Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in You my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the disaster has passed. ~ Psalm 57:1
'God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.' ~ Genesis 1:27 (NET Bible)
Paintings don't paint themselves. Sculptures cannot mold themselves. Neither songs nor poems are able to write themselves.
You & I didn't create ourselves either. We didn't appear on this planet randomly, the circumstantial results of the Big Bang Theory. We simply didn't just materialize on this planet like the various 'away team' crew members did on weekly episodes of Star Trek.
We were intentionally created, carefully woven & spun, lovingly molded & fashioned, with brushstrokes, fingerprints and lyrical storylines unique to us, by the Master Artist, the Creator Extraordinaire: God. Our Father.
In The Living Bible, throughout the Creation story in Genesis 1, the phrase which pops up at the end of each day's descriptions is 'and God was pleased.'Except at the end of Day 6; instead, for this particular day on which man & woman were brought & breathed into existence, made in the ‘Imago Dei’ – the image of God -- these words were spoken: 'Then God looked over all that He had made, & it was excellent in every way.' ~ Genesis 1:31, TLB
Did you catch that? Don't skim over it. EXCELLENT. In EVERY way.
So why, when we look in the mirror, do we hate what we see? We bemoan our freckles or lack of them. We're embarrassed over that gap in our front teeth or that much too prominent birthmark or our protruding nose. We complain about our eye color; our curly or poker straight hair; our too thin or too thick lips. Millions of dollars are spent each year on products & services that promise to make us look better, younger, more attractive. Flawless. And completely different. We can suddenly find ourselves unrecognizable. Why do we desire to look like anyone but ourselves?
Could it be possible that the very thing which you so despise about yourself is that very thing which God wildly adores about you? Because HE created you that way?
You are fearfully & wonderfully made. You are unique. You are beautiful. You are God's lovingly created masterpiece: His artwork, His sculpture, His poem, His song.
Never forget that you bear the signature of the Divine.
'For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully & wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.' ~ Psalm 139:13-16, NIV
Go into a
random store the day before a major holiday like Christmas or Easter, or days set aside to remember and honor those we love -- Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day -- and you’ll
no doubt find a shelf filled with dubious looking items for sale (like a scented
candle in the shape of a mini cupcake or a necktie sporting a pheasant) underneath a sign touting them as ‘Last Minute
Gift Ideas.’ I’ve even seen one that read
‘Last Minute Gifts for that Special Someone’
Listen – if that someone was THAT special, why would you wait until the
dead last minute to buy them a gift (limited incomes and off pay weeks notwithstanding)?
Yes, nothing says ‘I Love You’ like a tiny lump of wax resembling pastry, a gaudy tie, or some other lame item
from the Clearance section of your local WalMart.
Or how about
this one? Have you ever been told by someone:
“I asked all my other friends if they
wanted to come with me to _____ (fill
in the blank here with some event or destination) but they all said ‘No’....and
then I remembered YOU!”
Wow. Gee, thanks. Really, I'm honored. Over the years, I’ve been the recipient of last minute gifts
and invites; sometimes even left out entirely (intentionally or
unintentionally) of one get-together or another. And sad to say, I’ve done the
same to others.
It’s an
awful thing to come face-to-face with the reality of being someone’s
afterthought. Or even worse – realizing that you weren’t even thought about at
all. As in totally off the radar. Not even on the list. Forgotten.
Thankfully,
this isn’t how God operates. You’re not an afterthought to Him. In fact, the
psalmist has this to say:
How precious it is, Lord, to realize that You are thinking about me constantly! I can't even count how many times a day Your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, You are still thinking of me! (Psalm 139:17-18, TLB)
And in Isaiah 49:15-16, God says, Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of My hands.
I like the Amplified Bible version of verse 16 even better: Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands.
Today and every day, grab on and hold tightly to this awesome, wonderful and comforting TRUTHthat you are always on God's mind, that you are ever in His thoughts. You are never His last pick for the team; you aren't the recipient of some thoughtless, last minute gift; you are not a postscript to a letter written long ago but never mailed; nor a forgotten child left home alone.
Instead, know that you are chosen, holy and dearly loved by the Father, Who is Love.
How much do you want God? And what would you give to show Him how serious you are about wanting to know Him and about having a relationship with Him; to experience His presence in your life; to hear His voice; to feel His hand upon you, daily leading and guiding you?
