Now is the time - To Rise Up

Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?.... No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Romans 8:35,37

One day while I was lining up a lovely picture of a kookaburra on a visit to the vineyards, a noisy mynah bird descended right into my picture as I snapped the shot. The result, as you can see, is a great action shot that I couldn’t have taken if I’d tried, but not the shot I was looking for.

Sometimes life can be like that. Suddenly something will happen that will totally change life as we know it. Trouble descends in many forms, sickness, adversity, redundancy, death, depression… there are any number of ways that life can deal its blows and we get totally thrown off track. The test for us comes in how we respond.

We must always bear in mind the truth of John 10:10 in which Jesus said, “The thief comes only to rob, kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have abundant life”. We should also keep in mind that, as with Job, sometimes God allows adversity to come. I want to share some thoughts that came to me while I was praying for someone who has taken a huge ‘hit’ from the enemy.

The first response for many of us when we get targeted by the enemy is not to get angry at the enemy, but to get depressed. (Not everyone is like me in this but I know that many will be.) Self pity is such a human response that can sometimes take us quite awhile to overcome. It is vital however that we do overcome otherwise it allows a foothold for the enemy to create more chaos for us. Self pity leads to depression, depression can lead to overeating, overeating can lead to self-condemnation or self-loathing which can bring isolation from people and even from God. In times of adversity we need God and we need people, which is why the enemy likes to isolate us by making us feel unacceptable, unworthy or hard done by.

It is imperative that we rise up when trouble descends. If trouble has come then the Lord knows about it and is with us in it. We are not separated from his love, neither are we separated from his help and strength to walk through it to victory. Our job is to grasp the experience with one hand and the word of God with the other and walk through this with praying friends. It is a privilege to stand alongside others in their distress and bring comfort and encouragement to them from the times that the Lord has comforted us (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

Prayer: Dear God of all comfort, please strengthen me to rise up in the midst of every trial that comes my way by grasping the truth of your word. Amen

Now is the time... To Get Out of Your Puddle

He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Isaiah 40:29

Recently we were away for a night to celebrate our anniversary. The weather, being winter, was cool and showery and as we lunched near the marina we were fascinated to see this pigeon just sitting in a puddle. At one stage a child came and shooed it off, it flew off briefly but soon returned to the puddle. Remember, it’s winter and cool, (I can’t say cold or my North American friends laugh and say we don’t know what cold is!). Why on earth would this pigeon want to sit in such an uncomfortable place? I could at least understand it if it was summer. Perhaps one of you is going to shed light on my question.

However, as I pondered this I got to thinking about people who sit in their ‘puddles’. Puddles of self pity, puddles of misery, puddles of pride or poverty, unbelief, bitterness or I-can’t-ness. There are many puddles that we can find ourselves in and sometimes we get like this pigeon and just get comfortable in our discomfort. It becomes a place of familiarity with safety in its own funny way, but it is not a good place to be. The problem is that the longer we stay in our puddle, the harder it can be to get out of it, so we stay right where we are.

Sometimes we try to get others to join us in our puddle and we invite them to pity parties or faith-free forums in which we bemoan our situation and do no service to our poor listeners. Have you ever found yourself in such a puddle? Perhaps you know someone who is in a puddle right now and you are wondering how to help them to dry ground.

There is a way out and it is through faith in the word of God. Often in our ‘puddle times’ we neglect the word of God, but in it lies our strength. I don’t think we realise how much strength there is in the Word. Proverbs 4:21-22 says this, “Don’t lose sight of my words. Let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning.” There is strength in God’s Word and there is a word for every season and every situation, we just have to be a student of the Word.

Amazing things can happen when we take hold of God’s Word and begin to declare it over situations and over our life. Our thinking changes as the Word goes to work in our heart. Psalm 119:30 says “The entrance of Your words gives light.” The Word lights up the darkness that our puddle has brought around us, the darkness of unbelief that keeps us a prisoner of our problems.

The best way we can help someone else out of their puddle is to point them to God’s Word and help them find God’s truth for their trouble. The Word is living and powerful and comes with the grace of God to bring change as we activate it. God’s Word cannot fail because He is the Word. (John 1:1)

Prayer: Father, help me to receive your grace to leave my puddle. Amen

Now is the time..... To Worship

……Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2

Recently there has been a lot going on around me which has taken a toll on my emotions and left me feeling quite fragile. Although I seemed to be doing a lot of talking to the Lord, I wasn’t feeling strengthened and refreshed. One afternoon the thought came to me “Just worship”. So I put on my favourite worship music, lay face down and just worshipped the Lord. I just soaked in the presence of Jesus – my strength and my redeemer, my glory and the lifter of my head (Psalm 3:3). During that time my peace was restored, the feeling of fragility left and I came away strengthened and refreshed. There is great healing for our emotions in the presence of the Lord.

