Archive | E N C O U R A G E M E N T

We were sitting in the sun drinking smoothies.  “I saw on social media the other day that someone was thanking God for answered prayers because they got a yes to what they wanted.  They didn’t even have to wait that long.”  “Funny how no one talks about all the times prayers get answered…with a no or not the way we want them to be fulfilled.”  We laughed.

Friends, I think this is an important topic.  I want us to have a conversation about prayer because it can be a tricky subject.  Have you been praying for something for a long time and not seen it get answered with a yes?  Are you discouraged because you feel like God isn’t listening?  Does prayer even matter?

First of all, YES! Prayer matters.  Prayer doesn’t have to be some big scary thing.  Prayer is the opportunity to talk to God about whatever is on your heart.  Prayer is an opportunity to thank Him for who He is and what he has done.  Prayer is also a time to acknowledge that he is God and we are not.

So what about all those prayers that seem unanswered?  What about all the times the answer is no or not yet?  We don’t talk about that too much do we in Christian circles.  Yet we should.  Because there’s a lot of people walking around (myself included at times!) thinking that God doesn’t love us or that he’s not good because we didn’t get the “yes” we were looking for.  That’s a dangerous place to be.  Or maybe you’ve been told by people that it’s just because you don’t have enough faith.  LET ME STOP YOU RIGHT THERE.  It’s not about the amount of faith that makes your prayers effective.  It’s about the God we serve that makes them effective.  It’s not about the perfection or persuasion of our prayers it’s about the power of God.

Prayer changes us and makes us stronger even as we acknowledge our need.  Prayer reminds us of who God is.  Prayer helps us flex our trust muscles.

Just because your prayer isn’t getting answered the way you want doesn’t mean God doesn’t hear you or care.  He does hear you and he does care.  There are so many reasons God answers prayer with a “no” or “not yet”.  I was mulling this over in my head when it struck me like a ton of bricks.  The best answer to this is Jesus.  I think about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane pouring his soul out in agony asking the Father three times to give him another answer even though he knows what the answer will be.  He doesn’t want to go to the cross.  No one in their right mind would.  So he prays and he asks his Father for a different answer.  The answer from God to his Son is no.  The King of the universe kneels in a garden and asks for a yes but then willingly submits to the no because he cares more about his Father’s will than his own.  Words cannot express how grateful I am for that “no” because without that “no” I would be hopeless.  Without that “no” I don’t get the biggest and most important “yes” of my life from God.

Friends, I don’t know what prayers you’re praying that haven’t been answered with a yes.  Maybe you’ve given up on prayer altogether.  While sometimes prayers get answered with a no many times it’s just a “not yet”.  And if it is a definite no please remember that God is working for your good.  He can see the whole picture while we can only see a part.  My prayer for us today is that we would trust him with all the answers he gives knowing that he accepted the hardest “no” ever.  He went to the cross even though it cost him so much because he submitted to his Father’s will and wanted to have a relationship with us.  Regardless of the answer keep talking to Him because it’s always worth it.

(Need to hear more of the same?  Here’s a blog post I wrote a while ago about Stop Saying God is Good…)

Save

Recently during an evening with my parents and a couple I consider my second parents I asked them if they remembered learning to drive and what that was like.  We all started laughing hearing each others stories!  Even though I’ve known these four my whole life I’d never thought to ask that question but I’m glad I did because it was really humorous.  It was also insightful.

My mom’s parents weren’t even willing to teach her.  Instead her dad hired someone else to do it haha!  My dad’s older brother taught him on some back road and my dad almost gave him a heart attack from what I heard.  Someone else mentioned trying to learn on a gravel hill…stick shift.

I certainly remember learning to drive.  My dad took me to a parking lot and was very patient.  Then one day my mom just gave me the keys even though I’d barely driven and told me to drive home from piano lessons.  I thought she was joking but alas no.  So there I was on back winding roads trying not to kill us.  Now you see, I’d thoroughly read the pamphlet you have to read to pass drivers ed and it said you needed to check all your mirrors every few seconds.  Well I was obedient to that and it didn’t go very well.  I was having the hardest time staying in the middle of the road.  When I mentioned my frustration to the gal that lived with us she said something I’ll never forget. “Stop looking in the mirrors so frequently.  If you look straight ahead you’ll go straight.  Where you look, that’s where you’ll go.” Hello light bulb moment.

