A Multitude of Anxieties

When I said, "My foot is slipping,"

your love, O LORD, supported me.

When anxiety was great within me,

your consolation brought joy to my soul.

Psalm 94:18-19

I am doing a topical study in my Sunday School class and my girls chose anxiety as our first subject. Our times of late have caused a multitude of thoughts in most of us, and many of them are not positive. Even the most optimistic are becoming depressed. When I read Charles H. Spurgeon's devotion on the verses above to a special sister going through a hard time she said, "How did Mr. Spurgeon know what is going on in my life?" This led me to share this excellent devotion with all of you. I pray you are blessed and choose to present all of your burdens to God in prayer and leave them there (Philippians 4:4-7). Soak in these words of wisdom from a giant of the faith.

Some of you are perplexed with a multitude of anxieties about your life. You do not know what to do. One plan was suggested, and for a time it seemed the best action. But now you have doubts. You are bewildered and you cannot see Providence's clue. You are lost in a maze. Indeed, at this moment, you are depressed.

You have tried various ways and methods to escape your present difficulty. But you have been disappointed and distracted. Your thoughts have no order; they drag you in opposite directions. The currents meet and twist as if you were in a whirlpool.

My perplexed friend, remember the children of Israel at the Red Sea. The sea was before them, rocks were on either side, and the cruel Egyptians roared in the rear. Imitate Israel's actions. "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today" (Exodus 14:13). You reply, "I cannot be quiet. I am agitated, perturbed, perplexed, tossed, and distracted. What shall I do?"

"In the multitude of my anxieties with me, Your comforts delight my soul" (Psalm 94:19). Turn your eyes to the deep things of God. Cease from anxious consideration of seen things, which are temporary, and gaze by faith on things that are eternal.

Remember, your way is ordered by a higher power than your will and choice. The eternal God has fixed your every step. All things are fixed by the Father's hand. He who loved us from before the foundations of the world has immutably determined every step of our pilgrimage.

It is a blessed thing, after you have been muddling and meddling with your anxieties, to throw your burdens on the Lord and leave them there.

Always listen!!

Trusting in God's Protection

. . . Whoever listens to me will live in safety

and be at ease, without fear of harm.

Proverbs 1:33

Have you ever noticed that when God teaches you something (or sometimes in my case when I am teaching on something), he always finds a way for you to practice it right away? Last Saturday, God wanted me to practice what I preach. I spend a lot of time at our barn on the weekend which is 40 miles north of our home. I had told my husband, Greg, I wanted to go home on Saturday night, instead of spending the night because I wanted to put some beans and ham in the crock pot before church.

When I left to go home it was pouring cats and dogs as the old saying goes, and an unusual eerie feeling about riding home on the winding mountain roads in the dark and in the rain crept into my heart. All of those crosses where people have died, that I pass every time I go out there, kept flashing in my mind. Most of the time I am fearless. I will go anywhere, anytime, no matter the conditions, but Saturday night was different.

As I rode home, I prayed a lot. God reminded me of all of the verses that I had poured over all week for the lesson I was preparing to teach on God's protection. I remembered Charles Spurgeon's words on the passage above I chose to study (Proverbs 1:33). He said, "If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven. If the world becomes to hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety." I decided right then to stop worrying and trust God with my life and the lives of my precious family. If I'm not here to take care of them, God will.

And when I really thought about it, what could be better than a quick trip to heaven? NOTHING!! Teaching my Sunday School Class early Sunday morning revealed the proof of God safely delivering me home. No cars hydroplaned over the line to smash me to smithereens like I thought might happen. Praise God! But no matter how God chooses to take me home, I trust his sovereign protection.

I am listening, Lord. I want to live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm. Thank You, Jesus!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The New Year usually causes us to reflect and refocus; reflect on how far we have come and refocus on where we want to go. God's word gives us the best place to focus by telling us to "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). In one of his New Year devotions, Charles H. Spurgeon gets right to the point by stating: "He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed" (from Morning and Evening, January 4). We all desire blessing. I trust making growth a top priority in 2009 will wash away the troubles of 2008 and bring a fresh start to our New Year.

