Tag: enjoying God

Day 17 of Enjoying God: Sleep (in Heavenly Peace)

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Image from indianasleep.com

In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety. —Psalm 4:8

I’m writing this right now because I’m tired and could really use some sleep.

But I think it’s also interesting that in Psalm 4:8, the psalmist chooses to sleep in peace. The psalmist is able to comfortably lay his head down because he trusts in the Lord to protect Him and take care of Him. (There’s that pesky trust word again.)

The Bible has a lot to say on different aspects about sleep but sleeping in peace throughout the Bible represents a healthy fear of the Lord. Not necessarily the fear and trembling aspect but the reverential sovereign awe attributed to the God of the universe. It is only when when we are able to respect (deference to a right, privilege, privileged position; proper acceptance; acknowledgment) God’s place in our lives that we are able to sleep soundly in peace and without fear (being afraid).

Perhaps this should have been a post on fear of the Lord, but it was cool to discover how to enjoy God through the peace and restfulness He provides us with, even in our sleep. (Ah, rest… a topic for another day.)

The fear of the LORD leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil. —Proverbs 19:23

Day 16 of Enjoying God: Trust

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Image from anna.aero

Trust isn’t necessarily so much an attribute of God that I need to enjoy as much as I need to employ this quality in myself to enjoy God more.

Issues of trust also lead into issues of control. The thing is, I’m a control freak, and I have this crazy idea that I know things better than God does. (Also see Day 12: Contentment.) If God would just give me control of this, everything would turn out okay. I don’t ever say this out loud but through my actions, I like to tell Jesus, “Hey, buddy, pull over and let me drive. I think I can navigate this messy New York traffic a whole lot better than you can.”

To be clichéd and quote Carrie Underwood’s 2005 hit song, I need to let “Jesus Take the Wheel.” In my life, Jesus is akin to a seasoned NYC taxicab driver who can get me to where I need to go while minimizing all the bumps along the way. Sometimes, like in a NYC taxicab, I use my imaginary emergency brake because I think I could do a whole lot better but Jesus knows what he is doing and (unlike real NYC taxicabs) he never puts me in unnecessary danger.

The crazy thing about the Christian life is that believers in Jesus have a hard time handing over the lease on their lives to the man they call their Lord and Savior. However, these same people have very little problem handing over their lives to a pilot (they’ve never met and don’t even know) on a plane.

Perhaps it’s time for me to place at least as much trust in Someone I claim to have a personal relationship with as the unknown guy who takes my plane 39,000 feet in the air and then safely lands it.

Day 15 of Enjoying God: Inclusive and Adoptive

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I’ve been speaking to a few people lately about adoption. I’m not in the process of it or even considering it seriously but adoption is something that I would never rule out. I think I’ve been blessed with the ability to not need having my own child but to be able to raise one and share my values with him or her.

A friend today reminded me that believers in Christ are adopted sons and daughters of God.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. —Romans 8:14-18

God is not an exclusive God; He is an inclusive God—He wants everyone to come to Him, to get to know Him, and to enjoy Him. As such, when we come to God through Jesus Christ, we are accepted as His children and joint-heirs with Christ. God the Father accepts us and loves us just as He loves His own begotten son.

I’m very thankful to talk to others about adoption and see parents treat their adopted children as their own. It’s such a sweet picture of the way God cares for us.

Day 14 of Enjoying God: Righteous Anger

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I may create a separate blog post on the issue of abortion and the Black population, but after discovering the high rate of abortion in the New York City area, especially among the Black and Hispanic populations, I was grieved.

Then I became angry. Very angry.

I became angry that over half of Black children conceived in the NYC area don’t have a voice and aren’t given a chance to live. They are murdered—their tissues and body parts carelessly bagged up for trash or flushed down the toilet.

Just as I see this as heinous and unfair, I realized that God sees my sin in a similar light. He sees every act of rebellion against Him as heinously as I see abortion. It disgusts Him and makes Him sick and He must turn away from me.

In Jesus Christ, God no longer sees my sin. He sees His holy son who died for my sins and accepts me that way.

Having righteous anger against abortion (or any other type of injustice) is not really a way of “enjoying God,” but it has helped me to understand God just a wee bit better. And that’s the whole point of this series of blog posts: not only to just enjoy God but also to get to know Him better.

Day 13 of Enjoying God: CPO (Chief Planning Officer)

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The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. — Psalm 33:10

I can’t tell you how many times in the past two months I have dropped food on my pants (of all places) and cried in frustration, “I just washed this!”

To me, a day or two after I’ve pulled my clothes out of the wash, it is simply inconvenient to have to throw my clothes back in for a stain. (And they’re clothes I usually really like too.)

My friend’s husband once called his wife the CPO of the household—the Chief Planning Officer. I’ve happily adapted that title to my role as well since I love to plan and am the one who schedules appointments and events on our calendar.

