Powerfully Meek

A golden calf; that was the problem. Moses had come down from the mountain with the commandments of God in his arms. And then he looked and saw the children of Israel in revelry and idolatry.

“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 32:9.)

God appeared on the verge of destroying them, but Moses stepped up and interceded for God’s people, and at this point, He relented.

Stiff-necked has always been a word with which I have been fascinated, so I decided to dig a little deeper.

Gathering as many definitions as I could, I found that stiff-necked means willful, stubborn, prone to wickedness, strongly opposed to things that would better one’s life in the eyes of God, stuck in one’s own ways, won’t be redeemed, inflexible when life hands him a mystery, one who runs away from God, disobedient and virtually impossible to be guided or directed.

Picture an ox unyielded to the yoke placed upon him. He pulls away, unwilling to follow His master’s command. Both end up in a ditch.

Then there are the pious, hardened group of New Testament High Priests and Sanhedrin. They appear super religious but have no real trust or relationship with God. Their waywardness is subtle, hidden, even from themselves. They don’t possess truth.

In Acts 7:51, after a godly man named Stephen was falsely accused, he delivered a long speech to try to get the righteous listeners to understand what had truly happened to Jesus. At the end, he cries out to them, “You stiff necked people! You always resist the Holy Spirit!” They responded by stoning him to death.

Yet, Stephen’s voice still lives on in scripture. He could not be silenced even by the violence of his arrogant killers.

I’d like to believe that we are not in any way unyielding and wayward. I’d like to believe that our hearts would run to hear the voice of God through His people when they speak to us and we would follow God’s word and His voice in our hearts.

What is the opposite of stiff-necked?

The word I thought of was, meek.

Meek means strength under control. It is not weak or timid, just careful in stepping on people (though he could) and instead taking on wise, well-thought-out, calming responses.

The world tells us to be strong and assertive. But look at a mighty-muscled horse that has been broken in. Without training, he may be beautiful but he will continue to be dangerously out of control. If he were tame, his strong power would all be focused on a calm and happy demeanor. He would be willing to submit and be taught meaningful things to contribute to the world. He would be useful and productive.

It takes courage for us to be meek. We would not shy away from responsible confrontation, but we would realize the wisdom needed in how to come across to others in tone, body language and timing.

We would be able and ready to defer to others, to accept our circumstances and cooperate with things we cannot change.

Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was humble (meek). He was definitely not sinless. But there were times he could have stood up for himself. Instead, he chose to be content within the situation. He kept his mouth shut and bore up under the insults of his brother and sister. He was learning to be tamed, to gently bear what could not be avoided. It is in grand moments like these that meekness is most attractive.

Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you (unlike the ox) for I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt 11:29

When we yoke with Him in the humility of the heart of Jesus, we actually are more at peace, more restful than when our spirits fly in wild reckless ways.

When Christ in the Sermon on the Mount says, “Blessed are the meek,” what was His meaning? That we might be doormats with no spine? Or that we would learn to renew our thoughts through the quietness of the Holy Spirit, and then speak His words well.

Father, I look to you to be tamed. Remove the wild animal from my spirit. Take the power you have provided and use me for great things in your Kingdom. You have said that the meek will inherit the earth, but that will not happen through force and physical strength. It will occur through self-control and gentle, calm ways of dealing with those you put in my path. Help me to follow your example, Jesus. In your name, I pray, Amen.

Holy Marriage

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. Proverbs 31:11

All around the world married women (and men, too) who love the Lord, want to know what their spouses value most. Perhaps the secret is simple: forgiveness, love, mercy and selfless compassion. We develop habits of letting offenses slide off our backs and then laugh at ourselves in our humble human mistakes. We grow out of the need to always be uptight and serious, and instead, grow into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why might we, at times, lack these wonderful attributes? What kind of folly lurks behind our failings? Might it be traced to pride, stubbornness, hard hearts or weariness (from taking too much onto our already busy plates)?

The verses that follow today’s verse suggests, “She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life” and she “works with eager hands.”

There is nothing like a Bible scripture to stop you in your tracks and make you consider the deeper things in life that can powerfully impact even more than our marriages.

If our attempts at being a good mate are insufficient, how might our relationship with God measure up? For example, what does God call forth in me when my husband is unkind and vice versa? If our hearts are in tune to the Father and we are in constant fellowship with Him, His Spirit will lead us to own up to our own part in the situation, to humble ourselves, to ask the deeper questions about the moment (are either of us overreacting, is one or the other stressed, are there truths that need to be spoken?) and to always (ALWAYS!) respond with love.

Colossians 3:12-17 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

How I respond in my relationship in marriage (and other relationships as well) reflects the depth of my relationship with God. Developing a thought-habit of honor instead of judgment, contentment instead of misery and kindness instead of control helps us as couples, friends and peers to move in love when our flesh cries out to us to withhold what is valuable. We listen to the heart of our Father.

