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Thankful for the Difficult?

I want to share with you excerpts from today’s meditation in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:

The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but its difficulty does not make us faint and cave in–it stirs us up to overcome…Thank God that He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a joyous thing, but it is also something that requires bravery, courage, and holiness. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10), and God will not shield us from the requirements of sonship. God’s grace produces men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not pampered, spoiled weaklings. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the worthy and excellent life of a disciple of Jesus in the realities of life.

In the realities of life. Yes, that’s where the tests lie. In everyday life. Crises often bring out the best in us, but it’s those day-to-day realities that forge our discipleship.

We make dozens of decisions every day, choosing to act as a disciple and representative of our Lord or choosing to act according to our own interests and agendas. When God rescues and frees His children, adopts them and gives them rights and privileges as His heirs, He also plants His Spirit in them to make them part of His family. Are we “looking” like sons and daughters of God? We’re to follow the Spirit’s leading into a “family likeness to Jesus Christ” (in Chambers’ words).

The apostle Paul writes that we are not given a spirit of fear and timidity, “but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). That’s the Spirit of Christ. The Son of God lived His life on this earth for one thing–to carry out His Father’s will–and He lived here with power and love and holiness. That’s the way we are to live as children of God.

Do we view the problems, challenges, and irritations of daily life as “glorious difficulties”? Will that mindset makes us thankful in all circumstances? Can we see the difficulties of our lives as stepping-stones to grow into the Spirit’s bravery, courage, and holiness? Psalm 84 says that those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage will find that even though they go through valleys and deserts, they will move from one strength to the next until finally they enter God’s presence.  Remember Peter’s words: “Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead. Trials and troubles purify and strengthen your discipleship” (See 1 Peter 1).

I will set my heart on pilgrimage. I want to live–and look–like a child of God, living with bravery, courage, and holiness.   

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Prism of the Spirit

It was an ordinary kitchen. Nothing unusual or spectacular about it. But I walked into it and was dazzled.

A prism hung in the window, catching the early morning light and throwing spectacular colors and shapes across the kitchen. Swatches of pure hues moved slowly across ordinary things: dishcloths, countertop, curtains, carpet, calendar, and even trash can.

The prism turned the mundane into an oasis of rainbows.

Prism

This was the Spirit’s lesson for me that morning. I had just read this passage in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11:

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

The Spirit leans in and whispers the secrets of God to those listening. Doesn’t that astound you?

Here the word secrets does not mean some knowledge that will be kept from all but a chosen few. It refers instead to things that have previously been hidden or unseen or unknown. The Spirit tunes us into things we cannot otherwise know about God’s thoughts and ways.

Even though God’s ways are so much higher than ours, He gives us this connection to Himself. He wants us to know Him. The Spirit tunes us into His thinking. The world’s spirit would like to fill our ears and minds and wills and hearts, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives within to fill us with Himself.

Pris

Now to the lesson of the prism.

This always amazes me: The light, to which we normally give little thought or attention, holds a treasure of delightful color. The hues are there all the time, they surround us completely and constantly, yet we do not see them or delight in them until the prism shows what is there.

Here’s the next verse in 1 Corinthians 2 (verse 12):

And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

The Spirit hangs a prism to open our eyes to what we would otherwise miss. Like the colors in light we ignore, God’s hand is in every moment of our lives. The psalmist says that God’s blessing goes in front of us and behind us, and this 1 Corinthians passage tells us that one of the reasons God gives us His Spirit is so that we can see all the “wonderful things God has freely given us.”

Wow. The Almighty Lord and Creator of the universe gives us this intimate connection to Himself that helps us understand His thoughts and see what He is doing in our lives and in the world. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to see Him.

And the sight the Spirit gives us transforms our circumstances. Where others might see ordinary and even drab, or troublesome and painful, eyes opened by the Spirit see God’s gifts, His goodness, His love, His mercies, His blessing. We see God’s hand where we have not realized it before. We enjoy His presence where we have ignored it before. We find His blessing splashed over even our struggles and sorrows.

When the Spirit starts to show us God’s goodness and love over every bit of our lives, coloring every day on the calendar and drenching even our trash cans,

Family 054

then we begin to see and know what is always there—the goodness and mercy that follow us all the days of our lives.

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Have you forgotten me, Lord?

But I trust in your unfailing love.
      I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the LORD
      because he is good to me.

This declaration of trust in God sounds like it was written by a committed, devoted, on-fire, unshakeable Christian, right? You know—one of those people who seem to have everything together, everything’s going great, their lives are shining models of what we all think we should be.

Read it again, and notice that first word: But. 

These lines come, instead, from a soul in a dark valley. The preceding verses call out a desperate plea that might awake an echo in our own hearts. The writer of this psalm is going through a painful time of anguish and struggle, and he sees no light at all in the darkness. Everything seems to be going against him, and even in his own heart he is wondering if maybe God is not paying attention. He feels so separated from God that he asks, “Have you forgotten me? Where are you?”

His struggle sounds familiar. We’re battered by hard times, times of doubt, times of loneliness, times of discouragement. We go through dark, dark valleys, and we wonder if all of God’s promises are true. Can I believe Him? Will He really do what He says? Can I depend on Him?

