Where Feet May Fail

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw 

This bridge is from a song of a popular Christian worship band.  A lot of churches may even sing this song during their worship services.  How often do we sing this lyric, but really mean it? How often have I listened to and sung this lyric, but only really pay lip service to it.  

A Prayer Answered

Herein stands the believer's paradox. We pray, "God I want to become more dependent upon you, more reliant upon your grace."  But we don't really want God to answer that prayer.  Because when He answers that prayer, it means we lose control.  

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”  Matthew 14:28-30

I resonate with Peter.  He was a deep feeler.  Showed his emotions on his sleeve.  He had the guts to pray a prayer like the lyric above, but once the Lord answered, saw he had no control over his situation and it brought him to a place of complete and utter dependance upon Jesus.  But it was motivated out of fear and doubt, not confidence in His Lord, as we see by the Lord's response in verse 31: 

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:31

And this is the sinner's dilemma.  Because sin has weighed down our perspective and thinking, we come to Jesus often out of fear and doubt.  But take heart sinner.  Christ's blood has been sprinkled upon our consciences, upon our way of thinking, and we no longer need to come to Him in fear and doubt.  

"...let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22

Our Confidence in Christ

"Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander...".  To pray a prayer like that and mean it takes guts.  And when God answers, we can confidently go to Him to trust that He will keep us above the waters.  But be ready for anything.  Taking us deeper than our feet could ever wander could mean a new ministry, a new place, a difficult trial, and certainly unknown boundaries to our current experience. And because we are on this side of the blood offering of Christ on the cross, we can confidently draw near to His help, His hand to hold you up, and "make your faith stronger". 

toothless and growing

There he is - my toothless wonder. And yet another reminder of how fast he is growing up and how much less time I have to establish him in the understanding and knowledge of grace, wisdom and hope. Isn't it funny how we have this tension in life? We can't wait for our children to gain some independence so that they are not so dependent upon us, yet we want so badly to slow them down, to keep them "frozen" in place and to savor this time we have with them more.

The growth of his adult teeth propels me to take more seriously the growth of his mind and heart and spirit into adulthood. What am I doing to cultivate his physical, mental and spiritual well being? What am I doing to instill virtues such as patience, self-control, love and honesty? Virtues that are needed to live a life of godliness for the purpose of pointing others to God and for the purpose of a life of peace and good choices.

If you have children, what are you doing to instill these things? If you are in the empty nest stage of life, what have you done or are still doing? As believers - we must live out our lives in the world, but not of the world.  This faith practice plays out in the way we our parent our children and will leave a legacy for generations to come. It is such a burden, but one that can be light through the empowering presence of the Spirit and our daily surrender to that presence.

In Genesis 18:19 we read, "for I [God] have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

In a similar way, God has chosen us to "direct" our children and our household to do what is "right" and "just" - not in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the Lord - the way of the Lord.

Let us all hold fast to the role of directing in our homes - directing that is displayed through the example of righteousness and justice, having an aim only for being Christlike - for Christ embodies righteousness and justice.

Yearning for God so much it hurts

When I study scripture in my personal time with God, I usually take a chapter, parse it out by paragraphs and then begin to paraphrase it. I consider the context – who, what, where, why, when. I consider what has come before and what is coming after. I consider what type of literature I am studying – is it poetic? Is it wisdom? Is it prophetic? And so on. While considering these things, I begin to paraphrase the passage and in so doing, I apply it to my life.

Recently my eyes have rested upon Psalm 42. I've read this Psalm many times before, but I haven't fully appreciated what God is saying through the life of this Psalmist. When I discovered that this Psalmist is a worship leader, my soul perked up. Here is someone who led worship in the temple of God, yet also struggled with keeping his eyes focused on God when all things seemed dreary at best.

I decided to share with you my paraphrase of this Psalm. I would encourage you to read Psalm 42 side by side with my paraphrase or to at least read it before you read this paraphrase. I would not suggest that my paraphrase is exegetically correct, but it does help others get into my heart and mind a little as I sort out my thoughts and emotions through the reading of God's Word.