When Jesus prayed for you and I in John 17 he said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3) Knowledge of God is eternal life. God is speaking through these passages saying growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus has to be a priority every year, day in and day out. And with Jesus praying for us there is no way to fail in our attempts to grow.

How do we grow? We practice standing on the promises of God daily. To stand we need to know the promises, and to know the promises we should look them over on a regular basis. For his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Listening Hearts, let's pray a New Year's Prayer to start the year off right (Inspired by the same Spurgeon devotion mentioned above):

Dearest Lord Jesus,
Because your divine power has given us everything we need for life, please show us new ways to grow in grace—not in one grace only, but in all grace. Help us to grow in that root-grace, faith. May we all believe the promises more firmly than we have in the past. Let our faith increase in fullness, constancy, simplicity. May we also grow in love. We are asking that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed in our lives. This will cause us to grow likewise in humility. As we grow downward in humility, may we seek also to grow upward—having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. In your precious name we pray all these things. Amen.

Always Listen!

Some Good Spiritual RX

I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to go on the heights.

For the director of music.

On my stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:16-19

Too many of us have too many reasons for our hearts to pound, our lips to quiver, and our knees to knock. And how many times lately have we heard, "It's only going to get worse?" But please don't be dismayed. Remember how God provided Paul and Silas with a song in the night when they were in the deepest darkest dungeon (Acts 16)? I may have found the song they were singing this morning in the verses above from Habakkuk. Habakkuk sings his prayer in chapter 3 with the accompaniment of stringed instruments. A closer look at this chapter, particularly verses 16-19, reveals how Paul and Silas could sing, even without a guitar, despite their hard place. That means we can, too.

I especially am encouraged that GOD will make us walk (not to stand in terror but to walk) and move forward in spiritual growth upon our high places, which are our troubles, suffering, or responsibility. Each of us has our own mix of heartache, suffering and responsibility. God is telling us here that we make the most progress when being thankful for our salvation is on the top of our prayer list. Even though things are going on that make our "hearts pound and legs tremble," (vs 16) there is no reason to fear. Our Sovereign LORD is our our strength, our own personal bravery, and invincible army. God does his best work amidst chaos. And the nation invading us--Satan and his team of demons--has a day of calamity coming soon. The best is yet to come. I love you all.

God's Pattern for Living

Christmas is really

God's pattern for living

to be followed all year

by unselfish giving -

For in giving to others

and in being kind

We may discover

true peace of mind -

And peace on earth

will come to stay

When we all live Christmas

every day.

Helen Steiner Rice

I pray the hope found in celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior will fill your listening heart with love, joy, and peace now and forever more. Merry Christmas!

Respecting our Husbands

Respect yourself and others will respect you.
--Confucius (551 BC to 479 BC)

Respect a man, he will do the more.
--James Howell


Ephesians 5: 33 says, “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” This verse brought up one of life’s big questions in Sunday school yesterday. How does a wife obey this command and respect a husband who does not fulfill his duties and makes decisions that hurt his family? This question inspired my blog today.

Respect is something everyone wants, not many have, and few want to give. Most husbands would appreciate receiving a little bit of respect from their wives, and most wives should make efforts to show some more respect. For the most part respect is not clearly understood. What does the word reverence mean here? To know what something means in the New Testament we have to look up the word and see what it is in Greek. For reverence the Greek word is phobeo—to frighten, to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, i.e. revere. You probably recognize this is where we get our word “phobia” from, which means an irrational or excessive fear of something. This is where the meaning of reverence gets confusing—this combination of fear and awe. The Webster’s definition of reverence is: a feeling or attitude of deep respect; love, and awe, as for something sacred; veneration. The Webster’s definition of respect is: a) to feel or show honor or esteem for; hold in high regard b) to consider or treat with deference or dutiful regard.

Jesus died for husbands and wives; this makes husbands and wives sacred. And since reverence is a feeling and an attitude, we should start by loving the way Christ loves us—unconditionally. And for ways to show honor and esteem for our husbands requires wisdom. If we lack wisdom, God promises in James 1:5-6 to give it to us if we ask without doubting.

