Keep Looking at Me

I know that God cares about me when He repeatedly instructs me with a particular scripture. In the past several weeks, the Holy Spirit has spotlighted different verses in Hebrews 12. Using this favorite passage, my Coach is retraining me to jump hurdles. On my own, I can't, but the Spirit of God in me can.  So I choose to keep looking to Jesus, the 'champion who initiates and perfects [my] faith' (see Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT).

As I face a succession of challenges--unfamiliar doctors, pain, broken machinery--I deliberately remember the biggies are beyond my ability and intentionally turn and look into Jesus' face. That focus, rather than the jarring circumstances, slowly renews my relationship with Him. Though confidence is thin at times, I remember it is well placed. Jesus Himself could face great suffering because He was closely linked with Father, so I ask for a stronger link: close, tight, and unshaken by circumstances. I read and pray the Scripture, applying it to the issue, and look to Truth to coach me in running the race set before me.

Interestingly, I rediscover my Helper created me to look confidently to Him at all times, not just when I see rough terrain ahead. My Creator loves me to trust and dialogue with Him. God desires to guide, strengthen and love me. So I'm looking, again and again, and learning new confidence in God's ways even when they don't make sense. It's relationship He's after.

Keep looking at Me, My child. Look into My eyes. I am looking at you.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  (Hebrews 12:1-2, NTL).

Are you facing a challenge that draws your eyes away from the One who is making you into a champion?

What can you do to refocus keenly on your Coach, Jesus Christ?

Spend at least one minute giving thanks for specific evidence of God at work in your life.

Think Beyond Yourself

Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in our thinking be adults (1 Corinthians 14:20, NIV).

Haven't you met people who thought the world existed to meet their needs? And haven't you, at times, been one of those people?

Some have had all they longed for handed to them by Mommy and Daddy. The clothes, schools, networks, jobs--all, with more piled on, were offered endlessly. No demands, no responsibility. If Jared failed, Mommy would come behind him hushing his cries and doing her best to keep the teacher's wrath at bay. If Jessica fell down, Daddy would soothe his princess to a fault so she didn't have to pick herself up and keep running.

Others didn't. They had to scrap and work hard for everything. They easily concluded that they deserved to call the shots and enjoy the perks no matter what. After all, nothing was handed to them on a platter. Rejection and loss were companions they learned to ditch, and their temptation might be to do what they want, when and how, without concern for others. That is, only if it suited them.

But if we are to grow up, regardless of where we fall on that continuum, we have to become God centered. We discover that means thinking like Jesus. God's Word challenges us to seek not our pleasure primarily, but God's. Like Jesus did. When we start responding to God's desires for us, instead of wallowing in self-centeredness, we speak the truth about our situation. That opens a door to a life changing perspective.

In hardship, we can discover fresh intimacy with the Lord. His presence transforms us as we realign our thinking according to God's revealed Word. We grow into adults--worshipping adults. And others will come along to worship.


FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Read 1 Corinthians 14:12 - 25.

Has The Lord been alerting you to self-centered thinking that's begging to be replaced?

What specifically needs to be addressed, and what kind of help will you need in making that transition?

One consequence of mature obedience to God is others might be drawn to worship. 
(Verse 25: So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!")

Holds Your Hand

For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13

I had no idea I had blockages. The cardiologist's plan to cut my artery and send a camera through my arm after an prolonged episode of atrial fibrillation was both a relief and an anxiety.

 A cousin sent me Isaiah 41:13. I figured God had sent it to me for a reason, and started meditating on it.

It gave me fresh encouragement. I needed God and He took the initiative to hold my hand. He used  a familiar promise but in a new way. The doctor planned to go through my right wrist and the Word promised me God would hold my right hand. God's Spirit had taken hold of my hand before. Several times. Now He would help me again.

When I was nine years old, I realized God wanted a personal relationship with me. With time, His Word became increasingly alive to me and knew I could count on what He said. Precious words that I had encountered before came back to steady heart and hand. I focused on what was true: God's hand had taken hold of mine! God up close, personal--my little hand covered by His eternal one.

Once when our then five year old daughter was ill, our routine bedtime prayer was punctuated by her little voice, Mummy, I can feel Jesus holding my hand!  At the time I marveled. I didn't know if it was her imagination or a special gift. God used that memory to fan my faith. God was holding my hand. Yes, even my right hand--roadway to my heart.

So when I fear, I squeeze Jesus' hand and ask Him to remind me that His hand holds mine. He can replace fear with faith, and anxiety with peace. And I breathe more easily knowing He's with me all the way.

Now that's comfort and power. And I'm holding tight.

For Your Consideration

Read Isaiah 41:13 slowly, and read it several times. After each reading, listen to how the Holy Spirit might  address your needs. 

If you knew the Lord was actually holding your hand and looking into your eyes, what fear would He ask you to release to Him? What help could you ask for?

Enjoy His love for you and rest in His desire to meet your needs as you face a New Year.

Favor with God

Mary must have had a great love for God's Word and a great respect for God's work. She was looking for Messiah to come and deliver the Jews from the Romans as much as any other Jew.

I'm sure God's reasons for selecting her to carry His Son were many, but the one the angel gave her was that she found favor with God.

Was it that she was pure and loved the Most High God with all her heart, soul and mind? Was she astute, wise beyond her young years, always looking for God's presence in life around her? I expect she hungered for righteousness and regularly found God's filling.

