love

Have Patience

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For those of you of a certain age, the title of this post triggered a musical memory for you. If you need a little more assistance, think of the words: Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry . . .” No? Moving on.

I confess that some days I have very little patience. I have what in this day and age could be referred to as a microwave mentality. I want what I want, not sooner or later but now. I think I am a product of this culture of instant gratification.

But I also confess that when it comes to patience I have a very short memory. I forget how patient God has been with me all this time. After all, it’s God’s infinite kindness that leads us to repentance. I am thankful that God is much more patient with me than I am with Him (or anybody else for that matter).

But isn’t that the very definition of love? The love chapter in 1 Corinthians starts off with “Love is patient.”

It’s first on the list of what love should look like. Maybe that’s because God who is the epitome of love is infinitely patient. Maybe that’s because we as His children are notoriously impatient. Either way, that’s the first place to start when you want to know what it means to love.

You begin not with striving in your own effort to be patient. You know how that goes. Remember how you try to pray for patience and immediately run into scenarios that cause you to lose your patience?

Patience begins with seeing how patient God has been with you and me. It’s remembering all the times God had every right to wipe us off the map but chose to wipe the slate of our sins clean. It’s recalling that God should have let us have it by pouring all His wrath on us but instead poured it on His Son Jesus instead and poured grace and mercy on us instead.

Lord, help us to live out the patience you have constantly and consistently demonstrated to us over our lives. May we always remember that you were not willing that we should perish but that we should have eternal life. May we be as patient to others as You have been to us. Amen.

A Prayer for Humility and Sincerity in our Faith

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“We long for a humble and sincere faith in our divine Lord. Lord, if it is necessary to break our hearts in order that we may have it, then let them be broken.If we have to unlearn a thousand things to learn the sweet secret of faith in him, let us become fools that we may be wise, only bring us surely and really to stand upon the Rock of Ages—so to stand there as never to fall, but to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.
As Christians, we should be humble. Lord take away our proud look; take away the spirit of ‘stand by, for I am holier than thou;‘ make us condescend to people of low morals. May we seek them out and seek their good. Give to the church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin. May we grieve every day because of the sin of this city. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to you as people who sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the city.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

Lord, make us humble in our relations to others and to You. Keep us sincere as we seek Your face and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. May our compassion never cancel out our convictions nor our convictions cancel our compassion.

Jesus, just as You told the woman caught in the act of adultery that He didn’t condemn her, so may our hearts be far from judging with an eye to condemn. And just as You told her to go and sin no more, may we also be zealous to stir one another to holiness in all our words and deeds.

Help us to love with a holy love that seeks nothing less than the best from the beloved, just as You settle for nothing less in us than for us to be made like Christ in every aspect of our lives. Amen.

Do Something

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“When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will. Record it with ink and with blood–work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

My pastor often says at the end of his sermons that we need to take what we learned and determine to put it into practice or else it will stay in the room when we leave on Sunday. The Bible tells us not to be hearers only but doers of what we hear.

The best way to hear God’s voice is to do what you already know God has told you to do. You need to take that first step before God will show you the next one. You need to show yourself faithful with the smaller things before God trusts you with bigger ones.

Once you set yourself to obey, you find that you are operating in the strength and wisdom of the Almighty God. Once you surrender and commit to follow, God enables you to obey. You may be the least qualified to do what God has called you to do, but God’s strength is perfected in your weakness and as the old saying goes, He doesn’t call the qualified but He qualifies the called as they step out in faith and not as they sit in their recliners and talk about how they might one day be obedient when it’s convenient.

Following Jesus and falling on your face isn’t failure. Stepping out of the boat like Peter and sinking when you see the size of the storm isn’t failure. Staying in the boat and never taking a step is failure because you never get to see how God might have pulled you up and pushed you forward if you never step out of the boat.

Lord, help us not to read your Word to obtain more information. Transform us and renew our minds through Your word that we might be enabled and willing to obey and do what it says. Amen.

God and the Next Breath

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“Lord, I come to you with empty hands. If all I have today is You and the next breath, that will be enough.”

A friend taught me that prayer a long time ago, and I was reminded of it today seeing it in my Facebook memories. I think that prayer of gratitude and dependence is the perfect antidote to this culture of pervasive entitlement and greed.

Really, all I bring to God is a pair of empty hands. I bring nothing. Anything in me or from me that’s any good at all was first a gift from God to me. All that I have that wasn’t given to me by God is God Himself, and even that is a gift.

If all I have in the next 24 hours is God and nothing else but the next breath, that’s enough. If I have all the riches in the world and all the knowledge in the world and not God, I have nothing. I seem to recall a Bible verse about gaining the whole world and losing your soul in the process being futile.

Basically, every moment from here to eternity is a gift. I didn’t earn the next breath. I don’t deserve the next breath. God’s grace is what sustains me and keeps me going.

