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“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” Isaiah 55:1
We’ve all heard the old saying. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” In most of life, the saying is full of truth, unfortunately. The relationship you found is amazing. He/she does everything you ever expected. You pinch yourself and say ‘It’s too good to be true’, and a few weeks later the relationship ends when the real person emerges and you hear the small voice inside say “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t’.
You look for a house where you can raise your family. As you are moving in you fight off the visions of watching your grandchildren swinging from the tree in the backyard. Never mind the fact that you are expecting your first child. Years from now the dream will come true. You are sure of it. Until the promising job you have ends abruptly and you lose the house. As you are moving your young family into a too-small apartment the vision of the back yard swing comes back and you hear the voice, ‘If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.’
Life is full of dreams and hopes and anticipation, but all too often that anticipation turns to discouragement because people, careers, finances and health fails us. We watch television shows about the rich and famous and wonder what it would be like to have all the money in the world. To see something you want and get it without a thought of how it will affect the electric bill at the end of month.
I can give you an idea of what it is like. Not because I’ve ever been there of course. I have little hope of ever being in that lifestyle. But I can tell you based on what I’ve read and heard. The suicide rate and drug use rate and divorce rate is amazingly high for many of those who ‘have it all.’
Perhaps the wealthiest man in all of history put it in his own words. “I had it all,” Solomon said, “I had women, and money and power. If I wanted something, I got it. Know what I found? It couldn’t buy my happiness and contentment. It was meaningless and worthless.” (Read the book of Ecclesiastes for the real story.)
The only source of true fulfillment and contentment is found in our Heavenly Father. The only way to find true and meaningful peace is through the God of creation who promises us that he will take from his wealth and his storehouses to give us all we need to be content.
An unending supply of money will provide you with all your physical needs, but the needs of the heart will only be met through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need to fill that hole in your soul. And best of all, it’s all free for the asking.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord! Psalm 31:24 (AMP)
The amount of courage we have is dependent on what we put our hope in.
If I put my hope in my own ability to follow God I’ll be frustrated. I’m weak. I follow my own desires far too often. Selfishness sneaks up on me at the least likely time. I’m full of lust. My past haunts me.
If I put my hope in relationships I’ll be lonely. People fail us. The promise things, but fail to honor that promise. They all too often put demands on me that I can’t fulfill, or if I do fulfill them to the best of my ability, expect more.
If I put my hope in finances I fall short. Too many times that I have way too much month at the end of the money and if I do have the finances to get what I want, it’s often outdated by the end of the week.
Putting hope in religion is demoralizing. Religion puts far more expectations and demands on me than God would ever do. Churches seem to be ivory palaces full of dead man’s bones. Pretty on the outside but full of politics, judgmental attitudes and hypocritical leaders on the inside.
If I put my hope in living healthy, you know, doing the diet thing, exercising, and all the rest, someone else always seems to be trimmer or enjoying life more than I. And I still get sick. Some of the ‘healthiest people I know’ have suffered from debilitating illnesses or accidents that have robbed them of life.
Maybe you have felt some of the feelings listed above. Your strength to go on seems to have left you. Increased effort has only brought increased frustration and feelings of failure. It doesn’t have to be that way.
If we put our hope in God’s hands our frustration turns to a realization that our success has never been dependent on our ability. God has never put much hope in our ability to follow his rules, that’s why he offers me Jesus. That’s why he offers me forgiveness and grace.
He’s never measured our success by the amount of money in our bank account or the number of friends we have on social networking sites. He’s never demanded anything that he doesn’t first give us the ability to follow through on. He knows your heart. He knows your deepest fears. He knows your past and wants to walk with you into the future.
Losing hope? Frustrated? Worried? Tired of losing sleep. Have courage based on a loving forgiving God. Worship and praise him for fact that he has reached down to give you peace through his son Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God, there are many things that scare me today. I have lots of worries; lots of fears; failure seems to follow me wherever I go. Thank you that I can find my hope and rest in you. Help me have courage through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.
You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. Psalm 31:4 (NASB)
One day a Hummingbird got ‘caught’ in our garage. It apparently darted away when we came out of the house and flew into the garage. It couldn’t figure out that if it just flew down a couple feet it could go out the garage door. To rescue the small, frightened animal I took a couple butterfly nets and gently trapped it inside the nets and carried it to safety.
The small, frightened animal couldn’t have known that safety was just a few feet away. It couldn’t have known that the monstrous animals chasing it around its cell were trying to help it. I couldn’t have known that the nets that eventually captured it were meant for good, not evil.
It’s the unknown that scares us most, isn’t it? Like the Hummingbird we can go through life thinking that our safety and protection depends on our own ability to figure things out. But life isn’t predictable, and every net that captures us isn’t for our own good.
Relationships we seek may seem to be safe and fulfilling until the ‘honeymoon is over’ and anger, rage, frustration and abuse set in. Business dealings may seem ‘too good to be true’ and then we find out they were too good to be true and we lose our retirement. Friends and even lovers may pledge their allegiance and later we find out that they are saying things behind our backs, cheating on us or, in some other way, making us out to be the fool. Politicians and bosses make promises to us that turn out to be empty words.
