Chase After Invaluable Influences

I was talking with someone the other day about influences.  My friend was sharing with me about the sad reality that most of the people she’s looked up to over the course of her life, have disappointed her… let her down.  She was expressing her thoughts, that unfortunately good examples and godly influences are just “hard to find these days.”

And I read this week about Elijah and Elisha.

Elijah was a great Old Testament prophet who was single-minded in his devotion to God, and his ministry involved many successes and victories that included raising a dead boy to life, overturning false gods, and causing an end for Israel’s three and a half year drought.

Elisha would be the successor to Elijah.  He would be the student of the great prophet who would commission Elisha to ministry after finding him ploughing in a field.

And then 1 Kings 19:20 tells us something interesting.  The Bible says that when Elijah placed his coat around his shoulders and PASSED HIM BY, “Elisha left the oxen standing there, (and) ran after Elijah.”

He ran after Him.

It doesn’t tell us that he ran WITH him.

It says he ran AFTER him.

Could it be because he saw something in him worth following?

Could it be that Elijah’s influence was radiantly seen by Elisha and that his very presence was enough to provoke his inner passion?

I think Elisha felt the influence of his forerunner.

I don’t think it was so much about what Elijah said.  Or even what he did, that mattered most.  I think it was Elijah’s reputation and his invaluable influence that sparked a sincere desire to follow him.

Because we see it in just a few verses later, that Elisha went home only to say goodbye to his family, kill the 12 oxen AND his plough, and then follow after the man who was… PASSING BY.

Elisha knew that opportunity… calling… influence… was passing by.

I think Elisha saw something in Elijah that smelled a bit like heaven.  Something that gave hope to the hurting, power to the weak, joy to the dejected.  He saw something of significant influence and he didn’t just observe it… he chased after it.

There are people of godly influence out there… and they are passing by us every day.  We have to decide whether we’re going to chase them down, or allow the moment of life-change to pass us by.

Maybe it’s time we let go of the negative influences and pursue a higher level of living. 

Search out the ones who are living honorable lives.  The ones who are kind and life-giving and spread joy and gently forbear.  Go with the ones who are pursuing greatness and are fiercely loyal and those who willingly sacrifice for others.

Chase after invaluable influences.

Joy is Possible... and Portable!

Easter Week.

It’s really no wonder I would run into the text multiple times this week. 

And when I hear it in church on Sunday and then see it again on a Wednesday morning during the fringe hours of study, it leaps off the page to me once again.

Matthew 26:30, “Then they sang a hymn and went out to the mount of olives.”

Surely this was a routine close of the Passover meal.
And it was with Jesus and the eleven of his closest friends who were with Him.
Perhaps an intention meant to demonstrate to us a pattern which to live our lives.

A pattern of praise.

Because we know how the story unfolds.
We know the sacrifice being prepared.
We’ve read the outcome.
We can feel it in the core of who we are that on this week… the Holy Week… the hardest week in human history… the full weight of anguish and torment and absolute fear and trembling.

And yet… they sang a hymn before surrendering to the scene of agony.

And my commentary says it… “Let your hearts be brimming with the essence of praise.”

“But it’s too hard”, we say.
“You don’t understand.”
“This suffering is too great.”
“The pain is too much.”
“You don’t know what they did to me!”
“It’s just not fair.”

I know.

Oh I know it more than you think I know.

And better yet - HE KNOWS!

But when I read about the Savior of the world who entered into the greatest suffering ever known with praise on His lips to the Father who would just days later have to turn an eye momentarily to the grief-stricken Sacrifice who was atoning for sins He never committed… I am overcome with passion that refuses anything less than praise and worship!

And so I can wake in the middle of difficult circumstances and praise Him because He is good.  Praise Him because He is kind.  Praise Him because He is worthy.  Praise Him because He remains close to the brokenhearted. 

I can praise Him in the storm, because it was in His own storm that the Savior gained strength to conquer death that I deserved.

My joy is not dependent on my circumstance… my joy is found in Him and Him alone!

God Wants to Change the Way You See Yourself!

Someone needs to hear this today.
YOU are loved.
YOU are beautiful.
YOU are unique.
YOU have been hand-crafted by a loving Father.

And those of us who have professed faith in Jesus Christ, have been tasked with an enormous responsibility of bringing this hope to a hurting world.

