New Year; New Me

Last year, I read through the Bible audibly by listening to Get In the Word with Truth's Table. This is a podcast by the women of Truth's Table. It's not a podcast, though; the two hosts read through passages from the Old and New Testaments and then end with a spirit-inspired prayer. It seems the Bible is read in chronological order, so on listening, you'll learn, for example, that a lot of Chronicles is a recap or sometimes a repeat of other books - Genesis, Kings, and Daniel.

Listening to the Word makes certain words and phrases stand out that you may have glossed over previously. This practice of waking up and listening to the word provides an excellent start to my day. I used to try to listen while walking or muddling around the kitchen, but these days, I simply sit and do nothing but listen. I am 100% present.

Deeper Intimacy

What do you think of when you think of intimacy? When you feel an intimate connection with someone, you experience:

Connection
Knowing
Good feelings
Comfort
Safety

Usually, we feel this kind of intimacy with a significant other – our partner, our parents, close friends, and sometimes our children (when they are grown). But, is it possible to have these feelings with a sovereign divine God? I would say yes.

Seven Times A Day

As I was reading Psalm 119, I became fascinated by verse 164, which says "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments."

Recall that this is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses, where practically every verse highlights the attributes of God's Word, all from the very personal perspective of its author.

The Word of God can literally save a life: George Wishart was the Bishop of Edinburgh in the 17th century. Wishart was condemned to death and would have been executed. But when he was on the scaffold, he made use of a custom that allowed the condemned person to choose one psalm to be sung, and he chose Psalm 119. Before two-thirds of the psalm was sung, his pardon arrived, and his life was spared. [Source: blueletterbible.org]

Back to verse 164 - what makes a person so emphatic in their declaration of praise? Well, one quick answer is already noted in the verse - it's because of God's righteous judgments. He has seen that God has always done right by Him; He has never left or abandon him.

20 Incredible Bible Verses about God’s Strength

I can't complain. I've written a lot lately simply because of this blog. It is only by God's strength that I have been able to do so. When I want to quit, He alone strengthens me. When I'm unsure of what to write, He nudges my thoughts. When I am weak, He is strong.

God’s strength is part of God’s character, illustrated in His acts towards us and directly through his promises. God’s strength, unlike ours, has the power to consistently strengthen us as it is part of our relationship with Him. Even while we are weak. God sympathizes with our weakness and even asks that we place our burdens on Him as He goes with us through this journey called life because He has the ability to sustain us. 

I Never Prayed for a Husband

Anecdotally, I will share that I never prayed specifically for a husband. As a 21-year-old, the desire of my heart was to serve God and make wise choices with my life. I had a fleeting desire to have a boyfriend because so many around me did, but this desire didn't take over my life. I had friends who were male and that was good. I tried having a boyfriend once: I didn't like it, and my family didn't like him so that was a no go. Talking to guys who didn't have the same beliefs as me especially when it came to purity was problematic, so I avoided those guys. Outside of the physical, it was nice to have friends and I had lots of male friends, though they weren't all Christians but friendship removed any pressure of

Notes from My Daughter - Amens

Occasional notes from my 22-year-old daughter. I never know what to expect when she writes but it's usually a pleasant surprise. Read on!

Lately, I started becoming more aware of how I "end" my prayers with God. I came to a realization that I struggle not with idea of grace itself, but with continued grace. With the fact that God is omnipresent and aware of all things that have, are, and will occur over the course of my life and if He is indeed omnipresent, how do I a finite human being with a limited understanding of time and presence actually communicate with Him? What's the point of consciously communicating with someone who knows your conscious and subconscious simply because they exist in all space and time?

Belief is a powerful thing because it's absolute for the human; there is no alternative from your vantage point. What you believe is what is, therefore what is creates a pattern for the things you habitually do.

I started noticing my beliefs in my "Amen's" and took the time out to really analyze them. For example:

"Amen: please don't say anything back, I don't know how to be accountable. I just wanted to vent to you. Cool? Bye."

Or

"Amen: This is all I have to say and obviously since I said it, I tried, so I'm done. I fulfilled my role and am still an active partner in this relationship. Take it or leave it" kind of ultimatum.

Or even the ever so lovely

"Amen: I have nothing to say to you tonight so, I love you and goodnight." This one seems pleasant on the surface but has ended a conversation that never really began by acknowledging an intention of not hurting God's feelings, but also not desiring to pay the cost of vulnerability and openness. It's a pause, initiated on my behalf, which shows the conditions of my beliefs. 

In all of these amens I was both trying to get away from, and trying to appease God in some way.

Talking to God continuously is not a burden nor is it a lack of completion. Waiting on an answer from Him continuously is not a burden. Reveling in his presence repetitively is not a burden. God is not a burden. Delighting in God means not really wanting it to end. Not for the distractions of this world, your former life or anything.

