Lessons Learned in the Dry Place

For the next few weeks I thought I’d focus on encouraging those of us (me included!) that are going through a tough trial. As we all know, life brings us trials and difficulties that ultimately build our faith as we grow closer in our walk with God. Over the past 3 years now, my family and I have experienced a season of difficult circumstances that has tested our resolve. It has brought us to our knees at times and caused a lot of pain and frustration. But as we catch glimpses of the finish line and the end of this season, we value the precious gems that we have found in this desert place. It has cultivated a love for God that we hadn’t had before. It has also caused us to grow closer as a family causing all of us to become better believers. There are so many connections that I can make from our journey but I’m going to focus on just four lessons that we’ve learned through this time period. The first lesson is: learn to ultimately depend on God.

Recently I finished up reading The Dreamgiver by Bruce Wilkinson. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is facing difficult times while pursuing God faithfully. Without going into great detail though, the book’s premise is about “Ordinary” that ventures out from his place of familiar in search of his big dream. He encounters much opposition to his dream, but enduring the process gives him the tools necessary to pursue and eventually accomplish his big dream. One of those opposing forces happens to be the “wasteland”. In the wasteland the Dreamgiver seems so far away from Ordinary. When he runs out of resources he questions the validity of his big dream. Ultimately he learns that the Dreamgiver who has given him the dream has also supplied him with everything that he will ever need to accomplish his big dream along the way. I think we can all relate to this story because we have all been given something to do by God—no matter how insignificant you may think it is. In God’s eyes, our purpose began before we took our first breath of air. (See Jeremiah 1:5) This means that that every step we take in life is already known by God and he has accounted for all the difficulties included on our “faith” journey. Although we may be surprised when we are unexpectedly laid off from our job—he’s not. The difficulty that circumstance might bring is there to test you and equip for your special task in the kingdom. From my experience, I believe situations like those come to test our level of dependence on God. For example, I found it much easier to trust God with several thousand dollars in the bank account and consistent employment than to have to wait on him for the next source of resource. God uses all types of ways to get his abundant supply of resources to us. It may be through a job, or through the body of Christ, or a friend or family member that knows your struggle and just wants to help. Of course it takes us being a little more transparent and letting people know what we are facing, but in the end God gets the glory. I’ve found that when I received help from an individual in the body of Christ, that they were being blessed by helping me. God was cultivating in them a spirit of giving and graciousness that allowed them to empathize with my situation. This is a beautiful thing because it demonstrates the love of Christ. In the beginning it was hard for me to accept, because I had always been the person able to help someone in need. Then I became that person in need. My pride had to submit to that process and it hurt. But what God was steadily showing me is that my dependence had been in the resource he’d blessed me to obtain and not in the giver of the blessing. In The Dream Giver, Ordinary is challenged by the Dreamgiver to surrender his dream in order to grow closer to the Dreamgiver. Ordinary first hesitates on giving his dream back, but then realizes that pleasing the Dreamgiver is the ultimate pleasure—not the dream itself. When we understand that God takes us through difficult times in our lives to bring us closer in relationship with him, we will stop resisting the process. This process builds in us a dependence on God that isn’t shaken by any circumstance that we encounter. His plan is to teach us this so that we faithfully follow him wherever our dream may take us. Ultimately, this equips us as better servants for his kingdom work. When our difficult season has passed, and we are able to see onto the horizon of our dream, we finally realize that he has developed within us an ultimate dependence on him.

(previously posted on www.liveasif.org)

Truth for Righteous Living –“Lessons from Job”

This week in my bible reading my wife pointed out something I hadn’t seen before. In Job 19:23, he [Job] says, “ Oh that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll…” I found that very amazing that he didn’t realize then that a part of his life would go down as the “trial” of all time. He probably never realized that he would become this “spiritual legend”. People everywhere—churched and unchurched—know the story of Job. A man that once had it all, but God in his sovereignty decided allow a period of extreme testing (see Job 23:10). Similar to last week, I will share some morsels of practicality that I picked up from reading his story.

The first truth is that God only recommends his best. I think it is easy to sit back and read the story of Job and start to think that God is like some kid with a magnifying glass trying to burn insects. This is a tragic view because it doesn’t paint God in the proper light. First of all, God is not out to spoil our fun or be a kill-joy. And despite how all-powerful he is, bad things can happen to good people. I don’t believe this is the case with Job’s story but I have to mention this because this story seems to fall into the category of how God is unaware or unable to detect and prevent evil from happening. Job is clearly recommended by the Almighty to Satan--twice! (see Job 1:7, 2:3) This tells me a couple things about God. He was proud of Job’s character. Look at Job 1:8:

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

God would not recommend Job to Satan if he did not know from the beginning that he could stand the calamities Satan would bring upon him (see John 10:10). The creator God knew what Satan would do to Job and he still allowed it. God had big plans for Job. He was highly favored in God’s eyes. This also let’s me know that just because I’m enduring a trial does not me that I am a sinner. I can be a child of God, favored by him and enduring terminal cancer, or a divorce or any number of attacks from Satan. A serious mistruth I was brought up to believe was that if a person was enduring trials that they must not be in [right] relationship with God. This could be the furthest thing from the truth, because this is not always the case as we see with Job. When I uncovered this truth, it helped me have better relationships with people because I did not rush to judge them based on their situation. Why? Because after some time, I found myself the target of Satan’s attacks; knowing all the while that I had a right relationship with God. Be confident today man or woman of God that if you are enduring a trial that is producing every fruit of the Spirit named under heaven in you that it is because God has recommended you!

