Lacking in Nothing John 16:33

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

James 1:3-4

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

These verses in James don’t suggest that we will be lacking in nothing simply because our faith is steadfast and strong. We may lose a job, have a house burn to the ground, a friend or relative could become gravely ill or even die. James is not talking about a lacking in this world. He’s talking about lacking in nothing because of Christ. He's assuring that Christ is our sufficiency, in this world and in the next.

James and John both encourage us not to fret and become discouraged because of our trials and tribulations in this life. Neither of them implies that it’s not normal and acceptable to be sad, to feel pressured, even sometimes a bit depressed. What they are reminding us though, is that everything in this world will pass away and perfection in Christ will be realized in heaven.

This verse from John is one of my “hallmark” verses, one that scrolls at the top of the pages on the website. Christ has overcome the world! Any day I forget that, is a day I haven’t lived into who I am and who God wants me to be. Any day I become distracted by the things of this world, the trials, the annoyances, the really difficult situations, that’s a day I wasted.

There is nothing in my life to complain about. I’ve got it much easier than many others I know personally and vicariously through others and the media. Don’t get me wrong, my family and I have struggles. We’re faced with tough situations on a daily basis, individually and as a family. So if I have nothing to complain about, who am I to lecture?

I am merely one who has been saved by God’s grace, through the gift of Jesus Christ. I have lived for many years believing the words of scripture in my head and wanting desperately to accept them with my heart. Many times I felt God working in me, peeling away, burning off and scraping away everything in me that was not of his making or liking. Countless times I have assured myself, “OK, now I’m done.” I repeatedly convinced myself that I was now going to have a faith life that was pretty routine and easy to maintain and sustain.

That’s where the trap is: believing we are “good enough” now. I often wonder if the chicken and the egg analogy applies to life. We begin to rely upon our own strength and wisdom, something difficult happens, we turn to God, either asking why or begging forgiveness. We draw closer and closer to Him as we turn to Him more and more ardently and intentionally. Our lives seem to improve and we have a stronger faith life. Then we get comfortable again and the cycle starts all over. I sit here today proclaiming I don’t know anything except Christ Jesus, died, buried and risen on the third day. I take courage each day, resting in the assurance that He has overcome the world!

My prayer today is that you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior every single day of your life. And that you let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Mary.

Labels: Christ, faith, James, John, steadfast, struggles, trials

  ¶ 9:54 AM

  Deep Calls to Deep .
Psalm 42:1-8

1. As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? 3. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, "Where is your God?" 4. These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help 6. and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of thy cataracts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me. 8. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love; and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

My husband and I recently agreed that this past winter has certainly been one like Shakespeare referred to as his “Winter of My Discontent.” Don’t get me wrong . . . we are so tremendously blessed and aware of that fact with gratitude and thanksgiving! Our discontent has been one of our souls. What we have not realized – well, let me speak only for myself – what I had been aware of only peripherally, is that God was doing some major renovations in us.

I’m not going to share all the in’s and out’s, and belabor every detail of the journey of the past several months. Suffice it to say we have been “worked over” pretty thoroughly by the world, in just about any way you can think of. We have come through it though, even more determined to do more than survive. We intend to thrive!

Our challenges have involved health issues – our own and those of family and close friends, job challenges – loss, dissatisfaction, spiritual toxicity, and just about every other area of our lives you can think of. None of it has been terrible or horrific. It has just been challenging, energy-zapping, heart-wrenching, soul-searchingly tough. The one constant for us both though, has been our reliance upon God’s mercy and grace, and the divinely-inspired written word of Scripture.

I cannot count on two hands the number of times I’ve had a conversation similar to the one in verse 5. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.” This has been a winter of calling out, “God – remember me? I really need you right now!” It has been a season of biding time and waiting for the spring. I have spent my time thirsting after God and His answers and His direction and holding on for dear life, hoping like crazy He really did hear my call.

