Do We Praise Him Still?
We praise Him when times are good:
When there is enough,
When the food set before us is not only plentiful but what we specifically want,
When traffic is light,
The grade is achieved,
The advancement given,
The shower is hot,
The car is new,
Our health is good.
We praise Him when things go the way we want them to go
and we are feeling prosperous.
We praise Him when the phone call comes telling us all is well…
when our children rise up and thank us for all that we have done…
when others like us, receive us, understand us.
We praise Him when all things are good.
What if they are not?
What if things are not good in any way?
What if things are not well with us?
What if there is not enough?
Not enough food?
Do we praise Him when our entire diet consists of starches?
When biscuits and gravy–alone–is a common occurence on our dinner table?
When we serve rice and beans not simply because we like them
but, rather, because they are all that we can afford–
and that itself is a stretch?
Do we praise Him when the job simply doesn’t come
and we cannot pay our bills?
Do we praise Him
when we cannot help ourselves and must rely on others?
Do we praise Him when the phone call never comes?
When the silence tells us all is not well?
When others misunderstand us?
Misquote us?
Abuse us?
Hate us?
Do we praise Him then?
When the best that we have to wear is old and had seen better days two years ago?
When we do without what others deem necessities?
When our glasses break and we can’t afford to get new ones?
What then?
Do we praise Him when there is no heat in the house?
Or, in the car?
Do we praise Him when anything and everything that can go wrong does go wrong?
Can we praise Him still?
Can we lift our voices in praise
when Christmas comes from thrift stores
yard sales
and clearance items?
Do we praise Him still and lift high His holy Name
when what we want is never a factor in our decisions?
When we have to maneuver (again and again)
in order to somehow manage to afford
a birthday present for our child,
medicine for those we love,
gas for the car?
When, maybe, by doing without something elsewhere, we can manage this…
dictates all of our decisions?
Do we praise Him when our children rebel?
When our spouse has time for everything except us?
When our marriage is rocky?
When our health is poor?
When sickness comes again and again
and we have no strength
and no money
with which to fight it?
Do we praise Him?
When troubles pile up and one more will be too much…
and one more comes…
and then another,
and
another?
What then?
Do we remember how very great, how mighty is our God
when we cannot see Him,
feel Him,
when it feels as if He has fled?
Do we praise Him still?
He is worthy then as always.
Though the night be dark
He still is the Light.
Though the pathway is unclear
He Himself has set it.
Though others forsake us
and Him we cannot feel,
He is there.
He Who never changes never leaves us either.
We can trust Him,
we can love Him,
we can praise Him
no matter what.
He is worthy
of all praise,
of all devotion,
of all love,
of all obedience,
of all worship
no matter what.
He is worthy
simply
because
He is God
The Great I AM
The Creator,
Sustainer,
Savior,
Master.
He alone is our God.
He alone is worthy
no matter what.
Praise Him.
To Know The Cross
We think we know the Cross:
A payment for our sin, a debt we could never pay;
For this Jesus was whipped and spat upon and abused.
We’ve heard it so many times so we say it without flinching;
reciting as if from memory: first this, then that, and, oh yes, finally He died.
He died.
We say it and then easily move on to another subject.
“Jesus died for us…oh, isn’t that a pretty dress?”
“Jesus died for our sins…yes! I loved that movie!”
“Jesus died. I’m tired. Are you ready to go?”
Are we really so devoid of feeling, of understanding?
The Son of God died bearing my sin.
My sin. MINE.
Do we even understand that?
Do we have a clue just what that means?
Do we have any inkling how horrible this good news is?
The Son of God…died…for me…because of me!
And, yet, I can so easily turn away and get engaged in something else,
talk about something else, do something else
without even giving it a second thought.
We think we know the Cross (after all we have two on our walls, one on our desk, one around our neck and a poem imprinted on a picture of one in our wallet).
We are so very, very certain that we know it.
We’ve heard the story of it our entire life.
There was never a time that we didn’t know.
The Cross was horrible. It was awful. It was necessary.
It secured my salvation.
The Cross was for me.
That’s often where we begin and end the story.
“Jesus died, yes, but because He died, I can live!” (Glory hallelujah!)
