Category: SPIRITUAL GROWTH

PRAYERS THAT MOVE THE WORLD

If we ask anything according to His will, [that is, consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us.

Do you know the significance of North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, & Afghanistan? He asked the significance of these names. They were the names of the top ten offenders of the 50 countries that made up the World Watch List 2024.

YET, THE CHURCH GROWS

Believers in these countries pay the cost of following Jesus. Extremists exploit instability in Africa, foreign influence bolsters autocratic regimes, and there are unprecedented attacks on churches. Over 365 million Christians around the world face discrimination for their faith. My mind boggles with the sheer numbers. Yet, despite this, the Christian Church grows.

Every morning, I read and pray for one of the countries on the Watch List. In my Global Prayer Guide I follow an additional different country. My geography skills have proven very inadequate as countries change names and shapes. God knows the locations. My heart breaks as I follow the testimonies of The voices of the martyrs.

WHY DO WE PRAY?

I do not personally know these people I pray for. Their situations are unimaginable to me. Yet I pray and then pray some more. Why? Because of this passage: “This is the [remarkable degree of] confidence which we [as believers are entitled to] have before Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, [that is, consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us. And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.” (I John 5:13-14)

GOD KNOWS!

God understands each situation and every individual on this earth. He knows about the believers who spend years in solitary confinement in metal shipping containers in the heat of Eritrea. The Holy Spirit groans for those in Korea, imprisoned in concentration camps because they possessed a Bible. Our Savior hears the cries of refugees from Sudan whose homes are destroyed by militants.

BIG RAIN-STOPPING PRAYERS

It is easy to get discouraged and think that our little prayers do not matter. Did you ever wonder why James 5:17-18 points out that Elijah had “a nature like ours”? Matt Bradson notes that we are to pray for huge movements of the Holy Spirit: “Even Elijah was only human. God can answer our big, rain-stopping, holiness-pleading prayers just like his.” If as a righteous person you pray according to God’s will, expect God to answer the prayer. He will grant what you ask. That is based on God’s promise, not wishful thinking.

HOW TO PRAY

How can you know exactly what and how to pray? Check out the resources I have already mentioned. Even more, learn to plunder Scripture as you pray, interceding for people using the words of the Apostle Paul or the Psalms. “Plunder” means “take goods violently from a place, especially during a war.” Do you open your Bible with force and realize that this is your sword for global warfare?

PRAY TODAY!

The Apostle Paul wrote: “It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Why not begin today using this as your prayer for believers in North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, & Afghanistan. God has offered His ear. Speak powerfully into it!

Click here for the miraculous testimony entitled “A Die-hard Shia Muslim Becomes a Believer”

A HOT FIRE AND A BROKEN MAN

God chooses the most unlikely people to conduct His greatest purpose.

After a long hard day of caring for the sheep, he is tired and hungry. Moses sees a fire in the distance. A guy sits at a campfire roasting hot dogs and making smores. The stranger invites Moses to share in the feast. They end a great evening of companionship singing Kumbaya. Moses walks away, thinking of the nice little visit he had.

However, the biblical version in Exodus 3:1-15 is not a friendly campfire. In Exodus 3, the fire of the holiness of the God of the Universe is burning and it is hot!

THE OLD MAN WHO HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS

God’s timing is unique. He reveals Himself to an old shepherd who has seen better days. While in his prime, Moses’ future held great promise. Raised in Pharoah’s Court, Moses was privileged, bright, articulate and brash. Impulsive Moses took on the cloak of a revolutionary. By murdering an Egyptian, he rebelled against the oppression of his people, the Israelites. However, none of his people joined the cause. Moses flees for his life. By Exodus 3 he is broken, and his years don’t seem golden.  

WHEN GOD CAN FINALLY WORK

If asked the identity of Moses, the Israelites during this time would probably all ask, “Moses??? Moses who?” But God thoroughly knew who Moses had become, the man who matured during all those years while tending stupid sheep. Moses’ pride departed a long time ago. When people get to the end of themselves, this is when God can finally work.

