If You Can

Feb5

Jesus said, “‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'” (Mark 9:23, 24 NIV84).

I’ve heard it said that having faith is like sitting in a chair: you believe it can hold you, but you can’t really know until you give it a try. After that first time of trying and seeing, the sitting becomes a lot easier.

We read in the Bible time after time after time about God doing amazing and miraculous things, but we still don’t completely trust Him with everything today. We get stumped by the verse that says if we pray in God’s will. What, we wonder, is His will? How do I know if He wants to heal that person, or for me to have that job, or that car, or that child? All things are possible, but not all things are profitable.

It’s one of those mysteries. So still we trust and we ask. God will do the best thing.

Today is Superbowl Sunday. I’ll be praying, like thousands of others, that God would deliver those who are caught up in the horrible atrocity of sex trafficking. Both the victims and the victimizers. God can do it.

The Word

Feb4
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double‑edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV84).”

In the past, I’ve always struggled to have consistent times in God’s Word. I’m not a morning person, and my days always got away from me. Then along came this little thing called an iPhone, and an app called the YouVersion Bible.

The YouVersion app has many different devotionals and Bible reading plans to choose from. Two years ago, I read through the whole Bible in a year. Last year, I read through the whole Bible chronologically. This year, I chose a devotional reading plan instead.

I have a clock dock by my bed where I keep my iPhone charging over night. In the mornings it wakes me up with a random song from my “God Songs” playlist. I set that alarm to go off a half hour earlier than I need to get up and get the kids going. After one song plays, I grab my phone, open the YouVersion app and read the devotional for the day.

After two years, this is now an ingrained habit. I love using my iPhone because I don’t have to turn on the light. The praise song focuses my heart and the devotional is short and sweet and gets me thinking about living right. And it has me writing on a regular basis: I chronicle my thoughts from the devotional and then post them here.

After two years of reading through the Bible in two different ways, I feel I have a clearer understanding of this rich, vibrant Book that shows me God’s heart. After this year, I might do that again with some other plan just to get another perspective.

If you’ve never read through the Bible completely, I highly recommend it. You might be surprised what you’ll find.

Are You Ready?

Feb3

In Luke 21, Jesus talks about the end of the world and His return. He warns His disciples not to get caught up in the things of this world or that day will catch them unaware. Like a flash of lightening; like a thief in the night; like a bridegroom returning from a journey, ready to claim His bride. Be ready. Be ready. Don’t be caught unaware. He is coming. Be ready. It’s exciting, isn’t it?

The Mystery that is Prayer

Feb2

I don’t fully understand how prayer works. We’ve been praying fervently for the daughter of a friend for more than a month now. She suffered severe consequences after the birth of her 7th child and was near death. Now, 34 days later, she is home and recovering.

But 9 years ago, we prayed fervently for the young teenaged son of another friend who had suffered a severe brain injury after being closed up in a sofa bed while playing around with his sister, and he didn’t make it.

Both had large groups of people praying fervently. What was the difference? Did God love one family more than another? Not at all! Was He on vacation 9 years ago? Ridiculous! But I asked some serious “why” questions after Mark died.

We are commanded to pray, and James says that the “fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much” (James 5:16). Just throwing out the fact that God is sovereign doesn’t bring much comfort to that family that lost a child.

When I miscarried our first child after years of trying to get pregnant, I questioned God. But I never doubted His love. I just didn’t understand His plan.

Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20).

Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego acknowledged that their God was able to save them from the fiery furnace, but even if He didn’t, they would still not worship the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

When Jesus said some things that were hard for some to hear, they turned away and stopped following Jesus, When that happened, He said to His disciples, “you don’t want to go away, too, do you?” Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (Matt. 6:66-69).

He is the Holy One of God. He loves us more than we can ever imagine. The Bible promises us that He works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

We don’t doubt this, but, as C.S. Lewis wrote, sometimes we just wonder how painful that “good” is going to be. But through the hard times, painful though they be, we don’t leave, because He does, indeed, have words of eternal life. And He weeps along with us.

Heaven on Earth

Feb1

I don’t get many free days when I have absolutely nothing scheduled. I LOVE those days. Last Friday was one. The grocery shopping was done, the grading of papers was done. I didn’t even have to think about making dinner because I was going out on a date with my middle child and dinner was my husband’s responsibility.

So what was I going to do with my 5 free hours? Read a book? Watch a movie? Go shopping and spend my birthday gift cards? No. I decided to clean the house.

I don’t like to clean the house, but with three kids, a big dog, a cat, a husband and a mother in law living here (not that the last two are very messy, mind you), the task was long overdue.

So after everyone left the house for the day, I tuned our new Blu-Ray player to stream a Pandora worship station through our stereo, cranked it up, got out the vacuum cleaner and the dust rag and had a great time jamming to tunes lifting up the name of Jesus while clearing out the layers of dust that had accumulated since I had put away the Christmas stuff three weeks before. It hardly seemed like work.

God inhabits the praises of His people. Worship lifts my heart and renews my soul. When the kids got home, I wasn’t tired and grumpy from having been cleaning all morning, I was rested, refreshed and cheerful.

Oh, how I long for heaven, when worship will be our native tongue. Amen. Come quickly Lord Jesus.