June 28, 2023

 

God is Faithful

 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. – Hebrews 11:1

 

I struggle to see. Some days are worse than others but every day is frustrating. It was not what I expected in this season of life.

 

Isn’t that how it often is in our faith journey? Just as we enter a season of strong faith, we find ourselves rocked by yet another challenge. We do believe; Lord help our unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

 

Gratitude fills my heart. It could be so much worse. I know that. I am blessed that I can see some. I can still read, which is huge for me. And I am so, so grateful for a doctor willing to send me to a specialist who diagnosed my eye disease. I could easily have gone blind without that diagnosis.

 

Still, sometimes as I list my blessings, my heart wants to delve into self-pity. Isn’t it enough that I already deal with the side-effects of chemo? Must I add yet another issue? Then I look around and remind myself once again that I am truly blessed.

 

I know that God is in this place. I count blessing after blessing, the most important one being that He never, ever left me. When my world fell apart, He was there. When I was being blamed for sins that weren’t mine, He was there. When I was afraid of the future, He was right there.

 

We lose sight of that sometimes. We forget that God holds us tightly throughout our journey. He knows exactly what we need, and who we need, before we even realize it. God takes care of His own.

 

Several years ago we had some sweet friends going through a terrible trial. He was a pastor who’d lost his church. It got ugly as the pastor stood firm in his faith. During that season of renewal, God provided jobs and strength. Now this same pastor serves a church that adores he and his family. God has blessed them more than they could ever imagine.

 

What I remember most about his season of grief, is his attitude. He told me that God held him in the palm of His hand and there was no better, no safer, place to be. (Isaiah 49:46) He was so right.

 

I don’t know what you’re going through right now but know that God is there with you. Have faith that He sees you and has good things planned for you. (Jeremiah 29:11) Hold tight to your hope because He is faithful. Always. Forever. Faithful.

July 3, 2018

How Deep Is Your Faith?

“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” – Luke 7:47

It’s an odd assortment of people in the class. There are those who have much and those who have little. There are those who are young and those who older. And there are those who have overcome much and those who have overcome little. Who has the greatest faith?

Some people grow up attending church. They accept Jesus as their Savior and really never venture far from what they know. Faith is just a part of who they are. They don’t question it. They pray eloquent prayers and live the life they were told to live.

And then there are those who grew to faith in adulthood. They came kicking and screaming, making mistake after mistake, until they finally hit the bottom of the pit. There they met Jesus. They came to understand that He was their only hope for a different life, a better life. They grasped His hand and clung to it tightly. Every day is a struggle. Every day they hold tightly to a faith that is so real they can almost touch it.

Whose faith is greater? That faith which has never been challenged or the faith that has weathered a storm and found its way into a safe harbor?

It would be wonderful if no one ever had to suffer. That’s not reality. That’s not the world we live in. One of the saddest things to see is someone who has done everything right on their faith journey, fall apart when the storm hits. And it will always hit.

There is the woman who buried a son, almost lost another, and then buried her husband. She was raised in church and has lived a “good” life. She has known the desperation of deep grief. She knows the strength that comes from the promises of Jesus.

Another man built an almost perfect life with his wife. They had two beautiful children who, in turn, married and presented them with grandchildren. They worked hard. They were faithful servants of the Lord. Until she got sick.

I wasn’t sure his faith would survive. The loneliness tried to consume him. The questions were relentless. How can someone do everything right for Jesus and then suffer an unbearable loss? Jesus warned us but we didn’t think it would happen to us.

Only God knows our hearts. He knows how deep our faith truly goes. Has it been tested in the fire? It will be. Does anyone ever leave this earth without knowing deep grief, illness, brokenness?

Those who have suffered much have a grace about them. They understand loss and fear and being held closely during an overwhelming storm.

Those who have made too many mistakes to count and still found love and forgiveness from their Savior extend mercy quickly. Their hearts are open. Their hands extend to those in need. They understand how easy it is to fall onto a path you never planned to take. They understand how hard it is to get back up and try again.

