Healed by His Scars

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

When I was 15 years old, I had to have surgery on my knee to repair a torn cartilage. It was painful and the recovery was long. For a few months I had to ‘sit on the sideline’ missing out on a ton of fun with my friends. Back then the scar that formed was thick and long with no way to hide it. I remember when I was in my early 30’s teaching Sunday School to 5-year old’s. Of course, back then if you were a woman you certainly wore a dress to church unlike today. I was sitting in a chair in a circle of children and a little girl raised her hand. When I called on her, she informed me that I had a run in my hose talking about my scar. I explained to her that the scar marked the place where I had hurt myself, but the doctor healed it.

I heard a song in church yesterday that made me think about the scars on my heart of past hurts. Some of them I brought on myself, while other scars were from wounds outside of my control. As the worship team performed this song, I sat there with tears streaming down my face. Had I received an easy life I would never have been dependent on God. I would neither have known His character, nor His heart. The scars in our hearts mark a spot where it was torn with suffering but healed with grace. The scars are songs that we might hear reminding us that God was faithful. One of my scars is triggered when I hear a parent scared to death because of their child being on drugs. I have a scar that appears when someone tells me their loved one just passed from cancer. I have a scar when I hear the pain in a woman’s voice explaining that she is withholding her secret spending from her husband. We all have scars.

Our scars will never run as deep as the scars on the hands and feet of Jesus. His scars adopted us…His scars invited us…His scars saved us. Our scars will produce testimonies if we are willing to be vulnerable and transparent. Our scars tell a story of heartbreak and grief followed by mercy and healing. They not only echo the painful experiences but they echo the way that God placed His hands upon our hurts and carried us through the suffering. Our scars echo God's love because scars are proof that something ruptured has healed. I pray that we will all allow our scars to be seen so that others can hear the stories of rescues and redemption. Close your eyes and listen to the beautiful words of Scars, by Essential Worship.

Faithful Finishes

“Listen to Me…Who have been upheld by Me from birth…Who have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:3-4.

There is nothing sweeter and purer than a new-born baby in my opinion. I only need to close my eyes and think back 37, 32 and 29 years to remember holding my babies close to my face as infants. The sweet smell of their head…their soft hair that tickled my cheeks as I pulled them to my face…the tiny grunts and sounds that echoed in my ear while they slept on my shoulder. From the time they entered this world until the time I leave this world I will continue to be their constant support and advocate. Nothing they do can separate them from my love and anything they experience in challenge or sadness will be met with my compassion and deep love. I know that you too can close your eyes and recall those beautiful relics of fellowship that have strung together a lifetime of family.

As much as we love…as deeply as we care…as relentless as we are in support for our children God is so much more for them. My commentary has a beautiful explanation of our passage today. It states, ‘The unchangeable God would be there to bear them even as they grew old. God alone would bear (Hb saval, “bear a heavy load”) and deliver (Hb malat, “cause to escape, deliver from danger”). The Study Bible for Women, NKJV, p. 925. From the time God ushered us into this world through the point of time that our hair has thinned or grayed He has placed His hands on every aspect and season of our lives. There has not been even one second when the Lord hasn’t been by our side. Every heavy load He has lightened…and every challenging circumstance He has helped us escape. And even when our loved ones have transitioned into Heaven, we must embrace that they have been delivered from danger in God’s great mercy and grace. If those we love are in Heaven, it is certain that God in His great love for them ushered them out of a dangerous world into an eternal glory as He will us one day. There is no one else on earth who faithfully finishes what they have started with the perfecting touch that God has administered. No matter how lonely you feel…God is right beside you. No matter how heartbroken you are…God is healing your heart. No matter how sick you are…God has promised to give you complete wholeness in health either on earth or in Heaven. He has promised it and God cannot forsake His own promises.

Faith Disguised as Unbelief

“Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.’” Mark 9:24

This is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible and has been a battle cry for many of us when frightful or painful circumstances overtake our faith. The father knew he was standing in the presence of the One who could heal. He fully understood that if anyone could extricate the demonic spirit that had hold of his son it was Jesus. But even in the father’s belief in Jesus, doubt crept in. His statement to Jesus that preceded his proclamation above was ‘if you can.’

