Day 8/February 25 Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
“God is good for you, but not so much for me.” If you haven’t said this, perhaps you’ve heard it from someone else.
This is a ‘grass is greener’ mentality, yes, but some of us do seem to live such blessed lives. Health. Wealth. Family. Friends. Others of us experience crippling problem upon problem. If we can get to an honest place, we realize we have brought on some of these problems through poor choices (which is the secular way of saying what we did this a sin). Whether it is our sin or the sin of someone else here in this fallen world, tragedies happen. Hardships appear. Hurts happen. Sometimes these life zingers have nothing to do with our relationship with God. Or do they?
I am not saying God creates pitfalls to punish us. What I am saying is that God will use our road detours or full-on road construction stops to get what He wants. What God wants is for us to love Him for who He is. Equally, He wants us to depend on Him. Through our triumphs and our tragedies, God wants us to turn to Him with complete submission. There’s more. He wants us to put our hope in Him.
First, though, here's another thing you’ve said or likely heard. “If God really loves us, He’d sure make life easier!”
Not necessarily. Here’s an example. Cyber or virtual schooling my kiddos through this pandemic is sometimes hell. Unquestionable hell. On them. On me. For instance, the things I am making my 8-year-old complete in the name of education are criminal, at least in his mind (and sometimes mine). I don’t have the time or energy to make learning fun. Easy. Natural. It’s more like, “And do this again. And again.”
Am I doing this to torture him? You may think otherwise, but I say no. He is going through a tough experience so that he’ll gain.
TRY IT: Let God use whatever tough experience you’re going through to shape you not for the worst, but the best. How? Seek Him. He will show up.
PRAYER: God, as our teacher, You may say, “And do this again, and again.” Help us be as present to You in hope as You are present to us in help. Amen.
Day 9/ February 26 Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Fourteen words are used in this verse. I counted. The four-word phrase “wait for the Lord” is used twice. Do the simple math. This notion, request, command, suggestion, or mandate is more than 50% of the whole verse. So I’ll spell out the obvious. Waiting for the Lord is obviously important.
Today, I’m blessed to preside at a memorial service for a wonderful Christian woman. I use the adjective wonderful because this soul knew Jesus. Her son said clearly, “Mom’s in heaven. We know this.”
What this woman’s son also said was that Mom was impatient. “Waiting,” he implied, “was not her thing.”
Waiting is a struggle for us all, if we are honest. Being strong may be something we do, or something we aspire to doing, but there are times, we admit, when all we really can do is hide our heads under a pillow. Sure, we can put on a front, a face, but deep down, strength is not our thing.
But taking heart is. Sure, we have rocky moments, seasons, or even years. Those who wait on the Lord, however, discover an indelible, inner quality that can be obvious or subtle. It may come slowly or hit us fast. It’s this. We are a hopeful people. We don’t wait without expectation. We wait expecting something—that something being Jesus. Good Jesus. Assuring Jesus. Healing Jesus. Comforting Jesus. Loving Jesus.
TRY IT: It is a challenge to wait on the Lord sometimes. Do so anyway. As you wait, take a check on the pulse of your heart. You may find what you don’t realize. You are waiting with hope.
PRAYER: Good, assuring, healing, comforting and loving Jesus, remind us when we wait that we really aren’t doing this waiting alone. You, who came to earth, are waiting with us. And that? That gives us hope. Amen.
Day 10/February 27 Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
“Daddy,” they say with glee.
I turn. I do smile. For a moment. Then the financially fidgety father who doesn’t want to buy yet ANOTHER set of eyeglasses says, “Cute. Very cute.” Then, I add a layer to my lighthearted tone. “Now take them off.”
Here’s the backstory. Two of my five little kiddos wear eye glasses. The other three have tried on those glasses. Now they are little and they are super cute. The three who don’t wear glasses think it is the most adorable thing to show me how they would look with what grade schoolers today might still call “four eyes.”
This makes me wonder how we who are no longer grade schoolers see the world. And this brings a question. Changing this from glasses to glass, is your glass half full? Half empty?
What Paul shares here in Colossians is crucial. The most prolific author of the New Testament is sharing not just theology but a life philosophy about how to view the world. With the quagmires and pitfalls that invariably lower how we see what is around us, Paul encourages us to seek higher ground, a far better (wider) vantage point.
TRY IT: Be more conscious of when your thoughts dip. We all fall into negativity. Redirecting your mind is clear and easy to do. The key, however, is to catch the downturn as it happens, not after.
PRAYER: Lord, no one chooses to have negative thoughts, right? Nevertheless, they do happen. Help us commit to and practice this verse. Amen.