Tag Archives: trust God

The Power of Praise

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prisonPaul and Silas, first-century missionaries, were arrested for stirring up trouble in Philippi. They were stripped, beaten, and locked in stocks in a cell deep within the jail. If you and I were beaten and thrown into prison in a foreign country, we would probably be anxious and worried. But Paul and Silas chose to trust God and turned to Him in prayer. Confident that He heard their prayers and would care for them even in prison, they began praising Him. Acts 16:26 tells what happened next. “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

When we choose to respond to trouble by praising God, we may not find such an immediate, miraculous change in our circumstances. But we will be gradually set free from the prison of worry and anxiety which holds us. Why? As we consider God’s attributes and praise Him for them, our trust in God expands along with our conception of Him. We are reminded that God is all powerful and will provide the grace and strength we need to face any challenge.

Timothy Keller, author of The Prodigal God, writes, “If you are filled with worry and anxiety, you do not only need to believe that God is in control of history. You must see, with eyes of the heart, his dazzling majesty. Then you will know he has things in hand.”

How can we see God’s “dazzling majesty”?

  • Spend time in nature. Witness the beauty of creation or the vastness of the night sky.
  • Read Psalms of praise (such as Psalms 95-100) aloud. Notice the awe and wonder the psalmist expresses.
  • Worship with others who have glimpsed God’s majesty.

Next time you feel threatened by fear or worry, shift your focus. Spend time considering God’s attributes and His power. Give Him your praise and adoration. You can depend on Him for miracles—fast ones or slow ones.

When have you experienced the power of praise?

 

New Year Reflections I—Live Expectantly

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The New Year is a natural time to reflect on the past year and consider how we want to live in 2013. Wouldn’t it be great to live in such a way that we don’t fear the future or regret the past?

Fear of the future comes from forgetting God, from imagining the “what ifs” and envisioning worst-case scenarios. Instead of expecting the worst, though, we should put our trust in God to provide for us no matter what happens. “This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike ‘What’s next, Papa?’” (Romans 8:15, The Message).

My friend Kristy recently told our Toastmasters chapter how she developed an “adventurously expectant” outlook. She spent a month praying the prayer of Jabez, asking God to enlarge her territory (1 Chronicles 4:10). As she prayed, she sensed God telling her to focus on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). At the same time she became interested in making bracelets. First she made one with the word, “Love.” Shortly after she finished it she encountered a woman who needed a listening ear. At the end of their conversation, Kristy hugged her and gave her the “Love” bracelet. As she made a bracelet for each fruit in turn, the Lord brought someone to her who needed that particular virtue. Last she made a bracelet bearing the word “self-control.” She wondered if anyone would appreciate it; the Lord showed her that she should keep that one. She felt blessed.

We can learn to live as Kristy has—prayerfully asking God to make himself known to other people through us. We can awaken each morning thankful for the gift of a new day and eager for new challenges, watching to see how and where God will show up. Jesus said, “…seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness …” (Matthew 6:33). As we focus on seeking God’s kingdom, our fear of the future will disappear, replaced by eager expectation.

Attitude adjustment

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I applied for a new job after several other applicants had withdrawn. I assumed the job was mine. When I heard another candidate had also applied, I started to worry. What if I didn’t get the job? How would I handle the disappointment?

At the time my Bible study group was reading about Joseph (Genesis 37-45). The second youngest of twelve brothers, Joseph had big dreams—literally. He made the mistake of telling his brothers about these dreams in which they bowed down before him. Jealous because he was their father’s favorite, they threw him in a pit, then sold him to passing traders. He was taken to Egypt and became a slave in the household of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. God blessed him, though, and he was put in charge of the household.

Joseph thrived until Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of sexual assault. He landed in prison. But once again God was with him and blessed him. God also gave him the ability to interpret dreams. Ultimately this led to his release and rise to power as the second-in-command to Pharaoh. Twenty-two years after his brothers threw him in a pit, they came to Egypt and bowed down before him, just as his dreams had foretold.