I believe that we disappoint the Father and grieve His holy name when we insist on focusing on our own personal imperfections… our looks, our weight, our mess-up’s. When we verbally communicate our shortcomings, we are choosing to dishonor the One who died to make our worthiness known.

Others will not be able to see the true image of a loving, forgiving, compassionate, beautiful Savior if we aren’t owning those characteristics for ourselves.

And so I wake today declaring goodness over myself because if I don’t do it, the world is already prepared to oppose what Christ has already affirmed.

Things like:
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
I let the peace of Christ rule in my heart and I am always thankful.
I am a crown of glory in the Lord’s hand.
I am called by the name of the Lord.
I am confident that His work will be completed in me.

God wants to change the way you see yourself so you’ll change the way others see Him!

(I’d love to share my daily declarations with you.  Message me, if interested, for details.)

Comfort-Able, Not Comfortable

Some mornings… well, let me be honest MOST mornings, God just shows up in my quiet time in such a powerful way.  And this chilly Friday morning was another one! 

I must share.  Can I?  (I am sorry - it’s a long one… but worth every bit I believe!)

Today’s reading was from 2 Corinthians 1:4, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.  When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

I was thinking about several of my friends and family members this morning, and the many tribulations WE have faced as of late.  And then some that are not just “as of late”, but rather lingering from ongoing troubles.  It would seem that every one of us has been fighting a battle of some sort.  Each of us has wrestled with our own issues of illness, loss, fear, anxiety, and waiting.

Ahh… but we have a GOD who is SO GOOD that He never once leaves us alone in our weaknesses and frailties and doubt and despair and anxiousness.  And the favor and the grace that our merciful God gives us is not just to make us better… but to also make us useful.

And then I read this… “It is only by personal experience that we are able to impart consolidation to others.”

Personal experience.

Some of us would say - “Enough personal experience already.  We’re ready for the breakthrough.”

But maybe God is still up to something.  Maybe He’s working something more out in us.  Maybe He’s not finished refining the work in us so that we can be the miracle reminder for someone else.

The Bible tells us that many are the afflictions in this life.  We cannot escape them.  And many are the troubles for the Christ-follower.  BUT it IS the will of the Lord that we may be comforted.  When Jesus was leaving the earth to ascend with the Father in heaven, He purposed for us a Spirit…. The Holy Spirit… to come be our comforter.  He knew - IN THIS WORLD there WILL be TROUBLE.  And in His kindness and mercy, He provided us with one who comforts.

And I love the definition of the word COMFORT.  It means this: to strengthen, to invigorate, to cheer, or enliven. 

And I see it a new way today… COMFORT.
Because sometimes I think we confuse this word COMFORT with COMFORTABLE.
Comfortable means this: a state of ease; moderate enjoyment.

But to comfort means to strengthen, to invigorate and to enliven.
It doesn’t mean to my ease and enjoyment… because often the strengthening of a soul and spirit is ANYTHING but easy and enjoyable.

I heard recently in a sermon something that I have been chewing on ever since.  The preacher said these words,  

“The primary role of Holy Spirit is to provide comfort, but the primary role of Jesus, while He was here on earth, was to CONFRONT.”

Ahh, there’s another word to examine.

CONFRONT. 

To confront means: to stand face to face in full view; to bring into the presence of.

Okay… hoping this makes as much sense in your brain as it did in mine.

Jesus came to CONFRONT.
Confront sin, confront misdirection, confront confusion.
The Holy Spirit came to COMFORT.
Strengthen us in our weaknesses.  Invigorate us in our calling.  Enliven us to keep going.

And no where in there is ease and enjoyment mentioned.

And so could it be that the trouble we face is intended to bring about the transformation that we need??

Oh friends… God is so good that He doesn't leave us in our mess.  He hasn’t left us without a redemption plan!

And so my thought this morning was this… KNOWING in ADVANCE that He is making a way through all of these troubles and all of these worries and all of these uncertainties and doubts… We could PRAISE HIM in the midst of the pain.

I read something in a book I’m reading the other day that says this, “Prayer the becomes praise is proof that God is becoming our desire.”

Don’t you just love that?!?

