Author: Heather Davis

Getting Real

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Philippians 2:14-16

There is a common theme that I have heard time and time again among my fellow Christians and have even said myself as a new believer. I keep hearing that we (the Christian community) need to stop putting on false smiles and acting like we have it all together when we don’t, really.  That we need to stop pretending all is well when it isn’t. That we need to get real.

The odd thing, however, is that I don’t actually know anyone who does this. I know no one who acts as if they have it all together, none who put on a happy face and waltz around pretending the world is unicorns and music and roses.  Not one.

Among my brothers and sisters (and sadly, from my own mouth), what I do hear plenty of is grumbling. I see plenty of sad faces and sorrow and regret. I hear so many stories of how we are a mess. I see much groaning under the burdens of life and much fear and anxiety.

In fact, I see plenty of reality, so much reality that my mind would be overcome by it if I did not have my mighty Refuge to run to when all the world seems hostile and alien.

But that’s all an aside. What bakes my noodle is this:If I don’t know anyone in Christ who plasters on a mask and pretends, and yet the people I know keep saying we all need to stop doing that, where is this idea coming from?  I fear that it is actually some bit of spiritual propaganda that has wormed its way into  the center of modern American Christian culture. And frankly, I don’t understand it.

If there is someone with a smile on their face, how can an onlooker know if it is a real smile or a mask? What if that person smiles because they are consumed with the joy of their salvation? What if the smiler is genuinely filled to the brim with the joy of the Lord and that joy is his strength even in hardship?

What if  someone is caught actually, truthfully rejoicing in their suffering because they know that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us?” (Romans 5:3-5)

What if… what if there is a Christian or two who are real, and whose reality is rooted in a belief that “…the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us?” (Romans 8:18)

What if some believers do not have it all together, know very well they do not have it all together, but trust entirely in an Almighty God who does have it all together?

What if these believers have absolute confidence in Him and are content to fight the battles He has given them to fight. What if they are honestly delighting themselves in His Word and relying on the belief that He who began a good work in them “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ?” (Philippians 1:6)

Aren’t those the very things we ought to be doing, the very things that separate believers from the rest of the world? Isn’t it the absolute trust in God despite our circumstances that make us, in fact, Christians. Isn’t joy and peace a direct result of that trust?

Maybe I’m crazy. I don’t know. But I wonder sometimes if our “reality” lines up with what is written in the Scriptures; if, perhaps,  we need to get real with our faith. I wonder if our getting real doesn’t need to include a little less about us — our messes and our failures — and a little bit more about the incredible victory of our Jesus.

I somehow doubt that the world needs to hear very much about our troubles and temptations. It has plenty of its own.  What the unsaved world needs is to hear more of the victory of our Savior, of the hope we have in Him even in the midst of life’s pain, of a greater Truth that is steady and sure when human wisdom falls short.

I believe the world needs to see us honestly crying to God to overcome our unbelief, genuinely and humbly repenting of our sins each time we fail, dying to our selves and living with Christ.

So let’s get real.  Real hunger for the things of God, for His presence, His glory, His Word, and His Kingdom. Real work of faith, real labor of love,  real steadfastness of hope.  Real submission to Christ. Real love for God that overflows in love for others.  Real self-sacrifice and real belief in a real God who really does save.  Really denying self and living for Christ.

Lord, help us to be real with You, to have genuine faith in You, to be real imitators of Christ. Forgive us our complaints and our self-focus. May we only use our troubles to point others to Your greatness, amen. 

 

Reflections of Pain

~ Heather Davis ~ 1 Comment

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

My first awareness last Sunday was of pain. All the warning signs from previous days had coalesced into a tight, aching knot somewhere vaguely around or behind my left eye. Pain spread in ripples to encompass the whole left side of my head, my muscles felt like water, the dim morning light seemed excruciatingly bright when I cracked my eyes, and I wanted nothing more than to lie perfectly, perfectly still.

Good morning, Migraine… my nemesis.

