God is There

“You will not have to fight this battle.

Take up your positions;

stand firm

and see the deliverance the Lord will give you,

O Judah and Jerusalem.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged.

Go out to face them tomorrow,

and the Lord will be with you.”

2Chronicles20:17

“…blessed are those have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29b

God does not need me.  I like to think I am irreplaceable, but God isn’t crippled without my help.  Although I am valuable beyond measure as His child, my service is not necessary to the completion of His plan.

God wants to include me in His plan, but in order for this to happen, I must understand that it is Him who does the work through me.   My only job is to step forward in an act of faith, showing my willingness to be sent forth.  He does the rest.

So what am I waiting for?  Why do I not heed His call, instead focusing on my plan for my life, fulfilling service I am doing for His Kingdom, keeping busy working for Him?  Does any of that really matter in the eternal scheme of things?  Does it make an impact when I am doing it instead of God doing it through me?  When will I step forward as a show of confidence in my God so I can experience His power flowing through me, delivering me from whatever bondage restrains me?  Or when will I say, “Yes” to Him and “No” to my fears? I hear His call, but I don’t think I’m the appropriate one for the job.  What is holding me back?

Fear

I, like most people, have a healthy fear of heights.  I didn’t want this to hold me back, though, so a few years ago I attempted climbing a 20-foot cargo net wall.  I made it to the top and froze with fear as I tried to swing my leg over the top beam.  There was nothing to hold on to and the netting was shifting beneath my feet.  I nearly panicked as I felt the vulnerability of my position. 

Fear can immobilize me, stopping my forward motion and creating an attitude of worry and helplessness.   God reminds me many times in scripture to not fear because it sends me into a state of panic that is counteractive to faith.  Not only is it hard to move when I am terrified, but it is also hard to think about anything else besides that of which I fear!

Instead of focusing on what it is that alarms me, it is helpful to keep my eyes on the One who will deliver me and Who will supply all I need to answer His call. 

Discouragement

It is frightening how easily I can become discouraged.  A few difficulties take place and I am ready to throw in the towel.  God does not want me to give up hope, courage or confidence because with Him, all things are possible!

The key is to let God have His way with my life.  I only get discouraged when I think I’m in control .  Then, when things go a different way than I expected, my limited resources are spent and my vision is clouded.  I think all hope is lost and I must turn around and go a different way.

But if I let God lead, I become a follower of a mighty warrior who has complete, sovereign power.  He will not lose, so as His child, I will not suffer defeat.  His plan will always go forth.   If I want to be on the winning team, I must step onto His side and stop trying to serve God and live life my way.  Apart from Him, I can do nothing that matters in His Kingdom. 

Tomorrow

The unknown looms in my future.  I can plan, thinking of every possible scenario and strategy, but only God knows what is yet to come.  Trusting Him means letting Him choose the who, what, when and where.  It’s kind of like following behind someone who has blazed a trail in the snow, all I need do is walk forward on the path He has cleared.

God has promised that if I will only step forward into the great unknown, He will be there.   Moses knew how vital God’s presence was for his success.  He did not even want to go toward the Promised Land if it meant God would not go with them.  Moses knew that the power of God is what set the Israelites apart from every other nation.  He was their defining feature. 

My attitude should be similar as I step into the unfamiliar and indefinite territory of tomorrow.  Even though I have no idea what will happen, God knows and He has promised to be with me.

Knowing God is with me can give me the strength to face anything and everything as I follow behind Him.

Fear can keep me from answering God’s call and discouragement is common when I try to do things my way.  Likewise, tomorrow can be a scary place, but God has promised to meet me on the battlefield, if only I will take a step of faith, setting aside fear and discouragement and instead trusting Him to fight the battle for me.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I will choose to trust God despite my inability to see Him standing before me.

Where is fear crippling me from taking a step of faith?

How am I showing my mistrust in God’s ability to triumph in the strongholds of my life?

