BV: Starting With Praise

I'm starting a new endeavor with this blog.  My goal is to do daily "blogvotionals" (Monday through Friday).  They will be shorter than my usual posts (which I plan to continue writing once a week).  My hope is that these blogvotionals will be a time-friendly way to turn our hearts and minds to Christ.  To make them easier to receive on a daily basis you can click on the "Subscribe by email" link on the left.  The daily posts will be automatically sent to your email address.  You won't have to go searching for them.  I'm starting off with a simple praise from the Bible.  May 2011 be a blessed year as we look to God and thank Him for our lives, His love and our salvation.

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us, and we are His;

we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Encouragement for the day:  Take a moment to reflect on the greatness of God.  Take another moment to let Him know how great you think He is.

Question of the day:  What does "praising God" mean to you?

Not The Only One

Have you ever felt distant from God?  I have.  It's a strange sort of feeling to have.  For me, the best way to describe it is the word "lost".  Lost because I know I should feel differently and yet I don't know how to feel differently.  I've had these moments randomly throughout my life.  But one in particular which took place in college I'd like to share.  I attended a Christian school where daily chapels, prayers and devotionals were the norm.  And yet I found myself feeling strangely numb and distant - sort of disconnected with God.  I didn't have a reason why.  I wasn't angry at Him.  Nothing particularly out of the ordinary had happened.  I just had a hard time desiring to pray or read my Bible.  Spending time with God seemed a little like being in a room with a friend you haven't seen for a really long time and suddenly finding yourself at a loss as to how to communicate.  I'm not sure what the cause was for my disconnect but I do know that it bothered me a great deal.  I felt guilty and sad.  With people praising God all around me I felt alone in my dilemma.

One day I made an effort to reconnect.  I picked up my Bible and began reading in Psalm and came across Psalm 143.  The following words written by David resonated with me:

So my spirit grows faint within me;
My heart within me is dismayed.
I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

Answer me quickly, O Lord;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul. (NIV)

It was as if somebody had written down my thoughts (albeit more dramatically).  This passage said to me "You're not alone. Others have gone through this too."  After reading it I think my first thought was a question.  "You mean David felt this way?"  David was a man with amazing faith and he felt distant?  He longed to feel God?"  If he, of all people, could have moments of disconnect then surely I, a mere average being, could have them too.  David regained his closeness with God.  I was hopeful I would too.

I did get out of my rut, funk, whatever you want to call it.  We all go through our moments.  And when we do, it helps to know that even those with the strongest of faith have had their moments too.

How have you found ways to get out of your moments of disconnect? 

Being Thankful First

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. Psalm 7:17

Last week was Thanksgiving - a time to reflect on blessings – not only of what we’ve been given but of what has been done for us. But here’s my struggle. I find it too easy to see the things I don’t have and I find it too hard to see the things I do have. In short – I see what I lack before I see what I’m blessed with. It’s a backward point of view, I know. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very thankful for my blessings. When I sit back and think about my life I can see how tremendously blessed I am. My issue is that I often have to make an effort to see them. I want to get to a point where I don’t have to make a conscious effort to see my blessings. I want to open my eyes and see what I have not what I don’t have. I want to wake up being thankful first.

Have you ever been around someone who is thankful first? They don’t spend their time wishing for more. They are perfectly content with what they have and how their life is going? When something bad happens it usually rolls off their shoulders? The motto they live by is simple. It’s “God is in control.” When I’m around people who are “thankful first” I notice something missing (of course I do). I see a lack of complaining. I see a lack of whining. And I wonder how they got to that point. From an early age we are conditioned to see through the wrong set of glasses. We are conditioned to want more. We are basically conditioned to be unsatisfied. How did they recondition themselves? My conclusion is that they made a conscious effort to see their blessings. They made a conscious effort to be thankful. Eventually – it became a new way of life – a better way of life.

My husband relayed a story to me recently of something that happened to him years ago when he was young. There was a person that some of his acquaintances didn’t like and they encouraged him to join them in being mean to this person. He told me that even though he didn’t have anything against this person he caved in. He didn’t feel good about this and it ate at him. After a day or two he realized something (and I think this is a divine revelation because if everybody realized this the world would be a completely different place). He realized it took just as much energy and effort to be mean as it does to be nice. So he made the decision to be nice.

I tell you that story because it relates in this way: It takes just as much energy and effort to praise God as it does to complain to God. Praising God gives us a much better return on our investment. We please Him and we see our lives as full instead of half-empty.

I have a desire to see God’s blessings more easily and to praise Him more frequently. I’ll start (again) by sharing some things I’m most thankful for:

God has given me unending love. He will always reach out to me no matter how far away I go. One of the things I love the most about God is that He never gives up on me – even when I give up on myself. He is committed to the end.

Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

God hears me and He answers me (sometimes in ways that are far greater than I can see or understand).

I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. Psalm 118:21

There is really no way I can thank God for giving His son – allowing Him to take on my sins – so that I may have freedom. He paid a debt that I could never pay.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Cor 9:15

Life may be a struggle especially when fighting the attacks of the evil one. But I’m still a winner and am thankful for the victory.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 15:57

I am thankful for Heaven and the opportunity to spend time with my eternal family.

Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Col 1:12

Collision Course

I believe strongly that prayer makes a difference.  But, sadly, my belief still comes with kinks in it.  I have had struggles in my life during which I prayed earnestly (I pleaded) for God to answer.  Sometimes I prayed for a solution to my problem and other times I simply wanted to hear from God - to know that He was with me in my struggle.  I'd like to say that begging always worked and that God responded just how I needed.  But that is not the case.  There were times I felt like my prayers went up in vain.  It felt like my prayers hit a wall somewhere up in the heavenly realm and didn't penetrate through to God.  Sometimes it felt like God heard them and simply chose to ignore them.  Even though I doubt the accuracy of my perception, it was still my perception.  I'll be honest.  I have been hurt and felt abandoned.  But even though my faith sometimes took a hit, I have always chosen to press forward.  It doesn't matter if I understand everything about God or how and why He works the way He does.  God is still God.

Yes, I pressed forward but what does that really mean? It means, sadly, that I pushed my feelings down inside of me and never attempted to resolve the issue.  I guess I figured that if I can't explain it than I'll just ignore it.  Counselors tell married couples they should always resolve their disagreements.  If they choose to ignore them, the unresolved issue and attached feelings fester and build inside.  The next time an argument takes place, what was hidden below will resurface.  The issue has compounded. 

This is what happened to me recently.  I reached out to God in prayer and pleaded once again for an answer.  Again I felt rejected.  I'm not saying that God didn't answer.  Actually I felt like the answer came and was a flat out "No".  And whether it seems reasonable or not, His answer defied my limited understanding of Godly love. I just didn't get it.  The pain, doubt and anger I had carefully pushed down from past disappointments came rushing to the surface.  I was facing a collision course of faith.

As I got into bed that night I picked up my prayer list and began to pray.  If you've read this blog you know that I've been faithfully dedicated to praying for people for 40 days at a time.  I have felt confident my prayers make a difference.  But this time as I began to pray a part of me said "My prayers don't work."  And in a split second I could mentally see myself putting the list down and giving up.  But...the graciousness of the Holy Spirit inside me revealed the truth of what was happening.  You see...my prayers do work!  Whether I see the results of them or not my prayers are making a difference.  They are affecting people's lives for good and God is working in them.  And the Evil One doesn't like it one bit.  He wants me to stop.  He knows my weaknesses.  He knows where the kinks are in my faith and he attacks where he believes it'll do the most damage.  He stirred up my feelings of hurt, neglect and doubt.  He said: "Remember when God didn't do this for you? God doesn't answer your prayers so why bother."  But here is what I know...God does care!  My prayers do work and I'm not going to stop.  The evil little snake can crawl back into his hole.  His attempt to manipulate me has failed.  This battle has been won!

Even though I came through this collision with minor scrapes I know the war is not over.  Satan will try again.  What happens next time when the pain and hurt I've buried has grown?  Will the strength of my negative feelings blur out the voice of the Holy Spirit? Will I give up on prayer?  Satan spots our weaknesses easily.  Sometimes it takes a collision course to get us to see the holes in our own armor.  My buried feelings of rejection are still there - still waiting to be resolved.  I must deal with them in order to strengthen my faith.  I can no longer simply ignore them.  It may take some time but, thankfully, God has always been generous with time.  He will guide me through and I will be stronger at the other end.

I Serve A God Who Loves!

I serve a God who, despite our lapses in judgment, continues to welcome us into His home. We are the prodigal children and He rejoices with our return (no matter how many times we leave).

I serve a God who hears our cries (the cries of His children) and holds us in His arms until it’s time to let us go. And when that time comes He gives us strength to get up and move forward. Always maintaining a watchful eye – not to condemn us for our mistakes but to support us along the way.

I serve a God who cries with us. He shares in our pain. Our sorrow is His sorrow. A parent hurts when their children hurt – even when the parent knows the pain must take place.

I serve a God who mourns when we turn away from Him. Not because He’s keeping a tally of how many will enter the Throne Room but because we’re His children. He mourns the loss of a child. Rejection hurts!

I serve a God who longs for us and doesn’t sit idly by watching our lives play out. He is actively involved. He participates. And even better - He prays for us to be with Him.

I serve a God who never leaves us alone. He never abandons us. He sent Himself (His Spirit) to live in us - to be our guide and Comforter.

I serve a God who fights for us – whether this means He’s fighting our battles on our behalf or fighting to keep us in His fold. Like a shepherd guarding His sheep or a mama bear guarding her cubs - He is fiercely protective.

I serve a God who demonstrates His love not by always indulging us with our wants but by graciously giving us our needs.

I serve a God who will sometimes give us our wants – simply because doing so brings Him joy. Like a parent giving a child a gift, it warms the heart.

I serve a God who can take the heart of the vilest person and transform him or her into someone beautiful. There is not one who can’t be transformed by the love of God.

I serve a God who allowed His son to suffer like no man ever has or will (by taking on the sins of the world) so that He may become our atoning sacrifice.

I serve a God who loves us enough to pay the debt we could never pay.

I serve a God who loves!