Tag: perseverance

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Day 29 Good Day

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Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:1-5
“The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lordturn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26

I’ve heard a famous Christian teacher tell audiences this profound truth: “It’s one thing to see a miserable sinner but a miserable Christian is a tragic thing.”  While we all, believers and non-believers, have heartbreaking or difficult events in our lives, we have to acknowledge that the majority of our lives run from fun and exciting to dull and average.  Yet throughout it all Jesus followers should emulate the apostle Paul and be always searching and living gratefully for God’s ever presence in our lives.

This truth really hit home for me when I read Corrie Ten Boom’s famous book, “The Hiding Place.”  Her sister Betsie could find joy in God’s provision even in the darkest moments of a Nazi concentration camp.  Corrie, more of a like-mind with me, would roll her eyes when her sister would make joyous declarations such as, “Give thanks in all circumstances.  It doesn’t say ‘in pleasant circumstances.’  Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

As lights of the Lord reflecting out God’s love and goodness to the world, we need to be especially mindful of our outward attitude and appearance when events go awry in our lives.  Showing the world who we trust and who is working for our good. And when events turn to joy we need to give it all up to God in His bountiful mercy and glory.

I first heard this song about having a good day when I was visiting and caring for my two-year old grandson.  My daughter had shared with me Owen’s Spotify playlist so we could listen to his pre-school songs in the car.  You know, fun stuff like “icky sticky bubble gum” and the “wheels on the bus” played on repeat.  When this bright and joyous song came on in the car he exclaimed, “Mommy’s song!”  We sang along with vigor.

I asked my daughter about it later that day.  She explained they play this song every morning on their way to work and daycare to set the tone for the day.  To remember that with God in our lives it can always be a good day.  Because while the Lord has blessed us with breath and we acknowledge that the creator of the universe knows our very name, we can have a great day in every single way.  

Friend, I once thought this view of life was blind to the realities of the world.  Until the scales were taken off my eyes and the truth was revealed.  Emmanuel, God with Us, shines His beautiful light on us in all circumstances.  So play it loud and sing it like ya mean it. Because today can and will be a good day.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Good Day 

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“Those” Seasons

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Hello friends!  It’s been a while since I’ve added to my blog.  For the last few months I’ve been in one of “those” seasons.  Loss, heartache, questioning, along with so many conversations with God and His Holy Spirit.  As James reminds us,

“Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”  

And ain’t that the truth.  

We have a few roads from which to choose when we go through our difficult seasons.  We can beg the Lord to go back to the familiar and comfortable.  We can rush our minds to the other side of the trial either imagining an outcome far worse or far better than we hope or fear.  Or we can learn a bit from Jesus’ brother and “let this perseverance finish its work so we can be mature and complete.”  In other words, we live in this God-given moment right now, seeking His blessings, seeking His voice, and seeking the lessons to be learned.  

The day I wrote this post my devotional reminded me to not work for food that perishes but for the food which endures eternal life. (Charles Stanley, Every Day in His Presence) I was admonished to change my point of view and not focus on the problems right in front of me but rather what God’s interest is in developing me for His eternal purpose.  And very importantly, asking for help in learning His lessons quickly so that His peace and strength would again be my resting place.

During these last few months I’ve also been deep dive into Priscilla Shirer’s study on Elijah with my BSGs.  As usual, God is using all of my life to teach me about standing firm in my faith and stepping forward in trust.  And as I have prayed to God to reveal to me my next blog series I kept hearing the phrase: “Lessons from Cherith.”  You see, Elijah had to spend a lot of time alone, facing his own trials before he was ready for the “big show.”  In that time, some of which was in the area called Cherith, he had to choose to either trust God’s eternal plan for him or not.  He had to remove so many well-honed cultural and religious thoughts of “the way things are supposed to be” and instead see how God works.  And he had to decide to stand out amongst the crowd.