James 4:17 reminds us: If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Lord, give us generous hearts that help our mates to have full confidence in us even into our old age. Give us a loyal and service-oriented mindset. May those around us lack nothing of value because of the work you do through us. We give you all the glory and honor. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Peaceful Choices (Discernment Series #12)

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5

What a beautiful promise this verse is for us. Let’s come to God for the wisdom we lack and seek His ways.

In today’s blog, I want to follow wisdom as we dig deeper into the fruit of the Spirit (introduced in last week). We will be honing in on one fruit in particular and what part it plays in our discernment process, and that is the fruit of peace.

1. Jesus’ last words on the cross were, “I commit my spirit into your hands.” In other words, He was asking God to take His precious life now that everything had been accomplished.

That’s a pretty peaceful place to be.

I long to imitate Jesus’ words, but instead of waiting to say them at my time of death, I desire to speak this beautiful phrase to God, right now. I want Him to use my life and let it be all that He wants it to be. I commit my spirit into His hands in dying to myself while living.

A surrendered life brings peace.

2. Feeling safe is a condition that we think will bring us peace, but does it really?

Certain circumstances happen in which we don’t feel safe. Examples for me would include: driving to unfamiliar places, doing new things, speaking uncomfortable truths, giving to others on an empty tank (after a prompting from God) and not knowing if I can handle unappreciation on their part.

Is peace supposed to always be our guide in knowing that something is right when we feel it or wrong if we don’t?

Is it possible that discerning between two opposing choices can be done without bias?

“I think I’ll go with door #1 because it feels safe or peaceful to me.”

Yet, what defines ‘safe’ to God?

Do we make decisions based on our comfort and safety or are we willing to go forward in courage knowing that God’s wisdom and love will carry us through?

Ponder each of the above questions thoroughly.

3. God will lead us, at times, to go through a delay in giving us the wisdom (discernment) we lack and we must choose peace in the waiting in order to truly carry out His ways.

We may say, “I don’t have peace in making this decision.” And sometimes, the peace we seek will come, yet not defined as comfortable or convenient. However, we claim a quiet calm when we know (on a deeper level) that God helps us do what is right even in our most insecure moments.

After all the praying we do and the processing of it all, we still may make a wrong decision! Does that mean all of life will crumble if we get it wrong from time to time? What will happen to us? Will we be struck by lightning?

God is bigger than my incompetency. He is bigger than my mess ups. I am relieved and thankful for that. He knows my heart. He knows your heart. We WANT to follow His ways.

In my mind, I simply don’t see God as a giant, holding a zapper, ready to zap me when things go wrong because of a failed decision. He knows I want to do what is right. He can make good come from my bad choices, my incompleteness and failings.

And…we all can use our mistakes to learn better ways for the next time. We can have peace in simply knowing God will take care of the situation. We can let go of anxiety, stress and worry.

We can even let go of other people’s stupid mistakes and make the atmosphere peaceful (and generous) in our love for them (because we know how it feels to err). THIS makes our lives beautiful. It also sets the tone for others to make better choices next time. Our ‘I told you so’s’ or rages and rants over people’s bad choices only create stubborn, rebellious and prideful hearts who will not learn from their mistakes.

4. When peace is far from you, first ask your heart, “Am I believing a lie (through fear)?” And then ask, “Am I at peace, sometimes, simply because I’m comfortable?”

5. How hard is it to seek peace in times when you must start, continue or end a necessary conflict? What about when you are in the middle of a storm? Where is God? He is absolutely with you and when you call out to Him, He will come to aid you. A peace beyond understanding (Phil. 4:7) will guard you, but you must have eyes to see and ears to hear His kind of peace that may not feel very peaceful. Sit with Him and let Him supernaturally invade your emotions, your mind and heart. He wants to be present in your life. God may still ask hard things of you (that feel unsafe), but to stay in His peace, go forward in His tasks and let Him take care of the rest.

Here are things I’ve added to the Discernment Wheel from last week.

Discernment is:

A desire to do the right thing even when antagonized (to not have regrets)
Following the Holy Spirit and His fruit
Not grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit
Not about one way of doing things; His ways can change in a heartbeat
Flexible
Not necessarily a magical experience
Not a moment to enjoy but to work
Emptying ourselves to be filled with God’s wisdom

Lord, thank you….thank you that even in turmoil and tough decisions, we can find peace in you, an inner calmness that we cannot quite wrap our brains around. Your peace is such a comfort. Growing in letting go of everything having to be perfect in and around me is also a comfort. Father, I commit my spirit to you for always. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Inner Storm (Anger Series 2nd of 9)

…but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast…Genesis 4:2-7 (NIV).