A Choice to be Made

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you,

then choose for yourselves this day whom

you will serve whether the gods your forefathers

served beyond the River,

or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household,

we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15

There are so many things vying for our attention in this technologically advanced 21^st Century.  There’s the smart phone we can’t leave home without, the Facebook account that can’t sit unchecked for more than 6 hours, the twitter account that seems so important to keep updated, the blogs that must be followed and the games that must be played.   There’s no doubt that we Americans love our technology.

I may not think I serve these things, but when they demand my attention, how much control do I actually have over the time I spend with them?  If I feel I can’t set it aside for one day, who’s serving whom?

I must fight to keep God in the number one place in my life, otherwise everything else will drown Him out.  But these “things” are not the only threat. 

Family Tradition

We do things out of tradition without a second thought.  I remember hearing the story about the young woman preparing a turkey for her very first Thanksgiving feast.  She defrosted the enormous bird in the sink, just like mom, and carefully covered it with the dish drainer turned upside down.  Her husband asked her why she did that, but she replied, “I don’t know.  That’s just how mom always did it.”  Turns out, her mom perfected this technique as a way to protect the poultry from her nosy cats.  Living in a pet-less home, this step was unnecessary for the daughter, but she did it anyway out of blind tradition. 

What traditions do I continue without a second thought as to whether or not this is glorifying to God?  Some families worship at the altar of the television, keeping it on at all times, never giving God a chance to speak in the quiet, still times of the morning.  Other families have always attended a certain church even though the pastor doesn’t really preach the Word and its more about being seen then being challenged and trained for service in a fallen world.  A number of families follow certain traditions at Christmas time that distract from bringing honor to the Christ Child, but are fun and build lasting memories.

What do I do out of sheer habit, blindly doing what my parents and their parents before them have done for years? 

Choosing to serve the Lord means letting go of practices done out of family custom, and intentionally choosing only those things which glorify Him and put Him in the highest place in my household.

The World

I live in a world that is focused completely on my comfort, entertainment and well-being.  It is easy for me to get sucked into his kind of thinking, focusing on myself as the number one priority.

As a believer, however, Jesus has called me to, “Love the Lord (my) God with all (my) heart and with all (my) soul and with all (my) mind.” (Matthew 22:37) This is kind of hard to do when I’m more concerned with my rights, my comfort and my happiness than I am with loving God.  In this passage, Jesus continued with, “’Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (v 39-40) I can’t go wrong if I keep loving God and others at the center of my attention.

It takes no effort at all to slip into the culture of this world.  The music, movies, television and other forms of entertainment are so readily available and are all around me, ready to amuse me, educate me, and to quench my fleshly thirst.  But as a follower of Christ, I have a choice to make.  James warned us to, “keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

I don’t need to serve the gods of the culture I live in. 

Instead, I can choose to live in a way that sets me apart from the world while protecting the hearts and minds of myself and my family from taking on the beliefs of this world.  In this way, I am showing God honor in my home.  I am telling Him in a tangible way that His ways are more important to me than my comfort, my happiness, or my fitting in.

Jesus reminded me that, “. . . you don’t belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” (John 15:19) 

Choosing to serve the Lord means only letting things in my home that honor Him, and not getting drawn into the culture around me. 

Choose the Lord

My computer has default settings that are automatically set.  If I don’t intentionally change them, these preset conditions are programmed to exist.  It is the same with me.  My default settings are my fleshly desires, my natural way of doing things, my selfish point of view.

If I want to follow God, I must intentionally change these settings, choosing instead to do things God’s way.  Paul taught in Galatians 5:16 to “. . .live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  It takes effort to buck my nature, but if I truly desire to do so, I am able to “. . .keep in step with the Spirit.” (v25) I am not powerless against my nature, for I have been given, “a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

It is possible for me to choose the Lord, but I must choose.  Giving Him the first and most honored position in my life is not going to come naturally.

Choosing to serve the Lord means making an effort to give Him the highest place in my thoughts, in my heart and in my home.

