Praying with Faith

Are you familiar with Jabez in the Bible? Although he’s got very little “page time” he’s fairly well known and even had a book written about him. I included his story in my devotional this week and as I was thinking about National Day of Prayer on Thursday and what to share about the topic of prayer today, Jabez’s story came back to mind and I felt like God wanted to remind us about something important. So here’s Jabez’s story, all 2 verses of it:

“There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.” 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

I do have to start with the caveat that Jabez was “honorable” which may mean that he had a closer relationship with God and tried to live a more righteous life than his brothers (or others of the time). The second thing to note here is that Jabez doesn’t ask for one thing, he asks for three! Even Solomon didn’t ask for 3, he just asked for wisdom, and here Jabez is asking for blessings of more land, that God would go with him through is life and work, and to be blessed with no pain or trouble.

And as important as those things are, the one thing I want to remind you of from these two verses and the story of Jabez is that God does answer prayer. God doesn’t always answer prayers as we ask them to be answered, but sometimes He does, and in the case of Jabez, not only did God answer one prayer request but three (that we know of). So if you’re praying about a situation you find yourself in, don’t give up, don’t stop praying, keep the faith that God does hear your prayers and believe that He could give you just as clear and abundant an answer as He gave Jabez.

The Gift of Lent

This year’s Lenten journey has begun. I love the journey of Advent to Christmas because it brings us to one two very important beginnings in the Bible and is full of eager anticipation, heartfelt moments and very human people who are reacting in ways that we probably would too if we were in their situation. As much as we’re heading to something exciting at the end of the Lenten journey (Easter with Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of eternal life for all who believe), it’s not a journey that is as full of anticipation as Advent is. Instead, Lent brings us back to basics, which is also something I’ve come to appreciate.

Lent is an invitation for us to slow down, to take stock of our lives, to reconnect with Jesus, to really consider what’s important in life, and to put things that are priorities to the forefront. It’s a chance for us to check in with ourselves and God and maybe not do damage control, but definitely do an evaluation on how we’re living and if we’ve been overlooking something that isn’t really good for us or if there’s something we should do more or less of, and if we’re giving God the time and respect He deserves. It’s kind of like a second New Year, which is often when we do this kind of evaluation and change in our lives, but maybe a little more spiritual than we might tend to think about at the start of the year, and of course with a much bigger timeframe than we have for the new year, with 6 weeks to Lent instead of one day of the new year.

Of course as I mentioned, you’ve also got the option to just slow down and let Lent be a season when you maybe don’t get as fancy with dinners or put to the side (give up) some of the things that keep you busy, stressed, distracted or tired. Maybe you’re not ready or able to completely give them up, but you’re open to a break for now so that maybe you can rest or be with family or spend some extra time with God or going to church. For me Lent is another gift from God, one that looks different from the gifts that come with Christmas and Advent, but a gift all the same. What will you be spending time doing this Lenten season?

Rebuilding Your Relationship With God

Where do you start to rebuild your relationship with God? I’ve been thinking about this a bit as we get to the point in January where people are doing well on their resolutions, struggling to keep momentum or feeling super guilty about making zero progress. I know many people start the year with desires of really working on their relationship with God, and they’re sincere. But I don’t know about you but between sickness and work personally and in the family not much has gotten done this year so far, so I can understand why sometimes we don’t follow through on our resolutions. The good news is, there are good answers to the whole situation.

The first good news is that you don’t have to start rebuilding your relationship with God on January 1, you can start with a national holiday or Lent or Easter or your birthday or any random day you want. It doesn’t have to be the start of January and you’re never too late to start a relationship with God or work on the one that you’ve not given enough attention to recently. You can start the minute that you’re able regardless of the minute, hour, day or month.

The second good news is the answer to the first question I asked: where do you start to rebuild your relationship with God? And the answer is: anywhere. That means that you can start with just going on walks and spending that time praying. Or you can read through the Psalms or read about whichever Bible character is your favorite or has always intrigued you. Or you can start by watching sermons or attending church. Or you can start with only listening to Christian music. Or you can start by reading a devotional each day.

