Holding on to Hope 6

Thy will be done…

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

for ever. Amen.

 How many times have you prayed this prayer? I wonder if we realize what it is we are telling God. It is not a chant or catchy phrase that was made up, no it is so much more than that. We may recognize it as the Lord’s Prayer but what some of you may not know is these words flowed straight out of the mouth of Jesus spoken over his disciples as pattern in which to live by.

I love what Nancy says this week in the chapter titled Submission about changing the layout of our prayers.

She says, “Often, I see the body of Christ put so much into pursuing God for healing. With great boldness and passion and persistence, we cry out to God, begging for physical healing. And in these prayers, there is often a tiny P.S. added at the end where we say, “If it be your will.”

But shouldn’t we switch that around?

Shouldn’t we cry out to God with boldness and passion and persistence in a prayer that says, “God, would you please accomplish your will? Would you give me a willing heart to embrace your plan and your purpose? Would you mold me into a vessel that you can use to accomplish what you have in mind?” And then, perhaps, we could add a tiny P.S. that says, “If that includes healing, we will be grateful.”

Isn’t real faith revealed more through pursuing God and what he wants than through pursuing what we want?

On the outside we cry out to God saying things like, “Your will God, your plan. Then we boldly ask for him to provide for our daily needs (hence the word daily), then we wrap it all up in a pretty little package proclaiming all his great power and glory…that is until we have a bad day.  

On days that our world is upside down I wonder if we ask God for these same things with the same purpose.

I think we are more likely to ask things like, “How in the world could this be your will and part of the plan you have for my life?”

The Rope

(Start wrapping up in the rope)

And there we stand all wrapped up in a tangled mess of lies from the enemy and distrust in our God. We are bitter and hurt and confused. We are full of sorrow and sadness and we want answers.

I’m going to be so bold to say that I don’t think there could ever really be a good enough answer as to why these things happen in our life. Although at times it may bring us a little peace when something seems to fit, we are ultimately torn apart by the trials that we face here on earth.

I believe that one thing God has shown me over and over is that our answers are found in our willingness to bend the knee in obedience and the flexibility we allow in the stretching of our faith.

The Sword of the Spirit

When we take our Sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God) and began to put it into action (start cutting the rope and laying it at the feet of Jesus). That is when we began to feel the presence of God in our situation.

Listen, we all have days that it isn’t going to be easy to lay some of these things down, there are even days that we may yearn to wear the heaviness of those things again because at least at those times we don’t feel so exposed & vulnerable.

There are many times that I run back to the cross and take back the things that I don’t have the will to lay down that day. (go grab a few pieces of rope and start tying them back together). And that is ok, you can start again tomorrow…

As I stand here today I am not a person that is free from all of the things that I am burdened by. There are things that I yet to trust Jesus with and together with Him I am a work in progress. But I know that there will come a time that I will have the trust and courage to lay them all down.

This is part of the submission that Nancy was talking about this week in her reading chapter titled Submission. 

I love Matthew 16:24, that says, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.

Through our act of obedience and submission things become clear.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (talking about the Paul and the thorn in his flesh)

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sufficient in this passage means to ultimately be satisfied. So therefore my grace (His grace) is to satisfy you. Would we be willing to accept what God is saying to us here? To delight in our weaknesses and to know that when we are at our weakest state, through Christ we are the strongest.

Profiting in our trials

Let’s look at a few things that the Bible says about profiting from our trials:

James 1:2-4,

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-7 (this one keeps coming up everywhere for me),

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

Papa’s Land

I wanted to share with you what happened to me yesterday. For the first time since my grandfather has passed I loaded up my kids and followed my sister, mom and aunt out to his place. I was very anxious about going there and having the initial reality that as we drove over the hill he would not be waiting at the gate to greet us.

I kept thinking how this man had helped me so much by his encouragement he poured into me and by the simplicity of his life. If I had burdens they seemed to be put into perspective by sitting on his porch solving all life’s problems one historical story at a time. But yesterday my burden was deep and my sorrow was heavy and I was weary.

We made our way into the house, after we all pulled ourselves together, and begin to rummage through some of the things that we each wanted. After a bit I just sat in his chair and took it all in. Man was it quiet, too quiet, even with the energy of my kids and I wanted to get outside.

I walked out to his shop and realized that the oddness of the quietness had followed me. I began to look around I realized that there were very few animals, if any that were roaming about. You see he qualified for Ag exemption on his property which meant that he literally had feeding stations and nesting stations set up at various places around his place. He fed the birds, the squirrels, the chickens and even the coons. Things that are a nuisance to us were friends to him. He had a butterfly garden and sometimes even bee hives. But now the absence of his presence and the food that he had once provided resulted in an absence of the animals. I thought, “how they must miss him…” It made me wonder how many times the animals that he tended to daily came back to see if he had returned and how long did it take them before they gave up and went elsewhere.

I stared out into an open field and began to ask God if this was a place that was meant for Will and I to purchase. Would we be able to be happy when visiting here and could this be a place that would bring us closer to God? I felt God lay these words on my heart.

“I have never once left you but at times you don’t notice me there because you don’t like how it looks. Don’t fear that I am not there, I am. As I took that short walk with God I felt that he made clear to me in my spirit, that If we choose to not put in the work & commitment it takes to seek him and fill up on what his Word has for us, then our hunger and our thirst for figuring this all out will never be quenched and we will undoubtedly go elsewhere for food.

How many of us are looking at an empty, lifeless landscape trying to figure out where God is in all of it? Maybe it is us that have turned away and chosen to not bend the knee and dive into his Word for healing and fresh revelations. Or maybe we are spinning circles trying to find him when all along he is right there. Sometimes the best place to start is on our knees. 

The Bible says, ⁶ Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6.

How many times do we get discouraged waiting on the LORD when the whole time morning after morning he continues to pour out the manna we need to fulfill our daily needs. 

He pours out his love for us through his word, but how will we ever know if we don’t open it up and read it? Don’t say it’s too hard or confusing, if I can do this than so can you. Sit down and ask God for discernment and wisdom and a heart and mind to receive whatever it is he has to show you. Tell him when you are confused or don’t understand something. Beg him to open your eyes to the bigger picture and to help you bend the knee into submission and obedience to accept the plan and His will over your life. I say this to you so boldly because for me I see no Plan B. I want to live in freedom through Christ and I know this is the only way.

                                    The beauty in nature

For some reason after walking with God Papa’s place became even more beautiful to me. God reveals himself to us in so many ways and for me yesterday, it was through nature.

 I began to thank God for the things that I take for granted. Theresa has mentioned several times that the appropriate response for a gift is gratitude. When was the last time that you thanked God for a sunset? Every evening he paints the most beautiful picture in the sky for all to see, and do we even take the time to notice it? And when we do are we giving him credit for it? I love that he gives us a small window into his beauty. I listened to a preacher a while back and he said, “God is Holy and majestic and so powerful, and yet we treat him like a hobby.”

All of this made me think of all the many ways that God reveals his love for us and how often we over look them. Are we so bitter or self-focused by some of the things that have happened in our life that we miss out on the things he is laying right before our eyes?

I’ve often wondered if God doesn’t allow me to enter through trials so that I put aside everything else and seek him. Where else can you experience the immense amount of love that he has for you? I want to experience the kind of love from God that I don’t forget in a day or two…don’t you?

Several years ago I began praying this scripture over my life. I started out saying it with hesitation, but now I say it with confidence in who He is to me.

Proverbs 30:5-9 says,

5 Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
6 Do not add to His words,
Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

7 Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

I am committed to trusting God to provide for me in my daily needs in my walk with him. And I am praying this same verse over my husband and children. It is not easy for me to lay my kids at his feet and pray “thy will be done”, but if I have no trust and confidence in my savior what do I have at all? I ask God constantly to help me correctly speak the truth in his Word for I don’t want to mislead you or myself in anything that I bring forth.

I speak in confidence when I say that your God loves you and cares about you with unconditional love. I know for most of us when looking at our tragedies the answers as to why aren’t always clear. I am just thankful that we serve a God that gives us the opportunity to seek him and find some peace in the storms.

Matthew 7:7-8 says,

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Nowhere does this passage imply that we will find the answers we want, but we will find the answers he has for us.

I have prayed that each of us will open our hearts to him in a way that he is able to fill us to the measure of his love. I pray that through trials and sifting we become spiritually mature and have an increase in faith that surpasses all doubt, because we serve a God that is far more capable of anything that myself or anyone else could ever bring forth. He is our healer and our great deliver. In Him I will put my trust and through Him I will survive this storm.