Monthly Archives: March 2010

Is there a Purpose in Trials?

Posted by Amy W in Christianity, Devotional, Scripture

I read this this morning in Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby - it seemed to meet me in my thoughts and feelings this morning.  I thought it was a decent reminder on the purposefulness of difficulty, trials, and hardships (the “wilderness”) in our relationship with Him. enjoy!

“And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

God allows us to suffer difficulties and hardships for a purpose. God led the children of Israel to wander through the wilderness for forty years in order to humble them and test them. When they refused to obey Him and enter the Promised Land, the Israelites revealed that they did not really know Him. If they had, they would have had more faith. God spent the next forty years testing the hearts of His people to see if they were prepared for His next assignment.

Testing reveals what is in your heart and produces a robust faith (James 1:3, 12). God allowed His people to hunger so they could experience His provision and develop a deeper level of trust in Him. As the people walked with God they came to understand that their lives depended upon His Word. They learned that God’s Word was the most important thing they had. After depending on God for forty years while living in the desert, the people listened when God spoke, and they believed. When they finally entered the Promised Land and waged war against their enemies, the Israelites knew that God’s word meant life and death. They were prepared to listen to Him, and as a result He led them to an astounding victory.

Is God presently testing you in some area of your life? What has His testing revealed? Have you become bitter toward God because of where He has led you? Or have you come to trust Him more as a result of what you have gone through?

 Abba,
You know my heart this morning…
if this is a “test”, I don’t like what I’m seeing.
“ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
Do not cast me from your presence
       or take your Holy Spirit from me.
 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
       and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
(Psalm 51:10-12)
Amen.

Remembering The Gospel

Posted by Amy W in Christianity, Devotional, Life Lessons From Church Planting, Scripture and tagged with , ,

I don’t know how long its been…6 months, 10 months…a year, maybe.  However long…I feel like I’ve been walking through this time where things have been really hard for me.  I’ve struggled and suffered in many ways.  God has opened my eyes to the reality of the depth of my selfishness, forced me to embrace loneliness in ways I never really had as a Christian, brought insecurities to the surface, and allowed me to experience the truth of the statement “the harvest is plenty but the workers are few”.  I’ve been hurt and confused by people in my church body.  One thing after another…and the truth is it’s been really hard.  Somewhere along this season I started to give up.  Fervent prayer waned, my witness, possibly, faded out, church and all that I was doing with it became a checklist…tasks that I would check off…motions I would go through.  Work got hard, homework got harder…and finding time for God seemed to be the hardest.

I’ve known for a while that I’ve been “off”.  God has been with me this whole time, don’t get me wrong…I’ve experienced glimpses of His Grace and Victory over this time, but the reality is this is the season God has allowed me to walk.  And scripture provides confidence that regardless of how I’m feeling, He’s with me…with all of His sons and daughters.

Could this time be an opportunity to cling to him more?  An opportunity to un-clench my hands from around every “good” bad thing that I had been holding to…those things that were maintaining a false sense of security in my walk with God?

Perhaps a little bit of all of the above.

Today I struggled with a single sentance that a friend spoke to me recently.  It drove directly into an insecurity that I’ve always struggled with perhaps most of my life.  I tried everything I knew to do…and it kept eating at me.

Tonight I picked up a little book that someone gave to me as I shared with them my thoughts that I had lost touch with the Gospel.  It’s called the Gospel Primer.  by Page 2 of the first part of the book…I found myself stuck – and this what I realized as I meditated on the truths and scriptures presented…

The Gospel is the power of God.  We see glimpses of God’s power all around us…the winds of a hurricane, the eruption of a volcano, but it’s the Gospel (and Christ) that scripture actually identifies as being the power of God.  The Gospel is there both for unbelievers as well as believers.  Hebrews 4:2 acknowledges that it is the Gospel united with faith that brings about change and growth and fruit in the lives of those who hear it.  Could it be that faith too will wane  or falter over time if not coupled with the Gospel?  If so…thats the story of the season I’ve been walking through…and tonight it helped shed light on a lot thats happened during this time.

I realized that after battling a single lie today, the reality is that it has no power over me when it stands in comparison to the Gospel – the fact that Christ was crucified and died for our sins and that God is in the process of renewing and restoring people to the fullness of what He intended for his creation.

The Gospel is the power of God…tonight it helped immensely to remember it and meditate upon it.

Abba, thank you.  for meeting me tonight.  for hearing my heart cries and being faithful to meet me in this place.  God, help me to remember your Gospel help me to use it to combat the condemnation that comes from my doubts and insecurities.  Lord, help me to forgive my friend’s words…and the words of several others who have also fed the insecurity that ate at me today.
For that I need you, please…
Please restore the truth of your Gospel to it’s proper place in my heart and mind. Thank you for your love…and your word…and the gift of Grace that you lavish upon my life.
Amen.

