THRIVING OR SURVIVING

God will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy (Job 8:21, NCV).



One Saturday morning a little boy and his father took a long awaited trip to the local pet store in search of a new puppy. The dad had been promising the trip for weeks, and the day had finally come. The little boy had read several books about dogs, surveying the pets of his friends, asking countless questions, and waiting for this day, ready to make his choice.

When father and son walked into the pet store, the dad immediately realized that this task was going to be much harder than he thought it would be. There were so many adorable puppies from which to choose. But with determination in his heart and confidence in his step, the little boy began his search. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, eyes and heart locked on the perfect dog. Staring at the little boy from the wired confines of a small crate was an undersized and fairly unimpressive black puppy. Following his son’s gaze, the dad cringed as he realized that the first puppy he had eliminated as a possibility was the very one his son was watching.

The father attempted to re-direct the interest of his son toward a more suitable dog. It was not to be. Each time the little boy returned to his first choice, the black puppy that was almost grinning at the boy, eagerly pawing at the cage door, and wagging his tail with great enthusiasm. The dad finally asked, “Son, which one do you want?” The little boy pointed at the dog with the furiously wiggling tail and announced with great certainty, “I want that one, Daddy! I want the one with the happy ending.”

We all want a life filled with happy endings, but we seem to be living lives that could well be described as “joy-less.” Every day is lived at the mercy of the world. We are like Charlie Brown who admits, “I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.”

God promises that if we know Him, we will know true joy. Joy is not merely happiness. True joy is an unshakable confidence that God is in control.

God is our one and only source of joy, and stands ready and waiting to saturate every circumstance with His presence. As His children, joy is ours to claim. Really? If that is true, then where is it? Why are so many of us facing each day with a sense of dread instead of a confident celebration?

Maybe it is because of the Joy Stealers who lurk in the shadows, waiting to crush joy wherever they find it. I have great news for you, girlfriend. Nothing and no one can take your joy without your permission. So, don’t give it!  Choose joy instead.

Choosing joy requires us to identify and eliminate the “joy stealers” in life. You may be allowing a person to take your joy. Maybe some painful experience from a shadowed yesterday is an obstacle of joy in your life today. Perhaps a fearful circumstance or a broken dream is the culprit.

I know life can be painful. I know it is often hard and unfair. I also know God is in control. So if God really is God (and He definitely is), then we can and should be people of joy. I have read the final chapter of the Book, and we win!
 

When You Feel Far From God

Jesus said: On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20, NIV)



Do you ever feel far away from God, or that He is far away from you? If you’re like most people, then I bet the answer is yes. So let’s take a look at those “feelings.”

You are a triune being with a body, soul, and spirit. Within your soul you have a mind, will, and emotions. That’s where those “feelings come from.” And if you are like most people, sometimes you feel closer to God than other times. But are you? Really?



But just because I feel closer to God in a particular moment doesn’t mean that I am. It is just a feeling. We know that we cannot have that giddy feeling about our spouse all the time. Then why do we think we have to have that with God?

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they could know him better …that they might know the hope to which he had called them…(Ephesians 1:17-19). He prayed for the Colossians that they would know the mystery of God, namely, Christ in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3). He did not pray that they would feel like they were close to God or feel the love of God. He prayed that they would know it.

Specifically, Paul prayed:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (How? Through faith.) And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know his love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19 emphasis added).

Why do we experience times when we feel far from God? How can we feel far from God if His Holy Spirit lives in us? If you are in Christ and He is in you (John 14:20), why don’t you feel Him at all times? Can you feel distant from your liver, from your kidney or from your pancreas? Being near to God, or rather feeling near to God is not a matter of proximity, as if one of us moved closer or further away. It is not a matter of a physical position, but it is a matter of our relational acuity. It is a spiritual receptivity, a spiritual awareness, and a spiritual acknowledgement of His presence.

Charles Spurgeon once said: “It may be that there are saints who are always at their best, and are happy enough never to lose the light of their Father’s countenance. I am not sure that there are such persons…and I have not traversed that happy land. Every year of my life has had a winter as well as a summer, and every single day has its night…I confess that though the substance be in us, as in the teil-tree and the oak, yet we do lose our leaves, and the sap within us does not flow with equal vigor at all seasons.”

God has promised He will never leave us, but we can feel far from Him when we ignore Him, live independently from Him, grow dissimilar from Him, or rush about expecting Him to tag along rather than move in union with Him.

Stand on what you know. “On that day,” Jesus said, “You will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20 NIV). And friend, you can’t get much closer than that.

