Laced With Grace

My daughter stood shivering in the sunshine, glancing frequently at the narrow, steep white tube slide several feet away.  It kinda looked like fun, but it also looked scary.  It rushed straight down into 12 feet of water, where kids were plunged with great speed into the deep.  She played in the shallow end for a while longer, took a few jumps off the diving board and kept peeking over at the tube slide.  Would she be brave enough to take the plunge?

After we had been there for over an hour, she finally got up the nerve to get in line and try the slide out.  I watched her fly down and splash into the water.  After she successfully swam to the edge, she looked for me, hoping I had seen and was cheering her on from the sidelines.  “It’s fun, Mom!  It isn’t scary at all,”  she said as she hopped right back in line for another turn down the wild water-slide.

It amazes me how long she sat on the edge of pool, wondering if she would have fun, but holding back because of fear.  I think we can all identify a place in our lives where we are waiting for someone to push us in, because we are paralyzed by fear.  A new job – sounds exciting, but also unnerving with all the new tasks to learn, people to meet, and different policies to follow.  A move can be equal parts adventure and fear also.  Will your new neighbors be friendly or crabby?  Will you make new friends, find a good church, settle in?

But there are some things that hover in the back of our minds for years before we take the step of faith and take the plunge.  Fear keeps us in our comfortable homes, with our cozy friends and family, immobilizing us so we are unable to listen to God’s calling.  Maybe you’ve always wondered about ministering overseas, but the worries about finances have kept that dream at bay.  Or, are you wondering how to share your faith with someone at work without stumbling over your words and looking like a fool?

Could it be that God is calling you to something more adventurous than just wading in the shallow end of the pool?  Is He asking you to jump in, to feel the thrill and exhilaration of following His plans into the great unknown?  My daughter’s slide into the deep showed me that fear just keeps us from the fun of life.  Fear holds me back from doing what would be most fulfilling in my life and fear traps me at home where life is predictable and boring.

When I just plug my nose and jump in though, I realize that I had nothing to fear at all.  God’s plans are exciting and adventurous, filled with some mystery and surprises, but I won’t discover that if I don’t step beyond the fear. The unknown may seem a bit scary, but I’m following a God who can be trusted.  The circumstances may not always look safe, but I feel safe in His grip.

Is fear holding you back from something today?  Let God replace your fear with faith, trusting that He may guide you into deeper waters, but He will never leave you alone.

Several years ago, we had a family pet that was named “Stormy”, she was a German Shepherd/black lab mix that weighed in at 100 pounds. She was one of the greatest dogs we ever had. Stormy developed a tumor that became large enough that it slowed her down. She was an older dog so we decided to put her to sleep. It was one of the hardest decisions we had to make, as we all loved her dearly.

When the vet asked my husband and I what we wanted to do with her body, we decided that we would bring her back to the house and bury her on our property. The children would be arriving home from school soon, and we could have a family burial for our beloved pet of many years. So we wrapped that 100 pound dog up in a sheet and brought her home.

While my husband and my two older sons began to dig the hole on our property, I instructed them to keep digging and I would go pick up our young daughter from daycare and when we returned we could have our final good-bye. Before I could return with my daughter, my husband and sons finished digging the hole and went ahead and buried Stormy. Upon arriving back home, my daughter and I were horrified that they had gone ahead and buried our precious pet without us!

My oldest son stood, with his foot still on the shovel and looked over at us blubbering females and said to my husband, “We have to dig her up, don’t we?” My husband replied, “uh-huh!”

We have had alot of pets since Stormy, but I can guarantee you, she was the only dog that died and got buried twice!

I was thinking about Stormy today and that burial story and it dawned on me that we are just like our dog who got buried twice. When we come to the altar with our sins, our problems and our struggles - we give it all to God. We bury our burdens and walk away. But walking away just isn’t enough sometimes. We tend to turn around and pick up the shovel and dig back up all those burdens once again.

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I can only imagine how weary and tiring it must have been for my son to dig and dig and dig that grave for our pet,  not once – but twice. How tiring it is to keep shoveling and digging dirt, without resting.

The problems that we carry around on our shoulders can become so heavy that it is difficult for us to escape or find rest. Giving it all to God will ease the load. Once we do that, God buries it, never to be reminded of it again! The problem is that we tend to take the shovel from God’s hand and we unbury those burdens and take them back on our shoulders.

So who has control of the shovel - you or God? Isn’t it time to bury those burdens once and for all? Today is the day … give the shovel back to God!

Visit me for daily devotions at WOMENTAKINGASTAND

I’ve been thinking about spiritual warfare a lot lately.  Not only am I preparing a series of talks about it for a ladies seminar in a couple of weeks, but  I’ve been praying often for friends and family that are battling with depression and other damaging emotions.  I want them to be able to stand strong.  I want to engage and win the battles that I face personally. In order to do that I need to be on the offense.

To be on the offense means that I am keenly aware of the times I find myself engaging the enemy.

• When I am taking significant steps of faith for spiritual growth.
• When I’m invading enemy territory by being involved in evangelism or on a mission trip.
• When I’m exposing Him for who He is.
• When I repent and make a clean break with the world, a long held sin pattern or an unholy relationship.
• When God is preparing us individually or corporately for a great work for His glory.

So how do I engage the enemy and win?

“…in addition to all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.   And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Ephesians 6:16, 17 (NASB)

Be on the offense by taking up your shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.  The shield of faith is the absolute confidence in His promises, His power and His program for our lives.  It’s purpose is to quench all the fiery darts/missiles of the evil one….and they WILL come.

We’re all bombarded by those fiery darts and just don’t realize that’s what’s going on. The evil one will use schemes, temptations, lies, deceptions, and attacks aimed at us, to shift our focus to something or someone other than God.  They’re often rooted in lies about God’s identity or our new identity in Christ.

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. “1 John 2:15,16

How do I identify the fiery missiles?

• Maybe you’ve had blasphemous thoughts (curse words) and you never normally have those thoughts.
• Having hateful thoughts towards someone.
• Doubts.
• Having a burning desire to sin.
• Overwhelming times of depression and you don’t want to come out.

Those missiles of doubt, deception and depression must be dealt with immediately through handling the Word of God accurately.

Action Steps

Write the following 3 questions and verses on 3×5 cards. Keep them with you and claim those verses when you go through a “frontal assault.”  Immediately respond by trusting in the truth of God’s Word

• Am I trusting in God’s character? God has my best in mind.  He is good!  Psalm 84:11, Romans 8:32
• Am I trusting in God’s promises and Word? He will accomplish what concerns me.  Numbers 23:19; 2 Peter 1:2-4
• Am I trusting in God’s program and timing? His ways are not always easiest, but they are always the best!  Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 55:8-13

Lord, help me to stand strong against the attacks of the enemy.  Help me to refuse his attack on Your grace by trusting in Your character.  I need to be strong and faithful at reading Your word and understanding your promises and your program and plans for me.  I want to know Your Word so well that the Truth will always win in my life over the deceiver. That I will apply what I know to be true so the accuser is without a case. I want to understand your gospel so well that I will never doubt Your promise of salvation.  And when the fiery darts of temptation, lies and deception bombard me, Lord may I have absolute confidence in You, Your promises, power and timing in my life.

Your humbly grateful daughter,