Canaan's Rest

  Afterwards I may get to Aldi’s and go to my exercise class.

We probably have all had a time that we wished Jesus would come soon, preferably  today! Maybe we were in a hard situation and wanted the Lord to come quickly and rescue us from the painfulness of it; but instead, He lets His rain fall on us as He strengthens and encourages our hearts. It’s wonderful to be in the Word and hear good preaching, but growth also takes place in those times of struggle, as we are so aware of our need for the Lord. We don’t want be known as quitters when the going gets rough, but rather resolute to be strong in the Lord’s strength. We know the best is yet to come!

I want to share another response I got from an author friend when I asked you all a question in my former devotions. She said her writing has been on hold for a bit because her husband had a heart attack and dealing with hospital stays and doctor visits. Her words, “He had seven stents put in. In the helicopter, he realized that he might be on his way to Glory, and he said he felt like a kid in the back of the station wagon on his way to Disney World! He was excited and ready to depart…but then he remembered me. The Lord felt it was more needful for him to stay. He’s doing great and feels good and so we praise the Lord for that and for the continued time to serve him here.” In her P.S. my friend said, “No dark time for me. If the Lord took my husband, I would praise Him. He decided to let me keep him longer, I praise Him!!”

I love the anticipation of her husband realizing he could be with the Lord any minute that day in the ambulance. We never know when the time will come for each of us, but let us be ready so we can say, “Come Lord Jesus!”

“I have experienced both dry times and distant cold times with the Lord. During Covid I lost the room I was renting from a family because I was a retail worker and they were concerned that I might put them at higher risk of contracting the virus. Many believers I knew and loved also shared concerns about my presence because of their elderly loved ones. A non-believing coworker opened up a spot in her home for me to stay 3 months. I felt so lonely and I couldn’t visit my mother who was suffering with dementia. In that dark time, I would walk a lot. My coworker lived in Duluth, so I would walk down to the water and sit on the cold rocks in the darkness of early morning. One particular time that I did this, I was journaling and crying. I was cold and lonely on that day in March. As the tears slowed, I remembered seeing the sky begin to lighten.

The sun began to rise over the vast waters of Lake Superior and as the rays of light shone brighter, their warmth touched my tearstained cheeks and the heat permeated into my face. It was as if the Lord was slowly permeated into me and I felt a renewed hope that I wasn’t alone. I might be without human companions, but never am I without my Jesus!

God was using this time in my life. In the loneliness I found myself drawn to the One who is omnipresent, and “ever present in our time of need.” I was seeking Him, and He (true to His word) let Himself be found by me. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matt. 7:7 So remember that…“Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” Psalms 30:4-5 NASB

When we keep seeking Him above all other things, He will fill us with His Joy! In the dark, there is a Light! I would encourage all who are enduring the night to keep firm in the faith, and to keep reaching out to God even if He seems silent.

A quote I appreciate from that time in my life reads, “If dependance on God is the Goal, then weakness is an asset.” -unknown  And as Elizabeth Elliot wrote, “This hard place in which you perhaps find yourself is the very place in which God is giving you opportunity to look only to Him, to spend time in prayer, and to learn long-suffering, gentleness, meekness – in short, to learn the depths of the love that Christ Himself has poured out on all of us.”

Keep crying out and reading out to God, but remember that His knows the path to walk and it’s a hard road at times filled with dry patches, dark nights, and perhaps silence, but never are you alone. Like a good friend, the Lord is waiting to hear all that you have on your heart, and in the moments of silence He is giving you the opportunity to be raw, honest, and vulnerable. Then the light will break through the darkness. It will burst into a radiant glow and it will brighten your countenance, and His loving warmth will permeate into your soul!”

Challenge for today: Meditate on one of the verses shared and put one to memory

Personally, I have never read such hateful remarks as have been posted on Facebook. It was especially true during Covid-19 when many dared not put their opinion online as they feared the hateful reaction. People were offended and took sides. Families and congregations were split, and some lost their jobs, etc.

I grew up in a day when we could freely express our opinions and listen to others respectfully, not hate that which was different from us. We learned from one another, and at times discovered we weren’t actually so far apart, for there were issues we agreed upon.

But when we know the Lord, we are to be people of love. I John 4:16 says, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” Hate has no place other than to hate evil. There will always be people that will offend or hurt us, but we don’t have to get into the blame game, which the enemy loves. Instead we are to forgive everything and forgive all. We can always call on the Lord to give us His love, to renounce hatred and to forgive. Others will know from our openness and love that we belong to Jesus.

The Lord has been speaking that message to me in several ways lately, and Al has also shared that in Bible Study. And then to make sure I got His message, I happened to read Jean Nestler who wrote about letting go so we can grow. She used the portion of scripture of the valley of dry bones in Ezekial 37, with which you are probably very familiar. The valley was a dry place full of old bones and was a place of separation and consecration. It was a lonely, humbling place, stripped of things, and Ezekial was asked to prophesy to the bones. I will leave you to read the rest of the chapter to find out what happened when he obeyed and the bones started rattling.

Maybe that is a word for you also today, to let go of the old and embrace what it says in Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” You might also make the words that Jean prayed yours also:

“Holy Spirit, come with power. Breathe into every dry place. I yield completely to You. I surrender the old, and I make room for the new. I break agreement with fear, with despair, and with delay.

“I declare: Though this valley is my proving ground, I will not die here! Let every dead dream and every buried promise come alive with Your resurrection power. Where there has been barrenness, let rivers of living water begin to flow!

“I ask for the atmosphere of Heaven to invade the atmosphere of my life. Flood me with Your Spirit! Let the rivers of living water burst forth from within me. I speak to my spirit: Rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit! It’s time to hope again! It’s time to live again. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

One of my favorite verses is I John 1:7, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” Jesus is our source and His light illuminates us, enlightens us and gives us a passion for Him and for others. If we try to go out on our own, we will fail miserably because our own selfish love will run dry and we need His love flowing through us to touch others.

It’s important that we all take time to be nourished, so that what we do in our day flows out of love for God and not for the purpose of pleasing others. We are to do things for His sake and not for our own. We may do spiritual practices but if they don’t affect our attitude and how we treat others, they are empty. Instead they should help us to do our work with love and purpose, and infuse us with His love for others. Haven’t we all at times done things for others because we feel we have to and not because we get to share His love with them. What a difference it is when our hearts are full of His love and we can hardly refrain from doing something for someone else.

We each have our own calling from the Lord and it is important that we discover what that is and do it no matter the cost. He has given us the exact gifts we need to accomplish His work, so let us live for Him each day of our life and live it with purpose.

We are all selfish by nature and need the Lord to purify our hearts, changing us to become humble, caring and more like Him. Sometimes the Lord uses a purifying process called the dark night of the soul, when our world seems to be turned upside down, in order that we become purged and cleansed.  St. John of the Cross describes this as a season from God when, after we have experienced consolation, pleasure and passion in the Lord, it is suddenly all taken away. We experience instead a time of dryness, boredom, disillusionment and insecurity, much like a dark night.

We might wonder: why would God do this to me? We miss the honeymoon of those days with passion and intensity in our relationship with the Lord. But it is all part of God’s plan to help us get beyond ourselves, our fears and selfishness and even getting hung up on the good feelings themselves. It’s a process of dying to self where everything gets crucified, including our warm feelings and security. We feel like we are falling and unable to hold on to something that feels solid. But in reality, when we are free-falling, we get closer to the Lord, beyond our selfishness and illusions. We come to know truth and to love beyond self-interest. In fact, we come to know real love after the honeymoon has passed.