Category: Prayer

Perhaps Today! Actively (and Expectantly) Awaiting Jesus’ Return

I’m a mug junkie. I have mugs overflowing around our house. Mugs in the cupboards. Mugs on a special shelf in our solarium-breakfast room. I even had my husband add another shelf to one of our kitchen cabinets to accommodate all of them. The cabinet right above the coffee maker. The cabinet stuffed with mugs, tea, and coffee-making supplies. It’s gotten to be a family joke.

I don’t remember when I started “collecting” them. I had a few mugs scattered around, special ones I’d picked up at seminars, (with conference logos and company promo material), national park mugs, and mugs from Hawaii with our Anglicized-Hawaiian names on them. But when I gave up collecting vacation-spot T-shirts, I gravitated toward mugs, which are much more difficult to haul home (unbroken) in a suitcase!

Now I have “retired” mugs on display on a special shelf, the ones I don’t want to break or wear down any longer through usage; and the noteworthy cracked ones I can’t bear to part with. And I have several secreted away that no one else is allowed to use but me. The mugs given as extra-special gifts, or the ones that remind me of sweet times Chris and I have spent together at some charming Bed and Breakfast.

But there’s one mug I’ve never used. It’s been prominently displayed on my writing desk for over 25 years. The blue marble-look mug I received after donating to a well-known ministry. The words on it remind me of something I should keep forefront in my mind. Every day. Words especially appropriate for this month when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.

Perhaps Today!

 

Can you guess what those words reference?

They’re a reminder that our Lord will return one day. They’re a hope that perhaps today will be that glorious day—when He’ll return, subdue the earth, vanquish his foes, and lift up and resurrect the faithful.

 

Jesus’ Second Coming—

Of course, not everyone believes He will return. And not everyone harbors the hope within his or her heart that He will. Some are terrified it might be true.

 

I thought about my “Perhaps Today!” mug when reading a chapter from Max Lucado’s book And the Angels Were Silent: The Final Week of Jesus. Reading that book has been my Lenten practice nearly every year the last 23 years.

The particular chapter that brought the mug to mind is titled “Be Ready.” The verse associated with the chapter is Matthew 24:42:

 

“So always be ready, because you don’t know the day your Lord will come.”

 

It’s a winsome (and stark) reminder that being ready for His return is a way of life. A critical one.

Jesus’ Last Sermon on Earth—

In his book, Lucado examines what Jesus says and does (and doesn’t say and do) the last week of His earthly life. It’s a lesson—when time and distractions are stripped away—on what’s important. This particular chapter looks at the topic of Jesus’ last sermon.

What would you think a last-sermon topic would be? Like Lucado, we’d probably preach on love, or family, or church attendance, ministry support. Spreading the Gospel. Doing good and being good. Marching for some social justice issue.

But Jesus focuses on something He evidently believes is far more important.

He focuses on being prepared.

Or, as Lucado bluntly puts it:

 

“He preached on being ready for heaven and staying out of hell.”

 

Hell. Now there’s a word many recoil at. “Does anyone believe in hell anymore?” you might ask.

Jesus is a firm believer in it. If you haven’t tallied up the numbers, He talked about hell and money more than anything else while He was on earth.

But it’s become a passé or quaint subject. An idea reserved for the undereducated or simple-minded. As Lucado points out:

 

“We don’t like to talk about hell, do we? In intellectual circles the topic of hell is regarded as primitive and foolish. It’s not logical. ‘A loving God wouldn’t send people to hell.’ So we dismiss it.

But to dismiss it is to dismiss a core teaching of Jesus. The doctrine of hell is not one developed by Paul, Peter, or John. It is taught by Jesus himself.

And to dismiss it is to dismiss much more. It is to dismiss the presence of a loving God and the privilege of a free choice.”

 

And that’s the point: we all have a free choice. To choose heaven or hell. And God will honor what we choose.

 

Where will you choose to spend eternity?

God talks a lot about what we’ll gain by going to heaven, how we can get there, and what consequences we face if we choose poorly.

And that leaves me with one more point Lucado made. An ironclad argument against this idea that there is a heaven but no opposite place—hell—in existence.

