Forgiving Lion, Peaceful Bear

Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people. Prov. 28:15

Solomon was a king when he wrote this proverb and was also the son of a king. In the early part of his reign, he asked God for wisdom in order to rule his people well.

Other kings were cruel tyrants to their helpless subjects, subjects who may have been destitute, yet dependent on the king for their very lives. Instead of benefiting his people, the wicked ruler was bent on using his powerful crown to fiercely take from them in his unending desire for more.

This hardened ruler never looked back on how he treated those he should have protected. He would simply charge forward and devour, roaring loudly, driven by ravenous hunger to control everyone around him (never seeming to be satisfied).

How did kings of the past get so messed up? And how might a wicked ruler have changed his ways if he honestly wanted to become a more responsible, generous king, instead of choosing the destructive path of a roaring lion or a charging bear?

He would have had to have an all-out war against his entire makeup, his whole way of thinking.

On a more personal note, what would I do if that person was me?

Where would I start? …at the foot of the cross, the place where sin (past, present and future) meet the Savior. The cross is a place of transformation and life!

There is always hope for evil men to repent and change their ways. Therefore, there is always hope for me to tame the lion and bear within.

We, who want very much to please the Father, may never go to the extreme of growling at others like a lion would do as he protectively tears at his food. We may not come across as fierce in our relationships with others, but within us is a lack of self-control that sometimes, with all honesty resembles these creatures: temper tantrums, irritability, gluttony, laziness, self-indulgence, especially during such times as a pandemic. We’re all just trying to hang on and survive. We don’t have the energy to transform the lion and bear within.

However, God does, and His call to renovate our lives is worth the effort we pursue even in circumstances that beg us to give up. We must release the need to be right, defend, speak, control and be in charge.

There is so much power in prayer for every situation. We can choose to fall on our knees with patience and faith that God will help us do what is best for everyone concerned.

Somehow, past and current issues haunt our days and burden us with low self-esteem and unhealthy responses to those around us (who have no clue why). We think that blaming the past gives us license to lack self-control for the rest of our lives. We think we deserve the luxury of a breakdown, and others (who have nothing to do with our past wounds) deserve our projective anger.

Take a moment and imagine if we stopped making excuses for our harmful behavior. As one person put it, “after decades of allowing my past to eat me (and others around me) alive, I walked away and never let it run my life again.” Today, she is one of the loveliest people I know.

Imagine waking up every day to a new page in the ‘book’ of your life. Your brain is like an Etch A Sketch that still holds to the wisdom (compassion, determination, patience, love) that the past taught you, but erasing the devastating results of the wounds. Each daily new trial is written on your new page with a sense of energy, creativity, courage, forgiveness, peace and with an utter dependence on God.

Each wound has been completely forgiven. No stain is left of the piles of sin others have committed against you. You are free to see the next moment with clarity. Right now is not clouded with unfair offenses and unresolved anger. You wake up pure and unmolested by sin from head to toe, useful in God’s Kingdom.

What if my reactions to the stuff around me had more to do with my faith in God than my impatience, restlessness, greed or hunger for power, attention and beauty? What if I were more concerned about the spiritual healing and success of others even than my own. What if my focus in life was more about their reputation and good life? What if selflessness and the fruit of the spirit ruled my days and my nights?

I do not have to be a tyrant, devouring others with my neediness, self-pity and resentment. I am daily fed by Jesus Himself, who is the bread of life. My energy goes toward knowing the fellowship of his sufferings (Phil. 3:10), for he was punished, stricken, afflicted, despised, rejected, abused, pierced, crushed, oppressed and wounded (Isaiah 53). Yet still, he forgave everyone of everything, and He would have left ALL He wanted, to bow the knee to His Father, God.

I want to learn humility (not pride) in assuming or expecting to be included in every person’s thoughts or every familiar gathering. I want to have the ability to see past the slight, the exclusion and hurt feelings.

Could my ‘feelings’ be a form of lack of self-control? He didn’t speak to me; he didn’t respond the way I wanted; he criticized me; he didn’t agree with me; he didn’t do the task the way I would have.

These words allow feelings of low self-worth and despair into my heart. I devour that person with my judgmental attitude, my shaming, silence and hateful looks. I’m out-of-control with resentment and misinterpretation of the event because my mind is filled with unforgiveness. But what would Jesus do?

I want to take the high road and humble myself before the Lord. I didn’t get what I wanted from someone. But I always have Christ (who understands my pain). This teaches me to continue loving others just as if their forgetfulness or unintentional infractions never happened.

