When We Feel Forgotten

God has not forgotten you. 

Many of us feel as though He has. We think to ourselves, certainly, if God loved me, He would have removed my suffering by now. God has stopped listening to our prayers, we think. Things haven't turned out the way that I have desired them, so God has chosen to be done with me. If God truly cared he wouldn't have allowed this person to die, that job to be lost or my spouse wouldn't' have left me. 

Oh, how I wish I could peek into the heavenlies. I wish I could see the Master at work, orchestrating His plan for our lives. I wish that I could see the great cloud of witnesses cheering me on saying, "Don't give up!" "Persevere!" "Fight with the Lord Jesus!"(Heb 12:1-2). I wish that I could, but I cannot. I must exercise trust and faith. I must choose to believe in the sovereignty of God, even though I do not know when God's deliverance will come. 

I truly believe that some of us were on the brink of our deliverance, but we gave up. We became wearied of the battle so we stopped fighting. Truth is, maybe we were fighting not in God's strength, but in our own. We prayed fervently for days, weeks, months or years and God didn't answer our prayer the way we wanted Him to so we stopped praying. Yet, maybe our prayers are being hindered, because of unconfessed sin or disobedience in some aspect of our lives(1 Pet 3:7, Mark 11:25). We never did stop and think that maybe God had answered our prayer, it just wasn't in the way we wanted it. God always answers prayer and we must be wise to discern His voice. 

True discernment takes a listening ear that is ready to sit in stillness before the Lord. Our culture is full of distraction and busyness. Our minds are so clouded by entertainment and demands that we have a hard time hearing from God, because we have not conditioned our minds to be free from clutter and distraction. We walk around wishing God would answer, wondering where He is, when all this time He's been shouting the answer at us. Yet, we are too busy to hear His voice. We would rather scroll through our phones, numb out our minds, be entertained by mindless games and videos instead of hearing from the living God. 

God has not forgotten you, but often, we have forgotten Him. Amidst the busyness of life, we go on, 100 mph and forget to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. We grow angry, we become people we don't even like, but we never pause to sit in the presence of God. The place we experience true transformation. 

Do not give up, but fight with the Lord Jesus for your deliverance. Those who have gone before you are cheering you on in the heavenlies. You cannot fight or win your battles alone. Only God can bring victory. Take up your stand in prayer, don't give up, but take your place in God's army and watch as your Captain leads you into victory in Jesus name! It may not be the victory that you expected or in the timing you would have liked, but we must trust that God knows what He's doing and He will work all things together for the purpose of His will. 

"Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him"- Psalm 37:7

To Be Made New: A Time for Self-Reflection

I think what the people of the church need most is time for self reflection.  The problem is most people and family's fear self-reflection. 

In self-reflection we must face the darkness of our souls.  We have to come face to face with the reality of pain in our lives or that constant, aching emptiness.  

We have convinced ourselves that busyness is best.  It keeps us from really dealing with the issues in our lives.  Busyness keeps us stuck.  Better yet, we love our dear friend of busyness, distraction.  Busyness and distraction are tools used against us to keep us from being made new.  

Often times we're not too busy, we're just too distracted.  In a world where our eyes are constantly looking into a screen whether it be a phone or  television, there is no time for self-reflection.  There is no time for stillness  with the music blasting, the TV going and the iPhone always right next to us.  

We scroll and scroll and scroll through news feeds hoping to entertain ourselves or maybe subconsciously, detach from our own world, to keep us from dealing with it.  

Everyone loves to say, we're so busy!  We wave it like a banner to be praised, when in reality it is something we should do away with in order to see our lives and our families healed from years of dysfunction and generational sin.  Yes, I truly believe that if families would slow down, and each would take time for self-reflection with the Lord that we could see family dysfunction healed.  It's there in the stillness where the Lord speaks into our lives, we confess sin to God and it is there where we hear from Him.  

What families need more of is stillness.  They need a mom and a dad who will sit and listen, who will offer words of wisdom and wise counsel.  They do not need more extra-curricular activities, sports practices and expensive gadgets.  What they need is your time.  Unfortunately, in a world run by busyness and distraction parents have become more like chauffeurs then the well from which their child can drink to find things like, spiritual wisdom, guidance and direction.  

Instead, our children latch onto the world that is presented to them.  They run with the crowd of those who are busy and distracted.  They learned from us, what more should we expect?

