Peace and Quiet

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12: 1-2

We started discussing flexibility yesterday, and then today, I discovered that “flexibility” is even a topic under God’s promises.

Life can make us crazy, can’t it? Pulled hither and yon, one direction to another, so fast we lose sight of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad.  A dear friend reminded me today what we need to do when life gets like this. We just need to put on the brakes and STOP. Ask God where He’s leading us, which direction He wants us to go.

Sometimes, that direction may be upstream, against what everyone else is telling you to do. Sometimes, it may be in line with everyone else. But we’ll never know until we ask God, will we?

He wants us to be TRANSFORMED. The Message translates our verse above this way:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t be so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2 

But you, God, shield me on all sides,You ground my feet, you lift my head high,

With all my might I shout up to God,

His answers thunder from the holy mountain.

Psalm 3: 3-4 (The Message)

We traveled this past weekend, returning home in the rain. I asked one of my dear friends and prayer partners to pray for our safety as we traveled.

She e-mailed that she was led to a couple of verses for us -

“He gives His angels watch over you to keep you in all your ways.” and “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it shall not come near you.”

Then, today, in my own Bible study, I was led to Psalm 3. The whole passage spoke to me, comforted me, lifted me. I thought about just sharing a verse or two, but why not the whole thing? I pray it will bless you and comfort you as it did me:

O Lord, how many are my foes!

How many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me,

“God will not deliver him.”

But you are a shield around me, O Lord,

you bestow glory on me me and lift up my head.

To the Lord I cry aloud

and he answers from his holy hill.

I lie down and sleep;

I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear the tens of thousands

drawn up against me on every side.

Arise, O Lord!

Deliver me, O my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw;

break the teeth of the wicked.

From the Lord comes deliverance.

May your blessing be on your people.

To God be the glory, great things He has done!

“They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’”

Acts 16:31

Today, December 2nd, is the anniversary of the death of my precious grandmother Nanny. She passed away many years ago, and yet still lives so much within me, and with our entire family.

Nanny was quite a character. As a child, my goal was to reach her height - of course, I didn’t realize that she was in reality only about 4′9″ tall - in my eyes, she was a giant! (Thankfully, I made it over the 5′ mark, but not by much!)

She could cook some of the best food you ever put in your mouth. She crocheted beautiful afghans and sturdy quilts. She would also give you - or anyone who needed it - the shirt off her own back. She was giving and loving and kind.

She wasn’t always like that. I admit that in my early years, she was a bit harsh and judgmental towards people. But as I got older, I watched her grow and mellow, becoming more like Jesus the closer she got to Heaven.

Nanny taught me many things over the years - the most important being prayer. Nanny taught me to pray about all things, and about everyone. She even taught me how to pray when I didn’t know what to pray. Funny thing - she never sat down and said, “This is how you pray.” Nope, she taught me how to pray by example only.

She prayed for me daily - I knew that without a doubt. After I became a Christian at age 22, she became a regular prayer partner with me - if I had a need, I called or wrote her about it, knowing she would pray. And she did.

The day she died, I knew she was with Jesus, and I couldn’t be sad about that. The hard part was knowing my bestest prayer partner was no longer here with me. I felt the mantle pass.

And I still want to grow up to be at tall as Nanny.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

1 Peter 4: 12-13 (NASB)

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

1 Peter 4: 12-13 (The Message) 

 Yes, I’m repeating myself again, but with good reason. I’d like to pose a question to you. When reading your Bible, do you ever just feel like shouting for joy, whooping and hollering praises and Hallelujahs until your voice is gone?

This verse causes that reaction in me. Whooo-wheee! Hallelujah! Glory is just around the corner - that’s enough to shout about, isn’t it?

This verse was again under the Depression category of my list of God’s promises. I’m not purposely focusing on depression, but until I get to the end, if the Lord uses the verses to speak to me, I’m going to share it with you.

The words “as though some strange thing were happening to you” just jumped right off the page at me this morning. Many times over the past several months, I’ve made that very comment - and so have several of my friends and prayer partners. Even our real estate agent made that comment - we’ve had a house on the market for almost 3 years now - with 10 different contracts that have all fallen through. We’ve had one contract on it since June - and it’s still on it. We just cannot get the house closed.

We’ve wondered why, we’ve questioned what we’re doing wrong, we’ve begged and pleaded with God to move mountains to get it closed - and our prayers have not yet been answered. Today, it seems like I got an answer to my question of WHY with this verse - maybe it’s a spiritual refining process!

So, instead of whining and complaining and worrying, I’m just gonna rejoice and shout HALLELUJAH!

Are you going through your own difficult times? Could it be a spiritual refining process for you, too? Would you join me in rejoicing and shouting Hallelujah to our Savior and Lord?

Thank you, Jesus! Amen!

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10

I continue to look at God’s Promises each week - they are so rich with wisdom and comfort. And again today, I discovered this promise under the Depression category. 

