“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
My wife and I went to a dinner theater last week with my aunt, uncle and a few of their friends. Shortly before the intermission, one of the ladies in our group collapsed into the lap of the woman sitting next to her. Admittedly, given her symptoms, most of us thought that she was dying. Thankfully, by the time the ambulance arrived, she had recovered enough to walk to the gurney. After spending the night in the hospital, she was released with a heart monitor. Aside from the obvious concerns for those involved, it raised a deeply rooted fear of my own. As much as I accept God’s will in my life, the thought of a public medical emergency still haunts me…and I’ve had a few. For many of us, it raises concerns about embarrassment, image, and acceptance. Ultimately, we cannot control the events of our lives, but we can control our response to them with a bit of truth.
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But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12
I’ve watched several people die…it’s not a particularly pleasant experience. The closer you are to them, the harder it is. The longer it takes, the more time you have to think. That time and that pondering offer an opportunity for personal reflection in a way that no other experience does. As someone you love is on the brink of entering eternity, what is important in life seems to be much clearer than when we are in the daily race meeting deadlines and running errands, etc. Knowing that a loved one will shortly meet their Lord and God allows the Holy Spirit to speak to us and apply God’s word to our lives in ways that drive home His message with more depth and understanding. In short, it is a wake-up call to pursue a life well lived…that is, to live intentionally rather than passively.
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Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.
If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer – His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.
“Trouble and anguish have come upon me, yet Your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.” Psalm 119:143-144
Healthy relationships are built on knowledge, understanding and grace. Sharing a conversation with a person will, in most cases, allow one to get to know them. However, that does not necessarily mean that they have any kind of significant relationship…at this point they are, for the most part, acquaintances. Solid relationships are built when people share their lives. They celebrate the high points together, comfort at low points and offer aid, wisdom and guidance in the midst of struggles. Grace covers the gap between knowledge and understanding as well as when there is a need for forgiveness. Developing a strong relationship takes time and effort but yields a great reward.
Last week I was looking for scripture verses to post on social media and came across Psalm 119:43-44. Despite having read and sung it many times, this time it struck a nerve. The natural tendency of any human when faced with trouble that causes anguish is to seek understanding. The important question is: what kind of understanding?
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“I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.” Psalm 145:1-7
As I was finishing a run recently, I was overcome with the urge to glorify God. As I pondered His glory, I had to check my soul to make sure it wasn’t merely an emotional high. After all, it was a beautiful day and I had just completed my first good run in a long time. Thankfully, while the weather and my mood may have been contributing factors, upon reflection, they were minor ones as I truly just needed to praise God. However, my contemplation led me to consider how easy it is to glorify God when the sun is shining and things to seem to be going well, but what about the dark and cloudy days or when times are tough?
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“The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.” 1 Kings 17:16
The passage above is from the story of Elijah and the widow in Zarephath. God sent Elijah to this particular widow for provision during a drought. When he asked for bread, she replied that she only had enough oil and flour to make bread for her and her son one last time and then they expected to die. Elijah asked her to feed him first promising that her provisions would not be exhausted. She obeyed and her meager provisions lasted until the rain returned. (You can read the whole story here. (www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+17%3A7-16&version=NASB)
I think of this story often as it has been associated in my mind with anything that is running out. About the time I’m tempted to throw out the shampoo bottle or tube of tooth paste that has very little left, I think of this story. More times than not when I’ve resisted that urge, the bottle, tube or whatever has lasted much longer than I expected. Case in point, the hair gel that I am currently using has lasted three weeks longer than anticipated. I trust that the Holy Spirit has made this connection in my mind to remind me that I am dependent on God for all things and that He will supply my needs. It is subtle but effective. At times God provides in great way, but most often He provides just enough at just the right time in a subtle fashion.
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“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.” Psalm 23:4-5
The past couple of weeks I spent some time with my mother-in-law helping take care of some things around her home. On the long drive there and back I listened to two sermons from Ligonier Ministries…in fact, I listened to them twice. The second, “All Scripture is Profitable” (https://www.ligonier.org/blog/believing-god-new-teaching-series-rc-sproul-jr/) was by R. C. Sproul, Jr. which brought up the concept of whether our cup is half full or half empty. As this is a subject close to my heart, I spent a fair amount of time on the trip considering this topic. Like the phrase “cup half empty or half full”, the word cup in scripture has a figurative meaning that refers to one’s lot in life whether sorrowful (half empty) or joyous (half full). Like many, if I ponder my life without God, I would have to conclude that it is half empty for I have accumulated 60 plus years of losses, trials and ordeals. However, when I consider my life’s experiences in light of God’s involvement, I see a different outcome. What was half empty becomes half full by God’s grace. Let me walk through a few “for instances”.
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“But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, ‘Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.” Acts 28:3-6
My wife and I were recently on vacation and decided to stop for dessert after while walking back to our hotel from a craft fair. The dinner rush had passed, but there were still a few stragglers entering the restaurant for a meal. After being seated, we waited an unusually long time without being acknowledged by a server…long enough that the couple in the next booth who had been seated after us had already received their drinks. Slightly irritated at the lack of service, I suggested that if we weren’t acknowledged in the next five minutes, we should just go back to the hotel. Our waitress finally showed up just before we were ready to leave and seemed less than enthusiastic about serving us. However, she apologized and explained that a tourist had come out of the ladies’ room and hit our server’s nose with her elbow causing intense pain. What we had assumed to be poor service was in actuality something entirely different. Having heard the explanation, our demeanor quickly changed from frustration to concern. That’s the problem with assumptions, just because we have a little information, doesn’t mean that we know the truth of the matter.
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
This was not the topic that I originally intended for this week’s post, but given a few divinely inspired events, my plan was changed. As is my habit, I started the day with the “verse of the day” emails from Bible Gateway and KLove. The one from Bible Gateway was a portion of Psalm 139. It is a favorite of mine for many reasons; one of those is that it was the last passage my parents read together on the eve of my mother’s death. That circumstance coupled with the quote that I posted this week beckoned me to consider love and grief.
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