This One's for You, Derek!

 

Today is our 12^th anniversary, and I continue to be so, so thankful for Derek and for the unity God has blessed us with over the years.  I was talking to my sister about the complex beauty of marriage yesterday.  I’m absolutely convinced that Derek’s tender heart for the Lord and faith to follow Him in constant obedience have contributed immensely to my own spiritual growth.  Derek continually loves me and serves me and dies to self for me.  His love is such a consistent reflection of my Savior’s affection and care for me. 

 

I love the way that marriage is such a tangible picture of the constancy of Christ’s presence with His bride.  After years of life with Derek there are so many moments of every emotion imaginable—moments of rejoicing, moments of wondering what in the world God’s up to, moments of hurt and anguish, and moments of great hope—all moments which collectively have made me who I am, and no other person in the world really understands those aspects of me except for Derek, because He lived them and felt them with me.  And because of Derek’s love and acceptance of me through all of those ups and downs—my ups and downs—there exists in him now such a beautiful and mysterious knowing of me that will forever keep me running back to him as God’s greatest gift to me after His Son. 

 

 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water,
    but a man of understanding will draw it out. 

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,
    but a faithful man who can find? 

The righteous who walks in his integrity—
    blessed are his children after him!  

Proverbs 20:5-7

Beautiful Interruptions

 This morning Derek was handling the homeschooling for me so that I could get out of the house and spend some time processing with the Lord.  These dates with my Savior are so life-giving and clarifying of what His heart is for me.  I’m so thankful for the way He and Derek both prioritize these times for me.

 

 

I was at Starbucks beginning to write and process some thoughts when I was interrupted by a song playing on my spotify playlist: Well Done, Good and Faithful, by Andrew Peterson. 

 

 

 

 

I had just discovered this song yesterday and added it to my playlist.  When it came on via my earbuds this morning, my mind was immediately drawn to think of a dear friend here who is suffering in the hospital.  I’ve been praying for her a lot, and this song reminded me that the suffering we endure in our physical bodies is one of God’s mysterious means of uniting us even more closely with our Savior who Himself endured suffering in submission to the Father’s good plan. 

 

Why would my Heavenly father bruise the son he loved so well?
He prayed in dark Gethsemane, "Withhold this bitter cup"
But he resigned his will to thee and drank the sorrows up

 

Our savior cried with David's grief, "In groans I waste my breath
Thy hand has brought me down beneath the bitter dust of death"
And then he gave his spirit up to trust it in your hand
His dying flesh reposed in hope, to rise at your command

Why, oh why, my God?
Why, oh why, my God?

For the joy set before him he endured
And is seated at the right hand of the throne
Well done, good and faithful, well done
Well done, good and faithful, well done
Well done good and faithful one

 

 

As the song points out, it was for the JOY set before Him that Christ endured the agony of the cross (Romans 12:2).  Yet we know from Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane that He also longed to give up that bitter cup.  What a dichotomy!  To both reel against the pain that flesh was not made to endure and simultaneously long for the beauty of submission to the Father. 

 

 

As beloved children of the same Father, we are called to be united with Christ in this dichotomy.

 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, - Colossians 1:24

 

I found myself praying this for my friend—praying that she would identify with her Savior in her suffering, and that this unity with the Son of God would result in great joy and even gratitude in her heart. 

 

 

 

God then brought another friend to mind—one who is suffering with cancer in the United States, and I prayed these things for him and his family as well.  And as I did, I continued to question with the artist,

 

Why, oh why, my God? 

Why, oh why, my God?

 

As the beautiful response from the song played in my mind, I sensed the Holy Spirit impressing on my heart the notion that every single moment of acceptance and submission to the suffering that God permits in our lives is a beautiful representation of God’s miraculous work in our hearts and a colossal victory against the enemy’s agenda.  Our flesh cannot accept nor rest in hurt and pain, and our spirits testify to us that we were not created for it, yet in Christ the supernatural becomes possible. 

 

 

Hurt precipitates beauty

 

 

Need begets deliverance

 

 

Death creates life. 

 

 

Redemption, a concept so beautiful that God worked it into the most basic fabric of human society from the beginning, only comes to bear in the face of evil.

 

 

 

Then God had another interruption for me.  I received a phone call from a different Peruvian friend who has been sick with COVID and Pneumonia.  She called in need of encouragement as her daughter is now suffering as well, and she asked if I could bring a few groceries.  What an incredible blessing it was to me to be offered this opportunity to minister tangibly to my sister in Christ even as the Lord was already drawing my heart to pray for the comfort and spiritual renewal of those in my life who are struggling. 

 

 

As I shopped for my friend and journeyed to her house, I prayed that the Lord might use me to bless and encourage her and that He might choose to use me to represent His deep love for her.  It was such a blessing to sit with her and pray over her, and remind her of truths from God’s word.  And when she responded with great gratitude to me, it was such a joy to be able to convey that it was her heavenly Father who was loving her and that I was merely His  undeserving, yet honored messenger to her this day—for that’s what the body of Christ does.  Each member reflects to the others the love of the Father who Himself possesses and exudes all of the love that exists in the universe.

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

 

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. – Philippians 2:1-2

 

 

I’ve spent so much time lately reading in the scriptures about the beautiful way that the body of Christ is meant to function—every member responding to the Head (Christ) and moving in unison with the others caring for those in need at times and receiving from the others at other times.  What a beautiful privilege to take part in this living, breathing, organism which is supernaturally propelled and directed by Christ Himself.

 

 

I am thankful that the Holy Spirit deemed me worthy of His interruption today.  It is truly an honor to be called upon to join my Father in ministering to His beloved children, and to be drawn into His heart for them.  

