trust

A Story Worth Repeating

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You know what I used to hate more than anything?  Asking for help. Isn’t that crazy?  It was something in my genes (Southern? Stubborn? Self-reliant?) that used to drive me to be the Christian Martha Stewart, Martha Washington, and Martha in the Bible all rolled into one at the same time.  And if I didn’t pull off this independent perfection, then my conclusion was that there must be something wrong with me. What a bunch of hooey.

But here is a really good thing I am learning: God doesn’t help those who help themselves. (Where did that dribble come from?) He helps those who humble themselves under His mighty hand and depend on Him to provide in real, tangible ways.  And in due time, He lifts them up. That is His promise.

It is one thing to ask for help when you can still maintain composure (read: pride).  It is quite another thing altogether to receive help when you are at your worst. I started seeing this principle play out in odd and vulnerable moments of my life.

I was moving. No worse time to see your own mess, dirt and clutter. But it was Melissa who helped me pack up my house when Chuck and infant Salem had a throw up bug and my freezer had come unplugged and reeked of rotting food.

When I  had surgery and couldn’t bend over, Ellen insisted that she help me in a “real way.” So she scrubbed my nasty bathtub.

Nan arranged a baby celebration not only for Salem, but also a memorial service for Judah, our baby who died.

Then there is Betsy, Lyschel, Nancy, Ruthie, my folks, Lou Ann, Christie, Christina, Lora and the list goes on and on.

Friends who were willing to go the extra mile at their expense, just to help me, at my worst and ugliest moments. When I had nothing to offer them in return but a feeble and heart-felt “thank you.”

It is called community. The family of God in action. And it reminds me of Zimbabwe in an odd way. 

Here is the short version of a great story. A big group of people in the Knoxville area sent a container of food, clothes, and school supplies over to people in a land far away where there are no jobs, where the shelves are empty. These were not  things not to make life “comfortable” but things to help them survive.  And when this group of people in Zimbabwe, our God family, opened up this metal box sent from around the world, the first thing they saw was a hand-made sign: “See, I have not forgotten you, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.”

I weep every time I see the picture.   He hasn’t forgotten them. He hasn’t forgotten you. Ask for help. Believe it will come. He has got the whole world in His hand.

Also, if you want to help us continue to bless the people of Zimbabwe, click here.

You Know Better Than I…

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Last night in the WGR class, the Lord brought back to mind a fantastic song of faith.  It is from the movie, Joseph, King of Dreams.  I tell you, every time I watch the movie or even hear the song, I cry.  It seems the song always finds me in a place of need, and the words invite me back into the arms of my loving God. I also cry because of the picture of Joseph’s journey— from the golden child favored by his father, full of promise and dreams, to sold as a slave and then prison.  What must it really have felt like?

His story strengthens me. Did Joseph think God had lied? Did he feel despair or abandoned?  Did his dreams strengthen him in the dungeon, or haunt him?  Joseph’s life is a parable of our own.  We have dreams and plans, but God has His own path for us. I am finding that sometimes, actually most times, we have to go through worse to get to better.  Joseph learned to see God in it all. Every step of the way.

I want that too.  I want faith and love even in the dungeon.  May God strengthen and persuade us that His ways are better and are altogether good, and He uses all things to accomplish His purposes, for us and for others. “What you meant for evil against me, God meant for good.”

Even Joseph’s dreams could not have predicted  or prepared him for the path that led from the dungeon to saving a nation.  What did God deposit in the dungeon that prepared Joseph’s heart for the days ahead? Perhaps only this: “You know better than I.”

And that was enough, for Joseph and for us.

Here is a link to watch the movie clip with the lyrics. I hope you are blessed as much as I am every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oL6HlzQZLo

He is Able, But Is He Willing?

/ Jana / 4 Comments

Ever have those days that you don’t dare say, “What else can go wrong?” because you are so afraid that it WILL?

Yes? Welcome to my world.

When it gets frantic,  I notice that I want to “do” a lot of things to make myself feel better. Clean. Get angry. Fix it. Yell at it. Run away. And my personal favorite, blame, blame, blame.

So I go to my bathroom to vent, and I find I am mostly mad at God. What on earth has He done, you ask?  Well that is why I am mad. To me, it looks like He is not doing anything, because my circumstances are getting worse, not better. And you know as well as I do that He has the power to help me. So when He does not, or at least does not on my time table, I accuse Him of not caring about me.

Then I hear my friend Kristen talking about “striving with my Maker.”  When I am fighting God, I am fighting for control, or afraid that He will kill me with His driving. So I reach over and grab the wheel.   Not smart. I hear the words of a song, “when fears are stilled and strivings cease…”

And His Spirit reminds me of the verse from the weekend that He made come alive.  “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ” Matthew 6:32

Why do I flip out about bills, and trip expenses, and groceries, and all the other things?  Why do I run after them as if I am all alone and it is all on me to make this happen?

My Heavenly Father knows I need them.  He doesn’t just know. He knows I need.  And He really does care.

I don’t have to run after those things, I just have to run to Him, with faith, believing He knows and He is willing.

A Little More Elijah: The Showdown

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I have a couple of more thoughts about Elijah.  Hopefully they will hit you like they hit me. There are four parts to his story that sound a lot like yours and mine. I call them: The Showdown, Running on Empty, The Cave, The Helper. We’ll be looking at these over the next few days.

Last week we talked about God teaching Elijah (and us) to focus on His daily care and provision. And we noted that the private encounters with God prepare, equip, and deposit truth BEFORE the public encounters. We often get that out of order. We go out into the world and ask questions: How am I doing? Does anyone like me? Am I succeeding?

But those questions for Elijah were answered before he went out. At the brook it was just Elijah and God. Then it was Elijah at the widow’s home. Then it was the showdown of taking on the 400 prophets serving Baal.   Elijah may have been scared, but he moved in the power of the Spirit – in the faith that God had poured in, refined and tested in much quieter settings.

I know that God is up to something big when He hems me in for sitting, resting, hearing. I know that He wants me to “get” something about Him.  He wants me to discover a facet of Him I didn’t know before. But as we go to new places, He always reviews core issues.  He alone is God, He alone is truth. I can do nothing apart from Him.  And my heart must be connected to His heart before I DO one thing.  They don’t call him a “jealous God” for nothing.

God knows how to keep the main thing, the main thing.  And it ain’t working for Him. It is loving Him and being loved by Him.

Have you got a showdown coming?  Then get quiet. Allow God to speak His truth over you and in you. Let Him remind you that whomever, whatever you’re facing, that Thing has to face You and God as a team. Wow. Talk about offense.

Here is another thing about Elijah’s Showdown.  The prophets and Elijah were to both build an altar and sacrifice a bull. They were to call on their respective god, Baal or Jehovah.  And the god that answered by fire was the one true living God.

The prophets of Baal shouted and danced around for hours. Then they began to slash their bodies so that blood flowed. To no avail. Don’t miss this picture.  You can shed your own blood before a deaf and mute god (read: addiction, habit, fear, false god) but nothing will change.  Nothing will burn up that offering.

Or you can follow Elijah. Elijah poured water, and more water on the altar. Twelve jars of water. One for each tribe. Elijah stacked the deck and made it so clear that God and only God could receive any glory for the fire. But I also love the picture of “washing.”  The way we enter into the power of God is not by our own fleshly expressions of sacrifice. We enter by letting God wash us.

Our false gods (addictions, past, fears, etc.) will demand more and more of our very lives, our blood, but they have no power. We need the water and fire to be in the presence of the living God. And why did Elijah ask God to show up in this crazy way?  “Answer me, O Lord answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Not your effort, but His effort to restore, heal and renew.

May the Lord speak truth in your secret places today. May He wash you. And may He pour down fire from heaven for His glory and your faith.

Yes! And Amen!

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“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”
2 Corinthians 1:20 New King James Version

Been thinking all day about God being a dreamer. And there is an old saying, “Are you a dreamer or a doer?” And when I think about God, the answer is “Yes.”

He is both. Why would He do that?  Because He is both love and power. Truth IN action.  Here is another sage comment: Lovers do what dreamers only dream about.  Is God a lover or a dreamer? Again, He is “yes and amen.”

