The Strength of the Lord

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him…"
2 Chronicles 16:9

So often when I am struggling and need God the most, I find myself pulling away from Him. I have realized that it is important for me to remember that God is still God no matter what my circumstances are in the moment. He is still sovereign even in the midst of chaos and confusion. He is still love me when I blow it or when others reject me. He is still the Savior and His blood still cleanses me when I stumble and feel dirty. He is still all powerful, when my situations seem insurmountable and I feel so powerless. In fact, when I feel the most unlovable, undeserving, and confused is when I need to be sure to continue to look to Christ! For God is continually looking for committed people to strengthen.


I looked up the word "strengthen" in the New Testament to see how and in what ways God strengthens us. The first passage I found was Ephesians 3:16-19. Paul says that he prayed that Christ would strengthen us in the deepest parts of our hearts through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can give us the power to grasp how deep the love of God is. Through knowing the love of God we would then be filled with the fullness of God…in other words bear the fruit of His Spirit which is love, joy, patience, kindness, etc. I have tried to figure out why we need to be strengthened to know His love and come up with only two possible explanations. The first is that God's love is so pure and passionate and deep that without God's help I will never understand it nor be able to demonstrate it to others without His strength. The second is that God has told us that we will suffer because Christ suffered. As we face different situations similar to what Christ faced, we will begin to understand His love at deeper levels as we choose to love during the most difficult times. Christ chose to suffer physically, emotionally, and spiritually for us. Physically…He faced great pain when He was beaten and hung on a cross . Emotionally…He wept and experienced emotions that come with rejection, being misunderstood, and falsely accused. He also faced the painful grief due to sin and broken relationships. Spiritually…He bore the Father's wrath for our sin and felt the same feelings we feel in sin and failure as our sin was laid on Him. He chose to face all these different realms of suffering to demonstrate His great love for us. I can’t help but think I will need His strength to face those situations that provide that the opportunity to love like Him.


Another passage I found was Colossians 1:10-11. Paul says that he prays that we will live a life worthy of the Lord and will bear fruit in every good work. He also prays that we will grow in the knowledge of God and be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that we will have great endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks to the Father. He strengthens us with the same power that overcame death so that we can endure the Christian life with patience and joy! If we are at a place that we want to give up on our walk with the Lord that is when it is the most important that we stay fully committed, because that is when HE WILL STENGTHEN US! In and of ourselves we don't have it in us to be patient and endure in the lonely, stressful, or painful times. However, if we simply stay fully devoted to Him He will strengthen us so that we bear fruit, endure, and joyfully sing no matter what comes our way.


In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul said he learned to be content in all circumstances whether he was well fed or hunger, had plenty or had wants…that he could do everything through Christ who strengthened him. God will use circumstances to teach us to be content in Him and to put us in that place of depending fully on Him. If we have physical needs we can learn a lot about His provision if we take those needs to Him. If we have emotional needs we can learn a great deal about God as we allow Him to meet those needs. If we have Spiritual needs He will satisfy those if we remain fully committed to Him.


Lastly in 2 Corinthians 12:15 Paul said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I think the biggest battle we face with the enemy is that in our weakness we draw away from Christ because we believe the enemy’s lies. The enemy wants us to believe that because we are weak, the Lord could be tired of us, disappointed in us, or we are unworthy of His fellowship, but this verse makes it clear that it is in our weaknesses that Christ's power is the most fully demonstrated. The encouragement and exhortation for today is that no matter where we are at in our walk with the Lord is to guard our heart and keep it fully committed to Him. He will strengthen us with knowledge, with power, and with love through His Holy Spirit. Remember it is in our weaknesses, our most stressful times, and in our deepest pain that His work, His Character, and His love will have the opportunity to shine through us. The question of the day is how strong is our commitment to the one who desires to strengthen us in the deepest parts of or hearts.



Prayer: Father, thank you for searching us out and promising to strengthen us when our hearts are fully committed to you. Help us to refute the lies of the enemy and to cling to you when it is the most difficult to do so. Thank you for the promise of strengthening us…help us to cling to your promise and to wait on you for the strength that we need to live lives that honor and glorify you. Amen.

