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I love this picture of Leslie my wife laughing with her sister in the background. She hates it but she’s not posting this blog!

What the Bible Says

Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10

What My Mind Thinks

Moods can be like a frigid draft slithering under the front door on a chilly night. The icy fingers wrap themselves around the dangling sock feet of our emotions. Just like drafts are felt before the open door is seen, so too moods can take control of our thoughts before we really know why. A whole day can be spoiled by a mood that slipped through the door we left ajar to disappointment.

How can we caulk our soul to insulate it from moods? The answer is to warm ourselves in the emotions of God. The bright outlook of the Lord gives us permission to feel what our circumstances say we have no right to experience. God is immersed in joy and we are free to live in liberty no matter our mood.

For the first time in 70 years God’s people were ready to read the Bible. It was a great day. There had been a lifetime of national mourning. Now they were ready to obey. Ezra and Nehemiah had made a fiesta out of the first public reading of the ancient scrolls. But the party soon turned into a funeral as the people realized how right God’s word is and how wrong their lives were. Waves of regret swept over them. There is a difference between guilt and regret. Guilt is for sin unforgiven. Regret is for the day after forgiveness.

What Nehemiah did next was surprising. He stopped the people from feeling badly about their past. It was time to move forward. Guilt must be dealt with, but regret must be left behind. There are mood moments when we wish we could push the backspace button and delete days lived and words spoken. God gives us the freedom to experience feelings we have no right to feel. That’s grace. God feels joy so we can too.

Getting My Heart to Cooperate

Have I given myself permission to feel today what God feels? Mood adjustment was so important to Nehemiah that he and the leaders moved through the crowds insisting that God’s people go on with the party as planned. If it mattered that much to them, it should to me as well. If we reach into our heart there is an aquifer of joy that is just beneath the surface. The joy of the Lord is our strength…and our gift today.

What My Spirit Prays

Father, I open my heart to emotions that I don’t deserve today. Your joy is my reward. Help me not to live beneath my privileges of joy. Amen.

Swallowed By Waves © Copyright 2001 Kevin Ebi/Living Wilderness.

Scripture
The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” Luke 8:24-25

Observation
On a dark and stormy night the 12 disciples came to a dumb conclusion: God’s grand plan was going to end up on the sea floor. Worst of all they made this dreary prognosis the very words they used to get Jesus’ attention.

Sound familiar?

How often in our midnight prayers in stormy seasons do we start our prayers off expecting the worst. We take our fearful conclusions and turn them into prayers.

The words of Jesus have not changed over the past 2,000 years: where is your faith? Faith gives the Lord room to execute hairpin turns in the course of our life journey. God is a great God and the miraculous takes room to maneuver. Faith gives the Eternal One elbow room in our tiny world to do great things. The disciples could only imagine water filling the boat, when the Lord, on a dark and stormy night, wanted to empty the sky of clouds.

Application
Where is your faith? That should send us scurrying for our Bibles. That interrogation question should cause us to search our pockets for memories of times past when the Lord has come to our rescue. Our prayers should be robust in stormy times so there is no doubt that there is faith behind our words.

Prayer
Lord hear my prayer and feel my faith. Amen.

Pastor Wayne has been one of the greatest influences on my life to see myself as the Lord does.

Scripture
“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 1:6-8

Observation
Jeremiah launched his career in heady days. It was like 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and university idealists created a New Deal for America. It was like 1961 when John F. Kennedy became president and youth felt they could change the world. It was like 1981 when Ronald Regan became president and young Republicans felt they could upend 50 years of liberalism.

King Josiah was the fresh face in the palace in Jeremiah’s youth. As a 21 year old monarch he was just one year into a campaign to change the national religion back to the faith of Abraham. The reforming king set out to tear down every pagan altar in the land. Jeremiah was not just watching all of this on TV; he was on the picket line for change.

Like the assassination of JFK, within a few years King Josiah would be slain in a battle to save his nation. He was the only king to have died in war. Everyone could remember the spot where they stood when they heard the news that King Josiah was dead. But Jeremiah would live on to the end and beyond.

The prophet’s job was a tough one. He was called not just to speak a message that people did not want to hear, but also to say that even should their hearts change still their nation would be destroyed. The best that anyone could hope for was to escape with his or her life. No one wanted to hear the world was coming to an end, and even the good people cringed that nothing could stop it now.

But Jeremiah stood firm for decades. How?

First, he recognized that his greatest problem was not the hostile audience he had to speak to, but rather his own self-perception. Jeremiah saw himself as Jerry, the little boy. But God’s command to him was that he was in fact Jeremiah the man. He must never speak of himself as a child again.

Each of us struggles with our self-perception. Between Satan and life there are plenty of setbacks to think less of ourselves than we really are. But if we are going to be of any use to the Lord we must begin to see ourselves as he does. That starts by the conscious choice never to give ourselves a petty label again. For Jeremiah it was the command, never to speak of himself as a child again. He was in fact a stonewall that would not fall no matter how many times he was assailed.

Second, Jeremiah had to make the choice to not be afraid. It is of great comfort to know the most often repeated command in the Bible is the call to “fear not.” Fear can paralyze even God. Jesus himself could do no great miracles in his hometown because of their fear without faith. It is strange to think that a fearful person has control not to fear. But he must because God would not command us to do something we are unable to do. We can make the choice not to be afraid.

How? By holding onto the promise. Here it is: “I am with you and will rescue you.” No matter what predicament Jeremiah found himself in he would soon discover that he was immortal until his work was done. In fact Jeremiah outlived most of his critics.

No matter how fearful the circumstances a God-called person has the freedom to say, “The Lord is with me and somehow I am going to come out of this for the better.”

Application
Here I am 45 years old. I’ve been in ministry 25 years. Yet still my view of myself doesn’t always match the Lord’s. I’m doing much better, but I still have work to do. For Jeremiah this was a snap decision. Suddenly he was pushed into the world of men and had to make manly choices. If he could, I can. I choose this day to see myself as God does. For he is with me.

Prayer
Father, can you give me something better than a mirror? It’s your face. If I see you smiling then I know everything is going to be alright. So today I put my trust in you Lord. Today get me through to the other side.