We Were Born for This!

About five months ago, I came across Bruce Wilkinson’s book You Were Born for This. I picked it up, was really fascinated by the idea that I could be used in a greater way by God to impact others, but then decided that I didn’t need to buy another book. My daughter, who was watching, took it back off the shelf with a look of determination and said, “Mama, I think God wants you to have this book. You’re buying it.” So I did.

I can honestly say that this has been one of the books God has used to completely transform my thinking and my life. Wilkinson’s premise for the book is that God is always at work doing the miraculous, and that we were born to partner with Him in delivering miracles of every kind, from the simple to the enormous. But it’s up to us to surrender our lives each day to God’s agenda, to ask Him for a heart to see the needs of people, to realize that we cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit’s power, and to know that partnering with God involves risks of money and time as we're led by Him to love others.

Everything he said made perfect sense, so I decided to start my mornings with a fresh commitment to being God’s servant to do whatever He asked. Like Isaiah, I began praying, “Lord, here I am, send me.” I also started praying that God would open my eyes to see the people He wanted me to deliver a miracle to that day. And I set out the door to experience a whole new adventure.

It would take a book to record all  God has done over the past five months since I started praying with a new focus and vision. I’ve been completely astounded by the overwhelming display of His grace and mercy as He’s provided daily divine appointments and given me a whole new perspective on living the Christian life.

 

I’ve watched Him do the impossible, provide extraordinary needs, bring emotional healing and reverse many seemingly hopeless situations. He’s unveiled these miracles in the midst of the mundane revealing His power and love in life changing ways. There is nothing in my entire life that compares with the beauty and awe of seeing God’s hand at work and getting to be a part of it.

I’m now convinced that God is not only actively working at all times doing extraordinary things, but He longs for His children to partner with Him so that we can be even greater agents of blessing and grace to the glory of His name. But living like this doesn’t just happen. It’s intentional and involves doing the opposite of what I’m used to doing in my flesh, which means breaking long standing habits. As I’ve been encouraged by God’s great work, I’ve been asking Him to show me the major hindrances that are keeping me from seeing His presence and power displayed throughout the day. This is what I’ve discovered.

Reasons I miss out on seeing God do the miraculous

I’m not looking for Him. Unless I’m watching and praying, I’m not going to see God at work. He says that if I want something, I need to ask, seek and knock (Matt 7:7-8). He provides when I ask and answers when I pray according to His Word. When I’m praying and seeking by faith then I begin anticipating that He’s going to do something; I start watching for His hand to intervene in situations and to open doors for me to be an agent of His grace.

About eight years ago, our family was going through a really intense trial that was impacting every area of our lives. Together we were crying out for deliverance. God used that difficulty to teach me to pray and watch and not give up looking for Him, like I’ve been so apt to do.

 

I’m not sure how it started, but the Spirit nudged me one day when I was opening the blinds and looking out over the mountains to begin making a declaration of faith that I was waiting for God. My conversation with Him went something like this, “God, I know you’re coming to deliver us. I’m not sure if today’s the day, but I’m looking for you and I’m right here waiting.” It became part of my routine for almost a year until God did show up in a miraculous way.

Other people all around are also praying desperate prayers for God deliver and provide for their needs. And because God usually sends regular people to show His love, I have a great opportunity to pray that God will show me those who are hurting and in need so that I can share the grace I’ve received.

I’m focused on meeting my own needs. I often become double minded, trying to live for both God and the world. As I surrender to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, I’m sidetracked from looking for God. In fact, as I’m chasing after these things, I’m actually looking in the opposite direction so that my back is turned on God and the miraculous.

The other day when Mark and I were at the ocean we were surrounded by beauty. He was focused on taking pictures of the bay and all the ships coming in. I happened to turn around and notice the most extraordinary sunset I’d seen since we'd been in Korea. I started trying to get his attention, but he was already satisfied with the beauty he was looking at and didn’t want to move. When I realized that he was going to miss something so incredible, I started shouting,“You have to turn around. Just for one second, please just look.”

