Not our Destiny

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1

None of us have to look very far to find chaotic and heartbreaking circumstances in our world. Between hurricanes, wars, and diseases many of us are finding it challenging to attain lasting peace. As soon as we settle ourselves from one newscast, another one blasts into our homes with all of its chaos and threats of what might come to pass…what has possibly come to pass. It’s enough to scare us to death and it’s also the reason we must be intentional about what we feed our mind. It is so important to unplug from the news of the world and plug into the truth of the Word.

We need to remind ourselves that we are only passing through this life, certainly not depending on anything from it. Our circumstances can easily set the table for what we feed on during different seasons. Just like this is not our home, our seasons are not our entire story, rather chapters of God’s ongoing love and will for each of us. ‘Sometimes my soul feels stuck in my circumstances, but I know this world is not my home. Its brokenness and hurt are not my destiny. And this pain and heartbreak will not be the end of my story.’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 228.

When we choose to focus on the home we have with Christ, the fears that rise within our soul loses its power. When we recall that Christ has overcome the most difficult season of all we can be confident that He will help us overcome ours. It is so tempting to replay past seasons in our heart resurrecting the wounds that God desires us to be healed from. We cannot keep taking the same spiritual ground from past battles; it is time to conquer new spiritual ground. It is time to lay those past wounds at God’s feet, turn our focus to the future, and receive the good God has for us. ‘There are so many moments when I forget what is ahead and dwell on what is already behind me. But when I fixate on my past, I place a stumbling block in the way of my future’ p. 230.

Focus matters because in a world that is so unstable, we must be intentional about what thoughts we feed. Fear was never meant to be our destiny, but faith is!

Driving our Desires

“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

A few days ago, as I was walking in a neighborhood, I began thinking about how long it has been since God promised to grant me one of my deepest desires - I am at 16 years and counting. Sixteen years is a long time to want and an eternity to wait. I began asking God why it was taking so long. I have complete belief that it is going to happen and I have surrendered any ideas as to how it will happen. I believe living in the when is tougher because the belief is so strong in the fulfillment of the promise. I love the way God deals with me and it happens frequently. He sends an image into my mind that connects my question to His answer. On this day the image that came to mind was a child driving a toy car into real traffic. I couldn’t wait to rest from my walk and google that image.

I know that God was showing me that while we desire the fruit of miracles and promises, sometimes we are just not ready for the fulfillment. Just as we would never give our 5-year-old the keys to our car, God is not going to give in to our desires before we have grown in spiritual maturity. In our verse we should notice that the desires of our heart are the overflow of our devotion to Him. In taking delight in God, our desires will ultimately shift to align to His desires for us which will always be better than what we can ever imagine.

God places desires in our hearts and we are encouraged to dream and hope for those desires. But our desires must hold a back seat to our devotion to the Lord. We must allow Him to determine the circumstances and the timing of everything that flows into our lives. Although I am 60 years old with wrinkles and puffy eyes, there are times that God still sees me with a pixie cut, baby teeth, and a toddler faith. So as I sit here working towards year 17, I will trust a Father who knows me best and desires for me to receive His best...He wants the same for you. 

When Humility Bows

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10 

Honestly, this verse pushes up against my comfort and flesh every time I read it.  I don’t know anyone who really signs up fully for humility (well maybe my grandmother).  Sometimes humility means to me, ‘I lost!’ It boasts that my will was not done and now I must sit in the fragments of my failure.  But all of the words I just typed are proof that what James instructs is exactly what I need and what we all need.  Without humility we develop a sense of entitlement …without humility we nurse our hurts…without humility we cannot be lifted up by God.  

 

Humility is one of the greatest weapons against bitterness because ‘bitterness always intensifies our reactions, skew our perspective, and take us further away from peace.’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 212.  I truly believe all we ultimately want is peace…peace in our decisions…peace in our relationships…peace in our souls.  So, if it takes us bowing down to the ultimate Peacemaker to be lifted up by Him, why don’t we?  We cannot be lifted up until we have truly bowed down.

 

‘Humanity rises up and demands that I be declared the right one.  Humility bows low and realizes that only God has what I really want.  Turning my heart to bitterness is me turning away from God.  So, I bow low, not because I want to.  Because I need to.’ p. 213. Humility realizes that we are all in our unique stages of our spiritual process and assigns grace.  

 

Peace is imparted when we empty ourselves of unsettled emotions.  Peace is the overflowing fruit from a heart of humility devoted to God.  What a beautiful and liberating prayer Lysa leaves us with this morning.  

 

‘God, I give this situation to You…I release my need for this to feel fair.  I release my need for You to declare me right and them wrong.  I want to embrace what You may be teaching me through this situation.  Give me Your peace in place of my emotions.  In Jesus’ name, amen.’ p. 215

The Divine Echo

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.’ Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." Genesis 1:26, 2:7, 2:22

I have had such a precious month getting to know my new granddaughter, Emry Rose. It had been 13 years since held a grandchild as a baby. It has been such a privilege to watch my older grandchildren grow and mature into the image of their parents. As I search every detail of Emry’s little face, I see reflections of both my daughter and son-in-law. I see tendencies of both personalities. I see the outflow of the love they both are pouring into this tiny human from the beginning. Seeing her is also seeing the goodness and love of them.