And while your humanness falters between spiritual times of plenty and times of want, communion with God is always just a whisper away as you acknowledge His presence with you and in you.

GOT FAITH ?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil(Psalm 23:4, NKJV).

The greenest grass is always found in the valley. Shepherds and sheep are well acquainted with the fact that both mountains and valleys are an inevitable part of life.

Remember – the shepherd has to figure out a way over the mountain and through the valley. If a sheep is injured, the shepherd must carry his sheep and tend to its wounds until they are healed and the sheep is ready to return to the fold. The shepherd’s whole world revolves around the safety and comfort of his sheep, even in the deepest valley.

Valleys are a certainty of life. Your job is eliminated. Your husband is having an affair, or your teenage daughter is pregnant. Financial pressure suffocates dreams, or the betrayal of a trusted friend inflicts a wound so deep and painful that you long for that valley of death. Each day is thick with fear, and your heart is filled with disbelief. The valley may suddenly be before you in a time of loneliness or in the shock of a dire medical diagnosis.

The death of a loved one can derail a life. The death of a long-held hope can plunge us into a slimy pit of despair and darkness. Dreams that have slowly died or relationships that have abruptly ended can leave us stranded and alone in our own personal valley of death.

While valleys may come in all shapes and sizes, one thing is certain—valleys will come. That being said, we must ask and answer the question, “How can we deal with the valleys in life?” We must respond with faith.

Don’t let that word – faith – frighten you. You have faith. You walk into a dark room and flip a switch, knowing that the light will come on. You sit in a chair, knowing it will support your weight. You buy a ticket and board a plane, trusting that aircraft to get you to your desired destination. Yes, you have faith. It is just a matter of where you place that faith that makes all the difference in the world. When you place your faith in God, a world of possibilities and impossibilities opens up.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “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.”

It was advertised that the devil was putting his tools up for sale. When the day of the sale came, each tool was priced and laid out for public inspection. And what a collection it was. Hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit or pride…the inventory was treacherous. Off to one side was a harmless-looking tool priced higher than all the rest, even though it was obviously more worn than any other tool the devil owned. “What’s the name of this tool?” asked one of the customers. “That,” the devil replied, “is discouragement.” The customer asked, “But why have you priced it so high?” The devil smiled and explained, “Because discouragement is more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that tool when I can’t get near him with any other. It’s badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since so few people know it belongs to me.”

Are you discouraged…afraid…desperately trying to find enough energy to simply breathe? God knows. And He really is your shepherd. He understands that you may only be able to take one tiny, almost imperceptible step of faith. But He sees you, and just like a parent applauding their child’s first stumbling step, God will applaud will honor your choice to take it.

What if we viewed prayer as our first course of action rather than a last resort?

God said, ‘I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none,’(Ezekiel 22:30, NIV).

“Well, I guess the only thing left to do is pray about it.”

How many times have we heard those words? How many times have they slipped past our lips? But what if we looked at prayer from a different perspective… God’s perspective? What if we viewed prayer as our first course of action rather than a last resort?


Prayer is not a means to gain control over any situation in your life, but to relinquish control so that God can do what God needs to do.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 29:16, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me?’ Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?”

God is the Master Potter, and He certainly doesn’t need you or me to tell Him how to shape and mold the people that we are praying for. Oh, we’d like to. That’s for sure.

But God’s ultimate goal is for each lump of clay to be fashioned according to His design and for His purposes, not ours. “We are the clay, you are the potter,” Isaiah writes, “we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). I am. You are. Whoever you are praying for today is.

God shapes and molds. You pray and intercede.

James warns about the danger of praying with wrong motives (James 4:3). Check your desire to control at the door of the prayer closet and don’t let it in.

God is not hoarding His blessings, waiting for us to say the right words to pry those blessings out of His stingy hand. He longs to lavish us with His goodness! (Ephesians 1:7-8) And yet He often waits for us to ask. I am not saying I understand it. Prayer is simply how He chose to engineer the flow of His power and activity from the spiritual realm into the physical realm. Prayer is the conduit through which God’s power is released and His will is brought to earth as it is in heaven.

It is not that God cannot act without the prayers of His people. He can do anything He pleases (Psalm 115:3). However, He has established prayer as the gate through which His blessings flow. James reminds us: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

Ezekiel gives us a glimpse into the heart of God regarding prayer. Israel had sinned in every possible way, and her people were doomed for destruction. God said, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30). God looked for someone to pray, to intercede, to stand in the gap for Israel, but there was no one.

