Category: Devotion

Loneliness Displaced

Posted on by FullLifeWord

” ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ ” (Matthew 28:20 )

God never intended human beings to live apart from one another in isolation.

Yet here we are, living in one of the most “connected” societies in human history, yet loneliness is so prevalent. There are many reasons for being lonely. Often the very social networks that connect our society are also the very networks that have been used to isolate us from one another. A frequent means of doing so is through social ostracism, public shame, and cyber bullying. Of course other factors such as the loss of family or someone close, disability, age, disease, poverty, discontent or depression can drive a person into a state of loneliness.

No matter the cause, its a terrible place to be.

In life, friendships grow from shared perspectives, concerns for one another, and a heart willing to take action in times of need.  Lasting friendships are transparent and honest, yet caring and compassionate in its delivery of truth. Friends enjoy time together, even if its not necessarily doing an activity together, sometimes its just being in proximity to one another.

But no matter how deep our human relationships might be, they’re rarely lasting. My  grandmother, in her nineties at the time, once commented to me how grateful she was for her living family as she had outlived her husband and all of her childhood friends. I remember thinking how hard that must have been for her. There was no one left in which to relive shared memories.

Jesus Christ, who loves us (John 3:16) and seeks after us (Rev 3:20) knows about loneliness and the cure for such. He told his disciples shortly before his crucifixion that they would abandon him during his greatest time of need. In that same passage, he also shared that he had overcome the world and that fellowship displaced loneliness because of his relationship with his Heavenly Father (John 16:32-33). Jesus recognized, as my grandmother did, that God is a constant force that can be counted on to push back the creeping shadows of loneliness.

It’s one thing to be alone, but it’s entirely different to be lonely. We can be surrounded by many people and yet experience a deep loneliness in our hearts and souls. I enjoy times of solitude, but I would never desire loneliness.

Responding to Christ’s love for us is often the first step towards overcoming loneliness. Inviting Christ into our lives makes us a new creation (1 Peter 1:3 ). God literally indwells us ( 1 Corinthians 6:19 ). We are no longer alone (Matthew 28:20). As we mature in our faith we learn what it is to “live life to the full” as Christ  always intended for us to do ( John 10:10 )!

Over the years I too have come to the realization that people may come and go, but Jesus will always be. After all, He is the cornerstone upon which the whole of our lives find eternal rest, peace, and fulfillment.

Ask and it will be done for you

Posted on by FullLifeWord

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)

When my Mom was but a young child, she and her sister often spent time with an elderly neighbor lady. The lady’s husband, a former traveling minister, had passed away several years before. The girls would visit for breakfast to keep her company and together they built a lasting friendship. Over the years she became somewhat of a surrogate grandmother to the girls.

One day, when the elderly lady sensed that her time was near, she called the girls together and shared some things with them about life and death. She said that soon her body would die, but she wanted to reassure the girls that she would be in Heaven with Jesus. She told them to remember that on that day, only her body would be left behind, but she would be in Heaven with a new young body that would never grow old.

My Mom later told me that when that day arrived, she and her sister were greatly encouraged by the wise words of this elderly lady. On the day of her funeral, as they peered into the open casket, they saw but a shell and remembered the conversation that had taken place only a few months prior.

In a similar fashion, just prior to facing His crucifixion, Jesus took time to speak with his closest followers. He shared much with His disciples to help prepare them for what was to come. He did this to affirm their faith in Him and to allay their fears of an imminent future without His physical presence in their midst.

Part of that conversation related to prayer.

Jesus said that He would  respond to the disciples prayers by doing for them whatever it was they prayed for.

When it comes to prayer, many that claim a faith in Christ will often hedge on this bold statement. Will God really do for me whatever I pray for?

