Tonight

 

I’m up tonight, it’s 3 AM.  I Couldn’t sleep – my cough kept me awake.  So I sit here on the couch in the tiny living area of our apartment at The Bickford.

I try to orient my mind.  Since the cough keeps me from slumber, what do I really need right now?  Maybe a cup of hot water, to help me breathe a little better, a soft blanket, quiet and rest.

But no - The order is all wrong, those things are not what I truly need.  I need to know that my God is near.  I need to feel a closeness with my Father.  He is my true need in the night and He is my greatest help in times of sickness, trouble and uncertainty.

Yes, a soft blanket is nice and the hot water helps, but they can’t supply the warmth and comfort of knowing that the creator of the universe is right here beside me.  That’s what is helping me in the night, right now. 

The other day someone gave me a quote by Tim Keller.  Tim said “you don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have,”

I know that is true, but what is really true is that Jesus is really all that any of us have.  Jesus, instead of our cup of hot water, our soft blanket or our peace and quiet, is all we have and need.  This - Jesus will provide the ultimate comfort, control and then He will caress our hearts.  That’s just what Jesus does.

He is here!
Halleluiah!
He is here, I sing Amen!
He is here, listen closely, as He whispers yet again. 

I am with you in your nighttime.
I am with you when you cry
I am here, little daughter, when you feel your spirit sigh.
When I whisper, Child I love you,
there’s no need to wonder why.

Since

I’m the God of great compassion.
You’re my child and my creation
and the apple of my eye. 

He is here, Halleluiah!
He is right here in my night.
He is here, and He’s my comfort,
as I wait for morning light. 

It’s after 4 AM – I feel better now and I’m going back to bed.  Thanks for listening.  Diane

 

Scars and Bends and Burnings

If you’ve been to the Colorado mountains, you’ve seen what my husband and I fell in love with during our 30 years of living there.  And I expect you, like Ron and I,  were absolutely amazed at the beauty our God put into this world. 

The mountains are majestic, the rivers and lakes are beautiful, but the trees tell me a story - and that’s what I’d like to talk about. 

As I looked at the trees surrounding our house, sometimes I would imagine them standing on the hillside where they were born years before I came to be there, I imagined them whispering to me the story of their lives.

There’s a tree on the west side of the lot that is lying completely on its side, but the branches have reached upwards to become three large trees growing out of the one set of roots.  That tree couldn’t stand up straight, so he became the means for others to stand.  There’s quite a story in that for us, isn’t there? 

One pine near the house is about 70 feet tall. He’s missing all his branches on one side about half way up and he has a funny bend in his trunk.  From that you can picture the years he spent trying to get around a tree leaning against him.  He is also blackened on one side where a wild forest fire tried to snuff out his life.  He’s certainly not the straight beautiful pine you see in pictures or Christmas trees.  He’s not perfect, but still he grew and for all the scars and bends and burnings, I see him as more beautiful than the straight, full trees surrounding him. 

Those twists and turns give him character.  The black burn place is a beautiful contrast to his lighter brown bark and I think he’s beautiful. 

I wonder if, when he was but a sapling – a skinny piece of wood and needles, the heavy snows of winter came and covered him so completely that he seemed to be just a bump in that white landscape. Did he wonder if he would be crushed by that blanket of snow? Or when the elk herd marched through the forest, would he be trampled underfoot?  Or when the hot dry summer came and all the green grass was parched and dead, would a hungry deer eat his branches?  

I believe all of these things happened to my brave tree, and I think about the story of his growing – he did grow.  Winds, winters, fires and drought assailed him.  Still he grew.  His roots searched deeper and deeper for something to hold him fast.  They reached for water and nourishment. 

And since God created Him, (if he could think) he would know that God found a way to hold him fast.  And my friend, God will hold us fast as well.

Jeremiah tells us
But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.”

It’s the same way for us in this world.  We are planted here.  We sprout and grow and when we’re in the dry times of our lives, we must send our roots deep enough to reach the water of God’s love.  We need God to hold on to and grow and stand firm.  

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 (TLB)

. . . I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
that He will empower you with inner strength
through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts
as you trust in him. 

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high,
and how deep his love is.  
May you experience the love of Christ,
though it is too great to understand fully.

