considering it all joy

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  James 1:2-4

I've read these verses hundreds of times over the years, but this week God showed me something new as I read them.  And of course it had to do with joy.  He's been bombarding me with this concept of being joyful lately, since I tend to be more on the melancholy and pensive side of things.  It's almost like I'm afraid to find joy in the little things, because what if it's not there in the bigger things?

I always considered this act of "considering it all joy" to be a simple, almost passive behavior.  Trials will happen to all of us; it's inevitable.  But when they happen to me, I tend to be more active with getting through the trial, not with finding joy within it.  And I think that's where I've been going wrong all these years.

We read in these verses that the testing of our faith produces endurance (or, in other translations, perseverance).  But what if finding joy within the trial that's testing our faith actually causes the product of endurance?  What if instead of being a passive behavior, finding joy becomes a catalyst that results in endurance?  Think about it.  Whether we strive to find joy in our trials or not, sooner or later we will get through them.  That testing of our faith could just as easily result in burnout, discouragement, and staying stagnant in our faith if we don't make finding joy a necessity.  No matter what the trial is, we could come out of the other side more mature and complete, or we could come out more frustrated and doubting than ever.  The difference is JOY.

So how do we find joy in the midst of trial?  Here's an idea.  Look to God, and instead of asking Him WHY, ask Him to remind you of WHO He is and WHAT He has done for you in your:

• past.  He has already come through for you and has helped you during past trials.  Did you try to find the joy in those trials, or did you just struggle to get through?  How did you feel on the other side?
• present.  He is doing a mighty work in you right now, using whatever trial you're in as a sculpting tool to shape you into something new and stronger.  He wants you to come out of this trial as someone who looks more like Him, someone more complete and sure in their faith.  
• future.  He will bring you out of this trial.  It won't last forever.  And you won't be the same person who entered that trial.  Skip down to verse 12:  "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."  Only having joy in that trial will help you to focus on the Lord, to love Him, and to come out of that trial the right way.

So this behavior of "considering it all joy" really isn't an option.  It's a necessity.  If we want to learn from our trials and allow God to use those hard times to mold us and strengthen us, finding joy within the storm is really the only way to make that happen.  And being joyful doesn't mean having a smile plastered to your face, or denying the difficulty of the circumstances you find yourself in.  It doesn't mean to suck it up or to ignore your feelings of sadness and concern.  It simply means to worship Him.  It means making a choice to praise Him even when you're not sure what He's doing.  And it means drawing closer to Him and thanking Him for sticking with you as you learn from that trial.  When the trial is over, that catalyst of joy will result in greater endurance, which will probably help you persevere when the next trial comes.  Best of all, that endurance helps us become more mature in our faith, meaning a much more meaningful walk with Him.

Can you find joy in trials such as poverty, disease, and death?  I think you can.  Yes, it's hard to consider it all joy when you've lost your job, when a friend's body is wracked with cancer, or when a loved one dies.  But if you look to the One who is sovereign over all of this, He can help you find joy.  I can think of no better source of joy than our Heavenly Father, and He is always ready to share that joy with us if we only ask.

everyday idolatry

"Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit."

~Isaiah 44:9

In the middle of the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, the prophet really speaks out on the dangers of idolatry.  Many people in his time were fashioning their own household idols out of materials like wood and iron, and so were forsaking the only God who could actually save their souls.

I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not accusing you of regularly chopping down trees and putting together some do-it-yourself idols (although if Lowe's had been around in Isaiah's time, who knows, maybe they would have had some kind of section for that!).  But the fact is, many things in our life can easily ensnare us and become idols as bad as the ones made by our ancestors so long ago.

