Ask for What You Want

I am continually amazed by how God will take a verse that I have heard or read many, many, times and reveal something new. I was praying about something this morning, feeling anxious about it, and the "go-to" verse about anxiety, Philippians 4:6-7 popped into my head:

. . . do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Like many of you, I have read/heard/memorized this verse over the years. This time I keyed into the word "request". Often when I ask God something, I try to figure out what He would want me to pray for in a given situation, or what I think is His will. My anxiety this morning wasn't really a black or white situation, just something that was bothering me.

During Beth Moore's "Believing God" study, which I did last summer, she talked about how we can ask God for anything. He may say "No", but we, as His children, may always ask. So, instead of qualifying what I wanted with "if it's Your will" or "if this would be best", I just simply, like the verse says, made my request to the Lord. I asked Him for what I wanted. I don't know if it's His will, and I don't know if it's best for me. It's a little scary to just tell God what my heart's desire is. I will be disappointed if He tells me "No." However, I will say, that, just as the verse says (imagine that), since praying, I do feel peaceful. I don't know the answer yet, and may not for a while, but I have made my request and am resting in His peace.

The Original "No-Spin Zone"

Happy New Year! I am so happy to be starting over in the Bible with Genesis and Matthew. I know that all Scripture is God-breathed, but I have a hard time with the minor prophets and Revelation, which is where I've been reading for the past few weeks. The first chapter in Matthew begins with the genealogy of Christ. Now, sometimes (just SOMEtimes) I skip, or at least skim, the genealogies. In light of it being the first day of 2011, fresh with the possibility of being deliberate and thoughtful and purposeful in my reading (and because I'm on break still), I read it carefully. The second part of verse six is what I noticed:

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah

Really? The first chapter of the first book of the New Testament and we're airing that dirty laundry? Solomon is David's by Bathsheba, who is Uriah's wife? Did we need to tell that? Uriah was already dead by the time Solomon was conceived. Why share that information?

Maybe to show that God's plans will prevail no matter our sin? Maybe to remind us that God's grace is bigger than our mistakes (even BIG mistakes like adultery and murder)? Maybe to spotlight the Lord rather than His fallible leaders? Maybe to illustrate that the truth will set us free (John 8:32)?

I'm not sure why Matthew chose that phrase over something more positive or more neutral or more gracious. Sometimes I am frustrated by the pervasive attitude in many churches that negative or unsavory facts should be couched in a positive, skirting-the-real-issue sort of way. "David is the father of Solomon by his wife, Bathsheba" is what most of our church missives would have read. Yes, we need to be gracious about other people, not gossip, and choose to believe the best about others. But there are times when the truth and the facts need to be baldly stated so that all of us can see the glory of God as it contrasts with our sin and the sovereignty of the Lord as He accomplishes His purpose in spite of us.

Small Things

Reading in Zechariah today, in chapter four, and am thinking about verse ten:

10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

Specifically, I am mulling over the idea of "small things", and of waiting for small things to become greater. Jesus Incarnate began as all other babies do, as something very, very small. Nine months of waiting for Mary and Joseph. . . years of waiting for Anna and Simeon. . . hundreds of years of waiting for the Jews both for the Messiah and for hearing the voice of the Lord (Whose prophets had been silent for a long, long time). Then, after the baby's birth, more waiting. There were more than thirty years of waiting until Jesus began His ministry.

As I have blogged before, it often seems like the majority of life is waiting. Waiting to see if something good will be given. Waiting to see if something bad will be taken away. Waiting in anticipation. Waiting in dread. The Lord could have just dropped Jesus fully grown onto the scene, ready to preach. But He didn't. I don't know why the Lord waited for so long to send Jesus, or why He chose to begin His great work of redemption in such a small, unseen way. It comforts me that Jesus Himself experienced waiting: Waiting in the womb. Waiting through childhood, adolescence, young adulthood. Waiting for three days in a tomb.

