The Promises of God

I've been reading through the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. I love Joshua the man! He had spunk and faith and energy and a heart of gold for God. His story blows across the embers of my own faith and makes my fire grow. I want a faith that remains in the face of the odds and the people who like to talk about them. I need a long-haul faith that will cook a roast and not just wieners. Know what I mean?

Anyway,  my eyes began to glaze over as they perused chapter after chapter of cities they conquered and divided up among name after name and tribe after tribe. Then my eyebrows went up as I landed on the last verse in chapter 21:

"Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass."

My heart dances a jig when I read it. My feet of faith do a different dance across the hot coals of unbelief, knowing I have no business being there but still I step, blister, and try to get out as quickly as possible. Then those feet land on the cool pavement of a verse like this. Ahhh! A reminder that God does everything He says He will. He cannot lie. It's impossible. Airtight.

Another step takes me to the cooling comfort of 2 Corinthians 1:20:

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God." Mmmm!

The mind naturally asks, "What promises has God made me?" I believe God makes some specific promises to us individually, but they all fall in the framework of the general promises He makes in His Word. Some are conditional but all are kept.

What is YOUR favorite promise?

Please share.

I'll start.

Philippians 4:19 - "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Hebrews 13:5b - "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Matthew 6:33 - "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you."


Those promises are like a spa day for the spirit, soaking away doubt, exfoliating fear,  and replenishing trust in Him. Oooo!

 May you be refreshed by the Lord as you reflect on His great and precious promises today, My Friend.

My Fear & Faith Journey, Continued

The scholarship money ran out, but God already knew that was coming. A fellow student had a cleaning job at a church and asked me to sub for her whenever she had to be away. One day she handed the whole job over to me. Toward the end, I was working at the church bookstore and taking in sewing in addition to the cleaning job to pay for school. That's just as much God's provision as the checks falling from the sky. I think it was Beth Moore who talked about being a "wonders junky" --someone who wants to binge on miracles. Let God decide when He wants to show off. You and I need to be ready to accept whatever way He chooses to provide. Amen?

Life got hard sometimes. I can't recall every intricate detail, but we needed a second car. Hubby had a car to get to work, but it was too hard to share it.  People would donate cars to the seminary so I applied for one. I didn't get it because we lived in seminary housing and they reasoned that because I could walk to class, applicants living farther away had dibs. That's understandable, but I was discouraged all the same.

 I will never forget what God did next. 

He let things get worse. He let my husband's car break down. The repairs were expensive and we didn't have enough to get it out of the shop. I went into a depression. 

One Wednesday night I was working behind the bookstore counter. Two ministers I knew walked in.

"Heyyyy! How are you tonight," one of them said.

I mustered as much of a smile as I could and answered, "I'm ok."

One replied, "What would it take to make things better than ok?"

I don't tell my personal business to acquaintances, but my mouth took on a life of it's own and said, "Getting our car out of the shop."

He asked for more details and then huddled in a corner with the other minister.  When he came back, he said he would get me a check  for the rest of the amount we needed. 

But wait, God still was  not through!

Before the two-angels-in plain-clothes incident, another car came available at the seminary. I was gun shy from the last rejection and wasn't going to apply for another car. A friend said I should try again. I did, and BECAUSE OUR FAMILY HAD NO CAR, they awarded us the free car. THEN the angels came to the bookstore and God gave us our old car back! In other words, God let our only car break down so He could give us two cars. 

Ladies, sometimes when we feel God is picking on us, He's actually positioning us for a greater blessing than the one we lost. When Moses first started with that, "let my people go" stuff, things got worse. Pharaoh reasoned that those Israelites must have too much time on their hands and he required they find their own straw and still reach their original daily brick quota. (Exodus 5:6-9) The Israelites were angry with Moses because it appeared he was making things worse for them; however, God was just setting everyone up for His big appearance on the stage of ten plagues and then deliverance.
Fear takes every opportunity to say, "See, I told you!" She did it for me many times. I recall having many meetings with God to see if I really heard Him right.