 

“To reject the dualistic outcome of history and say there is no hell leaves gaping holes in any banner of a just God. To say there is not hell is to say God condones the rebellious, unrepentant heart. To say there is no hell is to portray God will eyes blind to the hunger and evil in the world. To say there is no hell is to say that God doesn’t care that people are beaten and massacred, that he doesn’t care that women are raped or families wrecked. To say there is no hell is to say God has no justice, no sense of right and wrong, and eventually to say God has no love. For true love hates evil.

Hell is the ultimate expression of a just Creator.”

 

I’ll add one more thought: If there is no hell, why would Jesus have to endure humiliation, abandonment, torture, and a cruel Roman cross to provide a way for us to enter and enjoy heaven? Was that all just one big wasted event?

Surprisingly, staying out of hell and making the choice for Him and an eternal life in heaven, is the same topic he preached on during His first sermon.

He constantly warned people to be prepared. He focused on the subject the last week of His life, three short days before His death.

 

And I believe it’s a subject we need to return to today. Not by standing on street corners with signs, pointing angry fingers at people and shouting at them through angry, twisted lips and with blazing eyes that they’re headed for doom.

I think it’s something we need to continue talking about in a loving, firm way. With hearts of concern for the rejecters or uncommitted. As I’ve heard pastors say, “If you saw someone in a burning building, wouldn’t you try to do everything you could to save them? Or would you just walk by and say, ‘Oh well?'”

 

I know many think we believers-in-hell are feeble-minded, duped, or downright nuts. But that’s okay with me. I’d rather it weren’t true; I’d like to believe that God just says, “Okay. I’m going to let everyone into heaven, even if they’ve rejected me. Or just annihilate them so they’ll never know what they’re missing. That’s a belief to which many faithful are now subscribing. It just sounds nicer.

But I can’t have it my way. I don’t make the rules. God does. And I don’t think He would have spent so much time warning against it if it were just some big cosmic joke. A “just kidding” discussion.

 

What to do while we’re waiting—

Does looking forward to His second coming mean I do nothing but twiddle my thumbs until it happens? Many people that laugh at us, thinking that’s what we’re do.

But when I think “Perhaps Today!” my looking forward to it in anticipation should drive me closer to preparation, being found busy and active, as Jesus instructs us to be. Doing His work down here, like a faithful ambassador, until He returns.

So, along with the “Perhaps Today” thought, I try to start every day with a Jewish adage I learned some years ago: “Rise up like a lion in the service of the Lord.”

You never know when or at what hour you might be called. You might as well be busy during the waiting and anticipation process.

And then it will be too late.

 

May God grant you a happy, expectant “Perhaps Today!” heart as you prepare for the commemoration of His final week, crucifixion and glorious Resurrection, and live every day of your life until He returns!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

A Birthday Self-Assessment and Vision

Do you ever think about the past, spend time thinking about the sweet memories of yesteryear?

Your birthday is a perfect time to do some self-examination, an assessment of the last year.

But we can fall into that pit of reviewing more of the bad things than the sweet ones—our mistakes, our sins, our really bad moments, and the bad things that were done unto us.

 

A week ago, I did the birthday self-assessment. I looked backward, and I sought God for the forward. And then I had a revelation.

As we age, we seem to spend a lot of time looking backward, at the regrets, the inability to measure up physically to the person we used to be.

Then the Lord in His graciousness revealed something to me that perhaps He’s already revealed to you.

Here are some notes I wrote in my journal—

 

“Lord, in some many ways, I hate growing old, even though I know with each passing day, month and year I get closer to eternity with You. And I suppose that should make me rejoice with each extra candle. Knowing how much joy You must take in knowing your children’s journeys on earth are winding down, until full renewal and the fullness of time results in a restored body and life that won’t flinch or pale at length of days.

“So why do I live and breathe and behave as though this is it? I want to walk toward You, in joy, in peace, in hope, in Longing, thrilled anticipation of that glorious, perfect day. I want to rejoice over moving toward perfection rather than wallowing in and lamenting my failures. I want to move on, with a heart saturated to overflowing with happiness and peace.

“…It is good. It is enough!”

 

The little red journal I’m using right now has Scripture verses at the bottom of each page. I read them after I’ve written that day’s inklings. The verse at the bottom of the first page I wrote on for my birthday was this:

 

“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).

 

A perfect verse for what the Lord had laid on my heart to ponder.