Spring is now here and I am beginning to see the promise of God’s laboring within me throughout this past bleak winter. I am feeling hopeful and expectant. I am expecting God’s grace to continue to sustain and uplift me no matter what life sends my way. I am hopeful and expectant as I emerge from my spiritual hibernation and begin to bloom as God has imagined in his mind’s eye.

All the same issues abound for us and for everyone. Life doesn’t stand still; the earth doesn’t stop spinning in order for us to regain a foothold. But God does offer a shoulder upon which we can lean, though. He stretches out his hand for us to take hold of when were in the deep of isolation and loneliness. God waits for us on the journey, ready and able to lead the way, because He made the path in the first place.

My prayer today is that you awaken from the sleep of winter’s deep dreariness and dread trusting and believing that God was been through it all with you. And that you call out with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving for the season of spring that is upon us.

Mary  ¶ 10:05 AM

  Stand Silent .

Isaiah 53:7-10
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7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;

There is so much going on in the world right now. I’ve been watching many powerful people offer us a tremendous amount of rhetoric and fist-pounding and bravado and jockeying for more power, or perhaps hoping to retain whatever power they perceive they currently have. It’s all a very tenuous situation that changes minute by minute. One of my concerns is that most of the players involved in this power struggle among world leaders are not up to the task of leading us! I don’t see much of the Christ-like humility and clarity in our own leaders, which causes me concern in how they are presenting themselves (and representing us) to the world.

It’s risky to use the term humble in reference to Christ, because many people view humility as weakness or believe that one who is humble is ineffectual or submissive or weak. Christ was none of those. He was humble, certainly, because he had an accurate assessment of his own importance—savior? Yes. God? No. That’s how he viewed himself, I think. I may not be making a strong argument, but every time I read this passage from Isaiah and then read an account of Jesus before Pilate, silent and seemingly stoic, I am bewildered and amazed. He did not defend himself before his accusers! I know I would not have been able to shut up had I had his track record!

He had done nothing wrong. In fact, he had done everything right. Jesus did exactly what God sent him to earth to do. Having accepted his assignment, he knew he had nothing for which to apologize, nothing to deny, nothing to say, because he had just finished saying all there was to say. He had done it. He had said it, and now all that was left was what was to come. He knew that in order to fulfill his life purpose, he must die on the cross. He was resigned to it. He was not passive though. Not at all! Passive suggests no choice in the matter. He was committed to it. He was ready. He need not defend or deny or argue about anything he had said or done.

I’ve been in at least two situations where I stood “accused” of something and “my side” of the story was not circulated among those who heard the accusations. It’s a terrible feeling. My desire was to broadcast a message somehow, letting everyone know they had it wrong. “You’ve only heard one half of the story!” But I didn’t. I suffered through. I had done the right thing, but some days it didn’t feel right as I wondered who knew me well enough to believe that what was being said couldn’t possibly be true and who had bought the story hook, line, and sinker. I would never equate anything I’ve experienced to that of Christ before his accusers. Because I had lived through those awful, hurtful, painful experiences, and so I marvel all the more at Jesus’ silence.

His silence must have been maddening! I used to wonder why he never tried to argue with Pilate. Really, though, what was there to argue about? Jesus was who he said he was. End of discussion. It makes me think of God telling Moses, ‘I AM who I AM’ at the burning bush. No elaboration required. It is what it is, what it is. So Jesus knew it wouldn’t matter what he said. The die had been cast; the events had begun to unfold just as written; he knew who he was and whose he was. That was enough. Nothing else needed to be said. He saw the big picture, politically, and understood that Pilate was between a rock and a hard place. I wonder if somewhere in his mind he was thinking, “I’m not going to say anything that might change the course of history, or interfere with my Father’s plan.”

All I know is he stood silent before his accusers, knowing what was to come. I would very much like to see that stance adopted by some of our world leaders, vying for land, power, resources, or whatever worldly things after which they lust. Stand silent before God. Stand silent before the world. Do what you should. Do what is right and just. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, rest in God. And stand silent.

