Sifting

A couple years ago, a dear friend introduced me to the wonder of grinding fresh wheat flour. Unfortunately, she had acquired some wheat that had not yet been cleaned of all the chaff. A relatively easy task, was easily quadrupled in time as we labored over each kernel of wheat, making sure every kernel was free of chaff. Unless the wheat kernels are separated from the chaff, the wheat is not ready to be ground into flour.
This past experience returned snuck to the forefront of my memory as I recalled Jesus' conversation with Peter predicting Peter's denial of Himself in Luke 22:31. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat." Strikingly, Satan sometimes asks God for permission to test us (recall Job's testing) and sometimes we need the sifting. This concept was first introduced to me by Beth Moore in her book, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, over four years ago. So should we ask for sifting? What a dangerous prayer! Many would say it like this, "Oh Lord, refine me." The refining is so difficult. But it comes with a promise.
I love Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians in his first letter, chapter 5:23-24

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

 This is the prayer I need to pray. Notice that it begins with the proclamation that God is peace. He provides me peace and He is at peace with me because I believe Jesus' sacrifice for my sin makes me right with God (Romans 5:1). It is this God, at peace with me, that will make all of me holy, pure and blameless. He will use daily challenges and life's obstacles to make me holy. Do I truly embrace this? When my compassionate one is having an "emotional moment," crying and yelling at her sisters and I feel helpless, myself ready to scream, do I see this as God making me holy? When I'm impatient with friends spinning their wheels in their own poor choices and I want to yell, "Just stop it," but am called to love, encourage and pray. Do I welcome this sifting? Every obstacle in life, no matter big or small, is an opportunity to be transformed into the image of Christ. Unless I am sifted, like the wheat my friend and I cleaned, I am not ready to be used by the Lord.
Last, don't overlook the promise at the end of the verse; God is faithful and He will do it. He will do the refining as I look toward Him.
This reflecting makes me realize, it's always so easy to see other people's sin. I can see God using circumstances to refine others, somehow, I think I'm missing the refining He wants to do in me. Why is it always so easy to see other people's sin? Peter didn't recognize his sin until the rooster crowed the third time. I'm not much different. How do I prevent this? When we look at others we have a different perspective. Imagine looking at a VanGogh from two inches away. Now step back two feet. You see a different picture. Do I step back from my own life often enough to see a different picture? Driptime is a great time for this. Use this time to examine your life. Use Psalm 139:1-2, 23-24 and 1 Corinthians 11:28 to evaluate your circumstances and listen to God. I've been woken up in the middle of the night lately with revelations I believe are from God. Most recently, He revealed to me us use my circumstance to practice being gentle in spirit.
Also, do I have people in my life who love me enough to speak the truth in love? Someone who loves me enough to step up to the plate when I need a 2x4 over the head to realize I'm being stupid and need to stop and repent? These people are grounded in God's Word and tell me the truth from His Word, not what I want to hear.
Jesus went on to tell Peter, "But I have prayer for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Jesus prays for us and cheers us on through our times of sifting. We need to trust, persevere and when necessary, repent. Turn 180 degrees to the Lord and after we've been strengthened, encourage the church.
I am so thankful that Peter was sifted! When you read the first 12 chapters of Acts, you see how mightily God used Peter to build the church through Peter's leadership, witness, preaching and even miracles.
Take two steps back from your life's circumstance and examine it. Ask God to speak to you (1 Samuel 3:9) and listen. How is God using this circumstance to sift you? Pray for strength to persevere and claim a verse to repeat out loud every time the battle gets too hard.

Digging holes

One of my favorite family movies is "Holes." A wrongfully convicted boy is sent to a brutal desert detention camp where he joins the job of digging holes for some mysterious reason. The comical warden of the camp, Mr. Sir, explains why the boys are digging holes:

"You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, it turns him into a good boy. That's our philosophy here at camp green lake."

