My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

I can’t stop thinking about these words of Jesus’ spoken on the cross. Much has been speculated about this. Some say God abandoned him, turned away from Jesus, because he could not be in the presence of sin. That, as Jesus bore our sins on the cross, God had to leave him,  covered in our sin.
But I don’t know if I can wrap my mind around that.

I feel like maybe it had to do with the reality that Jesus was fully God and fully Man. He was human til the end. And just as we do sometimes, he felt betrayed by his Father, even though he wasn’t. God never left him, just like he never leaves us nor forsakes us.

Jesus knew God, Jesus was God, yet he felt forsaken by God. Because in his humanity, in such a horrible situation, it seemed he had been abandoned. And he knew we would, at times,  feel abandoned by God too. That there would be times when we couldn’t really see God working in our lives. And these would be those ‘darkest before the dawn’ moments. Like that day on the cross.

Did God turn away as his Son was mocked, beaten, bloodied, tortured, disfigured, totally dismissed, disbelieved and disregarded…?

No…
I believe He stayed. He watched. He strengthened his Son….His own flesh and blood. It pierced his heart to see what his own could do to his Own.  It still does today…
When we mistreat one another, disregard our fellow man…  do unspeakable things to God’s other children. Our own spiritual siblings.  In big and small ways. From violent crimes and horrible offenses, to emotional abuse and neglect, to simply dismissing, ignoring or belittling another human being. It’s like watching your own kids treating each other badly, really not getting along. It hurts.  Deeply at times.

No. God may have turned his face away from the sin but not from the Son. And because we are joint heirs with Christ when we accept him as our Lord and Savior, God never turns away from us either. Because we are not our sin. He may well look away when  we choose to sin. But God is always there for us, he’s always accessible. He’s always waiting for us to turn away from our own sin and towards him, in repentance. And he’s more than ready, more than eager, more than excited to welcome us back to him. Nothing you’ve ever done could cause God to turn away from you when you turn towards him. At any point in your life that you become ready to accept him and turn towards him, he’ll be there.

Maybe God does look away when we are sinning. But he never leaves us.  And to know that even Jesus, while on the cross, felt like God left him… I think that speaks to Jesus’ humanness. And perhaps he said those words because he knew we would feel the same way at times. What a comfort it is to know that  Jesus can relate. I think it helps us to really believe that God is always there. He really never leaves, no matter how terrible things are, no matter how bad it gets.
No matter how alone we feel, we never really are.

One of my recent favorite TV series is Downton Abbey. It’s set in the early 1900s about a prominent family who lives in a big English manor where there’s a complete waitstaff; cooks, servers, footmen, lady’s maids, etc. Every person who lives in the house has  a servant or a helper of some sort. And one of the classic images is of the family sitting down to dinner and all the servers lined up behind them waiting on them. They’re not waiting for them to do something,  they’re waiting on them as a waiter in a restaurant waits on you. In other words they’re just waiting with anticipation on any need to arise, or any order or request that the family might have. They are ‘at the ready.’

As Christians, we use the phrase ‘Waiting on God’ when we are praying about a situation in our life and asking God to help us or direct us on how to go forward. Often, we find ourselves in a holding pattern of sorts, as we wait to hear from God. ”Well I don’t know what to do next, I’m just waiting on God.” And we think of that as a time to be inactive and to passively  wait until God does something for us.

Waiting On vs. Waiting For

But maybe we need flip the script. To look at it as more of a servant-Master relationship. If you are waiting on God – newsflash – you are serving him. You are waiting for any request, order, or suggestion from God that you can act on, that would be in his best interest (and, incidentally, yours too.)

In the Downton Abbey analogy the staff wasn’t just waiting for the family, they were waiting on them. That means they were eagerly awaiting the smallest request, the least possible need of the family that would surface… they would jump on it and serve.
When we say we are waiting on God, is this what we mean?

Are we ready and willing to do what God asks, or do we just want him to supernaturally fix everything? (I’m not gonna lie, this is often where I find myself in my prayer life.)

Maybe we need to look at waiting on God in the Downton Abbey way.  We say we’re waiting on God, but we’re really just waiting for him. We tend to confuse the two.  We just wait and wait and feel like we can’t do anything because we ‘haven’t heard from God yet”.  Well maybe that’s the wrong perspective. If God hasn’t answered your prayers yet, can you look to him for instruction instead of solution?  

Even better, can we take it one step further? We are asking God to solve our problem. Instead maybe  we could ask God ‘In my present situation, how can I solve someone else’s problem?’

Maybe your current difficulty has strategically placed you to meet someone else’s need. Your experience has put you in the position to help or support someone going through a similar situation. Perhaps even a non-believer that needs your help,  but also wants to hear what you have to say about faith.