“Jesus paid the price for my sins but because He died, I can one day live in heaven!” (God be praised!)
Of course, these things are right.
God is to be praised for what He did for us…
but, aren’t we missing something?
Look at what we say:
“Jesus died so that I might live.”
“Jesus gave His life so that I can live in heaven one day.”
The Cross has become all about us!
We tell the story of how Jesus died and we end it with what “I” get out of it.
We ought to end it with tears.
We ought not even be able to make it to “because He died I…”
Our hearts should be utterly shattered,
completely broken into a million pieces.
The Cross isn’t about me…it’s about Him!
His love, His obedience, His sacrifice, His death!
The only me in it ought to be this:
I put Him there.
MY SIN.
MY SHAME.
MY PUNISHMENT.
MY CROSS.
mine
Mine.
The Cross was, is and will always be about me.
The Cross was, is and will always be mine.
It wasn’t just the Romans who put Jesus on the Cross.
It wasn’t just the Jews who called for His death.
My sins put Him on that Cross.
I called for His death.
Oh, yes, even I.
I who just wanted to have fun.
I who believed that religion ought not to be taken so seriously.
I who went to church and “worshipped” on Sunday
and then acted, dressed, talked and was entertained the exact same way my worldly friends were all during the week.
(Did you know that they don’t know Jesus…isn’t that sad?)
I who would get right with God somewhere down the road…
but then took so very, very long to even think about doing so.
Every single day of my life, by the way I lived, I called for His death.
I’m to blame.
Yes, even me.
I deserve the Cross.
It was my fault–mine!–that Jesus died.
(Can our hearts even bear such knowledge, such grief?)
The Cross was because of me, for me, belonged to me.
The Cross was mine…and He took it.
But, do you want to know something far more amazing?
Something wondrous?
Something horrible in its significance?
Jesus’ Father put Him on the Cross.
He planned it before time began.
He secured it.
He had Him killed.
Do you have a clue why He would do such a horrible heart-shattering thing?
Didn’t He love Jesus?
Didn’t He love His Son?
This is HIS SON! Doesn’t the Father LOVE Him…at all?
He does.
He does.
But, He loves me, too.
Can anything be more wondrous?
He loved Him then even as the terrible deed unfolded.
As Jesus hung on the Cross, God the Father,
His Father,
emptied His holy wrath on Him,
on Jesus,
on God the Son.
The bitter cup.
The cup that Jesus had been fearful of.
He didn’t shrink back in fear from the pain that He would face (as bad as that was).
It was the cup.
The cup…the bitter cup…overflowing with the Father’s very righteous, very holy, very justified wrath…
the cup that for the first time ever…
and for the only time ever…
caused the Father and the Son to be separated.
It had never before happened, not even for a moment.
It will never happen again.
Yet, for that time,
for those hours
that the Son hung on the Cross…
suspended between heaven and earth,
God the Father and God the Son were separated…
God the Father emptied out His wrath against sin…
every last tiny drop
and God the Son…
took it…
every last tiny drop.
By this my salvation was won.
God the Father emptied His wrath at my sin out on the only perfect One that ever lived:
His Son.
Jesus didn’t stay on the Cross because of the nails.
He stayed on the Cross because His Father willed it.
He stayed on the Cross suspended by obedience and by love:
love for the Father,
love for me.
He loved me. The Father loved me.
They love me still.
Yes, by Jesus’ death He secured my salvation.
It’s wonderful, marvelous, amazing, beautiful beyond belief news.
Jesus died so that I might live: nothing is more amazing.
However, let us not forget that there is much, much more to the story.
By His death He secured my life, yes, but
by my sins, I secured His punishment, His death,
I secured the only time ever that He was separated from His Father.
May I never forget.
God’s Ways
God never takes something from us unless He intends to give us something better.
He never says “No” unless the no is the exact thing we need to hear.
He never makes a mistake.
His intention is to fit us for heaven.
To be fit for heaven we must be fit for Him.
He will take everything from us that He has to in order to get us to that point.
He takes material possessions from us in order that we will not trust in the fleeting joy things provide.
He takes money from us so that we will never love or depend upon wealth.
He takes people from us so that we have only Him to turn to.