There really isn’t a wrong place to start, or a wrong time to start. So the best advice I can give here is to start today. Pick something, however small and do it. And if you really struggle to get into a rhythm with it, move onto something else or try something you’ve done in the past again because now it might be right for you. God is ready and waiting whenever or wherever you start.

Overflowing Thankfulness

I’m kind of excited because this month, November, we’ve got the opportunity to spend the whole month talking about all things thankful because Advent doesn’t begin until December (if you want even more on being thankful, we’re spending all 4 weeks this month in my weekly devotional on it too). Today to get us started, let’s talk about where thankfulness comes from, with wisdom from Colossians 2:6-7: “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

The Christian faith is interesting because not everyone has to be a big spiritual leader to have faith, and at the same time it’s not just the well-known spiritual leaders who are able to develop a deep relationship with God, anyone can. This set of verses touches on this because it starts off talking about people who are definitely of the faith because they have accepted Jesus as their Lord, and encourages us to keep following God because faith isn’t a one-time thing. Faith is something that we choose, we live and we work on every day if we decide to continue believing in God and living our lives in a way that honor Him.

And while I think it’s possible to remain a more surface-level Christian without being bad, wrong or penalized shall we say, this set of verses in Colossians reminds us of the potential that we can tap into if we put effort into our faith and work to build, strengthen and deepen our relationship with Jesus. With the number of challenges and bits of bad news in our lives each day I would love to be overflowing in thankfulness in my life, and it’s not like we have to do anything that’s distasteful to get to that point: we get to work on strengthening our faith and living the truths of the Bible.

So yes, dive into this holiday season and do all the fun, celebratory things, and make an effort to include time to work on your relationship with Jesus, spending time being thankful, learning about what He can teach you about this time of year, and starting good habits to take you into the new year to keep growing your faith.

Trusting in God

I don’t know if you grew up in the church or not, but growing up in the church I attended I heard a whole lot of hymns. I even have some treasured memories of my grandmothers singing some of those hymns when we were at their houses and not at church, which was even more special because we didn’t attend the same churches, yet we all knew the same hymns. Lately I’ve been hearing some contemporary Christian songs that incorporate some hymns into them, and usually it’s a special experience to hear. If I like them they tend to stick with me because it’s such a strong reminder of how connected past and present are and that there are ways (and reasons) to bring the past into the present without it being dated or boring or “the same old thing.” The song that I’ve been singing the past few days is Trust In God from Elevation Worship some of they lyrics are as follows (and you can hear it on YouTube), which you may recognize from your early days if you too sang hymns:

“… Blessed assurance
Jesus is mine
He’s been my fourth man in the fire time after time
Born of His Spirit
Washed in His blood
And what He did for me on Calvary is more than enough

… Oh I trust in God
My Savior
The one who will never fail
He will never fail

… I trust in God
My Savior
The one who will never fail
He will never fail

… Perfect submission
All is at rest
I know the author of tomorrow has ordered my steps
So this is my story
And this is my song (amen)
I’m praising my risen King and Savior all the day long
…
… I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered
That’s why I trust Him”

I wanted to share these words today because whether you’re struggling with the developments of the past few days around the world (whether it’s been front page news or not a lot of really concerning stuff has happened), or if you’re just dealing with your own personal struggles that few will ever know about and certainly won’t become a national or world-wide story. Whether you’re trusting in God for answers, trusting that God is listening, thankful that He’s giving you answers, thankful that He’s going with you through all of it, or still in the seeking phase, I want to assure you that He’s there and waiting with open arms to comfort and strengthen you as you pray, wait, worship, and live with as much hope as you can.

