Power Of A Moment

When I was young, my family went every year to see The Bill Gaither Trio in concert when they came to Pittsburgh.

Their music provided much of the soundtrack of my early years and it is a sweet memory.

This morning as I was reading the Daily Bread during my quiet time, I was reminded of one of their songs, Something Beautiful.

Something beautiful, something good
All my confusion He understood
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife
But He made something beautiful of my life.

Can you believe this very moment that Jesus can make something beautiful of your life?

If all you see is brokenness, please remember that that does not disqualify you! We are all broken in some way. That is why we needed our Savior to come to us.

That very brokenness is what Jesus will use to rebuild your life on the rock-solid foundation of His Word.

Cling to His precious promises.

Submit your fickle feelings to the timeless and unchanging truths of His Word. Relegate them to their proper place and refuse to allow them to rule your spirit any longer. Rather, pray for the Holy Spirit to rule you instead, filling you with His fearless courage, blazing love, and endless hope.

Recognize that the things you can see are only the tip of the iceberg compared to His unlimited and perfect knowledge.

Then you will find that Jesus is always leading you in triumph as trophies of His victory (2 Corinthians 2:14).

And you will discover, to your delight and awe, that Jesus is doing what He always does: bringing breathtaking beauty from the ashes.

Our enemy, our circumstances, our sin do not have the last word in our lives. Not ever.

The Cross says so. It is finished!

The empty tomb says so. He is risen!

Tucked into the Old Testament book of Joel is a dazzling promise that sparkles like a diamond against a black velvet background:

Fear not…be glad and rejoice because the Lord has done great things…I will restore or replace for you the years that the locusts have eaten..and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the Name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame. And you shall know, understand, and realize that I am in the midst of (you) and that I am your God and there is none else. My people shall never be put to shame.” (Joel 2: 21-27)

Have the locusts invaded your life, stripping, devouring, devastating?

Look up. Draw close to God.

The word “restore” in this verse is shalam and it means: “to be at peace, to live in peace, to make whole, to make good, to complete, to recompense, reward, to be repaid.”

Dear one, the above is what He is doing in your sweet life at this very moment if you belong to Him. He is always at work. You are His beloved, the apple of His eye.

Leave room for Him to do His redemptive work in His perfect way. Let Him write the story of your life. I promise you it turns out well.

The One who is Beauty makes all things beautiful in His time.

Yesterday, I listened to author/Bible teacher Jill Briscoe teach on the subject of “Waiting It Out: Helps For the Long Haul.”

She was discussing how hard it is to wait for God’s perfect timing when He has allowed us to enter into a wilderness. We simply want OUT.  But until that time comes, we are consigned to waiting.

At one point, she shared something that immediately caught my attention: “Waiting with an attitude of acceptance (rather than resignation) allows me to wait expectantly and say to the Lord, ‘I will watch to see how You bring redemption from this mess.”

I absolutely LOVE that attitude, that sense of expectancy, that rock-solid, God-given HOPE that Jesus’s death on the Cross purchased for us.

Redemption is what Jesus does! Redemption is His specialty, His passion, His delight, His purpose, His greatest gift to us!

There is not one person, not one situation that He cannot redeem!

In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood (the remission) and forgiveness of our sins… in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor. (Ephesians 1:7).

The word redemption means: “a releasing effected by payment of ransom, deliverance, liberation, rescue.”

On the Cross, Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves: give us right standing before a holy God when He took our penalty for our sin onto Himself.

In that one momentous, victorious,  earth-shattering moment, He took care of our greatest need once and for all.

Glorious, beautiful and eternal redemption became ours! We have been given the greatest gift in the history of the world!

The good news is that that same redemption continues its triumphant march today both across the stories of our lives and the fragile terrain of our hearts.

His redemption is capable of  reaching  into and utterly transforming every single area of our lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly. His redemption is capable of making all things beautiful in His perfect timing.

Our role is to let Him.

We can choose to either fight Him or to surrender to His loving care and good purpose.

We can choose to become bitter as we wait or we can choose to wait expectantly and with blazing hope in our Savior who is forever with us.

I have seen His gracious gift of redemption in my own life in countless ways. There have been situations where I thought my heart was going to break or stop beating altogether. I did not see any way out. Yet…in His own supremely loving and gentle way, He absolutely astonished me as I watched Him redeem each and every painful situation in ways that left me filled with breathless wonder and amazement. I will never get over those things. They are the precious cords that bind my grateful heart to my all-powerful and wondrous Redeemer and Savior.

Elisabeth Elliot famously said, “In acceptance lies peace.”

If today finds you in a wilderness or in the midst of a mess, would you choose to accept that Jesus is right there with you? He has not forgotten you. He knows. He sees.

Would you allow Him to fill your heart with His peace?

Would you trust His Word more than you trust your feelings?

