Hold Out for Your Eternity

A cloud of sadness has hung heavy the past couple of weeks over our close-knit, rural area. We’ve seen the death of a teenager, a child, and an infant within days of one another, and it’s painful to hear the stories of families and friends coping with unexpected losses. I can’t imagine what agony they’re navigating through right now; it’s one of those times when there seems to be so much we should be able to say, and yet the words won’t come. It’s like that when there are no easy answers.

I’m reminded of several stories in the Bible where parents had to cope with the unthinkable. A mother, Rizpah, who spent months standing off the wild birds and beasts after her sons were executed to exact vengeance for a broken covenant; a grieving King David, who had fasted and prayed for days that his young son might live…but still had to bury him; Job, who said that the thing he feared most had come upon him when he lost all of his children in a single tragic accident; and finally a mother, Mary, who had to stare up helplessly at her dying Son Who’d been born for the very purpose of giving His life a ransom for many. To these parents, hope would find its way in time, but as some of you may well know, there’s nothing a mother and father can do but just swim against the riptide of immeasurable sadness when a child is lost. There’s no detour around the grieving process; and whether your child is 3 months old or 70 years old—when it’s your child—the only thing that comes to mind is “too soon.”

I wish I had the perfect soothing answer to fill the gaping wound left in these families’ lives, but since I’m of only finite wisdom, I’ll keep my answer to this: sometimes the worst things happen, even to the best of people. Even to God’s elect. Does it mean that our Father doesn’t care about us…that He is absent, indifferent, or caught by surprise at our misfortune?

No; on the contrary, God loves us very much. He isn’t sitting up there playing a cosmic shell game with us. He does, however, have a timetable that operates quite opposite of our comprehension of time. We can only see the joys and sorrows that are right in front of us. He sees eternity past and future. Before time was, He is. Somewhere on that timetable, there is a set date which only He knows; and on that date, sin’s lease upon this earth will expire. Sin set the opportunity in motion for perfect lives to go perfectly wrong. Bad things happen to even good people, because Adam’s fall forfeited man’s lease of our world. A serpent’s conniving deceit—and that first couple’s desire to venture outside God’s safe boundaries—set the stage for many tears to follow. The devil had no dominion over the human race until man chose to take his word over God’s, and it’s been a mess ever since.

Prayer will divert many bad things from our path, but not all. And just because you or a loved one has just experienced the worst thing that could ever happen, doesn’t mean you did something to cause it. The disciples in John 9 asked Jesus who had sinned, the blind man or his parents, to cause his illness. Jesus replied that neither had…but that this was an opportunity for God’s works to be displayed in him. God didn’t strike this man blind, as some might have supposed; He would, however, bring glory to Himself through the restoration of what was broken. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus came to bring life—filled to the brim and overflowing.

Right now you may be going through something for which there is no answer, no consolation. As you feel your way through the fog of grief and confusion, I encourage you to talk to God. Cry to Him, even argue at Him, but don’t walk away from Him. Even if you feel He has allowed something grossly unfair to happen, talk to Him anyway. Don’t allow the enemy to drive a wedge between you and the Source of hope, because as badly as you hurt, God is still the only one who can heal the hurt. The “accuser of the brethren” can’t pull the wool over God’s eyes, but he will often try the angle of isolation to separate us from our Father. If he can get us to harbor unforgiveness toward God, others, or even toward ourselves, he can cause our healing to be delayed indefinitely. Don’t give him the satisfaction.

When you can’t find rhyme or reason behind any of it—-and yes, life is not always fair, as I’ve well come to know-—remember one word: eternity. That same timetable on which the end of sin’s lease is situated has no finish point itself…because there is no end to eternity. Whatever has failed or gone wrong in this one fallible, short life, He will perfect in the eternity that follows. He will take the injustices, the tragedies, the losses you’ve encountered, and will work them toward your eventual good, as Romans 8:28 assures us. Some of it He’ll make up to you in this life. Some of it, He’ll finish in eternity. Just know that to the believer, we have His assurance that we won’t have to hurt forever. Clutch onto the reality of eternity, and hold on for dear life…it will comfort you when you feel out of your mind with grief. Right now, my words may offer little solace; they may even anger you. In time, you will be ready to move out of the most painful place of grief and will seek answers. There will come a day when your soul will be open to reaching for an eternity better than the present circumstance…and when you are ready, you’ll find God’s constant grace right there. You’ll even look back and see where He had never left your side.

At the end of Job’s nightmare season, God blessed him with twice as much as the enemy had robbed: double the lost material goods, greater measure of health, more sons and daughters. But the best part is, when at last he got to eternity, and after he got to behold the God Whom he’d refused to deny, he found that those original sons and daughters (remember, those kids on whose behalf he prayed and gave sacrifices to God just in case they committed any wrong) were also waiting on him. He didn’t lose a thing, because prayers to our Heavenly Father are never wasted.

Revelation 21:4 says everything I couldn’t possibly sum up about the end to sorrow as we know it: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (NLT) There will come a day, friends, when for those of us who place our hope in Jesus, all the terrible things we’ve suffered in this life will be faint memories overshadowed by the glory of His resurrection power. Isn’t it mind-boggling to think that sadness, sorrow, mourning will be obsolete emotions in our eternity, upgraded to peace, fullness of joy, and never-ending pleasure? Hold out for your healing. Hold out for your eternity. A better day awaits you, because God IS good. All the time.