Wrestling in the Night

"…Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome…"
Genesis 32: 22-31

In the story that these verses are taken from, Jacob was returning to his family of origin, having lived in exile for betraying his brother. Both of his parents had died and his only brother had wanted to kill him because Jacob had used deceit to obtain the birthrights and power that came from holding the first-born position. In truth, those things were God's to bestow or not, not Jacob's to usurp. On the last night before he was to meet his brother, he was stressed because he didn't know what would happen. Was his brother longing for family since their parents’ deaths and looking forward to the reunion? Or with out his parent's in the picture would Esau decide to meet him with an army to take his life? 

He spent the night wrestling with "a man" whom we later learn was God. At the end of the night he was physically spent and grabbled on tight to the "person," exclaiming, he wouldn't let go until the person blessed him. The person who was the Lord responded with the blessing of changing his name from Jacob to Israel, from "Deceiver" to "Struggles with God and Prevails." The Lord then touched Israel's hip, leaving him with a limp to remind him of the striving he had done. 

Every sermon I have heard on this passage said that the wrestling represented prayer, which did not make sense to me at first. However, when I compared it to the scene of Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane it seemed similar to the same type of deep, intense prayer Christ prayed in the Garden. There He didn't want to face God's wrath for our sin, not the pain of being separated from His father. At the same time He wanted to obey His Heavenly Father. Christ's wrestling prayer was so intense that drops of sweat tinged with blood dripped from His brow.

Jacob who strived hard with people, began to pray about his future meeting Esau. He was probably tempted to run, yet believed God was calling him home. He was most likely afraid for both himself  and his family. He also may have been overwhelmed with shame over his past actions and the grief he felt at not seeing his parents before they died. The wrestling Jacob did revealed to him that his real battle was not with his brother, but with his God. In His wrestling, he at first seemed to hold his own, but God in a single moment disabled him and Jacob's heart softened as his will became secondary to receiving God's blessings. This is the lesson God would have us take from this story.

God has brought this story alive for me in two ways. First was when I was a dean at a camp there was a girl who was struggling with some things the speaker said that mirrored her own experiences. Her pastor had given her godly advice she had needed to hear, but the idea of doing as he suggested upset her. She wanted to argue with him, but avoided him and refused to come to chapel instead. He asked me to find her and talk to her. So, she and I went for a walk and as I heard her story, I pointed out the love behind her pastor's words and that her real fight was with God, not the pastor. I told her about Jacob and suggested that she tell her youth pastor it was hard to hear what he said and that she had been afraid for the communication to continue. I also told her it was important that she get real with God and tell Him why she wanted her own will more than His. I suggested she wrestle with the truth of His Word until she could give her unmet needs to God and tell Him all the "buts" to which she was holding onto so she could get to the place she could express a willingness to allow God to change her heart. I told her I hoped she would yield to God quickly so she would not have to walk with the limp like Jacob did. For the first time that night she started laughing. I gently told her, "You know God loves you and that His plans are always good. Yet, you want to argue with Him about things that could very well destroy you. Don't make God give you a "limp" to prove to you that He is God and you are not. Remember He is the a process of molding you into His image and you can either yield to Him or resist Him. It is okay to wrestle when we are real and honest because intimacy with God can grow from that. However, the sooner we yield our will to His, the sooner we get to enjoy Him and His blessings and the less likely we will be left with a limp that reminds us of our strife." 

Another way God brought this story alive to me for me is through my own healing journey. I entered counseling for an eating disorder and found my intense fears of the disorder masked an intense fear of feeling emotions. I had buried pain of hurtful traumas deep and though my counselor took me to those dark places, the moment the feelings surfaced I pushed them further down with exercise and business. Then I suffered a severe fracture to my ankle and couldn't exercise or stay busy. The moment it happened, I had this strong sense it was from God.  and was housebound for a year. During that time I faced the fear of feeling and went to those painful places, finding God sufficient to meet me in the pain. I was able to reach a point that my forgiveness was from the deepest part of my heart and was no longer just an exercise of my will. I still physically limp and it does remind me of that year of healing I had sitting alone with the Lord, wrestling with His sovereignty over painful things and over the deeper level of forgiveness to which He called me. Out of the wrestling grew an acceptance of His sovereignty, a deeper faith, a deeper desire to know Him more and a new ministry.

