History in the Making

If we look back upon the losses we have endured over the years, we might see certain trends...bad breaks, poor timing, lack of attentiveness to crucial details, slovenly habits, dysfunctional relationships, distorted views of self.  It could be that we got sick at the wrong time, were tripped up by our lusts or were mistaken about the character of certain people.    The regretful glance backward that morphs into self-pitying is corrosive to the working of God in you.  The very thing He came to do, redeem your life completely gets hindered by the regret you keep eyeing.  If we take God at His word, that Christ came to save us from our sin, then the obstinate pout must be put away.  But you may wonder how God could do this, how He could make the ugly moments of your past "redeemed".  His answer to you is the same as it was for the withered Elizabeth past child bearing.  "Nothing is impossible with God."  The worst of your circumstances are made new by Christ upon His sin bearing.  They are bought back and rebuilt...remade just as thoroughly as if an old wreck of a car were blown to smithereens and the molecules of it put together into the most spectacular of yachts.  "Nothing is impossible" includes your past and what has been done to you and by you is of no account anymore.  What matters is what God will do with it and that is, "make all things new."    The Lord is not afraid of your past even if you have built it up into a monster.  He has faced it squarely while dying on the Cross and mastered it.  You have nothing to hide anymore...it is out in the open...out in the bright sunlight of God's love for you.   Is it not perfectly reasonable that the bearing of your sin took place as day splintered off into darkness and the redeeming of your life came to pass as the first sparkles of sunlight broke upon the dawn?  You can moan about the missed opportunities and the regrettable decisions you have made but what is the point of that?  It is like weeping over winning the lottery or despairing over the successful surgery that saved you from cancer.  You have been redeemed!  Never look past that.

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  Isaiah 43:1 NIV

Wanting More

The difference between wanting and demanding is quite clear when you are dealing with your children but seems nebulous when it is found in your praying.  How can you be certain you have not run off the tracks as you make your way through your requests?  Hezekiah saw nothing wrong with begging God for added years when told he was about to die and Hannah is renowned for her spiritual fortitude in frantically crying out to God for a baby.  How can we know a desire is godly and not just a self-centered lust?  Hezekiah took his added fifteen years and fathered a son who became the most wicked of all the kings of Judah and Hannah took her boy Samuel and turned him back over to God to raise and mold into arguably the greatest of all priests not named Jesus.  We can pray for anything and feel quite justified in our praying.  After all, Christ Himself told us to ask and keep on asking.  God may grant our demands just as freely as our wants but as Israel regretted the longing she had for a king, we too may wish we never got what our fevered prayers demanded.  Our drive must always move in this one direction, that we become so close to God that our wants become His.  Then what we ask for in prayer will truly bless all it touches. Give the Holy Spirit space to reshape your wants into God given desires.

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap...  1 Timothy 6:9 NIV

Tattoo Regret

The Lord's harshest criticism was reserved for those who would not believe Him and His warmest affirmation was for those who trusted Him at His word.  The promises of God secured within the Scripture are held there for you to accept and adjust your life.  The contrast between Zachariah the father of John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus is stark.  Struck dumb by the angel Gabriel for his lack of faith, Zachariah had to carry with him for a time the tattoo of unbelief and it was not removed from him until his faithful wife Elizabeth gave birth to the child.  And even then he first had to declare the name of their son publicly as assigned by God before his voice returned.  You cannot say you have faith until you actually do the thing God has said to do.  Don't treasure your doubts like some sort of badge of honor.  They are the silliest and most ridiculous parts of Christians, the pious questions that mock God's faithful righteousness.  Put aside your doubts and do the thing God has assigned you and enjoy the favor of Jesus as He commends you for trusting Him in the matter.