Continual Praise

I've been meditating lately on one theme verse that the Lord has given me for this season of my life...normally I would just start writing and pouring out my heart on my blog, but I decided to wait to see if the Lord would lead me to share. For what I'm personally experiencing right now in my life, this verse has lifted some heavy and painful burdens.

‎"But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more." Psalm 71:14

I'm not going to share the exact cirucumstances in my life that have been so difficult because that's beside the point anyway. Those who are close to me know exactly what they are...needless to say I think when we as Christians go through something difficult, our first inclination is to ask God "why"? We can't reconcile the idea of suffering or waiting or pain with our Lord Jesus because to us He is always good, always perfect, always powerful. In Randy Alcorn's "The Goodness of God" he talks about the fact that goodness and love cannot exist without the presence of evil and suffering in the world. If God took away the suffering, he would also have to take away our free will. This book has too many layers to explore here but it opened up this subject for me even more.

The bottom line is God loves us. God has plans for us. If we've made the decision to commit our lives into God's hands, we've also committed our plans, desires, dreams and future into His hands. We have committed to living His way. While I think God openly welcomes our questions when things don't go our way, or we're hurting, or we're grieving (he wouldn't be a very good parent if we couldn't talk to Him openly and honestly), He also wants us to trust Him that He is going to work together "all things for good."

My conviction lately and especially after coming across this verse in my quiet time is that I want to be a child of God that rejoices and praises Him even though I don't understand what He's doing. What honor is there in throwing a child-like temper tantrum and stomping my foot and pouting that the Lord isn't giving me what I want? And then, just like a child, when He finally does give me the desires of my heart, suddenly I am happy and can praise Him again. I don't want to be a child in my faith, still feeding on spiritual milk. I want to eat the meat of adult Christianity and PRAISE HIM YET MORE AND MORE, despite what's going on my life, despite the pain and the confusion I feel, despite the pain. For He IS worthy to be praised...just for being who He is and for no other reason. We do not have a relationship with our Lord only to praise Him when He gives us what we want and things are going well. We praise Him for His endless love, blessing, sacrifice, mercy, grace, joy...for the gift of life, for sunsets, for majestic mountains, for beauty, for friendships, for meeting our needs in every way. We praise Him because He first loved us, because He sent His Son to die for us while we were still in the darkness of our sins. We praise Him because HE IS GOD.

God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts and it's up to us to believe Him. It might not take the form that we're expecting, we might not understand the current struggles we're experiencing for future events to come together. God does-He sees the big picture. So, we HOPE CONTINUALLY. We wait in expectation for our God to do what He says He's going to do, regardless of what our limited finite human minds whisper to us in the desolation of our suffering. We hope. We love. We serve. And we wait...with joy in our hearts, praising the God of everything yet more and more.

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Being Still

I am by nature an intense person, never wanting to miss out on anything. I was walking at 11 months and potty trained at 13 months, got close to straight A’s in school while joining every sport, leadership or music program there was growing up-always the over-achiever. Born into a family of strong-willed, independent, hard-working men and women, ambition and competition are in my blood. I like to be in control of my life and my surroundings, so godly principles like submission and releasing that control have always been a challenge for me, though I still seek daily to become the kind of woman God would have me be.

That being said, it’s a conscious effort for me to sit still, both physically and spiritually. Even after a long week of work, there is always a to-do list running in my head or some way to push myself so that I rarely get down time. On a deeper level, when my attempts at controlling my environment/life are thwarted (as they often are due to daily life changing and evolving) my soul is restless. Each time I read verses that speak of being still, I breathe an audible sigh of relief. It’s hard keeping up with myself sometimes and it’s always nice to be reminded by God’s word that I don’t have to run myself into the ground and try to do everything by my own efforts. In fact, the phrase “Be still” is mentioned in the Bible in 7 verses (interesting) in the KJV and NIV translations (some overlap and some differ in translation). As I read each one, a fresh wave of peace and contentment wash over me, and I feel the little tentacles that are grabbing white-knuckled onto everything I’m worried about in life- my witness, goals, dreams, etc-start to loosen their grip. May they encourage you as well!