You see I was trying to drive by looking behind me in the mirrors.  But reading a pamphlet and driving are two different things.  What I really needed to do was focus on what was in front of me.  I needed to look at the road ahead of me and see where I wanted to be.

The same thing happened when I was learning to ride my bike.  I kept looking at the pedals.  Finally my brother and his friend (who were teaching me) figured out the problem and told me to look ahead.  That’s when I felt the rush that comes from the first hands-off-no-training-wheels-freedom of riding your bike all by yourself.  Again I needed to look ahead of me at where I wanted to go.

I think in life it can be so easy to look in the past.  Or you may be one of those people who can’t envision where you want to go.  Until we can look ahead and have a vision for something we want to accomplish, we will have a hard time getting there.  

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14

It’s the middle of the year and many goals and visions have been cast off since January.  That’s okay.  It’s never to late to start looking ahead.  What goals do you need to refocus, scrap, adjust, plan, or surrender?  What do you want to accomplish in the next six months?  I hope today you can put aside the past six months and press on with new vigor and vision.  If you want to tell someone your goals leave a comment below and I’d love to hear about it.  Or if you’re struggling to figure out what your vision is let me know that too. 🙂  You’ve got this my friend!

{Photo by: Paige Whiting}

I was sitting there scrolling through Facebook and just about to click off when I saw an article that looked interesting and I clicked through to read it.  In many ways the article had nothing to do with me but the last point struck me hard.  The author boldly proclaimed that God likes me.

Now here’s the thing.  We’ve all heard that God loves us.  It’s true, He does!  We know that He died for our sins and that He cares deeply about His people.  And wow is that ever amazing or what?!  But have you ever stopped to think about the fact that God LIKES you?  I’m not talking about a quickie Facebook like.  I’m not talking about that guy that likes all your pictures in the hopes that you’ll notice him.  I’m talking about the fact that God delights in you.

Stop and consider with me a moment.  Here’s this infinite, beautiful, all powerful, holy, perfect, satisfied God and he decided that he wanted to express all that glory and beauty as an overflow of who He is.  So He creates humans, you and me and the multitudes of ages past, present, and future, in His image to reveal it to.

When He looks at you He sings over you my friend!  “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17  (emphasis added)  Now tell me, do you sing over something you don’t like?  No, of course not!  But when you really like something you do.

God likes your personality that you sometimes think is too much or not enough.  God likes your body that He designed and handcrafted.  God likes the way you get excited over things other people find odd.  God likes the way you love your friends and family.  God likes the many ways you reflect a part of His heart, His creativity, His intelligence, His wisdom, His strength, His vision, His purpose, His grace, His love.

He sees you, He likes you, and He knows you better than you do yourself and He’s calling you to embrace the way He’s made you.  When we embrace the way God has crafted us we give thanks for who HE is.  When we see that God likes us it should turn our hearts in praise to Him.  How amazing that He likes and loves messy people.  He likes and loves the sinner and the tax collector and the prostitute.  He shocked everyone when He picked Zacchaeus’s home to go eat at.  He stopped and engaged in a conversation with a blind beggar.  He let a prostitute touch him and praised her for her gift to Him.  He’s a God of mercy and grace.  He’s a God that doesn’t throw out broken people but heals them and makes them whole in who He is.  If you’re longing for a God that likes you then come to Jesus just as you are.  As we say in our family, “I love you and I like you.”  It’s the same for God’s family, He loves you and He likes you.

Save

Recently I had one of those weeks where you just feel so frustrated you want to explode.  It wasn’t like everything was terrible.  In fact my life is pretty awesome.  Yet there I was with all this pent up irritation.  Some of it was directed towards this blog, a lot of it was directed at myself.  Can I be honest?  (I know I can because you all are so wonderful.)  Sometimes I wonder why I’m blogging.  I loose sight of the goal.

