Cultivate Grateful: What's Your Story?

Think about it: What is your story? Where were you this time a year ago? 5 years ago? Ten years ago? 

One of the traps people have always fallen into is forgetting where they have come from. Read the Old Testament and you'll see it over and over again.  God's people forgot that they were slaves and God sent Moses to deliver them. They forgot that they while they were wandering in the wilderness because of their unbelief, God provided for them. They forgot how He split the Red Sea or opened a path through the Jordan River, or sent food they didn't have to grow or hunt for in manna and quail. It goes on and on. 

The Scriptures bear witness that God's people continually, even habitually, forget what God has done for them in the past, complain about their present, and don't expect God to fulfill His promise for the future. As much as we hate to admit it, you and I are just as prone to such forgetting. It's not pretty. And, although hate to admit it about ourselves, we most certainly will recognize it in our spouse or the person who sits in the other side of the church. But take a hard look at yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to convict your own pattern of repeated history forgetfulness. Once you've admitted it, you are in a perfect place to truly cultivate grateful. Remembering where we came from and what God has done in our lives will always spark thanks. Without exception. 

The psalmists understood this. That's why a good number of the psalms are testimony psalms. So many of the psalms look at current distress through the lens of past deliverance. The writer builds future faith through remembering God's past faithfulness. There are even psalms designed to remind all God's people as a group of what He has done for them, how He led them out of slavery and through the Red Sea, defeating Pharoah through plagues and a miraculous opening and closing of water. The psalmists understood their own tendency to forget as they observed the forgetfulness of all their ancestors. 

God isn't put off by our tendency to forget Him. That's why He has built into our experience the ordinances of water baptism and celebration of communion, or the Eucharist, which by the way, comes from a Greek word that means "thanksgiving." The whole purpose of communion is to remind us of what Christ did on the cross so that we will be inspired to give thanks. The purpose of communion is to cultivate grateful. 

Thanksgiving time, whether the holiday we celebrate or the celebration of the Eucharist, is a good time to look back and remember your own story. What is your story? What has God done for you?

What's my story? God rescued me from myself, from feeling like I had to be good, even perfect, in order to be acceptable and loved, not just by God, but by anyone. When I surrendered my life to Christ I began to discover satisfaction and fulfillment beyond all that I could imagine. It's been a continuing journey of leaving behind comfort and control to embrace an expanding experience of joy and strength through stretching. Every YES along the way has been a doorway to a new understanding of God and a deeper knowledge of my true self, the me God designed me to be. Even as I write this I am overwhelmed with thanks. He has brought me so far and I know there is still farther to go. 

I guess that's the greatest benefit of cultivating grateful through remembering your story. When you realize just how far God has brought you, it encourages you to keep saying YES and to continue the adventure. 

Cultivate grateful. What's your story? Let remembering your past inspire you to reach toward God's future for you because your story is far from over. 

Key thought: Remembering my past inspires my future. 

A Scripture to consider: 

Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. Psalms 107:8 

A YES challenge: Take some time to reflect on your story. Give thanks to God for how far He has brought you and commit to giving Him Your YES going forward. 

Prayer: 

Father, as I look back on all You have done for me I can't help but overflow with thanks. I see how far You have brought me. I am not the same person I was and I know it wasn't through my own efforts.  It's a work of Your ever-present grace in my life. I choose today to put my trust in Your future for me because I remember how faithful You have been in my past. I give you my YES again because I know You will continue to do wonderful things in my life. Amen. 

Cultivate Grateful: Getting God-Centered

Have you ever thought about what a grateful heart does for you? What's the benefit to cultivating grateful? How does gratefulness affect us and our relationships? Most especially, how does cultivating grateful affect our relationship with God. 

In his book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God Pastor Tim Keller contemplates the most familiar prayer of all time as a model for building our communication with God. He considers what we call "The Lord's Prayer" as a structure for approaching our Heavenly Father. As I read Pastor Keller's thoughts it seemed to me that cultivating grateful is a key to opening the door to experiencing God's presence. 

