Hungry for God: Perseverance

Showing posts with label Perseverance. Show all posts

Sunday

PUSH! - Pray Until Something Happens

PUSH!

Breathe

PUUUSH!

Breathe

PUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!

Breathe

PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!

Don’t breathe.

PUSH AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!

And the cry pierces the air.

A collective breath is released.

Tears of joy fall like rain on dry, dry ground,

And so is prayer.

It is not passive. Oh no.

It is the hardest work we will ever do.

We are called to labor in prayer.

Wrestle in prayer.

When Jesus prayed, He sweat great drops of blood.

It is not for the strong.

It is for the fainthearted.

“And He spoke a parable that men ought to pray always and not lose heart.”

And the easily discouraged.

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray."

It is for the weak.

Oh Lord, I am so weak.

“My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

It is for the frightened

Lord, I get scared sometimes

“Be anxious for nothing. . .“

But the stakes are so high.

“But in everything, through prayer and supplication . . .”

And the enemy is so strong.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood. . .”

And I feel so alone.

“Fear not, for I am with you. . . “

How long, Lord?

"Pray without ceasing."

And then?

“A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21).

Pray until something happens.

PUSH.

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Monday

"All noble things are difficult."

"If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome."

~ Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest

"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus"

(2 Timothy 2:3).

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs—victory in spite of all terrors—victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”

~ Winston Churchill, in his inaugural address

"Thank God he does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth." ~ Oswald Chambers

"Trials don't get to steal from followers of Christ unless we hand over the goods."

~ Beth Moore

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees" (Hebrews 12:7-12).

"God's grace turns out men and women with a strong family resemblance to Jesus Christ, not milksops."

~Oswald Chambers

Will you join me in fighting the good fight of faith?

"Now there is in store for (us) the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to (us) on that day!"

Hungry for God is on Facebook! Will you take a moment and LIKE my page? CLICK HERE to help HFG share 5-minute devotions.

Thursday

When You Get Weary

I watched her as she made her way across the parking lot. She struggled with a toddler on each hip and a baby in a carrier on her back. Perfectly balanced yet precariously upright, I wondered if a wiggle from one of the toddlers would tip the whole equation and send them all spilling to the ground. The look on her face said it all. Weary and overwhelmed.

I thought of her when I read Psalm 145:14: “The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.” The Hebrew word for “bowed down” is Kaphaph which means “bent double.”

You don’t have to be a young mother juggling three children to be “bent double.” Maybe sorrow, disappointment, or heartbreak has you overwhelmed. Perhaps you are struggling to carry the weight of a single parent household or the responsibility of caring for an aging parent. Whatever it is that has you bowed down, allow the words of Jesus to fill your heart, straighten your back, and carry your load. “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat. 11:28) Let Jesus be your burden bearer.

Sunday

God Is Not Slack -- When Someone We Love Is Lost

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

One of my favorite pastors, Dick Lincoln, of Shandon Baptist Church, often tells the story of how he came to faith in Christ. As an undergraduate, Dick roomed with a man named Bob Harper. Bob was, in Dick's words, "a very sincere born-again Christian." Dick tells how he would watch Bob read his Bible every day, pray, and live out his faith.. Not interested in spiritual things, Dick would sometimes challenge Bob's faith, arguing about the validity of scripture. Sometimes he would mock it. Always he watched Bob.

Over a period of four years, Dick watched him "handle disappointments, injustice, all kinds of bad things, and do it with equanimity, with peace, with grace. . . he was happy and I was not." In the spring of his senior year, Dick Lincoln accepted Christ as his Savior. Within six months he had surrendered his life to the ministry, cancelled his acceptance to law school at Florida State University, and enrolled at Southwestern Theological Seminary. Today he serves at the senior pastor of the 6,000 member Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

I wonder if Bob Harper ever got discouraged? Four years is a long time to witness to a closed-minded, sometimes hostile roommate. I wonder if he was ever tempted to give up on the hope that his friend might ever come to Christ?

