My Full Potential

I walked into the room and saw her singing softly, moving ever so gently to the music in her mind. It was a sweet moment and I wish I would have quietly stepped away. The moment I made my presence known, she stopped, embarrassed. 

Are you self-conscious, aware of how you look, taking stock of what others are thinking about you?  At one time or another, we all are.  Sometimes the ‘posers’ are obvious, those who are doing their best to impress. Some take the opposite tack, trying to disappear into crowd, getting ‘lost in the sauce.’  Self-awareness serves a good purpose for us, keeping us from becoming obnoxious. Those who lack it, have no idea how they come across to others. When we allow ourselves to be totally governed by what we believe about the opinions of others, we lose ourselves. We say the things we hope will earn approval, doing things we do not want to do just to make someone else happy, or even acting in ways that run counter to our convictions, because 'that's what everyone is doing.'   

Christian, the fear of man is deadly and leads to idolatry.  Stern? Yes, but true.  Anytime we put someone else in the place at the center place that only God should occupy, we have created a false god.  If we turn into performers, driven by the need for approval, fear and her cousin, inferiority, will become our companions on the road of life.  We will seldom, if ever, experience the joy of simply ‘being' when we are listening for praise of criticism of others.  A friend once reminded me:  "The voice of a single critic drowns out the voices of a hundred who praise."  Performers are, by nature, desperately insecure people, always looking for the ovation.

The Scripture declares - "Those who fear the Lord are secure; he will be a place of refuge for their children. Fear of the Lord is a life-giving fountain; it offers escape from the snares of death." (Proverbs 14:26-27, NLT) God says, "Fear Me alone!"  He desires our reverence Him, that we will long only for His approval. "Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God." (Proverbs 9:10, The Message) Do you believe that? It is true!  Securing our identity in Him will set us free from the posturing that we put ourselves through as performers.

In His love and acceptance we find who we are, our true, God-created selves. We do not have to 'look good.' If we are living and loving our Father, we become good, led by the Spirit to know our gifts, to serve with His affirmation.  Some of the greatest tragedies of my life came from letting opinions and need for approval drive me.  When I allow the grip of critics to squeeze me into their expectations, I am unable to sing freely and love my King. I forget made by Him as I am and gifted by the Spirit to fit God's plan. "Destruction is certain for those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot ever argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, 'Stop, you are doing it wrong!' Does the pot exclaim, 'How clumsy can you be!'" (Isaiah 45:9, NLT) 

Have you spent too many days trying too hard to win the applause of those who surround you? 

You may succeed for a time and drink from the cup of praise, but all too soon someone will come along who can sing and dance in a way that wins the crowd.  However, God is always pleased when live as He planned.  It may sound like a cliché but it is true - Nobody can be you except you! What rest, what joy, what wholeness is found in when we learn to live in His purposes.  Evaluate your life prayerfully. Whose praise are you seeking?  Whose approval matters most -- God's or that of the people around you?

The word from the Word directs us to a life of utmost fulfillment:   "Be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never fail you. I will never forsake you." That is why we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5 NLT)

_______________

Be Thou my Vision,

O Lord of my heart;

Nought be all else to me,

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought,

By day or by night,

Waking or sleeping,

Thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not,

Nor man's empty praise,

Thou mine inheritance,

Now and always:

Thou and Thou only,

First in my heart,

High King of heaven,

My Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven,

My victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys,

O bright heaven's Sun!

Heart of my own heart,

Whatever befall,

Still be my Vision,

O Ruler of all.

No more tough guy

Whitey Bulger, a crime boss from Boston, died in a West Virginia prison this week.  Authorities said he was beaten to death. Not many are mourning for him. Bulger was a cruel, murderous career criminal, who apparently lacked any real ability to feel compassion. A man associated with him recounted how the boss had beaten, stabbed, shot, and/or ran over many people, killing them without a moment’s remorse.  Compared to him, most of us are real teddy bears! But, God does not grade on a curve. He asks us to go beyond avoiding cruelty, to becoming people with tender hearts.

Paul writes to us as the Spirit inspires saying - "As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." (Colossians 3:12-14, NIV)

The first directive of that passage tells us to ‘clothe yourselves with compassion.’  The NT Greek phrase is much more colorful and the KJV comes closer to a literal translation when we read ‘put on … bowels of mercy.’   Our emotions are not only shown in our tears, they are often felt in our gut!  Fear or excitement can make us feel nauseous, right? We talk about our heart as a center of emotion, even though we know it is a muscle that pumps blood. The ancients thought that emotions originated in the gut. So, what is the Lord asking of us? Develop a tenderness that allows us to feel the pain, the need, the tragedy, the joy, the hopes, the disappointments of others. 

Be tender-hearted! Are you? It is a costly choice.  Life is so much simpler if we avoid getting ‘involved’ with the ‘drama’ in other people’s lives. Compassion causes us to care. Care leads us to love. Love demands a response.  Love is messy, keeps us prayerful, makes us sacrifice.

There are those who choose to be tough, to reflect the pain around them back onto those who suffer.  “Choices have consequences,” they say and then they brush off the broken, the bruised. Can you see Jesus saying, “Well, that’s tough. Work it out for yourself.” as He walks away?  No, that’s not His way.  What does the Word say? “We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”  Jesus stepped into the sinful world, not as some demi-god or nobleman, but as a servant to save us. He did not do it because we had made one simple mistake with which we needed a little help. He found us at the point of desperation and died for us!

Look again at the constellation of character that the love of God creates in us if we allow the Spirit to do His work:  “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  These qualities will make us willing to forgive, give love a fertile place to grow in us, and create a community of authentic love.  Those kinds of churches are awfully rare and tremendously precious, in my opinion. 

Tenderhearted is not the same as naïve, by the way. It is sometimes true that a person has made terrible decisions that have led them into a swamp of misery.  Love doesn’t mean we become participants in the dysfunction or evil of another.  We are people committed to bold love that redeems and lifts, modeled after that of Jesus. He did not come to merely soothe us and tell us that everything is just fine. He came to rescue us from sin, to show us the Way to our Father, and to lead us out of slavery to sin to lives that are beautiful. But, we cannot be like Him if we cannot weep, if we cannot find empathy, if we are unwilling to see beyond the surface.

Ours is a world full of pain, anger, and victimhood!  Make it your prayer to be a person with a tender heart – moved to care, to prayer, to redemptive love.

Here is the word from the Word. "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 4:31-5:2, NIV)

____________

Hosanna

(note the prayer near the end of the song)

I see the King of glory

Coming on the clouds with fire

The whole earth shakes

The whole earth shakes yeah

I see His love and mercy

Washing over all our sin

The people sing

The people sing

Hosanna hosanna

Hosanna in the highest

Hosanna hosanna

Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation

Rising up to take their place

With selfless faith

With selfless faith

I see a near revival

Stirring as we pray and seek

We're on our knees

We're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

Brooke Ligertwood

© 2006 Hillsong Music Publishing (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

When Goliath taunts

Yesterday was one of those days when my constant prayer was like that of the man who came to Jesus desperately in need of a miracle for his son. When Jesus asked him to trust Him, he said, "I believe. Help me with my doubts!”  (Mark 9:24, The Message)  Yes, the questions outran the immediate answers and a part of me was ready to pack it in and let someone else deal with it all.

What I know for certain is that God is undaunted and not surprised by those things that appear overwhelming to me.  So, the real question is not “how can I do this?”  Rather I ask, “What is Your will?”  If I am living in submission, obedience, and wisdom; I can trust Him to provide to assure that His purposes prevail.

Let’s consider a familiar faith story from the Bible.  David was a teenager when his father sent him with supplies for his older brothers in the Israeli army. There, the young shepherd saw Goliath of Gath. The man was called a ‘giant,’ a champion of a hundred battles. He carried a spear that looked like a beam from a house, with a tip the size of an anvil!  His huge body was encased in a leather wrap, covered with metal scales.  He lumbered to the front line of the Philistine army looking frightful. From there he roared his challenge- “When are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves!" (1 Samuel 17:8-9, NLT) Every day offered the same taunt. 

The men of Israel cowered. After all, who could meet such a freak of nature on the field of battle and succeed?

It was an impossibility, or so it appeared to every reasonable man with military experience!

David had developed a love for the Lord that shaped every other thing in his life, even at his tender age. When Goliath roared, the shepherd boy saw it as a challenge to God Himself. Faith rose up in him.  "Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26, NLT) His brothers told him to “Shut up and sit down.”  The king counseled him that he just ‘could not do this’ and when he said he was determined, Saul tried to give him armor.  But, David real strength is revealed in his reply to Goliath’s mockery:  “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty.” 

Moments after David’s ringing affirmation of faith, Goliath fell when a smooth stone from the teenager’s slingshot connected with his forehead.  Goliath never saw what was coming because he could not see the true power of the kid with a slingshot. God saw a mighty warrior of faith and directed that stone to the target. David saw the same giant as a thousand other men, but he saw him through eyes of faith. They saw a champion they could not defeat. David saw a mortal man throwing down a challenge to the Lord God he loved.

When temptation, loss, disappointment, confusion, or fear taunts us will we cower or conquer? Our answer largely depends on our perspective; whether it is informed by faith that flows from a daily conversation with God and truth of the Scripture or is limited by ‘conventional’ wisdom.  Pray often, "Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions." (Psalm 119:18, NLT) 

Do you see only the probable or do you see the possible? 
This is much more than just ‘positive thinking.’

The issue for those of us who are Christian is our vision –
is it formed by the natural or informed by the Spirit?

Can we see beyond this day and the challenges into eternity?

We can only see as God sees when we are willing to listen intently to the voice of the Spirit.  If we will walk with Him, faith will live in us and we will be prepared to meet the Goliath challenges with sight sharpened by faith!  Let’s be clear – that doesn’t mean we get to do whatever we want to do, nor does it mean that all the things we dream about will happen.  It does mean that we can trust Him to care for us, to provide what we need when we need it.

Here’s a word from the Word.  When I read this passage, like that father in the Gospel, I pray for increased faith to receive it as more than words. Read slowly, prayerfully. Let the amazing promise soak into your soul and mind today; then take on that giant that is terrorizing you this day!

"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT)

________________

Good, Good Father 
(listen, learn, and worship)

I've heard a thousand stories

Of what they think You’re like

But I've heard the tender whisper

Of love in the dead of night

You tell me that You’re pleased

And that I'm never alone

You're a Good Good Father

It's who You are

It's who You are

It's who You are

And I'm loved by You

It's who I am

It's who I am

It's who I am

I've seen many searching for answers

Far and wide

But I know we're all searching for answers

Only You provide

Because You know just what we need

Before we say a word

You are perfect in all of Your ways

You are perfect in all of Your ways

You are perfect in all of Your ways to us

Love so undeniable I can hardly speak

Peace so unexplainable I can hardly think

As You call me deeper still

As You call me deeper still

As You call me deeper still

Into love love love

You're a Good Good Father

It's who You are

It's who You are

It's who You are

And I'm loved by You

It's who I am

It's who I am

It's who I am

Anthony Brown | Pat Barrett

© 2014 Capitol CMG Paragon (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

Common Hymnal Publishing (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055