1 Chronicles 16:11 - His Strength

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

1 Chronicles 16:11

This year I refuse to make a new year's resolution. I can't presume to know if my house will even be standing from one day to the next, let alone know what sort of journey God wants to take me on this year.

I do know that right now I am feeling called to STAY THE COURSE.

I want to remember that the little, daily disciplines in life are more important than can be imagined, not just the big things that get a lot of attention.

I want to make sure I am spending my time with my son in a way that will leave me no regrets when he's older. 

I want to be a wife that loves my acts-of-service dude in a way that leaves no doubt of my love. 

I want to make my house friendly and open and inviting to others so that I can always feel comfortable inviting others over. 

I want to continue my goal from last year to pursue health - mind, body, soul, spirit - however God sees fit to connect the pieces of that journey.

Most of all, I want to seek God's face in whatever situation comes my way. I praise Him for sustaining me through trials in the past couple of years and making this past year one of the best despite some bumps in the road.

1 Corinthians 12:18 - Members of the Body

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

1 Corinthians 12:19

The passage leading up to this likens each person in the church to a part of the body of Christ and establishes that all are important and necessary - we shouldn't be mourning the fact that we aren't an eye or a foot or whatever part of the body we want to be. Not every person in the church is meant to be a missionary or a singer or an up front person who typically receives a lot of recognition for whatever they do. 

God knows each person and gives them a calling and a purpose that is theirs. Some people have humble callings, things that they or we may never know were important until we see that person being rewarded in heaven for being faithful to the task they were called to do. Each act of obedience and worship creates a ripple effect of fruitfulness that there is no possible way for us to discern from of limited perspective here on earth.

This is really encouraging. After prayer and seeking God's direction, if we faithfully do whatever God calls us to do at any given moment, we are pleasing Him and making a difference in eternity. Seeking his will is not that hard. We start with the Bible, move out in to a more specific area where we are gifted and passionate, and then get to it.

One thing that is difficult in churches sometimes, is dealing with others. We often don't understand others' perspectives or feel that what they are doing is not important when, in fact, we, again, do not have a qualified perspective to judge what a given person is doing for Christ at a given point in time. 

1 Corinthians 4:6 says:

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

We may not always perfectly understand or appreciate the people we rub shoulders with from Sunday to Sunday, but the fact of the matter is that GOD has placed them in the body for reasons of His own. If we find ways of empathizing with each other, of putting ourselves into each others shoes and appreciating the gifts that each person possesses, we will become more effective for the cause of Christ and bring more glory to Him.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 - Let Your Words Be Few

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2

I haven't blogged in a while because I feel that I have, over the course of my life, thrown words around without really pausing to consider their greater meaning or consequences. Just because I can write doesn't mean I am called to write. Just because I have a thought doesn't mean everyone needs to know about it. When I'm presenting words in this blog regarding faith and my relationship with God, I need to more carefully consider this fact. The internet makes the words more public, more resounding (even if I have just a tiny audience).

I have learned many things in my Christian walk this year, and this - keeping my mouth closed - is one of them. God is sovereign, and we, as mere humans, cannot presume to understand his mysterious ways or what he may be doing in our lives. Today I just read the portion of Job where Job gets a big dressing down from God for all the complaints he has brought before him.

God is GOD. 

Sitting on His throne in heaven.

Just this fact alone hurts my brain a little to a lot. 

Yes, God does want to hear our hearts and our complaints even in the hardest times, but ... this focus verse suggests we need to keep our mouths shut if and when possible.

We should keeping silence before the holiness of God at times, not requesting something that, in all practicality, may not be the best for us or may be harder to deal with than we imagine from our finite perspective.

At the outset of this weird, challenging, and still extremely blessed year, I pledged before God and the world that I wanted to get healthy in mind, body, soul, and spirit. Great goal. But do I perfectly understand how those things are woven together? Can I presume to tell God want I, a peon made of dust, want to work on this year? 

God is leading me and guiding me in the areas that I asked and prayed for, addressing some long term strongholds. But it's in a way that I did not expect. Definitely, it's not in a way I would have chosen if I were writing the story.