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14 NIV

This verse in context is the story of the Israelites escaping Pharaoh’s army through the Red Sea. Despite God’s leading and provision, they were still crying out in fear to the Lord, asking Moses if he led them out to the desert to die. They were so afraid they thought it would be better to go back to serving the Egyptians then to be still and trust that the Lord was going to fulfill His promise to them. And that He did…the entire army was swept away under the Red Sea.

How true is this in our own lives? I see something coming for me in my life, fear that the Lord doesn’t have it under control and look for a way to solve it myself. But God would say to me during that time, just as He spoke to the Israelites: you need only to be still. Be still and allow the power of the Lord to work through the situation, allow Him to fight the fear, allow Him to overcome the circumstances that seem unbeatable and just as He saved the Israelites, so shall he save us.

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Psalm 4:4 KJV

The verse before this one says “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.” Meditation-filling our minds and hearts with the Word of God-and prayer are ways for us to be still. How easy is it to de-prioritize this part of our lives? With work and daily activities it’s hard to find a quiet TIME let alone enough quiet in our hearts to listen to what God would say to us. This one is extremely challenging for me but when I have meditated on a particular verse and sat in silence, it’s amazing the things the Lord reveals.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:7 NIV

Hmmm…patience? What is that? I have none. It’s so easy to look at the blessings in the lives of others and whine to the Lord, “What about ME, Lord? Why didn’t you give that blessing to ME? It’s not fair!” It’s dangerous ground to compare our lives with others because it leads to discontentment and coveting, but it’s extremely difficult not to notice when “evil” seems to be rewarded while sometimes it is a wearisome task to do continually do good. But we see another promise from the Lord later on in verse 9: “for evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” And again in verse 11: “But the meek with inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” So being still and patient waiting for the Lord reaps great benefits.

Be still,and know that I [am] God: I will be exalted among the heathen (nations in NIV), I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10 KJV

This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. It commands such power! It’s amazing that we can ever doubt God’s ability to be God. If we stop our scrambling and worrying long enough, we can find rest in the fact that His purposes will ultimately be fulfilled in our lives and on the earth.

Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. Zechariah 2:13 NIV

This speaks of the promise of the presence of the Lord.,, he’s coming soon!

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39 KJV

Jesus Christ told the disciples that he wanted to cross over to the other side of the water, not sink. Yet the disciples were terrified of the wind and the waves that threatened to pull them under. They were incredulous that Jesus was sleeping at their time of need yet with just one phrase from his mouth, the wind and waves fell into complete silence.

I find myself repeating the words “peace, be still” when I start to feel anxious, angry, worried or upset about anything. I pray that Jesus will calm the storms in my heart as he calmed the stormy seas. I see the turbulent winds of worry and the tidal waves of doubt/fear/unbelief, cease with one word from my Jesus as if they were never there. In their place is peace and the knowledge that I don’t have to hold it all together myself or do enough to stop the wind and waves in my life.

As long as Jesus is on my boat, I can rest in His promises.

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Perseverance

My verse for the week and my life right now is from James 1:2-4:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Perseverance has a few definitions in the dictionary "continued, patient effort", "persistence", and "in Calvinism, the continuance in grace of people elected to eternal salvation." The actual translation in the Greek is "endurance."

I love these verses for so many reasons. They are a source of comfort when the trials and hardships of my life get to be too much or too long. I am reminded of God's promise to me in these verses as in many other passages throughout Scripture. My time on earth is short-lived and temporary, as are my trials and sufferings in it. I rejoice in the fact that the Lord has given me something hard to deal with because in it He is PERFECTING my faith. I am one step closer to spiritual maturity and "completeness" when I endure a hardship. There is a groaning, cracking as the earth shifts in my soul, as I am broken before the Lord, but He is swift to mend me and put me back together, refined and closer to the woman and follower of Christ He would have me be. I am also reminded of what Paul said about his weakness in II Corinthians 12:9:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses , so that Christ's power may rest on me."

I love this. God is enough. He is all we need. He redeems our weaknesses with His strength, satisfies our deepest needs, gives us the power to carry on. I am resting assured in His promises.