I am not a half person (because of my past) but a whole person in Christ. I don’t have to control others in order to be filled.

I wake up refusing fear, worry, anxiety and anger. Instead I trust.

Lord, the king in today’s verse was on the level of Satan! Satan is described as a roaring lion in I Peter 5:8. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” I am so thankful that you are not a mean, unwilling tyrant like the king in today’s proverb, but a trusted, dependable Father. Give me courage to step out of that lion-skin and be transformed into your likeness. Make my inner fierce, roaring hunger be for you, not for things my flesh seeks after. In times when my flesh is like a roaring lion, I need the touch of the Savior’s hand. Help me to meditate on your word day and night. Teach me what meditating truly means. Take me deep in thought to dwell on what is good and right in order to promote your Kingdom. I surrender my life to your loving hands. In Jesus name, Amen.

Glutton for Good

A discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father. Prov. 28:7

If I wanted the very best life in my short amount of time on earth, who would I turn to for advice? Obviously, my steps would turn in the direction of those who have lived a long life of wisdom. They would be my parents or teachers. They would be people I admired whose choices showed evidence of good fruit.

When I don’t follow good wisdom, my flesh becomes the instructor of my soul, and I become its slave. I am led to gluttony, which is really an addiction, which is really idolatry, a turning to something or someone (other than the One True God) for my needs. When I turn to the Lord’s instruction, I have no need for gluttony.

A glutton is someone who is fixated on behaviors that steer them in the wrong direction. They are out-of-control in their choices or deep in a cycle of bad habits. A glutton hangs around others who will lure him into giving into temptation. The others simply feed into what he wants. It is a lifestyle of luxury and gain (never content with what he has). He has more than enough food and more than enough possessions. Yet, he wastes his time and earnings on what is frivolous and excessive and ruins his health and his life.

Gluttony is about more than just eating a lot of food. One can decrease the quality of one’s life by seeking companionship with gossipers who are gluttons of making themselves look better than others, husband bashers, those in perpetual bad moods and lazy complainers.

When someone says about Sally, “She is a glutton for punishment.” It means that Sally always puts herself in difficult situations. Perhaps she craves the tension and stress she receives from such choices and never quite realizes the joys of peace.

Let’s rephrase this saying for the wise one who follows instruction well. He is a glutton for good, for what the Spirit leads him to do and for God’s will.

Good deeds can be addictive just as much as bad deeds. Yet, the kindness we offer others is a positive force that changes those around us for the better as well as changing ourselves.

The best way to remove ourselves from bad companions is to follow instruction that comes from the Holy Bible, and we will become wise by heeding it.

Instruction is about finding wisdom for our lives. We pick godly companions who draw out our best (not our worst) qualities. Also, wise companions tend and look after our souls and we, there’s.

Father, give light to our eyes through the friends with whom we spend our time. Lead us to those who will help us fix our hunger and thirst on Christ, the filler of our souls. Lead us to yoke ourselves to wise instructors for our lives. Lead us to what makes us thrive in the Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

Refining Storms

Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them. Prov. 27:22

If I want to thrive in the Lord, I must be refined like gold and silver. I must be refined by any praise I receive (learned last week in verse 21).

Yet, today’s verse talks about a further refining process of being ground by a pestle in a mortar (pictured in the photo [if not pictured, tap the title]), but the individual is too far steeped in sin to understand the purifying benefits and better life he could have if he repents in obedience.

The message version says, “Pound on a fool all you like–you can’t pound out foolishness.”

The KJV says, “…bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.”

To bray the grain (removing the hulls) is the last step in making the grain useful for consumption. Braying happens after threshing (separating from the stalk) and winnowing (separating from the empty husks). Yet, even braying (which symbolizes the harsh storms and trials of life) does nothing to make a fool useful for God’s kingdom.

I pray for the fools of this world and their hearts and minds, that something good from God will get through to them. I don’t ever want to give up on what the Father can do in their lives. Sometimes it’s not the bad things that bring foolish people to Christ, but it’s His work through our own loving service, despite the kind of people they’ve been.

Matthew 5:39-42 says, “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

This past week, the truest quest of my mind about verse 22 came when I began to ask myself, “Am ‘I’ ever that fool in some hidden area in my life? This verse cannot be skipped over or vaguely put on nameless others ‘out there’ simply because I’m a Christian and they’re not. Maybe it’s time for me to take a good look at my own heart. Is there any place in me so closed off that God is not allowed to enter and cleanse the temple of my soul?”

It’s a great question, one in which I must find value in the storms that do me in! For God is refining me into His masterpiece, and I don’t want to miss it.