I think if I lived like I believed that, there’d be a lot less anxiety and a lot more adoration. There’d be a lot less worry and a lot more worship. There’d be a lot less talk about the weather and sports and politics and more of me sharing the goodness of God out of the overflow of a heart made full by gratitude.

Lord, I really do come to You with empty hands. If all I get from You today is You and the next breath, that’s enough. I’m good. In fact, I’m more than good. I’m blessed. Amen.

For I Am Convinced . . .

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“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39, The Message).

I think if all of us could memorize one Scripture passage, Romans 8:38-39 would be a good one. If you’re feeling brave, you could tackle Romans 8:31-39. It’s a majestic collection of verses that comforts those who belong to Jesus through the best and worst of times.

I really believe that if we truly understood and embraced that nothing in all the world can separate us from Christ’s love, we’d be different people. We would live and speak and work and play and exist in a different way. We’d be much bolder in our witness. We’d be less fearful in our risk-taking. We’d be more obedient more quickly to whatever God asks of us. There would be no question as to where our allegiance lies and whom we serve. It would be crystal clear.

Then why don’t we live as though we believe it? Maybe because we don’t really pay attention to it anymore. We’ve let CNN and Fox News and TikTok and Facebook tells us what to believe rather than going back to those precious promises found in God’s Word. We let the world around us teach us theology rather than see the world through the theological lens of Scripture.

I believe that if what you practice and what you preach don’t line up, eventually you will end up not living what you believe but instead believing what you live (with all credit to Cardinal Fulton J. Sheen). If you have unconfessed sin and unbaptized desires, you will end up building your theology around your sin and embracing teaching that justifies your lifestyle rather than holding a mirror up to it (and Jackie Hill Perry said it so much better than I just did).

Let the truth of God’s love sink in and let it overwhelm and transform you. As another famous passage in Romans says, don’t be conformed to the world’s way of thinking and living any longer but be transformed by letting God’s Word renew your mind. Then you can live out this passage to the fullest.

The Process of Holiness

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“We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I’m sure you’ve heard of the song about how everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die, right? Well, this one’s called “Everyone Wants to be Holy, but No One Wants to Pay the Price for It.”

Not quite as catchy. But most believers want to be like Jesus. At least most say they do, including me. But far fewer are willing to do what it takes. More accurately, far less are willing to submit to the process that God uses to shape us into holy people.

The process looks a lot like taking a block of stone and chiseling it into Michelangelo’s David. Or when a silversmith purifies silver by sticking it into red-hot flames. Or when God puts hard circumstances and unkind people into our lives to teach us perseverance and patience.

I want to be used by God, but I’m less keen on being battered into shape for it. I’d rather skip right to the usefulness part and skip all the unpleasant part about God molding me into somebody useful.

A lot of it has to do with perspective. The way I look at the interruptions, delays, inconveniences, and hardships in my life says a lot about where my maturity level is. If I see them as hindrances, then maybe I need to grow up a little more. If I see them as the hand of God shaping and guiding me toward a greater purpose, then I’m getting closer to becoming who God created me to be in the first place.

“I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:11-13, The Message).

A Good Prayer from Spurgeon

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“We long for a humble and sincere faith in our divine Lord. Lord, if it is necessary to break our hearts in order that we may have it, then let them be broken.If we have to unlearn a thousand things to learn the sweet secret of faith in him, let us become fools that we may be wise, only bring us surely and really to stand upon the Rock of Ages—so to stand there as never to fall, but to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.
As Christians, we should be humble. Lord take away our proud look; take away the spirit of ‘stand by, for I am holier than thou;‘ make us condescend to people of low morals. May we seek them out and seek their good. Give to the church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin. May we grieve every day because of the sin of this city. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to you as people who sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the city.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

I had a couple of takeaways from reading this prayer earlier today. First, man this Charles Spurgeon could pray! Second, I wonder when was the last time my heart broke over someone who is lost without Jesus in this world. I wonder when was the last time I was grieved over the sinfulness of my city.

It’s easy sometimes to get into my holy huddle and stay in my sanctified circle and never see how lost the people around me really are. I can pray for them. That’s the best course of action. But then I could also pray for God to open up opportunities for gospel conversations in my daily life.

The world would be more open to the Church if they knew how the Church loved and wept for them. If they saw the Church crying out to God on their behalf instead of pointing fingers in their faces, might they not be more receptive to the gospel we preach?

Again, I go back to something my pastor said. The world hates the Church not because we’re too different from them but because we’re not different enough. There’s often no discernible difference in the lives people who profess Christ and those who don’t. When our words don’t match our walk, they don’t listen to what we say. They listen to what we do.

God, help our hearts to be broken over our lost city. Help us to weep for those around us who are dying without Christ. May we not just be people who talk about loving our neighbors but be people who actually love them in a real and tangible way. Amen.

