I work in the kindergarten class of the After School program at my church's school. Recently, one of the boys, we'll call him Felix, came into the room very distraught about the fact that he thought he was getting a note sent home from his teacher. He said that he had called another little boy in his class "stupid-face" earlier in the day. Felix is a very well behaved kid, and hates to get in trouble. He's very easily worried and has a lot of anxiety. I always say that he's a 40 yr. old man in a 5 yr. old body. He was in tears because of the supposed note home, and couldn't even finish his lunch. I said to him,
"Felix...do you need a hug?"
He said, with lots of dramatic flair, "No, I think I'm just going to pray."
I said, "I think that's a great idea Felix. Would you like me to pray with you?"
He said, "Uh yes. I think so."
So he sat down at the table, folded his hands, closed his eyes, and proceeded with a very expressive prayer...
"PLEASE GOD...Don't let me get a note home, please, please, please don't let me get a note home. Don't let my mom hate me. Don't let me have a note and don't let her be mad at me. PLEASE GOD don't let me get in trouble for the note. PLEASE don't let me get a note home..."
That went on for about 5 minutes. He finally said, "Amen." I said, "Amen." also, and he came and sat down beside me, still in tears. I said,
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know, I'm just still worried. I'm really worried about the note."
I said, "I think it's all going to turn out just fine. I don't think your mom will be too mad because you never get in trouble. It's going to be ok. You want to know why?"
"Why?"
"Because you prayed, and I know that God heard it and He's going to take care of it."
"Oh...ok."
The next day, I asked Felix how everything went and he said,
"Oh everything went fine. I didn't get a note home."
He ran off to play with the other kids with a big smile on his face.
I can't help but wonder how often I'm just like Felix when I pray. I say, "Please, please, pleeeeease God..." and I worry and stress, when God has already put His plan into motion and the next day... everything has worked out just fine.
Last night it snowed, but it didn't stick on the roads so we still had school today. There was snow on the playgrounds and it was melting and making mud. Some of the girls came up to me and asked if we were going outside today. I said,
"No, not today. It's too muddy because of all that snow."
Most of the girls took that answer and walked away, but one little girl stayed and said, "But can't we go outside? It's not that muddy."
I said, "Yes it is, go look out the window at the playground."
She ran over to look out the window and came back to me and said,
"It's not muddy! Can we go outside?"
I said, "No, I already told you we weren't going outside."
She said, "But I really wanna go outside!"
I said, "Talk to God about it."
She nodded her head and ran over to the window and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. She ran back over to me and said, in a sheepish voice,
"He said no."
:)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
"My God's not dead,
He's surely alive!
And He's living on the inside,
Roaring like a lion!"
("Like A Lion" by David Crowder Band)
Growing up in a charismatic/pentecostal home all my life I heard a lot about spiritual warfare. It was always kind of this vague sort of thing, that people in my church did when they got really loud and intensely prayed and laid hands on people. I remember being a little bit afraid of, and embarrassed by the thought of it when I was a kid.
When I was older, and began going on missions trips I had several encounters with strong spiritual power and quickly learned that it wasn't just this "spiritual idea"...but that there were definitely other forces out there, battling against us and attempting to battle against God. Still, it was something that I regulated to the mission field.
Lately though, God has been teaching me about the war that is going on everyday. I'm learning how to fight...but it's not about being loud and praying as hard as I can. Infact, it's more about letting Him do the fighting. It's a little bit difficult to put into words, but I'm going to attempt to write about a few things He's been teaching me.
In the past few months my sister and I have remarked at how often God has reminded us of Romans 8. Specifically verse 31, which says, "If God is for us? Who can be against us?" and verses 26-27 and 34 which say that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are our intercessors. I try to remind myself that even if I don't know what to pray for myself or for others, or if I can't focus, or I haven't given myself time to pray, the God of the universe is praying.
I was afraid of everything growing up. Roller coasters, E.T., infectious diseases, clowns, you name it. As I got older, those tangible fears dissipated, but I traded them for inner fears. Worry, insecurity, timidity. One time in college I was praying with some friends and this guy prayed over me that I was a lioness, and that I would speak into darkness and the darkness would flee. At the time, I was like, "Are you crazy? Do you even know me? I'm no lioness."
I have begun to see lately though, that I can have that courage, like a lion. You can too. It's strange though, because it can only happen by doing something the world would say was completely absurd...something that goes against every war strategy ever thought of since the beginning of time...
surrender.
Not to the enemy, but to the power of our Lord. I'm learning more and more that spiritual warfare isn't about a lot of fervor and intensity. It's about a quiet, calm, steady, faith. We get to cross our arms and watch as our mighty Defender goes before (and behind and all around us!) and every evil foe and force has to bow in agony.
I really think though, that He does let us help some...He has given us a powerful weapon to fight with...But it is definitely not one that a soldier would normally think of carrying into such an intense battle. Our glorious weapon that God has entrusted us with is,
Love.
His love. Pure and bright, strong and penetrating. It has the ability to flow to the farthest reaches of this earth and dispel the darkness and we have the weighty privilege of carrying it there.
