Beneath the Surface

Thought of the Day #3!

'And his armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul."' 1 Sam. 14:7

This is the account of Jonathan and his armor bearer. Jonathan had just given his armor bearer their game plan to ambush the Philistines, and here was hs response. His armor bearer was ready to give everything to support the vision of his leader. It was his heart that got me thinking...

So often, I pray and ask God to use me. But then I realized, God is already using me.

Sometimes being used by God means that God is using someone else. I always thought that being used my God meant being top-dog, but that's not it at all. God uses other people to see if we'll serve under them. Sometimes using me means God is teaching and using me to serve someone else. Sometimes we must support another person's vision and calling before we are allowed one of our own. God used Jonathan's armor bearer. He was with him heart and soul, and together, they made history. God doesnt just want to use me someday, He is already using me today - but am I doing it right? Am I missing my role as an armor bearer because I am too busy trying to be a Jonathan?

I do believe that God has individual plans and purposes for each person. However, I dont want to miss what God is doing in and through me right now because I am too busy looking to push myself to the top. God is ready to use us, will we let Him do it how He pleases?

Thought of the Day #2... Here we go!

"Not with the blood of calves and goats, but with His own blood He entered to Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." Hebrews 9:12

This verse from my Bible reading today got me really thinking about the blood of Christ...

The same blood that was spilled in Jesus' death is the same blood that gives us life.
The same blood that binds the enemy, sets the captives free.
The same blood that heals the sick, heals wounds of the heart.
The same blood that gives us authority, teaches us humility.
The same blood that paid the price, beckons us to pick up our cross.
The same blood that urges us towards righteousness is the same blood that brings clarity.
The same blood that compels us to win the lost, teaches us to love our neighbor.
The same blood that He gave, has the power to save.

Its the same blood. But we are never the same once we encounter it.

Hey so guess what? I have come to the decision that I am going to do something special for my blog this week. What is it you may ask? Well allow me to tell you...
This week, I plan on doing a "Thought of the Day" concept for each day for the next 7 days. It may seem a little pointless, but I thought, "What the heck, might as well!" So here I am, about to write my thought for day...

Which brings me to my title, "A Child's Eyes"

This morning in my prayer time, the song "Healer" by Kari Jobe came across my worship playlist. As I listened, I felt drawn to a certain part of the song. It goes,

"Nothing is impossible for you, you hold my world in your hands...More than enough for me, Jesus you are all I need."

As I pondered this phrase, the first thing that came to mind was the child's Sunday school song, "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" I began to think what this song meant as a child. When I would sing it as a little tike, I believed it through and through. I knew that my God was bigger than any circumstance and He was everything I would ever need. Its funny the faith of children...yet it is also so very challenging. How simple, how thoughtless it was to believe that God held my whole world. Yet today, there are days that, though in theory I believe it, I don't deep within my heart. Is that what happens when we grow up? Why do we lose that child's faith?


Here's what I think. Just because we grow older, just because we have more responsibilities, doesnt mean God let's our world slip from His grasp. Just because now our world holds a whole lot more, does not mean He let's it go. A child's eye somehow just doesnt see reason to worry very often. Though I do not encourage us to act as children in respect to being completely carefree and reckless, I do believe we need to begin to see though our child's eyes once again. We must come to realize that God is everything we need and every little detail He hold's so very carefully. The weight of our world is never overwhelming to Him, even as tiring as it may seen to us. We must not try to take it from His hands either. Let God hold your world and trust that He will never let it fall. Don't be afraid to be a child once again.

Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking. I am the kind of person who is constantly trying to find areas of my life to work on, character traits that could use some adjusting. One particular thing that I have been working on is taming my tongue. Let me tell you, I am a sharp speaker. I know that speaking is part of God's call on my life, and it is definitely something that could use help. I will say, I work on being encouraging and uplifting with my words, and I'm getting pretty good at it. However, I am also very quick to criticize, defend and offer clever snapping remarks. Don't let the sweet face fool you, behind these freckled lips is a little pink monster. It's a battle each day to restrain that little fellow, but he puts up a pretty good fight and sometimes (alright most times!) I tend to agree with what he has to say. However, how he says it is not always...how should I put this...kind.

Lately I have also been reading a lot of books. One in particular is a collection of Amy Carmichael's writings. It's called You are My Hiding Place, and let me say, I highly recommend it. Amy offers such remarkable little insights on day to day living that are so uplifting and challenging. I read one about a month ago and I thought I might share it with the few of you hear to read it today. She was talking about those little moments we encounter each every day that she calls, a chance to die.

Today, someone was irritating me so badly. This person was criticizing me because they themselves lacked a discipline that I have worked very hard to achieve. At first, I started to fight back. My words were sharp, blunt and to the point. They of course, came back with a irrelevant remark that bothered me...then that's when Amy's words flashed through my memory. "See in this...a chance to die."

Amy writes, "See in this, this provoking, this rebuke that should not have been, a chance to die. To self, to pride that comes from defending self. Welcome anything that calls you to your only true position, "I have been crucified with Christ..." (Gal. 2:20).

I was right in this matter. Though I often believe I am right when I am not (and that's a whole different story...) this time, I know I legitimately was correct. Yet I realized, it was time to die. I would not give them what they wanted. I would not make a witty rebuttal. I would let them have their say and let that be the end of it.

I love what Amy writes next: "The crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, no matter how sharply it is knocked."

Yes, this was a small battle. Yet it is victories in the small battles that lead to victory in the larger ones. When we as believers recognize our place is on the cross, that is when we get to truly live. Let God be your defense. Let God do the talking.