But today, after dirtying my clothes for the umpteenth time I realized I’m not the real CPO here—God is. He makes the plans, he determines even the minutiae of me having to throw my clothes back in to the wash two days after I’ve just pulled them out. (sigh)

There are tons of verses in the Psalms and Proverbs that emphasize that even though man makes His plans, the Lord establishes them all. I may consider myself the Chief Planning Officer of the household but God is the Chief Planning Officer of my life.

Day 12 of Enjoying God: Contentment

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Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. —Philippians 4:11-12

I truly struggle to enjoy God in this area. I struggled with this in prayer last night before my husband basically told me, “You struggle with contentment because you want to be the God of your own life. You want to have control over everything because you think you know better than God.”

And he’s right.

Life would go so much better if God just adhered to my plans. (Or so I think.)

If God gave me a kid when I wanted, everything would be great. If God allowed me to publish my book when I was mentally ready, then I’d have a better life. If God allowed me to have more money, then I’d feel financially secure. If God did [xyz], then I would be in a more positive place.

Being discontent means that things are not about me when I want them to be. And to be content, things have to be less about me, more about God and more about everyone else.

Less of me, Lord, and more of You.

 

Day 11 of Enjoying God: Friendships

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A friend, who I haven’t seen in a while, is coming over to spend the night. Since we haven’t formally caught up with each other’s lives for the past couple of months, I’m looking forward to spending time with her and talking about what God is doing in her life.

I wish I was just as eager to spend time with God as I am with my friend. In John 15:15, Jesus says to his disciples:

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Friends tend not to withhold information about what is going on in our lives. With bosses, people are much more formal and keep themselves (and their information) at arm’s length. Jesus does not refer to himself as our boss or our master; he calls us friends and invites us to know more about him.

Knowing the Lord as friend—discovering his qualities, attributes, and who he is—will not only allow us to enjoy God more, but it will encourage us to come to him and lay all of our concerns and joys before him.

 

Day 10 of Enjoying God: Good Speech

~ K ~ 1 Comment

I’m not talking about being articulate. I’m talking about being careful about what you say about others.

A round of ’bouts. I know.

Perhaps it’s Catholic guilt or fundy guilt or perhaps it’s simply that good ol’ conscience convicting me, but I immediately became aware of how important it is to speak well of others at work today.

There’s a person I work with who is really nice but fails to pull their own weight. (I’m intentionally using mismatched pronouns to avoid gender-specificity. If you have no idea what was wrong in the last sentence, just keep reading; no big deal.) It is common knowledge around the office that this coworker sort of loafs around, doing just enough minimal work to stay employed but not really pitching in to make a serious dent. As a result, some complaints and grumbles are said about this coworker and I found myself saying a really mean joke that elicited a cheap laugh from my other coworkers. Once the words came out of my mouth (I don’t even remember what now), I immediately felt guilty and repented. How is gaining a laugh at someone else’s expense glorifying to God? It doesn’t even matter that my coworkers aren’t Christians: I’ve given them the impression now that if they don’t do their work or have a bad day, I can say something just as mean about them behind their backs.

I suddenly realized the importance of edifying speech: speaking well of others or adhering to that old idiom, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.”

I’m certain that God doesn’t particularly snicker in heaven when I say something mean about someone who has been created in His image. Sure, actions can be criticized but if fair’s going to be fair, that criticism needs to be said in love to that person’s face—it shouldn’t be personality attacks (under the guise of criticism of actions) behind that person’s back. Perhaps that’s why gossip and backbiting are highly frowned upon in the Bible—those things are never said to kindly help point out people’s mistakes. Those things are always done because we’re insecure beings who are always trying to feel better about ourselves.

Philippians 4:8 says:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

I would do well—and enjoy God a whole lot more—if I adhered to Paul’s admonition above.

Day 9 of Enjoying God: Healer

~ K ~ 2 Comments

I had a nasty migraine today that made me nauseous and only got worse as I traveled 3 hours from NY back to PA. (Had to pull over in Brooklyn because I thought I was going to puke.) During that time, I failed to ask God to help me. I failed to ask God to use an attribute of His to assist me in time of need.

There’s no guarantee that God would have; in spite of forgetting to cry out for help, soon after I arrived home and rested for an hour, I felt better. But I missed out on an opportunity to explore an attribute of God—healer and great physician.

In Exodus 15:26, God is referred to as Jehovah-rophe or Jehovah-Raphah transliterated as “the Lord who heals.” Throughout the gospels, Jesus demonstrated this as he went from town to town performing signs and miracles of healing. The first line of treatment is to seek immediate medical attention (Mark 5:25-26) then when all else fails, seek the Lord for help (Mark 5:27-34).

I hope to remember this when I face sickness or when praying for others dealing with sickness.

Day 8 of Enjoying God: Unchanging

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I went to a grocery store today near my mom’s house in New York that I hadn’t been to in 5 years. Everything had changed: the bank, the people, the layout, and the technology in the checkout lanes.

But in 5 years, 10 years, 50 or 100 years, God doesn’t change. He is always the same God with the same attributes and qualities. No matter what changes on earth in human time, God always stays the same.

Which, for someone who doesn’t handle change very well, is kind of nice.