GOD’S TIMING IS RIGHT

From the burning bush, God declares, “I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings”. Nothing gets past God. His timing is always right.

This is not a comfortable, feel-good God. You can understand the terror of Moses when he hears: “’I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

WHO IS GOD?

Moses not only wonders, “Who am I?” he asks God “Who are You?” God answers, “I AM.” Those two words describe the God of eternity. “When used as a stand-alone description, I AM is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. He promises that He will be what He will be; that is, He will be the eternally constant God. He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills to do and to accomplish what He wills to accomplish. (Gotquestions.org)

YOUR INABILITIES DON’T MATTER

Is this the God you know and acknowledge every day of your life? Do you wake up with joy knowing that God is eternally present in your day? When you are exhausted, do you choose to still obey and serve the completely sufficient God? God doesn’t care about all your inabilities; God just requires that you offer yourself unreservedly to Him.

Maybe you will not be leading millions of people out of captivity, but regardless of the challenge you can courageously obey Christ. After all, I Am is the eternally constant God. His plans are much bigger than a little comfortable campfire. Before this God we take off our shoes, lay prone, and offer up our hands in obedience. What a God!

MORE UNLIKELY PEOPLE GOD USED

God chooses the most unlikely people to conduct His greatest purpose. Unlikely? Yes! But not unwilling. Read about: Mary Slessor, a millworker. Christiana Tsai, who reached hundreds of Chinese students for Christ from her bed in Paradise, PA. She said, “My bed is not a prison, but a training school; the Holy Spirit is my mentor, and my visitors are my homework.” Hudson Taylor, the father of modern missions.

A PLANTING SEASON

“Planting: How to create a powerful mindset that anticipates comebacks”

“You are not your label!” That’s on the cover of Demi Tebow’s book, “A Crown That Lasts”. Of course, as I’m glancing at the cover picture, I don’t think it would hurt to be labeled as blond, gorgeous, and a former Miss Universe. So, what in the world do I have in common with Tim Tebow’s wife? (By the way, he is also gorgeous and athletic)

MINDSET THAT ANTICIPATES COMEBACKS

Halfway through the book is a section entitled “Planting: How to create a powerful mindset that anticipates comebacks”. Though we are life experiences apart (I will never be Miss Universe), Demi has a section which deals with the concept of reframing. Rather than looking back at something that hurt deeply and bearing those scars as permanent handicaps, instead look back and begin to pull some positive things you learned.

THE TRUCKLOAD OF HURTS

For example, when I was growing up my parents were absentee parents. It was not a deliberate choice, but they had me later in life and were both workaholics. They were either not present to communicate or else not mentally present to communicate. In some ways they loved me, but their love language in no way coincided with mine. I developed a truckload of hurts I carried around for years because of this.

To illustrate, when I had my first boyfriend, not only did my mom and I never talk about him, but she never asked me what we were doing or where we were. She was mentally absent when I really needed a mom. I was naive as naive can be.

So, dial forward many many years. What positive things can I reframe those hurts with? What good came out of those experiences? I woke up in the middle of the night and began thanking God for these results of my experience:

I decided that when I had children, I would parent by not doing what my mom did.

I learned to write, because there was no one at home who wanted to hear me.

They drove me to God as my Protector.

I learned that no one is going to come in to fix things for me, so no matter what the project is, whether a craft, mechanical, or electronic, I can usually figure out the logic.

THE CHALLENGE

All of these things I am deeply grateful for. I challenge you this week. Pull one of those dark memories from your past and try to begin reframing how you see it. I’m not saying to ignore the hurt. I’m asking what positive things or experiences came about to make that a planting season, rather than a season of complete devastation. It is surprising some positive thoughts that can come about in the middle of the night.

But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength! (Ephesians 1:18-19)

RECIPE FOR RESENTMENT, BITTERNESS OR HATRED

You can be free of resentment

“If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free.

