A Beautiful Mess

Who Are You?

Who are you? If someone asked that question of you, how would you answer? Most of us would give our name or our relationship to the person with us or our occupation. Often, we answer this question with what we do, but rarely do we give this question the amount of thought that it deserves. Identity is extremely important. Who we are is more than just what we do for a living or who we are related to. Identity gives meaning to our lives. It shapes our behavior. It provides a foundation for our character. When someone loses their identity, they lose a fundamental part of who they are. Loss of identity leads to feelings of depression, lack of self worth, lack of motivation, and deep inner turmoil.

Think about how you answered that question: who are you? Did you answer with your job? What happens if you lose that job? Who are you then? Did you answer with a relationship like mother/father, sister/brother, etc? What happens if that relationship is suddenly stripped away? Who are you when everything you have ever used to define yourself has been stripped away? Who are you then?

Issues of identity are all throughout Scripture. Consider the names of people in the Old Testament. God changed Abraham’s name from Abram, meaning “exalted father”, to Abraham, meaning “father of nations.” His name changed when his identity changed. Now, whenever anyone called Abraham by name, they would be reaffirming God’s promise of children. He changed Sarah’s name from Sarai, meaning “princess,” to Sarah, meaning “MY princess.” Sarah’s identity and relationship to God had changed. Jacob’s name was changed from “deceiver” to Israel “one who wrestles with God.” Naomi changed her name from “pleasantness” to Mara “bitterness.” Names were important. Consider the names God gave Himself: I AM, Jehovah Jireh (God who provides), Jehovah Rapha (God who heals), Jehovah Shalom (God of Peace).

God wanted us to know who He is, but He also wanted us to know who we are. In the Old Testament, God spends a lot of time telling the nation of Israel who they are. He addresses them as His chosen people. He compares them to chicks or to children. When they fall away, He compares them to an unfaithful spouse. At the baptism of Jesus when the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove, we hear God testify to three things: identity, affection, and affirmation. “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

The issue of identity is so important that it’s one of the areas that Satan used to attack Jesus when he was in the wilderness being tempted. The very first temptation, to turn stones into bread, was couched in a question of identity: “The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.'”(Luke 4:3) If you are the Son of God. If you are who you think you are. Satan was asking Jesus, “Are you sure you’re God’s Son? After all, God has brought you to this wilderness. You are hungry…starving even. Would God do that to His Son? Maybe you’re not God’s Son after all. Maybe this is all a lie.”

When you know who you are, you have a foundation to build on. Your behavior will come into alignment with what you believe about yourself. Before Jacob’s name was changed, he functioned under the identity of a deceiver. So we see him tricking and deceiving people. He tricks Esau out of his birthright. He deceives Isaac to obtain the blessing of the firstborn. But once his identity is changed to Israel, he works to restore what he obtained by deceit, offering a portion of his wealth to Esau as a peace offering. If you believe that you are a king or queen, how you behave will be different than it would if you believe that you are an orphan of no importance.

So, who does God say you are? Because God never changes, the identity we receive from Him never changes. Because God is Truth, the identity we receive from Him is based on truth. When we embrace our identity and who we are in Christ, our behavior begins to change. It’s imperative that we know who we are, and more importantly, that we know who we are in Christ. This is the first and foremost area where Satan will seek to attack us. So who are we? According to Ephesians 1 and 2, we are: blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, sons/daughters, covered by grace, redeemed, forgiven, lavished with riches, sealed, powerful, alive, raised up and seated in heavenly places, part of God’s chosen people.

Do you believe this? Are you living your life in a manner that is worthy of your identity in Christ? God has given YOU a new name. Search the Scriptures. Learn who God says you are. Live in a way that shows you understand your new identity. Once you truly comprehend who God says you are, Satan’s attacks against you will lose some of their power. Remember, he is going to attack your identity first, so be sure you are rooted and grounded in your knowledge of who God says you are.

Who are You Wearing?