And although my “Cherith” hasn’t lasted for as long as Elijah’s or even as long as Jesus was in the wilderness, I learned some valuable lessons while communing with the Holy Spirit.  In the next few weeks I’d like to share some of these with you.  To hopefully help us realign our lives to be Christian lives, lived out for all the world to see.  For our friends and neighbors and co-workers to be spurred to ask why we seem different.  

Friends, we can’t keep wandering through the wilderness of this earthly world living up to its standards.  It’s time to take our hard earned lessons from “those seasons” and put them to work for the glory of God.

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Courage

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Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

There’s certainly a lot of courageous people in the Bible. After Moses’ death, God commands Joshua to take the Israelites into the promised land – not knowing what to expect.  God reminds Joshua that with every step, He will be just ahead of Joshua paving the way. 

The dictionary definition of courage is: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.  But that doesn’t really do “courage” justice.  There’s plenty of people who build up their courage to do really stupid things.  And without consulting God on our next steps how can someone really “withstand” fear and difficulty?  

Courage is one of those mysterious uniquely human gifts.  A gift that is frequently used wrongly when the Holy Spirit isn’t involved.  I find when I’m telling myself to be brave it’s a signal that I need to start praying.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24

Awhile back I challenged a group of friends and acquaintances to embark on what I called The Boldness Challenge.  I asked each of them to make a list of five things they’d like to accomplish.  And then, they were to start working on each of them, reporting in occasionally.  For some it was digging deeper into their faith. For another it was completing the John Muir Trail.  From starting a business to learning to fly, the lists were incredibly diverse!  One list included forgiving certain people in their lives. Each person had been putting off tackling a dream or a goal.  All of them would need God’s courage to move forward.

I’m so thankful that when I know I’m going to encounter a difficult situation or embark on a new and scary adventure I can count on God for the mysterious courage.  The Holy Spirit wells up inside me and gives me the strength to take that step forward.

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Fight or Flight

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Dear friends, do not be surprised at the 
fiery ordeal that has come on you to test 
you, as though something strange were 
happening to you.  
1 Peter 4:12

I’d wanted to get my motorcycle license since I was 16 years old.  For any of you counting that’s about 37 years ago.  Back then, my mind and body were young and better equipped to handle the fast moving issues surrounding the dangers of riding.  So, when I finally made a lifelong dream come true, I decided to take a motorcycle safety class.  In order to pass the class, we were required to learn and practice a few emergency maneuvers.  In one situation we were to swerve, at a fairly fast speed, to the left and to the right in a tight “z.”  In another we had to learn how to safely make a quick stop.  In both, the decision had to be made in a blink of an eye to stay in the fight to be upright or to take flight from the bike.

The key to both safety maneuvers is where our focus lay – straight ahead.  Our tendency, as new riders, is to look down at the front wheel.  This is a sure fire way to crash, as I found out during one quick stop practice.

I’ve now been riding for about four years.  But it is in the back of my mind at all times that I’m not sure how I will react when faced with a real emergency.  I have the knowledge but not the wisdom of experience.  Will I stay in the fight or take flight?

Isn’t our faith journey a lot like that?

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, 
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because 
you know that the testing of your faith produces 
perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work 
so that you may be mature and complete, not 
lacking anything. 
James 1: 2-4

We, through our faith teachers and reading the Word, gather up our knowledge of God and how His son, Jesus, loves us so much.  But until we have faced an emergency, a faith testing, we cannot truly know how we will respond.

I think one of great crossroads in the New Testament is when Peter professes to Jesus that he will always stand by his friend.  And when the faith trial came, he fled.  Not once, not twice but, three times.  And we ask ourselves, what would we have done?

Peter had the knowledge of Jesus but not the wisdom of a faith tested.  And even after he realized the truth of the situation and witnessed Christ’s death, he still turned away for a time by going back to his old life of fishing rather than carrying out his friend’s commission.  

I’m so grateful that the one player in the story of humanity never takes flight from us – God.  He is the “long sufferer” in our thousands-year old journey.  At each turn where we have either forgotten or abandoned Him, God has stayed the course and given us grace.

