A Letter Of No Regrets...

I think every person on this planet has at some point or another struggled with regrets. Some struggle more than others. I confess that regret is something I often battle. So, when I read Elisabeth Elliot’s devotional yesterday, I was freshly convicted and encouraged. She features a letter from her grandfather to her grandmother who was struggling with regret over an incident that had occurred several years prior. I was reminded that when we let regret take over our thoughts and emotions we will not be able to be affective in the now. “None of us could be alive to the pressing needs of today if we should carry along with us the dark heaviness of any past, whether real or imagined.” I’m not saying we should never be grieved over our failures and sin, but after we have “briefly” grieved, move on. Regret is a burden God has never asked us to carry. We are to forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. The other thing I loved about Elliot’s excerpt was how her grandfather was encouraging and speaking truth to his wife. He then references how he sometimes battles regret and depression and how his wife is always reminding him to “look up”. They are going back and forth in uplifting each other. Ephesians 4:9-10 speaks of the advantages of having someone to be there for you, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” This provokes me to want to be a greater source of encouragement to others with whatever they may be struggling with. There is nothing sweeter than when someone comes alongside us to gently speak truth to our hearts and lift us up. - Regrets are things of the past and God calls us to live in the present. No matter what we have regrets over, we can be confident that God is sovereignly working it all out for our good and His glory. With God as our Shepherd, nothing ever enters our life that He has not allowed. I am praying to honor God with regret free days and a hope filled heart.

"Regrets" by Elisabeth Elliot
When my father was twelve years old he lost his left eye through disobedience. He had been forbidden to have firecrackers, but he sneaked out early in the morning of July 4, 1910, and, with the help of a neighboring farmer, set off some dynamite caps. A piece of copper penetrated his eye. Four years later my grandfather wrote this letter to my grand-mother:
Dearest:
I am not one bit surprised that after all our experiences of the past four years you should suffer from sad memories, but I really do not believe for a moment that you should feel you have any occasion to let remorse bite into your life on account of Philip's accident. Surely we cannot guard against all the contingencies of this complex life, and no one who has poured out life as you have for each one of your children should let such regrets take hold.
None of us could be alive to the pressing needs of today if we should carry along with us the dark heaviness of any past, whether real or imagined. I know, dearest, that your Lord cannot wish anything of that sort for you, and I believe your steady, shining, and triumphant faith will lead you out through Him, into the richest experiences you have ever had. I believe that firmly.
I have had to turn to Him in helplessness today to overcome depression because of my failures. My Sunday School fiasco at Swarthmore bears down pretty hard. But that is not right. I must look ahead, and up, as you often tell me, and I will. I know how sickening remorse is, if anyone knows; yet I also know, as you do, the lift and relief of turning the whole matter over to Him. We must have more prayers and more study together, dearest. I haven't followed the impulses I have so often had in this.

Lovingly, your own Phil.

“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13, 14

Seeing Things As They Should Be...

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. - Luke 18:35-43

Yesterday I received an email with a story that in essence spoke about sacrifice, gratefulness and complaining. It also, spoke about the truth of our human nature to forget where we have come from and what we’ve been saved from. How often have I been struggling with a sin in my life, been delivered from it and then had judgmental thoughts about someone else who is struggling with a sin? How many times have I had little, been given much and demanded more? How many times have I forgotten about the wrath and judgment I’ve been saved from and walk through my day in pride and self-righteousness? How many times has a friend or family member laid down their life for me and I only return the same kindness when it’s convenient? Here is part of the story from the email I received…

“There was once a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'”