Students of Faith

Like many other people I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with school. On one hand it was exciting to get all the new supplies together and anticipate the things you might learn that will help you feel truly accomplished and more knowledgeable at the end of the school year. But on the other hand it’s a ton of stress, you have to get up early, you have to read stuff you don’t want to read, you have to memorize stuff that may seem irrelevant depending on your plans for life, and you have to take tests! But whether we like it or not, our school years are some of the most important in helping build a foundation for our adulthood and hopefully it sets us up for success. As I’ve been thinking about this new school year as well as See You At The Pole, where students gather around the flagpole at their school and pray, which is happening in just two weeks’ time, I started thinking about what it means to be a student of faith.

I do think it’s important to apply some more traditional forms of learning to your faith life. Yes, faith is learned through experience and hearing from God, but I also know that it’s only through reading the Bible, attending/doing Bible studies, reading devotions, listening to sermons and studying with those who have spent significant amounts of time learning about the Bible and what God teaches. Not only do we establish a foundation of faith through these traditional school-type activities, we’re also able to go beyond the basics and deepen our understanding of our faith and spirituality.

This leads to the second thing to talk about: time. I know so many people who really counted down the days until they were done forever with traditional schooling. But the rapid pace that life moves at these days means that if you don’t keep learning, there’s no way that you’ll be able to thrive in today’s world. For example if you graduated college in 2000 and decided to stop learning after that you wouldn’t use Wikipedia (2001), Tom Brady wouldn’t be a household name (first primetime football win in 2002), the war in Darfur wouldn’t have happened, there was no social media as we know it (Facebook founded in 2004), the Boston Red Socks would still be cursed (broken in 2004), there would be no iPhone (2007), there would be no black president (Barack Obama, 2016), and so many other things. It’s amazing how much has changed in just 20 years, and the only way to know these things is to keep learning. That definitely doesn’t mean that you need a ton of more formal schooling, but that you have to be willing to keep learning in little bits and pieces each and every day. Some days you may not learn a lot, while other days you you’ll learn a ton.

Finally, I think there’s a lot to be said for life lessons. These are the lessons you can only learn through experience, much like you only learn how poorly a recipe can come out after you screw it up. That doesn’t mean that I think outright failure is necessary, but that there’s definitely lots to be learned from living, experiencing and trying life. One might call this trade school, another might call it a broader version of Home EC, it also might look like an internship. Because as much as faith is a knowledge and heart-and-soul thing, it’s also a life thing and something that impacts not only how you live but the lives of others as well. So as much as you need to learn mentally about faith, it has to be applied to your life for it to really serve the purpose it was meant to serve.

With the final months of 2023 I encourage you to spend some time learning more about your faith, whether you really dive into it and invest a lot of time or just make it a more consistent part of your day. Whether that’s with additional devotions, maybe that’s volunteering with a faith-based organization, or maybe it’s extra time praying and talking with God, there are a ton of ways you can learn and grow closer to God. What ways are you learning about your faith now in your life?

How Do I See Myself?

“What labels have I used to describe myself? What names do I secretly call myself? In what ways do I criticize or belittle myself? The challenge is to peel back the label and take a fresh look. Can I see myself as Jesus sees me? If we can get past our labels, we might be able to see the beauty in others and in ourselves.” Br. David Vryhof

Wow! I read that quote recently and it caught me off guard because so often we don’t take a fresh look. While I don’t think we think as little of ourselves as we do our shampoo, sometimes it’s the case that we just keep using something, like shampoo, because we always have. It’s just what we use/who we are/what we do. But are we really happy with it? Do we really like the results? Is it easier to not ask those questions and to just accept it? Of course. But things change, needs change, we change, and sometimes we don’t pay attention to the need to change too.

More importantly, what changes are necessary in our lives? Are we the ones that are causing our own struggles and holding ourselves back because we’re really good at beating ourselves down? Other people may know us really well, but we’ve got a front-row seat to our lives and our decisions. Sometimes it’s good to be critical because it helps us grow and we need to recognize when we’ve done wrong so that we can improve the next time. But more often than not we beat ourselves up long after and more than we need to.