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."
-2 Corinthians 10:3
He's surely alive!
And He's living on the inside,
Roaring like a lion!"
("Like A Lion" by David Crowder Band)
Growing up in a charismatic/pentecostal home all my life I heard a lot about spiritual warfare. It was always kind of this vague sort of thing, that people in my church did when they got really loud and intensely prayed and laid hands on people. I remember being a little bit afraid of, and embarrassed by the thought of it when I was a kid.
When I was older, and began going on missions trips I had several encounters with strong spiritual power and quickly learned that it wasn't just this "spiritual idea"...but that there were definitely other forces out there, battling against us and attempting to battle against God. Still, it was something that I regulated to the mission field.
Lately though, God has been teaching me about the war that is going on everyday. I'm learning how to fight...but it's not about being loud and praying as hard as I can. Infact, it's more about letting Him do the fighting. It's a little bit difficult to put into words, but I'm going to attempt to write about a few things He's been teaching me.
In the past few months my sister and I have remarked at how often God has reminded us of Romans 8. Specifically verse 31, which says, "If God is for us? Who can be against us?" and verses 26-27 and 34 which say that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are our intercessors. I try to remind myself that even if I don't know what to pray for myself or for others, or if I can't focus, or I haven't given myself time to pray, the God of the universe is praying.
I was afraid of everything growing up. Roller coasters, E.T., infectious diseases, clowns, you name it. As I got older, those tangible fears dissipated, but I traded them for inner fears. Worry, insecurity, timidity. One time in college I was praying with some friends and this guy prayed over me that I was a lioness, and that I would speak into darkness and the darkness would flee. At the time, I was like, "Are you crazy? Do you even know me? I'm no lioness."
I have begun to see lately though, that I can have that courage, like a lion. You can too. It's strange though, because it can only happen by doing something the world would say was completely absurd...something that goes against every war strategy ever thought of since the beginning of time...
surrender.
Not to the enemy, but to the power of our Lord. I'm learning more and more that spiritual warfare isn't about a lot of fervor and intensity. It's about a quiet, calm, steady, faith. We get to cross our arms and watch as our mighty Defender goes before (and behind and all around us!) and every evil foe and force has to bow in agony.
I really think though, that He does let us help some...He has given us a powerful weapon to fight with...But it is definitely not one that a soldier would normally think of carrying into such an intense battle. Our glorious weapon that God has entrusted us with is,
Love.
His love. Pure and bright, strong and penetrating. It has the ability to flow to the farthest reaches of this earth and dispel the darkness and we have the weighty privilege of carrying it there.
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."
-2 Corinthians 10:3
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The greatest of these.
One day last week I woke up in the morning with the song "Boasting" by Lecrae and Anthony Evans running through my head. The lyrics say,
"If this life has anything to gain at all
I count it lost if I can't hear you, feel you,
'cause I need you. Can't walk this earth alone.
I recognize I'm not my own, so before I fall
I need to hear you, feel you, as I live to make my boast in you alone."
I also distinctly heard two phrases in my head: "Love does not boast" and "Love is not self-seeking."
I recognized this from the "Love Passage" in 1 Corinthians 13. Most of us are pretty familiar with it. I decided to read it again though, and this time I looked at the whole chapter (...with completely new eyes...God seems to be doing that for me a lot lately. I feel like a little kid learning in Sunday School again.)
In the beginning of chapter 13 Paul says,
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing."
He then goes on to talk about the "greater gifts." That phrase used to confuse me. I thought, "Are some gifts more important than others? Which ones are the greater ones?" I realized though, that what he was really saying that he was about to introduce us to the greatest gifts. He goes into a description of what love is, that makes each one of us want to crawl under the table. There has to be at least one phrase in the "Love Passage" that makes each one of us uncomfortable. There's just no way for a human to live up to all of this criteria!
Patient...AND kind...AND not envious...AND not boasting, OR proud...It doesn't dishonor, or provoke, it's not self-seeking, and it keeps absolutely no record of wrongs. It ALWAYS protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. It never fails.
That's a lot to live up to. Especially since we are told that love is the greatest commandment for us.
But love is a gift.
It's the first fruit of the Spirit, and its something that we have to allow the Spirit to fill our lives with. We can never love like this on our own.
After Paul goes through his ode to Love, he says,
"But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears... For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
This is the part that I felt like a Sunday School girl in. It suddenly dawned on me that the reason Paul says all this, the reason he tells us that Love is the "greater gift" is because it's the only one we will carry into eternity. Prophecy, and tongues, and words of knowledge, and discernment, and all these things are wonderful -they're gifts from God, but they are only partial and they are only temporary. When we go into eternity we won't need them anymore. We'll commune with God every second of every moment (if there are even moments in heaven) so we won't need "words" from Him. We will know as we are fully known, so we won't need knowledge as a gift.
But we will be loving. We'll be loving God with our whole beings, completely wrapped in the fullness of His love for all of forever. We will also be loving one another. We'll be able to love and fellowship with each other without any of the hang- ups, insecurities, or limitations that there are on our relationships here on earth.
