For His Honor

“The Lord your God is with you,” Zephaniah 3:17a NIV

Zephaniah lived during a time when Jerusalem had abandoned God. They had decided to worship other gods and even built altars to them. They did not hide this but did it in the open. Just as other prophets had, Zephaniah preached to all of Jerusalem that they needed to return to God. That they needed to stop sinning and begin obeying God again, that judgement was coming.

Even with everything that God’s chosen people have done, the sins they have committed, God still promises to gather all of them back together and restore their blessings. God is ever forgiving and faithful. In the beginning of the 17th verse that is shared above, Zephaniah is telling Jerusalem that they are not alone, that the Lord their God is with them.

How many times have we felt alone in this great big world. Alone in our circumstances, alone in our grief and sorrow. The devil works hard to make sure we believe that we are not ‘good enough’ for God, that we are ‘lost causes’ and that God has given up on us.

This is simply not true!!! With everything that the Israelites did, God was willing to restore them and then be with them. He did not leave them and He will not leave you or me. When we feel alone, I believe it is because we are the ones who have left. We have left God’s side at that point and we are the ones who need to return.

Heavenly Father, please help us to recognize when we have moved away from You. Help us to then return to Your side. Amen

“Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Genesis 2:3 NIV

How often do we actually rest from our work? God made the world in 6 days and then He rested from His work. From the very beginning, God gave us a pattern to follow – work, then rest. I feel that in our culture this is a pattern that is very hard to follow. We are on the go most of the time and can obtain things we want at all hours of the day. For example, if we can’t physically get to a store, we are able to order what we need online.

Resting in our culture can sometimes be viewed as being selfish or lazy on the part of the person who is resting. This is unfortunate because God designed us to have the component of rest as part of our routine. If we didn’t need to rest, we wouldn’t sleep, but we very clearly need to sleep to recharge our bodies.

I am willing to admit that I struggle with the concept of rest. There are times when I feel like I have too much to get done and there is no time to rest and then there are other times when I feel like rest would be a good idea, but I can’t get my mind to settle down so my body can actually rest. I feel like God has been confronting me with this idea of rest more lately than in the past, so I am trying to practice resting for portions of my day. I don’t mean taking naps, but truly simply stopping what I am doing and either enjoying being still or talking with God. I am hoping to increase that time so that I can have a day a week where I am not working on something all the time. I want to use the time that I am resting to communicate with God more than I do now.

Do you struggle with resting?

“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ” Hebrews 12:2b

Imagine if you will watching a loved one face charges that were false and then be convicted of them without a trial. Then as you are trying to figure out how to help, the guards beat your loved one almost to the point that you can’t recognize them. They then parade your loved one down the street for all the people gathered around to yell at them, hurl insults at them and possibly throw things at them. Your loved one is then executed in a slow painful way. Now imagine that your loved one volunteered to be the one that paid for the charges that were brought.

Most people are not able to wrap their minds around the idea that anyone would do that, that they would willingly give their life so that others would be saved. It is hard to imagine a guilty person being willing to give up their life let alone an innocent person being willing to give that gift to the very people who are hurling insults at them and executing them.

In the second half of Hebrews 12:2, it states that ‘for the joy set before Him’. There is little ‘joy’ to be found in the scene described above, but Jesus found it. He knew that by allowing the guards to take Him and place Him on the cross that He would wipe out everyone’s sins, that ALL would be forgiven. The joy He focused on was in the completed event, the debt being paid and the hold that sin had on everyone being lifted.

Jesus was willing to face the shame that came with being crucified because this manner of death was reserved for the most horrific criminals. He knew the pain that would come as a result of His muscles weakening and His lungs collapsing. Jesus knew that this price had to be paid by someone who had not committed any of the crimes, had not sinned. He also knew that when it was over that He would be home again with His father sitting at His right hand, His rightful place in Heaven.