The Pharisees condemned this woman who honored Jesus with expensive perfume and her tears. They couldn’t understand the depth of her gratitude. Can you?

Monday, August 27, 2012

God Uses Our Weaknesses

These (trials) have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire -- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. -- 1 Peter 1:7

God uses ordinary people. That was the message from Pastor Rob yesterday. God uses people like you and me. Well, there goes that excuse that you’re not smart enough, talented enough, gifted enough, or whatever your excuse usually is for not stepping up and out into God’s will.

See, God doesn’t want to use us for our strengths. That would be too easy and, frankly, it wouldn’t accomplish a great deal. People can’t relate to your strengths. They use the same excuses that you and I use: he could accomplish that because he was smart, talented, gifted, etc.

No, God wants to use our weaknesses. That’s where we can really help people. Think about it. When your teenager is breaking your heart, are you more likely to listen to someone who’s been there or to someone who has never had children? You listen to people who have been where you are right now.

I know. It’s hard to do that. Our instinct is to close up and not let others into those vulnerable places of hurt and failure. We want to gloss over the details and make it sound better, easier, than the experience really was.

And we want to hide our role in whatever happened. It’s just so much easier to blame others for our own hang-ups and mistakes than it is to take responsibility for our part, our choices, in whatever happened. But that doesn’t help anyone -- including us.

So how do you help others with your past experiences? Pastor Rob gave three ways. First, be humble. Nobody wants to listen to a know it all. And everybody knows that none of us really have it all together. We may be -- hopefully -- working on it. But we don’t have all the answers.

Secondly, it’s important to be real, transparent and vulnerable. I know. We already admitted that we’d rather avoid all three of those. But when you share your story -- the real, unedited story -- you end up not only helping others but healing yourself.

The last way to help others is not to lecture. Don’t tell others what or how to do whatever it is you’ve decided they need to do. Nobody likes that. All you can do is share your own experience and let others decide how best to live their own lives.

God wants us to use our weaknesses, our failures, our hurts, habits and hang-ups, to help others. Are you willing? He’s calling you today. What are you waiting for?

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Suffering Brings Us Closer To Jesus

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. -- James 1:2-3

Okay. I’d like a show of hands. How many of you enjoy trials of many kinds? Okay. How many of you enjoy pain and suffering? Right. Not a single hand went up. Not that I expected anything different.

We know that we will suffer during our lifetimes. And we know that we’ll endure pain, both physical and emotional. We even know that we’ll struggle from time to time. But to consider any of those things joyful seems like quite a stretch for anyone.

Yet that is what we’re told to do. Why? Because it is through suffering that we rely on God the most. If we could handle it all by ourselves, we wouldn’t need a Savior and Creator. Our trials draw us closer to God and make us stronger in our faith.

Those same trials can also cause us to move further from God. There are some common illusions about faith and every now and then we come face to face with them. One illusion is that Christians -- real Christians -- don’t suffer greatly. I’m not really sure where that one came from because the Bible tells us repeatedly that we will suffer.

And not necessarily because of sin. Sure, we can cause our own circumstances by making bad decisions. But no one decides to get cancer or have a cheating spouse or lose a child in a car accident. Bad things happen, not because we’ve sinned but because we live in a fallen world.

It’s just so sad when someone thinks they’re sick because God is mad at them. Or people look down on someone as being less a Christian because he/she struggles financially. Or we think that if we could just be a better Christian, God would protect us from all bad things.

It just doesn’t work that way. God doesn’t work that way. God never said He’d keep us from harm. God said He would walk with us through the valley. God promised to love us no matter what. God promised to give us strength and peace no matter what we face.

It is true that trials and pain change us from the inside out. They cause us to cling to Jesus, to hold tight to His hand because, honestly, when our world is caving in He’s the only steady thing we’ve got. He’s the One who will hold us up when we can’t face another moment of agony and despair.