God used Jacob's wrestling match to get him to the point of not wanting to win as much as he wanted to hold on tight to God so he could live a blessed and transformed life. Jacob wanted God's forgiveness, and God wanted Jacob's heart. When we experience ambivalence over wanting to do both our will and God's we, too, can cry from the depths of our souls, asking God to change us. Wrestling can come in the struggle of waiting on God and wanting what we want now. It can come from the ambivalence of wanting our way and His at the same time. It can come from knowing God's call on our lives and resisting it. It can come from wanting change and being afraid of it. It can come form wrestling with God over painful losses, over moving to new locations, or from giving up sinful relationships. It really is easier to honestly pour our hearts out to Him and ask Him to align our will to His to resist Him.

Finally, sometimes we have a wrong perspective of God, His commands, and His sovereignty. When we tell our children, "No," it isn't to deprive them. It is for their health, their wellbeing, and their safety. The same is true of God. The commands given in His Word are truly His loving protection and love over us. When we choose our own way, we remove ourselves from His protection and end up wounding ourselves emotionally, physically, mentally, or relationally. It doesn’t mean He won’t continue to love us or draw us back to Himself, but the harder we hold on to what is not of Him, the more likely we are to experience “injuries,” that result from walking in ways that we were never designed to walk.

Prayer: Father, you are so gracious to invite us to have a relationship with you and to give us the freedom to be real with you. You are God and You are sovereign. Help us to come to the place that your sovereignty is not something that we rebel and struggle against, but something in which we accept and rest, maybe even something in which we stand in awe! May it be something that causes us to cling to you all the more tightly. Amen.

Heartfelt Worship

"The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.""

Isaiah 29:13

What is the first thing you think about when you wake up? I would have to admit that most of the time the things I think about when I first wake up are the things that I am struggling with, things I enjoy, or things I need to get done that day. Sadly, those thoughts preempt my thoughts of God. It is only occasionally that I wake up with a Bible verse, a praise song, a hymn, or a God-centered thought running through my mind and believe that in my sleep I had already entered the presence of God. Most of the time I have to work to draw my thoughts away from life issues to focus them on God, so I love when I find myself already there. I hope as I continue to study and learn about God that He will more and more consistently occupy my thoughts whether I am asleep or awake.

In our culture today we can easily be considered fanatical if we get emotional about God. It is okay to get about hobbies and sports. But we have have been called to love the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. That means God wants our passion, too. It’s not enough to praise God with our mouths as that honor is given with empty words. He wants our love and passion for Him to rise up from the very depths of our souls. 

There are two Biblical examples that explain what I mean. The first is the passion King David felt when his infant son became ill. He was told by a prophet that the child would die. So, David fasted, prayed, and wept before God, hoping the baby might live. His servants were so afraid of David’s emotions, they thought he would kill himself when they told him the baby had died. David didn't, he got up, bathed himself, and He worshiped God. The passion David felt as he prayed and fasted for his ill child is the same passion God wants from us. The worship born out of David's passion is the kind of worship God wants from us. I had a friend who lost a six-month-old baby and I watched as she and her husband worshiped God in the midst of their deep grief. While their emotions were the most raw, there was something more beautiful and real about their worship than I had ever seen in anyone. The thing the farthest from their thoughts were rules about worship and emotional expression. They simply poured out their hearts to the God they served.

The other example of passion in worship was when David exhibited a worshipful heart was when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to its rightful place in Israel. It meant God could dwell among His people again. David was so excited he danced before the Lord in front of the people in his kingdom. At the time it wasn't considered dignified for a king to do so and one of his wives harshly criticized him. In spite of her criticism, his heart was so full of joy he could not contain it.

I realize I am so fortunate to have the Holy Spirit, because it means I live continually in the presence of my God. I can sing, dance, laugh, and even weep with my whole heart before God at any time. But I ask myself, "What does it mean to worship God from the depths of my heart?" Sometimes I think, the longer I have been in church the harder it has become. In church, I've gotten into the habit of worshiping a specific way and have realized often that the familiarity is a breeding ground for me to simply go through motions, without fully engaging my heart. To honor God from my heart I need to be aware of my own heart and lay it bare before Him as imperfect as it is. That would include a confession of my tendency to hide pride, coldness, and unforgiveness. It would include an admission of how much I need Him. It would also include coming to him humbly to allow His holiness to expose my sinfulness so God can cut away all that is not holy. It would include standing in awe of His greatness.