Digging holes would build character. Character is forged in adversity. Think on the apostle Paul. Ironic that the book of Philippians is likely one of the most quoted books of the Bible for it's inspirational, encouraging verses yet when you look at it in context…the wake up call. Paul penned these inspirational words from prison, in chains. Talk about adversity. Yet, here's one thing he says,

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Philippians 4:12

Often, I've looked at this verse in terms of financial state. Today, I look at it in the context of stage of life. Whether you're a college student, starting your first job, in a taxing career, just married, feel "bare foot and pregnant" with kids crawling and running all over, a "soccer mom" taxiing children all over the place, sending your children off to college, experiencing an empty nest or spending your days serving the Lord, have you determined to be content in your life stage? Or do you find yourself, as I do often, thinking if only… or someday when...
Every stage of life has some obstacle. These obstacles will build your character. I've heard it said once that who you are at 30 is highly a result of your circumstances, but who you are at 40 (and beyond) is a result of your character. 
Abraham Lincoln said, "Reputation is the shadow. Character is the the tree." In essence, character  is who we are when no one is looking. Jesus said, "You will recognize them by their fruits," Matthew 7:16, 20. Who we are underneath our skin is evident by what we say and do. 
Do our lives exude the characteristics of a Holy Spirit-filled life as Paul taught in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? This is character of the highest caliber.
No matter your stage of life and obstacles in your stage, trust in God's purpose for this stage and allow Him to use it to transform you to be more like His Son, Jesus, our perfect example. 

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

He is faithful in supplying our needs but what we need most is sanctification; to be made holy, to be like Christ Jesus (Romans 8:20). He called you to this season of life for such a time as this…to be conformed, so be content with whatever state you're in. 
Who do you want to be in ten years? Are you allowing the "digging of holes" in your current stage of life to build character? God did not call you to this stage of life to show how strong, smart or talented you are but rather how faithful He is. Choose contentment and trust in His purpose.

Your plan and steps

The plan was adventurously simple: we'd hike a 5-mile trek along the Superior Hiking Trail. Not simple was the volume of people involved: twenty-four. Within ten-minutes, the first handful of our group began following a different trail on the opposite side of the river. Unable to communicate with the wayward, we did not know how long they would hike before realizing the remainder of the group (including the one with the map) were not behind them. After a rescue attempt was made and the large group reunited, the loaded question (that taught a lesson) was asked, "Who had the map?" Follow the one with the map. 

What if no one had a map? Is there a map in your life charting out your path? Such a plan would direct your decisions, money, time and resources. Without goals, we're hiking without a map. 

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12. 

This has been the realization of my heart in the past week. As I reflect on goals that create my plans and then allowing Him to direct my steps. 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Proverbs 19:21. 

It would be foolish not to set goals for myself, but also unwise to not allow God to direct my steps.  

In all my ways (my goal setting) acknowledge Him and He will direct my path. Proverbs 3:6

God gave us minds to think, process, contemplate and He will use open or shut doors to direct our paths.

Before I committed to my goals, I reflected on the praises, accomplishments and victories from 2013, giving glory to God. Then I acknowledged the challenges in my life that I needed to commit to Him in 2014. These two written exercises led me to goals in multiple areas: Career, financial, family, physical, social, spiritual, intellectual. Goals should be specific, measurable, yours, time-sensitive and written down (daveramsey.com).

Each of my goals includes steps of implentation. I plan to revisit my goals in six months to measure my accomplishments. (Don't worry, it's in the iCal now.) Sometimes I don't reach my goals. Sometimes my goals change. Sometimes God closes a door. But goals must be written down.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. Zig Ziglar

If you have not written down any goals for the 2014 year, select one area and write one goal along with implementing proactive steps toward achieving it.

