Following Christ is not my best thing. Seriously. It is hard. It is a fight from the moment I wake up to the moment I give up the struggle, close my eyes and go to sleep. This is why I blog. Maybe following Jesus is hard for you too, and I’m pretty sure we need to stick together.
My most recent struggle is that I don’t feel understood because, quite honestly, I’m weird. I won’t go into my weirdness’s here but suffice it to say that I am never comfortable in a group, always having the gut feeling of being the odd person out. Maybe that is how everyone feels? Or maybe that is an introvert thing? Or maybe it is a blessing? No idea.
But today while reading my daily devotional, the words of a prayer by Francis of Assisi spoke to this very point of my weirdness and not being understood. It said, “O, Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.” This selfless prayer made me see the selfishness of wanting to be understood and the beauty of being understanding rather than judgmental. It made me see through the eyes of Christ.
“O, Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.”
~Francis of Assisi
So now, when I find myself wallowing in self pity, I must obediently bring it to my Papa and let him do his thing. Hopefully, this is helpful to some other weird person out there. May He give us all a glimpse of others through his eyes so that we can console, understand and love them.
I am not a fan of movies where, in the end, the bad guy wins. And I don’t think many other people like them either. I am making this bold statement judging by the popularity of Hallmark movies. We want the good guy to win in our fiction as well as in real life. But more times than not, in daily life we see wrong appear to win over right.
You may have seen what happens to people who have allowed bitterness to rule their heart. Their thoughts become consumed with fear and malice and they slowly become isolated in their bitter world. All their joy has vanished. If we could trace the origin of their bitterness I believe we would find that it started when an unfairness, disappointment, pain, or injustice happened and they believed that wrong won over right. Do not discount this. Bitterness is a tricky ploy of the enemy and it begins with waving the flag of righteous indignation. At this point it is our response to this apparent injustice that matters.
Guard your heart. We are told in scripture throughout the Bible to guard our hearts. But what does this mean? As we all know, our world is full of unfair situations and it is our response to it that matters to the health of our soul. We cannot control those situations but we can control our response to that unfairness.
I don’t know about you, but my gut response to unfairness and disappointment is anger. Then I shoot off my mouth. Then I internalize it. Then it plants a tiny seed of bitterness. Bitterness is an underestimated powerful, slow acting poison. The natural way animals know not to eat a poisonous plant is a bitter taste. This is a lesson from nature. If you don’t believe me, just feed a small child their first bite of broccoli and then duck. In much the same way as consuming poison, that seed of bitterness grows in my heart and slowly begins to taint my thoughts and words. If I continue to feed this bitterness with wandering thoughts and internet rabbit holes, it slowly poisons my heart and causes a long drawn out suicide to the spirit in me.
Praise God, there is an antidote to bitterness’ venom once it has a hold on my heart! It was given in the Lord’s Prayer. “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiveness is the antidote to this poison. And Jesus must have known the destruction left by bitterness because he chose to address it in his model prayer. Forgiveness is anything but easy and it must become a daily habit until all the bitterness is gone.
Matthew 6:12 AMP – And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].
So what do we do to steer clear of bitterness when facing the apparent win of evil? Again we need to turn to the Bible. There are plenty of stories of injustice from Genesis to the New Testament. But my favorite response to injustice is in Psalms. Psalms is a book of prayers and praise to God. If you have read the book of Psalms through, you will be surprised by many of them. So many of them express fear, sadness and anger to God over situations in life. Some of it seems inappropriate by our standards yet those who were experiencing injustice boldly asked God for retaliation. They cried out to God in the honesty of their feelings. Here is an example from King David when folks were lying about him.
Psalm 5:8-10 NIV – Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies— make your way straight before me. Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies. Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.
I believe that is the most appropriate place to voice our anger and indignation. As we become more tuned in to the Holy Spirit we become more sensitive to the injustice of this world. So after crying out to God, we must remind ourselves of who is really in control and in his almighty power which we cannot begin to fathom. God does not tell us that this surrendered life will be a cakewalk. In fact he tells us that we will have troubles but he has let us have a peek at the final chapter and it will be far beyond that happy Hallmark ending we desire.
