10 Things to Pray for your Community--back to school edition

Katie was not thrilled with first day of school pictures this year...Too bad!  Mom's are invincible. 

Ok, you invincible moms, the kids are back in school.  Our God is good.  So what are we doing on our knees?  Here's a quick guide to taking a look around your community with God's eyes and heart.  You can do this as you're out walking for exercise, running errands, or just as you talk to others around you.  

1.  Open Eyes. Ask the Father to open your eyes to what He's already doing and pray for it to grow (John 5:17).
2. Purpose. Ask Jesus what purpose He has for your community.  (Daniel 2:21) What are their strengths?  What are their weaknesses?  What do they honor?  All of these hint at the purpose God has for your hometown.  Pray that they use that purpose to honor God and serve each other.
3. Expose and End Wickedness. Ask God to expose wickedness and oppression in order to end it.  If you're brave, you can ask to be part of the solution.  (Pr. 31:8-9)  Repent for the sins you see on their behalf.
4. Wisdom. Ask the Holy Spirit to give your community leaders wisdom and practical insight.  (I Timothy 2:2)
5.  Homes. Ask the Father to turn the hearts of the fathers and children to each other.  (Malachi 4:6)  Remind God that He has promised to be a Father to the fatherless and a Husband to the widowed and abandoned.  
6. Remit the Sins of those you see around you according to John 20:23 ("If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven.")  Jesus did it from the cross before He died to give us an example to follow.  Those of us under Christ experience no condemnation from Christ because He has already forgiven all of our sins.  He gave us that authority as well, not necessarily to forgive everything for all time as Jesus did, but to release people from the condemnation that keeps them from seeking God at all.  Watch how open people become to God when you do this.
7. Wise Teachers. Ask God to provide wise teachers that make learning a joy, rather than rebellious teachers that spout foolishness (Pr. 15:2).
8. Peace. Ask for God to shine His light on us and guide our way into peace.  (Luke 1:78-79).
9. Not talk; Action. Ask God to keep your lips and the lips of all in your community from evil, deceit, or gossip. Ask that we would be careful to replace foolish talk with fruitful action that pursues peace and opens the Lord's ears to our cries.  (Ps. 34:13-15)
10. Trust. Commit to release your anxiety over the things you see and replace it with gratitude for all God has already done and prayers of hope and blessing for all He can and will do. (Phil 4:6-7)  Choose to trust that He can and will do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think in order that He can show His glory through us (Eph 3:20-21).

Have fun and don't forget to just enjoy being with Him as you move around the community.  He's great company!

Honoring God with my body...

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT

This is not going to be one of those diet posts.  It could be, but it's not. 

Today--Akiane Kramirk

One of the the things the Lord has been pushing me on is my mind, will, and emotions.  Many years ago, I learned through long series of crisis after crisis that I could place my emotions on the back burner in order to do what needed doing.  I've been pretty diligent to bring those emotions back up and deal with them later.  Buried emotions come back to haunt you, and the dirt does them no favors.  Now, He's pushing a bit farther.  

What he's pushing me on is the idea that when Jesus died, he paid for all of my sin and everything painful, negative, or hurtful--these are all consequences of the same sin He paid for so they all belong to Him and were nailed to the cross.  They no longer belong to us because He bought them, so we have no right to hang onto them.  In return for giving them up, He promised to give us abundant, overflowing, joyful life.   Every time I experience stress, loss, pain, or anxiety, my dear Friend is pushing me to recognize that those emotions are real, but they are for Him to carry, not me.  I can acknowledge them and hand them over to Him because they do not belong to me anymore.  

Peggy Joyce Ruth wrote an entire book about something similar.  In Ps. 91, it says, "Those who trust in the Lord shall not be disappointed."  The word, "shall" is a command, not an outcome.  It is God's direction to us to choose not to see our current circumstances as the end.  If we are currently experiencing disappointment, it means that this is not the end--He has more to do and we will not be disappointed with it in the end.  

Last week I failed qualifiers for my PhD.  My advisors said the plan is not ready.  I don't have to defend it again, but I do have to rewrite it and that pushes my timeline back at least a semester.  By the time I made it home, I had a piercing pain in the center of my back, as if someone had stabbed me.  That pain ultimately turned out to be the start of shingles.  Truthfully, it does still hurt, both physically and emotionally.  Still, I can hear my dear Friend gently prodding me to let it go into His hands.  Not only am I not strong enough to carry it, but He paid for it already and has joy waiting for me as I hand it over to Him.  I've had to hand it over more than once in the last 2 weeks, and I'll probably have to keep doing it for awhile.  My body, all of me, now belongs to Him and my life is hid in Christ.  It honors Him to trust Him to carry my pain and disappointment.  He promises peace in return, and the peace follows the process as naturally as the dawn follows the night.  

Today will be a good day.  




  

What does it mean to "believe"?

"Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him."  Hebrews 11:6 (ICB)

Over the last few weeks, God has been pushing me on my definition of belief.  We talk about belief as this crucial thing in faith--and it is, but what does that mean?  I see a lot of people (including myself at times) that "believe" that God is real, but live their lives in a tacit atheism, complicated by worry, fear, and lonliness.  If we "believe in God" shouldn't that make a difference?  

First, let me say that we're all a work in progress and I'm not condemning anyone for their belief or lack of it.  I've known--in my deepest heart and the chatter of my mind--that God is real from the time I was little.  I can't remember a time that Jesus wasn't an ongoing partner in the running conversation that floods my mind continually.  When I left for college, I went to Him and asked if it was ok for me to question His existence in this season of my life.  He laughed. (It was pretty funny.)  

That being said, worry and dread have also been a part of my life for just as long.  What I'm beginning to understand is that believing in His existence is not enough.  There's two parts to faith.  We also have to believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. We have to believe He is for us and not against us, and not just in a "good for you," "take your vitamins," kind of way.  I've said, and believed, that God is more interested in your holiness than your happiness, and I suppose that is true, but it leaves out the fact that God is interested in your holiness because it will lead to true joy.  

Jesus said, "What parent will give their son a stone when they ask for bread?"  If God is a good Father, then he should care deeply about our character development.  What parent doesn't?  We want our kids to grow up to be wise and strong, full of integrity.  Yes, that is partly selfish because it reflects well on us, but that is the smaller part.  Mostly we want our kids to grow up to be good people because it will allow them to grow into all they were meant to be--and that will bring them and everyone around them great joy.  I didn't want PJ to be weighed down by selfishness, anxiety, pettiness, or any other character defect because I knew that it would make him miserable.  His misery would break my heart.    

Our misery breaks God's heart too.  As long as we believe that He only cares about making us better people, we will see Him as a task-master or dictator.  When we deeply understand His profound love for us, it reshapes everything.  He can give us good things and we can thank Him for them without wondering what's the catch.  We can trust that He is working all things together for our good, even when the things around us are not good at all.  We can seek Him every morning, because His mercies are new every morning.  We can rest in His lovingkindness--His loyal, abundant, overflowing love--and our expectation of His kindness honors Him. 

Forgive me, Father, for the times I have suspected Your motives were less than loving and your expectations for me were only frustration and disappointment.  I choose to believe that You are good and that You love me.  I choose to look at every circumstance in my life with an expectation of Your rescue and tender care.  I choose to thank You for every beauty, every joy, every success in my life.  I choose to see them as Our work together that You have enabled for my good, Our delight, and Your glory.  Align my experience with that belief.