February 27, 2011

New feature!

Insomnia's getting the best of me tonight, so I decided to take the time to add labels to all of my posts according to subject matter and main Scriptural references.  Hopefully that will make it a little easier if you are trying to find a post on a particular subject or from a particular book of the Bible.  If you find that I left out an important tag, let me know!

February 22, 2011

At ease?

"Rise up, you women who are at ease, and hear my voice; give ear to my word, you complacent daughters."  Isaiah 32:9

I've been struggling with a spirit of complacency lately.  I look at my life, I see things that need to change, and I know in my heart what I need to do to change, but I don't always make the effort.  Or sometimes God tells me to pray for someone or a situation, and discouragement takes over.  "Why try?  I might mess it up."  And often, too often, things stay the same.

These "women at ease" who are warned in Isaiah 32 seem to have the same problem.  Trouble is coming in the form of an Assyrian invasion, and rather than ready themselves for it, they remain complacent and do nothing.  Instead of trembling and trading their clothes for sackcloth (verse 11), they maintain the status quo.  How many times have I done the same when a troubling world event or another clear sign of the end times comes across my radar?  I don't always take it seriously; I make silly excuses ("I'm just not into politics," "Someone else can take care of that," "I have too much going on to think about that right now") instead of allowing the fear of the Lord take over and pray.

Which is what I think these complacent women are supposed to do.  The culture and the time in which they lived prevented them from doing much else than maintaining a household, supporting their husbands if they were married, and praying and serving the Lord.  Granted, most of us ladies have a lot more on our plate in the here and now, but it should really always come back to these basic duties.  And if I devote myself to praying for anything and everything He instructs me to, all three of those excuses I named earlier are rendered null and void.

  • "I'm just not into politics" -- Well, guess what?  Even if I'm not that knowledgeable about this particular matter I can still pray that His will will be done.  
  • "Someone else can take care of that." -- But I should still pray in case everyone else gives that same excuse.  And since when is it a negative thing for more than one person to pray for something anyway?
  • "I have too much going on to think about that right now." -- We can't all live in a house of prayer and focus only on intercession day in and day out, but we can certainly pray in the midst of our daily lives.  Even a quick prayer is heard by the Lord if it's a heartfelt one.

Believe me, this post is mostly serving to just nail me.  I think it's something I needed to write for myself since these verses seemed to jump off the page when I read them earlier today.  As we go further and further into these end times, more and more "Assyrian invasions" are going to happen; things like war, famine, persecution, disease, and death may jump off my radar and into my own backyard, and I don't want to be caught with a complacent spirit.  With times as serious as these, complacency could easily lead to unpreparedness, timidity, and ultimately, a hardened heart.  We may not always know what or how to pray, but if we yield to His Spirit He will intercede for us (Romans 8:26-27).  

And speaking of the Holy Spirit, check out verses 15 through 18 of Isaiah 32.  It describes the wilderness becoming a "fertile field," and righteousness and peace pervading the "peaceful habitation" God's people will find themselves in when "the Spirit is poured out upon [us] from on high."  He saves His people through divine intervention, but He also pours out His Spirit in order to usher in a period of righteousness and security.

Because this chapter is all prophecy and no narrative, we don't really know if these women stayed complacent or if they rose up and interceded for themselves and for their people.  But I know this serves as a reminder for myself.  Whether a particular hardship is imminent or everything looks comfy on the horizon, I had better make my prayerlife a top priority.  Even if a situation is complex or unclear, even if my day is packed with errands and to-do lists, even if I simply don't feel like it, I know I need to get on my knees and pray.  We all do.  If you can't find the words to pray, ask for the Holy Spirit to help you; God gives His Spirit without measure (John 3:34) so I'm pretty certain He never tires of us asking!  And pray that the same Spirit who is interceding for you will also move in a powerful way over the subject of your prayer.  So rise up and say good-bye to complacency.  Maybe a fertile field will rise out of those briars and thorns.

February 8, 2011

Being real.

I like to think I'm an open person. But sometimes I lean more toward being private. This is why it's SO hard for me to share this, but I feel like God wants me to. I attend a Tuesday morning Bible study, and this morning someone quoted, "Sometimes your greatest message is the mess of your life." Meaning that God can take the messy parts of our lives and use them to minister to others.

Not too long ago I did a guest post on the blog "Or So She Says" that chronicled one particular messy part of my life. I feel like God wants me to share it on my own blog too. I don't know who this is supposed to speak to, or why He wants me to do it, except maybe to help me finally get over the shame and guilt I still sometimes feel when I think back to this time in my life. You can find the link to my guest post here.

I hope it ministers to you! God Bless.

February 5, 2011

Longing

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you..." Isaiah 30:18

What God showed me today seemed simplistic at first. Of course He longs to be gracious to me. He loves me. Didn't He "so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life?" That sounds a lot like GRACE to me.

But what caught my eye in this verse was the word "longs," and with that one word came a deeper glimpse into God's character. I've always believed that He loves me. I've always believed that He pours measure upon measure of grace upon all of us, an endless supply of a very precious commodity none of us deserves. But when was the last time you thought about God longing for you?

He sees how many times we mess up. He sees how many times we struggle with doubt. He sees all of our pain and sin and still longs to shower grace on us. And not only that, but to have compassion on us too (also in verse 18). What's the difference between being gracious and having compassion?