HELD BY HOPE

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:19, NIV)

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time to be an eyewitness of the celestial celebration that took place in Bethlehem the night that Jesus was born?  Now, I’m a bit fussy about fashion, but I’d even consider donning shepherd garb and hanging out with a few sheep for that opportunity! To see angels fill the sky, to hear the voice of God through the cries of a baby. To catch a glimpse of the brilliant Star of David, and to satisfy my curiosity as to what exactly a host of heavenly angels sounds like.

Oh, and to talk to Mary!  Wouldn’t that be amazing to hear what she was thinking as she witnessed, and took part in the greatest miracle ever known to man? This baby she gave birth to was God-in-flesh, a true bundle of perfect love.  What do you think she treasured in her heart as she took it all in?  I’m struck by this thought:  As she held the Hope of the world, the Hope of the world was also holding her. Ponder that!

The baby born in a barn that holy night long ago is the Hope of the world - the Grace that saves us - the Love that heals us.  Jesus is the Hope that changes our worthless into precious, our guilty to forgiven, our hungry into satisfied, and our empty into full.  His presence is inescapable.  Once we believe on Christ for salvation, we cannot flee from His stubborn love-grip.  The psalmist, David said: “If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:8-10).

The Bible tells us in the New Testament that Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God, the Father in heaven and that He “holds us fast.” Relish that thought. The Hope that holds us is Jesus Christ. You and I are held by Hope.

In the Old Testament, God told Joshua that He would “never leave or forsake” him (Joshua 1:5). God says the same to us. He will never leave us or forsake us; no matter the circumstances, not matter the diagnoses, no matter the financial struggle. Our faithful LORD is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can rest assured that in everything we are held by Hope.

After His resurrection and before His ascension into heaven, Jesus said, “Surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).  My girlfriend Mary Southerland often reminds people that the word “always” actually means … drum roll please … "always!"  He is always with us.  Always loving us.  Always wanting us to find comfort, refuge, joy and satisfaction in Him.

As Christmas approaches and the New Year dawns, let’s be mindful of God’s promise that we are never alone. Just like the shepherds received the headline news of Jesus’ birth from singing angels so long ago, receive this glad tiding of great joy today: If you are in Christ, then you are held by Hope.

 

Don't Miss Your Divine Appointment

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34, NIV).



Jesus was a very busy man. And yet, He was never too busy to offer a kind word to the men and women who crossed His path on a daily basis.

He stopped and spoke to the diminutive Zacchaeus who was perched in a tree to get a better look at the parade of followers.

He took a break from His travels to engage in one of His longest recorded conversations with a weary woman who was at a well.

He interrupted His schedule to comfort a mother who was in the funeral procession of her only son.

He took time to deliver a demon-possessed man who stood in His way on the shore.

He noticed a lame man by the pool of Bethesda who waited for the healing waters to stir. 

He comforted His crying mother as she stood at the foot of the cross.

He instructed the frustrated fishermen as He stood watching from the shore.

Jesus noticed…and then He offered words and deeds of comfort and concern.

It appears that each of these incidents in Jesus’ life was an interruption in His packed schedule, but they were not interruptions at all. Each encounter was a divine appointment from His heavenly Father who controlled the moments of Jesus’ days.

Could it be that God is sending you out on a special assignment each time you cross the threshold of your home? I wonder who will God put in your path today?

As we go throughout our busy days this holiday season, we are continually met with opportunities to impact others with the words we speak. The man in front of us in line at the grocery store, the woman at the checkout counter, the waiter in the restaurant, the fellow passenger on the airplane, or the neighbor across the street might be your special assignment for the day.

A Day of Giving Thanks

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Recommended Reading Ephesians 5:18-20

As an experiment, consider giving God thanks "in everything" for a solid day. Give thanks, not repeating "Thank you, Lord" with every breath all day long, but in every event or occurrence. Every time something new happens -- phone call, flat tire, unexpected bill to pay, compliment, criticism, injury -- ask this question: "What is there in this situation or event that provides a reason to give thanks to God?"


Many people have misread 1 Thessalonians 5:18. It doesn't say "For everything give thanks," it says "In everything give thanks." There are many challenging things that happen in life for which we don’t naturally, even supernaturally, feel thankful. But when we consider that God is our Father, that He knows the number of hairs on our head (Luke 12:7), and that the days of our life are planned by Him ahead of time (Psalm 139:16) -- it stands to reason that there are no accidents with God. We know that God is able to use even the difficult things in life for our good (Romans 8:28), to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

If you have a hard time seeing a reason to thank Him for something that happens, do the next best thing: Ask Him to show you.

No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
Ambrose