Breaking Boxes

Written by Elizabeth Mathews

I don't know about you, but from the time I was little, I had this concept of what prayers should sound like. And I guess I got these ideas from hearing other people pray. And so I guess I always prayed the way I heard other people pray. I didn't care to “experiment” with prayer and really open up my heart to God in prayer. I had my prayer life stored away in these nice little spiritual boxes and I was content with that. But recently, God has begun to break down the boxes that I've tried to put Him in.

I've been home from school for three months now and next week I'm about to go back. The way my school works is that I am there for three months and then I am home for three months. And for some reason I always thought that I would learn more during the semester than the off-semester, but God has shown me so clearly how He is my teacher. And while He may use another person or teacher to teach me, it is ultimately He who teaches and reveals those things to me. So since I have been home, God has continued to teach me more about who He is.

I just want to share a few things that He began to show me last semester and has been continuing to teach me since I've been home. I'm afraid that they might seem a bit jumbled and disorganized, but I'm going to give it a shot.

1. My prayers make a difference. God wants me to pray. I've grown up in a very conservative, Christian home but I confess that I had a very pathetic prayer life until more recently. And I think I know why: I didn't believe there was any power in prayer. I didn't realize that the most powerful force in the universe – God Almighty – heard those prayers and that they touched His heart. I may have known it in my head, but I didn't really believe it. I didn't realize that my prayers move the heart of God.

As I began to actually pray, I began to see God working in ways that went far above and beyond what I could have imagined – and through that, God began to dispel my unbelief and still is. God builds our trust and our faith through the experiences that He gives us and I've seen that true in my own life.

2. Prayer is warfare. In the past, I would begin to pray for someone or something for a period of time and then eventually just stop praying and give up because I wasn't seeing results. Looking back, I'm ashamed of that because I see how little endurance I had. I didn't tap into God's strength, but tried to fight the battle of prayer all by myself. I think many of us give up praying for someone too fast because we don't see what is going on in the spiritual realm. When we begin to pray for something that is near and dear to God's heart and pray in accordance with His will, things in heaven begin to shift and move around and Satan is being defeated. The problem is, we can't see it with our mortal eyes, so we begin to get tired and discouraged when we don't realize that progress is being made in the spiritual realm. And when we give up on praying for someone that God has put on our hearts to pray for, we are giving ground to the enemy. Satan cannot win.

Here is a helpful quote that gave me so much insight into what happens when we are praying for someone – particularly someone who is lost: “Legally, all souls belong to Christ because He paid for their sins on Calvary (1 John 2:2). But Satan, illegally and forcefully, continues to hold them bound in spiritual darkness until we take our rightful place and exercise our throne-rights by demanding their immediate release on the basis of Christ's shed blood and our delegated authority from Him. There is absolutely no reason for even one single soul to die and go to hell because Christ has already paid their redemption price. And the only reason why anyone will go to hell is that we have not taken our place of authority and bound the strong man, insisting on their salvation. The devil will not release them until we make him.” (Lee E. Thomas, Praying Effectively for the Lost)

We may not see results immediately when we pray, but our prayers are not in vain! God is working even if we can't see it. Faith is the evidence of things not seen – and we need to have faith that God is working.

3. Prayer is the work. Oswald Chambers said, “Payer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work.” I can't tell you how many times I heard that prayer – but God has shown me how true that actually is. Missions and evangelism are powerless apart from prayer. Mere words coming out of my mouth will not convince anyone. This is not to diminish the importance of missions or witnessing, etc. but I think that we put too much emphasis on talking and convincing other people and not enough on praying for others. Prayer is more powerful than my own words.

God taught me this in a very personal way recently. One of my closest friends was going through a difficult time and as much as I had tried to encourage this friend and as much as others had tried to encourage this other person, my friend seemed lost and confused. You see, nothing I could say made any difference. I think God brought this situation to me because I realized that only He can change hearts – I can't. So often I think that if I just explain something in a certain way or just say it using different words that I can speak to that person's heart and change their minds. But that's not how it works. God's Holy Spirit is the only one who can change people. So I found in this situation that the only thing I really could do was pray. And so I did pray. And I prayed a lot. I begged God to break through to my friend and to encourage my friend. And things didn't change overnight. They took months and months. But God had me continue to pray for my friend and one day when I was feeling especially desperate, I spent much of the day praying and asking God to come into the situation and change this person. I never felt so weak and so helpless than I did at that moment. I was completely powerless. And as soon as I was in that place of weakness, God demonstrated His strength by turning this person around – at the same time that I was praying for them.

