God's Perfect Knowledge of Me
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Psalm 37: 3-6
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
Psalm 139: 1-4
I had a run-in with a neighbor with whom I serve on my neighborhood’s HOA board the other evening a couple of weeks ago. Now I like to think of myself as fairly nice and friendly; I’m also a people pleaser and peacemaker. I’d rather crawl on glass and squeeze lemon juice on the cuts before I’d upset or purposely offend someone, but I upset this woman by sharing, somewhat under duress, why I was not going to run again for the HOA board (because of her bossiness and strong personality, though I did not say the bossiness part. I did say that I wish there was a little bit more grace and openness when we talked about issues so that all voices and opinions could be heard, and that each meeting filled me with such dread because of the strong personalities and conflict). I could tell by her body language the rest of the meeting that I’d upset her, and I apologized for doing so when I walked her to the door when the meeting was over. She didn’t accept my apology and left quite upset. In chatting with two of the other women on the board, I was assured that what I had said was not ugly, and had I not said anything, they would have, and their way of saying it would not have been as diplomatic as mine had been. I still felt horrible for having upset someone, and my heart hurt. Right, wrong, or indifferent, I didn’t feel that I represented Christ in my actions, and I wondered how I could rectify the situation. Others in our neighborhood had experienced similar interactions with her in the past, and she was not one to forget each one who had crossed her. And now I was on her you-know-what list.
I prayed about the situation and asked for guidance on what I should do. As I am wont to do, I also thought of various methods to communicate my apologies to her, and played out each possible response she could have to each medium and message. Knowing how she has been with others in the past gave me keen insight as to how she would most likely respond. In talking with others, I did not see how any scenario could end well. The whole thing weighed heavily on my heart and mind, consuming more emotional energy that I truly wanted to devote to it.
As I started my morning one day last week before sitting down to pray, I played out a scenario in my mind in which I tried to talk with her, dialoging both sides of the conversation, again to no avail. I gave up in frustration, and read that day’s devotional in Jesus Calling. I’m sharing the first couple of sentences that stopped me in my tracks: “Trust Me enough to let things happen without striving to predict or control them….When you project yourself into the future, rehearsing what you will do or say, you are seeking to be self-sufficient: to be adequate without My help. This is a subtle sin—so common that it usually slips by unnoticed.”
The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, slated that devotional content to be printed for that particular day, because He knew that I needed to read it, because I was doing that very thing. I don’t know what the future held, but here I was trying to be prepared for it. Though I’d asked Him what to do, I was not sure that my heart would have been 100% open to going over and talking to her if He had instructed me to do so (hey, I’m just being honest. I’m not perfect). I knew, however, that I needed His help to determine what my next steps would be, and I was confident that He would provide. I merely needed to let go of any preconceived notions I had and give to Him the burden. I started that morning. God be praised for His omniscience and commitment to maturing me.
Prayer Requests
· For our pastors Ray, Wayne, and George, for their sacrifices of time, and for April, Jody, and Pat, for their sacrifices as well
· For those who are struggling to make ends meet and are overwhelmed by their life’s circumstances
· For first responders and their families
· For us to continually seek His will for our lives
There is a Part Two of this whole situation, and unless He tells me otherwise, I’m going to share it with you next week. Next week’s devotional will come out a little later than normal as I will be out of town next weekend, returning next Monday evening.
Quotes
“Even as a Christian, you’ll have good days and you’ll have really hard days. But you’ll never have a day without God.”
“The enemy is not after your money or your stuff. He wants your mind…your attitude….your heart…your faith….your peace. Understand that you’re not being attacked over the tangible things in your life. The enemy is fighting over things you can’t see.”
Reflection
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
There’s a post going around Facebook that spoke to me, and I thought I’d share it.
There is a story they tell of two dogs. Both at separate times walk into the same room. One comes out wagging his tail while the other comes out growling. A woman watching this goes into the room to see what could possibly make one dog so happy and the other so mad. To her surprise, she finds a room filled with mirrors. The happy dog found a thousand happy dogs looking back at him, while the angry dog saw only angry dogs growling back at him. What you see in the world around you is a reflection of who you are.
Friends, we live in a ridiculously crazy world filled with unspeakable violence, sadness, sickness, betrayal, and a whole host of other things. It can be tempting and easy to see nothing but the negativity and the challenges, and forget that we, as believers, have our hope in something other than this world. It can be difficult to understand why things happen the way they do and to whom they do, and that difficulty can cause us to doubt. That doubt and negativity can seemingly quench the light that is within us, and we become the angry dog in the story above. In fact, that’s what the enemy wants us to become—that angry dog whose scowl reflects every last wrong that was ever done to him or her, the one whose use of certain language and hand gestures in traffic is at odds with the ICTHUS sticker on his or her car, the one who silently (and sometimes not so silently) judges others with an air of superiority that harkens the prayer of the Pharisee in the parable Jesus shares about the Pharisee and the tax collector.
But we must withstand the attacks of the enemy. We must focus on being the light in the darkness—that light that reflects Jesus. I’m not saying that as followers of Christ that we can’t have our days in which things just don’t seem to go our way, and that we just have to force ourselves to smile and be Pollyanna to everyone we meet. That’s just plain silly. What I am challenging us each to do however, especially yours truly who wears her heart on her sleeve, her emotions on her face, and who suffers from incredibly thin skin, is to strive for perspective in the face of troubles, to understand that the Lord’s promises are to work all things together for good to those who love Him and are called to His purpose, and to shine His light in spite of how we may feel.
And the cool thing? We don’t have to do it all on our own. We have the Holy Spirit with us as our Comforter, our Friend, our Protector. We just need to call upon Him, and He will respond.
Prayer Requests
· For those preparing for the contemporary youth service—our thanks for all that you’ve done, and praise to the Lord for helping us go in the right direction
· For those who face dark and negative thoughts and struggle against them
· For those in our armed forces and their families
· For those who are searching for meaning in their lives
· For us to be in constant communion and communication with Him
May we shine His light so that others will see that He is the reason for our joy, our proverbial wagging tail, and our hope.
Quotes
“A bad attitude is like a flat tire—you won’t go anywhere until you change it.”
“Life is the most difficult exam. Many people fail because they try to copy others, not realizing that everyone has a different question paper.”
Triumphant
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
I have to qualify a thought I shared in the last devotional entitled Grace. The comment read “We, as His creations, sin.” I never meant to imply or state that He made us to sin—quite the opposite. We sin because there is sin within us, as children of Adam after the fall. Praise be to God for His sending of His son as the propitiation for our sins.
I was praying the other day while I was driving to work, and as I was seeking for new and different ways in which to convey my adoration for Him, the word “triumphant” came to me. The treasure that this beautiful word brought with it overwhelmed me, and the fact that George talked about it in our Sunday School class the other day reinforces that treasure and the fact that I’m supposed to be writing about this topic.
Friends, no matter what challenge you are facing, no matter its magnitude, potential impact, or disruption, regardless of whether you can around to its outcome, know this: it cannot defeat you. Jesus, with His magnificent sacrifice, foiled the enemy’s plan and vanquished death, and conquered the enemy, and made us victorious. Dear ones, let us stand tall in that feat, knowing that while we did not contribute one iota to the achievement itself, we benefit by the achievement. The enemy can try to make us forget the overwhelming completeness and finality of the defeat in his attempts to fell us, but let’s not let him. Let us, as Paul, James, and Peter tell us, stand steadfast against the enemy, resisting him in the process. I’m not saying it’s going to always be easy, but realizing that we don’t have to fight because the battle has already been won by Christ can change our mindset dramatically.
You, my dear, are victorious! Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Prayer Requests
· For our country, and government leaders at all levels
· For first responders, to sustain them throughout the challenges they face
· For those who are searching for new jobs
· For those facing life’s trials—remember, you stand victorious!
· For us to be united in purpose and in seeking His will
Words cannot completely convey the extent of the love He has lavished upon us. May our lives constantly reflect that love to others, as we share the gospel with them.
Quotes
“The church cannot be the salt of the earth if we keep sugar-coating the gospel.”
“It’s time for us to rise up, get out of the rut and routine, and begin to take our Christian faith seriously.” A.W. Tozer