There are many things competing for my attention in this world.  If I want to give the Lord my utmost for His highest, I must let go of ungodly traditions, turn my head away from the culture around me and give Him the highest place in my life.

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can put more value in honoring God than in pleasing myself.

How do I put my own comfort and happiness above pleasing God?

Where do I look just like the world around me instead of being the salt of the earth?

Faith as Action

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

‘Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us?’

And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’”

Isaiah 6:8

“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

I don’t know what I truly believe until I’ve been tested on it.  All through High School and College, I took a strong stand against abortion.  I wrote convincing papers that supported my view point, discussed the topic with fellow students, and spent a lot of time thinking about the issue. It all was an intellectual exercise, however, until my junior year in College when I became pregnant after meeting the man of my dreams.  I was scared and didn’t know what to do so I went to a phone booth with the intention of looking up abortion clinics in the area, just to check them out.  Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. 

As my finger slid down the yellow pages in the “A” section, my eyes were drawn to the “Crisis Pregnancy Center.”  I paid them a visit, soon finding out they did not offer abortions but instead existed to save babies.  They counseled me and showed me a film about abortion.  As I watched the graphic images flash across the screen, I knew I couldn’t do that to my baby.  As fearful as I felt about revealing my transgression to my mother, slaughtering the innocent child within me was not the answer. By the grace of God, my belief had withstood the test and that baby is now a beautiful 23-year-old young woman.

Faith is not simply an intellectual exercise. It is more than a belief that is never translated into action.  Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1 as, “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”   I can say I trust God with my life, knowing that He has a plan for me and that all things work together for the good, but until I am tested on that belief, these are only so many words on a page.

The Call

Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost for His Highest*” that, “The call of God is not for a special few, it is for everyone.”  In order to hear the call of God, I must be paying attention.  Isaiah did not perceive a personal plea from God to go and tell the people His message.  No.  Instead, he was seeing a vision of God and overheard the Lord asking who He would send.  Anyone could have responded to this call, but it was Isaiah who took the step of faith, coming forward in response.

What am I hearing God say?  Do I respond with, “I’ll go!” or do I mutter, “Someone should do something about that!”  It is easy to fall into the pattern of assuming that someone else is more qualified than I to heed God’s call.  But all He requires is a willing heart; he supplies all the strength, know-how, understanding, words, etc.  He is a God who is in the habit of generating something out of nothing.

If I hear God's call, it is up to me to either ignore it, or respond.

Shake off Sin

Now that I’ve stepped up to the plate, what do I do?  There are so many obstacles in my way, and the major one is sin.  It’s like in those horrible dreams where I am trying to run as fast as I can, but I’m being weighed down my some unseen burden and I can’t get my footing in the sand.  I put all my effort into it, but barely get anywhere.

My sinful self tells me that I can’t answer this call because I am ill-equipped and am thoroughly unqualified.  There are so many others who could do a better job than I.  Maybe I’m being foolish and rash in my decision-making.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I’m having second thoughts.

Faith is believing that God is bigger than all my weaknesses and that He can accomplish His will through me despite my sinful nature.  Or as Pastor Grant Fishbook recently said in a sermon about giving, “God’s 10% is bigger than your 90% because He is bigger than you!”  It is the same with obeying.  The only way I can confidently heed His call is in believing that He is bigger than my weaknesses.  He is God and He can use even me, a sinful woman, to bring about His will.

I can either let my sin hold me back, or I can shake it off and run freely in the direction God has pointed me.

Persevere

Running long distances can become monotonous and exhausting.  It takes a sense of purpose and a desire to reach the finish line in order to keep going. 

In the race of life, there are many things to drag us down, giving us reason to quit.

“No one really cares, I don’t know why I continue working so hard when I never receive one ‘thank you’.  I don’t think my effort is truly appreciated.” 

“I am just not getting anywhere.  I am the same today as I was yesterday.  I don’t think I’ve moved one inch forward despite all my effort.  I might as well stop trying.”

“I don’t think these kids are ever going to get it.  No matter how many times I teach this lesson, they continue in the same behavior.  I think my words are falling on deaf ears.  Maybe I should quit.”