Colossians 3: 9-10

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Who are you wearing? It’s the question we hear over and over again at any red carpet event. Celebrities walk the red carpet in the latest designer clothes, and reporters ask over and over to know which designer created which signature piece. After a while, we can almost guess the designer from the look of the clothes.

The same is true of us. Our behavior says a lot about our “designer”–who we’re following. When we are in our sinful nature, practicing selfish behaviors and following after fleshly lusts, we give a picture to the world that looks no different. We’re following what the world is following. We’re doing what the world would do. Our behavior doesn’t separate us from the pack. Nothing special to see here.

But when we cast off those behaviors, when we put aside our old self, something changes. We have to replace the way we used to do things with something new. We put on a new self with new practices. Paul expected the believers at Colosse to act differently than the world around them. They were to do things in a godly way, and that way would be completely foreign to the culture they lived in. No more lying. No more divisions among Jews and Gentiles, slaves and freemen, civilized or uncivilized. Now the believers were to show integrity and unity. They would be compassionate, humble, kind, gentle, patient, forgiving. They would look entirely different.

By putting on the new behaviors, they would signal to the world that a new designer was in town. They would stand out. They would be different from the world in such a way that others would notice at a glance that there was a difference about them. People might even start asking about the change in them, and that would open up the door to share the gospel message with the world.

When others look at you, who do they see? Are you wearing the designs and behaviors of the world around you? Or are you dressed in the virtues and behaviors of Jesus Christ? When you’re wearing the robe of righteousness, people will notice, and you’ll have lots of opportunities to tell them who you’re wearing!

Father, thank you that you take the filthy rags of our old sinful nature and you replace them with sparkling white robes of righteousness. I thank you, Father, that I can take off the old ways of doing things. I can cast away the old behaviors that marked me as part of the world, and I can put on your way of doing things. I can change from the inside out until everyone around me can see your designer label on my life. Lord, help me to live a life so different from the world around me that it draws people to your design–to you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

It’s The Little Things

“Large streams from little fountains flow; tall oaks from little acorns grow.”
English Proverb

It’s easy to look at successful people around us, the CEOs and celebrities, and think that we will never get there. Sometimes our dreams seem so big that we have trouble taking the first step down the path to getting there. Sometimes we don’t even know what the first step is. But CEOs didn’t start out as CEOs, and most celebrities worked hard for years before they made it big. It isn’t the big things that define our life: our huge successes or accomplishments. Generally speaking, it’s the little things. It’s the devil in the details that separate a great experience from an average experience.

Sometimes we think of little things as insignificant. Small things can get easily overlooked. They seem unimportant, like it won’t make much of a difference in the long run. Do I really need to take the extra step to take my grocery cart back to the cart corral? How important is it really if I toss that trash out of the window of my car as I’m driving down the road? What about putting my loose change into a jar and saving it for a rainy day? Can that really make a difference? Yes!

There’s a biblical principle at work here. If you’re faithful in the little things, you’ll be faithful in the big things. It’s the habits we form and the routines we develop that make us successful. Taking that cart back may not seem like much. After all, it takes a few more steps and a bit more time, but think about the people coming after you. No carts clogging up the parking spaces. No possibility for the wind to blow a rogue cart into their car. And for the workers? No running all over the parking lot in all kinds of weather to round up those carts you couldn’t take an additional few seconds to push into their proper place.

Most of us know the dangers of littering and the havoc it wrecks on our environment. If you’re my age, you remember the endless ad campaigns with slogans like: “Give a Hoot! Don’t Pollute!” Those ads were based on the idea that one less piece of trash could mean a huge difference in cost down the road. Simple things like recycling kept 87.2 million tons of garbage out of landfills. The amount has been on a steady incline since recycling became a big deal in the 1980s thanks to images like the trash barge. The small change of switching from Styrofoam containers saved 30,000 tons of waste in New York City alone. Just look at these stories (here, here, and here) on the possibilities with saving your spare change. According to this article, one man collected over $13,000 worth of pennies. That’s right! Pennies!