Would you give God a few moments of your time? Would you give Him a day or two...or three?
In these days of ALS ice bucket challenges and gratitude challenges sweeping through social media, let me throw another challenge your way, along with this question:
Would you give God 7 days?
Starting today, Lisa Whittle, author of the book 'I Want God: Forever Changed by the Revival of Your Soul', due to hit bookstore shelves on October 1st, is offering a FREE pdf with 7 days worth of devotionals, Scripture on which to meditate, reflective questions for you to answer, and some daily steps to take to walk with God in a new way.
You don't need to 'tag' anyone nor do you need to let everyone on social media know that you've completed each day's worth of devotionals and questions -- unless you feel moved to do so. Consider this a personal journey, one between you and God. So what you do with this challenge, should you choose to accept it, is completely up to you.
Interested? Intrigued? If you care to join me and so many other women who've already committed to giving God 7 days, here's your link to the page where you can sign up (and hey -- while you're there, why not check out what other folks like Sheila Walsh, Mark Batterson and Mary DeMuth are saying about 'I Want God,' and consider pre-ordering it?):
'Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with such things that you have; for He has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." ' ~King James 2000 Bible During a recent conversation, a friend shared a story from their past. It was a heartbreaking tale involving a celebratory milestone event that took place in their life; an event which no one in the family
bothered to attend.
One family member dropped them off at the event location, drove away – and was not seen again until much later THE NEXT DAY.
While family members of the other young people who were
involved in this joyous occasion were present in the bleachers – proudly cheering
them on by name, pointing them out to those sitting around them, taking
snapshot after snapshot of them – my friend’s family members were conspicuously
absent from the crowd in the bleachers that evening.
Instead, they took their places on the sidewalk far beyond
the seating area. For reasons known only to them, they chose to remain on the
outer edge; standing on the fringe – literally and figuratively – of this child’s life,
content to observe the happy goings-on through the chain link fence surrounding the
field.
Years later, I could still hear the pain and the brokenness
in my friend’s voice as the memory of the experience was put into words. I felt moved to encourage this dear one by reminding them that even though they didn't realize it or know it then; even though they didn't see or even know HIM at that time in their life, God was there WITH them. God was there FOR them.
God was there in the bleachers.
Oh, friends, I have to wonder, as you sit reading this story,
just how many of you can relate to it?
Maybe – with a few minor adjustments with regards to the logistics
of people, locations and situations – my friend’s story
Is
your story
And while the details may be
different, the pain and the brokenness that comes from being rejected and
overlooked; from feeling lost and forsaken is the same.
It’s real. It’s raw. It remains lodged in your heart
like a hidden piece of shrapnel from a long ago battle. It’s a reminder – albeit an
extremely erroneous one – that you aren’t worth someone’s time and effort. That
you’re invisible. Forgotten.
Alone.
Today, let me encourage you that
this is NOT so. This is NOT truth.
You are not worthless
You are not invisible
You are not forgotten
You are not alone
Today, let me remind you that
God is in the bleachers. And in the church pew.
He’s in the motel room and in the
infusion room.
He’s in the prison cell and on the
building ledge.
He’s at the kitchen table and the radiation table.
He's in the classroom and in the office cubicle.
Or wherever it is you find
yourself RIGHT NOW; wherever it is you feel lost, rejected, unseen, forsaken.
Alone.
God sees. God hears. God knows.
And God cares.
He sees you, every day and everywhere. He pursues you relentlessly and desperately. He knows your name, whispering it tenderly and constantly. He loves you unconditionally and unfailingly.
He sings over you, longing to quiet you with His love, like
a mother sings to calm her wailing, thrashing child.
God is for you, not against you. He is with you – not out
there somewhere in the great beyond, peering at you from behind the clouds. Or through a chain link fence.
Wherever you are – God is. 'But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end— Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you' ~Isaiah 43:1-4, The Message
I am reminded today that even a common, ordinary moment in time can suddenly be transformed into a holy and sacred one.
So be on the alert at all times, keeping your eyes and your heart wide open. Because you never know when the ordinary can suddenly become the extraordinary.
'Yes, in the past, you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.'~ Ephesians 2:2, NCV
This past week or so, I’ve found myself an unhappily captive
audience to some‘stuff’ that has been going down on the pages of several Facebook friends.
