- Psalm 12:6 ESV
The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times. - Psalm 19:8 ESV
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes; - Psalm 24:4-5 ESV
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5 He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation. - Psalm 51:10 ESV
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. - Psalm 73:1 ESV
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart. - Psalm 119:9 ESV
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word. - Proverbs 15:26 ESV
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but gracious words are pure. - Proverbs 16:2 ESV
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit. - Proverbs 20:11 ESV
Even a child makes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright. - Proverbs 21:8 ESV
The way of the guilty is crooked,
but the conduct of the pure is upright. - Matthew 5:8 ESV
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God - 2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body[a] and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. - 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 ESV
For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband,to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. - Philippians 1:9-10 ESV
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more,with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ - Philippians 4:8 ESV
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. - Timothy 1:5 ESV
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. - 1 Timothy 5:22 ESV
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. - 2 Timothy 2:22 ESV
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. - Titus 1:15 ESV
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. - Hebrews 10:22 ESV
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. - James 1:27 ESV
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visitorphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. - James 3:17 ESV
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. - 1 Peter 1:22 ESV
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, - 1 John 3:3 ESV
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. - Revelation 19:8 ESV
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Category: Thoughts from my Quiet Time
Please join me over at (in)courage today!
Will you join me?
Today I’m posting in an amazing community for women called ‘(in)courage’ to remind us of this:
Beauty is what Christ brings us, right into the middle of our hardest days and saddest seasons.
And even though Christ’s work in our situations is not always resurrection in the present, it is always transformation: beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, praise for despair.
I’m thrilled and honored to be sharing this message with the (in)courage community and I hope you’ll take a few minutes to click this link and join me over there today. It would be a true joy to ‘see some familiar faces!’
You can click here to read the whole post over on the (in)courage page. I’d be truly blessed if you’d leave me a comment on their site! I’ll be popping in throughout the day to reply.
If you love the (in)courage site as much as I do, you can also sign up here to receive free daily encouragement from the writers of (in)courage, right in your inbox!
While I’d love for you to visit me over at (in)courage today, I ask for your prayers above all. May God be glorified and His people be encouraged by this message of hope in His faithfulness!
In My Alarm I Cried for Help
My daughter announced that she hates ‘drills.’
All kinds of drills, she says.
Fire drills, tornado drills, lock-down drills, bus evacuation drills.
My oldest daughter chimes in about ‘lock-down drills,’ and how her teacher last year was so funny but the one thing she is super serious about is anyone who dares to giggle, laugh or even squeak out a hint of noise during a lock-down drill.
“She’ll send you to the principal,” my daughter lowers her voice for added drama.
These older girls of mine try to reassure the youngest sister that drills are essential and meant to help and not really a big deal.
But the baby girl is testing out fear here. I can see it on her face and I hear it in the way she keeps bringing these drills up. When she gets home from school. Over dinner. In the minivan. As she climbs into my lap for bedtime prayers.
“The drills…the drills….the drills…”
She’s been talking about these drills all week.
Clearly, they are on her mind. And we older and wiser ones keep jumping in with confidence that everything is fine so she needn’t be afraid, but she’s just not convinced.
The fear is kind of leaking out of her heart and into our conversations.
Oh, I don’t blame the drills, of course. I let her tell me about them all over again and then I look right into her two blue eyes and I even brush away her wild bangs so she can’t miss this reassurance:
Those drills are there to keep you safe. So that if anything ever happens, you’re not too scared to do the right thing. We drill now so we don’t have to be afraid later.
She nods knowingly, but I’m her mom and I know we’ll probably have this conversation again in a month when the alarm goes off at school and all the kids file outside for yet another fire drill. So we pray about it, every time it comes up, I pray peace for her.
It’d be nice, it’d be great, it’d be heaven really if we didn’t need drills, if we didn’t have to practice for fire or intruders or tornadoes or a world of harm and hurt.
But we live here, on a broken earth with sin and natural disasters and trouble.
