the grain of the casual believer.  The result will be, most likely, snide comments, rolling of the eyes, and the attempt to make God’s disciple second guess himself.  He will weep over the pain of rejection.  He will writhe over the discomfort of not fitting in.   Continue reading “WHO ARE THE SCORNERS?” →

GIVING UP ON MY SURROUNDINGS

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:16-17

         Places can hold bad memories whether it’s a place I used to live, a school I used to attend, or even a playground I was bullied on. The thought of it at this moment might bring distaste to my mouth. Maybe a ‘place’ pops into your mind as you read this as it does mine.

         What’s even more difficult is when my present surroundings are painful. I can’t push memories of it to the back of my mind. Somehow, I must cope to live in it. Though physically present, I can still cause my heart to check out, giving up on anything good coming out of my environment.

         What if I told you that God wants to enter the place of bad memories?  What if you knew, like Jacob, that some common ordinary setting could be a holy place, a house of God and the gateway to heaven? Perhaps you believe, as I did, that God only enters holy places.   Consider Jacob. Fleeing the place of his sin and on a journey to find a wife, he picks a place on the side the road to sleep. All that exists is wilderness and a rock for a pillow. God shows up to mark the spot that will forever be holy to Jacob.

         What limits my experience of God usually has nothing to do with God but everything to do with me. Living in the land of disappointment, I stop hoping, stop asking, and stop looking up. I assume that God would never choose to dwell in such a place. Too much bad has gone down.

         If I knew the power of God and knew how badly He wants me to seek Him in every place I live, play, and work…. then I would be rushing in wide-eyed to see what will happen when He appears. God goes where He is wanted.

         Maybe as you read this, you’re sitting in your painful place. Already today, tears have fallen there, angry words were spoken there, hopeless rhetoric erupted there. This is the beginning of hope, not the end. Seek God. He longs to hear:

“Come, Lord Jesus! Make this your gate of heaven.”

Journal Question:As you think about asking God to come to your place of bad memories, what internal objections try to overrule? Write them down. Look at them. Consider what you would tell a friend who shared these objections with you. Take your own advice.

EVEN WHEN I CANNOT SEE HIM

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Genesis 28:15-16

         Jacob had a dream and, in it, the Lord spoke to him and confirmed that the covenant promise He had made with his father and grandfather was his as well. How merciful in light of what Jacob and his mother had just done to deceive and trick his father.

         Jacob wakes up and his response is something I have said repeatedly about the past. “Now I see that God was there and I didn’t even know it!” The time I’m usually referring to is when I suffered and felt completely abandoned by God. The terror of being alone caused such despair. Oftentimes, it turned to anger.

         It’s comforting and life changing to realize that God was there all along. Hindsight and God-given intuition prove it with time. Accusations made against Him come back to haunt me. I see that I was faithless and unfair. I end up apologizing to my Father because I can finally see how His Spirit preserved me. I also see how He redeemed a painful experience into something beautiful.

         If you are in a crushing place and it appears that God is not around, it’s not true. Proclaim Jacob’s words out loud. “Surely the Lord is in this place though I do not know it.” If these trials seem to you to be wasted and senseless, it’s not true. You are simply in the middle of the plotline. Redemption has not happened yet. Every pain is for the purpose of redemption. Every single one. It’s a tragedy when we let the pain define us and live as though it’s the end of the story. God is eagerly rubbing His hands together, just waiting for us to seek His healing and redemption. It’s not just something He hands out without it being a cooperative effort.

         Wherever this devotional finds you today, two things are true. 1.) God is with you. And, 2.) God’s promises for a redemptive future are still in tact.

I am often blind to Your presence but I do not possess blind faith. I choose to trust even when I can’t see You. Amen

Journal Question: Over what memory do you still say, “Where were you, God? Did you really leave me alone?” Are you willing to change your belief about that event? How about declaring, by faith, that God was with you. Then ask Him to open your eyes to see evidence of His presence.