relationallychallenged

Saturday, April 16, 2011

It has been very interesting to think of the ways in which the Lord gained victory for the nation of Israel. In Egypt, He created the frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death of firstborn, to free the nation of Israel from Egypt. Soon after they left, He caused the Red Sea to split so the nation of Israel could walk through on dry ground and then covered the Egyptian army at the bottom of the sea with the wall of water. He had Israel march around Jericho 7 times in one day and the walls of Jericho fell in. Jonathan, king Saul’s son, had a great victory with only one sword.

Well, in my reading this morning I found another interesting way the Lord gave victory to the nation of Israel.  Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah and three different tribes (Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir) were coming up against Judah to attack it.  Jehoshaphat turned to the Lord and prayed for deliverance.  God’s response came through a prophet named Jahaziel, son of Zechariah.  As you read his response to Jehoshaphat’s prayer there are some interesting verses of note.  He said, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.  For the battle is not yours but God’s. . . You will not have to fight this battle.  Take up your positions, stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem.” (II Chron. 20:15-17)

What followed is most interesting.  Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army. . . And as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men. . .and they were defeated.” (II Chron 20:21-22)  I have heard of women’s voices breaking crystal, but I had never heard of men’s voices being able to trigger the death and defeat of an entire army.  Just a side note. My daughter Victoria has long been embarrassed for how loud I sing in church. I have to admit I wouldn’t be asked to sing in a choir but I do love to sing. Here is my justification for my loud singing and hope she reads this. Back to the story. It wasn’t the voices, but the God who has power to be victorious in any situation we encounter.  The key is turning to him to seek His help, His guidance, and His direction for whatever we face.

On this journey, God is able to use our inadequate resources (even our singing voices) for His purposes in defeating the enemy and giving victory to every step we take.

Wednesday April 11, 2011

It’s an interesting concept that hits me this morning. More of a question I guess. Is it possible to seek the Lord as I jloged about yesterday and at the same time be involved in wicked things. I think about the process of growing in my Christian life and seeing positive and negative things happen almost simultaneous. God speaks to this issue in II Chronicles 7:14 and says, “If my people, who are will called by my name . . . will seek my face AND turn from their wicked ways. . .”. He seems to be saying that it is impossible to be seeking (truly, diligently, all in seeking) the face of God and being actively involved in wickedness and not turning away from it.

It’s interesting to note that the prerequisite for the healing process we so desperately want is not having a life that is free from wickedness. If that were the case, count me out (and might I add you). No, it says that we need to make a conscious choice to turn away from wickedness. How do we turn away from wickedness?

I believe the first step is to recognize what that wickedness is. There are some things that God clearly spells out for us that are wicked and wrong. This is the easy ones. The more difficult ones are those that are not spelled out in the bible, but definitely holds us back from seeking the Lord. How do we find those?

I believe that asking God to convict us of those things will start the cleansing/healing process. I had a cowboy friend who was a tobacco chewer accept Christ in Colorado when I was working on the college campus. He came in one day and wasn’t chewing. When asked why, he said that he didn’t think that Christians should be doing that. I said that until the Lord convicted him about it, he should continue to chew at which time he expressed his delight. A couple of months later, we met and he wasn’t chewing. When asked why, he said that the Lord had convicted him about his chewing and decided to stop.

God wants to speak to us in personal ways and will tell us what He wants us to change. We need to come with an open and willing heart and mind to listen to Him and allow Him to convict us of areas of wickedness that He wants us to turn from.

Once He brings conviction, it is our responsibility if we truly want His healing process to turn from those things that we have been convicted of. This journey sometimes means admitting that we have gone down a dead-end road and need to turn back.

Tuesday April 11, 2011

The other day I lost my sun glasses. In times past, I would seek out Cynthia or one of the kids to see where they had put my sunglasses. But on this day I could blame no one but myself for putting down my glasses somewhere and not being able to find them. I first looked in the obvious places where I had been, the car, bedroom, kitchen, truck, bathroom and living room (in that order). No sun glasses. So I looked in those places again with a finer tooth comb. No sun glasses. I was at this time getting a little irritated at myself for not being more responsible for putting them in a place where I could easily find them. You see I was diligently trying to find my favorite sun glasses that have no particular value to anyone but to me. I sat down and prayed (should have done this at the start) and God put the computer desk in my mind. Sure enough there they were. I sought out those glasses for about 30 minutes, taking away the 1 minute of prayer time.