I know it can seem very hard to believe that someone would do that for you and me, but Jesus did that very thing for each and everyone of us. He did His part, so for us to do our part, we simply need to believe and accept.

Can you accept that He endured the cross for you?

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Peace is an interesting concept. Most of us think of peace as a lack of conflict, no struggles occurring and it is normally a temporary state. The peace I am referring to is the peace that you see in someone who is going through a sickness, financial ruin, relationship destruction and they are not consumed by the situation. They are facing the challenge, the problem, and they know that they are in God’s hands, that God is in control and is there with them each step of the way. It is an inner peace that you can experience even though there is conflict and struggle around you.

When my husband and I were trying to have children I was unable to carry beyond 6 weeks, which resulted in several miscarriages. In the middle of this struggle, I decided that I needed to give it all to God. This took a while, but eventually I was able to release my desire at how we were to have children and embraced how God was going to give us children. My husband did this much quicker than I did but I got there. Around that time, I had a co-worker who asked me how I could seem to be at peace about all of this when I was not able to have the child I wanted.

As we talked, she told me that she sensed this underlying peace and calmness in me that she clearly did not understand. I did not understand it either at times and when I would try to figure it out, I was reminded to simply ‘be at peace’ because God had this under control. The peace that Jesus gives is not anything that we are able to accomplish without Him.

One of the wonderful things that came out of that time was that God used my situation to encourage my co-worker to build her personal relationship with Him. I had not realized that the peace that God gave me was as visible as it was. This is what prompted my co-worker to approach me about it. Just when I thought that my husband and I were facing this struggle alone, God showed me and others that He is walking right beside us through each situation. We are never alone.

I am glad that Jesus is willing to give me His peace because the peace of the world is only temporary and His is eternal.

Have you accepted His peace yet?

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1 NIV

When we are saved, we are told that particular things happen. One is that our sins are forgiven, another is that we will be able to enter heaven when our time on earth is through, another is that we are justified as well as we are able to have peace with God. Up to the point of being saved, we are not at peace with God, we are actually at war with God because we are following the father of lies. Those who are not following God are following the devil, there are only 2 sides to this battle.

We are not at peace, no matter how much we want to believe we are, no matter how happy we seem, we are not at peace. When God made us, He made us to have a relationship with Him and we are not able to do that when we are not choosing to follow Him, but are instead following the way of the world, the way of the devil. Our souls were designed to be at peace, so not being at peace is a challenge for us. We search and search trying to find that peace in anything and everything, however, if we would stop and listen, God will tell us what we need to do to have peace. We need to accept Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross, was buried and then was resurrected so that the final payment for our sins would be paid. There are no more payments needed. We were given the ability to be justified because of the price that Jesus paid, if we choose to accept it. We have to accept it though. If we do, then we can be at peace, real peace, peace with God. Being able to be in the relationship we were designed to be in – with God, brings calmness to our souls.

Are you at peace in your soul? You can be. It’s your choice.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

Paul was dealing with a problem but we are never told what it was. It could have been an illness, a burden or a situation that was difficult for him, he doesn’t tell us in scripture, but what he does tell us is that it was something that either made him weak or made him feel weak. He asked for this problem, which he called a thorn in his side, to be removed 3 times, but God did not remove it.

Paul had gone from being a zealot Jew who loved to persecute Christians to promoting Jesus as the Savior. He had believed prior to his conversion that Jesus was not the Messiah and therefore all those following Jesus were committing heresy calling Jesus the Son of God. Paul came from an elevated background, he was smart and he had a great deal of influence while he was in charge of persecuting Christians. When he was made blind on the road to Damascus, Paul was humbled and he left that powerful position to promote Jesus as the Messiah. During his time as a follower of Christ, Paul had visions and would “talk” with Jesus regularly.