My commentary on 2 Cor 1:4 says this, “If I am in the habit of thanking God mainly for food and clothes and house, it will not be easy for me to take them as if the final purpose of them was that I might be warm and well fed.  But if what I thank Him for most is not that He gives me His gifts, but that He gives me Himself, then I cannot resist the tendency of that mercy to outgrow my life.”  And this, “The more truly a soul possesses Him, the more truly it will long and try to share Him.”

SO many things in this, I know…

But here is a good recap:

Jesus CONFRONTS us.  He stands face to face, in full view of us and brings us into the presence of Himself.  He teaches us in the midst of our trials.  Not everything bad happening to us is an enemy attack.  Sometimes, I REALLY BELIEVE, it is God ordaining it for the purpose of making us better!

The Spirit COMFORTS us.  He strengthens us in our weaknesses.  He Invigorates us in our calling.  And He reminds us to keep going.  He doesn’t make suffering easy, He makes it possible.

It just might be the enemies role to keep us most comfortable so that we will not change our behavior.  Because if we are comfortable in our mess, we will remain there.  Unchanged.  Undeveloped.  Unusable.

And one of the main purposes of our discomfort is to be able to enliven from our experience of it.  To be the Gospel Message with skin-on.  To bring comfort to others.  After all - - we’re all just walking each other home.

Let me be of encouragement to you today, dear friends…
Isaiah 40:2 says this, “Listen!  It’s the voice of someone shouting, ‘Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!  Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!’”

Oh friends…. we have the ability to make a way for Him to do the work that ONLY He can do!  But we hinder the work by remaining stuck in our wilderness.  We MUST make a way through the wasteland.  In this world we WILL have troubles.  It is promised.  But we know a better way than despair and depression and disappointment.  It leaves us stuck in a cycle of dysfunction and it serves no good purpose.

So today, as my own battle begins, and the battle rages for those I love, and for YOU reading this message, I am CLEARING the way in the wilderness for the Lord!  I am MAKING a straight highway through the wasteland or Him to walk through!  I am OPENING the doors of praise in my house (my physical body) and I am sending out praisers like Jehosophat in ADVANCE because I know the work that will shine from the other side of ALL of this is incomparable to anything else!

We sang a wonderful song at church the other day, and it was so powerful.  THIS IS HOW I FIGHT MY BATTLES.  How?  Praising Him!

I wrote it in my journal this morning:
Oh I’m gonna praise Him even in this!
Even in the uncertainty!
Even in the pain!
Even in the dysfunction!
Even in the discomfort!
Ahh… He is using even this!!!!




Finding JOY in the JOurneY,



Wendy

My Daily Desire

Psalm 141:2 says, “Accept my prayer as incense offered to You, and my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice.” The Message version (verses 1,2) says it this way, “God, come close. Come quickly! Open Your ears – it’s my voice you’re hearing! Treat my prayer as sweet incense rising; my raise hands are my evening prayers.”

Our empty hands raised… With hearts that aspire like incense. With petitions that confess our need for Jesus. With a casting ourselves upon His grace.

My commentary says, “God wills us to draw near to Him, not because it pleases Him, but because it blesses us, and we are to worship, not in order that we may bring anything, but in order that bringing our emptiness into touch with His infinite fullness may pass into our lives.”

Yes. And I could use more of that! You too? Lord teach us to want You more than anything else. Help us to desire You, not because we have anything special to bring, but because with empty hands we invite the pouring out of Your Spirit in our lives!

“Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”

May I daily desire what God wishes to graciously give!

Holy Habitation For The King

Exodus 25:8 says, “Have the people of Israel build Me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.” The KJV says, “... that I may dwell among them.” God ordered a royal place to be set up among them for Himself... a sanctuary... a habitation. There is where He would show His presence among them. It was ordered to be a tabernacle, which by definition is, “a portable sanctuary... a dwelling place.” It moved with them.

God seeks an abode with man. He cannot rest with true satisfaction until He has obtained this abode. Psalm 132:13-14 says the Lord chose Jerusalem as His home saying, “... this is my resting place forever... I will live here, for this is the home I desired.” And the reality is that God’s dwelling with His people must rest in a place of voluntary surrender. We must desire for Him to dwell with us and prove so by the offering up of ourselves as a place of rest for the Lord!

Oh how my heart desires that He might find in me a place to rest. That I may hear Him say to me, “I will live here! For this is the home I desired!” 

May I always desire to be a Holy Habitation for Him!