“Even when you don’t really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway.

“Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love.”

From “God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours” by Regina Brett

Listen to the story of a Rwandan Genocide Survivor

WHAT TO DO IN A SEASON OF DOUBT

Like the Israelites, have you forgotten Who you believe?

What bestseller begins with: “And these are the names of”? Exodus chapter one does not seek to be on the Times Bestseller list. The author reminds us this is the saga of the family chosen to play a crucial role in God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. God takes childless, elderly Abraham and Sarah and makes them the ancestors of a family which ends up numbering in the millions. Abraham and Sarah trust God even when they could not see the future.

THE PERFECT PETRI DISH

In His plans, God often relocates people. If the twelve brothers from Genesis had remained in pagan Canaan, good chance that they would have intermarried with the Canaanites. That would have been the spiritual end of God’s chosen people. By God’s grace, He relocates them via famine and Joseph to Egypt. God then takes advantage of Egypt’s racial bias. David Guzik notes: “Egypt had such an entrenched system of racial separation that Israel could grow there over several centuries without being assimilated.” This made the perfect petri dish for growing God’s people numerically, to the great alarm of the new Pharoah in Exodus 1.

THE PROMISE

Centuries before, God told Abraham: “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions (Genesis 15:13-14) It appears that while living 400 years in Egypt many of Abraham’s descendants forgot God’s promise. The Egyptian Pharoah certainly did not know or believe the promise.

GOD CIRCUMVENTS PHARAOH

Pharaoh did not know The Promise keeper. So agitated at the population growth of the Hebrews, he tells the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborn boys. The midwives do not cooperate. Pharaoh makes a far more radical command. All male babies be murdered by drowning in the river. His plan would effectively eliminate the Hebrews within one generation. The miracle is that the method Pharaoh commanded for the death of the male babies of Israel becomes the divine provision for saving the deliverer of Israel: Moses. God, the Promise Keeper, circumvents Pharoah’s plans for evil and ends up rescuing millions of Jewish people.

THE REAL BATTLE

The real battle in Exodus includes God in the equation. That changes everything. Pharaoh didn’t understand Who he was fighting. Many of the Jewish people did not realize Who Pharaoh was dealing with. Do you know this God of the Universe Who loves you?

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHO YOU BELIEVE?

Like the Israelites, have you forgotten Who you believe? The beginning of Exodus may seem smooth sailing. “We think, ‘Oh, boy! It’s going to get really bad, and they’re going to have to make bricks without straw, but that’s just setting it up for when God’s going to come. It’s going to be so sweet when he gets them out!’ The Hebrews didn’t know that. They lived as slaves for 400 years. That’s a long time to keep believing the promises.” (Kevin DeYoung)

TRY THIS LITTLE EXERCISE

Do you feel like the slaves of Egypt? How about trying one little exercise. Begin this season of doubt by daily working on memorizing and believing the words of Psalm 121:1-8. I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

WHITE KNUCKLE FEAR

“Don’t worry” is not Jesus’ polite little suggestion for Christian wannabes. 

Who over the past few years has not gone through periods of speculation? A situation approaches (whether something scheduled in the next day’s events or an item that slithers into your heart as a vague possibility). Maybe it is that upcoming meeting with the boss or that memorable TV newsflash on how many people have been diagnosed with serious flu in the adjoining town?

FEAR THAT WAKES YOU UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

These are large fears, not my little fears wondering whether people will notice that I’m wearing two different colors of shoes (one being navy and the other being black). This is white knuckle fear. It wakes you up in the middle of the night and robs you of being able to breathe deeply. All joy runs away. Faith goes up in flames. However, in reality, the actual event has yet to happen.

Just want you to know, you are not alone.

ROBBED OF RESILIENCE

The pandemic and the resulting changes in our world robbed us of resilience. We lost the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Situations once not considered formidable clobbered us. Speculation has gained a great deal of dangerous power, all at our own personal expense. The faith ship sinks. 