“I work so hard but I haven’t received a promotion in years.  Doesn’t anyone see my efforts?  Doesn’t anyone care?  Why do I bust my behind, always striving for the best when it gets me nowhere?”

It is easy to get discouraged when my focus is on the outcome or the impact my actions are having on those around me.  But, if I instead keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and care only what my Father in heaven thinks about my efforts then I will have the strength to carry on.

Once I am running my race, my strength will come from focusing on God’s purpose for the battles I face , and achieving His approval at the finish line .

It’s easy to say I believe in Jesus and trust Him for salvation.  The hard part comes when I hear His calling to act on that faith.  Then I must take action, not letting my sinful self hinder my forward motion, and then stick with it for the glory of God.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I will not just say I follow Jesus, but back it up with action.

How have a failed a test of faith by ignoring a call to do something to demonstrate God’s love to those around me?

When do I make excuses, expecting others to take up the call instead of me?

*January 14^th entry

Knowing God

“Jesus answered,

‘Don’t you know me, Philip,

even after I have been among you

such a long time?’”

John 14:9

“Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?

Who is like you—

Majestic in holiness,

Awesome in glory,

Working wonders?”

Exodus 15:11

I have been married to my husband for over 24 years and I am still learning new things about him.   For as much time as I’ve spent with him, you’d think I would have known that he always wanted to be a cowboy.  This Christmas, one of our daughters gave him a cowboy hat.  After he tried it on and checked himself out in the mirror, he jokingly told us that now he was one step closer to living his dream!  I knew that he loved riding horses and enjoyed rodeos, but I didn’t know about this fantasy of his.

In order for me to get to know my husband better, I must spend time with him.  I can’t just read about him, or study him as he goes through his life.  That helps me to get to know about him, but to know him, I need a relationship with him.

It is no different with God.  I can know everything there is to know about God by studying the Bible daily, attending Bible studies, going to church, and listening to Biblical scholars teach, but if I don’t have a relationship with Him, I will never really know Him.

I need to live my life alongside God so I can witness how He responds to my prayers and how He provides for my needs.  But I also need to be close to Him so that He can reveal things about Himself to me, open my eyes to His holiness, to unveil a bit of His glory, and show me His wonders.

Holiness

One of my favorite hymns as a child was, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  I’m not sure why I loved it so much, but every time I hear that hymn today it brings tears to my eyes.  I have a greater understanding of God’s perfection and how much higher He is compared to His creation.   He revealed through the prophet Isaiah that, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

As a holy God, He deserves my greatest respect.  I must be careful not to minimize His position in the way that I refer to Him, in how I talk about Him, or in my attitude toward Him.  It’s so easy to fall into the pattern of calling Him, “The big guy upstairs,” or casually joking about how He might strike me down if I do a certain thing, or even if I think I know why He works a particular way or that I can predict how He will work in a person’s life.  He is God, and I should revere Him, honor Him, and stand in awe of Him.

Glory

Moses was pretty close to God.  He knew God intimately, yet he wanted to know more.  In Exodus 33 is a record of the exchange that took place between Moses and the Lord where the man talked about how he had been leading God’s people,  but he wanted to know more about the Lord.  He even went so far as to ask to see God’s glory.  And this is when God agreed to let Moses see the backside of Him as His glory passed by.  To protect Moses from the intensity, God told Moses He would, “put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.  Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (Exodus 33:22)

When the shepherds encountered the glory of the Lord that shone around the angels who delivered the news of Jesus’ birth, they were terrified.   Likewise, when Saul encountered the light from heaven on the road to Damascus, his natural response was to fall to the ground.  When he arose, he had temporarily lost his sight.   Jesus also showed His glory when He was transfigured on the mountain in the presence of Peter, James and John.  God enveloped His glorified figure in a cloud and His voice proclaimed, “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to Him!”  The disciples fell to the ground in terror.

