Tag: God

Day 19 of Enjoying God: Sovereignty

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It is January 12 and all day I have been wanting to blog about Haiti. But the recent situation in Arizona weighs heavy on my heart as well.

I am not going to pontificate on why God allowed these tragedies to happen. (I was not too happy at this time last year.) But what I have learned in the past year since the Haiti earthquake and continue to keep in mind in light of the Arizona shooting is that God is sovereign—He is in control of all of these situations.

I don’t understand God’s mind, and I can’t explain why He didn’t prevent any of these things when, on many levels, it seems as if He could have kept them from happening. But as a believer in His son Jesus Christ, I will attempt to rest in the knowledge that the finite cannot ever fully understand the mind of the infinite and His ways are much greater than mine. A recurring theme in enjoying God right now is trust, and in all of these things, God is constantly asking me: Will you trust me? Will you trust that my judgment is in everyone’s best interest?

God challenges me and tells me in Jeremiah that He knows the plans He has for us, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope. And then I wonder about the kind of future a dead 9-year-old has and the hope her parents have. Trust is not always easy.

It is during these times that I find myself a bit somber but also a bit more willing to give up control because I have no control over these situations. I have to rely on the fact that an omniscient, omnipotent God does. Otherwise the world goes to”hell in a hand basket” (as they say) and thinking that way gives me no comfort or peace at all.

Day 18 of Enjoying God: Patience

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Impatience. I haz it.

I have always been an impatient person. But namely when it comes to driving, I have ZERO patience. If you are a driver who stops or slows down at a (fully) green light, I will honk you. If you slow down to merge when there is no need to, I will honk you. If you take more than three seconds to move after a light turns green, I will honk you. And if you are CLEARLY driving under the posted speed limit, I will lay on the horn.

I also have no tolerance for customers who lie to me. (Something I’m pretty beefed about this week from work.) But I also recognize when customers are getting (legitimately) impatient at work, and I try to have their needs tended to quickly. No one likes to wait.

Americans tend to be impatient. We want what we want and we want it now. Then if we’re not enjoying it, we want to be done with it as soon as possible. We don’t really understand how to truly and savor and enjoy everything in life.  Perhaps this is a result of our ever-changing technology. Or maybe it’s our culture. Or maybe it’s a combination of both.

God, however, has constant source of patience. The Bible says He is slow to anger and one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience. (But I really wish the Bible had an anecdote of Jesus in line at the Department of Moving Camels to help me out. I’m just sayin’.)

I wonder how much I’d be better able to enjoy God and life if I just slowed down a bit (not so much that I’m under the speed limit) and tried to appreciate the seconds and minutes of my life ticking away. Any suggestions on how to enjoy God and life during a period of waiting?

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

~ K ~ 1 Comment
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 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

~ K ~ 1 Comment

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 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 2 of Enjoying God: Jealous God

~ K ~ 1 Comment

jeal·ous [jel-uhs]
–adjective

  1. feeling resentment against someone because of that person’s rivalry, success, or advantages (often fol. by of ): He was jealous of his rich brother.
  2. feeling resentment because of another’s success, advantage, etc. (often fol. by of ): He was jealous of his brother’s wealth.
  3. characterized by or proceeding from suspicious fears or envious resentment: a jealous rage; jealous intrigues.
  4. inclined to or troubled by suspicions or fears of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., as in love or aims: a jealous husband.
  5. solicitous or vigilant in maintaining or guarding something: The American people are jealous of their freedom.
  6. Bible. intolerant of unfaithfulness or rivalry: The Lord is a jealous god.

Lately as I’ve been convicted by my burgeoning jealousy on a number of things, I am reminded of my jealous God—not in the sinful, human sense but in the Biblical sense as in definition number six above. But I think His jealousy also ties into definition number five: the Lord is vigilant in guarding the hearts of his people.

How in the world is this part of enjoying God? Well, the things I’ve been desiring haven’t been bad or sinful things, but my attitude toward not obtaining them has been wrong.  Then I think of how God is jealous for me—in the pure and righteous sense—vigilant in guarding the affections of my heart and intolerant of anything that leads my heart away from Him. Recognizing this forces me to repent of the temporal things I have been jealous of and turn myself toward the eternal God.

A wife who is jealous of her husband (or vice versa) isn’t a bad thing. It’s right for spouses to be intolerant of unfaithfulness. And likewise, so it is right for the God of the universe to demand (actually, He commands) all of my affection and competing with nothing else.

In my opinion, it’s nice to be loved and wanted that much.

365+ Days of Enjoying God

~ K ~ 2 Comments


Since joining the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) in 2007, I have been meditating on the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

Q: What is the chief end of man?

A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

There are two parts to this answer: (1) glorify God, (2) enjoy Him forever. I’ve never been baffled much by the first part but the second part has always left me stymied. From my February 2010 entry:

I know how to enjoy His creation but enjoying Him is an entirely different matter.

Recently, it dawned on me: the way to enjoy God is by knowing Him and having an active, personal relationship with Him.

How do I enjoy the people I care about? I enjoy them through their qualities or attributes and not necessarily the things that they do for me (contrary to how I often approach God). For example, I enjoy being around my husband and spending time with him because he’s funny, smart, and kind; not necessarily because he brings me a latte when I want him to (although that IS a bonus).

As a result, I realized the way for me to enjoy God (and fully understand the second part to the first answer of the catechism) is to know, see, and experience God’s attributes and who He is in relationship to me. Here is a Biblical list of some of God’s attributes (with the help of The Navigators website): Continue reading “365+ Days of Enjoying God” →

Lord or Savior?

~ K ~ 2 Comments

Thinking of a tweet a friend sent me a couple of days ago when I asked what was the difference between Jesus being Lord and Savior:

Savior & Lord have 2 diff meanings. I think the argument is that if you only want Jesus as Savior, but not Lord, then is he really your Savior? Is Jesus your fire insurance or is he really the Lord over your life BECAUSE he saved you from the pit?

If I’m really honest, Jesus is fire insurance. When someone is Lord over one’s life, they can also lord over it. I don’t believe Jesus is intrusive like that but somehow I need to be able to let Jesus rule over ever centimeter of my life if he wanted to. Every dark corner that hides, every bright light that shines: finances, relationships, career… give everything over to him.

Having only fire insurance sounds much better.