I took some medication and curled into a ball, praying for the thing to end so I could spend Sunday morning with some of my favorite two- to four-year-old kiddos.  Lying there trying to think of anything but the misery of migraine, my thoughts drifted to the pain of others:  to the suffering of a friend who has received heart-wrenching news about her new baby, to another friend whose life has been a battle with emotional anguish and who now struggles under a debilitating physical ailment, to a family member whose heart is torn and tattered… on and outward to so many who suffer and hurt and weep.

So much pain; such a tremendous, horrible variety of pain.

Like a shaft of sunlight penetrating storm clouds, a fresh and awesome sense of the magnitude of what Jesus has done broke into my dismal reverie.  I cannot help but wonder that the Master and Maker of all the universe would choose to put on such a frail and faulty machine as a human body and trudge about in the muck of His own creation.

Why would He voluntarily step down from a state of complete and painless perfection into the sticky and unpleasant tangle of human emotions and physical shortcomings;  of hate and jealousy, of sweat and hunger and disease and despair? Why would He suffer physical pain, torture, betrayal, loss, rejection, death — all for a people who neither understand nor care what He has done; a people who often glance blandly at Him, battered and bloody on that cross, sparing little thought as to what it all means?

Why would He choose to endure pain for me? I, who will call Him “good” when all is well in my  little arena and yet will wail dismally, believing that He has forsaken me when some little distress disrupts my plans? Why?

I know why. It is no more and no less than perfect love that motivated His sacrifice;  a love so intense and so profound that I can barely fathom it even if I strain with all my being to grasp it. On Sunday, as my thoughts burrowed inward, attempting to escape the conflagration of pain, I was grieved that there were so few traces of such a love within me.

Lying there in the dim semi-consciousness of migraine, I cannot honestly say that I would willingly endure such things as this– physical pain, emotional torment, rejection — for my enemies as He did. Perhaps I might face such affliction on behalf of my children, my husband or sisters, or close family or friends, but certainly not for the ones who slander me or those who wound my children.

For them, I would not embrace pain. But Jesus did.

He endured excruciating physical torture at the hands of the brutal but efficient Roman lictors even before the gory horror of crucifixion. What’s more, He did it willingly, knowingly, fully understanding what it would cost. He understands physical pain.

Despite the heavy toll exacted from His flesh, He was — and still is –rejected by the very ones He was suffering for. He was betrayed to this cruel death by one of His inner circle.  He knows about emotional pain as well.

As I contemplated His shattered and broken body on that cross through the haze of my own pain,  I felt truly thankful.

Thankful that my God is not distant and impartial but willing to undergo temptation, torture, rejection, and loss so that a worm such as I can gain access to the Throne of Grace.

Thankful that my pain is a small reminder of the price of sin; a moment to reflect on the suffering of Jesus.

Thankful that even enormous pain will not last forever, but that His love brought victory through the pain to the bitter end of the grave and beyond.

Thankful that in Christ, I have a hope that does not disappoint, even in the midst of pain.

Knots in My Kite String

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! Psalms 27:14

Last week, our family took a much-needed vacation to Hilton Head Island.  I confess we were somewhat selfish this year. Most of our trips in the past have either been to visit family or shared with other families. This time it was just the five of us hanging out together after a rather brutal year. Just because he could, my husband purchased trick kites for the kids.

Our oldest is now a teenager, and a more meticulous young man you could not hope to meet as far as possessions go. He has an engineer’s brain and organizes his closet and drawers into neat rows and it is not unheard of him to say, after a sleepover or younger company, “Boy, my room’s a mess! I’d better clean it.”

Naturally, according to the finer points of Murphy’s Law, it was his kite string that first became knotted. Twice. The first was a relatively simple knot, causing him some degree of distress but not too complicated to undo. Soon — not as soon as he would have liked, but soon enough — he was mastering the various loops, swoops, and dives the kite was designed to perform.