Small things add up quickly. The same is true for other things as well. Small things can make all the difference in our mental health. Little things like celebrating small victories, doing small acts of kindness, etc. can bring us great joy. Little things that separate one company from another can make a huge difference in customer satisfaction. It’s not really “go big or go home” when it comes to making an impact on the world around you.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. When we seek out excellence in the little things, God can use that to bring big blessings into our lives. When we show faithfulness in small things, God rewards us with the calling to do big things for Him. It’s amazing what we can do! George Muller cared for 10,024 orphans in his lifetime and never made a single request for financial support. How did he do it? He took the small step of praying for God’s provision and trusting that God would provide. The life of St. Therese of Lisieux is another example. She believed in doing “little things with great love,” and by doing these small acts she was awarded sainthood.

“If you can not do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill

Sometimes as Christians we overlook the little things. We look at heroes of the faith like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Graham and think about how we will never do such awesome things. Dwight L. Moody came to faith because his Sunday School teacher took the time to tell him about God’s love for him. What if Edward Kimball had felt that telling his students about God’s love was too small a thing to worry about? What if he didn’t even teach Sunday School because it wasn’t a big enough job? The world would have been without the work of Dwight L. Moody. There would have been no crusades for Billy Graham if his friend Albert McMakin hadn’t persuaded him to attend revivals led by Mordecai Ham. Joyce Meyer tells the story of how she started out with a Bible study of 15 women in her home. Now her ministry reaches around the world.

Be faithful in the little things. Pray, read your Bible, volunteer, serve, answer God’s call. It might be something small like smiling at strangers. It might be answering a prompting of the Holy Spirit to take milk to a mother you know from the church. Small acts like this make all the difference. You don’t know when you will be the answer to prayer. One morning, I entered church with serious back pain. It was shooting down my leg and into my heel. I was uncomfortable during the entire service, but back pain wasn’t new to me so I ignored it and went about my business. After service, while waiting for my husband to finish chatting, a young woman from our youth approached and asked if she could pray for my back. I agreed. That young woman had not stepped out to pray for anyone before, but when my husband mentioned my back pain she felt led to seek me out. While she was praying, I experienced a warm tingling in the area where I had pain. By the time she had finished, the pain was gone. I let her know immediately how her obedience had blessed me. That immediate confirmation then blessed her.

You don’t know when you’ll be the answer to prayer. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve needed to hear something from the Lord, and a faithful brother or sister delivered that message to me. At the beginning of this foster care trial, I was fervently praying for vindication and restoration, but I felt as if my prayers weren’t getting through. I felt like God might not be listening. So as I walked into a service one morning, I silently prayed, “God, if I could just know you hear me, I would be able to hold on in faith a bit longer.” As I entered the darkened sanctuary during worship, I noticed a woman looking at me. She would turn away and sing a few words and then look at me again. Finally, she approached me. “I don’t normally do this,” she said. “But I just feel so strongly God is saying that I need to tell you that He has heard your prayers and that whatever you have been asking Him for, He has given to you.” She was very self conscious and apologetic, but that woman answered my prayers that morning, and I made sure she knew how big a blessing she was for her small act of obedience.

So be encouraged. Start small. Agree to meet with God for a few minutes every day. Ask Him during that time how you can bless Him and bless others. God is faithful. He will answer your prayer, and as you step out in obedience to the small things He gives you to do, you will begin to build a legacy of great accomplishments in the Kingdom of God.

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
John W. Gardner

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude.
Colin Powell

God Hears Us

2 Chronicles 7:14

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. It was designed by his father David to be a permanent place where the people could go and meet with God. At the dedication of the temple, God appeared to Solomon and gave this promise: that if the people were suffering punishment because they had turned away from God, all they had to do was turn back and their prayers would be answered.

