Devotions

I was asked to write devotionals for my university's Spiritual Life Week for the Fall 2011 Semester. :)  Hope you enjoy them!  Let me know what you think.

::ONE::

Sometimes I hide my planner from myself just to “de-stress” for a moment.  No, I’m not joking.  I’m not trying to be clever.  Sometimes, I hide my planner.

Out of sight means out of mind, right?

We are all busy people.  We are, in fact, college students!  Although, many times, our schedules are our own fault.  I know oftentimes I see the opportunities offered to me as blessings and want to snatch them up while they last!  I want to show thankfulness to God for the opportunities and in gratitude, work hard to grow through these opportunities—for the glorification of Him!  However, a lot of times these so-called “opportunities” are just bricks used to create a wall in between me and God.  These opportunities start to collect, accumulating each year, and though my planners start to increase in size, the hours of the day do not!  They block off the time I could be spending in relationship with Him.

In frustration, I hide my planner.  I turn on the TV.  I go to a friend’s room.  I write.  I get on the internet.  I even clean.  When will I ever learn that hiding from my problems doesn’t solve anything, but instead only makes the problem continue to grow in my absence?  (Sound familiar?)

Out of sight, out of mind?

Tomorrow I will get into my Bible more.  Tomorrow I will spend more time in prayer.  Lord, I just don’t have enough time to spend with you—please make time for me to spend with me because you know how stressed I am!

We hide behind our schedules from our time with God.  We get lost in the scribbled-over pages within our ever-expanding planners.  Our schedule (that we thought we had decided on ourselves) starts to control us.  We are tired, overworked, drained... almost involuntary, enslaved.  And instead of going to God for comfort and strength, we build a wall between us and the Creator of love, mercy, devotion, compassion, comfort, salvation, purpose, peace, and, even, us.  Refusing to face a spiritual rut of sorts, does not mean that it has vanished, is not impending.

Furthermore, why do we enslave ourselves to a world that just keeps passing along “opportunities,” faulty expectations, strict norms, should-haves, could-haves, would-haves?  Don’t get me wrong, a lot of opportunities are great, and help build our resumes, professionalism, and perhaps even our character, but without God’s presence within those opportunities, are we really going to find the purpose (through Him) that we are trying to find in these activities?  We are trying to find comfort and purpose in activities that ultimately and gradually build up that wall, brick by brick.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1a).

I challenge you (and myself) to start giving up some opportunities in order to become more centered on God and your everyday purpose.  God knows the number of breaths we have left on this earth, and He has a plan to prosper us and give us purpose during each of those dwindling moments (Jeremiah 29:11).  Should we really need to scrounge for time for God?  I know it feels awful “penciling in” God in our schedule, but perhaps making His presence more aware to ourselves within our planners, our activities, our conversations, and our downtime will help us.  By doing that a few times, it will get us into the routine of spending more time with God, and after we realize how much better our life is when we do so, we will be more likely to continue our quiet moments with God.  Besides, I’m pretty sure He deserves a spot or two.

While hiding your planner may not always be the best decision (we’ve already established that hiding from your problems gets you nowhere), it is important to put life into perspective and to prioritize (and this can be so difficult in college I am finding!)  We must remember that our awe-inspiring God is well worth not only our time, but also our full attention.  Remember: “Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7b).

Take this challenge with me; make more time for God, put your life into eternal context, and make your God time real time.  I know we will not regret it. :)

::TWO::

A huge problem that non-Christians express that they have encountered is a perceived “fakeness” they sense from Christians.  Granted, a lot of people who call themselves Christians may be “fake,” but it’s important for those who are true to themselves and their beliefs, and are open to being social with all peoples (as Jesus Christ was), to appear as open as they are or claim to be.  This is an ongoing struggle for followers of Christ.  How can we be witnesses of Christ and communicators of His love if we appear hypocritical, closed-off, and aloof?

I will humble myself and share a moment when I needed a taste of humble pie as a Christian.  In high school, there was a girl who I thought had everything.  She had the perfect blonde, straight hair, a good figure, and big blue eyes.  I had big, frizzy, curly hair, was so skinny and tall that I could not find clothes to fit me, and had to wear glasses.  She was very social, and, of course, popular.  I was painfully shy.  She had guys waiting on her hand and foot, and she even led a Bible study group once that I was in; this absolutely infuriated me.  She made fun of me, called me out during Bible study when I sat there quietly, and whenever I would actually try to give my input, she would laugh under her breath and look at everyone else “knowingly.”  I hated this girl for having the seemingly perfect life, and for giving me a difficult time for no reason. 

Suddenly, one day this girl started acting differently.  When a guy would get near her and whisper in her ear, she wouldn’t giggle or give him a flirty look.  When we got to Bible study, she would be quieter and more serious about the topics we talked about, and when we talked about self-worth or sexual purity, she looked as if she could cry.  Long story short, this girl came to know Jesus truly and thoroughly and realized that He could give her more satisfaction and love than status or lust.  It turns out that she was radically transformed and given a beautiful second chance at salvation.  It turns out that she was actually jealous of me because of my close relationship with Christ and satisfaction through Him and not the paths more traveled during high school.

However, I didn’t know this when she went up to share her testimony later that year.  I was angry.  I thought that she was either a hypocrite or she somehow did not deserve to be up there.  I didn’t realize it, but I was feeling more entitled to salvation than this girl because she had hurt me.  When it hit me that I was actually the problem not the victim at this point, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Why did I feel like I deserved salvation at all, let alone more than this girl?  Why didn’t I swallow my pride, my self-pity, my hurt, and be happy for this girl (not to mention thankful about being free from her torment?)  How was I, a sinner myself, any better than here (or anyone else for that matter?) 