When I realize I am coming to God as one merely going through the motions, I confess it to Him. He can expose what stands in the way of my being passionate about Him. I can ask Him to reveal Himself to me as I read His word. I recount past experiences with Him in the same way I would at a family reunion. I have a friend who was struggling in her relationship with God and I asked God to remind her of a time she had enjoyed God and had been passionate about Him, longing to live whole heartedly for Him. And God did it! It was not long before she was telling me she longed to be back to that place of heart-felt worship.

In closing, let me ask if you are laughing, singing, or dancing before the Lord today is your heart truly in it? If you are at a place in your life that you are weeping, is your heart in it? If you are serving faithfully, is your heart in it? If you are praying daily, is your heart engaged in it? If not, reflect on the cross a moment. Every sin, whether by thought, word, or deed, was paid for on the cross so we might be healed and enter a love relationship with God whose very character is love. His love is the type of love that demands a response from our hearts not merely our mouth. How are you responding to God today?

Prayer:

Father, I pray each of us would love, trust, and serve You whole-heartedly. Help us to be focused on You in our worship and not a bunch of man made rules and regulations. Give us hearts that are sensitive to Your truth and to Your Holy Spirit that we might respond from the very depths of our souls. Let us enter our worship of you with all that we and with hearts laid bare before You. Please let your holiness and Your goodness lead us to repentance and purity. Please help us be humble and gracious like You. Amen.

God’s Kind of Care!

"Give Thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;

Make known among the nations what He has done;

And proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord,

For He has done glorious things;

Let this be known to all the world.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

For great is the Holy One of Israel among You."

Isaiah 12:4-6

            When I am struggling with painful circumstances, I find it difficult to believe God is working on my behalf. I wonder if others feel that way, too, or is it only me? One time I was struggling with a painful situation and these verses jumped out at me and grabbed my heart. I was convicted, because I know when God seems to be silent or when He is waiting to answer what I consider an important prayer request, I can get despondent. But I have come to realize when He has me waiting, He answers my smallest prayer request to show me He remains intimately involved in my life. One of the times He did that was right after we had moved to California. God seemed so distant during our transition and even though we prayed for guidance, He didn’t seem to be directing us to any particular church. I asked God half-heartedly one morning to send a cool breeze to the field in which my husband was working. He was not acclimated to the California desert heat, and was coming in exhausted from it. That night I asked my husband how his day had gone. Without knowing anything about my prayer request, he told me it had been a good day, because a cool breeze had come up in the field in which they were working. 

Another time that I was struggling with a long-term trial, it seemed God was silent, refusing to act. At that time my husband was struggling to put an old car back together after he had dismantled it. I could tell he was frustrated, so I asked God to guide his hands so he could put all of the parts back in the right places. That night he told me he had forgotten where all the parts went and all of a sudden he was able to do it. I felt blessed in both situations by such specific answers to such specific prayers for my husband. I don't know why God chose not to make my painful situation end or make His guidance to a new church home more obvious. However, I do know He showed me He cares about the smallest things because he provided a cool breeze on a hot day and gave one frustrated husband the knowledge he needed to put an engine back together. If God is at work in the little situations, surely I can trust Him to work in the bigger more difficult long-term situations. 

I have come to realize I don't see all God does. I can't see the changes He is making in another person's heart. I can’t always see what He is accomplishing by answering one prayer with a yes and one prayer with a no and still another with wait awhile. I also realize I don’t always measure God’s care in the same way He does. There were times in the past that I thought His care was stopping a hard trial. But, now I realize God measures His care differently. He might perceive it is more caring to teach me to trust Him in the midst of a trial like illness, persecution, slander, or financial hardship than it would be to stop it. He might perceive it more caring to teach me to obey Him when I am apathetic, tired, ill, don’t want to, or am afraid to than it is to make my life easier. He might find it more caring to teach me to love like He does, which may include learning to repay evil with good, mercy for meanness, and grace for hurtful words. He might find it more caring to develop in me the ability to cling to the promise of the resurrection in the face of death. He might find it more caring to reveal Himself to me as a provider than taking away our financial stresses. He definitely is more concerned with developing His character in me, than my personal comfort.

