I will NOT bow....

Recently I've been struck profoundly by the story of Shadrach Meshach and AbedNego found in Daniel chapter 3. This is a famous Sunday School story I have heard my whole life.
Let me RECAP:
Three young Hebrew men were serving in King Nebuchadnezzars kingdom as high ranking officials. King Neb (for short) created a HUGE statue that he wanted everyone to bow down to whenever they heard the special music playing. If the people did NOT bow, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Scary stuff.
As we know the 3 Hebrews worshiped God and refused to bow to the golden statue. When King Neb heard this he was furious and told the guards to make the furnace 3x's hotter! Really scary stuff.
Here's the part that has gripped my heart... Shadrach Meshach and AbedNego responded saying:
"O Neb, we have no reason to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us from your hand O King." (that's the part we all shout "YEAH, GREAT faith!")


but wait ... they continue...
"BUT IF NOT, let it be known to you O King, that we do not serve your gods...."
There it is.
This is what a true heart of submission and trust looks like.


I love their ENORMOUS faith. However, it's really easy to skip over this crucial part of their faith. They KNEW God was able. They were also not shaken by what God's decision would be.


This is not about giving up on our dreams. No, it's about a heart that is submitted to His timing and His way. I KNOW God is able to create life in me. But, WHEN He does it is up to HIM. When we get a promise from God, we hold on to it. Sometimes it doesn't come in the time frame we are expecting it to come in. Sometimes it doesn't even look like what we thought it would look like. What is important however, is that we do not BOW.


Every month that I get a negative pregnancy test, I have a   "But If NOT" moment. What is my response to a situation that seems like God did not come through again? I want to bow... to the gods of  despair, depression, fear etc.
After seeing this so clearly and recognizing what I was doing- it had to STOP!   I WILL NOT BOW any longer. God will come through and He will do ALL that He has promised.


Whatever it may be in your life, choose today not to bow to what you see; circumstances that would cause you to doubt the hand of God in your life. Choose to believe that He is working even when we don't see Him. Choose to believe, like Shadrach, Meshack and AbedNego, with hearts submitted to HIS plan, God will deliver us from the fiery furnace. God did deliver them AND He will deliver you too!


Luke 1:45
"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord! "

Faith like... a Roller Coaster??

There are many examples in the Bible of men and women who have believed God for -and received seemingly impossible things. When I want to read about someone with extraordinary faith, I of course think of Abraham first.


Romans 4:18-22
 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken...yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

In the process of faith, believing God for various things He has promised, I sometimes get on what I call the "Roller Coaster Of Faith". It goes something like this:


I start out strong in what the Lord has said, having all my scriptures to stand on. I am confident and sure! Then the waiting gets long...still standing.... and the waiting gets longER . At this point there is still no evidence of a promise fulfilled... My faith is now wavering and I am wandering in the wilderness of UN-belief.
                                                       WHERE is the evidence of MY faith ?


Wanting desperately to take control and figure out a way I can make it happen on my own, I am exhausted in my own fruitless efforts, and I am reminded again that I am NOT in control. So, I swing myself back to the place where my hope and faith are on the Lord and His promises - reminding myself of His faithfulness.  

Have you ever experienced this type of roller coaster? Well, you are not alone... so did ABRAHAM! 

Yes, it says he did not waver in unbelief, but it also says he grew in faith. He had to start somewhere. Let's recall Genesis 16, where Abraham grew tired of waiting on God to bring his heir. He took Sarah's maid Hagar and created his first born son Ishmael. He actually made quite a mess of things and could have been lost in despair. Instead he GREW in faith, being able to see God's promise come to pass in his life!

I just love that it was not his mess that was recorded in the New Testament. It was his faith. I believe God sees beyond our weakness and celebrates our strengths turning them to victories.

The point is, if you've gone through the ups and downs of faith like me, DON'T despair. GROW in faith. We have the potential to believe God as Abraham did and experience God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises. 

Be determined to head back up the hill to the mountain top and ask God to give you vision, to see things like HE does! 