And how we react in the crisis makes a difference.
I know this because haven’t I been alarmed and sent into a dizzying whirlpool of fear at the slightest provocation?
A phone call.
An email.
A Facebook post, for goodness’ sake.
Maybe you, too? The doctor’s report, the bill in the mail, the late night call, the hurtful remark, the broken car (again), the sobbing friend?
Trouble storms into our lives and how we react in the crisis matters.
We’re tempted to freak out and run around like a wild woman with her hands flailing hysterically in the air.
We’re in crisis mode. Making phone calls. Feeling hopeless. Crying desperately. Feeling helpless. Rallying the troops and sending out an SOS signal and doing anything possible to keep from drowning.
I’ll be honest, sometimes it doesn’t even take a crisis, it just takes one tiny bump into my plans for the day for me to settle into a funk of frantic activity and aggravated grumpiness.
The Psalmist said it just right:
In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help (Psalm 31:22 NIV).
In our alarm, when the bad news comes and we haven’t had time for faith to kick in, we snap to the judgment that God has abandoned us.
He can’t see us.
We’re cut off from Him, alone, dependent on our own strength to get us out of this mess.
Our natural reaction to an alarm is haste and hysteria, foolishness and fear.
It’s unnatural to choose peace under pressure.
but THE HOLY SPIRIT OFFERS US JUST SUCH UNNATURAL, SUPERNATURAL PEACE.
When everything settled and the crisis passed, the Psalmist recognized the truth: “Yet you heard my cry….”
In the haste of the moment, he had rushed into fear. But then he saw what was true, God had indeed heard His cry for help.
What about us?
Over time, after alarm and alarm and alarm have passed and the dust settles and we see Jesus right there with us, surely we’d know by now what to do in case of crisis:
Cry to God for help.
Trust Him to hear your call.
Rest in the assurance of His presence.
CHOOSE PEACE.
Not flaky peace, vague peace, warm-and-fuzzy-feeling peace, or the peace of blindness to our circumstances.
The peace that is the confident assurance of Christ’s presence right where we are.
Originally published 9/30/2015
Seeing the world from God’s shoulders
After having three girls, when I found out I was having a son, other moms chimed in with tons of wisdom.
They told me to be quick with the diaper changes or I’m bound to get peed on. (I did. At least twice.)
They told me to prepare for climbing, running, growling, and dirt (lots of it).
They told me no one would love me like a son, not ever. “It’s different than with a girl,” they said.
One mom told me how her son would cradle her face in his tiny palms and say, “You’re bootiful, Mommy.”
And another mom told me her son announced he was going to marry Mommy when he grew up. When she explained that Daddy had already married her, the little boy scowled and said “Dad is lucky.”
Mom after mom told me that no one treasured her as unconditionally or completely as her son had when he was little.
And then.
Then older moms started warning me. They still occasionally offer forebodings of doom.
“When you have a daughter, you have a friend for life,” they say, “but a son ditches you as soon as he finds a wife.”
I get it. “Leave and cleave.” I don’t want my son to be a stunted mama’s boy. I don’t want to break up his marriage by pitting myself against his wife or refusing to let go.
But I wouldn’t mind if he chooses a wife I could get along with or if he calls me once in a while. I wouldn’t mind a visit here and there and I’d hate it if he only hung out with ‘her’ family instead of sitting around our holiday table sometimes, too.
I’ve been enjoying this season with my son, loving and loving it.
I love train shirts and train toys and train books and conversations about trains.
I love airplanes and bulldozers and how we have to point out the fire trucks every time we walk past the fire station on Main Street.
I love making faces at him in the mirror and growling out funny voices.
I love toting along a few trucks everywhere we go.
I love superheroes.
This is my great joy.
But when other moms tell me to enjoy it now because I might as well kiss my son goodbye in a few years, I get more than a little sentimental and emotional.
Fearful even.