So what makes something an idol?  Here's what I gathered from this section in Isaiah:

• An idol can be the result of some hard work or effort on your part.  In verses 12 and 13, Isaiah describes all of the labor that people engaged in in order to make an idol.  Whether they used iron or wood, making an idol usually involved "working over the coals,"  "working with a compass," and using things like "hammers," a "strong arm," and "a measuring line."  In fact, so much work is put into them that the man in verse 12 becomes hungry and weak!  Believe me, I appreciated a job well done; I feel accomplished after I finish a big project, especially if there are visual results that I can stand back and admire.  And really, there's nothing wrong with that.  But if our hard work takes us away from God, and causes us to depend on our own efforts rather than God's help, that project can quickly become an idol.
• The origin of an idol can usually be traced back to some sort of pride.  At the end of verse 13, the idol the man shapes out of wood takes on the "form of a man, like the beauty of man."  Even if this idol doesn't resemble the man himself, can you see the pride that went into the creation of that idol?  He was either worshiping man's appearance in general, or else worshiping a particular person who served as the inspiration for that idol.  We often aspire to be like others, or to look up to them for mentoring, but we should be careful that they don't become objects of worship. Even if you think your pride isn't the root of an idol, remember, pride can wear many disguises.  It can masquerade as false humility or simply just trusting your own judgment rather than God's.
• All idols are perishable and/or replaceable.  In verses 14 through 17, a man plants a tree and then uses half of it for firewood, and the other half for fashioning an idol.  He doesn't realize that his idol is useless, being made from the same perishable wood from the tree he planted himself.  Since he is satisfied by the warmth of the fire and the sustenance of the food he cooks over it, he never stops to think about whether God had anything to do with it.  Who knows, maybe these comforts are what drove him to make the idol out of the other half of the tree, and then bowing down to it rather than to God.  Anything you put before God, whether unknowingly or willingly, will not last.  If you're worshiping a person, they will let you down sooner or later, and we will all die at some point.  Anything you or someone else has made with their hands won't last either; it could rust or fall apart or be stolen or be burned.  And even though your time is intangible, it can also perish.  
• Idols can offer temporary satisfaction and comfort, but CANNOT save you.  We've already seen an example of this with the man and his tree, but let me just drive this point home.  Idols often look attractive to us because of what they have to offer, and they may come through for us for a little while.  But they can't save our souls.  And they can't help us walk in that abundant life that God has promised to all of His children (in fact, they often hinder it).
• Worshiping idols can lead to hardened hearts.  Take a look at the sobering message in verses 18 through 20.  The idol worshipers have eyes and hearts that have been "smeared over" by God, meaning they can't see or understand what they're doing.  They don't see that their idols are just perishable man-made junk.  They don't see that they're living in sin.  And they don't understand how deceived they are and how their idol worship has turned them away from God ("a deceived heart has turned him aside," verse 20).  What does this mean for us?  It means that like these men, we too can easily deny that we have any idols in our lives.  While our idols probably won't take on the form of wood or iron, they are still a very real presence in all of our lives.  Finding out what they are and how to get rid of them is critical for saving our souls and guarding our hearts.

So examine your heart and your life.  Ask God to help you pinpoint any areas where idol worship is apparent, even if it's just the start of something (since it can easily and quickly snowball into something much more serious).  Is there a certain TV show or book that interferes with your time with Him?  Is there a certain person who occupies your heart and your thoughts more than He does?  Is there a certain hobby or pastime you hold as more dear than Him?  One thing I've noticed about myself lately is how I spend my time.  I find I covet "MY TIME" too much.  When my son goes down for a nap, I often run to other things rather than spending that time with God.  None of the things I run to are necessarily bad on their own, but when they are placed as higher than God, then they become a problem.

So burn those idols and sit at the feet of the One who was not fashioned by human hands, and whose love endures forever!

hope now

So our 15-month-old has become obsessed with our stereo.  He's recently figured out that music comes out of it, and if I put a CD in he'll just stand in front of it and listen, smiling if the song picks up in tempo or goes from quiet to loud.  Today the stereo was off, and he ran over to it, pointing.  So I turned it on, and we've been listening to music all day.  I even went deep into my collection of CD's, ones that I haven't listened to in forever, with songs that I'm sure Caleb has never heard before.