A Mighty Hand to Hold

Posted by Amy W in Christianity, Devotional, Jesus, Journey through the Psalms, Scripture and tagged with , , , ,

“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.
(Psalm 37:23-24)

It is a lie to believe that following Christ, or becoming a Christian is the end to all hard times and struggles.  The truth is, often the hard times, for some, appear to increase with Christ.  The struggles and temptations (now that the Holy Spirit has opened out eyes to their presence in our life) seem to bombard us.  And, if you’re anything like me, born again christians will eventually realize that even as a follower of Christ, they will continue to sin.

A little stressed and confused, this verse became sweet encouragement to my eyes.  The reality of God establishing our steps points to His Soverignty in our lives.  Now, while I do believe God can and will give us over to our sinful desires for a season, God’s soverignty is often at work guiding and directing our lives…sometimes the path is clear and free…sometimes the path is rocky and hard to see.  Nonetheless, God is still there guiding the steps we take.

Vs. 24 is pretty sweet too…it starts out “though he fall”.  UH, hello….we’re talking about the “righteous” in this section…and yes, even the righteous fall.  As Christians parts of our journey will be difficult to traverse.  We might not even want to move forward for the uncertainty in our footing scares us.  The incredible thing is that regardless of our inevitable “fall” or stumble (as my version puts it) God’s hand is there to hold us up.  It is strong, mighty, and ever-present.

When that happens, what happens to the righteous?  I can’t help but imagine that it’s the blood of Christ working as we stumble along.  David tells us that the righteous will not be cast headlong.  Even as we stumble, once considered righteous in the eyes of God…he will not cast us out.

I love this.  in a Psalm that spends it’s 40 verses contrasting the righteous and wicked…David tells us that once God has grabbed our hand, He’s not letting go.  How is that possible?  Well, back to Christ.  It’s through him that we are made righteous, nothing we can do on our own will elevate us to the status of “righteous”.  I might also challenge that the opposite is true – once covered in the Blood of Christ, nothing we do has the ability to nullify the righteousness granted by Christ.  It is only through God’s grace, Christ and faith that we are made clean, and I’m not sure if we can out-do (on either end of the spectrum) the work that He has done.  When (and yes…we most certainly will) we stumble, God’s hand will continue to hold up His Child…thanks to the Blood of Christ.   No other hand has that kind of redeeming and sanctifying power…it’s only by God and through God that we are able to remain “righteous”…and we should rest assured in that reality…especially when we walk (or stumble) along those rockier parts of our journey.

a new beginning

Posted by Amy W in Uncategorized

So, I’ve debated whether I should talk about this on my blog, but who am I kidding?  I’ve talked about everything else in my life on my blog…why wouldn’t I share this?

So, for all of you many (*ahem*… 3) readers out there…*drum roll please*

I have a boyfriend!

yup, that’s it.  Wingfiea has a boyfriend.

For the last few months I have been on this roller coaster ride of emotion, trying to understand feelings, push beyond fears, and uncover God, who I believe to be standing in the middle of this maddness called life.  And this is where the journey has led me – excited, cognizant of fear, and realizing that I have no idea what I’m doing.  It’s kinda fun.  

For over 5 years God has walked me through a season of singleness.  As hard as it was, I can honestly say it was extremely necessary and beneficial, both for me as well as the opportunities I was able to embrace as a single woman.  There were things I had to learn, skeletons I had to face, people I had to love and serve, a God I had to follow. 

Now I’m walking through very new ground.  It’s scary and exciting.   Truth is, I have big hopes and big fears and the only thing I can be certin of today is the reality that in the midst of it all is Christ.   I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t know what I’m doing (or how to do this relationship thing), but I think it’s good… for both of us involved.  I see this as a new season to grow and learn new things, for skeletons to be faced, a time to love and serve in a new context, and to keep following God as he leads. 

At this point, I have no tid-bits of wisdom.  Truth is, I’m a chicken who’s  independent and relationally challenged.  I am simply learning and trying to understand how to do this new part life.  Luckily, God has allowed me to walk through it with another imperfect pilgrim – a lover of Christ, a friend, and a man that I’ve deeply cared for and respected long before today.  And surprisingly, I’m slowly realizing and seeing a love and respect expressed in return…one that I’ve never before seen.  disarming.  beautiful.  foundational.  I’m not gonna lie…it’s pretty sweet.    

Abba, thank you for what you’ve given today…
please work in this relationship
 and bring Glory to your name.
Amen.