With his background and what God was using Paul to accomplish, after his conversion, it is possible that Paul could have had the opportunity to become boastful in how he was being used to further the Kingdom of God. Sometimes God lets us continue to deal with a situation, experience an illness or struggle with a challenge to help us understand that we are not the One is charge. That we are special to Him but that we are not accomplishing the things we are doing by our own power.

The challenge for us as humans comes in we acknowledge that we aren’t able to do everything and that we don’t know the bigger plan for our lives or everything that is happening around us. Accepting God’s grace enables us to remain humble and remember that God is in charge. While accepting God’s grace we should also keep in mind that even though we are weak, God is strong and can always help us.

I believe our prayers are answered with one of 3 responses from God…yes, no and not now. We find it hard to accept the ‘no’ and ‘not now’ answers. In this case, God’s answer to Paul was ‘no’ when Paul asked for the thorn to be removed. God was using this challenge Paul was having to keep him humble. Paul had a choice then, he could resent God for allowing him to face this challenge or he could learn from the situation and accept God’s grace which would allow him to move through the challenge.

It is difficult for us as humans to admit when we are weak and it can be really hard for us to accept help from others during that time. Paul not only realizes that he needs to lean on Christ for strength but he then begins welcoming weakness. He knows that as it becomes evident to others that he is weak but he is able to face his challenges as they happen, then others can begin to see that it is by God’s strength that Paul is moving through those challenges, not his own.

This is a hard lesson for most of us to learn…acknowledging weakness and accepting grace. Have you accepted God’s grace lately?

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15 NIV

Yesterday I looked at the verse right before this one, verse 14, and in it Paul wrote about new Christians being immature, being able to be tossed back and forth. The idea of being able to be confused by people saying things that are not in line with God’s word. Today, let’s look at the next verse, verse 15, and see what Paul has written here.

In this verse, unlike verse 14, Paul is writing about how we can mature in our walk of faith. Growing from an infant to an adult requires growth, physical growth, mental growth, emotional growth and in regards to our spiritual self, spiritual growth. As we mature as people, we begin to master things such as eating, walking, learning skills, and one of those areas we should work on very hard is the area of social skills or relationships.

Relationships are important in the body of Christ. The Kingdom of God is full of people who are saved by grace and have been shown mercy, however, you would not always know that by watching the interactions we have with each other. An important ingredient for interaction in the Kingdom of God is love. We are instructed to do a lot ‘in love’, accept those around us that society has deemed unlovable, think of others’ needs and serve them, be there for each other when there are burden’s to carry and build each other up by being truthful with each other. Paul specifically speaks to that last one of being truthful with each other in this verse, it is singled out as an important concept to develop in our growth or maturing in our spiritual life.

What does it mean to ‘speak truth in love’? Truth can cover a large number of topics, it can be the truth about ourselves, the truth about the gospel or word of God, the truth about God, the truth about how we are to live. When we don something “in love”, we are not to be harsh and judgmental but we are also not to be so fragile that we are not able to decide what we want to say or look afraid to be having a conversation.

The Gospel or Word of God tends to be contradictory to how society believes that life should be lived. The Gospel tells us to serve each other and the world says we should have others serve us, the Gospel tells us to think about other’s needs before our own and the world says we should only think about ourselves and the Gospel tells us to love each other but the world says that we should only love those who are good to us or are like us and we should hate those who are mean or different from us.

So how do we speak truth in love? Speaking the truth about the Gospel, about how God wants us to live, which is found in God’s word, and about ourselves, our thoughts, feelings and actions, can be thought of as tricky. We have this mix of ideas in our minds most of the time about the way the world says we should be and the way the Gospel says we should be. I believe we want to do what God wants us to do most of the time but then the world creeps in and the devil plants ideas of a selfish nature in our minds to try and lure us into acting the way the world wants us to act.