I use the word ‘captive’ quite loosely because in reality, I
DO have the choice to just click off the page/site and do something else, like:
Pray
Take a walk
Clean my toilet
Or grab a cup of coffee and hunker down with a good book
Any one of those things or another would be a whole lot
better than watching the sniping via status updates that come through my daily news feed, but often, I
find it’s like a train wreck – you just can’t look away, although you
desperately want to.
I know there are many positive things to be said about
social media. You can get to know and converse
with people around the world, anytime day or night. You can make new friends, reconnect
with old friends and family members, find MIA classmates, coworkers and lost
pets.
There are pages for reminiscing about
happier times and places, for finding and sharing information and favorite photos,
for posting links to funny videos, and pages on which to ask for and find
prayer and community support. These are
just a small handful of the things I’ve found to be good and helpful and fun.
But social media does indeed have its Dark Side, with
Facebook and Twitter, seemingly more and more often lately, serving as the virtual playground for cyber
bullies and mean girl cliques.
Over and over, people pick on and call out others
in ways I believe they WOULD NEVER think of doing face-to-face, using the
anonymity of their keyboard and computer/iPhone screen as their shield, and
brandishing their words like Crocodile Dundee’s knife or Peter’s Narnian sword,
even as they make feeble attempts to undercut their snarkiness and ill intent with
well-placed terms of endearment (like ‘sweetie,’ ‘honey,’ ‘dearie,’ and the infamous, overly-used and totally worn out,‘why, bless your heart’).
The playground then becomes the battlefield, and I’ve
witnessed both the godly and the godless, Christian and carnal 'friends' warring and wounding
one another. And THIS, my friends,should not be.
For others, when this occurs, the safest, easiest and best
option would seem to be to retreat. Keep your head low and run away. Wave the white flag of surrender
and give up. Kill the accounts and unplug from all things social media. To be honest, I consider doing this at least once a week.
However, if you’re among those of us whom God has challenged
to faithfully commit to shine His light into a ‘dark’ place by bringing His encouragement, joy, hope, support, compassion and understanding to the land of social
media, then take a deep breath. Take heart. And remember the following things:
Not everyone will like nor want to hear what you have to
say. But we weren’t created to please man, but instead, to please God (Ezekiel
2:3-7; Galatians 1:10)
Have confidence in your God given gifts and purpose (1
Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Peter 4:11; 2 Peter 1:3)
Put on your armor daily. Not just pieces here and there, but
the FULL armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)
Don’t give up or lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:1; Galatians
6:9; Hebrews 12:3)
Press on (Philippians 3:14)
And stick close to the Lord, Who is Your Commander-In-Chief
and your place of refuge and protection (Psalm 32:7; Psalm 61:3; Psalm 91:1-4; Romans
8:31-37)
Because while there are those out there on the virtual
playground who seem to delight in pushing and kicking you around, and even more on the cyber
battlefield who want to crush, 'kill,' and silence you – there are that many more who
are hungry and thirsty and desperate for the message of hope, help and healing that is available through a
life given over to Jesus Christ.
The message God has seen fit for you to carry on and hold out to them.
'You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.' ~Ephesians 5:8-10, The Message
Today is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of the 40 days in
the Christian community known as Lent.
Many throughout the world will set aside time today to
attend church services and have ashes placed upon their foreheads in the sign of
the cross by priests, pastors, ministers or religious laypeople; most will fast from all
but one meal, and give up something they enjoy or of value for the next 40 days
as a sign of self-denial and sacrifice. Fish, veggie dishes, fruit platters and other meatless fare will be the
order of the day today and for the next 7 Fridays.
However, some Christian denominations don’t recognize Lent
at all, so for them, this won’t be considered a day of any special significance.
And, interestingly enough, there is no
mention of Lent in the Bible. The closest thing to it that I can see, in my opinion
anyway, is Jesus’ being led away into the wilderness for 40 days by the Holy
Spirit, in preparation for His ministry. He had nothing to eat or drink. It was
a time of cleansing, of purifying – physically, as well as spiritually.
Save for
the moments Satan appeared before a hungry and humbled Jesus to tempt Him, and when
angels came to minister to Jesus after Satan took off in a huff, He seemed to
be all alone.
Yet nowhere do I read or get the sense that God abandoned His Son in that
wilderness. Perhaps Jesus was brought to
this barren and solitary place, where all distractions were removed from Him, not
only to be tested, but also in order for Him to be able to spend uninterrupted time
with the Father in conversation and reflection, in preparation for what was to
come. The joys and the sorrows.