God used bad circumstances (slavery and unjust imprisonment) to work for good, both for Joseph and his brothers. Remarkably, Joseph was not bitter about the trials he had experienced. He told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…” (Genesis 50:20).

Reflecting on Joseph’s story and praying about my situation changed my attitude completely. If God could orchestrate Joseph’s astounding rise to power, I could surely trust him to guide my career path. I felt at peace while I waited to see what would happen.

Whenever we face uncertainty of any kind, we can turn to God in prayer. Asking him to guide our steps, we can wait patiently, trusting that he has not forgotten us. He promises to bring good from any situation, just as he did for Joseph. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

By the way, after several weeks in limbo, I interviewed for and was offered the job. I accepted. Now I face the uncertainty of unfamiliar tasks and new responsibilities. Having trusted God with the outcome of my application, though, I find it easier to depend on him to help me through this transition. God is good—all the time.

Fear Withstood

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I met Grace Fabian last summer at a writers’ conference and then read her book, Outrageous Grace. She and her husband, Edmund, were missionary translators in Papua New Guinea from 1969 until his death in 1993. He was murdered while translating the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, into the Nabak language.

After his death, Grace wondered whether she should play it safe and abandon the translation project. Remaining in the village was dangerous—her house was vandalized and trees in the yard were cut down or set on fire. She received eleven eviction notices over the course of a year. In the midst of this turmoil and uncertainty, she came to the scheduled Bible reading for the day—2 Kings 6.

This chapter tells the story of the king of Aram (present-day Syria). His raids in Israel proved fruitless because his troops’ movements were revealed to the Israelites by the prophet Elisha. So the king sent soldiers to seize Elisha. The next morning Elisha’s servant went out and saw an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. He asked Elisha,

“What shall we do?” He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” Then Elisha prayed: “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17.)

As Grace read this account, she realized that God was speaking directly to her. Whenever fear accosted her, she prayed, “Open my eyes, Lord. Let me see your horses and chariots of fire.” Though she didn’t see horses and chariots, she found the courage to face an angry mob—she went outside and served them coffee and cookies. When three hooded thugs wielding machetes broke into her house, she found the strength to pick up a chair and defend herself. One man slashed at the chair, but when she stood her ground, all three backed out the door.

Grace faced real dangers, but she chose faith over fear. She wrote, “I determined, with angels and horses of fire on my side, that my choices would grow out of a place of power, not fear and insecurity. Two powerful truths would be my guiding lights: the power of the presence of a sovereign, omnipotent God [and] the power of the promises in His inerrant Word.” Whenever we become fearful, we can lean on those same two pillars: God’s presence and God’s promises.

Unmask Lies—Let Truth Set You Free

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I was flying a few weeks ago when the plane encountered some turbulence. I felt the usual terror rising within me. Instead of surrendering to it, I took a deep breath. Then I examined the automatic negative thoughts which caused my anxiety.

  • I can’t tolerate the turbulence.
  • Turbulence means the plane will crash.

I recognized those thoughts as lies and contradicted them:

  • I can tolerate the turbulence. It won’t last forever.
  • Turbulence does not automatically mean the plane will crash.

My panic subsided, simply because I recognized the lies I had believed and replaced them with the truth.

I explained this concept to a friend who is also afraid of flying. “What lie do you believe when you’re flying?” I asked him. “I am not in control,” he said.  His problem was different than mine. He didn’t believe a lie, but he focused on only part of the truth. The greater truth he can affirm is that God is in control. Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29, 31).

Jesus tells us not to be afraid. Why? Because nothing—not flight delays, mechanical difficulties, or turbulence—can separate us from God’s love. (See Romans 8:38-39.) Whatever happens, we need not panic. We are safe in the arms of God.

Watch out for ANTs

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“Would you be willing to drive me to Newark?” my son asked. “No, I can’t,” I wanted to say. I’m afraid of driving on unfamiliar highways in busy metropolitan areas. He pointed out that the Newark airport wasn’t much farther than the New Jersey Transit station in Middletown, NY, where I had planned to drop him so he could catch a train to Secaucus, then transfer to a train to Newark. Driving to Newark would save him several hours and the uncertainty of making connections in Secaucas.