And then I read Jacob’s blessing for his son, Benjamin:
‘Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders.” Deut. 33:12 NIV
I don’t know what may have your heart turning somersaults of fear instead of clinging to hope this week, but worries over my kids’ future surely does that to me.
But this verse offers me security and peace.
This isn’t the season for me of farewells or parenting adult children and worrying over their not-so-adult decisions at times.
This is my season of early morning snuggles on the sofa before everyone else awakes and making pancakes in the shape of Mickey Mouse.
It’s my season of listening to all of their news about their day at school, laughing at funny lunch escapades and wiping away tears when another girl gets mean.
It’s my season of bedtime hugs and bedtime stories.
And it’s my season of lifting children up….up into my arms, snuggled into my chest….up onto my shoulders, high so they can see, high so they can be carried and so they can rest.
That’s what God does for His beloved.
He lifts us right up out of the mess and the weariness and sets us between His shoulders and tells us to ‘rest.’
Don’t strive. Don’t fight. Don’t wear yourself out trying to keep moving forward on your own.
Let Him carry you.
High up there on the shoulders of our God, our perspective shifts.
STOP FRETTING ABOUT THE FUTURE.
LIFE DOESN’T DEPEND ON US TO FIX IT AND MAKE IT HAPPEN; OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ONLY ON HIM AND HE IS SO DEPENDABLE.
When we’re on God’s shoulders, we are safe from danger.
We can cease striving.
We see the big picture. All that trouble we were in below looks so small when He is lifting us up high.
So I choose to rest here with the Lord, enjoying safety, enjoying this season, enjoying His presence, enjoying being His beloved–handing over fear and holding on to hope.
Originally published October 28, 2015
Devotionals and Storybook Bibles for Families
Easter is a great time to evaluate and refresh your family devotional time. If you’re looking for the perfect devotional or storybook Bible to read with your kids, I have some ideas for you!
We’ve had our share of duds—devotionals that were too superficial and lacked any spiritual depth. Some of the ones listed below our our favorite finds that stand out as digging deeper and providing a solid biblical foundation for our kids. Other items on the list are ones that are on my “I want to do this next list” because they look so good!
Don’t worry about starting a 365-day devotional in the spring. Either begin at the beginning and just keep going to the end. Or, start on the actual date and wrap around through the new year until you’ve finished.
Feel free to browse and find the book that might be the best for your family. Any of these could make a great Easter gift for children or grandchildren, as well.
- Our Daily Bread for Kids by Crystal Bowman and Teri McKinleyThis is my favorite elementary age devotional so far. It covers so much more than the basic Sunday School stories. Even my older children listen in and say, “I didn’t know that was in the Bible!” Very attractive pictures. Devotions are exactly the right length. My daughter loves the “Fun Facts” at the bottom of each entry. I love the solid biblical content.
- 90 Devotions for Kids (Adventures in Odyssey) by AIO TeamWe love Adventures in Odyssey (AIO) and every one of the AIO devotions makes my top 5 list of favorite family devotionals. These especially work well for families who are familiar with Adventures in Odyssey, but really any family could read them and be blessed. Great lessons and content! Perfect for about second or third grade on up through at least 5th grade and perhaps even into the tween years (depending on your child).
- 90 Devotions for Kids in Matthew (Adventures in Odyssey) by AIO Team
- Whit’s End Meal-Time Devotions (Adventures in Odyssey) by Crystal Bowman and Tricia Goyer
- Grace for the Moment: 365 Devotions for Kids by Max Lucado
Here’s one I want to do in the future!
- Experiencing God at Home by Richard and Tom Blackaby
- Kingdom Family Devotional by Tony Evans and Jonathan Evans
I love the format of this one with a theme for each week to go over as a family. The readings are short and occasionally have very simple-to-prep object lessons to accompany the devotional. It’s also accessible for a fairly wide range of kids, which is great for a large family like mine
- Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids by Sarah Young
We haven’t done this one (it’s just not my preference to read devotionals written from God’s perspective as if He is the one speaking), but others have recommended it to us several times. She also just released Jesus Today Devotions for Kids.
