Father at times our world can be a symphony of noise. Many are the notes vying for our time and attention. Limited opportunities for rest leave us with insufficient avenues for hearing you. Without that spiritual space we are like singers who cannot hear their notes, lost, ineffective and out of tune. Let us not be attracted to keeping up with the pace of this world, but rather the peace of a relationship with you. When our hearts become distracted by inorganic things, prompt us that ultimately our thirst can only be quenched by things indigenous to You. Enable us with an awareness that the ache in our souls cannot be satiated by anything or anyone of this world. Countless times we buy into lies. Lies that tell us, if I could just have…I would be happy. We believe it Father and so we chase after things that were never meant to satiate our souls. All the ways we try to anesthetize that ache with possessions, friends, relationships and so much more lead us down fruitless paths void of fulfillment. When we forget, remind us that the only antidote for that soul ache is resting in the shadows of the cross that points us vertically to the one place where we will ache no more. Amen.
Tag: jesus
Good Company
If you are suffering today, remember the lives of Jesus, Naomi, Job… If you have been waiting a long time for something, remember Abraham, Sarah, Moses…You are never alone in your pause or your pain. We can not always choose our position, but absolutely our perspective! Be of good courage friends, and never loose hope.
Our Greatest Grievances Are Our Most Priceless Gifts
Sewn within every great struggle, and branded into every thread of brokenness are immense possibilities. Ministry, connection, growth and healing grant our greatest grievances capabilities to be molded into our most priceless gifts.
The Priceless Gift of Prayer
Some time ago I adopted the practice with my children of praying for someone who was mean to them or someone else. Alternatively, I pray with and for them and myself, when we are not so nice, too. I cannot tell you how valuable this practice has become not only for them but for me, too.
It is difficult to feel bad about someone when you try to understand that we do not know what storms they are being asked to weather. After all, it is often the people who hurt others the most who need love the most.
Morning and afternoon carpools are typically when these prayers are most prevalent. The days rundown usually encompasses a lot of junk, especially the older they get. Then there came yesterday! Yesterday challenged my practice to its core because I did not want to pray for this person after what I heard. I wanted to be very angry at him, and I was for a short time. However, because we had been practicing our prayer routine so long, prayer felt like an automatic default. It was also a comforting, safe and welcoming place to fall in that moment of hurt.
Macey got in the car after school yesterday. She was choking back tears as she told me that a boy took her water bottle from her. He then told her, “I am going to hit you over the head and crack your skull so your brain will be messed up like your brothers.”
My heart sank! Contrary emotions flooded my mind. I felt sadness, anger and ultimately an empathy for Macey and a boy with a deadly tongue. At that moment, if we had not been prepared to revert to prayer, I don’t know where we would have sunk to. I am sure of this; it would not have been to a good place.
Prayer is the best defense we have in this world! I don’t know where I would be without it. I don’t know how I could parent my children without it. I am so thankful we were well-prepared yesterday with the gift of prayer. Thank you, Jesus!
Ephesians 6:10-18~ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Seekers of Sheep
Father give us a vision for a world where our “to bless list” is longer and more urgent than our “to do list.” Equip us with a grace that not only enables us to be hearers and doers of your word, but also seekers of your sheep. In the midst of our schedules, commitments and responsibilities, we often look at your people but do not authentically see them. We are all broken brothers Father. Where brokenness is present, pain and struggle pervasively reside in hearts. We know that you record every hurt and collect every tear from above, but down here, let us be good stewards of Your love and compassion. May we not only be present with our intentions but persistent with our actions. Train us to recognize and react to opportunity for blessing in every situation we encounter. May we love and bless with humble and surrendered hearts, as to minimize us and maximize You. Amen.
My Daily Prayer
My Daily Prayer:
Jesus when loved ones are struggling, relationships are shaky; people are ailing, help me resist the desire to fix what is. May I remember that scrambling for solutions can become a form of control and unbelief. Keep me cognizant that it takes more courage and faith to release my most precious treasures to You, free of my clinging hands. Allow me to care without control, hold without hovering and support without suffocating all people and situations I encounter today, and each day forward. Jesus grant me the grace that enables me to rest not carefree, but confidently in your sovereignty amidst the backdrop of a broken world. Amen.