But before we can figure out ways to obey God’s command to respect our husbands, the definition of submission needs to be cleared up, too. Submission has nothing to do with the order of authority, but rather governs the operation of authority. When Jesus washed the disciples feet, he taught them that the greatest is the person who uses his authority to build up people and not, like the Pharisees, to build up his authority and make himself important. We are to esteem others above ourselves (Phil. 2:1-4). By nature, we want to promote ourselves, but the Holy Spirit enables us to submit ourselves. The root of most marital problems is sin, and the root of all sin is selfishness. Submission to Christ and to one another is the only way to overcome selfishness, for when we submit, the Holy Spirit can fill us and enable us to love one another in a sacrificial, sanctifying, satisfying way—the way Christ loves the church. (from Warren Wiersbe's Be Rich)

I say we should K.I.S.S. the challenge of showing reverence to our husbands (Keep It Simple Sister). And since reverence has to do mostly with feelings and attitudes, we can start by changing our mindset. Changing the way we think will naturally move us into Christ honoring action. We also need to remember that husbands can read us like a book, even when we don’t say a word. Here are a few questions we can prayerfully ask ourselves to begin improving our feelings and attitudes towards reverencing our husbands (inspiration from 1 Corinthians 13:4-13):

What kind thing can I do for my husband today?
How can I lay aside my pride today?
How can I communicate without nagging?
Can I be a help with running our household without a reward or requiring something in return?
Can I point out a good quality in him and praise him for it, while keeping no record of wrongs?
How can I use my Christ given authority to build him up?
Can I think of ways to act selfless and actually do them?
How can I protect my marriage?
Do I trust God in my marriage, always hoping and persevering?
Have I submitted to Christ by spending time alone listening through prayer and Bible Study so he can guide me in my marriage (true listening requires obeying what you learn during study)?

Marriage problems do not improve overnight, but God is great at cleaning up our messes. He needs our cooperative obedience, however, to work his miracles. If we do our part, he will bless us and take care of us even if our husbands refuse to obey God. It is interesting to note that obedience is a synonym of respect. So let's revere God and our husbands by working hard at applying God's commands to everyday life. Application of God’s word is not an easy endeavor, but the rewards are priceless.

Does Anything Really Happen by Chance?

"In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all of the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense" (Luke 1:5-9).

We know from the rest of the story that the exact time Zechariah was chosen by lot to serve inside the temple at the altar of incense, an angel showed up and told him he would have a son. Their son, who they were told to name John would be a joy and delight to them. He would be great and filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, bring back many to the Lord and most importantly, "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." This confirms what God speaks through his word in Proverbs 16:33: "The lot is cast into the lap, buts its every decision is from the LORD." Chance had nothing to do with Zechariah's call to duty on that special day.

But even though luck is not in God's dictionary, it's listed as a noun in ours. For us, this means each chance happening in our lives represents a decision from the Lord and learning to deal with it in positive ways can be a challenge.

With that said, how should we approach our good luck? By understanding all good and perfect gifts come from above (James 1:17). Acknowledge God with a grateful heart. Sometimes, I feel like I am casting lots when I choose my check-out line at the grocery store. If the line moves fast and I get out quick, I can thank God.

And what about bad luck? Zechariah and Elizabeth lived during the time of a horrible king, Herod king of Judea. We too, are living in the time of bad leaders and getting worse. I love the way Proverbs 16:33 goes in "The Message" translation: "Make your motions and cast your votes; but God has the final say." Living with bad luck requires trusting in God's Sovereignty in our lives--a lesson I have to learn daily no matter how long I have been listening to and walking with Him. For it is written:

" The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world" (1 Samuel 2:6-9).

"He's got the whole world in his hands." It's truly mind-boggling, but there's something good about knowing "every decision is from the LORD." His truth brings freedom and relief from stress. We don't have to worry so much about doing it right or even doing it wrong. We need just to live for him with a song of thanksgiving in our hearts and the word of God in our mouths, with a goal of bringing glory to his name in whatever we do--mundane or marvelous. Mother Theresa agrees because she once said, "Let none glory in her success but refer all to God in deepest thankfulness; on the other hand, no failure should dishearten her as long as she has done her best." Amen.