I knew what I was supposed to do, but I got busy! I knew on Monday of last week that I was feeling the gentle pressure of the Lord to speak a word of encouragement to a "sister-friend" at school. I knew she had been through a tough, ongoing physical ordeal, and that I needed to just remind her that she has had in the past, and continues to have, an incredible impact on the lives of many of "our kids." (They become "your kids" when you spend 90 minutes a day with them for 18 weeks!)
But I got to work on Tuesday and immediately started putting out fires that could have waited...fires that I could have put out after I went and encouraged my friend. But I didn't. I was disobedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And there were consequences to my disobedience.
When I finally did make it by her classroom TWO DAYS LATER, she was emotionally distraught. She was in a negative situation that wasn't getting better. And I couldn't speak the words that I knew I was supposed to at that point. There wasn't room for the words she so desperately needed at that moment. And I KNEW I had messed up...and it hurt my heart. It hurt my heart to see my friend hurting - physically and emotionally. It also hurt my heart that I had disobeyed God when I KNEW what He told me to do.
I didn't intentionally disobey. I just got distracted. And distraction cost me the opportunity to bless someone I dearly care about, and it cost her emotionally. Yes, I did get to speak to her eventually and she was still blessed, but I missed it in the moment that she needed it most. Actually, the Lord was sending me to her BEFORE she got to such a desperate point, where I possibly could have prevented her meltdown. I know the Lord forgives me and He can clean up my mess, but I didn't give the Lord or my friend my best...just the leftovers.
I don't want the Lord to have to clean up my messes. Instead, I want to hear "Well done good and faithful servant." So, I'm sharing this with you so you won't make the same mess I did. If the Lord impresses on your heart to speak to someone, be gracious and give to someone in need, or to stop to help someone, don't delay! Do it immediately! Deuteronomy 28 reminds us that blessings will overtake us when we are obedient and likewise, curses are the result of disobedience.
Hmm...being blessed or being cursed? You don't have to think too long on that one do you? I would prefer to being overtaken by a blessing any day of the week. So...in an effort to make it up to my school friend - and to any of you that I have also missed blessing- please let me speak one over you now:
"The Lord bless you and protect you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace." Numbers 6: 24-26
Blessings over you my friend!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Show You Love
Why is it that we so desire to love and to be loved? Is the desire for love really innate? Or are we taught it by Disney and Nicholas Sparks? Is there any possibility that there is a pure, true Love? Why do we believe that human relationships can fill the void we seek? Even if you go all the way back to Adam and Eve, and Adam's love was all Eve knew (it wasn't like that were a lot of men from which to choose!), Eve still went looking for something else.
Jeremiah 31:3-4 answers some of those of those questions if we dig into the real meanings.
"....I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers." NASB
After spending time studying this I am convinced that just as there is no other God than Jehovah, there is no other Love like this one! To put this in context the Israelites had been taken in exile and Jeremiah remained with the remnant to minister to the broken and devastated few.
I don't know what your life has looked like the past, but I do know if you live long enough you will experience some sort of exile in your own life: whether it's spiritual, physical, financial, or emotional, we all endure some type of hardship that allows God to prove His love to us in that circumstance, if we only have the eyes to recognize the love! God's love could arrive in so many forms - a friend, financial assistance, peace in the midst of turmoil, even just a rainbow at the right moment.
Jeremiah describes God's love as everlasting - meaning perpetual. The only other thing perpetual like that in my life is laundry! At some point we might actually reach the bottom of the laundry basket, but we cannot possibly reach the end of God's love because it doesn't exist.
The Lord goes on in verse 3 to tell us that He has "drawn us with loving-kindness" This translates as be guided or directed with a focus on active involvement. It also can mean the dragging of an object along. Do you realize that there have been times in your life that you didn't even realize that God's active love was guiding you, protecting you, and nudging you gently along? And then, there are times when we are fully aware that God is dragging us into something or away from something. That doesn't always feel like unending love.
As I reflect back though on my childhood, my parents often prodded me along and then they also dragged me along or away from things that were not in my best interest, though I didn't understand at the time. God's love is much like that loving parent maneuvering us where He wants or doesn't want us to be. That is almost unfathomable in our human minds. Many have said they loved - and stopped - or never really did to begin with, or loved selfishly. But God doesn't. His love is a pure and unadulterated love. Who doesn't want or need to experience that type of love?
