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I inadvertently messed up some important paperwork and recently have had to correct it. It was humbling in that it proved to all who knew about it that I was a fallible human.  I suspect God allows things like this to happen from time to time just to keep us humble rather than proud.

While this was happening, typical of the Spirit’s ways, I began meditating on the fifth chapter of Peter’s first letter to whom he called “the elect exiles” spread across Asia Minor.  True to form, the Spirit began making a couple verses come alive to me—words about pride and humility.  You younger men must accept the authority of the elders.  And all of you, serve each other in humility, for “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”  So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor (1 Peter 5:5-6, NLT2).

Humility is NOT the self-abasement that we think of today.  A classic word picture of biblical humility is a powerful race horse that has submitted to the control of his trainer or jockey.  Humility has nothing to do with the horse’s worth, capacity or strength.  Rather, it is all about how the horse uses its strength to respond to its rider.  It is not what a person says about himself but rather his attitude in relationship to others, even in how they respond to conflict or abuse you or your ego.  The reason we are told to humble ourselves is because “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”  That’s pretty sobering!  Humility is not a loss but a gain, for it puts the believer in God’s favor and saves him from pride that would destroy him and rob him of future glory.  We often worry about our position and status hoping to get proper recognition for what we do. Peter reminds us God’s recognition counts far more than human praise. God is able and willing to bless us according to His timing.   The fact is, humility is as fundamentally essential to authentic spirituality as breathing is to our physical survival.  Without it, all a person has is fossilized, Pharisaical religion. 

Considering the vital nature of humility forces us to humbly accept change in our attitude and seek God’s grace OR arrogantly determine humility is not essential to true godliness.  Although a proud person may say he needs God’s grace, the reality is a proud person cannot receive grace because he depends more on himself or his creativity or ingenuity to lift himself up instead of upon God to do so in His time and way.

Peter’s next words really grabbed my attention!  How can we humble ourselves and yet not build our ego for having done so?  Under the Spirit’s anointing Peter answered that question by writing, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7, NLT2).  I.e. You humble yourself by literally giving ALL your worries and cares to God—and not taking them back!  One of our greatest mistakes is to assume we can deal with something ourselves only to discover that we cannot.  Peter explained that the believers who continue to carry their worries, anxieties, stresses, and daily struggles by themselves show they are not really fully trusting God.  Why not?  Because it requires genuine humility to turn everything over to God and trust that He will care about you.  When the abused exiles would come to see God at work behind their suffering and submit, allowing themselves to be brought low, He would exalt them in due time. This is equally true for us of us today! 

Consider this; the worries and anxieties you wrestle with only show God is still waiting to give you much more grace as you choose to cast all your worries and cares on Him–and leave them there!  Corrie ten Boom wrote, Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.  Letting God have your anxieties calls for action–trusting, not passivity.  Don’t submit to your cloudy or dark circumstances but to the Lord who controls circumstances.

How long ago has it been since you heard the phrase, “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure”, or “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”?  Each of us do value different things.  What do you think of first when someone asks, “What is most precious, honorable or of supreme worth to you”?  Most of us first think of our family or children.  Others may think of their stock portfolio, job or business, home, friends, pet, etc.  Whatever we might call most highly esteemed would also be the thing we think of most frequently or where we would invest our available time and/or money. 

Considering physical things, Connie is most precious to me followed by my children and grandchildren.  Then I read 1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV), For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  Hum!!  It is striking that Peter compares silver, gold and culture with the preciousness of the blood of Christ. 

If salvation was put in physical or monetary terms, how valuable might most of us in the U.S. consider it to be?  How many would sacrificially give of themselves. or how hard might they work to purchase salvation compared to acquiring possessions, power, popularity or pleasure?  Would it be worth one or two years of volunteer labor to obtain salvation–or would it be like going on a diet or making a new year’s resolution when other things soon distract from the quest?  Has God somehow mistakenly strategized by giving us salvation for free in contrast to perhaps earning it through living a perpetual self-sacrificing lifestyle as Jesus did?  After all, isn’t it true that we hold most precious what we can see or what we spend a great deal of our limited time or hard-earned money to obtain?  Given our human nature, doesn’t offering it for free actually make it less valuable to us?  Or, did God intentionally design it this way as His method of separating the authentic from the counterfeit?

