Month: May 2018

Have you ever felt forgotten by God? Even if we are living in obedience to God and what He has called us to do, we might still feel forgotten. Think of Noah on the ark. We talked about him in my Dry Ground post. He spent a L O N G time on that ark. I wonder if during that time he ever felt forgotten by God.

Genesis 8:1 “But God remembered Noah…” I’ve recently noticed this repeated theme of God remembering. When he “destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and he brought Lot our of the catastrophe…” (Gen. 19:29). God “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob,” when he heard the groaning of His people. (Ex. 2:24). God remembered Rachel in her barrenness (Gen. 30:22). The list goes on.

To be honest, every time I read, “God remembered,” it kind of caused me to furrow my brow a bit. I had the feeling I wasn’t understanding it properly. There had to be a depth of meaning to the word “remembered” that I was missing. Why?  Because God is Omnipresent and Omniscient, so how could He ever unintentionally forget (as we do) anyone or anything?

After doing a little digging, I found a bit of helpful insight. Benson Commentary notes this about Exodus 2:24:  “And God remembered his covenant — which he seemed to have forgotten, but really is ever mindful of...Moses looked on them and pitied them but God looked on them and helped them…His eyes, which run to and fro throughout the earth, are now fixed on Israel, to show himself strong, to show himself a God on their behalf.”

The idea that God is “ever mindful” resonates better with me because it sounds more like the God I know. But that still doesn’t fully answer my question. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary gave me some additional insight in reference to God remembering Noah. “God remembered Noah, i.e. he showed by his actions that he minded and cared for him,…God is said to remember his people, when after some delays or suspensions of his favour, he returns and shows kindness to them…”

It seems then, that it’s not that God “forgets” per se, it’s more that there is a delay or suspension (not a total cessation) of His favor for a time. I would imagine that it’s during that suspension period that people may feel forgotten, whether or not they’ve done something wrong.

In Noah’s case, he was in the midst of obeying God when he may have felt forgotten. In fact, MacLaren’s expositions asks, “And why did God ‘remember Noah’? It was not favouritism, arbitrary and immoral. Noah was bid to build the ark, because he was ‘righteous’ in a world of evil-doers; he was ‘remembered’ in the ark, because he had believed God’s warning, obeyed God’s command…”

In Rachel’s case, however, it seems that she might have had some things to learn during her “suspension” period before God “remembered” her. In Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, we read, “God remembered Rachel in the best time for her, after he had taught her the lessons of dependence and patience.” Those are two lessons I continue to learn.

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers goes so far as to say that, “Rachel’s long barrenness had probably humbled and disciplined her; and, cured of her former petulance, she trusts no longer to ‘love-apples,’ but looks to God for the great blessing of children.”

There are times in our lives when we long to have something (a husband, a baby, a house, an answer…) and it feels like our prayers and our longings are falling on deaf ears. It can feel like God has forgotten us. But has He? Never.

What if His delay in providing the desire of our heart or answering our question is to give us time to learn something (dependence, trust, humility…)?

What if His delay is to allow time for other things to come together so that when He provides or answers, it’s complete? I think of the seemingly long season when I waited for a husband. Perhaps I was ready but my future prince charming was not quite there yet and then, he was.

Regardless of the reason for a “suspension” of God’s favor, we have to know that He has not forgotten us. We are far too precious, as His children, to be forgotten. His mercy will return.

I love how Barnes Notes on the Bible talks about the idea of “remembered.” “Remembered – this means that God was moved by their prayers to give effect to the covenant, of which an essential condition was the faith and contrition involved in the act of supplication. The whole history of Israel is foreshadowed in these words: God heard, remembered, looked upon, and knew them. It evidently indicates the beginning of a crisis marked by a personal intervention of God.”

God hears us, is moved by our prayers and intervenes. How incredible is that?

So if you, or someone you know is feeling forgotten by God, know that He is ever mindful of us. We have to believe that in time, He will bestow His favor on us again and all will be as it should be.

So the next time you see, “and God remembered” in Scripture, I hope you remember this blog post.

Let’s go be radiant this week!

Over the airplane loud speaker comes a calm voice from the cockpit, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. We received word that there may be some bumpy air ahead.” Anxious flyers immediately think, “uh oh,” and grip their arm rest a little tighter. Then there are odd people like me who think excitedly, “let the adventure begin!”

Before you think I’m totally off my rocker, I will freely admit that I dislike some of the consequences of turbulence. For example, may years ago I was on an international flight and was absolutely starving. The flight crew had delayed serving us a meal because the turbulence was so strong. They finally managed to get down the aisle with our food but once I had it in front of me, I could barely get it on the fork much less in my mouth. It was like an invisible hand kept grabbing my arm and pulling it away from me the moment my fork got anywhere close to my mouth.