Needless to say, this whole situation built up my faith in God so much. I realized that He hears my prayers and that He cares!

4. Pray God's word. My own words are pretty feeble sometimes and I don't always know God's will in a particular situation, but if I pray God's word, there is such power in those prayers because I can know that I am praying God's will.

For example, if I am praying for someone who is lost to be prayed, I can pray this passage: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; ... For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1, 3-4, emphasis mine) So I can stand on this promise as I pray and tell God, “You said that it is your will that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth – so I ask that you would bring so-and-so to the knowledge of truth and to salvation.” If I pray in that manner, I'm not just praying what my will is, but God's will.

When I pray God's word and base my prayers off of God's promises, there is such power there! Because I am praying God's very heart back to God! There are verses in the Bible that apply to every area of life so there will always be a verse I can pray for every situation. If the Bible is the sword of the Spirit, using it in prayer invites that power into our prayers!! And that's so exciting guys!

So that's a few of the things that God is still teaching me. I don't know if that made a whole lot of sense, but I'm praying that God used at least part of this to encourage you and to help you with your prayer life.

I guess learning how to pray means breaking a lot of boxes of unbelief. I've kept prayer in my own little boxes for so long. I've had all these ideas of what prayer should look like and sound like, but I'd encourage you to seek for more than that.

We tend to pray the way we hear others pray, but that can be dangerous because then we are unwilling to venture into new territory. Don't be afraid to pray in ways you've never heard anyone pray before! Don't be afraid to be vulnerable before God and to tell Him everything that is on your heart. Don't be afraid to be desperate. Don't be afraid to plead and to beg. Don't be afraid to humble yourself before God. Don't be afraid to “experiment” with prayer and test God. Don't be afraid to listen to God and to ask Him how to pray.

Come before God with your prayer life and ask Him what is on His heart and what He wants you to pray about. You don't have to try to muster up spiritual sounding and powerful prayers, you just have to ask God to show you what to pray. Just listen to Him and I guarantee that there will be power in those prayers.

Prayers is conversation with God. If we can only understand that – it will completely transform our prayer lives. 

Letting Go

Surrender is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life.

But part of me wonders if surrender is so hard because we make it so easy. A year ago, God called me to surrender a very specific dream into His hands. And I thought I did; whenever I started to reflect on what I wanted, I would always try to pray, God, I leave this in Your hands. But a month or so into this process, God showed me that this was not surrender at all. Yes, I was telling God that I was leaving it in His hands...but I only did that because I was so sure that He would bring it to completion. I wanted that dream so much, and it seemed so right, that I couldn't understand how God could withhold it from me. So I had no problem leaving it in His hands, because I was sure He wouldn't take it away.

The question He laid on my heart as as simple as it was terrifying; what if He did take it away?  Would I truly be abandoned to His will with a full heart?  Or was I just trying to put a Christian label on the situation, in an attempt to justify the fact that I had taken my life into my own hands?

Surrender is a difficult concept. It requires us to put our entire lives in the hands of a God we can't see, and trust that He knows what's best for us. And it can be so tempting to wonder if God, who is timeless and has "been around" for thousands of chronological years, really knows what will help us. It's so easy to believe the lie that we know more about ourselves than He does. That was a mindset I struggled with for awhile. But if that's your perspective, I would encourage you to go read Job 38 and reflect on the vastness of God. And ask yourself, where were you when He laid the foundations of the earth?  Have you seen the dwelling place of light?  Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

God created your heart, and He knows what it truly needs. I am at a point in my life where I am changing a lot; my personality is evolving, my interests are developing, my thoughts are deepening, and I am not completely sure who I am yet. But there is so much rest in the fact that God knows who He created me to be. He knows the kind of person He is building me into, and He knows which passions need to drive my interests.

Honestly, I wish I had more to say on this topic, but this something God is still teaching me. I would encourage you to press into His heart and let Him lead you to the place of surrender.