To play it safe, some will pray in a manner that gives God a graceful way out. Or we might conclude that perhaps Jesus simply misspoke in a moment of spiritual enthusiasm. But then we would have to reconcile the fact that John recorded Jesus on no less than six occasions, putting forth this idea of “ask and you shall receive” when praying.

a. John 14:13 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

b. John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

c. John 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for  you.”

d. John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

e. John 16:23 “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

f. John 16:24 “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

Focusing in on John 15:7 allowed me to better understand the fullness of what Jesus was sharing when He made this bold commitment regarding prayer.

Jesus shared that answered prayer comes about when two conditions are met:

1. We remain in Him:

2. His words remain in us:

The first condition speaks to the genuineness of our relationship with Jesus. With it comes this idea that we “remain” in Jesus. The Greek word for “remain” in this context is transliterated as “meinete;” which means to stay in one place for an extended period of time. This speaks of knowing Jesus in a consistent and deep relational way, not viewing him simply as a figure in history, or as an intellectual fact, but as a person. The focus here is on the depth of our relationship with Christ.

I know that the depth of my relationship with my wife drastically increased once we transitioned from dating to being married and living together. Spurgeon once said; “You have to live with Christ to know Him.”  Our relationship with Christ needs to have that same type of depth and intimacy to it. This is the first condition towards our prayers being answered.

Jesus also shared that His words needed to remain in us as the second condition to answered prayer. The same Greek word for “remain” is at play here, just in a slightly different context. It holds this idea of continuous obedience to Jesus, but not in a follow the rules kind of way, but as John Rodney, author of “The IVP New Testament Commentary Series” noted; the intent is to convey the idea that our very life should continuously  “conform…to the pattern of God’s own life.” Our lives should be in such complete alignment with the heart of Christ, that our  requests would naturally coincide with His will.

When both conditions are met, our Heavenly Father will see our prayer requests from the same perspective from which He  looks upon the requests that come directly from His son Jesus. If our hearts and minds are one in Christ, then our requests to the Father would naturally be as if Christ delivered the request Himself to the Father. And because we are one in heart and mind, then the very nature of our request would be in alignment with God’s will, and so “it will be done for you.”

Copyright 2015 FullLifeWord

Do You See Anything?

Posted on by FullLifeWord

“‘…Do you see anything?’ …Then his eyes were opened…he saw everything clearly.” (Mark 8:23-25)

In my dentist’s office there used to be this really large picture that hung on the wall in her waiting room. It had the appearance of some sort of modern abstract art. It never did anything for me. I had glanced at it on numerous occasions but never really paid it much mind.

That changed one day.

On that particular occasion, a little girl accompanied by her mom, came in to the dentist office and took the seats nearest me. I overheard the child saying to her mom, as she gazed at the picture with a smile; “Do you see anything?” The mom looked up briefly from her smartphone, smiled, and then returned to whatever it was she was looking at. The little girl continued to gaze at the picture until it was her turn to see the dentist.

After they left the room, I wondered what it was that was so interesting about this picture that had engaged a child’s attention for so long. The picture itself, though large, in my opinion was nothing to really look at…in fact, it was rather plain looking. I was thinking this while I was still looking at the simple colors and the seemingly random patterns that made up the picture, when suddenly an entire scene of various forest animals materialized! What to the uneducated eye appeared as simple abstract art, was actually, a carefully crafted picture that required the viewer to spend time gazing at it before the true objects became evident to the viewer.

Now, whenever I happen to see that picture, I can’t help but really “see” the images that the creator intended for me to discover. The images no longer remained hidden from view.

Some years ago, while serving at a start-up church, I found myself in the position of having to teach children; kindergarten through six grade. It was never my intention to teach kids, I was much more comfortable with teaching adults. But there was no one else, and so I took the role with the idea that this was only a temporary assignment. I had never taught kids before, and I judged my first few weeks as a disaster.

To complicate matters, we served a community in which many families where skating on the edge of homelessness. Many single moms and dads from a low income housing project nearby would visit our church on Sundays. Some of these families were transitory, they would come a few Sundays and I’d never see them again. For those families in particular, I was not able to see how anything that I was doing with them in class would ever matter or make a difference in their little lives.

