a lily among thorns: children

Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Waiting. Delighting.

Earlier this week I was chatting with a friend. She asked me about my upcoming trip to Haiti. As I shared with her the minor and major details, I found myself saying, “This is different. It’s not something I was anxious about, or waited for. I truly believe that the Lord has seen my delight in Him and is now granting me my heart’s desire.”

Two years ago the desire to go to Haiti was planted in my heart. And though I prayed, I was not consumed by it. In my years of waiting, I could have hustled God, nagged Him, thrown fits, and questioned His purposes, or made attempts to make it happen. But for whatever reason, beyond myself, I did not. Looking back, I delighted in the Lord and now, well now I am about to experience God granting me the desire of my heart.

It seems that we are always waiting for something: a job, a raise, a deal to go through, a spouse, a child, deliverance, a response from Heaven, or, you fill in the blank according to your situation. Basically, we are waiting for life to get better. I do believe that most of the things we are waiting for are not selfish, but God planted desires that will satisfy the “abundant life” that is promised to us in John 10:10. I ask for us to stop and consider this question: How are you waiting?

In considering my waiting for Haiti and my waiting for other desires, I see a difference. I normally wait and wait and wait and continue waiting. Somewhere in between waiting and waiting, a series of happenings begin to unfold:

I over think

I doubt and nagg God

I become anxious

I am led by emotions

I contemplate methods of manipulation

I try to help God and accelerate His purpose

I grow weary, burdened and discouraged

Bitterness kicks in

Hold up! You too?! When we wait and our expectations aren't met within our time frame or in a less favorable manner we can spiral into a series of ugly and rebellious attitudes. Therefore, learning what delighting in the Lord is and it's benefits is instrumental for our waiting season. Delighting cannot happen if we are not in God's word, committed to prayer and active in His service. Delighting removes our constant fixation on the desire and causes us to focus on the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Delighting on the Giver will enable us to wait joyfully and patiently. Delighting through the waiting process will also guard our hearts from losing hope or lacking faith. Lastly, Delighting will change us, for it may be that the very outcome we are waiting for could differ from the outcome God has already chosen for us (which is always the better of the two).

Whether you have begun to wait or have been waiting for x amount of time, know that God is fully aware of your desires. He has not forgotten you. He loves you and is working all things out for your good, and ultimately for His glory. My encouragement to you as you wait for ____________, is to not delight nor glorify a desire or its outcome, but delight fully and wholly in the Lord (not for what He can do or give, but for who He is). In His perfect timing He will grant you your heart’s desire and give you the abundant life He intended for you to live.

May we be delightful people with delighting hearts.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:3-5

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! Psalm 37:13-14

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Birthday Surprise. It's Nicole! part 1

Hey Friends. I am so excited for you. Fun, enthusiastic, and sweet are just a few words to describe my friend Nicki. However, it's her contagious love for Jesus that draws others to her. I pray you may be blessed by today's post. Here is part one of a two part series Nicki has titled: Hope Story.

[photo credit]

A Hope Story

Despite the fact that so much appears to be so very wrong with this world, all is very right with God's plan for it. Where I see a world full of hatred, selfishness and tragedy, He sees people in desperate need of His love. Where I see families that have been torn apart by wrong decisions, He sees His sons and daughters in desperate need of His grace. Where I see a needy village in the eastern side of Uganda helpless, desperate and both physically and spiritually hungry, He sees a people that are in need of the hope that can only be found in Him.

I'll be completely transparent with you. Sometimes it’s quite difficult for me to grasp the concept of people not eating a single meal for the day before they lay their head down at night. (I'm grumpy if I even miss having my lunch.) Or, how some kids go to sleep next to goats and chickens because they've been ostracized by their own families due to some treatable illness they may have. The fact of the matter is, this is real and everyday life for so many around the world. These lives that precious in God's eyes, just as much as you are to Him.

One evening in a time of prayer, I was really struggling with God. As always, He wins, but I love that He even allows me to talk to Him the way that I do sometimes. This evening in particular, I was having the classic case of the "but whys". But why this God and but why that was all that was spewing from my mouth and draining from my heart that night. It wasn't until I finally shut my mouth and left Him room to speak to me that He gracefully just answered me, and with a still quiet voice in my head, I heard, "You tell me why, Nicki. I'm asking you the same questions."

I literally sat for a couple moments as I so graciously had just received a spiritual slap in the face. You see, just the week before I had returned from a missions trip to eastern Uganda where I witnessed so many of the real and everyday life stories of tragedy, abandonment, hunger... and the list goes on and on. I was battling so much with why these things are going on and how so many were just in desperate need of HOPE. They need a hope in knowing that God has not left them orphaned and widowed, but that they can trust in Him, who will protect them. The same hope in knowing that the God who created the universe, who flung the stars into the night and who knows them each by name, has a purpose and plan for their lives and will provide for their every need as they put their faith and trust in Him.

So the question begged to be answered, "Why Nicki?" With so many problems in this world and the amount of solutions there are, why are these things still going on and what am I doing about it?

I was reminded of the passage where God set a beautiful example of not blaming the victim or even the circumstance, but instead He shows that we are called to take action to help those in need of His hope, love, and healing, ultimately for His name to be glorified.

John 9:1-3 "As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him."

click here for part 2. I promise you, this story of hope will get a whole lot better!!!