At one point during the day, all I wanted to do was lay around and read.  Or nap.  Caleb was going strong, and all he wanted was for me to get on the floor with him and play.  And let me just say he was insistent.  I tried to get him to sit with me on the couch with a toy and play that way, but he wasn't for that at all.  Finally, I conceded and got on the floor with him, where we preceded to fill and empty his shape sorter twenty times in a row.

And he was in rare form; everything I did or said was hilarious, he figured out how to put a few of the shapes in the sorter himself, and then he imitated kissing me on the cheek (and, for the first time ever, he said "muah" while doing it and didn't even slime me).  I started feeling content and thinking, okay, kid, this was a good idea after all.  Sorry I didn't do this earlier.

Then, as if on cue, a song came on that I had almost forgotten about.  A song that became my prayer when times were difficult and I was grasping at my faith.

When I found out I was pregnant with Caleb, I had just had a miscarriage a couple of months earlier.  To add to my anxiety, my first ultrasound with him was a disaster.  The ultrasound technician struggled to find any evidence that I was 6 weeks pregnant, but all we could see was a black hole inside the sac on the screen.  She finally concluded that either my calculations were off, or my baby was simply not developing right.  What followed were two agonizing weeks of waiting before another ultrasound would be done.  I struggled with guilt during that time.  I felt guilty that I had allowed myself to get pregnant again when I had been advised to wait longer.  I felt guilty that I couldn't seem to share my husband's faith that our baby was fine and the ultrasound tech had gotten things all wrong.  And I felt guilty that I was still grieving one child, yet praying my heart out for another.

I listened to this song every day during that time.  This might sound cheesy, but in a way it became my prayer when I didn't know how to pray.  And it helped lead me to the most meaningful thing I would say to God during those two weeks..."Lord, I choose to be thankful for whatever time I have with this child...thank You for the privilege of being a mother once again, even if it's for a short while."  It helped me surrender my fears completely to Him, and to yearn for His Word when my worry was trying to get the best of me.  And it became a song of rejoicing when my husband and I saw our baby for the first time at the end of those two weeks.  That little bean-shaped spot on the screen measured 8 weeks, making my previous calculations correct; to this day I'm not certain whether the ultrasound tech measured wrong on that first ultrasound, or whether God performed a miracle within me that caused Caleb to grow the way he did.  I tend to believe the latter.

So when I heard this song today while playing with my son in our living room, my memory jogged in an instant and I found myself in tears.  I remembered all the prayers that were said for this miracle child, and all the times my heart cried out to God like David's did so many times in his Psalms.  I remembered when I would have given anything to be able to play with the child I had lost.  I remembered wondering if God would ask me to say good-bye to another child.  I remembered all the growing I did in those two weeks of waiting.  And all the growing Caleb did as well.

Most of all, I remembered God's sovereignty and blessings.  And it made my play-time with my son that much sweeter. 

"Hope Now" by Addison Road

If everything comes down to love, 

Then just what am I afraid of?

When I call out Your name,

Something inside awakes in my soul.

How quickly I forget I'm yours.

I'm not my own, I've been carried by You all my life.

Everything rides on hope now.

Everything rides on faith somehow.

When the world has broken me down,

Your love sets me free.

When my life is like a storm,

Rising waters, all I want is the shore;

You say I'll be okay, and make it through the rain,

You are my shelter from the storm.

Everything rides on hope now.

Everything rides on faith somehow.

When the world has broken me down,

Your love sets me free.

You've become my heart's desire,

And I will sing Your praises higher,

'Cause Your love sets me free,

Your love sets me free,

Your love sets me free.

Delighting in the Lord

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

Tonight I went for a walk with my little guy... not a fast-paced one like we normally do, but a nice leisurely one where I could really enjoy myself as I talked to God about different things. I found after awhile that I was repeatedly asking Him for things I desired, whether it was regarding my relationship with Him, my relationship with my husband and son, my weight loss journey, or things that might come in the future. I felt a little guilty about this... almost like I was coming to my Savior with a "honey-do list" rather than with thankfulness and admiration. I confessed this to God, and He immediately gave me the verse that appears above.