I think that’s a lot like what is going on with God and me. He’s at work all around me doing incredible things in the lives of others, changing hearts, providing needs, strengthening those who are weak and wanting me to join Him in these great transformations, but I’ve got my eyes glued on what I think is the greater prize so I’m just missing it all.

I’m too busy to notice hurting people. I often convince myself that being busy for God is what He wants, but He really wants me to slow down so that I have time to see Him at work. As soon as I get up each day I have an agenda. I might pray for a lot of people and ask God to do something great, but then I go into automatic mode and get to work checking off what I’m going to do that day. I move from one event to the next with such drive that I fail to see God in the middle of everything, even the tiny and seemingly insignificant events.

People are everywhere in my day, passing me in the halls, coming into my office, sitting in the classroom. And they all have needs, desires and prayers that they’re waiting on God to answer. I’m often too rushed to partner with God in making heart connections with them by listening, responding and delivering His miracles because I’m so focused on working for Him.

Just yesterday I was walking down the hall when I saw a student who has a life threatening health issue. We often talk and he tells me how he’s doing. But I was too busy to stop yesterday. After seeing him the first time, I walked in a room and came out again a few minutes later only to almost run into him. I took this as an obvious clue that God was there and wanted me to slow down and forget my schedule. After talking, I found out he was really sick and discouraged and needed prayer. I lost a chance to make some copies, but God had so much more in mind. He met us to remind us both that He’s alive and present and wants to meet our needs as we take time to make heart connections with each other.

I’ve lost faith in God’s ability and willingness to do the miraculous. So many times, I lose the sense of wonder that I had when God first reached down and breathed new life in me. I hear a lot of stories of how He showed up and did the incredible for other people, but it can sometimes seem like forever ago that it actually happened in my life.

There have been dozens of times when our family has faced the impossible and, unfortunately, I’m usually the first one to say that it's not going to work.

About three years ago, my husband decided that we needed to talk with the girls about a situation that could change our future, so we prayed and he told the girls what was going on. My response was, “Well, it’s just time to move on and do something else.” That’s when our older daughter stood up on the chair and started saying that we were not going to give up. She reminded us that our God was a God of power and could do so much more than we even imagined.

The most ironic part of her inspiring talk was that she was wearing a sweatshirt with the word Faith on it in bold letters. God had gone out of His way to show me the extreme contrast of her childlike confidence in His ability to do anything and my own unbelief in order to challenge me to trust in Him for a miracle.

Thankfully, it’s never too late to change

Since our villa overlooks the bay, I get to see a lot of ships coming and going. One day as I was watching a ship plow out through the opening in the breakwater to the ocean, I noticed that it started to slow down and before long was doing a u-turn so that it completely turned around and headed back to the bay. At that moment, I sensed God reminding me that it’s never too late to change, to let go of a bad habit, to turn back to living by faith and walking in trust. I’m learning to take action as soon as I see I’m losing my vision of God’s greatness and power and I’m not expecting him to show up in the average events of my day.

This awareness is a warning light that goes off, showing me I’m about to enter a place of self absorbtion unless I allow God to turn me around. I know how prone I am to choose a life of comfort over one of faith, so I’m also learning to ask for God’s help, knowing that He wants me to have a heart like His and is always willing to give me wisdom when I ask for it.

As I become aware that my focus has shifted away from God and His amazing plans to reach people with hope, I become convicted that I need supernatural help from the Spirit, who motivates me to begin resisting the flesh and drawing near to God. With His help, I can start once again to pray and anticipate God’s presence and power and refuse to give up watching for Him and expecting to be a part of His divine appointments.

It’s a conscious decision that takes effort, but it’s the most exciting, worthwhile effort I’ve ever experienced. God is busy doing incredible, life changing things and looking for people like you and me who are willing to say,“Here I am today. I’ll do whatever you ask and give whatever you want me to give for the chance to partner with you in being a blessing to others.” As God’s children there is no greater joy.