Lent to me, then, is to be a season of sincere reflection
and preparation for those of us who call Christ our Lord and our Savior. A
season where we make it a point to rest and spend time conversing with Jesus,
free of distractions. A season where we
walk along life’s path, content to be closely yoked with Him in service as He
teaches us His unforced rhythms of grace. A season of temptation and testing.
A season where we reflect on and acknowledge our
rebellious and sinful nature and desire to repent of it. A season of longing for our inner
transformation, hungering and thirsting to be like this humble and obedient
Servant King. A season of preparing
ourselves for whatever plans the Father has for us in the near or distant future. The joys and the sorrows.
Therefore, in my honest and humble opinion, the partaking of Lent should not be entered into lightly and frivolously, but intentionally and
seriously. There’s no room for showboating or bandwagon mentality here. It
shouldn’t be performance driven nor be done out of guilt, shame or family tradition.
And heaven forbid it should be seen as or turned into a kickstart for a new
diet program or part of a health plan designed to get your body swimsuit ready,
as I heard being discussed at great length on a local TV news show this morning.
Jesus was very clear about His loathing of acts being done for
appearances sake, for the approval and praise of man, or done out of routine obligation or
tradition. His strongest warnings were always towards the religious elite (Pharisees
and teachers of the Law), whose motives didn’t line up with their actions
(check out Matthew 23:13-36 for some examples of this and Jesus' words to these folks).
A woman with whom I attend a Bible study on
the book of Matthew said recently that Jesus was all about "living out the
‘heart of the Law,’ whereas the Pharisees had made it all about living out ‘the
letter of the Law'."
Wise and truth-filled words indeed.
Now, PLEASE hear me and believe me when I say that I AM NOT
criticizing anyone who has ever made the decision to give up something – coffee,
chocolate, junk food, social media, television, meats, dairy products, etc. – during
the Lenten season (been there, done that many a time). Neither am I
pooh-poohing someone’s involvement in a Lenten challenge, like reading through
the New Testament in 40 days (and believe it or get outta here, I'm actually taking this one on this year).
What I AM saying is we need to be so very mindful of our
motives for doing so. We should always ask ourselves:
"Why am I doing what I'm doing?"
"Who am I seeking to please?"
And if you’re not sure why – ask God:
“Is this what You want me to do, Lord?"
"Is this sacrificial offering pleasing to You? Or are You looking for something else from
me?"
"What do YOU want me to do or to refrain from doing?”
Can I tell you how hard I struggled this year to step in and find my place among those taking this always challenging Lenten journey, asking myself AND God these very same questions?
And, not surprisingly, His answers were revealed to me within the pages of Scripture, God's very Word to us:
What can we bring to the Lord?
What kind of offerings should we give him?
Should we bow before God
with offerings of yearling calves?
Should we offer him thousands of rams
and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should
we sacrifice our firstborn children
to pay for our sins?
No, O people, the Lord has told you
what is good, and this is what
he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God. ~ Micha 6:6-8, NLT
And, when you have some time, check out Isaiah 58 in its
entirety, for you may just find the answers to your questions there.
The grace and peace of God be with you this day and always,
my friends.
This
morning, after my son had pulled out of his parking spot and drove off to work
at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM, I remained standing outside on our tiny front
steps, staring up at the moon.
Even though he is almost 21, I still walk out with him, under the various
guises of hanging up our decorative front porch flag, taking some early morning
pics, or putting out the garbage and making sure the front door is locked. Sadly,
over the past few years, our neighborhood seems to have become home to some
pretty unsavory and even dangerous characters, and we’ve come to know the township
police officers here on a first-name basis.
I heard a
noise near our alley, and felt a chill hit me that didn’t come from the frigid morning
temperatures. Literally frozen with fear, I couldn’t move. I held my breath and waited. Nothing happened. No
one appeared.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, I glanced back up in the sky towards the moon, which looked to be fighting to be seen amid some clouds and the tree branches, and this verse suddenly came to mind:
In this
life, we never seem to run out of things to fear, do we? Whether due to bad, past
experiences (our own or even someone else’s), or because of future unknowns/uncertainties, all of us have a fear factor.
We don't like to admit it, but we're all afraid of SOMETHING.