©May 2012 Lisa Crum

Half-Baked Prayers

“We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see?” Romans 8:24 CEB

One of the hardest disciplines to master in the kitchen is to leave that oven door alone. I’ve had more less-than-perfect outcomes than you could shake a stick at, all from knowing good and well that I shouldn’t open that door but…just…can’t…stand…to…wait! Aw man! So the cake falls, the biscuits are flat and doughy, the cornbread didn’t get that killer crust on it. Oh, you can salvage what’s left, as many times I have, but the finished product is never as good as if we’d left well enough alone.

There are a lot of kitchen-isms where this same principle applies. The crock pot that can’t come to a simmer because the lid keeps getting picked up; the eggs that would be a beautiful big scramble, but the impatient hand has stirred them in the skillet till they look more like yellow grits. And though we know even as we’re breaking the rule that it’s going to affect the outcome, we still can’t bring ourselves not to act.

Could we be sabotaging many of our prayers by having some of these impatient tendencies? Often instead of being content to let the Lord do a complete work, we impatiently keep “popping the door open,” so to speak. And our interference begins. No, God…go over THERE. Do it THIS way. Let me get married to THAT person. I want to minister like HER. I want to be successful like HIM. Here…let me help you! You’re not working it out fast enough…nevermind, I’ve got this one, God! Does it sound like you? It sure sounds like me…many, many times.

You’ve committed something to Him, and now it’s time to step back. Give it time. Give HIM time. Some answers to prayer can only come when the heat remains steady in areas where you’re just not meant to be snooping. The more often you try to step in and “help,” and the more often you have to be in control, the longer it may take to have your prayers answered. And you may not like the outcome as well after your tampering has compromised it.

Soothe your impatient soul with the Word of God today if there’s something you’ve asked for and have not yet received the answer. As surely as tribulation works our patience, tempering our actions with God’s promises helps us to develop integrity and character; moreover, our restraint, or lack thereof, will well determine the type of outcome we have to what’s “in the oven.” Don’t worry…God’s recipe is foolproof and His timing is impeccable. Keep your mitts off the oven door and your eyes on Him.

Father, thank you for granting those petitions which line up with Your will and Your Word, and thank You for not granting other prayers I’ve asked in ignorance or selfishness. One of my greatest challenges in this microwave world is not to adopt an entitled, impatient mindset toward You, my Sovereign God. Today I purpose not to be conformed, but instead transformed. I renew my mind again in Your Word and I bask in Your presence. I rest in the shadow of Your wings and I trust You to work all things for my good, even when I don’t always see it. Holy Spirit, I tune my spiritual ears to hear Your instructions. I determine not to speak or act in haste regarding those things I’ve committed into my Father’s hands. I surrender all in Jesus’ name, and I take upon me Your sweet peace as a confirmation. Order my steps aright today, O Lord.

“And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.” Galatians 6:9 AMP

Palace to Pig Pen…and Back (God’s Will Versus Our Will)

…”There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” Luke 15:11-13 NIV

We know the whole story—a son wastes his father’s best, and then in a state of desperation, comes home, only to find forgiveness instead of a flogging. We stand in judgment of him, like the other sibling who was so appalled that Dad wouldn’t at least make him grovel a little. What our sanctimonious selves don’t realize, however, is that there are times when, instead of the good, obedient brother’s reflection, the person who’s actually staring back at us in the mirror has slop around his mouth and corn husks matted in his muddy hair. We’re just like that prodigal in so many ways, aren’t we?

I sometimes tell folks, “I’m convinced that the good Lord has a whole lot more sense than I have;” and though it’s my humorous way of saying His ways are much higher than mine, it’s still just the stark truth. I’ve come to know this, and occasionally have to re-learn it, from years of making foolish choices on my own before finally repenting and handing the reins back to an all-knowing, all-wise God.

When did the prodigal son actually get in trouble? Was it in the gambling house? The bar? The brothel? The pig pen? No, it began when he went to his father and said, “I want it all. Right now. No strings attached, no one telling me what I should or shouldn’t do with it.” The inheritance was to be his eventually anyway. However, his burning desire to have his own way—without any authoritative counsel—almost guaranteed this boy wouldn’t like the outcome of his imprudent request. As the old saying goes, “Be careful what you ask for…”

God has a plan already in place for us; it’s His very best, and His perfect will for our lives is carved out of pure love and infinite goodness. My pastor, who teaches frequently on eternity, reminds us that God’s order is sequential, not cyclical. It is nothing like man’s “spinning wheel…what goes up must come down” philosophy. Our lives are a tiny speck on God’s eternal timeline; yet we so value our speck and make everything all about us, about our one short life. Something in the base, carnal human nature—that “thing” in us present since the fall of Adam—feels cheated when we can’t be instantly gratified, when we can’t call the shots. The backslider in heart takes the blessings of God with him and sets out to do it all his own way. Worst possible choice with the worst possible outcome.

I’ve asked God amiss many times over the years, and in the times He actually said “yes” to a foolish request, I’ve had to live with those things I was so determined to have. How much happier, how much freer, how much less stressed, regretful, bitter, angry, confused we might be if we would just pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…” If we could only grasp and retain the knowledge in our minds that He really does have our best interests at heart even when His answer is not our answer.