BIG CHANGES AT WORK

I have a friend who went through turmoil at work.  Her boss kept telling the employees that “big changes are going to happen imminently”. However, the “imminent” drug into weeks.  At work, usually “big changes” mean big sacrifices at the employees’ expense.  So, fears among her co-workers amped up into hyper mode. Speculation ran amuck.  My friend is a believer. A few years back she had the reserves to take a “wait and see” attitude.  The problem is that she has lost her capacity to put speculation on the back burner. 

THE SPECULATION BAN

Did you know that Jesus banned speculation?  So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34) This “don’t worry” is not Jesus’ polite little suggestion for Christian wannabes.  It is a command. Jesus is saying, “Look, if you trust me enough to take care of you for eternity, will you trust me enough to take care of those events that have not even happened yet?”  We need resilience.

HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE

John Eldredge writes:  “You can start building mental resilience right here, by roping in speculation. Every time you find yourself speculating, tell yourself to stop it! Bring your thoughts back under control: I’m not indulging in speculation. It’s godless. Turn your thoughts immediately to God: You are good, Father. You are with me. You are still in control.”

This is not a quick and easy fix, it is a discipline which can only be learned by letting the Holy Spirit take charge of how we view life, even as it is only today.  Jesus says, “Deal with the present, not with speculating over the future.” He wants to rid us of white-knuckle fear over what has not happened. Will you let Him? 

Click to read what the Bible has to say about anxiety

IS IT A WONDERFUL LIFE?

George’s darkness is totally understandable. It is easy to remember failures.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” is not the most theologically correct movie, but it is one of my favorites. George Pratt, the central character, is so distraught that he contemplates suicide as the only solution. He stands ready to jump off a bridge on Christmas Eve when he hears the voice of a gentle stranger. George tells the man that he wishes he had never been born. George is at the end of his rope.

For years, George had tried to do the right thing. He sacrificed his dreams of college and a future for the sake of taking care of his family. George takes over his father’s credit union and saves it from bankruptcy by donating all his savings to keep the business afloat. You gotta love George, he is steadfast. However, his archenemy gains the upper hand. Everything goes down the drain. The bank auditor makes an appearance on the day that they discover $8,000 is missing from the credit union. George is angry, crushed, and disillusioned. He only sees darkness. George finally cries out to God.

GEORGE’S WISH OF NEVER BEING BORN

The stranger on the bridge tells George his wish has been granted and that George has never been born. The movie then gives George a glimpse of all the lives he has tirelessly helped through the years. George also sees what would have happened if he had not entered their stories: the town would have gone down the drain. George influenced countless lives, but never sees it until he cries out to God.

IT IS EAST TO REMEMBER FAILURES

As I write this, it is almost New Years, one of my favorite holidays of the year. I always think about new beginnings, especially if it has been a difficult year. It is easy to remember the people I tried to help, but to no avail. I visualize all the situations in which I failed and plain messed up. George’s darkness is totally understandable. It is easy to remember failures.

TIME TO TURN THE PAGE

Maybe it is time to turn the page. This is a wonderful time to catch up on anything that needs to be confessed and make right with God and others. A great next step is getting a pen to start writing a list of people whose lives you have impacted for the God during 2024. Maybe you received no fanfare or plaudits for your actions, but you know you obeyed God, even when it was hard. If the list is miniscule, do you need to expand your list of those you serve?

WHAT IS YOUR GIFT?

How about making this your aim and attitude for 2025: God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! (I Peter 4:10-11)

IT CAN BE A WONDERFUL LIFE

Don’t be George, waiting to jump off the bridge. God has a unique purpose for you. It may not be what you had planned, but in God’s eyes it is important. Just make sure that everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. It’s a wonderful life. Get off the bridge!

https://compelledpodcast.com/episodes/steve-richardson

WHEN CHAOS COMES TO TOWN

How is a believer to manage life when one’s mind is racing, and the future appears bleak?