All of that to say that I do find that turbulence can be inconvenient, but I don’t find it to be scary. In fact, I will often giggle a little when the plane dips a bit causing my stomach to drop. It feels like a roller coaster to me. My husband always looks at me in total disbelief that I can be laughing during turbulence.

I guess I can be lighthearted about it because I don’t equate turbulence with crashing. Could that be mere ignorance you ask? Good question. I wondered that myself, so I looked it up and found an incredibly helpful article on a blog called, Patrick Smith’s Ask the Pilot, that I will quote throughout this post. Read it here. As it turns out, “…a plane cannot be flipped upside-down, thrown into a tailspin, or other wise flung from the sky by even the mightiest gust or air pocket.” In fact, the number of crashes from turbulence in all of aviation history can be counted on one hand.

Though turbulence can be annoying (spilling your coffee, luggage shifting, not being able to get up and go to the bathroom when you want…), “it is normal.” Turbulence is something passengers expect when flying on a plane but from a pilot’s perspective, it’s really more of a “convenience issue, not a safety issue.”

I can’t help but see a number of parallels between turbulence while flying and turbulence while living our lives.  One of those parallels is that turbulence is normal. As Christians, we know that we are bound to experience moments of turbulence in our lives. I’m not talking about life-threatening things, but things that are inconvenient, disruptive, annoying. James 1:2 tells us to “consider it pure joy” when we “face trials of many kinds.”

How then do we respond to turbulence in our Christian lives? Do we dread or fear it while we are in the midst of it? Or should we take a different perspective?

One of the main reasons I don’t mind turbulence on a plane is because I trust the pilot. I believe he is trained, equipped and qualified. If I liken that to my everyday life, in moments where I’m experiencing turbulence, do I trust God as my Pilot? Clearly there is no one better to fly than He, but am I willing to place my trust (my life) in Him when things get bumpy?

According to the article I mentioned above, sometimes pilots will change altitude for smoother conditions in the interest of comfort for their passengers. In my experience, God doesn’t tend to do that when I’m in the midst of turbulent times. I get the sense that He’s not as concerned about my comfort as He is my faith, trust and obedience–even if it feels like I’m plummeting.

While flying on a plane in the middle of turbulence, it can often feel like you are falling thousands of feet. However, in the cockpit, they only “see a twitch on the altimeter,” and you probably dropped a mere 10-20 feet. The pilots might very well say that the drop was almost undetectable on their instruments.

What an amazing illustration of our perspective verses God’s perspective! We might be going through some turbulence in our lives that feels so severe and yet it doesn’t actually reflect reality. Now that is in no way to diminish our feelings, but sometimes our feelings are dictated by what we think is happening instead of what is actually happening.

Did you know that “Planes are engineered to take a remarkable amount of punishment and that they can withstand an extreme amount of stress…?” Again, I find that to be such an appropriate parallel to our lives. We, too, can be resilient, withstanding an extreme amount of stress without falling apart. Why? Because the Lord is our strength. Isaiah 33:2 puts it well, “Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.”

Not only can planes withstand an extreme amount of stress, they can also realign when shoved from their position in space. In fact, their nature is to return there. Isn’t that incredible? I feel like the same is true for us. 

Turbulence, or disruptive circumstances in our lives can cause us to feel like we’ve been pushed out of our comfort zone or our normal “flying” altitude, if you will. I recall a time when I was in a leadership position and trying to help a large group of people through a really big transition. Unfortunately, not everyone liked change or the way it was happening, and let’s just say things got really turbulent for me. That turbulence pushed me way out of my comfort zone as a leader. Eventually, after much prayer, difficult conversations and a lot of help from those around me, God got me realigned.

As I continue to experience moments of turbulence in my life, and as you do, my prayer for us is that we would remember the following:

• Turbulence is normal and to be expected
• We can, and should always trust our Pilot
• What we feel is happening may not represent reality
• God will help us realign

Let us go and be radiant, even in the midst of turbulence.

Do you have a pet peeve? Is there something that really drives you crazy? One of my pet peeves is constant noises. I really dislike it when an alarm keeps going off, or a phone rings and rings and rings, etc. So I find it ironic that repetition is precisely what God uses to get my attention when I read the Bible. It’s like He’s wired me to naturally see repeated words and themes in Scripture.

One repeated theme I saw recently, I found especially interesting and I’m excited to share it with you. It’s the idea of dry ground, and not the kind that symbolizes a spiritual desert, in fact it’s quite the opposite.