You’re getting ready to suffer some whopper consequences if you’re asking for—or planning to do on your own—something of which you can’t honestly say to God, “Your will be done in my situation. If you don’t want this for me, I don’t want this for me.” When you can’t surrender a particular affection, desire, or thing to His will, you’ve skating dangerously close to committing idolatry AND are setting yourself up for some unhappy times to come. It can be anything…a job offer, a sports contract, a record or movie deal, a home or car or some other material investment, a relationship. But, if you can’t offer it back to God and allow Him to decide if it’s right for you, you may be entering into a decision where much, much regret will follow. You’ll despise the prize.

The enemy’s always tried to paint this picture—beginning with Eve in the garden—that God just dangles good things in front of us and says we can’t have them. What God actually does, however, is sets boundaries for us and yet allows us the freedom to choose…only with consequences when we step outside the protective canopy of His will. The good news is, there is redemption for those of us who shake ourselves and realize that it’s time to go back home. Our Father anxiously awaits the cry of repentance in His wandering children. He’s not ready to dole out a beating, a bunk in the servants’ quarters, or a string of “I told you so’s.” He just wants us to do right so that we can be His heirs. He’s a Parent more loving than we can ever imagine, but does He mean business? You’d better believe He does. We may have to learn, over and over, the high cost of disobedience, but we serve a mighty good God. He will make sure we get it right even if we have to learn the hard way.

Corrie Ten Boom once said something short but profound: “Don’t wrestle. Nestle.” Put yourself at peace…whatever your circumstance, whatever your aspiration, your dream, your desire, put it in His hands and LET GO. There’s nothing any more peaceful, more restful than turning loose of the struggle and committing your ways to His will. He already knows how long you’re going to live, so His itinerary includes a fulfilled destiny in the time you’re allotted…if you’re willing to trust Him.

His palace sure smells better than your pad on Pig Pen Lane, too, in case you’re wondering. Just saying…

The Chocolate Milk “Martini” (Shaken, Not Just Stirred)

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:12

Now, I have zero experience—and about an equal disinterest—in the art of bartending, but I’ve always liked Sean Connery’s cool rendition of James Bond. I do remember that 007 liked his martini “shaken, not stirred.” While I’ve always kind of rolled my eyes at that line, thinking it was just the smug order of a man who liked to believe his preferred method of doing things was superior, I may actually be getting the science of it this morning. Perhaps not with an alcoholic beverage, but something actually available in my kitchen cabinet: chocolate milk. Humor me…I know sometimes I draw weird analogies, but there’s always a nugget of truth in here!

Too many times as believers, we’ve been stirred but not shaken, not changed if you will. Stirred like cold clumps of powdered chocolate milk mix floating round and round in the top of the glass but not dissolving. Could it be that as soon as we “feel” God’s presence, we often go no further… and so we just stay on the surface, going around in circles? How do we get beyond just a momentary experience, to become strong, powerful, victorious believers?

I’m Pentecostal, teethed on the church pews. I love the tingly, goose-bump feeling of a good worship service or a time of extended prayer-closet time when the Lord chooses to allow a tangible refreshing to come…but I also know that this feeling alone is not enough to sustain me in an attack of the enemy. I saw a dear loved one wrestle with this for years, who felt that unless there was a shouting, jubilant feeling in every single church service, the Lord wasn’t really present and that it was just “dry.” That person didn’t realize that many times the Word of God comes without a warm fuzzy feeling; and so there was power that essentially lay untapped because it didn’t “feel” powerful. The result was a lifetime of going for the “fix” of another good feeling, then being terrified of having to go more than a day or two without another chance to experience the shout because that was this person’s only assurance that God was present. Feelings pass…so unless what you’re feasting on has the ability to carry you beyond an ecstatic moment, it won’t help you live a victorious life when you’re outside the walls of the church.

Bible study’s not usually a shouting, in-the-zone experience, but you need Bible study as much as you need the energetic atmosphere of a lively praise service. The Word will change you…what you think, what you do, what you say, and it will remain embedded in your heart regardless of what you feel.

How many times have you heard it said, “Boy, the preaching was sure good today!” And when you ask the person what the sermon was about, the response is something like, “I don’t remember, but the preacher was sure on fire!” I’ve probably been guilty early in my Christian walk of saying the same thing…thinking I got fed because the service was exciting. We need the fire, yes; we absolutely need the outpouring of God’s Spirit with signs, wonders, miracles. How we need it. But we must also take care that we’re not as the crowd which Jesus scolded for seeking nothing but a sign. We must not just be after the loaves and fishes. The Word is the REAL take-away. We must be willing to ingest His Word and allow it to go deep into our lives; to get in ALL OUR BUSINESS and to root out all doubt, all bad attitudes, and all those things about which we get so on-the-defensive when the Word shines a light on them. I wonder, when the prophet Amos spoke of a coming famine of the hearing of the Word of God, could we ourselves be living in a state of starvation when we seek merely the emotional experience, and stop short of feeding on His Word?

Listen, all the previous shouts in my life were not what brought me through the agonizing months of healing from our wreck. When we went through the season where the residual effects of my husband’s severe head injury were at their worst, I flat-out had to fight to keep my sanity. THE ONLY THING that got me through was the Word. The Word, echoing God’s will back into my ears. The Word, giving me something to speak against the attack of the enemy. The Word coming out of my mouth, when I didn’t “feel” one flicker of hope in what I was speaking. The Word, like a hammer whose repeated blows would shatter the obstacle over time instead of in one big, explosive moment. I couldn’t do spiritual warfare with a mere feeling or a previous emotional experience…but when I spoke the Word, it was effective and it brought the anointing to break the yoke. When Dana lay hallucinating in a hospital bed, tormented and angry and frustrated—sometimes he didn’t even know who I was—I would set the volume on low and play tapes of the reading of the Word, to drive away the evil spirits which tried to attack us even as we slept.

I pray today that all of us will experience both. May we have those times when we dance, run, shout, cry, laugh, rejoice…we ought to be so happy to worship our Lord, after all He’s done for us! But may we get, with that visible evidence of our gratitude, a deep rooting of the Word inside our spirit man. Not unmixed clumps to be fished out of us with a spoon, but something shaken so well into us that it would be impossible to separate it from who we are.

We need God to mix it up in us. Lord, shake us. Mix Your Word so thoroughly into us that every single drop of what comes out of us contains You. Don’t allow the contents to settle in the bottom, or float on the surface, but a through-and-through, lasting elixir of Your abundant life.

If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7 AMP

The Sweet, Chewy Center of Peace

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)

Remember the line in the movie, “Forrest Gump,” when Forrest is sitting on the bench with the lady sharing the highs and lows of his life story, and he says, “Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get?” It makes me think of when Dad would buy one of those big off-brand boxes of assorted chocolate candies at Christmastime, and my brother and I would raid it. I remember one time we got in trouble because Mom discovered that every piece of candy in the box had a thumb indent in the bottom, where we’d pushed the chocolate in to make sure we weren’t choosing one of those icky pink, green, or beige-colored centers! Well, after that, I became an expert at “divining” the caramel centers from the others—just by looking at them! I could clear out all the caramels in one fell swoop! Haha!

When we examine the above Scripture, it doesn’t read, “Ask God and He’ll say ‘yes’ to everything you request.” No, it quite specifically lays a foundation for the prayer protocol. There is a right way to bring our requests to Him. But that next passage shows the guaranteed, sweet, “chewy” center hidden in the piece of chocolate: PEACE…heart and mind-guarding peace. I’m talking about a trusting, resting, courageous peace no matter what His actual answer to the request. In one sense, peace IS our answer. In fact, it may be the most important part.

In prayer, we can’t see the exact end result as we’re asking, but that’s where faith in His promises kicks in. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God, so when we ask, we really need to know what His Word says about the particular need (or want) we’re addressing. When we know the Word, we can then come to His throne equipped with what He’s already agreed to do. As mature believers, we also need to come to the understanding that, when we ask for His intervention, we likewise surrender the steering wheel to His hands. We may not get exactly what we want when we want it (and thank heavens that sometimes we don’t! Oh, the foolish things I’ve asked for in my life!) , but our faith must lie in the truth that His answer to our prayer will be/is the RIGHT answer, not just what we’ve tried to orchestrate in our mortal minds. Oh, there are those times when the outcome is exactly the way we’ve imagined, or it turns out exactly as prophetic word over your situation indicated it would be, but not usually. His answer will never violate His Word, rightly divided and taken in context, but it may still vary from our actual expected outcome. Knowing His goodness makes this not a scary or bad thing.

But let’s go revisit the answer to the prayers. Sometimes the answer is, “No.” Many times it’s, “Yes.” Or, “Wait.” Or, “I have a better plan.” Sometimes the answer doesn’t come right away, and sometimes we may feel it never came at all. But a prayer brought to Him in faith, in the way He’s instructed us to approach Him, is never disregarded or unheard. Only when we consider His immeasurable love for us and His infinite wisdom do we realize that, no matter His answer, it will be the very best path for our good. The God Who sees the end from the beginning, Whose vantage point is certainly better than our own finite fields of vision, will not only give the right answer, but Romans 8:28 assures us that He’ll work all things together for our good—yes, even those things which aren’t in themselves “good.”

We all know that His answers to our requests vary according to His will and wisdom, but we may not understand the “why” behind them all. Still, it changes the attitude and anticipation (and in my opinion, amps up our level of faith in the outcome), when, having made our request, we then deliberately receive His peace. Remember, that peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It lessens the pain of uncertainty while we’re in the waiting place, and it drowns out the voice of the enemy who would try to tell you that God will not answer your prayer, or that He’s playing roulette with your feelings.

Now, there are those times when the brake pedal fails, or something else sudden just causes us to cry out a desperate, “JESUS!” He hears those one-word prayers too, and answers; but I challenge you, the next time you come to the Lord with your thought-out request, do what that passage suggests. Come in the manner He’s instructed, but then after you have quoted back to Him what His Word says about your particular situation, give Him thanks. And then, RECEIVE HIS PEACE. The conclusion of your prayer might go something like this:

“Heavenly Father, I have come to you with my needs and desires, and I have spoken back to You what Your Word says about my situation. Now, I receive Your answer in faith—faith that all the fine details will be worked out in the way YOU know will be best. I trust You to order my steps, and in asking for Your intervention, I also surrender to Your final authority in this matter. I trust You completely, and I believe that Your wisdom and love for me assures the very best answer to my prayer. You have an awesome plan for my life! As I wait for Your intervention, I now take upon me Your peace, which goes far above my understanding, and I allow it to guard my heart and mind while patience has her perfect work…and while You operate on Your divine timetable. I am whole and entire, wanting for nothing. Thank you for that peace, which I receive in Jesus’ name. Amen”

(No) Left-Foot Braking

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deut 6:5-9 NIV)

In tenth grade, in 1983, I won the Drivers Ed award. Now, I don’t think I won because I was necessarily the superior driver in our class…I’m pretty sure that it was because of the notebook.

Mr. Harold Jude was our teacher, and much to the disappointment of our young expectations, the greater part of our time wasn’t going to be spent actually driving; rather, it was going to be reading about driving. Gee, it had looked so fun in junior high when we’d covetously watch the older kids behind the wheel of the student driver car, pulling off the parking lot to go who knows where–we just knew they were going to get cheeseburgers or skip classes or some other awesomeness. What a shattered illusion!

No, the driving part would come later on—but for right now, our teacher was going to drill us over and over again on the rules of the road. Part of that process was that Mr. Jude assigned us to do a notebook which would be turned in and graded, and it would count as a significant percentage of our semester. At the end of each chapter was a long set of questions. He would make us write the question and then write the answer in our notebook. Well, Little Miss Perfectionist decided to go the extra mile, typewriting and color-coding my notebook on my old manual Remington typewriter (a hospital dumpster dive rescue, and yes, you may laugh)…black for the questions, red for the answers. I wore holes in the typewriter ribbon, but it got me an “A!”

At the time, I thought the notebook was a bit unreasonable. But, an impatient teenager just wants to cut to the chase and hit the highway! I realized down the road, however, that he was aiming for something other than eating up my free time with his homework assignment: he was making sure that when we did actually get out there, those rules would be tattooed on our brains! (Plus, Mr. Jude being tasked with the hard stuff like helping me not to freak out at sharing the road with coal trucks, parallel parking and the like, Dad would in turn only have to teach me how to drive a standard shift later without stripping the gears out of his little Ford Escort…which is a story for another time.)

Among other rules he drilled into our heads, Mr. Jude repeatedly said, “No left-foot braking.” Now, I can’t remember whether it’s an actual code in the WV Drivers Manual, but I think the reasoning behind it was that in order to hit the brake, one would have to take the right foot off the gas pedal to engage the brake, thus preventing an accidental engine surge when the car needed to stop. I can remember a hilarious incident where Mr. Jude had us in a big open field, where the Matewan Town Hall now sits and the Magnolia Fair is held, letting us drive around and round to practice. One of my classmates which shall remain nameless was at the wheel that day, and she did exactly what he had told us not to do…and when she did, she stomped on the gas pedal instead of the brake and had us in a cloud of dust, barreling toward the river like a runaway train. Those of us in the back seat knew we were goners. Since the drivers ed car had dual controls, Mr. Jude stopped the car and cried out, “Now don’t…be…doing…that!” I laugh every time I remember it, because I still hear it in his understandably rattled voice. God bless him, he deserved the Drivers Ed award instead of me, just for agreeing to take on our bunch of greenhorns.

It was a hard habit to learn, right foot braking, but all this came to my mind yesterday as I glanced down and noticed that my left foot was tucked back against the car seat—something I had begun doing all those years ago to prevent that foot from creeping up to that brake pedal…just to keep my teacher from scolding me! In trying to prevent being told I was doing it wrong, I inadvertently began doing it right!

So what have rules about driving got to do with one’s spiritual life, much less life in general? It’s actually a pretty good analogy. If we don’t learn the rules of engagement, we’ll almost certainly try to do the right thing the wrong way. That’s true whether we’re learning to drive, play an instrument, develop any kind of life skill, and yes, grow to maturity in our Christian walk. Somewhere along the way, while going over those questions and answers over and over in this notebook assignment, I became a better driver before I was even entrusted with a set of keys. Interesting, huh? Going over and over the Scriptures throughout my life has sure helped me live a lot better, too. Oh that I’d followed them in every situation I’ve encountered!

Sometimes when I read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament when God was setting forth His laws to His children in the wilderness, I marvel that He would even have to tell them (and us) not to do some things. In fact, some acts seemed to violate common sense even before they hit the sin category…such as God telling us we shouldn’t commit bestiality or murder. Yet, the Lord has always known that we humans, when left to our own devices, will go and do what defies even common sense. Romans 1 is a good New Testament example. Was He trying to insult our intelligence when He was so specific about the do’s and don’ts? Of course not. He just knew that humankind’s tendency is to let soul override spirit in the decision-making process. An unsanctified soul will always pair up with its cohort, the unsanctified body, unless the Word is alive in our spirit man and drawing our head knowledge toward the spiritual rather than the carnal.

