Month: March 2018

Waiting is hard. I’ve tried ten different ways to start this blog post and it really all comes down to three words:  waiting is hard. At least it is for me. You?

I’m not talking about waiting for the little, insignificant things like waiting at a stoplight (although, to be totally transparent, I’d really rather just breeze through a green light). I’m talking about waiting for God to move, to answer those “impossible,” faith-stretching prayers of ours.

Have you ever noticed how God’s timing is rarely ever our timing? Considering He is above, or outside of, time and that He’s omniscient, I guess that makes sense…in a He’s-God-and-I’m-not kind of way. But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean I like it.

Why do I dislike waiting so much? I didn’t have to dig deep to realize it’s a control issue. I want things in my time. I want them when I want them. Can you relate?

We have various seasons of waiting in our lives don’t we? Maybe you’re waiting for a promotion or a raise. Maybe you’re waiting to sell or buy a house. Maybe you’re waiting to get pregnant. Maybe you’re waiting for someone you’ve been praying for to finally accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Maybe you’re waiting to be healed from a medical issue — to be freed from your symptoms or your pain.

Waiting can produce a number of different responses in us. We can begin to feel stressed or anxious. Is God going to do this? Is He not? When is He going to do it? Am I going to be ready? We might begin to feel discouraged or depressed and think that God isn’t going to do what we are praying He will do.

Knowing that waiting is a struggle for me (and maybe for you too), I have a question for us to work through. How should we wait? In other words, what kind of attitude should we have while we wait? What kind of posture should we take? I think what we discover will help us be radiant as we wait.

In the Bible, we find numerous examples of people who waited. However, the one that has come to mind over and over again for me is Abraham and Sarah. You can find their story in Genesis 15 and following. Abraham, who is well along in years, is lamenting that he doesn’t have an heir, most specifically, a son.

God graciously honors that desire of Abraham’s heart and tells him that he will be the father of many nations and that Sarah (who is beyond child-bearing years) will bear him a son. What was their response? How did they wait for God to fulfill His promise?

There was definitely some shock and disbelief. I mean, let’s face it, Sarah gave a whole new meaning to “advanced maternal age,” (a label I had by the way when I was pregnant). God had to tell them at least five times that Sarah would be the one to bear Abraham a son.

I’m sure they had their good days and their bad days as they waited. At one point, they took matters into their own hands and Sarah gave Abraham her servant, Hagar, who bore him a son. While this may have been culturally acceptable, it wasn’t God’s intention for fulfilling His promise. I’m tempted to fault them for trying to make it happen, but I, too, am guilty of trying to make things happen, when instead I should just be waiting on God.

All in all, by my count, Abraham and Sarah waited at least 15 years from the time God told them they would have a son to the time Isaac was born. 15 years! That’s a long time to wait.

There was a time in my life when I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have a Mr. Right in my life. If you watched my Impossible Prayer video, you know that story. At some point during that period of waiting, I heard a song by John Waller called, While I’m Waiting, that God used to convict me of how I was waiting. If you click on the link above you can listen to the song and watch the video, which has scenes from the movie, FIREPROOF.

Here are some of the lyrics that caught my attention:

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience

While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint

God used that song to simultaneously convict me and encourage me. He convicted me that I needed to stop making what I praying for more important than the One I was praying to. I also needed to stop wishing away my present, and thus discounting what God was doing in it, for an unknown future.

God used While I’m Waiting to encourage me to keep moving forward in obedience, serving Him and worshipping Him.

I later came across something else that helped me put my waiting into perspective (I wish I could remember the source of this quote). “What God does in you while you wait might be just as, if not more, important as what you’re waiting for.”

Sometimes I forget to ask, “what is God’s purpose for this time of waiting in my life?” Maybe if I asked Him that, it would help me see how He is working.

Though waiting can produce stress, anxiety and discouragement, God can use it to help us trust in Him, rely on Him and grow our faith.

Psalm 27:14 says, “Be strong, take heart and wait for the Lord.” The meaning behind that verse has to do with not fainting, not giving up, finding our hope, trust and strength in God. He will strengthen our hearts so that we can keep doing our daily tasks as we wait for Him.

What if we waited with an attitude of expectancy? Instead of hemming and hawing and thinking God isn’t going to move or answer our prayer favorably, what if we just hoped and trusted in Him? The Bible tells us if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

What if we waited with an attitude of humility? Sometimes I tend to think I’ve earned whatever it is I’m asking for. Don’t we all do that at times? “I’ve worked really hard, I’ve earned that raise.” Or maybe it’s, “we have scrimped and saved, we deserve that house.” While you might have worked hard, and that’s to be commended, you are still at the mercy of God’s grace.

What if we acknowledged that we don’t deserve anything we ask for, remembering that every good and perfect gift comes from Him and in His timing?