And then I got a note from a reader.  Actually I got a few all within 24 hours.  That rarely happens so to get three was a wake up call.  Each of those notes was like a breath of fresh air.  One girl spoke the words back to me that have been a theme on this blog and that I needed.  I needed someone to remind me of all the things I long to remind you of on here.  Because most everything I say on here is really a letter to myself to remind me of who God is and who I am in him.  I’m on here writing because I love God and I love people.  I’m on here writing because you matter.  I’m on here writing because just like a sweet reader reminded me “bloom where you’re planted.”

Here’s the thing.  I’m actually a pretty weak person.  I need to be reminded of the truth daily.  I need to refocus and feel refreshed just as much as the next person.  So the next time you don’t think you have something to offer someone remember that you do.  Please remember that even if you feel cracked and broken and useless that that just isn’t true.  You’re still a vessel and while you might not be being used the way you want to it doesn’t mean you’re not being used at all.

Years ago I was very sick.  During that time I had a mental picture given to me.  There was a a clay jar with a simple design, full with large gracefully curved sides and a small opening with a little lip on it.  It was in a dark room and it was badly cracked.  In fact it was quite broken.  Yet it was held together by some unseen force.  And shooting out of every crack was shimmering, radiant, glowing beams of light.  You could see the translucent shine coming out in rays in every direction.  The brokenness of the vessel allowed for the light to be revealed.  In that moment God reminded me that that’s what we are like.  The more broken we are the more his power and light has the opportunity to shine out of us.  And let me tell you it’s crazy beautiful.  I’ve carried this picture with me for almost ten years now.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” 2 Cor. 4:5-7

So my friends if you are feeling useless and broken I want to tell you that you do have a purpose.  I want you to know that you’re so loved and valued.  I want you to know that your faithfulness to keep on matters.  When we are weak Christ makes us strong.  When we’re broken let’s allow the light to seep out.

Lights out.  Head on the pillow.  Relax.  I was just about at that point where you drift off to dream land when, BUZZZZZZZZ right in my ear.  ::thump:: I whacked my head, sat straight up and turned the light on.  (This is highly unpleasant at late hours of the night.)  I knew that sound immediately.  It was a mosquito.  A large one.

There I was lying in bed with the sheets up to my eyes wondering when the little monster would strike.  I couldn’t sleep thinking that he wanted me for his dinner.  Then I saw him on the ceiling.  That attempt to kill him was unsuccessful.  As was the next one.  Finally I killed the mosquito after about 10 minutes of nervously searching my room.  Even though the light was now off and the mosquito was killed I was still wide awake and thinking.

My sin is like that mosquito.  It wants to suck the life out of me.  It’s small but it leaves a mark.  One mosquito doesn’t sound that bad but if you let it stay it will hurt you.  Your sin may seem small but it is deadly.  I Googled “How many people are killed each year from mosquito bites?”  I was shocked with the answer.  Mosquitos are the deadliest animal.  They are so small yet their bite results in literally hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.  The majority of these deaths are caused by the diseases that mosquitos carry.  My sin is a disease and it can spread.  Thankfully God in his mercy has forever crushed the power of sin and death but are we using that as an excuse to abuse grace?

In the middle of writing this I had to set it aside.  In the meantime I ended up going to sleep and lo and behold the same thing happened again last night!  Yeah sin keeps coming back.  But this time when I heard the mosquito and turned on the light I knew what to do.  I knew how to kill it.  I knew how to kill it faster too.  Once we start actively putting to death the sin we see in our lives, by God’s grace, we get stronger.  Recognizing sin is a gift of grace itself!  The fact that we can see sin at all (that I could hear the mosquito…) means that our senses aren’t being blinded.

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”    (Romans 6:15-19 ESV)

My hope for us is that we would be aware of the sin that’s poisoning us and put it to death by knowing the victory Christ has already won.  Friends, we get to win this battle!