FOR TODDLERS AND EARLY PRESCHOOLERS
- My Good Night Bible by Susan LingoThese are the very first devotion books we used with my kids starting at late two-years-old and on through the early preschool years. They are short and sweet and, unfortunately out of print. But you can still buy used copies from sellers on Amazon!
- My Good Night Prayers by Susan Lingo
DEVOTIONAL FOR FAMILIES WITH OLDER CHILDREN (TWEENS AND TEENS):
- One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters by Nancy Guthrie
STORYBOOK BIBLES
- The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-JonesEvery story in The Jesus Storybook Bible points to Jesus, creating one overarching message of salvation. I read this to my youngest daughter when she was finishing up preschool. I think that’s really too soon to fully appreciate the message of the book and think it’d be a good fit for younger elementary years instead.
- My First Message by Eugene Peterson
- The Beginner’s Bible
- The Action Bible
The Action Bible was a huge hit with one of my daughters who loves graphic novels. She devoured this during her reading time. It has solid biblical content with artwork and a style she loved. She first received the Action Bible when she was 8 and that seemed like a good age, but it would likely appeal to any of the upper elementary grades.
- The Story for Children, a Storybook Bible
The Story is at times a good storybook Bible, although my kids weren’t always happy with the details or stories that were left out. I think my own children were just getting too old and were ready to read the Bible itself instead of the abbreviated version.
EASTER DEVOTIONAL:
- Mission Accomplished: A Two-Week Family Easter Devotional
Designed to start on Palm Sunday, this devotional takes you through the Easter story and then follows Jesus’ time with His disciples following the resurrection.
As our children get older, we’re moving away from storybook Bibles and devotionals and spending most of our time reading Scripture itself as a family. If you’d like to being reading the Bible aloud with your kids, here is a plan that takes you through the book of Mark in 30 days:
Originally published March 21, 2016
The Legend of the Missing Pizza Slice
It was a few summers ago when the legend of the missing pizza slice began.
On one of those summer nights when we arrived home late from an all-day activity, my husband stopped for pizza and brought it home for us.
But when he opened up the pizza box, he gasped in mock-horror and surprise.
“Hey,” he said, “there’s a missing slice!”
My girls jumped right in with theories and finally settled on this: Someone at the Papa John’s had eaten a slice of our pizza.
We played along. My husband said maybe they were just testing it to see how it tasted or maybe we should get our pizza elsewhere.
The girls all nodded as we happily ate the remaining pizza slices.
So then, we just kept up the tradition and the joke. Every time my husband brought pizza home that summer, he ate one slice in the car before he brought it to us for dinner.
And the girls marveled that every single time there was this missing piece.
What was wrong with the people making our pizzas?
After a year or so of this, my husband really pushed the limits. Instead of Papa John’s, we got Pizza Hut…..and he ate a slice before bringing it home to see what our kids would say.
One of my kids announced that maybe the Papa John’s worker had quit and gone over to Pizza Hut and was now sampling our pizzas there, too!!!
It’s my youngest daughter who eyed her dad suspiciously and then started interrogating him to see if maybe, just maybe, he was the culprit.
Really, I think she knows the truth. She knows that her dad has been secretly eating one slice out of each of our pizzas before bringing them home for at least two years now.
But she doesn’t want to let the joke go. Or maybe she doesn’t want to accuse her dad of pizza slice-sneaking. So she pushes right up to the point where she almost announces the truth and then backs off and lets everyone keep the mystery going.
She dismisses what’s true because she’s distracted by the noise around her.
And that can be me. That can be us.
I’ve been feeling this longing lately, this deep desire to believe, really and truly believe God and His love for me, to grip hard onto this truth.
But then I get distracted. I get worn down. I get forgetful. I get weary. Life is noisy, after all.
And then I let go, slipping right down into the waters of unbelief and nigh-on drowning in all the stress I carry around when I don’t trust God to care for me instead of doing everything on my own.