I once was so angry with God that I made the decision to stop believing in Him.  I remember yelling up to the heavens, “I don’t trust you and I don’t believe in you anymore!”

I spent the next few weeks in a tug-o-war of sorts.  At one moment I would find myself arguing with God and then another reminding myself not to talk to someone I didn’t believe in.  And He never left me.

And let us run with perseverance the race 
marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, 
the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 
Hebrews 12:1-2

I’ve had minor emergencies while out on my motorcycle – cars swerving in front of me, lights quickly changing from green to red – where I’ve accessed that knowledge from my safety class.  It’s wisdom building.  And God has given me minor trials along the way.  With each opportunity to decide whether I stay upright, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on Jesus or to take flight, I build up my wisdom and faith muscles.

Peter, who although had the blessed opportunity to stand alongside Jesus for three years, had to face his own trials in order to fully mature from knowledge of God to having the wisdom and faith of His character and ways.  When he took his eyes off Jesus, he was given grace. Jesus returned to him over and over.

As Christ followers, we know the entire story from which draw upon.  And at every life emergency my hope is that we continue to stay upright with eyes fixed on Him.

bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, Faith, Jesus Follower, Uncategorized

Promised Hope In The Grind

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Hope — what is hope really? It’s usually paired with “dreams” as in- — “Hopes and Dreams.” But, that combination phrase lessens and cheapens the real power and impact of hope defined in the Bible and promised by God. A dream is whimsical, theatrical and imaginary. Hope, from a Christian perspective, is rooted in a foundational promise from God. Hope is ambitious, assertive and seeped in God’s hope for his people. Nothing locks in the promise of hope for me better than an Old Testament verse like this one:

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

Grinder. Amongst my friends, that’s a title earned by time in the pressure cooker of challenges and battles. A badge of honor accomplished and proudly worn from difficult and trying times in life, in business, and under fire. The Bible tells us that those times will come for all of us. We know and have been taught in scripture that extreme heat and pressure are the only things that can shape and sharpen iron.

I’ve got a friend who offers this charge to me when I’m in it deep: “The only way through it, is through it.” Short and sweet — put your head down, grind it out, do what needs to be done for as long as you need to, and you will come out the other side. No shortcuts, no substitutes, no opt outs, no procrastinating. Do what needs to be done, do the best you can, and take care of business. Make the pain and suffering work for your benefit to make a strong you for better days ahead.

That’s hope. If you do the work, grind it out, it will get better. It’s a process and a promise, but you gotta do the hard work. It won’t stay bad or hard forever. That’s God’s promise for all of us. Do the work, put in the time. Stay connected to the Lord and make the commitment to hold the line. Stay the course, stand firm in your convictions and commit. Remembering, most of all, that God works on His timeline not ours. The New Testament is full of hope delivered through Jesus’ teaching and promises lived out amongst his followers.

Who’s a better example of a grinder than the Apostle Paul? He is the New Testament Super Grinder. Once Saul became Paul and the scales fell away from his eyes, his life became a one-man testament to grinding it out for the Lord’s promise of salvation. Shipwrecked, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and tortured. There was no quit in Paul’s mission of spreading God’s promise. Some of the most empowering texts in the Bible come from the hands of Paul and the promises of God’s hope, power, salvation and renewal.

Paul inspires Timothy to stay strong of faith and strong in conviction in the battle for hearts and minds. Paul encourages and challenges Timothy to hold the line for God’s promises for his congregation. Paul is a mission-purposed driven machine. An example for all of us of a grinder for God.

Therefore, since we have been 
justified through faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, through whom we have 
gained access by faith into this 
grace in which we now stand. And 
we boast in the hope of the glory 
of God.  Not only so, but we also 
glory in our sufferings, because 
we know that suffering produces 
perseverance; perseverance, 
character; and character, hope.
Romans 5:1-4

With hope comes the everyone’s desired outcome: peace. Isn’t that the goal of our aspirational yearning and grinding? 