I think these kinds of attitudes might help us wait in a way that allows us to honor God and be radiant as we wait. However, these aren’t the only attitudes that would allow us to do that. What have you done in seasons of waiting in your life? How have you been able to wait in a way that honors God? Would you comment below? I’m sure we could all benefit from your experience and insight.

Waiting might still be hard for me (and perhaps you, too), but remembering that God has purpose in those times of waiting, and knowing that there are ways we can wait that still allow us to be radiant, makes it just a little bit easier.

So, let us go be radiant as we wait!

It was the day I had been dreaming about for a very long time. The warm, bright sun reflected off of the waters along the California coastline. The gazebo was simply but elegantly decorated. The chairs were perfectly aligned on the terrace overlooking the golf course. The guests chattered away, awaiting the music to start the ceremony.

Several weeks earlier, my fiancé came to me with an idea for our wedding ceremony. He wanted to do things a little differently and we both wanted a way to make Jesus the center of our wedding.

Juan started sharing with me a passage in Ephesians 5. It’s a beautiful illustration of how husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. See Ephesians 5:25 and following. Note how the author talks about the church when he says, “…to present her to himself as a radiant bride…” As I was preparing for this blog post, I was actually surprised to read the word “radiant” in the passage. I had forgotten that it was there! It must have been a God-thing 🙂

In this context, the word, “radiant” has a similar meaning to what we’ve talked about before in other contexts in Scripture. It signifies splendor, honor, and beauty. Though the author is talking about the church, it is applicable to a bride too. Think of her splendor and beauty on her wedding day.

As my fiancé and I planned our ceremony, we decided to try to demonstrate Ephesians 5 in our ceremony. We also wanted to show how Christ will one day return for His bride, the church. We thought back to the birth and life of John the Baptist and remembered how he had a very specific role in his life; he prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah.  

Let’s return to the wedding day. The music played and the bridesmaids and groomsmen made their way up front (as you would expect) prior to my grand entrance. When it was my turn, I began walking down the aisle, but there was no best man and no groom waiting up front. Now, I know people were whispering to one another, wondering if I’d been stood up at the altar. Where was the groom? What was going on?

A dear friend, Woody, began officiating the ceremony without the groom and without the best man! He began sharing the passage in Ephesians as I stood with the wedding party.

Then, all of the sudden, from behind the audience, we heard John the Baptist (a.k.a. the best man) shouting, “the bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom is coming,” as he ran down the aisle. The idea was to give a little glimpse of how Jesus will return one day to get His bride and be with her for all eternity.

Everyone turned around, including me. People were chuckling quietly and starting to see where this was going. Then we had that long-awaited moment where the groom appeared. I looked at him and he saw me for the first time that day. (Ahh – contented, romantic sigh). With a smile on his face and joy in his yes, he rushed down the aisle toward me, his bride.

We held hands, exchanged our vows, and joyfully said, “I do!” Though not an exact representation of Ephesians 5, it was an amazing way for us to understand the idea in more of an experiential way as we became man and wife.

My hubby and I are about to celebrate 8 years of marriage. What an adventure it has been!

I hope you are encouraged by this story. It’s a story only God could have written, directed and produced 🙂

Maybe you or someone you know are waiting for the love of your life. Don’t give up! Keep seeking first the kingdom of God and deepening your relationship with Him. Remember that you are so dearly loved!

For those of you who are struggling in your relationship or marriage right now, don’t give up! Keep praying. We will be talking soon about some relationship and marriage principles that we can all benefit from. I’ve enlisted the help of an expert, so stay tuned.

Let’s go be radiant this week!

This is a “mid-week-mini” video about praying to stretch your faith, a concept I mentioned in my Impossible Prayer video. I hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to watch it and comment below.

I was living and working in tropical Costa Rica in my twenties and early thirties. I loved my job, had a great team of people around me and was content…mostly. I was single, but had a desire to be married.

There were times when singleness was great and there were times when it wasn’t so great. Many of my friends had already married and I wondered when it would be my turn.

Around Christmas time one year, I had been reading through Scripture and noticing how God did the impossible. He created the heavens and the earth, He parted the Red Sea, He sent the plagues…the list of the “impossible” things He did goes on. I found myself hovering on that idea. In fact, while decorating Christmas ornaments with a group of girls, I wrote on one, “Dios hace lo imposible.” “God does the impossible.”

A few months later, I was spending time learning about faith and began to pray in such a way as to stretch my faith. I began to pray what I thought was an impossible prayer. You see, I didn’t know if it was God’s will for me to have a husband one day, but I began to pray that it was. I prayed that I would have an engagement ring on my finger by the end of the year (gasp!).