In a way we are like Emry as people look at us. They search us to see who we reflect… the world or the One who breathed life into us. Like Emry we pour out what has been poured into us. We reflect the personalities and attitudes of what we have spent most time in the presence of. As the daughter of my parents, I have not forgotten one day who I am in that regard. As their daughter, I have never forgotten how much I am loved and I see how much I am like them. So how is it that we forget who we are in God when the challenges of life find us? When things are so difficult sometimes the easiest thing to do is to remember the simple truth…I am loved by God…I am God’s chosen child…I am a reflection of His greatness. Just as Emry has been made in the image of God and the reflection of her parents, we were made to reflect God’s image.

‘We aren’t just dust and bone. We aren’t what we’ve done or what’s been done to us. We aren’t the worst of what others have said about us. We are the very breath and touch of God. Designed and loved by God. A reflection of the glory and goodness of God… Remember who you are. This is the Divine Echo.’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 192

Time to Pause

“Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast…if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’” Genesis 4:2-8

Fewer things are more exhausting than waking up in the middle of the night with something on my mind and allowing it to consume me. There is no doubt that the enemy does his best work in the dark of the night. I can go to bed with something as small as an irritation or frustration and by the time I drift back asleep I have exalted it to an immovable mountain. It astonishes me how the mind can dictate our emotions if not submitted to God. Cain was filled with anger after God favored his brother Abel’s offering over his. God loved Cain so much that He initiated a conversation regarding his anger, and warned him to not let it rule over him. Cain had a choice at that very moment. Would he humble himself and ask God to help him do what was right or would he allow his anger to consume him? We don’t know how long Cain considered the words of God, but we do know the choice he made…to orchestrate and carry out the murder of his brother.

Emotions can be posers and liars but only if we give them access to our mind. God gave us our emotions but they come with a warning like every other blessing He has given us. We cannot give our emotions the license to dictate our actions. ‘We must always remember that we can acknowledge our feelings…but not be ruled by our feelings…I must get intentional when I go to bed every night…As the sun is going down, I pray that we remember it’s time to pause and let God tend to any strong or potentially damaging reactions to hurts that could consume us…Remember, our ability to forgive others rises and falls on whether we lean into what Jesus has already done for us.’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 181-182.

On those nights, when my feelings begin to morph into anger I purposely begin praying for others. Through the spirit of prayer God settles any unresolved emotions and gives me rest. I am certainly far from perfect but taking captive those thoughts and replacing them with prayer is my best weapon against the enemy.

Dreaming in Reverse

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

There are few phrases that impact me the way ‘crushed in spirit’ does. Sharon Gearen describes our spirit as our inner light, our power source…that which connects to God, to ourselves, and all those around us. She offered an image of a crushed spirit that really resonates with me this morning. She wrote that a crushed spirit is like a hammer coming down on a rose. While the carnage of the rose lays in fragments, the crushing of it actually releases an aroma touching all in its presence. The perfume of the rose transcends the crushing and moves beyond the pain to heal. The petals have been damaged but the vine remains strong.

Death of a loved one is one of the most crushing events that we experience. We all have been there if we have walked on this earth for any length of time and we will experience it again. Grief is the price we pay for love. ‘When you are grieving over someone or something that was taken away, you wish you could go back in time…Grieving is dreaming in reverse…Healing feels impossible, because circumstances feel unchangeable.’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 159.

In today’s verse, God does not say He comforts those who are crushed in spirit although He does. He offers more than just comfort…He offers rescue and a life redeemed in spite of our grief. He fully understands the pain you are going through and His will is not for you to remain crushed and broken. Like the rose, beauty can still transcend the pain and frame a new birth of something up ahead. We can praise God that He won’t leave us in our pain and that He alone has the power and healing to turn our face to the future. We can agree that some things on this side of Heaven might never be understood. Lysa writes that ‘Knowing why something happened will never help if we wouldn’t agree with the answer anyhow.’ She encourages us to invite God in to the unknown gaps of our lives.

God honors our reversed dreams because they helped write our story, but He has future dreams for our lives to finish out our story.

The Courage to Color

“As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” Colossians 3:12

When I was a little girl one of my favorite things to do was to color in coloring books. I could absolutely lose hours just sitting there choosing the colors that spoke to me about the picture in front of me. I would always outline the lines of the picture as if it was a guarantee that I couldn’t go out of the lines. The contrast between the heavy outer lines and the soft markings within the lines created my favorite finished picture. A while back our granddaughter, Kherington was spending the night with us and I had bought a book in which to color. We worked for over 3 hours each on one picture due to its intricate lines. At the end of the time, she gave her picture to me and I gave mine to her. We both fully understood the sweat, time, effort, and work that went into the experience. In its simplest form, this is compassion at its finest.

