Making the most of your day

Pray first,
Pray second,
Pray third,
Pray fourth,
Pray fifth,
Pray sixth,
Rest
Rinse and repeat;

Let God

Let God, rule your life.
Let God, be your guide.
Let God, heal your wounds.
Let God, save your soul.

Let God, love you unconditionally.

Let God, be God,

4 Truths for When God Seems Hidden   

• Jay Lowder
•   I am a full-time evangelist and an unashamed follower of Jesus Christ who never dreamed I would become so broken that I would wrestle with thoughts of abandoning ministry, faith and even God Himself. However, that’s exactly what happened.
  Seventeen months ago, life as my family knew it, was burned to the ground. My nineteen-year-old daughter, Kayley Faith, a girl who played competitive volleyball and who had never been to the hospital since birth, spent several weeks of suffering in the Intensive Care Unit before being diagnosed with the extremely rare disease known as ‘Stills.” Stills is a type of inflammatory disorder that affects the entire body. In Kayley’s case, her liver, heart and lungs suffered extreme damage and she narrowly escaped death.
  Her sickness ambushed us overnight and required us to move two hours away to live, rather exist, inside a Dallas hospital for over five months straight. Watching my daughter agonizingly twist in bed for hours every day through inescapable pain almost drove me and my wife to insanity. Equally shredding was the spiritual carnage.
  We had untold masses who were praying for her healing due to the thousands who followed our story on social media. In spite of those prayers, her situation continually got worse and so did my frustration and bitterness at God. I often begged God to speak to me, allow me to feel His presence or at least bring me peace. None came… Brokenhearted, I went through stages where I lost faith and even quit praying and reading the Bible. For the first time since I received Christ at age 21, God seemed completely silent and unreachable.

I still have more questions than answers. Looking back on the last year, I discovered new truths about wrestling with God when He seems absent.

Here are four truths when God’s presence seems hidden from us:

1. God may appear silent, but He is always speaking.

The Lord seldom shouts but He often whispers such as he did in 1 Kings 19:12, “And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.” God is even silently speaking through the creation of nature (Romans 1:20).

The challenge with a whisper or still, small voice is that the only time you can hear it is when you are extremely close. The enemy uses pain, as he did with me, to ignite anger, resentment and lack of patience. These feelings can drive a wedge between us and God to create a distance where we don’t clearly hear or recognize His voice. During seasons of brokenness, we must not allow our emotions to excuse us from seeking the Lord even when we lack the desire to do so or when His ways do not make sense.

2. God never abandons us but often sends others in His place (Hebrews 13:5).

We are told in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 that God the Father offers His children mercy and comfort so that we, in turn, can pass this along to others.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but God was ministering to my family in that exact way by delivering comfort, encouragement, aide and strength not through His own hands and feet but through the lips, wallets, hands and feet of His followers. During our agony, I was blinded to the fact of how Christ was meeting so many of our needs through the generosity of those He was sending. Jesus’ best messengers were not the ones who preached to us or repeated those shallow “christianeeze” slogans but the warriors who simply visited us, cried with us and allowed us to vent – even when our words placed blame or frustration directed toward Christ. They didn’t watch us in the ditch but got in it with us.

3. God often doesn’t want us to retreat or push forward because He only wants us to stand.

Ephesians 6 speaks of evil days when our only response is to stand our ground by putting on “the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11).

When sorrow and pain attempt to suffocate us, God often desires for us to put on the brakes and patiently allow Him to remedy what we cannot fix. There are times when money, doctors, connections, medicine or experience cannot help us and there is nowhere left to turn. These unfixable situations are often where God does His greatest work because we begin to realize He is all we want because He is all we have. Standing and being still is often our most difficult response because we incorrectly believe we can take some action that will help, correct or heal our situation. Coming to the end of ourselves is often the catalyst to God bringing new beginnings.

4. In seasons of brokenness, God desires what is often the hardest to give . . . our faith.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

I look back with such regret and embarrassment at my wavering and often non-working faith this last year. I wanted to trust God but seemed so unable. Gratefully, when we fail Him, there is nothing you or I can do to make Jesus love us less. So how do we have faith when we feel it is gone? First of all, true believers never “lose” faith. Our faith is sometimes weakened but it is never destroyed. I had successful weeks of trust and failing weeks of doubt but even when I doubted Christ, He never doubted me. God understands our weakness and when we cannot locate our faith or fail to exercise it, we can believe He will restore it as we continue to fight against doubt (Matthew 9:29). I am still battling with inconsistency, but God patiently stokes the fires of faith as we come to Him asking for Him to strengthen our trust.

Are you doubting God? Are you questioning His care, concern, compassion or commitment to you? Has your life been unraveled by some sickness, disease, divorce, addiction or personal failure? Does Jesus seem distant or disconnected from you and your pain?

There are no easy answers, no spiritual platitudes, no quick fixes and no formulas that come with guarantees. Answers may come slowly, in the next life or maybe never at all. Your situation may get worse before it gets better but one promise from the King still remains.  He promises to never leave you even though the enemy, your emotions and feelings shout otherwise. For now, this promise is enough for me, and I pray will be enough for you, too.

