C.S. Lewis writing

As I continue on in my Lenten Studies booklet, I realized I just had to share the entire message for Tuesday with you here:

Ask for Help

Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily when I call. Psalm 102:2

You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one had that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. the only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.

This entire message resonates with my very soul. I've been sitting on the following for a couple of days because I just have not had the time to get on here. Now I can see why. It was a "God-thing"....it simply wasn't time yet!

Psalm 23:6 ~ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

with

Haggai 2:9 ~ ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Hugs, my friends ~ Merana

Waiting...

Psalm 37:34 ~ Wait for the Lord & keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land...

That's the hardest thing...waiting...isn't it?! I've resolved to wait for where the Lord is taking me. It's not easy. I want what I want...and I want it now! But....that's just simply not how it works. And I'm trying my very best to keep his way. That's hard too. I'm not perfect....Lord knows I'm as flawed as the next person...yet...I try.

But, just like the Israelites going through the desert 40 years...He will still deliver us to the land we are to inherit. Each of us has a different "land", don't we? One person's may be a successful business venture, another's to conceive a child, another's for healing, another's to have their children safe, yet another's to find that someone special after so long alone (even if for mere companions).... The point is, everyone has a different land to which the Lord is taking us to inherit. We just have to follow the first part of that Scripture verse...WAIT for him & KEEP his way!

When I get frustrated & try to make things happen my way, as I've confessed before, the Holy Spirit always reminds me that it's HIS plans He speaks of in Jeremiah 29:11....not MY plans! So, until the time of my inheritance (at least of this world, before my true inheritance in Christ's Kingdom), I constantly pray Psalm 25:4,5 - Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long...and cling to this Psalm 37:34 with Romans 8:24b ~ But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

I don't want to wander 40 years in the desert....or even one day...because I tried to do it MY way!

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Lenten Studies #3

C.S. Lewis again...2 days' studies combined in my thoughts.

"What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, 'What does it matter as long as they are contented?' we want, in fact, not so much Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven - a senile benevolence who, as they say, 'liked to see young people enjoying themselves.'"

I believe that is so true. We'd like to continue on our merry way & when we get in trouble, give a shout out to the God of the universe to come fix everything we just messed up. But what we should heed, is when Scripture tells us:

Philippians 4:11-13 (New International Version) ^{~ 11} I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (New International Version) ~²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Lewis then continues, "God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being...He makes, we are made: He is the original, we derivative. Our life is, at every moment, supplied by Him: our tiny, miraculous power of free will only operates in bodies which His continual energy keeps in existence." Think about that. Yes, we have free will....so we could choose to turn our backs on Him. But He's still with us, He still loves us. The sheer fact that we're still alive to utilize the very gift of free will to turn our back, is itself because He is ordaining that to happen.

"WOW!!!" .... that's about all I can say!

Falling down...

Ok, so continuing on in my Lenten Studies & recently read C.S. Lewis comments about not being discouraged. We must realize that even at our best attempts to behave/be good, we are going to fail. Even with our best attempts, we are never going to achieve perfection...ever! But God is going to be there every single time we stumble, every time we trip, every time we out & out fall down...like the parents with outstretched arms encouraging the child to run to them.

We must remember, as C.S. Lewis says, "no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal" (of the perfection to which He is guiding us). Yes, only each of us, with our free will, can stand in God's way of bringing us to where we need to truly be. And to paraphrase Henri Nouwen, God is forcing us onward, upward, to a higher level by allowing situations where we must be more brave, more patient, and more loving that we ever dreamed of being before. To us, it seems unnecessary. That is only because we have no inkling of the tremendous person He intends to make of us, if we will just follow His lead. With that, I always go back to my Scripture prayer, Psalm 25:4,5 ~ Show me your way, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Yes, I believe it is wonderful to pray the Scriptures & this is one I do daily....several times a day.