"Sing to the Lord." "Shout aloud and sing for joy." Wow those are powerful commands! When I sing do I sing to the Lord? When is the last time I shouted and sang for joy? One night at a football game we sat by the head coach’s wife and we witnessed her passion as she rooted for her husband’s team. Believe me, she shouted and cheered passionately and it was fun to watch. However, as I was sitting there watching her, I thought about a lady I had led to the Lord in Mexico. We sat there smiling and nodding at each other afterward, but inside I wanted to do what this lady was doing at the football game. I wanted to stand up and jump up and down for joy. I wanted to run out the door and shout to the mission team that this mom became a believer. I wanted to scream from a mountain top that this beautiful lady had been translated from a kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of light. But I didn’t, I just sat there smiling at her. I wonder what held me back from being so passionate over this lady’s decision. I also wonder why I don’t shout for joy when we watch someone being baptized, when my children or friends make godly choices, weep for their friends, or share Christ. I’m not sure why I don't, but I do know God deserves more applause and a louder shout than a winning football team. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against giving applause for jobs well done, just against not giving God the applause He deserves. I am the most guilty of this. I know I’ve have been on the verge of shouting for joy and have held back. If I believe God is Holy and great why don’t I shout it? 

When life is hard and I believe God has forgotten me and I am frustrated by His silence, I benefit from spending time in His Word and reviewing what He has done in my own personal life. He has cancelled my sin, paid my debt, and translated me from the Kingdom of Darkness and placed me into His glorious Kingdom of Light. He has made me fit to be partakers of Christ's inheritance and has given me gifts and abilities to use. He has promised to never leave or forsake me! This list doesn't even include the personal things God has given me--godly friends, meeting needs abundantly, the person who shared Christ with me, emotional and physical healing, a new heritage, and a changed heart. Interesting, recounting my blessings returns me to a place the place of joy--the place God desires me to dwell. It also fills my heart with praises…whoa, if I’m not careful…I just might start shouting that God cares!

Prayer: Father, please open our eyes to Your involvement in our lives. Help us to believe the truth of the glorious things Your Word says You have done, are doing, and will do. Free us of all that keeps us from shouting and singing for joy! Fill us with the desire to proclaim Your Holy name among all people, including our families, friends, classmates, co-workers, communities, and nations. You are great and greatly to be praised! Amen.

Speaking Truth

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Ephesians 4:14-16

Paul began this passage by reminding the Ephesians they were a part of the body of Christ and had been given the spiritual gifts Christ desired them to have. He also explained the church was given leaders to help the members mature. A part of the maturing process is to speak the truth in love so individuals become more like Christ. The fruit of this is church unity, allowing the church to function as smoothly as a human body. The hands, feet, mouth, brain, eyes, and ears each having different functions, yet all needed to get a task done. When one part of the body is weak the whole body is affected. A couple of years ago I broke my ankle and as a result lost range of motion in it. It doesn’t just affect my ankle it affects my leg muscles, my hips joints, my back and my neck. Just like an athlete who is competing will want to be able to utilize every muscle to its full extent, we want to mature and utilize every believer in the church. When everyone is striving for the same goals and God is working in each person the church functions healthily and God's work is accomplished.

What does the word “truth” mean? Some of us think that truth is our perceptions, but it isn’t. The Scripture defines truth as the law (law of truth--Malachi 2:6), Jesus (I am the way, the truth--John 1:14), and Holy Spirit (Spirit of truth--John 16:13). We are also told to rightly divide the word of truth in 2 Timothy 2:15. These verses say God is truth, His word is truth, and the Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth. I think that truth can also be what we see, feel, touch, smell, hear, and experience when it is framed with the Word of God. If I am speaking truth to someone, my words must line up with the Word. I have had people give me their opinion or feelings and claim they were "speaking truth" to me, but it had no backing with the Word of God. We are to honor and love each other and when we vent at someone in the name of "truth" it reveals more about us than the truth God may want the a person to know.