•  

God's Mission: Adoption

God's Mission: Adoption    
by Max Lucado    

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us. Through a dramatic series of events, we go from condemned orphans with no hope to adopted children with no fear. Here is how it happens. You come before the judgment seat of God full of rebellion and mistakes. Because of his justice he cannot dismiss your sin, but because of his love he cannot dismiss you. So, in an act which stunned the heavens, he punished himself on the cross for your sins. God’s justice and love are equally honored. And you, God’s creation, are forgiven. But the story doesn’t end with God’s forgiveness.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15–16 NASB).

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4–5 NASB).

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name. It would be enough if God just set you free, but he does more. He takes you home. He takes you home to the Great House of God.

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone. I certainly don’t mean to offend any biological parents—I’m one myself. We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child. But in many cases our cribs were filled easily. We decided to have a child and a child came. In fact, sometimes the child came with no decision. I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.

That’s why adoptive parents understand God’s passion to adopt us. They know what it means to feel an empty space inside. They know what it means to hunt, to set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future. If anybody understands God’s ardor for his children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.

A Prayer for Pre-Teen Parents

A Prayer for Pre-Teen Parents   
By Meg Bucher    

I fumed about my older daughter’s lack of timeliness, as I thrust the car door open and lunged in. Her little sister sat alone in the backseat, and worried tears streamed down her face. Stunned from watching her best friend run out of her sight, her seven year old voice was as panicked as her eyes were.

“I don’t know where she went!”

The engine hummed and the door hung wide open, as I tore around the yard. We called out her name and searched the hiding places. Flashes of missing kids paraded through my mind as I ran along the edge of our property. Stopped cold, I reached into my pocket to execute every parent’s worst nightmare. 

“My daughter is …missing,” I managed to verbalize, as I ached in prayer for God to protect her.

How had we gotten here?

That morning, I allowed the one thing that my daughter struggled with to snap my patience and leverage a war on her pre-teen emotional state. As she explained herself to the three police men parked at the end of our driveway that day, a guilt that I had failed her washed over me.

“Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.” Ephesians 6:4 (The Message)

The original Greek word, parorgizo, means “to rouse to wrath, to provoke, exasperate, anger.” (Strongs 3949) Exasperate means “to excite the anger of.” (Merriam Webster). The only other time “parorgizo” is used in the Bible is in Romans 10:19, “With a senseless people I will anger you,” in which Paul dug up question Deuteronomy 32:21 posed concerning the Jews missing the truth right before their eyes.

Blocking our past experiences causes us to lack empathy for what our children are going through. In our human impatience, we become behavioral-focused. It’s easy to get caught up in how our children should be acting, but more important to pray into God’s purpose for who they are.

My daughter ran back up the street that day, but she had run a half-mile to a wooded trail before she turned around.

“I just needed somewhere quiet to think.”

“Take them by hand and lead them…” Instead of sparking their anger, pre-teens need us to teach them how to run to Christ in overwhelming moments.

Father,

Praise You for pre-teens, and all that they have to teach us about ourselves and Your love for us. Thank You for returning prodigals and run-aways home safely, and bless those that never had the opportunity to turn around and run home to safety before lesser intentions befell them.

Father, we ask your forgiveness today for lacking the patience and compassion that our children deserve. Help us to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit, especially in those heated moments when we are at the end of ourselves. Lead the next generation to compassionate prayer in moments of heartbreak . Teach them run to You, our Healer and our Comforter.

Jesus, run hard after our children’s hearts, and those that we lead to Your feet. Embrace them with encouragement through our lives.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Tough Love, for the Sake of the Church

Tough Love, for the Sake of the Church   
By John D. Barry, CEO of Jesus' Economy    

Community standards are regularly held at institutions, especially Christian universities. What about community standards for our churches? Paul the apostle had some thoughts on this for the church at Thessalonica.

Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6–18. Reflect on 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15:

“Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer” (NIV).

Honor and shame were a major part of Graeco-Roman society. Shame would have been a powerful motivator toward repentance. If a person felt isolated, they would realize what they had lost because of their behavior and likely repent. While this can seem harsh, keep in mind that the Christian community at Thessalonica had little recourse but this option. Also keep in mind the larger context.

The Christians at Thessalonica were experiencing intense persecution, which would have included being socially ostracized (2 Thessalonians 1:4). Thus, they depended on one another. In the midst of this, there were certain people in their community who refused to work while demanding charity from the church (2 Thessalonians 3:6–12). These people would have drained the church’s resources and made their already difficult situation dire. 

It’s also likely that the church regularly ate together and shared many of their resources (compare Acts 2:46; 4:32; 1 Corinthians 11:18–22). Thus, the church at Thessalonica had to consider the entire community. A person who took advantage of the community by abusing charity had to be kept in check.

I wonder if we have lost this level of accountability (compare 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1)? Do we allow for people in our church community to easily disregard standard obligations such as hard work and truly loving the hurting? Do we allow for misguided theology to be used as an excuse in the process (compare 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4)? Are we allowing for people to represent our churches and Jesus who clearly do not represent our values? It seems to me that there is a lot we can learn from Paul’s guidance here.

But what’s critical is that we note Paul’s overall framework: that we love a person to repentance (2 Thessalonians 3:14). Furthermore, he is clear that we should not treat those we are calling to repentance like enemies (2 Thessalonians 3:15). Tough love can be good. But it should be administered with grace and mercy—for the purpose of helping the individual and the community.