Lysa TerKeurst – When prayers seem to fail

Lysa TerKeurst – When prayers seem to fail: Here's another article if you are wrestling with God over a situation and He's either not seeing it your way or--even more frustrating--He remains silent and you feel like you're completely alone.

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A Praying Momma

This is for all the moms out there who sometimes feel like their prayers are bouncing off the ceiling! Hang in there--God is faithful!

A Praying Momma:

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Life in a Bubble

I recently spent time helping a family member get on his feet. We had appointments, court hearings and meetings to attend. There were applications to fill out with lots of little boxes to check. There were long lines to be waited in and numbers to be called.

Since this all had to be done far from my home, I had to borrow a car. Before I used it, I was told that if it doesn’t start the first time, just keep trying. “Oh great,” I thought, “maybe I should just rent a car.” I knew the kinds of places I was going to be visiting, and they weren’t the kinds of places where I wanted to be stranded with a car that wouldn’t start.

As my loved one and I went from appointment to appointment, looking for parking places, walking through urban areas that made this country girl uneasy, I began to realize that there is a whole other world out there that I have chosen to ignore. I’ve known it was there, but I function so far from it that I don’t often think about it. The people we passed on the street and waited with in line were different from me. I saw lots of walkers, canes and wheelchairs. I saw lots of children with tossled hair and dirty faces. I saw folks who were missing most of their teeth.

Yes, these folks were different from me, and yet they weren’t. We exchanged pleasantries and wished each other well.  But each night, as I collapsed into my very comfortable bed in the very comfortable home of the friends I was staying with, I felt so broken. I felt I had entered a world that made me uncomfortable, and I didn’t like the feeling. It felt like I should be doing something to help, and yet what could one middle aged (ok, a little more than middle aged) woman do? It felt overwhelming. I realized that I live in a bubble—a very comfortable bubble—while so many people struggle just to make it day by day. They struggle with things like addictions, handicaps, mental illnesses and poverty. Many of them have never known any other kind of life.

While I get irritated with the driver in front of me who won’t go 5 mph faster, a handicapped woman struggles to get into a building where she can get the help she needs.

While I get frustrated because I feel my employer wants more from me than they are willing to pay me for, a young mom waits in a long line to find out if she can get the medical care her child needs.

When I overeat at dinner (again) a young child goes to bed hungry, and a homeless teenager eats dinner out of a dumpster.

While I struggle with my addiction to chocolate and sugar, an addict wakes up each morning with no other thought than how he will get his next fix.

When I wrestle with the decision of whether to get on the treadmill, or lay in bed for another half hour, a homeless man is awakened by the hot sun beating down on him. He has no choice but to get up and begin his daily struggle for survival.

As I put on my makeup and blow-dry my hair, a young girl, who thought she had found her “knight in shining armor” finds out he is really her pimp, holding her hostage and forcing her to sell her body for his gain.

And when I complain about a car that requires several trys before it starts, I realize that I am so stinking spoiled, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. But what am I to do?

God, show me the direction you want me to take with this new perspective you’ve given me. Show me how I can share your Unswerving Hope with those who so desperately need it, whether they live in the poverty described above, in a deceitful bubble of prosperity like mine. We really are more alike than I thought. Whether we are prosperous or poor, we are all in desperate need of God's Unswerving Hope.

The Year of the Lord's Favor

Isaiah 61

Four years ago at this time, I was determined that 2008 was going to be the Year of the Lord's favor for my family--a year of new beginnings. I claimed Isaiah 61 and hung on with all my might. I even sent out New Year's cards with that scripture as the focal point. At the end of 2008, nothing had changed. Actually, some things had changed, in fact, life was getting worse instead of better. I felt completely abandoned by God. I had celebrated with friends and their new beginnings--marriages and new babies. It seemed like everyone I knew was finding favor with God but me, and I felt cheated.

As I wrestled with God through the first few months of 2008, I realized that what I was really looking for was happy endings. In fact, I was so busy looking for happy endings, I couldn't see the new beginnings that were right in front of me. They were not the new beginnings that I wanted or expected. But now, looking back over those four years, I can focus and see that there were new beginnings that year. It's like when my 4-year-old (yes, that's one of our new beginnings--just not the way I expected it) wants me to see something and she holds it about an inch from my eyes. I can't see things that close. I need her to move it farther away from my eyes so that I can focus on it. (And that distance gets farther and farther as I get older!)

