Daughters of promise

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He [Jesus] took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Philippians 2:7

Parents of missionaries who serve in dangerous places live with the pain of uncertainty. They often wonder if they will see their children again. The more hostile the culture to Christianity, the more danger their children face. There will be want, discouragement, and even threats of persecution. Does God understand these parents’ agony? Yes, He experienced it too.

The Trinity had always been together, functioning in perfect harmony from before time. Their synergy was described in terms of a rhythmic slow dance. Each had a clearly defined role and the execution of them was achieved without the slightest hint of friction.

Imagine how their rhythm was disrupted when the Jesus left the Trinity to go to His mission field. Intimacy was disrupted as He became a child in Mary’s womb. God said goodbye and watched Him leave, able to see into the future. He knew what awaited His child. He envisioned the 40 days of temptation in the desert. He knew Lucifer and could predict the all out war that would be waged. He foresaw the close calls; the brushes with death as the crowds would plot to kill Him. God would plan each way of escape to ensure that His Son would fulfill His mission on Calvary. He saw it all and He felt what human parents feel at their child’s departure. Joy and agony

God also knew who would accept His Son as the Messiah and who would openly reject Him. He knew the disciples that would be called to take the Gospel to the world. He looked down through the ages and saw an unstoppable church on the move. It would be battered but would prevail.

As Mary welcomed her newborn Messiah, the love story of the ages was being written. He would be the only way God’s estranged children could be restored to paradise.

Father, You gave it all up too. Thank you for counting the cost and deciding that Your creation was worth loving so recklessly. Amen

I will lift up my hands toward our commandment, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.  Psalm 119:48

When I lift up both hands toward heaven, I am paying honor to God.  The psalmist lifts both hands towards God’s Word.  He pays homage to it because he loves it.

The Word is old.  It is tested.  It is deep and layered.  It softens the heart of the most hardened person.  It strengthens the most feeble.  It brings a solution, like an arrow, to my deepest dilemma. It comforts like the cooing of a mother.  It changes the heart of a person where that person has simply remained unchangeable through many self-renovations.  Is there any reason why any man or woman shouldn’t raise hands toward this Word?  In doing so, we raise our hands to Jesus.  Logos.

What has caused me to drop my hands?   Discouragement?  There is a Word for me.  Sick?  There is a Word.  Weary in prayer?  There is a Word.  Betrayed?  Ah, there is a Word.  My prayer this morning is, no matter what has caused a slack in my hands, “Strengthen me to raise my hands, just one more time, Lord.” God will be faithful and another Word will come to my rescue.

Like Amos, I consume Your Word, hungrily.  Amen

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Romans 12:11

 Spiritual steam, the kind that propels a train up a mountain is hard to know how to come by.  Does reading more of my Bible give it to me?

I can learn something about WWII history, get excited, and share it passionately with others.  But that’s one piece of history and it doesn’t sustain my soul for a lifetime.  Bible study (apart from the reality of Jesus revealing Himself to my heart) is this way as well.  I can discover something in scripture, love what I find, but the excitement that facts sometimes bring will dissipate with time.  When I’m hurting, interesting facts from the book of I Samuel won’t give me spiritual fervor.

The steam needed for the long haul comes from something childlike.  Love.  When I’m tired from service, I need to go home to be loved.   When I’m beaten up by life, I need to go home to be loved.  When I’m physically weak from the pace of meeting so many needs, I need to go home to be loved.  The strongest saint retreats, comes to their Father with childlike faith and says, ‘Feed me, love me, hold me, and teach me.’  These elementary expressions of need fuel the saints we would describe as having mature faith.  Unlike what we might believe, their fuel does not come from some intellectual study of Calvinism verses Arminianism.

Deep weariness can send me to the line of total abdication.  I teeter on the edge of just giving up.  One small demand can send me over the limit.  My body won’t cooperate anymore in spite of my ‘drill-sergeant-kind-of-self-talk.  It revolts.  My heart doesn’t listen to one more internal speech to keep myself going.  Quitting seems to be the only answer.  I am afraid though that if I sink into an abyss of emotional and physical exhaustion, I won’t ever get out.  Oh, I have been there and I didn’t know what was wrong or how to heal.

God showed me.  Mature faith begins and ends with the recognition that my fuel is the love of God. And here’s the thing ~ it will foster the spiritual curiosity for my study of the scriptures.

Your love resurrected me from the pit.  I had given up, had no energy or joy, but I had not experienced Your love.  Thank you for the joy of serving You now with a fervent spirit.  Amen

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:39

The love of those closest to us is a powerful force.  When we’re in trouble, they’ll come.  When we’re sick, they’ll sit with us.  When we’re in danger, they go with us if they can.  But there are limits to where they can go.  When I’m going in for life-threatening surgery, they must leave me at the door. When my soul is hurting, there also comes a point of separation.  They must sleep, go to work, attend to their own lives, and if it’s a friend, they must go home. 

When Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and spent three days in his belly, God was right there with him.  No friend could have done that.  When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, God was right there with him.  When he faced the dangers of re-entry back into our atmosphere and could have quickly bounced off and headed forever into space, God would have been there with him too.

What comprises the goodness of God today?  His promise of love, the assurance of His prayers, and the comfort of His presence no matter what I face.  No surgery room keeps Him out.  No maximum security prison locks Him out.  If I travel to the remotest part of our planet, He is there, in me and around me.

There is no place I can go on earth or in heaven that You are not with me, not out of duty but out of love and desire.  Goodness like this I cannot comprehend.  Thank you.  Amen

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.  The one who contributes, let him give generously.  Romans 12:8

 There was an old man in the small town where I grew up who was quite wealthy.  His life’s goal was to amass a fortune and he didn’t care how he did it.  Was he driven by greed?  Not always.  Fear was also his taskmaster.  He had lived through the depression with his mother and several siblings.  For the family’s survival, he went to work at seven years old to deliver papers so there would be food on the table.  He made a vow never to be poor and his entire life would be shaped by those words.

Paul describes a believer as one who is never stingy.  He loves to give and just can’t help himself.  Perhaps you’re thinking ~  “I don’t give like this.  In fact, far from it.  What’s my problem?”

Like the man who was afraid of having nothing, there are many reasons why we don’t give generously.  Fear of deprivation, fear of giving away something that we’re attached to, fear that it won’t be received, fear that we will get nothing back.  Greed is not always at the center of why we withhold.

The cure is found in Paul’s words.  You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.  2 Corinthians 9:11  God promises, through Christ, to make us so rich that we’ll have no problem giving it away – confident that He will more than compensate.  This morning, perhaps we’ve only just begun to realize what is ours in Christ.

Show me where I’m rich in You.  Amen