For the Weary Warrior

This year has seen my family shatter and Joy unexpectedly taken several hours away from home. It has been a year of grief, conflict, tension, brokenness, and isolation. It has worn me down. My body is tired of carrying so much tension. My brain is tired of jumping through all the legal hoops. My heart is tired of sorting through the emotional aftermath. My spirit is tired of . . . well, my spirit is just tired. The enemy has been telling me I just need to quit – to shut myself up in a room, lick my wounds, and put it all away. In other words, to give up. I’m not going to lie – it has been tempting.
But the Spirit keeps bringing one verse to mind: Paul wrote, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9). The word “weary” means be so exhausted as to lose courage. Notice it doesn’t say, “don’t admit that you’re tired.” It just says, “don’t give up. Because God is faithful.
I ran across this today in my Facebook memories and it explained so much about the past year and about what I am feeling. It was written by Francis Frangipane of In Christ’s Image Training Ministry. “There are times when we face extended spiritual conflict. We fight, endure, and finally prevail. Yet remember: our enemy is a “thief” (Jn 10:10). You may be so relieved that your main battle is over that you fail to notice your joy is gone. The obvious fight has been won but in your weariness your peace was depleted. Therefore, routinely take inventory of your soul. Wait before the Lord and listen. Make sure the thief hasn’t stolen any of the fruit the Holy Spirit has been cultivating in your heart — that your “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” are all functional and growing in you (Gal 5:22-23).” –www.icitc.org.
Paul and Francis are both right. We can’t give up. But we can rest. There is too much at stake to throw up our hands and throw away our peace and Joy and hope. I’m going to take the summer off from school and I’m going to enjoy every minute I get to spend with my girl. I going to let the Spirit of Christ nurture my spirit. I might even clean up my house. But I will not give up.
Beloved, I don’t know what battles you’ve been fighting, but maybe it’s time to rest a spell. Let the God who loves you heal and refresh you. Just don’t give up.

Sin and the Heart

This may surprise you, but I am a sinner. Yes, I belong to Jesus, He has saved me and redeemed me and continues every day to transform me into His image. He has done so much work in my life where sin is concerned. But like every other human being, I was born with a sinful nature and sinful desires. They may be different from the things that tug at you, but sin is a real and present danger for me.
How do we handle our bent toward sin? The Bible has some great advice for us. Here are a few suggestions:
Recognize sin for what it is and don’t make excuses or exceptions for it. (Psalm 51:3-4)
Keep God’s Word close – in your hands, in your mind, and in your heart. (Psalm 119:11)
Keep God closer. (James 4:7-8)
Keep sin-triggers at a distance. Don’t put yourself in positions you know will pull you into sin – whether places, events, movies, T.V. shows, websites, or even people. Take the way out. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Repent when you do sin. (Acts 3:19).
Pray.
Repeat as often as necessary.
The prayer I find myself returning to again and again is: “Lord, cause me to love you so much that sin has no appeal to me.” I came to that prayer while meditating on Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.” I realized that if God is my delight, then I will desire only Him – and that is a desire He is more than willing to fulfill.
Because it is all a matter of the heart. When the Bible speaks of the heart it is not talking about emotions but of intention. The heart is “the seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors.” The heart is under our control. It is affected by what we indulge in – whether sin or righteousness. If God is the delight and desire of my heart, I will take no delight in sin and will instead be repulsed by it.
Yes, I have a long way to go, but this is my heart’s desire. Will it be yours too, Beloved? if you love God with all your heart there is no room in your heart to love sin.

It’s okay to not be perfect

I never considered myself a perfectionist until I started back to school. Suddenly every assignment and every course had to be an “A.” The first B I got felt like a total failure. I expected to be perfect.

I find it interesting that while the Bible uses the word “perfect” just forty-two times, the word “good” appears more than six hundred times. After completing each day’s creative work, God examined what He had done and “saw that it was good.” In the original Hebrew, this means that God found His work “pleasing, favorable, and satisfactory.” Think about it – if God, at the zenith of His creative work, was content with “good” shouldn’t “good” be good enough for us?

There’s more: He promised a good land to the Israelites when they escaped Egyptian bondage (Ex 3:8). Jesus said the Father gives “good gifts” (Mat 7:11), He proclaimed the soil with the greatest harvest good (Luke 8:8) and Paul tells us to “overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21) – not perfection. Even the Gospel that saves us is called “the Good News” (Acts 5:42). Why then are we trying so hard to be perfect?