Throughout the Bible we do see God encouraging people to recognize their failures and seek forgiveness. We also read some “woe is me” conversations that people have, and God gently (or not) corrects them. But time and again what God goes back to is that we’re to love. Just like it’s not loving to be constantly putting others down, the same holds true for ourselves. God is definitely a ‘build them up’ God. Sometimes that building up starts with tearing down, but any good builder knows that you don’t build something new on an existing foundation if it’s in poor shape, you fix it first.

This week when you catch yourself calling yourself names or continuing to beat yourself up long after you should have forgiven yourself, learned from it and let it go, take a step back and a breath and decide if it’s time to reroute the conversation with yourself into something more productive and positive. See if you can see yourself as the person God knows you can be.

Going with the Flow

There are two types of drivers out there, one you may know as the independent driver (although you may also have other names for them that aren’t so polite). The independent driver is one who either has or appears to have zero regard for the other drivers on the road. Since it’s not possible to know on regular highways and byways who actually is a race car driver in their life or who is a professional stunt person, and those people are usually few and far between, it’s pretty safe to assume they’re just people who think they were a race car driver or stunt person in a past life or will be in the next (kidding) or wish they could have been, they’re simply crazy or have a death wish, and the possibility also exists that they’re just terrible drivers and protected by a host of God’s angels so that they don’t hurt themselves or others. They’re the people who make you wish you could close your eyes while you’re driving so you don’t have to witness their craziness.

The other type of driver is one who tends to stay with the pack, go with the flow and work with the other cars on the road. It doesn’t mean that everyone is doing the speed limit necessarily, but that everyone is in understanding that you’re all traveling down the road together and the safest and least stressful way to get there is to see the fewest number of brake lights because that means that everyone is moving forward. I’m thankful that most of the drivers on the road tend to go with the flow more than be in it for themselves only.

Going with the flow is an important concept in our overall lives too. Yes, sometimes you have to battle upstream like the salmon do each year, but if that’s all you find yourself doing it’s time to take serious stock of what’s going on in your life because something isn’t right. Even salmon don’t swim upstream for their whole lives, no animals are constantly prey, and the weather isn’t always one thing regardless of where you live, and our lives aren’t any different. There’s also a big difference between the little growing exercises we do on an almost daily basis, because those shouldn’t wipe us out to the extent that the constant upstream battle does.

If you feel like you’re constantly working upstream you aren’t just fighting what’s going on in your life, you’re probably fighting against God too. Again: yes, God will challenge you. Yes, God will sometimes step back a bit and see how you handle something. Yes, we’ll take our eyes off God and stumble occasionally. But none of these are like truly fighting God on something or ignoring/disregarding His direction on something. Because as challenging and difficult as it is to deal with sin and it is to have God trying to mold us into the person He knows we can be, God doesn’t have a goal of struggle for our lives. He has goals of peace, success, loving relationships (earthly and spiritual), and health for us. So if you’re missing out on peace in your life and tired all the time, maybe it’s time to consider how you’ve been driving in your life lately and if it’s time for a change so that you work with God, your resources, your abilities, your timing and your community.

“When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say

It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul”
“It is Well With My Soul” Horatio Spafford

Something Different

Sometimes you just need something different. I’m pretty consistent when it comes to what I put on TV, especially since most of the time I’m multitasking while I’ve got it on in the background. So I’m not looking for a show that’s going to pull me in or really engage me, so I stick with a couple of tried and true shows I’ve probably seen all the episodes of. But every so often I put on a home search/renovation show or cartoon or movie or something else because sometimes you just need something different. It’s like when you go to a restaurant you visit regularly and instead of ordering one of your top 5 you order something different that’s a little outside the box for you. Or you drive a different way to your destination (either by force because of detours or by choice). Or you get the summer weekly special at the local ice cream shop. Or read a biography when you usually read science fiction. Sometimes you just want or need something different in your life.