We certainly cannot judge this poor father who believed in Jesus but doubted whether He could remove the evil spirit. How many of us fully believe in Jesus for our salvation but doubt His activity in our lives? We believe He died on the cross giving us both invitation and authority to cross over heaven’s threshold. But do we really believe that God can use the bad that happens in our lives as a good thing for us? Do we really believe that His plans for us are prosperous when they feel harmful? Do we really believe that we want God’s will to be done for us when the will is heartbreaking? It is easy to believe in God for our salvation because Jesus did the work for us. What is more difficult is to believe beyond that act that was done on the cross. It is much more difficult to believe when the work is up to us…to accept that God is good even though tragedy strikes, or diagnoses are given. But our prayers of ‘I believe; help my unbelief’ is really a prayer of faith…a statement and admission that our faith is far from perfect. ‘It is the acknowledgement of our inadequacy that allows God to work in our lives…sometimes we are faced with something that seems to overpower our faith…so like the man we ask for more faith…If left to our own strength and our own faith, we would never make it.’ Got Questions website.

The next time doubt creeps into your fellowship with Jesus ask Him for more confidence…more faith… more belief and it will be given to you in exceedingly greater amounts. When we come to God in humility and lack, He will provide whatever is needed. He will help us in our unbelief.

Looking Beyond our Cross

…and the third day I shall be perfected. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day…” Luke 13:33.

Wow! I have never noticed the determined response of Jesus after He was told to get out of town because Herod was planning on killing Him. Keep in mind, this was a few days prior to the weekend when He would be brutally tortured, dragged through the streets, publicly ridiculed, mocked and nailed to the cross to die. His response to the threat is nothing short of astonishing …remarkable…miraculous. He looked beyond the cross and focused on His perfected life in Heaven. His mission for the moment was to press on…to continue in the walk of God’s will…that day…and the next…and the day after that. ‘The news that Herod wanted to kill Jesus meant that He was walking in God’s will for His time on earth. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the upfront news was bad. Jesus knew He would soon face unspeakable pain and shame on the cross, and He showed us what kept Him steadfast in His mission to defeat it.’ Determined, Heather Dixon, p. 152. He got through His season of suffering on earth the same way we must get through our painful journeys…one day at a time.

Until we experience our own perfected ‘third day resurrection’ in Heaven we must press on today…tomorrow…the next month…the next year. I know many of you are walking out some earth shattering, life-changing, and heartbreaking circumstances. You wake up with it on your mind, and wrestle with it throughout the day. You lie awake at night thinking about facing it another day. It’s tough to look beyond our crosses as they stand tall and cast dark shadows across the landscape of our lives. But the thing about shadows is that they are bigger in perception than the reality of their size. The shadows extort things…the shadows convinces us that we will never be okay…the shadows exaggerate our realities…the shadows threaten things that never come to be. That is why we must look beyond our own crosses and have the determination of Jesus to face our toughest days by pressing through our sorrow one day at a time. And just like Jesus, one day we will find ourselves in the perfection of Heaven reconciled completely from all our pain on earth.

Keep Singing

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth—let your cry ring out and sing praises!” Psalm 98:4

Yesterday I was on my walk in a nearby neighborhood. Some days there are people out jogging, while other days some are walking their dogs. For the most part, I usually take the same route, so I know the distance I’ve walked. As I approached an intersection, I turned the corner and there was a woman watering her lawn. She smiled and said something to me, but I had my air-pods in listening to my worship music. I removed them to speak to her, and she only said three words. ‘Keep on singing!’ I was embarrassed and even apologized that she heard me coming around the corner. My singing is just that…noise you wouldn’t necessarily enjoy but I’m counting on it pleasing the Lord and singing does bring me such joy.

As I began walking again Psalm 98:4 came to mind and I couldn’t help but to smile. The verse doesn’t command us to make a pleasurable noise to the Lord in our singing. The verse simply states what the woman said to me, ‘Keep on singing!’ What does a joyful noise sound like in your life and in mine? A joyful noise is to pray for someone who is going through a tough time. A joyful noise is to count our blessings in gratitude and humility when our heart hurts. A joyful noise is to embrace His will for our lives instead of our own. It is a heart cry that trusts in His promises when nothing is seen on the horizon. Letting our cry ring out can be noises of weeping, allowing God to comfort and encourage us. Letting our cry ring out is sharing our testament from our experiences. I love that this verse is a cause and effect verse. It promises that if we keep singing and talking to God our hearts will experience a 'break forth moment.' Our worry will turn to worship when we sing...our sadness will turn to gratitude when we thank Him for our blessings...our fears will turn to faith when we fix our eyes upon the Faithful.