This story reminded me of the great potential there is for me to take advantage of the people God has placed in my life, but more importantly of the potential to take advantage of Christ’s sacrifice for me. You see, the boy in the story gave his girlfriend his eyes because he loved her above all else. There was no sacrifice too great. But as soon as she had been set free from her blindness, she went her own way, forgetting about where she had come from and who had truly loved her. Christ loved us so much that he gave his very life. How many times have I chosen my own path and desires and forgotten about the one who died for me? When I consider His sacrifice, I should love Him all the more. This should also produce a heart of gratefulness, not complaint. A heart of humility, not pride. God has called us to praise and thankfulness, which honors Him, not complaining which is self-centered. He has not called us to die for the sins of all the people we know, but to die to our flesh. He has called us to cherish, love and serve those he has placed in our life and to love the lost souls of this world with the gospel. I know I can’t do any of these things on my own, but I have hope and faith that I can grow in these practices with God’s help and strength. “Lord, teach me how to truly love You and others in a way that glorifies You. Help me to see who I can sacrifice for today. Give me a heart of gratefulness for You and others. Keep complaining far from my lips and may I overflow with praise and thankfulness. Help me to not be blind to the things that really matter and to see things the way You see them. Amen”

Second part of the email…with a few edits.
Ways To Help Battle Complaining:

Today before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who has lost theirs or is crying out to God for a companion.

Today before you complain about America, elections and government - Think of someone in another country who has none of the freedoms we have and who are persecuted, tortured and killed for being a Christian.

Before whining about the distance you drive - Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

When you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and Christ died in your place.

Secure In The Unchanging

With so much going on with our country right now, it could be easy to become anxious about the future. Things are in a constant state of change and not always for the better. As Christians, the truth that God never changes should comfort us and secure our hearts. Though to us things may seem uncertain, they never are to God. Nothing ever happens that catches Him off guard. He has sovereignly ruled over this earth since the beginning of time and He will continue to do so until He calls us home. So today, lets put our trust in God and not man and lets praise God for being our constant anchor that never changes.

“It is just as well for us that in all the variableness of life there is One whom change cannot affect, One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow inconsistency can make no furrows…The delight that the sailor feels when, having been tossed about on the waves, he steps again upon the solid shore is the satisfaction of a Christian when, in all the changes of this distressing life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth —‘I THE LORD DO NOT CHANGE.’”

“The stability that the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a solid hold is like that which the Christian’s hope provides him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God ‘there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ Whatever his attributes were in the past, they are now; His power, His wisdom, His justice, His truth are unchanged. He has forever been the refuge of His people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and He is still their sure Helper. He is unchanged in His love.”
~ Charles Spurgeon ~

“He is unchangeable… what He desires, that He does.For He will complete what He appoints for me.”job 23.13-14

Stringing Our Days Together

"Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have just one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into a life of action and purpose." Lance Armstrong (1971 – )Cyclist, seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor

I have heard it said, that when we set the Lord before us, we can’t help but to live life without being shaken. Though it may offend my finite mind, the goal and purpose of my life is not to be comfortable and have everything turn out just the way I want, but instead it is to be godly, fulfill the calling and pursuits God has called me to and to make an impact our dying world. Though the pursuits of Lance Armstrong are probably not the same things we are called to, he has an insightful perspective on life. Having cancer taught him that life is short and every moment important. One wouldn’t think someone would need to be told that they need to “live” their life, but I know I need to be reminded of that. Yes, I’m still breathing so technically I’m living, but am I “living”? Am I living my days to the fullest? Am I doing all I know I can and should do? I know for myself, I can become comfortable with life. I get use to routines and schedules. Even to the point where I can have sinful reactions when plans or desires are delayed or undone. But when I was recently reading through Esther, God reminded me that His plans and purposes are far greater then my own. She was taken out of her normal life to be considered by the king as a new queen. As if being taken away from all she knew wasn’t enough, she had to wait an entire year before she was even presented to the king. Once chosen queen, she was soon presented with another “hard thing” to do. She was being asked to risk her life in order to obey God and save her people. She was being called to action…called to a purpose. Read Mordecai’s words to her as she was trying to decide what to do.

“Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Mordecai knew that God wasn’t just limited to using Esther to save his people, but God was calling her to do that very thing. What is God calling me to in my life? God hasn’t made mistakes in where He has each of us right now. He has a purpose and a calling on every single one of our lives…will we rise to the occasion? Esther did and God used her to save an entire people. So, I am praying for God’s help to actually “live” my life and live it with action and purpose.