It’s not just about variety being the spice of life (because variety is good) but also about how sometimes it’s only when something is different that you can see the bigger picture. This is so important because we do get tunnel vision and we get focused in on our lives and moving forward, none of which is bad, but it’s like having a delicious dessert put in front of you and not being aware of the fact that you missed the first few courses, all of which were delicious too. You missed out on the rest because you were so focused on dessert, which isn’t a bad thing, but there’s more to life than just what’s in your narrow focus. Because if you’re not seeing both the big picture and the little details, and and you’re only living the status quo day in and day out, you’re going to miss out on a lot.

Another way of looking at these moments are gifts from God or God’s little reminders that He’s with us. It can be easy to forget that God exists because we just don’t see Him like we see the other people and things around us. God doesn’t send us collection notices when we don’t pay a bill or alerts when our bank account is low, He doesn’t make noise like our stomachs do when we get hungry, He doesn’t text us to check in if He hasn’t heard from us in a while. So sometimes in all that goes on around us it can be easy to get distracted and miss the very clear and present signs that God is with us and we’re not alone. Which is why He sends fireflies in the summer, cool displays in the sky as the light changes to begin or end a day, heart-prompts to message someone or go somewhere, travel connections you didn’t think you would make but do to see a dying relative, bonus discounts on your favorite products, that perfect Bible verse popping up in your Bible app or email inbox, flowers with the most perfect fragrance, laugh-inducing animal antics, and other moments that catch you by surprise or warm your heart that you just know have to be alerts or blessings from God sent to you to remind you that He’s aware of what’s going on in your life and with you every step of the way.

So go out and do something different this week. Try doing something in a different way just to get your muscles, mental or physical, moving in a way that’s different than they usually do. Try learning something new, trying something new, or going somewhere new. And most of all let God know that you’re going to be paying attention to see how He shows up in your life and the world around you.

Getting the Go Ahead from God

Would you consider yourself a deep person? A fascinating person? Something that has always amazed me is the way that many of the people we meet in the Bible don’t have pages/chapters of story, yet we are able to establish a connection with them, feel like we get to know them on a real personal level, and learn from them. Whether you talk about Esau, Laban, Esther’s cousin Mordecai, Saul’s son and David’s best friend Jonathan, or Lydia of the purple cloth, even the brief interactions we have with them are enlightening. Recently I took a devotional tour through the book of Judges, which again features different people briefly, sharing their story as they help free the Israelites from whatever trouble they fell into. One of those Judges was a man named Gideon who God called to help free the Israelites from the Midianites. God sends Gideon to defeat and destroy the Midianites, but like any wise person who knew that he and his team were probably outnumbered, Gideon has some cold feet. But finally after some back and forth with God and gathering up the troops, under the cover of darkness Gideon sneaks up to the camp of the Midianites to listen in on what’s going on. This is what happens:

“Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, “I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, and knocked it flat!” His companion answered, “Your dream can mean only one thing—God has given Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite, victory over Midian and all its allies!” When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship before the Lord. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Get up! For the Lord has given you victory over the Midianite hordes!” Judges 7:13‭-‬15

As exciting as it is to be given a big leadership position, as exciting as it is to have a big responsibility given to you from God, we’re still human and we can struggle with very natural fears and let doubts and insecurities creep in (that’s something that we see throughout the Bible with many people who God called). But in this passage we see God again reassuring Gideon that He is in charge, He does have a plan and He will be with Gideon and his team as they fight the Midianites and will help them win.

What does this mean for each of us? That it’s more than OK to need confirmation from God about the direction to take in your life, and it’s more than OK to receive confirmation from God. Yes, sometimes God asks us to do something on faith or with faith and not with a lot of evidence or direction. But quite often you’ll see that if you need a little nudge, direction, assurance, reassurance, or confirmation from God, He’s willing to send it your way. What confirmations has God shared with you recently?