Always More

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“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not.10 In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty’” (Luke 17:7-10, NLT).

That’s the secret to obedience and serving. There’s always more. You never get to the place where you’re done. It seems like one task leads to another, usually harder. But you find that if you remain faithful and available, God will equip you and empower you to fulfill the duty and the calling.

We forget sometimes that half the joy is in the journey. It’s not so much finishing what God calls us to do that energizes us and motivates us — we’re never really finished until God calls each of us home — but the process where we find we can do more than we thought and we find that God is bigger and stronger than we thought.

Obedience doesn’t lead to joy. For the one who serves not out of obligation but out of the overflow of God’s love in his or her heart, obedience is joy. We realize that serving God isn’t a “have to” as much as it is a “get to.” We get to participate in what God is doing, and we know that what God does always succeeds and has a good outcome. We can rest assured that our labors for God are never in vain.

Even the small stuff matters to God. Me showing up to serve in the parking lot at my church or someone else serving in the nursery is just as vital in the eyes of God as the pastor preaching the sermon or the worship leader calling us to worship. Every single act of obedience is a win for the kingdom and a blessing not only for the receivers but also for the person who obeys.

The harder the task, the more of God you get to do the job. The more your faith grows when you see it through. The more you want to serve God no matter what it looks like or how dirty you get. The more other people see it and want to know about this God that is worth our obedience.

Mountains of Spices

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“In acceptance lieth peace,
O my heart be still;
Let thy restless worries cease
And accept His will.
Though this test be not thy choice,
It is His—therefore rejoice.

In His plan there cannot be
Aught to make thee sad:
If this is His choice for thee,
Take it and be glad.
Make from it some lovely thing
To the glory of thy King.

Cease from sighs and murmuring,
Sing His loving grace,
This thing means thy furthering
To a wealthy place.
From thy fears He’ll give release,
In acceptance lieth peace” (Hannah Hurnard, Mountains of Spices).

For the unfamiliar, Hannah Hurnard was a missionary to what is now the state of Israel. She also did a bit of writing, including two allegorical novels that reference the Song of Solomon as well as the fruit of the Spirit and other biblical references. They’re both great.

In the first one, Hinds’ Feet on High Places, the story is the journey of Much Afraid and her journey to the Kingdom of Love in the High Places. The second is how she went back to try to reach some of her relatives with the same love she had received.

One phrase I took with me was acceptance with joy. That’s the key. To accept the good and the bad, not begrudgingly but with joy, is the secret to peace in the midst of turmoil. That does NOT mean that we celebrate tragedy or calamity but that we see God working even the worst into something good. We know that God uses pain and suffering as the means to make us more like the Good Shepherd and give us compassion for others who are hurting so that they can know the same love we have found.

There’s a kind of wisdom that only comes from trials and tempests. The wisest people are often the ones who have seen the most loss and grief and pain, yet have chosen joy and acceptance over bitterness and cynicism. These people are the ones who can save you from a lot of heartache if you will only listen to their hard-won advice.

Lord, make us Your servants who share the name Acceptance with Joy. Help us to see the joy that lies beyond the sorrow and the hope that lies beyond grief. Help us keep our eyes fixed firmly on You, the only author and perfecter of our faith. Amen.

Weak, Stretched Thin, and Out of Your Depth

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“Hey Soul? Yeah, I hear you — there’s times you feel stretched way too thin, in way over your head. 
So every time you feel that stress rising today, just take a moment & take a deep breath —- and just be. Just Be Still — and know & feel & trust how He is God. 
Being weak makes you a cup for God’s power. 
Being stretched thin, makes you a canvas for God’s glory.
Being out of your depths, makes you touch the depths of the love of God. 
#Exhale #BeStill #GodHasGotThis#PreachingGospeltoMyself” (Ann Voskamp).

I know what it feels like to be stretched thin and out of my depth. I know back in the day, I probably would have panicked big-time and not done very well with it. Now, I still get anxious, but I’m learning how to work through worry instead of being consumed by it.

I love the analogy of an archer pulling back on the bow to shoot an arrow. He pulls and pulls as the bow thinks it can not possibly be stretched any further, yet still he stretches more and more. Finally, he sets his sights on the target and lets loose.

God is stretching you and me for a future and a target that only He can see right now. At the moment, the stretching may feel unbearable and you’d rather have it over. It’s tempting to want to take a shortcut to get out of being that uncomfortable. But staying in it rather than bolting is worth it. You have the satisfaction of knowing God will honor your obedience and you can see with eyes of faith that the end will make any hardships seem light and momentary.

Being weak and out of your depth is a place God often calls His children. That’s where God loves to show up. It’s the kind of testimony that is the best, because no human explanation will do. It’s a life that can only be explained in terms of God. We make God famous most of all by being faithful when it would be easier to quit.