If God wants us to “speak truth” we need to be sure we have facts, the trust of the person, and knowledge of God’s Word as it pertains to the situation. We need to come along side of a person, not attack him or her. When I believe God has impressed on me to speak truth, I will often ask the person questions and listen until something is said that verifies to me that it was God’s leading. I had that happen awhile back when a girl came up to me crying and she said she didn’t know why. I felt in my spirit it was something and asked a few questions until she finally admitted why she was upset. I knew she would be helped more if she admitted what was wrong than if I pointed out what was wrong. What she told me was exactly what I felt God was telling me. Sometimes I asked students how they were doing with God, and they told me something I felt God was impressing on me to talk to them about. Brennan Manning in his book, Abba Father, tells a story about a man and several small children who got on a train he was riding. The man let his children run wild and the people near the family were becoming agitated. After awhile, the man gently asked the dad if he couldn't restore some order by asking his kids to sit down by him. With tears in his eyes the man quietly said, "Their mom died an hour ago and I don't know what to do." Had he confronted the man harshly or sat and glared at him he would have not had the opportunity to minister to him. We don't know what is going on in a heart when we are speaking the truth about behavior. So, we need to be open to learning about the persons heart. 

To speak the truth in love we need to understand Biblical love. In 1 Corinthians 13 we see love is patient and kind, and it is not prideful or easily provoked. When confronting sin the initial response may be a defensive one or a judgmental one, which flows out of our pride. Love in the form of humility will see past the defense mechanism and remain gentle. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrong. Once we’ve addressed the issue, we need to let it go and let the Holy Spirit do His work. Love believes and hopes. Some people don't change because they believe they can't. We need to impart a belief that the hearer can overcome the issue and pray diligently for them. If we are called to speak truth to someone, we want to avoid using a kamikaze method. Instead, we want to be like Christ, who was in the trenches loving people He confronted. Before speaking the truth to someone, we want to bathe our words in prayer so God can fill us with His wisdom. We want to leave the individuals dignity intact, while inviting them to live in the light. We want to do it in such a way he or she believes we truly love them and want the best for them. We will be able to speak more lovingly if we remember only God can truly change a heart. Our responsibility is primarily to love and to speak the truth.

This speaking the truth thing is a part of God’s plan in maturing us so that we are not tossed to and fro by teaching that comes our way. I am a part of a counseling ministry in our church. I am really surprised at what some of the people believe when they come in. It is often a skewed view of the Word and it isn’t being taught in our church. A wise Christian once told me, “A half truth has the power of a whole lie.” We can prevent a lot of needless suffering by speaking the truth into the lives of others.

Prayer: Father, there are times that You are going to ask us to speak Your truth into someone's life. I pray that each of us will do that with a loving, humble attitude and demeanor. I also pray that we will each allow others to speak Your truth into our own lives. Help us to discern the difference between the truth and our own feelings, prejudices, and opinions. Give us both the boldness and tenderness that Christ had. Amen

Cursed on our Behalf

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree..."

Galatians 3:13

I am not sure I have fully grasped how much grace was demonstrated to us through Christ’s death on the cross. God’s wrath for our sin was poured out on Christ as He took our sin in His body, hanging suspended between heaven and earth. In return for our sin, He clothed us in His righteousness. In that one sacrificial act, Christ reconciled us to God so we can have a personal, intimate relationship with Him. In that one act He translated our citizenship from the Kingdom of Darkness to His glorious Kingdom of light.

There are several things that stand out in regard to the crucifixion. The first is the thorn of crowns. Thorns came about as part of the curse that God gave to Adam and Eve when they sinned -- "So I will put a curse on the ground…The ground will produce thorns and weeds for you, and you will eat the plants of the field." (Gen. 2:17-18) Later, God told Moses if he did not remove all the people from the land he was giving them that they would be like thorns in his side. In Proverbs 22:5 we find, "Evil people's lives are like paths covered with thorns and traps." The Bible tells us that the fruit that the Holy spirit produces in us is love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, etc. Max Lucado says that the fruit of sin is thorns -- spiny, prickly, cutting thorns. These thorns can include the consequences of our sin. The consequences can be the events brought about by our sin, as well as the emotions we feel when we sin--shame, disgrace, fear, discouragement, anxiety, anger, disconnection, rejection, and hurt. A person we have sinned against can also feel painful emotions, but the truth is own sin hurts us the most. We are all familiar with those "thorns." I think Christ was also familiar with the thorns when He rubbed shoulders with sinful people He loved and even more so when our sin was laid upon Him. He was overwhelmed with the same feelings we feel when we sin and He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Don't we feel forsaken when we sin even though the Scripture says He will never forsake us? We know Christ never sinned, but He felt the same feelings caused by our sin as they were laid upon Him. 