When people say, “All we can do is pray” it bothers me. It is the best thing and the first thing we should do, not the last. What if you had a loving powerful confidante who cares for every little thing about your day—someone who would act on your requests in a surprising and efficient manner—someone who never got tired of your requests and stood by you in the most difficult of circumstances? Would you wait until you tried everything else before you ask him for help?
Here is what I have learned so far. You have to make the effort to get to know Him. You have to learn to recognize Him by his actions. You have to constantly seek his companionship because he isn’t pushy. He won’t step in and solve your issue unless you ask and believe that he can. And even when He solves those issues you have to pay attention or you will miss the opportunity to see what he has done.
He will fix things in your life in his own way, which is not always your way, but is always in the best way. In some situations He carries you through the heartbreak. He is with you and he is developing your strength in this painful earth experience. Just focus on Him and you will realize you have made it through to the other side and are better for it. He is not a genie. He will not grant wishes. He is a BFF. He matures you. He makes you stronger. He always has your best at heart even when you cannot see it that way.
Is there anything He won’t give you? Well, I think He will give you all you ask in his own time if it is asked in humility and in line with his heart. For example, if you ask for world peace he will surely give it to you but it is in his own time. He tells us in his Word that there will be wars and rumors of wars but he also tells us of a time when the wolf and lamb will graze together. So yes, he will answer that prayer for world peace, just probably not in the timing that we have in mind. To him, millennia are seconds on a clock. We cannot wrap our heads around how big He is.
How do you get to know him? Pay attention. Yep, just pay attention. The best way to develop this sensitivity to His presence is to be grateful and read the stories written about Him. Realize that He created this universe and that everything amazing, creative and good, from laughter to coffee, comes from his hand. Everyday think of three new blessings for which He is responsible. (Although I thank Him for coffee everyday.) Give credit where credit is due. Develop that habit of gratitude.
Next, when you ask him for something, watch for the answer. Don’t just set it down and run off and forget it. And don’t try to manipulate the answer. Trust me, I have tried this and it doesn’t work out. Let it go. It helps if you write down the request then go back and record how it was answered. Develop this habit. Again…pay attention to His work. Then praise Him for what he has done.
Why am I so authoritative on this subject? Because He has answered my big and little prayers over and over again throughout my life! Oh, and sometimes he said no to my solution but he gave a far better one and I am so glad he did. It is only in the last twenty years of my life that I paid attention to what He is doing. I wish I had paid attention sooner.
As a young Christian in the ‘70s, I spent a lot of my prayer life asking for world peace. I believe God will answer that prayer well past the timeline I had in mind as a teenager. As I grew older, my prayers changed. Some sounded like I thought God was a genie, but most sounded like I thought he would never really answer. Later I spent an enormous amount of time asking God to heal my broken marriage. He answered that prayer with a gut wrenching “no” and now, looking back, I am so glad. He had something so much better for me around the corner! Since then, there has been a much more personal heart-wrenching prayer that I prayed for 15 years that I have seen God answer. I can’t share it, but suffice it to say, it was BIG! Praise his Holy Name!
About ten years ago I discovered the beauty of writing my prayers. In fact, that is how I started blogging. I got so much practice at writing that I discovered a love for it. Back to my point. When I wrote down my prayers, I was able to go back and see what I asked and often I could see how He answered it. What a wonderful thing this has been for my walk of faith. God’s time is so different from my short attention span.(After all, it was God who created elephant’s memories.)
When reading over my past prayers, I see some of the things I couldn’t at the time. I see each uniquely designed answer. Some answers I am still waiting on but by reviewing God’s work in my life, I have begun to let go of the framework of time and have developed a hair more faith than I had when I was in my teens.