We do this a lot.  We aren’t perfect, and we never will be, but we can work towards being more Christ-like.  We can accept God’s grace and forgiveness thankfully, but if we truly love Him, we will work towards radically transforming every aspect of our life to glorify Him.  Read the following Bible verses as I did—as beautiful letters from God that remind us lovingly to be true, peace-seeking, and humble in the face of possible hypocrisy or perceived entitlement.     

•       Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.  Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
•       Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
•       Matthew 6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
•       Matthew 23:25 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
•       Luke 6:42 How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

•       Job 20:5 The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.

•       Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

•       1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.

It’s important to be who we are as both humans and followers of Christ.  We are going to make mistakes, but owning up to our mistakes makes us less hypocritical, more authentic, more Christ-like, and more human and approachable all at the same time.  When I realized that I was being judgmental towards that girl and feeling more entitled than her, I felt a weight off my shoulders.  I was also able to experience pure joy at seeing God at work in her.  And that reaction allowed God to bring happiness and blessings to my heart. 

Besides, I challenge you to count the number of times God uses a proud person for His good.  Jeremiah said “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child” (Jeremiah 1:6).  Contrast that with a passage in Mark, where the Pharisees tried to manipulate the Savior of the world into saying something that contradicted his integrity (Mark 12:13-17).  Who was more humble?  Who was hypocritical?  Who did Jesus prove wrong?  Who did God use for His good?

2/20/2012 UPDATE:  I was asked to write a devotional again!  Here is one I wrote for the Spring 2012 Spiritual Life Week.

::THREE::

We are creatures of consistent inconsistency.

For instance, the fluctuations in the amount of love we have for ourselves are way more sporadic than we think.

We tell ourselves:

Maybe if I love others more, then I will feel joy again... I am not satisfied with myself because I have not been doing as many good things lately. I need to think of Jesus first, others second, and then myself; so this dissatisfaction that I feel can wait. I am foolish to feel this way—I don’t even have a reason to feel this way. And then there’s that creeping, completely false thought that never makes sense within the context of the situation, I’m not good enough. I’m nothing. I should give up.

While the power of Jesus Christ is indeed unlimited, and we are in fact called to love others because He first loved us, what if our absence of love for ourselves gets in the way of us loving others? What if we cannot show the love of Christ to others because we are having another one of those fluctuations in self love?

“I feel that we often miss the starting point. If one is to love your neighbor ‘as yourself’, then one must first ‘love yourself’” (Matt Wells, Fix Me, Love Them).

Self love does not equal sin. It is when we go too far to remedy our absence of self love that we become sinful. We attempt to fill that emptiness with a conjured up pride, fakeness, boastfulness, egocentrism, or rudeness instead of learning, through Christ, how to love ourselves—beings created by an Almighty, all-loving Creator.

Sin is most often something that we use to attempt to satisfy a need that only God can satisfy. Do you wake up in the morning thinking, “Hey, I think I am going to sin today just to sin”? We think our sins serve a purpose for us, but in reality, God tells us not to sin in order to protect us from straying from the satisfaction only He can bring.

Does that mean we are always going to feel satisfied if we are sufficiently connected to God? No, not necessarily. We are flawed beings with many factors contributing to dissatisfaction while we are here on this earth, but a never-ending supply of comfort is at our fingertips—the salvation, Spirit, and love of Jesus Christ—and the ability to love our own selves he allows us.

How do people self love?

They cry out to God when in need. They do not look to other means to cover up inevitable dissatisfaction. They realize that they were “wonderfully made” in the image of the Supreme Being of the universe and beyond! They try to quit consistent sinning that leads to consistent self hatred. They understand that some days are going to be worse than others. They allow their pain to teach them, and God to comfort them through this process. They love themselves as God loves them. They follow the oxygen mask metaphor that points out that there’s a great reason why airports instruct adults to put their oxygen mask on first, and then to help others; if they pass out, how are they going to help others do anything? They can’t help others when they struggle, themselves.

They see the world and, specifically, themselves through the lens of Jesus Christ. This is an extremely difficult task that I have been trying to cultivate this semester. I wrote on my mirror, “See yourself as God sees you, as you truly are… a beautifully made, cherished daughter.” I encourage you to find ways to remind yourself to view yourself as God does. If you come to an understanding of His perceptions, you can come to self love, refreshing freedom, and the ability to help others better, in reaction to the inner love bursting from your soul. I will always be of the opinion that you cannot accomplish any sort of purpose to which you feel called (and yes, we ALL have a purpose to which we are called—a purpose that only WE can uniquely fulfill with the Lord’s help) unless you first make yourself right inside. Trying to continually serve God while you are inwardly exhausted and self hating does not glorify Him; for, He called us to treat our bodies as temples of the Lord—including our emotional and mental well-being.

We will never be perfect, and we will never truly wrap our minds around our own worth to God (I always think, Why on earth does He even want me?), but we can continually get closer and closer. He knows our hearts and our efforts. He adores every aspect of us, separating our sins from His perception of us when we rest in His forgiveness and all-covering love.

Let me conclude with a quote by Chris Tiegreen that I have found continually true in my life as a God follower:
"Many Christians are striving in the flesh to do the works of the Spirit, and they are frustrated and tired. Wouldn't you rather rest in the Resurrection than try to overhaul the old nature that was-- and should continually be-- crucified with Jesus? New life is an eternal blessing, but it has no short-term benefit if we refuse to live in it. How do you get there? Not by straining for it, not by reading about it, and not by frantically immersing yourself in church life. No, just by asking. Ask often, trust deeply, let yourself be convinced by the promise, think about it often, and most of all give Jesus free reign of you heart. The power of His resurrection is available when the power of your self is exhausted. Live in His power. Or better yet, let His power live in you." -- Chris Tiegreen

Live, love, and let go,
Lauren