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Artwork by Rick Hansen

Lenten studies....and learning #2

Ok, so I'm reading even further in the Lenten studies booklets I have that I referenced previously. This booklet, however, is a compilation of C.S. Lewis' works. Today's reading calls for "A Deeper Change", and it goes in line with what I posted on Friday. As I was reading it, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a line from Facing the Giants. Fabulous movie that is chock-FULL of on liners that stick with you forever, and that the Spirit uses to remind you of something & give you direction.

So the reading said, in part, this: "We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way - centered on money or pleasure or ambition - and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do." It then expanded, saying "If I am a field of grass, I cannot produce wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be plowed up and re-sown", then quotes 1 Corinthians 10:1 ~ So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

And the Holy Spirit reminded me of the line in the movie that is the one liner that sticks with my best friend the most. A young man is quite the soccer player. However, he & his father move to a new place & the school does not have a soccer team. He is debating going out on the football team as a kicker. His self-rejection fear holds him back as he says to his dad (& mostly to himself!), "What if I'm not good enough? What if I don't make the team?" To which, his father said, "Can you be any more not on the team than you already are?" WOW!!! It just demonstrates that if we are not willing to step out in faith to where God is taking us, we will never be able to see what He has in store for us come to fruition!

Yes, just like the picture above shows, we may face slippery situations, but if we are keeping our eyes on Christ & following where HE leads, He will light the way & be with us along each stepping stone....and also waiting with open arms on the other side of that path. But we certainly can never get there if we won't step out onto that next stone and follow where He's leading us.

Thank you, Father, for your guiding hand and love....and for wanting even more for me than I can even imagine that I want for myself!

pondering....

Why are people so dang afraid to just tell others how they feel about them? Really! Tomorrow is promised to NO ONE! Is pride or regret the greater motivator for them? Me.....I chose to live with little regrets! Can't change the past, except to try to make amends. But I can certainly change the direction of my future!

Lenten studies....and learning

Working as I do as a church secretary, I have access to a great deal of resources. One of those came in the mail in the form of a Lenten Studies booklet that is a compilation of Henri Nouwen's work. I LOOOOVE him!

Anyway, one of the day's studies focused on how we fall into traps & the greatest of these, the one that most certainly holds us down, holds us back, or out-&-out will defeat us, is that of "self-rejection". Think about it. Self rejection comes from that place inside us where negativity screams, "you're no good", "you're fat", "you're ugly", "you have scars", "who would ever love you", "you're worthless", "you're weak", "you'll never amount to anything", "you're a failure".....you get the idea!

And these feelings of inadequacies are what drive us to seek our worth in unworthy places....success, popularity, power....to the point that we don't even see our true worth, but a worldly worth. It's not about what we can achieve for the Lord, but more of what we can prove to ourselves & the world. But really, we're still that same little insecure child within when you get down to brass tacks! THAT doesn't just go away because you get/achieve/accomplish more, more, more. It's superficial. It's the thumb in the dike to hold back the water dripping out of the hole. But it's not fixing the problem that caused the hole to begin with!

But those are all lies of the tempter, the Father of Lies. He WANTS us to stay defeated in the trap of self-loathing, self-rejection. Otherwise, we would stand firm in who we are in Christ & accomplish great things for His Kingdom. Trusting in God means stepping out of our comfort zone. Yes, that's right, you heard me.....it's "comfortable" to stay in the place where you don't think so highly of yourself. Not "comfortING", but "comfortable" in the sense that it's what you know....where you're used to being. Perhaps you were led there by others' views of you and thus, have limited yourself because of it.

This Lenten Season, break these negative bonds Satan holds over you. Prayerfully ask God to come live in that black hole space within you that is sucking away the light of His love & what HE has in store of you. It's easy to stay in defeat, the real work comes in trusting. Trust Him until it hurts, and God shows you (& the world!) what He can do!

Remember: Jeremiah 29:11 speaks of the plans HE has for us, not on our own plans. Do as I've been told by the Holy Spirit....(ok, smacked upside the head to listen, admittedly!)...."stop getting in the way of the plans I have for you, quit interfering!"

Hugs my bb's ~ Merana

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