God’s promises… for who?

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Margaret

Yesterday’s blog was about a surprise gift from God that came when least expected, but that was only the beginning.

During those days I’d been crying out for some sense of God’s presence. Did he know how severe our situation was? Was he watching? Did he care? Would his promises apply to us?

I believed the verse that says, “receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16) but God didn’t seem to be following through on that. Talking to him without hearing back reminded me of talking on the phone with a child at my elbow who was also talking to me. Although she saw me standing quietly with the phone against my ear, seemingly available to her, I was really listening to someone else, irritated by her questions.

Was that God? Listening to others? Irritated by my talking to him?

Desperate to hear from him, I’d taken a long walk in the early morning darkness, begging out loud for his response. “You’ve just got to help us! Tell me something, show me something, do something to prove you’re still there!”

And then the box came.

As I dug through the layers of colorful little-girl clothes, I came to the bottom and found a white envelope with my name on it. Opening it, I was shocked when a pile of paper money fell to the floor, along with a hand-written note:

“Here is a gift for you made possible through the grace of God, who has given me an abundance over the past couple of months. God hopes that those He helps will share with those around them. I would like to share with you.”

I gasped at such unexpected generosity from my new friend Becky and was humbled by her gift. Stooping to gather up the bills, I counted out $341, an absolute fortune! She and I were just in the getting-acquainted stage of our friendship, though, and I felt I couldn’t keep the money.

Calling to express my amazement and explain why I shouldn’t accept her lavish gift, I was stunned by her simple response: “How many times a day do we both tell our children to be nice and share? That’s all I’m doing.”

Becky convinced me to keep the money, and I was exceedingly grateful. A second gift that day was that God convinced me he was very close, hearing every prayer, aware of our needs (the clothes, the money) and even our wants (the flowered dress). These gifts, funneled through Becky’s willingness to be his instrument of ministry, persuaded me that his promises were true after all.

And they even applied to the Nymans.

“You … answer prayer; to you all people will come. You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 65:2,5)

Little by Little

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Margaret

Skylar and Micah love the beach, as most children do. We’ve tried to spend lots of time there where everyone is busy, happy and gradually gets worn out toward a good night’s sleep.

The other day after a wild thunderstorm, our normally south-veering creek had swelled with enough rainwater to overflow its banks and had cut a new route, emptying into Lake Michigan toward the north. The kids loved playing in the gently moving, shallow water, and I saw an interesting phenomenon.

As the creek steadily ran across a new area of the beach, it gradually carved a deep course, cutting through 3 feet of sand. Never mind its gentle flow. Slow and relentless had done the job. Little by little individual grains of sand coaxed into the water had washed out into the lake. When enough sand had been moved, the sides collapsed in slow motion, widening the creek and its influence on the beach.

While watching 18 month old Micah with one eye and the creek bank with the other, I felt God nudging me toward a lesson:

small effort + steadfastness = impressive results

If I was told to move one grain of sand, it’d be easy, but digging a yard-deep trench would take more muscle than I could give.

The lesson is one most of us need to relearn throughout life. Applied to dieting, for example, it might mean eliminating one treat per day and losing pounds slowly but continually until we finally arrived at an ideal weight. Instead we go-for-broke, eating next-to-nothing or only broccoli because slow-and-steady takes too long. And of course radical diets never work.

Or let’s say we have trouble saving money. Setting aside 1 dollar each day would find us with $365 at the end of the first year. But we’d rather slash and stash a big amount overnight, even though we know we’ll have to use it by the end of the month.

Another example might be prayer. Talking to God for just 1 minute a day would mean by the end of the year we would have prayed over 6 hours, an investment of incalculable value to those for whom we’d prayed.

Q: What prevents us from rolling away one grain of sand at a time?

A: Thinking big and thinking speed.

None of us wants to spend time doing something small and unimportant. Moving 1 grain, losing 1 pound, saving 1 dollar or praying 1 minute seem like investments too small to be of any value. No one would even notice.

But that’s inaccurate. God would.

And more than just noticing, he’d be pleased with our:

quiet contentment in small beginnings,
demonstration of long-term commitment,
perseverance.

He’d also reward us with eventual impressive results. Moving that 1^st grain of sand followed by the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th would be a painless way to win God’s approval while accomplishing something significant.

Who knew a wayward creek could teach us how to grow in godliness.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

Hot ‘n Heavy

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Margaret

Three year old Skylar loves to help me walk Jack the dog, holding his leash as we amble the quiet lanes of our subdivision. I’ve schooled her in what to do if Jack sees a squirrel and bolts. “What then, Skylar?”

“Drop it!” she says, demonstrating for me as Jack’s retractable leash flies out of her hand and toward his neck.

Yesterday as we walked along on a stifling afternoon, she asked why Jack’s tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

“He’s hot,” I said. “Dogs do that and pant to feel cooler.”

“Well,” she said, pausing and tipping her head to one side, “then why doesn’t he just take off his black furry coat?”

“He doesn’t know how,” I said.

“Then I’ll show him,” she said. “He has to do the zipper.”

“Can you do it for him?” I said.

“Sure, Grandma Midgee.”

Skylar hunted for several minutes, feeling Jack’s back, chest, tummy, even his legs, while our ever-patient dog stood still and panted.

“I can’t find it,” she finally said. “Can you do it?”

And so I hunted, too, coming up empty. “You know, I don’t think he has a zipper, Skylar.”

“But then how is he going to get his coat off?” she said.

“I guess he can’t.”

“Aww,” she said, sympathizing with his plight. “Poor Jackie.”

Sometimes I think God sees us that same way. We struggle along bearing heavy burdens with our proverbial tongues hanging out, wondering why life is so hard. Is there a zipper, a way to shed the weight? Yes, but we have to take advantage of it.

God’s “zippers” are linked to his promises. If we believe them, we can shed our burdens as easily as throwing off a heavy fur coat on a hot day.

For example, if we believe the promise that he’ll work everything out for good, we’ll begin looking for that good, automatically focusing away from the bad.
Because he says he’ll always be with us, we’ll begin talking to him more, pouring out our requests and being surprised by his answers.
When he promises peace in the midst of chaos, we’ll handle every crisis with calm composure rather than all-out panic.
As we believe his promise to forgive us, we’ll be able to move away from damage we’ve caused and start fresh.

These are just a few, but Scripture is jam-packed with promises. It’s God’s love letter to us, filled with good offers to help us live a burden-free life, but it’s our choice. We can cloak ourselves with heavy loads we’re not meant to bear, or we can search for a zipper and throw off what threatens to smother us in favor of a lighter life.

None of us have to end up like poor Jack, weighed down by hot, heavy burdens without a zipper.

“He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)