WHAT CONSTITUTES A SUFFICIENT APOLOGY?
Great is your mercy, O Lord. Psalm 119:156
When I’ve wronged someone, how many times do I have to say “I’m sorry” for mercy to be shown? In this world, the greater the offense, the more times a repeated apology is necessary. To match the crime, restitution can be steep as the other party decides what it’s going to take to make them happy. Continue reading “What Constitutes a Sufficient Apology?”
Time & Perspective
I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight. Psalm 119:174
When a young saint sits down with an old saint, the difference in their reactions to the stuff of life is apparent. The young one can be all spun up about some injustice, railing about how unfair it is. The old saint listens, nods with understanding, but is not rocked off his axis with shock or surprise. He has lived long enough to see it all. Continue reading “Time and Perspective”
PRAYER FOR THE FUTURE
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
Make a way ~ To put in place, cause, set.
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Jesus, I’ve been sitting at Your feet for a long time. You’re the best teacher I’ve ever known. You know when to reveal a truth and when to ask leading questions so that I discover divine wisdom. You are not a God who delights to see His children flounder. You promise very clear direction and have so many creative ways to bring the answers to us.
I learned that You can do a new thing no matter how old I am. I learned that just because things have always been a certain way doesn’t mean they will stay that way. I learned that just because people have always acted a certain way doesn’t mean You can’t change them. I’ve seen You turn my life upside down, changing me from decades of hopeless thinking. I’ve seen You deliver and heal people I love; some even in their old age. You do make a way in the wilderness. You are the God of new things.
I am at a new faith crossroads. I’ve never been in this particular place before. Whatever has been familiar and predictable is missing. It looks like the land of no provision, a desert, and the answers for how to make my way is unclear. I’m afraid. I don’t have the power to transform the landscape of nothingness.
I spread out the future before You. There is a harvest and I am Your laborer. It is clear that, though I see a desert, You are making a new road. Put up road signs so that I don’t miss it. Let me hear the sounds of a roaring river, the rivers of Your provision. When my faith would fail me, I review our history. You have never failed me! You are wealthy beyond measure to give whatever I might need on this trek into unfamiliar territory.
I’m looking for the footprints of sandaled feet. I follow You – and I know that I don’t need to see down the road. You do. Show me the next step. Amen
THE WORD GOD’S CHILDREN FEAR MOST
In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15
Oh, the power of repentance and how critical it is for any who wish to access the power of God in their lives. Without it, hearing will be dull.
The word repentance has become a ‘turn-off’ for many because it is associated with the red-faced pastors who have yelled about it over the years. Their tone has been angry. There was truth but no love. Shame was inflicted without an invitation to respond to the One who bore our shame. Repentance is my friend. God wants to bless me. He wants to watch me blossom under the umbrella of His affection. He wants to share His thoughts with me and make my soul quiver with wonder.
What stands in the way is unconfessed sin because sin clouds His voice and distorts my thinking. The most powerful thing I can do at the end of any day is stand at the foot of the cross, review my thoughts and actions, and ask to be forgiven for anything that fails to resemble Jesus.
What was the message of John the Baptist, the one who was sent to prepare hearts for the coming of Christ? “Repent – for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Without repentance, people wouldn’t recognize Him. The same is true for me. Before Jesus can speak to me, the fertile soil that repentance produces must exist.
I think about the sacrament of communion. For years, I took communion by rote and all the while there was hidden anger in my heart. Grudges simmered beneath the surface. In all those years, I never took repentance seriously. I didn’t feel I could afford to. If I acknowledged my sin, I would be forced to confront the angry God my spiritual leaders portrayed. Not surprisingly, there was little communion with Christ.
The tender, yet holy, God who asks me to repent is the One who knows that when I do, I won’t be fearful to draw close, to be one in spirit. So, why would I ever want to be defensive? Pathetic self-defenses are my enemy.
I can, and will, run home to repent when You convict me. Amen
PRAYER FOR REJOICING IN A TRIAL
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. I Peter 1:6
Oh Jesus, you know the story of my life. I have so often misunderstood your words. I thought you were cruel. “Rejoice in the midst of trials? Really?” Then, I turned my anger against myself and thought I just couldn’t do anything right. Thank you for showing me that I had a ‘form of religion without the substance.’ I just needed to connect with your heart, to run to you when the fires were hot. To experience You as my refuge is to find joy that someone like You is there for me!
You are more than words on a page. You were literally waiting for me to experience that. I’m so glad I did. I love you so much.
Today, you see the struggles so many are facing. I pray they wrap their arms around you. You don’t turn them away. Your face is bent down toward them, you lift their heads, look in their eyes Continue reading “Prayer For Rejoicing In A Trial”
A PROPHET AND GOD’S REVELATION
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully… I Peter 1:10
I have often assumed that a prophet, who was given God’s specific WORD for His people, understood the message he delivered. With the message came full revelation of its meaning. Peter makes it clear that this was not the case. A prophet was often given a WORD, then had to study the scriptures to more fully understand the mystery of what God had given him. He was like Noah, given a word to build an ark, yet not having any understanding about rain and water tables. Every piece of wood he cut was an act of faith.