What a wonderful promise! So often in our lives, we forget God. We get busy. We have things to do. An invisible God can fall to the wayside if we are not intentional with our time and attention. Those are the moments when we forget to pray or spend time with God. We put Him on a shelf thinking we’ll get around to those things tomorrow or when we have more time. Funny how we always have time for God when things are going wrong.

God knew that our hearts are fickle. He promised us that if we would serve Him and seek Him first, He would fill our life with blessings. He also promised that if we forgot about Him, our lives would be open to trouble and strife. When we realize that we have opened our life to trouble, it’s easy to turn to God and cry out for His mercy. What a loving God we serve that He hears us when we take the time to cry out!

Don’t wait for struggle and trouble to remind you of God. Take the time today to be intentional about your relationship with Him. Humble yourself and pray. God is always faithful to listen. He answers prayers. He provides healing and blessing. Take advantage of the benefits of relationship with God today and everyday, not just when you’re struggling!

Father, I thank you that you always hear my prayers. I thank you that your desire, God, is to bless and not to curse. The Bible tells me that all good and perfect gifts are from you, Father. I thank you for your good and perfect gifts. Help me not to get so busy in life that I forget about time with you. You long for relationship with me, God. I want to seek your face in my life everyday. Help me be intentional with my time and to not forget how vital prayer is in my life. Thank you for forgiving my sin and for healing this land. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Speak Life

Are you an optimist? A pessimist? Somewhere in between? It’s easy to tell. Look at what you say. An optimist’s words are full of hopeful positivity. You can’t help but feel a little lighter after listening to them speak. They are able to see the silver lining in every dark cloud. They have a bit of Irish luck, making the best out of a bad situation. Spend some time with a pessimist, and the opposite happens. Their words are full of heaviness and negativity. No matter how bright the sunshine looked when your conversation started, it is now a duller shade of grey. It’s like they walk around with a little rain cloud over their heads, and you can’t help but get wet if you spend some time in their company.

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21). Our words carry more weight than we realize. They carry the power of life and death. We’ve all heard the saying, “You’re going to eat those words,” but did you know that this saying holds a biblical truth? When we speak words of negativity, we are speaking words of death. When you think about it, its easy to see this truth in action. The more negativity that comes out of my mouth, the harder it is for me to reach my goals. My dreams begin to die. Promises begin to crumble. Faith seems to get lost. “Death” is happening to the things that give meaning to my life. What about when we speak negative things over others? How do you feel when someone says something unkind about you? Speaks negatively about you? Sure feels a bit like the death of something inside of you.

Of course we know the opposite is true as well. When we speak positive words about a situation, we are speaking life. The more positive we are about something, the easier it seems. Even a difficult situation can seem a bit easier, a bit lighter, offer a bit more joy, when we look on the bright side. Goals get a bit closer. Dreams soar a bit higher. Promises hold hopeful potential that they will be fulfilled soon. Faith seems to rise up. “Life” is happening, and I can feel it. Nothing makes my spirit soar as much as a well spoken complement on a rough day!

It’s important to watch the words that we speak. Our words hold power. We are made in the image of God, and God used His words to create the world, the universe, and everything in it! We have that same power in the words that we speak. Your thoughts go where your mouth leads. If you allow anything you think or feel to come out of your mouth, true or not, it’s going to take on a spirit of truth. If you say a situation is hopeless, it sure seems that way. If you say a situation holds promise, it surely does. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

The Bible tells us that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). The heart is the center of what we truly believe. We’re all going to have negative thoughts come at us from time to time. That’s life. Satan would love nothing more than to discourage us. After all, “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10a). Think about that. Satan’s entire plan is to steal your hope, kill your dreams, and destroy your life! And he does it through lies and negative thoughts. If you give ground to those lies, they will take root in your heart. Your words will pour forth the darkness and negativity you let grow there. A stronghold has been formed, and it isn’t long until the promises of God are forgotten and death has taken over.

