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God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?          Numbers 23:19

Too many changes in one’s life, all at once, put a person in a fragile place emotionally. It seems too much to process. When I initiate the changes, it’s easier. But most change is what happens to me and I have no control over it.

How do you handle change? Do you have a strategy? It’s easy to conceive man-made ones. 1.) Deal with today and don’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble. 2.) Lean on family and friends.  This is usually the best that we can initiate without God. If things are really hard though, these won’t sustain. Inner stability will deteriorate.

There is a certain kind of personality that thrives on change but I contend that it’s change they control. No one likes an unexpected knock on the door that brings tragic news. I’ve had my share of seasons where someone brought bad news. I’ve found that difficult times rarely seem to last a year, but five years, twelve years, even twenty-two years. I’ve learned that I must draw close to Jesus and follow His lead to develop spiritual strategies.

What did Jesus do when he felt the pressures of his life? He got alone with His Father to pray,  He reviewed the scriptures and His Father’s history. This is the prescription for any of us today who know that the only stability available to us is the foundation of our faith in God.

• God knows all things future. He’s not wringing His hands over this change in my life.
• God already knows the outcome and, if I’m willing, will lead me safely to the other side.
• God is unchanging. Though my life shifts, He is always the same. I cling to Him and not temporal things.
• God is still a righteous Judge even when it appears evil is winning.
• God is faithful and true, and good.

“It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows.” Spurgeon

He [Jesus] upholds the universe by the word of his power.  Hebrews 1:3

God is a God of order. Jesus, God in the flesh, holds all things in place. As the Word, He once spoke and all things came into being; perfectly connected, in perfect working order, one molecule perfectly connected to the next one.  There cannot be the slightest disorder in what God creates because He is perfect and everything He touches is perfect. 

Because I am not divine, I can’t consistently hold things together nor can I speak anything into existence. I can’t orchestrate even one element of my life and make it run with perfection.  I can’t speak over people and cause them to change or to walk in a perfect state of sanctification.  I can’t even make myself do it! 

I can’t make anyone love me who doesn’t love me.  You know the frustration and the pain of that, right?  Who doesn’t!  But the one whose love I need the most already loves me deeply and completely.  Just one small implication of today’s scripture is that God holds his love for me together and not one thing can break it, not even my disobedience. He declared His love, backed it up with the giving of His Son’s life and He will not, and cannot, end it.  The covenant He spoke into existence rules and upholds it. 

How do I internalize this?  I am motivated, in a new way, to let the God who holds the universe together hold my life together by arranging and directing everything that pertains to me.  Anything I build on my own, as well planned as I think it may be, is flawed and fragile.  It is simply disordered because my mind and ingenuity have been touched by the fall.  I realize this morning that when I am in control of my life, never am I more insecure and vulnerable.

God begs for my obedience because He longs for my world to be touched by kingdom order and divine security.  He tells me the kind of person to call a friend, the kind of person to marry. He tells me how to function in a business, or even how to live as a good citizen. He tells me how to exercise the power I have over others and even has a lot to say about how to exercise leadership within a ministry or organization. As long as I follow His lead, I know that His plans, done His way, will be upheld by the same hands that sustain the universe.  Today, my prayer is this ~  

“Speak Holy Spirit.  Declare Your Word over me and the life You gave me. Amen”

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You. Job 42:5

The scriptures tell the stories of more than a few who saw the Lord. Each time there were strong emotional responses. People cried out, fell over as dead, declared themselves unclean, and were speechless when they beheld him. We’ve been fed some bad information about emotions not being important, about the preference of facts over feelings. It could really be a paradigm called, “Facts first; feelings immaterial.”

While I agree that feelings aren’t reliable rudders if they run in opposition to the truth of scripture, they are still important. Feelings, when aligned with truth, direct my life just fine. God feels things intensely and I am created in His image. He wants me to experience Him. Love is to be felt. Sin is to be grieved over. Forgiveness is to be exhilarating. Freedom is to be celebrated. Grace is to relax in. Faith is about fact and feeling. Stoicism and Christianity are mutually exclusive.

Tim Keller says that ‘Emotion isn’t just the caboose to our faith. Christianity needs to make emotional sense before it can make rational sense.’ To see Jesus in all of His glory evokes emotion first, belief next.’

A testimony without fire should be suspect. While I understand some people are reserved and find it awkward to be outwardly expressive, I also contend that if any one of us was pulled from a house on fire, there would be visible emotional reactions like relief, gratitude, tears, or all of the above. How can one be monotone about having their life saved! This is one of the reasons I am to live a cross-centered live. It’s a reminder that I’ve been saved, someone died in my place and delivered me from eternal condemnation and alienation from God. I’ve been plucked from the fire and this changes the face of a stoic like me.