We wonder why our children have issues with anger, anxiety and loneliness.  However, we never take the time to stop and think that maybe it's because they're crying out for us to guide them.  They're longing for a deeper connection and when they don't find it at home they will go looking for it elsewhere.  Now instead of wisdom being passed down from the generations, our children are being taught by the latest youtuber on what the purpose of life is, or their deep questions about life are being answered by google instead of the generations of parents and grandparents who went before them.  

What if we said, I'm just going to practice stillness each day before the Lord?  What if we made it a priority to place our schedules down before the Lord and to ask Him what He wanted on it?  What if we spent time with our children, having meaningful conversation with them on a weekly basis?  What if we allowed the Lord to deal with the generational sins in our lives and the dysfunction that our family passed down to us?  

I think the church would look quite different, our children would grow to be more confident and satisfied in the Lord Jesus as they observe us at rest in the presence of the Lord.  

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint"- Isaiah 40:31

Parenting in a World of Moral Evil

Who we have become has much to do with where we have been. 

Lot's daughters spent their time in evil Sodom and Gomorrah. They were exposed to constant evil within their culture and it shaped who they would become. 

We are foolish to think that if we do not choose to protect our children or even our own eyes from destruction, moral filth and evil that it we will not be changed by it. 

Lot's daughters commit a grievous action by sleeping with their father. They hearts and minds had become so tainted by the evil culture of Sodom that the thought of sleeping with their father become a good idea. 

Something happens in a culture when we call what God calls moral evil, something good. It is a dangerous and slippery slope when we start to redefine what morality truly is. 

If man looks from within himself to find morality, he won't find much. Why? Because man within himself is led by selfish motives. 

When Lot's daughters got their father drunk and become impregnated by him I'm sure Lot never dreamt of such a day. However, it happened and much of it had to do with what Lot, as a father, decided to allow into his children's lives. The moral corruption of Sodom shaped his daughters. 

What is shaping our children? Who they will become has much to do with the decisions that we make to protect them from moral evil. If we allow them to watch any movie they like, listen to any music they choose or spend their time with whomever their heart desires then they will be shaped by those things. 

However, if we place our children and our own lives into the household of God, practicing wisdom in what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear, then our children will be shaped by things like, goodness, holiness and mercy. This does not guarantee they will become sold-out Christians, but it does set the stage for a greater propensity towards a lifestyle shaped not by the filth of evil, but of Godly qualities and characteristics.

Will Life Ever Get Better?

Today many of us feel as if life is passing us by.  We wonder when life will finally bring its "big break" or when our circumstances will change to our liking.  We try to manipulate and our control our lives with the hopes that things might look differently tomorrow than they did today.  

We often forget that the world and its troubles are much to great for us to handle on our own.  Our efforts to control and manipulate only leave us wearied and frustrated.  Many of us comfort our disappointments with a new outfit, a brand new car, a new relationship or a job change.  

Yet, we still live with a gnawing dissatisfaction inside of us.  Wondering if this is really all there is to life.  

"I'm pursuing my dreams.  I have a big house, a husband with a great job, we say to ourselves," but our hearts are not at rest.  

We live for the next big thing.  We long for a better, different life.  We bury our hurt and pain.  We self-medicate, put on a happy face and make it seem as if we've got it all together.  Until, the dam breaks and the waters of insecurity, discouragement, failure and disappointment come rushing out.  

This infects everyone around us as the waters come gushing out.  Often times the ones we love the most.  We ruin and wreck relationships.  We cause turmoil in our lives, telling ourselves, "I'm not going to do that anymore," but we just can't seem to stop.  We know it's not good for us, but we keep repeating the same cycle.  We feel broken, but we don't want anyone to know.  

We wander on lonely roads of hopelessness.  Seeking restoration, a brighter future and a happy life.  Everyone tells us to just "look inside ourselves" or "tell yourself that you're number one", but the more we do this, the deeper our dissatisfaction grows.  We don't even really like ourselves.  All we see when we look inside ourselves is fear and deep insecurities.  

Maybe that means we need to start looking outside ourselves.  Maybe the cure to a heart troubled by life worries is to look to something greater than ourselves?  Maybe real hope and joy isn't found in our circumstances, but in something that is constant in joy, and holds the key to life and peace.  

A wise man once said, "come to me all who are weary and heaven burden and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light'.  He also said, "I came that they may have life and that they may have it to the full".  