My friend Maryann began her relationship with Christ as a young college student, too. In her words, she was "loved into the faith," through the consistent witness of her boyfriend's family. Almost immediately, she began praying for her own family. Experiencing peace, forgiveness, and a sense of purpose for the first time, she was eager for her family to share that joy. Most importantly, Maryann wanted the assurance that she would see her family in Heaven one day.

Thirty plus years later, Maryann is still praying for her family to come to faith in Christ.

Like Bob Harper, Maryann has been a faithful witness. She has demonstrated the validity of her faith through tremendous adversity. She has sacrificially served her family, shared her faith in winsome, personal ways, and has prayed, prayed, and prayed some more. Sometimes she sees glimmers of hope. Other times she gets discouraged. Thirty years is a long time.

I take comfort in the story of the Apostle Paul. In his ignorance, he was about as far from God as he could be. A self-righteous Pharisee, it was his personal mission to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. I am sure that many believers thought he was too evil to ever be saved. Listen to his testimony in Ephesians 2:1 (pronoun changes added my me).

And (we) He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which (we) once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. . .

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Faithful friend, we can take comfort in the fact that God loves our families and friends even more than we do. It is His desire that they have a relationship with Him, and He is going to do everything possible to make that happen. Best of all, He is going to allow US, through our prayers and faithful witness, to be a part of their salvation.

So "be not weary in doing good," for we, like Bob Harper and my friend Maryann, "WILL reap a harvest if (we) do not faint." PRESS ON!

If you would like to know more about how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, click here.

Saturday

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

I thought my college Head and Neck Anatomy class was hard. I thought studying for and passing the National Board for Dental Hygiene, all seven hours of it, was hard, too. I thought working full time and volunteering at church was hard. I thought childbirth was hard. And colic. . . months of colic. It was hard to surrender my child over for surgery at 9 months old . So was praying for her salvation since before she was born. Acting in front of 13,000 people was hard. Staying married during rough times is always hard.

In comparison though, homeschooling remains the hardest thing I've ever done.

And if I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Despite the lonely days when I thought if I didn't see another human being over three feet tall I would
scream.

Despite the 547 days of phonics instruction before one of my daughters could read a four-word sentence without pausing.

Despite the buckets of tears I (we) shed over Chemistry, Algebra, and Geometry.

Despite the days when fear would grip me as I wondered if I might be single-handedly sabotaging my children's entire academic future.

Despite the days when I dealt with the same sin for the 100th time, and then had to correct it in my children as well.

If I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I would do it for the joy of hearing my daughter pray to receive Christ into her heart during morning devotions.

I would do it for the pleasure of watching my daughter read all the way through Go Dog Go and knowing that I had taught her to read.

I would do it again for the character training I received through the years.

I would do it again for the opportunity to trust God when I knew that apart from His work in our homeschool, it would not succeed.

I would do it again for the privilege of watching Him work in each of my daughter's lives as they came to understand the world through a Christian perspective.

I would do it again for the precious gift of time. . . never enough, but SO much more than many of my friends had with their children during their growing up years

I would do it again for every field trip/vacation we took to fascinating places on a shoestring budget.

I would do it again for the chance to pray and ask God for all that we needed and watch Him provide bountifully.

I would do it again so I could own part of their high school graduation and their college acceptance.

I would do it again for the satisfaction of knowing that I had obeyed what God told me to do.

If I had the choice to make again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

"I can do all things through CHRIST who gives me strength."

(Phil 4:13)

Monday

You are not alone

Do you ever feel like you are the only one? When you look around at the world and the values that it embraces, do you feel lonely? Discouraged? Weary? When you see the images on the news of war, murder, and perversion, does it make you sad? When you turn on network television and see what millions of people choose to fill their minds with, does it break your heart? Do you wonder if it even matters to God that you are trying to serve Him, love Him, and teach your children to walk in His ways? When you hear yet another tragic story about a Christian who has fallen, do you wonder if it's just a matter of time before Satan gets you too?

I wonder if Noah felt this way? Genesis 6 says that in the days of Noah, "The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." Yet Noah "walked with God."

