Month: October 2023

by

In the Middle of the Muddle

“Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts.” -Andrew Murray

This morning I woke up early, processing events of the past week – things I didn’t like. The processing had been going on for a couple of days and was more like what I call a “muddle” rather than coherent thoughts. I wanted to go back to sleep, but couldn’t, so I began to ask God to come into my muddle. I specifically asked him to give me a verse to think about. In a nanosecond, I recalled, “In everything give thanks.”

I had an assignment from God himself, so I began to thank him – first for the basics like we all do, then for some specifics related to the events that put me in a muddle in the first place. My heart felt lighter. I began to feel less stress, less frustration, less worry. I started to realize I had been making everything about me, when he wants me to make everything about him. I felt in my deepest being that he is in control, he loves me, and he will give the answers to the problems I’m trying to solve.

I have a feeling I’m not the only one who muddles. Sometimes muddling is our “go to”, and we need, instead, to turn to Jesus instead of our own incoherent thoughts. Occasionally we need a reminder of that. I had that reminder this morning, now I’m passing it along just in case you need one, too.

May you get out of the muddle and into the praise today. It’s happier there!

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” – 2 Thessalonians 3:5

by

What matters really?

“Right now counts forever.” – R. C. Sproul

When scribes of old copied a biblical text, they saw it as a sacrificial work done out of their love for God. They wrote, often in dim candlelight, on parchment usually, with nibs dipped in ink – letter-by-letter. It was hard work with physical side effects such as poor eyesight and deformed bodies from bending over the text, but they persevered.

At the end of the manuscript, they usually signed their names and often added a comment, the most common of which was this: “Reader take note: While the hand that copied this text rots in the grave, the word of God lives forever.” Hundreds of years later, we’re reading the Bible in part because this monk, whose body is long gone, valued the text enough to commit his life to copying it for future generations.

What are we doing that will outlast us? The eternal things are generally seen in people we influence – our family members, co-workers, neighbors, and even our enemies. And those eternal influences flow out of the Bible and its message to humans.

We may not copy God’s word as the monks did, but maybe we are today’s scribes by living the message of the Bible every day – adding our notes and pointing to God as we do.

God’s word is his revelation of who he is and his desire to relate to humans in forgiveness and love. It’s a message to be cherished and shared. In the busy-ness of everyday, what we do matters – to someone’s eternal salvation, to someone’s deeper walk with God, and then, to all the people they will touch because of their understanding. May something we do today matter 100 years from now!

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. – Isaiah 40:8

by

Sit still.

In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigue, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him…that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him – totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence. – Chuck Swindoll

It’s a human failing to try to do too much, too fast, without pause for refreshment or renewal. It’s so easy to get to that place: a place of anxiety, restlessness, fatigue.

Recently, my morning reading took me to 2 Samuel 7 where I read that King David went to the place of worship and “sat before the Lord.” Eventually he prayed, and God responded, but I loved that, at first, he just sat there in stillness, knowing he was in the presence of the holy, almighty, sovereign God.

Do we ever do that? Just find a quiet place and sit in God’s presence? As if we have all the time in the world. As if he’s the most important person in our lives. As if sitting with him is the most important thing we have to do that day. Maybe it is.

David was King. He probably was busy all the time. But this day, he cleared his schedule. He walked away from all the hubub of the palace to find God in a tent and sit in his presence. Just reading that made me want the same. Sometimes we need to do a little clearing of our own schedules, so the connection stays strong, so his voice can be heard, and so we will restist the temptation to rush off and try to do everything without him.

Just sit. In his presence. Still. Quiet. All will be well . . .

“My soul clings to you;  your right hand upholds me.” – Psalm 63:8

by

The kind of person who . . .

“True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.” – Dallas Willard

I have been revisiting The Ten Commandments lately and realizing the commands to honor parents, respect property rights, tell the truth, not to be envious, put God first, and so on are as relevant today as they were then. So, what do we do?

We can do our best to keep them, but that’s been proven for centuries to be impossible.

Or we can start right now to ask God to make us into the kind of people for whom keeping the commands is automatic. Instead of thinking “I can’t fudge on my tax return because God says not to,” we say “I am no longer the kind of person who steals.” Do you see the difference? It’s about inner change, not just outward behavior. It becomes part of our nature to never want to do anything that would hurt God or another human being by not following the way of life as defined in God’s law.

How does God change our character to be persons who always do what is right and just and true? By spiritual disciplines: Prayer, worship, Bible reading/meditation, relationships with other believers, and even by trials that we go through. He molds us. Makes us more like people who are enabled to do what he wants, who long to please him, who love him completely, and love others as we love ourselves.

It will never work by trying harder. It only works by yielding to the One who can make us into people who think and act like Jesus. It’s a long journey. Are you in?

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” – Romans 13:10