All my problems in life were when I hid from the truth. This is a good one.
Encouragement for Today - June 30, 2008
June 30, 2008
Secret Places
By Lisa Whittle, She Speaks! Graduate
”He searches the sources of the rivers and brings hidden things to light.”
Job 28:11
Devotion:
Have you ever noticed how often Satan uses secret things to trip us up on our journey…those secret places that reside deep within our soul that we keep hidden from others and even try to hide from God?
Think about it… pornography is usually done in secret. Excessive shopping can be done over the Internet, with no one watching. Eating disorders develop in isolation when we binge by ourselves, then purge with no one around. Or when we publicly pretend to eat, but privately starve ourselves.
The things we watch, what we think and how we spend our time are the “secret places” Satan can and will use against us. Yet often we continue in our secrecy, afraid to reach for Truth. Why?
Secret places seem safe. Secret places are familiar. Secret places feel comfortable to us. So we cling to them.
It’s not that we don’t want to be honest and get real about the secret places in our soul. It’s just sometimes easier to keep the truth hidden than it is to get real about things from the inside-out. Though most of us crave authenticity, our fears of being “found out” are what keep us living in secret, exactly where Satan wants us to stay. The crafty, conniving one knows that if he can get us to continue to bury our secret places deep within our heart, we can’t be effective for God. He knows that thoughts of our private sins will eventually eat away at us, causing us to feel fraudulent and unworthy of the love and acceptance of others, and most of all, our Heavenly Father. But the truth is, we are the ones who don’t love and accept ourselves. Not God.
Friends, the message of Jesus Christ is one of hope and restoration. It is one of freedom. It is one of unconditional love and acceptance. And it is one of Truth and spiritual exposure. What He is after from all of us is greater authenticity, greater genuineness, and the Truth, found in Him. In His sovereignty, He knows it is what we truly crave. “What you’re after is truth, from the inside-out” Psalm 51:6 (MSG).
So, how do we combat those secret keeping habits we’ve developed over time?
1) Practice telling the truth. Telling the truth is a choice and needs to be a conviction. Healthy habits can and will be formed when practiced repeatedly, and truth telling is an important habit to get into.
2) Develop a genuinely authentic faith. Recognize the importance of authenticity, and begin making it of utmost priority. Do things to strengthen your walk (prayer, Bible study, etc.) and guard your mind.
3) Recognize that no one has it all together. See Satan’s lie for what it is and determine not to get into the comparison trap with others. You cannot know what a person is all about by what they look like on the outside.
4) Stop trying to be perfect, act confident, appear happy, and seem super spiritual. These are some of the most common ways we, as women, pretend. It is only when we operate in a spirit of truth and openness that we will be able to live without pretense.
5) Determine to live your life with a genuineness that others will cling to and want to emulate. Honesty facilitates honesty. When you begin to get real and honest, hiding nothing in your relationship with God and others, people will begin to take notice and follow suit. This will strengthen all of your relationships and build up your self-esteem!
When we no longer hide in our “secret places,” we can venture down a different path of greater authenticity and truth, bringing us to a place of ultimate and lasting freedom. And it is in freedom that we find no value in being a secret keeper any more.
Lord Jesus, thank You for knowing me completely, and loving me just the same. Help me to seek Your Truth and deny my natural tendency to hide from You and others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
A Woman's Worth
I don't know about you---but I live on a roller coaster ride when it comes to my feelings of self-worth. Even though I know my position in Christ, my thoughts and emotions are constantly under attack from the enemy.
This is a long devotional--but I was totally thankful for this today. Have a great weekend--and never forget your position in Christ!--LL
Girlfriends in God - June 27, 2008
June 27, 2008
Worthless into Precious
Part 1
Gwen Smith
Today’s Truth
“You are precious and honored in my sight…” (Isaiah 43:4a, NIV).
Friend to Friend
Last winter, I bought my daughter a really cute jacket at the mall. It’s a hoodie that’s made of a cuddly fabric with cream, lavender, and mint green horizontal stripes. The jacket zips up in the front and is well crafted, stylish, and simply adorable.