My prayer today is that no matter how passionately you feel you must plead your case before the world, stand silent – just for today. And that you rest in the knowledge that God knows who you are and whose you are.

Mary  ¶ 8:28 AM

  I am Being Prepared .
Hebrews 10:35-38

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."

I’ve been in a mindset lately that would surprise many of my friends. Not because it’s so outlandish, but rather because it is so uncharacteristic of me. I’ve been waiting. I’ve been allowing God to work in me. More than that, my perspective is radically shifted from one of feeling tested, versus one of being prepared.

A couple of weeks ago we had a Saturday that was uncharacteristically warm. These are the random images as I drove down the street to the store on that Saturday afternoon: Soil tilled, dirt is black and clean and fresh, seed and lime, bulbs beginning to pop up, trees beginning to flower. These were wonderful reminders and heralds that spring is on the way. The winter is almost over. These signs provide a promise of what is to come.

These images, applied to my life, remind me that like the earth, I am being prepared. Not too long ago, I would have declared I was being tested. But God doesn’t test us! He loves us too much to harm or hurt us. He loves us so much, in fact that he works in our lives and our hearts and minds to prepare us for what is next.

I can’t honestly say I’m excited – because that’s challenging in the midst of the preparation – but I am ever hopeful, and confidently so. My husband and I have agreed that based upon our current state of preparation and tilling under and bursting forth, God certainly has something amazing in mind for us. That’s how we don’t throw away our confidence. That’s how we endure.

“For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry;”

I am being prepared

My prayer today is that you rest in God, wait on him, and let him work in you, tilling under the old, dead parts of yourself, making provisions for what is yet to come. And that you keep the faith that yet a little while, and the coming one shall come.

Mary  ¶ 6:48 AM

  We Have What We Ask of Him .
1 John 5:14,15 NIV

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.

This is one of those “tricky” passages that not only confuses me, but is apparently misquoted and misunderstood by many believing Christians. I don’t think my son will mind my using a real-life example of how we fail to understand what Jesus is telling us with these words. My son has two former classmates who served in Iraq. One of them was injured, but initial reports were promising. Ultimately he lost one his legs due to the injuries sustained on the battlefield. Another classmate was killed.

My son’s comment to me about his friend’s amputation was that he guesses he (my son) didn’t pray hard enough, and that’s why the friend lost the leg – either that or that God was too busy to hear his prayers. Wow. It’s pretty tough to be eighteen years old and already have some real-life, grown-up situations where you felt pretty sure God wasn’t “there” for you.

I chimed right in that God was never to busy . . . sometimes we don’t understand God’s plans . . . I tried to rely upon my Stephen Ministry training. The following Sunday I picked up a little booklet appropriately titled, “When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayers” and gave it to my son. As I sit here this morning I realize I need to get the booklet, read it, and then discuss this topic with him in much greater detail!

We’ve been doing a great deal of “extra” praying around our house. My husband’s on-going job search has the topic of many prayers lifted to heaven. We are working very had to rest in God and trust that He will answer our prayers. No, we are certain He will answer them! We’re just not certain how thrilled we will be with the answer! The discussion with my son will be beneficial for me as well—and I will probably suggest my husband read the booklet and we can have a family discussion about the topic at dinner.

My prayer today is that you go to God with every hope, dream, desire and request. And that you trust that you have what you asked of him.

Mary  ¶ 6:41 AM

  The Winter of My Discontent .

2 Peter 1:3-8

3. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4. by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. 5. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6. and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7. and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday I experienced one of those moments of self-awareness often referred to as an “aha” moment during the sermon our Associate Pastor delivered. For one who is so introspective, I’m not always in tune with the big picture of my life. I’ve accepted this fact about myself, which is, perhaps, why I have those moments more frequently as I enter the second half-century of my life! This is not the scripture referenced in the sermon, but it certainly is on the topic of my realization.