God says that for the healing process to be actualized, we need to seek His face. “If my people will . . . seek my face”(II Chronicles 7:14). God spoke through Jeremiah, an old testament prophet when He said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”(Jeremiah 29:13). This seeking the Lord is an “all in” concept. It means that no matter what you are dealing with that you seek the Lord first and always. Jesus recognized that there will be times of worry and concern in our relationships with Him, with one another, and with ourselves. He tells us not to worry about our lives as to what you shall eat or drink or put on and then He finishes the teaching by saying, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. . .”(Matthew 6:19-34).

We all know how to seek for something that has been lost that is important to us. We will turn over the house and clean out the car to find what we are looking for. In order for the healing process to happen in our lives we need that same fervor in seeking His face if we truly want to be healed.

This journey involves stopping our steps and seeking with gusto the our Lord and Master who has the power to bring healing to whatever we are experiencing.

Monday April 10, 2011

Once we have humbled ourselves and admit that we can’t do it on our own, we are in the best place to pray. The question is “To whom do we pray to?” There are many gods that we can worship and turn to in times of being humbled. We could look to others who have the resources we don’t and try to depend upon them to get us out of our dilemma. In II Chronicles 16 there was a man by the name of Asa who was a good king and he sought the Lord most of his life. But in the later years of his life rather than turning to God when he was in a pickle, he turned to his neighbor for help. His prayers were directed at others.

Sometimes when we are in depression and are feeling inadequate, we can pray to the material gods to seek relief. I know of one such person who would buy jewelry ($10,000+ per shopping spree) to take the edge off, but never wore the jewelry because the good feeling she had when she bought it wore off when the jewelry was put in the jewelry case. It could be a shoe fetish as was the case for Imelda Marcos who had 6000+ shoes in her closet. Do you know how many years it would take to wear one pair of shoes a day (you guessed it 16+years). Husbands be thankful.

What is the god or gods to whom you seek to get comfort when you are feeling inadequate? It could be recreation equipment that we take out in the desert on the weekends. It could be a love for money that you depend upon when times get tough. Sometimes when we think of other gods, we think of the golden calf that Aaron made and caused the people to bow down. But a god is really anything that we give attention to and alligence to and turn to when we are in crisis or when times are good. God was aware of this and made the first commandment of the ten that we were to have no other God’s before Him. Why did He put that in? Because He knew that when we were having difficulty our natural tendency would be to turn to others or other things to seek to satisfy our feelings of inadequacy.

The healing process works when the creator of the universe is at the center of our prayers. On this healing journey take time to pray to the One who not only hears our prayers but has the power to answer them.

Saturday April 9, 2011

In my reading this morning, I came across a profound passage and think I am going to break it down into four parts. God was speaking to the nation of Israel and wanted to bring forgiveness and healing to their land. But He was asking them(us) to do four specific things before the forgiveness was actualized and the healing of the land was accomplished. God was speaking to Solomon after he had built the temple and was in the process of dedicating it. God said to Solomon, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”(II Chronicles 7:14)

God said that the first step in the healing process involved humbling ourselves. This is not a natural thing to do, especially in our culture. There is little being taught on how to take responsibility for our actions. In fact, from the beginning of creation God asked Adam and Eve what they had done after they ate the fruit that God had told them not to eat. He was asking them to admit their wrong. Take responsibility. Own their wrong choice. But Adam blamed Eve when God asked him, and Eve blamed the serpent when God asked her. Neither of them humbled themselves by taking responsibility for their actions. To humble ourselves means that we need to take our focus off what other people are doing and focus our attention on what we have done in actions, attitudes or destructive ways. It means that we need to stop exhalting ourselves and begin admitting our faults and wrong choices first to ourselves and then to God.

Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”(Matt. 23:12). The art of humbling ourselves is a lost art but an action we need to take if we are going to see God forgive us and bring healing to the situations and circumstances around us. This humbling is a painful process because we have to admit thar we are inadequate and/or our plans have been wrong. It is saying that I blew it and need HELP.

On this journey if you at a juncture on your journey and need forgiveness and healing, humbleness is the first step in experiencing freedom that the Lord has to offer as we journey with Him.