My path is a shining light. Only I can allow it to be darkened by my thoughts, attitude and behavior.

God is the light that shines on that path.

And that shining light will shine brighter and brighter as I move toward the perfect day—the day when the Lord will renew Heaven and Earth, and I will be counted among the happy citizens of His Kingdom. In a body designed to work and live and rejoice forever!

 

With those facts planted in my heart, why would I not enjoy the walk down the path, toward the brighter light? Why would I not look forward to that day when I will be absent from my body and present with the Lord?

Why would I not embrace every added year?

I should embrace every year, even as my body fails and abilities decrease. And that’s my goal this year: to be focusing on that light and have my heart set on eternity.

 

May your paths shine brighter and brighter, and may you be looking forward toward the brighter light, not at the dull one behind you.

 

Meditation Mondays will be going on hiatus until April 1, so I can focus on recovering from my recent knee surgery. I’ll have a way for you to sign up to receive these posts, and in return, I’ll have a freebie for you to enjoy!

See you back here next month!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

4 Steps to Changing Your Defects: Renewing Your Mind and Retraining Your Brain

How are you doing with tackling the process of ridding yourself of pesky defects?

How did you do with last week’s first three steps of demolishing strongholds and deficiencies?

 

Are you able to:

  • Focus on ONE defect at a time, or do you get bogged down with every issue?
  • Focus on obtaining victory over one defect issue?
  • Focus on God’s power and not your own willpower to overcome and make those critical-to-a-successful and full life corrections?

I hope we’re all making headway with the process of acknowledging, confronting and dealing a punishing blow to our defects and hang-ups. It can be a lifelong process to conquer some of them. Yet every step forward counts toward healing and growing, so this week we’re going to cover four additional steps we can take to get the healing process moving forward.

 

  1. Focus on what you want and not what you don’t want.

One of the first things beginning writers are taught is to try to write in a positive rather than negative way. The same is true of effectively retraining your brain to master healthful habits. It has to do with reframing, or adopting a new perspective.

It’s easy to come up with a list of why you don’t want to do something, or why it’s hard to change. But try coming up with a list of all of the benefits you’ll receive out of making the change.

For example, some of your reasons, or excuses, for not going to the gym might be:

  • I don’t like getting sweaty.
  • It takes so long to drive there.
  • I have to take the time to get ready to go.
  • I have so many other things I need to do.
  • I don’t particularly like to exercise.
  • Other people at the gym are going to stare at me and judge me because I’m not in shape.

 

Try reframing your thoughts with comments like:
  • The sweat will help rid my body of toxins and I’ll feel better.
  • I can listen to uplifting music in the car during my drive.
  • I can enjoy the preparation process and maybe purchase a special gym bag and workout clothes to use.
  • Working out is important for me to have good health, and I am important—to myself, my family, and God.
  • Getting into an exercise routine may be hard, but I could exercise with a friend or in a class, where I can meet new friends and enjoy the camaraderie and encouragement of working out together.
  • I won’t be the only out-of-shape person at the gym, and others there started at the beginning like me. A personal trainer from the gym can help me get started and be the encourager I need to keep at it.

 

When you focus on the negatives, your thought life becomes a problem. When you catch yourself thinking negatively, stop and turn your resistance into a proactive, positive comment. Believe it or not, your brain will take notice and start thinking in a more positive manner.

 

  1. Memorize uplifting Scripture verses.

Having notecards in your bag, car, or purse and scattered around the house can remind you of good things the Lord has said and promised. Memorizing these passages or verses is even better because you renew your mind with them and affect your heart and spirit.

In fact, Scripture memorization is like good food for the soul! Feed yourself with as much of it as you possibly can throughout the day. And meditate on it at night before going to sleep. God’s word will permeate your thought processes and affect your actions.

 

  1. Focus on doing good things and acting in good ways not on feeling good.

I know, this is a tough one. But believe it when psychologists say that actions can drive feelings, just as feelings can drive actions.

It’s dangerous to wait until we feel like doing something to do it. When we live that way, we get stuck and often miss out on life. I can’t count how many times doing something I didn’t feel like doing ended up turning my feelings and emotions around to the positive.

 

  1. Focus on the people who help and support you in your recovery work and not on the ones who undermine or hinder you.

This step can be very difficult when it’s family members doing the stifling or resisting. But you must surround yourself with like-minded encouragers. Even more so if you live with people who tend to drag you down or feed your weaknesses.

