One of the hardest spiritual truths for me to grasp was Christ’s righteousness. It is difficult to understand that sin and grace, inadequate and accepted, grief and gratitude coincide. These truths only became evident when I ceased striving and was set free by a righteousness independent of self-performance and perfection. There is so much life-giving water for worn out souls when we lay down our robes and put on the robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness that is paid for in full.
After the crucifixion came the resurrection. After the resurrection, the birth of new hope, life and hearts. It marked the abolishment of fear, worry and death. The resurrection was a provision of grace that made it possible for the sin of all those who believe and repent to be wiped away; setting free any condemnation.
I was just asking myself this morning, do I live more from a place of crucifixion or resurrection? Often fear is a frequent but unwelcome guest. Sin is my shameful shadow and circumstances can hollow my heart of hope. This life can easily lead me down a path of crucifixion living.
Heavenly Father, may I never forget the crucifixion, but enable me to live the promises of the resurrection, not just during the Easter season, but through all seasons. Amen.
All things not eternal are eternally out of date. ~C.S. Lewis
Meditating on this allows me to take an inventory of my life and let a lot go! We can leave the comparisons, accomplishments, victories, defeats, credentials, resumes, mistakes, losses and so on behind. A performance mentality leads to a worn out mentality. There is no reciprocity between here and Heaven except for a surrendered and repentant heart. Our acceptance of our inadequacy qualifies us more than our adequacy ever will. Allow that to make life lighter today.
There is a misconception that Christians should always feel happy and comfortable, but that is untrue. The Bible illustrates this for us with countless stories of struggle. My truth is that many days I feel more ragged than refreshed.
In my distress I cry out, please, Father let there be purpose in this pain. Allow me to understand your plan so my eyes may see with clarity, my ears may hear without strain and my heart may abide without aching. Then, as an obedient daughter and follower of Jesus, I know I must sum up my plea with; your will not mine be done, Father.
And that is hard, but that is holy.
I think, however, when we get to a place in our lives that we can end our prayers as Jesus did just before His death, that is a great blessing. It means our truest heart’s desire is to be operating within the will of God. It is only in the confines of obedience to Him, not self, that we will experience the steadfast joy of the Lord.
I take great comfort from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10~ Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
As a child I sang it; I am weak, but He is strong. Now as an adult I am accountable to not only understand it but stand under that life-giving truth. That does not mean I am not sad or weary at times. It means I can reflect the character of a loving and faithful Father despite what storms are brewing around me.
Father, thank you for the Bible that shows us time and time again this life is less about happiness and more about holiness. I am grateful for the life of your son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life amidst unimaginable suffering so that we would have a model by which to persevere. You complete us in all the areas we are incomplete. You mend all the places we are broken. You have already written the script of our lives from beginning to end. Every struggle and every success, you know the path and the divine plan. Equip us to rest in your oversight as we sometimes walk very difficult roads. Help us to remember you have adopted us as your children, and we do not have to live as orphans, but as safe, provided for children. Grace, Father. Give us grace for ourselves and grace for all who intersect our lives. Thank you for loving us. Amen.
We were purposed for peace but not permanence in this life. I don’t know about you, but often I feel like I was not made for this world. 1 Peter 1:1 speaks to that very feeling. Peter refers to God’s people as chosen and living in a foreign land. If life is uncomfortable, take heart. It is as it should be. We were not created to always feel comfortable on this journey; just confident of our final destination.
Last Thursday my son became ill with a severe intestinal bug. I have never seen him struggle with one so fierce. It has been days of cleaning up, changing sheets, throwing away sheets, scrubbing and sanitizing. Also in the adventure was a trip to the ER for IV hydration and medications. Poor guy has been through it. It was no fun for me either.
The first evening when he woke up, he and his bed covered with vomit, I kicked into mom mode. The cleanup was not fun. It encompassed a large span of space. Once I got that cleaned up, there was another bigger mess waiting for me to clean up, and so was the chorus of the next several days. One thing that keep surprisingly capturing my attention was the grace God was giving me in every moment of all the messes. Very briefly on several occasions I wanted to complain. Before the words could even take full root in my mind, much less form from my lips, I found myself praising God instead. I would say this is not the natural bend of my heart, but praising God has quickly become much more my default through no merit of my own, only His.
I was praising God for the opportunity to take care of my son. I was praising Him for the opportunity to clean up, wash and care for my son because just seven months earlier he nearly lost his life in a tragic accident.
When you stand in the shadow of death, you often discover the shelter of gratitude. The mundane in the midst of the messy become little fountains of joy that water your soul in parched places.
I felt the searing sting of near loss, and anything but gratitude naturally felt unnatural. Anything but gratitude felt dishonoring to the deep appreciation purposed from a place of such pain.
Suddenly I was grateful for:
Good mattress protectors, washing machines, latex gloves,
Lysol wipes, Lysol Neutra Air spray, adult pull ups, trash bags, beach towels, two sunny days, windows that open, laughter, lotion, candles, GRACE Oh precious GRACE
and last but not least all of my
sisters in Christ who were persistently sending me texts of prayer and encouragement.
I never before knew the wealth of gratitude ushered by grief. It sounds incongruent until it is your reality. I am very thankful for the beauty born for brokenness. I am very thankful for the surprising mercies of God’s grace. Thank you, Lord for allowing me to find the splendor wrapped in the struggle of the last six days.
When situations look impossible, give me eyes to see what is unseen and unlikely. May my perspective reflect a hope that is only found in you. Amen.
I have to be honest; I rarely go to the book of Revelation, and especially for comfort. In my discomfort from all the recent pictures and endless essays of the 21 men in orange jumpsuits, however, one verse keeps beckoning in my head. It is Revelation 5:6, which says: Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. Please note, the lamb looked as if had been slaughtered, BUT IT WAS STILL STANDING.
