Tag Archives: Struggle

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Your Consolations Delight My Soul

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“If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.  If I should say, ‘My foot has slipped,’ Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up.  When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.”  Psalm 94:17-19

I was preparing to go to yet another funeral this morning and was looking for peace within my own heart.  In this case, it was not a close friend, but rather the husband of someone I admire and have great affection for.  His widow is a dear soul and a godly woman who has been so kind to me that I ache for her.  We also have various connections with some of her children through church and business dealings.  In fact, her son is one of the morticians that helped with both of my parents’ funerals.  In short they are a family that I have great respect for as they regularly exhibit both kindness and integrity.  With that on my mind as I spent time with God this morning, He brought Psalm 94 to me…or more specifically, verse 19 and reminded me that this is one of those times to trust Him to be all that we need.  While the context of the psalm speaks to “evil doers”, the basic message still applies to all of our circumstances.  Consider each verse carefully.

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Thanksgiving Part 3

Thankful for Our Circumstances

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Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Most people are fairly comfortable being thankful for God’s provisions and for the people in their lives.  While we may not feel that our circumstances are quite as perfect as those depicted in Norm Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want”, we can generally muster a fairly strong attitude of thankfulness.  Certainly when we feel that things are going relatively well, we are filled with thankfulness, but what about when the times are tough.  Thanksgiving of 1992 I woke up in the hospital after having an ERCP the previous day.  I was in pain and groggy; I barely remember celebrating the holiday, let alone being thankful. 

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Misdirection

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Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.  Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established.  Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.  Proverbs 4:25-27

I’ve been on the road the last couple of days.  While I basically know my route, I haven’t driven it enough nor have I driven the area my mother-in-law lives in often enough to navigate without a bit of effort.  Heading home, I needed to take route 95 south to the toll road.  The last time I left, I went north to toward the beach instead of south toward our home.  This time I had a series of wrong turns that cost me some time and took me into the heart of Boston which is not a particularly easy drive.  Even though I knew where to go, in the moment that I should have turned, I only saw half of the signage that reported the northern part of the route and chose not to turn as I didn’t want to repeat my last mistake.  I wasn’t terribly worried as the next road would take me to route 1 south which was the reverse of how I had come on the trip north.  What I didn’t know was that getting from route 1 south to 95 south was not as easy as going north.  Consequently, I missed another opportunity to take the correct path.  I had another chance to get back on track, but because I was totally ignorant of the path, the signage and the lane changes, I missed it as well despite using GPS.  Finally, by following the instructions that GPS was providing and being able to see on the map what I was to do, I got back on track.  I lost about 45 minutes in time, but I was finally where I needed to be.  As I reflected on my errors, I couldn’t help but see the parallel in our spiritual lives.

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What’s in a Word?

Willful or Persevering?

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Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2

A couple of weeks ago I was traveling and stopped to get gas.  The screens on the gas pumps not only provided instructions, but also weather, news and entertainment.  As I pumped gas, the screen showed “the word of the day” and displayed the word “pertinacious”.  The definition that it provided was “willful” and the example of usage that it gave was “He became pertinacious in his old age.”  As I thought about this, I immediately thought about Solomon, Joash and Amaziah.  The connection came from a chart of the kings of Judah that I’ve been using to keep them straight.  These three are all listed as having done right in their youth and evil in their old age.  They started strong but their resolve waned as they aged.  As I investigated the meaning of the word further, I found that there are two very different meanings to the word.   The one that commonly comes up first is determination or perseverance.  However, it is the secondary definition that reflects willfulness.

