As part of my personal journey during Lent, I went to my bookshelves and pulled down a book I've owned for years but never carefully read. (I have thousands of books that would fall into this category.) The book God led me to is: SEASONS OF PRAYER: Rediscovering Classics Prayers Through the Christian Calendar by Donna Fletcher Crow (Beacon Hill Press, 2000).
Today the chapter I read "The Dark Night of the Soul: Good Friday" resonated deeply. But it is this particular story which Donna tells that so many of us can identify with. Donna is asking her friend, Saundra, who has nine children: What do you do when your baby won't sleep through the night? Saundra's response was:
"I get up with them. You know, you don't really lose that much sleep and sometimes that's the only time I have in the whole day to be alone with that baby and cuddle it. But you can spoil them. I did that with Travis. He was getting me up at 5:30 every morning for a playtime. It was my fault, but he had to suffer for it when it came time that we had to cry it out.
"I lay in the next room listening to him and cried right along with him. But you know, the Lord showed me something really special--Travis didn't know I was in the next room suffering with him, but I was.
“Sometimes I don't know where God is when I have a problem, but He's right in the next room crying with me."
And so must God the Father have cried when His Son was alone on the Cross, abandoned to our sins. But God was faithful.
Easter morning followed Good Friday. Morning sunrise follows the dark of midnight. Springtime flowers burst forth after the coldest winter. God is always faithful. No matter what despair we may experience, we can rely on God's faithfulness (pages 67-68).
And once again God pointed me to His confirmation of this truth in Psalm 22:24-27 New Living Translation):
For he has not ignored the suffering of the needy.
He has not turned and walked away.
He has listened to their cries for help.
The poor will eat and be satisfied.
All who seek the LORD will praise him.
Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
The whole earth will acknowledge the LORD and return to him.
People from every nation will bow down before him.
For the LORD is king!
He rules all the nations.
“Thank you, Jesus, that you haven’t left us to cry alone. That you do bring deliverance to which we can give public testimony. God, thank you that you come to us in the quiet moments when we are hurting. Because of your compassionate faithfulness, we are assured that you are listening and will come to our rescue."
Showing posts with label rescue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rescue. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
We Live In A War Zone!
Do you feel like you’ve been doing hand-to-hand combat this week? Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop, the next bad news to come, the next emergency to hit the deck? Does trouble always seem to find its way to your doorstep?
You’re not alone. It’s that way for a lot of us from time-to-time. We live in a world encompassed by fear, worry, anger, heartache. It’s easier to sink to the bottom of the barrel than it is to lift up our eyes and begin praising.
Moses had a whole crowd of people that needed reminding that God goes before us in our daily battles, preparing the way and overcoming the barriers. God helps us regardless of the problems in our path. No matter how insurmountable the obstacles seem, it is well to remember God is Sovereign and He will keep His promises.
There are a ton of promises we can claim when we’re in the midst of the battle:
“Do not be afraid of him, for I have given you victory” (Deuteronomy 3:2 NLT).
“After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10 TNIV).
“For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7 NLT).
We need to remember the blessings. We need to remember to praise. We need to remember that He’s never failed us. Praising Him helps us look to our God and Savior, not just look for the signs and wonders he produces around us. But when He is the center of our world, more signs and wonders swirl around us more often.
“He rescues and saves his people; he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth” (Daniel 6:27 NLT).
Our encounters with Jesus always occur “along the way” in life. The Bible is full of stories about ordinary people, like you and me, doing ordinary things, but “along the way” they encountered Jesus—and nothing was ever ordinary again. (Remember Paul on his way to Damascus; James and John on their way fishing; the Samaritan woman on her way to a well.)
Jesus can find us while we are on the way to the top or the bottom; on the way to a great career, a terrible divorce, or bankruptcy.
We may believe we are on the road up or on the road down, but once we start following Jesus along the way in life, we discover that we’re always on the road to Jerusalem.
“It is never about what we do; it’s always about receiving what God is doing.”
(Some of these thoughts are adapted from M. Craig Barnes in Sacred Thirst: Meeting God in the Desert of Our Longings)
You’re not alone. It’s that way for a lot of us from time-to-time. We live in a world encompassed by fear, worry, anger, heartache. It’s easier to sink to the bottom of the barrel than it is to lift up our eyes and begin praising.
Moses had a whole crowd of people that needed reminding that God goes before us in our daily battles, preparing the way and overcoming the barriers. God helps us regardless of the problems in our path. No matter how insurmountable the obstacles seem, it is well to remember God is Sovereign and He will keep His promises.
There are a ton of promises we can claim when we’re in the midst of the battle:
“Do not be afraid of him, for I have given you victory” (Deuteronomy 3:2 NLT).
“After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10 TNIV).
“For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7 NLT).
We need to remember the blessings. We need to remember to praise. We need to remember that He’s never failed us. Praising Him helps us look to our God and Savior, not just look for the signs and wonders he produces around us. But when He is the center of our world, more signs and wonders swirl around us more often.
“He rescues and saves his people; he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth” (Daniel 6:27 NLT).
Our encounters with Jesus always occur “along the way” in life. The Bible is full of stories about ordinary people, like you and me, doing ordinary things, but “along the way” they encountered Jesus—and nothing was ever ordinary again. (Remember Paul on his way to Damascus; James and John on their way fishing; the Samaritan woman on her way to a well.)
Jesus can find us while we are on the way to the top or the bottom; on the way to a great career, a terrible divorce, or bankruptcy.
We may believe we are on the road up or on the road down, but once we start following Jesus along the way in life, we discover that we’re always on the road to Jerusalem.
“It is never about what we do; it’s always about receiving what God is doing.”
(Some of these thoughts are adapted from M. Craig Barnes in Sacred Thirst: Meeting God in the Desert of Our Longings)
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