Recipe for Peace

Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (I Thess. 5:16-18)

Sacrifice

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." Genesis 22:2

The story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac has always been an inspirational story of faith. I've read it dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times since childhood. In some ways it seems like a fairy tale:

Once upon a time there was a couple, Abraham and Sarah, who couldn't have children. After a long time of waiting, God gave them a son, Isaac. Then a few years later, God told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him to God as a burnt offering. So Abraham took Isaac to the top of the mountain and was about to kill him when God stepped in, told him how proud he was of Abraham, and told him to let the boy go. And God provided a ram for the offering, and they all lived happily ever after.

Yes, it's a fascinating story of amazing faith, and we like to read it and wonder at Abraham's willingness to please God. But we know how the story ends--we know that Abraham really won't have to sacrifice his only son after all. We know that God will stay Abraham's hand and give him a ram to sacrifice instead. We know there's a happy ending.

What if, instead of stopping Abraham's knife from plunging into Isaac's flesh, God allowed Abraham to sacrifice his son? What if Abraham gave his son's life, and God did not restore that life to him?

There are times when God calls us to sacrifice something that is precious to us--perhaps a relationship, or a job, or a ministry. Maybe we're not called to sacrifice them because there's anything wrong with them, or because we don't appreciate them. Sometimes we're called to sacrifice as a sign of our faith in God.

Sometimes He returns the offering itself to us. And sometimes He doesn't--although He ultimately returns something better. Maybe we don't get that relationship or job back--but instead, God gives us comfort and peace in the midst of suffering, and we learn to walk closer with Him than if we hadn't made the sacrifice.

I like the idea of sacrifice, as long as it has an Abraham-and-Isaac-like ending. I'm content to give up whatever God calls me to, if I know that I'm going to get it back eventually. But is that really and truly sacrifice? I don't think so.

Sacrifice isn't giving up something for a little while--it's giving with the intention that the offering may very well be a permanent one. Sometimes it's giving up hope of what we want to happen, clearing the way for God's will to be done.

Recommended Reading

I first read The Blessings of Brokenness by Charles Stanley several years ago when going through an extremely painful time in my life. It's a short read (about 160 pages) but chock-full of insights into why God allows us to go through hard times and how He uses that to produce fruit in us.

I'd forgotten just how good this book is, but was quickly reminded when I started reading it again last week. If you're going through a difficult time and are looking for some answers about why God is allowing it or how any good can come from it, consider reading this book.

This ends my commercial...

Surrender

There's an old hymn that I grew up singing--it doesn't seem like we sing it in church so much anymore. Although the tune is very light, pretty and melodic, the words are much harder.

All to Jesus I surrender--
All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Countless times I've thoughtlessly sung the words without seriously considering their meaning. ALL to Jesus I surrender? Everything that I have, everything that I deal with, everyone in my life--do I truly, freely give those to Him?

I find it hardest to surrender things that are God-given. There have been times when I've been called to surrender relationships, desires and dreams that have been given by God. It is often very difficult to surrender these blessings; it is easy to get permanently attached to them. But, "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away".

Is surrender a one-time occurrence, or a daily commitment? I lean more toward the daily, continual action. Are some areas of your life easier to surrender to God than others? How do you deal with times when God calls you to surrender a blessing that He gave you?

Never Alone

Waiting on God is a tough thing to do. Okay, that's an understatement--it's pure torture at times. Right now I'm waiting on Him for answers, and so far He has been rather silent on the matter, at least in answering those particular questions on my heart. However, He is revealing Himself to me in some unexpected ways as I wait on Him.

I had dinner last night with a friend who is in her own "waiting room", waiting on God for some answers in a relationship of her own. Although God has promised to never leave us or forsake us, and we're truly never alone, I am SO thankful for the times when He puts fellow servants in our lives who are experiencing or have experienced similar trials. The journey is difficult, but so much easier when we have someone to walk with us.

Today, rejoice in the friends that God has blessed you with who come along side you when you need them the most.

His Paths

Don't be impatient for the LORD to act! Travel steadily along his path. (Psalm 37:34a)

One of the many discoveries I've made in this recent trial is just how often I was more interested in traveling along my own path rather than God's. I relied on MY timing, MY ideals of how my life should be, rather than trusting His timing and His ways. I'm definitely learning that so much of my life is dependent on God's timing, and when I try to rush things or make things happen, I end up doing more harm than good.

It's a humbling lesson to learn, but a very necessary one if I truly want to live "life to the full". For the past month or so I've kept returning to Psalm 37 in my quiet time. So many verses in that particular chapter address the importance of waiting on God. He is certainly teaching me to lay aside my own desires, no matter how good they may be, and wait for Him to fulfill His plans.