Psalm 37:4 isn't new to me; I've read it over and over again for years now. But tonight it held a different meaning. For the first time, my focus was on the first part of the verse rather than the second part. I realized that the first part, "Delight yourself in the Lord," is a directive. It's a command we can actively pursue in obeying everyday of our lives. And the upshot of following this command is God fulfilling the desires of our heart.

So let's take this thing apart for a second. First, how do we delight ourselves in the Lord? I'm sure this looks different for every child of God, but here's what I came up with for me:

• Searching Him out by reading His word and talking to Him, and being excited about what He's showing me.
• Thanking Him for even the smallest blessings and victories.
• Making Him the first thing on my mind in the morning and the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep at night.
• Praising Him even in the midst of a storm.

I'm sure anyone's list changes and adds on to itself as we walk the path He lays out for us; ask God how you may delight in Him and how to carry that out practically.

Second, is it okay that sometimes "delighting" actually feels more like a duty or obligation? As someone who struggles with this a lot, I certainly think so. As long as we're in these flesh-covered vessels, our first instinct may often be to slack off, or worse, take delight in something other than our Creator. That's why we need Jesus so badly; without Him it's impossible to even have a relationship with God, much less delight in Him. I think in general, we can still delight in something, but work hard to attain it, and then even harder to maintain it. For instance, I had a desire in high school to learn how to play guitar. I was on my way to fulfilling that desire my freshman year of college when I received a guitar as a Christmas present from my parents. It would have been wonderful if I had been one of those prodigies that could just pick up that instrument and immediately strum out numerous chords (not to mention showing off those wicked callouses). But I had to work at it... and for a few years I did, faithfully going through beginner's guitar books, looking up chords, and seeking help from friends who were more musically inclined than I was. Granted, I haven't picked up my guitar in awhile now, but I hope to someday get better at it. The point is, most things we delight in doing also take diligence, patience, and hard work; delighting in the Lord is no different. Even though we love Him and desire to follow after Him with all our hearts, most of the time this will might look more like an effort rather than a natural impulse. So don't worry if this delighting thing isn't the most natural thing ever... it takes time and hard work. Ask God to help you and to give you the stamina to keep at it!

Finally, one of my more burning questions: What if I still don't get the desires of my heart? The verse makes it sound like the whole process is automatic; we delight in the Lord, He gives us what we want. But we know that isn't always the case. Just know that if God says "no" or "wait on that" regarding a particular desire, it doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong. If our actions always dictated their own outcomes, we wouldn't even need to depend on God (and worse, we'd start trying to delight in Him strictly in order to get what we want). Our desires can be pure and selfless, but God may still say "no." That just means He was something better for us that what we are currently desiring in our hearts. Think about it. If God automatically fulfilled every desire we had in our hearts, we would marry the first person we were attracted to. We would go to the first college that looked good to us. We would take that first job we were offered. Now for some people, these things actually worked out this way, but for most of us, God gave us a "no" and instead directed us toward something even better.

We need to align our hearts with His so that His desires become our desires. And what better way to do that than to grow closer to Him by delighting in Him? So why not think and pray more on this delighting thing? May our ultimate motive in delighting in our Savior be to bring glory to His name and to learn how to love Him as He guides us toward the better way.

And we are filled with joy!

"The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad!" Psalm 126:3

So God led me back to Psalm 126 this morning. The last two verses of this psalm were the focus of a post from last month, and lo and behold, I'm back there again. Shocker.

This time, however, the remaining verses are my focus. The psalm itself is brief. Just six verses, equivalent to volumes and volumes of wisdom and insight into God's character and our walk with Him. The psalmist is offering praise to God for "return from captivity," and also asks for restoration for whatever was seemingly lost during that time of captivity ("Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South" verse 4). After a season of captivity and hardship, there comes a season of joyfulness and restoration.