My life, and the lives of my family members are still not perfect, and they won't be as long as we live on planet earth, but I'm a little better at seeing the potential of the uncertainties in life as new beginnings. I'm determined to quit looking for the happy endings--those may not come until heaven--and, instead, look at the chaos of my life with hope.

May 2012 be a blessed year of new beginnings, and may we all look at them through the eyes of Unswerving Hope!

The Safest Place

Sarah Young, in “Jesus Calling” tells me that my desire to live a risk-free life is a form of unbelief. Ouch!

I recently did an exercise that lead me to get in touch with my deepest needs. I learned that one of my deepest (if not THE deepest) needs is security. I think most of my life has been all about playing it safe. I hate taking risks. I am not a thrill seeker. I have no desire whatsoever to skydive, mountain climb or even ski any faster than doing a snowplow on the green circle runs. I even have a tendency of keeping my relationships shallow for fear of hurting or being hurt. I’ve even told God that I like being shallow, that I have this deep desire to be safe. And He says, “yeah, that’s nice, but buckle up cause we’re going for a white knuckle ride!”

Sometimes, I’ve still tried to keep life stress-free and safe, but that’s nothing but a façade… and denial. It’s really not safe at all. The only truly safe place to be is wherever God is, and that’s rarely a “safe” place. Like Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,” God is not safe, but He is good.

So, I need to let go of my desire to be risk-free and find my security in this risky, unsafe, but good God. He is my unswerving hope!

Look, There's a Chicken!

We can often be a little ADD. I have some friends who joke about the “chickens” or “squirrels” that yank our focus out of a conversation. Our minds are so over stimulated, it’s hard to focus on just one thing for very long.

Yes, we joke about it, but losing our focus on Jesus can wreak havoc in our daily lives. In my devotional (Jesus Calling) this morning, I read, “I am with you in all that you do, even in the most menial task… However, your awareness of My Presence falters and flickers; as a result, your life experience feels fragmented. (to say the least!) When your focus is broad enough to include Me in your thoughts, you feel safe and complete. When your perception narrows so that problems or details fill your consciousness, you feel empty and incomplete.”

There are so many things in this life that divert our attention from Jesus and cause us to fear. And they are real, legitimate fears. I’ve been through the death of a child. I’ve watched both my parents die of cancer. I’ve witnessed my son as he struggles to stay clean and sober after years of a drug addiction so powerful that, at times, it seemed he would never be free. These are things I wish no one ever had to experience, but we all do. Whether it’s the struggle to keep a job, chronic pain, aging parents or depression, everyone has very real problems and issues that can so easily steal your joy, your faith, and your focus.

That’s why we need to make it our number one priority to know Jesus, to spend time in His presence, reading His Word and focusing on Him. Then when the fear, pain and darkness begins to engulf us, we can say, sometimes with teeth and fists clenched, “I trust You, Lord, I trust You.” Sometimes that’s all I can say. I can’t come up with any lofty words or pious prayers. It takes every ounce of energy and focus I have to look to Jesus and trust Him, rather than become consumed with the problems of life.

My devotional continues, “Though the world is unstable and in flux, you can experience continuity through your uninterrupted awareness of My Presence. Fix you gaze on what is unseen, even as the visible world parades before your eyes.”

So, as all the chickens and squirrels parade across my path, I will use every ounce of my being to maintain my focus on Jesus, to fix my gaze on what is unseen, to hold tightly to My Unswerving Hope.

Surely the Lord is in the Place!

I read my “Jesus Calling” Devotional this morning, and it talked about Jacob when he was in the desert, fleeing for his life. (Genesis 28) When he lay down to sleep that night, all he had for a pillow was a rock. But he had a dream about the presence of God. When he woke up, he exclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!”

The devotional continued to instruct me to proclaim those same words at times when the Lord seems so distant. Then ask Him to reveal Himself to me in that very situation. So that’s what I will do…

… when uncertainty clouds my view of the future, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in the place!”

… when fear consumes my present, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”

… when I’ve blown it and fallen into sin yet again, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”

… when life feels completely out of control and there’s nothing I can do to change things, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”

… when darkness encroaches and attempts to consume me, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”

… when self-pity launches me into a downward spiral, I will say, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”

Then I will plead with Jesus to reveal Himself to me in those desolate places, and I will praise Him and declare that He is my Unswerving Hope.