What difference might it make if our salvation and eternal life somehow became genuinely most precious to us?  Would we talk more about Him with our friends like we talk about our family, hobby, work or business?  Would we spend more of our time and resources endeavoring to develop a tighter bond and intimacy with God through talking to Him (prayer) and meditating on His Word? Would we do those things in order to discover more of His value system and ways in the same way we spend on watching/listening podcasts to develop our skills or researching information on the internet to know more about our hobby, new electronic gadget or latest gossip?  I expect we would be much more generous in giving our time, skill sets and possessions for Him to use to accomplish His work on this earth—like we extravagantly spend to find pleasure or acceptance.  But how can we change what we think of as precious?  It must be more than a cerebral decision, although our mind certainly must also be engaged.  Here’s a clue Jesus gave on how to do this; Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21, NLT2).  If I want my heart to desire God more, I must choose to STOP doing things I enjoy and redirect my efforts to find ways to enjoy giving my time and resources into what my inner being is calling me to do.  It will probably end up looking something like investing quality time learning a practical, meaningful and pleasurable way to mediate on God’s Word while having a listening ear for His whispers that energize us.  You might find getting one or two people with whom you can share your discoveries will expedite your quest.  It was more than 15 years ago I broke out of my old ways, and I never want to go back. It has been SO REWARDING! Jesus promised, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6, ESV). 

In the Peanut’s cartoon of yesteryear, Charlie Brown thought Lucy was the prettiest girl he had ever met.  But Lucy wasn’t always to be trusted.  The classic picture was Lucy holding a football positioned for Charlie Brown to kick.  Charlie would run hard to kick it a long way, but in the last moment Lucy would yank the football away.  The next picture was of bewildered Charlie Brown flat on his back looking up as Lucy would say something like, “I admire you Charlie Brown.  You have such faith in human nature.”  Creator Charles Schulz had touched the nerve of nearly every human—broken trust.  After ending up on our back looking up, our expectations crushed, we eventually tend to get cynical and guarded before taking a risk to trust again. 

When pondering the passion week of Jesus, I was struck when considering His last words before dying on the cross.  Matthew records Jesus’ words as, “…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV).  This question reveals His human expectations of never being forsaken by God—not so different from our expectations.  I cringe to try to imagine how I might feel if Connie, my wife of over 50 wonderful years of marriage, unexpectedly forsook me.  This must have been nearly unbearable for Jesus!

I don’t know that I would be as resilient as Charlie Brown by putting myself in a position where it could happen to me again.  Jesus’ trust in His Father must have been so strong it anesthetized his human feeling of crushed expectations.  Because within minutes of feeling that kind of forsaken, Jesus’s last words were, … “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, ESV).  That is too profound for me to get my mind around!  Would any of us go that quickly from the excruciating feeling of crushed expectations to entrusting our very future entirely into the hands of the very close friend who we felt had turned her/his head away from us?   

When we humans feel like we are in a deep, dark spot in our life, our emotions and thoughts are keenly sensitive.  If we believe God had led us into such a dark tunnel in which we can see no light movingly forward, the authenticity of our trust in God is put on the line! In Acts 6-7, Stephen could easily have felt abandoned when being stoned to death after having so boldly served Christ—but he didn’t! The proof of his trust in Christ was seen in the fact that instead of withdrawing he looked up and saw Christ standing (rather than sitting) at the right hand of His Father watching Stephen endure such abuse.  His trust in Christ was not distracted by his circumstances. 

The proof of our trust is not in what we think we know, say we believe or in how well we can articulate it, or even in how long we’ve held to what we think we believe.  Rather, it is most evident when our life or future is at risk or God does something contrary to what we prefer.  If our love for our preferences or ideology is greater than our love for our God, it will put our spiritual future in risk.  The three Hebrew children modeled for us a trust and love for God by saying, “But even if he doesn’t [do as we prefer], we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up”  (Daniel 3:18, NLT2). 

I don’t remember exactly when I began to struggle with trust, but I do remember one time as a child I went to the library with my dad to return a long overdue library book.  I recall standing with him as he told the librarian why the book had not been returned.  No doubt my childish brain didn’t know all facts but whatever it was he told her I didn’t understand it to be the full truth.  For some reason that moment left me thinking I couldn’t trust my dad as well as I had before.    

As years past, I experienced many times when my mistrust of people compounded when they broke promises or betrayed me in some way.  By college, I had built a wall around myself allowing only a few select people behind it.  My struggle with trust lasted for decades. 

