Who do you turn to?

Have you ever heard of the saying, "Run to the throne and not your phone." When I first heard this little saying I was filled with guilt. Most of the times when I have some type of problem, I call Nathan because I want instant feedback. When I pray about things, I don't get instant feedback. Gods timing isn't our timing. At the end of the day I am glad Nathan is an ear that will listen to my problems, but he can't necessarily solve it for me or make it any better. I need to turn to the Lord with my problems because He alone is going to make things right.

In the book of Isaiah I read a passage about King Hezekiah. Hezekiah is a great example of what to do when we are faced with problems. In Isaiah 37:14-20 (chapter 36 and the beginning of chapter 37 explains more of what is going on) Hezekiah is told the Assyrian army is going to destroy him and that his "god" could not save him. When King Hezekiah receives word of this, he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD (Is. 37:14). King Hezekiah is such a great example to follow. He immediately goes to the LORD with his problem and in his prayer praises God! Hezekiah is being threatened by the Assyrian army and instead of getting scared and trying to run away, he turns to the LORD. Not only did he turn to the LORD but he praised the LORD before anything else! How many times do we praise the LORD first when we are upset? I know I don't do it. I come selfishly to the throne and give Him all my problems. I am not saying He doesn't want to hear my problems. God wants to know every thought we have, he wants a relationship with us!


So, do you want to know what happened to King Hezekiah? Well, the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp (Is. 37:36a). WOW! God is so good and He does take care of us when we come to him.

Now, I know some may say, I have been praying for years, months, weeks for the Lord to help me and nothing has changed. I ask this first. Is what you are praying for in accordance with God's character. For example, are you praying for God to give you all the riches of the world, make a man/woman divorce his/her husband so you can be w/ him/her, perhaps you are praying your spouse will look like Brad Pitt (had to put a funny in here)...Whatever it is, make sure it is in accordance with his character. The other thing to remember is to think what your motives are when you are praying. A verse that is very convicting for me at times is in Psalms 139: 23-24. It states: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting." I find myself praying for things that may not be necessary or are very selfish. I don't really pray for God's will to be done, I pray that what I want will be done. Sometimes when we pray we think we know what God's will is and we really don't. How could we know the thoughts of God? I know I have prayed over and over for marriages to last and they don't. I know that when I pray for the Lord to keep these marriages together that is according to his character because God tells us in Micah he hates divorce and we see throughout Scripture how divorce is a sin (I know Scripture does give two reasons divorce may be okay). One thing I have to remind myself over and over again is that we are all sinners. Christians are going to get divorces, they are going to get drunk, have pre-marital sex, etc. But, Scripture also says that God works for the good of those who love him. So, maybe through a divorce God's glory will shine...somehow. We may not understand it but we have to keep faith that whatever we are praying for that God is in control and that he is going to do whatever it takes to make his name known and to bring his people to him. He may not allow a marriage to stay together or He may allow trouble to come your way in other forms so that it will bring his children back to Him.

I encourage you to keep faith. When you feel as though your prayers are bouncing back, tell yourself they aren't. That is Satan's way of making you feel like our big God doesn't care about our little problems. God cares about us more than anything else in this world. Don't lose hope in whatever circumstances you are in. You may be in them because you are far from the Lord and this is his way of bringing you back...it may be a way later on in life you can help someone else in the same situation...Just don't give up on God...keep praying. Make the Lord your best friend and come to him with your problems. Lay it at the throne of our Savior who desires deeply to help us in our needs. I leave you with this:

"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." Isaiah 55:6-8

We made it through!

Last Saturday night I woke up with stomach flu type symptoms! It was AWFUL! Nathan ended up taking me to a clinic and they pumped me with two bags of fluids. I felt a lot better afterwards but still very weak. Well, Sunday night I woke up to Nathan throwing up! He kept saying Sunday night before bed he wasn't feeling really good but we were thinking it was maybe in his head since I was so sick...well, we were wrong! He had to stay home from work on Monday because he was sick too. To top it all off, McKenzie started running a fever of 100 degrees mid afternoon on Monday and she was also having diarrhea. We called the doctor and he was able to see her that day. So Nathan, McKenzie and I load up in the car and drive to the doctors. We looked pitiful. Nathan and I were so pale and sickly looking it wasn't even funny. Then we are carrying this crying baby who is sick. It was just one of those days. Well, the doctor said McKenzie is going to be fine unless her temperature goes over 102. It hasn't yet. She is still having some diarrhea but her temperature is below 100 so that is great. It has been hard watching her cringe in pain when the diarrhea kicks in. She is so little and fragile and there isn't anything I can do to help her out :( I guess this is the beginning of many more trips to the doctors office. Anyway, she is sleeping soundly on my chest right now. I am sure this phase is going to go by too fast so i am enjoying every minute of listening to her little breaths on my chest :)

