Last weekend, I was blessed to have some extended quiet time with the Lord. He spoke to me beautifully about the power of quiet reflection. In the upcoming posts, I will be sharing some of the lessons He taught me during this special time spent in His presence.
Blooming dogwood tree
Our lives are so full of busyness and noise. However, if we take time to step back and listen for the Lord’s voice in whatever environment we may find ourselves, we can be blessed and refreshed in a special way. This is a new way for me to encounter God–to experience Him with a quieted mind and heart, no matter how distracting my current surroundings may be. There is a certain power I discovered in this kind of communion with God. When you settle your mind before the Lord right where you are and tune in to His blessed presence, He can truly speak to you in a special way.
Blooming cherry tree
My personal favorite reflective exercise has been Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is reading of the Word combined with reflection. It provides a great opportunity to draw closer to God as His Word penetrates deep into our hearts and minds. Such reflective time spent with God in nature is particularly refreshing. Our Lord speaks in a profound way when we encounter Him through His creation.
Redwood trees
May you draw closer to the Lord and hear His voice today!
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” –2 Corinthians 5:7
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. ” –2 Corinthians 4:16-18
This life is not all there is! If we lived by what is seen, that would be extremely depressing and utterly hopeless. The things that truly matter are those which are unseen: Jesus, faith, love, joy, trust…We, as believers, have a higher calling!
Many of my family members and friends have been amazing examples of living by faith, not sight. My mom and dad always exhibit deep faith and confidence in the unseen, even in the midst of fiery trials. A dear friend made a bold proclamation of faith during a trying time that deeply impacted me.
A great visual imagery of the concept of faith is driving on a foggy day. The visibility is low; those in the vehicle can only see a little bit at a time. The passengers must trust their driver to navigate them when they can’t make out what’s ahead. All of a sudden, the fog lifts, and everything is clear in the bright sunlight. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:12 in the Message translation: “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him distinctly just as He knows us!”
Thick fog on the drive to churchBright sunlight peering through the branches
We are not lost, even when our world is misty and clouded in fog. Our Driver knows where He is going, so we can confidently walk by faith in the unseen.
Recently, a dear friend sent me a booklet called “Praising” by Watchman Nee, a famous Chinese Christian. Its message has given me new inspiration and a fresh perspective on praising Jesus. In this booklet, Watchman Nee talks about how essential praise is to our Christian walk. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the booklet:
“Praise is the highest work carried out by God’s children.” (page 1)
“We should sing praises to our God.” (page 2)
“The nature of praise is an offering, a sacrifice…praise comes from pain and suffering.” (page 3)
“Prayer is a warfare, but praise is a victory.” (page 8)
“We need to learn to overcome Satan by our praise. We overcome Satan not only by prayer but also by praise.” (page 15)
Watchman Nee asserts many times that praise lifts us above our situation and drives the devil away. He also says that the most essential times for praise are the seasons of deepest darkness.
Sunrise on the Texas Gulf coast
A friend once said, “When it is hardest to pray, pray the hardest!” That is a wonderful statement, and I would create a similar one: “When it is hardest to praise, sing the loudest!”
Bridge in Kentucky
Watchman Nee is a wonderful example of praising in all circumstances. He was incarcerated for his faith in 1952 and went to be with the Lord after 20 years of imprisonment. How precious are the lessons from a man who experienced such trials!
Let us also be living witnesses to the power of praise! Whenever we go through various difficulties and are prone to fall into depression, we should turn on our praise, and it will drive our gloom away.
Let us all praise the Lord and lift His name on high more and more!
2 Chronicles 20:20-22
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord,For His mercy endures forever.” Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.
Eric Metaxas, a wonderful Christian author, wrote an amazing book called 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. In the introduction, Metaxas gives a refreshing and thought-provoking message about femininity and its contrast to masculinity. He says, “The stories of these great women show us that men and women are not interchangeable. There are things men can and should do that women cannot, and there are things that women can and should do that men cannot…Men and women were deliberately designed to be different. Indeed we are specifically created as complements to each other, as different halves of a whole, and that whole reflects the glory of God.”
I believe this view is Biblical and refreshing in today’s culture where men and women are pressured to compete with each other. Both genders are distinctly different and each is wonderful in the way God made it. Although women are, in general, more vulnerable and are commanded by God to submit to men, they are by no means inferior to men. We can see in Scripture how Jesus, living in a society in which women had little value, highly respected them. He was born of a woman, ministered to by women, performed His first miracle at the request of a woman, and first directly proclaimed His Messiahship to a woman. Numerous other women also hold important roles in the gospels. All recorded accounts of Jesus’ raising the dead directly involved women. They were among the few who remained at the foot of the cross, and the first to see the resurrected Lord.