When I bought it, I felt like the price on the tag was a fair one, so I gladly pulled out my wallet and paid the retail amount. I was a kid in a candy store on the way home. I fully anticipated a shriek of happiness from my little bag of beans when I gave it to her. Delightfully, I wasn’t disappointed. Kennedy loved her new coat, and I was pleased with my purchase. Happy dances all around…until a week later, when I saw the same jacket in the same store at a greatly reduced price. Are you tensing up with me? Suddenly, I felt schnookered! Ripped off. Taken advantage of. As soon as I saw the red line on the price tag of the unsold coats, everything changed – Kennedy’s jacket wasn’t worth what I paid for it.
When we speak of the worth of something, we often consider it to be a relative term. One that has shifting factors. For example: last week the cute jacket was thirty-nine dollars, and now it’s nineteen ninety-nine. The jacket didn’t change, but its perceived worth did.
Now, consider the worth of a woman. Are the factors that determine her value based upon variable, shifting factors or are they based upon fixed factors? Seems to be a silly question, doesn’t it? Fixed, of course! But, if the answer is so glaringly obvious, why do we struggle so much as women with feeling worthless? Why do we walk around feeling like that red lined jacket? I think it’s because we often allow variable earthly factors to define our worth.
What kind of variable factors?
There are so many reasons why women feel worthless:
Ø Because they’ve been abused (raped, molested, physically abused, verbally abused…)
Ø Because they’ve been told that they’re worthless (by a parent, spouse, sibling, teenage child, or another…)
Ø Because of choices they’ve made (divorce, infidelity, abortion, promiscuity, eating disorders, addictions, uncontrolled anger…)
Ø Because they’ve been cheated on (infidelity, internet affair, pornography…)
Ø Because they’re co-dependent (conclude their value based upon other people – “If my husband isn’t okay, I’m not okay.”)
Ø Because they don’t collect a paycheck (stay at home moms that have left the work force, laid off employees, displaced employees, those on disability…)
Ø Because they’ve battled an illness (unable to care for family, perform basic home duties, participate in ministry or Bible study like they once did, can’t drive, cook…)
Unfortunately, the variable factors that we use to define our worth are endless. Many of us feel worthless. Why? We’ve felt ignored, invisible, insignificant, useless, undesired, ugly, unloved, or forgotten. We girls are emotional, broken in many ways. Great portions of our identity and of our personal value are wrapped into combustible packages of emotion…how we feel about this or that. The truth is, our worth has nothing to do with our feelings.
Trust me, I’m not going to try to convince you that I know everything there is to know about feeling like a woman of worth. Or about being a woman of worth. I am in the trenches with you. I struggle with normal woman things. I don’t live a fancy schmancy, rose-colored wonder-life. I hit the snooze button several times each morning. I pack lunches for my kids. I spend countless hours of my life each year sitting in the car pool line. It’s a never-ending struggle for me to keep the laundry cleaned, and my kids often have to fish for a matching pair of socks in the clean-clothes basket. My husband is my soul mate, but is far from perfect. For that matter, Brad should win a lifetime achievement award for enduring the drama of me! And my kids bring me both great joy and great frustration on a daily basis.
Is this sounding at all familiar to you?
See – I’m just like you, and I’m walking this faith journey right beside you. In fact, the more I know God, the less inclined I am to pretend to have life or faith figured out. Amen? I’m constantly tempted to define my worth with activities, emotions, and accomplishments. I’ve come to realize, however, that way of thinking is a spiritual dead end road. Scripture tells us that anything we do in our own strength or of our own goodness is of no value to God. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6a, emphasis mine).
What I do know is this: because of Jesus Christ, I’m a woman of highest worth. Not because of anything else. I’m a grace girl. Not perfect by a long stretch. I’ve been changed by the unconditional love of God and restored to perfect beauty through the shed blood of Jesus. Because of love, we are His daughters, precious in His sight. In light of this, we need to set aside feelings that diminish our value, and embrace our proper identity: child of the King of Kings.
Hear this, friend: feelings of worthlessness are from Satan himself. It burns me up that the enemy has such a strong grip on God’s daughters in this area. We need to associate the word worthless with the word lie. That’s exactly what it is, a big, fat lie! I talk to women all the time who bend a knee to negative feelings and live defeated lives because they don’t quite know how to overcome their sense of worthlessness. God wants every one of us to experience healing and have an appropriate sense of self-worth.