Throughout the winter months I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not a “real” disease. In my case it can be almost debilitating. By the end of January, I’m barely hanging on typically. This past winter season I had more than the usual darkness of winter’s gray and bitter cold days. My husband lost his job, and has been on a search for another one. I left the work world as an administrator and have been working with three-year olds. Imagine almost two months with no “outside days” for one who needs light! It’s been a nearly toxic environment some weeks, though I didn’t realize it.

Yesterday the sermon topic was about being prepared, being ready and the Lenten study our church has been sharing was on the same topic. A reference was made-I don’t remember what it was exactly-that made me think of my inactivity, my lack of seeking, my near hibernation—both physical and spiritual—throughout the previous winter months. I had decided to take a break from posting morning devotions because of my new job, which requires me to leave the house pretty early in the morning. I didn’t read—anything—let along my bible or a devotional or other book – and there are many, many books sitting on the shelf, waiting for me.

As I look back upon the dark, cold winter I have just come through, I want to kick myself! The very time, the very reason, the very core of my problem is that I needed to be in Scripture and to call out to God for his guidance and sustenance, and I didn’t do anything about it! I needed to be in God’s word more than ever during those months of struggle. I needed His light and His warmth as trekked out the door in the morning. I distanced myself from the one thing that would have made my discontent and despair dissipate. It was more than a “V-8” moment! It was a profound moment of discovery! It was perhaps a turning point. It was, I hope, a wake up call.

I say I rely upon God for everything in my life. As I sit here this morning, I can click off several areas of my life where I know I can only accomplish my goals through and with him. Peter gives a fairly comprehensive list of what it means to remain active, vital and ready for the Second Coming: “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6. and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7. and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

These tasks alone will keep me busy until the end of my days! I’m going to ask my husband and my covenant sisters to hold me accountable when they notice I am heading into the darkness in the future. I want to follow Jesus. I want to live in the Light.

My prayer today is that you make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and that steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. And that they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mary  ¶ 7:01 AM

  Inside the Wave .
Psalm 121:5-85.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. 7. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore.

Isaiah 43:1-31.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

Can you even imagine God calling you by name? Not, “Hey, you!” but actually using your name, calling it out from Heaven. We might wonder why he would call out to us, but the Isaiah passage explains that very clearly. God made us and we are his. Of course he will call us by our name! But I don’t think he necessarily uses our given names. I wonder if he doesn’t whisper to us, “Beloved” or “Beautiful” or “Perfect One” or “Sweetheart.”

More than likely we don’t even know God is calling us to him because we are so busy and the world is so LOUD that we can’t hear him over the din. Television, radio, computers, blackberries and other technologies with which I have chosen to remain uninformed, drown out that sacred conversation. God know us because he created us. He understands and fulfills our needs, he provides us comfort, protection and reassurance through all the trials in our lives. Life is all too often seemingly out of control. God reminds us He has it all covered. He’s going to be there through it and then will wait for us on the other side of whatever we’re experiencing.

Have you ever stood at the breaker point of the waves in the ocean? Nine times out of ten we can dive under and into that huge wave approaching us and come out on the other side without a hitch. That tenth time, though, is the one that God is talking about through Isaiah. We dive in, but something goes terribly wrong; our feet are no longer on the sandy bottom; the sunlight disappears; we are tossed and turned and twisted, and often thrown up on beach. Experts will tell you the best thing to do in these situations is to just relax and allow the water to carry you to shore, since that’s where it’s headed anyway. That’s very logical advice as long as you’re not being picked up and spit out by an angry wave!

Life can be just like that point inside the wave where we have no control, no sense of up or down, no idea where the shoreline is, and sometimes we may even wonder if we’re drowning. God reassures us he will be there with us throughout every struggle in our lives. He made us and loves us so much he can’t stand to leave us alone when we’re in pain, experiencing sorrow, or struggling. He is even willing to ransom the whole world and already sacrificed his own son for us.

My prayer today is that when you find yourself floating inside the waves of life, out of control, and with no sense of direction, you allow God to take over. And that you rest in the promise that he will never leave us and never forsake us.

Mary  ¶ 6:25 AM