Since my expectations of God’s answers have no time frame, there is shock and awe in the random timing of His answers. For example, I was driving home the other day on the winding two-way, no passing road to our neighborhood. A “crotch-rocket” pulled out behind me on this narrow road and began tailgating me. The only thing that makes me more nervous than tailgaters is motorcycles and winding roads. I clenched the steering wheel and said a quick prayer for tailgating-crotch-rocket guy. Within a minute of that prayer, the guy passed me on a blind no-passing curve. I was relieved no one was coming the other way and he was out of my sight. Then, a minute later I rounded another curve and there was crotch rocket guy on the side of the road frantically trying to start his motorcycle. I was absolutely amazed that God answered my prayer so swiftly because that is not his usual MO. I thank God for sending me this reminder that he is listening and he answers prayer.
Just because you have seen the movie doesn’t mean you can’t read the book. Because as we all know, nine times out of ten, the book is better than the movie. I say that to preface what I’m about to tell you.
If you asked me what book other than the Bible, brought me closer to God than any other, you would be shocked at my answer. Although I have read and loved books by C.S. Lewis, Henry Drummond, Watchman Nee, Timothy Keller, James Bryan Smith, Corrie ten Boom, Priscilla Shirer and many other inspired authors, they did not change my life as much as The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yes, I am talking about that non-Christian genre, fiction book that was published in 2009 and later became a movie.
Before I explain this, first of all let me tell you that I believe we often underestimate the influence of fiction books. Fiction is able to slip up on you and convince you to try things that no frontal attack can.(Especially if you are as stubborn as me). So how did a silly fiction book, make an impact on my life? In the book, the main character had a habit of writing her prayers down so she would be able to look back and see how God answered them and not forget. This was the idea that I took to heart. It rang true because I often forgot what I asked of God and failed to thank Him for his answers. Gratitude matters.
At that point, I began writing down my prayers so I could look back and see God’s blessings in my life. And fifteen years later, you wouldn’t believe the blessings that I have been able to witness! They were blessings that I would have forgotten or overlooked had I not recorded them. And on a side note, it also got me started writing. Once I began writing regularly, it became easier to put my thoughts on the page. This is where the blogging thing originated. It all started with a fiction book.
Here is a quote from the Mayo Clinic on gratitude:Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease. If a pill could do this, everyone would be taking it. Dec 6, 2022
Side effects of daily doses of “Gratudis” are peace, patience, kindness, and contentment. For best results take it with your coffee every morning, with your lunch, dinner and before you go to bed. If you skip a dose, double it the next day.
As I grow older, I am convinced that the practice of gratitude is lacking in our everyday lives and the implications are far-reaching beyond anything we can imagine. I believe that gratitude leads to peace as well as many other life-changing benefits. I am not talking about a Pollyanna approach to life nor am I talking about a fake-it-till-you-make-it practice. I am talking about a deep-seated attitude change rooted in gratitude to God. It is developing a relationship with God starting with gratitude.
I wish developing gratitude was as easy as taking a pill. There are some people who were raised to be grateful. Their parents constantly pointed to the blessings, small and large, in their day. Consequently, they grow up to be joyful adults. I have a feeling though, that most of us were not taught gratitude while young and impressionable. Like me, most of us only hear about it in November every year near the Thanksgiving holiday and it seems warm and fuzzy but we forget it while vying for a parking spot on Black Friday.
So how do we begin to learn a lifestyle that wasn’t modeled for us as children? I am convinced that the first step is to develop a thirst for gratitude. Seek it. Convince yourself that you need gratitude like oxygen. For starters, try Googling “benefits of a grateful heart”. Study how gratitude is a practice that will answer the deepest longing of your soul. Then tell God of this desire. Ask God for it like you are asking for water at the end of a marathon. He is the source of all good things. He will give us whatever we ask in his will. Asking for gratitude is most certainly asking for something that God wants to give us.
And how many times should we ask Him? As many as it takes. It should be asked in sincerity of heart and not forgotten. If you are like me, you will need to take measures to remember that you asked God for this. In my experience, God usually has tipped his hand and given as he sees fit for the day. And when I am ready for more, he gives more. Although I have no doubt that he can, he does not usually zap me to fix me. He teaches me in small increments. He is a patient teacher at heart.