And, for the most part, not all of us are afraid of the same things.
Some people are
afraid of heights (that would be me)
Some are
afraid of insects or big dogs or bats (oh my!)
Other folks
are afraid of flying, of driving in snowy/icy weather or across bridges, or of public speaking (me once again)
And still others
are afraid of the dark or of thunderstorms
At times, it may feel as if our fears, much like the bare, spidery tree branches in the
photo above, are reaching up, entangling us and choking the light and life right
out of us.
In the midst
of moments or even seasons that appear to be or truly are dark and fearful, we may think "what to
do?", as a friend’s son used to say when he was very small.
The only thing you CAN
do when you’re afraid: put your trust in God.
Some time
ago, not long after I was handed my breast cancer diagnosis and just before I was
about to be wheeled into surgery because of it, I was handed something else. Psalm 56:3
“When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Being a
still-wet-behind-the-ears follower of Jesus and pretty much new to Scripture
PERIOD (let alone its memorization), I had never heard of this verse. But, like a drowning woman, I
grabbed onto it like the lifeline that it was for me (and still is), and held on for dear life!
I repeated
it over and over in my head as my journey to the operating room took an unexpected detour to a ‘holding room,’ because the results of an earlier, routine (but
obviously pretty important) pre-admission test had not come back yet.
I whispered
the verse out loud again and again as medical personnel scurried around me,
checking my vitals, making frantic phone calls to
the lab for those missing in action test results, and doing their best to reassure me that everything would be fine.
“When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
But this
verse REALLY hit home once I was finally brought into the blindingly bright and
starkly sterile operating room as several folks from the surgical team lifted
me off the gurney and placed me onto the
hard, bare operating table, while two others each grabbed an arm of mine and
stretched them out to insert more tubes
and attach more wires.
It was a frightening
moment for me, and a somewhat bizarre thought wormed its way into my brain. I wondered if Jesus
had felt that same sickening fear overtake and overwhelm Him as the Roman
soldiers stretched His arms out onto the cross? Could the Father have impressed
these very words from the Psalms upon Jesus during His time of agony in the garden of Gethsemane?
Did He bring them to mind as nails and hammers were poised above His hands and
feet?
Did KNOWING that He could COMPLETELY trust in His Abba bring Jesus some measure of
comfort, peace and the strength to endure what was coming at that very moment?
Because they did for me. Those 9 simple words -- “When I am afraid, I will trust in You” -- plus the realization that Jesus could relate to what I was going through (fear), supernaturally brought me to a place of peace, comfort and the strength to endure what was coming, at the same time removing that fear factor.
And just for the record: although it sounds absolutely unthinkable, outrageous, and even sacrilegious for me to compare my circumstance to Jesus’s, please know that is certainly NOT my intent here. I merely wish to share my thoughts from the moments before my surgery, and to point out that IF that small portion of Scripture had indeed invaded Jesus's thoughts that long ago Friday afternoon, I HAVE TO believe that He surely must have benefited from it as well.
I deposited that
verse, securely and permanently, into my heart that day, carrying it with me as I headed off to surgery. I continued to carry it into the second surgery that came along 6 months later. It remained there through the
upcoming, draining chemo treatments; through the endless, taxing tests and painful procedures that awaited down the road.
And for all
the dark and scary situations and experiences that have confronted-- and continue to confront -- me and my
family since then, it remains my ‘go to’ verse.
Beloved - maybe you’ve
found yourself in the midst of a dark and scary situation right now:
The loss
of a loved one
or of a job
or of a home
The shattering of a marriage
or of a friendship
or of a
parent/child relationship
Or your own health or financial crisis
And that
light at the end of the tunnel everyone speaks of? It seems somewhat hazy and not very bright --
if it can be seen at all. That still, small voice of God others remind you to listen for can often barely be heard above the crashing waves and deafening claps of thunder in
your life’s particular storms.
“When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Dear one –
may I encourage you and urge you TODAY to grab hold of this verse with both hands? And don't EVER let go. Carry it close to you in the midst of fear and uncertainty; as you walk through the tunnel's darkness and maneuver the raging storms.
Memorize it
Meditate on it
Whisper it
Shout it
Believe it
Own it
It’s not a magical incantation. It’s a powerful statement of faith
and trust in the only One Who can bring you out of darkness, shelter you in life's storms and factor out your fear.
