hope

Amy Carmichael and Waiting

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“If I cannot hear ‘The sound of rain’ long before the rain falls, and then go out to some hilltop of the Spirit, as near to my God as I can and have faith to wait there with my face between my knees, though six times or sixty times I am told ‘There is nothing’, till at last there arises a little cloud out of the sea, then I know nothing of Calvary love (Read 1 Kings 18:41-45)” (Amy Carmichael).

We would get impatient after the first two times of waiting with no rain, but not Elijah. Seven times, he told his servant to go up and look toward the sea for any sign of rain. Six times, there was nothing. But the seventh time, there was a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.

Imagine waiting that long. Then imagine waiting 70 X 7 times for that rain. Is that too long to wait? In this current age where everything is instant and having to wait for anything is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, then probably. But if it’s from God, it’s worth the wait, however long.

I love and appreciate the old writers like Amy Carmichael and Oswald Chambers because they didn’t mince words. They didn’t soft pedal the truth to sell more books. They spoke with the authority of a prophet and 100 years later, their words still ring true and speak to those with ears to hear.

Amy knew a bit about waiting. She was a missionary to India for 53 years and never had a furlough. She founded the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1901 with the aim of rescuing young girls from temple prostitution, making her the first to fight human trafficking long before it even had a name. It wasn’t until 1948, three years before she died, that temple prostitution was finally made illegal in India. That’s a long time to wait.

Waiting on God is never wasted. It’s always worth it because God is always worth it, and what He has for you is always worth waiting for. He is never early nor late with His promises, but always exactly right on time. People like Amy and Oswald learned through trials and suffering that they could trust Him, as do we when we learn to wait in silence upon the Lord.

Lord, again help us to wait well and trust Your promises even when everything seems to tell us differently. Our hope remains in You and Your stedfast love that never fails or runs out. Amen.

Rebuilding the House

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“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way the hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

That changes everything, doesn’t it? What if the painful and the hard stuff were really God rebuilding us into a dwelling place fit for a King? What if what seemed like chaos was actually a reconstruction of sorts — God reshaping our lives into ones that live for more than just a paycheck or a retirement but instead for eternity?

We want the family and the white picket fence. God has a plan for all the nations that they might know and praise His name. His plans are so much bigger and better than ours. And the best part is that we get to be a part of it. God is working His grand plan for the universe and for mankind through His own people — you and me.

Whatever the hurt, whatever the cost, once we see the end result, will have been worth it. That’s why we can praise God in advance for what He’s promised in the future. It’s as good as done right now.

Forgiving

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“How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.

The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts” (Henri Nouwen).

A theology built on the idea that everything is their fault is not good theology. It seems a lot of rhetoric these days stems from the idea that the blame should go to whoever is on the other side of the political aisle from me. Apparently, I never have to look in the mirror and assess whether anything I’ve ever done could have contributed to the mess we’re in.

But Jesus said if you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven. He didn’t say if you have trouble forgiving, you won’t be forgiven. Many are suffering greatly as a result of trauma and abuse, and forgiveness seems impossible. Others feel that forgiving means letting the other person continue to inflict pain and suffering.

Remember, Jesus forgave those who were in the very act of murdering Him. It wasn’t easy, but Jesus made it possible. It isn’t easy, but the Spirit of Jesus inside of you makes it possible. If you long for the ability to forgive and earnestly seek God’s power to do it, I think God honors that request. I also think forgiving doesn’t mean automatically restoring trust and letting the other person or persons back into your life.

But most of all, we forgive because we have been forgiven much. If we really understood how much God in Christ has forgiven us, we’d be less inclined to choose bitterness and unforgiveness. We’re the ones who owed the astronomical sum we could never hope to repay in a thousand lifetimes, but God forgave our debt completely. To choose not to forgive a fellow human being is to hold him or her hostage over a paltry sum compared to the millions and billions we owed.

Again, it’s not easy, but through Christ it is possible. I’m praying that those of you who aren’t able to find the strength to forgive might in the mighty name of Jesus and through the cleansing blood of Jesus be able finally to forgive and find freedom. May you finally open the prison door to freedom. When you do, you will find it is yourself that walks free.

Go to the Last Place

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“I sought him, but I did not find him” (Song of Solomon 3:1. NKJV).

It always annoyed me whenever I would lose something and couldn’t find it. Even more annoying was when one or both of my parents would inevitably tell me to go to the last place I had it before I lost it. I’d be all like, “Well duh. If I knew the last place I had it, I wouldn’t be looking for it, now would I?”

That also seems to be the case in our spiritual lives as well. I think Mr. Spurgeon hits the proverbial nail on the head with this one. Often, when we lose sight of Christ, it’s because we have left Him behind in our pursuit of achieving God’s will in our lives by our own effort or in an attempt to “help” Him out:

“Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find Him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Christ in no other way but by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust dwells. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Christ in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, ‘Look for a thing where you dropped it—it is there.’ So look for Christ where you lost Him, for He has not gone away.