God must be doing something through the waiting. Maybe He had to wait for a woman who would say "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." For a man who would listen to an angel and marry her anyway. . . For twelve men who would follow . . . All of time is in God's hands, and He knows the perfect timing. My struggle is trusting Him. I must remember first of all that my perception of "the perfect time" is flawed and limited, and second of all, that I should not despise the days of small beginnings, but trust the Lord to do the great things that He has promised, even if I must wait much longer than I think I should.

Funnily enough, after thinking about this new-to-me thought about Jesus having to wait, I was listening to the radio and heard one of the radio personalities talking about that very thing. I love it when God does that!

Merry Christmas, and may we remember the miracle of small beginnings as we remember the miracle of a tiny baby coming to save us.

Singing Lessons

Psalm 137 is a psalm from when the Jews were exiled from their homeland. Verse four says:

How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

The New Testament sometimes refers to believers as "aliens and strangers" (1 Peter 2:11, NAS). I feel strange and alienated in this world sometimes. How do I "sing the Lord's song" in the world of 2011?

I asked the Lord that this morning during my prayer time. Seems that it wasn't as difficult a question as I first imagined: Complain less. Encourage more. Believe the best. Love people. Compliment people. Don't compromise Biblical principles in my life. Reflect God's glory.

If only the singing of the song were as easy as writing the words to it. . .

Reminded of the Gift

I'm now in the time of "read the Bible in a year" that is hardest for me, when the Old Testament reading is in the minor prophets and the New Testament reading is in Revelation. I am very thankful that reading in the Psalms is a year-long endeavor. Today I read Psalm 130:

Psalm 130
My Soul Waits for the Lord
A Song of Ascents.
1Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

I was especially touched by verses 3 and 4 and verse 7. My iniquities are great--just today I had to ask a friend to grant forgiveness for my bad attitude. The day before I had to apologize to my class for crabby words. Every day I sin. Yet my God is no longer counting my iniquities. They are forgiven through Jesus. I so often get caught up in the Christmas madness of gift-buying and cookie-making and home-decorating and miss the miracle of Jesus. We have been given FULL redemption--PLENTIFUL redemption, in fact. Not just a little bit, but a lot. I am thankful to the Lord for reminding my heart of this.

Get Ready. . .

Reading in 1 Peter right now (and, on a side note, finished Ezekiel today. Woo-hoo!). These verses stood out to me in chapter one:

13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

"Preparing my mind for action". . . Do I do that when I read the Bible? Not as much as I should. It's easy to just read, close the book, and move on into my day. I feel challenged to add to my prayers each day a request for the Lord to show me what action He wants me to take that day. What do I need to obey from the Scripture I just read (which can be tricky when reading in Ezekiel about the dimensions of the temple) OR how can I be ready to love and serve during the daily grind of work and life?

I want Christ's love and grace to be living and active in me, and my part of that is to have a mind prepared for action.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even Ezekiel

I confess. Sometimes, in the prophetic books, the lineages, and the painstakingly detailed descriptions of the temple, I skim. It's true. Right now I'm reading in Ezekiel, and I have done my share of skimming, but then the Lord used chapter 14 to speak specifically to me:

4Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.

Idolatry I am familiar with. Painfully familiar, because I have struggled quite a bit with it. But to read and comprehend the idea that I have taken idols into my heart was very sobering, especially when God had His finger on a specific idol. To take something into one's heart is a serious thing. My heart is supposed to be where Jesus dwells, not an idol. Israel got in enough trouble over high places that were nowhere near the temple; how much more serious is an idol in our hearts? But isn't that ultimately what makes an idol? Something that takes up more space in our hearts/minds/time than it should? Something inhabiting the inner workings of our hearts where only God should dwell?

More moving to me was when the Lord told Ezekiel that He wants to "lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel". He describes Israel as being "estranged" from the Lord. "Estranged" is also an emotional word, a family word. The Lord looks on the idols in our hearts and it grieves Him. He wants all of our heart, with no idols between Him and His children.

Most amazing about this Ezekiel passage is that the Lord knew exactly the day I would read it (along with everyone else following my particular "read the Bible in a year plan") and knew the particular circumstances that He was engineering to reveal the particular idol that He was targeting. . . thus showing me that He wants to lay hold not just of Israel's hearts, but of mine.