How many of our problems in our lives could be eliminated if only we would see each day, every conflict, every opportunity, every prideful thought, every situation as a chance to die? When we are people who are willing to die, God can give us life that we desire. If we spend less time trying to be right and more time at the cross, words can no longer touch us. Pride fades away. Selfishness ceases. Gratitude grows great. Favor is found.

So when the "sharp knockings" of life come, will we let bitterness spill out, or will sweetness of a crucified life shine forth?
Lord, I pray that you help me recognize my chances to die. I give you the reigns. Be my defense, I'm done. My life is hidden with you. Take it and let your will be done in me.

When I was a small child, my mom put me in swimming lessons. From a very young age, I remember kicking and paddling along in pools. I remember diving for rubber sticks and learning to hold my breath. I loved being in the water. But there was one thing I greatly feared.

BACKFLOATING.

It was simply terrifying. I could swim like crazy and dive, holding my breath for long periods of time, but just sitting still, unsupported in water made my mind go insane. I remember my parents or instructors holding my back up, and then they would do it. They would let go. I kidd you not, every time I immediately paniced and sunk. I was crippled by fear at the very thought of backfloating.

So why did I tell this ridiculous little story from my past? Well you see, God has been using it to reveal something to me lately. I am the type of person who likes to know 'the plan' at all times. I like to know exactly what is going on, who is doing it, where and when, etc. Now I know that God has big plans and purposes for my life as well. So, naturally, I want to make sure I know what is going on.

That being said, I should also inform you that I like back-up plans. Plan B is what I do best. I like having somewhere to go when it seems like I have no where else to turn. Yet God is kinda different. God has been telling me that I don't need a Plan B. He's been saying that Plan A is much too big, and therefore there is no room left for my own agendas.

Just like I felt confident with my swimming, so I also feel confident in the gifts and abilities God has given to me. Yet at times it seems easy to fall back on those abilities so that I no longer have to trust God. But that's the point that I have to learn to backfloat. I have to learn to sit still, let God do His work in me and not struggle, trusting that He will be my support system.

I was really pondering this the other day as I read in Isaiah. I read about God telling the people not to follow their own agendas, going on without His help or direction and I immediately related. Just a few chapters later, in Isaiah 33:6 it reads, "and He (God) will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, knowledge and wisdom..." and in verse 16 speaking of the righteous man, "his bread will be given to him, his water will be sure." God began to show me that He is my stability and that I have no need to fear the future. I dont need to make backup plans because His original plan is not only far better, but is going to work out according to His will. God's plans are so unbelievably fantastic that our wildested plan B's could never hope to replace them.

Finally, as I am meditating on these things, God tells me to turn to Matthew 14. There to my amazement, I find the story of Peter being called out of the boat to walk on water with Christ. Peter, when full of faith, could walk perfectly upon the waves. Yet, when He tried to rely on his own strength and compared that with the wild wind and churning sea, he fell short. When we put our focus on Christ, all of life's most brutal storms will not be able to knock us off course.

God is so good. Sometimes its so easy to, in our pursuit of our destiny, to try to fulfill our destiny alone. Yet that is what is so tricky about the formation process. God wants us to learn to rely on Him. I once heard it said, "If the dreams of your heart can be accomplished on your own, apart from God, then they arent of God." God's dreams for us will always surpass our own imaginations. Yet when we learn to just let God take the reigns, when we learn to backfloat, life's troubling waters become gentle. In God's hands, that's where our heart, our minds, worries, cares and fears must lay still.

Not too long ago, my family and I, found the house that was the answer to our prayers. Today, we were moving a bunch of our 'stuff' over to the new house. For about the last few weeks, as I did today, I have been sorting through all the things I have accumulated over the years and throwing a great deal of it away. Old cards, old clothes, old papers and old junk. However, along with all these things, I have found myself throwing away old memories. Some bad, some good, I have gotten rid of so much. I have sorted through shelves and drawers pulling out my forgotten treasures and much missed possessions. Today, as my friend Taylor helped me out, she was saying how much my old things, each with its story, remind her of all those little odds and ends she too has kept through the years. I thought of how everyone has these little items with sentimental value that to anyone else would have thrown into the garbage at the street curb. Each of these are different for each person. There are stories, attachments and memories that tie people to certain objects. As I sorted my belongings, I had a hard time throwing certain items away because they were my only remaining connection to past relationships and past times. Basically, they were my ties to my past self. I began to think of how we tie ourselves to our old, unsaved selves. Just as each person has their own prized possessions, each also has their own special draws and temptations. Sometimes it is so hard to let go of old sins because they mean letting go of old friends and supposedly good memories. Honestly, their were some things I just did not want to get rid of. Yet all the same, I had to ask myself, will this honestly benefit me anymore. No old sin will ever benefit us. The mere thought of it may bring pleasure, but it is only destruction putting up a fancy facade. We must just kick all sources of potential sin, even if only something that will tempt the mind, straight to the curb.



Also, as I was sorting all these things, I found many old and very useful things I forgot I had. Some of them I have never even used. I also think of how often we take the gifts God has given us and the promises that are easily within our reach and burry them deep beneath the 'things' we have to do. Perfectly perfect, they sit unused, as we carry out our duties in our oh-so-busy lives.

So often, we sit, never really examining our hearts on a regular basis. We need to be constantly "moving" forward. Everyday we much sort through our hearts riding of wrong motives and reaching for the things of God. Pull the temptations off the shelf and dust off the destiney God has for our lives. Moving day is everyday. Forward is the direction, God is the destination.