The first place I noticed the concept of dry ground was in Genesis chapters 7 and 8. After Noah, his family and all the animals are on the ark, it rained for 40 days and nights and the waters flooded the earth for 150 days. Then God sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded.

Noah then sent out a raven, and later a dove, to see if the waters had receded enough for them to disembark. When the dove didn’t return, he removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. But when it was completely dry, God told Noah and his family to come out of the ark (Gen. 8:16).

After having been cooped up for so long on the ark with family (regardless of how much you love your family, that’s a considerable amount of time to be in such close proximity with them), I bet Noah and his family had never been so happy to step onto dry ground. If you’ve ever been on a boat for a length of time, you know that when you step onto land, you still kind of have your sea legs and it feels as though you are still moving.

The second place I noticed the idea of dry ground was in Exodus 14 when the Israelites were fleeing from Pharaoh. He had finally agreed to let them go and then changed his mind. When they turned around and saw him and the Egyptians coming after them, they were terrified.

I love how Moses encourages them in that moment. He says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today…the Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.” (Ex. 14:13-14).

Then the Lord tells Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the sea to divide the water so the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. The rescue is about to begin, but before it happens, verse 18 says, “The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” God was going to use this miraculous event not just to save the Israelites, but to show the Egyptians exactly who He is.

Then Moses stretched out his hand and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. I couldn’t help but notice that just as God sent a wind to make the waters recede for Noah, He sent a wind again to part the waters for the Israelites.

When the waters were divided, the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. *Side note, there is an interesting video that shows archeological evidence of the chariots in the sea where the Israelites crossed. The video has a bit of a slow beginning and the quality isn’t top notch, but if you stick with it, the findings are pretty amazing. Click here to link to the video.

The third place I noticed the concept of dry ground was in the book of Jonah. God tells him to go to Nineveh and Jonah doesn’t want to. In his rebellious disobedience, he boards a ship to Tarshish (in the opposite direction).

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. A strong storm arose and threatened to break apart the ship. They cast lots to find out who is to blame and the lot falls on Jonah. The sailors ask him who he is and I love his response in Jonah 1:9, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

They end up throwing Jonah overboard and the sea immediately grew calm. In verse 16 of chapter 1, we find out that as a result of this, the men on the boat greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to Him and made vows to Him. What an incredible outcome from Jonah’s disobedience! I’m always amazed at how God uses even someone’s disobedience to bring people to Him. This is the first place we see a salvation moment in Jonah.

The second place we see a salvation moment is when God provides a huge fish to swallow Jonah. He was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like other than smelly darkness. But while he’s there, he prays and we get a glimpse of the turmoil and trauma he’s experienced. “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.” (Jonah 2:5).

Not long after that, the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Again, God saves Jonah and I would wager he had never been so glad to touch dry ground.

Jonah then goes on to Nineveh and the people actually listen to what he says and they repent. As a result, God relents and doesn’t bring destruction on them (chapter 3). Salvation yet again.

As I think about the similarities between these three passages, I can’t help but notice the use of wind – to recede the waters (Noah), to push them back (Red Sea) and to create a storm (Jonah). He used something natural to do something supernatural.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I tend to dream about large bodies of water. Being a bit more of a thinker than a feeler at times, it’s God’s way of helping me identify my feelings.

Another similarity I see between these passages is that God always provides a way to be saved, and only one. There was one door to the ark, one path through the Red Sea and one big fish. In the new Testament, Jesus is that one way to be saved. It is such a good reminder that we have a God who saves! He rescues us!

As I thought about the impact of these passages, I couldn’t help but be encouraged. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by something lately and how I’ve tried to stay radiant is by praying for dry ground. Like Jonah, I worship the Lord of heaven who created the sea and dry land. I find such comfort in that and in knowing that He rescues His people.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately, may I suggest praying for dry ground?

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments about the idea of dry ground. Have you seen this concept in other areas of Scripture? If so, please comment below.

In the meantime, let’s go be radiant this week.

 

Are there times when you don’t look or feel radiant? I hope so. Really? Yes. Even though my blog is all about figuring out how to be radiant (to reflect God’s glory) in our everyday lives, we cannot and should not expect to be glowing every waking moment. We don’t want to put on a face and pretend everything is okay when it’s not.

I found an example of this in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah (one of my favorite books of the Bible). It starts off by explaining that a Jewish remnant has survived the exile but that they are in great trouble and danger. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and it’s gates burned.