It wasn’t my style to give God deadlines, and I even told Him that if His answer at the end of the year was, “no,” I would be okay with that. I knew that this would help stretch my faith. So I began to pray my crazy prayer…and I didn’t tell ANYONE at first. It was far too crazy to share with anyone.

In the meantime, a former roommate of mine convinced me to try the online dating scene. She had met her husband through Christian Café and encouraged me to check it out. Reluctantly, I went on the site, filled out a profile and waited to see if anything would happen (not really expecting it to).

Lo and behold, I came across a profile of a guy named Juan who caught my eye. He had been born and lived in Latin America, gone to Bible school, and shared similar passions and beliefs. Hmm, it seemed like we had a lot in common. So I sent him a little note and the next thing you know, we are talking on the phone.

Our first conversation (i.e. interview) went really well. 🙂 I thought our second phone conversation was going well too until he said, “well Suzie, it’s been great getting to know you…” Wait! Was he breaking up with me? We hadn’t even started dating yet!

Then he finished his sentence, “…and I’d like to get to know you better by going down to Costa Rica and meeting you.” Wait! He wanted to meet me already? We just started talking! I was speechless! A total rarity for me.

We decided to talk on Skype first and then, six weeks later, he came down to meet me. I was excited, nervous, excited, happy, did I mention excited? I’ll never forget the shy, nervous smile on his face when we made eye contact at the airport.

Shortly after his arrival, he handed me a red rose that he had brought from the States. My romantic reply was, “how did you get that through customs?”

Though we only had a long weekend to get to know each other in person, we totally hit it off. Now, let me just remind you of the timeline here. I had been praying my crazy prayer for several months, Juan and I first started talking at the very end of July and he flew to Costa Rica in October.

I remember asking God, could he be the one? It’s getting awfully close to the end of the year God…

Juan returned to Costa Rica in November and I continued to pray. I couldn’t tell him about my crazy prayer because that would be cheating! Juan invited me to meet his family in the Chicagoland area in December.

It was during that visit Juan told me to dress up a little because we he was going to take me out to a nice place to dinner. Little did I know it was the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock building, at a table overlooking Navy Pier.

After a delicious dinner, Juan pulled out a little black box and started to say something like, “this has been such an amazing journey…”. He continued to say some really sweet things (most of which I can’t remember because all I could think about was the fact that he was PROPOSING!).

Then he came over to my side of the table, opened the box (which lit up!) and there inside was a gorgeous engagement ring! Simultaneously I heard him say, “will you marry me?”

Smiling from ear to ear, face beaming, heart pounding, I eagerly said, “YES!”

I then told him about the “impossible” prayer I had been praying and how God had just answered it!!! Juan was speechless. He later told me he was planning to propose until after the first of the year but had felt “compelled” to do it then. That word always makes me think of the Holy Spirit.

The wait staff brought out a white plate with a martini glass filled with sorbet and a candle. On the plate was written in chocolate, “congratulations on your engagement!” After our celebratory dessert, we took a romantic carriage ride around the city, both still in awe that God had answered my prayer and we were engaged!

And so began our happily ever after.

I share this story with you because I want to remind you that God answers prayer. We talk a lot about “dream big,” and I think that’s great, but what would happen if we “prayed big”? I think with that posture of prayer, if we prayed more “impossible” prayers, we’d see God do more impossible things and we would be radiant beyond our imagination.

 

We’ve been talking about the importance of spending time with God and fixing our thoughts on Jesus which will help us be radiant. It sounds good, but what if you’ve been in a bit of a spiritual slump lately?

Maybe you’re not feeling motivated to be in the Word or you’re just inconsistent with it. Maybe you desire to spend time reading your Bible but are at a loss as to where to start. Maybe it’s been a really dry or desert-like season spiritually and you need some encouragement and ideas.

Right after our first son was born, I went through a very spiritually dry season. I was recovering from a C-Section and it was a brutal recovery. I didn’t go to church for several weeks. When I was at home, it seemed like every time I opened my Bible, the baby would cry. And those rare times when I was free to read my Bible, the sleep deprivation and new-mommy-brain combination kept me from being able to concentrate.

I wasn’t getting the spiritual nourishment I was used to and so desperately needed. I wish that I would have had one of the ideas I’m going to share with you here.

