A New Idea about an Old Notion

So, I set out today to find some verses just reminding me that He is protecting me, and my path. He was speaking into my heart last night, and we were talking about fear - my fear. I have a lot of it sometimes. And my human nature wants to provide a laundry list of all the areas in my life about which I'd like specific and dramatic promises. I want Him to take each one separately and foster a life-shaking moment that will help me to be "sure" that He's really going to walk with me in the specific area, and that He'll protect those things He's promised to me. And my human heart doesn't just want a general promise of His goodness; it wants certainty.

And as I type that, I am reminded that "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1 (NIV). And as I type that, I am reminded that our sermon topic this weekend was about walking by faith. I nodded right along. Ha ha. How easily and quickly (and frequently) my faith-steps falter!

So, in my searching, I found some verses, and I do appreciate those reminders. But what I caught out of the corner of my eye was a snippet of 1 Corinthians 13 - you know, the famous "Love is" passage. My heart was convicted in the moment...

Love. He loves me. That much I know; most moments, I'm even totally convinced of it. And He loves me with that special love that 1 Corinthians 13 talks about.... The part of the passage that jumped out to me today was a section overlapping 2 verses: Love... "it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a (NIV).

It always protects. He always protects, because He always loves. And love, His Love, it never fails. Yes, there are verses out there that speak to certain fears, and remind me that He is my shield and light. But today, to put it simply, I was just reminded that He LOVES. And love - the kind of the Lord - it always protects. ALWAYS protects. Me. He is my protector, my warrior God, my mighty Lord. He is mighty to save, and I am His precious daughter. And He loves me. His love never fails; it never lets me drop.

Lord, Father, Abba-daddy, please help me with my unbelief. You never change. Your Word and Your Love are eternal. Your love always protects. Your love cannot fail. You cannot fail me. Lord, as Your word tells us, we do not wage war as the world does - and AMEN! I feel myself so easily grabbed by spirits of fear, and spirits of doubt. Lord, I rebuke them in the name of Your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, Lord, help me with my unbelief! Help my heart to remember and to know that You always protect me, and You always love me and that there is no break in that protection. Those things that You have given to my heart are mine to accept, as long as I believe in the gift of the Giver. Help me believe, Lord. Thank You for Your love!

2009 and His Promise

This new year, 2009, started for me with a promise from the Lord, "I have come for you." I guess it's really more of a statement of fact than a promise. He has come. For me.

This year, for many reasons, already holds the promise to be something incredible for me. First of all, God is good. Good good good, and each year seems to convince my heart of that more. The net result, of course, is that each and every season grows into something that's somehow better than the one before - even with the struggles and challenges that are a part of life. But, more than that, He has been speaking to me....

I was talking to a woman at church one evening who was telling me about how God had "just given her her word for 2009." I thought, "Hey, I want a word for 2009!" And, so, a few days later, God provided. And this is what He said, "I have come for you."

Then, within days, I came across this verse:

“…say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’” Isaiah 35:4 (NIV)

And this, my friends, was my first memory verse for 2009 (although, I admit, I don't have it fully memorized yet!). I'd been experiencing some waves of fear, and I know this was God's word to my heart - reinforcing and reminding me of the only thing I really need to know.

He is God. And God is big. And better still, He is my God. And your God! And He is for us. And, what strikes me even more, He's not just coming, He's coming with vengeance. We don't fight against small opponents, but none can stand a chance.

I need saving all the time. Jesus Christ is my savior - but it's not a one time deal. My eternal salvation, yes. I made that decision a long time ago, but in the daily days of life, I need saving on a fairly consistent basis. He has come. To the enemy - watch out!

In the coming weeks & months, this blog is sure to undergo an evolution of sorts. I took two weeks off at the start of the year, and in that time, definitely got the message that I'm to continue. The format and general approach is still getting smoothed out. I just feel like I'm supposed to write and keep doing this, so I will. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Hope

For the third time in 24 hours, the question of hope has come up for me, and even I am smart enough to figure out that it means I need to pay attention! Thank You, God, for being willing to be so direct!!! :)

Here's the verse for today: "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13 (NLT).

The last couple of days have been challenging. I've felt that general feeling of "blah" that I so dislike, and my thoughts have been in constant battle with fear and perseverating worries. I felt pretty sure that I was under attack from the enemy; and I know the answer is to battle back with scripture, prayer and faith. I just was feeling a little lost about exactly what that needed to look like.

I asked for clarity about the ground over which I was fighting. I could feel the attack; I just wasn't sure what base was under fire. Turns out, I believe, it was the "hope" base (I should add that it's possible that this is the "base" that's always under attack! At least for me...). I was putting my hope in other places, aside from the Lord alone. It's amazing how subtly and how frequently I can shift away from reliance upon Him. I was putting my hope in a few different places. Not the least of these was my own ability to follow God, and human capability for submitting to Him! It seems perhaps like splitting hairs, but it really is different.

When my safety is rooted in my belief that I can stay close to Him, I am hoping in me. When my sense of safety and peace is grounded in knowing that He always stays close to me, I am hoping in Him. The shift is subtle, but powerful. I was reminded last night that, although the enemy is real and his powers are sometimes strong, I am sided with the One who is stronger than all! And He is for me!