Friends, your battles may also have been, or may still be, against pain, sickness, loneliness or emptiness. And, like the tree, there have probably been fires in your lives - hard times that came suddenly, and sometimes all you could do was stand.

God’s love gives us power and strength to stand as the fires burn, and to become beautiful in the eyes of the One who made us.  Your scars and bends and burnings make you into a tool for God to use to fulfill his purposes.   

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good 
to them that love God,
them who are the called according to his purpose. (the purpose He has set out for you.)  

I believe that trees, or yes people, with scars and burns and bendings are more interesting and more beautiful than just perfect Christmas trees.  I wonder if you do too.

Love, Diane

Ask

 Jesus said a lot about prayer, and He did a lot of praying.  In His sermon on the mount He said,

 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” 

Then Jesus used this analogy, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  Matthew 7:7-11

God promises to give good things to his children when they ask.  But God doesn’t say that He gives His children precisely what they ask Him for. 

An example for us is shown in Genesis 17.  Abraham was promised a child who was to be the seed of many nations.   Abraham fathered Ishmael by Sarah's servant because of his impatience. He asked God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” In other words, Abraham asked God to let Ishmael be the chosen seed, which was not God's plan.  God had already told Abraham that his wife Sarah would conceive and bear a son.  So God said "No," and this is God's response. 

”But as for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.” 

Abraham had asked God in prayer for Ishmael to be the son of promise. But God explicitly said “No.” 

Now, God might have just left it at that, gone on, and done with  Ishmael whatever he was going to do. Instead, he takes pains to say, “I have heard you." 

Basically I believe He was saying, you have asked me to bless Ishmael, and I will bless him, and although I’m not going to do it the way you asked, "I want you to know that I’m doing it because I heard you.”

Now, what we learn from this encounter speaks clearly to those times when God says “no" to our prayers,  Even when He says no to the specific intention of our prayer, it does not mean that He didn't hear or care, and it doesn't mean that there will not be, or has not been an answer in response to the prayer. 

And whatever answers we receive must be good, because our Father is good.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

----

Are you looking out the window, and seeing nothing there?
Are you waiting for a miracle to reach you from somewhere?

Are you longing for a sweet release,
or wishing for some inner peace,
or praying for the pain to cease?

Child,
don’t let those anxious thoughts break through.
Let God’s sweet peace fall over you
as you go to Him in prayer.
Know He holds you in His care,
 and His answer will be there.

Love Diane

Does He hear and Does He answer?

 I’m convinced that God takes our prayers seriously.  I know that my skeptical brain wants to say otherwise; like why would He care about one of us human people when He has the whole world to do something with?  Why would He – even though I know He could - take my little life and use it to glorify His name?

But even with those thoughts, I still believe and KNOW that He does care, and not only that, I believe He answers each one of my prayers.

The thing is that God still allows pain to enter into the lives of His children, because He has a plan. And if my pain can make a difference in someone else’ life, or even in my own spiritual growth, He will ask me to endure it. And since God is the Creator and sustainer of this world, and since He is my Father, the only true GOD, I want to be used in any possible way for His Glory. I want to --- when I take His word seriously.

If we pray about the pain, and the trials of this world, we may wonder if God really is answering our prayers. Tonight I used the handy Bible Gateway and came up with the following scriptures. All are encouraging, all helpful and all applicable to the questions we have. If you want to look them up, they all come from the NIV version of the Bible. There are many more, but I’ll leave those for tomorrow’s post. We’ll look at what Jesus said about prayer, and one event where an answer to a prayer has had ramifications even until today.

1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them,
for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Psalm 33:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 26:3-4
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, 
because he trusts in you.  Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

-----

Sometimes life’s storms split my world in two,
or the riptide of fear steals any peace that I knew,
and the pain then mirrors myself and not You.

But,
I’m told You’re the Rock.
You’re the God who cares,
who answers prayers.

That tide grips my life and I’m racing behind.  
This world’s noises torture my heart and mind.
But in this I will pray that Your peace I will find.

So I pray to the Rock.
You’re the God who cares,
who answers prayers.
 
Yes, I know
 You’re the Rock.
You’re the God who still cares,
who loves all His children and answers their prayers. 

Thank you Father. 

May God bless you dear friends.

Diane