He takes reputation from us so that we may not feel that we are someone with something to offer.
He takes health from us so that we may not depend upon ourselves.
He backs us into a corner so that the only way out is Up.
He leads us into a dry and barren place so that we may call out to Him in repentance and trust.
When we do, He leads us into green pastures.
He brings us to brokenness so that He may bring us to wholeness.
He draws love for the world out of us as a doctor draws pus out of a festering wound.
Only with the pain comes the healing.
It feels like failure.
It feels like emptiness.
It feels like abandonment.
It feels as if everything is over.
It isn’t.
When there is no one but Him to turn to, we are in the very best of all possible places.
When we finally realize that there is nowhere else to go and no one else to go to.
When we want only Him–
it is then that we are the richest of all people.
For to have Him and have nothing else is to be most blessed.
God reduces us in order to increase us.
He impoverishes us in order to enrich us–
with Himself.
Beautifully Broken
God uses no one whom He hasn’t broken. There is no room for compromising. He who would not spare His only Son the horror of the Cross will not spare His earthly sons the horror of the flame of purification.
Being purified is painful. It requires sacrifice, surrender, loneliness. It requires that we let go of all that is not of God.
Do we even realize how much we hold onto that is not “of God”?
Do we know very often we make excuses? How often we fail to distinguish the holy from the profane?
We just expect that God will accept it. Somehow, He Who is holy, holy, holy is expected to accept our sinful pleasures and give our excuses a pass!
How mistaken we are. There is no playing celestial handball with God. The ball isn’t first in His court and then in ours. The ball is always in His court. He always wins the game.
That’s the way it should be and that’s the way it is. There is no choice.
The psalmist asked “Why do the heathen rage?”; we could also ask “Why do those who claim His high and holy Name rage against the God they claim to serve?”
Why?
Do we not know better?
Do we not care?
Can we simply not stand to be inconvenienced in some way by God?
Is He a burden to us?
That’s the way that many of us act.
His ways are always right. His law is always perfect. His ruling are always justified.
How easily we forget that. Like a little child we whine when we don’t get our way. Like a toddler raging against a nap, we rage against restrictions. Like a teen rages against rules, we, too, rage against our Father’s ways.
Still He is good. Still He says “Come”.
The “Come” comes with a price, however. We will obey. We will submit. We will love Him will all that we are, all that we have.
To do otherwise is to commit spiritual treason and to be worthy of death.
To not “Come” is to doom ourselves to eternal punishment.
There is only one way out: absolute total surrender, absolute total devotion, absolute total obedience.
We lose. He wins.
When He wins, we win. When we win, we lose.
He will take us through the flames of the fires of purification. He will break us. He will destroy anything and everything in us that is not “of God”. When He is done, He will stand back and look into our lives and see the beautiful and glorious reflection of His Son.
We who are vile, who are worms, who are nothing will, finally, be beautiful.
The road to beautiful is the road of brokenness.
When we travel it, we find our way Home.
God Understands?
God understands our infirmities. He remembers that we are dust. Those who come to Him in repentance will not be turned away. God understands our frailties and our disappointments. He protects His own in their troubles and guides them to safe ground. He is always there.
All of that is true. True beyond question or without need for defense. In modern times (as in ancient), Christians frequently comfort each other with such thoughts, encouraging one another to hang on and go forward. “God will never let His child down,” they will tell you. And, of course, since God is God and thus unchangeable, that statement, like the others, is absolutely true.
We must be careful as we tread on this ground, however, for dangers lurk close-by. “God is always there for you” can easily be changed into “God is there for you–no matter who you are , what you do or where you are in your walk with Him.” Just as “God understands (your problems, needs, infirmities, your humanness)” can easily be stretched to mean, “God understands…period. No matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter how you turn your back on Him.” That is patently not true.
Stretching the meaning and going where God Himself hasn’t gone (in His Word), leads us into the dangerous ground of the man-centered gospel. Taught in many man-centered churches today, the man-centered gospel leads us where the God-centered Gospel never will. It teaches us that it doesn’t matter how we fail God, He will never love us any less–can never love us less, and also, that, no matter what, He can never love us more than He already does. Both statements are blatantly untrue. There are many statements in the Bible that refer to God’s love for one exceeding His love for another: Romans 9: 13, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated”(literally loved less); Malachi 1: 3, “And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” Listen to the words of David in 2 Samuel 22: 20 (and repeated in Psalms 18: 19), “He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.”