Scripture is very clear about wisely choosing friends and NOT being unequally yoked (as in marriage or business) to an unbeliever. Unfortunately, so many people brush that wise admonition aside and end up living in pain and frustration for rebelling against it.

You are a precious being. Your time is a precious commodity. Pray about and choose wisely! You may find yourself having to pray about leaving a friend and drawing boundaries in order to protect yourself and heal.

 

Finally, wholeheartedly trust God to lead and change you. In our weakness He is made strong. Recognize and accept your current circumstances as they are and trust that God is working right now to help you overcome your frailties and faults; that He is working in you to finish your faith and help you run the race to a successful completion.

Don’t give up, because God doesn’t give up on you!

 

Until next week, list your steps, work your steps, take one step, one day at a time, and rejoice over even the smallest victories!

On a side note: I’m celebrating another complete revolution around the sun today and meditating on the year the Lord has given me. It has been anything but “normal.”

It has been full, it has been revealing, it has sometimes been fraught with snags and obstacles, and it has been life changing. I am spending the day reflecting on it and praying for insight into the next 12 months.

And I humbly request your prayers as I prepare for knee surgery this Friday, fallout from extreme athletics and my Camino journey. I’m hoping this is the last time I have to be cut open for a while!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Change Your Defects: Renewing Your Mind and Retraining Your Brain

Are you ready to tackle the process of ridding yourself of pesky defects?

If you read last Monday’s post, you saw the series of questions I asked to focus for this week.

How did you do answering last week’s questions?

Were you able to:

  • Focus on your feelings, how you react emotionally to triggers or life events?
  • Make literal or mental notes on your typical behavior—your autopilot fallback response to feelings and triggers?
  • Identify whether your natural reaction is to yell, get angry, withdraw, self-harm, eat, avoid, give in, shame or shun?

 

As you can see from the list, our thoughts often determine our feelings and feelings determine our actions.

 

Training your brain to develop healthful habits—

I’m reading a great professional manual right now that delves into the reaction-changing process. It’s called Training Your Brain to Adopt Healthful Habits: Mastering the Five Brain Challenges. * Not only does it address habit changing, it addresses problems like addictions, eating disorders, and behavioral responses.

The sections have titles like:

“Learning to Highly Value Behaviors that Promote Wellness and Devalue Behaviors that Lead to Poor Health”

“Enriching Your Life to Tame the Need for Immediate Gratification”

“Enhancing Resiliency to New Threats and Chronic Stressors”

“Training Your Addiction Circuits to Make Healthy Behaviors Habitual”

“Making Flexible Decisions to Empower Your Brain to Make Healthful Choices”

 

If I were to give you a one-sentence overview of the book, I would say,

It’s all about being transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you do not let the world, or individuals, conform you. And it’s a secular book.

The Apostle Paul had it right when he said in Romans 12:2 that making your life the best life it can be—physically, emotionally and spiritually—starts with the renewing of your mind. Research supports his claims.

So what practical steps can we take to make that happen?

 

Think about a defect you have that’s causing you—and your life—trouble. You might want to start with something simple, so you can get some traction and success. That would give you the encouragement and momentum to move onto something more difficult.

But if it’s a serious addiction you need to confront, you would want to start there.

 

Steps to destroying your defects—

We’ll explore three of the six steps today.

 

  1. Focus on one defect at a time!

So many of us run around in a whirlwind, multitasking even our “must improve in this area” behavior. That’s a recipe for disaster. A behavior we might do to sabotage ourselves into failure. Change is hard work. It takes time and focus. Repetition. Our brains aren’t happy when we’re multitasking; and none of us—regardless of what someone brags about—do it well.

Focus, focus, focus. Like a laser beam. On one defect at a time. And make sure that defect is put out of business before moving on to another one.

 

  1. Focus on one defect change and one victory one day at a time!

Moment-by-moment, all of us need to take very thought—and behavior—captive to Christ, the One who created us and knows us intimately. Who better to go to for guidance and help than the One who created you?

This is where the concept of praying without ceasing also comes in, because when we’re hurting or struggling or sputtering along in life, sometimes it feels as though we’re weighed down by every—single—moment—of—every—day.