The reason this man is able to offer rest is because His nature is different from ours.  He is peace.  He is joy.  He is hope.  He is freedom.  

If I cling to this source of peace and joy I will find rest for my weary soul. 

Jesus Christ is that man.  He is calling unto you today to run with courage towards Him.  To turn away from your own way of living and towards His life.  It's there that our lives finally find rest.  We can sit in contentment as we find wholeness and healing, freedom and joy!  

We must recognize that our way of living is wrong.  His way is right, come into agreement with God, confess that to Him, turn away from it, and choose to embrace Jesus Christ as master of our life.  

That is where true freedom is found, hallelujah!  

The Operating Table: Entering into the Altar of Sacrifice

"Offer your bodies as living sacrifices"- Romans 12:1

What does that mean for me, a follower of Christ to offer myself as a living sacrifice?

I remember when my sister and I were kids, we used to love to ride bikes together.  We'd go everywhere on our bikes and we only had one speed, fast.  A leisurely bike ride just wasn't in our vocabulary.  As we zipped around town at mach speed one day, my sister said that she needed to slow down.  I being the loving and understanding sister that I am said,

"What's wrong you big baby? Can't handle the speed?" 

My sister responded to my ever so kind words with,

"My heart is racing and I just don't feel very good".  

Well in that case I thought, I guess we can slow down.  It wasn't long after that my sister had a similar episode when we were playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament.  Mom and dad were in on this episode so they decided to take Andrea to the hospital.  We soon learned that my sister needed heart surgery.  That made me feel really great for my loving comments while on that bike ride.

I remember sitting in that waiting room during the surgery.  I was really afraid.  I was only 11 years old and I really wasn't sure what to expect or how to feel.  I just knew that my best friend was now lying on an operating table and there was nothing I could do to make her better.  She was at the mercy of the doctors now.

Thankfully my sister had a successful surgery.  We were back to riding bikes at mach speeds soon after.

As I reflect on that moment in my sister and I's life it helps me better understand what Paul says when he tells us to offer our bodies as a "living sacrifice".

My sister could do nothing to fix her heart.  She was at the mercy of the doctors.  The ones who had a higher authority, the ones who knew how to fix her heart.  Had my sister continued to ride bikes at neck breaking speeds and run up and down the basketball court without having heart surgery the doctors said, eventually, her heart would have burst.   She would have died instantly.

The reality is that you and I live with a sin sickness.  The bible says that the heart is deceitful, it is beyond cure.  To follow our heart is to follow our feelings.  It's to follow a wisdom that centers around desire and pleasure.  Our hearts run around without self-control, until eventually we nearly become destroyed by the pursuit of desire and pleasure.

In the Old Testament the High Priest would go in once a year to the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice for the sins of the Jewish nation.  This would be a lamb, pure and spotless that would satisfy God's requirement for atonement of sin.

When Jesus dies on the cross He became that lamb.  He was pure and spotless, without defect and had no sin.  The book of Hebrews tells us that He now reigns as High Priest forever.

I have this picture in my mind of us offering our bodies as a living sacrifice.   What I see is for us to cease doing, fretting, worrying and allowing our feelings and hearts to dictate our every move and to lay ourselves down on the operating table of God's mercy.

To offer our bodies as a "living sacrifice" is to become completely dependent upon the great and mighty healer, Jesus Christ.  It is to place ourself at His mercy, trusting in His will. We must lay down our own will, hurried hearts and scattered minds.  It is to cease doing as we actively lay down our lives at the altar of sacrifice.  It is to say God, I'm done with me.  I'm done trying to come up with the right answers to try to convince myself that I know whats best for my life.

It is to say, God, I recognize that my heart is deceitful and it is beyond cure.  This is why I need your grace and mercy to walk with me, moment by moment and breathe by breathe.  As we lay down our lives as a "living sacrifice" we join in agreement with God that He is in control, that His way is best for our lives.  In that agreement is where our hearts and our minds find rest.  As we sit and rest in the presence of God on the altar of sacrifice it is there where our hearts start to change and heal.  It is there where God starts to tether in us a new mind, centered on His thoughts, His peace, and His perseverance.

Charles Spurgeon so eloquently says, "lie passive in the hands of God and know no will but His".  