Abel’s acceptable offering stirred a jealous rage within Cain. God’s disfavor pointed a finger at his apathy in worship and called him to a higher plane, to worship in holiness. His anger seems to be tied to some inward lure of evil. Headed down a path of deeply ingrained habits, there is evidence, to my way of thinking, that Cain must have incessantly indulged himself in sour, unhappy thoughts. His anger was unreasonable. A more fitting response to God’s disfavor would have been humility.

Cain wasn’t simply frustrated or irritated; he was in the midst of a terrible, personal storm and intolerant of counsel, even from God himself. Locked behind prison bars of inner turmoil, his anger drove him to murder.

If I am trying to learn from Cain’s story, I gather that it would be wise for me to name the source of anger for what it really is. Ungodly anger springs up from evil thoughts, and more importantly, from evil himself (Satan), whose plans are to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10).

Luke 6:45 says, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Have you ever wondered: if today’s explosive situation had happened yesterday, would it have been better handled? Why? The difference tells me that there is more going on than what the other person said or did or how a circumstance played out.

To glean a better understanding of the study passage, I listed some of my favorite quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Brackets and underlining are added by me):

“He [Cain] carried ill-nature in his face” “He should have been angry with himself for his own infidelity and hypocrisy.”
[Have you ever been angry at someone and were too stubborn to admit that YOU were the one at fault? If it is hard to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ you are missing out on one of life’s greatest lessons. Take a deep breath and jump off the diving board into repentance. God will bless you!]

From The Sermon Bible Commentary:
“Cain held a religion, but his religion did not hold him.” “Sacrifice has its ground in something deeper than legal enactments [legalistic acts, outwardly show]; it infers more than the giving up of a thing; it has something to do with sin, something to do with thanksgiving.”
[When I bring my offering, it’s not about what I bring with my hands, but what is in my heart…And what is in my heart will affect how I give with my hands.]

“Sacrifice becomes evil…when the offerer attaches any value to his own act and does not attribute the whole worth of it to God. The worship of one is accepted…[the] other disregarded, because one has faith and another has no faith.”
[I bring my offering (something that costs me a great deal). I can make a show or complain about it. I can compare it to someone else; OR, I can give in abandon. When I say my prayers, sing praises, clean toilets, or serve meals, and am more tuned in to me than to God, my offerings are no different from Cain’s offerings.]
(end of quotes)

Honestly, ‘Cain’ shows up in me and in the attitudes of those around me as well. Yet, it is my responsibility inside this anger, to use God’s ways to break free from stooping to Cain’s level. Pitiful, constant tears, stabbing, demeaning comments, and fierce, noisy anger harm relationships. Yet, God’s way is to lovingly speak the truth (Eph. 4:15).

I wrote in my journal: “I lost control today in arrogant pride. The enemy encouraged me to make poor choices, and I earned disrespect for myself. Claiming my own rights, I gained not higher ground; in fact, I lost ground. Valuable lessons came to me as I sat in the quiet with my Father.” Here they are:
“I am not the one who has all the answers. Learn from the very people who make you angry; stay humble; praise God in the storm; laugh a lot; serve well.”
“Speaking out ahead of God, no matter how right the cause, always ends in a form of loss.”
“Speaking out in God’s timing has power not of my own making in which the Spirit upholds my cause. And, even though I may not be guaranteed a listening ear or compliance, I have followed God’s will and that is enough.“

Examining my heart daily, I search within me for signs of anger, for possible causes and for what might remedy each cause. Whether it is anger at having to wait forty-five minutes, or even five minutes for customer service, at dreaded tasks of the day, disrespect from a peer or at God’s silence to my prayers, the storm gathers its forces. Hot buttons are pushed. I may steer clear of some storms or they may quickly blow over. Sometimes, however, the storm’s fury grows fast and furious and lingers long.

In the quiet, I ask myself, “What will anger accomplish? What will it do to ME (physically) and to the relationship (emotionally)? Wisdom instructs me to: rearrange my perspective, take captive my thoughts (II Cor. 10:5) and lay down my will for God’s will. If needed, I ask when, how, and where to speak any righteous anger and then let it go. In this study, I’ve had moments of euphoric peace and joy, in which anger is completely absent and my heart is unusually full. That is something to look forward to more of as time goes by!

Lord, I am unable to cleanse myself of anger-storms. I give you my tears and sorrow for my pride and arrogance. As I examine my heart for anger, reveal what I cannot see; guide me. Help me to let go. Forgive any murder in my heart (Matt.5:21, 22). Purify my thoughts. Help me to breathe life into all those you place before me. Keep ill-nature from my countenance. With an abandoned face, I set my will on your altar, placing all value and worth on you. I give up all claims to gifts my flesh attempts to manipulate from you, Lord. I depend not on worldly power, beauty, or approval for my joy, but I fully dwell in your happy presence. In Jesus name, Amen.