For my words are wise and my thoughts are filled with insight.  Psalm 49:3

Encouragers are hard to find.  Discouragers are everywhere.  One look, one word of criticism, and someone already fragile wants to throw up their hands and quit.  Yet, when most of us think of someone who encourages, we picture a person who compliments and gives positive feedback.  That is a weak translation.  True, encouraging words are designed to penetrate to the core of anothers weakness.

I have to know someone well to give them comfort.  I must know their life, their work, and enough about their family to understand where their sources of joy and pain exist.  To know where to infuse spiritual courage, I have to be intuitive; knowing with just a look that they are not themselves on a certain day.  If they put on a good face, I will see through it and not let it slide.

Ron and I hold a neighborhood bible study in our home each Sunday night.  We are challenged each week to not allow the generic “good to see you!” to be the extent of our interaction.  Ron and I want so much to engage like Christ would if He were the teacher of a small group.  We have ruled out the assumption that to encourage is to give shallow compliments and parrot clichés.  They don’t impart anything but anger and loneliness.

I have some rich encouragers in my life.  And because I have experienced the power of Jesus in their words to me, I love to encourage others.  I can’t wait to meet a stranger, hear their story, ask them where they struggle, and leave them with the words of Christ for where they faint.  But if I’m drowning in my own challenges and don’t know how to abide in Christ, then I have no courage to give away.   I have to work through my own issues with God because the promises of God, strategically spoken, are the lifelines others need. Encouraging words are meant to penetrate the darkness of anothers despair.

Out of your perfect knowledge of people, give me the Your words for them.  Make them as honey for others wounds.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. Psalm 35:1,5-6

Imprecatory psalms are those that cry out for judgment and for God to bring calamity upon enemies. The thought of that can be off-putting if I believe that God is loving but not necessarily just. If I believe that He is only loving, I focus completely on forgiving and forgetting. But if believe that He is also just, I know that I’m invited to cry out for God’s judgment upon those who persecute the saints.

If I’ve wronged others and suffer their retribution, this is not righteous persecution. Therefore, prayers for judgment are not mine to pray. I am the one who is under judgment until I repent. But, if I am afflicted unjustly because of my faith, imprecatory Psalms are allowed. Prayer is in my arsenal, not revenge.

Lest I salivate at the thought of God letting my enemies have it, there is a catch. For whom am I offended? If I believe I deserve better than this, that I have rights, and I am indignant that any one should rise up against me, then I am enraged solely for my sake. God is not in my thoughts as I dream of revenge. I rise up to be the judge and to judge. But, if I am offended for God (and this takes some soul searching), imprecatory psalms are there for me and David teaches me how to pray them.

The next time I am spoken against, rejected, or mocked because of a kingdom clash, I need to ask myself why I’m angry. Naturally, personal pain will be my instinctive reaction but spiritual maturity is to be able to move past that to view God’s perspective. God sees the offense but understands that it was committed because we’re His children and Satan’s enemies. If I set out to really hurt someone, I will be most effective if I hurt one of their children. Satan knows this principle. He can’t lash out personally at God for he is a defeated foe because of Christ. So how can he wage war? By going on a rampage against God’s precious children. He thrives on carnage. As the saints in heaven see earth’s martyrs and cry out, “How long, O Lord?”, Satan hears and this lament is his opiate.

Don’t let me pray for Your intervention and judgement until it is a holy prayer. In Jesus name, Amen

  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Psalm 34:13  

How many marriages implode because couples can’t talk honestly about their parents? It’s hard to ‘leave and cleave’. Childhoods are sacred unless there has been unhappiness we’re anxious to leave behind.

There comes a point in every person’s life when God calls us to see the truth about our family. I am to embrace the good, acknowledge the bad, and cling to God for grace as I grieve and make different choices. I am to love God more than my ancestors and love truth more than I love the ‘family way of doing things’. If everybody did this, it would be easier but only a minority face the truth of their families and are willing to live as God’s son or daughter. They risk being the only one in their families who are willing to be sanctified, ‘set apart’, from everyone else.

There is an unwise way to talk to our spouses about their parents. It’s when past hurts affect my tone.  Legitimate complaints are disregarded because my words are vicious. Every conversation that exposes ungodliness in family needs a lot of prayer beforehand. You know the truth of the phrase, ‘Blood is thicker than water.’ It’s hard to hear someone else, even a spouse, talk about my parents and siblings and not immediately think, ‘How dare you!’

Few scriptures are more well known that this one. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Never is this more true than when I see my family as God sees them. When I embrace the truth of my origins, endless spiritual possibilities open up before me.

