God of strength

As Psalm 46:1 says, "God is our refuge and strength." On page 130 of "Boyhood and Beyond," author Bob Schultz reflects on God's strength:

God has done many things to show His strength to me. One stands out above them all: Throughout my life, God has shown His strength to me by faithfully drawing me out of bed each morning that He might enjoy a relationship with me.

Some people see early rising as a difficult discipline reserved for the hardy, self-controlled person. For me, it isn't a discipline; it is a gift from a living God to a weak man.

I was taught that a Christian young man was supposed to get up early in the morning and have devotions. It was my duty. It may have been my duty, but it was also my struggle. One morning, when I was about eighteen years old, I had a particularly difficult fight and was losing. I tried and tried to get up, but I couldn't do it.

Then I heard God's voice in my heart saying, 'Quit trying -- and get up.'

It startled me. Not that I would hear God's voice in my heart, but that the idea was so simple. I quit trying and got up!

Getting up to spend the morning with God is an excellent way to start the day.

Living water

Being from Minnesota, I understand the importance of having running water in the wintertime. In "Boyhood and Beyond," author Bob Schultz relates how living water is important in one's spiritual life:

At 2:30 one morning I awoke. The water had stopped! Without hesitation I jumped out of bed. Throwing on warm clothes, I went out into the night. First, I crawled under the trailer and squeezed all the hoses checking for a hard spot that would indicate a frozen blockage. The hoses seemed okay. Then I ran two hundred yards down the hill to the pump house looking for trouble there.

Unable to find any frozen pipes I ran back up to the trailer for a heater. . .down to the pump house to plug it in. . .up to the trailer for a lamp to put by the hoses. . .down to the pump to check for any progress.

I raced back and forth knowing that the longer it took to find the frozen block, the colder all the lines would become.

On one trip up the road I stopped my busyness and looked up into the sky. The stars were brilliant. The night was so cold and calm that I could hear my heart beat. In the stillness God spoke to my spirit:

'When your water lines begin to freeze, you jump out of bed immediately, even in the middle of the night. It is important for you to have drinking water. When the Living Water in your heart begins to freeze, are you that quick to get up and attend to the trouble?'

I had been busy lately. The cares of the world were gradually freezing the water of my heart. Slowly, one degree at a time, I was growing cold toward God and wasn't doing anything about it. I knew the water was slowing, but spiritually I continued to lie in bed. On that freezing night, halfway between the trailer and the pump house, His presence melted my heart, one degree at a time. He showed me again the purpose of life, reminded me of His love, and drew me to His warm side.

Let God in to your heart. Open yourself up to Him. Let down your walls.

Confess your mistakes

In "Boyhood and Beyond," author Bob Schultz recounts how a lesson that he learned as a teenager -- the easy way out of trouble is to confess your mistakes -- is still very relevant as an adult.

Twenty-five years later I stood in a huge bathtub gasping for breath. I couldn't believe what I had just done. I was framing on a new house and needed to install some blocking on the wall behind a four-foot-wide fiberglass tub. Stepping into it to reach the blocks, I accidentally dropped the air nailer I carried. It misfired and shot a three-and-a-half-inch nail through the bottom of the tub!

I felt sick. The same wrong thoughts that I faced years before came into my head.

'Don't tell anyone! Hide it. No one will know that you did it.' Does it surprise you that an older man would be tempted to hide his mistake? Men, at every age, want to hide their faults, but if we do hide them we are fools.

God's Spirit spoke loudly to my heart, 'You can't do that. You must tell the truth the first chance you get. The general contractor comes back in a couple of hours -- tell him.'

When the contractor did return, I pushed aside my strong desire to hide. Walking quickly to him, I told him my mistake. Now it was his turn to feel sick. He called the plumber, who called the manufacturer. Within minutes, the contractor came to me smiling. He announced, 'The tub company has a warranty policy on all of its tubs. Any construction damage they'll fix without charge.'

Schultz goes on to repeat that the easy way out of trouble is to confess your mistakes.

A moose on a wilderness adventure

Being in God's wild outdoors can create some interesting experiences. John Eldredge recounts one on pp. 25-26 of his book Beautiful Outlaw:

I'm remembering a story from last summer. My sons and I were on the first leg of a five-day backpacking trip into a wilderness area we'd never visited before. We'd been on the trail only forty-five minutes or so, but already I am bringing up the rear (I am the old goat now). I'm looking around, taking in the sights, when I notice moose sign on the trail -- droppings, tracks. Not fresh, but still, it didn't even cross my mind that we might be in moose country. I love moose. Seeing one is a celebration for me. With a hesitant hopefulness, I prayed, 'Wow, Jesus. . .it would be awesome if we could see a moose sometime during this trip!' I'm thinking several days from now, once we're into the back country, and maybe then only from a mile away. Jesus' immediate reply was deadpan: You will. Count one thousand one. . .one thousand two. . .one thousand bam. There in front of us, sixty yards away, is a moose grazing in the meadow.