It’s not the nets of entrapment we see that are dangerous, it’s those that are laid in secret that are our biggest threat. Like an animal walking through the forest, unaware of a pit hidden by brush, we fall into situations that catch us off guard. When that happens we end up at the mercy of our captor. The walls are too steep, the darkness to deep for us to find a way out. Desperation, fear and depression join with hopelessness to become our biggest enemies. There’s no way out.
That’s when your Heavenly Father steps in. That’s when God comes to the rescue. There is no pit too deep but that he can’t lift you out. There is no darkness to black but that his light can’t shine through it. The reason you are in the pit you are in is irrelevant. How you got there is of no concern to God, getting you out is his biggest priority.
Whatever pit you find yourself in today, God wants to lift you up. Whatever net has you entangled, he has the power to tear it open and provide your route of escape. You may have spent a lifetime refusing to acknowledge his existence or wandered away from him in the forest. None of that matters. His goal is to free you.
PRAYER: Father God, I’m trapped. The nets the enemy has thrown have hit their mark. The fear and darkness of this pit I’ve dug for myself are too steep. Please rescue me through your love, grace and forgiveness. Amen.
Although he was abused, he never tried to get even. And when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he had faith in God, who judges fairly. 1 Peter 2:23 (CEV)
“Although he was abused, he never tried to get even.”
What a statement of strength, love and faith about Jesus Christ! When abuse happens, those who suffer the abuse may withdraw into a shell and lose themselves in the pain of the wound. Others may strike back at the abuser or become an abuser themselves using their victims as a way of ‘getting even’ with the offender in their own lives.
Abuse, by definition is the improper treatment of someone else. Physical abuse brings harm to one’s physical body, but bruises heal. Emotional abuse is harder to diagnose. Emotional abuse leaves much deeper scars; the bruises are not seen by the human eye; the pain can last a lifetime.
Jesus Christ was abused for us. He suffered emotionally, physically and spiritually on our behalf. That is refreshing to me for two reasons. First of all, when I’m treated unfairly he completely understands my pain. He’s felt the pain of rejection. He’s heard the voices of insult and false accusation. He was misrepresented and misunderstood. If you are a victim of abuse, you have someone who knows how you feel.
The fact that Jesus was abused also helps me realize how I can best handle abuse. Jesus didn’t get angry at his abusers. As God in the flesh he could have wiped them out with a single word, but he made no threats. Why? How was he able to endure the words and actions of evil people against his body and emotions?
It was faith. Faith gave Jesus Christ the power to endure the abuse leveled against him. Most of us put our faith in ourselves ultimately. We rely on our own power to endure, our own power to plow through the wilderness. When we are mistreated and abused the biggest damage is done to our identity. We believe we are worthless. We blame ourselves. We become angry and bitter.
On the other hand, when our identity is placed in the hands of a loving, all-powerful and forgiving God, we endure the attacks because our value is secure as a result of his power. If today, you are a victim of abuse, not matter how harsh and how unfair, remember this. The God of Heaven sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live among us. He was abused and beaten on your behalf so you could experience the love of His father.
The wounds you bear may never heal completely, but a relationship with him is like soothing oil that heals to the very depth of your soul. Come to him. He knows how you feel.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I pray today for those who are the victims of evil acts that have destroyed their lives. I ask that they may find the relief that comes from a relationship with you. Thank you for enduring all you did for me. Thank you Father for making me who I am. Amen.
Pray that our Lord will make us strong and give us peace. Psalm 29:11 (CEV)
Psalm 29 speaks to us, to remind us that storms will come into our lives. Sometimes those storms are the result of our own sin and rebellion. Sometimes the winds of the hurricanes that block our paths are the evil actions of abusive people. Whatever their cause we are assured that it’s not a question of ‘if’ storms come, but ‘when’ and how often.
Storms can be physical such as illness, financial ruin, and destruction of our homes, careers or relationships. Perhaps the toughest, scariest storms are the storms within. Those flashes of lightning that remind us of our failures. Those life-shaking claps of thunder that make us question our ability to go on; that make us question our faith. These are the storms that can make us suffer in silence, or force us away from those who love us most.
Read back through Psalm 29 once more. Take time to reflect on the words of power seen in the words of the Psalmist. Your heavenly Father is pictured as being the most powerful storm ‘nature’ can muster. He shakes the foundation of the world; no one can escape or deny his mighty works.
Then, remember his great love for you today. There will be storms. Ask him to give you strength and courage to weather them. There will be times when life seems to jostle you about like a small boat on a great and windy see. Pray that in the very midst of the storm he will give you peace.
The great preacher/author Charles Spurgeon writes: Dear reader, is not this a noble Psalm to be sung in stormy weather? Can you sing amid the thunder? Will you be able to sing when the last thunders are let loose, and Jesus judges quick and dead? If you are a believer, the last verse is your heritage, and surely that will set you singing.
You oftentimes have no choice as to the storms that will enter your life, but because of Jesus you can choose how they will affect who you are and how you come out on the other side. Jesus Christ came, not only to give you forgiveness and eternal life; he came so that when the storms come you can rely on him to see you through.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I thank you for your grace. I praise you for your forgiveness. But most of all, right now I pray for us as your children. I ask that during this present stormy time of our lives you would grant us the strength and peace we need to endure. In your name, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 