So let's go back to Kennedy's new coat for just a moment. Imagine walking into God's department store. There on the rack, you spy a coat that is just plain fabulous – I mean, stop-you-in-your-tracks fabulous! One-size fits all, the tag reads. Yeah, right, you whisper under your breath. Then you flip over the price tag and it’s crazy expensive. Way beyond what you could ever dream of paying…like, if you added up every dollar that ever passed through your hands – then multiplied that by ten thousand – that kind of expensive. Then imagine the storeowner walking over to you, slipping the coat off the rack and onto your shoulders.
“It's a perfect fit,” He smiles.
“Sir,” you manage with a whisper, “I could never afford such a coat. This is meant for royalty and I'm, well, just an ordinary girl.”
“Oh precious woman, this coat is made especially for you, and the price has already been paid in full.”
As the owner straightens the sleeves on your arms and adjusts the collar around your neck, you notice his hands...nail pierced hands. And suddenly you realize that this is the covering you were meant to wear all along.
You see, the Bible tells us that because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can be clothed with the “robe of righteousness.” The apostle Paul tells us that when we are reconciled to God, we become His righteousness. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There’s no way we could ever afford or earn such a robe. But Jesus gave His life for us - He earned it for us. He paid the price and we receive the gift. Why? Because you’re worth it. You are precious and highly valuable in the eyes of the One who sees. And you never, never, never have to worry about being on anyone's bargain rack again.
This is a long devotional--but I was totally thankful for this today. Have a great weekend--and never forget your position in Christ!--LL
Girlfriends in God - June 27, 2008
June 27, 2008
Worthless into Precious
Part 1
Gwen Smith
Today’s Truth
“You are precious and honored in my sight…” (Isaiah 43:4a, NIV).
Friend to Friend
Last winter, I bought my daughter a really cute jacket at the mall. It’s a hoodie that’s made of a cuddly fabric with cream, lavender, and mint green horizontal stripes. The jacket zips up in the front and is well crafted, stylish, and simply adorable.
When I bought it, I felt like the price on the tag was a fair one, so I gladly pulled out my wallet and paid the retail amount. I was a kid in a candy store on the way home. I fully anticipated a shriek of happiness from my little bag of beans when I gave it to her. Delightfully, I wasn’t disappointed. Kennedy loved her new coat, and I was pleased with my purchase. Happy dances all around…until a week later, when I saw the same jacket in the same store at a greatly reduced price. Are you tensing up with me? Suddenly, I felt schnookered! Ripped off. Taken advantage of. As soon as I saw the red line on the price tag of the unsold coats, everything changed – Kennedy’s jacket wasn’t worth what I paid for it.
When we speak of the worth of something, we often consider it to be a relative term. One that has shifting factors. For example: last week the cute jacket was thirty-nine dollars, and now it’s nineteen ninety-nine. The jacket didn’t change, but its perceived worth did.
Now, consider the worth of a woman. Are the factors that determine her value based upon variable, shifting factors or are they based upon fixed factors? Seems to be a silly question, doesn’t it? Fixed, of course! But, if the answer is so glaringly obvious, why do we struggle so much as women with feeling worthless? Why do we walk around feeling like that red lined jacket? I think it’s because we often allow variable earthly factors to define our worth.
What kind of variable factors?
There are so many reasons why women feel worthless:
Ø Because they’ve been abused (raped, molested, physically abused, verbally abused…)
Ø Because they’ve been told that they’re worthless (by a parent, spouse, sibling, teenage child, or another…)
Ø Because of choices they’ve made (divorce, infidelity, abortion, promiscuity, eating disorders, addictions, uncontrolled anger…)
Ø Because they’ve been cheated on (infidelity, internet affair, pornography…)
Ø Because they’re co-dependent (conclude their value based upon other people – “If my husband isn’t okay, I’m not okay.”)
Ø Because they don’t collect a paycheck (stay at home moms that have left the work force, laid off employees, displaced employees, those on disability…)
Ø Because they’ve battled an illness (unable to care for family, perform basic home duties, participate in ministry or Bible study like they once did, can’t drive, cook…)
Unfortunately, the variable factors that we use to define our worth are endless. Many of us feel worthless. Why? We’ve felt ignored, invisible, insignificant, useless, undesired, ugly, unloved, or forgotten. We girls are emotional, broken in many ways. Great portions of our identity and of our personal value are wrapped into combustible packages of emotion…how we feel about this or that. The truth is, our worth has nothing to do with our feelings.