I read books and tried hard to figure out how I might be able to trust people more.  I learned “blind trust” is never wise.  Then I discovered what I called “calculated trust” which to me was trusting a person in a few areas of their life but not in others.  I might trust someone to be a friend but not to fix my car or manage my money.  I’ve since learned nearly every human has some form of a trust issue.  

Children often don’t trust their parents; parents don’t always trust each other; patrons don’t trust salespersons, etc.  In general, people don’t trust politicians, lawyers and certainly anyone in authority.  Mistrust is as old as Adam and Eve!  Our faultless God provided a perfect world for them and told them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Yet, they chose to mistrust their authority figure.  Today, a person might trust God to give them eternal life but not trust Him to protect or provide for them.  So, they take things into their own hands and worry a lot.  Mistrust is obviously not just because of someone else’s unrighteous behavior.  It must be something within us.

It was my desire to trust God more that led me to change the way I did my private time with God.  To be candid, I was very afraid to change my method from what I had been taught and practiced for decades even though it had become only a duty.  But the Holy Spirit used these words of David to capture my attention.  Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you (Psalm 9:10, NIV).  I trusted in Him, but certainly not as much as I wanted to trust Him!  This verse revealed to me the more I knew His name the more I would trust Him.  When my desire to trust Him more became greater than my fear of falling away from God because I stopped the dutiful way I had been doing my devotions each day, I took the leap of faith and radically changed how I read the Bible and prayed.  As I began to journal what I sensed the Holy Spirit whispering to me as I reflected on a few verses at a time, I found my trust level of God grow stronger and stronger.  As my trust in God increased, I was increasingly able not to trust people more but rather trust how God would protect me in the midst of human failures.  I found great comfort in what John wrote about Jesus.  In the context of people beginning to believe in Him, But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people (John 2:24, ESV).  What a contrast!!! 

Later, knowing the Jews were going to kill Him, with incredible confidence Jesus let them do it based solely on His trust in His Father’s greater plan.   Eureka!!  Healthy trust has less to do with a faulty human and more to do with our misguided expectations.  My security is not found in building a wall around myself but by learning to intimately know the awe-inspiring trustworthiness of my Heavenly Father who will not only walk with me through fire and floods but generously reward me for trusting Him.  Fallible people will inevitably fail you at some point.  So, exchange your expectations of them for greater expectations of God’s faithfulness and perfect wisdom! 

How would you like to be called a worm?  Yuk!  When I think of a worm, I think of either little skinny creatures in the garden or fat night crawlers—the kind you split up and put on your grandchild’s fishing hook.  A worm is delicate and is easily bruised by a stone or crushed beneath a passing wheel, certainly not capable of hurting you.  But they certainly are squeamish to handle!  Well, our great, loving God called Israel a “worm”!  “Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 41:14, NIV).

The context is Israel was helpless against the strong armies of surrounding nations, particularly the Babylonians mentioned in the next chapter. Compared to them, Israel wouldn’t have felt as much like a grasshopper as they would a worm!  In love, God was speaking to where they were emotionally.  What time in your life have you felt helplessly low like a worm in comparison to an impossible mountain of a problem staring you in the face?  With Israel feeling like that, God was encouraging them by telling them, as He does us, “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff” (Isaiah 41:15, NIV).  REALLY!! 

Contrast these extremes.  A weak and helpless worm compared to a threshing tool with sharp teeth that can cut through rock and not be broken.  God, who created the universe and all that exists, would have no problem making that transformation if He chose to do so.  But then, this was a word picture God was giving to the terrified people of Israel.  In reality, God has innumerable ways to create the effects of a “threshing sledge… with many teeth” on an army!  In their case, He could have used works of nature like tornadoes, plagues or anything to decimate an army. 

Keep that in mind when circumstances are totally overwhelming, and you feel like a worm in comparison.  It is fascinating that God’s ways have historically shown that He prefers to use the weak and broken things in life through which to do His mighty work.  Heaven is being filled with earth’s broken lives, and there is no “bruised reed” or “smoldering wick” (Isa 42:3) that Christ cannot take and restore to a glorious place of blessing and beauty.  He chooses the weak, so there can be no question that He is the force that makes it happen.  Why is it then that we work so hard to prefect our skills, looks, financial sheet, or power of influence when those things make us rather than God look good?   

