Salt and Light

Confession

Lord, I confess my busyness results in prayerlessness.

The other night I read The Gospel of John and noticed how often it recorded that Jesus went off to pray, he stayed constantly connected to the Father. In my busyness I have often neglected to spend time in prayer. My prayer life is something I am still working on. Knowing this I went to the bible bookstore and asked for a good book on prayer. Beth Moore’s book, Praying God’s Word was suggested.  The book speaks of responding to God’s words with our own, and so I have begun praying scripture back to him in my own words. For example:

John 11:35 “Jesus wept”  -God you cried real tears over us.  Thank you Lord for not just observing us like a ring leader in a circus, thank you for compassion over us.

John 14:21 “Who ever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” -Your word, God, goes straight to the heart.  I want to obey you.

The more time I am spending with God, he is changing me. I wanted to memorize the 23rd Psalm.  I sort of knew it, but I didn’t own it. God was asking me to be able to recall this passage whenever the stress from my busyness came knocking.  Here was my chance to dwell on God’s Words and not my own negative thinking. Memorizing his words helps me to see my unhealthy thinking and confess it to him. I was to cleanse my mind with the living water of his word.

Just this afternoon, I felt myself speeding up. There I was returning e-mails while talking on the phone and filing papers. He brought the words of Psalm 23:1,2 to mind, “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.” I confessed that I was letting the tasks wind me up and responded to his words, “Lord teach to rest. My strength has been sapped and I’m still trying to run, help me to understand that it’s ok to rest.”

Don’t get too busy to talk to the Father; He’s the only thing on your schedule you can’t afford to miss.

-M

Conviction

Life change begins with the conviction of sin

The other day I went up to my bed in the middle of the afternoon, put on some soft worship music and asked the Lord to reveal why I was saying, “yes” to so many things. I serve at church, in the community, I volunteer with non-profit groups, all while still having a full-time job, full-time family, full-time laundry, and the start of full-time migraines.  I rarely say “NO” to invitations for help. I want to be all things to all people. Truth, I thought my motives were pure and altruistic, but suddenly I felt the weight of exhaustion. God began to reveal that my busyness stemmed from putting other things before time with him.

When I was willing to see my busyness for what it was: pride, then the Lord was finally able to begin dealing with me.  The Word tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9); but, we can pray as the Psalmist did and ask God to search us, know us, and reveal any sin in us (Ps. 139). Then, He is Faithful to do so. Amy Carmichael writes in her book “IF”:

“The searchlight of The Spirit discovers us to ourselves, and such a discovery leaves us appalled.
  But the Light is not turned on to rob us of our hope.  There is a lifting up.  If only we desire to be purged from self with it’s entangling nets, its subtleties, its disguises….
  Love is pressing on all sides like air. Cease to resist, and instantly Love takes possession.”       

That afternoon I suddenly understood exactly what she had written.  I was appalled as I truly stopped to be still and look at my life; I felt the Spirit lift me and as the tears rolled down and His Love rushed in. I hate to grieve the One who is nothing but good. 

Jesus Christ is our Prince of Peace and if we observe him in the Gospels we will see that he is never hurried, frazzled or rushed.  If I am to be like Christ then I must repent and step away from putting other things before him.  It is only in his presence that we, you and I will become more like him, maybe someday, princesses of peace!

-M

His Good Plan Revealed

Remember the plan I had talked about God revealing to me? Here it is, an actual plan; action steps to helping me conquer my busyness addiction. I’ve referred back to this plan for months now; it has been like a guidepost. There are 5 core areas:

1. Conviction
2. Confession
3. Commit, Re-Turn to Him
4. Companionship
5. Continuing with Him

As I share God’s truth about each of these areas I hope that these steps will bring light to how God changes us. Even ingrained tendencies like “busyness” can be transformed by Christ’s ways.  He designed us; only he can change us into who we were made to be. We must begin by trusting that God knows us better than we know ourselves.

-M

Busy, Busy Bee

The overwhelming need to change washed over me, threatening to drown me. I needed help, so I asked God to bring true life back to the “slave to busyness” life I was attempting. God is good; He answered me with a plan and direction. Was I willing to listen and follow His instruction? Yes, I was. Are you? Each day I’m learning that real life is found in Christ alone. Am I perfect now? Not yet, but I hope that my journey will encourage you.

As I have cried out to God he has always graciously answered me.

“Teach me to be still and know that you are God. Lord, I come to you today with the conviction of sin in my heart.  Your Holy Spirit has brought an awareness of my extreme busyness. I have been running for so long, my co-workers and friends are runners too.  We have become “human doings” not “human beings”, and our task lists have pushed you out of the picture. I have not been willing to view my busyness as “sin;” but you have revealed its root, my pride is to blame.  Lord, I have a love/ hate relationship with busyness.  I am resentful and stressed when I’m too busy, yet I don’t feel important unless my schedule is packed with people, places and things. Show me what am I filling up my life with?”