Tasting the honey

"I want honey," she whines for honey drizzled over her Cheerios. Life is sweeter when we stop to taste the honey, when we stop to see the honey of God's blessings.
Samson was a miraculous gift as the couple was barren (Judges 13:2). Though, when you discover his strong-willed, self-centered, persistent, flippant personality, you have to reason that he was an incredibly difficult child to raise. Yet he was a gift.
Come to mind God's special gift, a child we weren't necessarily planning, yet God is a good Giver and blessed us. This pink package is our most strong-willed, persistent child. Yet she is a gift. I confess I do not always receive her as a sweet gift. Perhaps because she is a gift God uses to refine me.
At news of the child, Samson's parents were eager to raise the child in the way of the Lord. Manoah asks what is the child's manner life and what is his mission (Judges 13:12). No doubt these parents followed the messenger of the Lord's instructions. Prior to conception through marriage age, they obeyed the Lord by keeping Samson pure, set apart to the Lord's service. However, at some point in Samson's parents' life, they had to trust the Lord with His plan for Samson's life. Samson, determined to get the desirable Philistine woman at Timnah, was part of God's plan to gain leverage against the Philistines who were afflicting Israel (Judges 14:4). His parents knew Samson should take an Israelite woman as a wife, not a foreigner. What is a parent to do when their children make poor choices? Trust in the Lord. Do I trust my children to the Lord? Do I let them make mistakes, believing God will protect them and His will be done? Or do I parent out of fear…that the golden heads will fall into my bents toward sin, that they will make mistakes that are too big (this is unbiblical heresy)!
Samson's parents didn't see all Samson's battles. On his way to Timnah, Samson tears a lion apart using the gifting of the Spirit: superhero-like strength. Although, he breaks one of his Nazirite vows by touching a dead body, I wonder if this is symbolic of the battles children face while their parents aren't helicoptering. Still, God gave Samson his gift of strength. Interestingly, God revealed to Samson, not his parents, what his gifting was. So God will reveal to His children their gifting. And God will refine His children, it is the parent's job to be obedient to Him as Samson's parents were in keeping the Nazirite vow while raising him.
Samson didn't want his parents to know that he had broken the Nazirite vow and that honey had come from the dead lion carcass. Yet they tasted the sweetness. Could this be a type of reward for his parents? Will God allow me to taste the sweetness of obedience to Him in raising His child. The golden heads will at times choose disobedience (as do I), but when I am obedient, will I taste the sweetness of my child's giftings? Now and years from now, God will allow me to enjoy the sweetness of watching my golden heads do the good work He has prepared of them.
Even after the disaster of his first wedding celebration, his parents were there for him to return to (Judges 14:19). This is the last mention of Samson's parents. Will I repeatedly have open arms for my children to return to unashamedly, knowing they will be accepted and loved?
God has loved me with an everlasting love.

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continues my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3

He never comes to end with me. I confess that I do come to the end of it with my children, but through God's gift and power, I can love them as He loves me.
In which way do you most relate to Samson's parents: receiving God's gifts, obedience, trust, tasting His sweetness or everlasting love and acceptance? First acknowledging His gifts, then we can begin to taste the honey of blessings. Praise God for His gifts, the power He gives to obey and trust His ways, His blessing and faithfulness.

Take My Life

1. Unexpected to me, the life of Samson (Judges 13-16) resounds greatly in my soul. Two totally different topics strike me. Samson's parents and Samson as a servant of God. First, Samson as God's servant.
2. As a child we read stories of Samson, impressed by his God-given gift of strength, like a Old Testament Superhero. Yet, as an adult we see Samson's life marked by lack of character and missed opportunity to bring God glory. Samson was self-indulgent, hot-headed and lacked self-control. Had Samson lived for God and others instead of himself, what an inspiration he would have been. Yet God used Samson to do His will and protect the Israel from total oppression by the Philistines for twenty-years. Samson could have totally saved Israel and ruled in righteousness had He been totally sold out to God. However, this was God's plan and His plan always prevails. When God's servants are not seeking Him for direction or obeying His ways, they aren't submitting to God's divine authority and typically, it doesn't go very well.
3. Taking stock of my life, am I really that much different than Samson? In struggling to rebuild relationship with the engineer, what God has revealed to me most recently is how selfish I am with my time. Saturday with the family, continually self-speaking, Die to self. "Yes, I'd love to help you do that."It's not about me. "Yes, I'd love to look for that with you." Direct my paths Lord. "Yes, let's play a game." Left on my own, I would have rather had done something for myself, shopped for myself, spent money on myself, made my favorite dinner. But, I've tried that and it didn't go very well. For years, after the golden heads were tucked in tight, I spent my time doing what I wanted to do. Time was seldom spent doing something with the engineer. Under the same roof, we went our own ways. It doesn't take long before I realized, I don't have any of the same interests as this man I live with and I don't even think I love him. Yet love is a choice. I need to choose to build relationship with him. I need to put myself aside and choose him. It wasn't going well. What's amazing is choosing to put self aside and spend time with the engineer immediately results in a closeness and intimacy. It's so evident. Choosing God's way and prioritizing others is the way God will bless.
4. My life these days is filled with self talk. I don't know how long this happens before it becomes first nature. Maybe it never will be. But it is the right road.