I’ve wondered at times if I am not somehow working against Him by trying to say and do everything “just right”!  However, I have learned God ordained for there to be a healthy tension between me feeling like a worm yet exerting my very best while being totally dependent upon Him to accomplish the task.  I am reminded of Jacob trusting God to do His part while he put rods of various colors in front of the sheep when they drank water (Genesis 30). His acting on faith resulted in building a very large flock of sheep. We know that biologically doing that is totally insane!!  But, when God is with us, He takes our trusting attitude and honest efforts of obedience and mixes in His power and produces incredible results.  That was the formula He used to bring the walls of Jericho down.  Paul said of his work in Colossians 1:29 (GW), I work hard and struggle to do this while his mighty power works in me.  Are you willing to feel like a worm if it will result in you seeing God do the miraculous?

What do I have to experience and how long do I need to be content before I can honestly say, “I am content”?  Hum?  For me it seems easy to be satisfied for maybe 12 hours, but it then tends to slowly drift into the fog.  Could I be compartmentalizing contentment by saying such things as I’m happy with my wife but not with the quirks in my personality, my finances or the weather changes?  What exactly is the satisfaction Paul referred to when he wrote, Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little (Philippians 4:11-12, NLT2).  

I suspect many of us have very confused ideas of its value and what makes a person content. Some have said contentment destroys initiative to improve his or her financial condition or desire for excellence or better living conditions.  The truth they fail to grasp is that when the source of one’s contentment is their intimacy with God, the work He does through that person is most fruitful and significant.  Others subconsciously live with the notion if I could have this or that good thing I would be fulfilled.  Unfortunately, that one good thing is never enough.  All such artificial satisfaction is associated with our external circumstances.

The Holy Spirit was saying through Paul that the secret of enduring contentment is its source being internal rather than external.  True contentment is not related to possessions, popularity, looks or skill-set since those factors can only give temporary satisfaction.  Authentic contentment is rooted in something far more stable than our environment or pleasantries. It flows out of a conviction deep within us.  We experience it when the external things lose their grip on our soul (mind/emotions), and therefore no longer matter very much.  Paul’s contentment had become so much a part of how he viewed life that he was able to enjoy life regardless of his external situation—his possessions, popularity, persecution or any other suffering.  Rabbi Hyman Schachtel was credited for saying, “Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”  How very true!  If you fall short of this type of type of contentment, nothing is ever enough! 

What might it be like to be free of the ruthless tyranny of competitive jealousy, greed, envy or the nagging feeling that you want one more thing?  How does a person come to experience this level of contentment?  It requires a personal revelation that an intimate relationship with the Bible God is ALL a person needs.  If God is pleased with your core values and how you live them out, then your inner being will become like an artesian well of confidence, hope, joy and peace.  As the words of the old chorus go, “the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”. 

So, what among your cares of life have you been allowing to compete with the incredible security a more intimate relationship with our God offers you?  The symptom of that competitor is most likely linked to your base motivation for choosing how to use each of the 24 hours God has allotted to you.  Taking time to drill down to identify that counterfeit motivation and adjusting your life accordingly may very well be the most life-giving decision you will make—second only to your salvation.  Just imagine being fully satisfied with the delights within you that flow out of your close relationship with God in contrast to the restlessness of having the empty external attractions continually arousing the insatiable desire for something more. What are a few steps you can begin to take in order to discover and personally experience the secret of true contentment?

My sister reported having very strong winds with heavy rain where she lived in California.  She was obviously very afraid because she was going to have to drive my elderly father to an appointment in another city about an hour away.  Gusts of wind blew the car around but gratefully they made it to their destination and back home.  Strong winds are only welcome when they are tail winds because they can significantly improve one’s gas mileage. 

Often winds are word pictures of representing adversities in life.  Unfortunately, there are times when such winds hit a person from nearly every direction.  Job received consecutive words of livestock being stolen, his servants being killed, a fire destroying his sheep, his camels were killed and finally all his children were killed by what sounds like a tornado or sheer wind storm.  I can’t imagine how numb he must have felt after hearing of all these tragedies one right after another.  I wouldn’t wonder if he was close to having a heart attack!!  The stunning part is after hearing this incredible news, Job tore his mantel and shaved his head (symbols of severe grief in that day), fell down on the ground and WORSHIPPED God!  That is most striking in itself!! That simple response revealed the incredible depth of his love and trust in God.

