What Anchors our Hope

“‘When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jer. 29:10-11.

Jeremiah 29:11 has always been one of the most encouraging verses for me in the Bible.  It wasn’t until this morning that I considered the verse leading up to this treasure,  and it opened up more understanding than just that four letter word – h o p e.  Notice the LORD gave them a timeframe for their captivity.  They would be enslaved for 70 years before they return to their promised land.  This required acceptance, endurance, patience and all of the other graces of God that could not be accomplished in their own strength.   His message was clear, ‘This is going to be a long journey but a journey that has an end, filled with prosperity and everything good.  Hold on and have hope in Me rather than hope in the resolution.  You will move from hope to hope until my promise is realized.  Settle in and build a life within your circumstances.’

I don’t know many people who aren’t holding on to hope in some area of their lives.  We are all looking to the future for resolution, but is our hope in God or is our hope in the outcome?  That is the question on the table this morning.   We must anchor our hope in something bigger than our circumstances.  ‘God calls us not to escape from our circumstances but to embrace His presence and His will in the midst of them.  The question of hope, then, is not how we can get out of this situation.  The question is how we can embrace God’s purposes and God’s work in the midst of this situation.’ Faith Limps, p. 103.

The providence of God was so precious for me when our daughter was living on the streets using drugs.  He didn’t show me how long we would have to endure our Babylon.  For the first six years, I placed my hope in the resolution of my daughter getting clean - my hope was in an outcome instead my Savior.  It wasn’t until the last two years that I placed my hope in God and began to understand the true meaning of moving from hope to hope, and strength to strength.  He gave me the same sweet message, ‘Brenda, hang on, don’t give up and settle in to this life.  It may be a while but it will accomplish my plans for all of you.  Hope in Me, not in the outcome.’  It was two more years before that beautiful day when God stood up, called down to His child and said, ‘Kristen, today is the day you are redeemed.  Come to your Father and receive the plans I have for you.’

Whatever Babylon you are experiencing…whatever circumstances seem to enslave you…His message is for everyone, ‘Hold on, settle in and hope in Me alone.  Build your life around it instead of running away from it.  I am going to do things in your life that you cannot imagine.’

Friday Grace

“This, then is how you should pray:  ‘Our Father in Heaven…give us this day our daily bread’” Matthew 6:9, 11.

This was a portion of the prayer that Jesus taught to the disciples as an example of how they should pray to the Father.   This particular portion stood out to me today in remembering tough and painful times in my past.  Our daily bread is that precious grace that is required to get us through our suffering and challenging circumstances, tear by tear and fear by fear.  It is the food from God for our faith and is not a single serving to digest but an on-going fare of the day.  His daily bread serves us with whatever our hearts are aching for in that moment alone. 

Jesus was aware that we would have to keep going back to the Father continually for His provisions…the man who must go back to chemo day after day…the woman who must return to a job she hates day after day…a weary couple who awakens to the reality their daughter is on drugs day by day…a son who is consistently told he will amount to nothing day after day.

When my sister was dying my dad just didn’t feel he would be able to endure her passing and acceptance just couldn’t be reconciled for him.  I will never forget when God arose from His throne and spoke through the chaplain of Hospice.  It was a message from the One who formed this prayer a few thousand years ago.  The chaplain comforted Daddy with the most beautiful statement that echoes this prayer.  He said, ‘Don, don’t look for April grace in February.’  This translation was God encouraging Daddy with the words, ‘My sweet and precious Donald, I am giving you what you need for today alone, and when I bring Beth home to me I will give you what you need for that day.’

Michael Kelley, the author of Faith Limps writes:  “Trusting God is something we must consciously choose many times during the day, especially on those days when we’re fighting to hold on to faith…This is part of what makes the work of faith so hard – that you must persevere in believing in God, day in and day out, and in believing that He will give you what you need” p. 96-97.

Whatever your walk is today…whatever your heart yearns for this morning…take it to our Father and believe that daily grace will be matched according to your daily needs.  ‘Our Father in Heaven…give us Friday grace.’

Our Memorial Portion

“If your grain offering is prepared on the griddle, it is to be made of fine flour and oil…He shall take out the memorial portion…and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD…” Lev. 2:5-13.

I just love reading Scripture and having the Holy Spirit interpret, reveal and lift life’s application to my heart and mind – there is no greater Teacher.  Leviticus records the many offerings that were commanded by God for His chosen people to be set apart.  One of these offerings was called the grain offering.  Before the grain offering could be offered as a pure gift it had to be ground to fine flour with olive oil added.  The process of making fine flour was to mill and sift the grain.  Olive oil was a representation of new and fresh products from a harvest once the grain was broken down. 