If you think for one minute that God is unable, that means He is weak.
If you think He is unwilling, that means He is mean, harsh or not good.
If you think He is not loving, well, then you have a false god. In Christ, we have all of God. All of Him. He has NOT given us a spirit of fear, but He HAS given us a spirit of power, love and self control.  Not we go buy it. We have it.

Just because you don’t get your way, when you want it, how you want it, doesn’t reflect on God’s character. It does however, reflect on yours.

Reflect. Odd choice of word there. Reflect means:

To manifest or bring back;
To chew over: reflect deeply on a subject
To be bright by reflecting or casting light
To show an image of
To give evidence of a certain behavior

I don’t say this to create false guilt or condemnation, but to prompt us to look at what we’re reflecting. Lack of confidence in God only “reflects” the enemy, but there is a power released in us when we focus on the face of God.  What we look at, we reflect. Attention amplifies everything.  If you focus on the past, your weaknesses, then that is all your will see in your present and future. If you focus on the sin of others, that is what you will surely see.

But if you look at the heart of God, if you “See” with your spirit His goodness, His smart way of doing things—even when that causes you pain—you find that over time your character is changed into His image.  You reflect Him because you are sitting in His light. The only way to bring your world into this Reality, is to Be with a Person.

Just think of the possibilities…If God is a lover and a dreamer, if He is all good and all powerful, who can stand against Him? Think of your biggest fear.  Now lay it (him, her, them) down at the feet of this Beautiful, Grace Giving God.  How does the fear stack up?

James 4 says, “You have not because because you ask not. And when you ask, you ask with wrong motives.” Wow, maybe that is the source of our messes.  We want a magic genie, not a Holy, Transforming, Sovereign Lord.

When I surrender my control, my heart softens so that I can believe God is good and He is good for Me, regardless of the circumstances. Then, over time, I can ask with better motives. Instead of bless me, fix me, fix them, my prayers become “I trust You to take care of me, and I ask for Your best.”

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrew 4:16

All of His promises in Christ are Yes and Amen.

Dare to Dream

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If you think about it, God is the most creative, audacious, out there, fearless dreamer around.

Sound crazy? Then you need to get back in your Bible. You need to check out the headlines. You need to let yourself be awed by nature.

But wait, wait. The Bible is old and irrelevant. The headlines are full of mayhem and horror. And nature is on an auto pilot course to destruction.

Maybe. But maybe not.

A dream is a strongly desired goal or ambition. And the thing that most often keeps us from 1) acknowledging our dreams and 2) pursuing them is fear of failure. We have fallen flat one too many times, or had our hands smacked for asking. Somewhere in the living in this world of real life, we have lost connection with our True Life. We have lost permission to know who we really are and what we were really created to do— to achieve, accompish, enjoy, dream.

But if we, in our fallen state, have dreams, or wish we could, then where did we get that? I believe that every aspect of our make up is from God, is in His image. I believe that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have dreams and desires that They are presently working on.

If God dreams, and I assert that He does, then this opens up a can of heavenly whoopla. This stupifies our frail imaginations because we dream with an excuse in each pocket. We need some card to pull out so we can justify why our dreams drizzled. Not so with God. There is no fear big enough to cause Him to stumble.  In fact, His perfect loves drives out, casts out, mutes and silences fear.  And since God does not fear and cannot fear, what can thwart His dreams?

You ready? Ask Him what He dreams for you. And then instead of clinging to your shabby little piece of paper with your weaknesses scribbled out and your history of past failures itemized, grab on to His résumé of mind boggling achievements.  Past and Present, Now and Then.  Was, Is, and Will Be.

I mean really. If nothing and no one can stop His Son from the cross and resurrection, what can stop Him in us doing what He calls forth?

Amen and Amen.

Elijah – Take 3

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I heard a phrase a long time ago that God brings back to mind often: “When you don’t know what to do, you worship.”

This is the essence of Elijah’s next adventure with God.  Elijah called for no rain which produces a draught. God provided for him in the middle of the draught through a remote brook and food from ravens every day. But the brook dried up. So God moved Elijah along on THEIR adventure together. He told Elijah to go to a widow’s home. But when he got there, the woman was preparing her last meal.  She and her son only had enough food for one last meal then they would die from starvation because of the draught.

(Talk about economic distress?  God has been rescuing people long before today’s health care mess….)

