Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NASB) I recently ran across something in my journals that Debby said several years ago. It resonated then but now…oh, how much more deeply it penetrates after life and time have happened. It was simply this, “His love has dictated that this is your best shot at experiencing all that He is.” I don’t remember exactly what “this” was, but I sure remember the principle. It is a reverberating reminder that whatever “this” may be for us – whatever situations make up the fabric of our days, whoever is involved, whatever it entails – it’s all an invitation, unique to our current stage of life, that creates the best opportunity for us to know Him right now; an opportunity that might be missed later. The only question is, are we seeing it that way? Nothing is inconsequential or without purpose. He considers who we are, where we are, where we’ve been and who we’ve become; He also considers what we haven’t yet quite attained to and where He’s taking us; and He holds us gently within the realm of possibilities that each days’ events provide. They are His appointed “cups” that will overflow ours as we engage with Him and walk through them. All the while as we bring to Him the broken and fragmented pieces of our lives, He meets us with the fullness of His. Unreservedly and with absolutely nothing held back He shows up completely and fully every time. We bring our crushing disappointment and He pours out a revival of hope; we come with our wearied expectations and worn out beliefs and He brings a mighty river of strength and faith to rest by and drink from; we show up with death clutching at our hopes and dreams and He shows up with resurrection power and resuscitates them. And little by little we are changed… more and more of His image is formed in us. Of course, it takes awhile, as most worthwhile endeavors do. Yet, we can rest assured that in time, all of our pieces will come together and reveal what He has been doing all along that we couldn’t see in the process. As we get older and live through enough, that sacred beauty begins to emerge like a butterfly. We learn more and more to lean not on our understanding but to let go, acknowledge Him and trust (Prov. 3:5-6). Sure enough, “Everything is made beautiful in its time (Ecc. 3:11 NASB). And I mean EVERYTHING. It’s beautiful not because it necessarily turned out like we envisioned or wanted or planned, but because He did something with it that only He could do; something that was far better than what we could have hoped for or imagined; that likely never even entered our minds (1 Cor. 2:9). It’s just what He does. As I look back on my own life I find the undeniable proof of it. He gives beauty for every ash, joy for every sorrow and a renewed hope for every tomorrow we are entrusted with. As trivial and incidental as they can sometimes seem our “days in” and “days out” are goldmines. We just need to remain mindful of the long-game. Like Debby said, God has made sure that they contain our best shot at experiencing His fullness and moving us forward. Whatever touches us touches Him (Heb. 4:15) and nothing is wasted or insignificant in His hands. Make the most of them and watch God do something beautiful. Don’t wish away the lingering challenges or reject through familiarity the greater things God is up to through them. Embrace them and give Him time. They are filled with the sweetest wine that won’t age well if released too soon. Press in and press on. “The things you have seen and heard and believed and received in me, do those things and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:9). Beloved, may you see the beautiful work He has done in your life as you take time to rejoice in His testimonies – they are truly priceless. “I delight far more in what You tell me about living than in gathering riches. I ponder every morsel of wisdom from You, I attentively watch how You’ve done it. I relish everything You’ve told me of life, I won’t forget a word of it” (Ps. 119:14-16 TM). Recommended Worship: 1. Beautiful Story – The Belonging Co 2. Time – Aodhan King & Lauren Daigle 3. Brand New – Sons the Band
Genesis 45:8 (NASB) I was sitting at a traffic light recently when the Lord whispered, “Laurie, make sure your thinking rightly matches where you are.” I knew immediately what He was talking about. It wasn’t that I was confused about my situation; it was that I needed to make sure that my thinking was aligned with His about it. I knew He was right. Since Debby’s passing, the thought patterns that have governed me for 32+ years in a support role do not exactly align with my labor in the lead role. Stepping into this “new” position that I don’t feel quite equipped for has awakened the feelings I had back in ’92; back when it took everything in me just to leave my job and work full-time at Racerunners. Now, sitting at that traffic light all these years later I realized in many ways that I’m right back there again. As I let what He said continue to sink in, it wasn’t 48 hours later when He gave me a word that was the anchor my wandering thoughts needed: “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (Gen. 45:8). It changed my perspective entirely. It is Joseph’s powerful declaration to his brothers who, 22 years earlier, had thrown him into a pit to die and then sold him into slavery. When they came to the palace during the famine seeking to buy food, the thinking that governed Joseph is the thinking that guided him. As his brothers stood there stunned, scared and speechless, Joseph said to them, “Please come close…don’t be grieved! God sent me ahead of you…to ensure that you would live…and has saved your lives through this marvelous act of deliverance” (vss. 3-7 TPT). Wow. If ever there was a master class in renewing the mind, Joseph’s story would surely rank among the top. He paints an extraordinary picture of what it looks like to align our thinking with God’s in the midst of challenging and painful circumstances. Interestingly, nothing is mentioned about Joseph’s inner journey or the pain he suffered in the years close after his brothers’ betrayal. We know something significant transpired, however. We learn that he named his firstborn child Manasseh which means, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household” (Gen. 41:51) and his second “Ephraim” which means, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (vs. 