I still hate this trial that I'm experiencing--but in spite of the actual circumstances, my soul finds rest in surrendering my will to God and waiting on Him. I wish I could say that I've only had to surrender once, but it's a daily, sometimes several times daily, submission.

Just for Fun

Based on your God-given talents and skills, what career field would you want to be in if you weren't doing what you're doing now?

My answer: Speaking, writing and hosting my own radio talk show

If you could go back to school and learn a brand new career field, what career would you want to pursue?

My answer: Something in sports medicine/physical therapy

Follow-Up to Yesterday's Post

I hope that I didn't come across as Super-Lisa in my previous post on choosing joy. Although I'm certainly trying to focus on what God has done and is doing in my life rather than focusing on the trial that I'm going through, I will be the first to admit that it's a struggle. I have to constantly refocus and stay in prayer that my will and desire will align with God's will, not the other way around.

Waiting on God is not something that comes naturally to me. It's easy to become discouraged when nothing seems to be happening. The key word here, of course, is seems. Just because I can't see what God's doing right now in this situation, that does not mean that He's not at work.

This is what I refer to as a "faith-building time". I can definitely recognize that God is shaping and molding my heart right now, removing some dross and refining me in areas that I didn't know needed refining. I know that I will come through this stronger in my relationship with God and more useful to Him.

But it's still a daily struggle. I'm not perfect in this struggle. But He is.

Joy in the Midst of Suffering

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. (James 1:2-4)

Joy is not a natural response to suffering. It does not come easily or effortlessly. It is one of those things that we have to decide to pursue.

In the midst of suffering, it's very tempting to fall prey to a full-blown pity party. It's easy for me to become discouraged because of my circumstance or because God seems silent at the time. Right now, I'm in the middle of a trial that I can't do anything about. I have to remain still and silent, waiting on God to act.

Although I can't change or control this circumstance, however, I can control my attitude. I can choose joy. I can see this suffering as "an opportunity for joy"--the NIV calls it "pure joy". Regardless of whether or not my circumstance changes today, regardless of whether or not I feel God's presence or receive the answers that I'm longing for, I can choose to be joyful.

Being joyful right now doesn't mean that I ignore my trial or try to forget about it. On the contrary, I can be joyful in remember how God has come through for me in the past, and that encourages me that He will come through for me now.

I am trying to have a more thankful attitude. It's easy to thank God when things are going well; but I think that it's when I go through trials that my gratitude moves to a higher level. I thank Him for what He has done and what He is doing and going to do, even though I can't fully see what He's doing. I thank Him for the good times and trust Him to sustain me in this bad time.

Focusing on being thankful not only reminds me of how God continually blesses me, but it keeps me from staying discouraged. Right now I'm rejoicing in the fact that God is using this trial to draw me closer to Him and reveal more of Himself to me. It definitely makes this time a lot more bearable.

Lessons, Revisited

This morning I was reading through my blog archive and came across the following posting, which I originally wrote in October 2004. I thought it was appropriate to what I'm experiencing right now, so here's a rerun for you today:


Lessons from the Left Field Wall

I recently took my first trip to Chicago with some friends. This was not a work-related trip, not a day of sightseeing sandwiched between a conference or meetings. This was my first sure enough, bona fide vacation this year, and I enjoyed it whole-heartedly.

Being a huge sports fan, I particularly relished our visits to Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. We first went to the stadium on Saturday afternoon, where we took the behind the scenes tour, then returned on Monday for a baseball game.

Eager to soak up the atmosphere, we arrived at the stadium just before they opened the gates, which was two hours prior to the game time. After locating our seats, a couple of friends and I ventured down to the left field wall to capture some photographs of the pitchers warming up. Dozens of other people had the same idea, and the wall was crowded with cameras and autograph seekers.

After maneuvering my way down to the first row at the wall, I found myself standing next to a boy of about eight years of age and his father. The father was holding a notebook and patiently keeping a close eye on the players who were pitching and fielding balls. His son, on the other hand, was anything but patient. I quickly summed up (despite my lack of formal training in sociology) that this kid was a brat.

Every word out of the boy’s mouth had a whiny pitch to it. And he had a lot to say. “I’m tired.” “I’m hungry.” “Why are we standing here?” “Why don’t we find our seats already?” “I’m sick of this!”

Meanwhile, the father, who must have been in the running for sainthood, kept gently answering his son. “I know you’re tired, son, but wait just a few more minutes.”

