Living Life for Christ Alone

  "Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help me." (Psalm 22:11) "...No one else can help me." No hope anywhere but in Him. No help unless He helps. No joy unless He supplies it. No endurance, no patience, no peace, no goodness... unless it comes from His hand. No joy, no faith, no purpose in challenges unless He Himself gives it to us. The process to get to this place is arduous. It's one we don't ask for, but as Christians we need.  You see, when trouble is near, and we find that our resources are running out, we have whatever veiled our vision of Him removed so we can really see Him. He IS all -we just don't tend to see Him that way. He is our soul's answer -but we usually just have Him in our minds as a plan B. It's usually something else and  Him we depend on -not just Him. The Christian life is a process of growing in exclusive dependence on the One who is all we need. (Read John 15 for more on this.) And some...

 "Come and talk with Me." The whisper of the Father echoes in the mundane. It rustles through the soul in the chaotic.       As I wash dishes...       As I clean up messes...       As I wipe tears over and over...       As I start yet another load of laundry...       As I ponder the things about my children that perplex me...       As I long to go away and be alone...       As I force myself to get up off the couch (after having just sat down) to meet yet another need or to clean up another mess....       As I wonder how to point my children in the right direction...       As I take my daughter to the potty again after just doing it 15 minutes before.       As things I try to get done constantly get interrupted. "Come," He says, "tell me all." But I don't hear. "This doesn't matter very much to Him," I say, "I'm just a mom doing mom t...

  "Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." (2 Corinthians 1:4) Comfort draws us to its source. And God's comfort is meant to draw us to Him. Maybe this is why comfort is something He does in all  tribulations we face. And maybe that is why comfort is something we can't keep to ourselves.  True comfort lifts our gaze far beyond our temporal experiences to our eternal reality. True comfort magnifies God in our hearts.  True comfort is heavenly, and it's a salve that truly heals.  Earthly comforts don't do this for us. They are far from lasting.  Well-meaning people encourage a pity party, which only lengthens the suffering and makes it more unbearable. Pity parties do nothing for anyone. Any comfort that turns my eyes inward will surely deepen whatever wound is there, for only God has the salve that heals. I can only make my wounds worse...

 "Blessed be... the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation..." -2 Corinthians 1:3-4 All  leaves nothing out.  Perhaps my greatest tribulation at the moment is a mere backache. Or perhaps the time comes when the backache seems like nothing next to extreme loss.  Perhaps the tribulation is a battle in the mind- perplexities, emotions that pull all different directions, confusing thoughts, lies... Or perhaps it is outward circumstances that have you confused.  Perhaps it's extreme difficulty. But more often than not, our tribulations come in small packages that on the outside don't appear very threatening, until we find ourselves overwhelmed afresh with our own inability to take another step.  Whatever the tribulation may be, in every one of them, Jesus draws near in order to comfort. Never will He speak words of condemnation to the soul in distress. His aim is to encourage -which is to infuse with courage - so tha...

“Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” -Psalm 119:23-24   How do we cultivate inner calm when circumstances bully us? Meditating on God’s word, delighting in it, listening to the wisdom of it, recognizing that it was God who spoke it, thus it is His heart we hear when we pay attention to it... this is how we steer our souls into our peaceful Refuge that can’t be shaken by life’s circumstances. God desires to be to His children a secret haven where our souls take shelter in the middle of life’s worst difficulties. While princes speak evil of us, while life turns upside down, while wind and the waves beat against us, we hide in this Haven and delight in the words He speaks. While we experience the worst of this fallen world, our souls can taste the best of what heaven has- God Himself breathing heavenly life into us by means of His word. Can it get any better? We have a strong, secu...

Pain. I’ve never gone looking for it and I’ve never seen it as an enjoyable thing in and of itself. I think we all can agree that this one four-letter word in our lifetimes -however short or long they have been thus far- has stirred up more doubts and questions about God than most other topics in the world. I have lived most of my life viewing pain as an enemy. Perhaps you have too. We weigh our decisions, the goals in our lives, the friends we will have, even whether or not we will come close to God by how much pain –emotional or physical- each choice will cost us. The majority of the world we live in has structured their lives around comfort and ease. Pain is not even an option. Nor is it a topic we really want to talk about. Not unless there is a way to avoid it. But today, I am going to talk about it. Maybe knowing this, you will close your webpage and read no further. That’s ok. This topic is not for the faint of heart. But if you are willing, God can give you g...

"He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you." Deut. 23:5 Dear Christian, every single evil thing that comes your way, every difficult life situation, every cloud of darkness, every wound -yes all of those things, God intends to use for your good.  That's hard to believe, because I look around and see the negative effects of life's worst situations on people I meet. Bitterness, hatred, distrust, self harm, suicide, hopelessness, loneliness.... 

"Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: the faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning." -Lamentations 3:21-23 Dare to hope!  God's love will outlast your circumstances. You can't be separated from His love. What you see before you is not evidence that He's forgotten about you! His love for you  is everlasting! Dare to hope! His mercies are ongoing in spite of your circumstances. He is merciful, compassionate, and has promised not to allow more pain than you can handle by His grace!

"Oh God, do you even love me?" The question escaped my lips before I could even begin to think how "unchristian" it was. The darkness seemed to envelop my vision and I could not see the One I was speaking to... was He even there? How could He be when I felt so far from Him?  ...No, He couldn't be. Desperately, I looked around me, looking for solace, but the wind kept blowing, the waves kept beating against me, threatening to knock me down.  "What is He doing?" I asked myself. 

"For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities..." (Heb. 4:15) When I do not understand myself, Jesus  still  understands me.

I walked all alone down the leaf-strewn sidewalk, my hands in my pockets. A dark figure came out of the shadows and walked towards me. I could not make out who it was, but I sensed an evil about him -an evil that threatened my beautiful surroundings. And then he spoke in a forceful tone. "You had better face it. You are alone, and it will always be that way. Nobody really loves you. You just think they do. Really, though, you are alone." I tried to fight back the tears as the reality of his words sank in. Was it really true? People seemed to like me, but really, did they? It seemed true enough. I was all alone in this world. Nobody really wanted to know what I had to say or think. It was just me, and that was it. Deep in thought, I failed to notice that the dark figure had left me to think about his lies alone.

Are you comfortable? A sense of being comfortable had crept over me as I would go before God with my requests. No longer was there fear of a holy God. No longer was there a sense of awe. His love had been the emphasis so much that it was getting old.  I mean, can't we come before God "as we are"? To an extent, yes...  Our church culture of today emphasizes God's love so much today that we forget a very important aspect of our God and His love seems to be something we can just take advantage of any time we want.  But, don't you remember the God of the Old Testament? The God who was jealous of His people because they went after other gods? The God who fumed with hatred towards sin and evil? Isn't He the God who doesn't change?