God’s splendor is beyond compare and an encounter with His perfection brings about a response of both terror in the face of such glory and reverence for the One who created all things.

Wonders

God  spent a lot of time working wonders to showcase His position of The Lord our God.  Many times, people were looking for signs and wonders from Jesus as well as an indication that He is, indeed, the Messiah.  But His wonders are all around us.  His creation speaks to His majesty.

Paul explained this in Romans 1:20.  “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

As I look around at all He has made, I can either take it for granted, or marvel at the intricate detail, marvelous forethought, and amazing wonders found in His creation.  It is easy to rush through my day, going from task to task, completely ignoring God’s amazing handiwork all around me.

As I get to know God more intimately, He will open my eyes to His holiness, His glory and His wonders.  It is up to me to pay attention.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I will try to grow closer to God, giving Him a chance to show me more of Himself.

Where do I close myself off from God?

How do I take Him for granted?

Clouds

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5,6

The thick gray fog enveloped the aircraft, obscuring my vision of anything except for the dull mist surrounding the plane.  The voice of the captain filled the near-empty cabin, "Flight attendants, prepare for landing."   I peered out the window, searching fro any landmarks to let me know how close we were to the ground, but I could see none.  Suddenly, we emerged from the fog into a light rain with the lights of the runway laid out before us.

Flying in conditions like this means a pilot must trust his instruments and the guidance of the air traffic controllers, not his sight.  His eyes are telling him he is miles above the earth's surface in a heavy bank of clouds, when in reality he is only several hundred feet from the runway.

It is the same with us as we trust in God during our journey.  It is as if we are flying in a bank of clouds, not knowing how far up we are, or in what direction we are traveling: Trusting God means keeping my eyes on Him to guide me safely to the landing strip.

In The Clouds    

When I was flying through the clouds, I could not recognize any familiar landmarks.  There was nothing but gray, and I couldn't see very far.  It gave me an eerie feeling of disorientation.  If it wasn't for the plane itself providing a frame of reference, I wouldn't know which way was up, down or sideways.  

This is how much of my life is.  I have no idea which way is up, how far it is to my destination or goal, or when I'll be emerging from the fog.  I simply must trust that God is guiding my every footstep, leading me to His purpose for my life.  

When I feel no sense of direction or guidance, I must fly by my instruments, trusting God to guide me in to a safe landing.

Under the Clouds

Once I emerged from the clouds, I could see the ground was wet and the grayness above translated into a sense of gloominess below.  Even though I could now see my surroundings, they didn't look too nice.

Isn't this like life?  I emerge from the foggy disorientation of blindly following God's lead, expecting to arrive at my destination to a choir of singing birds and shining sun, but instead am greeted by dreary drizzle.

How often are things not as I expected when following God?  Rain is not bad, it was just not what I imagined.

Maybe I thought motherhood would be more exciting, adventurous and thrilling, but it turns out to be monotonous and filled with day after day of sameness.  Or I might have imagined my life to be dominated by an exciting fulfilling career, giving me a chance to utilize my degree skills and bring in a paycheck.  Instead, I find myself staying at home and being available to those who need a helping hand or an encouraging word.  Or perhaps I expected to marry young and have a large family.  Instead, as I follow God's lead, I find myself deep in a remote jungle as a single missionary.  There are many roads God's plan could take me on as I trust Him.  

Following God means trusting Him with the outcome, not going by my own plan and hope for my life.

Above the Clouds

Flying above the clouds is a bit like paradise.  The sky appears as a deep azure canvass, a beautiful backdrop to the puffs of white cotton below.  It seems I can see forever, gaining a tiny glimpse of God's enormous vision of His Creation.

Living above the clouds is the goal for which I am called by faith in Christ.    Paul encouraged the believers at Philippi with the thought that, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. . . I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:12, 14)  As I am transformed under His loving grace, slowly but surely I gain a viewpoint more closely in line with His. 