It took some time and prayer but eventually God brought me to the understanding that continuity and completion are one in the same for Him. While Jesus said, "It is finished", God the Father was also introducing a new beginning by means of the Holy Spirit. Our triune God partakes in a continual work that consistently removes the burden we feel due to sin. It is not in God's heart to burden his children or to see them quit. .

" The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."- 2 Peter 3:9

By continuing to be with us, God is completing the work he started in us. But if we lose patience and give up in the midst of the process we are believing it is better to be incomplete and within our own understanding than it is to be challenged by God's continuing and creative work in our lives. 

I recommitted my life to God about 6 years ago now and I used to take pleasure in every new lesson, but once they stopped seeming new and I couldn't actually understand what the heck God was doing at all, drifting seem like a good option. I spat out one quick prayer when this started happening which was "God don't let me go," but I also found it difficult to change my present beliefs, trust God, and act in impulsive obedience like I did in my former years. That prayer was kind of like my last breath before I anticipated the guaranteed drowning into a boring "Christian" life. I was turning into a mundane Christian who only endured (but did not enjoy) Christian culture because of my proclamation, and that there was no alternative to this traditional mindset. My prayers were dismissive and doubtful but overtime the Holy Spirit showed me that God is with you when you lack faith, but he also challenges you to grow the little faith you do presently have. God is with you when you don't understand. God is with you when you don't have know how to structure your own life in a way that promotes continuity.

The Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 highlights the components of prayer and provides a template for when you don't know what to say, which also served as a reminder of all that is constantly true about God in the human life. Originally it does not include the term amen at all. So for a while, I stopped practicing saying "Amen" and just took time out to listen and respond to God instead. I took the time to continue in what He already promised to bring to completion. It changed the dynamic of how I viewed God, what my fears/beliefs were, and how I understood the purpose of relationship.

Analyze how you treat God, even in the small things so that you are motivated to continue the work He is completing in you. Call on God about your own habits. Practice being present so that you may continue in His purpose without entertaining the idea of giving up.

Amen.

Source

Notes From My Daughter - Surgery

Third in an occasional series from my 19 year old daughter. She apologizes for the delay as this semester has been a bit tough. Though she writes these great pieces she still can't keep track of her cell phone. Read on. 

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Throughout the adversity of life we all get wounded. Regardless of the size of the wound, we all need to be healed in order to move on. Often times we try to numb our own pain through various fillers, and procrastinate our own healing. Many times we have numbed ourselves so much that when God tries to bring it to our attention we get mad at him even though his awareness is what’s keeping us alive. 

If I had to imagine this type of healing as a metaphor it would go a little something like this: While wounded on the hospital bed of life, we self-ambitiously think to ourselves of alternatives and say “I can just take some medicine to heal the pain and move on.” So we choose to eject ourselves from the hospital and try to take some control of our own lives. Every now and then we feel a bit of pain, a bit of limitation in movement, but we’re happy for the most part. In our heads the little pain is better than whatever plans the people in the hospital had for us. At least we are able to get back to our own lives. But when the healing process is not completed we wind up being prone to injury every second of our lives, but most importantly -  in our next trial (which we cannot predict). When leaving the hospital bed it does not occur to us that the incident that caused this pain might happen again, or that we may have to face something even bigger than us next time. We were focused on the short sighted view (see last post) without recognizing that full healing was needed in order to live a full life. 

Well here’s the problem: while we tried to cover up our wound with band-aids and medicine, we only resolved the issue temporarily. This is the problem with short sighted vision, we assume we know and end up finding out that we only knew a fraction of the entire answer. And we put these fractions constantly before God, making idols out them when they cannot serve the purpose that God can. We end up taking the stab in the back that life gives us, rather than allowing God to take the knife to our problems which need to be cut out of our lives. We don’t recognize that we NEED surgery; not a band-aid, not painkillers, or any other “fix”. We need His touch, we need to sign the consent forms, submit even though we won’t be able to control God, and trust him as he does what he’s always done: healed us. 

The great thing about God, is that he just doesn't throw you out of the hospital once he’s done healing you, but lets you rest in him so that the healing can be COMPLETE. Then he pushes us to work on our weak areas knowing that “in our weakness He is made strong” and implements the physical therapy we need in order to gain confidence in Him and lose our unrighteous fears. He’s the surgeon, the Comforter, the Healer, and the Medicine. You can’t take pieces of Him or His gifts, or else YOU will never be complete and whole and able to “fight the good fight of faith.”  “We fight not against flesh and blood but against power and principalities;” we need God’s strength in order to make it through. Let him heal every part of you, so you can be able to do everything he has planned for you. The medicine covers the pain for a while, but God takes the pain away and covers you in his love eternally. He wants to heal you because he loves you too much to let you be defeated by life when he already defeated death. Let him in, give God a chance.

Have you given God a chance?