Lovely Little Visits

I wonder how many God visits I miss a day.  Our Lord is always at work and involved in each aspect of our lives and days. 

I've been in Luke lately and last night I was reading Luke 22:7-13  7 Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.”  9 “Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him.  10 He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, 11 say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ 12 He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” 13 They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

Look at the detail.  Jesus had this meal all planned out.  He was in all the details.  In Matthew 10:30 we are told, "And the very hairs on your head are all numbered."  Nothing, no matter how small escapes His touch.  

I've definitely had a couple of stand out visits this past week or so that have made me laugh and brought encouragement.  

The first was at the middle of last week.  The back story on this is that I had told God that this was the year I stopped complaining.  Whether it's out loud, in my head or with eye rolls and annoyed sighs....I want this sin out of my life.  

Well, He's definitely taking me seriously.  I am constantly reminded every time I go down the "complaining road" that I am to be grateful and worshipful.  Thank You Holy Spirit.  But this time it got serious.  

My husband and I had done some cleaning around the house.  And my husband, being himself, left the cleaner out, behind the door, in the laundry room.  I found this the next day when I went to sweep up in there.  So of course, the sighs came.  And the critical attitude in my heart.   I picked up the container and put it on top of the dryer and started to sweep up the flood, grumbling in my head the whole tiime.  Well, I'm guessing the Lord really want to get my attention here, so as I was kneeling before the dryer sweeping into the dustpan, the container slip off the dryer and hit me right in the head.  LOL  Oh my!  Talk about a direct correction.  The Holy Spirit could not have been any clearer.  "Knock it off!"  I just had to sit there and laugh.  And repent.  (Embarressed face here!)

The next visit was this morning.  I'm still in Luke and I was listening to J. Vernon McGee's teaching on chapter 24.  We were at the end in verses 50-53.  50 Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. 52 So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. 53 And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God.

I noticed something about this today that I had never seen before.  The people standing before Jesus had failed Him.  Some denied, some deserted, some didn't believe...all of them, had failed our Lord in some way.  They were just like me.  I often fail my Lord.  I don't believe, I question and deny His sovereignty, trustworthiness and love.  I'm disobedient and self willed.  

But here's the thing.  As Jesus was leaving He blessed them.  He lifted His hands and spoke good over them.  He didn't look at them as failures, as sinners unworthy of His love and goodness.  He saw them as those He loved and died for, those forgiven and adopted, those who He called friends.  And....that includes you and me.  He sees us this way as well, and He desires blessing for us.  His blessing.  Wow.  What amazing revelation.  I am in awe of His loving goodness.  

Lord, thank You.  For correction, for blessing, for Your unvavering patience, care and love us.  We truly are the most blessed people to be called Your children.  

Help Me Forgive

Forgiveness!  We all want it.  We receive it from our gracious Lord.  And we all need it.  Yet when it comes to giving it out......ugh!  That is the hard part.  

I can say it in my head, but getting my feelings to catch up with what I know is God's will and command is where the glitch happens for me.  Even harder when there is the little voice in our head saying "But it wasn't my fault!  They did______," fill in the blank.  

Recently some one really got under my skin..  They pressed every button I have and just basically got me annoyed quite a few times in the span of a few hours.  Now this is a nice person, a caring person....and maybe we were just too much a like in some ways, but I just found myself getting irritated with this person.  And the Holy Spirit kept whispering in my ear, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone."  Romans 12:18.   Ugh!!!  "I don't want tooooooo.  It's not meeeeee!!!  I'm right, they are wrong!!!!"  Yup, those where my answers as I heard His voice.  But, at least on the outside I tried to be obedient.  I can't say I was totally successful, but mostly. 

Now here we are two days later and I am still rehashing it in my mind.  Over and over it comes into my head.  I know this was such a minor situation, just a differing way of doing things.  No wrongs against me were committed....but still the Holy Spirit told me to offer forgiveness in my heart.  And, I am obeying.  In a lot of ways there really isn't anything to forgive, but in obedience I follow His direction.  Yet it still comes up to rehash.  So I forgive again.  I pray for them again.  A friend once told me that if you want to forgive someone, pray for them.  You can't stay mad at someone you are praying for.  Good advice.  

Eventually I know my feelings will catch up.  But what happens when I see them again?  I am praying by then the Lord will have changed my heart even more.  

For my devotion this morning I went into my little "31 Days of Praise" book by Ruth Myers.  Oh boy, did the Lord sure visit!  

From today's reading:

"So I thank You for each disturbing or humbling situation in my life, for each breaking or cleansing process You are allowing, for each problem or hindrance, for each thing that triggers in me anxiety or anger or pain...."

I rejoice that You plan to enrich and beautify me through each problem, each conflict, each struggle...that through them You expose my weaknesses and needs, my hidden sins, my self centeredness (and especially my self-reliance and pride).   Thank You that You use trials to humble me and perfect my faith and produce in me the quality of endurance...that they prepare the soil of my heart for the fresh new growth in godliness that You and I both long to see in me......"

This spoke directly into the heart of this situation in me.  And I am so grateful for this new opportunity to die to self and live for the Lord.  He is so amazing in tune with exactly what we need to hear at exactly the time we need to hear it.  

"I thank You for the bitter things, they've been a friend to grace.  They'vee driven me from paths of ease to storm the secret place."  Florence White Willett.  