Forgiveness

We have all been hurt by someone in our lifetime. It could be anyone...your spouse, sibling, parent, friend, etc. We tend to forgive some of the people and move on with our lives, but then we hold grudges towards other people and refuse to forgive them. We say to ourselves, they hurt us too badly to forgive them or they don't deserve to be forgiven. As Christians our lack of forgiveness towards others reflects our personal relationship with Christ. Throughout Scripture we are told to love one another over and over. If we love everyone (even our enemies) how do we choose to not forgive a grievance? I am reading through 2 Corinthians now and I found a passage that talks about forgiveness that I had never really come across before. It is 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11.

"If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent-- not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone -- I have forgiven him in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (NIV)." --I added the italics because those verses stood out to me the most.

Lets take a step back and think about some stuff before I go any further. We live in a fallen state. We ALL sin and fall short of the glory of God. Not just some of us, ALL of us. Who are we to sit and judge someone for doing wrong to us or to a loved one when we screw up all the time too? I know I have hurt people in the past and some of those times may have been intentional. I am not proud to say that, but it is true. If we think we can go through life without hurting someone or being hurt by someone we are in for a huge wake up call. I don't' think that forgiveness means automatically forgetting what someone has done...I don't think that is possible at least not right away. But I believe forgiveness is allowing yourself to continue to love the person and show compassion towards them, especially when they know they made a mistake. Why rub it in their face when they are already beating themselves up? Again, who are we to judge. The Bible says in Matthew 7:1-2: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured (NIV)."

Now, let me ask this question. If you are a Christian and someone has hurt you more than words could describe, does God want you to forgive them? YES! One of my professors once told me that research has shown (I am sorry I don't have the name of the research so it could be a lie...but it seems to be more true than false) the number one reason people are turned away from Christianity is because of Christians. Basically, we act holier than thou to our non-believing friends and then they see us go and get drunk, cuss like a sailor, or show lack of forgiveness (you can put anything in there that you want) and they think to themselves, these people are just like me, why do I need Christ? Christians need to stand out and be different. We need to be examples to the people that Christ has put in our lives. If you have children, they can see your love or hate towards someone. If your child sees how you are able to forgive someone for something, you are teaching them such a valuable lesson in forgiveness without even using your words, but by your own actions. If you show your child how to hold a grudge and not forgive, they will learn that and have a difficult time forgiving someone or worse, they may never respect much of what you have to say when you try to tell them areas they need to work on in regard to Christian values. We need to say yes, that person hurt me terribly but Christ forgave him the day he died on the Cross and if Christ can forgive him, I can. 2 Corinthians talks about how we are to be obedient in everything...that means in forgiving others. Let us be obedient and stand out for Christ. We need to show love towards everyone and like the last part of the verse I shared in 2 Corinthians, "I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." We need to be careful how we live because Satan is around every corner waiting to devour Christians. Harboring unforgiveness is only an avenue for Satan to use to make life more miserable. I leave you with this story from a book I am reading. The book is God has a Dream for your life written by Sheila Walsh. I am going to paraphrase what she said when she was talking to her son who was having a problem forgiving a girl in his class.

Sheila's son was hurt by a girl in his class and asked his mom why would God would want him to forgive someone who is not sorry. She pointed out that when you don't forgive someone in the end, you only end up hurting yourself...Well, she took her son on a walk and asked him to carry a large bag of flour for her. After they walked for a few minutes, he asked if he could set it down. She said not yet. They kept going and he kept asking if he could set it down and she kept telling him not yet. Finally, he said that he had to put down the flour because it was killing him. She let him put it down and told her son that if he refused to forgive, he will carry this huge load everywhere he goes.

First of all, I love how this mother showed her son about forgiveness! I pray I can be this wise one day! Anyway, holding onto what someone has done to us can make us angry. We become bitter and difficult for others to be around. Mark 11:25 says, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Most of us are familiar with this verse...Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through him who gives me strength." Ask for the strength to forgive someone if you can't do it on your own. We can do all things through Christ.