In the end friends, no matter what evil persons, disease or tragedy perpetrates our life, as Christ followers, in eternity we will still be standing! That comforts me and makes the heavy vices around my heart a little lighter today.
From the time, we take our first breath in this, world the number game starts. Numbers rule our world and define our worth.
From the beginning, it’s about weight, length, and head circumference. Are there ten fingers and ten toes? From then on every doctor visit hinges on numbers, height, weight and where you fall on the growth chart.
Then there is pre-school and elementary school. How high a child can count and who can add and subtract first. Moms and dad are racing to get their little ones ahead. Numbers begin to label children as smart or struggling.
Then, God help us all, middle school and high school starts, and everything is about a number. What you earn is what you are worth, or so the perception reigns. Soon it comes time for ACTs. A mere number becomes the fate on which most college options hinge.
When entering the workforce look out for those numbers. There are quotas, sales values, highest earners and so on; all surmised by numbers. Numbers judge who is the most valuable.
While numbers calculate workability on a given day or at a particular moment; they DO NOT quantify your worth. It should not be solely the quantity of our work that defines us but the quality of our hearts. Numbers are very inadequate judges of anything more than a mere instance in time. Numbers cannot measure one’s struggles. Numbers cannot measure one’s scars. They cannot measure the obstacles overcome. Humor and humility, kindness and compassion cannot be quantified. Determination and dedication are desirable qualities, not determined quantities.
Numbers have too much power in our world. They determine our earthly standing, but not our eternal security. There is no score book when we leave this life. No grade book. There are no bank accounts or plaques indicating top sales persons. There is only one number in Heaven- One Father, One Son, one you and one me.
Our judgment will not hinge on GPA’s, ACT’s, honors, trophies, income, productivity… None of those things come with us. They all turn to dust. (Matthew 6:19) We have no resume when we leave this life. All we have is the portfolio of our heart.
Jesus did not concern himself with numbers. He crossed the sea to save ONE demon possessed man. One man. (Mark 5) Jesus never asked anyone what is your IQ? What was your ACT score? He never asked anyone if they made their quota for the month. Jesus was only interested in matters of the heart; something numbers cannot quantify.
Don’t misunderstand me, hard work should be valued and rewarded. It, however, should not be the most valued standard by which society operates. Our righteousness was secured by Jesus’ great sacrifice not our performance. We have become a performance driven society; elevating those who are winning the race, and crushing those who fall short of keeping up.
It saddens me that we place so much emphasis on numbers because in the end only one number counts-one. One heart. In the end, we will not be quantified by our flourishing performance or worth, but by our fruit.
In the end will it be more critical that one-one you and one me-quantified as smart and efficient or qualified as surrendered and effective? If we focused more on the latter and not the first, I cannot help but wonder how much lighter life would be.
Numbers generate labels. Like the great children’s book, You Are Special, by Max Lucado, reminds us; labels are not permanent. They tend to fall off over time. Labels only stick if we let them! What we need to know and never forget is that while numbers may be indicators they are not dictators.
My daughter and I have a tradition every morning during our commute to school. She picks a Bible verse to read to me, and we discuss what it means and how we may apply it to our lives. It has become a very special time for both of us. It is my favorite time of the day!
Two days ago she read me Romans 12:2. I loved that she picked that verse. Our discussion was rich and applicable to our lives on many fronts. It was a treasured discussion that I won’t soon forget!
The beauty of God’s word is how it imprints our hearts and ministers to us in our times of need. Yesterday was the perfect example. I had a fearful day. I was thankful when I awoke at 3 AM this morning to have Romans 12:2 and many other appropriate verses that immediately became my defense against the enemies of the night such as anxiety and worry.
It is funny because the day before my daughter read Romans 12:2, I had listened to a sermon by Tim Keller on Romans 12:1. Romans 12:1 says: And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
In the old testament, sacrifices were made in the form of animals. We thankfully do not practice that style of sacrifice anymore. Alternatively, we are the sacrifices we present to God each day. It is an ongoing process of presenting our will, our desires and our needs to God and relinquishing our hands from them. In his sermon, Keller humorously noted that the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar. He makes a great point! In all seriousness, though, we are to be constant living sacrifices, and that takes intention, effort, determination, and time. It is a marathon and not a sprint.
The truth is, whether we are running life as a marathon, renewing and committing ourselves to God daily or running as a sprint under our authority and sufficiency; both are challenging. What the first gives us that the latter does not are promises of hope and joy. It equips us with an ability to fall in all the pot holes along the race, only to rise, dust ourselves off and keep running. The circumstances and conditions of our race do not define us, but they depict the character of a living God who lives inside us. I would much rather be eternally equipped for the marathon of life, than dependent on myself or someone other than Jesus, to run this race with me.
When I fail to present myself coonsistently to God, renewing my mind daily, life gets messier than usual.
Fear is born of the world. It constantly lurks around vying for my attention. It is an invisible assailant focused on extinguishing faith. This is what fear looks like for me when I am not vigilant about soul maintenance:
F–fragile
E–emotional
A–alone
R–reactive
Alternatively, faith is not nurtured by the things of this temporary life, but an eternal one. Faith is a wiser choice, but it requires a constant renewing of my mind. Faith, while never perfectly mastered leads me closer to where I desire to be:
F–free
A–anchored
I–insulated
T–together
H–hopeful
Romans 12:2~Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
May we all run this race with joy and perseverance friends! It is not efficient, but highly effective. It is not for the weak but the wise. It is not a promise of a perfect life but a purposeful one. It is a promise of a perfect eternity. That is good news!