And will you begin to praise Him right now for the fact that He will allow you to see–whether on this earth or in eternity— His magnificent, shining, triumphant  gift of redemption in this situation?

The Master Artist is always at work! And He only makes masterpieces!

“Leave it all in the Hands that were wounded for you.”—Elisabeth Elliot

Fear not (there is nothing to fear), for I am with you; do not look around in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties. Yes, I will help you, yes I will hold you up.—Isaiah 41:10

Yesterday, I spoke with a young mom who is facing a devastating situation for which there seems to be no answer.

I have lived long enough to know not to give pat answers to someone in this much pain. To do so is to pour salt into an open wound.

I have no idea what God is doing here and I can’t speak for Him. I will not tell her that I know how she feels because I don’t.

However, all of a sudden, a Bible passage popped into my mind: 2 Chronicles 20.

The Israelites were facing certain annihilation from “a vast multitude.” (v.2)

Their leader, King Jehoshaphat, was understandably terrified. But his first response was not to run and hide. Rather he “set himself (determinedly, as his vital need) to seek the Lord.” (v. 3). He then proclaimed a fast.

But he didn’t stop there. He gathered everyone together to ask for the Lord’s help in prayer. We are told in verse four that the people were “yearning for Him with all their desire.”

Then Scripture records their prayer:

O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? And do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In Your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand You.  Did not You, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend? They dwelt in it and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your Name, saying, “If evil comes upon us, the sword of judgement or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You…and cry to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save….O our God…we have no might to stand against this great company that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are upon You. (vv.6-9, 12).

I see a blueprint in these verses for things that we can do when we feel like we have been hit by a tsunami of trouble:

1) Name your “vast multitude.” Be specific. Look it straight in the face. Denial helps nobody. The king did not bury his head in the sand and pretend that none of this was happening. The threat was real and deadly serious.

You may say, “I can’t face this. I am not up to it.” 

And you would be right. In ourselves, we are frail as breath, a mist, a vapor.

However, if you know Jesus, that is never true of you. Anything you face comes to Him first. He cushions the blow for you. He declares you to be “more than a conqueror” through Him. (Romans 8:37).

2) Make sure you recognize that your vital need is Jesus Himself…not more money, more time, more resources, etc. It is entirely too easy for us to reach for created things to rescue us, rather than reach out in desperation for our Creator, who will never leave us and is always actively at work on our behalf.

Colossians 1:16-17 is very helpful here: “It was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whethere thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him and in and for Him. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things…are held together.”

There is NO part of your life with which Jesus is not intimately involved. And that includes your “vast multitude.”

As I learned in the life-changing book Jesus + Nothing = Everything:  because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, everything I need, I already have in Him! Everything!

Yes…even in those times when a vast multitude comes against me! I may feel as if I have nothing at all, but the absolute fact of the Cross assures me that Jesus has given me everything I need…both now (in the very midst of the mess!) and for all eternity.

3). Do you yearn for Him with all your desire? Or is your desire simply to get out of whatever painful situation you are in?

Really think about that. Do you want Jesus just so that He will release you? (Be honest).

Or are you content with His Presence with you in it, regardless of how long the trouble goes on?

It is normal to want pain removed and Jesus does not begrudge us that. He knows that we are dust. Nobody enjoys pain, nor should we. However, when hard times hit, He is right there with us by the miracle of His Spirit.  And He is always enough.

It is during these very times that He becomes real to us, that His Words cease to be just letters on the pages of our Bibles and become life to us! And there is NOTHING on this earth that can compare to that.

At some point on our faith journey through this world, we must come to a point when the fact and overwhelming preciousness of the Presence of Jesus with us must become more real to us than the presence of pain.

May we never get over the miracle that the same Jesus that we read about in the Gospels is the very same Jesus whose Spirit is now joined with ours both in time and for all eternity!

Whatever you are facing, you are not facing it alone.

4). We need to remind ourselves that He rules over everything. 

Nothing is unknown to Him. Nothing is too hard for Him to fix. Nothing is impossible with Him. He alone holds our destiny in His all-powerful hands.

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation—whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life—of whom should I be afraid?…Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me (even then) in this will I be confident.—Ps. 27:1,3

…He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’—Daniel 4:35

5). Recall to mind past times when He has graciously rescued you and proved His faithfulness.

We can either choose to rehearse our troubles and our fears or we can choose to rehearse the fact that He has proven Himself to be utterly trustworthy time and time again.

6) When rough times come, make the choice to STAND, no matter what. 

As a believer, you have the privilege (and gift!) of planting your feet firmly on the rock solid, never-changing Word of God.

You need not collapse in fear.

The Lord God is my strength (my personal bravery and my invincible army); He makes my feet like hinds feet and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror but to walk) and make spiritual progress on my high places of trouble, suffering, and responsibility. —Habakkuk 3:19

7) The best thing you can do when you are overwhelmed is to look UP. Decide to keep your focus on your Savior rather than on your circumstances.