Sex within marriage? Not a sin. Sex outside marriage? Sin. Left-foot braking…taking something which is right and going about it all wrong. The right foot’s still on the gas and the left foot’s trying to hit the brake, and we slam into the guardrail…assuming of course that there even is a guardrail. The curve may be steep and cliff may be high…if all we get are a few dings and dents and a higher insurance premium, we’ll be getting off easy. We may wind up, however, with an unplanned pregnancy, jealousy or difficulties in marriage or later relationships, a soul tie with someone we can no longer stand, AIDS or some other dreaded disease. And worst of all, we’ve just sinned against God and against our own bodies.

That’s just one instance of left-foot braking. What about our other appetites? One cookie turns into a whole pack. A craving for momentary satisfaction turns into a violent addiction. A few dollars from the cash drawer, with an intent to pay it back, later becomes a regular practice of “borrowing” followed by a jail sentence for embezzlement. Why? Because the flesh will never say, “No” or “Enough.” The flesh will never say, “Deny yourself” or “Wait” or “Do the right thing.” The flesh-driven soul reasons that although it may have gone terribly wrong for someone else, it won’t happen to you. You can control it. You can quit any time you want. Right? Wrong.

The truth is, we need a rule book. We need God’s Word to tell us what to do, how to respond, how to pray…and when we mess up, how to recover. Personally, I’m glad that God has made life an open Book test, with all the answers where we can freely access them. When we regularly talk about them, write them, rehearse them, they become ingrained in our thought pattern. We may have temptations, but when we choose to use our spirit—our right foot if you will—to accelerate and to do the braking too, we’re so much more likely to please our Teacher. And when we’re trying to do the right thing, grace is that second brake pedal on His side of the car. He is well able to keep us from falling, or in this case, crashing. And I’m so thankful that for all the times I’ve failed miserably, not once has He stopped loving me.

Makes me want to get it right…how about you?

The Incompetence of Overconfidence

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NIV)

It was somewhere around my sophomore year of high school, when our football team had been having an exceptionally good year. I can’t remember the stats (I never was a huge sports nut…I was just there to play in the band!), but we were gaining a reputation of being a team who could beat the stuffin’s out of just about anyone else. Our reputation, however, was our downfall on one particular night.

It was a team who hadn’t won a game all year who took us out. Oh, it was bad. We’d driven forever to get there, and when the trek is in a school bus over winding roads such as we have here in rural West Virginia, it can seem an eternity. But an overconfident team of boys went out on the field, unprepared. The hare and the tortoise, if you will. And 4 quarters later, some of those big, tough boys were sitting in the middle of the ball field, crying in disbelief, pride crushed. I remember our coach stomping through the lot of them barking, “Get up! Get up! Stop sniveling like a bunch of girls and take your whipping like a man!”

It’s humorous now, but it was a somber night, and an even longer drive back home in that weaving, fume-sputtering old bus. Oh, I don’t remember it because of the boys crying over losing a ballgame; I remember the lesson from it all. Overconfidence breeds underestimation of one’s opponent. I’m not talking about overconfidence in God; no, I’m referring to overconfidence in our own might; overconfidence in our numbers, our success rate, and our ability to do it with one arm tied behind our backs. Feeling as if we’re entitled to be on top just because of our track record. Humility vacates the premises whenever pride takes center stage. There’s a real danger of defeat when we look at God’s provision with presumption instead of recognizing His favor as a privilege. And yes, great is the fall which follows pride.

Just like those boys who got their clock cleaned by the team lowest on the ratings roster, we are no match for the enemy if we’re riding on yesterday’s victories instead of today’s preparation and a healthy, current relationship with the One Who’s really doing the fighting. We can’t afford to take Him for granted! Sometimes, because we feel particularly strong—invincible even—we go forward feeling that we need no further preparation in prayer and the Word. We may even gain a further false sense of security when we successfully jump a few little hurdles, and when we see we were able to do coast along, we get lax. Don’t be fooled, friend. You need a daily experience with the Father, and so do I.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some things you carry forward with you, like years of investment in reading and memorizing the Word. Scriptures which come freely into my mind now aren’t there because I picked up the Bible just last week; no, much of that comes from revisiting passages over and over again since I was a small child. Chewing on them. Speaking them. And the Holy Spirit will bring to our memories the things He’s commanded us. Thing is, though, if you’ve not read it, how can you possibly remember it? And when I needed to draw on deep strength to get me through the traumatizing months of recovery from Dana’s and my accident, there was confidence in God because in the past I had invested time into my relationship with Him. But the immediate “push forward” burst of faith came because I was currently in close fellowship with God. I needed both: long-term relationship and daily renewal.

Any pond which has no inlet and outlet will eventually turn stagnant. An empty belly today isn’t satisfied just remembering that it was full yesterday. Our spirit man is no different.

The best analogy I’ve ever heard drawn was by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, in a series on the Lord’s Prayer. In covering the passage where Jesus’ model prayer asked for “daily bread,” (Matthew 6:11) Pastor Rogers compared our relationship with God to a trolley car, rather than an automobile. A car fills up and drives till it’s empty, but a trolley has an arm directly connected to a constant source of electrical current. He said, “My strength is not in my tank, it’s not in the bank, it’s in the Lord God and my hands are raised, constantly reaching for His daily provision.” So should we also be, not leaning to our own understanding, our “handle on things,” or an encounter we had perhaps years ago with God.

