What's Missing?

I'm loving a new Bible study book I'm doing with a few friends. It's called Tune In: Hearing God's Voice Through the Static. The author, Jen Hatmaker, is funny but just in our first week of this study, I've already had a few "aha!" moments.

For instance, she asks us to consider this question: When you hear "in God's will," what do you think of? For me, the answer most often relates to decisions. Jen talks about life as a mom, saying, "Yes, I am sometimes there to tell them [the kids] what to do. But I also teach them kindness and a strong work ethic. I offer protection even when they think they are safe. Every disappointment they face is a teaching moment for me. Sometimes I communicate with no other objective than to lavish them with my love. Although they would surely disagree, telling them what to do is only a tiny fraction of my daily communication."

She goes on to ask, "If this is how God parents us, what are we missing when we seek His voice only to help us make a certain choice?"

Wow! That hit me right between the eyes. What we're missing when we seek God's will only in decision-making is the RELATIONSHIP with Him!!! We're viewing Him as a cruise director, rather than as a loving, teaching parent.

Trust Me

For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, 'Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.' ~Isaiah 41:13

Not long ago, I asked my daughter to stand on an overturned barrel, so she could get closer to a baby goat she wanted to pet. Though I was holding her hand, and assured her that the barrel was perfectly sturdy, she didn't want to do it because she didn't think it was safe. I'm her mother, and I have never, ever, asked her to do anything that would endanger her life or harm her! So I wondered, why won't my child trust me completely?

This was one of the many times when God takes my thoughts/words towards my child and points them to me. It's as if He said, "Have you noticed that you do the very same thing to me? You claim to know that I love you and that I always have your best interest at heart, so why don't you trust me completely? Sometimes I may ask you to do something that seems scary, but I am right there with you, holding your hand, and I won't let you fall."

Crown or Disease?

A good wife is like a crown for her husband,
but a disgraceful wife is like a disease in his bones.
Proverbs 12:4

A few definitions of a crown are: 1) any of various types of headgear worn by a monarch as a symbol of sovereignty, often made of precious metal and ornamented with valuable gems; 2) an ornamental wreath or circlet for the head, conferred by the ancients as a mark of victory, athletic or military distinction, etc; 3) the distinction that comes from a great achievement.

Based on that first definition, if I am a crown to my husband, I would be precious and valuable. I know I am that in the eyes of the Lord, and my husband shows me that he thinks of me this way as well. I don't think it has much to do with what I do; I feel that this is unearned merit on both counts. Based on the second and third definitions, though, I can be a crown by lifting my husband up, encouraging him. I can be the "good woman" behind him, helping him to do all he is called to do. By making a point to show my respect for him, both at home and publicly, I can increase the level of respect others have for him as well.

But if I treat him disrespectfully, if I don't honor and encourage him, I become like a disease in his bones that will affect every part of his life. I found this definition of disease: "a disordered or incorrectly functioning part or system of the body." In any marriage where the wife does not respect her husband and allow him to be the head of their household, that is a disordered or incorrectly functioning marriage. A disease.

I'm sad to say that I was a disease in my failed first marriage. It's one of the primary reasons that marriage failed: I was toxic. Though I am far from perfect, I now seek to be a crown that bestows honor upon my husband.

I'll Trust in You

I will live to love you,
I will live to bring You praise,
I will live a child in awe of You...

You alone are God of all.
You alone are worthy, Lord.
And will all I have my soul will bless your name.


(Another great performance by my church's worship band.)

Leave the Results to Him

I enjoyed this One-Minute Daily Devotion, so I'm sharing it with you. It is so true that we must seek to raise our children according to their individual "bent" because each and every one of us is unique!

Again, this is copied from a devotional, not my own words:
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'That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.' - Hebrews 12:16-17

"Esau and Jacob. Same mother, same father, twins. Raised the same way with the same belief system. But you would never meet two more diverse persons on the face of the earth.

When you have children of the same sex that are close in age, there are going to be some very fascinating dynamics. They have come from the same parents. They’ve been raised in the same household. How can they be so incredibly different? But every child is unique and has to be parented differently. A parent will often lament to me about problems they're having with one child while another child is doing splendidly. The parent will say, "You know, pastor, I've raised 'em the same way." And I think to myself, "That's the problem." You cannot raise any child the same way and expect it to be a fruitful venture. Children are not robots. They each have their own unique talents, individual interests and varying temperaments.

Remember, parents, only God knows the ultimate plan He has for our children. Only He knows how it's going to ultimately play out. The role of the parent is to seek to shape our children and to understand how to parent them uniquely. We raise them with love, fairness, discipline, and teaching in hopes that our children will one day be able to grasp the grace of God. We pray that one day they'll come to the realization that they are sinners and do not deserve God’s favor or blessing. We pray that they claim the grace of God, and allow Him to transform their life through Jesus Christ. And in the process, some of our children are going to choose to claim that grace and repent, and some are not. Do your best, pray for God's guidance, and leave the results in the hands of God."

I Know Him

"But in the past, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now... how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces?" Galatians 4:8-9

Because I spent so many years not living for Christ, I have sometimes wondered when I truly became a Christian. After much thought and prayer, I would now say that I did indeed become a Christian when I professed faith in Christ and was baptized at about age ten. But I did not really know God.

For many years, my relationship with God was like my relationship with the senior pastor of my church. I go to a wonderful but very large church, so I don't really know our senior pastor personally. I've had a few very brief conversations with him; I've shaken his hand a few times; some of my good friends know him well and speak very highly of him; I've learned a good bit about his heart through hearing him preach. But I don't KNOW him. We aren't, as Anne Shirley (of Green Gables) would say, "bosom friends." That's how it was with me and God for many years. I had friends who knew Him and spoke highly of Him; I'd had a few brief conversations with Him, and I'd learned some things about Him and about His heart. But God was not my "bosom friend." It has only been in very recent years that I feel like I can honestly say I know God.

I was once enslaved to many "weak and bankrupt" things that are not gods. I never want to return to those things. I have now come to know God, and my life will never be the same because of it. Because of Him.

[Please don't think our church is impersonal just because it's large. I have a wonderful pastor whom I do know personally (one of the associate pastors), a fabulous Sunday school class, and I've made the best friends I've ever had in my life. But with more than 5,000 members our senior pastor just can't possibly have a personal relationship with every one of us. He is a great man, but has his limitations, unlike God who can know us all personally!]

Revelation

"Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on a human point of view. For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1:11-12

Paul knew the scriptures backwards, forwards, and sideways, and he knew the message of Christ; he spent much time persecuting the Christians and in the process learned about the Christians and what they believed. But even with all that knowledge, he didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God. He didn't think those scriptures pointed to Jesus. It took Christ speaking to him straight out of heaven for Paul to finally trust in Christ. Most of us don't have such a dramatic conversion experience.

In thinking about this further, though, I realized that we sort of do all have a similar experience. No matter how many times we've heard the gospel, no matter how much head knowledge we may have about God or the Bible, we cannot truly trust in Christ until the Holy Spirit begins to work in us.