Perhaps that is the joy James writes about. That closeness which comes when we draw closer to God, when we learn to rely on Him above all else, when we rest in His love no matter what turmoil swirls around us.

Pain and suffering are part of this world. But we don’t ever have to face it alone. Cry out to Jesus and feel His comfort surround you with peace.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Jesus Holds Us In The Storm

He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

-- Mark 4:39-40

Life is like a boat ride and we are the passengers. So began Pastor Rob’s sermon on this passage from Mark. I wonder how many of us in the congregation were in the middle of the storm? How many had just passed through the storm to the other side? How many will face a storm tomorrow?

Because we all face storms throughout our lives. It’s just part of the journey. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have ups and downs, joys and sorrows, success and failure. Oh, some of it seems more obvious than others but it’s there just the same.

If we are wise we learn to understand that it is all just part of the rhythm of life. A few years ago a friend from college told me her father had died just two months before his first great-grandchild was born. I expected her to be devastated and, I suppose, she was.

But she was also philosophical about it. It’s the circle of life, she said. Just as we are born, we die. I suppose it was easier to accept because her father had lived a vibrant life, filled with family and surrounded by love.

It’s not so easy when the death is sudden, the person is young, or we don’t have closure of some kind. Closure is one of those words, isn’t it? How do you ever get closure? I’ve never figured that out. I know about acceptance. I know about gradually learning to heal. I know about lessoning pain and memories that bring joy. But I don’t know about closure. I’ve never seen it or experienced it.

What I have seen, what I have experienced, is the hand reaching out, grasping mine in the middle of the storm. What I know is that when we cry out to God for help, for comfort, for peace, He always answers. He’s always there. He never, ever leaves us or lets us down.

I’ve learned to count on that. To embrace it even. And it draws me closer to Him, even in the good times. It’s like a comfortable relationship where two people share the good and the bad, the celebrations and the sorrows, the laughter and the tears. I hold on to that and it guides me through this journey called life.

We’ll encounter storms along the way, no matter the path we take. We can either allow the storms to destroy us or we can focus our attention, our minds, on Jesus and follow Him to solid ground.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

True Friends Strengthen Us

If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. -- Ecclesiastes 4:10

Blessed is the person -- and I am one -- who have real, true friends when life is troubling and unkind. We all know many people but friends, well, that’s a different thing.

Friends listen without end and take your side when you’re under attack. They understand your hurt and pain, your troubles, and your joys. They give hugs, say prayers and join in your laughter.

True friends are trustworthy. You don’t have to worry that what you say will be repeated. That lets you be vulnerable and real. Children of God coming together to help and support one another.

I am blessed to have friends like these. And I am blessed to be part of a small group of women who have come together to know God better and to love and support one another. We didn’t plan it that way. Our intent was Bible study. Our result has been a safe place of sharing and laughter and friendship.

I have to believe that’s what God intended. I look at Jesus and His friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus. I think of David and Jonathan. We all need friends to walk by our sides on this life journey.

Some say that we only really have one or two true friends in our lives at any given time. That could be true. But I also believe that we can widen that circle, depending on where we are in our lives. We can participate in small, safe groups. We can have people who support us, and whom we support, in different areas of our lives.

For example, I have a dear friend who is struggling with mama issues. No. Not that kind. Her widowed mother is in failing health. She has two sisters to help but it’s still hard. She’s never done anything right in her mama’s eyes and time hasn’t eased that pain. In some ways it’s worse now, because of her mama’s health.

I can talk to her. I can listen. We understand each other because I, too, am dealing with elderly parents who are critical and in failing health. So we share and, in turn, support one another. Our bond of friendship gives each of us strength to face situations and days that seem so difficult at times.

I can’t imagine trying to face life without friends to laugh and cry with along the way. I value my friends so much. I pray that each of you has friends to walk with you and strengthen you, to understand and love you. It’s what God wants for each of us.