I don’t want to wrestle with my puny faith or trample down my nagging worries all the time.
When Jesus says, “I Am,” I want to rest in that.
When He says, “I Will,” I want to trust Him.
Instead, even though He’s always been faithful, I foolishly fret that maybe this one time, maybe in this one situation, maybe in this one seemingly impossible instance, He’ll fail me.
Maybe He provides for others, but not for me.
Maybe He came through in the past, but not this time.
So I’ve been praying the same thing as the father in Mark 9:24
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
The moment that worry creeps in, the moment I hear that first nagging cynicism, the moment I start running through possible scenarios in my mind and I feel the crushing weight of “what if,” I go back to Jesus.
Help me believe.
This week, I once again read in Romans what it says about Abraham:
No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised (Romans 4:20-21 ESV).
No unbelief? No wavering? He was fully convinced that God was able.
Not only that he grew strong in his faith.
Waiting wears me down. I grow doubtful over time. But Abraham grew stronger instead.
So, what’s the secret?
Maybe it’s that he was giving glory to God (verse 20). Maybe if I just keep returning to praise, I’ll become less forgetful, less prone to wander, question, and doubt.
This is where the faith-building happens, with our hands raised in worship, with our mouths singing His praise, giving Him glory for who He is and all that He’s done, tuning our hearts to trust Him with our future and believe He is able to care for us through it all.
I am for you and not against you
“I am for you.”
That’s what I tell my 12-year-old daughter after a long day and after we’ve flopped down onto the overstuffed blue couches to pray and to chat before bed.
It’s probably what I’ll be saying often for the next few years as she steps into the teen years.
Maybe it seems like some days I’m against her.
I tell her what she can’t have or what she can’t do. She carries home yet another flyer advertising yet another activity and I remind her that her calendar is already dripping with ink from her doing so much.
She talks about movies, books, songs, apps, and sometimes she’s the one left out. She doesn’t know that band. She hasn’t read that book. Maybe we won’t let her see that movie.
This is hard. This is her coming to grips with what it means not to fit in, what it means to miss out, what it means to let things go even when others around her indulge like it’s no big deal.
Of course, she’s a good girl. She’s not asking to attend wild parties or drink or do drugs or even watch a PG-13 movie. That’s not her.
Still I explain it that night to her as we relax on the sofa in a moment of quiet, and I hope what I say sinks deeply down to the needy parts of her heart:
I am not against you. Even when it feels like I’m against you because I’m not giving you what you want or what even feels reasonable or what other people get. I’m never your enemy and I’m never out to hurt you or deprive you of what is good.
No. I am for you. Always. Because I love you. And it’s because I want the very best for you that sometimes I have to keep you from the second-best, or even what seems “good,” or perhaps what we both know isn’t right or true.
She nods her head in understanding for now.
I hope the understanding lasts. It probably won’t, not all the time. I’m sure I’ll be echoing these words again and again, if not to her, then to her siblings.
It makes me marvel at God really, because He knows how I feel. He knows what it’s like to be the parent having the hard conversations, building the unpopular boundaries, saying the “no” that a child doesn’t want to hear.
In Romans it says:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 ESV)
And the Psalmist wrote:
Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me (Psalm 56:9 ESV).
God isn’t for me because He gives me everything I want.
To says God is for me means His heart, His passion, His desire is for my ultimate blessing and my ultimate good. He wants the best for me, even if it feels uncomfortable at the time because it’s not what I wanted or what seemed easy or appealing.
He knows what’s truly good and what I truly need, and that’s what He’s going to be doing in my life, directing, guiding, pausing, saying “no,” and saying “yes.”
So, as my daughter shuffles off to her room for bed, I sit for a moment with God. It’s as if He nudges me with His elbow to say, “See? See what I’ve been trying to tell you?”
God isn’t against me when I don’t like His timing.
God isn’t against me when I long for the blessing He doesn’t choose to give (or when He gives it to someone else and not to me). Even if we feel sometimes like everyone else His favorite because He so readily gives to them the things He withholds from us (and what’s that all about, anyway?).