The second snarl, however, was one of astronomical proportions involving both left and right strings. Darkness grounded my reluctant flier and we quickly discovered that a trick kite is no joke to pack up when one has a deficit of illumination and a profusion of robust wind. The poor young man almost gave up all hope of further aerial endeavors.

However, I have a knack for undoing knots, and there on that island with the salt tang in the air and no deadlines, I did not mind spending whatever time was necessary to restore the strings.  In fact, I rather enjoyed the challenge.  My husband also pitched in and we managed to unravel the mess and restore order.

At the week’s end we returned home and as we picked up our routine, I found myself once again brooding over several dilemmas that have been the subject of fervent prayer, some for many weeks and others for months and all related to some degree or another.   I desperately want to be certain of God’s will before I move forward on any of these, and I supposed I had hoped to return home with the answers I sought.

On the island, it was easy to forget them for a time and simply praise God for the incredible beauty I saw all around, for my family, for His mercy to allow such a gift as that trip was to one so undeserving as me. My heart was full of praise and mind was full of God.

However, back in reality, I found myself once more distressed by what appears to me to be a hopeless, complicated mess.   Impatient for answers, I cried out to God — literally — on a morning walk with my dogs when suddenly it hit me: My Father has a knack for undoing knots.

He has solved more than one seemingly impossible dilemma, certainly greater dilemmas than mine.  His timing has always been absolutely perfect, though I often do not realize that until after the fact  There is nothing too difficult for Him to handle,  no snarl so incredible that He cannot straighten it.  He has got this. Truly, it is not even mine to undo.

He can handle my little snarl. He will give me the wisdom I seek. All I need to do is wait patiently He has finished His work in that particular area. And when my mind is full of Him rather than my little snags, He gives me peace.

HiltonHead037
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

Bread of Life

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink….”
John 6:53-55

After Jesus spoke these words, many of the people with Him turned away.  I have to wonder what they were thinking…  Were they more angry at the audacity of His words or because He would not perform another miracle for them(see John 6:30)?

Whatever their reasons, one thing is certain: this part of the crowd did not really understand Jesus; did not know either the Man nor His purpose. And so, when He moved the conversation from the realm of the physical to the spiritual, many left.

Sure, a number of them may have truly been outraged by His words. Likely, however, the majority of the people did not really care what He meant. Once they saw that this Jesus was not going to use His power the way they wanted Him to, they walked away in disgust.

Are we any different?

What is it that we want from Jesus? Often, we want Him to answer our prayers, to grant some boon or provision. We want Him to bring His power to bear on our plans, moving the mountains we want moved when we want them moved — typically right now.

But we forget that He is not only a miracle worker. He is the Bread of Life, the very Living Word of God made flesh. His blood, too, is life; a pure and unstained life poured out as payment for the blood debt we owe our Creator. Though we do not understand Him nor even seek Him for the sheer wonder of Emmanuel, still He offers Himself for us. He cries out to us an invitation to drink deeply of His life and be quenched; to feast on His eternal Word and be truly and thoroughly satisfied.

It is a sad fact that many turned away from the invitation of the Lord; many did not wish to know the Man but only wanted to see what He would do for them.

It is still a sad fact today. Many turn away when told that they must take up their cross to follow Him. Many who are told that they must not only hear about the Word but spend a lifetime soaking it in also turn away. Many do not want a slow and abiding journey but a quick fix, a sort of one-time transaction of blessing. Many still are not interested in a daily diet of the Bread of Life but only in a free lunch.

The goals we have for ourselves are often far short of what our Lord has in store for us. We crave comfort, convenience, leisure, and many fleeting and flimsy pleasures here and now; He desires to give us inexpressible joy, absolute satisfaction, substantive and lasting pleasures in His presence forevermore.

There is good news yet in our tale. When the many turned aside, Jesus asked the few who remained if they would also like to leave. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…”

What do you say, friends? Would you like to leave, to turn aside now from the hard sayings of the Lord? Or would you like to know more of this Jesus, to find daily spiritual nourishment in the Word of God, to feast forever on the Bread of Life? He has more than power to heal the sick and feed the multitude. He has the words of eternal life!