Lately I’ve been on the lookout for ANTs—Automatic Negative Thoughts. I recognized the “I can’t” thought as an ANT. So I asked myself if it was true. Would I let fear keep me from driving to Newark? A verse from the Bible, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” (Philippians 4:13, NKJV) helped me answer the question.

That’s how I came to be at the Newark airport. My son drove there from Binghamton, NY, while I read directions from Google maps. Unfortunately we hadn’t thought to print the reverse directions and I didn’t have a GPS. As I slipped behind the wheel for the return trip, I prayed for help. After paying for parking, I followed another car onto the maze of roads surrounding the Newark airport. One minute I was following the signs for 78 west; the next minute the road forked and I went left. The signs now read “Holland Tunnel.” I had the sinking feeling that I was headed east, not west.

I prayed for God’s guidance and continued driving. I began following signs for the New Jersey Turnpike and soon came to a sign for 78 west. Once I was headed towards home, I thanked God for his care and guidance. I spent the rest of the trip listening to worship music, aware of God’s nearness. That evening I read these words:

I love the Lord,
because he listens to my prayers for help.
He paid attention to me,
so I will call to him for help as long as I live.

                                           Psalm 116:1-2 NCV

This passage reaffirmed that fear does not have the last word, in travel or in life, as long as I put my faith and trust in God.

 

What do you fear?

Will you call to God for help?

Life is Short—Live It Well

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“Did you see the newspaper this morning?” my supervisor asked. No, I hadn’t. She’d seen an obituary for a woman we had known through PTA when our children were in elementary school. In her mid-50s, she had died from a malignant brain tumor. I was shocked and saddened by her death—my heart goes out to her family and friends.

I considered my response to her untimely death.  I could worry that I might also develop cancer and die prematurely. But that would be foolish.  “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus said (Luke 12:25). Instead I want to consider the lessons to be learned.

  • Life is short—too short to waste time on fear and worry. I will choose faith over fear.
  • Life is short—I want it to count. I will stop procrastinating and start working toward my goals.
  • Life is short—too short to waste on holding grudges or hoping for revenge. I will choose to forgive myself and others and seek forgiveness from those I’ve hurt.
  • Life is short— I will actively pursue health by eating right, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep. (See the Daniel Plan for guidance.)

An untimely death is a tragedy, but a greater tragedy is a long life filled with fear and worry. Take a step today towards greater trust in God by coming to know him better. Buy or borrow a copy of Jesus Calling and read a devotion each day. Or open the Bible and read a chapter each day. (Start reading the Psalms if you’re unfamiliar with the Bible.) If you’re not able to trust God, tell him and ask for his help. Change is possible, because nothing is impossible with God.

Have you struggled with worry after someone’s death?

 

Warning Signals

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BEEP. The piercing, high-pitched sound penetrated my consciousness. The battery in the smoke alarm must be dying, I thought, as I rolled over and drifted back to sleep. BEEP. There it was again. I didn’t want to get out of bed to check the battery. Instead I lay there, half awake, dreading the next BEEP.

Worry, like that intermittent beeping, is a signal that all is not well. Too often we tolerate it, just as I tolerated the beeping. It’s better to pay attention. Start by asking yourself, “Can I take some action to solve this problem?” Perhaps you need to make an appointment to see the doctor about the lump you found or call the dentist about the tooth that’s hurting. Perhaps you need to make a phone call to ask why your son or daughter hasn’t come home yet.

If you can’t identify an action that will solve the problem, then worry may be a signal that all is not well on a deeper level. It calls you to examine your life, to look below the surface, to seek out the source of your worry. As Francis Chan writes in his book, Crazy Love, “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives.”

So take a few moments. Consider what you usually worry about. Ask God for insight regarding the underlying cause. Then ask him to direct you to a solution. Don’t hang back, because Scripture says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7, NLT).

In case you’re wondering, the beeping eventually woke my husband. He got up and removed the batteries from both smoke alarms before finding the problem:  the carbon monoxide detector. Once those batteries were replaced, we were both able to get some sleep.