In His grace, God gave us a beautiful picture of Christ bearing the fruit of our sin, the crown of thorns. I believe the men who laid the crown of thorns on His head did it spitefully with the intent of mocking Him. They did it without knowing it was a perfect physical picture of what was happening in the spiritual realm as Christ hung on the cross. It just goes to show that God was still in control of everything. He graciously allowed them to place the prickly crown upon His head so we would have a physical picture of exactly what was taking place. Like Joseph said of his brothers, we can say man may have meant it for evil, but God meant it for good! He wanted us to fully understand that Christ took our sin, our shame, God's wrath, and yes, even the curse for us. How ironical the symbol that man -- in his most evil state -- used to mock Him turned out to be a physical picture of God’s goodness and grace! He gave up a heavenly crown to wear a crown of thorns so we could become joint heirs with HIM!

Let’s ask ourselves a few questions: What are the emotions we feel when we sin? Why do we feel these emotions? Does it make our relationship seem more intimate with Christ when we realize the cry of anguish from the cross was because He felt our guilt, anxiety, shame, sense of rejection? Does it make it easier to come to Him to confess when we know He truly understands? Read Psalm 22. It was a prophecy of the pain that Christ would go through as our Savior. Knowing the pain He faced, He still chose to go to the cross for YOU and for ME. God chose to meet man's most hateful moment with His most loving act! Does that make sense? If we honestly look at our sinfulness, we have to say, "NO!" Yet, that is what God chose to do. That is His grace in action. That is His demonstration of deep abiding love. How do we respond to His grace, to His love--the best response is to embrace Him who was Cursed on our behalf. 

Prayer: Father, I know how I bristle when I am falsely accused, misunderstood, or made fun of by someone who dislikes me. Yet, Christ took it patiently to buy me out of the slave market of sin. Thank you for sending your Son to pay for my sin. Thank you most of all for having Him bear the curse and wrath for my sin. It hurts my heart to know that the cry of anguish from the cross was because of my sin being placed upon HIM. It hurts to know that He had to feel all the ugliness of my sin and feelings I have when I blow it. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you most of all for making it possible for me to have a personal relationship with You. Thank you for choosing to see only Christ’s goodness when You look at me. Thank you for the life-picture the crown of thorns represents. How painful and how shameful it must have been for Him to wear the symbol of the curse for my sin, yet the victory over my sin is so sweet. Thank you, Lord. I love you. Amen

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
James 1:22-24

I remember, as a little tiny girl, being enamored by mirrors. I could sit and look in a hand mirror and make all sorts of silly faces and practice facial expressions. I also remember being at an amusement park and walking through a house of mirrors. Some of the mirrors made me look taller and skinnier than I was. Some made me look shorter and heavier than I was. And others made my body look like an “S.” That was the first time I remember being uncomfortable looking in mirrors, and found myself wondering how true or distorted the reflections I were.  

By the time I was in high school I had developed an eating disorder and what I saw in the mirror had become very distorted, but this time the distortions were all in my mind. No matter how low my weight got, the reflection in the mirror appeared round to me. Even when there was no fat on my body, only protruding bones, I saw a round body. When we studied the book of James the above verses with the mirror analogy caught my eye.  

The more I thought about the mirror concept, the more I realized that I and many of the women I know, have distorted “mirrors” we have used to try to find out who we are and what our value is. Our distorted "mirrors" may include physical things like beauty, weight, body type. This is dangerous in that beauty is not really just a physical thing, it goes much deeper than that. For there is a emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspect to beauty as well. Our health, our attitudes and mindset, our hormonal cycle, the amount of rest we get, and our culture play a big part in how we view ourselves.