A few weeks ago, we learned how we can see our flaws in a mirror, in each other and in the word of God. Yet, many times, others see our flaws more than we can.

If I were to become aware of a spiritual defect in myself, my typical response would be to move on and get lost in the busyness of my day.

Who has time to stop and recognize an unwanted flaw? “I’ll deal with it later, no biggie!” I say for the fourth time.

Yet, when someone else comes along and points it out, I get my feelings hurt and become self-righteously incensed. Who are they to tell ME something wrong about myself? Who are they to see me as imperfect?

Isn’t it just like us to hide away in masks of perfection instead of being true to God, true to others and true to ourselves about our spiritual blemishes?

Therefore, I intentionally focused on one of these areas this week because I couldn’t help it. It caught me by surprise, humbling me to my core. I was forced to think through a long-held grudge I didn’t know I had until I took today’s verse and allowed the reality of it to massage my heart. It dawned on me that I’ve been playing that fool who hasn’t let the grinding process get through to her hardened heart. I’ve even had godly answers for others in this same area, but I wasn’t heeding my own wisdom.

In this carefully hidden enemy-stronghold of my life, I’ve been stubborn, blaming, prideful, unwilling and unmoving. However, to tell you the truth, I was not fully awakened to it until I let the Lord deeply pry into my business.

I desired God’s pummeling and pounding to soften me (I had been oversensitive about an issue and others were having to walk on eggshells around me). I wanted God’s mortar and pestle to beat this sin out of me. May I not be so far gone that I refuse to be crushed and refined by His will.

My sin (from what the enemy tells me) is tiny, something I can safely ignore and forget about. But beware my soul of the unaddressed sin that leaves such a disastrous affect, it multiplies and spreads like a virus, yet stays unperceived beneath layers of pride.

I am no different than anybody else who lacks self-control in the ‘big’ sins of inebriation and gluttony, not in God’s sight.

In order to thrive with the Father, I must learn to incorporate self-discipline into my life just as a drunkard or a drug-abuser. The restraining of evil from my soul requires an attentive, vigilant eye and a heart that stays surrendered and guarded.

As I thought more about this refining process, I took a walk (in my mind) through the Tabernacle of God. Last May, I posted a song on Facebook about my Tabernacle study which explains the reasoning for going there now.

Hebrews chapters 8-10 are rich in symbolism about the Old Testament Tabernacle. Chapter 8, verse 1-2 says, “We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves [present day] in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord.”

My lips formed a prayer as I mindfully observed each piece of furniture in the presence of God.

Lord Jesus, as I come through the door (the gate to the courtyard of the Tabernacle), YOU are the ONLY door that leads me to my Father God. There is no other way. You are the only way to a cure for my spiritual sickness. I turn every secret of my heart over for you to examine and prod my heart forward to repent.
As I enter your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise (Psalm 100), I am thankful for the conviction and stirring in my heart to address my sin. I praise you and not myself or my need to hold on tight to my sin.
As I approach the brazen altar, I see the Lamb of God (Jesus), who so long ago took away the sins of the world, and I remember all that Jesus did for this very sin I bring to you this day. Bind my hands and feet to the horns of your altar. Help the pummeling of the pestle to remove my sin. Cleanse me with your blood. May I be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to you.
At the laver, wash me with the pure, living water (which is Jesus) and the word (which is Jesus). Let this word dwell in me richly today. Cleanse me from sin with this water.
Take me to the table of bread (Jesus is the bread). Help me to see that even the bread of affliction that I eat reminds me of the amazing ways you have already set me free (as the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians). Develop in my soul a hunger for you more than for my sin. Give me this day my daily spiritual bread. Help me to know what it is like to fellowship with you in your sufferings. I would rather suffer with you than to be enslaved to my sin. I partake of your body and your blood. Let this act change me. Let my confession be a part of my fellowship with Christ. My desire to be with YOU and to be freed from all sin trumps everything else.
Take me to the lamp stand and fill up my empty bowl with your Holy Spirit oil. May He shine to the world through me (Jesus is the light of the world). Help this light make me even more aware of my need to change. Help this light to provide ways my words and actions will not be a hindrance to others but a God-led path. Please forgive me. Take my life and use me for your purposes.
Let the altar of incense be the place I offer you my prayers and may they be a sweet aroma, pleasing to you, Lord (Jesus intercedes for us [Rom. 8:34]). Remove from me all the grudges of my heart.
I approach your throne of grace, the ark of the covenant, where your glory is made known. Show me your glory. Let your glory shine forth from me. I pray for my change to glorify your name (Jesus, you are the glory of God [Heb. 1:3]). I bow down and worship you in the midst of my struggles. May your presence never leave me. I am yours.
I pray in your most Holy name, Amen.