When I am close to God, it doesn't matter what is going on around me because I can see things from His perspective.  annoying, whiny children who get under my skin become little ones who need an extra dose of love.  Frustrating delays turn into opportunities to connect with a hurting soul.  Demanding panhandlers are converted into lonely, lost beings.  angry short-tempered cashiers turn out to be wounded warriors in the battle of domestic violence.  

There are people all around me who need a vision of paradise only Jesus can offer.  Am I able to see them through God's eyes?

Flying can be an interesting experience.  It helps me to remember to fly by the instruments, trusting only in Him for my guidance, to accept the destination God has guided me to, and to keep an eternal perspective that allows His love to flow through me to a hurting world in need of a Savior.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I can keep my eyes on my personal guidance system; God.

Where am I relying on my own plans instead of trusting God for direction?

How do I have a self-centered, short vision of those around me, missing all the opportunities there are to show the love of Jesus?

Set Free

"Let those who fear the LORD say,
   'His steadfast love endures forever.'

  Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
   the LORD answered me and set me free.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.
   What can man do to me?
The LORD is on my side as my helper;
   I shall look in triumph on those who hate me."

Psalm 118:4-7





 Artificial diamonds can be made by subjecting graphite to intense temperatures and pressures along the lines of 1700 degrees Celsius and 60,000-100,000 atmospheres.  This is equivalent to about 700 times the amount of pressure exerted on the Earth's crust by Mt. Everest.*  It takes a lot of pressure to create a diamond, but they are considered to be one of the most beautiful of gems.

My life is filled with stress and in fact, pressure is a part of modern life.  If I consider the time constraints, financial limitations, health restrictions placed on my life, coupled with the relational difficulties found in loving people and just my general exposure to an evil, dark world, I have a formula for stress.

The pressures of my world will not go away, but I have a secret weapon at my disposal to keep stress from controlling my life, sending me into a frenzy and ruining my health.

Call=Answer

Humans have been under stress ever since the fall of man, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered His perfect creation.  As a result, I am now hard pressed on every side, just like that piece of graphite in the process of becoming a diamond. 

But I am not without hope.  When I call on God, He will answer me.  God told his people who were exiled to Babylon, living as foreigners in a strange land and under tremendous pressure that, "you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you." (Jeremiah 29:12-14a)

When the stress if overwhelming and I cry out to the Lord, He answers. 

Set Free

When God answers me, it is not with mere words of consolation.  He goes even further and sets me free from the bondage of worry, grief, anger, or any other stress that is threatening to break me.  I am not bound to these stresses!

Jesus came to His creation in order to set me free from the bondage of sin.  The stresses generated by an imperfect world threaten to rule me.  But Jesus said, ". . . if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

It makes me think of a giant trash compactor.  I am trapped inside as the walls close in on every side with no hope of escape.  Then, I call upon the name of the Lord, and He sets me in an open space, free from the constraining walls.

I can live as if I'm in that open space, free from the stresses of this world, not because there is no stress, but because He is greater than the stress.  I can trust Him to save me from the great pressure upon me, but I have to call on Him.

When He answers me, He sets me free.  Will I trust Him?

His Presence=No Fear

Trusting God means acknowledging that His presence and power in my life are greater than all the things I have to fear.  Death?  He's overcome it.  Failure?  He looks at my heart, not my production value.  Loneliness?  He will never leave me or forsake me.  Loss?  My life and everything in it belongs to Jesus, it's not mine to lose.

Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed in his first inaugural address of 1933 to a nation plunged into the depths of a Depression that, ". . the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."**  He may have had a point.  Fear can be my greatest enemy, driving me to perform desperate, foolish acts, sending me into a state of panic where my decisions are frenzied and without reason, and taking a toll on my physical health. 

It has been said that fear is the absence of faith. And without faith, it is impossible to please God!  When I give in to fear, I am sending the message that not only do I not believe God can save me, but I don't even believe He exists!  If I truly accept as true that He exists, then I must recognize that He is bigger than anything I can face. 

If I trust God, I will not fear.