“And I said, “Here am I. Send me!: Is 6:8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8IuCQV5xk

 

But to do Justly, and to Love Mercy

I’ve never liked alien movies, since creatures with strange body parts and languages simply don’t appeal to me. Even the word alien used to sound frightening, at least until I became one living in Korea. With this newfound and disappointing realization, I decided that it might be a good idea to find out what God had to say about people like me who are sojourners or, more bluntly, aliens.

My first discovery was that He seems to be extremely concerned about those who have left their homeland for whatever reasons and are living among a different culture. In fact, in over twenty passages He commands kindness and even handedness to the alien, promising judgment to those who withhold it. In Exodus 22:21 God gives His people a reason for this call to mercy that they should be able to easily understand – they were at one time aliens in other lands where they were mistreated. He urges them  to carefully reflect on the suffering they endured so that they will be compelled out of love to reverse this curse by extending grace to those who find themselves in similar situations.

But God’s concern surpasses mere suggestions and carries with it instead a clear cut command for action. “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien” Lev 19:33. In Jeremiah 7:5-7 He warns the people that if they practice this kind of indifference and oppression His presence will not be with them and they will fail to receive His blessing. At one point, in Isaiah 58 He explains that if they want to be truly blessed they won’t find it through more fasting and prayer and putting on sackcloth, but by doing justly, releasing the bonds of oppression, and showing kindness to the stranger in the land.

So how does this apply to you and me? How are we to respond?

As a Southerner who grew up in Mississippi and moved as an adult to North Carolina, I know a lot about living among aliens in the land. I saw firsthand how certain people groups were oppressed and denied rights that others freely enjoyed. The issue hit closer to home when we moved to North Carolina where there was a large Asian community. I watched as a close friend was overlooked in crowds and excluded from conversations. Oftentimes we stood side by side at gatherings where I’d receive numerous invitations to lunches and get togethers while she’d stand inches away a mere vapor it seemed as those talking with me rarely even noticed her.

While I became increasingly aware of the oppression and opposition she and others endured, I considered myself innocent of any wrongdoing since I wasn’t participating in it. I prayed some about it and went on my way, unable to fully understand the extent of their suffering until I moved to Korea. Upon arriving here, it didn’t take long to realize that I not only looked different, but spoke another language and had completely different customs. I didn’t understand, however, that these differences would often set me in a place of discrimination much like the one my friend endured in North Carolina.

Over the course of four years, I’ve encountered many people who have shown me Christ’s kindness and love, treating me as they’d want to be treated. On the other hand, I’ve also on occasion been shoved aggressively in stores, excluded from events, and many times treated like a second class citizen when it comes to receiving promotions or benefits. With this kind of treatment a pain has emerged that I’d never felt before – one that I’d never had to experience.

All this said, I realize I have two choices in how I can respond – my way or God’s way. And while God has a lot to say about fair treatment of the alien, He has even more to say about loving those who hurt us, spitefully use us and even oppress us. He calls me to love, to forgive (70 times 7), to bless those who curse me and to keep blessing them with a genuine heart of faith that longs to see them come under the fullness of God’s grace and mercy, which He says will lead them to repentance.

Yes, I’m guilty of the same sins that have been committed against me. For many years I sat on the sidelines and watched with sorrow as others were oppressed, but I rarely took action. My own suffering has opened my heart to see that God’s call to mercy extends beyond sentimental feelings of sadness and regret, but demands that I step out in faith to be an instrument of healing and restoration for those who are enduring oppression. My hope is that God will take this hurt and use it for incredible good in the future as I’m now praying and believing that He’ll transform me from a mere observer to an activator on behalf of those who, like me, are calling out for kindness, justice and righteousness to prevail.

"Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Mic 6:7-8

http://www.justbetweenus.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=315083

Storms of Life

Monsoon season in Korea is not the time to visit if you want to enjoy your vacation. As we’re making plans for family to come this summer, we’re determined to avoid this time of year when water gushes from the sky nonstop and winds blow and beat against our wall to wall windows causing them to rattle like they’re going to explode. Our three story villa, which has an amazing view of the bay, unfortunately also gets the most aggressive winds during this time since we have nothing standing between us and the waters. Like so many of the older buildings on the island it wasn’t designed well, so when these storms come water seeps and sometimes pours in the windows, puddling on the floor. It’s a stressful two weeks of constantly mopping up water, trying to keep the wallpaper and the curtains from being damaged and making sure we don’t have too much humidity in the apartment so the mold doesn’t grow.

As much as we wish we could make monsoon season disappear, we can’t. Thankfully, because it comes every year without fail we can be somewhat prepared for it. But when storms of life hit, they rarely follow patterns or give any warning. One day everything is fine. We wake up to a great cup of coffee after a peaceful night’s sleep, look around our beautiful home and think, “Life’s really been good to me.” Everything seems secure in our world, so much so that we can’t imagine it being otherwise. Then a call comes, or a doctor’s visit reveals unwanted news, or we enter into a disastrous situation that drops from the sky– something that as one person put it “just gets shoved down our throats.”

When storms hit, those closest to us quit saying how well life is treating us. They often don’t know what to say or how to communicate their sorrow or even how to understand the reason why circumstances so earth shattering could come and destroy a life they thought was so impenetrable. The storm that has blown our world apart scares them as much as it hurts us, so they back away and try to buffet their minds from the reality that something similar could wipe out their world in a matter of seconds as well.

All this leaves us alone to digest our tragedy, to try to make sense of events so seemingly meaningless. There’s no amount of thinking, researching, back tracking or focusing on what we could or should have done to give us peace or wisdom in the midst of a storm. The world tells us that we’re destined to go through life’s hardships so we have to toughen up, face the reality of what’s happening and “make the best of it.” The only alternative is to yield to despair like Job’s wife was tempted to do and just give up and die.

But God has a better way. He reminds us, along with giving amazing real life examples, that storms are going to come (not may, might or could, but most definitely will). He says that there’s only one way to survive tragedies and losses and that’s not to man up or try to handle it ourselves but to build our house on the Rock, on Christ -- to anchor our hope so firmly in his finished work on the cross each day so that when the lightening unexpectedly flashes and threatens to destroy us we’re standing on the one foundation that can’t be moved or removed (Matt 7:24-27). When we take refuge in him, we experience what Paul did when he said, “We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9). We’re weather beaten but not destroyed by the storms of life because Christ is our Foundation, our Hope, our Deliverer. He promises that no matter how terrible the storm, how costly the destruction, it can’t separate us from his unshakable love and the promise that we’re his forever

Life can and often does change in the blink of an eye, and no one knows what will happen tomorrow (Js 4:14). If we live long enough, we’ll encounter huge storms, and they’ll likely be unexpected. One minute we’re here, the next we’re gone. One day we’re piling up wealth, the next our investments fail or we lose a job and everything we’ve worked for comes to nothing. One year we’re celebrating our marriage the next we discover our partner has found someone else and everything we’ve been living is a lie. One day we’re basking in our good health, the next we find we have only a short time to live. These scenarios are almost inconceivable because we often feel so secure, so alive, so blessed, so immovable in the hours just before the storm.

The option isn’t to make the storms go away. Like monsoon season in Korea, some are going to push their way into our lives no matter how vigilant we are in trying to prevent them. We can’t toughen up and weather them ourselves, since we’re just flesh and blood and honestly lacking the ability to control anything in the world. The only reasonable solution is to put our hope in Christ today and to trust him not only to get us through the hard times, but after we’ve made it through to deliver us from death and the grave. He promises that once we’ve surrendered our hearts to him, admitted our need of his saving work and transferred our trust from ourselves to his work that he’ll never fail us or forsake us. We may possibly die in one of life’s storms. But if we’re in Christ we don’t have to be afraid – even of death. "Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8:35-39).