Don’t let worry interrupt your sleep. Track down its source, take action when possible, and trust God with the rest.

Prayer Works

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God amazes me with his answers to prayer. Let me share one example. My mother lives in a nursing home in Albuquerque, far from my sisters and me. She has macular degeneration and has been legally blind for seven or eight years. Recently her vision deteriorated further and she lost the ability to read large print books. She was very discouraged, especially because she couldn’t read her Bible.

About that time, my mom’s roommate died. I prayed for her next roommate to be a good fit. A few days later her new roommate, Donna, answered the phone when I called. She told me she’d served as a missionary in Indonesia and had read to blind people. I asked if she would read to my mother. She said they had already talked about that. I had prayed for a kind roommate and God provided someone who can read to my mom. No wonder the apostle Paul describes God as the one “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20).

God’s astonishing power and his gracious answers to prayer encourage me to pray instead of worrying. My mom’s new roommate is only one answer to recent prayers. Some answers have come almost immediately—a friend’s daughter who was facing a 90-day residential treatment program for substance abuse issues improved the day my small group prayed for her, so she can be treated as an outpatient. Other answers have taken longer, teaching me to persevere in prayer.

I’ve started praying about issues at work also. For example, I helped coworkers develop a complex database. At one point we hit a brick wall. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get certain fields in the data entry form to automatically fill. Our frustration level skyrocketed. On the way home I prayed about the problem. A day or two later I woke up in the middle of the night with the phrase “auto-fill” in my mind. I wrote the phrase down, did a Google search the next morning and found detailed instructions with a worked example. Those were sufficient to show us how to redesign the tables and their relationships and produce a query that worked. This sort of thing has happened so often lately that both my supervisor and I recognize that Romans 8:28 is true: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him….”

Knowing that God can solve problems I can’t has set me free from much worry. Paul’s words to the early Christians at Philippi are spot on: “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6-7, The Message).

As Christ becomes the center of my life, my natural pessimism is giving way to a brimming optimism. God truly can accomplish far more than anything I can ask or imagine.

Don’s Legacy

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Do you worry about your health? Let me tell you about Don, who had every reason to worry about his. He developed insulin-dependent diabetes when he was only four years old. In his early 20s, as his vision was failing, he tried unusual diets and experimental surgery to save his eyesight. Nothing worked. Blind at 22, he lost all hope. His mother didn’t. When her coworker was miraculously healed at a Pentecostal service, she took Don. He didn’t receive his sight, but he received a more precious gift—a relationship with Jesus Christ—to replace the empty religion he had rejected in his teens.

Through the next 36 years of his life, Don suffered six heart attacks, kidney failure and the amputation of one foot. He had 15 angioplasties, 24 stents and was on dialysis for 13 years. Only his faith and hope kept him alive.

Don recognized that worry is a temptation: “It’s easy to dwell on your circumstances. If the enemy can keep us focused on our problems, he can disable us.” He didn’t let that happen. He focused on God’s word, listening to the Bible on tapes until he had memorized much of it.  He also spent hours in prayer. His influence transformed his church into a house of prayer.

Don told anyone who would listen that we live in two realms, the visible, physical world and the invisible, spiritual world. His worldview was shaped by passages like 2 Corinthians 10:2-5. Here’s J. B. Phillips’ paraphrase:

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds. Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defence that men erect against the true knowledge of God. We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ.

Don captured worried thoughts using the authority of Christ. He replaced those thoughts with praise. “If you’re praising God, the devil won’t stick around long,” he said. Two other verses which helped him guard his mind were Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” and James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Don was a role model for many, including the children he taught in Sunday school and the inmates he visited in the Broome County jail. He was a role model for me as well, teaching me that I have a choice when I’m tempted to worry. I can listen to the devil’s whispers or use the authority Christ has given me to capture worried thoughts.

Don died six weeks ago. At his funeral his three siblings, nieces, nephew and friends all spoke about his tenacious faith and unwavering hope. He has left a lasting legacy.