"You remind me of things forgotten,

You unwind me

until I'm totally undone,

And with your arms around me

Fear was no match for your love,

And now you've won me,

And I'm letting go."

                                                            -Steffany Gretzinger, "Letting Go"

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~ 

Worship Song: 

"Letting Go",
by Steffany Gretzinger (Bethel Music)

Addressing the Purity Movement

When I turned 16, my mom asked me if I wanted a purity ring, and I said yes. Like everyone other girl who wore one, I proudly slipped it onto the 4th finger of my left hand. For that first week, I could hardly look at it without smiling somewhere deep inside of myself. This was my commitment to my future husband, to love him well even before I met him. It was my testimony that I was living before God's eyes, and following the path He had shown me. It wasn't political, or cultural, or done to please people; it was something precious that I felt only Jesus and I truly understood.

That's what I saw in my ring.

It wasn't until years later that I came to realize that wasn't the message I was sending to the rest of the world. With a silver band on my left hand, I was an unspoken part of a broader Christian cultural movement, with ideas I didn't necessarily want to promote. 

Please know that I am in no way condemning the heart of the movement in Christianity to be pure; I think that staying pure is undeniably something we are called to as followers of Jesus. Please also don't misunderstand what I'm saying about purity rings; I have absolutely nothing against them, and I am not trying to persuade you to take yours off your left hand if you wear one. It's a valuable expression of commitment and trust and I don't mean to diminish any significance it has. My goal in writing is not to convince you to follow the same route I took in approaching this topic, because I don't believe there's a right or wrong way to wear a ring or show a commitment. But I do hope to encourage you to think about these issues, not as something that some Christian girls do "just because", but as an act of worship to the Lover of your soul.

Why the Purity Movement Concerns Me:

Men and women are both called to be pure in thought and deed. But if you look at this cultural movement, you'll see that purity is stressed much more for girls. (No, that is not meant to be a feminist statement.) That is not to say that young men aren't encouraged to be pure; there are certainly Bible studies and support groups dedicated to furthering that idea in their lives. But these gatherings are usually called something along the lines of "Being a Man after God's Heart". That's the heart of what purity should be, for both genders. The problem with stressing physical purity so much is that we can lose sight of why we're being pure. I think we need to be called to be women after God's heart, not just girls who choose to dress modestly and not sin. A pure heart should be a heart of "do's", not "don'ts". Purity should be about glorifying God, honoring Him, and acting as His vessel, not just a list of things we shouldn't do. The question should not be how far is too far, when it comes to physical boundaries, but how far can we go to glorify Him in this area of our lives?  By focusing on physical purity and so often ignoring the heart of why we seek it, I think it underscores the false perception that women's worth is found in their bodies. 

I'm also bothered by the emphasis on sexual sin, and the idea of being "used". For those who have fallen, God offers forgiveness and redemption completely!  But the movement's underlying ideas tell a different story. If you have fallen, you're damaged goods; you're tainted and you haven't been pure. I get the perception that every other sin is forgivable, but not that one. And I know that's not the way God sees it!  I believe that God will forgive any sinner who repents, and that the blood of Jesus was enough to cover for any sin!  It hurts so much to think that someone could freely enter into the work of the cross, become a new creation by the grace of God, and still feel condemnation from the body of Christ because of past mistakes that no longer define them.

Why I'm Writing About This:

I hope I'm not condemning in writing this. There are certainly leaders who advocate purity while focusing on the heart of it as an act of worship, like Leslie Ludy with the Ellerslie Mission Society, and I am inspired by them. My goal is not to put down, but to hopefully start you on a thinking track about this subject in your own life. 

I also wanted to write to clarify that the Real Christianity purity wall is not a part of this purity movement. The goal of these posts is to hopefully point you back to God's heart on these issues, not to give you a list of actions to avoid. 

Finally, I want us as a body to be equipped to handle the issues mentioned above, whether in our own lives or the lives of others. I want this to empower you in some way to fight the perception that your worth lies in your body; to love those who have fallen, and reach out to them without condemnation. 

When I was 16, I put a ring on my left hand. But over the past month, my eyes have been opened to these issues and I realized these ideas were not something I wanted to be a part of. 

So the week before I turned 18, I took off my ring and put it on my right hand. 

Today, I do not wear a purity ring; I wear what I call a signet ring (Haggai 2:23), as a testimony that I am a bond servant of Jesus Christ and I will follow Him all the days of my life. There's nothing sacred about whether you wear a ring, or which hand it's on; for me, it's just a secret reminder between my heart and His of who I am in His eyes, and who He has called me to be. He is the one my heart loves; I will not let Him go. 

_______________________________

*Concerns with the Purity Movement were inspired by this article: http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2016/01/purity-culture-10-things-that-scare-me/  I do not necessarily endorse the way this was written, or all of the content on this blog.

More than Existence

"I'd die for you,

That's easy to say,

We all have a list of people that we would take

A bullet for them, a bullet for you

A bullet for everybody in this room

But there don't seem to be any bullets coming through."

- Twenty-One Pilots, Ride

I am going to open this devotional by expressing my love for Twenty-One Pilots. :)  I love the rawness of their lyrics, the variety of their music, and the meaning behind what they have to say. And I love this line of their song Ride because I think it describes so much of the struggle in the life of the westernized church.

I think we can all say that, in our day to day lives, there are no bullets coming through; no one is actively trying to take our lives for what we believe. A friend of mine recently pointed out that some churches focus so much on dying for the gospel that we forget to live for it.

So the question I want to ask you today is, in this season where no bullets are flying through, are you living or merely existing as a Christian?

Are you seeking God out, or simply hoping that He'll show up?  Is your desire to know Him, or to just get by and make it to heaven someday?

As adolescents, we're all in a really interesting season of discovering who we are. That season is intriguing, but it can be so painful because it brings with it the realization that we don't fully know who we are yet. It was so hard for me to admit that I was in the place of not knowing, because that season of life came for me after I had re-dedicated my life to Jesus. As a Christian who wanted to be on fire for Him, I was supposed to know who I was. I kept going back to the church cliche, that your identity is not in who you are, but in whose you are. It's a beautiful idea, but that doesn't mean it always resonates. Yes, I was God's. But I was still acting differently around different groups of people, to the point where I wasn't sure which one was the "real" me. I continually found myself putting on masks, without even realizing it.

I think it's most painful to wear a mask in the place of worship, and communion with God. Because, if anywhere, that is where there is no condemnation and that is where we can truly be ourselves. And a mask causes so much separation; not because God can't see through it to us, but because so often, we can't see through it to Him.

I'm going to be vulnerable right now and tell you that I don't like coming to God in brokenness, especially in corporate worship. It feels so unholy to bring your struggles before Him when you're supposed to be praising Him, so I tend to push them aside, and put on the mask of pretending to want Him, and pretending to believe that He is enough for me. Most times, I do want Him... but sometimes, it doesn't feel that way. And I leave wondering why I didn't encounter Him that time.

God has so much in store for our lives... but so often, we are content to simply exist behind a mask, because it is so much more comfortable than stepping onto the unknown frontier of a life with God.

Recently, I started reading a book called TrueFaced. It's an incredible, real, raw perspective on identity in Christ, and it has some earth-shattering truths. The authors write that at the root of wearing masks lies the need to hide. When Adam and Eve sinned, their first reaction was to run and hide from God in shame. So often, we're ashamed to be our true selves, and admit the messiness of our struggles to God. We make ourselves believe that we can still have the fullness of what He wants for us, while merely existing behind a mask.

This statement in the book is what caught my attention the most: You will never be more righteous than you are right now.

What??  Where did that even come from?  I'm broken, and disconnected, and so far from the fullness of what God has for me. Of course I'm going to be more righteous down the road; this isn't all there is.

But that's assuming that your righteousness comes from what you do. And if that's true, then the work of the cross is meaningless.

The miracle of God's love is that we are not saved by our own works or our own attempts at righteousness; when He looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ, and we can never add to that, or take away from it. If you are in Christ, you are in His righteousness, and that is how God sees you. That is your identity. There may be other facets of your personality that you're trying to work through, but that is who you are; you are not what you have done, but what Jesus has done for you.

He has freed you to walk beyond your masks. He has enabled you to have more than a mere existence. He has given you the chance to live.

There are not any bullets coming through; in this season, He may not be asking you to die for Him yet. But, in Him, you have the chance to more-than-exist; you have the opportunity live. Are you willing to?