To me, God is gracious when He forgives my sin when I ask Him...again.
He has compassion when He wipes away the tears and bandages the self-afflicted wounds and whispers His love in my ear.

He could just show grace to us by forgiving us when we ask and leaving it at that. "Don't worry, my Son's blood covered that sin. You're off the hook. Catch you next time." Kind of like a friendly uncle that gets you out of trouble every now and then, but not someone you share an actual relationship with. No, God goes a step further and shows us compassion when we sin. He mixes His love with His grace until we realize that He is not just in the business of forgiving sins, He is also in the business of loving us, cherishing us, and having a relationship with us.

Why does this matter? To me, God seems a lot more personal when I see and feel evidence of His compassion in my life. His graciousness to forgive is awesome enough, but He goes that step further to show compassion in a special, unique way just for me.

If you stop and think about it, grace and compassion are two amazing things that we don't deserve without the blood of Jesus. And we love and serve a God who longs to do both in our lives, if only we ask Him. That's the key word: ASK. He knows the desire of our hearts, and He knows when we've sinned and need to ask for forgiveness, but so much of His moving in our hearts and lives depends on us speaking up in the first place! I'll close with verse 19 to really drive that last point home:

"He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you." Isaiah 30:19

February 1, 2011

Connections

Today I read the first half of Isaiah 30. I only had time to read half because I had a Bible study this morning, so I read verses 1 through 17. Later that morning a sister in Christ quoted verse 18 of Isaiah 30, so I figured that was a good indication from God that I need to finish this chapter up soon!

But first, something cool God showed me about the first half. God uses this prophecy to warn Judah through Isaiah because they are forming an alliance with Egypt instead of turning to Him. In fact, verse 2 says they didn't even consult Him before doing so! The latter part of that verse caught my attention though:

"...To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh and to seek
shelter in the shadow of Egypt!"

I read that phrase a few times, thinking
, It seems to me I've read these words before. Sounds like a psalm I've read a bunch of times. I'll admit, I couldn't remember which one exactly. Definitely looked it up in the back, and discovered the one I was thinking of was Psalm 91.

Check out Psalm 91:1...."He who dwells in the
shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty." The words "shelter" and "shadow" are what jogged my memory in the first place, and here they are in Psalm 91! The fact is, we all seek shelter somewhere, especially when life gets difficult. We can find our refuge in the comforting shadow of God who covers us with His mercy and love, or we can settle for something far less and deal with the pain that inevitably follows when we place our trust in someone or something other than our Lord. How cool is it that God uses the same terminology in two different books of the Bible to get that point across!

But the connections don't end there. Read on to verse 6, where God's people are described as carrying their "riches" and "treasures" on the backs of their beasts of burden to Egypt, "a land of distress and anguish, from where come the lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent." And yeah, I totally got distracted with the whole "flying serpent" idea. Hopefully you did too. That way I won't feel so silly. But anyway, I looked back in Psalm 91, and in verse 13 it reads, "You will tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down." Again, similar terminology yet very different circumstances. In Egypt (or at least on the way to Egypt), God's people are prophesied to encounter lions and snakes, and I can only surmise by the tone of the prophecy as a whole that the creatures pose a real danger to them, yet they are so determined to be allies with Egypt that they don't realize that maybe these animals are simply obstacles God put in their way. If only they chose to align themselves and their "riches and treasures" with God, then the once-threatening lions and snakes would become the hunted instead (Psalm 91:13).

One more. Verse 17 of Isaiah 30 says that the rebelliousness of God's people will become their destruction, in that
"one thousand will flee at the threat of one man." In the previous verse, Isaiah prophesies that the people of Judah will not take God's call for repentance seriously, and will instead put their trust in acquiring more "swift horses." (Ever tried to cling to something worldly rather than just repent and turn to God? I know I have.) As a result, they use those horses to try to outrun their enemies, and it seems they're not very successful since all it appears to take is one man to cause a thousand more to flee (verse 17). Look back in Psalm 91. Verse 7 says, "A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it [destruction] will not approach you." This verse, and the psalm as a whole, describes the peace and security we have access to when we abide with God and put our trust in His hands. Instead of being one of those thousand people fleeing from one singular enemy, we can be one singular person causing a thousand ememies to flee! Remember, Romans 8:37 says that in the face of any hardship or danger we are more than conquerors; the NASB says we overwhelmingly conquer. That means overcoming on a large scale. Why cause one nagging temptation to flee when you can cause a thousand to flee? With His help, we can.

It's always cool to me when I find similar words and phrases in different books of the Bible. The fact that they're there stresses the fact that the Bible is indeed
God-breathed. Who else could have inspired such subtle yet powerful connections? It also stresses the fact that we should read the Bible as a whole, instead of picking and choosing certain books or passages or stories. True, we have our favorites, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that; it helps with memorization, application, prayer, and sharing God with others when we read and re-read our favorite sections of Scripture until they are imprinted on our minds and hearts. But especially after what God has shown me today with these two passages, one a sobering prophecy and the other a sweet song of thanksgiving, I for one want to start delving into the parts of His word that I seldom consider reading. Seeing one idea reinterated or rephrased in a different manner from one passage to another can lead to deeper understanding, more meaningful application, and more powerful prayers. Those are all things I desire in my walk with God. May His Word always speak to me in new and exciting ways.