I appreciate you!

 

Everybody complains about something at least some of the time. It seems that we slip more easily into griping than gratitude, tending to note what’s wrong than what’s right. Nowhere is that more likely to happen than in our homes, in the context of our closest relationships.  We take more liberties with the people we with whom we rub shoulders every day, criticizing, noting perceived failures, becoming irritated with their little weird habits. And, that can become toxic!  

 Drs. John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman have invested their professional lives enriching relationships. After a survey of 40,000 marriages this is their conclusion:  “The No. 1 phrase in successful relationships: 'Thank you' A thriving relationship requires an enthusiastic culture of appreciation, where we're as good at noticing the things our partners are doing right as we are at noticing what they're doing wrong. But it's easy to fall into the trap of only seeing what your partner is not doing. You develop a narrative where you're the one putting in all the effort, and you start to believe it's true.” 

When I read that article it rang true to me. I also saw an application to our relationship with God. Our prayers can turn into gripe sessions, whining about the things we do not like, the ways that we feel God is failing us.  When that happens to us, our faith diminishes, our intimacy with our Father in Heaven reduced.

Remember the stories of the Exodus? God led Israel out of Egypt. He fed them, protected them, was present in the cloud by day and fire by night. With no sense of irony, the former slaves complained bitterly about the food God provided each morning. "The people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember all the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6, NLT)  Their endless complaints turned into faithlessness, and they eventually refused God’s leadership when it came time to enter the Promised Land. The entire generation died in the wilderness because of that disobedience. Let me say it again – a disobedience rooted in a lack of gratitude!

We can pray honest prayers that seek God’s help and relief from pain and/or struggle. He understands our tears and our fears. However, the counsel of the Scripture is that we learn the habit of gratitude, living a life that has a foundation of faith supported by real worship and praise!  

Do a search in the Psalms using the word “praise.” You will find dozens of songs like this: "With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God. I will give glory to your name forever, for your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from the depths of death!" (Psalm 86:12-13, NLT) "I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are discouraged take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:1-3, NLT)

Jesus encountered 10 men with leprosy one day, an awful disease that turned the leper into an outcast. He healed them and 9 ran off without a word of thanks, but one is a model for us. "One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God, I’m healed!” He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?" (Luke 17:15-17, NLT)  There is a bit of detail included that we must not miss. The man full of gratitude was a Samaritan, one of those despised by the ‘people of God.’   Those who felt they were “God’s own” failed the test of gratitude.  We can develop such a sense of entitlement that we fail to give thanks, too.

Do you want to know richer worship? Do you want to enjoy a more intimate prayer life? Do you want your life to be richer with peace and contentment?  The KEY is true gratitude, learning a habit of thankfulness that becomes as natural as taking a breath.

Our word from the Word is a simple directive. Lord, help us to live it out.
"Always be joyful. Keep on praying.
No matter what happens, always be thankful,
for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT)

We may not always be thankful for what happens in our lives, but we can be grateful to our God, for Who He is, what He has done, and His promises of life eternal. Amen.

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Goodness Of God

 

I love You Lord

Oh Your mercy never fails me

All my days

I've been held in Your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my head

I will sing of the goodness of God

 

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

 

I love Your voice

You have led me through the fire

In darkest night

You are close like no other

I've known You as a father

I've known You as a friend

I have lived in the goodness of God

 

Your goodness is running after

It’s running after me

Your goodness is running after

It’s running after me

With my life laid down

I’m surrendered now

I give You everything

Your goodness is running after

It's running after me

 

Ben Fielding | Brian Johnson | Ed Cash | Jason Ingram | Jenn Johnson

 

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Reverent?

 

I am generally an irreverent kind of person, not much impressed with pomp and circumstance nor over-awed by trappings of power. But I do know the wonder of worship and the humble response of awe in the Presence of God. Do you?  We generally suffer from a lack of reverence in our time.  We have seen too many of the ‘great’ with their failure revealed before the world.  Remember that moment in The Wizard of Oz when Toto, Dorothy’s little dog pulls back a curtain and reveals that the Great Oz is a fraud, just a man pulling levers on a machine. There’s no magic, at all!

Reverence and wonder have been robbed from us when we come to think that all things are common, everything is understood if we can peel back the curtain.  Oh I quite thankful for those who have given us discoveries of science that help us to live healthier, longer lives. I am grateful for our press that reminds us that the emperor has no clothes. But, there is a downside to our loss of wonder. 

Many Christians no longer are able to live in humility before God, insisting that He explain, serve, and become more like us. We reduce God to bite-size. He is too often tamed, explained, trivialized, robbed of His majesty. A small god cannot guide nor guard. If make God only a Friend, but not our Sovereign, we will lose our ability for worship, for reverence, and for deep faith.

Job, that tested man of Bible story, brought his bitter complaint to the Lord. One of his friends, the youngest, challenges him to reconsider his challenge to God’s care and power. “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge? You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?" (Job 37:14-18, NIV)  

Then the Lord Himself spoke to Job, not to explain but to invite renewed faith. Job’s response is one we all do well to follow. God said “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” Then Job answered the LORD: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth." (Job 40:2-4, NIV)

Habakkuk, the preacher, teaches us that the Lord God will inspire great hope. He deeply loves His people, but He also holds them responsible for their choices and unapologetically demands their holy service. Habakkuk wonders at the foolishness of idol-making that stole the majesty of the One who is Creator of all. “Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”

We may not carve wooden figures to receive our worship, but we often create our own gods. We reject the mystery of His majesty too often, irreverently rushing to Him without knowing His holiness. In this God becomes, to us, a misshapen and twisted caricature, Someone we keep around for times of trouble and forget when the sun shines brightly.  The preacher starkly says - “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” (Habakkuk 2:18-20, NIV)

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the majesty of God.

Let Him be Who He is; amazing, infinite, holy, beautiful, omnipotent, worthy of honor.

Here is a word from the Word.
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:33-36, NIV)

Are you reverent? That sense of awe, of profound respect, is the heart of worship.

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Majesty

Majesty worship His majesty
Unto Jesus be all glory
Honor and praise
Majesty kingdom authority
Flow from His throne
Unto His own His anthem raise

So exalt lift up on high
The name of Jesus
Magnify come glorify
Christ Jesus the King
Majesty worship His majesty
Jesus who died now glorified
King of all kings

 

Jack Hayford

© 1981 New Spring (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)

Mulligan

 

Years ago, when I played at golf (I make no claim of actually playing golf since my game was so bad) I played an informal game that included ‘mulligans.’  A mulligan is a ‘do-over!’ Formal golf counts every stroke, good and bad. When playing mulligans, the first shot that went awry is set aside. Only the second one counts.  

 In those final seconds of last night’s Bengals vs. Chiefs game I thought of mulligans when Ossai of the Bengals hit Mahomes out of bounds and set the Chiefs up for the game winning field goal. He made a split-second decision that went wrong, badly!  At game’s end, he was sitting on the bench, towel over his head, dejected. We can all identify with Joseph Ossai’s regret, can’t we? We all have made decisions too quickly, said something in anger, or impulsively acted in some way. If only life offered mulligans, right?

Fact is, though God does not provide do-overs, He does offer forgiveness and new beginnings for those who come to Him in full faith. The promise is this – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, NIV)

We look at our lives, our sins and mistakes, our disappointments, and we have a choice:  we can grow bitter or we can get better. People who keep reliving failure – their own and those of others – will become angry and/or depressed over time, focused so much on the past that they are unable to see the future. God invites us to look forward, to leave those things we got so wrong with Him, and to take His grace for a new day. 

Paul had plenty of regrets. He was a man who persecuted Christ’s followers, who vehemently opposed the Gospel until he met Christ in a Damascus Road conversion moment. Later he reflects on his choice to accept forgiveness and renewal. "No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven." (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT) He found something better than a mulligan. He found a new life in Christ Jesus, his Savior.

What’s dogging you this Monday morning?

Is there something to which you return, wishing for a mulligan?

Instead of wishing for what can never be trust Christ. Tell Him honestly of your regrets. Take your failures and sins to Him without excuse or justification. He ‘makes all things new,’ reconciling us to our Heavenly Father and giving hope for each day.

Here is a word from the Word. Meditate on the challenge and the promise. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." (1 John 1:8-2:1, NIV)   In Christ there are no mulligans, but there are new beginnings. 

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Who You Say I Am

 

Who am I that the highest King
Would welcome me
I was lost but He brought me in
Oh His love for me
Oh His love for me

 

Who the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I'm a child of God
Yes I am

 

Free at last
He has ransomed me
His grace runs deep
While I was a slave to sin
Jesus died for me
Yes He died for me

 

In my Father's house
There's a place for me
I'm a child of God
Yes I am

 

I am chosen not forsaken
I am who You say I am
You are for me not against me
I am who You say I am

 

(Oh) (Yes) I am who You say I am

 

Ben Fielding | Reuben Morgan

© 2017 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055