The man-centered gospel guides us along the dangerous road of human will vs. divine will. We reduce God to a side-kick, along for the ride but not a true part of it. What we want is paramount and, since God “just wants us to be happy” (which cannot be proven by any Scripture–God’s will for us being persecution), we are told that He will allow us to do almost anything that we desire to (think wearing immodest clothing, skipping church for fun or rest, failure to make time to study His Word, partaking of ungodly entertainment) even if it goes against His perfect will (He Who never changes is thought to be changeable when it comes to pleasing us).
We are taught that our lives are to center on God rather than be completely lost in God (2 Corinthians 5: 17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”) This kind of thinking “puts God in His place” as it were–whether it means to or not. We are told that if we don’t have time to pray (or simply “aren’t good at it”), God will gladly accept whatever we throw at Him (as a dog under a table will gladly welcome any scraps that come his way). Further, since our lives are so busy (we are obviously busier that Jesus Himself for He always had time for His Father), that a 10-minute (or 5-minute or, God forbid, even a 1-minute) time set aside to study God’s Word is perfectly understandable and acceptable…even to God Himself. Or, better still (since we seem to think that we can improve upon what God said since the Bible is archaic and hard to understand), get a book (not God’s book, though, which is too hard for us poor imbeciles today) that sets out God’s Word in portions of one or two sentences and then “explains” and “applies” them to our oh-so-busy me-centered lives. Such books are called “devotionals”. That is a sad and unfortunate misuse of the term, since a true book of devotions is God-centered and, rather than explaining His Word in terms of our lives, explains our lives in terms of His Word and causes us to think upon His glory with wonder and amazement and then take His Word and, searching ourselves, apply it to His glorification. A true devotional book is a treasure. What often passes for one today is blasphemous.
We must return to a clear understanding of God’s Word and His work. God is not here (or there) for us in the sense that the term is used today. It is true that God will never fail those who are His own (Lamentations 3: 22, “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.). It is also true that He will always be there for His own (Matthew 28: 20b ”and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”). However, that doesn’t mean that our lives will be happy and full of comfort.
God’s purposes for His people are always spiritual: if a spiritual purpose in enhanced by protecting, promoting or enriching the physical, God is in it; if not, He isn’t (this isn’t to say that God doesn’t grant financial or physical “blessings” to the heathen, He does at times do just this–however this might be the only “blessing” He bestows upon him–and it is because they live contrary to His will that He “grants” it and thus it is a curse and not a true blessing). God will never ever promote the physical well-being of a child of His above their spiritual well-being. Just as Jesus didn’t die so that you might be happy (but, rather, holy), He also didn’t die so that you might be physically taken care of to the exclusion or at the expense of your salvation and growth in holiness. Don’t misunderstand: frequently, God does protect and enhance the physical parts of a Christian’s life (whether it is by means of health, money, things or happiness); but, He doesn’t have to. When He does so bless, He does it in conjunction with the spiritual well-being of His child–not instead of. His will for His Son was that He be poverty stricken, persecuted and, finally, that He die; His will might be the same for us.
God will never understand (or make allowances for) our wayward self-centered, self-focused ways. He will never understand our busy lives that allow us little or no time to commune with (through prayer and study of His Word) the One Who created us and died to save us. Explaining away His commands, busy-ness at His expense, me-centered living rather than God-centered living…the Almighty Sovereign God of the universe will never understand or accept. He calls these things sin–always has, always will. God will never understand sin; He cannot and still remain true to Himself.
