Contentment..... Streams in the Desert

 

Contentment 

Streams in the Desert

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11).

Paul, denied of every comfort, wrote the above words in his dungeon.

A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found everything withered and dying. He asked the oak that stood near the gate what the trouble was. He found it was sick of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was all out of heart because it could not bear grapes, like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine fruit as the peach tree. The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac.

And so on all through the garden. Coming to a heart's-ease, he found its bright face lifted as cheery as ever. "Well, heart's-ease, I'm glad, amidst all this discouragement, to find one brave little flower. You do not seem to be the least disheartened." "No, I am not of much account, but I thought that if you wanted an oak, or a pine, or a peach tree, or a lilac, you would have planted one; but as I knew you wanted a heart's-ease, I am determined to be the best little heart's-ease that I can."

Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God's heritage
Can do it so well as you.

They who are God's without reserve, are in every state content; for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored an hundredfold.

God Is Our Loving Father..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 God Is Our Loving Father

Dr. Charles Stanley

Luke 15:11-24

Humanity tends to project its own faulty habits onto God. This is especially true regarding the nature of His love. We think we must barter, plead, or try hard to earn the Lord's favor. But as the prodigal son learned, the Father's love is unconditional.

The wayward son expected his father's love to be diminished. Therefore, he went home hoping for a place among the family servants. Imagine the boy's delight when Dad greeted him with a hug and a celebration. His actions certainly didn't merit an outpouring of affection, but Jesus' parable is all about a Father who doesn't give people what they deserve.

A love based on conduct would keep people guessing, Have I done enough? Instead, God cares for you simply because you're you, and He expects nothing in return. Consider the prodigal's life after his homecoming party. He didn't move into the servants' quarters and get to work. He was reinstated to his place as the second son of a wealthy man, with all of the privilege that entails. In the same way, believers are the Lord's cherished children (2 Cor. 6:18). When God looks at His loved ones, He doesn't focus upon past failures, faults, or sin. He sees the heirs to His kingdom—men and women who love Him and desire to spend eternity in His presence.

No matter how far we may wander from the Lord's perfect will for our lives, we are always welcome back. The Bible teaches that God's love cannot be lost, regardless of sin or poor decisions (though we may have to live with the consequences). Our Father's arms are always open. 

Finding the Freedom to Move On..... LYSA TERKEURST

 Finding the Freedom to Move On

LYSA TERKEURST

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13 (NIV) 

I am a soul who likes the concept of forgiveness … until I am a hurting soul who doesn’t.

Left to my own deep woundedness, forgiveness can seem offensive, impossible, and one of the quickest ways to compound the unfairness of being wronged. I cry for fairness. I want blessings for those who follow the rules of life and love. I want correction for those who break them.

Is that too much to ask?

And it’s that exact spot where I like to park, stew, focus on everyone else’s wrongs and rally those who agree with me to join in and further help me justify staying right there.

But that’s like the time in college I stayed in the parking lot of a beautiful vacation spot just to make a point. A small offense happened with my friends on the drive up. When we got to our destination, they all piled out of the car and spent the day making incredible memories together. All the while, I walked around the parking lot with vigilante strides in the sweltering heat, letting my anger intensify with every passing hour.

I relished the idea of teaching my friends a lesson by staging this solo protest.

But, in the end, I was the only one affected by it. I’m the only one who missed out. I’m the one who rode home in silence, knowing no one had been punished by my choices but me.

Please know, I want to acknowledge that much of the pain you and I have been through is way more complicated and devastating than that day at the beach. But in all of my offenses, both big and small, I’ve learned to recognize what I’ve come to see as the soldiers of unforgiveness.

Bitterness masquerades like a high court judge, making me believe I must protect the evidence against all those who hurt me so I can state and restate my airtight case and hear “guilty” proclaimed over them. In reality, though, it’s a punishing sentence of isolation, out to starve my soul of life-giving relationships.

Resentment cloaks itself in a banner marked with the word vindication, making me believe that the only way to get free of my pain is to make sure those who caused it hurt as badly as I do. In reality, though, it’s a trap in disguise, with dagger teeth digging into me, keeping me tortured and unable to move forward.

Delay sneaks in like a theater attendant, offering popcorn and a comfy chair made of my sorrow and sadness, making me believe it’s just fine to stay there, replaying old movies of what happened. And that, by doing so, I’ll one day understand why it all happened. In reality, though, I’m in a torture chamber, with each replay only ratcheting up the pain but never providing the answers I keep thinking will come.

And, lastly, trust issues disguise themselves as private investigators, making me believe they will help me catch everyone out to hurt me and prove no one is truly honest. In reality, trust issues are toxic gas that, instead of keeping away the few who shouldn’t be trusted, choke the life out of everyone who gets close to me.

These are the soldiers of unforgiveness that have waged war against me.

The soldiers of unforgiveness waging war right now against every hurting person.