God promised through his prophet Isaiah that if you have a heart to honor Him in worship, do not go your own way or seek your own pleasures and keep your tongue from idle or godless talk, Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob” (Isaiah 58:14 MSG). 

A fundamental rule of aerodynamics is that flying into the wind quickly increases altitude. The wings of the airplane create more lift by flying against the wind.  I recently was in Mexico for several different meetings.  One morning Connie and I watched large birds soar for extended periods of time without even flapping their wings.  When they wanted to fly higher, they would head into the wind and immediately gain altitude.  I’m told that when eagles sense a storm coming, they head into the wind and rise above the storm until it moves on.  While that is a natural law, it is also a spiritual one. The winds of adversity enable you to reach heights of life and joy you cannot imagine with minimal exertion.

As I have reflected on that, I wondered if that is what Job was doing in order to rise above the fierce winds of adversity that came his way.  There is no way of knowing whether or not he fully understood that spiritual law at that time.  However, I have learned from experience that how I respond to adversities determines how they affect my life.  My response can end in either a blessing, as it did Job, or send me down a path of loss, depression and despair.   Connie and I have been hit with winds that literally shook whatever could be shaken in our life.  On one occasion all we could do was hold each other and weep!  While we endured this devastating pain, we had enough presence of mind to go into God’s presence where we found solace and hope.  Like Job, as time passed, the Spirit of God lifted us up above the storm and gave us hope and restoration of our souls.  I also know that God has generously blessed us in every way far beyond what we even could have imagined—just as He promised through Isaiah and by what He did in Job’s life.  Winds will intimidate us and have the potential to either raise us up to soar above the storm or bring us crashing down into despair.  What happens to us is not up to God; it is how we respond to the winds.  In that light, I urge you to try to see the next heavy wind that comes as an opportunity for you to soar and then immerse yourself in intimacy with God himself. 

Why am I so afraid of failure or defeat?  Is it my pride that drives me to resist those ominous threats or is it something else? 

The Bible says But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere (2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV). That verse has intrigued me for decades!  It says as long as we remain connected to the vine or are in Christ, we will not suffer failure or defeat!  We are winners, no matter what it may appear like on the outside.   So why is it that any believer fears failure or defeat?  

Interestingly, God wins His greatest victories through apparent defeats.  However, quite often God allows it to appear like our enemy wins—for a time.  But in His time, He steps in and overturns the enemy’s apparent win.  This is exactly what happened in the book of Esther chapters 3-9 when it appeared Haman had won by building a gallows on which to hang Mordecai, the reputable Jew.  When God intervened, Haman ended up being hung on those very same gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.  God then used that radical change to empower the Jews to protect themselves from annihilation. 

It is stunning how God receives much greater glory, and we are given a much greater victory than if He had kept us from experiencing the apparent defeat.  This was true for the three Hebrew children in Daniel 3.  We applaud their standing by their convictions to honoring God rather than succumb to political correctness of worshipping King Nebuchadnezzar.  However, they paid the consequences of being thrown into the fiery furnace.  Again, the enemy appeared to have won!  It looked like the gallant servants of God were going to suffer a sobering defeat.  Can you imagine what their Hebrew friends thought and felt who watched them being thrown into the hot flames as their enemies gloated in victory as they expected to see them incinerated?   But God intervened after the apparent defeat, and none other than the angel of the Lord (an Old Testament phrase representing Christ) appeared with them in the furnace protecting them from the heat and flames.  When the king saw this miracle, He said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God (Daniel 3:28 ESV) Would God have been glorified or would they have experienced the incredible victory if He would have intervened before their apparent defeat?

Is our fear of failure or defeat actually an exposure of our lack of an authentic, intimate relationship with the Bible God?  I get the sense that when I fear failure and defeat my humanity is showing.  How about you?  This thought motivates me to seek to know more about who God is, so I can trust Him enough to minimize my fears.  Psalm 9:10 (ESV) And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

I’ve been captivated by the Live Dead missionaries’ way of thinking.  I suspect it is because, from my perspective, their thinking is most like the mindset the early disciples and believers espoused.  When prophets repeatedly told Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, …in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me (Acts 20:23, ESV), with deep felt conviction he said, …I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24, ESV).

The only way Paul could say that with such conviction was because he actually believed what he had been teaching and preaching; living it out by taking serious risks on a daily basis.  By the same token, the only way our Live Dead Missionaries can take the risks to go into countries that threaten the lives of missionaries in order to reach the unreached people groups is because they actually believe what they say they believe. 