GIGO

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

There is an old computer programming principle commonly expressed by the acronym GIGO — “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” Simply stated, if you input garbage on the programming side, you will get garbage in the output, on the software or function side.

I have found that the GIGO principle applies to more than programming, however. It applies to entertainment, education, really every sort of input we allow for our children.  If they watch, play — even if they read — a steady stream of junk, we ought not to be surprised if junk is what comes out of their mouths or school work.

Even quality matters;  just because a book or movie is not harmful does not necessarily make it useful. If it is shoddily written, poorly thought out, or has a pointless story line or even none at all, it is garbage and does not encourage insightful and thought-provoking output. We can expect no Pulitzer Prize-winning ideas to grow from minds sown with pure and unadulterated diversion for diversion’s sake.  Garbage begets garbage.

But let me take this to another level. Our children aside, GIGO has bearing on us adults as well. What they read, watch, and consume has direct bearing on how their minds are being shaped, but what we read, watch,  and consume has just as direct a bearing on how our lives are being shaped… and on how we shape the lives of others.

As Christians, we are called to a higher standard of thought; not merely to goodness, but to holiness.  Our lives are meant to reflect the light of Christ everywhere we go, but in order to accurately portray our risen Lord, we have to let His life flow in and through us. As He told His disciples, He is the Vine and we are the branches. Only by abiding in Him constantly can His life fill and sustain us in this chaotic and often confusing world.

Just as the branch does not snatch a quick sip from the grapevine and then spend the day trying to withstand the scorching sun alone, we cannot expect to really experience the fullness and richness of the power of God in our lives unless we are willing to constantly, continuously abide in Him, drinking deeply from the Fount of Living waters and ruminating on the Bread of Life throughout our days. And that means being very careful about what ideas we allow to access our minds.

I am not saying that we should never have recreation, never read or watch movies for pleasure. Not at all. But we ought to think about what we read and watch. What is its message? What was the author or producer’s purpose? Does it have value above mere entertainment or is it just a mindless waste of time? Does it push an agenda that is in disagreement with God’s Word? Does it uphold Scriptural principles or scorn them?

Folks, these things matter! If we spend fifteen minutes with the Lord each morning and then several hours soaking in ungodly ideologies, what ought we to expect the fruit to be? If our input is screwy, so will our output be. Garbage in, garbage out. I love how Charles Spurgeon puts it:

You cannot expose the soil of your heart to a continual sowing of tares because some tare or other will take root and, by-and-by, instead of having the good wheat growing in your soul, there will spring up the tares whose end is to be burned and you will have lost the harvest which should have been produced in your spirit.

It is worthy of note that Spurgeon was not even talking about entertainments but false doctrines. Even the preaching we listen to must be examined through the lens of Scripture. There is nothing immune to the devil’s twisting, distorting influence! Again, however, if we do not know the Word for ourselves, how easily will we fall prey to the sowing of tares; how readily will we allow the garbage in.

Paul warned the Ephesian church to make “the best of the time because the days are evil.” We should also heed this warning, for our days are no less evil and our time no less short.  So let’s prayerfully examine our input from this day forward and be ready to cast the garbage into the refuse heap where it belongs.

… test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.    1Thessalonians 5:21-23

 

 

A Prayer for His People

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

 Father, Comforter, Healer, we thank You today for all the ways You are tender with us, offering us the shelter of Your wings when we deserve nothing more than Your scorn.  When troubles and enemies seem to encompass us on all sides, it is You who are our shelter and our refuge, our very present help in trouble. When the path we walk seems dark and confusing, You have given Your word as a lamp to our feet and a light to the path. Even more, You are with us even through the valley of the shadow of death, and so we have nothing to fear.

