Hope for Troubled Times

There are so many times when life simply does not make sense.

You watch God miraculously heal your cancer-stricken grandfather, but the health of someone else near and dear to your heart gets worse with every passing day.

You stake so many things on a bold step of faith, but before you can even announce it to the world a ton of bricks fall and smash it all to the ground.

You decided that a new year was the perfect reminder to start over new, to put the past behind you and leave it there, but the enemy and the sin of mankind continue to bring force against you, and the battle only gets harder and victory seems further and further out of sight.

In all these things, it's so easy to say "I don't understand," and for some it's even easier to say "why, God?" and walk away. But my gracious heavenly Father will not let me go. And I will not let Him go. It has always been the times of trial when I am forced to trust my God. What other option do I have?

I've heard it said that it's easy to rely on Him when circumstances are right, when it's "all good," but hard to rely on Him when the whole world seems against you. But it's always been when it's "all good" that it's been easiest to forsake my first Love. And it's always been the times of trial that the deepest strengthening and dependence upon Him has occurred. It's been those times, when I am face-to-face with my insufficiency and weakness that I've fallen deepest into the arms of my Loving Abba Father and trusted Him more. Where else can I go?

I don't know if anyone beyond my closest few even reads this blog, but trying times will eventually catch up to us all. I plead that if you are reading this, you would remember your dear Father.

He alone is Faithful.
He alone is Good.
He alone gives us hope.

"If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful---for he cannot deny himself." (2 Tim 2:11-13)

So, trusting that in ALL things, my God is faithful, I will hope in our all-sufficient King.
Please, my troubled friend, hope in Him, too.

His wounds paid my ransom

The closer and closer I draw to God's presence, the more aware I am of my sheer inadequacies. Of my complete inability to stand before Him justified, if not for the Cross.

Last night, I seemed to be trapped in a cycle of filling my time with meaningless things. Spending hours of my day in meaningless tasks, while God was calling out to me to fill my time with Him. I kept turning down His offer. Time and time again. As though movies or crochet or iPod games can provide the rest and satisfaction I was seeking. It wasn't the simple fact that I was watching movies or honing my crochet skills or kicking some Fruit Ninja rear that was the problem. For these things only became an issue when I ignored the beckoning call of my Lord. Always, He wants to show me more of Himself. But too often, myself turns Him away. 

It's a strange thing. A mystery, really, how God extends grace when we refuse to come to Him. 

But since His quiet call, His gentle knock, wasn't enough to grab my attention, He resorted to another method. I can see Him now, looking at me, knowing the words He was about to say would not be pleasant to my ears. They would not leave me with fuzzy feelings or butterflies in my stomach. 

I don't know how He did it, but in a moment, He filled my mind with a picture of His Son. Of a mangled body bleeding from a cross, the place where the Father abandoned His Son (Matt 27:46). As this picture came to my mind, the same Father that turned His face away from the Son who bore my sins, said to me, "My child, did you forget what I did for you?"

I stopped my movie, put down my crochet hook and my iPod, and remembered the Cross. The Cross that justified me. 

My church attendance, the Bible I won from a memorization contest when I was five, even the prayer I prayed when I was seven--none of these made me right with God. It was only His Cross. 

Forgive me, Lord, that I so easily forget.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

(lyrics - http://www.ap0s7le.com/list/song/28/Stuart_Townend/How_Deep_The_Father)

Adventure

I've always loved stories that involve some great adventure. My favorite movies aren't romantic comedies, and most romance novels make me gag. But give me a story that follows the main character on some epic adventure, and I'm all in!

But did you know, that "adventure" is a pretty fitting description of the life God calls us to?

I've been reading biographies lately about people that abandoned everything to answer God's call. Unhindered by the unknown, and unintimidated by the pointing fingers of those who considered them nuts. They had a burning fire in their soul, and like Jeremiah - "...his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot" (Jer 20:9).

They laid down their lives for their King, and in doing so found every satisfaction and pleasure. They counted the cost, and they paid it. They considered the alternatives, and they chose death that they may have life. They knew that their King was worth everything, and they did not hesitate to say "yes" to whatever He asked of them.

When I read about these soldiers of the King, I get the impression that they would be pretty disappointed with Americans. At least those that claim to follow the same One they are dying for. Week to week, we mostly consider a vibrant relationship with King Jesus to be one that consists of a faithful church attendance, no parties attended, little cussing, and pretty good self-control with our boyfriend or girlfriend.

We certainly don't look at our relationship with God through lenses of sacrifice, staking everything on His love, not intimidated by the unknown, and unashamedly walking the narrow path. We have no gusto, and we have no fight. We are much more like sleepy kittens hiding under a car, than soldiers of the King drawing our swords, putting on our armor, and preparing to fight.

This should be an adventure. And if I'm honest, I've been very much asleep this month. It's been bad, which is why I haven't posted much. I've lost my own gusto, my own fight, tucked my tail and ran from the adventure God has beckoned me to join.
What an incredible God, that He did not strike me down when I hid.
Because He is gracious beyond my understanding, He calls me back. He beckons me.

And this time I'm saying yes.

Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts.

- C.T. Studd

Note: I'm hoping to add a tab above with little blurbs of such soldiers. My prayer is that their testimonies would stir in your heart a deeper passion for Jesus, as they have done in mine.