52). Clearly, something had taken place in Joseph’s heart that changed him. Oh, how affliction can promote fruitfulness in our lives like nothing else will if we let it. By the time his brothers arrived all those years later, his mind was powerfully aligned with God’s. It cleared the way for him to fully understand and embrace the fact that though his brothers might have sold him God sent him. It rewrote the story that the enemy could have so easily written into Joseph’s life, his brother’s lives, his family and the future of Israel, had Joseph not responded. “Even though you intended to hurt me, God intended it for good. It was His plan all along, to ensure the survival of many people” (Gen. 50:20 TPT), not the least of which was his own. God has sent all of us somewhere. Wherever we are (emotionally, relationally, vocationally, mentally, etc.) we have a greater advantage than Joseph ever did: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). As we encounter life and thoughts flood our minds, we can engage His. When we turn back the battle “at the gate” (Is. 28:6); when we run our thinking through the grid of God’s word and Spirit, it filters out what is contrary and enables us to rightly align our mind with His. We can think about our situations the way God does and settle on what is true, right and good. It doesn’t mean we just dismiss or deny the realities of what we’re walking through; but as we grapple with the complexities involved, we choose to see “further than what’s going on in the natural and reach out after the things in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5 Phillips), knowing He has a purpose and a plan. It is the only way to effectively manage the passions our minds are met with and steer them in an eternal direction. When we do, it is a gold mine in the Spirit. It may challenge our senses beyond what we think we’re able, but “God can be trusted not to allow us to suffer any temptation beyond our powers of endurance. He always provides a way of escape so that we will be able to endure it and keep moving forward” (1 Cor. 10:13 Phillips/Voice). Beloved, may God bless you in the knowledge that whatever you may find yourself walking through, “God sent you there.” Perhaps not directly, but if He allowed it to get to you, He’s got something in it for you…above and beyond what you presently may be able to conceive or imagine. As you walk it out, may your thinking be aligned with His. Recommended Worship: 1. Moving Forward – Free Chapel Live with Ricardo Sanchez 2. Sound Mind – Melissa Helser 3. Medley: Hosanna/Moving Forward/Where Else Can I Go – Israel Houghton & New Breed
2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (NASB) In 2 Cor. 1:8 we read, “We do not want you to be uninformed about our affliction which came to us in Asia” (NASB). Paul was compelled to share with the Corinthians the difficult time they had been through. It’s not clear exactly what was afflicting them but whatever it was it was markedly difficult and he tells them, “We were burdened excessively, beyond our strength so that we despaired even of life.” They were pushed so far out and beyond themselves that there was a complete loss of hope. Yet, it was all by design. It was a divine invitation to a place that would ultimately bring profound change to their lives though they probably didn’t realize it at the time. It sure didn’t feel like an invitation – “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves” (vs. 9) – but God was working. From burden to despair to feeling that sentence of death, all of it was working together for this: “In order that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead” (vs. 9). Trusting in ourselves. It’s the source of so many of our troubles and so much of our unrest. Dealing with it sometimes requires more difficult measures, as evidenced by Paul’s testimony. It is interesting to note the distinction he made when he said that we should trust not just in God, but in God who raises the dead. That’s significant. It speaks volumes in light of their situation. God wasn’t going to just move in their circumstances, which is so often only what we are only prone to believe for. No, He was going to raise to life for them a new way of living and doing things. That death they were feeling? I believe a large part of it was the death of their self-reliance and familiar ways of doing things that their circumstances were exposing. It was the death of trusting in themselves, their own strengths and their own abilities. They were feeling it and grieving it as their affliction pressed it out of them. Being in a situation that greatly burdened them and for which they could do nothing about forced the issue. What happened on the other side of it? Nothing short of glorious. In fact, it was miraculous! It was RESURRECTION. And, of course, there can be no resurrection without death. He took their dead, self-reliant trust and raised it to fully functioning trust in Him. He’ll do no less for us when we endure the pressing and let the process work. It is a truly beautiful exchange. The Bible says in Prov. 28:26, “Those who trust in themselves are fools” (NIV). Clearly, it is unwise. But unlearning trust in ourselves and learning to really trust God is not a quick fix. We are always on the spectrum of growing in it. The process can be challenging but it is necessary if we are going to fully live in what is possible. The depth of the challenge is simply a picture of the depth of the freedom and reworking that He intends to bring. It is a false hope to live only within our strength. It is a false way of living to live only within our abilities. As God allows circumstances to “come to us” and we remain steadfast, walk through them and trust the process He is requiring of us, the reward of a resurrected trust in Him will be more than worth it. It won’t just change us by improving our existing trust; it will transform us by fundamentally shifting it into an entirely new trust resurrected by the power of Jesus. It will far outweigh the challenging process we may have to face to get there and we can stand confidently in the truth that, “It was God who preserved us, it is He who still preserves us and we trust Him to keep us safe in the future. We fasten our hopes on Him” (2 Cor. 1:10 Phillips/TPT). Recommended Worship: 1. Trust – Pat Barrett 2. That’s the Power – Hillsongs Worship 3. Trust in God – Elevation Worship