Nearing Home – Heather C. King

We sat at her kitchen table and listened as she told us about the old days. She talked about life on their farm as an immigrant family from Germany. She explained how they trekked for miles to go to Sunday service at their church and then stayed in town, visiting with others, making it an all-day affair before traveling back home again. She told us what it was like as a German-American during World War II and walked us through the family tree.

My mom had said we should listen to my great-grandmother’s stories now, while she was still there to tell them. So, we did. Then she died when I was a teenager and the opportunity to listen was gone.

If you read this blog even on the weekends, you’ll know I finished up 2011 by reading Billy Graham’s book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well. It was a little like the day that we sat and listened to my great-grandmother tell stories. That day, we had really listened to her talk about life. By reading his book, I did the same for Billy Graham.

I’m not really a resolution-lover or a diet-plan designer or a prediction-maker. But I am thinking this new year of restating priorities. Of taking some of what Billy Graham had to say and letting it influence and guide me right from the start of this year.

It’s about making people the priority.

Billy Graham was thinking of connecting with grandkids. But really, these principles could guide all our relationships: with our kids, our spouses, our parents, our siblings, our friends and Bible study cohorts, the folks in our Sunday School class, our neighbors, and more.

He said:

Pray consistently

We pray specifically and routinely for those we see every day and those who live too far way for frequent visits.

He said, “Don’t pray only in general terms (the kind of prayer that vaguely asks God to bless them.) Make your prayers specific, and make them daily” (p. 98).

This is why I love my Thursday mornings with my Moms in Prayer group. We pray for the math tests and the homework, the activities and playground witness of each of our kids. Every week, we thank God for the very specific and identifiable ways He has answered our prayer and every week we are amazed at how He once again faithfully took care of these little ones we love.

So, what to pray? I like to pray through Stormie O’Martian’s Power of a Praying Parent (or Power of a Praying Wife when I pray for my husband). Yet, you can simply pray not just for physical safety, but for good decisions, for a strong Christian witness, for the growth of their faith, for their ability to withstand temptation and peer pressure, for their friendships, and for whatever specific difficulties they are facing.

Encourage Them

Billy Graham wrote, “Don’t major in the negatives! They need to know we love them and most of all that God loves them (p. 100). This year, I want to choose my words carefully and thoughtfully so that I can “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Be an Example

Avoid “do what I say, not what I do!” If I want my daughters to learn to have personal devotions, then I let them see me sit at the kitchen table with my Bible and cup of tea. If I want them to be kind, I practice kindness.

Billy Graham said “Remember, your children and grandchildren learn more about you through observing your actions and attitudes. Do they see Christ in you? Will they remember you as someone who was a living example of His compassion and love? (p. 100).

All in all, his book reminded me to make people the priority of my new year. They certainly were for Christ.

We tend to give when it’s convenient. We often make decisions based on what’s practical. We give what we can afford. We get together when we’re “free.”

But Jesus served others when it was inconvenient and impractical. He skipped meals, changed plans, took the long way around, gave up time away for those who needed Him and died to save them. He didn’t stay up on the cross for the sake of a theology or a plan. He did it for love of people.

My husband said, “often what is important isn’t what’s practical” in our relationships with others.

So, this year I want to major on the important, even if it’s impractical, hard, or downright crazy.

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Hiding the Word:

What to pray? What to say? It’s the final day of 2011 and somehow that heightens the importance of the verse we choose to meditate on this week. It’s like setting the tone for the new year and there are so many powerful verses to choose from!

I just finished reading Billy Graham’s book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well (click here for my book review). It reminded me of the days when I worked in an estate planning law firm. Most of our clients were seniors coming in to plan for their future.

We had clients like the lady who owned a bakery and always brought in trays of goodies when she visited our office.

We had clients like the wealthy grumpus of a couple who cut their son out of their will because he married someone they didn’t like.

I remember thinking then that I needed to choose what I would be like as I aged. Did I want to be sweet and giving? Did I want to be cranky and unforgiving?

If I left the end-result to chance, who knows how I’d turn out! Yet, if I prayerfully asked God to form my character and guide my steps, I had hope for my future.

Isn’t that a little like a new year? Instead of asking God for all the things we want Him to do for us in 2012 or all the things we want to get from Him, what if we instead invited Him to work on our hearts and transform us?

So, my verse for this week is a prayer to start the year:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer
(Psalm 19:14).