If my faith is dry, if I’m out of fuel, what can be done in addition to ‘reviewing and remembering’ my spiritual heroes? I do a self-review by looking back. What has God changed in me that has been most dramatic? About what am I relieved? About what am I most grateful? What has been the darkest area of my life that has seen God’s transforming power? How do I feel about my own sin and His mercy? These answers provide kindling as my emotions engage with the power of God working mightily in me. He is excited about how far I’ve come, He feels intensely about it, and wants to express that to me and through me.

Ever mention the word ‘Jesus’ to another believer and seen their face light up the room? That’s the kind of emotion I’m talking about. While I know there are desert seasons every now and then, the visible engagement of my heart should be what others see and experience.

You make me dance. Thank you. Amen

Many elderly have died in the past few months with COVID19.  The ones who are left cried their way through Mother’s Day because the loss was fresh and seemed so senseless.  Two families close to me lost their mothers just this week.  Though they were not COVID19 related, grief is still grief.  My own mother died in 1984 but every mother’s day is bittersweet.

It’s easy for a loved one to get stuck in grief if they rarely talk about their loss. Feelings swim around in their heart in pools of sadness.  Everyone needs to talk with other people who love them enough to ask questions and listen well.  Instead, how many get a  scripture verse followed by a pep talk?  It’s not too late to express our hearts toward those who didn’t have a mother to celebrate yesterday.  We can engage even by acknowledging our struggle to know what to say.  (They like that.)

Think of what happens when funerals are over.  How many will tell a grieving friend how much they loved their mother and miss her?  Instead, they’ll do anything to avoid making their friend cry but that’s such an unfortunate choice because we’ve left them alone in their grief.

Eighteen months after my mother died, I happened to run into one of her friends in the post office.  She saw me and started to cry.  “I miss your mother.  It’s August and this is the time of the year we’d pick blueberries together.”  Did her story make me cry?  Yes, I bawled when I got in the car but I was still comforted.  I said to myself, “Oh, thank goodness, someone else misses her too.”  

Don’t let someone grieve alone today.  Send them a note or call them this week.  Encourage them to tell some stories that give release to their sadness.  They will dig deeply to discover words they didn’t even know were there as we help their grief find a voice.

Lord, I need not fear other’s tears.  Your Spirit, the Spirit of Comfort, is with me. Amen

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Teach Your Child To Meditate On The Scriptures

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Psalm 131:2

When a mother weans her child, she has to deny him what he wants and then comfort him when he realizes he can’t have it.  She weans him because it is necessary for his growth into a new phase of life.  She appears cruel to the child yet he turns to her for consolation.  She loves him so she persists in the training but also weeps at the pain she is causing.

So it is with God.  He weans me off things that are not good for me.  He often withholds healing for a greater good that remains a mystery.  He delays deliverance for reasons I might never know.  The life of faith is not the stuff of Pollyanna.  It is not for the fainthearted.

 So when things don’t feel right, when my heart is churning, when I’m tired of waiting, when my old wounds don’t appear to be any less severe, when I’m sick of myself, when I want what I want, when I dig deeply to try to will my soul to be quiet to no avail, it takes grace beyond what I can manufacture to run to the One who could fix everything that plagues me ~ but doesn’t.  I could be tormented about why He restrains Himself, why He withholds, why I continue to live in the period of the ‘not yet’, but right now ~ I need Him to comfort me.

There are periods in every life where answers aren’t provided.  What can be counted on are everlasting arms.  In this time of great uncertainty, a time when God is comforting instead of fixing, He can be trusted.  Comfort is available.  The song of the One who rocks us as children can still be heard.

Your grace carries me through to glory.  Amen

He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure^{.  Isaiah 33:6}

Do I know God that well? I should.  Wisdom and knowledge are promised to me.  It’s a kind of spiritual osmosis because Wisdom lives inside of me.  And if I’ve spent enough time hanging out with Him, getting to know what He loves and hates, becoming acquainted with what makes him angry or sad, familiarizing myself with what kind of person He blesses and whom He shuns, I should also be able to predict pretty accurately what He thinks about a certain situation. Not only do I have history to lean on, or the Word to refer to, but I have His Holy Spirit inside of me emitting His feelings. The latter is not talked about enough.

Have you ever felt God’s sadness over someone lost? Have you felt His disappointment at the news of a failed marriage? Have you felt His grief, even anger, when a church has grown cold? I believe that I should pray more, “Lord, let me feel what You feel about this.

After a long life with Jesus, there should be a certain amount of predictability. Time and investment affords that.

Every time I discern Your heart and Your thoughts, stability graces my life. Amen

Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.   Isaiah 65:16

God never meant for me to be passive about my faith.  He has made promises but I must make them mine by walking them out.  There will be times that promises appear to be in threat so I must rise up to fight the fight.  There will be giants in my Canaan.  A life of faith does not mean a life of perpetual resting.  I must expect battles and get engaged. I must know when to fight and when to rest.  Both are critical.