But Jesus came so that we would have “life and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). That’s why Paul counseled us to “take every thought captive” in 2 Corinthians 10:5. We are to take those negative thoughts captive to the Word of God. What did God say about my situation? If this thought doesn’t match what God says, it’s time to throw it away. I can do this best by repeating, out loud if necessary, what God says about my situation. By speaking God’s promises and God’s Word, I am taking hold of God’s thoughts. I am giving ground to the good seed He has sown in my life. It takes root in my heart, and suddenly my words pour forth faith and hope and light. I have a garden of promise on the inside of me. This is the “power to demolish strongholds” that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 10:4, just before he counsels us about our thought life. This is spiritual warfare! When we combat the enemy by speaking life over our circumstances, we have victory over him.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my heart to be full of negativity and darkness. I’d much rather have a light heart full of joy, hope, and sunshine. Having a heart full of positive thoughts and joy brings abundant life. So how do we fill our heart with these things?

We study the Word. We memorize Scripture. We speak the Word of God out loud. We make a confession unto faith. A confession unto faith means we say what God says, even if we don’t yet believe it…even if we can’t see it as reality yet. So if sickness is our circumstance, we say “I am the healed of the Lord” while we sneeze and cough and continue to have symptoms. And we keep saying it until our body lines up with the promise of God. The more we make these confessions unto faith, the more we give God’s seeds time to take root. Then one day, we start to believe the promise we are speaking. Now we’re making a confession of faith. The confession of faith is the first step to receiving what God has promised us: life, and life to the full!

So begin to pay attention to the words you are speaking over your life right now. Are they life or are they death? And make the conscious decision from this point forward to speak only life!

Freedom

Malachi 4:2 (The Message)

“But for you, sunrise! The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking.”

Have you ever watched colts play? They jump and run and toss their heads and just have fun! It’s clear that they are tasting freedom out in those pastures, and they are loving every minute of it. Sometimes life can get us down. We are doing the right thing, following God, but it doesn’t feel like things are going our way. Maybe we’re in the midst of a trial, and we just can’t see the way out. It’s tempting to think that God has forgotten us or that it will always be this way, but God has promised us so much more.

In Malachi 4:1, God has given us a word on what will happen to the unrighteous when Jesus comes. Now, in verse 2, He tells us what will happen to the righteous. When Jesus comes, we will receive freedom. We will receive healing. This is not just talking about the second coming of Jesus. It’s talking about His first coming, his birth, as well. When Jesus came into the world, He offered us relationship with God. He offered us restoration, freedom from sin, healing from past wounds and hurts. He offered us transformation!

When we step into that freedom we find in our relationship with Christ, we can feel as free as those frolicking colts! And when life gets hard, the promise is that Christ can bring us freedom again and again until we reach the time of His second coming when the healing and freedom He gives to us will last forever! What a promise!

Father, I thank you for your son Jesus Christ. I thank you that because He came into the world, I can have healing and freedom in my life. Help me to step out into the freedom Jesus offers me. When I get discouraged, remind me to receive healing and freedom from you, Father. I know when Jesus comes again that healing sunshine and feeling of freedom will never leave me. Help me to hold to that promise when life gets hard and the world around me seems dark. Thank you, Father, for the light you have provided to all of us through your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Where is Your Focus?

Life is full of distractions. There’s always something to be done around the house. If you have children, they bring their own sets of distractions. Social media and a 24 hour news cycle do nothing to quiet the noise of our everyday lives. Chores, to-do lists, responsibilities at work and home, church requirements, volunteer time, etc. make it hard to focus on much of anything. We all suffer a bit from this distraction, trying to multi-task. There is a pressure to do more and more and more. We get to the point where we are doing a lot of things, but we’re not doing any of them well. In the midst of all this chaos, where is our focus?

Webster’s Dictionary defines focus as: a center of activity, attraction, or attention; a point of concentration; emphasis; direction; and a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding. I particularly like the last definition: a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding. Often in life, I feel like this is what I lack most. It’s difficult to see where I am and where I’m going. I often wish I understood what was happening around me and where it was leading me. Things are moving by me so fast, that everything is blurred. I can’t see anything clearly.

Something is going to have our focus. In the middle of a crisis, our focus is on the problem. That makes sense. I mean the problem is right in front of our face after all. The only problem with focusing on the problem is that we often can’t see any kind of solution. Whatever it is we are focused on becomes bigger, clearer, more important. When our focus is on a problem, that problem–no matter how big or small it really is–becomes bigger than reality. It’s the only thing we can see.

Focusing on our problems does two things:

1) It can easily become overwhelming. Focusing on our problems makes them larger than life. We feel our own abilities and resources shrink in comparison. Suddenly, we just don’t feel we can manage. The problem takes on mythic proportions in relation to our resources. The truth is that God is bigger. With our focus off of God and onto our problems, all we see is our lack. Exodus 3 tells the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharoah.

He was well educated. He had great ability and leadership potential, but after killing an Egyptian Moses traded in his royal lifestyle for the life of a fugitive shepherd in the land of Midian. When God approached Moses and revealed His plans for Moses to deliver the entire nation of Israel from oppression and slavery, Moses’ focus was on the problem. How was an 80 year old man who had spent the last 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian going to overthrow Pharoah and rescue Israel? Why would anyone listen to him? He didn’t have prestige or power anymore. He even went so far as to point out that he had a speech impediment and couldn’t possibly even speak to Pharoah in a persuasive way. Moses’ focus was on his lack. Compared to the problem, his resources were small and limited and wholely inadequate.

But God told Moses to change his focus. Notice verse 12: “And God said, ‘I will be with you'”…. I will be with you. Don’t look at YOUR resources compared to the size of the problem. Look at MINE. When our focus shifts from the size of the problem to the size of our God, suddenly things fall into place. We come into focus. We begin to see God more clearly. God becomes bigger. The problem becomes small and blurry compared with the majesty and power of an almighty God!

2) It leads to feelings of depression. When all we see is our lack or our faults, we lose faith. We don’t feel strong or courageous. Instead we feel worthless, inadequate, unprepared, and useless. We begin to lose hope that things will change because our focus is on our circumstance and on our feelings, and those circumstances and feelings aren’t saying good things. Psalm 42 illustrates this best. It is believed to be a psalm written by David, possibly during his flight from Absalom.

Absalom was David’s son. He was a favorite and favored among the people. For whatever reason, Absalom became critical of David’s reign. His focus seemed to be on the inadequacies of David’s system of justice. Eventually, Absalom gained the hearts of the people and led a revolt against David. David was forced to flee. He was at a low point in his reign. He was far from Jerusalem, unable to worship God in the house of worship. He wasn’t able to participate in the rites of worship. Things were going crazy around him. His focus was on the problem.

Psalm 42 says, “My tears have been my food day and night.” David is deeply depressed. He describes his soul as being downcast. Here again, God prompts David to change his focus. David ends this psalm with the assertion that he will put his trust in God, that he will praise God yet again. David shifts his focus from the depression of his soul and the discouraging circumstances of his condition to the things God has done for him in the past. Looking at the wonders God has done for him in the past, David remembers God. He sees clearly that God’s love has been with him all this time.

Let’s look again at what God says to Moses in Exodus 3. This time in verse 14. This is the first time that God introduces Himself by name, and the name He uses is “I AM.” I AM…what a powerful statement. God is saying, “What do you need me to be Moses? What is it you lack in this situation? Do you lack eloquence? Ability? Strength? Power? Charisma? Whatever it is you lack is found in me.” The key here is knowing who God is–seeing the reality of God clearly–and understanding God’s identity. We can only do this when our focus is on God. When we look at God instead of our circumstances, when we listen to His voice instead of the noise of our lives, we get to that place of clear vision and understanding. We begin to see Truth. We begin to see Reality. God’s Truth and Reality is often different from our own. Insurmountable obstacles are anthills to God, and when our focus is on God suddenly those obstacles don’t look so insurmountable. We can’t even see them compared to God. They fade into the background. They lose importance.