When life seems to be going well, we tend to slack off on the pray without ceasing admonition. We stand on the mountaintop, euphoric over what we’ve accomplished and conquered. Unfortunately, the descent into another valley can come fast and furiously. And then we wonder what happened, and we’re right back down in the dregs of life, clutching and clawing and moaning and groaning. Writhing around in our failures and pain.

Thankfully, God’s mercies are new every morning! So we can awaken each new day with the knowledge that we can re-boot. Focus, focus, focus and practice, practice, practice!

He won’t abandon us if we fall flat in our efforts; He knows our weaknesses, and He’s always available to give us the power and strength we need to succeed. To cover and protect us if we need rest.

But in order for that to happen, first we need to:

 

  1. Focus on God’s power, not your own willpower to make those life corrections.

Certainly we can struggle and fight and wrestle with ourselves, but until we acknowledge that we can do nothing without Jesus, our efforts will usually be ineffective and short-lived.

This is the most fundamental and important step to take to enjoy lasting change and victory.

 

But what about them?

But what about other people that trigger poor responses and behavior from you, the ones you think need fixing?

You still need to concentrate on how you behavior in response to their behavior. And sometimes that means stepping away from a certain person or group that weakens your defenses and pushes your buttons.

Setting boundaries with others can be an important part of changing your defective behaviors and responses. Protecting your heart while you’re learning new coping and life skills. Like an alcoholic that needs to stop meeting drinking buddies at the local watering hole on a Friday night; or an alcoholic who needs to get new friends altogether, which is the usual scenario.

That’s not an easy or comfortable proposition, but it’s one you may have to take if you are to enjoy victory.

NEXT WEEK we’ll look at three additional steps to help you succeed in demolishing strongholds and self-defects.

Until then, focus on one defect, focus on one victory, and focus on God’s power—the ingredient that will make all of this happen for you!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

* Authors:

  • Jodie A Trafton, Ph.D.
  • William P. Gordon, Ph.D.
  • Supriya Misra, M.A.

How to Change Your Defects: Part 1

If you’re a Jesus-follower, you know God is in the defect-correcting business. At least you know it intellectually. Enjoying that experience is often elusive, though, because we aren’t always interested—or determined enough—to cooperate with God in His change process.

Or really believe and grab hold of His promise that He can do it.

 

What does God have to say about defect changing?

One of the most well known Scripture passages that addresses this issue is Romans 12:1-2.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (NIV).

 

I love the way Eugene Peterson said it in The Message:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

 

Let’s turn these passages into defect-changing bullet points.

  • God is merciful.
  • Our bodies are important to Him.
  • Offering our bodies (that includes our mind) to Him is an act of worship.
  • Thoughts determine our feelings, and feelings often determine our actions.
  • We get ourselves into trouble when we allow the world to conform and mold us.
  • Our mind is the problem—if we want change, we need to start there. We often forget that our mind is a part of our body.
  • In order to change, our mind needs renewing.
  • In order for us to know God’s will for our lives, we must have renewed minds. No way around it.

 

Changing your defects sounds so basic, but it’s so difficult. Why?

The world and its forces are powerful. They don’t take kindly to people that push back against the status quo or current thought wave. We war against the principalities of darkness.

And we war against ourselves, our old, defect-laden nature. It’s hard to fight against yourself. It’s always much easier to give in, at least initially. Then it becomes something like feeding and satisfying the beast, and we find ourselves venturing down a road of darkness and perpetual frustration, anger, and sadness.

 

NEXT WEEK, we’re going to delve into the processes we need to go through to rid ourselves of those defects and effectively change. But for this week, I invite you to prepare.

 

Focus on your feelings, how you react emotionally to triggers or life events.

And then note your behavior. What is your autopilot fallback response to those feelings?

Is it anger, yelling, withdrawal, self-harm, eating, avoidance, giving in, shaming or shunning someone?

 

Behavioral psychologists often recommend that you write these feelings and responses down, so you get a better handle on what causes or triggers you to behave the way you do. It’s like writing down an, if this (happens), then that (happens) chart. I suspect you’ll find it eye-opening.

Then we’ll come back together next week to focus on the steps we need to take to change our defective behaviors, one defect at a time!

Until then, do some mind and feeling exploration. No blaming; just noting.

And remember, God is merciful!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien