Love Songs from God

Yesterday I woke up to the Lord quietly calling me to Himself with a love song.  It was so gentle, I could have easily brushed it aside and gone back to sleep.  I had a choice – dismiss it as random brain waves or receive it as an invitation from the One who loves me most.  Grace enabled me to do the latter and I am so glad!  I guess I’ve always thought, so stupidly, that I have to get myself together to come to Him – as if I ever could get myself together without Him.  Daring to believe that He was calling for me, wooing me to come to Him – Wow!  That’s a game changer.  You see, for the last two days, I’ve been on the run.  Running from what?  I didn’t know until He stopped me.  Then I could see.  I was running from the pain of trying to figure it all out.  When did I decide that was my job?  Here’s what my Abba, my loving Lord, had to say about that: 

Trying to figure it all out will crush you.  That is what keeps most people from embracing Me.  They have decided they have to figure it all out first.  They think they have to completely understand Me with their minds before they are willing to let their hearts trust.  What faith really comes down to is being brave enough to truly look Me in the eye and see that all I have for you is love.  I’ve made provision for your sin to be covered.  I’ve revealed myself as the One who comes with mercy to heal, restore and set free.  My heart says to My creation, “Come on, come on, into My arms.  Give in to Me.” 

John 1:16-18  “From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.”

What Got In the Way?

Last week the Lord spoke these words to my heart:  Something comes between us and a shadow falls on your heart, but My great love never leaves you. 

You might have wondered what could have possibly been big enough to block my awareness of the Father’s love.  Sigh.  First, let me just say that sometimes it is really hard to be so open with you.  I wish I could hide myself and just share the distilled truth I believe I’ve been given without showing you the muddy path to the well from which I draw.  Knowing that we all walk those same muddy paths is what keeps me willing to lay down my mask and let you see me as I am.  My dearest hope is that I can help you avoid or climb out of a few of the holes I’ve fallen into. 

What came between me and my awareness of my Abba and His love?  I had shifted my focus from Him to a person.  My thought life was dominated by how this person had disappointed me, let me down, and not been to me what I had hoped they would be.  I was stuck in a place of finding it hard to let go of how I wanted things to be.  I didn’t want to let go of my claim ticket that said “So and so owes me ____________”, only that little blank would go on for a paragraph or two.  Have you ever wandered this barren land?  It is not a happy place.  It is pretty much the opposite of the picture painted by Psalm 23.  This is where we end up when we seek to be our own shepherds, searching desperately for the way to make sure our needs get met by those around us, or even by ourselves.  In the end, there is nothing but darkness and howling emptiness.  The only way out is to let go of our right to demand that someone be what we need.  Now, here is the part where we get to see how wonderful our Abba Father is.  He doesn’t ask us to deny the needs of our hearts.  What He asks is that we will take those needs and trust Him to meet them.  He speaks to our hearts the incredible comfort that we are His sons, and He will provide for us.  We are not orphans that we should cry at the gate for a crust to be thrown our way.  No!  He promises that every need will be met abundantly if we will only trust Him.  With this treasure before us, it is easy to let go of the little rock we’ve been clutching so desperately.  Now we are able to go beyond forgiveness in the traditional sense of “you did this, it was wrong, but I forgive you”.  We are able to look at those responsible for our deepest let-downs and say, “I forgive you for not being who I wanted you to be for me.  I accept you as you are.  I trust my Abba Father to meet all those needs that you either won’t or can’t meet.  You are released from my debt.  I won’t keep trying to shake you down for something you just don’t have.” 

Is this a one-time deal?  No way!  I have to keep choosing where I put my focus.  Is it on the immense awesomeness of my Abba God or have I allowed a tree to block my view of the One Who made every forest?  This is why worship is vital to the life of our souls.  Not because God needs it, but because we need to remember Who rules, and how wonderful He is and always will be.  He is ALL we need.  Amen.

What Am I Really Hungry For?

This past week I’ve been wrestling with the hunger in my heart to be known and loved deeply.  When I say wrestling, I mean most of the week it had me pinned to the mat, crushed under the weight of this huge craving in my soul.  Now, when I talk about hunger and cravings, I know you ladies know what I’m talking about.  Sometimes it’s our stomachs and sometimes it’s our souls, but there are times when we feel as if the canyon inside of us can never be filled.  When I finally sat down and began to write my heart out to the Lord in my journal, I realized on one level, it is true.  I am a broken human who has a cavern of emptiness in me that no amount of mother love, father love, husband love, child love or friend love has ever been able to fill.  The kicker is that I know it is only the divine love of my God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that can fill up this huge pit.  I know no human can completely meet this need for another.  My cry to the Father was, “Why don’t I know it right now?!”  Here is what I heard my Abba say:  You have known it and you will know it again, but sometimes you lose sight of it.  Something comes between us and a shadow falls on your heart, but My great love never leaves you. 

As I thought about that, I picked up my Bible and ended up turning to Psalm 115.  I was especially blessed by verses 9 through 13. 

O Israel, trust the LORD!
He is your helper and your shield.
O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the LORD!
He is your helper and your shield.
All you who fear the LORD, trust the LORD!
He is your helper and your shield.

The LORD remembers us and will bless us.
He will bless the people of Israel
and bless the priests, the descendants of Aaron.
He will bless those who fear the LORD,
both great and lowly.

The Lord remembers us and will bless us.  That’s worth writing up and posting on your bathroom mirror.  He is our helper and our shield.  He is the ONE who truly understands us, knows us, and loves us completely and unconditionally.  At our worst, He loves us.  He has promised never to leave us or forsake us, and even better, He has promised to perfect the work He has begun in us.  His love is Enough.  Thank You, Lord!  We bless You and praise You! 

Time To Move On

Well ladies, it’s the first Wednesday of the new year and I’ve been asking the Lord for His word for us for several days now.  For many people I know, the next few months will bring many changes.  Our beloved church called Restoration is coming to an end and something new will begin.  I’m sure I’m not the only one with a mixed-up swirl of emotions over this fact.  My husband and I came to this church as two-week-old newlyweds in 1989.  This place has been our spiritual home, our community, and the center point of our lives.  We have been so blessed to be part of this small portion of the Body of Christ.  This morning when I logged onto my Facebook, I saw a video link to a song by Dennis Jernigan posted by my wonderful cousin by marriage.  The song is called “Time To Move On”.  I’d like to share a few lines with you.      

It’s time to move on! 

Time to conquer that mountain.

 Time for crossing that ocean. 

Time for calming that sea.

It’s time to leave your past behind! 

It’s time to loose those chains that bind.

But if you never seek you will never ever find

All you’ve been hoping for

Right through that next open door

But you’ve got to move on.

Moving forward with the Lord always means leaving something behind.  Good or bad, we have to be willing to put the past in the Lord’s hands and keep moving forward with Him.  We can thank Him for all that was good.  Receive His healing for all that was painful.  But we can’t move forward until we let go of where we’ve been.  God is great and He is good.  He has a future for each one of us.  Jeremiah 29:11 assures us with these words.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Abba, thank You for loving us always, and always being at work for the best in our lives.  Help us trust You with our memories and our tomorrows.  Give us grace to be brave because You go before us, preparing the way.   In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

*If you would like to hear the entire song, you can find it on www.youtube.com.   The video was posted by Dennis himself and includes a wonderful testimony about how this song came to be. 

Peace On Earth

Merry Christmas, Dear Sisters!