‘God wants us, His creation, to connect with others and bring them light and life with the brushstrokes of compassion’ Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 174-175. He hands us a blank picture with each experience and has already drawn the heavy lines in which we are to color. As we walk through our experience some days we color within the lines with intentional and peaceful colors while other days we choose the colors of black and gray. It all forms a realistic picture, one that God encourages us to share with others who need compassion as they color their own picture. ‘Who do we want standing near us in those moments dripping with disappointments and saturated with sorrow? It’s those clothed with garments of understanding. They have personally experienced how excruciatingly painful it can sometimes be to simply be human,’ p. 174.

I don’t know about you but I want that person to be someone who will share their coloring book with me. I want someone by my side who has been heartbroken but was willing to embrace healing. I want to color next to someone with a picture that resonates with me, and who is willing to share their colors. Whatever you are going through in this season, don’t leave your book blank but crack open the crayon box and have the courage to color.

Fixing our Eyes

“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

In 2015, the New York Times ran an article written by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz who wrote of his experience when he questioned people on social media about questions they had regarding God. The third most expressed question was heartbreaking - ‘Why does God hate me?’ It proves to me that the power of emotions will always threaten the power of truth. Feelings are wonderful indicators, but never were they meant to be dictators. How is it that truth so easily gets lost when the marriage ends…the partner dies…the diagnosis comes? God never intended for us to co-exist with sin and sickness; we can thank Satan for that. When did we start assigning God’s goodness based on our desired outcomes?

In Seeing Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst writes, ‘The most devastating spiritual crisis isn’t when we wonder why God isn’t doing something. It’s when we become utterly convinced, He no longer cares…What makes faith fall apart isn’t doubt. It’s becoming too certain of the wrong things’ p.145. As if our pain isn’t enough, we compound our suffering by diminishing God’s character. There is no greater grief than the grief we feel when it seems God has let us down. We take our limited perception of our life and convince ourselves that because God didn’t say yes to one set of circumstances, that He cannot be trusted in any of our circumstances. Our battle cry is ‘God is good’ when things are going well. But when they don’t, the temptation is to give God the grade according to our feelings. If we feel our situation is an ‘F’ we give God an ‘F’.

‘It’s hard when we are living in that space where our head knows God can do anything but our heart is heavy because He’s not doing what we are hoping for, what we’ve prayed for, what we’ve believed for, for a long while’ p. 146. We walk a prideful path when we determine how God should have responded…when God should have responded…how God better respond. God sees the full story of our lives and fully understands the experiences we need to live out His best will for our lives. We can only partially see what good is ours up ahead while He sees the completed and actual good that He is bringing about. The unseen is full of the greatness of God… the unseen is complete in its perfection…the unseen is the finished work of a Father who planned meticulously and lovingly since our first breath. We will walk in the freedom of truth when we can utter ‘God is good’ even with tears streaming down our face.

Surviving the Whiplash

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…you were called to peace” Colossians 3:15.

Have you ever been in the car with someone else driving and they suddenly slammed on the brakes? There is not a greater rush of fear than that moment with all it's uncertainty and jolt. I was reading this morning’s devotional from a wonderful book written by Lysa TerKeurst called Seeing Beautiful Again. I will caution you that a large part of today’s ELM will be dedicated to her words because both you and I desperately need them. Right out of the gate she caught my attention with this sentence, ‘It was like life just slammed on the brakes, and we were all reeling from the whiplash’ p.139. While she was talking about COVID-19 from last year, I couldn’t help but to think of that statement in broader terms.

How many of us are walking around with emotional whiplash? What circumstances have us believing we are destined for despair...paralyzed in our grief…terrified of our future? We all must be courageous enough to process our disappointments and disillusionments to come out on the other side both emotionally and spiritually healthy. Lysa encourages us to frame the loss by remembering the good we do have so we don’t get consumed by what’s been taken. ‘Be honest about what you need. And be mindful that though COVID [fill in your blank] changed a lot for us, it did not change God…His character…His love and care for His people…His plans to take everything we face and use it to grow us, mature us, and make us more prepared for a good future’ p. 142.

Another of Lysa’s encouragement is one we can all relate to in thinking about our circumstances. ‘Resist the temptation to write out worst-case scenarios. It can be so easy to let today’s disappointments get blown out of proportion and make you expect the absolute worst for tomorrow…mentally running too far into an unknown future and writing a script of a worst-case scenario. My negativity pulls me away from trusting God, loving people, and enjoying what today offers’ p. 143.

I can’t think of a better way than to turn tomorrow around by applying these attitudes today. We were created for peace and we will be void of peace until we allow the love of and trust in Christ to be the ruler in our hearts, especially when life has slammed on brakes.