The ones who will always lead us to isolation, the emotional darkness of broken relationships, spiritual darkness with heaped-on shame, and a darkened outlook where we are unable to see the beauty that awaits just beyond the parking lot.

What if I’d been able to release the offense and move forward that day at the beach? What if we could all do that? I’m not talking about excusing abuse or allowing someone to traumatize us. I’m talking about small offenses that we refuse to address properly.

Colossians 3:13 reminds us, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

This isn’t about diminishing what we’ve been through or making light of the anguish we’ve cried a million tears over. It’s knowing that those who cooperate most fully with forgiveness are those who dance most freely in the beauty of redemption. And what exactly is this beautiful redemption?

It is sweeping our hearts clean of little offenses before they cause us big problems.

And it’s finally finding the freedom to move on.

We don’t have to stay stuck here, friend. Forgiveness is the weapon. Our choices moving forward are the battlefield. Being released from that heavy feeling is the reward. Regaining the possibility of trust and closeness is the sweet victory. And walking confidently with the Lord from hurt to healing is the freedom that awaits.

Lord, help us learn to forgive as You have forgiven us. Freely. Completely. Not to excuse what’s been done to us, but to set us free. You are good. Your ways are good. And that means we can trust that forgiveness is good too. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Romans 12:17, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.” (NIV)

You Reap What You Sow ..... By: Jennifer Heeren

 You Reap What You Sow

By: Jennifer Heeren

“Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”( Galatians 6:7-8)

The concept of “sowing and reaping” is immensely better than “karma.” The sowing part is not just a duty that I must perform. There is nourishment that accompanies doing the will of God and helping other people. There is a joy in finishing good works for the Lord ( John 4:34) and that joy isn’t dependent on the harvest that may come later.

“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy” ( Psalm 126:5). God can even bring joy out of dire, even tragic, events. God’s love is so much greater than karma.

In God’s economy, things are hardly ever tit for tat. In some moments, I plant but never really see the harvest, at least not a harvest that is directly related. In other moments, I receive a harvest that I didn’t plant ( John 4:37-38)! God’s kingdom is a world of walking by faith not sight. Faith that God will bring good things from all that I plant even when I don’t see it. And faith that there will be much grace even when I am not able to plant.

Reaping and sowing is all about blessings and consequences. I seek to live in obedience more and more by sowing good things and then I reap other good things, but not necessarily in the same field. I often sow in one field and reap in another. Always remember that whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously ( 2 Corinthians 9:6). So, go ahead and sow generously and even lavishly. There is always some kind of reward. Some rewards are instantaneous and easy to spot. Others take a little more introspection to see but they are there all the same.

Then, there’s grace! Karma believers don’t often take grace into account. God’s law of sowing and reaping includes much grace. You can learn from the good things you do, and you can also learn from the wrong things you do. You can learn from successes as well as mistakes. You can do better each day as you grow in obedience. Dire circumstances don’t mean that you deserve to stay down.

Sowing good deeds can give me benefits. But I can also receive benefits even when I don’t deserve it (grace). I can also receive benefits, lessons, and second chances even when I do wrong things (mercy). God is extremely generous with both grace and mercy!

Karma leads to doing things to earn other things. But God prefers that I do good things as a gift out of the gratitude that I feel for His love.

We get the opportunity to reap what we sow. We often reap more than we sow. Sometimes, we even reap later than we sow. And we even reap some things that we never sowed.

God always brings many blessings—both deserved and undeserved. And actually, even the ones we work for are undeserved. God is much better than we deserve!

The Waiting is the Hardest Part..... By Veronica Neffinger

 The Waiting is the Hardest Part

By Veronica Neffinger

“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14)

Did you ever realize how good things nearly always take time?

As children, waiting can seem like agony. We don’t want to think about the hours that must slowly slip by until school lets out, until summer comes back around, or until our favorite uncle comes to visit again. As adults, our impatience is little lessened, albeit perhaps better concealed.

In our culture of immediacy, having patience is even more difficult and out of reach. We are used to multitasking and packing each day with so much busyness that we seldom have time to hear our own voices.

This impatience for results, for productivity is, I believe, something that we, as Christians, must learn to surrender, will have to learn to surrender if we are going to keep growing.

Have you ever noticed that good things nearly always come about because of a process; oftentimes, a long process?

Conversely, it seems many bad things are those that happen in an instant: a car crash that turns your life upside down, a quick word hurled out in anger which breaks a relationship, a split-second decision to give in to peer-pressure.

Now, of course not all split-second decisions lead to negative consequences, but there is a striking parallel here:

As we are jumping from one thing to the next on a continual cycle of busyness, spiraling away from deep understanding and hovering on the periphery of thought, God is seeking to work against the entropy we have created, making the disparate parts of our life into something beautiful.

God is very comfortable working slowly (or what appears as slowly to us).

We all want this transformation God promises us in His Word, but are we willing to wait for it?

After the moment of salvation, God desires to sanctify us--to make us holy--but this takes time and daily repentance, submission, and prayer, all things that themselves require us to be in for the long haul if we hope to see fruit.

