The Lord Sees You

“And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.” – Exodus 4:31 I was reading in Exodus last night, and it talked about Moses and Aaron going to the Israelites in Egypt and sharing with them God’s message of deliverance. When they found out that God cared about them, and hadn’t forgotten about them, they bowed down and worshiped. They hadn’t been delivered at this point…they were just praising God, because he called someone to let them know that he still loved them. Because they no longer doubted His love, they were able to trust Him to bring the freedom he promised. I often get caught up in my worries and problems. I have trouble being thankful, because I feel like I am alone in my struggles. When I read this verse last night, it really struck a chord with me. The fact that an almighty God, who oversees the entire universe, is concerned with what is going on in MY little life, is incredible. The fact that He looks down at my situation, cares about me, and has a plan for my life---that is more than enough reason to bow down and worship him. Even in the midst of my pain. Are you caught in the middle of a struggle, and feeling like God has forgotten you? Just remember, the Lord is concerned about you and has seen your misery. He has a plan of redemption, and healing comes through praise. Amen!

Faith and Fear

Wow. God is so good. I need to keep it brief this morning, but I have been battling a great deal of fear and anxiety lately and I wanted to share what God is doing in the midst of it. After struggling through years of sickness and depression, my deepest fear is going back to that place. There have been events in my life that have been catalysts for either plunging me into fear or building my faith. I have some big things ahead that are going to try to test that faith, and I have been afraid.

I woke up even this morning, feeling the fear and worry that my sinful heart is prone to. Yet God continues to encourage my heart. Check it---

I woke up to a song on the radio, and the station then flipped to an interview with a musician that quoted 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound-mind.”

I turned on my light, hit snooze, and began thinking about that verse…when the alarm went off again, it was towards the end of a new song saying “Tell me when I’m gonna live again/Tell me when this fear will end.” My thoughts toward God exactly. I saw fear and sickness cripple me from living life once. So I prayed that God would give me encouragement. That He would speak to me. Give me something to hold on to.
I continued to let the music play in the background, as the first few notes began to play of a song that I recognize. The lyrics begin, “You know my anxious heart/You know what I am feeling/And when I fall apart/You are there to hold me”. As it got to the chorus, “Hanging on to every word you speak/Cause it’s all that I need” I decided to turn off the radio and read my bible. I read through the first chapter of 2 Timothy, wanting that verse about fear to be fresh in my mind before I moved on to my devotional.

I took my devotional book and flipped to February 24th. The topic today was “Keep Strokin’!”. While I don’t have time to recount the whole thing, let me give you a couple quotes from it, that will sum up the main idea:

-If you are really serious about getting to the other side – you’ve got to take what is in front of you and keep pushing it behind you. In other words, keep strokin’. You might be crying while you’re swimming, but keep stroking.
-Your faith has got to rise up and fight your fear.

While all of these may sound circumstantial to you, or just by chance, I am believing that God heard my prayer and is giving me something to hold on to today. I pray that He will continue to speak to my heart, and the heart of others that are in need of hearing His voice. Stay open and attentive to hearing what He has to say, for you might walk away more encouraged than you even imagined.

Throwing Out the Score Card

“WINNING” vs. “EPIC FAIL.” These phrases have become a bit of a mantra in my generation. Starting out as silly quotes, they have turned into common-place slogans for announcing our own victory. These are expressions of the shift that has taken place from doing our best to keeping score at everything we do.

I have always been an all-or-nothing person…If I can’t be the best, then I don’t want to try. I want to have the best grades. I want everyone I work for to think they hit the jackpot of employees. I want to be the best friend a person could have. I want to be the best daughter ever. The list goes on and on. But even while striving for what seem like worthy goals, I use God’s call to holiness to rationalize my own idea that there is no space between winning and being an utter failure.

I realized something recently: this attitude has seeped into my spiritual life. It hit me hard after I recently fell down and returned to an old sin. Even in the process of conviction and asking for forgiveness, one of my first thoughts was “There goes my record”. And this is where the ugliness of my own heart came out: was I repenting and seeking forgiveness to restore right-standing in my relationship with God, or because I wanted a clean slate on my report card so it wouldn’t reflect the F? Do I even truly love God, or am I just trying to get spiritual straight A’s? This is a question I will be mulling over for some time, because the honest answer will reveal the difference between being covered by his blood and taking his grace for granted.

My prayer is that I would be able to throw out the spiritual score card and serve God with the same passion that I had when I was most in love with Him. What about you?