So right now if you are in need and you are asking God for something, and you’re waiting on him……. maybe listen for, look for, ask God for… someone that has a need that You can meet.

When you meet someone else’s need, often that person or someone near them can then meet someone else’s need, maybe even your own! There can be the most beautiful ripple effect. If we all do our part -in whatever way our situation has uniquely qualified us- we can all come together in this great big jigsaw puzzle of perfection that God has planned.

But when we refuse to obey, or we miss or ignore God’s promptings, there’s a missing piece to the puzzle. Sometimes, we are so busy telling God everything we need from him, we forget to listen for a response. Perhaps when it seems that God is not answering our prayers, it’s because we have not followed the very instructions he has given us that would lead us to our answer.

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart….Ps 37:4  

Can this really be true? All we need to do is ‘delight ourselves in the Lord’ and he will give us everything we want?  And, what does it mean to delight ourselves in the Lord, anyway?

As usual, scripture verses from the Bible can be taken lightly and literally, but often have a deeper meaning that takes a little digging.

We can delight ourselves in the Lord by putting him first in our lives, living by his commands and his example. By letting Jesus be just who he is…. the  Lord of our life. When we are conscious of God in our life, and we lean on him, trust him and defer to him every step of the way, alongside prayer, worship and scripture study, these are all ways of delighting in the Lord.    

So this verse seems to say if we delight ourselves in the Lord by doing these things, then God will give us whatever we desire. But what if it means, instead, that He will give us new things to desire?

It’s like if we delight ourselves in the Lord then maybe he will change our desires, and give us new, more meaningful things to desire. If we devote our life to the Lord, He will shape the desires of our hearts into what it is that will really satisfy us. He will cause us to want  and desire different things. Meaningful things. Things that will bring us deep-seated joy over temporary  happiness.

Anyway, do we really think that if we delight ourselves in the Lord  we kind of just suddenly start getting every material thing we want? You know…an ‘A’ on that test, more money, a better job, a bigger house, a nicer car,  awesome vacation, perfect children, more… “happiness?”

Although these things might  make us happier in the short term, I think maybe God is in the business of helping us find joy over happiness. A contentment and a peace that surpasses the temporal enjoyment of material things.

So we think we want all this cool worldly stuff, but if we delight ourselves in the Lord maybe he shows us what the true desires are that are deep in our hearts. In our spirits. Maybe God gives those to us instead of just heaping upon us a bunch of ‘stuff’ if we agree to delight ourselves in him.

Instead of chasing after the wealth of this world, maybe we begin to consider setting our sights on the treasures and the riches stored up in the next.

And when we truly delight ourselves in the Lord, we no longer have such a strong yearning for all things shiny, bright, expensive, new  and ultimately, empty.

What God gives us is a new desire. Something that will bring us closer to Him, through sacrifice and service to others, or through using a gift he has given us to make the world a better place. He places in us a better, deeper, more profound desire. A desire  that he knows will give us joy, contentment and peace.

The Science of Love…?

Thinking about the origins of love as Valentine’s Day approaches…
Were humans equipped to love at the very start? Logically, if you take God out of the equation, and look at it from a scientific point of view, it really doesn’t make sense.
I mean, which molecule creates or fosters love?  Which organ causes us to love?  We say we feel love in our heart,  but we know that’s not really literally true. Our brain is responsible for much of the process, of course, but how would feelings of love – or any emotions for that matter – evolve...and why?

I get that we have a vested biological interest in keeping those who share our lives and our  DNA safe and healthy and strong, but to put it in Tina Turner’s words…What’s Love got to do with it?

It doesn’t seem necessary to love someone to do the right thing and take care of them, or care about what happens to them, and protect them. So where in our human bodies did love come from?

It would seem that humans must have been pre-programmed for love by Whomever created us…

A prayer of Love for Valentine’s Day

Lord You are Love… Thank you for giving us love. Thank you for being love for us and through us. Thank you for allowing us to love and be loved, because you first loved us.

Love From Above

Lord You Are Love… you gave love, you showed love. And you’re responsible for all the love on the planet. It all originated with you. And it was especially made known to us when you sent your son, Jesus. He… communicated and conferred the essence and the reality of Your Love onto your people. Jesus is the ultimate Valentine.

Jesus was the example of love.  He was the embodiment of love. He  encouraged love and inspired those who knew him to love.  And even today though we do not know the person  of Jesus, he still inspires love.

Because we know him in Spirit, He still inspires compassion. He still inspires generosity. He still inspires service. Because without these things we are merely human. But with these things, as we emulate You, God, by emulating your Son… we become more and more like You and more aware of being  “made in your image and your likeness”.