I would have missed seven years of God's amazing provision had I allowed fear to keep me on the porch. 

I have one more story to share from those amazing years. Let's bring this thing in for a landing tomorrow! 

When You're Frustrated With Yourself...

Do you get frustrated with yourself because you keep making the same mistake over and over? Have you ever rolled your eyes at yourself  or rebuked yourself with a stern tone for not doing better?

I, too, wish I could get it together already, but let me encourage you to remember two things.

One, the fact that you even care enough to want to get it right is a good sign. Those with a sloppy walk with Jesus are all the time jumping on the net of grace instead of falling on it while trying to please God. Lazy Christianity that rolls around on the bed of "Oh, it's ok, God will forgive me anyway," get fat on backslidden bites of grace but reap the tragic diagnosis of what the Psalmist calls a leanness of soul (Psalm 106:15). See? Didn't that make a chill go through you? It's because you care about pleasing God! This is a good sign.

Two, you wouldn't fault a child falling a hundred times while learning to walk, would you? "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him;
for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:13-14) You may be rolling your eyes at yourself, but it doesn't mean God is doing the same. God reserves His stern voice for those who either act like they have it all together or those in active rebellion. If this is you, repentance is the way back, not self-flogging.

So, My Friend, be encouraged. Be patient with yourself. By all means press on and press in. Allow God to continue the work He began in you, but please stop the eye-rolling and tongue-lashing. Ask forgiveness quickly when you fall, forgive yourself, and get back in the race. None of us will reach the finish line failure-or-trip-up-free, but we can choose to arrive there with no more self-inflicted wounds.

Blogkeeping Matters

Hello Dear Readers,
Did I mention that I am taking an online writing course? Today I learned I need to publish at a pace I can sustain. Soooo, here is my new blogging plan. I want to commit to publishing a blog post at least twice a  week. My teacher says I can produce higher quality work when I give things time to percolate in my mind before I hit the "publish" button. I think this pace will also give some of you time to catch up on some posts you didn't have time to read. I have gone back through the Free Writing Posts and given most of them proper names to make them easier to find if you wish to read again or share with a friend. I love that you allow me the privilege to minister to someone you know by sharing my posts. Encouraging is my favorite thing to do, and your sharing helps me do just that. Thank you!

One final housekeeping matter: if you have had trouble leaving a comment on the blog site, it may be because you have not subscribed or because you did not confirm your subscription. Please check your spam folder for the confirmation email you must reply to. You may also email me at ordinerrygirl@yahoo.com anytime! I enjoy hearing from you!
Bye for now!
Georgia

Do You Do It?

Joshua's boots had gotten dirty in chapter 10. He received a call from the Gibeonites to come save them from the Amorite kings and he answered. The Lord assured that He would give Joshua victory. I love the verses where God shows off- throwing large hailstones from heaven and killing more enemies than Joshua and his fellow soldiers did with the sword. Then, at Joshua's request, God made the sun stand still for about a whole day's time.  When the fighting work was done, the sun went down and they all went back to base camp at Gilgal.

Then Joshua got great news. All five kings were hiding together in a cave. Sweet! I was struck by what Joshua did next in verse 18 -19:
 "And Joshua said, 'Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and assign men by it to guard them, but do not stay there yourselves; pursue your enemies and attack them....' "

Did you see it? It's called delegation. Do you struggle to do it like I do? We perfectionists try to do it all ourselves because we fear someone else won't do it as we would. Or we just want the pleasure of doing it all. We fail to realize that the pleasure is cut in half because we spread ourselves too thinly and we become  stressed and grouchy. What's more, we miss out on the beauty of community. We forget that although people won't do it exactly the way we would, the outcome is better because many hands make light work, and fellowship is more important than having things turn out our way.
Besides, if we are busy trying to do everything on our list, chances are we are neglecting the very assignments on God's list for us. Ouch.

So how can you delegate today?

What We Can Learn from Jacob in the Bible

I love that when I read the Bible, God causes me to see things I didn’t notice the last fifty times I read the same passage. This time He caused me to notice a few things about Jacob in his dealings with his father-in-law, Laban.

First, Jacob learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of deception. He had swindled his brother Esau out of his birthright and his blessing. Laban was his even change when he did the big switch with Leah for her sister Rachel (Genesis 29:21-30). He could have given Rachel and not required the additional seven years since Jacob wasn’t working to get Leah in the first place, but Laban was an opportunist. I wonder if Jacob wondered if Esau felt the same way when he did him dirty. Funny how our sensitivities heighten where they once were dull when we find ourselves on the receiving end of the very thing we did to someone else. It’s a humbling experience. Jesus was pretty smart to tell us to treat others the way we want to be treated, huh (Matthew 7:12)?

Another thing that stood out was how Jacob kept mentioning that Laban had changed his wages ten times (Genesis 31:7,41). It seems he high-lighted that point every time Laban got on his nerves. Bitterness is like that: it keeps detailed records of wrongs.

 I am not saying Jacob didn’t have a right to be angry. It is obvious he was sick and tired of being messed over. I don’t blame him. Getting sick and tired can be a gift from God. It can give us the courage to do what we’ve been needing to do but were too afraid. 

I love that God blessed Jacob’s need to move on (Genesis 31:3) God had a covenant to fulfill in Jacob’s life. He had bigger plans for him than making Laban rich. So often we use the “not God’s will” thing as an excuse not to take that big scary step when it actually is God’s will. I know I have used it. Have you? We want everything to be perfect before we step out, but that is not the life of faith. That’s also not where the excitement and testimony of God’s faithfulness abide. God’s faithfulness loves to hang out between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea… between “Leave your familiar spot,” and, “I will let you know when you get there.” Perhaps in one of these blogs, I will share some of my adventures with God in those very spots. I would love to hear yours too!

Resting

How was your weekend? Did you accomplish all you hoped? 

I decided to do something different this weekend: accomplish as little as possible. Well, that's not completely true. I should say I  was intentional about NOT accomplishing a particular thing. The idea of the Sabbath has lost it's appeal to our American culture. We see the weekend as a chance to get ahead. Truth is, I hear that those who rest are the ones really getting ahead. 

Have you heard the story of the two lumberjacks who had a contest? On go, they both started hacking away at their respective trees. Lumberjack A was going at a feverish pace. Lumberjack B was too, except about midway, he stopped. Lumberjack A saw his chance to get ahead so he sped up, chopping so hard and strong he nearly made himself dizzy. Imagine A's surprise when, shortly thereafter, he heard B shout "Timmmbbberrr!" 

A: "H-h-how did you...?"

B: "Well, my friend, while you were wearing yourself out a-choppin'' I got ahead by pausin' to sharpen my axe!"

I decided to give that a try. I had chores to do on Saturday that wore me out, but after church Sunday,  I went to visit a relative- something I rarely do. The visit was not a long one, but I got some valuable info about a small problem I had. I was just making conversation and the issue came out. Something else was said that God used as food for thought. 

I had a big project that was calling my name, but I chose not to answer. No, today was gonna be a time away. I didn't know what to do with myself in some of those moments--I asked the Lord to help me to just... be. 

I heard a book subtitle the other day that says something like, "Stop spending 100% of your time on 10% of your life!" It spoke of how we can be so consumed with reaching a goal that other important things get pushed aside. At some point, we have to trust God will help us get done what He wants done. I am trying to live that way. It's been so refreshing!  I find I have more time for relationships. Also, I'm discovering that creating margin in my life leaves a place for God to fill. He reminded me that my neighbor had an ambulance outside her house the day before and that I should call to check on her. Racing thoughts and running around drowns out those opportunities for God to speak.

So now let's see how well I do once the work week starts. Will I look at my project with fresh eyes? 

What about you? Will you allow time to pause during the week so you're not frazzled. Hope so. 

Good night.