What the boy didn’t realize was that his father had a purpose for standing there at the wall, a purpose greater than stretching his legs. He wanted to get his son an autograph from a real Major League baseball player. This could be something that his son would cherish for years, perhaps show to his own children someday.

Kid, if only you knew that your dad was trying to do something special for you, then you’d shut up and wait quietly, I thought to myself.

Like a kick in the gut, I felt God nudge me. How many times do I get impatient with my Heavenly Father, turn into a major brat because I can’t see what He has in store for me? So many times I’m willing to give up waiting on God, to find a seat and rest my tired legs and forego the surprise that God is working on for me.

There have been times in my life when I felt like God wasn’t making any sense or giving me any direction. There have been times when I’ve questioned Him, when I’ve whined to Him because I didn’t understand what He had in store for me. And there have been times when it seemed like God DIDN’T have anything in store for me. But that was not the case.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

I’ve read and re-read this verse many, many times throughout the years, particularly when I am going through one of those waiting spells that don’t seem to make sense to me. I need that reminder. Having life to the full is not only about God taking care of the here and now, but also realizing that God is concerned about and planning an abundant future for me as well.

What amazing grace!

Life and Death

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (II Cor. 4:8-18)

These verses were on my mind this morning. As I read them, what really stood out to me was the thought that we are always being given over to death. When I first read those verses, perhaps decades ago, I probably thought of those verses merely in the context of the physical persecution that the first century church endured.

Rereading those verses now, however, I see them in a different light. Although we may not face persecution or actual death for our beliefs, we still face death in a different way as Christians. We have to die to ourselves, to our desires and will, in order to live in Christ. This is a daily death--sometimes I find myself having to "die" several times a day!

Part of that death to self involves putting aside the desire to see what's happening next. So much of what I worry about is temporary. I need to fix my eyes on the unseen.

You Talkin' to Me?

I know that some people would argue that God does not speak to people anymore, at least not directly. However, I firmly believe that God can and does speak specifically to His children at certain times. If I had a dime for every time I read a verse or got an email or heard a sermon or radio program that had a message that applied directly to the situation I was facing at that exact moment, I'd be a mighty wealthy lady.

This morning was another one of those instances. I opened up my inbox and read my quote of the day email, and felt God speaking to me once again. Here was the message:

For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience. -- Alfred Edersheim

I have a spent a lot of time wrestling over this trial that I'm going through, trying to sort things out and make sense of things that don't make sense right now. Today's quote cut me to the quick. Do I really need to know the reason for this trial? Do I really need to know how things are going to end up?

Living by faith does not mean that we always get the answers we need, at least not when we want them. I'm not called to try to figure out what God's doing in this situation, but rather to trust that whatever He calls me to do--no matter how nonsensical it may seem to me at the time--is part of His perfect plan for my life.

The Little Things

Sometimes it's the little things that give us hope to carry on when we need it most. I'm still continuing through this very painful trial in my life, searching for answers and clarity, battling discouragement at every turn. Some days it's an uphill battle just to make it through the day.

But God continues to pour out His comfort and blessings on me. Two little things happened just today to bolster my spirits.

The other day, when I woke up and went to get my morning cup of coffee from my automatically-timed coffee maker, I discovered that the coffee maker wasn't working. More than that, the outlet itself wasn't working--and that was also the outlet connected to the dishwasher, so that wasn't working either. I went to the fuse box and tried flipping the fuse, but nothing happened.

I left a message for someone at church who has done some electrical work for me in the past, but hadn't heard back from him. Dishes were piling up in my sink, and I was dreading the thought of having to hire an electrician and pay big bucks for something that would probably take 10 minutes to fix.

When I got home from work today, I decided I'd give the ol' fuse box one more try. So I flipped the fuse off and on again, and this time, it worked! A little miracle, hooray!

Another blessing also occurred this afternoon. I needed to return something but had lost the receipt. I looked in my purse, in the trash, everywhere I thought it could be, but no dice. I prayed about it the other day and asked God to help me find it. When I got home today I was unlocking my front door when I noticed a slip of paper next to one of my shrubs. Lo and behold, it was the receipt I'd been searching for; most likely it had fallen out of my purse when I was opening the door earlier in the week. Now, yesterday was a very windy day, so the odds of the receipt actually staying where it landed were pretty slim. But you know that God likes to work against the odds!

Admittedly, these are not the most exciting, earthshattering examples of God's work. But He is showing me that He is faithful in these minor things that concern me; therefore, how much more faithful will He be in the major things, especially this trial that I'm facing?

The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives. Psalm 37:23