What is Nehemiah’s reaction to this news? He weeps, mourns, fasts and prays for days. Then, in Nehemiah 1:5-11, we become privy to one of those prayers. What strikes me about it is that he not only confesses his own sin and the sins of his family, he makes a corporate confession for the Israelites as well.

In just this short introduction, we already have a sense that Nehemiah is a God-fearing man who deeply cares for his people. We also quickly discover at the end of the first chapter that he is the cupbearer to the King, a position which will help him bring to fruition what God has laid on his heart to do.

Chapter 2 begins, “…I had not been sad in his presence so the King asked me, ‘why does your face look sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” (Neh. 2:1-2).

Due to the nature of Nehemiah’s job, it’s likely he saw the King quite frequently. The fact that the King had never seen Nehemiah looking sad before tells me that perhaps he usually looked joyful, or dare I say, even radiant? Considering his close relationship with God, that would make sense, right?

But today was different. Nehemiah’s face reflected the weight he felt for the danger his people were in. He couldn’t, no he wouldn’t, stand by and do nothing. He had the ear of the King and asked for permission to leave and go rebuild. What a powerful connection to have at a time like this. “And because the gracious hand of God was upon me, the King granted my requests.” (Neh. 2:8)

Though Nehemiah’s connection with the King was a powerful one, his connection with God was even more so and that’s who gets the credit here.

Nehemiah is about to embark on a monumental task and is wise enough to know he is going to need quite a crew of people to help him. And what a crew he gets! He finds everyone from the high priest and his fellow priests, to a perfume-maker, to women! The whole community comes together. As they begin the process of rebuilding, they are immediately ridiculed, but that doesn’t stop them.

They worked and worked and rebuilt the wall to half its height, “for the people worked with all their heart.” (Neh. 4:6.)  I love this verse. Seeing this hurting community come together and give it their all, despite ridicule and opposition is so incredibly inspiring.

Those who were in opposition to the rebuilding of the wall were “very angry” when they heard that the gaps in the wall were being closed. Why did that anger them so much? The fewer the gaps, the fewer the weaknesses. I can’t help but liken that to my own life. Where are the gaps in my life? Who do I need around me (perfume-makers perhaps? ;)) to help fill those gaps? I don’t want to have areas of weakness where the enemy could easily make his way in.

The enemies were plotting against the people of Judah and threatening them. “…’The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.'” (Neh. 4:10). If ever there was a time to quit, now would have been the time.

Have you ever been in the process of rebuilding something and just wanted to quit? Maybe it was something tangible like a piece of furniture or maybe it was something more figurative like trust in a friendship. The rebuilding process, regardless of what you’re rebuilding, can take a lot out of you. And when you’re surrounded by the “rubble,” it makes it even harder to move forward.

How does Nehemiah encourage the people? He says, “…Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” (Neh. 4:14). Don’t be afraid of those who oppose you. Don’t focus on them, focus on the Lord. Remember how great and awesome He is. When you’ve done that, it’s time to fight because your family and your home is worth it. Do you feel strengthened by that? I do!

In light of impending threats and danger, Nehemiah strategizes the best way to keep working. His solution? (This is my favorite part of the story!) “…The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked…” (Neh. 4:16-18)

Isn’t this such a perfect picture of how we should be living our lives today? Shouldn’t we all be doing the work God has called us to do with one hand and in the other be prepared to defend ourselves against the enemy? Shouldn’t we have our sword (Bible) at our side as we work? I know that we likely don’t encounter the same kind of opposition they did, but the enemy is real and if we’re doing what God wants us to be doing, he might very well try to intervene.

Nehemiah goes on, “Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!'” (Neh. 4:19-20).

As believers, we are all working together to help bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus. However, our work is spread out across the world, isn’t it? It’s such a good reminder that just as Nehemiah told the people of Judah that their God would fight for them, He will fight for us too! If you’ve been serving God and facing severe opposition, remember Who will fight for you!

The rebuilders of the wall completed their task in just 52 days and there wasn’t a single gap left in it. Can you imagine? It only took 52 days! My husband I were talking about that and he said wistfully, “I wish I could build a house in 52 days.” I replied, “You could…if you had the right people around you — like a high priest and a perfume-maker…”

I love that there wasn’t a single gap left in the wall. The builders were thorough. They made sure their newly rebuilt wall was strong, solid and impenetrable.

I also love how the enemies responded. “When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” (Neh. 6:16). Even they acknowledged and recognized the hand of God in the rebuilding of the wall

Just like those faithful builders, all the work we do for God, is with God. Though they had their moments when they weren’t looking or feeling radiant, they continued to do what God called them to do. So as we continue on in that labor as well, may we find our strength in Him and may our faces reflect His glory.