Perfect Imperfection

Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes. Prov. 27:20

Last week, I was surveying our acre lot. I took in the view of the yard, the driveway, porch and outer areas of the house. I acknowledged within me that there seems always and forever to be something about our property that needs to be weeded, mended or repaired. But not everything can be fixed within my time frame. I like to have the garden trimmed, grass mowed and unsightly driveway stains power-washed and sealed annually. I prefer to have the rotten or moldy wood-trim repaired and painted. It’s part of my job as manager of our house to maintain its needs. However, there comes a point when either there is too much going on that the jobs began to accumulate or the projects are too expensive to tackle until the passing of another season.

My eyes see the imperfections and something inside me feels out-of-balance and dissatisfied. I want it fixed, now!

As I stood there, recognizing my restlessness, I looked up to Jesus and asked, “What should I do with my heart to find satisfaction and wholeness beyond the deterioration my eyes see?” Making myself relax and review the scene again, I wanted this time to see beauty (perfection) in the imperfections. I sought the imbalance, in order to train myself to be content within its reality. My eyes turned upwards to the Lord to be satisfied in Him alone and at peace with what His hand had provided for the moment.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3

The Lord is perfect. He has no defect or flaw. I can be restful in His presence unlike anything this earth can offer.

According to today’s verse, the snuffing out of life or the ruin of people and things is never-ending, always happening. There is no conclusion to the thirst and hunger of the grave and of the evil of destruction.

There is also no end to the desires of the human heart that are made known through the organ of my eyes. I see something I want, I get it, and then I see something else and give into that want. The objects of my desires never seem to be enough.

The hunger of the eyes is simply another form of gluttony and is compared in verse 20 to the insatiable nature of death.

My eyes look to my iPhone for something it cannot give. I long for the television, for food or my perfect lawn to soothe something in me that only God can soothe. I have an ache in my soul for things in which life has given me the opposite. My desires haunt my waking hours. I am discontent to have more of what I cannot have.

My eyes want what is unattainable. If I were somehow to attain these longings, another want would inevitably take its place. Prosperity cannot rest easy in the human soul, because that soul will always feel the poverty of something else to need for life to be worth living.

However, my eyes (or, the desires of my heart) can be trained to want what is good, to crave what can bring true prosperity of spirit and satisfaction of mind, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been studying my life-purpose and seeking God’s will for how I should spend my precious hours. The reality of earth’s lure is strong and tempting. One of my biggest distractions is my iPhone. I’m not even talking about texts and phone calls. I’m referring to the hunger for something “out there” to meet the deep needs of my heart.

I’ve tried different things like: setting my phone in another room at night and removing my Facebook app. But it doesn’t seem to take care of the problem of grabbing my phone 1000 times a day.

Finally, I sat myself down for an extended period of focused time and asked God to give me a plan of attack.

Usually when you name the problem, that’s half the battle. Next, coming up with a strategy to topple the giant in your life generally sets you on a better, more successful path.

So I ask myself: Do I really need to check the weather or calendar (and so on) right now? Can I do without it and continue diligently working on the tasks before me?

Another idea is to find contentment in living in the moment and being there for the people I’m with. I can also find satisfaction in God’s current provision of Himself and His supply for my true needs.

I could get rid of my phone and be done with it, but the benefits it provides far outweigh the problems. Instead, I have given myself guidelines to follow and not remain unaware anymore of its hold on me. It is definitely a habit worth breaking.

We all have things our eyes long and hope for and turn to for solace when we should be turning our minds eye to the Lord Himself and to the tasks He calls us to, without becoming so easily distracted. Truly, I can want Him with no limits! What a wonderful thought.

The iPhone example is simply a way to combat one kind of earthly hunger. I’m sure we can think of more cravings on our part and more ways to become creative in addressing their hold on us.

If we don’t, what will we miss in God’s kingdom and in our lives?

Here is a song to listen to:

Father, you are my greatest focus, my peace on earth. My eyes are drawn to the heavens where you dwell. I seek you and hunger for you day and night. There is nothing like you on earth. My heart longs for your presence and your glory to surround me and all my loved ones. Keep my eyes fixed on you. May the cravings of my heart be taught to turn to you as I thrive on you alone for my satisfaction and wholeness. In Jesus name, Amen.