But it is hard work to go back for Christ. Bunyan tells us that the pilgrim found the piece of the road back to the Arbor of Ease, where he lost his roll, the hardest he had ever traveled. Twenty miles onward is easier than to go one mile back for the lost evidence. Take care, then, when you find your Master, to cling close to Him.

But how is it you have lost Him? One would have thought you would never have parted with such a precious friend, whose presence is so sweet, whose words are so comforting, and whose company is so dear to you! How is it that you did not watch Him every moment for fear of losing sight of Him? Yet, since you have let Him go, what a mercy that you are seeking Him, even though you mournfully groan, ‘O that I knew where I might find Him!’

Go on seeking, for it is dangerous to be without your Lord. Without Christ you are like a sheep without its shepherd, like a tree without water at its roots, like a withered leaf in the storm—not bound to the tree of life. With your whole heart seek Him, and He will be found by you. Only give yourself thoroughly up to the search, and truly you shall yet discover Him to your joy and gladness” (Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening).

A Narnian Excerpt

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Because I’m sleepy and my brain is banana pudding, here’s an excerpt from one of my favorite books out of one of my favorite series. The book is The Horse and His Boy, and the series is The Chronicles of Narnia. Both are by C. S. Lewis, and I recommend both, whether you’ve never read them before or have read them each 100 times:

“Bree turned round at last, his face mournful as only a horse’s can be. ‘I shall go back to Calormen,’ he said.

‘What?’ said Aravis. ‘Back to slavery!’

‘Yes,’ said Bree. ‘Slavery is all I’m fit for. How can I ever show my face among the free Horses of Narnia?—I who left a mare and a girl and a boy to be eaten by lions while I galloped all I could to save my own wretched skin!’

“We all ran as hard as we could,” said Hwin.

‘Shasta didn’t!’ snorted Bree. ‘At least he ran in the right direction: ran back. And that is what shames me most of all. I, who called myself a war horse and boasted of a hundred fights, to be beaten by a little human boy—a child, a mere foal, who had never held a sword nor had any good nurture or example in his life!’

‘I know,’ said Aravis. ‘I felt just the same. Shasta was marvelous. I’m just as bad as you, Bree. I’ve been snubbing him and looking down on him ever since you met us and now he turns out to be the best of us all. . . .’

‘It’s all very well for you,’ said Bree. ‘You haven’t disgraced yourself. But I’ve lost everything.’

‘My good Horse,’ said the Hermit, who had approached them unnoticed because his bare feet made so little noise on that sweet, dewy grass. ‘My good Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don’t put back your ears and shake your mane at me. If you are really so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, you must learn to listen to sense. You’re not quite the great Horse you had come to think, from living among poor dumb horses. Of course you were braver and cleverer than them. You could hardly help being that. It doesn’t follow that you’ll be anyone very special in Narnia. But as long as you know you’re nobody very special, you’ll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the whole'” (C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy).

Don’t Be Anxious About Tomorrow

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“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths” (C. H. Spurgeon).

“Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes” (Matthew 6:33-34, The Message).

The key is a shift in focus. Instead of dwelling on what you lack, dwell on the abundance of God’s resources. Instead of worrying about what may or may not happen tomorrow, focus on what’s in front of you today and remember that the same God who is present with you today is already present in the tomorrow that you’re so worried about.

So far, I’ve found the best way to keep my heart and mind focused on God is to recall as many attributes of God as I can call to mind. It’s also helpful to let worship music permeate your mind as you bring to mind the many promises of God in the old hymns and the newer worship songs.

I love the quote that says that the cure for anxiety is adoration. That’s worship. That involves singing but it also involves every aspect of your day-to-day living. Make it all an offering to God. Let your whole life be a praise to the Almighty. Take every anxious thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, trading it for His perfect peace.

Lord, so many of us are anxious. It’s our default setting. We don’t mean to be, but we often worry without even trying to or meaning to. Lord, we bring our anxious thoughts to You and ask for Your peace in return. Bless us this night with Your presence and keep us in the center of Your will. Amen.

Jesus, Take the Wheel

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“The most terrifying detail about Noah’s Ark isn’t the size of the flood. It is the design of the boat.

If you look closely at the blueprints God gave Noah in Genesis 6, He was extremely specific.

He gave the exact length, width, and height. He specified the type of wood and the pitch to seal it.

In my little years, I have never thought of this, but God intentionally left out one crucial component. There was no steering wheel, no sail, and worse still, there was no engine.

Think about how scary that is.

Noah was building a massive vessel to survive a global storm, but he had zero control over it, or over where it went. He couldn’t steer it away from rocks. He couldn’t turn it into the waves. He couldn’t aim for dry land. He was completely at the mercy of the water.

The Ark was not designed for navigation; just for floating.

Noah’s job was to be the Passenger, not the Captain.