God didn’t saddle us with this obsession for perfection – it was the enemy who planted that impossible seed. But we have watered and nurtured it until it has become a weed of gigantic proportions and, as weeds so often do, it has choked the life out of us and the “good works” we were created to do (Ephesians 2:10). It’s his way of keeping us distracted, dissatisfied, frustrated – and fruitless. Perfectionism will drive us to the point of exhaustion as we push ourselves to reach for an unreachable standard. Or, on the flip side, it will leave us in a state of paralysis, fearful of even attempting anything because we know we’ll never measure up. I’ve been both – and it’s no way to live. You and I will never pull off perfection this side of heaven. And that’s okay.

Only God is perfect and making you perfect is His work alone, through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit. But you won’t see the perfectly finished product until you stand before Him in heaven. So hang all your perfectionist tendencies on Him and be free from that burden you were never meant to carry. Beloved, being good is good enough.

Divine Appointments

“That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’” (Mark 4:35).
There was a reason Jesus wanted to cross that lake. “The other side” of the lake was the region of the Gerasenes (or Gadarenes) (Mark 5:1). Verse 2 says: “When Jesus go out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.” I get the sense that this was a divinely arranged appointment. Almost like the man knew Jesus was coming. It is certain that Jesus knew the man was waiting for him there.
He was demon-possessed, living in the tombs and the demons had made him so physically strong that he tore through the chains people had used to bind him. “No one was strong enough to subdue him” (v. 4b). The demons had also made him self-destructive: “Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones” (v. 5). People were afraid of him. They ran away from him. But Jesus ran to him.
I’ve never been demon-possessed, but I have a long history of doing some self-destructive and foolish things that caused me a great deal of grief and pain. Things that caused people to turn away from me. I don’t blame them; I would have turned away from me too. Jesus never did. Not only did He not turn away, He pursued me. He came to me, like it was a divinely appointed meeting.
When Jesus and the demonic came together, miraculous healing happened. Mark said that “the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons [was] sitting there dressed and in his right mind” (v. 15). When Jesus came into my life, he did a miraculous healing work in me too. I won’t say I’m “in my right mind,” but I am not the self-destructive woman I was. My heart is full of peace and hope and He has filled my life with Joy. Because when others ran away, Jesus ran to me.
Maybe your mistakes and foolish decisions have left your life in shambles. Others have run away from the chaos and the neediness in your life. Beloved, do not despair. Jesus is running to you with healing and restoration in His hands and unfailing love in His heart. He has a divine appointment. With you.

Marvelous God

“The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23).
When I am in a low season in my spirit God comes to me and lifts me up. He knows what I’ve been through the past year and He cares about the hurt and anxiety it has caused. He also knows that the cure for depression is not chocolate (believe me I’ve had plenty) or pasting a smile over my face. The answer to my weary heart is Him. It is turning my thoughts from myself and turning them to the Lord and how wonderful He is.
I look out my window this morning and see the sun brushing the sky with shades of pink and purple and I see the silhouette of the trees and hear the birds fill the air with praise and think, “LORD, You have done this, and it is marvelous in my eyes!” I look forward to picking up my granddaughter today to spend the week with us and I remember that a year ago I didn’t have any contact with her for several months and I think, “LORD, You have done this, and it is marvelous in my eyes!” I look at this pile of seminary books around me and ponder the opportunity to study and learn about His Word (for free!) and I think, “LORD, You have done this, and it is marvelous in my eyes!” I look at this sweet ministry of writing and teaching and remember when I had a breakdown and thought God could never again use this shattered woman and I think, “LORD, You have done this and it is marvelous in my eyes!” I look at my life, once lost in the pit of sin and the misery of my own foolish mistakes, now redeemed and full of hope and a future and eternal security, and I think, “LORD, You have done this and it is marvelous in my eyes!” And I look at the uncertainty of the future and think, “LORD, You will handle this and it will be marvelous!”
The Scriptures are replete with reminders to consider all that the Lord has done. It is the best way I know to recenter and refocus my mind and heart when life has delivered a hard blow. Beloved, what marvelous thing has God done in your life? Praise Him for it then trust Him to do it again.