Day 7 of Enjoying God: New Beginnings

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One aspect I appreciate about God is that He gives people a chance to start over.

As I turn my attention toward 2011, I reflect on people (including myself) creating new goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. People love the opportunity to erase the past and start something new.

In Christ, God gives people that opportunity. He gives people the chance to put off the “old man” and put on the “new man.” God allows people to become a new creation in Jesus Christ with new hearts, new attitudes, and new lives.

New beginnings are something we can look forward to. In fact, I think they are a God-ordained blessing in the midst of this fallen, broken world. Perhaps the physical dawning of the new year can represent the spiritual dawn available for people in Christ.

Day 6 of Enjoying God: Being Still

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My ideal way to be still!

One way to enjoy God is to be still (something I don’t do enough of). I took hydroxyzine last night so I had a drug hangover today. I’ve also had a lousy headache that forced me to switch from bass-heavy music to quiet piano. I’ve been unable able to do things that require deep thinking. I haven’t been able to exercise. I’ve pretty much been stationary today, which I actually hate.

Except today.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” My solo piano station on pandora.com plays a lot of piano hymns that turn my thoughts toward Jesus or simply help me to think on things that are “true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, or worthy of praise.” (Phil. 4:8)

Tomorrow will be New Year’s Eve. I’ll be back to my normal self: traveling, running around, feeling stressed about all that needs to be done, and the upcoming week. But today I was forced to be still and relax in the presence of God.

Day 5 of Enjoying God: Goodness

~ K ~ 1 Comment

Today I went to Manhattan, NY with my husband and in-laws to see Macy*s Herald Square, the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, the tree at Rockefeller Center, and have lunch at the Stage Deli. I love New York City and I love sharing NYC with others so when I discovered my mother-in-law wanted to see the Rockettes, I had no qualms taking her. (Hey, it’s a NYC tradition!)

After my in-laws brought me and my husband to our home after our very long and busy day, I saw tears in my mother-in-law’s eyes and I knew that she was grateful for the day and it meant something special to her. Despite the fact that my love for the Rockettes at 28 isn’t what it was at 8, by taking time out of my day to share something that meant so much to her, I was learning how to be good and to share that goodness with others.

God’s goodness goes beyond the Rockettes, money, and pretty decorations although the nice thing is, that can be a part of it. In enjoying God, I am able to enjoy things He has allowed me to take part in. Just as my in-laws graciously treated my husband and I to a fabulous New York deli meal through their goodness, God graciously provides for and meets wants and needs that I never think to ask for. God is beyond materially good; He’s spiritually good but I think Christians who try to kid themselves about the different ways God makes His presence (and presents!) known are missing out on one way to enjoy God.

Day 4 of Enjoying God: Peace

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Let it be known: I hate bumper stickers like that above. Mostly because I think they’re cheesy and ineffective, but sometimes it reminds me of a truth that tends to fall hollow with me.

You see, I know Jesus but I feel like I have no peace.

My head and heart are almost always spinning with busyness, noise, stress, and other things that crowd out any semblance of peace. I’m not talking external peace; I mean internal peace.

While I’ll tackle the topic of joy another day, I think joy and peace go hand-in-hand in some way. The idea of peace has always evoked an image of joy along with it (in my mind).

I’ve taken a vacation from paid work this week but still feel like I have no peace. I’m stressed. I’m nervous. I’m afraid that I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown and headed back to a psych hospital. (Maybe I need to visit once every six years to remind me how much I hate it?) I have all this spiritual static in my head that succeeds in clouding God out and making Him fuzzy around the edges.

The point of learning how to enjoy God is not that I’ll have arrived by the time I publish one of these posts but that it’s a process: I’m learning. An aspect of being able to enjoy God is also enjoying the peace that He provides.

Hopefully God will help me out in this area in 2011.

 

 

Day 3 of Enjoying God: Beauty

~ K ~ 1 Comment
A sample "before"---it truly looked worse than this!

I went to the hair salon tonight with my hair looking “a hot mess” (as the slang goes). I haven’t been taking care of it for the past month like I should because I’d been too busy working two jobs, kept rescheduling my appointment, and was too depressed to keep it up on my own. But my hairdresser knew none of that. All she knew was that my hair looked awful and was in dire need of repair. When she was done, my hair looked amazing. She did a job I could have never done on my own. I had to rely on her skilled hands to craft a disaster into something beautiful. (You know where I’m going with this, right?)

After!

 

God does something similar albeit on a much bigger scale and with more important things than hair. God sees the disaster of my natural heart with its sinful jealousy, strife, grumbling, and bitterness, and somehow takes that, cuts away the ugly layers of who I am to craft me into someone beautiful.

  • Someone who cares more about others than herself
  • Someone who thinks twice before gossiping
  • Someone who tries to do things for others because it means so much to them

In paying attention to the everyday, seemingly mundane things and moments of my life, I am finding ways to know and enjoy God. Who knew that God could use something as superficial as a well-coiffed hairstyle to remind me how supremely beautiful He is… and how only He can make me divinely beautiful?