Perhaps the reason such a perspective of life is so captivating is because 1) intuitively we know that is how Jesus lived; and 2) it is so contrary to how we normally live out our daily lives here in the USA.  Instead, we are fearful and anxious about many things.  We lean more on our own logic and emotion in making daily decisions in life, and we are more obsessed with living than dying and going to be with our Lord.  There must be a doctrinal disconnect from our default thinking therefore in the choices we make.  Whatever the driving factors have been that have led to our current mindset, our lifestyle and cultural thinking are dramatically different from that of our Lord as well as the early church believers. 

Perhaps it would be healthy for us to commit to making notes as we read the Bible, especially the New Testament, listing the variety of choices the early believers made and beside each one write down what you think may have driven those people to make such a choice.  Ex. When the early believers were persecuted, they suddenly quit their jobs; left their homes, family and friends; and scattered to other parts of the world with hardly more than the clothes on their backs.  They didn’t have a job or even friends or family waiting for them to help them get settled and on their feet.  Nevertheless, they continued to tell those who would listen how Jesus changed their lives and thereby turned their world upside down.  Imagine what type of faith and level of love for God it would take to compel you to make such decisions. 

After you have listed a dozen or more examples in the Bible, make a list of the big choices you have made and how they have required divine faith.  Are the claims of what you say you believe about Christ, His ways and teachings, actually revealing the depth of faith the early believers lived out in their daily lives?  As for me, my faith and commitment to my Lord falls far short of that of the early believers. That makes something rise up within me to want to more diligently seek to have the same heart for Christ that Paul and the early church lived out.  Holy Spirit, please do whatever You need to do to reshape the passion in my innermost being to be like that of those through whom You forged the Church of Jesus Christ!  And, I ask that you help me to inspire and encourage more in Nebraska to do the same.

When you pray, what might be the concept of the God to whom you pray?  Is he an austere God, a Santa Claus type God who gives you good gifts, or a distant God who you are not sure even hears your prayer?  Or, is He a sovereign God who is not manipulated by the words, volume or posture you use when you pray? 

Who or what has shaped the image of God in your mind?  Was it what you read in a book or two or heard in a sermon or from a parent or friend?  Or, was it formed after reading not a verse in the Bible but the whole Bible?  Most often your understanding, and therefore expectations, were shaped by someone who modeled God in your life such as a Father or minister whom you highly revered.  Another way our concept of God may be shaped is by our own imagination—perhaps a new and improved “Christ” relevant to our self-centered times.  However, Luke wrote, …we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man (Acts 17:29, ESV).

The Bible God cannot be shaped by one or two verses but by all that the Bible tells us about God and what He does.  We love the famous verse, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28, NLT2).  Our first response is to interpret the word “good” to mean something in our current day that is pleasant, understandable, or that makes us look good.  But what is “good” may not always feel good at the moment.

When King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Through some very interesting and insightful circumstances, 10 of the 12 tribes declared their independence splitting God’s chosen people.  Rehoboam could not allow God’s people to be divided, so he prepared his army to force them back under his rule.  About that time, God sent a prophet who said to Rehoboam, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not fight against your relatives, the Israelites. Go back home, for what has happened is my doing!’” So they obeyed the message of the LORD and went home, as the LORD had commanded (1 Kings 12:24, NLT2). What?!!  How can God do something so deplorable as that??  I highly suspect Rehoboam probably imagined such a thing would surely be contrary to His will.  He was noble enough to deny his logic and obey God!

When painful things come into our lives, based on our limited image of God we quickly say, “How could a good and loving God do that?” and then either get mad at Satan or at God for allowing it to happen.  Could there be another alternative?  Could it be the result of a foolish decision we made, truly a Satanic attack, or could it actually be God orchestrating it for “good” reasons He alone can understand at that moment in time?  How big is your God?  Is He big enough to have greater plans than we can imagine?  …plans that take us through Gethsemane and Calvary before we experience our Resurrection moment?  Indeed, we most certainly must try to rightly discern what may be behind our experiences.  However, we must never forget:  we will never be able to understand our God who created all that there is, loves us more than we can comprehend and has plans that are beyond our imagination.  He asks us to trust Him and His goodness—even when we don’t understand!!  Read God’s Word again to discover just how BIG the Bible God really is.  When He reveals His Greatness to you, it will comfort your heart and help you REST in Him.