Read: I Peter 5:6-11

I worked in a small office consisting of five employees (counting myself). Four of them were on anti-anxiety meds. They would regularly compare how their meds were working and the dosage required.

I pondered how 80% of my fellow employees were 24/7 on anti-anxiety meds. So, what was up with that? Something in the drinking water or something in the air?

AS AN ADVERSITY MAGNET…

As the only one who was not medicated, please note that I’m not a strong person and make no claims to being so. My life can be a circus. At times I feel like an adversity magnet. The past few months have especially appeared so. Circumstances and people stampede through my living room, heart, and soul. How is a believer to manage life when one’s mind is racing, and the future appears bleak?

DECISION TIME

Those moments are decision time. Who/what am I battling? It is not the people or situations I’m facing; it’s the enemy who would like me to renounce Jesus. That may sound melodramatic to you, but it’s true. Satan’s chief goal is to make believers flake out, run away, forsake the faith. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour. Yes, your scariest human adversaries may wish for your demise, but they are not the ones pulling the strings. Satan is.

WHAT TO DO WHEN FACING CONFLICT

What does God tell us to do in such a conflict? Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. In other words, choose to allow the Holy Spirit to reign in your mind. Don’t impulsively blurt out the first words that come to mind. Refuse to send out a nastygram text, zone out on TV, or punch a hole in the wall.  Afterall, you are not alone in this battle. None of our current struggles are new to believers. We have a universal family of fellow combatants. Christians around the globe join us in this battle.

STANDING FIRM WHEN THE LION ROARS

God’s Word tells us to take a stand when the lion roars. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Exactly how is this to play out? Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honor in His service] at the appropriate time, casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].

MY DECISION

When that crazy destructive circus of circumstances and individuals desire to capsize my life, I kneel before the feet of God. I choose to fill my mind with the promises of God and proclaim directly that I’m taking God at His Word. There is a decision involved. I disregard how dire the circumstances appear, run to the Father and completely believe His Word. God is my anti-anxiety medicine, even when chaos comes to town.

Listen to the story of Aimee Huber

MELTDOWN AT THE CHICK-FIL-A

In front of the store with friendly people, I was angrily berating my husband for not having any alternative plan.

If my watch pedometer is correct, that Saturday I walked 7.5 miles in New York City. No, I was not training for a marathon (unless there is a marathon for stupidity). The bus dropped us passengers off for three hours of free time before seeing a Broadway Show. Our group quickly scattered in different directions. The fly in the ointment is that my husband and I had made no plans for where we would spend our free time.

LOOPING AROUND THE TWIGHT LIGHT ZONE

And so, we found ourselves exhausted from wandering in what seemed like a Twight Zone episode, as we looped repeatedly around the area near Rockefeller Center. It may have also been a scene from the movie Ground Hog Day. I am not particularly good at following Google Directions when it is in walking mode. The constant stepping wreaked havoc on the inflammation I have in my back. My fuse became shorter and shorter as my husband offered well intended suggestions. Do you know in downtown New York City it is rare to discover places to sit down, unless you are paying a fortune for a decent restaurant?

IT ALL CAME TO A HEAD AT CHICK-FIL-A

Ironically, it all came to a head in front of a Chick-Fil-A. That is when it dawned on my husband that where he wanted to go (Macy’s) was a good ten blocks further. He had missed my earlier words specifying how far it was. And so, next to the store that stands for great values, I was angrily berating my husband for not hearing my previous explanation and not having any alternative plan.

MY BODY IS FAILING

My body is failing as I age. Recently I had a series of infusions for a back inflammation which does not seem inclined to clear up any time soon. I do not behave well during stress when my pain level is at a ten. As you read this, I am sure you have already picked up on that point.

SLOW TO GET ANGRY???

And what does the Bible say about all this? “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” (James 1:19). However, I chose to go in the opposite direction. I wanted to sprint towards angry words and remain slow as molasses in listening. No way did I want to place a filter over my mouth.