Keller says, "Adoration and thanksgiving - God-centeredness- comes first. Because it heals the heart of self-centeredness, which curves us in on ourselves and distorts all our vision."(p.114)

When I cultivate a grateful heart I am more able to recognize God's majesty and goodness. A grateful heart can glimpse God's great love and longs to honor and obey Him in response. A grateful heart opens the door to closeness with God. 

When I am grateful toward God, my focus is on God. Whereas, if I am ungrateful toward anyone, God especially, then my focus is on me - what I want and didn't get or what I got and didn't want. My me-focused self is unable to lovingly call on "Our Father". My me-focused self is unable to meditate on the holiness and majesty of God. With that limited vision how can I even begin to think about doing God's will or expanding His kingdom, the heart of a YES-life? 

Cultivating grateful helps me to be satisfied with "daily bread" rather than always wanting more. It helps me to recognize my own need for the gift of forgiveness and makes me more able to give it. When I am ungrateful, self-focused, I'm less likely to recognize temptation and evil in my own heart because I am more focused on getting my way then giving God His way. Through gratefulness I open myself to the formation of Christ-like character. Gratefulness invites God's presence into my character and allows God to teach me His ways.  I give God access to having His way in me. 

Cultivating grateful helps you and me to get God-centered. A God-centered life is a life full of God's presence. Are you ready to begin to experience the benefit of cultivating grateful? 

How about starting small? For the next 24 hours be intentional about cultivating grateful. As you are choosing to be grateful, be intentional about noticing what happens. Notice what happens in your situation. Notice what happens to the people around you. How does it affect your experience of God's presence with you on a moment by moment basis?

When you get to the end of your twenty-four hours, prayerfully look back on your day. If you notice a benefit, then make a commitment to try it again the next day. And so on. And so on. 

Cultivate grateful and cultivate a God-centered, God-filled life. 

Key thought: Cultivate grateful and get God-centered.

A Scripture to Consider: 

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below. Matthew 6:8-10 MSG

A YES challenge: Be intentional about cultivating grateful for the next 24 hours.

Prayer: 

Father, I want to experience Your presence more regularly. Help me to cultivate grateful as a way to cultivate a life that is centered on You instead of on me. I choose to be grateful for what I have without complaining about what I don't have. I choose to accept what You have given me, my life as it is, rather than longing for more. I want to honor You in everything and give You my YES. Amen. 

Cultivate Grateful: In Everything

I know that you want to be someone who says YES to God. It's the motivating factor of your life, isn't it? Yet, there may be an aspect of saying YES to God that you hadn't quite contemplated yet. 

Don't stop reading now! I promise you, this will be worth it! Part of being a person who says YES is to cultivate grateful. I know! That's tough, right? It's easy to evaluate our circumstances sometimes and excuse ourselves from gratefulness. I mean, look how tough everything is! Maybe it's your finances or your relationships. Maybe it's your own health or the health of someone you love. Maybe your job is wearing you out. Maybe you feel like you have been giving your all for God and getting nothing back. "If God is supposed to work out all things for good in my life (Romans 8:28), then why do so many things seem to be bad?" you may be saying. 

I don't want to minimize anything that you are going through. It's tough, and that's the truth. However, I want to park on a verse from the Bible that may help you get some perspective on what you are going through and help you get to a new level of YES. Are your ready? Are you willing? 

Here we go: "In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (I Thessalonians 5:18 NASB)

IN everything. Let's start there. It's important to note that little word, IN. It doesn't say FOR everything. There are some things it would just make no sense to thank God for. But IN. Now that's different! I can thank God IN my financial difficulty. I can thank God IN my health crisis. I can thank God IN my relational trauma. I can thank God IN the midst of just about anything. 

Why? Because God's goodness and character don't change even when my circumstances do. He remains the same. He remains faithful. He remains loving. He remains powerful. He remains God. 

In EVERYTHING. Everything? Really?! What about....? You fill in the blank. Yes, even that. Saying YES to God means thanking Him in the midst of that unnameable, unexplainable, unimaginable, unpardonable, unwanted circumstance. Not FOR, but IN EVERYTHING. 

I don't know why God allowed that situation to come into your life. I can't explain it. I can't defend it. But I can remind you, Dear One, that the Father who allowed it sees the end from the beginning. He knows how it is going to turn out and He is with you in the midst of it and working for your best interest. He really is. Why?

Because, at the end of the day, the thing that matters most, the thing you and I most need to remember about God, is that He is a God of love. He IS love. (1 John 4:8) Whatever He does, whatever He allows, whatever He doesn't do, is motivated by His love. That is something we can be grateful for. IN EVERYTHING.

Key thought: Cultivate grateful. 

A Scripture to Consider: 

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18 NASB

A YES challenge: Is there any circumstance you have found yourself grumbling about? How can you cultivate grateful today? 

Prayer: 

Lord, You know what I am going through. I don't like it and I wish it wasn't happening, but it is. Help me to remember Your unfailing, never-ending, overflowing love even IN this. I choose to give You thanks today. Amen. 

If I Just Knew...

I'm not usually one to panic. I'm usually the steady one. So what happened?! 

Tom and I were on a cruise to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. I know, a cruise sounds luxurious, but this was the first time we had ever experienced seas so rough that it was sometimes frightening.  Not only that, the motion was making Tom feel so sick that much of the time all he was up to doing was lying in our cabin to rest or watch movies. This morning Tom was hoping to feel better so we decided to leave the cabin for a while and let the steward attend to it. I had to finish something, so Tom went ahead of me up to the relatively quiet lounge with a panoramic ocean view where we expected to find a place to read for a while. When I went up to the lounge a few minutes later, I couldn't find him. 

"If he was going to go somewhere else shouldn't he have come back and told me?" I grumbled inside. Where was he? A bench in the hall near our cabin was a good place to wait for Tom to pass by me on his way back to explain the change of plans, so I settled in and did some reading. Another check of my watch. Maybe I missed him? I headed back to the freshly cleaned cabin. Empty. What now? I waited while the ship tossed and the clock ticked. No cell service at sea. How could I get in touch with him? How could I find him? The ship was big enough that we could easily miss each other. I retraced my steps to the lounge where we had planned to meet. He was definitely not there. How about downstairs to the gallery lounge that we had hung out in previously? Didn't see him there. Back to the cabin to wait. Not there. 

All this time, I was praying, but the longer this unknowing lasted the more I could feel panic rising in me. It didn't make sense. My rational mind knew that Tom was probably fine, even though I hadn't heard from him for a couple hours, but I couldn't relax and emotion was taking over. I knew panic wasn't going to help me, but there it was and I didn't know what to do about it. My prayers became tearful and pleading. "God, I just need to know that he's okay. Show me where he is. Help me stop panicking!"  The cabin stayed silent and my heart continued to rock with the ship.

"God, I just need to know what is going on. I need some information so that I know what to do," I finally prayed. This prayer was different. Less panicked.  More resolved. A few moments later Tom called the cabin. The ocean view had made him feel worse so he had moved to the gallery lounge, but had not felt able to get up and call me until then. I had missed him when I had looked there. Now, I knew what to do. Down to the gallery lounge I went. The unknowing resolved. 

What was that all about? It's confused me for a while, but I think I understand now. What I wanted was to know the whole picture. You know what I mean, "I can endure this as long as I know what's happening." I wanted to know WHY. But I didn't and as long as that was my internal demand, I was undone. What made that last prayer different? I was no longer craving the overview in order to resolve myself. I just asked for the next step. Not WHY, but WHAT. Is that what God was waiting for? 

Sometimes my desire to know why is really a desire to control. If I just knew... how this was going to resolve, then I could endure. If I just knew why this was happening I would be at peace. If I just knew... I guess the posture I need to take is "I just need enough information to know what to do next and I will trust You for the rest of it." Sometimes the question to ask is not "Why" but "What".

Key thought: To give God your YES may be to ask "What" instead of "Why".  

A Scripture to consider: 

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. Psalm 142:3 NIV

A YES challenge: Are you asking God "Why"? How could you change your question to "What"?

Prayer: 

Father, I want to trust You. It seems easier to trust you when I understand why things are happening, but I know that You often don't give me that explanation. Help me to trust You for the outcome. What is the next step for me today? Amen. 

When the Fog Settles In

When Tom and I travel we love to take long drives and explore, especially when we are in a new place. On our first trip to Rhode Island we found ourselves on such a drive. We would have been at Miscuamicut Beach soaking in the sun and breathing in the sea, but the clouds were obscuring the sun and the fog blurred out the sea. 

We planned our route by map. Remember maps? Those paper things people used before phones could access GPS and give us turn-by-turn directions? We planned to stop at the lighthouse near Point Judith and then drive up the coast to Narragansett. According to the map, we arrived at Point Judith. We didn’t see the lighthouse anywhere. In fact, we couldn’t even see the ocean, the fog was so thick. After a while, we realized that we were in the right place, we just couldn’t see the lighthouse because of the fog. So, we drove on up the coast. The rock wall along the road was the border between us and the ocean. According to the map the ocean was there. According to our eyes, there was only a wall of grey, cloudiness. We reached Narragansett and looked around a bit, then returned to our hotel. 

The next day greeted us with clear skies and sunshine so we decided to retrace our tire tracks and try for the lighthouse again. We were amazed to see just how close we had been to it the day before without even a hint that it was right there! Not only that, but the location opened up on some breathtaking ocean views that had been totally obscured by the fog. 

The ride to Narragansett was equally astonishing. There was the ocean on the other side of the rock wall! So close that I could easily toss a stone into it if we stopped along the way. Yet, on our previous ride it had been completely invisible.

As I  looked with wonder on the beauty that we had missed on our foggy journey, I became aware of God's whisper. "Remember this the next time you can't find Me." That made the sun even more brilliant and the sky even more radiant. I was seeing His presence in every glint off a wave. 

There are moments in our lives when it seems like God is nowhere to be found. We cry out for Him. He seems absent and His hand is unrecognizable in our circumstances. Maybe you are going through such a time right now. Hang on. Like the lighthouse hidden in the fog, He's closer than you think. Like the ocean hidden by the grey wall of clouds, He is there, just as His word says He is. 

Our journey through the Rhode Island fog made clear just how deceiving my senses can be. What I couldn't see was still there.  What the map said was true. There was a lighthouse. The ocean was on the other side of the rock wall. In the same way, when I can't feel God's presence, He is still there. What the Bible says is true, even when I can't see it. Even when I follow what it says and I seem to be at the wrong place. Everything I am looking for is still there and I can be sure that eventually the sun will shine again and He will show me the beauty I missed when the fog settled in. 

Ar you facing fog today, dear friend? Keep to the road. Follow the map. He's nearer than you think. 

Key Thought: God is nearer than you think.

A Scripture to Consider: 

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth." Psalm 145: 18

A YES Challenge: Is the "fog" of life obscuring your sense of God's presence? Commit to stay on the path until He becomes clear again.

Prayer: Lord, sometimes I just can't see You at work in my life or in the things happening around me. Help me to remember that You are near and stay the course with You no matter what. Amen. 

Say YES to Sovereignty

I stand with my hands open and uplifted. My heart willing, but resistant. I accept and reject all at the same time. There is a comfort and a confusion. A thankfulness and a regret. A desire to accept and a desire to change all.  The thing I did not want has become a reality. Where is God in this? How can I resolve the unresolvable? 

Is that a familiar scenario? More familiar than you'd like to admit? Yeah, me too. We pray earnestly. We trust God. We search the Scriptures. We stand on promises. Then the unthinkable must be pondered as realty. The un-faceable must be faced. We question God. We ask why. We tell ourselves that God is in control. We speak the words to others. Yet, inside our hearts scream for answers and receive silence. How do we move forward in faith when God seems to have ignored our most fervent, most faith-filled prayers? Where is the YES that we know God yearns for?

I once heard Elisabeth Elliot, the well-known author and wife of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, give a talk on suffering, a topic she had become an unanticipated expert on. She described suffering as "having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have." She acknowledged that included everyone. The response she encouraged encompassed two concepts, worship and offering. 

Worship, at it's heart is not about music or church services. Worship is about giving God the honor he deserves as God, recognizing His great worth and power. As a response to the unwelcome in our lives worship means to recognize that He is still God, still good and all-powerful. It is to recognize that He is sovereign. 

Sovereign is defined as "supreme power or authority". To recognize that God is sovereign means that you and I accept that He has the right to do whatever He wants without giving us an explanation. We can accept it, but we often don't like it. 

That is where the second part of Elisabeth Elliot's teaching comes into play, offering. I take this unwanted circumstance or unmet request and give it back to God as an expression of trust. I give to God all my proposed answers to this situation and accept that His intelligence and wisdom far outweighs my own. I accept that His power is superior to all others and that what He does is always right, even when I think it's wrong. 

I say YES to sovereignty. 

I've said YES to sovereignty when someone I loved, whose healing I prayed for earnestly, died. When a position I knew I was called to was lost. When children strayed. When loved ones suffered emotional turmoil or physical pain. When the gospel was rejected. When losses seemed greater than gains. When hard work produced no results. When the headlines hollered out heartbreak for many or few. When...You get the picture. You could write a list of your own. 

There comes a point where sovereignty is the only explanation for suffering. To only blame Satan minimizes God's supreme power. That's the hardest thing to accept about sovereignty; God can stop the suffering, but doesn't. 

So, we say YES, by giving Him our worship, our recognition that He is still worthy of our trust, and by offering, lifting our open hands and hurting hearts as an expression of our decision to give Him that trust. 

When we can give God that YES, His sovereignty soothes the unresolveable and He becomes the resolution. 

Key thought: I respond to God's sovereignty with worship and offering.

A Scripture to consider:

The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything. Psalm 103:19 NLT

A YES challenge: Where do you need to say YES to sovereignty today? How can worship and offering become a part of your response?

Prayer: 

Lord, today I open my hands and my heart lifting them up to You in the midst of the circumstance You know I asked You to resolve or remove. I choose to recognize that You are good, You are God and You have the right to do what You want in my life and in the world. Let Your sovereignty soothe the unresolved in my life. You are the resolution I need most. Amen. 

Say YES to Confusion

When Tom and I married we already knew that we were called to ministry...well as much as our youthful minds and hearts could understand. The map to ministry seemed to be blank, the route and destination unclear. Even in our newlywed life, we stumbled forward. Confusion has often been our companion on this journey. Many times as we moved forward on the road we were sure that God had mapped out for us, we found ourselves in the midst of detours, like a summer highway constantly under construction, our course kept shifting. 

For example, in our third year of marriage, soon after our first child was born, our beautiful, dimpled Jonathan, we felt God calling us to Bible school. We said good bye to our weeping parents, with their only grandchild at the time, and moved 1200 miles away to Florida to a school that was part of a church and missionary-sending organization. We were on the road to ministry! Or so we thought. Just a few days before our move we discovered that our second child was moving with us and would be born in Florida. A closer look at our finances made it clear that making ends meet while Tom took classes was not going to work. Not only that, but within eight weeks of our move, the pastor of the church, one of the only people we knew thanks to a newcomers class, resigned as pastor, causing a rift in the congregation that sent ripples through the school and the missions community. Had God called us to this? This confusion with a side order of pain? What were we supposed to do now?

What did we do? We just kept taking the next best step. We developed relationships that helped to shape us. We learned more life lessons than I can share in a blog. We grew in our understanding of who God is and got to know ourselves better. Our marriage solidified and we welcomed our hazel-eyed Alyssa while Jonathan stayed with our new friends, Mark and Debbie, who showed us what it means to lay down your lives for your friends in so many ways.

Did the confusion ever really go away? I can't say that it did then, but now I see how God used that time for our growth as we simply kept saying YES. I suppose that's the best lesson we learned. Because the next time confusion joined our journey, we found ourselves doing the same thing: Just keep taking the next best step and say YES.  

So, my friend, do you find yourself in a time of confusion? I can't guarantee that as you give God your YES you will understand what is happening. But I can guarantee that as you keep giving God your YES you will find yourself moving toward the destination that He has for you. Even if you can't see what it is right now. 

Key Thought: When confusion becomes your companion, give God your YES.

A Scripture to Consider:

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  Psalm 139:16

A YES Challenge: Has confusion joined you on your journey? What is the next best step? What will it look like to give God your YES?

Prayer: 

Lord, I really don't understand what you are doing in my life right now. This is not what I expected at all! Help me to just keep taking the next best step and give You my YES. I want to know You better and end up where You want me. Amen.

Say YES to Perseverance

So many tragedies. Watch the news for two minutes. Look around at the lives of your friends and acquaintances. Look back over your own life. No matter how hard we try we can't avoid the pain of life in a broken world. We hurt for others. We hurt for ourselves. How do we handle it? How do YOU handle it? 

Most of us are not self-aware enough to recognize our own self-protective strategies. We can look at someone else and see how they are turning to work, or addiction, or TV, or shopping, or food, or anything else to avoid their pain. Yet, we don't recognize what we do to avoid dealing with the biggest of questions: Why does God allow pain, in my life and the lives of those around me, and why doesn't He stop it when He can? 

I can't answer that question. Oh, I can give you answers. I've done it many times in the past. That is part of my self-protective strategy. If I can explain my pain, or someone else's, to some extent, if I can convince myself that in some way it makes sense, then it becomes easier for me to deal with. But it doesn't really answer the question of why God allows it. It just avoids truthfully bringing the question to God. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to make sense of tragedy, it just doesn't make any sense at all. 

So then, how do we handle this huge question of pain and tragedy? How do we acknowledge the question we can't truly answer and still maintain our faith? How do we keep saying YES to a God who sometimes allows hurt to come to us and those around us and doesn't give us satisfactory explanations? 

I have found in my time of deepest hurt and deepest questioning that there is only one anchor that keeps me safe in the storm of confusion: The goodness of God's character. When I can't understand why God doesn't solve the problem and stop the tragic from becoming reality, I have learned to remind myself that God is still good, that His mercies are new every morning, that His faithfulness doesn't run out, that His grace is still amazing. 

Landing on the truth of God's character allows me to persevere in the tempests of tragedy that rattle my faith. I have to choose to trust His goodness and leave my questions unanswered. And then, something awe-inspiring happens. Even though my questions are still hanging in the air, they fade, and I begin to see the brightness of His presence in a new way. I become aware of Him almost tangibly, in a way that I could not have if I understood. I feel His grip on me tighten and the seas below my staggering feet become stable as stone. The storm doesn't stop, but my feet no longer stumble.

Dear One, whatever questions are staggering you today, I encourage you to persevere in the storm, spurred on by the persistent goodness of God's character.  Say YES to perseverance and you say YES to God's stabilizing presence.

Key Thought: Trust God's goodness in the tempest of tragedy. 

A Scripture to Consider: 

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:21-26 NIV

A YES Challenge: What is your self-protective strategy in the face of tragedy? How can you trust God with your questions?

Prayer: 

Father, I hate to admit that I have unresolved questions. I thought that faith was supposed to answer all my questions, but it isn't true and I am not quite sure how to resolve that. Help me to trust in Your goodness even when my questions are unanswered. Be my anchor in the storm. Amen. 

Say YES to Questions

Saying YES to God doesn’t mean that you will never have a question. What do you do with your questions? Do you view your questions as a lack of faith? Maybe you stuff them down like that last sweater in a too-full suitcase and then hold them down while you zip them shut. Part of saying YES to God is saying yes to questions. So..what do you do with them?

If we believe that God is all-knowing and all-powerful doesn’t it stand to reason that He already knows Your questions? If God is all-knowing and all-powerful doesn’t it mean that sometimes He will know things that you and I don’t? If God knows my questions and He knows things that I don’t then why don’t I ask Him? 

Here’s the conclusion that I have come to: It takes more faith to ask God my questions than it does to stuff them down and pretend that I don’t have them. As a kid growing up it became my modus operandi to do what was expected of me so that I could stay out of trouble. Not because I loved what was right, but because I didn’t like getting yelled at or corrected. As I began to learn more about what following God looked like, what trust and faith looked like on the outside, I applied the same principle to faith. I would always give the “right” answer, but there was no depth, no real faith involved. I stuffed my questions and confusion and zipped them up with Bible quotes and positive words that weren’t the true confessions of my heart. 

God’s continual work in me is to take what I know to be true and plant it deep into my experience. That happens most effectively when I am in the midst of a time full of questions. In times like that there is really only one thing to do: Ask God my questions and hold to what I know is true based on His unchanging Word. Sometimes, He answers my questions. Sometimes He doesn’t. But I’ve realized that asking my questions of God is often a greater expression of trust. Trust involves unknowing. It involves a hope, an expectation that my concerns, my fragile emotions, my future, will be treated with love and respect. 

When I give God my unknowing, my questions, I have realized that I am giving Him my YES. "YES, Lord, I believe that You really do love me. YES, Lord, I believe that You will do what is best. YES, Lord, I believe that Your timing will be perfect. YES, Lord, You are my God.”

Key Thought: When I give God my questions, I am giving Him my YES.

A Scripture to consider: 

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalms 130:5

A YES Challenge: Have you been stuffing some questions? Take a step of faith and ask God about them.

Prayer: 

Lord, sometimes life is so confusing and frustrating. There are so many things I can’t control and I don’t understand. Help me to bring my questions to You, knowing that You already have the answers and will reveal them to me at the right time and in the right way. I will choose to trust that You will receive my questions with love. Amen. 

Commitment to the Calling: Called to Be Like Christ

Whatever else God has called us to do and to be it is all summed up in this: As believers we are called to be like Christ. But what does that look like and how do we do it? Are we called to speak with authority over demons because He has given us authority? Well, yes, but is that where you live? Are we called to be like Christ in the working of miracles? Well, yes, but do we make miracles happen? Are we called to be like Christ in a life of self-sacrifice. Well, yes, but what does my cross look like? 

A good guideline for being like Christ is the sketch of Christ-like character called the "fruit of the Spirit". Not "fruits", but 'fruit." The "fruit of" a person's labor is the product of their work. If the Holy Spirit is at work in you and me, then there will be a product. The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in a person's life, in my life and yours.  The Spirit of Christ. 

So, here is a reminder of what that fruit, the evidence, that product of the Spirit's work, will be: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) I know. You've heard it all before and there is just some of that fruit you and I aren't very good at. True, but God doesn't ask us to be good at it. He hasn't called us to make it happen. The truth is we can't make any of that fruit happen in us. I am not trying to be a downer here! There really is encouragement in that! God hasn't asked us to make it happen because it's the Holy Spirit's job to make it happen. Our job is to recognize our need for Him to do the work an then begin to cooperate with Him so that He can do it. We start to do that by admitting to Him that we can't. 

I did not realize how impatient a person I was until I had a two-year old! This little person was determined to do things his way and not mine and I found myself frustrated and angry. I was dismayed to find out what was really inside of me. I didn't like it and didn't know how to change it. I knew that God wanted me to be patient and that I wasn't and that was all. Over a period of time, as I asked God to do the work in me and as I focused on just growing my relationship with Him, I found that I became more patient. The fruit of patience grew as a result of me seeking after God, not just seeking after patience. 

As you and I allow the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in our lives, we will find ourselves equipped to do a better job at everything else that God has asked us to do. Every task will become sweeter. The results of our interactions with others will be more loving. We will find ourselves growing into the people we were created to be. It will take time. The Holy Spirit has begun a good work in you and me and He won't stop until the day Jesus brings us home. Praise God!

Key Thought: It's the Holy Spirit's job to make us like Christ. 

A Scripture to Consider: 

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6

A YES Challenge: Is there a fruit of the Holy Spirit that you know you are lacking? Ask Him to develop that aspect of Christ's character in you.

Prayer:

Father, I am aware that I am lacking in Christ-like character. I wish I could just make it happen, but I realize that it is Your work, the work of the Holy Spirit in me, that produces that fruit. Help me to cooperate with You. Do your work in me so that I can represent You well in all I do. Amen.