Arise

Prayer Focus: France

Bible Reading: Song of Solomon 1:1-5:1

Scripture

My beloved spoke and said to me,
"Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.”  (Song of Solomon 2:10)

Observation

This book of poetry, though expressed as a human love, is really supposed to convey the metaphor of the romance between us as the bride, and Christ as the groom.

Application

To have Christ look on me with affection and call me “darling” and “beautiful” is something that I long to hear.  His is not the love of an infatuated suitor, but one who is fully aware of my failings, my sin, and loves me anyway.

In the Jewish tradition, the groom would go to prepare a place for his bride,  and when the house was ready he would come at a moments notice to whisk the bride away to the wedding banquet.  Jesus deliberately invoked these words in John 14:1-4 as a promise.  One day he will call to his beloved, inviting us to leave the corruption of the world.  He will call us from the clouds to say “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.”

Prayer

Lord, I pray that you find me with oil in my lamp and ready for your summons.  (Mat. 25:1-13)  Even so, come!

Yours

Prayer Focus: Estonia

Bible Reading: 1 Chronicles 27-29, Psalm 68

Scripture

11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

12 Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

13 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.

(1 Chronicles 29:11-13)

Observation

David had just used the national stores to help build the temple, plus his own private wealth, and then encouraged the people to give generously too; and they responded! The scripture verse above is the prayer of thanksgiving that David offered after they raised all the funds to build and outfit the new temple.

Application

I don’t know about you, but I find myself reminding God about his wealth and power right about the time I need to borrow some of it for my own purposes or when I’d like him to help out someone I love or am praying for. For the record, I hate/love when I’m spanked with self revelation like that. Uncomfortable as it is, it usually leads me to growth – though it’s painful in the admission.

David, HAD all the wealth and power-and that was the moment he reminded God it was his: as he was offering back to Him from his own storehouse. I can’t help but remember all the times I have done it backward.

Luke 16:11 says “So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”

Prayer

Father, while you may own the cattle on a thousand hills, I pray that you give me the faith that lets me leave it all on the field for you. I don’t want to hold back for myself, or play head games trying to manipulate you into doing my will with your resources. I want you to be pleased with me.

Amen!

Passing Disasters

Prayer Focus: Dominica, Dominican Republic

Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 22 - 23, Psalm 57

Scripture

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me. He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me—God sends forth his love and his faithfulness. (Psalm 57:1-3)

Observation

As I have been reading the Psalms over the last few weeks I’m struck with the tendency to take these verses with their imagery and melodies (that are the templates for many praise songs) and completely skip over the tops of them like a flat rock across a stream. It’s easy to forget the turmoil and crisis that precipitated them.

Today’s Psalm comes from David, a man literally “hotly pursued” by Saul, not metaphorically. Taking refuge in God while being chased by the enemy with the resources of an entire nation wasn’t just poetic prose, but life and death for him. I find it interesting that even in these moments, David sees perspective in his circumstances and calls it a "passing disaster".

Application

In the last few weeks, I have been made aware of no less than three families who have lost their homes due to tornado, fire, and economic circumstances. I am not taking creative license to illustrate a point – I’m talking about displaced and homeless people who are desperate for refuge.

The storms come. No matter if the storm is literal, like the tornado that hit Dexter several weeks ago, or financial, like the economic recession that ate so many jobs, or elemental, like the fire … the storms come. Sometimes we find ourselves in temporary shelters (hotel rooms or living in a car) instead of caves, chased not by soldiers but creditors.

Prayer

Lord, show me how to best use the resources that you’ve blessed me with. Help me know how to best help these families. I pray that you would show them your love and faithfulness. I pray that their passing disaster drives them to take shelter and refuge in you; that their souls awake to salvation and that they meet you at their point of great need.

Amen!

The Struggle...

I'm sure you've noticed how quiet it's been on the blog lately.  Partly that's because of the situation we've had with Jess, but it's also because after a talk with my husband I see that I was crossing some lines of personal information that he wasn't comfortable with.

freephotos.com

I'm struggling to find a balance here.  I'm using this blog as I would my journal time, a place to sort myself out and make sense of all that's going on in my experience.  Normally, it would be full of details and specifics - things that I can pin down until they stop squirming so I can identify them.  I'll trace it back through my history on why I feel, or am acting or responding the way I am to this trigger, and ask the Lord's help on making it right, healthy, whole.  Sometimes it means that I only have to acknowledge what's happened, name it for what it really is through the lens of truth, and not the lens of wanting to be the hero in my own story... But sometimes I have real harm I need to address.  Harm that's been done to me or that I've done to others while in reaction mode.

All of that self-examination reveals  more than my own story, since I share a life with my husband and children.  So I struggle to find a balance where I can speak a universal truth, yet step softly around the details that would make this MY journey instead of one you might able to relate to as well.

I struggle with knowing if what I am saying "out loud" here on the blog is something that God is using.  I can step softly around the details, and continue here if I know that what I am saying has value to another.  But if all I am really doing is standing in an empty room talking to myself, I can go back to my spiral notebooks for that.

I don't usually beg for responses.  But today I am.  If you know me personally and you have my e-mail address, or you know me on facebook or twitter, please send me a note letting me know that you read my blog and what type of posts speak to you.  If you have stumbled across my blog from the net, and you keep coming back to it, leave me a comment?