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~ 

Worship Song: 

"Love is Moving",
by Audrey Assad

Chronicles: A Promise

Part of me feels a little bad saying that I have a least favorite book of the Bible, but I would have to say that for most of my life, 1 and 2 Chronicles was nowhere on my list of favorite books to read. It’s a bunch of genealogies and lists and repeats from Samuel and Kings. Let’s just say that I was not exactly thrilled when my last Old Testament class before Christmas was on Chronicles. When I saw the assigned reading, I commented to my classmate that nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit like reading Chronicles!

That week, I realized that I have approached Chronicles the wrong way for pretty much my entire Christian life. I didn’t see its purpose or its value, except maybe to be able to compare with Kings and see that the two mostly match, except that David’s sin with Bathsheba is not included in Chronicles, and Manasseh repenting from prison is not included in Kings.

The book of Chronicles (it was broken into first and second when it was translated into Greek and didn’t fit on one scroll anymore) is the last book of the Hebrew canon. Chronologically, this seems a little odd. Ezra and Nehemiah come directly before Chronicles, even though they record the events that would have happened directly after. So why is it at the end? And why the differences between Chronicles and Kings? And why do we need the same history twice?

I think we start to find the answers to these questions when we look at the audience of Chronicles and its time of writing. Chronicles was written to post-exilic Israel by someone returning from the exile. (given what we know of Ezra, it would make a lot of sense if he was the writer.) It was written for people who had experienced seventy years in Babylon/Medo-Persia, and then returned to their home. These were people who had access to the Torah, the Prophets, and the writings (including Samuel and Kings), so they would have been familiar with the stories recorded in Chronicles. This would suggest that the book of Chronicles is intended to serve a different purpose than that of Samuel and Kings.

I always find it interesting to try and get into the heads of the people reading, writing, and experiencing the events they record for us. So maybe we should try getting a feel for where those returning from the exile were coming from.

After 70 years in exile, the prophesy of Jeremiah had come to pass, and Cyrus the Great had told the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. It was a project that was met with opposition from those around them, but finally, the Temple was complete. They had a High Priest from the line of Aaron, his name was Joshua, meaning “Jehovah Saves!” They had a political leader, Zerubbabel, from the line of David. They had Ezra, teaching and leading their nation, instructing them in the ways of their God. They had Nehemiah, who was in a place of favor with the King and was given permission to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. They had prophets, exhorting them and calling them to serve God whole-heartedly.

In many ways, the story sounds very similar to the story we’re told in Chronicles, when Solomon builds and dedicates the Temple of the Lord. People gathered to worship, the King prayed, and the glory of God filled the temple!

In Ezra, the people return, they rebuild the temple, there is sacrifice and prayer, a priest and a political leader together call the people to return to Yahweh…. And the glory of God doesn’t fill the temple. It’s a detail that is glaringly absent from the narrative. And as the young people rejoice that they have a temple, the elders wept.

No, more accurately, they wailed. Their cry was so loud that people miles away could hear. No cloud, no fire, no glory. In fact, the temple itself was a dismal disappointment. Zerubbabel’s temple was not even half the size of Solomon’s, and couldn’t hold a candle to the splendor of the original. In fact, it looked more like a military fortress. And those who could remember the original temple were overwhelmed with sorrow!

The prophets spoke of a greater temple, one filled with splendor and glory, and a city called GOD IS THERE.

Did this mean that God didn’t make good on His promise? Had He been faithless to Israel?

These would have been the questions in the minds of the readers as they approached the book of Chronicles. And I think Chronicles is subtly pointing that out through little hints that are really easy to miss, that Israel was still anticipating further fulfillment of these prophesies. And as the book builds this anticipation, it points toward the New Testament.

They had a temple, but they didn’t have the true dwelling place of God. They didn’t have Immanuel, God with man. They had an empty temple…. And it almost seems like Chronicles is rubbing salt in the wound, because the big story, the climax of the book, is the Shekinah Glory – God’s presence filling Solomon’s temple. David’s reign builds up to this, and every King after Solomon is weighed by the standard of how they treat the Temple. I think the emphasis on the temple was to point to God’s past faithfulness and present grace, and a reminder to anticipate something greater in the future. There were still prophesies to be fulfilled! They were in the stage of  already, and not yet.