You are our Guide, showing us the way You would have us go. You are patient with us, reminding us to walk closely with You again and again as we repeatedly wander off on our own and stagger off course. You are Father, providing chastening at just the right time and to the proper degree. You are Savior, giving Your life to us who were dead in our sins. You are the God Who Sees us, who knows we are dust and knows when we have truly given our all to You… and when we have not. You are the God who is Love; whose banner over us is love. You are the Vine and we are the branches, growing strong and pulsing with Your life when we abide in You.

May we crave You as we crave air itself, knowing that a life without You is no true life at all. If we do not love You enough — and Lord, how could we? —  plant a passion for You within us. Teach our souls to pant for You as the deer pants for water; to thirst for the springs of Living Water and not to carve out broken cisterns for ourselves that hold no water.  Make us into a planting for the display of Your splendor in this earth, O God, and sanctify us completely in Your truth! For Your name’s sake we ask this, and we praise You for what You are doing and what You will do in and through us for the glory of Your Kingdom, amen.

Doing My Duty

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

“So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'”
Luke 17:10

I don’t know about you, but I find it oh, so easy to fall into what I can only call the “appreciation trap.”  In my head I long to serve God with pure motives and an undivided heart, cheerfully and humbly industrious for love of my King and totally free from any selfish ulterior motives.

That describes what I want. What happens in actual, real life is quite different.

Often I begin this way, working from an abundance of love and with great gusto at the start. Then the days wear away, my fervor lags, the joy in my ministry is replaced by a sense of drudgery, and suddenly I find myself wondering why I am not acknowledged for what I do or why I feel so invisible. Without knowing quite how it happened, I find I am no longer working out of sheer love for God but have developed a desire for recognition and appreciation.

I suppose I could say that it’s just the sin nature and shrug it off. I could continue on, pretending that my motives are truly pure, or I could quit.  However, if I am serious about my spiritual growth, truly “working out my own salvation with fear and trembling,” as Paul put it, neither treating my sin casually, pretending it does not exist, nor giving up are viable options.

What I need at such times is an attitude adjustment; a reminding of who I am in Christ… and of who I would be without Him.

In Christ, I am acceptable to God, forgiven and beloved, no longer a condemned and forsaken criminal under the death penalty but pardoned and then adopted as a child and in the process of being lovingly reformed. Christ paid the price on my head with His life, and because of this undeserved gift, I can now approach the Throne of Grace wearing His righteousness to cover my shame.

Without Him… well, I shudder to think of getting what I really deserve. Do I want recognition?  I think not, for I may be recognized not only for the trivial good that I have done but also for the heinous crimes I have committed.

Suddenly, when I consider the matter of my little service in light of my unmerited favor with God, I have to admit that my desire for acknowledgement is more than a touch ludicrous.  Is it not reasonable for the God who granted me reprieve, indeed who paid the cost of my crimes with His own blood to expect a grateful compliance to His wishes?

What’s more, even if He did not redeem me, am I not created by Him and for His purposes in the first place? Do I praise my cup for holding water? Ought I not to perform the functions He created me to do. and that without complaint or need for acknowledgement?  Then I ought to do so doubly for sheer joy that not only did He shape me, but He saved me from my own poor choices as well!

Oh, Father! Today I thank You for humbling me when my pride swells. Forgive me for my sense of entitlement. Keep my heart humble and teachable, and never let me forget that my standing before You is undeserved. May I bring You glory and be willing to relinquish every shred of ambition and pride.  You must increase and I must decrease.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

Philippians 2:12-15

 

My Call to Endurance

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever had a moment when God put into place so many signs indicating His direction for you that you would have to be ultra-dense to miss them all?

That happened to me this past weekend. Months ago, I felt strongly drawn to attend the Teach Them Diligently conference in Nashville and registered early. There was a glitch in my registration which resulted in me being charged substantially less than I was expecting. I called to straighten it out and the gentleman I spoke with was able to see the problem, but he had no idea how it occurred nor how to fix it. He told me, “Well, consider this a gift from the Lord and I guess you are supposed to attend this year!”