Tonight as I write I am sitting beside our dying friend. We think this may be his last night. He cannot really communicate any more but as I read verses from the psalms earlier on, he tried to communicate agreement over the greatness and faithfulness of God. When I stopped reading, thinking he may want a rest from my voice, he became agitated. He turned his head and looked at me through almost vacant eyes. I asked him if he wanted me to read some more and he managed what passed for a ‘yes’. I continued to read and I could tell that he was trying to agree with the truth of the scriptures. We were worshipping the Lord through reading His word and reminding ourselves of God’s goodness and wonderful ways.

There are many ways we can worship the Lord. Another is by walking in his ways, being guided by the wisdom he has given us in His word. This brings great peace and harmony to our life, not to mention the blessing of knowing He is pleased with us.

We were made to worship our God; the need to worship is part of our DNA and without it we lack something very significant in our lives, something that keeps us strengthened and refreshed. I am reminded tonight of the short span of time we have on this earth, not much time to worship our God and make His love and goodness known in the earth. Why not do yourself a favour today – find a way to worship the Lord our God who is worthy to be praised. You will reap a beautiful benefit and your Father in heaven will be pleased.

Prayer: Wonderful and loving God, I praise you and thank you for my life. I thank you that I have life and breath to praise and worship your name. Help me to daily draw my strength from you. Amen

Now is the time.... We Have

Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." Acts 23:1

This moment in time is what we have from God, the only guarantee, the only time we know for a fact that we have. What we do in this moment in time is significant and it becomes more so when we are faced with the reality of the shortness of life.

A week ago our long time friend was told that the cancer that has shadowed him for a number of years has finally gotten the upper hand; the following day he was in the hospital dying. Tonight I’ve been to sleep for a while and now I am up because I know my friend is sitting at her husband’s bedside and any moment he may leave to be with his Lord. The blessing is to know that he is ready and has said his goodbyes to his family and his friends. No matter, it is still hard to walk this path and I choose in this moment to be awake and mindful of his precious wife’s pain as she watches him take each faint and possibly final breath. It’s quite incredible how quickly our life can change.

Make Today Count is a support group in our area who seek to help people to come to terms with life threatening illnesses, especially cancer. I have heard and read that for many people, getting cancer is almost like a new beginning in their life. They suddenly realise what a precious gift life is and how lightly they had valued it till faced with the possibility of death. It is only then that many people have begun to really live life fully and meaningfully.

Sadly I believe that many of us, even Christians, underestimate the immense value of the gift of each day and so fail to live the abundant life that Jesus died to give us. To live life with a thankful heart is to appreciate God’s gift of life. To procrastinate, to allow anxiety to rule with its iron rod, to hold an offence, bitterness or anger over something that is long past is to choose unwisely and to waste this moment.

As the apostle Paul stood before the council he was able to say that he had lived his life before God as best he knew how until this day. This day is all we have. If you look in a concordance you will be surprised how many times those two little words appear together. That is because to the God of eternity, this day is the time that counts. He is a God of the present moment. It matters to him how we choose to use the gift of this moment, this day. What do you choose to do with your gift of this moment in this day? We do not know when our sunset will arrive and it will be too late.

Prayer: Dear Father, thank you for the gift of today, for the family and friends you have given me, and for the people that my life will touch today. Help me to listen to the voice of your Holy Spirit within and make choices this day that will count for something in eternity. Amen

Now is the time.... To Watch Those Words

Death and life are in the power of the tongue… Proverbs 18:21

Today I was speaking with a friend who has a lot of health issues going on. In the course of our conversation I asked her how her recent clinic appointment had gone and we talked about the rheumatoid arthritis she suffers from. She told me that it was a result of a traumatic accident many years ago when she was a teenager. She did not suffer too much physical damage at the time but her doctor had spoken words over her that, I believe, have caused her to be in the state she is in today. She told me, “I can clearly hear the words he spoke as on the day he spoke them” (probably more than 30 years ago). He said, “You haven’t got much damage right now but your body will suffer when you are older. You will have rheumatoid arthritis.”

Call me fanatical if you like, but I think in those few sentences he spoke a curse of suffering over this lady, and that today she is suffering because of that doctor’s careless words. I have offered to pray with her to break the power of these words in Jesus’ name and agree with her for healing. She has happily agreed to do this. I expect that she will experience a growing measure of freedom from pain as we address this in the spiritual realm.

Did you see how she remembered these words clearly even though they were spoken so long ago? It is a sad fact that we more easily remember the negative words spoken over us than we do the positive. It is so important to use our words carefully. It is so easy to say the wrong thing when we are upset and frustrated. Only recently I had to apologise to someone precious to me for saying words in the wrong way. They slip out so easily and can cause so much damage and lasting pain.