And those tedious genealogies? I think Chronicles is pointing toward the fulfillment of something greater than just the return from Babylonian exile. If Chronicles were just about the Kings of Judah, there wouldn’t be much point in tracing the geneaologies much further than David, and thus bring the focus of the book to God’s faithfulness to the Davidic Covenant. But it doesn’t stop with David. It would make sense, in telling the story of the entire nation of Israel, not just the southern kingdom who returned from exile, to trace the geneaologies back to Judah, thus focusing on God’s covenant with Jacob, the building of a nation in the promise land, and the promise that the scepter would not depart from Judah. But it goes further than that, and it doesn’t just focus on Judah, but on Levi as well, reminding the reader of the Mosaic Covenant. It would make sense to go back through Abraham and focus on the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, but again, it goes further than that. The writer of Chronicles starts with Adam, leaving the reader to anticipate the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Adam and His covenant faithfulness to mankind. It’s like when an author begins their book by giving some obscure family history, or the origin of some sort of tension (like Sir Walter Scott beginning Ivanhoe with a discussion of the English language and the tensions between the Franks and Saxons, leaving the reader anticipating an ending that brings about some sort of resolution or fulfillment of that conflict.)

After building the anticipation of the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, and finally, God’s promise to Adam and Eve that the Serpent’s head would be crushed, the author of Chronicles leaves us with a cliff-hanger. We’re told that Cyrus allows the exiles to return. Wait, what? That doesn’t fulfill any of the covenants! And then the gospel of Matthew starts out with… a geneaology tracing all the way back to Adam, and then we are told of a Messiah, from the line of David, whose name means Jehovah Saves, and who is our High Priest. The last book in the Jewish Bible builds the anticipation of fulfillment yet to come, and a reminder to see God’s promise and God’s presence, through the history of the Temple. And then we have the New Testament, when God’s presence dwells inside of His followers.

And at the end of the New Testament, we’re reminded once again that there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled.

And for the first time in my life, Chronicles got me in the Christmas spirit. The reminder of God’s promise and God’s presence felt like a cliff-hanger, leaving me excited for the next chapter.

A Renewed Mind

Have you ever gotten emotional?

Hopefully the answer is a given; emotion, especially as women, is a prevalent factor in our lives. These little feelings have the power to transform our entire day, all on their own. When I took Human Anatomy a few years ago, one of the most interesting parts was the study of what emotions were. Medically, they're just a collection of chemicals and enzymes released from the brain, often due to hormonal factors. My first question was immediately: "Can you have them removed???"

Emotional experiences can feel beautiful, but they can also be painful, annoying, and depressing. More than that, we often give them the ability to control us and the way we live.

This morning, I heard a message that, for the first time, made me realize that I didn't have to continue giving them that power over me.

When we are redeemed by the cross, Paul says we become a new creation and, in Romans 12, that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Sometimes, I think it's hard to let that change take over. I realized for the first time today that I had been trying to live out the Christian life, but I wasn't allowing my mind to be renewed. I wanted to follow Jesus, serve others, and turn outward, but all of those desires passed through the lens of the flesh, because, for the most part, that was still what was in charge my mind.

A lot happened to me this week... so much more than I could ever have time to write down. I spent time running around downtown Kansas City with amazing people, had sleepovers and coffee dates with friends, and went to an incredible worship conference. There were tears, deep conversations about life and faith, and powerful scenes of hundreds of people re-dedicating their lives to Jesus. But that wasn't what moved me the most. I left that week impacted by a small group of people I had gotten to spend some time with, who seemed to live with renewed minds. You could sense the love of Jesus in them so clearly, and the whole time I was just thinking, I want to be like them.

It's amazing to think about the fact that we can think with the mind of Christ; that we can process everything that enters through the lens of faith, and have the ability to think what Jesus thought, and to see people as he sees them.

This is the gift of grace. Grace can't be earned, but it can be accessed. Just because grace is there doesn't mean we've taken a hold of it in our lives; we have to be willing to live inside of it.

Part of the work of grace is that we can live and walk in freedom, not controlled by our emotions. We have the ability to resist the feelings of depression or fear. Jesus set the pattern in Matthew 4, when he resisted temptation with the famous words "It is written". He combated the lies of the Enemy by speaking truth over the situation.

