Archive for January, 2019

Waiting Patiently

Posted in Perseverance on January 19, 2019| 4 Comments »

Waiting is hard. Lately it seems God has me waiting for a number of things – the start of a new ministry, lab test results, an article being published, and growth in a couple of faith areas. I’m doing my part to cooperate with him, but I’m challenged to wait patiently for him to do his.

Recently, I had grown discouraged about the lack of results from my writing. Few were reading my blog, I had stopped receiving writing assignments from my church, and my book hadn’t sold in months.

So, I sought the Lord to determine if this was his way of telling me to give up writing, at least for a while. Through my desires, wise counsel, peace, and the Bible he said, “Wait patiently.”

But I didn’t have to wait long for some encouraging results. The next day, I was notified one of my devotionals written a year ago would be published  in an international magazine reaching nine million readers.

Why did he make me wait an extra day to receive the good news? Why didn’t he give me this encouragement the previous day to guide my decision to continue writing? My insight is he wanted me to persevere and do his will despite the lack of positive feedback. He regarded my obedience as more important than being successful.

One problem we often have is we believe our plan is better than God’s. When circumstances fail to meet our desires, we conclude we are getting second-best. But we’re not (John 10:10).

God has reasons why he makes us wait.

It could be we aren’t ready for the responsibility. Another possibility is others who are involved aren’t prepared yet to do their part.

The wait could be a future “no” we aren’t ready to accept now.

We often don’t know why he makes us wait. But God is in control and it’s from him. “Whether for correction, or for His world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen” (Job 37:13).This reality helps me to be patient with him, others, and myself.

We can probably recall times when we didn’t wait for God and suffered for it. In a couple of instances, I wanted a promotion so bad I wasn’t cautious and accepted the job, which became overwhelming. If only I had been willing to check the job requirements more carefully.

Learning to rest in who God made us to be can help us feel at peace even while waiting. Experiencing the benefits of our new identity as a Christian means we feel safe, respected, loved, and accepted, even when we aren’t getting what we want. We often are fooled into thinking our deepest needs are met when we get what we want, instead of by following God’s “good, acceptable and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

When we hit brick walls and are forced to pause, we have an opportunity to seek God for direction. He may want us to check our motives. “Search me, O God and know my heart; … and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23, 24). Or, maybe he is waiting for us to take some action before he opens the door.

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Timing is important to God. What we want may be God’s future will, but not now. He is good and faithful. May we learn to “Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6) and wait patiently for him to act.

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Our Hidden Hearts

Posted in Self- Knowledge on January 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »

We all have a hidden heart. Much of what we actually trust and feel is unknown to us. This seems weird. Why would this be true? How could we not know what is going on deep inside us? We may think we have great worth because the Bible tells us so. But does our heart trust it’s true when we are treated with disrespect? Or, do we rely on the fact God loves and wants an intimate relationship with us? Then why are we so afraid of many things since experiencing his love drives out fears (1 John 4:18).

Deep within us, we harbor many false beliefs and evil desires which were formed in a sinful world. They don’t go away just because we become Christians. Only God can gradually free us from their power as we do our part.

One of our responsibilities is to seek the Holy Spirit to reveal what is going on deep inside. We can’t know our hearts without his help for they are too messy and deceitful to read accurately. That’s why David asked the Holy Spirit to “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts” (Psalm 139:23). We need to know what’s in our hearts – the good, the bad, and the ugly – if we want transformation.

Many of us try to be important, adequate and loved in a variety of false ways to avoid having to trust God to meet them as a gift. We would rather earn them. Often we are not aware we are clinging to idols because we have trusted in them for many years to make life work and found some success. Now, God offers us a better way but we aren’t sure we want to take the leap of faith and embrace a whole new set of truths that conflicts with our past. So, we repress the conflict and hang on to the old ways.

We tolerate this hidden world because we don’t know it exists. We have never learned how important it is to assess and face this darken world. Yet, Proverbs 23:4 warns us to “Watch over your hearts with all diligence for from it flows the springs of life.”

We prefer to focus on behavior and knowledge that are easier to control and measure. The deeper things of the heart are easily ignored even though they determine our destiny. Like the Pharisees, we can “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24).

So how do we know and change our hidden hearts? We can’t. Our hearts are too messy, deceitful and evil to clearly understand and change. But the Holy Spirit can.

We can also look at the spiritual fruit in our lives. To what extent are we growing in experiencing peace, joy, and love? We are often deceived by looking at activities and credentials to assess spiritual health rather than the condition of our hearts.

The Holy Spirt must lead the way to close the gap between the condition of our hearts and one which reflects the life of Jesus. He identifies the gaps as we pray for revelation and then closes the gaps when we cooperate with him.

Going to deep places of our  hearts can be painful. There is trauma there and some bad memories and sin we have repressed. We will need courage and a firm belief it’s better to face our sins than to hide and refuse to follow God in developing an intimate love relationship with him. God loves us deeply and will not condemn us for the bad we discover. He knows already and still welcomes our fellowship.

Identifying what we feel can be useful in discovering what our hearts believe. We can ask ourselves, “What do I believe that causes me to feel so devastated for not getting promoted.” We may be shocked to discover what’s there. We may believe our worth is determined by what we achieve and not by being an adopted child of God Almighty. We may know this is false in our heads, but trust it in our hearts.

Let’s not be content with just knowing the Bible. May we also seek to trust it in our hidden hearts. Only then will we be transformed into having the beautiful life of Jesus living through us.

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