11-19-12
Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Bible Verse of the Day: Isaiah 40:31 " But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not grow faint."
Sometimes life is hard. If we are not careful, we can easily loose our joy due to the hardships that this world offers that never seem to be in short supply. Our health is failing, our loved ones are on drugs, our boss is a jerk, there is not enough money in the bank, or if there is, not enough time to enjoy it. We are getting old more quickly they we would like. This seems to be especially poignant around major holidays such as Thanksgiving when we wonder where the last year has gone or how it went by so quickly. The years sure do seem to speed up as you grow older. If we focus on the media and the news of any given day, there are plenty of things that will depress us. This past Presidential election cycle was enough to make even the most patriotic of Americans feel embarrassed by the lowliness of the campaign process. Is that the best we can do, I kept asking myself as I viewed viscous attack ad, one after another? Apparently so. I guess all it takes to become President of the United States these days is to artfully and ruthlessly vilify your opponent without ever having to put forth an actual plan of your own.
So where do we turn when the weight of the world is stealing our joy and we cant seem to see over the mountains that stand before us? I believe the answer is found in the Bible verse of the day above. If we place our hope in the Lord, wait upon the Lord, we will renew our strength. As a matter of fact, we will find an amazing amount of energy and enthusiasm from aligning ourselves with the only One, through the energizing gift of the Holy Spirit, who can ever give us real strength and real peace. I learned while listening to a sermon the other day that the word enthusiasm comes from the Greek words En and Theos, which literally mean " In God." The more we align and spend time with God, the more energy we get. We actually feel like a gust of wind has lifted us up to soar like eagles and to run and not grow weary. I have found that we need to re-frame our problems from what is wrong with us, to what is right with God. Just that subjective change in mindset can truly set us free. They say a low view of God is the cause of 100 lesser evils, while a person with a high view of God is relived of 10,000 temporal problems. We cannot focus on God and help but feel our strength grow. Our fears can cripple us and leave us looking back on our lives and wondering why we hadn't tried more things or taken more chances. These regrets, called sins of omission, can stifle our happiness later in life. The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears. God says in Matthew 11:28 "come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and i will give you rest." He alone can give us the courage to go forward when we are out of strength. He alone can give us the enthusiasm for life deep in our soul when it seems all the world is caving in all around us.
As followers of Christ, it should be our birthright to be enthusiastic and to have a sense of destiny about life when we focus in on how great His love is for us. Where others see us a having a death wish, we really have a life wish. We want to take risks for the One who risked it all. As my Pastor said this weekend, all the other religions of the world focus on the word "do" as in what do you have to do to be saved? Wow, what a heavy burden to carry around with you, always wondering what else you have to do in order to be accepted by a judgmental God. Christianity focuses on the word "done" as in Christ has done it all for us. We are free from sin, from the guilt and shame that otherwise would have destroyed us if it were not taken care of us on the cross. Our sin tab reads PAID IN FULL. It is a hard concept in this world of go take what you want from the world, be your own boss, you deserve it, for us to get to a place where we can be energized in just knowing that there is nothing that is required from us other than accepting what already has been done for us by a merciful and loving God. When we really come to that place where we see how powerless we are to deal with our own sin, and yet we realize that we have a God who sent the Lamb of God in Jesus Christ to pay an atoning sacrifice for our collective sin, Christians should be the most energized people in the world. Not naively enthusiastic, recognizing that we all will experience seasons of sometimes tremendous pain in our earthly pilgrimage, but inherent enthusiasm welled up deep in our souls.
God loves insurmountable odds, and the Bible is full of the stories that prove this, just see David vs. Goliath or Gideon's army for a few reminders, because where we see obstacles, He sees opportunities. Opportunities to bring glory to His Kingdom by using saved sinners like us, the rag tag folks of God's Army, the weak to humble the strong of this world and to bring love to the hopeless. That is why only the weak can fight in His army. He needs to break us of all pride and then He can begin to restore us for His bigger plan and purpose for our lives. There should be tremendous enthusiasm in being a part of such a big plan. Jesus says throughout the scriptures that we must be like little children " For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." What are little children like? First off, they are totally dependent on others for their survival and contentment. Was that a big hint or what from our Lord? If you look at their personalities though, they tend to be eager, enthusiastic, playful, loving, trusting and not the least bit self conscious. They are alive and they are eager to experience life to its fullest. I believe God expects the same from His followers. There should be an enthusiastic expectancy to our lives as followers of Christ. I believe King David was a man, although certainly not immune to pain and heartache, who lived his life in an eager way that was dependent upon the Lord and full of enthusiasm for what he might do next. This is captured in one of his prayers in Psalm 5:3 " In the morning O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." For that and many other reasons King David was known as a man after God's own heart. May we have the courage to live enthusiastically in and for God ourselves. He deserves nothing less from us.