How I need to storm the secret place.  To "...come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."  Hebrews 4:16

The Lord provides everything we need to live for Him  2 Peter 1:3  By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

I am so grateful for the situations the Lord places in my life that bring the growth He desires.  My prayer for me and all of us is that we allow Him to grow us.  I pray that we cooperate and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit in all things, even when our feelings are screaming for release and relief. 

Lord You are so good to us, so patient in teaching.  We love You and desire to please You and to live as Your representatives here on earth.  Help us to shine for You in all we do.  We give You our hearts, minds, emotions and ask You to transform them into mirror images of Jesus for all to see.  It's in Your precious Name we pray Lord.  Amen.  

Lord Teach Us To Pray....And To Trust

I've been reading in Luke lately and yesterday I was in chapter 11.  Here the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray the way John taught his followers.  In Luke 11:1-13 Jesus teaches them not only how to pray, but how to trust.  

Luke 11:1-13 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:  “Father, may your name be kept holy.    May your Kingdom come soon.  3 Give us each day the food we need, 4 and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.  And don’t let us yield to temptation. 

5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.  9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Most of us have heard of the Lord's prayer.  It's like a blueprint for prayer, a great starting point.  We glorify God's Name, ask for His will to be done and His kingdom to be manifest.  We ask for our needs to be met and for help in following Christ in forgiving others and for forgiveness ourselves, and finally for strength against sin.  

After this we see Jesus teaching about being persistent in prayer.  Seeking God in our need, crying out to Him for fulfillment.  Prayers that don't give up at the first sign of resistance.  

Then we get to the part about trust.  Jesus tells us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking.  This seems to line up with the persistence part.  But He goes on to tell us about how human  Father's will answer their children in the best way.  They will not give a snake when a child asks a fish or a scorpion when asked for an egg.  And like earthly Fathers, our heavenly Father gives us only what is good for us.  We need to learn to trust His answers.  The implication here is that our greatest need is spiritual, as we need the Holy Spirit more than any earthly thing we can ask for.  

Some times we don't hear or receive the answers we want.  Doors don't open, physical needs go seemingly unmet and we don't find what we are looking for.  God doesn't promises that He will give us every desire of our hearts.  He knows that our hearts can be weak, selfish, mistaken, misled and easily confused about what is the best.  He knows they don't see the big picture or have all the answers.  But He gives that which will feed our souls.  He gives that which will make us grow and flourish.  The nos and waits are hard but that is where learning to trust comes in.  That is what Jesus is teaching here.  

God only gives good things.  James 1:17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

God knows our needs. Matthew 6:8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

Do we ever stop to think that if God gave us exactly what we ask for it would be like Him giving us a scorpion?  Can we understand that He sees the whole of our lives and knows what is and isn't good for us?  Do we understand that if He opens a door for us that we desire it could be a door to disaster.  Instead He opens the door to blessing through the leading of the Holy Spirit.  

It's so hard when we don't see the answers we want, we design, to our prayers.  But that is where we learn to grow in faith.  When we don't get our way, and yet we allow the Holy Spirit full reign and give Him our full trust.  This is a lesson that we need to be reminded of over and over again.  At least I do. 

Lord, I know You desire to bless and lead Your children.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is the most wonderful of blessings.  He prays for us when we don't know how to pray.  He fills us when we are empty and leads us when we are lost.  Help us to trust You in the asking and the answering.  Let us not give up, but keep on seeking Your ways and Your will.  We pray in the mighty Name of Jesus.  Amen.  

Lessons from Peru

What a wonderful trip!  I enjoyed spending time with my Peruvian family in Christ.  My friend and I got to share Jesus'  heart with the sisters and brothers in two churchs.  Our group got to visit with the pastors and their families that we support and connect with.  Staying in their homes was such a blessing and getting to know them something I will treasure forever.  These sweet people welcomed us with so much love and joy.  

I came away so much richer than when I left.  I learned my job is to go with Jesus' flow.  I'm not to let my timeline interfere with His purpose.  The unhurried pace of our days there was such a great change from my "hurry to press on to the next thing" lifestyle.  

Our first night of teaching was on Mary and Martha.  So often I try to not be like Martha when in reality I should be striving to follow Mary's example.  I can "sit at Jesus' feet" no matter what I am doing.  Turning my thoughts from "hurry, hurry" to my Lord will bring my mind in line with the attitude Mary had.  I gain His peace, purpose and direction when I learn to live that way.  

Coming home we had a very late flight.  Which got delayed three times!  Finally they had us leaving Lima at 3:45 am.   We would never have made our connecting flight.  By the time we got home we would have been up for almost a day and a half.  

But we kept our attitude on letting Jesus have His way.  My friend and I went with HIS flow.  And we saw Him work it out.  We ended up on a stand by flight, which we made.  He opened doors for us to get through customs and security quickly, gave us great seats on the plan and even had us make our Miami connection to Nashville.  Going with HIS flow brought peace to our hearts and got us where we needed to go in His time.  

Our Christian family is everywhere.  Language barriers do not stop the love in our hearts.  They don't keep us from being connected.  Hugs, smiles and tears convey so much more than words.  

Thank You Lord for this amazing experience.  I saw Your hand all over it!