Surrendering to God

Our younger daughter called yesterday to ask if we’d pray that God would open certain doors for her. This was a deep desire of her heart, one that she'd had since she was in elementary school, and she wanted us to join with her in asking for God's blessing. Soon after, our older daughter who is studying in the states sent an urgent message asking for prayer about a job she’d applied for in college (along with 400 other applicants). She was hopeful that through the position she could fulfill a calling that's been her passion for years. We prayed intensely for both of them, but our requests that they get what they so desperately wanted were sidelined by the greater desire that they receive what God desperately wants for them, even if it's not what they envisioned.

  It’s easy to establish in our minds what looks like God’s blessings in our lives. We sit and visualize the details of what would make us the happiest, and if we’re realists, we mingle these pictures with our gifts and talents to come up with blessings that not only look as if they’re right but seem absolutely reasonable. In our thinking, it's inconceivable that these dreams wouldn’t or couldn’t be God’s will.

Over time, the stored mental images about our desires begin to shape and define not only how we live each day, but most importantly how we respond to God’s plans for our future. When we receive what we want, we’re happy, even ecstatic. But when God unveils gifts that don’t align with ideals that we ascertain as "the best", we can become bitter and discouraged, wondering what went wrong and if God genuinely cares about us.

Our sense of entitlement to dreams can become so ingrained in our worldview that we eventually have to make a choice over whether we're going to continue embracing our right to them or surrender our lives and all our circumstances to God. It may take years for us to come to this crossroads, as life may seemingly appear to spring forth unscathed from disappointment. But eventually, if we’re seeking God and living for him, there will be a point of divergence and disappointment. At this crossroads, we have to make a choice, and unfortunately for many of us it’s not an easy one.
    
For two months now, I’ve been wrestling with a blessing I was certain was God’s gift to me. When I got news that it was being taken away, I was struck numb at first and then filled with questions like: How could God let this happen to me? Why would he take something from me that he had initially called and gifted me to do? I called friends, wrote e-mails, sat for hours and tried to figure out what my next step would be while also praying that God would reveal what I could do to bring about change. I wanted him to move the mountain that stood in the way of what I was confident was his will for me.

With this determination, life became a blur of wrestling and striving with God over what I perceived to be my right to happiness – until I walked into the office of one of our senior professors, a godly man known for his kindness and wisdom. Sitting beneath a glass top table in his office was a white piece of copier paper with three simple words printed in bold: Surrender to God. When my eyes caught them, I knew this was God’s message to me and his answer to  my prayers and striving regarding my situation. The key wasn’t in knocking on more doors, trying to shove them open, or sending follow up e-mails trying to protest the injustice of my situation, but it was in surrender. 

For the next six weeks as I waited to hear about any turnaround in my position, those words stayed fixed at the forefront of my mind, helping to reign in opposing thoughts when I was tempted to fret and demand my way. Ironically, I’d been teaching The Lord's Prayer to the Korean students in my English classes during the semester. The focus of our talks was about desiring God’s Kingdom and his will over everything -- "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" -- even if it meant suffering. In the middle of teaching this, he gave me the opportunity to demonstrate trust in what I was encouraging them to do, even though it wasn’t what I found even remotely appealing. As I sat staring at this gift he’d placed in my life, I wanted to trash it, even destroy it. It wasn’t what I'd asked for or what I thought was best for me at all, but at that moment it was God’s will.

I began to daily, sometimes hourly, surrender my dream which gave me new freedom to hold out my heart and hands and ask God what his plans and will were for me instead. With this mindset, I was able to begin releasing the burden of my demands for happiness and experience freedom. “Your will be done,” was my refrain, even when I didn’t feel it or sense any great longing for it. I didn't pray it because it felt good necessarily, but because I was and am convinced beyond doubt that God is exceedingly, abundantly good at every point in time and won’t give anything but gracious, loving gifts to his children (Ps 107:1, 136:1). I’m also convinced, by simple logic, that what he’s given me (as I walk by faith and trust in him) is his absolute best (Rm 8:28).