How long it took for me to see the faults of the family I love; even longer to see my own faults. Thank you for not giving up and continuing to bring the truth before my eyes. Amen

The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Psalm 116:6

No matter how I feel about today, You are teaching me to walk like You. Teach me humility through obedience and wisdom through observing. In Jesus name, Amen

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word.  Psalm 119:25

There is the expression, “Something in me died.” Sadly to say, I have experienced it personally a number of times in my past.  It was my soul talking.  I remember the sinking feeling, a kind of bending toward the earth.  My body felt like lead.  The first time the sensation came over me, I discovered my mother was going to die.  It happened again some years later when I uncovered a plot of betrayal by someone I trusted in ministry.  Once more when traumatic news reached my ears about a family member, and then one last time when I was disappointed beyond what I believed I could survive.  My soul clung to the dust and I wondered at the possibility of passing the next many decades in front of me with a body very much alive but a soul that already felt like it had expired.

How was I revived?  By nurturing the only part of me that contained the powerful seeds of life ~ my spirit; the place where the Word dwells.  “His word is alive and sharper than any two edged sword.” His Word is more powerful than any disappointment or disease.  His Word mends a heart that appears irrevocably ripped in two.  His Word has cured the sick and even raised the dead. Whether that death is physical or spiritual makes no difference.  By surrendering my thoughts and feelings to the power of the Word, and then by asking God to open my heart to breath His very life into me, I began to experience my own resurrection.

I can make a mistake reading scripture.  I can perceive that David’s words in today’s text is just a bit dramatic.  If any of us have lived near someone histrionic, we run away from strong emotional statements and tone them down, at least 50%, to arrive at the truth.  But if you’ve faced the dark times, you know that David’s expression is literal.  “The living dead” describes those who breathe but live as though dead.  Ah, but the Word shakes us out of our graves if we lean on it with all of our weight.  It promises life abundant if we put all our hope in it.  Finally, I remember that ‘it’ is not a Word, but the very person of Christ.

Every day, I decide to put all my hope in You.  There is life in no other.  This is not depression, this is my commitment to live abundantly.  Thank you for teaching me this – though the way was hard, Lord.  Amen

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?  Psalm 85:6

I’ve known periods in my life that I would have described as a wilderness. I couldn’t seem to hear God’s voice. I believe that my pain veiled His whispers. He was there with me but I couldn’t sense it. He was guiding me but I couldn’t discern it. I felt alone and it was a spiritual battle to just believe that I wasn’t alone.   Many times, I lost it and my theology went south

I’ve also known periods where God seemed very much alive and engaged with me. So much of what I read impacted me like electricity to my spirit. Answers to prayer came in quick succession. My pen couldn’t seem to capture the litany of things I was being taught by God. I lived on a mountaintop for almost the entire year of 2008. Every day of my journal reads with the intensity of someone in love.

But then there is that place in the middle – in between being fully alive and fully exiled in the wilderness. It’s called ‘no man’s land.’ There may be inspiring moments but mostly, ‘no man’s land’ requires spiritual discipline to walk faithfully. It’s confusing, too. You’d be hard pressed to describe what is wrong. It’s a nagging malaise. Your heart is dull. Nothing seems to thrill and spiritual appetite is just absent. After so much time in ‘no man’s land, you’d give anything just to feel again.

What precipitates a journey into numbness? The crash after a mountaintop. The day after a victorious battle. The period following prolonged stress. A season during which multiple changes are occurring. The flesh is tired. The heart is spent. Only God knows how to restore and revive.

Praying David’s prayer is the beginning of healing.

“Revive me, Lord! I’m bringing my lifeless heart to you. Something has dulled it. I don’t know myself well enough to even diagnose why I’m in this condition. All I know is ~ I want to want You again. I want to be thrilled by Your voice. I want to be alive to Your Word. I’m a long way away. You are my Physician and Counselor and can give life to my lifeless heart. Revive me, I pray. In Jesus name, Amen”

Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.  Psalm 119:79

Some believe that David wrote these words after he plotted the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband.  Because of his sin, some of God’s servants walked away from him.  He was lonely for their fellowship and asked God to bring reconciliation.

Relationships face many seasons.  In the summer, there is warmth and ease of fellowship.  By the arrival of winter, there can be strain and coldness.  Intimacy comes and goes and it usually disappears because the spiritual connection was lost.  One will continue to walk closely with Christ while the other takes a turn away from discipleship.  Their values are no longer shared and heartfelt fellowship is eroded.

Continue reading “Reconciliation Is Too Rare” →