I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10b-11, NIV*
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’-which means, ‘God with us.’ Matthew 1:22-23, NIV*
As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the Incarnation – Emmanuel, God With Us – I wanted to share this video with you. Created by AJ Production Company, it features Todd Agnew’s song, “God With Us” (from my favourite Christmas CD, Do You See What I See?).
The video reminds me of a short novel that’s part of my annual Christmas celebrations. If you can find a copy, I encourage you to read Seeker of Stars, by Susan Fish. It’s the wonderfully evocative story of a young boy fascinated with stars and how he becomes a man who follows a star to Bethlehem in search of a king.
In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, ‘Stand up on your feet!’ At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. Acts 14:8-10, NIV*
Paul was spreading the good news of Jesus: Emmanuel, God with us. He saw this crippled man – really saw him, and saw he had faith to be healed.
This reminds me of Jesus teaching in his home town: “… he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Matthew 13:58, NIV) And of the way He had to first deal with the father’s faith issue before healing the tortured son:
“O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” Mark 9:19-25, NIV*
God is all-wise, and if He chooses not to heal someone, no amount of manufactured faith can make it happen. But if He offers healing, or deliverance, or salvation… it seems to me like we need faith to receive it.
The good news here is it’s God who gives us the faith: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)
The gift of God: but we still need to receive it.
For the people on my prayer list, this adds to my prayers. I’m praying for God to give them faith to receive the salvation, healing, and/or deliverance they need.
For me, I need to pray for faith to receive whatever God wants to give me. He’s still growing and shaping me, and I don’t want to miss anything because I couldn’t receive it.
I wanted to share a link to Robin Mark’s “With All Faith,” but couldn’t find it on YouTube. Instead, here is a song the LORD and I shared yesterday as part of my prayer for a young man who doesn’t know Jesus. I’m playing it now in anticipation of the day when he can sing it himself. This is the David Crowder Band’s rendition of “Heaven Came Down” from the Illuminate CD. I prefer the simpler version on their Lime CD, but this is still great – and check out the pictures with it.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV*
Sometimes I need a balance adjustment. While I’ve been spending time in prayer and God’s word, learning to love Him better, and growing in relationship with Him, that’s only part of the goal.
He wants to equip me for good work. St. Paul makes this even clearer when he says we must turn away from wickedness and ignoble purposes and become “instrument[s] for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21, NIV)
Christians are intended to show Jesus’ love to the world. We have the Great Commission and the promise of His presence. Loving Him, expressing our love to Him, isn’t complete if we’re not looking around with His perspective, seeing what He sees, and acting as He wants to act through us.
If I want to know how to pray for people and events – if I want to know how God wants to use me in people’s lives – I need to pay attention to what’s going on. Ask Him about it, think about it, and not be so quick to drop it in pursuit of other tasks or diversions.
Instead of waiting to get close enough for God to reveal His perspective, I need to be doing my part – be faithful in the little things – if I hope to see progress.
Father, thank You for loving us. Please help me pay attention as You show me how You want to love those around me.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits –
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5, NIV*
In last week’s post, I was caught by the promise of forgiveness, healing, and rescue from the pit. They shaped my prayers, both for those who don’t yet know Jesus and for myself.
Later we had a beautiful snowfall, and I thought about how something will occasionally renew my sense of wonder. These same verses came back to mind.
I’ve praised and thanked God for forgiving all my sins and healing all my soul’s diseases. I’ve committed to Him any diseases I’ve nurtured or kept from Him, praying in trust and thankfulness that He wants to finish what He started. I thanked Him for rescuing my life from the pit.
In prayer for certain hurting people, I claimed the rest of the passage and prayed for renewal. For me, I thanked God without thinking about what it meant.
LORD, what does it mean to tell my soul You crown it with love and compassion?
That you satisfy its desires with good things so its youth is renewed?
What sort of things does a soul desire?
When something renews my sense of wonder, everything feels more alive. The world is brighter, my faith more vibrant. Hope glows, excitement and possibilities dance.
Father, please open my soul to be satisfied by the good things You provide: Your own presence with me, sunlight on icicles, a flight of birds. A rainbow. A good story. A miracle. Help me let You renew my soul’s youth… my innocence?
String these moments together to make a lasting change. Help me embrace them and renew my soul. Forgive me for how quickly I’ve forgotten and subsided under the daily stress. Help me let Your renewal glow within me, a holy light to warm and heal.
Oh, LORD, I praise You for Your mercies toward me – mercies You promise are new every morning. Let my soul not forget Your benefits, nor discount them as “only for others.”
I’m not being a bother or an inconvenience to accept these benefits from You. Instead, I’m actually blocking Your will if I don’t. Your love and grace initiated this, and my proper response is joyful acceptance.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits –
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5, NIV*
King David is reminding his soul of all these benefits – not speaking to a group of people but to a single soul. Look at verse 4a: “redeems your life” is singular, not plural.
It’s safe to apply these verses to any and all souls belonging to God, not just David’s own. What strikes me today is how the context implies David isn’t listing the God’s benefits for all believers but for all believing souls.
I’d never seen this distinction between soul and body. Knowing the passage isn’t promising to reverse physical aging in verse 5 nor necessarily promising to satisfy all fleshly desires, I didn’t know how strongly to take verse 3’s promise of healing all diseases. But if this is all specifically promised for the soul, there’s a huge difference.
Forgiveness of all the soul’s sins – that’s fairly straightforward. Isn’t the soul the part sin kills? Some sins, such as inward rebellion, may even be specifically soul sins. Redemption language talks of our souls, once dead in sin, being made alive again.
Crowning a soul with love and compassion sounds like tender restoration. Renewal of youth sounds like rejuvenation of energy and wonder, maybe even of innocence. Reversal of the damage of sin.
Healing all diseases… what would be a disease of the soul, and how many might one soul have? Shame, self-deprecation, pride, fear…? God promises to heal them all in the same breath as promising to forgive all sins. Past, present, and future.
Shame and company are harder to get rid of at times than physical diseases. Praise God, He promises healing!
In this light, how can I pray for the people on my heart? How can I pray for myself? Father, lead and show me how to pray in faith for the souls of those You lay on my heart. Help me walk in faith that You are healing my own soul and finishing what You have begun. Thank You so much for the forgiveness, healing and renewal You give.
Today’s song is “By His Wounds,” sung by Mac Powell, Steven Curtis Chapman, Brian Littrell and Mark Hall on the Glory Revealed CD. This is an amazing video of Christian performance artist and speaker Mike Lewis painting as the song plays.
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears,
and I have not been rebellious;
I have not drawn back. Isaiah 50:4-5 NIV*
Reading this, I feel something inside whisper this is how it should be: close to God, taught by Him, useful to others… to sustain the weary is a needed gift.
The end of verse 5, about not being rebellious and not drawing back, gives me a bit of a pause, but we do need to make the choice of His will or our own.
Then come verses 6 – 7:
I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame. Isaiah 50:6-7 NIV*
This is Jesus, His suffering. What He voluntarily endured out of obedience and trust toward God the Father. For us.
He was not rebellious, and didn’t draw back, so we can be saved from our sin – and ourselves – and thrive in relationship with God today.
I don’t think I could face that level of obedience. I don’t even want to think about it. Rebellion, drawing back?
God calls us each to walk a different path with Him, and this hardest path He entrusted to His own Son. For all the martyrs and suffering saints in the world, there are others whose faith leads them in quiet and unremarkable lives.
But to be a Christ-follower is to face at least occasional opposition from those who oppose Him. Rejection and ridicule, however subtle, are part of the package. Nobody’s going to want to choose that.
Lord, help me choose You, for You have chosen me. Give me a hunger for You that won’t let me draw back or rebel against You. Help me want You more than I want self-protection. Help me trust You like Jesus, secure that the Sovereign Lord is my help.
I’d like to learn words to sustain the weary. And I’d love it if You’d wake me each morning and open my ears to Your teaching. Please give me an obedient and trusting heart. Because of Jesus, amen.
“Somewhere in the Middle,” from Casting Crowns‘ The Altar and the Door cd, talks about this struggle. But for this week’s song I chose the next one on that album, “I Know You’re There.” May the lyrics and melody be our prayer and help us to surrender in trust to our great God.
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ Exodus 20:18-19 NIV*
In Exodus 19, God had declared Mount Sinai off-limits to the people. Only Moses and Aaron were permitted to meet with God on the mountain to receive the ten commandments. God said, “Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they go up the mountain.” (Exodus 19:13b)
Maybe the trumpet the people heard here was the all-clear, and they could safely approach the mountain and their God. Maybe not.