The picture I have used here is a little amusing but not really funny. It’s a picture of how the devil would like to keep us; bound up by the words of death that people have spoken over us – perhaps we have even been guilty of speaking words of death over ourselves – and been silenced from speaking truth. Our tongue also has the power of life. The word of God is life giving and we can take scriptures and speak them out and they WILL bring life and healing because God’s word is living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). Many times Jesus tells us to ‘say’ something, a good example is found in Mark 11:23-24.

The world was formed by the words of our Creator. In Genesis 1 we read the words “And God said” 9 times followed closely by the words “and it was so”. I just looked up my daily devotional reading and guess what! The verse is Joshua 6:5 where God tells Joshua “Shout; then the wall (of Jericho)…. will fall down.” The people had to use words to get the wall to come down. Words are just that important.

Are there any walls in your life that need to come down? Perhaps there are obstacles in other’s lives like my friend that you can help bring down. Will you pray, strengthen your faith and then SPEAK life.Remember light overcomes darkness and our words filled with LIFE will overcome words of death.

Prayer: Father help me always to speak words of life. Amen

Now is the time... To Embrace Change

Because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God. Psalm 55:19b

In the past week I received a request for prayer from a friend in her 70’s who is working in a restricted country to bring the good news of the gospel to all who will listen. Something was about to take place which was a change in the norm for her. It was uncomfortable but I was so impressed with her response…. “Personally I am not comfortable with this (new procedure) but He is much bigger than me and I am sure He has it all worked out. Things will be different this (time) and I need to adjust and grow.” (I changed a couple of words for security purposes.) Here is a woman who is not afraid to embrace change, she is willing to trust God to work things out.

I am fortunate in that I love change so it is not difficult for me. This doesn’t mean that I don’t find it difficult to move out of my own comfort zone at times, but I know that many people fear and even strongly resist and refuse change. The verse I used today is specifically speaking about ungodly people not changing and therefore it shows that they do not fear God. As I meditated on this problem of the unwillingness to change, I could think of some people I know who resist change and have been the losers because of such an attitude.

Change requires a greater level of trust in God because change is scary – even for those of us who enjoy change. If our faith is not challenged it won’t develop and mature as it should. It is possible that many people miss out on great adventures with God because they are unwilling to step out of their comfort zone. Refusing change can also be detrimental to our finances, our mental health and our future possibilities in life. It can also at times make life difficult for others.

Churches that are unwilling to make changes often become a shadow of their former glory because the world moves on and leaves them behind. In saying all this I am not saying that we need to embrace every new idea and fad that comes along because much in our world today needs to be resisted.

We need to know when God is prodding us to make a change or when it’s just the world trying to make us conform to its mold. If it’s God, then he will have his reason for moving us toward a change and we should willingly prepare to follow. The Israelites would have still been camping in the desert if they had not been willing to follow the pillar of cloud and fire and their God-fearing leaders to possess their promised land. Is there anything you are missing out on because you are afraid of embracing change?

Prayer: Lord God, help me to see where I am resistant to change. Help me to retain a flexibility that you can work with to bring fullness of life to me and blessing to others. Amen

Now is the time.... To Make A Difference

……he who refreshes others will be refreshed himself. Proverbs 11:25b

One of the trips down memory lane for me during my recent Hong Kong trip was to tune into the 7.30 TV news from America. It was always our breakfast accompaniment over the years.

What caught my eye one day was about a programme one lady had initiated in high schools a number of years ago, it’s so simple but is making a world of difference in the lives of special needs students. Whereas many students with autism and Downs syndrome once suffered the agony of facing a lonely lunch in the school cafeteria, now they are linked with other students for lunch dates. This develops friendship which leads to other social events and also serves to teach the ‘regular’ students about caring for special needs people. One autistic teenager who was interviewed said, “Now that I have friends I feel whole.” Wow! How good is that and so simple.

It made me think about how easy it really is to make a difference in the life of a lonely person, but it does take purpose. It means that we have to stop our busyness, look around and say, “Lord is there someone in my circle of life that you want me to connect with on a deeper level?” It is so easy to be satisfied with our own life, but it is almost inevitable that there are people around us who feel isolated and alone.

When we reach out and touch another life we are always enriched ourselves. Jesus said that in giving we will receive (Luke 6:38), it’s just a law of life like the law of gravity. This one is the law of sowing and reaping. As Christians we have been given so much by way of unconditional love, forgiveness, mercy and grace. We have been given unique gifts and talents through which we can make a difference in our world. We need to use what we've been given to be a blessing.

Will you ask yourself today, “Is my world too small; too safe; too comfortable? Is there room for someone else who needs a friendly smile, a word, a cuppa?” There probably is someone you can make a difference for and in doing so it will make a difference to you too.

Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me to see who I can make a difference for in my world today. Help me to get outside of my own busy life and extend the gift of friendship to someone else. Amen