During the past twenty-four hours, God has revealed Himself to me in such a special way in the lives of two couples I know. I don't call myself close friends with either couple, but we have enough of a friendship for me to be aware of their struggles and hopes. Both of these couples experienced difficulty having a child of their own, and then experienced the agony of waiting for a child to come their way through adoption. In both cases, their faith remained strong and they were such an encouragement to me. Yesterday I received news that one couple was finalizing an adoption of a precious baby boy, and the other was going to pick up their own baby boy today. I feel such joy for these friends and am amazed at God's perfect timing and sovereignty.

God showed me through this that times of joy will always follow times of weeping. He will restore whatever we think we lost during times of captivity, and in EVERY case we'll find that He gives us more than we ever thought possible. He mourns with us and rejoices with us, and I have no doubt that when He led these friends of mine to their babies, He had a HUGE smile on His face.

If you find yourself in a season of mourning right now, God is there with you. He has already laid plans for you and will lead you out in His perfect timing. And He will restore what was lost during that time of captivity. Lean on Him and allow this trial to draw you closer to Him.

If you find yourself in a season of joy, God is there with you. He rejoices with you, but also longs for you to share your joy with Him. Lean on Him and allow your joyful shouting to praise His name.

No matter where you find yourself, remember that God is good....ALL THE TIME!

Lasting

"If you will not believe, you surely shall not last." Isaiah 7:9a

In the seventh chapter of Isaiah, the prophet is given words from the Lord to give to Ahaz, the king of Judah. Rival kings are threatening Judah with almost-certain invasion and war, and the Lord tells Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah to "take care and be calm" (verse 4), and that ultimately the evil plan "shall not stand nor shall it come to pass" (verse 7). However, He also provides a warning to the king in verse 9, saying "If you will not believe, you surely shall not last."

Interesting word, "last." My bible has a sidenote that says the phrase "be established" can be used in place of it. So if Ahaz does not believe, he shall not "be established." Here we see the true consequences of unbelief: not only will we see our demise (the end), it will be as if we never got established (the beginning) in the first place!

We see something similar in 2 Chronicles 20. In this case, Judah is also facing invasion of their enemies. King Jehoshaphat fervently prays to God before an assembly of his people, saying, "we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You" (verse 12). His prayers are answered when the Spirit of the Lord falls on a man named Jahaziel, who says that this battle is not theirs but the Lord's, and that if they face this great multitude He will be with them (verses 14-17). When the people of Judah go to fight their enemies, Jehoshapat reminds them, "put your trust in the Lord your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed" (verse 20). Appointed worshippers go out before them and praise the name of God, causing their enemies to ultimately destroy one another.

Two different kings facing very similar circumstances. Both instances involve possible conflict, a seemingly hopeless situation, and a call to believe and not fear. Jehoshaphat chose to believe God and to take Him at His word, therefore he succeeded and his kingdom was established in the Lord's name. If we believe God even in the midst of battle, we will be established in His eternal kingdom; what else can possibly last that long?

One more important point. Notice that it was only after the appointed singers started worshipping that their enemies began to destroy each other (see 2 Chronicles 20:21-23). Often God calls us to go that extra mile in the midst of a trial. It is one thing to believe Him, and it is another to believe AND worship Him no matter what the circumstances. We often face difficult situations in order to stretch us and to strenghthen our belief; why not use these times to stretch our worship muscles as well?

This chapter of Isaiah does not reveal the outcome of this impending war against Judah. Without further reading, we can't be sure right now whether Ahaz chooses to take Jehoshaphat's example and believe that God will take care of him, or whether he simply chooses to take matters into his own hands.

One thing is certain, we can all relate to Ahaz's situation. We all endure times of struggle that ultimately lead to a crossroads where the signs read "BELIEF" or "UNBELIEF" and face opposite directions. Which way will you choose?