But Elijah called to the woman and told her to bake a cake for him first and to trust God because God was going to give her oil and flour every day until the draught ended.

Have you been there?  Totally on empty and someone asks you for a ride?  Or trying to scrape things out of the cabinet and someone says they are coming over for dinner? Maybe you are freaking out on how to pay one bill, and you get three more in the mail. Or maybe it’s not money related, but you are already dirt tired, and someone calls in crisis.

For me, God takes me to the very end of my resources, knowledge and strength and says, “Now Jana, let’s begin.” Begin?  I feel more like the widow who is ready to lay down and die for lack of expectation that things will change. But oh the beauty of God!  It is at the end of me, you, us, that He begins.

The widow had to believe that God was going to show up tomorrow when the cupboards were bare today. Don’t miss the day to day provision of the Lord in the story of Elijah. He depended and trusted and thanked God each day for the raven’s meals. Then he and the widow thanked God each day for the flour and oil. Belief in the little so you can learn to believe in the greater.

Jesus said in Luke 16 that “whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”  This applies to money, faith, healing, the spirit, all of the God life. Are you trusting in the little for when you need to trust much?

After some time, the widow’s son died. More than daily bread now, they needed resurrection power. And Elijah and the widow saw God’s power poured out as God raised the son back to life. They went from little to much. Belief in the little, trusted with little so they could learn to believe in the greater, trusted with much.

My last thought for today is this:  Are you more like the widow? Or Elijah? Where are you starting from — ready to quit or steadfast expectation?

The good news is, they both grew to believe God in all His goodness. They both learned to worship first before they received. They praised God regardless of the circumstances and saw Him move in their midst.

“Oh, worship the King, all glorious above.
Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.”

Elijah – Take 2

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So yesterday we talked about God feeding Elijah morning and evening through the ravens.  A sweet time of rest, trust building, reflection. Perhaps. Or maybe it was a time of wrestling, arguing and doubting, waiting for God’s goodness to run out.  Sound familiar?

Guess what happened? The brook dried up.

I love it when God brings us to these pivotal moments.  The “Now what?” moments. The OMG, freakout moments. It is almost as if we think that God  left the cosmos or something. Like He went off line or went to sleep.

For Elijah it was the brook drying up. For me it was the missed deadline for a deposit for Zimbabwe. Same reality: helpless to provide for  myself. Same question: “God, You gonna take care of me?” But the good news is: it is the same God. “Then the word of the LORD came to him: ‘Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.'” 1 Kings 17: 8-9.

The King James Version says: “Arise.” I love that. Get up and get going.  God is on the move.

It reminds me of the Narnia stories when they would say, “We hear Aslan is on the move.”  They didn’t know what that meant, or how Aslan would change the circumstance.  But they were strengthened because they remembered that Aslan was the great high king over all Narnia.  And everyone knew he had the power to do anything. Everything. Everyone knew he might not be a tame lion, but he was good.

So it is with God. He has a wild story that He is constantly telling.  Our lives are the plots and twists, the reckless romance, the good vs. evil story played out by this great, untamed God. And what does He ask of us?

Belief.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God,
because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists,
and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

And what do we believe in?  The power and goodness of God. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  Colosians 1: 7

Finally, we believe in the Who of God. We trust that He empowers our cries, prayers, and praise. His Spirit is actively changing the world, and our hearts.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”  James 5:16-18

Pray for rain; pray for God to heal and feed you. Praise Him for all things: ravens, dried up brooks, and widows. Pray and believe.

Between Morning and Evening

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The Lord has me sitting in the story of Elijah lately. I must be a slow learner because it seems like we have been here a while. But I confess, the longer I sit in these couple of chapters, 1 Kings 17- 19, the more I see of God, and the more I see of me.

What I like about Elijah is his utterly honest humanity. He walked with God when things were really, really bad; when it didn’t look like things would be improving soon. But still he depended on God. And he trusted God to not only understand his weaknesses but to CARE about them.  This strengthens me. When all the wheels start coming off my life, it refreshes me to have a God that won’t despise my weaknesses but help me in them.