What would happen if we applied that principle to our own spiritual battles?  If, instead of wallowing in guilty, we spoke the truth over our hearts that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Rather than giving way to depression, reminding our souls that there is a reason and a call to rejoice. And as an alternative to loneliness, standing in the knowledge that He is with us always, even to the end of the age.

In Romans 6:14, Paul writes that sin will not have dominion over us. That doesn't mean attacks won't come; it's going to be an uphill battle. But the promise of God is that the Enemy will not that battle; sin will not stand as the victor. Yes, you will still stumble and you won't be able to live perfectly. But you are no longer a slave to sin; you are a child of God, and there is rest in His arms of love.

You have access to a renewed mind in Christ. Are you willing to fight the fight that He is calling you to?

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~ 

Worship Song: 

"We Will Not be Shaken",
by Brian Johnson (Bethel Music)

Hope for the Unlikely

How long have you been willing to search for something?  Have you ever set your heart on anything, and been willing to pursue it for weeks, months or years?

Once, I tried to seek God's will on a certain area of my life. I prayed hard for a week... and then that was it. I prayed sporadically after that, but the intensity of my passion to find Him had fallen away. Life had consumed me again, and God was still in my life, but I wasn't seeking His will with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.

I am so, so weak. And I'm guessing I'm not alone; seeking God's heart can be so hard, in the midst of life's busyness.

Our pastor gave an incredible sermon on the story of the wise men in Matthew 2 this morning. I love these two points that He highlighted:

Christmas is missed most by those who should see.

Christmas belongs to the unlikely.

Often, in our nativity scenes, the wise men are set right next to the shepherds in the stable on the night of Jesus' birth. But historians would tell us much differently; when the wise men finally saw the Messiah, it was in his own home, not in the stable, and he was probably over a year old at the time.

These men, who had lives, dreams, and plans of their own, were willing to seek God out for over a year. Theirs was not just a passive maybe-I'll-pray-for-awhile-today attitude; they were willing to lay everything else aside to pursue Him, no matter the cost.

Historians estimate that the wise men were probably from Babylon. This city and the nation of Israel were far from allies; throughout scripture, the horrors of Babylon are portrayed vividly, and in Revelation, Babylon is portrayed as the epitome of evil. These wise men were the unlikely, and God chose them to behold His son.

If we were to look at this story without the lens of history, the ones we would have expected to visit Jesus would have been Herod and his officials. After all, he was the king of the Jews at the time, the man who was supposedly guiding God's people to await the coming of the promised Messiah. He was only miles away from Bethlehem, and could easily have made the journey to worship the one his people had been waiting for.

Instead, the so-called leader of God's people tried to kill the son of God.

The men from Babylon followed the light of God for as long as it took; the men of Israel tried to extinguish it.

Christmas is missed by those who should see, and belongs to the unlikely.

This is God's heart for the world; it is because of stories like this that Biblical authors could write with confidence that those dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and that there is redemption for even the most fallen.

Thousands of years and hundreds of miles removed from these events, we were the outsiders; we were the unlikely. And yet the God of the universe called us close to His heart, and poured out His blood to save us. At the end of Jesus' life, it would be a criminal who received salvation, while the "righteous" condemned the Word of God to death.

Which side are you on now?

We are the unlikely, but in some ways, growing up in good Christian homes, we are also those who should see. Do we realize that this is a hope for all people?  Do we overlook those who we don't think it could ever reach?

Voice of the Martyrs once shared the story of a Muslim sheikh, who literally ingrained the ideology of jihad into the minds of ISIS fighters. He taught them how and why they should kill "infidels", and he did it with pride. If ever there was a person who seemed beyond reach, it was him. And yet, eventually, he left his position, because he was tired of seeing the bloodshed. He left the country, and the thing he wanted to find most was a Bible.

God is capable of turning the hearts of the unlikely. He has called us to himself, while we were still the unreachable, and He redeemed us. Are we willing to believe that the same can be true of others?

This week, I'm keeping Syria on the prayer wall. I would encourage you to challenge yourself with this question: do you believe that these people are not beyond the reach of God?  Do you believe He can save them?  This week, as you pray, don't just pray for those who already know; pray that the unlikely would be brought near to the heart of God.

Because this hope is for them, too.

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Worship Song: 

"We Three Kings",
by Tenth Avenue North