Meditate on this verse today - piece by piece. Think of each section between commas, and then each period.

Do not fear

I am with you

Do not anxiously look about you

I am your God

I will strenghten you

I will help you

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Folks, I don’t know about you, but I WANT God to be my God, I want Him to be with me, I want Him to strengthen me, I want Him to help me, I want Him to uphold me. So I want and need to do the rest of it - I need not fear, and I need not look anxiously about me. Seems simple on paper, doesn’t it? Do we believe His promises, or don’t we?

Lord, give us the strength we need not to fear, not to look anxiously about us. We want you to be our God - our one and only God. We want you to be with us, to strengthen us, to help us, to uphold us. We love you, Lord, and we praise you. Thank you for Who you are. In Jesus’ wonderful name, Amen.

Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.

Psalm 34:17 (The Message)

The righteous cry, and the LORD hears and delivers them out of their troubles.

Psalm 34:17 (New American Standard)

Yes, the same verse, with just a slight difference - enough that I wanted to share both of them. One may speak to you more than the other.

This time of year, many of us suffer depression for a whole host of reasons. And with the economy in trouble, and the future more uncertain than ever, I’m sure this year will be a bit more difficult than usual.

As I was scrolling through my list of God’s Promises, the verse above jumped out at me. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours just crying out to God, and putting words to paper. When I finished, it had a similar cadence, similar feel to it that some of David’s cries have in the Psalms. Instantly upon realizing that, I felt not so alone. Or guilty for whining/complaining/griping/worrying/crying. Do you ever feel that guilt? I can’t seem to get rid of it!

But this list of promises - God has been teaching me to TRUST that His promises are for ME, just like they are for YOU, just like they were for people in the past and will be for people in the future. He doesn’t pick and choose when to keep His promises to whom - He keeps His promises to all of us.

Well, THIS is one of His promises - He hears our cries, and He rescues us from our troubles.

Lord, just give us the faith we need, and the wisdom we need, to believe that promise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

PS - Our friend Nancy Arant Williams has started her own blog here at Today. Loved and Protected is filled with wisdom, and encouragement, and hope. Stop by and pay her a visit - you’ll be blessed.

The fear of the LORD leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.

Proverbs 19:23

From Nancy Arant Williams: 

In Times of Famine

       

Some may be in shock to have gotten up Wednesday morning to learn that there is a famine in our land. A famine of righteousness, wisdom, and for some, perhaps even hope. And while we may grieve for what has been lost, let us not lose hope.

Scripture uses the words, “Fear not,” 365 times, one for each day of the year. Our God is still in control, no matter what we see with our eyes. He is our sovereign, more powerful than any ruler. And He will work on our behalf no matter what the political climate may be.

Genesis 26 tells us there was a famine in the land after the death of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, an area controlled by the Philistines. And the Lord said, “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendents I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven.”  I believe we can take this verse literally and claim it in.

It says Isaac settled in the valley among the Philistines, an en where his servants began to dig wells to provide water for his family and servants. But every time a well was completed the local men claimed it, shoving Isaac’s family farther away. But Isaac didn’t give up, just moved to a place no one else wanted and dug a well there.

We are living in a time of spiritual famine in our land. Our countrymen who no longer revere God have claimed the resources that were originally blessings of God to our then-Christian nation, pushing us further from the mainstream, to where we now live on the fringes of society, still claiming God’s promises, but seeing little to rejoice about in the natural. Many of our freedoms have been legislated away, and yet we are not to lose hope.

Verse 24 says, “The Lord appeared to him (Isaac) the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”  

Though we might be disappointed at the outcome of the election we as believers are to honor the office of the one who rules our nation and to pray for our leaders, that God would change their hearts, letting them hear and act according to wisdom. Whether they do so or not should not move us, however. We know whom we serve, the King of King and Lord of Lords, Sovereign forever, our Provider, our Sustainer, our Protector, our Comforter, our Victory, our Peace, and the Lifter of our heads.  And Scripture promises that nothing shall separate us from the love of God, not famine or peril or even sword, so we must hold tightly to the truths we hold dear, and get into God’s Word for wisdom, direction and hope.

We still live in the most blessed nation on earth, and God is still moving. In fact, as the night of blackness and sin grows darker, the truth of the gospel will shine ever more brilliantly in contrast.

I love the wisdom of Winston Churchill who said, “Never, never, never give up.” In the days that lie ahead, some who do not know Christ will turn to us with questions. And then it will be our turn to stand up and tell them about our wonderful Lord Jesus.

So instead of falling down in despair, we as believers must choose to rejoice in the fact that our time to shine has come. As the economy continues to deteriorate and jobs and homes are lost, people will be searching for answers. And those who have always depended on their own resources and wealth will have nowhere to turn for wisdom and will have ears to hear the gospel. This harvest of souls is the fulfillment of the promise to multiply our seed as the stars of heaven. We have been born for such a time as this, the final harvest of souls just before Jesus returns to catch us away with Him.