Relationships can also be false "mirrors." When we were little children, we looked to parents to get an idea of who we were. We needed their love, approval, and care to survive and grow into healthy adults. At some point, we were to individuate from them and become independent individuals with our own dreams, opinions, tastes, thoughts, and emotions. If we experienced wounds from our caregivers, we may be still seeking approval from them or other people we use as surrogates. Using these people as “mirrors” by which we define ourselves is so unhealthy and can even become a form of idolatry. For when those people treat us well, we see ourselves as lovable, capable, significant, and worthwhile. But, when they mistreat us, we tend to see ourselves as unlovable, defective, stupid, too much or too little, invisible, and insignificant. We often don’t realize when we are mistreated, ignored, or overlooked, it is about another's heart issues; not a statement about us. As adults, we can refuse to let others define us, dictate what we think or feel about ourselves, or show us what our potential is.

Other false "mirrors" might be a certain level of education, a status in the community, a particular job, or maybe even a desired ministry. Again, these things are fleeting. When we use them to determine our value and worth, we are using distorted mirrors. So, if we aren’t supposed to use these things as mirrors, what are we supposed to use? The verses above give us the answer. The Word of God is the only accurate mirror we have, because it is written by our Creator. There are several ways we can find out who we are in the Word. First, the Word makes it clear we were created in His likeness. If we are to be His image bearers, we can gain a lot of insight in who God created us to be by studying about Him.

Second, God’s story tells us about our sin and our need of redemption. We see ourselves mirrored in the lives of the men and women in the Scriptures. Their weaknesses and their sin mirrors ours. Their struggles with pride, fear, and deep longings painfully show us our own. Reading the Bible is no different than being in a real time support group. The first time I walked into a support group, I remember thinking, “I don’t want to be like these women.” Sadly, I was just like them, broken, dysfunctional, and struggling. The parts of them I didn’t like were merely a reflection of the things I didn't like in myself. The same is true of the men and women in the Bible. When I first read about Elijah’s depression, I harshly judged him as weak, especially after his victory on Mount Carmel until I realized I, too, sink into depression after I have fought and won big spiritual battles. When I first read about Peter’s impetuosity, I judged him harshly until I stuck my foot in my mouth an hour later. When I read about the woman at the well, I judged her harshly for having been divorced so many times, until I realized that even though I haven't gone through a divorce, I do have a string of broken relationships in my own life. When I first read about James and John fighting over who would get to sit at the Lord’s right hand, I judged them as immature until I realized I still long to have someone value me above other people. It’s cool that God chose to not only include people’s strengths, victories, and powerful words; He included their weaknesses, failures, and the dumb things that popped out of their mouths. He not only included the great acts accomplished by people driven by faith; He included their defeats that were characterized by unbelief.

Third, God clearly tells us in His Word, who we are--we are His redeemed people. We are eternally loved, accepted, and adopted. We are ambassadors, capable, chosen, and delighted in. We are delivered from evil, forgiven for our sin, friends of the eternal God, empowered by His Spirit, free to serve Him, and gifted to fulfill our place in the body. We are never too much and never not enough. We are satisfied, significant, victorious, vindicated, and strengthened by His power for all that comes our way. If we can grasp and believe these truths instead of looking to "false mirrors" to define us, our lives would be so much richer. Our words, actions, and reactions will flow out of filled hearts rather than empty, needy hearts looking desperately for fulfillment. As Beth Moore puts it in her Bible study, Believing God, “We are who God says we are!”

So, I wonder if you, like me, are sick and tired of looking in false mirrors. I wonder if you are looking to others or to things to determine who you are or your value and worth as a person. How different our lives can be when we look to His Word and grasp His love, His redemption, and His transforming power in our lives. Let's spend time with the Lord, asking Him to reveal all of the false mirrors we have a tendency to use and then look solely to the Creator and His Word to get a true perspective of who we are created to be. 

Prayer: Abba, we confess we have used many false mirrors over the course of our lives we have tried to determine who we are, what our significance is in this life, and our value and worth as women. We praise You for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You have redeemed us at great price and in You our lives are and will always have value. Help us to never forget we are truly loved, accepted, and delighted in. How comforting to know, your ears are always turned towards us and we can come boldly to your Throne of Grace, knowing we are not irritating interruptions to You. Nor, will we ever be too much and too little too be loved by You. Thank you for Your redeeming love.