Ideas for getting out of a spiritual slump:

1. Partner Up – if you lack motivation or consistency reading your Bible, find a friend to do it with you. Pick a short book of the Bible and agree to read a chapter throughout the week. Find a cute notebook and write down your observations and questions. Meet weekly at your favorite coffee shop to discuss what you read and to pray and fellowship with one another. You will be motivated to read each week because you won’t want to show up unprepared. I’ve been doing this with a friend for a couple of years and it’s been so fruitful.
2. Reading Plan – if you don’t know where to start, you could do something like what my husband does. Each day, he reads 1-3 chapters in the Old Testament (starting in Genesis), 1-3 chapters in the New Testament (starting in Matthew), a Psalm and a Proverb. This will give you a really good panoramic view of the Bible. If you’re a big picture person, this might be for you. If you’re a detail-oriented person, try choosing a short book of the Bible in the New Testament such as James.
3. Bible App – if you prefer to read your Bible on your phone or tablet, what about checking into a Bible app like YouVersion? They have all kinds of devotionals varying in length, by many different authors. They really have something for everyone.
4. Audio Bible – if you have a commute, why not try listening to the Bible during that time? You can download an app called Audible and use that to listen to the Bible. It will help fix your thoughts on Jesus. I found it very helpful for that (and for calming my occasional road rage) 😉 when I had a long commute.
5. Music – if you’ve been feeling down, need some encouragement or a little pick-me-up, what about simply turning on some Christian music? I know that always helps lifts my spirits and gets my thoughts on something spiritually oriented.

I know these ideas aren’t necessarily revolutionary and they may not be new ones to you. However, if you’ve been in a spiritual slump, I hope that you’ll consider trying one or more of them. If you do, would you share how it goes? You can comment below. I would love to hear about your experience!

If you have an idea for how to get out of a spiritual slump, I would love to hear that as well. I think we could all benefit from sharing ideas with one another. So leave a comment and we can all grow together! Let’s go be radiant!

In Unveiled Radiance (Part 1), we looked at a couple of occurrences in Scripture of the concept of radiance. We saw how Moses veiled his radiance after coming down from Mt. Sinai and how Jesus unveiled His at the transfiguration.

We also talked about how our circumstances can negatively influence our ability to be radiant. To combat that, I suggested we fix our thoughts on Jesus and spend more time with Him.

However, I left you hanging because I believe there is one more thing that can veil our radiance. Thus, Part 2 of Unveiled Radiance.

The second thing that can veil our radiance is…sin. I know, it’s only my second blog post and I’m already talking about sin. It’s not a fun topic to talk about, but it’s our reality. In fact, it’s our everyday reality.

Even though we are in a process of sanctification and we are daily maturing in our faith, we still have to fight sin. So how can we do it in a way that allows us to have some victory? How can we do it in a way that allows us to be radiant? Because when we are sinning, we aren’t radiant, are we? No.

I was studying the book of Hebrews, and I came up with something, a possible solution, that might help us battle sin and be radiant. Now, I’m going to warn you that this idea might seem a little surprising. It’s not your typical answer to how to fight sin.

To give you a little context, the author of Hebrews has been warning his audience not to be rebellious. He tells them not to be like their ancestors who disobeyed God in the desert even though they saw Him do amazing things. He’s telling them to hold strong to their faith.

Here’s what he says in Hebrews 3:13 (NIV), “But encourage one another daily as long as it is called, ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

When I read that, I asked myself what the correlation was between encouraging others and sin. How could his audience avoid being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness by the encouragement of their peers? Intrigued by the idea, I did a little digging.

I discovered that the idea behind “encourage one another,” was that it was their job to really, intentionally, check in with their brothers and sisters in Christ and find out how they were doing. It wasn’t a church leader’s job. It was their job. The encouragement referred to here also means that they were to pray for one another and engage in spiritual conversation.

That’s kind of a lot packed into the word “encouragement”! The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. If I’m really engaged like that with my friends at church, my friends in the community, etc., I’m not going to be about sin, I’m going to be about them. I’m going to be about the things of God and it’s going to actually allow me to be radiant.

The author says that the purpose of the encouragement is so that they won’t be “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” One commentator noted that the idea behind that is that every time we sin, it begins to create a hardening effect in our hearts and in our lives. That leads to kind of a callous and callouses are so hard to remove. Not only that, we don’t want to be like that toward God, we want to be tender toward Him.

In the passage, the author states that this encouragement should happen “daily.” When I see that, I think lifestyle. If we were to really encourage one another daily, and when I say “encourage,” I mean what the author intended by that word, imagine the kind of impact that could have.

We do the Christian life in community. We don’t do it by ourselves. We do it together. So if we are encouraging one another daily, helping one another persevere in our faith, that hardening of our hearts will be kept at bay.

So this is my challenge to us (myself included) this week. Let us intentionally check in with someone everyday this week, and really listen to how they are doing. Let us really pray for them (not just say we are going to pray), and then talk about spiritual things.

I think we will see God move in ways that we might not otherwise see Him move. And that’s encouraging, right? That will help keep us from sinning.

I know it sounds a little crazy and maybe even a little simplistic. But will you try it with me? Good! Okay, let’s go encourage one another daily as long as it is called today and let us go be radiant this week!