Think About His Grace That's Brought Us Through

 I don't think God is the source of our sorrows and pain, but I am sure that He uses the suffering that comes to us in this fallen world to sculpt us into a closer likeness to His Son for our blessing (Romans 8:28).    Why suffering must be a fact in this age of grace is mostly unknown to us, but we receive enlightenment in the die to live patterns in nature.  A seed must fall into the ground and die before it gives forth new life (John 12:24). 

In one of the Narnia books, C.S. Lewis says that Aslan remains true to His own rules. Likewise, the framework God has set into place during this age allows Him to remain true to His own Holiness and yet offer grace to us, even though we have used the free will He has given to sin against Him. His own Son suffered to offer us Salvation, and God resurrected our Savior as a first-fruit of those bound over to death by sin.  If we suffer with Him, we can expect to be raised with Him (2 Timothy 2:12).

When we find peace in our earthly circumstances, we are less likely to put forth the effort to seek the Lord.  Sorrows, fears, and suffering drive us to the foot of the Cross where we find the peace that defies human understanding (Philippians 4:7).    

God does not willingly bring suffering to us (Lamentations 3:33). We can always trust His good intentions toward us; we can always trust His love.  The enemy will try to twist the fact of God's sovereign power over Earth's sorrows in an attempt to convince us that God willingly hurts us in order to help us.  The secret the enemy doesn't want us to know is that the Almighty God uses even what the enemy means for evil to our good, for His glory (Genesis 50:20).  Evil isn't God's fault.  He gave his created beings freedom, and we used it for evil.  God sent His Son to make us a way to Heaven despite the filth of our own sin.  There is no greater love than this.

I wrote the words above and then went to bed, and sometime during the night watches I realized...I must not think of God as being only partially sovereign.  He is not merely a benevolent King who is determined to bless those who have suffered by the enemy's hand.  In this scenario some evils slip past Him and so He then intervenes to turn it for our good.  Of course this is inaccurate; Hannah Whitall Smith has said we must receive everything from His hand with no second causes.  

We consistently underestimate the extent of our own sinfulness, the disasters we cause via the path of free will, and the measures God takes for and through us in order to secure us for Heaven.  

But...always a caveat; sometimes we hear of horrible things happening that very obviously have occurred outside of God's will.  At those times we give God glory by affirming trust in Him and finding rest in His promise to see us through (Isaiah 42:3). The enemy reigns in the minds of unbelievers and so there is great evil at work in our world. God will have the ultimate victory. Faith in Him will be rewarded. And He sees us through 

Human logic can't track God.  But our free will, a gift from God, allows us to choose to trust in Him where our human understanding can't reach.  

Blessed be His Name.  

First Comes Love

Sometimes, we as Christians miss the mark as we work hard to evangelize in the name of the Lord.  Our goal isn't to get others to act as they should, it is to invite them into the warmth of God's love.  

We don’t want people to be manipulated by fear of our judgments of them, we want them drawn to the unconditional love of Christ.  Yes, unconditional.  Available to us with no other payment than our belief in the work Jesus did for us on the Cross.  His sacrifice, His Blood, the Father’s love, the Holy Spirit in us; and then—and only then--the response of obedience.  

Service to God and good works in His Name unfold in a specific order. First, we learn of the love of God expressed through the gift of His Son. This knowledge of God's love for us fires the response of love for Him in our hearts. Finally, obedience to perform the good works to which He calls us grows from this center of being loved by God and expressing love for Him in return.  

We need to be sure to present God's love in this order, or we are in danger of causing those we target for discipleship to change their outward behavior in order to please us.  They then become bound by a desire to be acceptable in the eyes of other human beings with fear of human judgment motivating acts of service that flow, not from the Holy Spirit's lead from within, but in order to meet the standards of human beings from without.   

The unfolding of a damaged heart in the warmth of God's love takes time.  Pray that those you invite into God's Kingdom may know His love and be cautious of demanding acts of service as evidence of heart change. Obedience comes after one has basked in the unconditional love of God and is a response from within, not an initiative imposed from without.  Lack of outward acts of service is always a sign that we need to know more of God's love.  "If you are really saved, then you will prove it by these specific acts of service" needs to transform into "I will show you God's love and pray for you, and then watch to see what He does through you."  

Once more: obedience is a response and not an initiative.  Let our motivation in evangelism always be this: how may we show them more of God's love.  