When Gabriel informed her of the holy pregnancy and gave instructions in naming the Son of the Most High, Mary wondered at the impossibility of the assignment. Gabriel proceeded to give her some general information then reminded her that "Nothing is impossible with God."

She would have known about the impossible crossing of the Red Sea on dry land; God's provision of manna in the desert; the commandments that sprung out of God's covenant love for His people. She knew the Lord was capable of pulling off the impossible and often did so using humans who obeyed God's instructions.

So, beyond the first greeting, after which Gabriel told her not to be afraid, there is no hint that Mary started worrying. Though she was young, I'm sure she was no fool. She trusted God to take care of the details. She would have been well aware that this role would be demanding, that the village gossips would have a heyday with her growing belly. She didn't know yet about the sword that would pierce her side, and the horror God's Son would face, but God chose her because she would trust Him implicitly.

What she did know was she had found favor with God and she wanted to give everything she had to do His will.

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." (See Luke 1:38, NIV.)


For Your Consideration:

What might give you favor with God?

What does the Most High treasure about your availability?

Can you wholeheartedly say, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said?

May we enjoy the blessings of walking in full surrender to the Lord's will for our lives this Christmas and in the coming year.

Treasure in Clay

But we have these treasures in jars of clay to show the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV).

My demitasse decorated with oranges and blues and highlighted in gold had once been mere dirt, molded, painted and fired specifically to hold Turkish coffee. After I drank my coffee this morning, I noticed the cup had a hairline fracture. It held the coffee just fine, but an almost invisible line reminded me I had dropped it in the sink yesterday.

Though I enjoy these pretty cups, my most important reason for holding, washing, and trying to keep them safe is to enjoy my coffee. Coffee with Scripture. Coffee with my husband or with other loved ones. It's the coffee that's important to me!

Like the clay pots in this verse, we were designed by God to hold amazing treasure. We've been hit by life: divorce, financial shortfalls, wayward children, health surprises, untimely death. The fracture lines they bring are actually occasions for us to discover God's amazing power. No other power is more powerful, even though we might reel with pain. God's Spirit, present and more powerful, transforms each trauma if we let Him. What we thought would have killed us, made us better.

Because the presence of Jesus Christ transforms each trauma, we can still carry the rich tasting, robust smell of God's power. We could have been thrown away or set on a back shelf, but the One who has the power to transform works in us, revealing more and more of God's glorious power.

That's clearly not our own doing.

For Your Consideration

Read and meditate on 2 Corinthians 4:6-9.

How have you found God's power greater than your traumas, helping you heal?

What helps you experience  Christ's transforming presence when life gives you a jolt? What keeps God's presence at bay at such times?

Will you rejoice in God's desire to indwell you, His treasured vessel?

Alice: Sharing New Life

"Did you see that lady?" my sister-in-law asked as the slim, gray haired woman went through the food line?

I asked to be excused from my volunteer work at the church's food booth. Business was slow and I was intrigued when I heard how she had spent her day.

Offering to take her food to her table, I introduced myself. I shared my admiration that she would spend a hot day at the county fair handing out pieces of Good News at the Gideon booth.
Alice's face lit up when I asked why she chose to do that.

She had been raised in Boston by parents who were caught up in the social scene. Her unitarian father thought Jesus was an illegitimate man, and her main faith input was a grandmother who read her Psalms and prayed for her. Before age 30, she had 3 active children, a husband who was often absent with work, and many socialite friends--all of whom were not enough to stifle the nagging suspicion that there was more to life.

That is, until she met Lois.

Lois had rediscovered her Christian upbringing in a way that was exciting and vital. After their children were in bed, they would talk by phone and Lois would share scriptures with Alice. At first, she was offended to hear that she (along with everyone else) was a sinner. But later she discovered and treasured Ephesians 2:8-9. No matter how hard she tried to be a good person, it wouldn't be enough. God had a better way, and He'd already opened the door for her to have true life.

In a Bible Study, honest discussion watered and sprouted Alice's faith. Years passed as her faith grew tall and her relationship with God changed from vague and intellectualized to robust and vibrant.
At first, her husband thought she was crazy, but her new serenity intrigued him. He, too, eventually came to accept Christ's invitation to a transformed life.

Widowed now, with grown children who had themselves discovered new life through Christ, it was Alice's joy to share the treasure she had found. Though stamina and social networks had changed, God's love was just as relevant. As she shared her story, her brown eyes sparkled with life.
Those tracts were maps so others could discover it too.

No More Apathy

Do you remember the last time you purchased a Bible? If you live in the west, you probably perused the bookstores and the internet, asked your friends which study Bible they preferred, prayed over your decision, thumbed through the pages, and finally purchased the one you chose.

We take that process for granted. We western Christ followers still have easy access to the best seller in the world. But its life giving words are not so easily accessible to many--including those hated for following Jesus.

Sadly, in our politically correct world, we've backed off sharing life-giving words because of fear of offense. Or some other hurdle. All the while this treasure sits in our homes (sometimes in our hearts), begging to be released to accomplish God's purpose to bless many.

Easy access has borne apathy.

We have a different sense of urgency when we have five Bibles on our shelves as opposed to a smuggled sheet torn from one Bible shared among underground Christ followers.

Instead of apathy, let's ask God for a renewed urgency to share the difference Christ makes.

God says NOW. Now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. (See 2 Corinthians 6:2)

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Read 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 in its larger context.

What is the day of salvation? How are you involved?