I hope you are feeling the joy of the home stretch as Christmas is almost here and hopefully most of your many labors of love are done. As you gather with those most dear to you, I pray that your time will be blessed with peace and joy. Today has been a busy day of enjoying my family at the home of my husband’s parents. We’ve been blessed to make ourselves useful by taking care of a few of the items on their honey-do list. As I’ve moved through the last couple of days, I’ve heard these words in my heart and on my lips, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” I have always been the kind of woman who not only sweats the small stuff, but is able to find stuff so small most people can’t even see it. The Lord was definitely showing his sense of humor when He gave me six children. By His grace, the Father has been teaching me over the last twenty-two years that the small people are a whole lot more important than the small things. Of course, my small people aren’t so small anymore, but the principle is still the same. Hearts are what matter. All the rest will work out.

Abba Father, please help us approach the celebration of your Son’s birth with hearts free to love, free to rejoice, and free to let go of what isn’t as important as we might think. Let your peace and rest float down on us like gently falling snow. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Come to the Well

Yesterday morning I woke up to these words, “Come to the well.”  Isn’t that a wonderful wake-up call?  Are you thirsty?  Is your heart dry?  Do you need some living water?  “Come to the well.” 

Jesus once met a woman at a well.  He told her, “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  (John 4:13-14) 

Have you ever forgotten to water your house plants?  For years I refused to have any because I didn’t want one more living thing that needed me!  Now that all my kids are housebroken, I have a few and fairly often I will walk by and notice one looking a little droopy because I’ve forgotten to water it.  It’s always a little miracle to see the change that takes place as the water is soaked in and the little plant perks back up.  Our spirits are just like that.  We need to be watered by the refreshing water of the Word and the Spirit.  Both of these are life to our souls.  I confessed to you recently that spending time with the Lord has often been more of a duty than a delight.  That’s because I was looking at it as if it was something I was doing for a grade.  “Is this an A quiet time, God?  Just a B minus?  Well, I’ll try harder tomorrow.”  Isn’t that sad?  I am beginning to get a clue that taking time to spend with the Father is for my benefit much more than His.  I’m the one with the dusty, harried soul that needs to sit with my feet in the river and soak in His presence.  He loves me and He wants to be with me.  How hard it is to let that sentence sit there and not add another word to it.  Our Father loves us.  Jesus loves us.  The Holy Spirit loves us.  We are His treasure.  To stop and let ourselves rest in His presence is a gift – an invitation to pull away from the trivial and the terrifying, and savor a small taste of the wonderful, eternal, altogether good God. 

Dear Abba, please grant us grace to run to Your presence and stay there.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Glad To Be A Sister!

Yesterday, I got to enjoy a little taste of heaven right here on earth.  I spent the morning with a group of sisters in Christ who have made the choice to be real with each other.  We’ve shared our stories – the bad and the good.  We’ve shared our struggles.  We’ve shared the lessons we’ve learned – most of them the hard way.  Today, we heard a new song when one of our sisters shared the gift that God has planted in her heart.  Most of us were wiping tears away as our dear friend courageously sang her song.  Wow!  That is all I can say about how amazing God is in the lives of these women.  He has redeemed mistakes, bound up broken hearts, and given grace to carry loads that would crush most people.  He has shown Himself faithful to provide for every need.  He has birthed joy and creativity.  He has comforted those who mourn and touched those who hurt with comfort and healing.  He has imparted confidence, acceptance, and sisterhood to a group that really couldn’t be more diverse if we’d tried to be.  Our Abba Father has given us a taste of the unity we were meant to share as the Body of Christ.  We don’t all see things the same way.  How could we when we come from so many different places?  But we love the Lord with all our hearts, and we are blessed to be sisters with the same wonderful Father.  So, what do I believe the Father is saying to us today?  Be real.  Share your story.  Sing the song He puts in your heart.  Somebody nearby really needs to hear it.   

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  In Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.         
                                                                Ephesians 2:13, 18, 22

Abba Father, thank you for making us one in You.  Thank you for giving us friends for this journey.  Thank you for the wonderful truth that though we may not walk the whole way together, one day there is going to be a glorious reunion!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen