Category Archives: God

When God Feels Far Away

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We all go through those times when it feels as if God has moved on without us. There is a definite feeling of loneliness and loss. It feels like everything we do is wrong and it will never be right again. If you’ve felt that, you’re in good company. David did too.

He starts by describing his loss in vivid terms (Psalm 42):

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

There is desperation in this tone, he is in anguish:

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Not only is he distraught, he’s being mocked for it. He can’t be himself with anyone because of this internal pain:

how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

He’s too broken to celebrate with the crowd.

But here is where David shines. He recognizes that his heart needs help. He’s very pragmatic about his depression:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

This technique must have worked for him well because he used it often.

I think that God uses these times to see what we’re made of. It’s easy to trust Him when life is rosy, but what do we do when it gets hard? Do what David did. Make the decision to trust God anyway. God is still God and He is still with us, always. Just keep reminding yourself and the joy will come. It’s a promise.

God Has Called You By Name

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When we receive salvation by grace, we are adopted into God’s family, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:7) We were born to know Him and be with Him. It’s not an idea that seems like it would work, it’s a plan that He has had from before the worlds were created.

It’s amazing to think that we live and breath because God loves us so much. It’s a love that we really don’t understand. Jesus came in the flesh to die as our sacrifice for sin because He loves. He loves! And He knows each of us intimately. We shouldn’t be freaked out by the fact that He knows our secret sins. He loves us! He’s waiting for us to turn to Him so He can work out the problems we have to deal with.

I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1) Can there be anything more amazing and fantastic than knowing that God is calling you by your name? You are known and loved in heaven. You can press into that and find a loving God who’s been waiting for you since forever. It’s your move now.

Delight in God

Delight Yourself In The Lord Means What Exactly?

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Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) I grew up thinking that because I believe in God, I go to church, and I pray to Him, that means He should give me all that my heart desires. I would get frustrated and doubtful because those things didn’t happen. It took me a long, long time to understand what this verse actually means.

God Himself told us the way of this a long time ago: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5) Jesus called this the greatest commandment. Commandment! It’s not a request or suggestion. We are born and bred to be lovers of the Lord God. He made us for that purpose because He loves us back. This is a decision on our part. We must chose to love God fully. That’s not the same thing as believing in Him, or trusting that He will answer prayers. It’s about seeing Him as the wonderful, lovely, awesome Father that He is. It’s dreaming about Him like David did, wanting to know Him more and more.

When we stop looking at what we want and turn our attention to Him, He’s happy to bless us with our heart’s desire. Then it becomes icing on the cake. Delight in God is it’s own reward.

God Will Tell You His Secrets

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Psalm 25 promises that God will tell you His secrets if you press into Him. Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. It starts by wanting to know more about Him. This is not a casual interest, or a curiosity of the moment. This is a desire born of the soul to know the God who made the universe, to understand His heart and mind. It starts by asking. God is not a god who sits quietly, observing and not interfering. He wants to be active in your life and if it’s your desire to know Him better, He will respond.

The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way. There’s the key. Don’t seek His knowledge so you can write a paper about it. Seek it because you recognized that He is awesome and full of majesty, yet so loving that He sent Jesus to save you. When He answers, it is not a dazzling epiphany that will answer all the questions of time. He teaches His way. It’s an on-going process. We go from grace to grace. He builds on His truth as we can receive and understand it.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. Here is the promise. When we seek to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, He revels His secrets. The Hebrew for the word covenant is cowd (Strong’s H5475). It means secret counsel. You are invited into an intimate communion where God will share His plans, His covenant, and His desires for you and for humanity. This is the most awesome relationship you can imagine. He promises, I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. (Isaiah 45:3)

This is not an empty promise. This is the real thing. Go after Him with everything inside you and see what He’ll reveal only to you.

God Hears When We're Frustrated

God Hears When You’re Frustrated

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One time I told God how frustrated I was. I believe the prophetic word. I know that it can be wrong if people try to help God, but generally it’s good. Every time I get a prophetic word, I write it down and read them all over time. It’s been exciting to see how many of them fall within categories. But one time it frustrated me. I complained to God in my journal that it seemed that these prophetic words were things God was “going” to do. Why was it always something that would happen later? What wasn’t ever anything that was going to happen now? I vented. I didn’t hold back as I told Him exactly how I felt.

That was the day I read Ezekiel 12:28,  ‘Thus says the Lord God: “None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done,” says the Lord God.’

I was stunned. He let me know that He heard my moaning. It couldn’t have been more obvious. Yes He was talking in Ezekiel about Israel, but He used that conversation to speak to me and I heard Him. It was encouraging on several levels. One, because He was promising that His word is true. And two, because He wasn’t bothered by my frustration. He likes it when I’m real with Him. David was very real with him as he wrote the Psalms. He wrote about being fearful or wanting revenge on those who were evil.

We don’t have to pretend piousness with God. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Just be aware that when you talk to Him, He wants to talk back. And He will do it in kindness. He understands that we feel pain and loneliness. He understands the issues that we face in life. He doesn’t expect that it won’t affect us. Be real with Him and you can say like David, I sought the Lord and he answered me. (Psalms 34:4)

If God is your shepherd, you are blessed.

God Wants You To Rest

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The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. (Psalm 23: 1-2) David understood something about God that transformed his life. God wants us to live in peace. When David said the Lord was his shepherd, he described a life of protection. Sheep don’t worry about wolves if the shepherd is near. David so trusted that God would protect his life that it allowed him to face a giant and win.

But there is another deeper truth in these two verses. God makes me lie down in green pastures. We need rest. We need peace. Our souls are designed to recharge in rest. He leads me beside still waters. The Hebrew for this is “waters of rest”. (Strong’s H4496, H4325) How amazing is that! If we allow Him, God will lead us to waters of rest. The sabbath was made to be a day of rest because we need it. Life can be overwhelming and if we are not careful of our rest, we suffer the affects of stress, which is physically and emotionally damaging.

When we rest in peace, God restores our soul. We don’t have to wait to be dead to rest in peace! We are meant to enjoy that now. God knows how stressful life is. He promises to restore our peace if we let Him. Human nature is to be fearful so we’re told over three hundred times in the Bible to fear not. It’s a choice to trust that God will take care of us. Seek first the kingdom of God and He will take care of us. It’s His promise. It’s only then that He can restore our soul and help us live in rest.

Rest is yours for the having. Enjoy it everyday. Your soul will thank you.

When The Enemy Lies

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Your know those times when the world is falling apart and everything you do is wrong? You feel like the stupidest person on earth and nothing anyone says helps you in the least. Guess whose game plan that is! Hint, it’s not God’s. Satan’s plan is to kill, steal, and destroy. That means that he will use every device to pull you down, if not physically, then emotionally. The enemy lies.

Granted, we have to admit that we are not perfect, but doesn’t mean that every evil thought that runs though our head, especially when we are stressed, it true. Whether is comes, from your own thoughts, the news, or someone you know, lies will try to take you down; lies that are completely false and destructive.

So what do you do? First, you have to recognize them. Jesus said,  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) He also said, ” My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) That means that you need to learn to hear His voice and you do that through reading the Word and prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Ask Him to help you hear His voice. He wants more than anything to be in communion with you, like any loving parent would. Spend as much time as you can learning to hear Him. He will be surprisingly responsive to encourage you to come closer. Do it! It’s awesome.

After you know that you are hearing God, knowing what is true becomes easier. All you have to do is ask. Even so, when we are under pressure, or have to deal with serious difficulties, it’s not always easy to realize that the enemy is at work. That’s why having a habit of spending time with Jesus is important, especially in the hard times. He will help clear your mind and keep you centered so you can see what is true and what is a lie.

And when you recognize a lie, all you have to do is rebuke it. Rebuke the lies of the enemy and claim the truth of God for your life. Thank God for His goodness and faithfulness and ask Him to lead you in all righteousness. He gave us authority over all the works of the enemy. We don’t have to put up with lies that tear us down. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matt 10:16) Don’t fall for the lies. You are amazing.

Why Do You Want Salvation?

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If asked, I think most people would say that the reason they want to be saved is to avoid going to hell. It’s not an unreasonable desire, but I think it misses the entire point of salvation. Let’s go back and look at why that is.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He had to create it because there was nothing, nothing that we understand anyway. He made the earth and animals and people. Then He chose a specific people group to call His own. He led them and taught them to understand their need to trust Him and His will and desire to love and protect them. As we follow the story of human interaction with God, it becomes clear that the reason for creation was for God to have a relationship with us. Not an oppressive, domineering relationship, but an intimate, loving, family relationship.

“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6) He has called us to be His own family. We’re meant to call Him Daddy, or Papa. He wants to spend time with us, enjoying our company, teaching us and protecting us in life.

As an adult, I learned much more about my earthly father than I did as a child. The more time I spent with him, the more stories I heard that I had never heard before. The same is true with God. Never assume that because you believe in God and accept His salvation that that’s all there is. He promises that we “may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3) Those treasures aren’t just dropped in your lap. They don’t automatically come after a set amount of time or service. You have to want them. You have to spend time with Papa asking for more. Ask and it will be given. He is delighted to show you the deeper things.

Why should you want to be saved? Because it allows you to know the most magnificent mind in the universe and be called his family and friend. Dive into that and the idea of being saved to avoid hell becomes irrelevant.

Forgiveness

Is God Mad At Me?

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Several years ago a church changed their street message board to say “God is not made at you”. Soon after, they were inundated with angry phone calls for some time. Apparently, many people believe that God is mad at them and feel the need to vent, to ask why, to affirm their stance that God is indeed vengeful. Do you wonder, Is God mad at me?

Rest at ease, He is not. How do I know that? I can read it in every book of the Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal live. (John 3:16) A vengeful God does not sacrifice His most precious Son. A loving God does. Why? Because He wants to ensure a way for us to be with Him. Jesus took on the sins of the world, including ours, and covered them with His own blood. All we need to do is accept that gift of sacrifice with humble thanks. His love for us is outrageous and never ending.

But what about the Old Testament God who looks pretty vengeful? God told His people what they needed to do to stay safe within His protection and grace, but over and over again they deserted Him to worship idols. His anger was against their actions, not the people themselves. He repeatedly told them to trust in Him and He would cover them with His mercy. Most of the time, they did not.

Do you believe that God is mad at you because bad things happen to you? Bad things happen to everyone, even when we know how much God loves us. He never said we wouldn’t have problems. He said if we trust Him, He’ll be with us and work things out. It’s the trust part that trips up most people. We don’t know how to take our hands off to let God be in control. Most of the time, we doubt that He will do anything for us. It’s a real test of our faith. If we really believe, if we really trust that God is who He said He is, we can relax and watch Him do what we could not.

Bad things may happen because we’re not even trying to trust Him so we just make stupid decisions. We suffer the consequences of what we got ourselves into. Even then, all we have to do is tell God how sorry we are for what we’ve done and ask His forgiveness. He will always forgive. It’s His nature.

No, God is not mad at you. He loves you very, very much. He’s a great, good God who wants to give you every blessing in heaven. All you have to do is receive it.

How Is It Possible To Be Friends With God?

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I am friends with GodIf you have ever had the privilege of standing on a hillside away from city lights at night and looked at the expanse of stars in the sky, you know the wonder of our God. The massiveness of His creation and the beauty of it all should open your heart to want to know Him more. What is astonishing is that He wants to know us even more. But how can that be? How can the God of creation not know me?

That is the wonder of our relationship with Him. From the very beginning, before the first star was released to the vast expanse of space, God wanted to know me. He knew my name, He knew my heart’s desires, and He knew my weaknesses before a single atom was made. He knew who I would be, but He wanted to know my heart as I revealed it to Him. He wanted to be my Friend.

This is a concept almost too deep to bear. How can I be friends with God? How can I approach Him without fear and trembling? Well, He is God and He knew our fear so He revealed His great love for us through His prophets and through His Son. When we understand and establish in our hearts that God loves us more than we can comprehend, we can respond back with our human love. It is smaller and more fickle than His love for us, but it is where we start.

In that love that we feel from Him and for Him, we become friends. There is a comfort and boldness to go to Him without trembling. We can know Him as Papa and run to Him in joy. When we sit in the quiet place to listen to Him, He also listens to us. He wants us to pour our hearts out to Him. He wants us to tell Him about all the loss and pain that happens in life. If we don’t tell Him, then we hold it in and it hurts us. When we talk to Papa, we release it to Him and there is room for healing and joy.

And after we let go of our hurts, Papa crooks His finger at us to follow Him. There is more that He wants us to have. There are treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places to find. He lays out a treasure hunt in the heavenlies and invites us in to scamper and find His delights. Yes, it sounds fanciful, and yes it is real. After every delight, He crooks His finger again and draws us deeper. There is no limit to the wonder of knowing Him. The only limits are those we allow. We stop when others stop. We stop when we think others will judge us or not understand. God is waiting for those who will press in to know Him more.

He wants to know us. He wants us to know Him, and there are no boundaries in that knowing, only further possibilities. The more we reveal our heart to God and not hold back because we are embarrassed of our selfishness or greed, the more He can replace those harmful attitudes with His goodness, and His goodness reveals more of Him to discover. Our friendship with God is the reason for all creation. He is my Friend and I am His.