Do you know His Providence?

Just about every Christian has days when faith wavers under the weight of frustration or disappointment. Life falls apart in spite of our best efforts and we wonder “Does God know what He’s doing?” Sometimes His plan emerges quickly and we feel the joy of resolution. Some situations remain without explanation years later. 

When I was a young preacher, fresh and ready to take on the world, I felt strongly led by the Spirit to uproot my little family and move 2000 miles west to Wyoming. There, in the town of Gillette, a booming energy center at the time, I planned to plant a new church. After our arrival in the town, one frustration followed another. I ended up working as a laborer laying concrete for parking lots so we could pay the bills. In all of that, a friend connected me with an engineering company that was looking for quality control person for a huge job site!   

Over the next 12 months I learned how to read blueprints and about major construction practices. Then, my Dad called me from New Jersey asking if I would come back to the church to become the project manager of the construction of a large church building. I thought I went to Wyoming to plant a church. God led me there to gain an education and to prepare me for the next step in the road. (Beside that, I also learned so much about the meaning of His amazing grace but that’s another story.)

It may sound like a cliché but here is what I know today – at the end of my dreams there is the plan of my loving Father! 

About 6 centuries before the time of Christ Jesus, the Jews found themselves overtaken by the Assyrians, their nation destroyed, their dreams shattered. Many concluded that the story of God’s people was over, but there was a promise from the LORD: "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." (Jeremiah 29:11-12, NIV)  In His time, they did rebuild the nation!

The story of Ruth is one of providence, too!   Naomi and her family were living in Moab. Her two sons married Moabite women and for 10 years, life was good, then... her husband and both sons died! Naomi's life was tragic, her dreams shattered. As she prepared to return to Israel, her daughter in law, Ruth, declared that she would go there, too. They were poor, struggling to survive on the generosity of the people in Naomi’s hometown.  Where was God in all that happened to her? Right there with her. Now that might just seem to the 'right' answer, but it is the true answer. After learning of the tragic circumstances of her life, we are encouraged by the end of Naomi's story.  Her daughter in law was loved by one of Naomi’s kinsmen. He married her and that Moabite woman became the great-grandmother of King David!!

God used Naomi, to touch an alien woman’s life. Ruth was brought to Israel and included in the line of David and the line of the Messiah, Jesus. You might read that and say, "So, does that make the pain Naomi had to endure all right?" I cannot answer that, nor can you! 

Here is what I do know- at the end of our dreams we find God’s purposes. Often, because of our prideful self-sufficiency, God must allow our dreams to be shattered so we can find His plan for us. When God doesn't make OUR dreams come true, we are faced with a huge choice. Will we trust Him and wait for a new dream to replace the shattered one OR will we descend into bitterness and unbelief?

In such moments, I borrow the prayer of a desperate father who brought his son for healing to Jesus and cried out when the Lord asked him to believe: "I do believe, but help me not to doubt!" (Mark 9.24)

IF we will trust Him, He can give us a new dream, a new life that recovers HOPE! Life is not about us living in a perfectly balanced scale where the pain is always offset by the blessings, where the hard times are offset by the good times. Life is about living in full faith, trusting that He is able to keep us secure in His love through the shattered dreams! 

Are you wondering if God knows what He’s doing today? 
Quiet your heart!
Reach out to people who will love you, weep with you, and hold you up until your faith is strong enough to touch the heart of God again.

Reject the easy answers, the psycho-babble, the half- truths..... but do not reject God. Ask Him for courage to weep yet keep hope and faith intact as you pray --- "I do believe, but help me not to doubt!"

The word from the Word comes from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. As you read his witness to God’s goodness, may faith grow in you. "I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. And he did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are confident that he will continue to deliver us. He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people’s prayers for our safety have been answered." (2 Corinthians 1:8-11, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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I love this hymn, singing it often!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning
New mercies I see;
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Lord, unto me.

Great is Thy faithfulness,
O God my Father,
There is no shadow
Of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not,
Thy compassions they fail not;
As Thou hast been
Thou forever wilt be.