Today’s grain offering is more of an attitude of the heart.  It is an expression of total thankfulness to God and wholehearted devotion no matter what suffering we are experiencing.  When my father-in-law lived with us in the final stage of Alzheimer’s, I felt as if I was being milled and sifted daily.   Who I thought I was didn’t seem to match who I was witnessing in the mirror.  I had a crisis of identity deep in my soul as I battled resentment, fatigue, anger and guilt.  I would move in and out of these emotions as my soul took hit after hit, and Satan didn’t miss a chance to point out my Christian shortcomings.  Once I surrendered my will, agenda and motivations on the altar of God, I began to see the offering come together.  I brought the grain – the unfinished raw fleshly body – and God transformed me into His fine flour.  Through the oil of the Holy Spirit I was given the hope of a new harvest. 

‘Our families, our jobs, and our reputation are our marks of self-identification.  But pain has a way of stripping us of those marks.  Tragedy takes away family, friends, finances, health – marks of our identity.  In short, pain leaves us in a personal identity crisis…When all of those other things are gone, we can begin to see our self-worth and identity defined by our relationship with God in Christ’ Faith Limps, p. 79, 81.

As we offer our flesh selves to God, the memorial portion, He will transform us through the fire of suffering into the fine flour of Christ, adding the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit.  Once the Trinity is at work in our lives we will be a perfect aroma and beautiful offering to God.

Where Were You?

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm… 'I will question you and you shall answer me…Where were you when I…?’” Job 38:1, 4

If you are like me the Book of Job is one that never seems to entice me when studying the Bible.  It seems to be more of a Bermuda Triangle which I tend to navigate around to avoid any possible peril of the heart.  This morning during my prayers I found myself asking the why’s of so many challenging circumstances in the lives of people whom I love and new ones I meet along the way.  I knew that I had to crack open the Book of Job which I now affectionately refer to as the Book of Why.  Job and his friends chewed and gnawed for 35 chapters on why God has allowed all of this, yet they concluded nothing.  They examined the prism from every angle but the results never changed – Job was experiencing suffering in every area of his life.  God spent chapters 38-41 questioning Job forcing him to consider the vast mysteries of God and how each element in the universe was under the authority of the Creator of all good and perfect things.

The LORD’s response reminded me of an answer I got from Him during church one day, as a story was revealed of a woman who was totally healed of cancer right before surgery.   My 41 year old sister had just passed away from cancer leaving a loving husband and an 8 year old daughter behind.  I remember looking up to God in church that day and asked Him why couldn’t Beth have been the woman to receive complete healing on earth?  Like Job, God impressed upon my heart that I had been given many miracles in regard to my daughter when she was a heroin addict living on the streets.  He brought to mind so many things that had been allowed in my life that were amazing blessings.   I felt He answered me with questions like ‘Where were you when I brought her back to life as she lay on the hospital floor that night?  Where were you when I kept her safe from those who preyed upon her youth?’

If God were to answer our questions with His questions they would sound something like this:

“Where were you when I took your dream of being a mother and formed your children with my hands?  Where were you when I placed in the heart of your employer to offer you that job that would benefit you for so many years?  Where were you when I formed the partner that would love you more on earth than any other?  Where were you when I protected that car from hitting your spouse?  Where were you when I gave up my Son so that you could join me one day in Heaven?”

I know that God welcomes our questions and expects our desire for understanding.  Just like Job, we may never get the answer to our why’s but through this intimate exchange with God, He will move from our head to our hearts.  Every question to Him will reveal more of Him.

‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.’ Job 42:5

Sitting Shiva

“When Job’s three friends…heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.  When they saw him…they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud…Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” Job 2:11.

The Jewish foundation for mourning was a ritual called sitting shiva.  This ritual involved friends and family surrounding their suffering loved one for a period of seven days in presence and relative silence.   When Job’s friends heard of all the adversity and suffering that had occurred to their friend they went to him to encourage and comfort Job.  Job had suffered financial loss, property loss, loss in his livelihood and was in immense grief in the deaths of all of his children.  The final straw was when his health also was impacted.   I want to stop here in this story to examine the love and support of friends during our adversities.