I am learning to ask myself the following questions:
Q: Are you in my daily agenda Lord?
A: Barely. I want to trust Him and get to know Him better.      
Q: Is my family in my daily agenda? 
A: Barely. They’re used to taking a back seat to my activities. 
Q: Are close friends in my agenda? 
A: Barely. They know I am often late, and frequently frazzled. 

I‘m sick of barely living and I’m starting to see that all this self-centered living is sin. The scary thing is I don’t even know how to stop; I have to ask the Lord to slow me down, turn me back around and put my tired feet on his narrow path. I am learning to pray each day that God will make things clearer to me, to show me where I am wasting energy, sometimes living to please other people who barely know me.  The “pleasing” drive squeezes out my time with God until he is the one I barely know.

Are we willing to do what it takes to get back on track, surrendering our lives to Him? He created us and knows what is best for us. Let’s allow God to turn us back around and I believe that our joy in living will return as we are turned to him.

-M

Mountaintop Experiences

Every now and then, God takes us to the mountaintop to experience his presence in an amazing way, reality check: this is not the norm. In the Bible we read about the lives of those who spent years in obscurity in preparation for huge God-sized tasks; Moses spent 40 years in preparation, Joseph spent 14 years in a dungeon before receiving one of the highest positions in Egypt. The Apostle Paul tirelessly persecuted Christians till he saw the Light. God then set him apart from people and refined him in times of extreme solitude.  How do you think Paul felt as neither his old Jewish friends, nor his new Christian friends could trust him after so radical a conversion? Paul had to learn to put his trust in Christ alone.  He would have ridden a lifelong emotional roller coaster otherwise. It is the same with us today; God doesn’t change how he works. Mountaintop moments with God are awesome, but the ongoing refinement of our character, and the erosion of our selfish ways, that hard work is done in the valley.

Perhaps there has been a time when God made his presence known to you in some real and extra-ordinary way. 
Have you ever caught a glimpse of His glory, ever known His healing touch or seen His face in a cloud? I have had a few mountaintop experiences.

Do you long for signs and wonders that will continually confirm your faith in Him? Again, that’s not God’s way; most days he calls us to we walk in an everyday valley, learning to trust what we cannot see. Let’s learn to be faithful, even when we don’t see, even when we don’t feel like it.

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Heb 11:1

In our small everyday trials we develop “trustworthiness” with God. If we up and run, whenever we feel like it, we’ll miss out on something amazing that he had in mind for us to learn. Ask God to use you wherever you are in small everyday ways that please him greatly.

The seemingly fruitless grind of everyday life may be the very thing He uses to mold us and change us and grow us up.  Let’s not miss any opportunities while we are here. The promise of heaven is just ahead.

“In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands,
he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly… And, so he prospered.” 2 Chron 31:21

-M

Living by God’s Promises

-Not my emotional highs & lows.

Last time around, we talked about our desire to be used by God, to expand His Kingdom in some big way. We spoke of wanting to be bright lights in dark places. And, we concluded that He has us, where He has us, for His reasons, and for our highest good. We can shine for Him no matter where we are or how we feel. Bloom wherever He plants you, don’t worry about your life, just trust Him …Right?

So, how can we wholeheartedly agree to that, and then, an hour from now, our resolve slips and we start doubting? Later today, we may run into a friend who’s “living her dream,” “going places” and, “leaving us behind“. Suddenly, we’re feeling sad, jealous, discontent, and forgotten. Did God forget us or did we forget to seek Him? Perhaps, we nudged Him out of view, as we moved “poor me” back to front row, center, yikes!

Let me ask you this: How much stock do you place in your feelings? Can feelings deceive you?

Do you ever get into bed feeling great, then, wake up in the morning all moody and not even know why? Me too.
So, how do we get a grip? How can we grip onto God’s unwavering promises and not our fleeting feelings?
How do we foster a “deep down knowingness” that our lives are purposeful even when we don’t feel that way?

Let’s start by understanding that we can’t change our own internal wiring, we need God’s help: 

If we choose to be ruled by feelings and not God’s Promises, then we are sunk, game over, darkness wins out. The book of Romans assures us we’re more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37), not in our flesh, no, this power comes through faith in God. We are over-comers in Christ and we are slaves to our volatile feelings apart from Him.  Romans also says that when we give our lives to Jesus “the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us” (Rom 8:11). Wow, let that thought fill you up! Feelings can’t change that fact, although we must constantly choose to remember it. Go to the Word when you feel those old hurt feelings stirring. Grab onto a promises of God like a lifeline. You may feel forgotten, but he promised that he will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13:5). We can trust Jesus every single day of our ever lovin’ lives for everything!  He is reliable; His Word restores our joy.

-M