Stress is a part of life that cannot be avoided.  But as a follower of Jesus, it does not have to rule me.  I can call on the Lord and He will answer me.  When He answers, He sets me free from the sin that pressures me.  And in His presence, I have nothing to fear.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I can live my life as one who has been set free.

How am I living as a slave to fear?

Where am I not trusting God for deliverance?

*http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/IleneWeintraub.shtml

**http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057/

photo from   salsolastock.deviantart.com

Comfort

"Blessed are those who mourn,
   for they will be comforted."

Matthew 5:4

"Weeping may tarry for the night,
   but joy comes with the morning."

Psalm 30:5 (ESV) 

The pit loomed up in front of her until she could not resist the power of it.  The darkness lured her deeper and deeper in, promising relief from her grief, her sorrow, her guilt.  That's all she wanted: relief.  She didn't want to feel anymore, but wanted to go somewhere safe from the suffering.  This is what the shadows promised, so she let herself sink in, oblivious to the loving Hand that was reaching down to her, offering her real comfort.

No one likes to suffer.  Unfortunately, living in a fallen worlds means we'll experience plenty of it while we're here.  But life with Jesus offers hope. Hope not just for an eternity with Him, but the hope of the comfort of God in times of trouble. 

Blessed

Why would God want me to suffer?  To mourn the loss of a loved one, to grieve over past sin and the hurt it caused others, to lament over physical afflictions far too heavy to bear.  Doesn't He care?

If my happiness and contentment was the purpose for my life, then I would agree that God is a cruel and heartless God to allow all this suffering.  But, as pastor Paul Powell said, "God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually."

I will never know the blessing of comfort from the very hand of God until I am in the position to need comfort.  Those who have suffered much, have an abundance of compassion to pour out upon others because they themselves have received much from God.  He is, "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3)

I will never know true comfort until I allow God to ease my pain.  If I choose to wallow in the suffering, sinking into that dark place, out of the Light of His love, my anguish is prolonged.  But if I step into the Light, He will envelope me in His loving arms, taking my burden of pain, grief, sorrow and guilt. 

My load is lightened, and I am blessed by God's touch.

Temporary

God promises that the suffering will not last forever but joy will come in the morning.  This may be a comfort in and of itself.  Sometimes, the worst part of going through a difficult time is thinking that it will never end.  I will always feel this way.  I will never go back to normal.  But this is not of God.  He offers hope.

It reminds me of when I was in the hospital on strict bed rest for 2 months while I was pregnant with my triplet daughters.  I thought the time would never end, especially since I was there for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Even though my heart yearned for home, the doctors assured me that this was temporary and it was for the good of the babies.  I now see the wisdom in their counsel, for the time of confinement paid off with the birth of three beautiful, perfectly formed infants. 

In a similar way, our time of suffering gives birth to character traits that can only be produced through pain. ". . .we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (Romans 5:3-5) 

This temporary time of sorrow leads to things much greater than I can imagine.

Joy

Joy is not a word I think of in the same thought as grief.  I think of angels rejoicing at the birth of Christ, or the celebration in heaven when one sinner repents.  But I can honor this time of suffering, for it brings about the opportunity to experience the hand of God in my life.  No one else but God can lift me out of the doldrums, rescue me from the pit of despair, or give me the strength to walk from the deep shadows into the Light. 

To come into contact with the One who created me in such an intimate way is indeed a reason to rejoice.  It is the only way that joy can come at the end of suffering; because the mighty Hand of God gently caressed my tender, hurting heart, bringing about a healing not otherwise possible.

The touch of God brought about healing and now I can rejoice!

Suffering is one of life's necessary burdens, but it is not without purpose.  It brings about the blessing of the comfort of God, is only temporary in nature but results in eternal fruit, and gives an opportunity to rejoice at the witness of God's mighty hand in my life.

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I will not run from God during times of suffering, but allow Him to comfort me in my time of need.

When do I miss out on the blessing of comfort by trying to walk through a trial alone?

How do I focus on only the temporary suffering and thus miss out on the eternal reward?