This is quite comforting to me. I recall, just over the past year, how many times I have been given a WORD from scripture, a picture, a dream, even an impression in prayer that God chose to reveal to me. Some, I understood more than others. Continue reading “A Prophet and God’s Revelation”
SOUL TIES ~ IN MINISTRY
If another ~ who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’, which neither you nor your fathers have known, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. Deut. 13:6
I love Jesus and because I love Him, I want to reach out to those who need Him. When I do, I pray they will see Jesus’ Spirit in me and long for more of Him. These are good desires and goals. But the spiritual mechanics of making it all work in the context of ministry and people’s sinfulness, including my own, make it very complicated.
Do you have someone in your life that is drowning you? You just can’t give enough. You poured yourself out yesterday but today you’ll have to do it all over again. Your love and affirmation just doesn’t ‘stick’. Their needs are too profound. You know it. But you feel that if you pull away to save yourself from burning out, you will damage their view of God. Continue reading “Soul Ties In Ministry”
SOUL TIE – PARENT/CHILD
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thess. 5:23
A soul tie is an unholy connection between people. The basis of the connection is meeting each other’s needs in a way that enables the other person to circumvent the sufficiency of Christ. One person feels that the other should give them what they need, and vice versa, and the soul tie is formed. Entitlement is at the root.
The problem is ~ God is to be ‘the cake’ and people are to be ‘the icing.’ I am to look to God first for what I need and people around me are to be supplemental resources. But when I make people ‘the cake’ and God ‘the icing’, idolatry is set up to run its course. It ends bitterly as each person in the relationship comes up against the other one’s sinfulness and physical limits.
Parents and children can easily develop soul ties. Continue reading “Soul Tie ~ Parent/Child”
PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO LOOK UP
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7
I can be so frustrated, Lord. I want a certain person to keep their promises so that I have what I need. As long as they don’t, I’m angry and discontented. “If only my parent would tell me I’m precious to them, I’d feel whole.” “If only she would tell me she loves me, my view of myself would change.” “If only he’d quit his addiction, our home would be fixed.” “If only I’d get that the inheritance I deserve, my financial needs would be met!” “If only she’d stop being angry with me, I’d stop feeling guilty all the time.”
Forgive me for looking to broken cisterns for living water. I remember Your words to the Samaritan woman at the well. There is such a thing as living water and when I drink of You, I will never have to look to other sources again to feel whole. I may live wanting, praying, but will in no way live crippled while I wait.
All the provision I need is in You! I pray this out loud again till my whole soul believes it. You hold all my provision financially. You hold my health in Your hands. You offered me a place in Your family even when I was Your enemy. You offer grace to help me in my habitual sins. You offer forgiveness that puts my past out of sight. You offer me a shelter when others come accusing unfairly. You offer reassurance when others would tire of my need to hear it. As I wait for answers to prayer, help me realize that I can spend time receiving what You’ve already offered. My heart has been closed or skeptical. Don’t let me pass You by!
I will not look to my world to demand of them. I release them to you in prayer for You to change them. I look to You, perfect Savior, for everything I need today. You have it all and will release it at exactly the right time. As I wait, I give up all rights to know why I wait. I trust Your sovereign rule in my life. Your plans for me are for good – to give me a future and a hope. Praise be to You, magnificent Lord. Amen
PRAYER FOR RESTORED TRUST
Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Psalm 146:3-5
Hope ~ expectation or desire for a certain thing to happen.
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Lord, You have been teaching me where hope is misplaced. This has been the lesson of my life. There are so many around me who claimed to have solutions for things that distressed me. Sometimes they did. Most times they did not. There are even a few others who claimed to ‘be’ my salvation, my answer for whatever I was lacking. They were not. They became an idol as I placed all my hopes in them. As their humanness surfaced, I was angry, then depressed.
Your lessons were hard at first. You pushed the idols off my pedestal and exposed them. My hope in them grew faint instantly. Hope trembled and then became a phantom. All that was left was You. All along You were there. In You my hope is never misplaced. In You I can take refuge no matter what the threat. In You I have a defender against all accusers. In You I have a caretaker for all those who are fragile around me. In You I have a refuge for the storms that loom on the horizon of the earth.
In every way my hope in You may be unbiblical, show me. I do not look to You to make me wealthy, or to relieve my painful circumstances when I believe I need the rescue. My hope is in Your promise that You rule righteously and do all things well in my life. My hope is in Your steadfast love for me and Your sustaining grace. My hope is rock solid even when I don’t understand Your answers to my prayers. My hope is in You and all that You offer me in covenant love. Amen
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