Category: Whispers (Page 40 of 161)

Jesus taught a perfect prayer to His disciples and for us as well, and it includes, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That doesn’t mean we pray to change God’s mind but that we are willing to change our mind. The problem is we can’t see into the future, so we don’t know if something we pray for has serious consequences, but of course, the Lord knows. He is the only one that is worthy to direct our lives and we must come to the place where we want His will more than our own. Instead of being in charge, we give Him the keys to every room in our hearts and let Him have free reign.

There is such joy when we seek Him and His kingdom first but when seeking our own will first, our life gets full of stress and anxiety. I read this morning Paul’s word to Timothy, his spiritual son, ”Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining with those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. (II Tim 2:22) We also are to shun those things of self that take us away from God and pursue what God wants for us and for His kingdom. Let us not try to change God’s mind but lay aside our will and seek His.

David doesn’t say to just praise the Lord when we are feeling good about life but another translation says, “I bless God every chance I get. I live and breathe God; if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy.” He isn’t telling us to be happy all the time but to bless the Lord at all times. He goes on to say God met him more than half way and took away his anxiety. David never hid his anxious feelings from God but cried out to God. Of course, God is always listening and hears, ready to rescue us. David encourages us to taste and see how good God is, even in our tightest situation, and tells us to run to Him.

God is faithful and even when we are feeling our lowest, we can still give thanks to the Lord and rehearse His promises to us. Our feelings will change and we won’t always feel down and in the mean time we know He is close to us if our hearts are humble and seek Him. Let us bless the Lord at all times, our low times as well as, our times on the mountaintops!

It all started when Absolum’s sister Tamar was raped by her half-brother Amon. Absolum was so angry he brutally murdered him, after which he went into exile to avoid paying the price of his crime. After 3 years King David pardoned him but would not see or forgive him, and Absolum felt rejected. So much so that he tried to take the kingdom away from his father. Being persuasive, he got a following of men that plotted to help him do that and David had to flee to the wilderness again. Even his most trusted advisor and good friend, Ahithophel abandoned him and supported Absolum. One of his enemies, Shimei cursed him and threw rocks at him as David was fleeing. David’s captain wanted to cut his head off, but David restrained him, for he felt like God was using him to preach to him. But in his situation, he turned to the Lord and recovered compassion and his close life with the Lord.  He knew His real help came only from the Lord. As a result. he had compassion again for Absolum and ordered his men not to kill him. But Joab stabbed him to death as Absolum was caught in a tree by his thick hair and left dangling. David wept greatly for his son, as his heart had been touched to forgive and to love Absolum again; so much so that he laments, “Why not me rather than you, my death and not yours, O Absalom, my dear dear son!” (II Sam. 18:33)

Maybe we can think of situations when we have been betrayed by even good friends, do we let the Lord change our hearts to forgive them and to love them again? If we refuse, our hearts will grow cold and we will feel distanced from Him.

Hope you had a great weekend! We enjoyed helping with the rummage sale here over the weekend and fun to work together. Yesterday we served at church and so many stay for coffee and fellowship. Today I need to go to Aldi’s and to exercise class and make more cookies. 

When we read in the Word about Moses death or Aarons, the people grieved for 30 days. When Jacob died, Joseph threw himself on his father, cried over him and kissed him and mourned for him 7 days; even the Egyptians mourned for him for 70 days. (Genesis 50)  I have been reading about David and how he grieved for Jonathan and King Saul when they were both killed in the same day. He didn’t keep it all inside but tore his clothes, fasted and wrote a mourning song for both of them. (II Samuel 1) He was heartbroken and pours out his soul to the Lord. David cared and lamented and wrote many beautiful Psalms when he experienced grief. Eugene Peterson writes of David’s willingness to give attention to the fact of death and said, “In order to live totally we must face death totally.” David honored life and also lamented fiercely. Much of David and Jonathan’s friendship was not spent together but their friendship brought out the best in each other.

We find that 70% of the Psalms are laments and record times when David faced disappointment and losses and death. He didn’t run from things but faced them and prayed to the Lord. We also need to give ourselves time to grieve and lament, to remember our loved one and how they touched our life. It is not to attract pity from others but rather to notice how that person affected our life and enlarged us. We must not run from the reality of death but deal with it in the context of God’s sovereignty. And as we lament it helps connect us and prepares us for resurrection life.

I would like to share one more story of a missionary friend of ours who knew she had a calling from the Lord and trusted Him to open the doors to accomplish His will in her life.  I will use her words that can be found in the book, Food for Ravens, which many miracles are shared by missionaries.

 “It was August of 1990 and I was sitting in Chuck Lindquist’s office while he was trying to convince me that none of the World Mission Prayer League fields needed a librarian. ‘Here are some catalogs of colleges in the area that offer degrees in ESL certification,’ he said. ‘Perhaps you should look into something like that.’ I knew that wasn’t what I was suppose to do. I love being a librarian and really felt that God could use me in that type of position on the field. However, here was the Mission’s personnel director telling me that this might not necessarily be the case. As I was trying to figure out how to politely give all the catalogs back to Chuck and leave, the phone rang. He picked it up and began talking. As I started to leave the room, he motions me to stay seated. Pretty soon I hear him say, ‘Well, she’s sitting right her. Maybe you should talk to her.’ The phone call was from Bolivia. That very afternoon Linda Nelson, one of our missionaries in Bolivia, was going into the Santa Cruz post office when the director of the local American school for missionary kids was coming out. When Linda asked him if there was enough staff for the following year, he told her they were still lacking one key person. You guessed it—they needed a librarian. ‘We have one sitting in Minneapolis right now,’ Linda had said. ‘Call this number and ask if Carol is still available.’ So the director of the school did call, I was available, and two weeks later I ventured off to Santa Cruz. Six schools and more than twenty years late, I am still loving my job as a librarian.” She is soon going to retire and she is the best librarian I have ever known! She followed the path the Lord had for her.