LET GO!

When life isn’t going so well for my friends, it comes naturally to me to give them a hug and a word of encouragement.  Sometimes we’ll share stories of God’s faithfulness over coffee. I might send them a card or an email and remind them that no matter how dark their situation, God is in control.  And I’m not simply tossing out platitudes here--or trivializing what they’re going through. When I pray for them, I release them into God’s care with total confidence. 

But when the winds of trouble blow at home, the situation gets a bit stickier.  I can believe it for my friends, for my husband, for me, but what about my kids?  Why is it so hard for me to just hand it all over to God when it’s about my kids?  

As our children grow into adults, their problems and concerns are more serious than when they were children.  They’re facing things like heartbreak, disappointment, career decisions, choosing a life partner, health issues.  There’s no possible way for me to fix those kinds of things!  Still, I’ll lie awake at night mulling them over, worrying, exploring every possible outcome.  You know what?  That’s CRAZY, and here’s why:  God’s promises are not something I can pass down to my children like a family china pattern. Those promises already belong to my children.  I’m not the one sitting at the right hand of God, pleading their case for them--Jesus is! 

What a relief, it’s not up to me. Certainly, I’m going to continue to encourage my girls, to pray for and with them.  But ultimately, God’s got it all in control and they are in His tender care. 

And as for me, I need to let go! 


What about YOU?  Is it hard for you to let go?

For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.  1 Timothy 2:5 

It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.  1 Corinthians 3:7

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Proverbs 22:5-7

JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL

“Jesus take the wheeeel, take it from my hands.”                        

Oh, I do love that song, and when it comes on the radio, I’m singing every word right along with Carrie-- much to the chagrin of some unnamed family members. 


The last time I heard that song, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it make more sense to just let Jesus KEEP the wheel? Now it’s a great song, and I’m certainly not knocking the idea that once we come to the realization that we’ve made a mess of things, it’s time to call on Jesus. But when I am saying is, once we’re out of calamity, we tend to subtly say, “thanks Jesus, I can take it from here.” The truth is, that’s how we met with disaster in the first place.


I’ve always been a doer, fixer, problem solver kind of girl, so it’s not easy for me to scoot over to the passenger side. But it’s not enough to cast God in the role of consultant or co-pilot, He want’s me to put Him in the driver’s seat. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."  There’s a reason we shouldn’t depend on our own understanding; we can’t always see the big picture, but God can. He knows every curve in the road and what’s best for us, not only today, but in the future. His word says He delights in us and orders our steps. (Psalm 37:23) We need to learn to seek His wisdom at every turn and let His word be the GPS that maps our journey.


I love this translation of Mark 8:34-35 from The Message because it’s plain and simple!


Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how.’ 

 Is it difficult for you to surrender your control to God? How is He teaching you this lesson?

Clean Sweep

When we moved to Texas I told myself I HAD purged my closet of all unnecessary items before we moved.  Well, I was kidding myself.  Day after day, I would have to dig through my closet searching for this blouse or those pants.  There was just too much stuff.  Every few weeks or so I’d say, I’m going to clean out the closet this week... sometimes I’d even make a half hearted attempt and toss away a thing or two.  Well, yesterday was D Day!  I got out of bed and tackled the job before I’d even had my coffee.  Four bulging trash bags later I was a little sweaty and disheveled, but so gratified!  It felt SOOOO good!  Why had I put the task off for so long?  My mornings will be so much more peaceful.  

Why are we so compelled to hang on to our “junk,” not just the material, but the spiritual and emotional as well? There are things we know we need to get rid of, like worry, unforgiveness and jealousy.  They’re useless things, they crowd out all the good and cause us nothing but heartache.  Trust me, we’re never going to need them!  It’s time to let them go, give them all to Jesus, he’ll gladly take them off our hands.  Just think how good it will feel!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1

Faith of Our Fathers

Maybe it's all this talk of Springtime, the Resurrection and new beginnings, whatever the reason, Romans 4:17 has been SO much on my mind.  