If you’re new in the faith, take confidence that God meets you where you are. He can accelerate your understanding of His Word and His grace will carry you over the waves of inexperience, so just know that He is in your corner and He’ll send reinforcements if you need it. But there’s a profound truth that you’ll need to remember, long after the new has worn off your encounter with God and you’re a “seasoned” believer: a daily walk with Jesus is your key to survival. Daily. And until you make it across the finish line, until your scoreboard clock runs out and the players walk off the field, You’ll need to constantly renew your mind to the Word. There will never be a time when you don’t really need His mercy, grace, and the sustenance of daily bread…so get started building up those spiritual muscles. To borrow a slogan from a famous sneaker maker, “Just do it.” Right now.

“At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.” (Hebrews 12:11 The Message)

Because I Said So

Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:28 NLT)

“Because I said so.” Those four words were about the most abrupt –yet most profound– explanation I would receive as a child, when instructed by my parents or grandparents to do something. As a matter of fact, usually by the time I heard those words, it was because I had exhausted their patience with my “why-ning” (smile) and was skating mighty close to some disciplinary action!

Aren’t we a lot like that with our Heavenly Father sometimes too? The evidence is everywhere as we see common breakdowns in our Christian faith: church splits, confusion, moral plummeting, folks going rogue, and perhaps the saddest of all, believers in general living less than victorious, effective, forward-moving lives. Why? Because instead of heeding God’s instructions the first time around, we often instead go on a geocaching expedition in hopes of unearthing some exemption clause from having to be obedient. Whew…that was a mouthful. But it’s true. Why can’t we just do what He says? After all, He IS God…

Our whole lives, we wrestle with that all-important inquiry, “Why am I here? Why do I exist?” And the answer is just as matter-of-fact as the “Because I said so” we heard from our parents. We are here to achieve God’s purposes, pure and simple. No one is born without a reason. No one is without a Divine purpose. When we sidestep God’s plan, however, and go after our own agenda, is when we see every defining trait we’ve been given turn into something angry, corrupt, vile, perverse. Example? A man of ingenuity and powerful leadership skills becomes a Jim Jones or an Adolf Hitler. I realize that these are the absolute worst-case scenarios, but imagine what could have been if these men would have surrendered their hearts and gifts to God instead of to the enemy. The Apostle Peter was a loudmouthed hothead whose aggressive nature got him into more than one pickle. Yet when his outspoken passion got sanctified by the Holy Ghost, he became the emboldened herald of Pentecost, who preached like he was on fire…because he was! This is what happens when we allow God to harness the best and worst of our nature and guide us in HIS direction.

Oh, that we would just save ourselves years of setbacks and heartache, and just surrender to His will for our lives. We waste so much time trying to become important, trying to gain respect by earning our pea-sized merit badges for the world to admire. Hay and stubble on that Great Day when our works are tried in the fire. Poof! Burned up in a split second. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t get college degrees, promotions on the job, work hard and save up for retirement—BUT! What if, in order to get those things, we have systematically tuned out God’s voice when He tried to lead us another way? I believe with all my heart that anything we gain by disobedience to God will only result in failure and bitter disappointment in the end.

We’re so afraid that if we say “yes” to Him, He’ll make us do something we hate for the rest of our lives. Not so! Whatever was birthed in you to do, when you do it under the covering of His authority, will just “click” into place. It will be the most natural thing, the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done. He may indeed be leading you to go after that 8^th consecutive college degree, and He may have even led you to tenaciously pursue the CEO’s chair or a career in professional sports, but if He’s really instructed you to pour all of your heart and soul into an endeavor, it’s still for His glory and a Divine purpose…not to have other people ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all YOU’VE done. Just check your motives, and begin to listen for His instruction.

How do we know whether we’re in His will or not? Sometimes we’ve ignored His voice so long that it’s hard to remember the sound of it. But I challenge you to ask yourself three things:

Did God specifically tell me to do this with my life; or, have I heard His call to another purpose and decided to do it later, after I do my own thing first?
Is what I’m doing in violation of any part of His Word?
If He asked me to sacrifice it on the altar of obedience, would I or could I do it?

Our prayer: “Heavenly Father, thank You first of all for creating me in Your image. I can’t begin to understand why and how You deliberately planned for me a hope and a future, but I want to fulfill that purpose and ultimately to please You and make You glad You willed for me to be born. Take my life and use it fully for your good pleasure. Weed out all the ugly, unproductive things growing in my character, and straighten whatever I may have warped by my disobedience. Every talent, every gift, every ability You’ve instilled within me, I surrender to Your Divine will. Don’t allow me to be satisfied with anything less —and don’t allow me to aspire to be anything more— than exactly what You want for me. I say yes to Your will now, just BECAUSE YOU SAID SO, and I do it in Jesus’ name.”

Can’t Touch This

Being an 80’s kind of gal, I was still young when hip hop was starting to catch on in my rural area. I must confess that this genre’s perhaps not quite as loved by me as other music, but I really liked MC Hammer’s song, “U Can’t Touch This,” which came out when I was probably in my early 20’s. It still makes my toes tap when it hits the radio!

But the “can’t touch this” I’m referring to are those little idols we hide in the corners of our heart and guard so carefully. We love the Lord, and we say that He’s God of our lives, and yet there are things we attach ourselves to which are detestable to Him.