 

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!

 

 

Praying Scripture For Not-Yet-Believers

 Several years ago I attended a seminar in which a missionary shared about how their team had started referring to unbelievers as "not-yet-believers."  They shared how this simple shift in their choice of vocabulary had helped them to engage with each person in hope and expectation that the Lord would use them to influence the not-yet-believer toward accepting Christ as their Savior.  This idea really impacted me.  Because I REALLY identify with the need to convince my own heart of the super natural ability of the Holy Spirit to work in any person's heart, and of the miraculous potential which could very well exist in any person I interact with.

A couple weeks ago I sat down with my Father and asked Him what prayer burden He would lay on my heart.  I believe increasingly in the integral role of prayer in advancing the Kingdom of God on this earth, but I want to receive my prayer commissions from the Lord so that I'm not praying in my own idea of His kingdom, but His.  He was gracious to give me several names, and to direct me toward scriptures I could pray for them.  In this post I will share the scriptures that I have been led to pray for the not-yet believers who He laid on my heart.

a.     Pray Acts 26:18, “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

                                               i.     Lord, open their eyes to see truth (which is truly only recognizable through spiritually enlightened eyes)

                                              ii.     May they turn from darkness to light – make Your way irresistible to them.

                                             iii.     May they be removed from the power of Satan and placed under the power of God.  Father, would you prepare, equip, and position this person to do great battle for Your kingdom!

                                            iv.     May they receive forgiveness of sins.  Please convince their hearts of how good and possible Your offer really is!

                                              v.     May they receive a place among the sanctified gaining abundance not only through relationship with You, God, but also through a perfect place and role within Christ’s body.  

 

b.     Pray Romans 10:1-3, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.”

                                               i.     Lord, save them.

                                              ii.     May their zeal for God (or beauty, goodness, truth, etc.) be birthed anew out of knowledge of Your truth.

                                             iii.     May they grasp what is the righteousness of God offered to them, and give up attempting to establish their own righteousness.

A Lesson in Scrutiny

I was convicted recently by 1 Corinthians 4:6 where Paul says that the Corinthian believers need to learn “not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.”  I think in the past I never thought too much about the phrase “go beyond what is written” because I didn’t understand it.  I’m sure I do that constantly when reading the Bible—probably more often than not actually.

 

 

But I’ve been reading through 1 Corinthians repeatedly of late, and having more of a sense of the context of this verse makes it come alive.  Paul has heard that there are many in Corinth who have publicly chosen to follow Apollos rather than Paul for one reason or another.  First off, Paul addresses the error of attaching ones’ self to one human teacher (1:10-17).  But in chapter 4 he makes a defense of himself by explaining that as a servant of God, only God can judge him.  He claims that it means very little to him if humans find fault with him.  Then this verse appears.

 

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

 

Paul exhorts the Corinthians that it is God Who is our Master and Judge in all things, so while we may be tempted to apply God’s individual direction toward us to other people, it is incorrect to do so when it goes “beyond what is written,” or beyond what is clearly taught in scripture.  So while an individual believer in Corinth may have been led by the Holy Spirit to follow Apollos’s example more than Paul’s in one way or another, that would be an instance of Spiritual direction which goes beyond what was written in Scripture.  Scripture never said to follow Apollos’s practice of anything, yet the Spirit imparts truth and wisdom (which is in line with and never contradictory to scripture) to God’s children (2:6-16).

 

 

Moreover, as Paul pointed out in chapter 3, when we begin to proclaim our own affinities to others in such a way that we create lines of division between ourselves and other believers, we are acting in the flesh (verse 4).  Then in 3:21-22 Paul reminds us that “all things” are yours, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours.”  4:8 alludes to this astonishing reality as well.  God can use any person, experience, thing, etc. to grow us, teach us, sanctify us.  We are not meant to latch onto one other person’s faith, but rather joyfully give thanks for the way God may use certain individuals in our own journey with Him, but keeping our gaze on our Master Teacher and giver of all good gifts all the time. 

 

 

Chapter 2 verse 15-16 point out that if we do find ourselves judging another believer’s journey with the Lord, we are in fact judging the Spirit of God Himself.  Quite sobering.

 

 

So how am I applying this to myself? 

 

 

Lately I have been so enraptured with the growth God has granted me in my walk with Him, and I naturally want everyone else who I love to experience that same joy (Matt 5:15), yet in my zeal, I can find myself feeling critical toward those who don’t share my enthusiasm and particular joys in the Christian life.  So this verse reminds me to be very careful not to go beyond what is written in my desires for others.  God works in each of us differently and while there are many (scriptural) truths which are solidly part of God’s plan for every believer, my particular story represents God’s unique growth plan for me.  It is good to share that with others (Matt 5:16), however I must commit to resting in my Father’s good (and different) plan for them.

 

 

It’s interesting to me that Scripture doesn’t seem to give us any indication of what the people found unique to Apollos over Paul or vice versa.  Perhaps one did their daily devotions in the evening rather than the morning.  Perhaps one spent more time memorizing scripture and the other spent more time teaching it.  Perhaps one preferred more contemporary worship music than the other…. It’s interesting to think about the many different things which it could have been isn’t it?  But scripture made no mention of it because, as Paul points out, those were unique aspects of the Spirit’s work in those individual’s lives, and not something which scripture lays on all of us. 

 

 

I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by many of the Lord’s chosen ones, and to potentially experience different types of edification from each one as each represents a unique outplaying of the gospel in a fallen yet regenerate life.  I want to be much more intentional about rejoicing in the things in others which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise, (Phil 4:8) and much less time critiquing the areas of their lives where the Spirit has thus far grown me differently.