So where is your focus? Is it on your circumstance? Is it caught up in distractions? Or is it on God?

Straight Paths

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Hiking can be difficult. Even when the terrain is easy, hiking is still a workout, but if we take a wrong path, we can soon find ourselves in a place we can’t get out of. Rocky, steep terrain is a recipe for disaster, often leading to injury. Experienced hikers know the importance of staying on the right path. They know how dangerous it can be to leave the path, make a wrong turn, or end up in an unfamiliar place.

Scripture talks a lot about the paths or roads of life. God promises to level our paths, to make them smooth. He promises to lead us down the paths of righteousness. BUT we have to trust Him. God knows the plans He has for us. God knows the potential pit falls along the route we are taking through life. He knows where the path leads and where we might get sidetracked. Often, we can’t see that far ahead.

If we rely solely on ourselves, our understanding, our vision, what we can see and comprehend, we’re going to end up in a place where we can no longer navigate safely. We are limited people. That’s why God tells us to trust in Him, to trust in His vision, His knowledge and His understanding.

When we acknowledge our limitations and turn control of our lives over to God, He leads us along the right path. We don’t have to worry about making a wrong turn or ending up somewhere with no way of getting to the other side. This passage tells us that it isn’t enough to trust God in the big things. We need to trust God in ALL our ways. Every day. In the big things and in the small things because the truth is that we don’t always know the difference between the big choices that have everlasting consequences and the little choices that don’t.

When we know God and who He is, we know that we can safely trust Him. We know that He loves us more than we can even begin to understand. His love will never leave us or forsake. His love will protect us and direct us if we let go of our need to understand, put our hand in His, and simply trust in Him to lead us in the right direction.

Father, I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you want good things for me, the best things. You have a plan and a purpose for my life. You know that road that will get me to where you want me to be. You know the crossroads and the pitfalls. I can trust you to lead me safely to where you want me to be. Lord, today I am placing my trust in you. In big things and in small things. In all things, Lord, I will rely on you to guide me through. Thank you for making my paths smooth and straight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God’s Pattern for Prayer

Our focus in January has been on prayer. In Coffee With Jesus, we talked about the purpose of prayer. Today, I’d like to focus more on the practical how-to’s of effective prayer. Prayer is a big deal. It’s communication with God. The interesting thing is that prayer is not limited to Christianity. Every religion has some form of prayer. There is usually some form of structure to prayer, depending on its purpose. Catholic prayers are very formalized, while Protestant prayer tends to be more free-flowing. Whatever our denominational beliefs, our ideas about prayer are a mix of Scripture and tradition.

There are several specific prayers recorded in the Bible. We have Abraham’s prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. We have Miriam’s prayer when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. We have the prayers of David in the book of Psalms. We have the prayers of Jesus. We have the prayers of Paul. Even Jesus’ disciples were concerned about effective prayers. They asked Him to teach them how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) sets the standard for basic prayer.

There are basic components to the Lord’s prayer:

Addressing God. Our Father, in heaven, hallowed by your name. When we address God, we need to know who He is. Hebrews tells us that we must approach God with faith, believing that He exists and that He rewards anyone who diligently seeks Him. When we address God, we acknowledge our relationship to Him. We offer Him praise and respect.
Asking for God’s will. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It’s important that our prayers are in agreement with the will of God. God will not answer selfish prayers. He can not violate His will or His character. When we pray, we need to be sure that our prayers line up with God’s plan. Scripture reveals God’s will to us. That’s why it’s so important that we spend time studying the Word of God. Studying God’s word makes our prayers more effective. This is also sometimes referred to as “praying the Word.” When we pray the Word of God over a situation, we personalize various Scripture verses that apply to that situation. We know that when we pray God’s promises over a situation, we are praying the will of God over that situation.
Place your needs before God. Give us today our daily bread. God knows what we need, but He also wants us to humble ourselves and ask Him to provide. We have to trust that God will provide for our needs: big or small.
Forgive others and confess your sins. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. Forgiveness is a key component of effective prayer. Jesus tells us that if we approach God’s altar and realize there that we have something against our brother or that our brother has something against us, we need to leave our gift at the altar and go and be reconciled to our brother. God offers us unconditional forgiveness of our sins through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If we truly understand the weight of our own sin and the miracle of God’s forgiveness, we can not hesitate to extend that same forgiveness to others.
Ask for guidance and protection. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. It’s not that God leads us into temptation in the first place, but rather that we want Him to protect us from temptations that might arise in our daily lives. We need His protection and His guidance to avoid the traps that Satan sets for us along our way.
Finish with praise and thanksgiving. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. The Bible tells us that we are to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Praising God and offering thanks puts our focus on the right things. We acknowledge, again, who He is and what He does for us.

There are many different kinds of prayers: prayers of adoration, where we praise God; prayers of contrition, where we confess our sins before God; prayers of petition, where we lay our needs before God; prayers of thanksgiving, where we show gratitude to God; and prayers of intercession, where we bring the needs of others before God just to name a few. There are also various spiritual disciplines involving prayer that I have found helpful in my own spiritual walk: praying the labyrinth, breath prayer, the prayer of examen, and releasing/receiving prayers are a few of the disciplines I have used. Many of these prayer traditions and disciplines come to us from the Catholic faith and the practices of various monks, but don’t let that stop you from giving them a try! Whatever your situation or need, rest assured there is a prayer for that! If you are the kind of person who likes to have a template to follow, consider the linked examples to the various types of prayers mentioned above. And, of course, you don’t have to follow any of these examples, you can simply pour out your heart to God in your own words. God hears all types of prayer.

If you’re looking for more information or tips on prayer, consider these books:

A Better Way to Pray by Andrew Womack; Fervent by Priscilla Shirer; Prayers that Avail Much by Germaine Copeland; The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence; The Power of Simple Prayer by Joyce Meyer.

Whatever way you decide to pray, take the time to make prayer an integral part of your day. God longs to have relationship with you. Relationship requires communication, and prayer is the way we communicate with God.

New Heavens and a New Earth

Isaiah 65:17

” See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”

God has always been in the business of creating. He makes old things new. This act of creation isn’t limited to us. It includes physical creation as well. God not only makes us new when we come to Christ, He has also promised to make a new heaven and a new earth as well. What a wonderful promise!

When God begins to create a new thing, it’s spectacular. So spectacular that it changes our memory and perception. God promises that His new work, His new creation will be so marvelous and wonderful that we won’t even remember the way things used to be.

Sin influenced everything when it came into the world. Of course, it change our natures and negatively impacted our spiritual state, but sin also affected the physical world. There was sickness and disease. Things didn’t work the way God intended them to work. Death and destruction were introduced into the world. Just as our spirits were crying out to God for deliverance, the Bible tells us that creation has been calling out as well. The Bible says that creation groans as if in childbirth. Creation is waiting for deliverance as well!

The promise that all things, even physical creation, will be made new gives us hope for what God has planned in the future. When we struggle with sin, negativity, and destruction around us in our physical circumstances, we can cling to the promise that when God makes things new, we won’t even remember the sorrow and pain we used to have.

Father, thank you that you make all things new, even the heavens and the earth. Thank you that when you begin your creative work, you don’t stop until it is exactly as you planned it. Thank you that your creative act isn’t limited to the spiritual, but you include the physical things as well. Help me to remember that this world is temporary. One day, I will see the new heavens and the new earth that you have in mind, and I won’t even remember the things that cause me pain and heartache now. Help me to cling to this hope when my circumstances look bleak. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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