BUT, no matter what we might feel, God says His unfailing love surrounds His children. He cares about the anguish of our souls. He holds us in His hands, and He will not hand us over to the enemy. He will help us and put our feet on solid ground.

Psalm 147:11 says He delights in those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Even when it feels as though we are lost and alone in the dark valley, if we can say, “I will trust in Your unfailing love. I know You have rescued me,” then we will also come to the place where we can say, “I’ll sing to the LORD, because He is good to me.”

Even in the dark and the pain and the aloneness.

We will trust in your love, Lord!
Spirit, help our unbelief.

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Scripture: Psalm 13:5-6 NLT

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Afraid of the future?

“The outlook is so gloomy…” he admitted.

“I’m scared! I’m really scared!” she said.

They were in their mid-sixties, involved in a discussion about getting older and wrangling with medical issues and the health care system. But the comments could possibly be heard in a group of 21-year-olds talking about a bleak job market or 45-year-olds watching plummeting stock numbers or parents sending their twelve-year-old off to junior high.

On a larger scale, those comments can come at any time in a country’s history—during a time of riots and civil war, under a regime of a persecuting tyrant, in the shadow of a threatening cloud of nuclear annihilation, the insanity of terrorism, or—well, just look at the stories on the weather channel these days.

At any point in our lives, we could easily look ahead with anxiety and fear. Or we can listen to the voice of the Creator who made us and loves us with a love beyond any earthly love we’ll ever know. He’s made an eternal covenant with us—do we choose to keep our eyes on the unseen and trust in all the promises and hope He’s given us?

Instead of biting our fingernails over what may lie around the bend, we can clutch more tightly the hand of the One who says, “Don’t be afraid. You are mine, and I am here to help you and will never leave you.”

To whom do we give our ear? Who do we believe? The One who created us and chose us as His beloved children? Or the world who says, “Be afraid. There is no hope”?

Jesus said we will have trouble in this life; that’s a given in this world. But He tells us that He has overcome the world, He’s greater than anything we’ll meet on this earthly plane, everything is under His authority, and everything He has is ours as well.

Whose wisdom do we trust?
Whose truth do we believe?
Where do we look for strength and encouragement?

We must make a choice.

Listen to the One who says, “I have chosen you and will not throw you away.” He gives  reassurance for times of uncertainty, strength for days of weariness, courage for moments of fear.

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Scripture paraphrase from Isaiah 41:8-16

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Invitation in the Wilderness

Out in the desert, as the children of Israel began to pack up and move on from Sinai, Moses gave an invitation that still echoes through all the generations to us, right where we are today. And though he was the great leader of the wandering nation, this is not a command of a leader but an intimate invitation of brother to brother, sister to sister, child of God to wandering soul.

One day Moses said to his brother-in-law, Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, “We are on our way to the place the LORD promised us, for he said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised wonderful blessings for Israel.” (Numbers 11:29)

Moses had married a Midianite woman, someone outside the lineage of Abraham. The Midianites were people of the desert, and we do find out later that Moses also had a practical reason for inviting his brother-in-law to travel with them—Hobab knew the wilderness and places to camp. (Can you imagine trying to find a camp site for two to three million people?) But that does not lessen the power of this invitation.

“We are on our way to the place the LORD promised to give us.

We are on our way to the Promised Land. And for us, that does not only mean a life with God someday in a new heaven and new earth. It means life with God now, building our lives on His promises, moving ahead by faith in those promises, and learning both the sweetness and the power of our inheritance as His children. That’s the land flowing with milk and honey we seek today—and He’s promised to give it to us! His presence is constant and always guides us, like the cloud and the pillar of fire. We are on our way!

Come with us …

Jesus says “Come. Come to me; I’ll give you rest. Come and live in freedom. Come and I’ll give you new life.” As He lives in us, we open our arms and say, “Come.” Whether it is to a stumbling sister, to a wanderer in the wilderness who knows nothing of the family of God, or simply spoken as an encouraging word on the day a brother feels tired, we say, “Come, we travel together.”

…and we will treat you well,

Spirit, help us live this! We are all in great need of grace and mercy. And as children of God, we are now Christ’s representatives to the world and each other. We’re also called His high priests, His ambassadors, and Scriptures say, We speak for Christ … We are part of His work in this world–and He does not break the bruised reed or put out the flickering candle. He even washed Judas’s feet, knowing that within hours the man would betray Him. And by the power of the Spirit of Christ living in me, I want to treat you well, no matter who you are, what you are, or how you treat me. Because… His grace is amazing.

…for the LORD has promised wonderful blessings for [His people].”

As I type, my fingers suddenly cannot find words. How do we cover, in one short paragraph, the wonderful blessings the Lord has promised us? Scripture gives us many of His promises, often in simple language we humans can understand. But life in our Promised Land turns out to be beyond anything we have imagined or think possible, full of hope and power and surprises and amazement—and the very presence of the Almighty God of the universe.

Christ now living in this world through us wants this call to go out to every soul our lives touch. Encourage struggling and weary sisters and brothers, and give the invitation to all those outside the family of God—

We are on our way to the place the Lord promised us.
Come with us.
We’ll treat you well,
for the Lord promises wonderful blessings.