Let’s Get Outta That Pit

I’m sitting in Psalm 69 this morning – David is struggling. So am I. He is overwhelmed. So am I. He feels like he is up to his neck in deep waters and sinking into the miry depths. He cannot get a foothold to climb out. He is worn out from calling and seeking help that never comes. He has done some foolish things that seem to have added to his desperate situation. All of this comes from a deep emotional place. I can relate to David this morning.
But here is where David and I differ. He instinctively turns to the Lord. Like a door on a hinge he says, “But I pray to you, O Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation” (v. 13). He knows God’s character – He is sure of the Lord’s faithfulness and love. When the deep waters are closing in on him, he knows his God will not fail him.
I noticed something in this Psalm – David issues a series of pleas that almost sound like a barrage of demands. “Rescue me.” “Deliver me” (v. 14). “Answer me” (v. 16). “Redeem me” (v. 18). But a deeper look tells us that David is speaking from His heart to God’s heart. “O Lord, out of the goodness of Your love; in Your great mercy turn to me” (v. 16). David is appealing to Someone he knows well – someone he thinks about often.
My melancholy nature tends to focus on the pit rather than the Lord. My thoughts do not default to the Lord. I need to do with myself what I sometimes have to do with Joy when I take my hand and turn her little head toward what I want her to see. I need to turn my head – or rather my heart – to Philippians 4:8 and think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. In other words, I need to think about God.
Our thoughts control our feelings, and our feelings control everything else. I invite you to join me in a little exercise Beloved. Let’s write out Philippians 4:8 and put it where we can see it today and remind ourselves to turn our heads and our hearts to God. It’s the only way out of the pit and onto solid ground.

Do You Believe the Bible?

Do you believe the Bible is the truth? The world will answer with a resounding “NO!” and I would expect no less. But I have heard and read many well-meaning (and often well-educated) religious people downplay what the Scriptures so plainly declare. They try to explain away clear text like the seven days of creation. They look for “logical” or “scientific” reasons for creation, the flood, the destruction of Jericho’s walls, or even the resurrection of Jesus. It is confusing at best and destructive at worst.
It’s not just the religious elite. It happens in the pews and the Sunday School classes –I heard a woman who had been in church most of her life say that Noah’s ark and Jonah’s whale were just fairy tales woven into the Bible – they didn’t really happen. If that is so, it begs the question, what else in the Bible didn’t really happen? Sadly, it even happens in the pulpit. I have heard pastors do a soft-shoe dance around clear teachings from the Bible condemning the culture’s favorite sins.
And I have even heard it from some of you. Oh, you believe the creation account, Noah’s ark, Jonah and the whale, and the glorious resurrection of Jesus. But you don’t believe God could never forgive all your sins. I see you, struggling under the weight of guilt and shame that Jesus left in the grave. I see you because I have been you.
And you doubt God’s love for you. Trust me when I say I used to feel the same way. Used to. Past tense. But then the Spirit gave me a revelation. If I am going to teach the faithfulness of God’s Word – if I proclaim that the Bible is true and trustworthy I must also believe when the Scripture says that God loves me with an everlasting, unfailing, never-ending, perfect, holy love. And so do you.
Above all I believe the Bible is true because of Jesus’ own words: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth” (John 17: 17). The Scriptures are trustworthy (Ps 8:28) – every jot and tittle. God’s Word cannot be true about some things and untrue about others. Beloved, you can rest yourself in the promise – God loves you. You can take Him at His Word.

Don’t Drift Away

Why are we so easily drawn away from what God has told us in His Word? How can we stay fast in our devotion to truth? I think I found a clue in the Book of Hebrews. It expands the devotional I wrote a week ago about listening to God. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Heb 2:1). Get your shovel – it’s time to dig!
The phrase “drift away” is one word in the Greek: pararreo – and it means to glide by, to be carried away, and you would use it to say something “slipped my mind.” We’ve all missed appointments because they slipped our minds. That’s why we jot them down on our calendars or put a reminder on our phones. Likewise, the writer was saying, don’t let the message of the gospel slip from your mind. That’s easy to do when life is hard, when tragedy strikes, when you’re weary. It’s easy to forget about the hope we have in Christ. It’s also easy to do when life is busy with work, school, kids, church, and a dozen other responsibilities.
What is the counter to drifting? “Pay careful attention.” These two words, perissoteros and prosecho, mean in great abundance, above all else and to hold or possess. Simply put, this means above every voice and every worldview, take hold of this gospel and let everything else go. That’s the key to not drifting away.
The message of the gospel is that Jesus is the Son of God – He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Heb. 1:3). In a world that says there is no God, or that God is whatever you want him to be, we need to get a firm and secure grip on the truth. In a world that is full of evil and darkness, where sin runs rampant and despair rules people’s lives, we need to wave the banner of the truth and the hope of the gospel.
Beloved, what are you paying careful attention to? The news? Social media? The opinions of others? They will only cause confusion and doubt. They will cause you to drift away. Let them go. Pay attention to the one truth that matters: Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died to save you and give you eternal life and hope for today. Beloved, hold on to that and never let go.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord

God doesn’t always do what I want Him to do. He doesn’t always answer my prayers according to my wishes or follow my well-laid-out plans. There are things I’ve prayed about for years that remain unresolved. Hard situations that haven’t magically gotten better. People I’ve laid at His feet over and over who get up and wander back into sin and self-destruction. What are we to do when – let’s call it what it really is – we’re disappointed with God? I know. It seems almost sacrilegious to say it, but if we’re not honest with God we will always be stuck with this gnawing sense that He can’t be trusted.
So what do we do when the doubts creep in? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Two key things stand out to me. First: “trust” – it means to “have confidence in.” That’s pretty simple. But do you? Do you have confidence in God? Do you trust in His goodness, faithfulness, and love? Do you have confidence that He will always do what is right and best – even if what He does doesn’t meet your expectations?
Then – and this was huge to me – three words: “heart,” “understanding,” and “acknowledge.” The “heart” is the seat of our thoughts, emotions, and understanding. “Acknowledge” means to know, recognize, understand. Did you see the word “understand” all over this? “Understand” at its root – this is key – means “to consider with full attention.” There it is. When we lean on our own understanding – we are giving ourselves, our thoughts, and our emotions our full attention. But when we “trust in the Lord with all our heart” we give Him our full attention.
I don’t know about you, but I can easily drive myself into a rut of negativity. “God isn’t interested in your petty problems.” “He is angry at you.” “He is disappointed in you.” “You don’t deserve His help – you made this mess on your own.” You and I must continually bring our focus back to God and our thoughts back to Philippians 4:8. No, I’m not going to give it to you. Go look it up.
Beloved, where are you focusing your attention today? On yourself, on your emotions, on your problems, or on your God? He is your solid rock. He will never betray your confidence in Him. You really can “Trust in the Lord.”

If the Truth Offends . . .

According to Scripture, my job as a Bible teacher is to make you mad. My brothers will tell you I’ve been practicing for this my whole life. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:24). The word “spur” means “to incite, irritate, or provoke” and it comes from a root word that suggests a sharp disagreement. “But wait a minute,” you say, “I thought we were supposed to always get along and be at peace with one another.” We are. But sometimes peace requires confrontation. The church suffers greatly because we are not willing to confront uncomfortable issues like what a Christian should look like. The writer pointed to two specific things: Love and good deeds.
Jesus said that love would be the distinguishing mark of His followers (John 13:35), and His Apostle John went a step further (on someone’s toes) and said if you don’t love fellow believers in Christ, that’s a good indication that you are not in Christ (1 John 2:9-11). Love is non-negotiable for the Christian.
We are also called to do good deeds. Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). But James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Who’s right here? Both. Salvation comes by faith in the grace of God and is evidenced by good works. No, you don’t have to go to Calcutta and join Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to prove that you are a Christian. Simple acts of love, kindness, gentleness, and compassion are good fruit in the believer’s life. Hate, harshness, rudeness, and indifference are evidence that one is not a Christ-follower. If there’s no good fruit there is no root in Christ.
Love and good deeds are the identifying marks of the Christian. If they are absent, then Christ is not present. If that makes you mad then take it up with God – He’s the one who said it first, not me. Also, you might need to re-examine your relationship with Him.
The writer of wisdom said, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17). Sharpening iron involves rubbing it with an abrasive stone to grind the edge. Sometimes we need kind words and other times we need a gritty whetstone. I’m called to give you both, Beloved. I love you too much to not tell you the whole truth – in love – even if it makes you mad.