Breaking forth…what a beautiful image to consider when we are in the dark valley. “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear…and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:8. When we sing praises to God apart from our circumstances joy is ushered into our hearts and our minds. We’ve got to keep singing… keep trusting…keep praying…and ‘then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isaiah 58:10-11.

Tending our Gardens

“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind…your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” Luke 12:29-31

As many of you know, I am an early riser not because I want to be but because my body has always been on this internal clock. Even as a little girl and a teenager I rarely slept past 8:00 a.m. and was always excited for the day to begin. I’ve never really been much of a worrier but as the years pass anxiety seems to seep into my mind. My anxiety doesn’t involve the basic provisions of food or drink but more about the what if’s and why not’s this world threatens. Many times, when I’m trying to embrace the heart of God as a parent, I channel being a child to better understand how God sees my circumstances. When I was a young girl I never wondered if I was going to have 3 meals. Not once was I afraid that my parents would leave me. Not once did I fear that I would never be able to have water again. I felt loved, protected and provided for by my parents. The more I trusted them, the less I considered any lack that I might encounter.

I love that our passage reminds us that God knows our needs completely, but when we doubt His provision, we lack internal peace. The remedy is to seek Him and His kingdom and through our pursuit we gain access to everything that belongs to Him…peace…joy…comfort…encouragement…provision...promise. ‘Our priorities determine our peace. The by-product for placing worldly concerns over spiritual ones is worry. Knowing how easy it is to focus on worldly concerns, Jesus reassures His children with God’s promises of provision.’ Determined, Heather Dixon p. 148.

So, what we will seek today? Will we seek things from the world that we already have in Jesus? Will we run after the ‘pagan things’ instead of intentionally being still and remembering that the spiritual things should take priority over the worldly things. Every bit of needed encouragement resides between the covers of the Bible. ‘His Word settles our hearts when fear, worry, and anxiety want to take root because it reminds us of God’s priorities over ours. Realigning our priorities with God’s priorities reduces our anxieties.’ P. 150. 

We must tend to our spiritual gardens when anxiety tries to take root, choking out our peace. By removing the weeds of worry, and watering them with God's Words we allow our spiritual beauty to grow, becoming a beacon to others.

Chasing the Eternal

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Co 4:16-18.

Yesterday morning I went out on my patio with my cup of coffee and turned on my worship music. It gets my heart postured for prayer while I’m waking up. As I sat there, the sky began to slowly light up with a purple tint in the sky. I was anticipating a gorgeous sunrise of pinks and purples, but our property is surrounded by older dense trees that block the view. Instead of focusing on prayer and studying the Word, I kept looking at the sky. I decided to forgo my time with Jesus and go for a quick walk to try to see the sunrise. By the time I got up my driveway, to the end of my road and across to the community the color had gone. I felt frustrated that what I thought I would see I didn’t, and I had missed out on what was unseen…fellowship with Jesus. The rest of day seemed out of kilter, rearranged and disengaged, all because I had fixed my eyes on a distraction.

I was considering this morning how Jesus exemplified this passage during His time on earth. If any person ever had reason to fix His eyes on the seen it would have been our Savior. Jesus showed us a better way to move through our lives of lack, unmet expectations and daily distractions. Had Jesus focused on what was seen… people trying to take His life…He could have allowed His emotions to guide His steps. Had Jesus focused on the temporary days He had left He might have become paralyzed in fear. Bottom line is that had Jesus focused on earth…the seen…He would have been distracted from His eternal home…the unseen.

So, this morning I ask you and I ask myself, ‘What are we fixing our eyes on? What things are we seeing that distract us from our focus on God?’ Is it a family argument that left us with bitterness and resentment? Is it a fear of not having enough provisions on which to live? Is it the worry for a family member or an impending diagnosis? Are we sacrificing our worship by substituting it with our worry? Every morning we are faced with decisions upon which to fix our eyes. Every situation in which we will find ourselves is temporary for nothing stays the same on earth. So as I consider this question today, I will lift a prayer that instead of chasing sunrises I will chase the One can remove my worries and distractions and join me in the fellowship of Christ.