Verses 1-4

My all yearns for You, God, so much I hurt. It's like how a thirsty deer yearns for fresh water. My sadness has overwhelmed me, my lack of faith brings darkness upon me. I am unclean and unprepared to meet with God. I recall those times when I have led worship in front of the congregation with celebration and joy and thanksgiving. How can I do that now?

Verses 5-8

Why do I lack in faith? Why do I despair? I need to wait upon the Lord, for I will yet again praise Him for His help and deliverance. Yet right now I am still in despair. I recall Your guidance in my life and the victories You have accomplished on my behalf. Even in the times when I have felt like I was in the deepest darkness, You have refreshed me with abundant water, for my cup overflowed. I know You are so faithful – I see Your blessings of mercy throughout each day and at night You sing lullabies over me. This leads me into prayer and conversation with You, God.

Verses 9-11

At times I say to You in anger, "Why?" "Have You forgotten Your promises regarding me?" I continue to mourn because of all that the enemy throws at me. Sometimes his oppression is so great it is crushing me, causing those around to ask, "Where is your God?" I say to myself, "Do not despair, put your hope in the eternal God, and praise Him." For He will deliver and prosper me from the confines of death and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Rejoice, Be Patient, Pray

I was reading Romans 12:12 yesterday where it states to be "patient in tribulation" - this is surrounded by "Rejoice in hope" and "be constant in prayer" followed by the command to serve the saints through hospitality. This is a reminder that while our pain is real and while we are in the middle of this trial, the way through the trial is twofold: 1)to rejoice in the hope of Romans 8; and 2)a life and attitude of constant conversation with our Father (1 Thess 5:17). All the while not to become so self-focused in our grief that we neglect serving others.

I can certainly see why people who go through a loss of any kind could become so self-absorbed. I have experienced times of self-pity and self-focus since we have heard the news. There was a time I could not see myself serving anyone else ever again. Thankfully those times, when they come upon me, have been fairly short-lived.

A life rooted in Christ, no matter the trial, will be refocused by the Holy Spirit toward things above: The Hope of Heaven (2 Cor 4:18, Col. 3). A life focused on things above takes the eyes off of the temporary things that can seemingly surround and offer no hope. Truly, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to be able to grieve, to allow ourselves to grieve, and to be able to serve and bring glory to God through the grief.

My prayer is for all who experience loss that they would not lose focus of the hope we have in Christ. Christ is the only hope in this world. John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

Whose Reality Is It?

It's been awhile since my last post and wisely so - what's the use in posting something up here for all to read unless it is worthy to read. Here's something I think is worthy to read:

In my talk with God this morning, I read Proverbs 3:5-6. I wrote this prayer based on that passage:

“God, help me to trust in You, not in the way I think things are, but in the Way You see them to be.”

We need to trust in God’s reality, rather than our perception of reality. If I had understood this as a young Christian in college, I don’t think my road toward maturity would have been quite so bumpy and curvy. Notice in these verses that when we trust in God’s view of reality and acknowledge His reality, then our path will be made straight – in other words, His guidance in our lives will be clear as a sunny day. But when we trust in what we think reality is, then His guidance will be far off – His light will be at a distance – and we will get off the straight way toward holiness because we can’t see what straight really is. And after a while we begin to like the bumpy and curvy road, when in God's reality, it does not truly satisfy us, because (in God's reality) it delays our ETA toward holiness and true fellowship with God. We are not satisfied because we are not living in the way we were created to be - holy, or wholly. Holiness brings wholeness to us. When we are not wholly, then there is tension. When there is tension, there is lack of satisfaction. When there is dissatisfaction, there is frustration. When there is frustration, there is hopelessness. When there is hopelessness, there is death.

Why should I trust in how I think things are? Why not trust in something, or Someone, Who is not bound by the limits of time or space?

In that trust there is satisfaction - yes, a hurdle built of faith to leap over - but a deep satisfaction.