Now about the last line...
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
I'm a youth leader at my church. Last night, for the second time this month, the youth pastor, Pastor Alan, talked about a specific passage of scripture that had been tossing and turning around in my heart all the week before. It's so cool when God does those kinds of things...little " coincidences" that you know aren't. He was talking about love, and he read from 1 Corinthians 13. We were having what PA calls a "REALtalk," where he starts a topic and passes the microphone around the room and the students get to share what's on their heart regarding that topic. One of the questions he asked, was "what's the difference between loving God with your heart, your soul, and your mind?"
We established that the heart is the seat of our emotions, and loving God with all your heart is loving Him with your emotions...which we tend to frown on, but really it's an important part of our relationship with Him. He created us as emotional beings.
When it came to the soul part, I was stumped. I had never really thought about what was different about loving God with your soul as opposed to your heart. Someone said that it involves living with an eternal perspective. Which I totally agree with. I thought about the last part of 1 Corinthians 13...faith, hope, and love.
Faith and hope are both expressions of us loving God with our souls. They transcend our emotions and our minds. Infact, they are almost completely contrary to everything our feelings and our rational minds tell us. They are how we live for eternity. And love...well we've already established that love is the only gift we can take into eternity. I believe that Paul was telling us that faith, hope, and love are the greater gifts, but...
The greatest of these is Love.
"If this life has anything to gain at all
I count it lost if I can't hear you, feel you,
'cause I need you. Can't walk this earth alone.
I recognize I'm not my own, so before I fall
I need to hear you, feel you, as I live to make my boast in you alone."
I also distinctly heard two phrases in my head: "Love does not boast" and "Love is not self-seeking."
I recognized this from the "Love Passage" in 1 Corinthians 13. Most of us are pretty familiar with it. I decided to read it again though, and this time I looked at the whole chapter (...with completely new eyes...God seems to be doing that for me a lot lately. I feel like a little kid learning in Sunday School again.)
In the beginning of chapter 13 Paul says,
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing."
He then goes on to talk about the "greater gifts." That phrase used to confuse me. I thought, "Are some gifts more important than others? Which ones are the greater ones?" I realized though, that what he was really saying that he was about to introduce us to the greatest gifts. He goes into a description of what love is, that makes each one of us want to crawl under the table. There has to be at least one phrase in the "Love Passage" that makes each one of us uncomfortable. There's just no way for a human to live up to all of this criteria!
Patient...AND kind...AND not envious...AND not boasting, OR proud...It doesn't dishonor, or provoke, it's not self-seeking, and it keeps absolutely no record of wrongs. It ALWAYS protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. It never fails.
That's a lot to live up to. Especially since we are told that love is the greatest commandment for us.
But love is a gift.
It's the first fruit of the Spirit, and its something that we have to allow the Spirit to fill our lives with. We can never love like this on our own.
After Paul goes through his ode to Love, he says,
"But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears... For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
This is the part that I felt like a Sunday School girl in. It suddenly dawned on me that the reason Paul says all this, the reason he tells us that Love is the "greater gift" is because it's the only one we will carry into eternity. Prophecy, and tongues, and words of knowledge, and discernment, and all these things are wonderful -they're gifts from God, but they are only partial and they are only temporary. When we go into eternity we won't need them anymore. We'll commune with God every second of every moment (if there are even moments in heaven) so we won't need "words" from Him. We will know as we are fully known, so we won't need knowledge as a gift.
But we will be loving. We'll be loving God with our whole beings, completely wrapped in the fullness of His love for all of forever. We will also be loving one another. We'll be able to love and fellowship with each other without any of the hang- ups, insecurities, or limitations that there are on our relationships here on earth.
Now about the last line...
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
I'm a youth leader at my church. Last night, for the second time this month, the youth pastor, Pastor Alan, talked about a specific passage of scripture that had been tossing and turning around in my heart all the week before. It's so cool when God does those kinds of things...little " coincidences" that you know aren't. He was talking about love, and he read from 1 Corinthians 13. We were having what PA calls a "REALtalk," where he starts a topic and passes the microphone around the room and the students get to share what's on their heart regarding that topic. One of the questions he asked, was "what's the difference between loving God with your heart, your soul, and your mind?"
We established that the heart is the seat of our emotions, and loving God with all your heart is loving Him with your emotions...which we tend to frown on, but really it's an important part of our relationship with Him. He created us as emotional beings.
When it came to the soul part, I was stumped. I had never really thought about what was different about loving God with your soul as opposed to your heart. Someone said that it involves living with an eternal perspective. Which I totally agree with. I thought about the last part of 1 Corinthians 13...faith, hope, and love.
Faith and hope are both expressions of us loving God with our souls. They transcend our emotions and our minds. Infact, they are almost completely contrary to everything our feelings and our rational minds tell us. They are how we live for eternity. And love...well we've already established that love is the only gift we can take into eternity. I believe that Paul was telling us that faith, hope, and love are the greater gifts, but...
The greatest of these is Love.
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