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Point of View

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“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”   2 Corinthians 4:16-18

In 1996 I was evaluated for a pain management clinic.  At the end of our meeting, the doctor stated that he thought that I was depressed.  As my wife and I left his office, I looked at Marie and said something like “Do you think?”  I had been struggling with severe pain for five years and seizures for two with no clear cause or treatment plan for either; eating was a struggle causing me to be significantly underweight; and a few months before, my mother had died.  It was a bit much to handle all at once and I was more than a little depressed.  A few years later as God began to educate me with respect to reconciling my illness to His promised love for me, I had a major hurdle.  I had recently read that a woman with symptoms similar to mine had live to be 89 years old.  I was only 39; the thought of living like this for another 50 years was overwhelming to say the least.  I felt like I was being tortured.  But when I yielded to God and began to open my heart to accept His plan for me, the weight of it all began to lighten.

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Where is Your Focus?

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“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  Colossians 3:1-3

In high school, I was a member of the Speech Club.  After a few competitions, one realized that it was much easier to evoke fear, anger and sorrow than happiness.   Consequently, with a bit of skill and practice it was fairly easy to do well with darker prose and drama.  However, anyone choosing comedy had to really work to get the judges attention quickly and employ good timing to score well.  This is true in life also.  Because of our sinful nature, our tendency is toward fear, anger and sorrow rather than joy.  As a result, we tend to focus on our problems and losses rather than what God is accomplishing through them and looking to Him for sustaining grace.  Further, we often get so caught up in daily life that we neglect our relationship with God.  That’s why Paul encourages the Colossians, the Romans and the Philippians to focus on “the things above” rather than our earthly circumstances.

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The Winding Road of Faith

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“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.”  Hebrews 11:1-2

 

In my late twenties and early thirties, I had two friends with whom I went camping and hiking twice each year.  As we were trying to avoid insects and snakes, we would go late in the fall and early in the spring.  Sometimes we would experience wonderfully warm weather; sometimes it was cold and rainy; the rest were somewhere in between.  Together we enjoyed great vistas, got lost on poorly marked trails, endured wet sleeping bags and very cold showers (as it was off season in the parks), joking about each other’s quirks, met some nice folks and feared a few; but mostly we grew closer through the shared experiences and evenings by the campfire.  Two of the three of us are probably too infirmed to tolerate those trips now, but they will ever live in our memories and be a bond that draws us together.

The walk of faith is a lot like that.  Sometimes we feel great about our faith and our relationship with God.  Other times we have more questions than answers and feel a distance between ourselves and our Lord.   There are the seasons when the battles are raging around us or temptation seems to be impossible to withstand.  Some stretches of our journey seem so clearly marked and well defined while others just don’t make sense and we find ourselves doubting and lost.  In short the path of sanctification is usually a winding road.  While we may understand that God is moving us closer to Him and leading us to our Heavenly home, it’s often difficult for us to see or feel any sense of progress from our limited vantage point with incomplete information.  To that end, there are some situations and their related promises that we would do well to ponder carefully in order to maintain clarity.

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Fighting the Chameleon Within

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You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness    2 Peter 3:17

I was blessed with a mother and maternal grandparents who had very strong convictions about not letting people and circumstances move them from what their ethics and beliefs dictated.

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Comfort In Affliction

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For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.  Romans 8:24-25

I love music.   One of my first memories is being cradled by my father as he sang me to sleep…something I would later do with my own children and occasionally with my grandchildren.  Music energizes me.  It helps me refocus when my thoughts start spiraling out of control.  Aside from God’s handiwork that has brought to my knees in worship, few things stir my soul like great music.  In that light, I’d like focus my discussion around “When My Heart is Torn Asunder” by Phil Wickham.  It is a song that has blessed me on many occasions.

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The Lion and The Lamb

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And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.  Revelation 5:5-6

This morning one of the devotionals I read was about God the Father’s joy in Christ as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God.  Later as I was working around our house, my IPod shuffled to “Come Unto to Me” (by Nicole C. Mullen) which is a favorite of mine.  Consequently, throughout the day I pondered these two images of Christ and what they mean for us as Christians.  On the one hand, we have the powerful conquering Lion while on the other we have the meek, yet perfect Lamb of God. 

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