That event slipped into obscurity as the mundane home school days ground on. A few bouts of sickness, winter weather, and unexpected life events introduced kinks into our routine. As March commenced with a parting shot from ol’ Jack Frost, I found myself pretty much sick of home schooling.  And if I was feeling depleted concerning my home school, I was utterly devoid of any creativity or energy for writing. I was seriously eyeballing a complete change of career (read: getting a career) and began to look toward the upcoming conference with a sense of hopelessness.

We missed the first day. A series of what I can only call “Murphy Events” made my oldest child wonder aloud if we were even supposed to go to the conference. The memory of my conversation upon registration came to mind, and I replied that I was certain we were.

Knowing this, I rose at 5:00 the morning of the conference and sat down with my Bible, asking God to prepare my heart for what He wanted me to hear. As I read, I conferred with Him and He began to bring passage after passage of Scripture to mind, all in some way or another related to perseverance and steadfastness.

The first seminar we attended was called “Passionate Pursuit of Excellence” by Mark Hamby of Lamplighter. I must say it was basically an extension of my private conversation with my King from that morning, incorporating many of the same Scripture passages and even an illustration using an account from Judges that I had read the day before. In many ways, though several people were listening, it was an intimate chat between me and my God.

A word Mr. Hamby mentioned as he spoke was the Greek word agon, meaning struggle or fight, from which we get words such as “agonize.” Here, God reminded me that agonizing effort will often be required of me both in writing and home schooling. In both I must be prepared not only to give my all, but to sacrifice many desires.  Indeed, I will need to heed the words of this blog’s key verse and “run with endurance the race that is set before” me.

While I received many other admonitions from God during the conference, there is one other speaker I would like to mention in part because her topic was so close to my heart. Stacy Farrell of Homeschool Adventure Co.  spoke on the dire need to prepare our children for the absolute inundation of lies they will face every single day in this world.   Of the many wonderful points she made, one in particular hearkened back to my discussion with the Lord: She encouraged us all to be stubborn in our callings and to expect our enemy to try to dissuade us.

I had grown weary and had allowed discouragement to creep in. In these and so many other ways — far too many to recount here — God used people at the Teach Them Diligently conference to remind me of what He had been telling me all along.

Through many of the speakers, God dealt me a much-needed slap in the face and many reminders that I am not in this race alone; that I cannot quit just because the course is long and I am at the point of exhaustion. That I can trust Him to be strong in my weakness.

God emphasized to me that now is not the time to give up, but as Jacob did on that riverbank so many years ago, now is the time to cling to the Him with all the strength I can muster, refusing to let Him go. After all, I cannot be said to have endured if I drop out in the third leg of the race, but only if I run over hill and rocky ground, through blood and pain and tears, laboring diligently, walking when I can no longer run, clawing my way when I can no longer stand, continuing all the way to the end.

Now, at this moment, when the contest seems grueling and interminable, now is the time not only to endure. Now is the time to rejoice.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

Like a Rock

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter…  And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”    Exodus 15:22-24

My children and I giggled a bit over this passage, although I admit, on my part at least it was a somewhat guilty giggle.  As the last young person finished her turn in the reading, I noted aloud that the Israelites took a significant pendulum swing from a state of joyous praise to dissatisfied griping in three measly days.

To fully understand what I mean, you may want to read the previous portion of Exodus 14 and 15. Go ahead. I’ll wait….

Now, think about what you just read:  Three days after watching the hand of God perform an impossible feat of deliverance involving a massive volume of water, the people seemed unable to grasp that the very same God might possibly be competent to make a little nasty water taste nice.

Three short days — it really is a little amusing. However, if I am honest, the joke’s on me. It is so easy for me to look at the infant nation and wonder how on earth they could have watched something as astonishing as the parting of the Red Sea and still not understood that God is infinitely capable of providing for their needs even when they cannot see how He will.

The sad truth is that I am no different.  I desperately want to be a person possessing unwavering faith in my God, a person who never doubts Him for a moment. But the real me is much more like that group of refugees from Egypt.