God does not take His sweet time making us more like Himself because He enjoys seeing our impatience; He is patient in perfecting us because, for any truth to truly take hold in us, takes time.

Although we are creatures who have no problem proclaiming an opinion in an instant, we also recognize that dearly-held beliefs are not easily relinquished.

In His infinite mercy, God takes upon Himself the process of gently wrestling our most dearly-held but harmful, selfish, and just plain false beliefs from the intense grip we have on them.

Our stubbornness to begin the growing process is often a reason why we do not spring forward in our Christian life in leaps and bounds.

But that is okay. God knows our frame, and His patience and lovingkindness never fails, even when ours does.

Intersecting Faith & Life:
Do you struggle with patience and waiting on the Lord? What is the Lord trying to teach you through it?

Further Reading:
Proverbs 25:15
Romans 9:22
Galatians 5:22

A Prayer for Your Prodigal..... By Cindi McMenamin

 A Prayer for Your Prodigal

By Cindi McMenamin

“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more” (Psalm 71:20-21).

How do you trust God and not worry when you see your child start spiraling downward?

How can you know when to say something and when to let your child work it out?

How can you trust that God ultimately has "good" in mind when it all looks so bad?

One of the most intense concerns a mother/father has for their children, apart from their concerns for their physical safety, is their concern for their spiritual condition. We fear our children will turn their backs on their faith and all they were taught and needlessly stumble through life.

That situation can not only be fearful, but it can make us feel so helpless.

I asked hundreds of moms to share with me their secret to maintaining hope for a wayward child, even if the situation looks hopeless. Their answer is always the same. Their hope is in God, not their child, and God's ability to turn that child's heart back toward home.

Janice, who witnessed her daughter self destruct into drugs and a dangerous lifestyle for several years, saw God turn her daughter’s heart around. But, she said, her only comfort during the season of her daughter's rebellion was praying Scripture over her daughter. Isaiah 49:16 was especially encouraging to her.

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."

While that verse prophetically refers to the nail prints in Jesus' hands, it symbolizes to us that Jesus knew each and every person by name that He would die for; those nail prints were like an engraved name on His hand.

Children will hear our voices in their heads. And they may try to shut out that voice at times if their hearts are hardened. Children will also hear their friends' and peers' voices, and the voice of the enemy seeking to lead them astray. But we want God's voice – the the voice of His Holy Spirit – to be louder than anyone else's voice.

Insert your child's name in this prayer and pray it often:

Create in _________________ a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within him/her (Psalm 51:10). Though you have made ______________ see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore ____________'s life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring _____________ up. You will increase ________________'s honor and comfort ____________ once again (Psalm 71:20-21). Thank You that Your word says I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate ___________ from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

WHEN THE RESOLUTIONS FAIL..... Dr. Jeff Schreve

 WHEN THE RESOLUTIONS FAIL

Dr. Jeff Schreve

For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity.
Proverbs 24:16

Many people I know make New Year's Resolutions. They vow to exercise more. eat right. lose weight. quit that bad habit. get out of debt. put God first. stay pure. etc. But what do you do if you fail and falter in your New Year's Resolution and it is only January 7? What then?

I know what lots of people do. They beat themselves up with guilt and shame. They tell themselves what a loser they are. They heap condemnation on their heads and walk around in defeat mode. That is not the thing God wants us to do when we fail.

GOD'S PROGRAM FOR THOSE WHO FAIL

Proverbs 24:16 is a great verse to help you and me when we falter in our well-intentioned resolutions or commitments to God. Look at it again - For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity.

Notice that God says "a righteous man falls seven times." Even the righteous person, even the one who desires to do right and please God, that one falls. and fails. and blows it - not once or twice, but seven times (over and over and over again).

Now the devil will tell you when you fall, "Give up, you bum! Throw in the towel and quit!! You will never walk in victory over this anger, this worry, this bitterness, this lust, this greed, this addiction, this whatever. You are a loser and a failure and a major disappointment to God." Have you ever heard those words play in your head? Well, the good news is this: "The devil is a liar and the father of lies."

When we fall, God never says, "Give up," He says, "GET UP! RISE AGAIN!  Confess that sin. get it out of your heart and under My blood. Take my hand and let's walk together. Keep looking to Me, and we WILL slay this giant in your life."

WE CAN'T DO IT ALONE. AND WE DON'T HAVE TO

My friend, you and I do not have the power to change our hearts. but He does. He can change your sinful desires. He can give you a heart that beats for Him and His righteousness. He can clean you up and set you on a path of joy and peace and victory. The little poem says, "I can't. He never said I could. He will. He always said He would."

If you have fallen, will you quit beating yourself up and start looking up?  Will you open your eyes and see a Savior who loves you. who has a nail-scarred hand stretched out to you. who says to you, "Will you take My hand and walk with Me?" What is your answer to Him?

Love,

Pastor Jeff Schreve