Make the king’s prayer in his moment of greatest crisis your own prayer:  We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You.

He WILL act.

You may not have all the answers (or even any at all), but He knows the answer to every single one of your questions.

Your “vast multitude” has not taken Him by surprise.

8) He will answer  your pleas for help. This is what He told the king:  The Lord says this to you, “Be not afraid or dismayed at this vast multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s…you shall not need to fight this battle; take your positions, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord, Who is with you…fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” 

Put your name at the beginning of that verse and then take out the words “vast multitude” and write your trial there instead. Take this word personally. It is meant for you. Read it as often as you need to. Write it on post-it notes and place it everywhere you can.

Then praise Him for what He is going to do in His perfect timing.

Fill your waiting moments with worship instead of worry.

That is exactly what King Jehoshaphat and his fellow Israelites did: Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established…He appointed singers to sing to the Lord and praise Him…as they went before the army, saying, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!” (vv. 20-21)

As they praised, the Lord caused the approaching army to turn on each other and  not one of them remained alive. God took care of that vast multitude in one day.  It took them three entire days to gather the spoils.

He is, and will always be, faithful to His own.

9) Expect the miraculous.

Your finite mind simply cannot comprehend the infinite.

Nothing is impossible with Him and everything is possible with Him.

Life with Jesus is always an adventure and He delights to thrill us and take our breath away with His plans.

God is HUGE!

So…if you are facing a vast multitude right now, rest in God’s sovereignty. Let Him fill you with His strength. Live with expectancy. Dare to be joyful. Banish fear and doubt from your mind and your vocabulary.

He’s got this.

God is the Ruler of all.
God answers to no one.
God can accomplish whatever He wants—in all things.
God sees history from beginning to end.
God is afraid of nothing. Ignorant of nothing. Needing nothing.
God always knows what’s best, and He never makes a mistake.
—James MacDonald, Gripped By The Greatness Of God.

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight and understanding. In all your ways, recognize and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. —Proverbs 3:5-6

A young woman asked a godly friend to join her in praying that she would be able to give birth to her third child naturally without having a C-section.

The wise friend replied, “I will join you in praying for that because I know it is the desire of your heart. However…whatever happens, I hope you will respond with trust and thankfulness. Think of these two things as parallel train tracks. As long as you respond with these things, you will stay on-track. If you veer off into anything else (complaining, fear, dread, anger) you will go off-track every single time.”

Trust and thankfulness.

This should be the default mode for the follower of Christ. We can fully trust the One who died and rose again so that we would be His treasures forever, and we can overflow with gratitude because every single day of our earthly existence, He lavishes His love on us in hundreds of ways, big and small.

He knows what He is doing.

He has clearly told us in His word that His ways are not our ways. There is no need to be surprised when things do not go according to our plans. We must live with open hands to receive what He knows is best.

He can only do you good.

He loves you more than you can fathom.

Whatever happens in your life today, could you respond with trust and thankfulness?

That is the path of true joy.

For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received…one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift heaped upon gift. —John 1:16

Are you currently waiting for someone else to make a decision that will affect your life? Things such as a banker approving a loan, an employer making a decision as to whether or not you are hired; a buyer to purchase your home?

It is easy to grow discouraged as the wait drags on, isn’t it?

I am currently in waiting-mode and in my quiet time today, I received a very important reminder from Jesus.

We are not waiting for anyone else but HIM.

…for You (You only and altogether) do I wait (expectantly), all day long. —Ps. 25:5

I wait for and expect You. —Ps. 25:21

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and steadfast love. —Ps. 25:10

These verses tell me a couple of things:

1) Our destiny is NOT in the hands of any man, no matter what the situation looks like. He is firmly on His Throne and He is entirely sovereign.

It is God who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. –Isaiah 40:22

No one—no matter how powerful he or she may be in the earthly realm— is capable of thwarting His good plan for your life.

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, “My purpose shall stand and I will do all that I please.”—Isaiah 46:10

2) We are ultimately waiting for His perfect timing (which is hardly ever ours!). Never forget that He alone sees the big picture. We don’t. He knows what He is doing at all times, regardless of how the situation looks to us.

3) We are not to wait in stress, anxiousness, or hand-wringing. We are to wait expectantly for our Savior, who can only do us good! 

4) ALL the paths He leads us along are for our good—even when we do not get the answer or outcome we were hoping for and must begin walking a path we did not ever want to take. As Psalm 25:10 reminds us, His actions are ALWAYS done in mercy and steadfast love. We are surrounded by His mercy and steadfast love at ALL times, both in celebration and heartache.

Remember that Jesus’ resources are infinite. Nothing is impossible with Him.

You are in excellent hands.