Phillipians 3:12No, 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. One things I’ve been reminded of recently is that I can’t move forward if I’m always looking back because I’m facing the wrong direction. Whatever direction your head is facing is the direction your body will go. So, logically, if my face is always looking backwards then I’ll be moving that direction. That’s a scary thought. There have been a lot of times recently when I’ve caught myself looking back and wishing I’d done something or other differently. The problem is that if I keep looking back at that time, I’ll never move forward or learn from it because I’m fixating on the issue. It’s so easy to stay chained to mistakes we’ve made and refuse to step out of the chains, even though they’re not locked on us because we’ve been forgiven by Jesus. He has set us free. He doesn’t look back (He’s forgotten it, remember), and neither should we. Look forward so we can move forward. What can I do today, what can I do tomorrow. Or better, rejoice in today and rejoice in the promise of tomorrow, resting on God’s strength and promises to see you through today and tomorrow.
Jeremiah 7:19“Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the Lord. “Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame.” This verse made me think of our culture. We go around pretending that there is no God or that He is impersonal and uninterested in our lives. It gives us a feeling that we are powerful or in control. But in the end, who is the one who is getting hurt? Does pretending there isn’t a God make it true? It makes Him sad, but it doesn’t make Him not God. We hurt ourselves by taking on the weights and worries of this world, by trusting in ourselves instead of allowing the God who made us and knows exactly the perfect solution to lead us. We like to think we are so self-sufficient, but we hurt ourselves by making it all so hard when there is a loving Father who wants to help. We just need to stop trying to play God and trust God to BE God.
Jeremiah 5:22Do you have no respect for me? Why do you not tremble in my presence? I often think of God as a loving, Abba Father, whose lap I can snuggle into and be safe and warm. And this is true of Him. But He is also Almight God, Judge of humanity. He does love me, but He is just. He created the Universe, telling the oceans where they have to stop, the sun where and how hot to shine, and the earth exactly how it must orbit to sustain life. It’s His hand that knows every detail and whose hand everything must pass through to affect our life. It’s so easy to forget to have respect for God, thinking only of the warmer side of His love. It’s very easy, and convenient for us, to forget that He is so incredibly powerful and holds each minute of our life in His hand. We are so fragile compared to Him. How easily He could break us if He chose to. How greatly He loves us – enough to bless and enough to punish. Love and Trembling. Both are aspects of our relationship with God. Love to remind us that we are valued and bought at a tremendous price; and trembling to remind us that God is just and that He asks for obedience and faith.
Psalm 10:17Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them. Frank Peretti wrote a book called This Present Darkness (he also wrote Piercing the Darkness). It’s amazing. For me, it changed how I viewed the spiritual realm, making it more concrete in my mind. In these books he tells the story from the character’s viewpoint, but also from the viewpoint of the angels and demons that are part of the spiritual realm that surrounds us. For example, when the saints of God finally start praying about the problem they are faced with, the angels are energized and strengthened and given the go-ahead for battle. It also shows a little of the darker side as the author imagines how the enemy’s forces subtly infiltrate our society. If you haven’t read these books, I highly recommend them. They’re a great read! That being said, those books remind me a lot of our present times. Psalm 10 talks about how the wicked in the world pretend there isn’t a God. They are full of cursing, lies, threats, mistreating those who are weaker, caring only about advancing themselves. Granted, this is a generalization because there are many good people in the world, but more and more it seems our society is shoving God and His Word and precepts under the rug, hoping that they will disappear and be forgotten. They are systematically erasing God from society. Or trying to. But God will not be forgotten. He planned this time, too. It’s not a surprise to Him. And He won’t ignore the cries of His people. He hears and sees them, even down to knowing what they hope for! Things we hope for aren’t things we usually utter aloud. They are things hidden in our hearts. But God knows these things, too. Throughout history God has come to the rescue of the helpless. Even if this is the “End Times” He will not be erased, He will not be crushed, and He will be triumphant, rescuing His children at His appointed time. These days, it can be a little scary to be a Christ-follower, especially if you follow the government’s acts. And it’s easy to live in our bubble, forgetting the world outside is making laws and setting precedent that affects our bubble. As a Christ-follower I am called to pray for our leaders, pray for the salvation and repentance of our nation, and trust God to help me when I feel helpless against the rip currents of our present world. I may feel helpless, and I may be helpless, but I serve a God who is anything but helpless, and that makes all the difference.
Joshua 14:12So I’m asking you to give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the Anakites living there in great walled cities. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said. This is Caleb speaking. He and Joshua were the only two scouts to encourage the Israelites to take the Promised Land, but when they refused he and Joshua were told that they would be the only two men left who would be able to enter the Promised Land after wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years. So, Caleb was 85 years old when he finally got the land that he was promised! I love that this 85-year-old man, who was still well and active according to the Bible, is all ready to charge in and conquer – after all this time, he still believed God’s promise to give the Israelites the land. He knows that the Anakites are giants and have huge walled cities, but he is confident in the power of God to help him remove them from the land. So, on faith he asks for the land he was promised, trusting that God will help him to subdue it so he can actually live there peacefully. So, perhaps when we know that God has called us to do something and it’s too big to be done on our own, we should go in anyway to claim our promised reward, trusting that God will conquer the giants before us as we move forward in faith. For example, God has called us to tithe our income back to Him. Right now, that means our budget is incredibly tight and sometimes it seems impossible to be able to make the ends meet. But, God has promised to provide, and so we tithe first, not always knowing how things will work together. And God does conquer the giants each month.
Romans 16:20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The church where our children attend daycare has a sign that changes each week. The second week we took them there it said, “If God has called you to do a great work, expect opposition.” I had a friend who told me one time that if you’re not facing opposition and Satan isn’t throwing curveballs then you’re not a threat, you’re not a danger to him. We do have an enemy and when we are serving Jesus and loving others and doing what God has called us to do, it threatens him and he will whatever he can to discourage us and cause us to fail. Maybe that’s part of why my family can’t seem to catch a break. I believe my husband is called to do something bigger than he is. But I also believe that the enemy has found those sensitive areas that have caused him to get discouraged and stop moving forward. It affects me as well sometimes. But this verse says that God (even a God of PEACE) will crush Satan under our feet. Not under God’s feet. It will be a victory for us through the power of Jesus Christ. We can fight back with God’s strength, power, and peace. That peace comes from believing Jesus and trusting Him and resting in His ability to do anything no matter how big or small. We don’t have to be weighed down and discouraged by the opposition of the enemy. Our God has overcome the world! He has given us spiritual armor to withstand the assault of the enemy! Stand strong! Stand firm! Stand of the promises and in the grace of God! Stand! And when the time is right, advance!