Thoughts like ‘you are being taken advantage of by others because you think of them before yourself’ or ‘you are never going to get anywhere in this world if you don’t do things that need done to move up’. I believe these thoughts run through Christians’ minds a lot of the time because the devil places them there. It is our job to decide if we are going to focus on them or determine that they are not of God, not what God wants us to focus on and dismiss them, making room for the thoughts that God wants us to have such as figuring out how to love the way He wants us to love.

Speaking ‘truth in love’ can be accomplished but we need to do some things first. We need to be praying the entire time about the situation and listening to how God wants us to handle our part in the conversation. We should be gentle and keep the attitude of our words and the attitude of our heart in line with each other. We can be well meaning but if we speak harsh words, it doesn’t matter if we had good intentions in our heart or not. We need to accept that we don’t know every part of the situation that we are going to talk to a person about, so we should be humble and willing to hear the other information.

Growing, maturing in our spiritual life and speaking truth in love are not easy things but they are attainable. When we focus on God, what He wants from us and follow how He wants us to live, we are on our way. God wants us to be imitators of Christ but He also knows that we are flawed human beings who need a lot of practice and forgiveness to help us get where He wants us to be.

My question to each one of us is…..Are we growing or are we standing still?

“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 people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14 NIV

Paul is talking to the Christians in Ephesus about growth and the process of maturing in our walk with God, in our faith. When we are first saved, our faith has been described or compared with that of a newborn baby. We have very little information about what is going on around us, we need to be fed in order to grow, we have trouble walking in the ways we should go and our emotions are heightened.

Some people are offended by this comparison, however, it is the most accurate description that I can think of. Newborns do not know how the world works around them, they are given this information over time. For example, when it is time for a newborn baby to go to sleep the parent, usually, holds the baby and rocks the baby and the baby begins to form the habit of how they should soothe themselves to go to sleep. They did not have this information before.

As a new Christian, we don’t know what we are to do in most situations. We most likely don’t know about tithing or the importance of prayer. We are guided by other Christians who have matured in their faith, they show us what we are to do, this is how we learn what giving back means and that prayer is our life line to God.

As a newborn, babies cannot get feed themselves and if they could, they wouldn’t know what they are to eat. As a new Christian we don’t know that God’s word is the spiritual food we need in order to grow and that we are fed by reading the Bible, listening to sermons and even listening to worship music that is honoring God. Christians who are mature in their faith can help us to build a devotional life that consists of reading God’s word. They help a new Christian to understand what they are reading as well as what it being said during sermons and apply those lessons to their growth.

Newborns do not have the muscle strength to stand on their legs and walk around. As a new Christian, we also do not have the muscle strength to walk in faith on our own. The devil makes sure that we face situations that require us to walk in faith, trust God to deliver us and not give into our fleshly desires. He wants to try and have us abandon our new found faith because as a new Christian, we don’t have those muscles to walk in our faith the way we should. This is when we need other Christians to help us understand what is happening and that part of growth is maintaining our focus on Jesus and not doubting Him as soon as a situation arises that we deem to be unfair.

Newborn babies have very little control over their emotions and have basically one way to communicate everything, crying. They cry when they are hungry, when they need changed and when they need comforted. Their emotions drive what they do and how they communicate with others. They do not know that there are other ways of communicating with those around them in order to have their needs met because they haven’t learned those ways yet.

As a new Christian, our emotions are heightened because we have just found this wonderful Lord who saved us from an eternity in torment and gave us a gift of eternity with Him. We feel like we are all in because these are wonderful feelings, until something goes wrong and then we are not being led by those wonderful feelings any longer. However, we don’t know what to do with any of those feelings or how to communicate with others so that we are learning to control them.

The devil will place people in our lives who will challenge our new way of thinking by making fun of us for believing in a spiritual loving being, God. They will tell us that we don’t have to listen to what the Bible says we are to do in situations all the time and that since God is so loving, He will forgive you for not listening this time. That God will understand if you still act in the same ways you acted before because God can’t really expect you to give up everything that you know and the fun that you have just because you believe in Him and it is not in line with what the Bible says.