But, He doesn't stop there! God's love is so great that He doesn't only flood us with love, but He promises to rebuild what has been torn down in our exile. In verse 4, the word build translates as to form something new using previous materials. Dear One, God takes your mess that perhaps you or another created, and He tears it down and rebuilds your life the way He wanted it to look at along - in a way that reflects Him!
As a celebration to Him and His work, He tells us that we are to go forth with our tambourines and dancing! The idea of going forth means that we are to go with purpose! Our days shouldn't be wasted with nothingness, but they should be an intentional reflection of the power of God to save, heal, restore, and clean up the messes in our lives.
The dance is something else however...yes it means to dance (I'm picturing the Cha Cha Slide) but that word also translates as writhing in birthing pains. What in the world? Birthing a baby HURTS! And the pain continues until the mother is healed....hmmm....so perhaps we have to experience some type of pain in our lives in order for the rebuilding process to take place? Oh that we could learn of God's love just in the happy times, but my experience tells me that I learned far more of God's love in the pain...and more of His faithfulness in the healing and rebuilding.
So wherever this post finds you - hurting, healing, hoping....remember God's love is bigger, stronger, and wilder than anything else you can experience.
"I'm going to show you love in every language, I'm going to speak with words that need no form. I'm going to give you what you never had before." Jars of Clay - Show You Love
Jeremiah 31:3-4 answers some of those of those questions if we dig into the real meanings.
"....I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers." NASB
After spending time studying this I am convinced that just as there is no other God than Jehovah, there is no other Love like this one! To put this in context the Israelites had been taken in exile and Jeremiah remained with the remnant to minister to the broken and devastated few.
I don't know what your life has looked like the past, but I do know if you live long enough you will experience some sort of exile in your own life: whether it's spiritual, physical, financial, or emotional, we all endure some type of hardship that allows God to prove His love to us in that circumstance, if we only have the eyes to recognize the love! God's love could arrive in so many forms - a friend, financial assistance, peace in the midst of turmoil, even just a rainbow at the right moment.
Jeremiah describes God's love as everlasting - meaning perpetual. The only other thing perpetual like that in my life is laundry! At some point we might actually reach the bottom of the laundry basket, but we cannot possibly reach the end of God's love because it doesn't exist.
The Lord goes on in verse 3 to tell us that He has "drawn us with loving-kindness" This translates as be guided or directed with a focus on active involvement. It also can mean the dragging of an object along. Do you realize that there have been times in your life that you didn't even realize that God's active love was guiding you, protecting you, and nudging you gently along? And then, there are times when we are fully aware that God is dragging us into something or away from something. That doesn't always feel like unending love.
As I reflect back though on my childhood, my parents often prodded me along and then they also dragged me along or away from things that were not in my best interest, though I didn't understand at the time. God's love is much like that loving parent maneuvering us where He wants or doesn't want us to be. That is almost unfathomable in our human minds. Many have said they loved - and stopped - or never really did to begin with, or loved selfishly. But God doesn't. His love is a pure and unadulterated love. Who doesn't want or need to experience that type of love?
But, He doesn't stop there! God's love is so great that He doesn't only flood us with love, but He promises to rebuild what has been torn down in our exile. In verse 4, the word build translates as to form something new using previous materials. Dear One, God takes your mess that perhaps you or another created, and He tears it down and rebuilds your life the way He wanted it to look at along - in a way that reflects Him!
As a celebration to Him and His work, He tells us that we are to go forth with our tambourines and dancing! The idea of going forth means that we are to go with purpose! Our days shouldn't be wasted with nothingness, but they should be an intentional reflection of the power of God to save, heal, restore, and clean up the messes in our lives.
The dance is something else however...yes it means to dance (I'm picturing the Cha Cha Slide) but that word also translates as writhing in birthing pains. What in the world? Birthing a baby HURTS! And the pain continues until the mother is healed....hmmm....so perhaps we have to experience some type of pain in our lives in order for the rebuilding process to take place? Oh that we could learn of God's love just in the happy times, but my experience tells me that I learned far more of God's love in the pain...and more of His faithfulness in the healing and rebuilding.
So wherever this post finds you - hurting, healing, hoping....remember God's love is bigger, stronger, and wilder than anything else you can experience.
"I'm going to show you love in every language, I'm going to speak with words that need no form. I'm going to give you what you never had before." Jars of Clay - Show You Love
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