Room Enough to Receive It

I am a very organized shopper.  I get paid every two weeks and every two weeks I sit down and plan 14 days of menus and make a grocery list.  Now that I have discovered online grocery shopping with curbside pickup, I am saving time and avoiding standing in long lines. 

This week when my husband and I pulled into the pickup lot for our grocery haul, I got out and went to the back of the van to make sure there wasn't anything there to interfere with the store worker loading my bags of groceries.  Then one of those little "God moments" occurred as I got a quick analogy about having room to receive what I had purchased.

God has purchased everything for us - salvation, healing, deliverance, power, anointing, strength, peace, joy, wisdom - shall I go on?  Sometimes the back of my van holds my granddaughter's stroller or some tools that belong to my husband.  If I forget that those things are there, they must be moved to allow the van to be filled with those things that I need.  Some things I can move aside myself, but there are other things that are too heavy for me to move and I need the help of my husband - someone who is stronger than I am.

In our lives, God desires for us to have all those things that He provides, but there are times when our lives are filled up with other things which must be moved aside in order to us to receive what He is offering.  Some of those things we can move aside with a simple choice, while others require His strength to lift away. There are times when just talking with a brother or sister in Christ helps to lift those things that are in the way and put them in their proper place.

That was my case this past week.  I had allowed some mindsets to interfere with my walk with God.  I had listened to some lies of the enemy that had discouraged me and made me feel inferior, powerless, and useless.  In counsel with a couple who loves me, I began to recognize the root of some of these thoughts and they helped me to move them out of the way in the spirit so that I would have room to receive the thoughts about myself that God wishes me to have.

What is in your spiritual "trunk" today?  Are there things there that you need to set aside?  Are there things blocking the flow of blessing in your life that you need to share with someone who knows the mind of God?  Do you need to ask God to pick up that heavy thing and move it out of the way so that you will have a spirit that is open and clear and ready to receive from Him?

What I Thought I Wanted

I have only put sunscreen on my body once this summer.  Before you think me reckless and unwise, let me tell you that though I prefer warm weather to the stark and bleak cold of winter, I don't relish extreme heat either and I definitely don't like to sweat!  The time I've spent outdoors this summer has been in short periods of time that aren't in the peak times of day for the sun to do its damage.

When I was a teenager though, I strove to get that "healthy-looking" tan.  My friends and I would lay out in the backyard on lawn chairs, slathering on a mixture of iodine and baby oil, flipping from front to back at regular intervals to fry ourselves evenly.  Unfortunately, it was to no avail.  My daughter says I am the whitest white woman she knows!  I think she is referring to more than the hue of my skin, but it's true that I cannot get a tan by any means.  I burn, peel and go back to the same pasty white.  So, I made the decision pretty early on that since I could not get that golden glow that I'd avoid all the burns and the sweating and the frustration and limit my time in the sun.

So many times in life we think we really need or want something and it doesn't happen.  My dreams of looking like the girls in the teen magazines did not come to pass, but there was a huge silver lining in that frustrated wish.  By avoiding the sun for the last 45 years, my skin has maintained its youth better than some other folks my age.  I often surprise people who learn my age for the first time. Better than that, I seem to have dodged the skin cancer bullet as well.

What's all this got to do with spiritual things?  I know there are times  I asked God for things in my life I thought would make me complete or happy or fulfilled, but those prayers were not answered in the way I envisioned them.  In retrospect, I can now see the hand of God in the way He responded to the things I thought I wanted.  His plan was far greater than the limited one I had designed and some of those requests would have eventually spelled disaster for me if they had played out according to my wishes.

It boils down to this: God has a vision for our lives and a view of our lives that is so far beyond what we can imagine that the only wise thing for us to do is to trust Him.  Oh, how we want to dictate to Him how things should be.  We want His stamp of approval on our plans instead of seeking Him to guide us into His.

I once heard a sermon that referenced the scripture: "Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4) We think this means if you follow God, He'll give you all the things you want, but this pastor's take on the scripture was that if your delight is in the Lord, He'll put the desires in your heart that He wants you to have - those that will bring about His purpose in your life and in the lives of others that you touch. He is concerned with Kingdom purpose - not wish granting. It's an interesting thought.  Are we willing to let His desires become our desires and quit holding on to what we think we want?

Beyond the Obvious

There is a game that I play on my cell phone when I have an idle moment, like when I'm waiting in a doctor's office or when a meeting is late in beginning.  This game gives me just six letters to use to make as many as twelve words in a crossword-style grid, but with no clues.  At first, I see the obvious combinations and connect the letters to make the words that stand out to me.  Then I try adding suffixes to the words I've made if the correct letters are there to make that attempt. My next strategy is to think of words that rhyme with those I've already formed.  Finally, I actually look at the grid structure and see what hints are there because of the position of the letters in the words that remain.

Many times I will look at the few letters that are presented to me and think, "There is absolutely no way that I can make that many words from this meager number of letters!" It looks impossible and I can not find any meaning in the jumble of letters that are given to me.  Eventually though, with time and reflection, I fill in the entire grid.

I think the Bible is a lot like a word puzzle.  Of course, the worth of the Word of God is infinitely more valuable than a time-wasting game, but there are some parallels between the two. At first reading of a passage of scripture, we can get the surface meaning.  We quickly latch on to what is familiar and what we have heard preached and taught before, but if we move on and dismiss this as just that "same old passage" that we've heard a thousand times, we won't see the entire "grid" or structure that God is trying to build in our lives.

True Bible study is more than just reading.  Just like the puzzle, we must look at scripture beyond the immediate and instant understanding and find connections and associations between what we are reading and what God has said in the entirety of His Word.  We can find application to the current situations in our lives.  If we are willing to dig into the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to be our teacher, we will find treasures that will bring beauty to our lives and the lives of others.  Challenge yourself to complete the puzzles in your life with the letters you have been given.

Lessons from a Baby #9: Who Gets Your Attention?

Have you ever said something and realized, almost at the very moment the words were coming out of your mouth, that what you were saying had a meaning beyond the subject you were talking about?  Sometimes I will say something quite ordinary that turns out to be one of those phrases about which I can say, "That'll preach!"

I had one such moment this past weekend.  Our darling Bella, who gets to be the subject of so many of my blog posts, is a busy toddler.  There is so much for her to see and do that we don't get much cuddle time with her anymore.  The rarity of her hugs and kisses makes them precious - especially when they are given without request.

She was busy on Saturday morning, playing with her toys, checking out the pantry, looking out the window, and babbling on about something, when my husband asked her for a hug.  She stopped what she was doing, reached up for him, and wrapped her little arms around his neck.  "Aww, thank you!" he said and put her back down on the floor.  Emboldened by his success, I asked for a hug too, but little miss said, "No" in her tiny little voice and toddled off into the kitchen.

"Wait a minute!" I said.  "I feed you and I change your diapers and he gets the hug?"  Before the last word left my mouth, the Holy Spirit had already stopped on that thought.  "How many of your needs has God supplied and who gets your time and attention?"

I had to admit that more of my focus is given to the things of the world, the petty details of daily life, and my own amusement than is invested in the things of God.  I find myself preferring to be entertained by things that have no value than to spend time in the presence of my Father. The enemy's greatest tool in the life of a Christian is not to draw us into gross immorality.  He merely has to distract us from our life in the kingdom, make us prayerless and thus powerless.  When we stop pursuing Jesus, it's a slow drawing away that can leave us in a place we never would have chosen to go willingly, though it's those daily choices that we "will" that take us there. 

So today I vow to set my affection and attention where it belongs.

Colossians 3:2 says, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." 

That's where I'll start - by remembering where I belong and who deserves my focus.  I won't do it perfectly, but I won't use that as an excuse to stop trying. 

Amazing Love

When our son was a little boy he often said to us, “I love you a million thousand every day”.  Like most parents, we remember the cutest things our kids said and still talk about them, even though those babies are now adults.  I loved this phrase so much that I had a wall plaque created with those words.  It now hangs over my kitchen window.

One day I was walking through the house and noticed the plaque.  God said to me, “Think about those words a minute and I’ll show you something”.

As I meditated on that childish utterance, God showed me that when my baby boy said, “a million thousand” he was imagining the biggest number he could to indicate the depth of the love he had for us.  When he used the words, “every day",  he meant not just Christmas morning or the day we took him fishing or the time we went to the amusement park, but every single ordinary day of his life.

God said, “My love is much the same. A million thousand is only a tiny fraction of the infinite love that I have for my children.  I love you so much that I gave you Jesus and your mind can only comprehend a very small part of what that means for you.  My love for you is every day – not just when you have it all together, not just when you pray just right, not just when you’ve studied the Word or lifted your hands in worship, not just when you are treating those around you the way you should. I love you on the days when you are broken or doubting or frustrated or angry or unforgiving or apathetic.  I love you deeply and unconditionally every day.”

Every morning when you wake up to start your day, just imagine our amazing God greeting you with that phrase:

"I love you a million thousand

 – every day!"

Lessons from a Baby #8: Pursuing in the Same Direction/Proximity is Everything

It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago my granddaughter, Bella, was just taking her first few unsteady steps.  Now she's walking everywhere - and I do mean EVERYWHERE - and getting into everything.  She walks so well now that she is really ready to turn the walk into a run.

Last week we were playing in my backyard. She thinks it is hilariously funny when I chase and try to catch her, so we were doing a bit of that. Then I switched up the game a bit and got her to try to chase me. She thought that was fun too, but after just a few minutes, she turned and trotted off the opposite way in the yard. I yelled to her, "Bella, you can't catch me if you aren't going the same way I'm going!"

BAM! The thought hit me immediately.  That's what God is constantly saying to us.  We can't "catch" Him if we aren't going in the direction He is moving. Not only that, but moving away from God takes us from His protection and into places of danger.

Bella went the opposite way and at first, she was fine.  She was still in a safe place in the backyard, but if she had continued to move away from me, she eventually would have wandered into places of danger like the woods or.the street. 

When we first let other things interfere with our pursuit of God, we don't notice a problem.  We are still good, decent, moral people. We think we can handle this life just fine on our own.  It's no big deal.  The further we go in the opposite direction, the more the trajectory leads us into situations that we never thought we'd find ourselves in again.

My husband Paul reminded me of a similar story involving Bella's dad, our son, Josh.  When he was a little fellow, just learning to ride a bike, he took a bike ride in our neighborhood. He was still using training wheels, so this was early in his skill development in this area.  He had his helmet on and was riding just a little ahead of us as we circled the neighborhood. His dad told him not to get too far ahead of us so he would be safe. As he grew more confident, he peddled faster and faster and ultimately ended up hitting a rough patch of pavement and fell off his bike, skinning up his elbows and knees.  In spite of the warning to stay close, he made other choices.  Paul said it's like he had the helmet of salvation to keep him safe, but he forgot to stay close to his father and put himself in danger.

Remember that no matter how much you think you "have it together", you cannot risk moving off the path of pursuit in the same direction God is leading. 

Lessons from a Baby #7: Trusting, When You Don't Like the Way It Feels

I went to a swimming party yesterday with my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter, Bella.  Bella is 18 months old and is not yet a swimmer.  So "swimming" for her means being carried through the water while splashing and kicking.  She really likes me to hold her under her arms and pull her towards me through the water while she tries to kick her little legs.  However, when I try to hold her in my arms and help her to lie on her back to float, she resists.

I shouldn't have been surprised.  Like many little ones, Bella does not enjoy having her hair washed.  She doesn't like the feeling of the water on the top of her head or the drops streaming down her face.  I know that she loves and trusts me and she knows that I will not do anything to hurt her.  It's not that she didn't trust me to keep her above water while she lay on her back, it's just that she didn't like the way it felt.

Then God reminded me that I am the same way. I trust God. My head and heart both know that God will not do anything to harm me and that I can rest safely in His arms.   Sometimes though, I just don't like the way that feels. There are times when He is bringing me through a season in my life when the water doesn't feel comfortable.  I know He is holding me and I really don't have any fear - I just don't like the way I feel.

During those times, He is teaching me and trying to develop things in me that aren't easy to experience.  Sometimes there is pain. Often there is a period of stepping out into things that don't feel natural to me. More times than not, I have to see things in myself that I'm not ready to confront.  Through all of it though, I know that I won't be dropped, left to sink and drown in the middle of my situation.

Someday, when Bella is a much bigger girl and has learned to float and swim and dive, she'll read this story and wonder what the big deal was.  She'll ask herself why she ever had a problem with having her head wet.  For now, she is just reacting to a circumstance by showing how she feels.  She'll learn to get past those feelings and enjoy the freedom of moving through the water on her own as I can learn the freedom of letting God have His way in my life.

I know we are not supposed to be moved by what we feel, but that doesn't mean we won't feel.  The key is that when God is holding us on the surface of the water, we must relax and let Him put us in that floating position - even though it's not comfortable. Pulling ourselves back into that upright position keeps us away from the peace that we can have in Him.  The Bible says that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18), so we must remind ourselves that the love that is holding us is indeed perfect and learn to embrace the sensations that are not always comfortable in the natural, knowing that God really does have our best interests in mind.