What are you praying that God will do in your heart and life in the new year?

Weekend Rerun:

They Will See God
Originally published 03/25/2011

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
Psalm 105:4, NIV

A few weeks ago, I waited in the line of moms and dads who were picking up their children from our church nursery. I could see inside the room where my daughter was playing, but she couldn’t yet see me. As the parents before me went into the room, my baby started craning her neck to see if she could find me in the crowd. She looked up as each new adult entered the room and kept searching every face to see if it was mine.

Then she saw me. I watched her face change from searching . . . searching . . . searching . . . to pure joy at finding Mom!! She beamed. She ran to me. She practically knocked me over with her embrace.

Really, there are few moments as a mom more precious than seeing a little person so excited just to see your face. To know that you are so very loved by someone sweet and innocent, even though you aren’t perfect or even the best.

That moment with my daughter made me think of how I should passionately and intently seek after God, for intimacy with Him and time in His presence, and for opportunities to give Him heartfelt adoration and praise and to show I love Him. After all, He is perfect and the best!

I want to see God. I want to do whatever it takes to have a closer relationship with Him. Just like David, I can say, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8, NIV).

Sometimes all it takes to see God is persistently pursuing His presence. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (NIV). Also in Psalm 27, David said, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14, NIV).

My daughter kept searching the crowd of parents in the church nursery and ultimately she did see me. I came at the appointed time. She was not abandoned and left alone. All that she had to do was wait and not give up.

Don’t stop searching for God’s face in the midst of your busy life, your family stresses, your ministry concerns, your health crisis, your financial struggles, your job disappointments, your heart-wrenching fears. Keep seeking with all Your heart. You will see God.

But, actively seek. Sometimes we wonder why we aren’t seeing God’s presence in our lives, but we are relegating Him to 10 minutes of our day as we skim through a devotional. Or we think that listening to a sermon and some Christian radio counts as connecting with God. Be willing to give God your time sacrificially. Invite Him into every part of your day and immerse yourself in His Word so that you know Him more fully.

There are other times, though, that finding God takes more than just pursuing His presence. Matthew 5:8 tells us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (NIV). Seeking God also means pursuing purity.

Earlier this week, I took a day off from writing. It was partly out of necessity because the day was so hectic with appointments, work, family and ministry. But, it was also because I needed a time out. Someone did something in total innocence that frustrated me. It wounded my ridiculous pride and I reacted with some pouting and whining and, yes, I admit–a private little tantrum.

It was sin and I knew it. I needed some time to get right with God.

As much as I could, I spent the afternoon in God’s Word, letting Him sift my heart, reveal the sin and deal with it. I seem to have these pitfalls, these consistent sins that trip me up, hindering and entangling me (Hebrews 12:1). Do you have some of those—-lessons that you need to learn over and over and over and you wonder if you’ll ever get it right?

Unfortunately, these sins separate me from God and obscure His face.

Fortunately—or more accurately— amazingly, God extends abundant mercy and compassion when we confess our sins to Him and ask Him to make us clean. We are promised that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NIV).

That day, I prayed through Psalm 51, which was David’s Psalm of repentance. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to hide the sin after she became pregnant. Adultery. Murder. It seems like a lot for God to forgive, and yet God’s grace is big enough for any sin we lay at His feet. Like David, I prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10, NIV). I want a steadfast spirit, not my roller coaster reactions when I feel hurt or wronged.

Paul wrote, “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Corinthians 7:1, NIV). Purity of heart isn’t something we stumble on accidentally. It’s not a spiritual gift that God gives to some people and not to others. Instead, it means confessing sin and also actively pursuing purity and “perfecting holiness.” It means asking Him to dig deep in my heart to root out the ugly sins that have such a deep hold on me, even when it hurts, even though it embarrasses me to face up to what’s really lurking in my soul.

It’s worth it– Seeing God’s face and knowing that–not only am I lighting up at finding Him in the crowd, but that He’s grinning at the sight of me washed clean and anticipating His presence. I want a pure heart so that I can see God. I don’t want to miss out on His presence, His peace, or His activity in my life.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to see God? Right now, that might just be holding on to hope with all your might. Pursue His presence and keep waiting with expectation for God to show up in all His glory. Do not give up. Or, it might mean getting on your knees and asking Him to cleanse your heart and forgive you. Then, with a pure heart, you will see God.

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