God Doesn't Call The Capable, He Equips The Elected

I relate to Moses so well. When God called him to serve as His ambassador of grace to His people, the Israelites, from their captivity from slavery in Egypt, Moses had reasons why he believed God chose the wrong guy for the task. In Exodus we see 4 reasons spelled out in his feeble argument:

1.) He was unworthy of the task at hand.
2.) He had inadequate knowledge.
3.) He lacked power.
4.) He could not speak effectively.

And for each protest, God had a promise:

1.) "I will be with you."
2.) "I Am has sent you."
3.) "Here's my powerful work in you."
4.) "I will instruct you what to say."

The resolve was that God WAS going to compassionately rescue the people He loved and He was going to do it through a human agent. And through Moses we see that scores of people would come to know God as a result of sacrificial obedience.

Moses protested four times and God's answers show that they were really questions about who God is. The outcome truly didn't depend on Moses' ability… But upon his willingness to let God operate through him. The lessons are always for the one called to teach as well.

Such great news for this hard stubborn heart. God doesn't call the capable, He equips the elected.

An Encouraging Reminder

Because somebody needs to hear this today.

Somebody needs to be reminded.

You are not defined by the mistakes you’ve made.

I know you think you’ve really done it this time, and there is no hope left.

I know.  I get it.

But there is good news.

And the Gospel message really is a sweet reminder on a Wednesday morning… the mid-week muck… that He has already seen the worst in us.  He's already seen the words spewed in anger from wounded-ness.  He’s already been a witness to the doubt that’s threatening to destroy.  He’s observed the brokenness that’s expressed by bitterness.

He’s seen it all.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.

And He still chooses to see the One who died in your place.  The One who’s sacrifice paid for all we did, and would do.

When He sees you, He doesn’t see a product of unworthiness… instead He sees the portrait of possibility.  He sees the sacrifice of the Savior that makes up for all of our mistakes.

Oh He’s crazy in love with you!

The Gospel message reminds us that God has seen the worst in us, and chooses in it’s place to see His Son.

Go confidently in this encouragement today, friends. 

Worry is a Weight

I don’t like the admission of it. 

But I worry sometimes.

I try not to. 
I know it’s not the right thing.
I know at a deep level Who is in control.
I encourage others to not give in to it.
But sometimes it rears it’s ugly head in my life.
And I am forced to deal with it.

And on a cold, snowy Thursday morning as I laid in a hospital bed for the 7th day in a row, I started to worry.

The plans for discharge were in motion and the thought of leaving without solid answers was a bit discouraging.  And scary at the same time.

But I would happen upon it from a list of “fear” scriptures sent to me by a good friend, who would later share with me her commitment to praying each scripture over me from her home.

And there it was…. Proverbs 12:25.

It kind of leapt off the page at me, begging for a closer look.

“Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.”

Ahh… Worry weighs a person down.

Yes… it really does.

And I had felt the overwhelming weight that morning. 
The weight of unanswered questions.
The weight of frustrating diagnoses.
The weight of what-if’s.
The weight of guilt from feeling fearful.

Worry. 

It weighs us down.
Because some seasons of life are just… hard.

But the Bible teaches us that worry is the action that lowers the heart down and depletes us of the energy to fulfill the call of God on our life.

And then I ran across this thought after my study a bit deeper into Proverbs 12:25.  Fear and sorrow upon our spirit deprive us of the vigor in the work that needs to be done, or the courage in what is to be born.

And hadn't I just prayed it the morning before the hospitalization?

Awaken us!

I’d not only wrote it - but said it.  Out loud.

With palms up I had prayed it bold and confident.

Awaken us from slumber.  Use me for Your greater purpose in this dry land!

And the very day I prayed it… here is where I would reside with unresolved pain issues and a flare-up of an old, seemingly dormant condition.

Ahh… but what did that say again?  “Fear and sorrow deprive us of the VIGOR (strength) in the work that needs to be done, or the COUAGE in what is to be born.”

I could be denying myself the power of the resurrected Savior that lives inside me by worrying.  And by worrying, I could just be depriving myself of the strength to fulfill my calling and the courage to begin the new thing He’s asking me to bring forth.

Worry is a weight.  And we must learn to let it go simply because it’s too heavy for us to carry, and because the success of my life’s work is dependent on the release of what I was never meant to bear.