The Word tells us to examine ourselves, to see whether we be in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5), and that’s a hard thing to do with objectivity sometimes. There are areas where, if we’ve remained rebellious to what we know is right, our conscience can be seared and we no longer “see” the problem. That’s one reason it’s good to foster friendships with iron-sharpening-iron people who are truthful with us, not just who cheerlead us and tell us everything we’re doing is good and right.

Here are some real soul-searching questions I challenge you to ask yourself, if you dare, as you seek to truly surrender all to Jesus:

Is there something I do, or a friendship/relationship I have formed, which causes me to get on the defensive when I’m confronted about it? Do I tune out the preacher or turn to another page in the Bible when I see the truth about it spelled out plainly?
Is there someone for whom I, even secretly, hold unforgiveness in my heart?
Is there any important decision I’m facing of which I can’t freely say to the Lord, “Your will be done. You have my permission to change courses if You feel this is wrong for me?”
Are there hobbies, possessions, people that, though in themselves not wrong for me, I’ve placed just a little higher in importance than God? Do I resent having to set them aside long enough to worship, be in church, do things He’s called me to do?

Our Heavenly Father gives us not only a will to make our own choices, but He gives us the knowledge and strength to make right ones IF we’ll do it the way He’s instructed us to do. He’s not hovering over you trying to catch you up in some failure so that He can disqualify you; He does, however, require effort on your part to live your life right and to put Him first. You can still override His will and go after your own, but I promise you won’t be happy with the end result. I’ve tried it before, and failed miserably.

Our prayer today: “Dear God…You know everything about me. As hard as I may try sometimes, there’s nothing I can hide from You. I confess, there are areas of my life which I feel reluctant to surrender to You. There are secret sins and affections which I cling to and yet they haunt me. There are people who have hurt me, and though I know I should release them, it’s felt good to cling to a grudge just a little while longer. There are decisions I’m getting ready to make, in which I’m not sure I want Your intervention. Getting my own way seems pleasurable in one sense, but I’ve not been able to fully enjoy it for that nagging, gnawing knowledge in my heart of hearts that these things stand between You and me. Forgive me, Father. While I’m strong enough to say it now, I release these things into Your hands and give You permission to change them, and to change me. Soften my heart, remove the callouses, and send Your Holy Spirit to convict me when I’m doing wrong. In Jesus’ name…”

Floating Favor

I don’t know the history of Ivory soap, but it has been around at least as long as I have. When I was a little kid, most of the time my grandmother had two kinds of bath soap in the house–Dove and Ivory. She liked the Dove because it had moisturizers in it (and tasted terrible when the washcloth passed over my mouth, by the way); my pick, however, was Ivory.

I can remember how well I loved the smell of Ivory, and still do, but what intrigued me about it was that it floats. That’s not a big deal to the average person sitting in the bathtub, but for a kid whose bathwater sometimes looked more like stagnant swamp water after playing outside all day, I liked not having to search for that slimy piece of sunken soap!

The favor of God is that mystery ingredient in the believer which causes us to rise above our circumstances; it causes us to operate in a realm which, in the natural, we shouldn’t be able to attain. How do we know it’s in there? The manifestation of the anointing. You may not be able to see the secret substance in that soap, but you can see the outward evidence. The anointing is proof that God’s favor is on your life. Perhaps you feel less significant than your peers, but if you are operating in God’s favor, the buoyancy of the anointing can even cause you to outlast and outperform someone more experienced, more talented, more credentialed than you—someone who perhaps operates in the realm of self-sufficiency rather than God-dependency.

I’m not sure I can validate this, but I’m guessing that Granny paid more for the fancy moisturizing soap than she did for my cut-through-the-crud Ivory. I know I’ve made a lot of her bars disappear awfully fast when I dropped them in that bathwater and they dissolved to nothing more than tiny scraps for her wringer washer. And over the years, being somewhat of an almost-but-not-quite person, I’ve felt inferior to the college graduate, the music major, the certified accountant; and I’ve wasted a lot of time weighing in on my unfinished side, rather than rejoicing in the unmerited favor and abilities God has given me in spite of what I didn’t get to do.

Strive to become the best you can be. If you’re young and still in school, soak up every bit of knowledge you can absorb. Don’t pass up those golden opportunities; in a day like today when the resources for learning are unlimited, you should never whine, “I’m bored!” There will never be another time when you’re as uninterrupted in your schedule as you are now. When you’re older, you may carry a heavy weight of adult responsibilities and won’t be able to devote hours each day to developing your talents and gifts. If you are, however, an adult who has to compensate for missed opportunities, God can meet you where you are as well. He can make up for what you didn’t get to achieve, through His favor and anointing. And if He wills for you to go back and earn those accolades you missed in your youth, He’ll open up the right doors and help you carve out time in your day to get them done.

So, how do you get to the favor, and the anointing? This comes through time spent alone with God, and for that there is no shortcut. Just like the kid who spends time in the kitchen with Mom, or under the hood of the car with Dad, we gain in understanding by watching Him…listening to Him…putting His instruction into practice.

Regardless of what you are able to achieve in the natural, never underestimate the power of God’s favor upon your life. Without it in the mix, all those fancy extra ingredients won’t carry you above the dirtiness of the world. Don’t sink…when you can FLOAT.

“But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].” (Hebrews 11:6 AMP)