Yes, we are fighting powers of darkness; I have felt that clearly (again) in the last few days. AND, we fight with weapons beyond any darkness. God is the source of hope. ALL hope. He IS hope. If we trust in Him, if I trust in Him, He promises to keep me in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

I want to overflow in confident hope! That's exactly my heart's desire in all things! I'm so thankful I have the key!

Let Me Not Step Aside

I've been thinking lately about willful sin. I remember doing a study on this topic a year or so ago and thinking, honestly, that I didn't ever sin in ways that I knew, in advance, was intentional and willful sin. Wow, I could not have been in more denial! I certainly do; and it's not just once every year or so.

It's the little things... the tiny adjustment to the way I tell a story, even though I might be trying to spare someone's feelings. The truth is the truth. Adjustments to it (and sometimes omissions from it) make it untruth, and speaking falsehoods...well, that'd be sin right there.

And although I won't go into them here, there are certainly other areas in which I've willfully disobeyed the Lord. Sometimes it's clear and direct contradiction to the Word, and sometimes it's just not doing whatever He's put upon my heart to do. Either way, it's willful disobedience.

I'm struggling a little bit with in myself for an understanding of how I'm meant to approach these topics. I know I should not do them. Obviously. :) I also know that if it were just as simple as quickly deciding not to ever sin, well, I would have done that by now! I was praying last night for guidance on this topic, wisdom and insight. I know it's not always quite as easy as "just don't do it" (although sometimes it definitely is!).

In my devotions this morning, here's a verse that caught my attention:

"With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You" Psalms 119:10-11 (AMP).

It amazes and humbles me to remember just how easily I can begin to rely upon myself again. Even in trying to obey Him, God is my strength and my only hope in living through the Spirit and therefore living beyond what I am capable of on my own!

Lord, let this day be about me trying less and yielding more. Yielding to you, yielding to Your word, guidance and will. Thank You for allowing Your Spirit to be with me and for giving me a chance of living up to Your will for me today! I love You, Lord! Amen.

A Word for the Coming Year

I was speaking with a woman at church recently, and she was telling me about the word she received from the Lord for 2008, and how the last few months had seemed to be the enemy's fight against what the Lord had brought so far this year. She went on to say that, just that morning, she'd received her word for 2009.

In reflecting on this conversation later, I thought about how I'd never really had "a word" for a specific year... I didn't let this concern me; I just realized it and moved on in my thoughts.

Well, what do you know? The Lord is funny about these things, isn't He? Last night, part way through a movie, I had what felt very much like the enemy trying to plant poisonous thoughts in me. I knew I needed to take captive those thoughts and turn to the Word for truth in order to do so. The Lord led me to a specific passage; the end of the passage, I feel, was given to me as....you got it, my word for 2009. :)

This will likely be a familiar passage to many of you, however, most of us know the beginning better than the end:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile"' Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NIV).

This verse encouraged my heart in the moment; I was reminded that all the captors that can exist in my life - all tools of the dark one, are no match for the Lord my God. For He who is within me is more powerful than him who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Praise God!

Then, this morning, I woke up with a passage on my heart. Now this is not a very common occurrence for me; in fact, I'm not sure it's ever happened before... nonetheless, I woke up and went straight to Acts 23. It's about Paul's transfer between prisons, as he's being plotted against by the Jews. I asked the Lord for insight; what am I supposed to take from this?

His answer came quickly and plainly: I can be captive to one thing, or another. I can be bound in one prison cell, and break free, but I will simply be transferred to another if I do not take care. I can live cell-to-cell, but (praise God!), I don't have to. It is Him who sets me free. It is in His word that I find truth. It is that truth that, as the Bible tells us, will set us free.

Lord, I ask for a fresh washing in truth today. Sometimes it is so hard to separate out the truth from the chaff. I know that it is for freedom that Your Son has set me free; help me to know what it means, and how it looks to "stand firm" so that I am not again taken captive! Lord, I heard Your word for me. You have come for me; I am being carried from the place in which I have been in exile. Help me to plant this word deep in my heart, Lord. Send away any and all doubt and disbelief that may creep in around this word. Help me plant it deeply in my heart, and to nurture it and allow it to grow! I love You, Lord. Thank You! Amen.

Standards

I think fairly regularly about the idea of being holy, of being "set apart" and what it means in the world. What does it look like it my daily life? What can others see that is "set apart" about me? Can others see anything at all? The Bible instructs us by saying that, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit" Galatians 5:25 (NIV). But what does that really mean?

I think being set apart, as we so often discuss it, is one thing. I think that living in step with the Spirit can be another thing entirely. I think it's useful to even consider the phrasing here: walking in step with the Spirit. Imagine the very essence and Spirit of God walking through your life; now imagine doing your best to keep in step with it - to walk, stride for stride, in the same ways, directions and paths as the Spirit. I don't know about you, but when I look at my life, I certainly fall short of that ideal - even though I may be living in a way that is set apart from the essence of the world around me.