Summer and winter
And springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars
In their courses above;
Join with all nature
In manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness,
Mercy and love

Pardon for sin
And a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence
To cheer and to guide;
Strength for today
And bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine,
With ten thousand beside!

Chisholm, Thomas O. / Runyan, William M © 1923. Renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Company

CCLI License No. 810055

Praying like you mean it!

When you pray, for yourself and for others, for what do you ask?  Do you pray specifically, making direct requests? Or, are you prayers filled with churchy words, a string of 'hallelujahs' and 'thank you, Jesus' phrases that mean little to you?   Such prayers reflect little of the passion God wants to see in us.  God reserves the right to answer our prayers as He sees fit, but we do not have to protect Him or ourselves by avoiding direct petitions. 

Ask God for specifics for your friend.  Does she struggle with addiction, for example?  Then …
Pray against the strategies of the Evil One.
Pray that she will find people to stand with her to encourage and provide accountability.  
Pray that God will let her touch the bottom of desperation and
that the Spirit will shine the light of hope into that pit.  Yes, that kind of specific prayer is what God desires from us.

In Mark 10, we are told the story of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. He sat by the roadside everyday depending on the generosity of others for survival. One day, he heard a commotion of a crowd. “When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (10:47) He believed Jesus could help him and he believed he needed to make his need known. In his desperation, he set aside propriety!

Blind beggars were used to calling out to those passing by for help, but they also were used to being ignored. Bartimaeus was not going to be ignored and so he shouted for Jesus' attention. His 'prayer' irritated people who were standing nearby and yet he kept it up! "Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:48, NIV)

Jesus stopped and asked that the yelling beggar be  brought to him.  The question He asked of the man might seen cruel: "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked. (10:51)  But, Jesus was urging the blind man to go deeper, to understand what he really wanted Him to do. "Do you want some money? Do you want someone to care for you? What do you want?"   Bart says, "I WANT TO SEE!"  

The request is direct, focused, and begs an answer. It is a prayer full of faith, too. Jesus healed him on the spot.  “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road." (Mark 10:52, NIV)

Jesus taught this about our most earnest praying. “And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5-6, NLT)  Public prayers are not wrong, but our most earnest praying will be done where we get real with God, where we are able to cry, shout, groan, and speak honestly!  That kind of prayer changes us and our world.

If we are convinced that Jesus Christ is One with the solutions to our problems, then we need to ask Him boldly and clearly, for what we need and/or want. It is His place as Lord and Master to say, "yes" or to say "no." It is our place to ask. More than a few of us are blind today -- not physical blindness, but blind to the true state of our heart, blind to the needs of the world around us, and even blind when it comes to 'seeing' God's plans for our lives. We need to get desperate and cry out, yes... SHOUT, even.... "Lord, have mercy on me! I want to see!"

Here at at the start of 2024, I pray for clear vision, for a renewed desire to dream the dreams He has for me, for the courage to ask God for BIG things on behalf of others, and for the resolution to keep faith connected to my day to day life. How about you? “And all God’s people said, … Amen.”

Here is a word from the Word. Lord, increase our faith! "Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him." (Matthew 7:7-11, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Open my eyes

Open my eyes, that I may see,

Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me.

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

 

Silently now, I wait for Thee,

Ready, my God, Thy will to see!

Open my eyes, illumine me,

Spirit divine.

 

Open My Eyes That I May See (Open My Eyes)

Clara H. Fiske Scott

© Words: Public Domain

Follow Your Heart

How many times have you been told - “just follow your heart”?  Sounds right, doesn’t it?  We will not live with much joy if we choose to dutifully slog through this new year doing whatever someone else tells us to do. Each one of us is unique and to that extent it is a good thing to live joyfully in who we are.