God’s greatest gifts sometimes come in packages that don’t look at all like what we’ve asked for. In fact,  his best sometimes comes in parcels of pain and suffering, disappointment and loss. But if he is good, which he is (Lk 18:18,19, 1 Jn 1:5), and if he wants only what’s best for us, which he does (Jas 1:7), and if he’s all powerful and able to accomplish all his purposes for our lives, which he is (Eph 3:20), then we can completely, without any reservation trust him with what he gives us (Prov 3:5-6).

God did turn around my situation and, for reasons I may never understand, gave me back the gift that was for a season taken from me. I'm continuing to pray for our daughters, though I truly have no idea how God will answer our requests. They’re both asking for good things from a human perspective.  But God in his wisdom and understanding sees the greater purpose behind every circumstance and is the only one who is able to fully discern if they are or aren't what's best for them. 

We're all learning together to embrace this truth, so that we can pray and wait in quiet trust that he’s going to work out all circumstances for our ultimate good and the glory of his name. The only alternative is to keep clinging desperately to our vision for life, which if it’s not God’s vision and his will then it’s an idol that will undoubtedly eat away at our faith and trust in him. It’s only as we give up our right to what we want that we’re able to experience the happiness and joy we’re meant to have. God is good and his will is perfect. As we rest in this truth and seek to build our lives around it instead of our own plans and demands then we’ll be truly satisfied no matter what his answer.

Eyes Wide Open

This was written by someone who wants to remain anonymous. It's an amazing story of God's grace and redemption!

There is no better illustration of what God has been teaching me this past year than to tell about something I recently experienced. It’s so easy for me to think that I’m doing all right with my life and my faith. I go to a public school where most of the kids spend their weekends in a blur of alcohol. In seeing the mess of their lives, it’s easy to stop every once in a while and look in the mirror and tell myself that I am not doing ALL that bad. Actually it’s the simplest thing in the world to feel like I’m a good person if I compare myself to them. But that is not how God sees it or me and most definitely not reality.

Recently, I was going to a friend’s dorm when I walked past a group of about twenty kids sitting around tables in the woods. Something about the situation made me interested, so I stopped just to listen. And there on a freezing winter night these kids, who LOOKED just like me, were sitting around tables and cursing and screaming at God. It started with drunken songs making fun of Jesus being tossed around and soon it became a yelling match of insults at the God they weren’t sure was listening.

I could hear the anger in their voices and see it in their faces –anger that was rooted so deeply because every single one of them believed that this “god” had failed them in some way or another. And here they gathered together to yell insults and in some way avenge their wrongs. I could barely watch, because the first thought that hit me was that this is what the crucifixion must have felt like – all those thousands of people standing around and yelling “crucify, crucify” at a man who at that very moment was giving his life for them.

The irony stung me, because this God who we curse and spit on knew the hatred in our hearts and still chose to save us. And for a moment I felt like I was there and something just clicked because I was a part of that group of people with their alcohol and slurred insults. I saw myself in the crowd of mockers, and we were all standing around the bottom of the cross spitting at the one who came to heal us.

I was literally at a loss for words, because it had been SO long since I had seen myself as a sinner who was literally so broken and hard that it could only take an act of God’s grace to heal me – yet this is who I am. This whole experience almost broke me, and yet at the same time it made me so incredibly whole.

It reminded me that in the absolute depth of my depravity the God of all the universe saw me do this, he sees me do this again and again, and he chooses to forgive, to love, to wipe away the hatred and the pain and the hardness of my heart and to pick me up when I am face down and dirty and unable to go on. And I realized my God is jealous for every one of those broken people standing out there yelling on that November night. He is jealous for me, so much so that he died for me while I still hated him.

In essence, this is the greatest lesson I have learned this year -- that even though I often find myself in places that I could chose to see my goodness, God has shown me how broken and sinful I am, how my sins nailed him to the cross and how they in themselves were the burden he carried to keep me from death. It’s a terrifying place to be, but with it I have really come to see, in the tiniest of ways, the amazing love Christ has for me. It is a love that should revolutionize my life along with every thought and moment and word of mine. Because how can I live a normal life when I have received such an incredible gift of unconditional love and forgiveness?