Still, I am excited to be led by his hand in a way I do not know.

And I'm trying to remember to keep silent and listen, to let God teach me.

Life Verse: Isaiah 55:8-9 - Beyond Anything You Can Imagine

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9

As sinful, imperfect humans, we often try to take God's job away from him. We use our own methods of logic, applying what we can see now and what has happened in past experiences to determine how we think God should work. We direct our prayers simply to get one result - whatever it is that we want or need at the time. This isn't necessarily bad. God wants us to call on Him in the places of our deepest needs, interceding on behalf of those we love and pleading for aid in our own problems.

Sometimes, instead of submitting to God's will in prayer, however, we attempt to force God's hand in a situation. We try to manipulate Him or others so that we get our desired result, much in the same way that Sarah tried to give Abraham a child through her servant girl, Hagar, thus "helping" God in his promise to provide Abraham with a son. We often act on opportunities we see as good while forgetting that God knows what's best and that we need only to wait on Him.

God's way is not the easiest way. It requires patience and faith. The daily lifting of one's eyes to the heavens to see what type of deliverance God is going to provide for that day. Sometimes it's a miracle that blows our minds, but often it's just strength to take another step in the direction He is leading us. Following Him takes discipline, denying ourselves of what we want most in order to receive what he has for us, which is far better.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

It's courage to submit to His will even when we believe there is no way His plans for us could outweigh the beauty of our own dreams and our own aspirations for ourselves. We may have awesome dreams, but unless we are dreaming with the Father's heart and will in mind, we are settling for less than God intended. As the old saying goes, "God saves His best for those who leave the choice up to Him."

If we have the ability to dream good dreams, how much better dreams for us can God have? As I used to say in college all the time, God wants to knock our socks off. We just have to be patient and let Him do it.

This reminds me of a favorite poem (actually a hymn):

He leads us on by paths we did not know.
Upward He leads us, tho' our steps be slow;
Tho' oft we faint and falter on the way,
Tho' storms and darkness oft obscure the day,
Yet, when the clouds are gone,
We know He leads us on.

He leads us on thro' all the' un-quiet years;
Past all our dream-land hopes, and doubts, and fears
He guides our steps; thro' all the tangled maze
Of losses, sorrows, and o'er-clouded days
We know His will is done,
And still He leads us on.

And soon or late the rugged field of strife
Shall catch the sunlight that transfigures life;
The heart shall win the discipline of pain,
And know the struggle has not been in vain;
Its doubts and fears shall cease,
And Christ will bring it peace.

-Hiram O. Wiley 

Luke 18:41 - I Want to See!

"What do you want me to do for you?" 

"Lord," he said, "I want to see!"

Luke 18:41

My heart is filled with compassion toward the blind beggar who is sitting by the side of the road in the verse preceding the focus verse. Blind, helpess, relying on others for his daily needs due to his disability, he hears that it is Jesus passing by. 

At that point, he starts screaming, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

No doubt, he has heard of Jesus's other miracles and believes that Jesus can work a similar miracle on his behalf. Despite those around him yelling at him to be quiet, he persists until Jesus actually hears him.

So many of us are like that man, having our own problems, insecurities, fears, health issues, disabilities, worries. Modern science and medicine, themselves miracles, can often help with some of these problems. The danger for people of faith is that in trusting only medicine and science, we blindly miss the point that those methods are not the only way God works.

Just because we have different ways of getting our health needs met these days doesn't negate the fact that God still can and does work miracles. That's why He sent Jesus. That's why we call on His name.

I know that in my own life, I face the giants of my own fears daily. When it comes right down to it, Jesus is the one I must call on. He is the one who brings ultimate healing. He is the one that calms the storms and changes lives - miraculously. Sometimes in an instant, sometimes through a process: often in ways we least expect.

James 5:15 says:

Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.

Prayer for healing is an area where we as believers cannot give up even if we think the answer God may be giving is no because we don't know the mind of God or how He may be choosing to show Himself strong on behalf of believers.