I love this song from Jesus Culture that prays this very prayer - "God I look to You, You're where my help comes from. Give me vision, to see things like you do... "


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4iU4Uw5azY
  

His Love Endures ~

For the past couple of weeks, this song of God's love for me has been playing over and over in my heart and has given me great comfort. 
{"His love endures... FOREVER His love endures,... forever His love endures,... forever and ever!"}

So many sad things have happened this week to friends of mine or friends of friends. My heart has been so heavy, and broken for so many; praying for God's comfort, His mercy, His power in miracles and His love to surround. I don't understand His ways, but I know even in the darkest night - His love endures forever.
When I've gotten frustrated at His way, when I've questioned Him and His decisions, even in the midst of my pain .... He still loves me. Forever.

{"We have found our hope, we have found our peace, we have found our rest, in the One who loves"}

We have learned this fundamental truth in Sunday School- Jesus Loves Us. Why then, are we at times in such deficit?  Why do we question His love when life hurts and does not make sense?
"Don't be afraid. Dear Zion, don't despair. Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you... He'll calm you with His love and delight you with His songs." Zephaniah 3:16

Let's remind ourselves today to live in that pure child-like faith.
I pray this often over myself, and today I pray this for you as well.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  Ephesians 3:17-20

Building My Altar

Every step along this journey of hope, every lesson I've learned, I have had to stop to build my altar and lay down -again and again- those things that I let become greater than my trust in the Lord. ie: my fear (over and over), my pride, my control, my lack of patience, and the greatest: my dreams.
Where did I build my altar? Here. This blog.

I do not write this blog because I have such great depth of knowledge and wisdom and feel I should share it with everyone out there in cyberspace. I write this blog because I need a place of remembrance.  That is what an altar is: a place of remembrance. It may not be made of bricks and stone, but it is a marked spot that I can go back to and remember all that I have learned. David many times would write "a psalm to bring to remembrance" (Ps.38and 70)

Before I began blogging, I was learning hard lessons each month as I faced each new challenge to my faith. However, in the next month or so, I would be struggling with something and realizing "this is the same thing I learned LAST month, just from a different angle!" I was learning and then forgetting. So I began to write down little titles for myself to help me remember what I've learned. You may remember some of them, as some have become blog posts. "Prisoner of Hope", "Use Your Fighting Words" etc.
Hopefully my altar has been an encouragement to you too along the way!!

In the Old Testament, there are many examples of people to whom the Lord had spoken; to mark this moment and REMEMBER all that the Lord had said, they would build an altar.

"Then the LORD said to him, 'Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.' So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace." Judges 6:23,24

 I have built my altar and have called it PRISONER OF HOPE!

Tired of Waiting?

A few weeks ago I was challenged with a scripture I have quoted all my life...
Isaiah 40:31
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.

At the time, I was in a place of complete and utter exhaustion. To think of holding on to hope for one more day, let alone another month was to my mind, impossible. I had been "waiting" on God completely! (or so I thought) I had submitted to His timing, standing in faith waiting on the promise to come to pass and still feeling forgotten and NOT strengthened!

As you could imagine, when this verse came up again, I was a little offended. Taking this to the Lord, I clearly showed Him how I had been waiting on Him! But why was I so tired?? Shouldn't I be gaining strength?? Obviously I was doing something wrong...

So I began to seek God daily, asking Him to show me HOW to wait on Him. How does that look different than what I was doing???
Then I saw clearly that I had been waiting on the EVENT, not waiting on the LORD.

In His faithfulness and love He showed me this:  I can still have hope, I can still pray/ask, and I can even still be in expectation that He will answer.
HOWEVER, the eyes of my heart have to be focused on HIM > not on the promise that comes from Him. This is done so easily by taking time to worship HIM just for who is is, not for what He is doing for me.
When I begin to declare His goodness to me, His faithfulness, His might, His beauty, His grace, His power and His love… everything that HE is, my focus is now diverted from- the EVENT to HIM. And oh how I love Him and all that HE is :)

Here is the same verse in the Message translation that help me put things into perspective:

 Is. 40:27-31
Why would you ever complain -saying, "God has lost track of me. He doesn't care what happens to me"? Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening? God doesn't come and go. God lasts. He's Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath. He knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind.