I stood alongside of a young man yesterday who took tools in hand and fixed a machine in a matter of moments and watched the happiness of accomplishing that task spread over his face. It’s who he is. He would be miserable behind a desk!  I know a family who loves the various animals that are part of their lives. They expend great energies in their care of the many creatures. While I do not share their love, I admire the joy they find in the work because it is uniquely who they are.

The ‘noble person’ idea is an attractive philosophy to us, allowing us to believe that we are capable of accomplishing great good by our own efforts. Again there is a kernel of truth there. Human beings can do incredibly wonderful  things for the good of the world. But, inside of every one of us there is a flaw - an attraction to Self that twists our most noble impulse into that which ultimately serves our own desires. We cannot abandon all other guidelines in the pursuit of our joy. 

Those who cast off all restraints to ‘follow their hearts’ fail to understand a basic tenet of the wisdom of God that reminds us of the unpleasant truth of sin. Here’s what we learn. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, NIV) Our natural desire is self-preservation, which unchecked by law or Spirit, becomes an expression of selfishness. If human beings were innately good, we would not need our laws, would we?

However, we know that when law is thrown off or breaks down, chaos is quick to follow.  A simple example is a classroom of 5^th graders. Take the teacher out of the classroom for a while and see how quickly the rules are forgotten.  Paul reminds us of the "sinful nature.”  Because of it we experience a conflict of values.  He says “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway." (Romans 7:18-19, NLT)

There is HOPE for us.  Our hearts can be changed. When Christ Jesus entered the world He brought the gift of salvation from sin and invites us to experience the ongoing transformation that is the Spirit’s work in us to make us new, beautiful, whole beings who discover the joy of His plans and purpose.  Oh, yes, I readily acknowledge that mere religion will be just another tool of power used by the privileged to take advantage of the masses.  God’s invitation to us is not to adopt the rules written by others so that we can meet their expectatsions.  He invites us to come and follow Christ!  We can overcome sin and through faith find great joy in the company of the Living God.  This is His amazing declaration -  "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

Christians, like their Lord, will be ready to give up their lives to defeat evil with love. The laste Timothy Keller said “If we embrace the Christian teaching that Jesus is God and that he went to the Cross, then we have deep consolation and strength to face the brutal realities of life on earth. We can know that God is truly Emmanuel – God with us- even in our worst sufferings.” (Reason for God, Riverhead, 2008) We see the cross is followed by resurrection and therefore we have great hope that our dying to self will be followed by the emergence of something new and glorious. When our heart and mind are informed by the truth of the Word and we are given unique callings and abilities by God. Led by the Spirit, we can go beyond ‘following our heart’ to following the Spirit, Who will never make us slaves. He will instead make us into that person God created us to be, a being who lives for Him and finds great joy in their uniqueness.

As we launch into this New Year, let’s not be deceived by those who urge us to ‘just follow your heart!’ Instead let’s pray for the new, whole, and holy life that God gives us in Christ.

Here is the word from the Word. I am using The Message, a contemporary paraphrase of the Scripture today. Let the promise own you!
"So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”

God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! " (Romans 8:12-17, The Message)  

Let’s keep in step with the Spirit!

(Video of this blog at this link)

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I Want to Be More Like Jesus

As each day passes by, I feel my love run dry

I get so weary, worn and tossed 'round in the storm

Well I'm blind to all His needs and I'm tired of planting seeds

I seem to have a wealth of so many thoughts about myself

 

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

Our Father's will was done by giving us His Son

Who paid the highest cost, to point us to the cross

 

And when I think of Him taking on the whole world's sin

I take one look at me compared to what I'm called to be

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

Remember, there's no greater love

Than to lay down your life for a friend

 

The end of all my prayers is to care like my Lord cares

My one and only goal, His image in my soul

Yes, my weakness is revealed when by His stripes I'm healed

He's faithful and He's true to complete the work He begins in you

 

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

Remember, there's no greater love

Than to lay down your life, no

There's no greater love than to lay down your life

For a friend, for a friend

 

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus

I want to, I need to, be more like Him

 

Songwriters: Keith Gordon Green / Melody Green / Kelly Faye Willard