Now, I want to be careful not to send (or receive for myself!) a message of "try harder" and "you're not doing good enough." These are messages I can too often find in just about any teaching, and they can be footholds for Satan to whisper lies into my ear. It's easy for me to be distracted by my own failings. That, however, is not the point. This verse comes just after the very well-known verses about the fruit of the Spirit. The point is not that I should (or even could!) try harder to epitomize those qualities. The point is that the Spirit bears the fruit that is recognized by those qualities; I needn't "try harder" to "do better." What I can do is strive to yield ever more to the Spirit. The fruit is a natural by-product.

So, in light of that, the instruction to keep in step with the Spirit makes sense all the more so. My job is to keep the Spirit as my leader. I can easily begin the rationalization process of what is set apart and how what I may be doing is different than the world, etc etc. It's not that it's bad to recognize these things, and to strive for a life set-apart. It's that the essence of what life in the Spirit is about has little to do with me sizing up and evaluating where I fall in line compared to the world around me. After all, I suspect I'm a poor judge of these things.

My challenge for myself today, and for you should you so desire, is to not try harder, but to try less and yield more. With the Spirit at the proverbial reigns, I am certain to walk in His steps, and to live out the fruit that makes my goal and vision of being "set apart" a beside-the-point by product of a life lived in Him.

Lord, help me yield to Your Spirit today - and every day. Let this day be one in which those around me see YOU in me. Let them see the by-products of Your Spirit lived out in me, and let it bring glory to Your holy name! I praise Your Lord!

Letting God Lead

As I begin to write today's thoughts, I am asking God for the ability to clearly convey what He's placed in my heart and mind today. I hope you hear what He intends; I'm putting this in His hands.

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about, praying about and learning to better understand the ideals of a Biblical marriage. There was a short sermon series on this at my church recently, I've been doing my own study, and I now have a new book to read that addresses exactly this topic. I have a feeling that, especially having come up so "in the world" in my thinking on this topic, that I have a lot to learn.

I am grateful to be learning that a wife's submission to her husband does not mean slavery or subservience, and that, quite the contrary, submission is not about a division of power. It's about a wife coming along her husband, and working with him. In many ways, it is about unity.

As I begin to dive in here, please humor me and let me give a brief disclaimer. First, I am very certain that I am about 2 inches down what is a very long path in terms of this topic. I know practically nothing. For that reason, I'm hesitant to even write this entry! However, as we flush this out, I think it will become clear why I am. Secondly, I'm not even married! I feel a little bit like a sports fan who sits on the couch shouting enthusiastically at the professionals on TV. I'm not sure I can even see the sidelines yet, let alone consider myself a player with any real expertise. So, take those for what you will... I still felt led to write this today. :)

Okay, back to the true topic at hand. What I'm learning is that a husband, as a spiritual leader, is meant to give direction, lovingly, while keeping utmost in his mind what it is that will be best for his wife and his marriage. As I consider what it means to be a wife, for myself, I am starting to see that there is something very, very key in making a decision to let myself be led. It's a yielding of sorts, and, quite frankly, a yielding of the sort that I probably need!

The verse that spoke to me this morning was one in which the Lord speaks through Hosea and refers to Himself as Israel's husband. It reads, "In that day," declares the Lord, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. '" Hosea 2:16 (NIV). What came to me while I was reading this was this idea of believing that God is not out to make our lives a boring exercise in slave-like subservience. Instead, He is a God that has direction for us so that we can be brought into the greatest possible good. His laws and guidance are not His venue for trying to show that He's the boss; they're His way of trying to save us from ourselves.

This verse made me think about the idea of submitting to the will of God, not because He'll punish us if we don't, but because His will is intended to bring about the greatest good. Of course, He has an ability to do this in a way that an earthly husband may not; after all, He did speak the universe into existence... but the point is still the same. As our husband, the Lord asks us to make a choice to yield absolute control of our own wills to His, but not because He has the power (although He does), but instead, because we - in doing so - affirm that He loves us, and is actively choosing to guide us in ways that are for our greater good.

In choosing to submit to the Lord, I am actively saying, "I believe that You are watching out for me, and that you want what's best for me." In essence, I'm saying, "I trust You." And He's designed a world in which I have that choice to make - that choice of submission, that choice of inherent trust - again and again on an ongoing basis.

As I was just writing here on this blog yesterday, I've found that when I sometimes don't feel the way I think I ought, I can still act as if I do. And that, by doing that, I open myself back up to the feeling. I don't know how that works, but it has been my experience. So, in this context, I am reminded that when I feel afraid of obeying God, when I feel afraid of doing what it is He directs (like writing an entry that parallels marriage as an inexperienced, ignorant single!), I am called to do it anyway. And it is in that action that I learn whatever it is I am meant to learn, and also open up my heart for that fear to disappear and more trust to be grown. And this works because, like Hosea wrote, He is more than just my master. He is my husband.

I love You Lord! Your amazing teachings heal me. Thank You for being THE Way. May I give this day to You in absolute submission, in trust. You are a Holy God! Amen.