God has told us what He desires of us: Micah 6: 8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” He expects obedience: James 1: 22, “James 1: 22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” To fail to obey Him is to deceive ourselves: God never honors the one who refuses to honor Him through obedience. Those who disobey God are an abomination to Him: Deuteronomy 25: 16b, “all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.” God must come first: thus He has said, thus we must do; anything else is sin. When we disregard His teaching or explain it away (thus making ourselves instead of Him first), when we excuse ourselves from something that He has told us we are to do, we are sinning: Isaiah 5: 20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
God understands those who reverance and devote themselves to His holy Word (Psalms 138: 2, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”). He understands (and accepts) the one whose heart is perfect towards Him (2 Chronicles 16: 9, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.). He understands those who seek after Him with their whole hearts and He graciously allows them to find Him (Proverbs 8: 7, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”). He understands that those who are seeking to please Him in all ways will fail and, at times, will sin…for we are but dust (Psalms 103: 13, 14, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”): He understands and He forgives.
God understands us for He made us: to understand, however, is not to excuse as so many today teach. God wants us but on His terms, not ours. When we turn our lives over to Him and seek to obey Him in all things, He will bless us (but perhaps not financially or phyically). We must seek Him on His terms and strive to understand Him: His ways, His will, His Word. A heart that loves God will be sensitive to sin and will seek to understand, and obey, God…rather than trying to make God understand, and excuse, him.
The Most Precious Gift Of All
Everybody seems to have it rough right now. Folks are out of work, prices are high, uncertainty is in the air.
Ah, yes, so, so true BUT there is good news: as long as we have God, we have all that we need. He is real, He is living, He is powerful, He is in control.
He Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills knows and loves those who are His. Those whom He knows, He takes care of and He supplies what we need. When we don’t know, when we can’t see, when we want but can’t have, we should remember that He has said: “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13: 5)
If God hasn’t seen fit to supply it, then it is certain that it (whatever “it” is), is something that we don’t need. We might think we need it, but our Father knows we don’t need it.
This can be hard. There are bills to be paid and not always the money to pay them. There are legitimate needs that can’t be handled. Then there is Christmas: it is coming and many moms and dads don’t know how they are going to make it through Christmas.
Tough times call for tough faith. Either God is God and He knows what He is doing–or He’s not. If He is, we can trust Him. If He isn’t, we can wash our hands of the whole affair.
It’s not a difficult decision: one look above tells you that God exists; one half-hour focused on the Cross, tells you God is good and can be trusted–in all ways.
If we trust Him with our eternal well-being, why not trust Him for and with our physical well-being–and that of our family? After all, which is truly the more important: the eternal salvation of ourselves (and those we love) or the physical well-being of the same?
Just because the physical is more immediate, doesn’t mean it is more important. Get focused. Get oriented and think this through: you trust in God’s ability to preserve your soul and bring you to Him in the end–right? Then, honey, trust Him now. Trust Him with the bills, with food for your family, with a place to live. Trust Him with everything. Trust Him with Christmas.
My husband has been out of work for months now and we are barely making it. Supplying basic needs is hard (and, at times, impossible). How are we going to supply Christmas?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t. But, this I do know: God is good and I can trust Him. He’s never failed me yet (and I’ve lived through poverty more than once) and He won’t fail me this time. We have food on the table, we have electricity, we have clothes. We have enough. Christmas might be simple this year (it won’t be the first time) but it will still be Christmas. There will still be reason to rejoice!
Do we have what we want? No, of course not, but who does? Even millionaires have to do without something (and, too often, it is the more important things of love, family, true friends). We have what we need. Distinguishing between wants and needs isn’t always easy but it is vital for your emotional well-being. Our true physical needs (that money can buy) are as follows: food, shelter, clothing, basic care; beyond that lies luxury. True, our roof may leak (been there), our clothes may be plain, unfashionable, second-hand or worn (been there, too), our neighborhood may not be the best (ditto), our car old and unreliable (ditto, ditto), our food may be of the plainest sort (also ditto). Does that mean that God doesn’t care?
No. It means He knows exactly what you are going through for Jesus Himself was poor and did without. God knows how you feel. He cares. Sometimes He meets your needs by supplying it. And sometimes He meets your needs by supplying more of Himself.
Truly, which is better: more of things or more of Him?
It’s not a hard question. Nothing that we go through is important in light of Who He is and what He has done. NOTHING.
So, when times are tough and you don’t know what you are going to do, go to Him, partake of Him, learn of Him, trust Him. There is always enough of God to go around for we don’t split Him up amongst us: we all get all of Him that there is.