Elijah felt like he was the only one, too. "LORD," he said, "they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."

Genesis 6 gives me hope when I feel like I am the only one trying to live godly in an ungodly world.

"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." In the midst of millions of people who were living as if there was no God, God saw Noah. Not only did He see him, but He noticed that Noah was doing his best to walk with Him, to honor Him, and to live His life to please Him.

And God cared.

"And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." It gives me hope that the God who bestowed grace on Noah will also bestow grace on me. And on you.

"Be not weary in doing good, for you will reap a harvest if you faint not."

Tuesday

Catching the Ring

Summers are short in my home state of Rhode Island. Surrounded by ocean on three sides, my hometown of Bristol is host to many of the happiest memories of my childhood. One of my family's traditions was to conclude the summer with a much anticipated trip to Crescent Park, the nearby amusement park.

With candy apples still between our teeth, my sisters and I would choose our rides after a careful survey of all the possibilities and a discussion of the merits of each one. We didn't want to misspend the precious ride tickets mom and dad doled out equally. While Cindy might choose to ride the Bumper Cars and Tina the Boats, it was an unspoken agreement that the evening would end with everyone riding the Carousel.

The Carousel was a beautifully shining affair. Bejeweled with thousands of lights and covered in what we knew was pure gold, no decision compared to the choice of which animal we would ride on. There were several unspoken rules to guide our choice. First, it had to be a horse. All other animals paled in comparison to riding one of the magic steeds. Second, it had to move up and down. We looked with scorn and derision at the small children and grandmothers who sat on the stationary ostriches and pigs. Finally, and most important of all, the horse had to occupy a position on the outside of the carousel's circumference.

The reason for this important criteria was because of "the ring." When we were really young, and there was some concern about whether or not we could actually stay on the horse we chose to ride, no one mentioned "the ring." But as we got older and became more accomplished equestrians, Dad chose to unveil the mystery of "the ring."

At a certain point in the carousel's orbit, there was a dispenser that held metal rings. "If you catch the brass ring," my dad told me, "you win a free ride on the carousel." Catching the ring was no small accomplishment, I learned. Timing was everything, since you had to lean waaaaaaay out at just the right moment while the carousel whirled. Skill and precision was also required. Hooking your finger through the ring and pulling at the same time was tricky. Add to that the important dynamic of staying mounted on the horse while leaning out and hooking the ring, and you have quite an impressive feat.

The first summer I tried, I think I had beginner's luck. I hooked the ring the first time I whirled past. And the second, and the third. Greedy with success, my head whirled as fast as my body with the thoughts of all the free rides I would take on the carousel. After I had hooked five or six rings, I began to assess the mounting treasure hooked on the thumb of my spare hand. Feeling generous, I began to plan how I would even be able to treat my sisters to free rides since I had accumulated so many rings. When the ride finally ended, I brought my treasures to my dad and proclaimed, "I hooked 12 rings. That means we can each ride four more times!"

My dad glanced at the rings I was displaying so triumphantly and broke the sad news, "I'm sorry, Lori, but you have to catch a brass ring to win a free ride." He pointed to the sign above the ticket booth that displayed a ring much shinier than the ones I held in my once-victorious hands and he patted my back sympathetically.

I thought about that handful of worthless rings today as I was reading Ephesians 6:7-8, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does." In the carousel economy, my well-intentioned attempts fell short of deserving a reward. For though I caught a ring, I didn't catch the brass ring. In God's economy, however, every good deed I do in his name is seen, recorded, and rewarded. Every single one. My deeds don't have to meet a certain standard, or impact a huge number of people. Their value is in the fact that they are offered up in faithful service to the God I love.

John Piper, in his devotional book A Godward Life, puts it this way. "Every little thing you do that is good is seen and valued by the Lord. And He will "pay you back" for it. Not in the sense that you have earned anything by putting Him in your debt; He owns you and everything in the universe. He owes us nothing, but He freely, graciously chooses to reward good things done in faith. Nothing we do -- nothing, not one thing -- is done in vain. "Whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord. Astounding!" (177).