Lord You Are Love… Being made in your image was never intended to mean that we look like you… in body, in person  or in countenance. But that we “look like you” in Spirit.  In our nature and in our actions and our reactions; towards each other…In Love.

Know that you are loved by the One who matters most. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Recently a new friend was telling me that she was having shoulder surgery soon. So I was just praying for her that things go well, of course, and that she recovers quicker than expected. And praying for her surgeon too, that he does what needs to be done, does it efficiently and superbly.

But then I thought well, yeah, a lot of people are probably getting shoulder surgery today. So I threw that addendum prayer onto the end, as I think we often do… Lord please help everyone who’s getting shoulder surgery today. And then I added… well, everyone who’s getting any kind of surgery today, too, I guess.  And wait… anyone who’s in the hospital today and suffering in any kind of pain. And, oh! …..every doctor that’s working today to help fix them… And then what about the people who are in pain but can’t afford to be in the hospital? Or have no access to healthcare. And so then my prayers drifted there. And what about places in the world that are so remote that there isn’t even such a thing as a hospital or doctors or surgery?

And of course, as you can see prayer can become endless. Which is, really, a good thing I guess. But it starts to feel almost futile. Like, does it ever end? Does all this vague praying dilute the effectiveness or the sincerity of my prayers? Is there ever a time I can feel like I’ve prayed enough?

I guess that’s why Joyce Meyer says she likes to  “pray her way through the day.” She says we can pray to God about anything. And she does mean anything. She prays that her hair stylist does a good job on her hair. She prays that she bowls well on her bowling league. She prays for every little thing in each part of her day. I used to think someone who prayed like that was ridiculous. But now I admire them so much.

Should We Pray All Day?

I think when Paul said we are to pray ceaselessly, that’s what he means. Not that we should sit with our heads bowed, or kneel with our hands clasped in fervent, holy prayer 24/7. But that we just pray and have an ongoing conversation with Jesus all day long about everything that’s going on in our lives, and the lives of people around us.

Brother Lawrence was a monk who lived in the 1600s  in a Carmelite monastery in Paris and he really got this. Basically his job at the monastery was mostly working as a cook. He focused on spending every minute of the day in God’s presence, and for God’s purpose.

He wrote letters to a friend about this spiritual practice. And his writings were put in a book after his death called The Practice of the Presence of God. An excerpt can be found here.

It was a series of the letters that he wrote about how every little thing he did was for God. Every dish he washed in the kitchen, every plate he served… his mind never strayed far from God throughout his entire day.  He got to the point that every single thing he did, he did out of love for God.  He talks about how it was only difficult for the first 10 years.(!)

It sounds like a lot of work. But I’ve been trying to do it, been working on it.  I’m nowhere near Brother Lawrence’s level of commitment, but I am trying to make prayer my go-to whenever I remember, all throughout the day.  Good times, bad times, regular times. Trying not to wait for a crisis to think to  pray. 

And it really does become a very comfortable, reassuring, peaceful practice to rely on. It’s just such a great reminder that God is always right there with you. And a reminder of the peace that you can have when you acknowledge his presence.

So when prayer seems endless and sometimes frustrating it’s helpful to remember that every word that you speak to God with sincerity, every moment you take to listen for his answer, draws you closer and closer to him. And to that beautiful mystery…the peace that passes understanding, that we are all searching for.

God put love in a body and sent Him down to earth…

Because he knew that we needed to see his love. Tangibly. In a form that we could understand and an example that we could follow.

God put love in a body and sent Him down to earth... So we would know that there is hope.   In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. His  light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5   There’s no force on this Earth, no source of power in the universe that is stronger than his love.

There is no darkness or difficulty, no loneliness or grief, no sickness, addiction or problem that his light does not shine upon and carry you through. No matter the good or the bad that’s happening in your life this holiday season, his light is there shining… for you! He’s there for you and for me. His light, his power, his comfort, his courage, his provision, his peace… Is there for anyone who wants it.  Anyone who reaches out and asks for it. It’s there. He is there.  You are never alone because he never leaves you nor forsakes you.

God put love in a body and sent him down to earth… So we could know we have a Father in heaven who guides us and protects us. Who gives us wisdom, purpose and peace. He helps us see that we are here for more than  maybe we had thought.  More than whatever we see on the surface.  What is important about you is not what you have or  what you do.
God loves YOU. That. Is what makes you significant. You are loved, you are important,  you are a child of God.  And you are exactly what God wants for Christmas this year.

Blessings for a Very Merry Christmas to you all !