When we choose to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are accepting a gift of forgiveness and eternal life. We are committing our lives to try and be like Jesus in every way that we can, listening to Him, not others who use God’s word as a basis for their beliefs but then go off course, making up doctrines of their own that are not based in God’s word. We are choosing to learn from Jesus and those Christians He has placed in our lives to teach us according to the entirety of God’s word, not just parts of it. We are choosing to lean on Jesus when we struggle with life and life’s situations.

None of this is easy but it is ALL worth it to be a child of God, receiving His love and guidance. God knows this isn’t easy and that is why He has placed those mature Christians in our lives to help us. If you are a new Christian, my encouragement to you is to keep growing, listen to God and His word, maintain continual connection with Jesus. If you have been a Christian for a while and feel like you are not growing in your walk with God, I encourage you to find a Bible based church, mature Christians who will help you understand God’s word and lean on God more. Always lean on God more.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Trust is defined as believing in the truth of something, therefore trusting in God is believing the truth that He exists and will do all that He promises to do. Faith takes all of our heart to be strong, to be able to believe without any proof that God is and is in control of everything. Being “all in” with our heart in regards to trust is to not doubt what we believe.

If we trust in the Lord, we should then be willing to lean on Him to help us through life. When we lean on the Lord we are not able to also lean on ourselves or our own understanding because we cannot lean both ways. Admitting that we don’t know everything is essential to remaining in faith and trust because we are willing to trust that God does.

When we admit that someone knows more about a situation than we do, it seems logical to then follow what that person is proposing. Trusting is the first step to following what God is telling us to do so that we are walking the paths He has laid out. By submitting to His way we are also acknowledging that God has a perfect plan. When we are willing to follow God, He will guide us and help us to walk down the path for our lives.

Do you trust in the Lord? Do you trust with all your heart or are you reserving some of your heart to maintain control of a part of your life?

So, are you ‘ALL IN”?

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  Hebrews 12:1-2a NIV

Have you ever trained for a race or a competition of some kind? I haven’t trained for a race but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what goes into it. There are hours of practice, time when your mind will remind you that you could have been doing something else, something “fun”. There is skipping of desserts and substituting healthy food choices. The mindset of a commitment to continue all that you are doing to prepare yourself so that you are able to compete.

There is a reason that not everyone is a marathon runner, a competitive weight lifter or an accomplished musician. All of those things take a mindset of sacrifice and a level of commitment that not everyone is willing to pursue. I am not saying that we don’t all have the ability to be committed to something long term or are able to sacrifice what we want to do at times to continue practicing or training for what we are committed to.

I am saying that not everyone chooses to be committed to the level of giving up what our flesh wants most of the time and continuing to focus on the goal of training for a race or practicing to hone a talent. It is very easy to say that we are going to do all these things but it is different when we are actually in the middle of it. However, external support helps.

That is what Paul is doing for the early Christians, he is encouraging them to continue with their faith. He is acknowledging that it is hard and that there are many times when they are going to be tempted to stop. Paul is stating that sin can tempt us all until we feel like we cannot resist any longer.

I am facing this temptation now with this blog. I have made the commitment to write a daily devotional and at the same time, I have been doubting that it is reaching people. This leads me to start thinking about changing it from daily to weekly. The devil is very good at making our flesh scream at us with what it wants, in this case my flesh also would like to stay in bed at times or watch television instead of connect with God and write what He is instructing me to write.

As I have struggled with this, I have found encouragement from my family and friends that I have confided in about this struggle, and all the comments from those who read the blog. I have been reminded me that this is all for God and that I should continue praying and asking for His guidance. I will do that as well as continue writing this blog, the best I can, until I have a clear peace about what I am to do.

Most of all I am going to keep my eyes on Jesus, the author of my faith. I hope this encourages anyone who needs that encouragement right now to continue on in their faith.