God isn’t against me when my plans go awry or His plans don’t seem to make sense.
God isn’t against me when I experience injustice or hurtfulness.
God is for me.
He is for you.
It’s a matter of trusting His love for us, trusting Him enough to love us well and love us completely and to believe it when we read, “no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11 ESV).
Spring Cleaning is what I need in my heart
Declutter my heart, Lord.
That’s what I pray as I sort through papers and throw out broken toys and rummage through the board games in the closet to find the ones we no longer play.
There’s so much stuff. So much build-up over time.
We can start to feel bogged down.
Worried. Tired. Weary. Disappointed. Uncertain. Lacking direction.
Lacking perspective.
Every single day we can get up and go through all the motions but not have purpose or passion for any of it.
After I finish decluttering inside the house, I clean out the garage and haul all the trash away and I marvel at how the finished product looks with all the muck cleared out.
This is what I want.
Clear out the cobwebs and the mold and the trash in the corners and the piles of junk, Lord.
We’ve been working on projects all over our home. Besides the organizing and cleaning, we’ve powerwashed the deck and the house.
This little machine is like a magic wand, wave it over a surface and it changes colors. Our gray deck turns a honey golden brown wood again and our house shines white instead of being splotched with the green of pollen build-up from nearby trees.
I love the instant feedback of this, shoot the water in the direction of the dirt and it comes clean. It’s washed away in an instant and shines like new.
Make me new, Lord.
Here’s the build-up again, how dirt collects over time and I don’t even realize it. Slowly, slowly, slowly it covers over the surface.
Until one day, it’s grimy and dull and it needs a water jet to show the difference.
Yesterday, I was on my hands and knees painting the newly washed deck with a stain to help protect it from water and dirt.
And this is also what I need: to clear away the dirt first before painting on any fancy finish or coating of shiny color.
I can try all I want to shine myself up on the outside, to look perfect and put-together.
But what I need is a deep cleansing. A de-cluttering and a washing down that only Christ can do…..and then I can put on the new person God plans for me to be.
I need a spring cleaning in my life and in my heart.
Declutter my heart. Clear out the distractions. Make me new.
Paul described this to the Ephesians:
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV).
He used the same idea in Colossians:
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. . Colossians 3:5, 12-14 ESV).
Put off.
And then put on.
Maybe sometimes we forget the process,. We layer on new coats of varnish hoping we’ll look cleaner, brighter, shinier, and new, but it never works.
Before we can put on the new self…
Before we can put on compassion and kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love….
We need to put off the old self. We need to put to death all the earthly muck that builds up over time.
The Holy Spirit can do this work, but it takes us yielding.
We can ask Him to throw open the windows and let the fresh breeze blow through. Sweep out our corners. Throw out the broken and unnecessary. Use lemon-scented cleaners that mingle with the breeze and let us start fresh.
Give us a fresh perspective.
Reveal to us a fresh vision.
May we have a fresh start.
Re-fresh us with your Holy Spirit, Lord
Slow to Criticize and Quick to Pray
Years ago, my friend was crying and telling me she felt like a total flake. Life had been crazy, filled with mistakes and missed appointments, misplaced papers, forgotten promises, everything lost and mixed up and wrong.
I love my friend and I got it. Truly, I did. I nodded my head and encouraged her while other shoppers pushed their carts past us in the grocery story.
But inside, in the secret places of my mind and heart, that compassion wasn’t complete. It was a hollow, pat-her-on-the-back kind of friendship that feels bad, but doesn’t really offer the full covering of grace.
The truth was, deep down, I was judging her as much as she judged herself. And it was ugly.
Forgetting, missing, losing, making mistakes? It sounded like a too-busy schedule and an absent organizational system. Maybe a few files and a day planner could save the day.
Two weeks later, I was sobbing at my kitchen table. It had been a week of misplaced papers and missing items—not little insignificant things—BIG things, like legal documents and DMV paperwork.