NOT HURRYING TO OBEY

David’s words of Psalm 119:60 were ignored: “I will hurry, without delay, to obey your commands.” Even though my feet were moving slower and slower due back pain, my spiritual heart ran full tilt against God’s instructions. I wanted my husband to hear me loud and clear, even though God was emphasizing to me that duct tape over my mouth would be a much better behavior plan.

QUICK TO LISTEN…SLOW TO SPEAK

So, the day after, are we still married? Yes. Is my back still screaming? Yes. Do I wish I could take back every word that came out of my mouth in front of Chick-Fil-A? Yes!!!!! Lord, please ingrain in my heart, no matter the circumstances, to “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” Also, thank You God for a forgiving husband.

Click to listen to the story of Eric Ludy

HOW ELLIE LEARNED “TO REMAIN”

She remembers the intersection, but her mind totally blocked out the collision. Her next memory is waking up in the ambulance.

In John 15:1-8, Whenever Jesus repeats a word, it isn’t because He likes how it rolls around on His tongue; it’s because the word is vital. In the Amplified Version, the word “remain” is repeated eight times. Remain means “to dwell”; to consistently live in the same place. To remain in the Vine of Jesus Christ means that we live and breathe daily in Him. We don’t wander off on our own, occupied with our personal plans, worries, and thoughts. God doesn’t plan for us to be the broken branches withering on the ground because we have lost our roots in Him.

THE BREATHING ROOM SHE DESPERATELY DESIRED

Let me tell you about Ellie (name changed for privacy). She was so excited. After months of pulling mandatory 70-hour work weeks, she finally had a week off. This first day was the breathing room she desperately desired. A break to regroup, contemplate and catch up on her first loves of reading and creative writing. Her early morning trip to fulfil multiple errands on that fateful day was short-lived.

GOD EXTENED HER BREATHING ROOM WITH A TRUCK

God thought Ellie needed extended breathing room. While at an intersection, a work truck pulling a full trailer of hay t-boned Ellie on the driver’s side. He had blown through the red light. Ellie remembers the intersection, but her mind totally blocked out the collision. Her next memory is waking up in the ambulance.

LIVING IN SURVIVAL MODE

In previous conversations with Ellie, we discussed her work schedule, her feelings of isolation, and the amount of time she spent worrying about God’s provision. Unknowingly, she drifted further and further from being rooted in “The Vine” as repeatedly mentioned in this passage. Her schedule was in survival mode: going to work, returning home to greet her cats, a brief meal, then crashing from exhaustion. The next morning, she would repeat the same cycle. This is how she remained before the accident.

LIVING ON “THE SHELF”

What currently bothers Ellie the most is she has lost her “mojo,” her constant busyness. For all her adult life, she has worked, worked and then worked some more. She came from poverty and dysfunction. Her heart extends as far as the ocean as she cares for her clients with disabilities. Doesn’t God understand her clients need her? Why has He placed her on the shelf?

RELEARNING “TO ABIDE”

On God’s chosen shelf, she is relearning what it means to simply abide in Christ. Work is set aside, plans are put away, and Christ sits next to her in her living room. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you [that is, if we are vitally united and My message lives in your heart] … My Father is glorified and honored by this, when you bear much fruit, and prove yourselves to be My [true] disciples.

SHE WAITS AT THE STOP SIGN

I thank God every day that He spared Ellie’s life. In my eyes, she is a star that lights up a room, displaying God’s redemption in all its glory. Right now, Ellie waits at the stop sign God has placed in her path. Her heart hates waiting as she waits and waits some more. There are so many questions, but God repeats, “For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11) The crash is just a blip in God’s good plans for Ellie’s eternity as Ellie relearns what it means “to remain”.

RELEARN WHAT IT MEANS “TO REMAIN”

Have you wandered away from The Vine with your roots in Him becoming weaker and weaker? Maybe you have crashed to the ground; no fruit to be seen. I urge you to stop, evaluate, and put on pause your busyness of life. Relearn what it means “to remain.”

Click to hear about waiting from Ruth Chou-Simons