A place of deserved rest: peace, comfort and love. And isn’t that end goal, that accomplishment, always much sweeter when we have earned it with hard work, perseverance, suffering and clenching on to the promise of God’s reward for our lives?

bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, Uncategorized

Jericho Walls Are Shaking

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She remembered that night when she laid in her bed waiting and expecting.  Waiting and expecting her father to enter the room and sexually assault her, again.  But as she lay there she thought, “One day I will do something great.”  And great she did.  In 2005, Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” ranked her as 17th.  She is known all over the world by her ministry and volunteer work.  Joyce Meyer overcame constant sexual abuse as a child because of hope and faith in God.

This week we looked at just one chapter in the Book of James.  Chapter one brought us front and center in how to deal with trials.  He spoke of spiritual wisdom and the wise act of listening and controlling our anger.   In just 26 sentences He stands in front of us in admonition to wake us Christians up. And show the world what trust in Jesus Christ, our savior really means.

Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves.  DO WHAT IT SAYS.

James 1:22

He goes on to say that when we leave church, after we pray each morning, or read our devotional each day we ought not to then turn out into the world and forget who we are.  We are not like everyone else.  Isn’t that what our parents told us when we wanted to go hang out with the “cool kids?”  There are expectations and responsibilities to accepting Christ.

When I was a “baby Christian” I had a conversation about church with my mom.  She is the daughter of a Baptist minister.  She hasn’t regularly attended church since she was a child.  She doesn’t pray.   She says she believes in God but anyone that knows her couldn’t tell that to be true.  She told me that when she was a child at church, she would watch all the ladies attend church dutifully.  And then, they would gossip, hate each other, complain endlessly to her father, lie, cheat, and all other manner of sin.  My mother had and still has a dim view of “Christians.”   

When we leave the doors of church or our home we mustn’t forget who we are.

How many of us live our lives fully realizing that not only is God watching how we handle trials and temptations, but our non-Christian friends and neighbors?  Do they see you getting angry and yelling and gossiping?  Do they get a sense of peace from you during difficult times?  Are you easy to talk to because they know you will listen without judgement?  And are the words you speak back coming from a Godly place?  Do you turn down offers of socializing with friends and tell them it’s because you have a Bible Study you are committed to?  Have they heard you speak about your quiet time you spend with God, praying for others?  Do you tell others you will pray for them and do it immediately, with them?  What was the last book or movie or tv show you settled into?  Was it something where you could gain wisdom of God’s ways?

While sitting and listening to God to speak through me before I sat down to write this, the song “My Father’s House” started playing over and over in my head.  

The Jericho Walls are quaking

Strongholds are shaking

Love is breaking through

When the Father’s in the room

Cory Asbury, The FAther’s House

When we invite God into our lives during hardship, when we seek His wisdom, when we listen for His voice, and act as He wants us to, we experience His strength and love.  The shackles of sin and anger, the ugliness of self-degradation and self-centeredness give way to freedom.   Freedom to see His beauty in resolving problems.  Freedom to experience joy in even the most difficult of times. 

James pulls no punches.  But he always reminds us, in the midst of admonishment, of the “why.”  

  1. We will develop maturity and perseverance
  2. We receive the “crown of life” that the Lord has promised
  3. We are given the Word of Truth so we can be “firstfruits” of all God has created
  4. We live in the righteousness that God desires for us
  5. When we rid ourselves of immorality and accept the Word planted in us, we are saved
  6. We are given freedom
  7. We will be blessed in all we do

James is not asking us to do anything more than what we ask of our employees, our children or our friends.  If we make a commitment, promise, accept a job, want a friendship, then we must work on it and act in such a way as to say we are all “in.”

My challenge for this weekend it to be fully aware of our actions and words, especially while around non-Christians.  Good luck, my prayers are with you.

bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement

Where’s The Joy?

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It may be hard to find at times but there’s joy in trials. When we face a challenge we can go forward in dread or in the knowledge God is leading the charge.

Join me starting September 7 as we dig deeper into the Book of James with a five week study. Follow my blog to receive your daily emails.