Being an ambassador of God on this earth means ruling on behalf of the kingdom who commissioned me.  Though earth is not my home, I’m sent here to represent my King and bring the laws of His kingdom to earth.  This is a cooperative effort.  As I rule and do my part, God has my back.  As I stand in His promises, He fulfills them.  That’s why Moses was told to raise the rod over the Red Sea.  That’s why Joshua and the Israelites were told to march around the walls of Jericho.  They did their part and God brought the victory.

God gave Abram a blessing.  He promised him land in every direction his eyes can see and offspring greater than the sands of the sea.  But it didn’t come to pass without Abram’s involvement.  He was told to walk the length and breadth of the land – personally staking his claim.

Walking out God’s promises is to be my way of life.  When my children’s future appears to be tenuous, I get on my knees and stake my claim on God’s promises for them.  When the ministry is under spiritual attack, I go to a day of fasting and re-claim the promises surrounding my calling.  When my home is under attack; when anger, anxiety or depression swirl, when equipment begins to malfunction, when sleep is robbed, when people begin to act out without a cause, I do what Abram did.  I walk the lines of my property and sing.  I also take my “I Am” sheet with me (it is offered below as a free download) and read it as I walk. The victory is mine as God engages with my faith walk.

Giants in the land were never there to cause me to faint.  They were there to teach me to live and fight for faith.

Too many obstacles?  I used to just abdicate.  Thank you for teaching me how to fight and for giving victory after victory.  As the stakes get higher, give me the grace to walk with more boldness.  In Jesus name, Amen 

I Am

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.  Isaiah 40:30

In WWII, Japan surrendered to American forces and yet the news of the surrender took weeks and months to reach isolated Japanese garrisons.  Soldiers continued to fight.  Men continued to die.  Those who were ignorant of Japan’s surrender were caught in the ‘not yet’.

I have often been confused by the promises of God.  He is my healer.  Does that mean that I will never know a sick period?  He is my deliverer.  Does that mean that I will never know a season of oppression?  He is the God who avenges.  Does that mean that He will settle all scores on the heels of wrongdoing?  He is my strength.  Does that mean that I will never languish in seasons of weakness?  He is my shield.  Does that mean that I will never be wounded by fiery arrows?  He is my comfort.  Does that mean that I will never feel alone or forsaken?  I can get tripped up when I’m in a prolonged ‘not yet’ period.

Solomon said it another way in his well-known discourse.  “There is an appointed time for everything.  A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.  A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.”  Ecclesiastes 3

Without listening to God, I cannot guess which season I am in.  I can easily become an agent that works against God’s purposes.  I’ll try to preserve what God is dismantling.  I’ll try to bring something to a close when it’s ready to be launched into a new fruitfulness. I’ll comfort when I should exhort.  The Christian life is a faith-walk and we live against the backdrop of human need and impaired spiritual vision.

Lord, you strengthen the fiber of my faith in the ‘not yet’.  I ‘know that I know’ that You will fulfill every promise when the time is right. Amen

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  Isaiah 43:1

 How receptive are you to a generic invitation?  “Hey, a bunch of us are going hiking.  Anyone want to come?”  The invitation is not personal and you might decide that it doesn’t matter all that much if you go.  After all, it was a group invite.

It feels entirely different when you see a letter addressed to you or hear your name being called from down the street. And isn’t it life-altering when you hear your name being whispered tenderly by someone who loves you?

God is a personal God.  He not only died for me, personally, but He called me to Him by speaking my name.  Some believers have heard it audibly; others felt it in their spirit. I have heard God speak my name in a dream, but that is all.

In Bible narratives, when God wanted to make sure someone heard Him, He often spoke their name twice.  He did this to seven different people.

“Abraham, Abraham!”  ~ When Abraham was about to kill Isaac.

“Jacob, Jacob!” ~ When God announced to Jacob that Joseph wasn’t dead.

 “Moses, Moses!” ~ When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush.

“Samuel, Samuel!” ~ When, in Samuel’s childhood, God woke him up at night.

“Martha, Martha!” ~  When Jesus told her she was worried about too many things.

“Simon, Simon!” ~ When Jesus told Peter that Peter would deny him.

“Saul, Saul!” ~ When Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

And once, when His pain was at its highest threshold, Jesus spoke His Father’s name twice.  “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Does God still call our name?  Yes.  Through His Spirit.  When I seek God for a word, then feel the weight of a scripture, my name is on God’s lips.  When I sit in a church service and feel like the message is just for me, when I feel my heart burning and bursting within me, my name is on God’s lips.  Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice and they follow me.”  The call and the messages from the Counselor who leads us home are always personal.

You personalize your Word, everyday.  Thank you.  Amen