Laced With Grace

“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.   And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:1,2

How I live my daily life is influenced by my view of eternity.  I firmly believe that my life today is part of eternity, therefore worship should be my way of life.

Worship is more than something we do like sing, pray, read our Bibles. It’s how I live out my life. Yes, it’s an act of devotion and involves all those components, but my ambition isn’t to simply become skilled and proficient at doing things and then proclaim I have worshiped. My most holy ambition is to be Christ like with every breath I take.  To be molded and transformed into His likeness.

When I read about the lives of great Christians, heroes of the faith, I see three common threads in their life style of worship.

First, they live a life of brokenness – a desperate sense of needing God, that it’s all about Him and not them.

The second common thread I see interwoven into the fabric of their lives is an uncommon communion with God. There was/is an attitude of pray that permeated their lives. They lived and breathed His presence. They spent serious amounts of time with the Lord.

Thirdly, they had radical, immediate obedience.

These three common threads are woven into the tapestry of every person God uses greatly. It was their spiritual service of worship to their Almighty God.

The first and third we can all do in any season of life.  But the second thread, uncommon communion with God, can be hard to do when you are homeschooling 4 little ones, nursing another, keeping your home, and meeting your husband’s needs.  Maybe we can’t devote hours to prayer and Bible study, but there is something we can do.

We can have our own “tent of meeting” like Moses had (Exodus 33:7-11).  He would frequently leave the group and go to his place to hear from God and the Lord would tell him what He wanted him to do. We can have our own private space to meet with Him and ask Him, “Lord, how would you have me show You my love and devotion? How may I worship You today?”

If you’re like the Mom I described above, His answer to you is not going to be, “Someday my dear daughter, I’m going to do something great with you, but right now, you just stay home.”  No, His answer is going to be something like this, “My dear daughter, I want you to make the most of each moment I give you today. I want you to use your unique position in life and your unique circumstances, and I want you to give time an injection of eternal values, a taste of heaven. Then those you meet and care for on your journey today will have seen a woman who truly loves Me and worships only Me.”

What’s your unique position or stage of  life?  What circumstances are you living with? Are you rising above the circumstance with an injection of eternal values, or are you smothering under the weight?  How can you use your position and circumstances to bring glory to God and worship Him?

Lord, I praise You for creating me to be me. Lord, I want to be the best I can be so I can point others to You and give you all the praise, honor, glory and  worship.

Create in me a spirit of brokenness. Give me an insatiable thirst and hunger for You. Lord, I want to have uncommon communion with You. I desire to give you radical, immediate obedience, but I’m weak and faint of heart at times. Help me to walk by faith with You and to trust You completely.

Lord, this is my one and only opportunity to live for eternity here on earth. To demonstrate a life committed to the service of worshipping You.

 I love You.

Your Humbly Grateful Daughter.

“I will extol Thee, my God, O King; And I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Everyday I will bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, and on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate.”  Psalm 145:1-5

When do you take down your Christmas tree and decorations?  For many, it all comes down this week. We pack them all up and put Christmas back in the box until next year. The warm fuzzies fade, and the reality of the present glares at us come January 2nd when everything goes back to the “normal” routine — back to work and school, appointments and paying the bills.

I don’t like packing Christmas away for another year. But I also don’t like keeping Jesus as a baby or in a box.

Yes, there is something simple about the birth of Jesus. We think of the story of a sweet baby laying peacefully in a manger and it somehow feels safe and warm. Visualizing Him as helpless and small makes Him seem easy to control.  I don’t need to deal with how big He really is, His greatness, majesty and power.

Jesus doesn’t want to remain a baby in our lives, nor does He want to can He be put into a box. In the beginning of Luke 2, we see Him as the baby in a manger, but by the end of the chapter we see He grew in wisdom, stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52).  He was born full of grace and truth (John 1:14) and we can trust and follow Him in every circumstance of life. He came to be our Savior and He desires for all of us to see His majesty and awesome power, to fall to our knees and worship Him as our Savior and Lord. To put Jesus into a box would negate His grace that’s given to us freely, grace upon grace (John 1:16).  To relegate Jesus to a box of our own choosing, (i.e. legalism or humanism) is like thinking we have life under our own control.