Learning something new is not easy for an adult. Just ask anyone over 70 how they feel about technology. And change won’t happen if we don’t cooperate in the process. We have to be willing to change habits. After developing a desire for gratitude and asking God for this gift, we must be willing to put away old practices that God shows us are detrimental to gratitude and begin new gratitude-nurturing practices. He will show us what these are but we must pay attention. He might lead us to sit with Him at an appointed time daily and list points of gratitude. He might ask us to limit time with those who constantly complain and spend more time with people who have a joyful attitude. He might prompt us to fill our minds with stories of those who lived a life of gratitude like the Apostle Paul or Corrie ten Boom.
How do we recognize it when God has answered our prayer? Because change is slow, most often I see God’s work in my life when I look back over several years time. Give Him your cooperation and patience and he will change your heart.
Here is a final comment from the Apostle Paul:
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV 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.
Because I am a cynic, I have made fun of people(occasionally out loud) who pray about every little thing. Lord, what should I wear? Should I go to the store? Should I make my bed? Should I call or text? I think, “they are so needy; so co-dependent.” But isn’t becoming dependent on God the goal of any Christ follower? Faith and belief are indeed close cousins to dependence. Could this practice be a big step toward God?
So I am giving it a whirl. It is my new experiment in the pursuit of Christ-likeness. I am trying to make my prayers less about curing cancer and more about the daily trivia that so often holds my mind at ransom, remembering that faith is the goal. Hoping that by coming to Him with all things, I will create a habit of dependence. And because the fears of yesterday are forgotten by new anxiety of today, I thought I would record my trivial requests. That way I can go back the next day and see how God has answered and thank Him for how he provided. Because I know God is good, I know this will be a win-win by creating both faith and gratitude.
I love trying experiments. Who says a there can’t be a scientific approach to following Christ?
Philippians 4:6-7 Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Prayer is such a mysterious thing…until you see an answer.
Luke 18:1-7 NIV Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!' ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
Sometimes I think my prayers are unimportant or that maybe I’m praying wrong or that the answer is no and I’m not listening. But if Jesus bothered to tell a story instructing us to persist in prayer, and under divine protection this story has been passed along for over 2000 years, who am I to stop battling for people I know in prayer? And the most important part is that yes, I have seen my prayers answered. They are seldom answered instantly (although that has happened too). Some answers have taken decades. And it is a glorious thing because I know my Creator has heard and responded to my prayers even though I don’t deserve his attention.
Pain happens in all of our hearts. Some days you wake up to a gnawing feeling that things are all wrong. Then you have to deal with it. You have a choice. My usual choice has been to deny it, ignore it and push it down. Then when it works its way out, I feel guilty about it. That is not honest or healthy.
For example, when I am lonely, I shove it down thinking, “other people are so much worse” and successfully shame myself for feeling lonely. This is how I deal with every other feeling that is negative. I shove it down then shame myself into faking it. I know I am supposed to be honest and often apply this to everything except honesty with myself and God.
You don’t have to read very far into Psalms to see the authors dealing with bad feelings in a much different way. They let it all out! In Psalms you will find the authors dealing with anger, sadness, blame, depression, sleeplessness, mistreatment, abuse, sickness, and injustice to name just a few issues. They even go so far as to wish their enemy’s children dead! This can’t be right. But seriously, it is in the Bible. We are taught that it is evil to express feelings like this. And we suppress it. We never admit it, we never deal with it and we shame ourselves for it. Well, it is the human condition. We are ALL sinners.
We all have bad thoughts and if we don’t deal with it we eventually act on them. The Psalms show us how to deal with it. The Psalms show us that we should pour them out to God. This is anything but denial. This is dealing with the negativity in a healthy way. Take it to the Lord in prayer. You can even write it out to him and let him know how you feel. He won’t be shocked. He loves you and he created you and he has done time in flesh-and-blood in this evil world. He gets it.
