Archives for July 2015

Waking Up Right: 2 Things I Love

July 28, 2015 Leave a Comment

Just a couple recommendations today to help us look in the right direction as we start the morning.

One of my favorites songs is Christ Be in My Waking. I love the lyrics and the contemplative music. The video is a little quirky but I love it too!
I’m on the second day of the First5 app series in John from Proverbs 31 Ministries. The idea is that you start the first 5 minutes with God. When you download it to your phone and set the timer, at that time the app will be the first thing you see on your phone. It even shows up before my password screen. The devotionals are short but powerful and thought-provoking.

Look at the Birds: Really, LOOK at Them

July 27, 2015 2 Comments

Last week my girls and I visited my mom’s house in the foothills. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time – to spend a day away from routine, noise, and city lights. But sometimes the worries don’t stay at home.

One of my favorite parts of being at my mom’s house in the summer are the many hummingbirds that come to the feeders she sets out for them. We had a nice dinner together and then set our stuff outside on top of her garage roof for a night under the stars. God gave us a beautiful sunset, and despite a few clouds in the darkening sky, we were able to find several constellations. My girls and I feel asleep under the stars shortly before 11:00 p.m. I woke up several times – but it was peaceful to wake up and fall asleep to such beauty. In the morning I woke to see two deer across the fields grazing. A perfect start to the day.

Later in the morning as I went out by myself to clean up the sleeping bags, the “shoulds” of life began nagging at me. Should I have come when I didn’t get as many hours of work done as I had wanted that week? Should I have stayed home to work instead? Should I have planned a night of sleep that I would need to recover from during the already busy upcoming weekend?

As these thoughts came to mind I began to talk to God about them. After a few minutes of me whining to God, it occurred to me that I should ask what He thought. Immediately He brought to mind Matthew 6:26:

“LOOK at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

I was seeing the humming-birds of the air, but I wasn’t really looking.

I went to the edge of the garage roof where I could literally look down to where the hummingbirds were zooming around, fighting, playing, and eating. As I looked, it occurred to me that God had ordained for these birds to be fed by my mother.

In the same way, God has ordained for me to be nourished, fed, and taken care of. Being in the beauty of God’s creation gives me energy and strength. Though I may not have slept as well as I could have at home, it was a refreshing time for my soul. Though I didn’t work while we were away, I was able to use some vacation time. In the scheme of things, a few lost hours is not going to break us financially.

My soul was troubled because of where I was looking: at my circumstances, my limited resources, my weariness. But when I look to God I remember how He has provided in the past, I relax in His care for the present, and I learn to rely on His provision for the future.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

God’s Good Plan for Depression

July 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

Church this morning was full of depression. Not so much the feeling of it, just the discussion of it.

Apparently David Brainerd, one of the most revered missionaries of the 18th century, often struggled with depression. More than 70 percent of pastors and their wives in America today experience at least intermittent depression. Certainly Christians of all stripes experience depression.

Shouldn’t Christians be joyful and excited about the grace given them through the gospel? Why does God allow misery among His people? I don’t have all the answers, and I can’t know why God allows His people to experience this pain on an individual basis, but I was encouraged by several answers that also came this morning:

Our experience with pain and suffering deepens our understanding of what others are going through;
We should use our depression and pain as fuel to seek God;
God can teach us lessons that are best learned through pain and suffering.

Romans 8:28-29 says,

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…

A friend pointed out a key phrase in this section that we sometimes miss. Most of us know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who believe in Christ.

But do we understand the purpose of the good that often comes from what seems like the bad?

Verse 29 gives the key: That we might “become conformed to the image of His Son.” God longs for us to be like His Son. And sometimes the best way to draw us closer to Him is to allow us to go through the valleys of life.

In our trials we are often more dependent on God because we need Him and His strength when we have none of our own left.

Sometimes we just want the pain to end.

It may or may not, but the question is, how do we respond to the pain? One of the best messages I’ve ever heard was from Holly Stratton, who said that we do one of three things with pain: We kill ourselves, we numb the pain, or we run to Jesus.

May we all run to Jesus.