I'm wondering who needs to enter into the altar of sacrifice where the Lord Jesus awaits to give you joy, peace and hope.  Who needs to offer their body as a living sacrifice and place themselves at the mercy of our Great Physician, Jesus Christ?

Just as my sister put herself at the mercy of those doctors long ago to be made well God wants to do the same for you and I today.  His desire is for us to be set free and to know the healing and life changing power of Jesus Christ as we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Place your life on the operating table of God's mercy and watch as He makes your heart and your mind brand new.

Actions and Belief: Why Sound Doctrine Matters

Our actions always spring from what we believe. 

Paul tells Timothy to "watch his life and doctrine closely" (1 Timothy 4:16)

Our doctrine can very well determine the path we shall journey through life on. If I hold fast to the promises of God, the truth of scripture, not wavering, but clinging to them in earnest then I shall see the goodness of God in my life and the next. I shall journey through life with purpose as I pursue my God-given destiny. 

If I choose to hold to a different doctrine that rejects the truth of scripture, causing myself to waver in confusion. Then I shall buy into deception as I create a god that fits my own needs and wants.

I will not walk in my God given destiny, but instead I shall wander aimlessly as I attempt to reach the next greatest pursuit in trying to fulfill, yet again, another empty American dream.

The Insecure Woman: What That Low Cut Shirt Actually Reveals

Modesty is not a characteristic that most women ascribe to. Those who dress immodestly wouldn't tell you the reason they do so is because of a deeper heart issue, but in reality that's whats going on. 

They wouldn't tell you that their father never told them that they're beautiful, so they dress in low-cut shirts and hi-cut shorts to get the attention of men to fill the void their father never did. They also wouldn't be quick to tell you the reason they flaunt their curves is because they are deeply insecure about themselves. Deep down they hate how they look, they constantly compare themselves to other women wishing they had her perfect curves or her perfect hair, so they hide from their insecurities by posting cute selfies, hoping to get lots of comments and likes to help them feel better about themselves. In all reality, no matter how many likes or comments they get it doesn't seem to fix that gnawing dissatisfaction with how they feel about themselves. 

Then it goes past dressing immodestly to giving herself away sexually. She believes that sex will make her feel beautiful, if men want her she must be desirable and beautiful she tells herself. When she doesn't realize what's actually going on is that men are using her. She strips her own self of dignity and respect through her immodesty. She presents herself to men without such characteristics. In that moment she is no longer a true woman, but an object to be used. The man also, in this moment, strips himself of his own dignity, honor and respect as he objectifies himself to be used by this woman. She uses him to try and meet that deep need for affirmation. Yet, nothing is met, she still longs for affirmation and to actually believe that she is beautiful. 

Maybe losing a few pounds, getting a new haircut or a cute outfit will do the trick. Nope, nothing seems to help. She swims in a pool or her own misery, but she hides it behind cute outfits and flashy make up. 

She wishes she were someone else, but she can't escape. She's dug herself a hole so deep she's convinced herself there's no way out. The only way to deal with her pain is to bury it, deny it and convince herself it isn't really there. 

She gets married thinking, this will do it! Problem is, she comes in with the grand expectation that her husband will mend all of her wounds. He'll make her no longer feel insecure, she'll feel better about herself, because of him, but because she married an imperfect human being she realizes that he just can't meet her expectations, so she moves onto the next man hoping this one will fit the bill. 

I saw myself becoming this woman years ago, if not for the love and healing that I have found in Jesus Christ I'm certain I would have become her. 

Wholeness and joy cannot be found in what the mirror says or how many guys line up to tell you that you're hot stuff. No, only true joy, peace and satisfaction is found in knowing Jesus Christ. 

He affirms me as beautiful. In Him, I know that I am beautiful. I have a joy that cannot be taken from me, a peace that sits within my heart and contentment that envelopes my very being. It's His love that my heart beats for, its His purpose that directs my path. I long for more of Him in my life. 

I find that as I do that I become a woman that draws people in, not because of tight clothes or sexy mascara, but because of my smile, my hope and my countenance that speaks life and peace. 

A true woman is one whose heart is at rest. She does not run after pleasure or run aimlessly trying to fill some deep need in her soul for love, because the woman who is at rest already knows what love is. 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God"- 1 John 4:7

God is love. Stop running, listen to the words that bring forth freedom! Rest in the one who created you. He has made a better way for you. 

Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and that they may have it to the full"- John 10:10

Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18-19