Check out this Psalm dealing with social injustice:
Psalm 12:1-5;7-8 MSG Quick, GOD, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, All the friends I depended on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues. Slice their lips off their faces! Pull The braggart tongues from their mouths! I’m tired of hearing, “We can talk anyone into anything! Our lips manage the world.” Into the hovels of the poor, Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks: “I’ve had enough; I’m on my way To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.” GOD, keep us safe from their lies, From the wicked who stalk us with lies, From the wicked who collect honors For their wonderful lies.
So I need to quit praying G-rated prayers. I need to get real. I need to learn to express my issues to my Father and Friend. I won’t shock Him. He already knows but I need to express it. I need to write it, vocalize it and sing it out to God just like the Psalmists.
If the Rapture were to be tonight, I believe tomorrow there would be scarcely a handful of teachers left in public schools. Yet, daily we are labeled as subversive and hear accusations of indoctrination and worse. They say we are teaching our students heinous things when in reality, we protect them, love them and make every effort to teach them to read, write, think and cope in this world. Public educators are being discredited, and slowly, slyly, gradually de-funded. And the worst is probably the looks of distrust we get when we admit our profession.
As a group we are the majority. We are also kind, trusting and compassionate and easily pushed around. This has left us vulnerable to political attacks and use as political pawns. As educators we can’t wrap our heads around why people would knowingly do this. That is because we are not running the same race as them and certainly are not motivated by the same things. If we were, we wouldn’t be educators.
So what can we do? Two things will help, the third is the real answer.
First, we must educate ourselves as to how the enemy works and who the enemy is and what is his motivation. Ignorance of the enemy is not acceptable. Read and enroll in online educator political discussions. This is non-negotiable.
Second, we must vote and vote only for those we know and trust. No straight ticket votes and no assumptions due to a D or an R or any rhetoric or promises. Vote based on actions, not words. And if you don’t know about a candidate, do not guess and vote. Just skip voting for that particular office. The ballot is not a STAAR test. You can leave some blanks.
Third, and this is the most important thing: pray. Pray daily and pray big and pray again. Pray for every child and every parent. Pray for our state leadership. Even if it is only five minutes, make time in the morning to bring it all to the Father. He is why we do what we do. He is all-powerful and you are His child who serves His precious children.
I have been rescued. And I am rescued on a daily basis. No, I was not a drug addict. No, I didn’t suffer from alcoholism. My demons are covert, they are many and I am under the delusion that I hide them well. They vary and come at me from every angle. They resemble self-pity, anger, bitterness, selfishness, self-righteousness and a plethora of other chains all of which stem from pride. Any one thing on this list can destroy faster than a heroin addiction and I am inflicted with these demons on a daily basis. But God…
Yes, I have been rescued today. And I was rescued yesterday and I will be rescued tomorrow if I choose. All I have to do is make one right decision. I have to let go and give it to God. It is a choice. It is the one right decision. To let Jesus take the wheel even though I grab at that wheel during the stressful moments of a day. But making this choice consistently and daily over the last seven years has brought me peace and joy that has rooted and grown. Most of my days I am not aware of this change since it isn’t one of those bolt-of-lightning type changes. But sometimes I am given a glimpse of someone who is like me who hasn’t made that decision and my eyes see the miracle that God has produced in me and I want this so badly for them too. He is cutting my chains off one by one, replacing each with his peace, love and understanding and I am so grateful.
I am beginning to understand this verse from the Apostle Paul.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Christmas? No. Halloween? No. Elections? No way! Remember that in November it will be Thanksgiving and it is all about that attitude of gratitude. I find it ironic that this season of gratitude falls right before the season of making lists of stuff we want.
In the past year I have been given a heightened awareness of prayer and many answered prayers have resulted in a renewed vision for prayer. This is not to say that I have successfully manipulated God to give me stuff. It is to say that I have been learning a few things from experience, participating in a study of the Lord’s Prayer and am currently reading a book about prayer called Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller. So I thought I would share some of the things I have learned about prayer.
Since Jesus gave an example of how we should pray, this will start with what he said. There are entire sermons written about just one of the lines of this prayer, however, it is the overall attitude that I see in the Lord’s Prayer that speaks to me the most. So each line will be followed by my own summarizing note about each phrase, emphasizing the attitude and focus.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. The focus of this prayer is God. Shift my focus to him.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.Prayer should be about listening to God’s agenda, not the reverse.