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We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 

1 John 3:1

Joy Comes

 

This bright morning, I thought of a sweet illustration of my role in my grandchildren’s lives. Before sunrise, I prayed for my grandkids and I heard a noise at the window next to me.  I turned my desk lamp to shine through the window so anything that shouldn’t be on my deck would perhaps be scared away by the light.  This had the unanticipated effect of lighting up the five oldest grandkids’ gingerbread houses.  When I went back to bed I left the light shining on those little houses, symbolic of them being covered by the light of my prayers.  But this morning the light is flowing through the shaded windows with such brilliance that the little desk lamp’s contribution is not only unnecessary, but unnoticed.  I switched the lamp off and thought about how sometimes we are called to cover our loved ones in prayer for a season but that God’s brilliant light will break through and we can take our rest.  Which is exactly what I’m doing today in the wake of our youngest grandchild’s open heart surgery and the labors of intercession and service that accompanied his ordeal.  

Thank You Lord, that though weeping may endure for a night, joy comes as surely as day follows night (Psalm 30:5).  Thank You for breaking through our darkness with Your light.  Thank You for sending Jesus to us, God present with us, Immanuel.  And thank You that our baby grandson is going to be ok.  

Reassurance Regarding Our Baby Grandson

 Our baby grandson will soon undergo a 4 to 6 hour surgery to correct his Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect.  Fear for him has been my constant companion, and I've had to fight a daily battle of prayer to break through to the peace the Lord has for us when we cast our anxieties upon Him.  This morning these thoughts came; funny I'd forgotten my own birth story.  I wonder how many other miracles God has done that I am no longer taking into account?  

I record God's guidance to me conversationally, boldfacing His words to discriminate them from my own.  Here is the boldfaced print from my journal this morning: 

My will cannot be corrupted by the errors or sins of human beings.  

 

It is My will for your grandson to live, thrive, and to fulfill the purposes I have for him.  

 

Consider your own beginnings, Child.  A transverse presentation cannot be delivered vaginally.  But you were.  

 

Children with paralyzed arms at birth do not necessarily regain the use of their arms.  But you did.  

 

Some daughters of women who used the anti-miscarriage drug DES died of cancer in their early teens.  Still more developed cervical cancer. 

 

You didn’t.  

 

Your grandson has a good prognosis, not because of the action or inaction of any human being, but because of the Lord.  

 

Release him into My care now and rest.  

 

I am with him, and you.  

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I recorded my birth story in detail on my 69th birthday.  It can be found here: 25,185 Days and Counting

God Keeps His Promises

I loved teaching school.  The highlight of my days had always been teaching kids to read, but toward the end of my career I received training that allowed me to do a better and more expedient job. I had grown into my calling and I knew I was, at long last, making a real difference in the lives of children. But then budget cuts took the individualized program that had allowed me to be more effective than ever before at helping struggling readers, and while I wasn't fired, I was demoted to the status of test giver.  I dislike achievement tests, and to spend my days administering stressful tests rather than providing real help to kids broke my heart.  My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and I knew the Lord was leading me to a different calling.  

I struggled with this decision.  It took two years for me to accept that teaching was no longer the job God had for me.  During that time He gave me several promises that didn't seem likely to be fulfilled.  I saw a flower garden in my mind's eye and a drawing on a desk calendar by Mary Engelbreit resonated with me. The picture depicted a little lady wielding a garden spade and wearing a hat. I've always loved flowers but never had a green thumb and besides, I was sure I would never wear that hat.  Little did I know that in just a few years, an eye condition would require me to take precautions against bright sunlight, including a wide-brimmed hat!

God used that desk calendar once again when a photo of a young woman with blonde, curly hair holding a little yellow-haired baby touched my heart.  "There will be grandchildren," the Lord promised.  Being a grandmother was not yet on my radar  because my curly-headed daughter was still in college at the time and not yet married.  But still, grandchildren.  The thought brought a smile.  To hold and love a baby again!  

I finally took early retirement, and in a leave-taking that felt anticlimactic after 25 years of service, I walked out of my classroom for the last time. I entered immediately into fulltime caregiving for my Alzheimer's mom.  Including the time I provided part-time care for her before my retirement, I was her primary caregiver for nearly 16 years.  She died in 2020.  

With the advent of phone photos and my penchant for capturing moments of joy, I have abundant records of what happened next.  This morning as I walked in my flower garden, wearing my hat and snapping photos, I mused on the fact that a good portion of the zinnias in our overgrown garden have come up volunteer from just a couple of rows planted the first year after my retirement.  Without tending or planning, hundreds of the bright flowers have grown up across the grassy expanse of our neglected garden this summer.  I thought of Isaiah 49:21:  Then you will say in your heart, 'Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? And a little further on in Isaiah 49:23: Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.  