It was the beginning of February of 2009.  My grandmother, my spiritual mentor had just passed on to heaven.  My dad’s cancer had spread to his liver and we were literally watching the earthly life leave my sister as the heavenly life settled in.  My husband was 8 weeks towards recovery of his knee replacement, still experiencing great pain.  My son-in-law had relapsed and left my daughter and three children, leaving us wondering if he was even alive.   As if these adversities weren’t enough to bear, my 17 year old daughter received a phone call that her boyfriend of 2 years had been killed in a motorcycle accident.   The culmination of that month was insurmountable in pain and indescribable in words.  Had it not been for my family and friends who traveled through this journey with me I fear I would have lost my mind. 

Throughout the Bible we are told that the number 7 is symbolic for completeness.  Our friends never left us and sat around us in every pain, every suffering and every tear until the healing was complete.  Many days they offered nothing but precious shiva – their precious presence and quiet spirits.   While they might have searched their hearts for the right things to say, their comfort was given in their presence and not in their words.  There were no words, just arms to hug with, shoulders to cry on and lips to whisper prays for us. 

I will never be able to express in words the comfort and encouragement from my friends in a time when I could barely get off the ground.  They surrounded me with sitting shiva and I will never forget their sacrifice.  We are often tempted when we hear the devastating news of a friend to pull back out of our own discomfort.  We must be the friends who come to the side of those friends we love and sit with them in silence.  Thank you to all my sweet friends who allowed God to flow through them in a time when I was broken.

Don't You Even Care?

“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  Mark 4:38b

Prior to meeting Jesus, the disciples had battled many storms in the past.  Before Him, they didn’t know any other way to survive storms but to focus on what they could accomplish in their own strength.   Now that they knew the power of Jesus, they focused on what He wasn’t doing to calm the storm.  Before Jesus, the storm was made up of wind and water to them; after Jesus the storm was made up of accusations and criticism.  These disciples did not question His power but questioned His character.   As our faith grows we become more and more aware of the power of Christ.  We know that we possess the One who can calm the storms and move mountains. 

It is one thing to navigate through life without a deep relationship with God.  We attempt to resolve our problems through our own strength and power.  But what about when we have invited God into an intimate and living relationship with us?  When we have experienced and witnessed the amazing power of the living God in other seasons, but now He almost seems absent…silent…asleep?  We look upon our circumstances and turn to God and say ‘Don’t you care, Lord?’  We seem to forget the other storms that He calmed, and begin equating tough times with a lack of His love.  ‘If you loved me you would …. If you really cared you would not …’

What questions are you struggling with this morning in your storms?  Are you questioning God’s character instead of His timing and provisions?  I believe God expects us to come to Him with confusing thoughts regarding desired resolutions and unmet expectations.  However, there is a fine line when we approach Him between the questions regarding the when and how’s of God and the love of God.  God is love first and foremost, and when we settle that in our heart and mind all questions will be appropriate requests to God.  We will come to Him in praise for His nature first and desires for His provision will follow. 

Through praising God for His divine attributes we position our faith to expect and hope for His provisions that will follow.

The Thorns of Life

“Cursed is the ground…through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns…and you will eat the plants of the field” Gen 3:17-18.

Let’s face it - we inherited a tough walk on earth through the fall of mankind.  Sin ushered in all pain, not just temptation.  Because of sin disease happens and people suffer.  Because of sin relationships fall and families are broken.  Because of sin tornadoes kill and earthquakes tear apart the ground.  Pain, suffering and natural disasters are all symptoms of the original disease of sin.   It is written in Genesis that once sin imposed its will upon mankind, the ground on which we live would produce thorns that all mankind must endure. 

Paul found this to be true throughout his walk with Christ.  ‘…there was given to me a thorn… Three times I pleaded with the LORD to take it away.  But he said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ 2 Co. 12:7b-8.

We all have thorns…those long running challenges that seem to be an unwelcome companion in our lives; situations that seem to be life-long without a resolution on the horizon.  There is a family with the thorn of terminal illness.  There is a young girl whose thorn reminds her every day that she will never experience the love of a parent.  The painful thorn of watching my niece grow into a young lady without the tender hands of her mother upon her.  We all have different degrees of thorns, but what will we do with them?  Will we try to numb the pricks or work through the pain with the help of God’s grace?  Will we surrender our discomfort and allow God’s power to rest in our circumstances?  Will we reach out to those whose thorn seems more painful instead of focusing on our thorn of inconvenience and self-absorption? 

Our degree of God’s grace will always match our degree of need.  Everything required to endure the thorns have been given to us in a measure that makes us more than just those who endure…it makes us those who conquer and overcome.  ‘Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ Romans 8:35, 37.

Whatever your thorn may be this morning be encouraged that God’s grace will be sustaining and sufficient for every experience you face.