Look at Elijah as a flesh and blood example.  He had just declared to Ahab, one of Israel’s most wicked kings, that “as the Lord lives, the God of Israel lives,” there would be no rain or even dew until Elijah says so. Talk about gumption. That is serious confidence in God. Elijah’s whole accusation against Ahab was that the king had turned to false idols and led the nation away also. Elijah was constantly pointing back to the clear evidence God was alive and well and willing to be their Loving God.

Now look what follows. God sent Elijah to a remote place where there was a brook and told Elijah that He had commanded the ravens to provide for him there.  Draught on the land, provision for you. All through the Bible you see how God protects and provides for his own regardless of what is happening all around.

In this quiet place, equipped with fresh water, God sent ravens every morning and evening with meat and bread to feed Elijah.

This weekend in my own head, when the giants seem too big, the desert too hot, the needs too great, the bills too many — this weekend I was struck by the time between morning and evening for Elijah. Did he ever question that the ravens would come? Was he ever surprised day after day?  Why didn’t the Lord just give him a small oven and flour?  What was the Lord teaching Elijah (and us) in the space between meals?

Before every great battle and public encounter, there is a private battle and spiritual encounter. I think God used this time to teach Elijah that he could not take care of himself. Elijah had to look to God to provide, even for the food in his mouth. I think God was teaching Elijah how to faith in the space between meals. I think God was teaching Elijah how to Receive from His hand, in whatever way, by whatever means the Lord decided was best for Elijah. Even when that way was ravens. I think God was preparing Elijah in the quiet space for the battle that was on its way.

I am not going to rush through this story. But for today, I wonder, are you looking for the ravens? Are you receiving what the Lord is sending for your good?  Are you waiting by the brook for your God or are you bustling about trying to feed yourself?   “He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.”

Ready, Set, Pray!

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When God calls you into an adventure, how do you know when to go? How to go? Or even why to go? How do you shut up the flesh long enough to let the Spirit persuade your spirit into action?

You watch, wait and believe. I had been approached about going to Zimbabwe for years. But there was never one inkling to go. I had lots of reasons that compelled me to stay. A sick child. A conflict in schedule. But more than anything there was no “draw” to go. I would send stuff: books, CDs, T-shirts, lots of prayers. But I never had a desire to send “me.”

Then one day a letter came from across the world. A year later another letter came.  Like drops of rain begin sporadically then become a steady downpour, there was one thought then another, then it began to rain.  My friend came back from the most recent trip and said, “You have got to go.”

Before I even thought about it, I blurted out, “I know. I am going. I know I am going.”  And the rain began. Then there was meeting to hear about the youth camps, the students, the women’s events —the opportunities to build, to encourage, to influence a country torn apart — and my heart pounded in my chest. Raining down.

Then we had a prayer time and I just asked the Lord, “Tell me real plainly who is to go, and I will follow.”  As soon as I bowed my head, it was plain as day. “You and Salem.” What???

The trip was already seeming impossible, but now add my 12 year old?  Wow. That is a lot of rain…But the downpour came over the next three nights in songs and messages in my sleep. The first night was waking up to a line from the song, Healer, by Kari Jobe. “Nothing is impossible for you.” I had to decide whether this trip was too big for God.

Second was waking up to a verse God had given me as a promise long ago. He had told me that through Him, I was a tree planted by streams of water and that my fruit would prosper.  For years He has been talking  to me about trees.  But He cinched the conversation by reminding me of a verse He had spoken over me: “The tree will have healing in its leaves for the nations.”  It was time to go to the nations.

And finally, was the confirmation about Salem, that she was not a liability but a huge asset. Not an interruption but a purposeful planting.  And God said told me clearly that He had a design for Salem going at this time in her life and in mine. To drive the point home He said, “Salem is a mini-She.” I understood the power of that name. Here is why. We call the women who volunteer in WGR “The SHE” because we all work together as a Body under Christ. Salem is a mini-She. How do you argue with that?

When God speaks, how do you walk away and pretend He has not?  In all the wrestling and preparing, stripping off and surrendering, He has asked me just to pray and wait.  Pray for the people we are going to, not about my fear. Pray for the hearts to be healed, not about my needs. Pray about the power of God to change us all, not about my to do list.

Today He invites me and you.  Just rest your head on Me. I really can be trusted.