As it is written: "I have made you (Abraham) a father of many nations."  He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.     NIV


Continuing  on through verse 21...


Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.    NIV


Try as I may, sometimes I waver, and my faith is quite the opposite of strengthened.  So I thought it might do me some good to read it again.  So I did.  And then I decided it to read it again and then in 3 or 4 translations and WHOA, I LOVE this one, it's my favorite.  


From The Message:


^17-18 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"



I love how it says, first Abraham was named "father", then he became father, because he dared to trust.  


So today, I'm going to look at all of those things that I so long to be a reality, I'm going to call them "done."  And instead of lying awake thinking about them tonight, I'm going to dare to trust God to do what only HE can:  raise the dead to life and with just a word--make something out of nothing.  


What are YOU believing God for today?

Two Turtle Doves and Loaf of Bread--Hold The Yeast

Our senior pastor challenged us to a church-wide mitzvot to read through the One Year Bible in 2010. This sounded like a great idea to me.  As much as I hate to admit it, I've never read the ENTIRE Bible--cover to cover--even though I've been following Christ since I was a child.  This also really, really appealed to my somewhat competitive ambitious nature-- I LOVE A CHALLENGE!  I went right out to amazon.com and purchased the One Year Bible for my kindle--FABULOUS Christmas gift from my sweet husband--and jumped right in on January 1.

The whole thing started off swimmingly.  Genesis was great; it had the excitement of creation, the flood, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the great promises made to Abraham.  Revisiting all those bible stories I've loved since I was a kid was wonderful.  The time seemed to fly by each morning as I read through the assigned passages and before I knew it, I had read 12% of the bible!  Then we got to Leviticus...

I'll share a tidbit from February 20th: 

     Leviticus 9: 19-21 Then he took the fat of the bull and the ram—the fat of the broad tail and from around the internal organs—along with the kidneys and the long lobes of the livers.   He placed these fat portions on top of the breasts of these animals and burned them on the altar.  Aaron then lifted up the breasts and right thighs as a special offering to the Lord, just as Moses had commanded.

And there you have it, the reason I've never read the Bible all the way through.  I would always get bogged down in Leviticus, with all those repetitive, very graphic passages about goat heads, kidney lobes and Aaron's bloody toes and earlobes--yuck!  And I'd really like to know what God had against yeast--a wise man would have definitely gotten entirely out of the yeast market and put all of his shekels in turtle doves... okay, now I'm rambling.

Surely that stuff isn't so important today, it's not like we round up the first born of our flock every Sunday morning before heading off to our place of worship, right???  Riiiiight, but let's get back to this mitzvot thing.  The whole point of the mitzvot is to commit to something that if done in the right spirit can prove transformational to the um--mitzvee.  And let me tell you, I could use transformational--ESPECIALLY. IN. THE. AREA. OF. DISCIPLINE.  Okay, you don't have to agree SO vigorously--I can see you out there nodding your heads-- "oh bless her heart she sure could..." 

So that's it-- no skipping, skimming or dodging of the less than riveting passages. This will be my sacrifice, the sweet fragrance I offer up to Him.  I will joyfully apply myself to this task, even when it's not exciting. And while I'm at it, I'll claim this promise,  "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Philipians 1:6 NLT

Here's a link if you want to join me on this journey...One Year Bible

The Now and The Not Yet

I like closure. Answers. Neat tidy solutions all tied up with a bow. Call me a sucker, but I love a Hollywood ending. Trouble is, in real life they're not all that easy to come by. In real life the people we love get incurable illnesses, families slowly fall apart, long time friends turn on one another for seemingly no reason. We stand by hoping, praying for answers. Please don't mistake my impatience for unbelief. My faith is strong, unwavering and I know God has a plan for it all. Sometimes I wish He'd let me in on it. Paul said that now we know in part, but one day will know fully. But right now, I'm caught in between the now and the not yet and sometimes it does seem like forever and ever.

I've always loved this beautiful lyric by Pam Mark Hall