Psalm 138:8 "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands."

John 12: 25-28 “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

Acts 11:23 “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.”

I have much to learn...

The following quote from puritan author John Newton was very convicting. He is obviously superior in character, godliness, knowledge and every other thing and yet he still humbly sees that he "has no right" to have a lowly view of others. To ever be impatient, or angry, or bitter toward them, because he himself sees his own need of grace. Lord, give me a heart like that!

"I am not to expect others to see with my eyes! I am deeply convinced of the truth of John the Baptist's aphorism in John 3:27, "A man can receive nothing--except it be given him from Heaven." I well know, that the little measure of knowledge I have obtained in the things of God--has not been owing to my own wisdom and teachableness, but to God's goodness. Nor did I learn everything all at once--God has been pleased to exercise much patience towards me, for the past twenty-seven years--since He first gave me a desire of learning from Himself. He has graciously accommodated Himself to my weakness, borne with my mistakes, and helped me through innumerable prejudices, which, but for His mercy, would have been insuperable hindrances! I have therefore no right to be angry, impatient, or censorious to others, especially as I have still much to learn, and am so poorly influenced by what I seem to know!" - John Newton

Because I am one of God's most impatient servants...

I know I've been writing about the discipline of "waiting" a lot lately, but it seems as though God in His kindness is still not done with me. This morning as I pulled up Elisabeth Elliot's new devotional that they post every day, I smiled as I read the title. Of course! God is good and E.E's wise words helped to give me fresh perspective, encouragement and peace once again. I can't even explain it, but the Lord has actually given me excitement at the thought of continuing to learn to wait on Him. God truly is faithful in all His ways, has never failed us and is worthy of all our trust and confidence. I know for me, waiting can feel like I'm on a windless sea going nowhere, but God is always sovereignly moving me toward the destination He has for me. I know the following quotation below is a bit long, but so worth reading.

Waiting by Elisabeth Elliot
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry" (Psalm 40:1, NIV).

The tests of our willingness to wait patiently for the Lord come almost daily for most of us, I suppose. Probably I am among the Lord's most impatient servants, so the lesson has to be renewed again and again. A tough test came when my daughter's family (of ten) was searching for a house. Southern California is not a place where one would wish to conduct that search. It's a long story, but at last, all other possibilities having been exhausted, a house was found, an offer made. That night word came that two other offers, of unknown amounts, had also been made. Dark pictures filled my mind: the others would surely get the house, the Shepards would be reduced to renting and we'd been told that rentals start at about $2000 per month (imagine an owner willing to rent to a family with eight children!).

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14, NIV).
I lay awake in the wee hours ("when all life's molehills become mountains" as Amy Carmichael said), repeating Scripture about God's faithfulness, trusting, casting all cares, waiting. I had to keep offering up my worries and my impatience. At four I was up reading the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham called the place where he had offered up Isaac "The Lord Will Provide." I took that as the Lord's word to me that morning.

Before nine o'clock, my son-in-law Walt called to say "Offer accepted. Other offers, both higher, turned down." No explanation. It was the Lord's doing.

Waiting requires patience--a willingness calmly to accept what we have or have not, where we are or where we wish we were, whomever we live or work with.

To want what we don't have is impatience, for one thing, and it is to mistrust God. Is He not in complete control of all circumstances, events, and conditions? If some are beyond His control, He is not God.

A spirit of resistance cannot wait on God. I believe it is this spirit which is the reason for some of our greatest sufferings. Opposing the workings of the Lord in and through our "problems" only exacerbates them. It is here and now that we must win our victories or suffer defeats. Spiritual victories are won in the quiet acceptance of ordinary events, which are God's "bright servants," standing all around us.

Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands. "Peace I leave with you; I do not give to you as the world gives" (John 14:27, NEB). What sort of peace has He to give us? A peace which was constant in the midst of ceaseless work (with few visible results), frequent interruptions, impatient demands, few physical comforts; a peace which was not destroyed by the arguments, the faithlessness, and hatred of the people. Jesus had perfect confidence in His Father, whose will He had come to accomplish. Nothing touched Him without His Father's permission. Nothing touches me without my Father's permission. Can I not then wait patiently? He will show the way.

If I am willing to be still in my Master's hand, can I not then be still in everything? He's got the whole world in His hands! Never mind whether things come from God Himself or from people-- everything comes by His ordination or permission. If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord because He is my Lord, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen becomes, for me, His will at that moment. Perhaps it is someone else's sinful action, but if God allows it to affect me, He wills it for my learning. The need to wait is, for me, a form of chastening. God has to calm me down, make me shut up and look to Him for the outcome.

His message to me every day

Is wait, be still, trust, and obey.

And this brings me to the matter of counseling. Upon our return from a trip to England I found a pile of mail, so many letters asking me what to do about things, for example: a wife's critical spirit, unemployment, a wife who has abandoned husband and children, a single mother doing a job she hates, an unfaithful husband, a woman (who tells me she is Spirit-filled) having an affair with her pastor, a farmer who'd like a wife, a mother-in-law who is nasty to her daughter-in-law, a stepson who is angry because "we don't spend enough money on his children," a wife who snaps at her husband each time he tries to snuggle up, and a husband who "drinks like a fish, curses like a sailor, and says he loves God."

I wish I could write the same letter to everybody: Wait patiently for the Lord. He will turn to you and hear your cry. It is amazing how clear things become when we are still before Him, not complaining, not insisting on quick answers, only seeking to hear His word in the stillness, and to see things in His light. Few are willing to receive that sort of reply. "Too simplistic" is the objection. One listener to my radio program, Gateway to Joy, wrote, "I got so upset at what you were saying I ripped the earphones out and aid, 'I'll do what I want to do!'" But there are those who can say, "This is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation" (Isaiah 25:9, KJV). Here are two testimonies:

"I've lost my mother, my brother, my husband, and my baby. My song is More Love to Thee, O Christ."

"God picked up the scraps and pieces and made us whole--a whole woman, a whole man, a whole marriage."

Learning To Pray

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. - Matthew 6:9-13As I was reading in Morning & Evening this morning, the entry from Spurgeon was on the Lord's prayer. It struck me how beautifully deep and yet simple this prayer is and how it should inform our hearts and minds every morning. "O Lord, thank you for adopting us and that we can call You Father. Thank you for Your Holiness. Thank you that Your kingdom will come and Your will be accomplished. Thank you for always providing for our needs. Thank you for justification and sanctification. Thank you for providentially reigning over all the earth. Teach me Your ways...teach me to pray."

"This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption, Our Father. There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, I will arise, and go unto my Father. This child-like spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father in heaven, and ascends to devout adoration, Hallowed be thy name. The child lisping, Abba, Father, grows into the cherub crying, Holy, Holy, Holy. There is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing missionary spirit, which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and reverent adoration--Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Next follows the heartfelt expression of dependence upon God--Give us this day our daily bread. Being further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is not only dependent, but sinful, hence he entreats for mercy, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors: and being pardoned, having the righteousness of Christ imputed, and knowing his acceptance with God, he humbly supplicates for holy perseverance, Lead us not into temptation. The man who is really forgiven, is anxious not to offend again; the possession of justification leads to an anxious desire for sanctification. Forgive us our debts, that is justification; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, that is sanctification in its negative and positive forms. As the result of all this, there follows a triumphant ascription of praise, Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen. We rejoice that our King reigns in providence and shall reign in grace, from the river even to the ends of the earth, and of his dominion there shall be no end. Thus from a sense of adoption, up to fellowship with our reigning Lord, this short model of prayer conducts the soul. Lord, teach us thus to pray." - Charles Spurgeon