Trust me, I’m not going to try to convince you that I know everything there is to know about feeling like a woman of worth. Or about being a woman of worth. I am in the trenches with you. I struggle with normal woman things. I don’t live a fancy schmancy, rose-colored wonder-life. I hit the snooze button several times each morning. I pack lunches for my kids. I spend countless hours of my life each year sitting in the car pool line. It’s a never-ending struggle for me to keep the laundry cleaned, and my kids often have to fish for a matching pair of socks in the clean-clothes basket. My husband is my soul mate, but is far from perfect. For that matter, Brad should win a lifetime achievement award for enduring the drama of me! And my kids bring me both great joy and great frustration on a daily basis.
Is this sounding at all familiar to you?
See – I’m just like you, and I’m walking this faith journey right beside you. In fact, the more I know God, the less inclined I am to pretend to have life or faith figured out. Amen? I’m constantly tempted to define my worth with activities, emotions, and accomplishments. I’ve come to realize, however, that way of thinking is a spiritual dead end road. Scripture tells us that anything we do in our own strength or of our own goodness is of no value to God. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6a, emphasis mine).
What I do know is this: because of Jesus Christ, I’m a woman of highest worth. Not because of anything else. I’m a grace girl. Not perfect by a long stretch. I’ve been changed by the unconditional love of God and restored to perfect beauty through the shed blood of Jesus. Because of love, we are His daughters, precious in His sight. In light of this, we need to set aside feelings that diminish our value, and embrace our proper identity: child of the King of Kings.
Hear this, friend: feelings of worthlessness are from Satan himself. It burns me up that the enemy has such a strong grip on God’s daughters in this area. We need to associate the word worthless with the word lie. That’s exactly what it is, a big, fat lie! I talk to women all the time who bend a knee to negative feelings and live defeated lives because they don’t quite know how to overcome their sense of worthlessness. God wants every one of us to experience healing and have an appropriate sense of self-worth.
So let's go back to Kennedy's new coat for just a moment. Imagine walking into God's department store. There on the rack, you spy a coat that is just plain fabulous – I mean, stop-you-in-your-tracks fabulous! One-size fits all, the tag reads. Yeah, right, you whisper under your breath. Then you flip over the price tag and it’s crazy expensive. Way beyond what you could ever dream of paying…like, if you added up every dollar that ever passed through your hands – then multiplied that by ten thousand – that kind of expensive. Then imagine the storeowner walking over to you, slipping the coat off the rack and onto your shoulders.
“It's a perfect fit,” He smiles.
“Sir,” you manage with a whisper, “I could never afford such a coat. This is meant for royalty and I'm, well, just an ordinary girl.”
“Oh precious woman, this coat is made especially for you, and the price has already been paid in full.”
As the owner straightens the sleeves on your arms and adjusts the collar around your neck, you notice his hands...nail pierced hands. And suddenly you realize that this is the covering you were meant to wear all along.
You see, the Bible tells us that because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can be clothed with the “robe of righteousness.” The apostle Paul tells us that when we are reconciled to God, we become His righteousness. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There’s no way we could ever afford or earn such a robe. But Jesus gave His life for us - He earned it for us. He paid the price and we receive the gift. Why? Because you’re worth it. You are precious and highly valuable in the eyes of the One who sees. And you never, never, never have to worry about being on anyone's bargain rack again.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Bible and the Coal Basket
This is for Becky!!!
The Bible
This devotional was written by Leslie Snyder
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Heb. 4:12-13)
The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out Bible. His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, “Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?” The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.” The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You will have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was “impossible to carry water in a basket,” and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Papa, it’s useless!” “So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean. “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.”
Current statistics from pollster George Barna report that 45% of all Americans read the Bible at least once during the week. That is a hopeful statistic and one of the highest in recent times. How about you? Does the Bible take priority in your personal life outside of the church? How well do you know what it really says, or do you rely on someone else to tell you what it says? Are you allowing it to transform your life, like the dirty coal bucket in the above story?
The Bible
This devotional was written by Leslie Snyder
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Heb. 4:12-13)
The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out Bible. His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, “Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?” The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.” The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You will have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was “impossible to carry water in a basket,” and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Papa, it’s useless!” “So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean. “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.”
Current statistics from pollster George Barna report that 45% of all Americans read the Bible at least once during the week. That is a hopeful statistic and one of the highest in recent times. How about you? Does the Bible take priority in your personal life outside of the church? How well do you know what it really says, or do you rely on someone else to tell you what it says? Are you allowing it to transform your life, like the dirty coal bucket in the above story?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Messy Lives
A year ago, my friend Shelly and I were talking about this whole topic of messy lives. We were discussing how so many times people (church family included) like to put on these facades that everything is ok---that people wear masks and hide the fact that life is messy. That's not to say that we don't have joy, fun times, and other wonderful things, but to hide the not so "fine and dandy" stuff is not facing the truth---and the truth is that in this life there will be tribulation---but take comfort because the Lord has overcome this world!!
Messy Lives
This devotional was written by Robin Dugall
“Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all. Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins…may integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.” Psalm 25:16-21
The other day, I woke up with a bad cold and an even worse mood. I don’t like having a cold. It makes me feel lethargic and it saps my initiative. Since I wasn't feeling too well, I laid around and watched one of my favorite musicals that just came out on DVD: The Phantom of the Opera. This operetta is deep, tragic and full of real life. I was talking with my wife after we watched the movie together, sharing with her the fact that movies or plays with unhappy endings are usually the ones we remember the most. I went through a whole laundry list of shows that we had seen together to prove my point. I noted Saving Private Ryan, Romeo and Juliet, Gladiator, The Patriot, Revenge of the Sith, and Braveheart (just to name a few). In every one of those movies, it is the same story of the reality and struggle of human existence. There is something about those types of artistic expressions that simply feels right.
Have you ever wondered why? It is because that is the way life is. Not every human story has a happy ending, what current culture wants us to believe. Our culture teaches that if you have the right system, laws, or technology, you can assure your own happy ending. Television and movies give us the impression that any and all human dilemmas are only 30 to 90 minutes from the happy ending they were meant to have. Many people have bought into the lie that happy endings are what every human being is entitled to live. Improvement, happiness, material blessings, easy living and progress are things God owes us. Unfortunately, this is the reason why much of modern culture is failing us: it is just NOT real. What is real is unpredictability...struggle and pain...brokenness and desperation...sometimes joy and sometimes weariness.
In a life of unpredictability, what can we count on? Jesus. As we journey through this life, Jesus is the only ONE upon whom we can surely bank. He and His Kingdom provide the only hope that can transform the shattered dreams and broken lives that accompany most of what we call “living.” Remember, Jesus understands what our lives are like. He could have spent his time on earth selling a new product that would have cured all of life’s problems, but He didn’t. Instead, he spent much of his time hanging out with people whose lives were complete messes – lives that look a lot like yours and mine. Why? He knew that what matters most wasn’t creating a happy ending in this life, but rather, the transformation of peoples’ souls in the midst of their struggles. Today, He’s still working that same plan. Now, that’s something I can buy into! How about you?
Messy Lives
This devotional was written by Robin Dugall
“Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all. Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins…may integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.” Psalm 25:16-21
The other day, I woke up with a bad cold and an even worse mood. I don’t like having a cold. It makes me feel lethargic and it saps my initiative. Since I wasn't feeling too well, I laid around and watched one of my favorite musicals that just came out on DVD: The Phantom of the Opera. This operetta is deep, tragic and full of real life. I was talking with my wife after we watched the movie together, sharing with her the fact that movies or plays with unhappy endings are usually the ones we remember the most. I went through a whole laundry list of shows that we had seen together to prove my point. I noted Saving Private Ryan, Romeo and Juliet, Gladiator, The Patriot, Revenge of the Sith, and Braveheart (just to name a few). In every one of those movies, it is the same story of the reality and struggle of human existence. There is something about those types of artistic expressions that simply feels right.
Have you ever wondered why? It is because that is the way life is. Not every human story has a happy ending, what current culture wants us to believe. Our culture teaches that if you have the right system, laws, or technology, you can assure your own happy ending. Television and movies give us the impression that any and all human dilemmas are only 30 to 90 minutes from the happy ending they were meant to have. Many people have bought into the lie that happy endings are what every human being is entitled to live. Improvement, happiness, material blessings, easy living and progress are things God owes us. Unfortunately, this is the reason why much of modern culture is failing us: it is just NOT real. What is real is unpredictability...struggle and pain...brokenness and desperation...sometimes joy and sometimes weariness.
In a life of unpredictability, what can we count on? Jesus. As we journey through this life, Jesus is the only ONE upon whom we can surely bank. He and His Kingdom provide the only hope that can transform the shattered dreams and broken lives that accompany most of what we call “living.” Remember, Jesus understands what our lives are like. He could have spent his time on earth selling a new product that would have cured all of life’s problems, but He didn’t. Instead, he spent much of his time hanging out with people whose lives were complete messes – lives that look a lot like yours and mine. Why? He knew that what matters most wasn’t creating a happy ending in this life, but rather, the transformation of peoples’ souls in the midst of their struggles. Today, He’s still working that same plan. Now, that’s something I can buy into! How about you?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Broken to be Mended
I have had many times in my life where I am so broken, helpless, discouraged and desperate. I remember Suzanne teaching at our women's retreat that desperate people pray differently. It's so true----when you are at your complete end, totally desperate---you cry out to God from the deepest of the deep of your soul.
And our great Lord hears those cries, comforts us, and ALWAYS provides what we need---and that is why I loved this simple devotional reminder!---LL
Moments Together for Couples 6/24
by Dennis and Barbara Rainey
June 24Broken to Be Mended
Psalm 34:17,18 The righteous cry and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
I still remember driving home from work after a series of challenging days in 1983. FamilyLife was long on problems and scarce on people to help solve them.
My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that I can still recall the white knuckles in the twilight. "Why," I prayed, "does it seem that secular companies have no problem finding the types of leaders they need to make their millions, while we struggle to find people to join our staff? I'm losing heart-please send me some help. Please, Lord, help!"
And sure enough, He did. Like many answers to prayer, this one didn't come instantly or easily. But over the years God has called together an incredible team to work with the ministry here in Little Rock.
Since then, I've observed that one of God's most prized prayers is one that cries out to God in total desperation. This prayer can't be mindlessly recited from a book, because it comes from a condition of utter helplessness. It says, "Lord, I'm empty. I've come up short again. I haven't got it! Only You can provide the answer."
At one point in the mission of C. T. Studd, a British missionary in Africa, he and his family had absolutely run out of food. If the next mail didn't contain some relief, they faced starvation. They had a night of prayer, pleading for help.
The next day they received a check for 100 pounds from a man they had never heard of. In his note he said simply that God had told him to send the money.
Does God always respond to our requests as dramatically as that? No. But what He does respond to is humility that expresses utter dependence on Him.
Prayer:
Express these needs to God in prayer. Confess your own helplessness in dealing with them and your total trust in God's power to render aid.
Discuss: List the most urgent needs and problems you face right now. Have you found yourself grimly relying on your own inadequate strength to overcome them?
And our great Lord hears those cries, comforts us, and ALWAYS provides what we need---and that is why I loved this simple devotional reminder!---LL
Moments Together for Couples 6/24
by Dennis and Barbara Rainey
June 24Broken to Be Mended
Psalm 34:17,18 The righteous cry and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
I still remember driving home from work after a series of challenging days in 1983. FamilyLife was long on problems and scarce on people to help solve them.
My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that I can still recall the white knuckles in the twilight. "Why," I prayed, "does it seem that secular companies have no problem finding the types of leaders they need to make their millions, while we struggle to find people to join our staff? I'm losing heart-please send me some help. Please, Lord, help!"
And sure enough, He did. Like many answers to prayer, this one didn't come instantly or easily. But over the years God has called together an incredible team to work with the ministry here in Little Rock.
Since then, I've observed that one of God's most prized prayers is one that cries out to God in total desperation. This prayer can't be mindlessly recited from a book, because it comes from a condition of utter helplessness. It says, "Lord, I'm empty. I've come up short again. I haven't got it! Only You can provide the answer."
At one point in the mission of C. T. Studd, a British missionary in Africa, he and his family had absolutely run out of food. If the next mail didn't contain some relief, they faced starvation. They had a night of prayer, pleading for help.
The next day they received a check for 100 pounds from a man they had never heard of. In his note he said simply that God had told him to send the money.
Does God always respond to our requests as dramatically as that? No. But what He does respond to is humility that expresses utter dependence on Him.
Prayer:
Express these needs to God in prayer. Confess your own helplessness in dealing with them and your total trust in God's power to render aid.
Discuss: List the most urgent needs and problems you face right now. Have you found yourself grimly relying on your own inadequate strength to overcome them?
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