You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2011.
“I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 (NCV)
My family is weird. Everyone hopes to have a family that sticks together through thick and thin. A family that understands each other, supports each other, looks out for each other. My family? Well, sometimes we do that but it’s not our nature.
I have sisters that prostitute themselves for a moment’s pleasure. I have brothers that visit porn sites, get involved in extra-marital affairs, and put their own desires above anyone else. Did I mention the ones that struggle with addictive behavior or the ones that completely ignore our family gatherings?
We are an interesting bunch, my family is. We’ll talk about you behind your back and then greet you with a hug or warm handshake. We’ll make your business our business and tell you exactly what you need to do to ‘get straightened out’. We jump from relationship to relationship. We do things we know we shouldn’t do, and then try to rationalize it away.
Yep. My family is weird. I’m not talking of my earthly family, although we are guilty of some of those things. I’m talking about my heavenly family. The heavenly family isn’t made up of people with halos on our heads. We don’t normally walk around in robes chanting spiritual words. There isn’t a one of us that deserves to be called saints.
We can’t really be blamed though. We come from a long line of people just like us. We have a heritage of failure, rebellion, deceit and anger. We murder with our words, wound with our attitudes, and attack from behind with no warning. Some of our most well-known ancestors came from backgrounds that would not be ‘blessed by the church’.
One more thing about my family. Each and every member of my heavenly family was hand-picked by our heavenly Father. He didn’t pick us because of our ability. He didn’t pick us because we could be trusted to follow his example. He didn’t pick us according to our strength or stature. He chose us because he loved us.
Your heavenly Father knows your faults, weaknesses and rebellion. He knows you can’t be trusted, but wants you to know you can trust him. By accepting his free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ you will not be made perfect, but you will join a whole family of imperfect brothers and sisters who will fail, but have a Father that is passionate about us.
My family is weird, but my Father? He is awesome!
PRAYER: Father, Thank you for choosing to allow me to be in your family. I confess I’m not worthy of this honor. I’m not worthy of your grace and forgiveness. Thank you for loving me anyway. Amen.
O Lord, what great works you do! And how deep are your thoughts. Psalm 92:5 (NLT)
We think in the present. God’s thoughts are on the future.
We think of today, God thinks about eternity.
We measure life by where we are, God measures life by where we are going.
Our actions are often based on our past experiences, God’s actions are based on his power.
Our wisdom is limited by our humanity, God’s wisdom planned every day of every person for all eternity.
We seek fulfillment on what we can do for others (even God) he seeks to fulfill us through what he’s already done for us.
We strive to be better today than we were yesterday, God says “I’ve already made you everything I desire.”
We see illness as something to conquer, God sees illness as an opportunity to show his healing.
We see healing as absence of illness, God sees illness as absence of worry.
We observe our sin and feel guilt, God observes our sin and offers forgiveness.
We remember the wrongs suffered, God lays our faults at the cross and never looks back.
We live to please others, God exists to serve us.
We see unfaithfulness as a relationship breaker, God sees unfaithfulness and begs our return.
We rebel at his standards, God watched his Son die to meet those standards for you.
“O Lord, what great works you do!”
During those times when God seems distant, remember that his thoughts are on our growing, not our comfort. His goal is not our earthly comfort but our eternal reward. His desire is for a stronger relationship with him, not our own popularity. Our finite minds are not able to comprehend all that God has planned. He knows what is best for us.
PRAYER: O Great and Mighty Creator of the Universe! To think that will all of your power and wisdom you would even consider me. To think that someone as mighty as you allows me to call you Daddy. I don’t always understand your ways, but I praise you for the love you have given me. In your name, Amen.
The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (NCV)
Think about this. No matter where you are on the journey of life, there are certain things that are true for all of us. We were all created by God to be his pride and joy. God’s desire, from the beginning of time is to have a passionate relationship with each of us. A relationship like he had with Adam and Even at the beginning. To walk side by side, arm in arm, hand in hand. To laugh. To talk about the days events. To impart his wisdom, strength and joy to each of us.
Another thing that is true of all of us is that we all want to have our own way. We all seek to fill this void inside of us with things that are contrary to God’s desire for us. David did it when he decided to sleep with another man’s wife. Abraham did it when he took matters into his own hands. Moses did it when he murdered the Egyptian and struck the rock. And the list goes on and on. Your name is on that list.
We’ve all done it, we take matters into our own hands. Tried to fill the void on our own power. Call it sin. Call it poor choices or bad decisions. Call it whatever you want. The result is the same. When you live apart from God there’s an emptiness that can’t be satisfied.
Sin is sin. You can rationalize and say your ‘sin’ isn’t as bad. Really? Worry is just as ‘bad’ a sin as adultery because it breaks your trust in God’s ability to provide. Buying what you can’t afford is stealing from your future because debt ties us down. Legalistic attitudes steal the freedom God intended to give to others.
You can run from him, but that won’t remove the pain. You can ignore him but that doesn’t take away the anger. You can claim he doesn’t exist, but the void won’t go away. You can bury yourself in all sorts of religious activity or social advocacy to hide your pain. That usually only leads to guilt and self-destruction. There is nothing that beats the pain. There is nothing that pays the price…nothing except for Jesus.