The past few years I’ve started keeping one Christmas decoration or ornament out of the box, and place it somewhere where I least expect it. It serves as a visual reminder to not put Jesus in a box, but to see Him for Who He truly is, our Savior and Lord. This year, I’m keeping out one of my Moravian star ornaments to remind me of His splendor and majesty and His mighty works. It will also remind me to “shine like stars in the universe” before this sin sick world. (Philippians 2:15)

As you’re undecorating this week, pause and reflect upon His majesty, power and mighty works. Reflect upon His grace upon grace in your life. Don’t put Jesus in a box.

Prayer:

Lord, I love the presents and the lights. I’m not looking forward to taking it all down, but I’m most grateful for You sending Your Son as the Light of the World.  The simple, uncluttered way I decorated this year gently reminds me I don’t have to be all decked out in beautiful array to come before You; You are more concerned with what’s inside.

I don’t ever want to put You in a box. I pause right now and recognize you as my grown-up Savior and Lord, out of the feed box and on the throne of my heart.  Please help me to always keep You there.  May I continually mediate upon Your glorious splendor and wonderful works.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

We’ve all been there and wondered how and why we ended up in this seemingly God forsaken place. And yet, that very place is where He Himself has sent us.  The desert.

It’s hard to understand the purpose of a desert sometimes; it’s hard to see it’s beauty. It appears dry, lifeless and forsaken. And yet, just like everything else He brings our way, it does have meaning and purpose; it’s not just a random act of meanness on His part or an ‘Oops! I forgot you!’ What He’s really saying is, “I’ve sent you into the desert because I want to test you. I’m trying to teach you something and I want to see if you’ve learned it.”

Not long ago I was in a desert place. I found myself meditating on Deuteronomy 8:1-3 & 16 (NASB).

1″All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.
2″You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
3″He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
16″In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.

As I’ve searched this passage for a refreshing stream in the desert, He’s shared 6 truths about the desert with me.

1. Sometime we’re in the desert because He wants us to know what’s in our hearts. Who or what we are really comes out in the desert; what we really love, what really matters for us, what our real character is, (who) what we’re really trusting in.
2. He tests us to find out if we’re obedient. Will we be obedient when we can’t see the outcome, what lays ahead. When His ways don’t make sense, will we still be obedient?
3. Sometimes He wants to know, “Will you trust Me?” When you can’t see Him or the path you are on, when the circumstances are painful, when the night turns into months, maybe even years, will you trust Him?
4. Maybe He wants to humble us. Sometimes He creates circumstances that we think are someone else’s fault. God is the ultimate person behind our circumstances. He humbled us. In the desert, where we don’t have any crutches, no excuses, nothing to lean on, God strips us. He strips us of pride, self-sufficiency, co-dependence. We see ourselves for what we really are, and sometimes what comes out is pretty ugly. We’re humbled and realize, “Oh God! Apart from you I’m a total mess. I can’t keep my life together. I can’t respond right to this person or these people. I can’t handle this situation.” Our pride wants to keep us in a circumstance where we can manage everything, but God sends us into the desert, where we can’t manage or do it on our own. The worst comes out and we’re humbled by God.
5. Sometimes He wants to teach us that we need more than physical bread to sustain our life, we need spiritual bread that will sustain our soul and spirits. We all have an inner need that is even greater than the physical need. There are times we need to get taken to the desert to find that sustaining stream for our soul and spirit.
6. Lastly, He desires to strengthen our faith and make us dependent upon Him. (2 Corinthians 1:8,9)    Song of Solomon 8:3 says “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?”

What’s your posture while you’re in the desert and/or coming out of it?  Are you leaning on your Beloved Jesus?