May we serve the Lord and our fellow man with renewed vigor and enthusiasm, knowing that we "will reap a harvest if we faint not!" (Gal. 6:9)

Saturday

Mercy!

Mercy. You know the term. It’s not what the little old lady exclaims when she sees something shocking. It is much more than that. It is pure, undeserved favor. It is one of God’s greatest attributes, and one that He delights in extending to us.

Daniel understood well the concept of mercy when he approached God on behalf of his sinful, wicked countrymen. As he prayed for deliverance, he prayed, “for we do not present our prayers before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.” (Daniel 9:18) Like Daniel, I realize that I come to God on the basis of two things. I come to him on the basis of my relationship with Him, the fact that He is my Father and I am His child, and I come to him because of mercy.

You see, God doesn’t owe me anything. The salvation that He gave me was a free and undeserved gift (there’s mercy again). If God never answered another of my prayers, I would be indebted to Him forever.

But He does answer my prayers, and that’s where mercy comes in. Like Daniel, I have no righteous deeds to my credit to use as a bargaining chip with God. Isaiah says that all my righteous deeds are as filthy rags before the Father’s purity. So why does He answer? The full answer to this question would take volumes, but the simple answer is, because He is merciful.

The psalmist understood the mercy of the Lord. He was so overwhelmed with God’s mercy that he repeated the phrase “His mercy endures forever” TWENTY-SIX times in Psalm 136. Will you join him and me today as we ponder the wonder of His mercy toward us, and “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever” (I Ch. 16:34)?

Sunday

Be Not Weary

"The purpose of the voice of condemnation is to push you away from His presence -- that which is the very source of your victory. The purpose of the voice of conviction is to press you into the face of Christ." ~Bob Sorge, Secrets of the Secret Place(Lee's Summit, MO: Oasis House, 2001), 57-58.

Sometimes I forget that mothering is a spiritual endeavor. That it is only through the empowering and equipping of God's Spirit that I have any hope of success. And somehow, though I know it to be true, that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me, I sometimes begin my day without a moment spent in His presence. Brushing Him breezily aside, I dive into my busy day without taking even a moment to consult with Him. I wonder, how many of the "imperative" items on my to-do list might be cast aside if I had held them up to His wise eyes? Better yet, had I sat before Him with an empty page and asked, "Lord, what would YOU have me to do today?", how different might my list have been?

It is no wonder then, that when I fail miserably, the voice of the enemy shouts loudly and clearly words of condemnation into my ear. His voice causes feelings of failure, doubt, confusion, defeat. His voice pushes me away from the things that are good and right. His voice isolates me from those fellow sojourners whom God has placed alongside me to help. His voice makes me doubt whether I even have a right to an audience with the King whose presence I've neglected so many times.

But God the Father is long suffering and forgiving, slow to anger and abounding in love. (Ex.34:6) He forgets our sin of independence as quickly as we confess it, and He runs to take us in His arms and restore us to a right relationship with Himself. Do you realize that the only time scripture reveals God hurrying is when He, as the waiting and watching Father, ran to welcome His prodigal home?

Dear sister, whether you are enjoying success or are experiencing struggles, I encourage you to begin each day with an appointment with God. As you seek Him through prayer and His word, He will give you wisdom (James 1:5), strength (Phil. 4:13), freedom from fear and anxiety (Phil. 4:6), and clear direction for each day (Is. 30:21). Even 15 minutes with the Savior each morning is an investment in the quality and effectiveness of your day, of your very life! Time spent at Jesus' feet is never time wasted. And if your heart and mind are filled with HIS words, then when the accuser whispers lies in to your ears, you will recognize whom it is that is speaking. Dear Christian, run to Jesus!

Hungry for God; Starving for Time

Sunday

PUSH! - Pray Until Something Happens

Monday

"All noble things are difficult."

Thursday

When You Get Weary

Sunday

God Is Not Slack -- When Someone We Love Is Lost

Saturday

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

Monday

You are not alone

Tuesday

Catching the Ring

Saturday

Sunday

Be Not Weary

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