Thunder, lightning, black smoke covering the mountain… no wonder they were terrified. And they hadn’t heard much about God’s mercy or grace. But didn’t anyone feel a longing, a drawing toward this holy God who created and rescued them? A moth-to-flame compulsion?
It’s sad that they stayed at a distance and begged Moses to stand between them and God. How would things have turned out if they’d said like Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (Job 13:15) If they’d come, shaking with holy fear, unable to look away from the glory of God?
Yet we do the same thing. We ask our church leaders to teach us, instead of getting to know God ourselves. We ask a praying friend for a word from God rather than listening for Him in our own spirits. What are we afraid He’ll do to us… or ask of us?
Or we ignore His majesty and buddy up to Him, enjoying His presence without letting it change us.
Father, teach us a proper respect for Your power and glory. Thank You that through Jesus we can come boldly and confidently before Your throne. Help us come ourselves instead of looking for intermediaries. And give us a holy awe of You. Let us never forget that although You’ve called us Your children, You are neither tame nor safe. We praise You that You are good.
I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever. Psalm 145:1-2, 21 NIV*
The active words in this psalm include “tell, speak, commend, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, sing, praise, extol.” And it’s all about God: His works, splendour, majesty, goodness, righteousness, graciousness, compassion, faithfulness, love, help, nearness, justice….
King David says he’ll praise God every day and declare His praise for ever and ever. The Apostle John says if we tried to write down everything Jesus did on earth, the world couldn’t hold all the books. (John 21:25)
This psalm first caught my attention before we went on holiday, and I was glad to find a copy of David Crowder’s book, Praise Habit, in a New York City Borders. More about the book later, but this is what he says about praise: “We have put on Christ. We are found dressed in His rescue, redemption, and righteousness and, aware of this rescue, we spew forth praise. We wear this very rescue into our relationships, into our interactions….”**
That’s how I want to live. Thanking Him for my daily food, enjoying solitude with Him, are part of it but not enough. I want to not only meditate on what He has done, but tell others—and hear them tell me what He’s done in their lives. That encourages our faith and invites others to trust Him.
Father, I don’t praise You enough. Please forgive me and change me. Please help me focus more on who You are and what You do—and help me share You with others. Open my eyes to see Your touch around me. Give me a delight in You that is natural and irrepressible and contagious. And bring glory to Your Name through the praise of Your people.
This week’s song is “Be Unto Your Name“, written by Lynn DeShazo and Gary Sadler and performed here by Robin Mark.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1, NIV*
Funny how the LORD can take a verse that clearly means one thing and use it to speak something personal as well.
Paul is pleading with the believers not to go back to trying to earn justification through the Law, but to “live by the Spirit” (v. 16) and “serve one another in love,” (v. 13) which will bring righteousness without legalism.
The past week and a half has been hectic, and low-level aches have kept me from getting good rest at night. My thoughts are fragmented, and I’m not doing well at being still in God’s presence. I just get there, and I skitter away.
Since Friday, I open my Bible for morning quiet time and my eyes catch on Paul’s words: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…do not let yourselves be burdened again…”
I know what I have to do: Be still. Know He is God. Rest in Him. Abide.
The verse calls me with no sense of rebuke. It’s a gentle pull to return to closeness. But the more my thoughts scatter, the more tense I get trying to centre on God.
When I can’t focus to pray, I can still pray through worship music. Monday I took my MP3 player to Curves, and one of the songs wrapped me in a reminder of God’s love.
He loves me. Even when I’m going in a million different directions, His love is unchanging and strong.
“But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” Micah 7:7 (AMP)*
Micah writes this at a time when people are so corrupt that he says you can’t even trust your own friend or lover. Yet he looks ahead to the day God will forgive his people’s sin and restore them.
Wait for God. Not impatiently, arms folded, toes tapping. Not passively, resigned or wondering if He’ll really show up.
Hope in God. Not wish-hoping, like I hope it’s warm on the weekend. Expectantly anticipating, securely confident in Him. Actively putting our trust in Him, knowing He cannot fail.
Talk to God. Not complaining or blaming, although He understands if that’s how we start. But finish with praise. He doesn’t need to hear how wonderful He is, but we need to remind ourselves. When we’re looking at how big God is, our problems come into a better perspective and we can trust Him to look after us. We can worship.
Worship.
In the waiting.
If you can, take five minutes to listen to “In the Waiting,” by the group FFH.