Give us this day our daily bread.We should recognize our dependence on God for our physical existence.
And forgive us our trespasses… We should recognize our reliance on God for our spiritual existence because we are sinful and dependent on his grace.
…as we forgive those who trespass against us. We are expected to follow his example in our life.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We have no control and depend on God for our protection for the very real forces of evil around us.
This is how Jesus said to pray. It is a humble prayer. I see the overall attitude of this prayer as reverence for the majesty of our creator and admission of our total dependence on him. This leads me to believe that the wrong way to pray is the opposite…with pride. So I must check my attitude before I jump in with a wish list for The Giver of All Life. And if I do this correctly, my wish list will vanish along with my pretense.
From the aforementioned book by Timothy Keller about prayer, I have discovered these important points about prayer. They resonated with me so I will share them here. They originated from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion but they are my paraphrase of his points. He refers to them as prayer rules but I think of them as prayer attitudes.
His first point is to approach God with joyful fear. It is my biggest challenge to retain my awe of God in a lifetime of familiarity. I like to think of this description: tremble with the privilege of speaking to the Creator of the Universe. This makes me think of a song by Lauren Daigle calledTremble. I will place the link here so you can go listen to it. This song expresses this point of view excellently.
Calvin’s second point is an attitude of spiritual insufficiency. This is described as being ruthlessly honest about my flaws and weaknesses. No grandiose facades. God knows.
In restful trust, let go and let God handle our issues. In Keller’s book it is suggested that we could say, “Here’s what I need–but You know best.”
The fourth attitude is to pray with confidence and hope, knowing that God will give us the best answer in his own time and it will be so much better than our ideas.
So may we all remember in this season, that prayer is about a frame of mind of joyful reverence, honesty, trust and confident hope. ‘Tis the Season!
Have you ever been in a low place and had friends who lifted you up? Following is a story about a guy in a low place who has friends who were willing to do what it takes to lift him up. But this was more than just giving a friend a lift, this was bringing an incapacitated companion to Jesus, the Son of God, the Great Physician.
Luke 5:17-26 NIV
One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
Jesus response is shocking. My paraphrase is, “You are forgiven, oh yeah, and you can walk now too.” Jesus immediately hones in on the paralyzed man’s heart instead of his paralysis. As we can see demonstrated here, Jesus’ first priority was this man’s heart and not healing his body. I think we often forget that. Jesus often uses our ailing bodies as well as any other unfortunate circumstance in our life to align our hearts to Him.
When a friend has a need that is beyond your power, what do you do? Sometimes groups of friends go into action organizing daily meals or offering physical aid of some sort. But how much better it would be if we could bring our friend directly to Jesus to be healed! Like in the story above, we would have to know where to find Jesus. And we might need a group to lift our friend; a group who believed in our crazy plan. How can we do that now, 2000 years after Jesus feet have left this earth? We know we still have access to the Father through prayer. We are able to bring issues before Him anytime, anywhere, with no crowds, ladder or tools. We have constant 24-7 access.
I have often heard folks defeatedly say, “All we can do is pray.” I am sure they have come out of my mouth at some point. I believe the Enemy himself knows how powerful prayer is, and his efforts go into minimizing it in our minds, making us deny the power of prayer. Jesus taught us to pray and He prayed. If the all-powerful Son of God chose prayer, is that not our sign?
Sometimes I am overwhelmed and need help. This happens to all of us. This is where we need to know friends who regularly come to God(friends in high places). As you read this, someone is probably popping into your head. This would be a compassionate friend, a Christ follower who has seen their own prayers answered time and time again. That is the person for the job. When you are snowed under by circumstances beyond your control, let them know you need their prayer. They will help you lift your burden and bring it to God for as long as it takes. They know prayer is a powerful action. These are the people who will follow through. They are prayer warriors who have seen this plan work in their own life. I have friends in high places and I have a church prayer team that is ready in a moment’s notice. Here is a link to my church prayer team if you are in need. They have prayed with me and I am forever grateful for all of them. I have seen the miracle of prayer and may I always be willing to cut a hole the the roof to lower my friends-in-need to Jesus
One more word of advice; don’t just drop it in a friend’s lap and never mention it again. This isn’t a lucky rabbit’s foot. This is grounded in faith. They are partnering with you so please keep that friend updated on progress. If they cared enough to pray, they want to know how that prayer was answered. It will bless them.