Remember, God rewards great trust. Focus on Him and not on your circumstances and then get to work. Maybe there is something you can do to improve your circumstances. Maybe not. If there is, do it. If there isn’t, accept it as a gracious gift from a loving Father’s hand: the gift of Himself.
When you can see only Him, you are the richest of all women.
As for me, I’m going to trust His knowledge of our situation as being far superior to my own (after all, He knows everything and He can be trusted).
Does that mean that tomorrow morning everything will be all better?
No, not necessarily, but it could. Definitely, my faith will have grown. But, it does mean that I can trust God even if everything isn’t all better. He is God. He is good. He knows what He is doing. Even when everything is crazy, when it seems that all is falling apart, God is still God and He is still good and He still loves me–and you. And, He has taught us that He will never forsake us or leave us. He is with us in this thing called “Life” all the way.
And to those who belive are given the most precious of all gifts: God Himself.
Thoughts By John Owen (1616-1683)
My goal is God Himself…At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.
The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh.
Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.
Indwelling sin always abides whilst we are in this world; therefore it is always to be mortified.
There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: “God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled.” When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage.
How can we possibly believe the promises concerning Heaven, immortality, and glory, when we do not believe the promises concerning our present life? And how can we be trusted when we say we believe these promises but make no effort to experience them ourselves? It is just here that men deceive themselves. It is not that they do not want the Gospel privileges of joy, peace and assurance, but they are not prepared to repent of their evil attitudes and careless life-styles. Some have even attempted to reconcile these things and ruined their souls. But without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we shall never enjoy the graces of joy, peace and assurance.
“If ye put to death;” a metaphorical expression, taken from the putting of any living thing to death. To kill a man, or any other living thing, is to take away the principle of all his strength, vigour, and power, so that he cannot act or exert, or put forth any proper actings of his own; so it is in this case. Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called “the old man,” with his faculties, and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified, — that is, have its power, life, vigour, and strength, to produce its effects, taken away by the Spirit. It is, indeed, meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and slain by the cross of Christ; and the “old man” is thence said to be “crucified with Christ,” Romans 6:6, and ourselves to be “dead” with him, verse 8, and really initially in regeneration, Romans 6:3-5, when a principle contrary to it, and destructive of it, Gal. 5:17, is planted in our hearts; but the whole work is by degrees to be carried on towards the perfection all our days. Of this more in the process of our discourse. The intendment of the apostle in this prescription of the duty mentioned is, — that the mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh is the constant duty of believers.
Grace In Our Weariness
Have you ever been at a place in your life where you are tired all of the time?
Just bone tired, weary, down-deep-inside tired?
That’s the way life is for me right now. I’m trying to do so many things that I just can’t seem to handle all of them…and yet, I feel that God wants me to do all of them right now so I just can’t drop something.
I don’t watch tv, I don’t surf the web for fun (I do read certain Christian blogs and check up on the news–about twice a week), I’m not spending time with friends. It’s also not busy-ness keeping me busy…I’m not a member of any club, I’m not teaching a Sunday School class…nothing like that. Understand, there are things like that that I would like to be doing right now…but I just can’t. I’m only managing about 6 hours of sleep most nights as it is.
It isn’t frivolity of any sort that’s doing me in. I’m simply trying to follow God’s leading for my life. I believe with all of my heart that, contrary to what we are frequently told, our Lord will sometimes allow us to have more on our plate than we can handle. Why wouldn’t He? If His grace is made manifest in our weakness, then why not in our weariness, too?
When we are overwhelmed…when money is short and bills are high…when there are more little ones to take care of than we have arms to hold them…when we have to turn in one more report at work and it’s already five o’clock…when our professors pile on the assignments and we are working two jobs…when we are sick but the jobs keep piling up anyway…
when….
That’s when we are humbled by our weakness, our frailness, our in-the-face humanity. It’s when we are most humbled that our need for Christ shines the greatest.
That’s where I am right now. I can’t make it a single second without Him. I know that all of the time, of course, but right now it is a glaring reality. There’s simply too much to do…and too little me to do it. I can’t drop a thing…and I am glad. I used to think that, no matter what I was doing, I should have been doing something else. Guilt was my continual companion. No matter how hard I tried, I was sure that I could never do enough. Now I know for sure that I can’t do enough; because of the overload in my life and my inability to tackle it, when it gets done, my God is glorified.