God was the Captain.

This is a picture of your life right now.

You are trying to put a steering wheel in a boat that God can control, if you let Him…” (@elizabethltboyd on X).

I know just about everybody reading this has probably heard of the song made famous by Carrie Underwood called “Jesus, Take the Wheel.”

It has become something of a saying that has little to do with actually giving control to Jesus. I think it means “y’all are crazy over there” or something.

Whatever it means, it’s telling that there was no steering wheel on the ark. Noah was supposed to trust God completely to guide him to where he was supposed to go. And how easy is it for us to want to try to take over from God when life gets complicated or stressful, right?

But letting God lead means that God is not my co-pilot with helpful suggestions. He is the pilot. He tells me where to go. He takes me where I need to go. And when I’m smart enough, I trust Him because He has never steered me wrong once. Not once.

Another Year, Another Devotional

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I’ve had this one a while. If memory serves, I picked it up outside the old library at Union University back in the day. If I had to hazard a guess, it would probably be somewhere around 1994 to 1995. So yeah, it’s been a little while.

But I always like to read through a good devotional along with reading through the Bible. This year felt like it needed some Charles H. Spurgeon. It’s an oldie but a goodie complete with King James-style English thrown in for good measure.

But it’s a book with a promise from God for every single day. Sometimes, you and I need that. We need to be reminded of God’s promises over and over again. We need to pray them every chance we get, not because God might have forgotten but because we have. And probably will again at some point.

Reading these old promises of God reminds me that the same God who made and fulfilled all His promises to His people way back when will keep every one toward us. We can rest on His every word and stand assured on the promises of God, as the old hymn says.

I for one am thankful that God is not like me when it comes to keeping those promises. I’d like to say that every time I said I’d pray for someone I kept that promise. Or whenever I said I’d keep in touch that I followed through. I wish.

But God is not like me. That gives me great comfort. What gives me greater comfort is that one day I will be like Him.

Thank You, Lord, that every single one of your Promises to Your people is YES and AMEN in Christ Jesus. That in itself is a promise as sure as the God who made it. Amen.

Ever Giving Lord

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“Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw His hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of his grace is always dropping; the river of his bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing” (Charles Spurgeon).

I remember a famous writer once said that you can never outgive God. I’ve never forgotten those words in all the years since I first read them. I’m finding them to be more and more true the older I get.

That’s the way God works. You go to serve in a homeless ministry or in a greeting capacity at a local church and end up getting way more blessed in return. It helps to remember that absolutely everything we own and all of our abilities we use to give were first gifts from God. We can never give anything back to God or to anyone else that God didn’t give to us first.

Sometimes, I think the only thing we offer God that’s ours is us. Our surrender. Our willingness. Our obedience. But even those are responses to the overflow of God’s love toward us, like us offering God a thimble of love from the ocean He washes over us.

But God is ever merciful and ever giving. He never ceases to give and bless and overwhelm His people with good things. They may not always look like blessings at first glance, but those with eyes of faith know.

Thank You, Lord, for every single blessing and gift — especially the small ones that I take for granted every day. I could never in a billion years come close to paying back or matching Your gifts to me. May I be a conduit for Your blessings to flow through me to others so that they can know You and know the joy of Your blessings. Amen.

In Place of Joy

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“For many, Christmas is no longer the day to celebrate the mystery of the birth of God among us, the God hidden in the wounds of humanity. It is no longer the day of the child, awaited with prayer and repentance, contemplated with watchful attentiveness, and remembered in liturgical solemnity, joyful song, and peaceful family meals. Instead, Christmas has become a time when companies send elaborate gifts to their clients to thank them for their business, when post offices work overtime to process an overload of greeting cards, when immense amounts of money are spent on food and drink, and socializing becomes a full-time activity. There are trees, decorated streets, sweet tunes in the supermarkets, and children saying to their parents: ‘I want this and I want that.’ The shallow happiness of busy people often fills the place meant to experience the deep, lasting joy of Emmanuel, God-with-us” (Henri Nouwen).

It seems strange for me to be posting a Christmas blog on January 7, the day after the Epiphany. But if you think about it, it makes sense. At least to me it does.

When you focus on all the wrong parts of Christmas, like the buying and getting, the wrapping and decorating, the parties and the food, then at some point it has to end. But when Christmas becomes the arrival of Emmanuel, then it never ends because Emmanuel has not left us nor will He ever.

I love all the other stuff. But it gets weird if the Christmas tree is still up and decorated in July. But I think the idea of treating others with kindness or giving to the less fortunate or being Jesus with skin on never gets old. That can be 24/7/365.

Above all, the greatest gift of Christmas is one that we can give to anybody anytime we share the hope of salvation in Jesus with anyone who hasn’t heard it before or who needs to hear it again for the 300th time. That’s the only part that we get to take with us to heaven — those who will go with us because we were faithful to share the good news.