Forgiven by Greg Olsen
Whether you are a man or a woman, let us all attempt to serve God in the role in which He has placed us today.
I close with one of my favorite verses about womanhood:
1 Peter 3:3-5a
Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves.
Recently, I have been meditating on Jesus’ words from the Lord’s prayer: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as is in heaven.” There is a powerful song called “Kingdom Come” by Rebecca St. James and for KING & COUNTRY that sheds a whole new light on this sentence.
I always thought that asking for God’s kingdom to come was, basically, asking for Christ’s return. And while that is definitely part of it, there is so much more. I did some research on the term “kingdom of God” in the NT, and here is what I found:
-Matthew 6:33-We are to seek it first.
-Mark 1:14-The gospel is called “the gospel of the kingdom of God”.
-Mark 1:15-John the Baptist proclaimed it was at hand.
-Mark 10:14-Jesus said it is made up of childlike faith.
-Luke 9:60-We are to preach it.
-Luke 17:21-It is within us.
-Acts 14:22-We can only enter it through many tribulations.
-Romans 14:17-It is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
-1 Corinthians 4:20-It is not in word, but in power.
The kingdom of God is not yet physically established on this earth. However, it does exist in our hearts as believers. Within us, it is like a tower of righteousness, power, peace, joy, and faith that God had built. And while we pray for Christ’s return, when we will dwell in God’s literal kingdom on earth, let us also pray for His kingdom to come, even now, first and foremost in our hearts, so that we may further it and share it with others.
Every time we grow in Christ, His kingdom expands within us. And every time another heart accepts Christ as Lord of his or her life, His kingdom furthers, on earth just as it is in heaven. Let us pray first that God would expand His kingdom more and more in our hearts and lives, and then that He would use us to further His kingdom in others.
I am currently studying the book of 2 Corinthians, and one image that really struck me is that of earthen vessels. How is this image meaningful, and how does it apply to our lives? The answer is profound.
2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”
To put it simply, we are the earthen vessels, and the treasure we are entrusted with is the precious Word of God. The word “earthen” denotes something frail; thus, we also have the imagery of us being broken vessels. I think that we can be broken for Christ in two ways: first, out of love and sacrifice for Him, and second, in sorrow because of the trials of life that He allows us to go through for His purposes.
I love how the Hillsong song “Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)” puts it. It says, “You take our failures, You take our weakness/ You set Your treasures in jars of clay/ so take this heart Lord, I’ll be Your vessel/ The world to see Your life in me.”
There are two Biblical images that come to mind. First, the image of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet. She used an alabaster jar, quite literally, an earthen vessel, to pour out the best of what she had in sacrifice for the Lord. Should not we also do the same out of our frail, broken vessels?
The second image is that of Gideon. Judges 6 tells us, “Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers….Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’”
Jesus Christ’s light has been entrusted to us. When we break, either in trials that come our way or in sacrifice and love for Him, the Light inside us burns brighter!
Another insightful thought is how this verse about earthen vessels relates to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, Israel. What a good example of this concept! The Word of God–precious treasure–inside earthen vessels.
A replica of one of the jars in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
One more thought: A friend reminded me of Isaiah 64:8 in regard to this topic: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.” God molds us, earthen vessels, and sometimes He allows us to be broken so that His life and light can shine brighter through us.
As we meditate on this amazing concept of broken vessels, may our hearts long to bring more and more glory to the Lord!
Samson is an interesting Biblical figure. He is usually portrayed as a strong, mighty hero, and his story is often listed among the top Biblical accounts.
However, upon closer inspection, it seems that Samson seems to have had more downfalls than victories. Although there were numerous instances in which he was “filled with the Spirit of the LORD,” he desecrated his holy Nazarite vow several times which implied disrespect for this sacred ordinance, got engaged to a Philistine woman, grieved his parents, and, finally, fell in love with another evil Philistine woman and revealed to her the secret source of his strength. And in all his career as judge, he was only listed to have “called on the name of the LORD” twice.
Although Samson was ordained by God to defeat the Philistines, and although God graciously filled him with His Spirit numerous times, Samson would probably not be the most exemplary Biblical role model for us to follow. As God’s children, we would not want to let God’s Spirit control only some of our actions and victories. We would desire to live a constant, prayer and Spirit-filled life, where our hearts are closer to God and where His Spirit controls our every action, thought, and word. We ought to call on Him always, not just in times of most desperate need. We would do well not to rely on ourselves or the qualities that we think make us strong, but rather lean on the One who is the only source of strength.
Meditating on the tragic story of Samson prompted me to write this prayer.
