Category Archives: miracles

a union full of grace

Posted on by October 14, 2014

It’s our 17th anniversary. We have the day off, but nothing planned – I think we’re hoping for an extra midweek Sabbath, of sorts. I love this man and our life together; our success has been hard-fought and full of grace, and little credit goes to either of us because we messed up right and left in our first several years of marriage, and spent the next several trying to detangle it all.

a union full of grace: truth about rejoicing and mourning

We are so grateful, and yet we know that there are others close to us that are hurting and raw in this area. How do you celebrate anything without rubbing salt in the wounds of others who are in pain?

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

– Romans 12:3-6a

We praise the achievements of advanced students while we recognize the struggle of those who fight hard just to remember the process of long division. We cheer for families who experience great triumph while we honor those who are still in the trial of their lives. We rejoice at healings, while holding the hands of those who are still in the hospital bed.

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

– Romans 12:10-12

As I finished writing last night’s post, we learned that cancer took a family member with the finality that left my beautiful cousin without her husband. We celebrate our anniversary this year with sobriety in the awareness that life is far too short sometimes.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

– Romans 12:13-15

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Lord, I’m praying tonight for those who are hurting – that You would comfort them and protect them from the lies of the enemy; that those who are going through loss would know that You are not done with them yet, that their story is not finished, and that Your plans for them are wondrous and good in spite of anything the enemy has thrown at them. I’m praying for hope, for encouragement, for truth, for healing…for purity in marriages and health in families everywhere.

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Life is messy and full of hurt sometimes. We think beauty resides in the ideal – the poster-child family, the picturesque life – and it does, but that beauty is surface deep and often fleeting. We look, we admire, and we walk away. We move on, as through a shop full of beautiful curios.

We look twice, though, at the beauty forged in life’s gritty crucible, that grace that makes us stop in our tracks: the child who learns to read in spite of multiple diagnoses, the couple who makes it through infidelity and scandal to ministering to other marriages, the grieving spouse who climbs out of devastating loss to find joy again. We admire the tenacity and steadfastness of those who turned shame on its head and walked out warriors. We pause, we think, we stop and stare, as in a museum of heroes and heirlooms – none flawless, all scarred from age and wear, having earned their stripes in the trenches. Full of grace, they display the awful truth that rejoicing and mourning go together, creating the alloy called victory.

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This is day 14 of Without Ceasing: 31 Days of Relentless Prayer. Find the other posts here. To get new posts right in your inbox, subscribe here.

give me a sign

Posted on by July 15, 2021

*This is an excerpt from Oh My Soul: Encountering God in Honest, Unconventional (and Sometimes Messy) Prayer, available for purchase at Amazon and anywhere books are sold.

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God…just tell me. Which way? This thing, or that thing?

give me a sign: how to tell if we're waiting...or just stalling

We ask for doors to open, doors to shut, and when we go to check, they’re swinging back and forth on their hinges. Not helpful. This isn’t what I asked for.

He says, What did you ask for, Love?

And I think, oh…nothing much. Just an answer. A clear answer. A neon sign. Something really bright with flashing arrows would be perfect.

I don’t usually use those. Especially when I already told you what to do.

And there’s the rub.

He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

– Exodus 3:12, ESV

And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”

– Joshua 3:13

Step in. You have to get your feet wet first. Walk where I tell you…and then watch Me hold the waters back.

Confirmation comes after obedience, not before: the waters won’t move while we stall at the shoreline. We think we want a sign for directions, but the sign He wants to give us is recognition for achievement. A crown.

We are so busy asking for excuses not to use our faith that we miss the opportunity to win the medal at the end of obedience.

You must rely on Me. Trust to the last uttermost limit. Trust and be not afraid. You must depend on Divine Power only. I have not forgotten you. Your help is coming. You shall know and realize My Power.

Endurance is faith tried almost to the breaking point. You must wait, and trust, and hope, and joy in Me. You must not depend on man but on Me, on Me, your Strength, your Help, your Supply.

– God Calling, edited by A.J. Russell

Sometimes when we say we are waiting on Him, the truth is…we’re just not trusting Him. We settle for so little in the stalling to obey.

How do we tell the difference? Are we stalling, or are we waiting?

Did you do what I already told you, Love?

Well, yes. I mean, sort of. Mostly, I think.

And I realize I sound a lot like my son when I ask him if he made his bed in the morning. And almost always, the truth is…no.

No, not really. I didn’t really do it all the way, just sorta spread the top blanket around to cover up the wrinkly sheets underneath. I thought that would be good enough.

And God tells me the same thing I tell my son: Go back and check again. Dig a little deeper, more than just making things look good on the surface. Do it right once, and you won’t have to do it over and over. You won’t have to keep asking me if it’s done, because you’ll know it is.

When we are stalling, looking for a sign, what we are really asking is, Is it good enough?

But when we are waiting on Him after the leap has really happened, we’re all-in, without a back-up plan. We won’t be looking for the rip cord in the parachute, because we didn’t bring one.

battleground

Posted on by July 9, 2020

*This is an excerpt from Oh My Soul: Encountering God in Honest, Unconventional (and Sometimes Messy) Prayer, available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold.

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You’ve probably seen the headlines, too. They’ve been pretty much the same for the past several weeks, only louder, larger, and more looming.

Ebola. ISIS. Spongy borders. Other illnesses. Other enemies.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

– Ephesians 6:12-13, ESV

battleground: standing firm in the struggle

Sometimes it’s all I can do just to keep our kids from throwing things at each other; I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around the bigger, broader issues outside my door. And I feel guilty, even, for praying for what seem to be comparatively small needs in our home when there are immensely huge things happening out there. It feels like we have to choose, and it feels urgent, and what if something tragic is happening to issue B while I’m still praying over issue A?

That’s just me. You are probably far more calm and level-headed about all this.

But I find myself slipping into this anxiety over prayer – which is really ridiculous, since that is the opposite of what prayer really does – and it takes me a while to realize that it’s just another slimy ploy of the enemy to make what is productive and powerful seem burdensome and impotent.

And that’s a lie.

Like most lies, and like most doubts, it is a half-truth.  It’s true that terrible things are happening all over the world and we can’t possibly pray over all of them at once with the proper urgency to pick them all off one at a time, as though we were playing some sort of spiritual Galaga or whack-a-mole.

But God is not limited to our time frame, either. Otherwise, He would be limited to making us take our turns so he could listen and respond to us one at a time, which sorta defeats the point of praying without ceasing.

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all.

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The enemy is a liar who is afraid of God’s people praying. He will do whatever he can to convince us not to do it, which is a very good reason to do it without ceasing.

And this isn’t neat and pretty – I’ve been sick for eight days and have strict orders to get to bed before, oh, 2 am tonight – but there’s one more thing I want to share before I go there, before we wake up to more headlines in the morning, before we feel overwhelmed by the struggle. It’s from the story of Perseus in Greek mythology (and if you have qualms about studying ancient myths, please consider this and this), when he was first given a glimpse of the calling on his life, before he saved lives and slew monsters:

But to the souls of fire I give more fire, and to those who are manful I give a might more than a man’s. These are the heroes, the sons of the Immortals, who are blest, but not like the souls of clay. For I drive them forth by strange paths, Perseus, that they may fight the Titans and the monsters, the enemies of Gods and men.

– Charles Kingsley, The Heroes

Oddly, I feel that it is for us, too. We are the children of God, we are the blest, we are the souls of fire. We are those who do not shrink back.

Lord, our country is in dire need of You tonight. Give our leaders wisdom and repentance; make them go back and regain ground lost due to foolishness and error; we pray for the safety of towns and cities and homes on our borders. We pray for healing for the sick and peace for the scared. We pray for health and joy in our families and protection over our churches.

Our nations are at a pivotal moment, and your prayers – for small things, for big things – make a difference. He hears and moves because your prayer is powerful and productive. Keep going, and pray from victory, not fear. Years from now, we will look back on these days and know that we saved lives and slew monsters through relentless intercession.

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This is day 9 of Without Ceasing: 31 Days of Relentless Prayer. Find the other posts here. To get new posts right in your inbox, subscribe here.