1. The path of the righteous is the like the light of the dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. Proverbs 4:18

1. My life is not mine. I do believe my favorite hymn is "Take My Life," by Frances R. Havergal.
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.
2. Take my hands and let them move
   At the impulse of Thy love.
   Take my feet and let them be
   Swift and beautiful for Thee.
3. Take my voice and let me sing,
   Always, only for my King.
   Take my lips and let them be
   Filled with messages from Thee.
4. Take my silver and my gold,
   Not a mite would I withhold.
   Take my intellect and use
   Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
5. Take my will and make it Thine,
   It shall be no longer mine.
   Take my heart, it is Thine own,
   It shall be Thy royal throne.
6. Take my love, my Lord, I pour
   At Thy feet its treasure store.
   Take myself and I will be
   Ever, only, all for Thee.
7. 
   
8. Take some time to sing to the Lord and ask yourself these questions: Am I choosing to live for the Lord or for myself? Does my life inspire others to walk more closely with the LORD? Decide to yield yourself to His complete control and rest in His strengthening power.

The Giver

What has our Thanksgiving holiday become? Honestly, the thanking is often set aside as thoughts run toward time with family, turkey, pumpkin pie and Black Friday Sales. But twice God has stolen my attention. Once in an email, the sender intending good but missing God, types on her thoughts of Thanksgiving,

It's a nice time to reflect on what each of us have and how much we take for granted and should be thankful for.

Somehow I think the point is missed that anything we have is God's on loan to us and so we should give thanks to the Giver.
Second, in a study of the Names of God, my thoughts fixed on Yehavah Yireh: the name of the place where Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, his only son to the LORD. However, the Giver sees the need for a substitutionary sacrifice and provides a ram (Genesis 22:8-14).
So in our lives, God sees our needs first, then provides. Even now, sitting at the computer trying to reconstruct my thoughts, my entire body shakes in intense anxiety. I need peace. He sees my need. He will provide.
As I look over the New Testament verses I'm overwhelmed at the generosity, unlimited resources and power of the Giver.

In past generations He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, for He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Acts 14:17 

He who did not spare his own Son but willingly gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8 

And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17

He has unlimited resources and power and even when we walk in our own selfish ways, He willingly, generously provides for us. Isn't He the Giver?
While I have confessed my own falling away from making Thanksgiving a reflection and an offering back to the Giver, I was delighted to learn when Thanksgiving was instated by President Lincoln, the intention was to collectively thank God as a whole nation.

October 3, 1863By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

Take assessment of your heart's attitude toward the Thanksgiving holiday. I know that changing my attitude will result in God granting me the peace that I desperately need. As I wait expectantly for His provision because I know He sees it, I start a new list of gratitude… 

1. The compassionate one making pancakes for breakfast
2. The engineer cleaning the kitchen
3. The engineer strumming guitar
4. Gigi
5. Big coffee cups
6. Pinochle with the oldest girls
7. Zodhiates Greek Dictionary
8. Knitting needles
9. Sunshine warming through window
10. ...

Won't you begin a list with me?

Nurture

As my favorite annual gerberia daisy comes to live inside and cold sets in, my quest is that it survive winter and create many happy blossoms again in the spring. How many mornings I walk into the room to see the blooms drooping, in dire need of water.

Isn't our relationship with the Maker like that? Like any other relationship, being friends of Christ takes time. I know time is best spent

• Reading the Word
• Studying the Word
• Meditating on the Word
• Memorizing the Word
• Applying the Word to my life

It seems that if much time passes without any of the above, I begin to wilt like the Gerberia Daisy.

Psalm 119 sings of the sweetness and desirous nature of God's Word and instruction. 

How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Psalm 119:103

This morning my plant is in worst state ever, but my relationship with my Maker is solid. Waiting on The Lord during my "drip time," I realize my marriage is also a relationship that needs constant tending to...nurturing. I covet your prayers as the engineer and I work through new obstacles. This new phase of parenting preteens is emotionally exhausting, and I am so selfish desiring time on myself, not on us. Paul's letter to the Philippians convicts me.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection, any sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:1-4

Selfishness with my time is not honoring to God. Forgive me Lord for not making my covenant with You and the engineer higher priority. With Christ's power, we can overcome!

Make time to read all of Psalm 119 this week and consider your own love and seeking of the Word. Does it measure up to the Psalmists'? Assess your most important relationships (spouse,  siblings, parents, close friends). Which relationships need some nourishing & how will you water, prune and fertilize that relationship?