Embracing Who We Are
As a woman, growing in grace means when someone gives us a compliment, we do not dismiss it. We do not begin to tell them why we do not look pretty, do not have a nice smile, are not a good cook, do not have a kind heart, have not lost weight, are not good at…Grace enables us to embrace the compliment with a humble, soft, “thank you.” Then we allow those words to settle into our souls and realize, yes, I am those things because that is how God created me. Sure we have moments when we do not like ourselves; everyone does. Those moments, however, should be fleeting. We become who we think we are, so we must allow ourselves to be a friend’s compliment! This is one of the hardest things to do for all of us, but let’s change that today! May we all be humbly adorned in the unique gifts God placed within each of us today, and all days ahead!
My Daily Prayer
I do not see, but I will follow.
I do not hear, but I will listen.
I do not comprehend, but I will fight to believe. Heavenly Father help all those who are struggling through pain, suffering and unthinkable trials today to trust and rest in you. May we all walk not by our senses or understanding, but guided by faith that although sometimes is shaken, it is never shattered!
Amen
Shedding Souls
Our bodies seem to have been created for sloughing? Sloughing is defined as the act of casting off dead tissue or cells. According to The American Academy of Dermatology, the average person looses anywhere from 50 to 100 strands of hair a day. We loose an estimated one million skin cells per hour. This is not only natural, but necessary for optimal health. If this is the way our bodies were made to function on the outside, why should our insides be any different?
When I fail to remember the value, and importance of shedding the built up atrophy of my soul, I head down a frail path. Life, responsibilities and circumstances build up and form layers of dead weight that are important to yield in order to give our minds and bodies rest.
Why do we carry burdens and worries so long? I often bottle worries deep inside me and bear them longer than needed. Then when I cannot shoulder the weight anymore, I have to make a critical choice; I either shed them or become subordinate to them.
Have you ever noticed how good you feel after you release a burden to a trusted friend? It can sometimes feel like an extreme weight loss. We just feel lighter. A load has been lifted, and we can breathe with less effort.
Not too long ago, my son was wearing the weight of a heavy burden that had been enslaving him too long. He finally reached a point where he could not keep it at bay anymore. He needed to “shed” the weight of his heart to someone. He said it all from behind the voice of one trying to hold it all in, but tainted with the sound of tears. I knew that sound. He could not hide it. Not from me. Not from me who knows him so well. So he released it all bravely, and then he was rescued by a deep, desperate sleep.
Isn’t that an organic picture of life? We try to hold it all in, and conceal that which opposes us. We try hard, and then a little harder to not be found. Then there comes a point when we are pinned under the pressure of the fire we are walking through, and we release it in a spewing of toxic ash that has been brewing under the surface.
It is in those times, when we let ourselves be fully known that we can be fully loved. It is those moments of true identity and authenticity that afford us the pacifying balm that our true self-longs for every day. It’s in the most desperate moments that we are most receptive to receiving the mending, and comfort of Jesus, who already knows us just as we are anyway. Masking of inadequacies only delays God’s refurbishment.
We live in a world that is in the business of replacing all that is broken, but Jesus is in the business of restoration. We shoulder burdens and limitations that we were never meant to bear. Why do we delay our recovery so long? There comes moments in this life when it takes more courage to fall apart in the presence of someone who loves us than it does to keep it all together.
At the heart of us all we just really want to be seen, heard and understood. This is a beckoning to trust in our Savior who in His timing restores, and makes all things strong and steadfast. Part of the renewal process is releasing all the rot that begins to infest our souls.
Restoration rarely happens how we envision it, and never as timely as we would like, but all good things have to happen on a timetable that is outside of ourselves. Overseen and orchestrated by The One who knitted us together, every little detail, with his soft, sovereign hands.
I am thankful for those moments when courage wins. I am thankful for glimpses of people’s true identity. I pray as we all mature in our secure standing of Christ’s righteousness that we will become more comfortable shedding the layers of entanglement and trade them in for the acceptance and love that transparency affords.
It is in our purest identity that we are open to the most beautiful of possibility. May we all embrace, learn from and release all things that embattle us. We were given them for a reason, a resource and as a bridge for restoration.
Weary Hearts
For weary souls and feeble hearts, remember this today:
It isn’t in the midst of great times and a carefree life that God comes after hearts. Nor is it within the paramaters of easy that souls become dehydrated enough to thirst after Him, and the living water that only Jesus can offer.
No matter how much you are hurting, or whatever circumstances you are enduring, God is working much more in and through your pain and frustration than He ever could your happiness.
Fight to believe that, and speak that truth to yourself repeatedly until it gives you rest!