On any given day, I may see a glimpse of the enormity of my God and of the goodness and rightness of His plans, yet I rarely need three whole days to slip into disbelief. I have been known to literally sing His praises, filled with unspeakable joy, during an early-morning walk with my dogs only to collapse in frustrated tears before lunchtime because my children are disrespectful or my home school day is not going well.  Three days? It can happen to me in three hours!

Perhaps there is a lesson in this shameful undulation of faith, so like the tides of the sea. It is at such times when my rashness and fickleness are so evident that God’s steadfastness and patience are poignantly underscored.  This,  then, is why God desires so to develop patience and faithfulness in His children — because He is, Himself, patient and faithful.

Perhaps — just perhaps — He has yet one more miracle to perform involving water, considering our flesh is mostly composed of water; one more marvel concerning the tide-like ebb and flow of our faith. For in a display of really ridiculous patience, our long-suffering, holy God continues to allow us access to Himself when we draw near despite the tragic number of times we faithlessly retreat from His presence.

Just maybe as He works in us,  He is gradually increasing the length of our advances toward Him and decreasing the distance we withdraw.  Maybe He will do the impossible and change the shifting waves of our disbelief into fixed and changeless postures of trust.  Maybe even someday in the process of our sanctification, we will find our faith is no longer capricious but has come to look something more like Him , our faithful and steadfast Rock.

 

 

 

On Fear

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7

It’s true that I have not yet faced what can truly be called “persecution” in my Christian walk. Oh, I’ve had a little mockery here and there, but unlike so many of my fellows, I have also enjoyed the luxurious freedom to read my Bible every single day. I am able to purchase numerous commentaries, Bible translations,  and Bible study materials.  Not only that, but I meet frequently and openly with others to discuss the Word, to pray, and to worship — and I am able to do all these things without fear of being arrested, beaten, slaughtered, or having my offspring taken into state custody.

Still, persecution has been on my mind lately. For one thing, my heart breaks to hear of the pain and the wretchedness experienced by so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ overseas. And while I live in a free land at present, I have enough of a grasp of history to understand the changeable and uncertain nature of governments, borders, and empires. My current freedoms are neither guaranteed nor even likely to last for many more generations, and I cannot promise my children that the relatively friendly world we operate within will be there for the remainder of our lives.

It is a sobering fact that one thing Christians are guaranteed in this life is persecution. In the same letter that today’s opening Scripture came from, Paul also assured Timothy, “Indeed,all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived,” (2 Timothy 3:12-13).

Does that scare me? If I am honest, I must admit that it frequently does. However, we who are in Christ are given another guarantee, one that should help us to endure even the most heinous of circumstances; one that I hang on to when fear constricts my heart. Summed up, it is the guarantee that whatever we endure here and now will be worth the hope of eternity we look forward to once we have cast aside these old tents and taken up residence in our true homes.

We have this guarantee in the words of Jesus, whose sacrifice ensured that the suffering of those who are in Him will not last for eternity: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33  We also have it in Paul’s letter to another ancient church, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

So I keep these things in mind. For now, I enjoy my freedoms. I relish my time in the Word and savor public worship and prayer meetings. I am also preparing both myself and my children for what may come, knowing full well that we may or may not live to see true persecution on this hemisphere of the globe.

Whether we ever see persecution or not, we are still called to be a people prepared, and so I pray daily for my family:  for our sanctification, for deeper devotion, for stronger, genuine faith. I also spend time reading and reveling in the Word and encouraging my children to do so. We actively memorize and rehearse Scripture, hiding it in our hearts both so we might not sin against God and because of the possibility that what we have stored in our hearts may someday be all we have access to.

I also remind myself constantly that my God has not given me a spirit of fear. I can trust Him. I do not look forward to persecution, but neither should I let the dread of it weigh on my mind, color my decisions, or keep me from living boldly for my God even if it someday means suffering unflinchingly for Him. He has already suffered unflinchingly for me.

 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”  Hebrews 13:6