For Such A Time As This...

Esther 4:14 "Don't think that just because you live in the king's house you're the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this."

Some girlfriends and I have been going through the book of Esther following along with Beth Moore’s teachings.  This phrase <for such a time as this > is probably the most powerful in the whole book. Esther had a purpose to fulfill, and it required a difficult decision. She tried to run from it because of fear that she would lose her life – but the purpose of her life became greater than her fear.

Beth Moore said this “None of our purposes will be fulfilled easily. All of them will require the most difficult decisions we think we can make. Decisions that we may feel will practically kill us. Then God does something miraculous and we become something we’re not…”

Man… that is strong. There have been so many times I have had that feeling of conviction or leading that “throbbed relentlessly” in my chest. The kind that won’t stop until you obey or -God forbid- ignore until it goes away (you don’t want to go there).
Sometimes taking that step of obedience makes you feel like you could throw up… I always think I could relate with Jonah at these moments, running away… wishing you could hide from the ‘call’ of God.

However, the beauty of it is IN the obedience. Remember, we are created for HIS purpose.
Philipians 2:13 says “it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure”

Every time you obey, you will find JOY on the other side, because you are acting on what you were created to do! We don’t fully know ALL that God has called us to, but as we take each step in obedience, the call of God becomes a little clearer. The piece of clay looks a little more like the masterpiece it is intended to be!!

Be quick to obey when you sense a leading from the Holy Spirit today… great or small. Practicing in the small areas helps us when the big ones come…. and they will come. For you were called FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!
 

Use Your Fighting Words!

Ever wish there was an on/off switch to your thoughts? Like they're just coming so fast you don't know how to stop them? Maybe your thoughts have caused you to loose sleep, brought on fear, stole your confidence, or even destroyed your hope.
There are days when I'm strong in faith I'm doing great, trusting God... and then there are other days when my thoughts seem like they are shouting at me, telling me my dreams of having a baby will never happen.  If I CHOOSE to let them talk to me - I start to believe them; instead I have to CHOOSE to believe what God says and not what my thoughts are telling me. It really IS a choice.

Being a Kindergarten, I can hear my name repeated a million times a minute... Mrs. Zinn!, Mrs. Zinn!, Mrs. Zinn! Mrs. Zinn! Mrs. Zinn! Mrs. Zinn! Mrs. Zinn! ( not kidding). Sometimes it happens when you are obviously busy doing something else. If I do not address the child, he/she will not stop, I can not stay silent.

It is the same with thoughts that are pulling you down and trying to lie to you- YOU CAN NOT STAY SILENT. This is when you must use your fighting words. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but MIGHTY in God...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."  

You can never defeat the enemy in your mind, you MUST fight him with your WORDS because "faith comes by hearing" Rom. 10:17 Your mind needs to hear it! Hear what??? the Word of God! So find the scriptures you need to back up what you are facing and need faith for. Post them around where you will constantly see them... and SAY them out loud. It will take perseverance as you renew your mind, so be quick to get on it every time the thoughts come. Take EVERY thought captive!

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is FAITHFUL!!

What Is a Prisoner of Hope?

Prisoner: A person who is or feels confined or trapped by a situation or set of circumstances.

There are some times in our lives that we feel we have no control over whatever it is we are facing, or waiting for. We feel trapped and become prisoners to the situation, to our thoughts and to our fears that things may never change or may even get worse.

Hope:  A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen

My husband and I have been waiting in expectation for pregnancy for almost a year and also suffered through a miscarriage. I have needed to hold on to hope- to that feeling of expectation and not allow the circumstance/situation, I am facing to imprison me. I had to CHOOSE to become a PRISONER of hope...sometimes even daily.

Many times, hope is born out of suffering –  But, He will turn our mourning into dancing & gladness (Ps 30:11) if we keep our hope in HIM! There will always be something we are waiting on God for, so my prayer for you today is that you too become a PRISONER of hope through your waiting period.
 
In Zechariah 9:12 says "Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], you Prisoners of Hope; even today do I declare that I will restore double your former prosperity to you."