It’s time to rely on God, with all our hearts, for He will never fail those who trust in Him. In all our ways, Scripture says to acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths, providing our needs.

The key to living abundantly and with joy is to focus on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and to hold onto hope, asking God what He wants us to do next. He will open opportunities for service and use us in ways we’ve never even dreamed if we simply hold onto hope, praising God, knowing that the coming of Jesus is closer than we ever believed.

I’m thanking you, God, out in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. The deeper your love, the higher it goes; every cloud’s a flag to your faithfulness.Soar high in the skies, O God! Cover the whole earth with your glory!

And for the sake of the one you love so much, reach down and help me - answer me!

Psalm 108: 3-6

Another message from Nancy Williams:

                                        The Amazing Power of Praise

Did you know that during Old Testament times, God told Israel’s kings who were going to war to send the praise team first? He said to send the singers first, along with those with instruments to praise the Lord, when God in His sovereignty told them to fight. And if you recall, the walls of Jericho fell, when they joined in praise to our great and almighty God, our Victory.

In its sincerest form praise is faith on the lips of the saints. He tells us to praise Him in the morning, at noon, and at night, when things are good and when things look bad or we’re in danger or discouraged.

Psalm 108 says: “My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing. I will sing praises, even with my soul. Awake harp and lyre. I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples; for Thy lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and Thy truth reaches to the skies. Be exalted above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth that Thy beloved may be delivered. Save with Thy right hand, and answer me!”

Our sincere praise to the Lord brings deliverance and provision at exactly the moment it’s needed. And even more than that it brings us peace we won’t be able to find anywhere else. It’s what the world is clamoring for when their hearts fail them for fear.

In times when we feel like giving up, we should remember that our God says His eyes are ever upon us, caring for us and cherishing us, with a love that never fails. When we meditate on that thought, telling ourselves the truth, we can renew our hope and joy, and choose to praise Him, reclaiming our peace.

Praise is a choice. So will we be those counted among the faithful, or will we fall down in defeat and fear, cast down with our light extinguished.

We must comfort ourselves with the truth– that no matter what happens we already have it all. We are, according to Scripture, equipped for every good thing.

Do you grasp what this means? If God called you or me to walk on water, would we choose to trust Him to make it a reality? If not, why not? Is all our Christianese just rhetoric, no more valuable than propaganda–not worth the paper it’s written on?

It’s time to stand and proclaim that we praise the One, true and living God, Jehovah, and there is no other.

Let God be praised, no matter what!

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the wins,
giving to the the needy in reckless abandon
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

Carrying out this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. This relief offering is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ. You show your gratitude through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need. Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!

2 Corinthians 9: 8-15 (The Message)

As I research and pray about Scripture to begin each of these posts, I’m amazed at what I read and can’t stop with just one verse. So today, you get to read the whole passage with me!

As I mentioned a few days ago, my current Bible study is about believing God. Not just believing IN Him, but believing Him - believing He is Who He says He is, believing He can do what He says He can do, and that His word is alive and active in me.

When I read verses like above, His word does become alive and active in me! I want to go shout His message from rooftops, I want to tell everyone I know that God loves them, Jesus died for them, and invite them all to live in Heaven with our Creator for eternity!

Do you ever feel that way? Does the Bible ever awaken you, excite you, enliven you?

I’d love to know your favorite verses - share them with us!

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

1 Peter 4:12-13

The Lord has been drawing me nearer lately - even speaking to me. Last week, as I settled into bed much later than I should have, I clearly heard a voice that said, “I do not want you to suffer.” My mind was still on work, and I tried to figure out what suffering had to do with vacation planning, and couldn’t make it fit. A few moments later, I clearly heard, “I do not want you to suffer.”

It was not my husband’s voice, yet it was as clear and as audible as if it had been him. Would the Lord speak to me that clearly? In that way?

Later, I shared the story with two of my prayer partners and dear friends. I questioned whether it was God, and immediately was convicted for doubting that it was Him. My friends felt I had indeed been visited by God.

But what did He mean?

He didn’t say I WOULDN’T suffer, just that He didn’t WANT me to suffer.

This weekend, I started reading Beth Moore’s book Believing God. She makes a point to say that many of us believe IN God, but we have a harder time believing Him. One of the friends I mentioned earlier said basically the same thing to me in her response to me questioning whether it was God who spoke. She said “Fix your eyes on Him and believe Him (don’t just believe IN Him, but believe that His promises are for you), and then expect that as you move toward the throne of Grace, He will do great things.”

As I’ve begun the study of Believing Him, rather than just believing IN Him, I realize there is a major issue - that of TRUST. I’ll share more about trust issues all week long. I hope you’ll join me as we uncover and rediscover His truth.

P.S. This week, I’m giving away two copies of a book appropriately entitled Do You Trust Me? by Cheryl Cunnagin. See my Pix-N-Pens blog for all the details.