Jesus paid the price for your worry. Jesus paid the price for your anger and frustration. Jesus paid the price for the guilt you harbor because of your past. He paid it in full so you can live free. He asks nothing from you except for you to confess (admit) your need for him, and ask forgiveness for your weakness. Nothing else will fill the void in your soul.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I confess to you that there are still many things in my life that I’m trying to control on my own. Thank you for the free gift of forgiveness you have given. Nothing is really free. Thank you for paying the price for my sin when you knew I would fail. Amen.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:3
What does it take to be prosperous? The politician will tell you it’s more government programs or less government programs. The religionist will tell you it’s more piety and stricter adherence to rules and dogmas. Prosperity is almost always measured by what you do or what you have accomplished.
The Psalmist gives us a different picture. The psalmist tells us that true prosperity doesn’t come from listening to the ‘experts’ of the day. Rather, prosperity comes from a relationship with the heavenly Father.
A person who prospers in God’s kingdom may not have the fanciest toys; the biggest house; the most accolades tacked to the end of their names. Prosperity in God’s kingdom isn’t the corner office, the star student-athlete, the one who carries signs to bring about social change.
The Psalmist gives us a word picture of what the person of prosperity looks like. In theMiddle East, water was not always easy to find. The Egyptians and other groups learned that if they diverted the river into channels they could irrigate crops and orchards. This was a great asset during times of drought and allowed them to expand productive crop land beyond the limited borders of the streams and rivers.
In Psalm 1 the prosperous person is, first of all, planted. There is a picture of intentionality here. We aren’t just randomly placed trees along the banks of some river. We are planted. Placed where we are and when we are for a divine purpose for the glory of the Father. Trees planted near each other benefit one another.
Secondly we are planted by streams of water. The diversion of water for the trees caused a constant supply and a steady flow of life giving water that was unhindered by drought. Usually these trees were located in a valley that protected from storms. Their roots were able to grow deep, making the tree healthy and strong.
Lastly the prosperous person bears fruit in season. An apple tree is always an apple tree. From the time it sprouts from the seed until it grows to produce beautiful fruit it is an apple tree. It’s an apple tree when it’s full of leaves and blossoms, when it’s laden with apples; when it’s enduring the fall and winter cold.
Prosperity doesn’t mean we always bear fruit, it means we are always what God intends for us to be. A tree that would bear fruit constantly would grow tired, and its leaves wither. We also grow tired when we constantly try to produce the life we think God wants for us. Prosperity comes through maturity. Strength comes through rest. Fruit comes as we learn to balance the two of them.
Take a lesson from the tree planted by the streams of water. You were placed where you are at this time to glorify God. Prosperity won’t come from a bunch of activity. Rather it comes from growing in relationship with your Heavenly Father. Fruit may not come as often as you’d like, but if you are digging your roots deep into the soil of his word, it will come in season.
PRAYER: Lord, I want to prosper. Too often my view of prosperity comes from listening and walking with those whose prosperity isn’t the eternal kind you can give. Help me to dig deep in your word so that I can prosper according to your Kingdom. Amen.
The ways of God are without fault. The Lord’s words are pure. He is a shield to those who trust him. Psalm 18:30 (NCV)
We all want to believe in a God of love. Even the atheist wishes there was a God. To them the God they wish they saw simply doesn’t exist based on the perception of how they want the world to operate. In order to ‘not believe in God’ they have a picture in their minds of the God they don’t believe in, a God they wish they had.
The agnostic doubts the existence of the God in their mind. They, like the atheist, evaluate the ‘evidence’ they have gathered in their minds. Their ‘God-picture’ is too fuzzy to know for sure if it exists. They may hope there is a God, but the God of their own definition.
When God doesn’t do what we want him to do it’s never easy to handle. It never has been. When that happens we can react by getting angry with God and give up on this thing we call faith. We can question his actions, his existence, his love for us, or the truth of his word. That doesn’t change who God is, it changes who we are.
We can get angry with ourselves or give up on us. We can tell ourselves God’s demands are too great. We convince ourselves that his ways are irrelevant, or rationalize our way through life by saying things like: “I’m better than they are; I can worship him on my own (which usually means not at all); If he really did love me he would….” But getting angry with ourselves only robs us of the joy we can have through Jesus.
We can blame others. Take God out of the picture completely. If they hadn’t done this, I’d be okay. I get no respect here, I can’t [do my job; get good grades; be the parent I should be; succeed] in this environment because of they way ‘they’ treat me.
But when God doesn’t act the way we want there is one more thing we can do. It’s the hardest of all to do because it can go against everything our finite, human minds tell us to do. When God doesn’t do things the way we want him to we may have to admit the maybe, just maybe, he knows more about this journey called life than we do.
He’s walked the road you’ve walked. He’s prepared the way for you. He never promised a care-free life here on earth, but he promised to walk with you through illness, divorce, financial collapse, natural disasters, and even your own failures and mistakes.
His ways are without fault, but sometimes they are also without understanding. That doesn’t change who he is, it only offers you an opportunity to grow in faith that he will do what he says he’ll do.
PRAYER: Father God, help me to grow in faith during those times I don’t understand your ways. Keep me from anger towards you, myself or others when things don’t go as I wish. Help me to lean on your words and trust you for my protection. In your name, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 