I don't want to imply that my life now consists of a happy ever after in which I loll about in my flower garden with nary a care.  Happy ever after joy waits for us in Heaven, and although the Lord allows us  foretastes of that future joy, we can't have it to keep just yet. Even now our family is in the midst of navigating a number of stresses, but we are doing it together and with faith in the Lord's promises and provision.  

But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.

Psalm 13:5-6

Higher Truth

I've become concerned with increasing numbers of reels seen on Instagram and Facebook that identify and condemn narcissistic behavior. I'm pretty sure that we are all narcissists to one degree or another. And as Christians, we must be cautious of making life decisions based only on human reasoning and logic.  

The facts of any situation can be delineated but our best efforts will yield only partial and often conflicting versions of the truth. There is higher truth in God's perspective, truth we sometimes have to take on faith rather than from what we can see.  

If the person labeled a narcissist has accepted Christ as Savior, the transformative power of the Holy Spirit is at work in that person's successive approximations toward an appearance of Godliness.The self-focused Christian's tendency to do the right things for the wrong reasons can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, end up to be wholly right. It's ok to respond to them as though their motivations were pure because, by God's grace, they are becoming pure! Never look at a human being created in the image of God and proclaim that because human logic shows they cannot change that they are disposable, rejectable, or leave-able. Never look at a situation or a person apart from the vast potential of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.    

There's nothing logical about God's love. Human wisdom or AI will miss the higher truth of God's love and our love for one another through Him. Sometimes we feel foolish for continuing to love someone who does not deserve it based on their behaviors toward us.  But the illogic of the love that sent Christ to the Cross is at work in us.  It is not wrong to love those who don't deserve it.  This is the way God has loved each of us. 

Let's not sequester someone God has given us to love with labels created by human beings.  Human-formed categories can never contain the enormity of God's transforming power in the lives of those who are on the path to loving God as God has loved them.  

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Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

*Necessary disclaimer, I do NOT advocate staying in an abusive situation. I'm not addressing physical or verbal abuse in this post, but the universal frustrations we as flawed human beings experience as a result of living with other flawed human beings.  

A Caution for Christians Regarding AI

 I have been appreciating Google's AI summaries of my search results.  I type in a question such as this: "Can I take Tylenol with Zyrtec?"  

Very quickly the answer appears, "There are no known interactions between Tylenol and Zyrtec."

Handy.  And useful for quick affirmation of something to which I was already pretty sure I knew the answer.  

However, just yesterday I was bringing my need for physical stamina to the Lord, and I remembered that when Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, that he prayed, "Now strengthen my hands." I couldn't remember the Scripture reference and did a Google search.  Here is the AI summary: 

"Nehemiah prayed for strength to continue his work despite opposition. Nehemiah sought God’s help to persevere: “Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands" (Numbers 6:9). 

Nice enough, right? I stared at the AI answer a moment and prayed, "Lord what are You wanting me to see here?"  

Here is the summary I then wrote, custom-tailored by the Lord for me for the specific needs I was facing, via the direction of the Holy Spirit: 

"False accusations had been brought against Nehemiah.  His enemies hoped to get him wrapped up in self-defense and upset in his emotions about the judgments that human beings were bringing against him.  Nehemiah recognized his enemies’ purpose was to stop him from working on the wall by draining his strength through emotional upset, and prayed for God to strengthen his hands."

AI could not know (or care) that I had been suppressing fear of what other people think of me to the degree my strength was being misspent and my time wasted in self-defense.  This was a spiritual battle in that it took place entirely in my mind and emotions; no human being had actually expressed judgment of me.  I was responding to the enemy's whispers "If you don't do this, then they will think badly of you."  

I'm being purposely vague about my own circumstances, but I hope you catch my point: don't depend exclusively on AI; use your God-given mind to reach your own conclusions based on the Holy Spirit's guidance from within.  As Christians we need to be led from the inside out, and not from the outside in.  Worldly influences, no matter how reasonably stated or initially helpful, must not be used as a replacement for the Holy Spirit.  

AI is a convenient tool.  But don't depend on it exclusively even when you are doing a Bible search.  Recognize the difference between right-sounding summaries from AI and the right-indeed guidance of the Holy Spirit from within.  

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For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Romans 8:14 

Clarification: When I say we are to be led from the inside out I certainly am not encouraging people to follow their own hearts (aka, emotions). Our own ideas of what is good will quickly lead us down a garden path that ends in despair. I refer to the fact that God has placed the Holy Spirit in our hearts: "And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 1:21-23 ESV).