Through the years and seasons of my life, the Lord has taught me to be fully involved in whatever moment I am in. Through His love He has taught me to live deliberately. I am to be where He put me and give my very best to it. The frivilous falls away and all that is left is necessity. The necessity may, for a time, be overwhelming to me but it is never overwhelming to Him. While I can do nothing on my own, He can do everything. When I trust in Him, though my days are long and tiring, He brings me through with gladness.
When the mountain is the highest, He exhibits the greatest strength on my behalf…because I trust in Him.
I am homeschooling five children (1st grade through 10th grade). My older sons are starting a business and need my help with it. We moved a little over a month ago and are attempting to get completely settled (in our home, our town, our church). I’ve started a new blog for ladies (dealing with issues of the heart and home from a Christian perspective) and I need to pay it more attention (so far I’ve mostly put up articles that I had already written). I have this blog…I love it but it terrifies me, thus it takes much out of me. I have a husband and three older sons who love to eat, plus four younger ones who do eat…I mostly cook from scratch and I do the vast majority of the cooking–three times a day, seven days a week for 9 people. Then there is house-keeping (which my children share in), Bible study (the first hour of my day), prayer (many hours as I go through my day), other study/reading, being mommy and being a wife. Plus, my husband is out of work right now (and has been for the last several months) so money is very tight (and, since everything costs money or time…keeping things going on so little also taxes my time).
Am I over-loaded? Yes, absolutely. Am I miserable? No, definitely not. See, it’s when I can’t do anything but lean on my Lord that I feel Him the most.
It’s not just having warm fuzzy feelings when I think about God that is important but knowing that when I call out to Him, He’s there. When I pray long and hard for something and then see Him perform it, I am awed. When we need something and I go to my Father and ask for it and then it appears the next day–I know without a doubt, it was Him. It’s praying like crazy for God to maximize my efforts and seeing more get accomplished that was ever even remotely possible for me to do–and I know I didn’t do it, He did. It’s seeing my husband’s prayers that we might live near his elderly parents once more be answered; it’s knowing that our God has graciously allowed us to be able to spend more time with my in-laws in the last month than we have been able to spend with them in the last several years.
If we are overwhelmed, if life is too much too often…we need to learn to trust in the only One Who will never fail us and to lean on the ever-lasting arms. He has the answer. He is the answer, always. As He gives us grace in our weakness will He shed forth His grace in our weariness. He Who never fails those who trust in Him and obey Him will never fail in this, either.
A Prayer by William Wilberforce
O Lord,
reassure me with Your quickening Spirit; without You I can do nothing.
Mortify in me all ambition, vanity, vainglory, worldliness, pride,
selfishness, and resistance from God,
and fill me with love, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit.
O Lord, I know not what I am, but to You I flee for refuge.
I would surrender myself to You, trusting Your precious promises
and against hope believing in hope.
You are the same yesterday, today, and forever; and therefore,
waiting on the Lord, I trust that I shall at length renew my strength.
“Several Ways to Make Yourself Miserable” by Elisabeth Elliot
- Count your troubles, name them one by one–at the breakfast table, if anybody will listen, or as soon as possible thereafter.
- Worry every day about something. Don’t let yourself get out of practice. It won’t add a cubit to your stature but it might burn a few calories.
- Pity yourself. If you do enough of this, nobody else will have to do it for you.
- Devise clever but decent ways to serve God and mammon. After all, a man’s gotta live.
- Make it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they’re going. Try to do them at least one better even if you have to take out another loan to do it.
- Stay away from absolutes. It’s what’s right for you that matters. Be your own person and don’t allow yourself to get hung up on what others expect of you.
- Make sure you get your rights. Never mind other people’s. You have your life to live, they have theirs.
- Don’t fall into any compassion traps–the sort of situation where people can walk all over you. If you get too involved in other people’s troubles, you may neglect your own.
- Don’t let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what’s really relevant–things like TV and newspapers. Invisible things are eternal. You want to stick with the visible ones–they’re where it’s at now.