For someone generally in control and on top of things, the week had been devastatingly humbling.
Then, I felt the deeper challenge.
God never lets me get away with passing silent judgment or criticism on another. Never.
Nor should He.
The very moment I start internally critiquing another mom or putting another friend in a labeled box based on her mistakes and weaknesses, I know God will be at work in my life, bringing me to my knees to ask for forgiveness.
Because I need a Savior.
Because I’m a mess, too!
I’M NOT PERFECT AND MY LIFE ISN’T PERFECT AND THE THING WE ALL NEED AS MOMS AND AS WOMEN AND AS FLAW-FILLED HUMANS IS HEAPING LOADS OF GRACE AND COMPASSION, NOT QUIET JUDGMENT OR SILENT CRITICISM.
We stumble into the judge’s seat so easily, thinking we know the people around us:
The frazzled-looking momma with the crying baby in Wal-Mart.
The parents whose teenager disappeared from church.
The couple who met with the divorce lawyers last week.
The husband and wife holding the bankruptcy paperwork.
The family with the nice new car and large house.
Those who homeschool (or don’t).
Those who have large families (or small).
The mom who commutes every day to work (and the one who doesn’t.)
As long as we’re quiet about it, after all, there seems little harm.
Maybe it spills over occasionally into snarky remarks and private jibes with like-minded friends, but mostly we control the collateral damage.
Yet, isn’t that the picture of the pharisees in Luke 5?
Scripture tells us: “One day Jesus was teaching and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there” (Luke 5:17).
They had front row seats, a privileged view of the hurting crowd.
They watched four friends carrying a man on a mat and lowering him down through the ceiling. They watched as Jesus healed him, saying, “Friend, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20).
While the man and his friends rejoiced and the crowd marveled, others remained unmoved:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21).
They were just “thinking to themselves.” They weren’t gossiping or heckling Jesus. They didn’t hop up then and there to condemn Him.
It was just an internal dialogue, a private moment of judgment and condemnation.
But, “Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, ‘Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?‘” (Luke 5:22).
Even our most secretive judgments of others have an audience—Jesus Himself.
Would He also be disappointed about what I’m thinking in my heart?
After all, judgment that doesn’t appear on protest signs or Facebook posts or Twitter feeds is still judgment and it still hurts.
INSTEAD OF CRITICIZING OR LABELING OTHERS WHEN I SEE THEM STRUGGLING OR HURTING, I SHOULD BE DRAWN TO INTENSE AND CONSISTENT INTERCESSION, PRAYING FOR THEM RATHER THAN PICKING AT THEM.
As Oswald Chambers wrote:
‘God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.’
I SHOULD BE SLOW TO CONDEMN AND QUICK TO PRAY FOR OTHERS.
The truth is I’m desperately in need of the grace Christ has poured out on me, and if I need that kind of grace, then I need to show that kind of grace: unhindered, unqualified, unmarred by an undercurrent of criticism and condescension.
Just grace.
Beautiful, pure, deep down honest grace.
(Author’s note: Of course, this doesn’t mean we can’t discern or judge right from wrong, sin from not-sin, etc.)
Originally published 3/9/2016
Bible Verses and a Prayer about Courage
- Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
- Joshua 1:9 NIV
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” - 1 Chronicles 28:20 NIV
David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work.Do not be afraid or discouraged, for theLord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. - 2 Chronicles 32:7 NASB
“Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. - Psalm 16:8 NASB
I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. - Psalm 27:1 NIV
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:14 NASB
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord. - Psalm 31:24 NASB
Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All you who hope in the Lord. - Psalm 56:3-4 NIV
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me? - Isaiah 41:10 NIV
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:13 NIV
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you. - 1 Corinthians 16:13 NIV
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith;be courageous; be strong. - 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. - Hebrews 13:5-6 NIV
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid
What can mere mortals do to me?” - 1 Peter 3:13-14
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”
Heather C. King - Room to Breathe 