Over time my teaching skills improved as I learned that kids learn differently than adults. The kids and I were having much more fun, as evidenced by a lot of laughter and even some random learning happening. Yet I still wondered…did my miniscule contribution really make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Shouldn’t I be doing something bigger and more important? I pondered those questions, and concluded that what I was doing really didn’t make a difference, there was simply too much hurt and impossible circumstances with many of these kids. Nothing I was doing really mattered.

A few weeks after coming to that conclusion, a young mom and her little kindergarten aged son came and visited our church.

Her son was a joy, a great little guy, complete with out of control blond hair and sky blue eyes. In class he was very attentive, he followed every move I made and made every effort to politely get my attention during the entire class time. I couldn’t help but spend some extra time with him. As I interacted with him, I saw that his little blue eyes gave away something else; a sense of deep hurt and loss. I devoted as much time with him as I could. Fortunately we had several other adult helpers that day, so I had the luxury of extra time. Together we played games, drew pictures, and he demonstrated his extraordinary play-dough skills for me.

It was later that I had learned from his mom, that her husband had recently abandoned their family, and that her son had been devastated in not understanding why “daddy left.”

When class was over, and I was signing him out to his mom, he ran over to her with crafts in hand and greeted her with a hug, and then turned quickly to face me as if to say something. I knelt down to be at his level, and without warning, he fell into my arms, putting his little chubby arms around my neck. He gave me a great big hug! He held me tight. I was so surprised that at first I didn’t know how to respond. That kind of thing never happened before! Certainly never in any of my adult classes! I put down wherever it was I had in my hands and gently hugged him back.

In that instant, my heart was broken, but my vision was made clear.

What we do for our Lord does matter! It matters because He places us in the right places at the right times for His perfect purposes. We may not see the final outcomes, but where possible, we are to express His love in every task we are given, no matter how much or little we think it might matter.

All I know is that it mattered to a little boy that morning, a young life that had experienced deep hurt without understanding the adult complexities of why. I hope and pray that perhaps on that day, he saw in me a small reflection of Jesus.

Don’t You Remember?

Posted on by FullLifeWord

“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” (Mark 8:18)

There have been many studies over the years that have researched our ability to retain what we learn. Most of these studies have shown that we only retain about five percent of the knowledge passed down to us through lectures, about ten percent when we read, and fifty percent when we discuss what it was we just heard. But the number improves exponentially when we practice and apply what we have learned in real life situations.

I don’t know if there is a spiritual equivalent, I sense that there might be, because at times I have found myself having to relearn a spiritual truth in my life, sometimes more than once.

Upon reflection, I suppose that I’m comforted to know that the scriptures recorded that the disciples, guys that hung around Jesus every day for several years, evidently had similar struggles.

On one of those occasions, Mark recorded that Jesus had recently demonstrated his capacity to feed thousands in two separate events in which the disciples were present; yet Jesus overheard an anxious conversation amongst the disciples while on one of their boat trips. They had discovered that they had only packed one loaf of bread amongst them for the entire journey. Oops…typical guys…everyone thought someone else took care of the trip logistics.

Hearing the conversation, Jesus reminded them that they had witnessed Him feed thousands…then He the asked them;

“…don’t you remember?”

In many ways, I’m at times like those disciples. I’m quick to get anxious, and at times quick to forget how God has provided for me in difficult times. I believe that part of my maturing will evidence itself when I start doing a better job at remembering the times when God has provided or comforted me instead of allowing myself to respond to a new situation with anxiety.

I can understand that non-believers would have good reason to respond to life’s pressures with anxiety, but those of us that follow Jesus, should respond by first remembering God’s gracious responses when we have faced pressures or circumstances in the past.

My failure to respond in faith reflects my lack of gratitude and trust in our Lord. Instead, I need to practice and apply my faith by trusting for God’s current provision and remembering His past provisions .