Luke 15 is an outstanding chapter of the Bible. It contains three stories told by Jesus to an audience of tax collectors, sinners and Pharisees; definitely not innocent children. The first story is about the lost sheep, the second is the lost coin and the third is the very famous story of the prodigal son. My pastor has often told us that this chapter speaks of the character of God. In each story we see God as a loving Father who desperately seeks to restore us. And when we are restored, He rejoices! Here is the passage from the second story of the lost coin.
Luke 15:8-10 NIV “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
According to Wikipedia, repentance is reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better. So repentance could be described as the process of changing one’s mindset. Following, is a discussion with God, my prayer.
Changing mindsets--this is your business. The Bible calls this process repentance and restoration. Often in the Bible, people who refuse to repent are described as stiff-necked. As adults, we are all stiff-necked people. Some synonyms for stiff-necked are stubborn, uncompromising, obstinate, unreceptive, unbending, inflexible, unforgiving and opinionated. All these terms seem to be the theme in our culture today. No one seems to change their mind, and when they meet resistance, they dig in deeper. It is made quite clear in Luke 15 that changing hearts and minds is what You do. How do you do this, Lord? Experiencing the struggle of this process, I can understand the rejoicing that goes on when even one lost person is found!
Lord, you seek relentlessly for those who are lost. You don’t give up. You don’t want to lose anyone, and thankfully, you are all-powerful. I have seen firsthand how hard it is to admit I was wrong and change how I think and it brings me to tears to see people die because they refuse to change. But on a recent occasion, I have been privileged to see the anomaly of someone changing their mindset. Lord, I don’t know how you entice headstrong adults to change their way of thinking, but I am so excited that You do. This gives me hope.
Lord, keep being who you are. I trust You to do the heavy lifting.
I am a People Pleaser. This is not bragging. Far from it! This is a confession. Everyday I think about what more I could have done or how I could fix something. The problem is that I cannot shake loose of this destructive game. People who love me tell me to blow it off, let it go. They know. I work like a slave to please those around me and it is truly slavery of my soul.
I know now that my slavery began when I started my current job and is closely attached to my deep desire to help those I support. That, in itself, is not a bad thing until helping them consumes me and I cannot turn it off. The instant gratification of fixing someone’s problem has become my addiction. And if I can’t help them, I know someone who can, so I dog that poor soul to help solve the issue.(My apologies to my coworkers.)
The root of the problem is my values. I am placing more importance on what others think of me than what my Heavenly Father thinks. This is not a new problem and is nothing more than a form of idolatry, holding other’s opinions over God’s. God forgive me.
Being a people pleaser harms me and those closest to me. First, it destroys my relationship with God because I am listening to the people around me rather than the voice of my Father. There is not enough room in my head for both! Secondly, it can place a huge burden on those who are close to me to be responsible for my peace of mind. Just like family and friends know their loved ones are alcoholics, they also know when they are a people pleasing addicts. There are only so many hours in the day, or days in a life and when I am working extra hours to please, I am denying time with those I love. When I am ruminating over a problem at work, I could be fully present and enjoying my time with my loved ones. And last, it teaches those in my care to be the same way, perpetuating this slavery mindset to others.
I realize there needs to be a 12-step program for people pleasers. So here are my AA adapted steps:
PPA 12 Steps
1. I admit I am powerless over people pleasing—and that I am a slave to it.
2. Come to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
3. Make a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself noting triggers for this behavior.
5. Admit to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.
6. Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. Be willing to admit that this harms myself and those closest to me, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Make direct amends to such people.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and when I am relapsing and promptly admit it.
11. Seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God as I understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Having spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I try to carry this message to other People Pleasers, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.
Discerning a courageous move from a stupid move can be challenging. For most of us, courage isn’t rushing into burning buildings to rescue kittens. For me, that would be stupid rather than courageous. I used to think being bold for Christ was going to work in Africa as a missionary. And it is. I was right. But that may not be MY bold. Courage is about doing something that you know you should when it is easier not to. I believe that God-given boldness comes with a spark of desire. He does not expect us to do what he hasn’t given us the motivation to do. At least that is what I think. Being bold is not my forte. I am a comfort-loving, go-with-the-flow girl so this is my exploration of courage and boldness.
The Bible is full of examples of boldness. Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see Jesus, the disciples dropping everything to follow Jesus, Joseph marrying the pregnant Mary, Esther approaching a volatile king on behalf of her people, or Elijah creating a duel between the fire-making skills of God verses Baal and being rather sassy about it. This is only scratching the surface of the examples of courage in the Bible. But what I must remember is that Zacchaeus, Joseph, Esther and Elijah were not superheroes. They were all human just like me. They were imperfect and afraid. Yet they followed God and took the first step.
Today your courage may be going to the doctor. For others it may be going to church again. For some, it may take boldness to trust someone else to do the job. Boldness could mean cleaning out the junk(literally and figuratively). It could be forgiving someone, letting a child go, asking for help, ignoring opinions of others, moving on without a spouse, visiting an old friend, speaking to a group or even going on vacation.
So here are three questions I need to ask myself before I take that bold step.
Have my loved ones been hinting at(nagging about) this step for me? Many times the next bold step is obvious to your loved ones but you are hesitant. Listen to them. God often uses our loved ones to guide us.
Do I have hope for improvement resulting from this or do I have a passion or desire to do this but I am held back by fear?
Have I prayed about it?
If my answer to all of these questions is no then I could be staring into the face of an act of stupidity. But if the answer to the first or second question is yes, then it is time to make the answer to the third question yes. Maybe it is time to take this first bold ste
What can I say about prayer that hasn’t already been said? I can only tell about the answered prayers in my own life. No one else can tell you that.
I don’t know about you, but praying has not been natural for me. You might think that as a Preacher’s kid who was raised in the church, that prayer would be like breathing. However, prayer, for most of my life has been a mystery.
I think the first issue I had was I would ask God for BIG things only. I thought little daily stuff was not worth God’s attention. So I prayed for world peace, for the hungry to be fed, and for all people to turn to Christ. Amen. My prayers were noble but not relational. And probably not something that will be answered in my lifetime or even on this earth. So how did I bring my prayers down to my reality? I learned to pray for the next step. I prayed for my decisions that I knew I would face that very day. I recorded issues that friends were facing on that day and I prayed for them also.
[33] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16: 33 NIV
Another issue with prayer was my forgetfulness. I would pray for an issue to be resolved then never give it another thought. I did not expect or notice God’s answer. I did not follow through. Once I found a way to ensure follow through, my prayer life became vibrant. The way I found to battle my forgetfulness was to record my prayers daily. Then daily, review the previous day’s requests. To my amazement, my prayers were answered over and over again. God was constantly working on my prayers. And then I expressed my gratitude. It would take pages to describe the difference gratitude makes in my life. This is not to say that I have this gratitude thing down. I am a negative person by human nature. I fight this daily.
[14] This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
I John 5:14-15 NIV
Another issue was that I often prayed for stuff that was not God’s will. No, I didn’t pray for that mean girl to get syphilis, but I prayed for things that weren’t necessarily important to anyone’s relationship with God. So how do we know his will? By reading his Word. By talking to Him. By a personal relationship with Him. By pursuing Him. I once heard that God has priorities that are very different from ours. While we care about our earthly comforts and earthly justice, God cares first about our relationship with him and our eternal destination. So when I pray, I must keep in mind that God’s priority is his relationship to his children, before justice on earth and before my perceived happiness or comfort in this temporary life. And when my prayers are aligned with God’s desires, then I see miracles.
[2] “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: [3] ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