Next is something that I preacth to my children constantly. True friends give true advice. My wife and I affectionately refer to negative influences as “knuckleheads” and Job could not have had a “better” bunch of them around him. For those of you that have true friends that tell you the truth and pray for you when you’re up or down you can appreciate this. In most cases, we look for individuals that will speak the truth in love in our tough times. As I read this story, I see how Job’s friends seem almost glad that he finally has a bad day. As if they were secretly thinking that he was sinning all along. Maybe they were what we call now “haters”. They went from subtly suggesting that he should repent to telling him that only evil men endure the things that he faced. Rather than project onto Job what they were themselves struggling with they should have been praying to God on his behalf. This is a lesson for us all to submit our requests to the Lord—for ourselves or our friends—and receive direction from him before pursue giving advice to someone in need (see Philippians 4:6).

Lastly, God’s plan isn’t always revealed to us. We all know how the story of Job ends with him receiving “double for his trouble”. When I was thinking about this the other day though, I said to myself, “but did he even want double”? I mean, if he knew that he would endure such pain and frustration and that he would lose all he had including his children, would he still go through? If I were Job, I would have liked for God to secretly convene with me and say, “I’m going to recommend you to Satan and it is going to seem like the end of the world for you for a while, but in the end I’ll give you double of everything, or you can just keep things the same and go about life. Which one?” Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. But you have to wonder which option Job would have chosen. I’m going down this tangent to prove that the part in us that wants God to give us a choice shows our lack of trust and faith in his best for us. Job knew within his heart of hearts that “his Redeemer lives…[and that]…he would see him one day” (see Job 19:25-27) and that was probably his only hope for a large part of his trial. The fact that we are tested by God does not mean that we are not loved or that we should try figure out what he is up to in our lives. Do you think Job is in heaven now questioning God about all of that now? He obviously sees now how that test has provided the blueprint for Christians everywhere to adopt the correct perspective for every trial faced in life—that God is in control. All we have to do is trust the plan God has for us, and we can become a spiritual legend in his eyes!

(previously posted on www.liveasif.org)

Lessons from a Life Already Lived

I suspect most will think that from the title that this will be about some great person's life. Maybe sayings used that allowed them to live a nearly flawless life on Earth? Perhaps, all the high points that they experienced and how they chose not to accept failure as an option? Why not? Even the last entry was a three-point guide for living by faith and not fears. However, it involved an individual that realized those principles at very low points in life. Just yesterday I was reminded that a person's defining moments in life, those times where our character is truly measured are in life's difficulties. Tenzing Norgay, half of a two-man team to climb Mount Everest said:

It has been a long road ... From a mountain coolie, a bearer of loads, to a wearer of a coat with rows of medals who is carried about in planes and worries about income tax.

His words imply struggle and perseverance not just the mountain-top experience. It is a well-rounded perspective given in just a few words on going from a nobody to a somebody. He recognized that he was not always the focus of attention. He remembered his humble beginnings as a yak herder not just his world recognition as a mountaineer that conquered Everest. He remembered his defining moments. What does this teach?

1. One can embrace all that life brings--the good and the bad--because both create your legacy.

2. Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy*. - Robert Pollok

3. Failure is an event—not a person*. –Zig Ziglar

4. Focusing on one’s difficulties creates discouragement, but embracing life’s challenges creates strength.

Don’t just choose to focus on all the good or all the bad. Choose to look at life differently, particularly from all angles--the good, the bad, the ugly, the unfair, etc. Embrace the fact that you were created for a purpose and that you owe it to yourself (and your Creator) to live life on purpose. Expect different results from adopting a different perspective.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. –Albert Einstein

* quotes from Zig Ziglar's book "Life Lifters"

Faith vs. Fear

Hip-hip hooray for the 6am entrance into this day's happenings. It started with the usual--prayer, coffee and devotional time. I seriously intended to do more scripture study than I did but ended up finishing my weekly devotional for liveasif.org. Thinking about its contents, what makes me obey God's plan for my life? Furthermore, how do I know it is God's plan? On Sunday, I listened to my pastor say that one of the greatest heroes of our Christian faith told him that there were three things that he's done for over 50 years that have led to success in his life:

1) Hear what God says

2) Believe God said it

3) Try his best to do it

A formula to live by? I believe so. As i told my wife the other day though, what if you get hung up on #2. That is the most difficult part of the formula for me. What happens when you hear what God says, but don't believe it was God? Or maybe have uncertainty that it was God. There are so many voices in my head these days that cause "distractions" to my thought pattern. What resource is available to resolve this dilemma? I believe there are many resources. My fellowship with the community in which I believe is one. I've had the most interesting last 30 days in life where people whom I love and trust in the same God I do have reached out to me and provided assistance to me in times of uncertainty. How do these individuals cross my path at the exact moment I need them? Do they have a sixth sense to speak of? Doubtful. But their desire to be connected with the body of Christ automatically links us together. My desire to seek a deeper knowledge of the one I trust in. I trust in the work of Jesus on cross. What follows is a desire to discern his voice from "other voices". I have experienced sermon after sermon, passage after passage confirming his plan for me. What is left then? Just my ability to live by faith or fear. Those direct opposites are the very thing on which my sanity hangs. I choose faith. Not faith in me or my ability--but faith in God. This faith subjects me to one that is greater, stronger and bigger than any fear I could ever face.