God's timing could not have been more exquisite. Jesus' timing sure is perfect, isn't it? He wants good experiences for us.

Forgiveness between daughter and father

On pp. 130-131 of "Getting Anger Under Control," Neil T. Anderson shares a woman's story of amazing grace:

When I was young, I was sexually abused by my father. This wasn't a frequent event by any means. I only remember it happening once. I don't recall details, but I remember enough to know that things happened that shouldn't have happened between a father and daughter. When I was saved in 1988, I was 35 years old. I felt a release from anger almost immediately. There was an internal peace I had never known.

However, seven years later I found myself still struggling around my father's birthday and Father's Day -- those occasions that required a card or call. I never was able to pick a card that said 'I love you' or any other intimate sentiment. It was troubling to me, and so finally one day during my devotions I brought this up to the Lord. I asked, 'Lord, why do I go through these struggles around these times?' The answer came quickly and clearly. It was simply, 'You don't respect him.' I started to object, laying all the groundwork for the argument that 'one needs to earn respect,' and so on.

I realized after a few minutes how useless my arguments were. All I heard was silence. I asked the Lord, 'Is this a sin against You?' Again, the response was quick and clear. 'Yes.' I felt devastated, but at the same time free. I confessed the sin, and then the Holy Spirit graciously flooded me with memories of the times my father had done things that deserved my respect, but I had deliberately withheld it.

Within a few weeks of this experience, I was talking to my dad on the phone. TALKING! We had never had a conversation before. This conversation lasted almost 15 minutes! That was the longest I had ever talked to my dad. At the end of the conversation we both said that we loved each other. It wasn't just words, but something we both felt sincerely.

My dad passed away this past February, which was about four years after that devotional time. When I was visiting him in his last few weeeks, I asked him for forgiveness for the times I was unkind and disrespectful. I also told him that I forgave him. I didn't go into detail of what it was I was forgiving him for; it was sufficient that we both knew. The very next day I asked him if he would pray to Jesus and ask for forgiveness of his sins. He did! I praise God for this, as he had always been extremely resistant to the gospel. I praise God for the words He gave to me at the end of my dad's earthly life. I have peace knowing that my dad is with God now and that I will see him again in eternity.

If this woman can forgive her father, we surely can forgive those who have hurt us.

The backyard kingdom

Photograph by Christopher Drake

I recently read a book called "The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows." On p. 184, the author, James Bryan Smith, tells a story about how God visited him in his backyard:  

One day, in the midst of my effort to slow down and become present, I decided to take an afternoon to try to live 'deliberately,' as Henry David Thoreau put it. It was an unseasonably warm mid-February day, so I sat in an Adirondack chair in my backyard. Of course, the leaves had long ago fallen, but one bushy tree really stood out. Normally, I would never have paid much attention to this tree, and given the time of year I would not have spent more than a few minutes in the backyard. But there it was, and it had my full attention. 

After a few minutes I noticed something strange about this tree in addition to its leaves: it had lots of tiny grape-like berries. I began to wonder why it was full of berries at this time of the year. Because I had been in and out of prayer that afternoon, I turned my attention to God and asked, 'God, why is this tree full of berries?' Right on cue a little bird, the size of a finch, flew to the tree, skewered a berry and flew to a nearby bush where it dined. The Spirit whispered, 'That is why the tree is full of berries.'

It was as if the Sermon on the Mount was being preached in my backyard.

Try to slow down and connect with God today.

The last thing Jesus said

I receive a monthly letter from John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart. The message of the most recent letter from Eldredge was "slow down":

As I was praying this morning about what we all needed in this month's letter, Jesus replied with a question: What is the last thing I said to you?

It wasn't meant to imply, Write about what I said to you this morning. Rather, Jesus was raising the issue of staying with him, staying with the words he gives to us. As in, Do you even remember the last thing I said to you? Let me explain why.

Every time I fire up my phone or computer, there's another notice: 'Software updates available' (there's a new one staring at me even now). And so I go through the rigamarole of updating this or that aspect of my system, or of some sweet little program I have that makes me feel cool and on top of things. Updates. Now, sure -- we all want to keep things running smoothly. But there is something about the number and frequency of these 'updates' that screams about the world in which we live.

The world is obsessed with the new, the latest, the next thing. Gimme the update. Obsessed.

Eldredge recommends slowing down our pace of life. When God speaks to you, record it somewhere so you can follow through on His word. . .and remember the last thing He said.