Falling Into Place

Do you ever hear a song on the radio and one particular line of the song seems to catch your attention more so than any other part of the song? This happens to me quite regularly, and many times it’s not even chores that pulls my mind to a place of intrigue. It is usually a subtle, unsuspecting line that seems to draw my attention. One of the latest songs that has done this to me is a song by Casting Crowns called “Be Held.” The line that has caught my attention is the line that says: “Your world’s not falling apart it’s falling into place.”  (To listen to this song visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIZitK6_IMQ)

Have you ever felt as if your world was falling apart, being thrown upside down, turned inside out and twisted beyond recognition? I think we have all walked through a time or two riddled with hesitancy and uncertainties. I'm sure we can probably relate on some level to our world “falling apart.” This could come in a variety of different forms, from the death of a close friend or family member, the unexpected health problem, a freak accident, financial hardships, or relationship heartache, just to name a few. Our world can be peaches and cream one moment and within an instant it can take on the appearance of “falling apart. The thing is, God never promised our lives would be a bed of roses. He never promised that life would go according to our plans. His word does say that will face troubles and tribulations in this lifetime (John 16:33).

I woke up the other morning realizing why this one line from this song was continually repeating in my mind. I envisioned myself walking on a gigantic puzzle with millions of peaces all fitting together perfectly underneath my feet. As things seemed to be full of chaos in my life I saw random puzzle pieces falling from the sky. As these random pieces were falling, they slowly began to fall right into the missing holes, perfectly fitting where they were designed to fit. “Your world's not falling apart, it’s falling into place.” You see, we can choose to look at the falling pieces and assume that things are falling apart, but this is not how God sees it. This seemingly random falling apart is actually God orchestrating His creative handiwork to become a beautiful reality. It is God’s perfectly planned masterpiece coming to life! What a beautiful way to look at our trials and tribulations. I have a sneaky suspicion that James had this perspective figured out when he said…

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” James 1:2

Sometimes we want to rush through things, avoid the hurt and the hard times, make them disappear and not walk through the valleys. What would happen if we asked God to take away all of those difficult times, so that we didn’t have to walk through the tough stuff? Here is the picture you would get. When we get to heaven and look back on our beautifully orchestrated puzzle we will see many holes and large sections of many missing pieces. When we ask God “Why are there so many missing pieces?” He looks at us with tear filled eyes, with all compassion in his heart and responds, “Those missing pieces, all of those holes that you see, are all of those moments you begged me to take the cup from you. They are all the times you pleaded with me not to make you go through the dark moments of life and the trials and tribulations. Those are all the times you asked me to take the moments of hurt from your heart because it was too much for you to bear on your own. In my compassion I took those things from you, but as a result, your masterpiece could not be complete.”  How disappointing that would be to look at this unfinished masterpiece and the only reason it is unfinished is because we would not allow God to take us through the valley of the shadow of death because we were too busy fearing evil when we should have been trusting God (Reference: Psalms 23:4).

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get to heaven and look at an unfinished masterpiece riddled with holes and missing pieces all because of my unwillingness to trust in the Lord with all of my heart and not lean on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). I want my puzzle to have as few missing pieces as humanly possible!  If we want our puzzle pieces to fall into place with completeness, we absolutely must trust that the Creator knows exactly what He is doing and put our trust in the fact that He can see our beginning and our end and that He is completely capable of filling in all the rest even when it seems like complete and utter chaos. God might give us glimpses of just a small portion of this enormous puzzle at times, but we can never see it in its entirety until we are standing beside the master creator himself. So in the meantime we are left putting our trust in the fact that “our world's not falling apart, it’s falling into place.”

For more reading about God's masterpiece visit: "You Are A Masterpiece", "You Are A Masterpiece (Part 2)", and "Our Creative God"

Father God, I thank you that you see all and know all. I thank you that you have orchestrated every falling piece of our lives to fit perfectly into place. Thank you for being patient with us as we teeter totter back and forth between fear and trust. Help us to land on the side of trusting that you have things under control even when we see nothing but chaos falling all around us. We place our trust in your hands today. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Cat And Mouse Game

I  saw a video on Facebook a while back of a mouse chasing a cat. Yes, it was funny, but it somehow did not settle well with me and later I realized why. It goes against the very nature of how these creatures were created. We all know that the cat should be the one chasing the mouse and the mouse should be the one running for his life. As I pondered this a little more I began to see that there was some very interesting spiritual application to this cat and mouse relationship. God has designed us to have power over the works of the enemy. Satan is a defeated foe. He was defeated by the shedding of Jesus’ blood on Calvary. We really have no reason to be running scared from him. Yet somehow like that video, the enemy seems to have us on the run, scared for our lives at times and this just should not be! We have been given power to destroy the enemy’s attempts in pursuing us. We are created to overcome! That cat just needs to realize a couple things. First of all he is bigger than the mouse. Secondly, and probably the most important reason is that he has been given the power to destroy that mouse! We have been given that same power. We just have to realize that we already possess the ability to control our cat and mouse dilemma. I guarantee when we truly believe that, our enemy will run for his life!

There are some very important things in backwards game of cat and mouse that we need to take note of. When satan is chasing us and we are on the run we have done something very substantial. We have taken the authority that Jesus Christ has over the works of the enemy, the very authority that He proved to be the unmistakable defeating blow and we have placed that authority into the hands of our enemy. We have in essence given satan permission to run us around like a scared cat. Satan does not have the power to or authority to chase us around like that scared cat unless we willingly throw up our hands in defeat and start running.  

Scripture says...  

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19

We have been given the power over the works of the enemy. But, if we never tell satan to stop chasing us, he will never stop. Why? Because we have not given him a reason to stop. If we never bind up the authority we have freely handed over to satan and place it back in the hands of Jesus Christ, then God will not step in and do it for us. That’s our job! We first have to bind up on earth so Christ can bind up in the heavenly realms. In other words, we need to stop running like the scared cat and start putting the authority where it belongs. We need to take the authority back from the devil that we have so freely handed over and put that authority back in the hands of the almighty God! There are going to be times in our lives when we just have to turn around and tell satan where he can go and to remind him that his tactics of trying to get us on the run is not a place he is allowed to be! We need to be the cat that God has called us to be, to work as the cat was wired to be. You do not see a lion running from a zebra in the wild. Why? Because they are not wired to run, they are wired to attack. God did not wire us to run from satan. God wired us to be on the defensive end of satan’s attacks, to take a stand against his foot in the door moments.

When I looked this verse up in various bible commentaries, the stance that they take on this verse is completely different than what I am sharing with you  today. Sometimes it is good to balance what we understand from scripture with what others understand from scripture and the history of scripture and culture. It helps us gain a better overall picture of what God might be speaking to our hearts. I wanted to share with you some history that I was unaware of until I did some digging.

Within the Jewish culture there was a protocol for releasing  new priests into the ministry of publicly preaching scripture. Before they could preach the scriptures to the people they would receive a physical key. This key opened the closet in the temple where the sacred books and tablets were kept. Gaining access to this closet signified the release of these priests into full responsibilities of the ministry. (Source: GodVine http://www.godvine.com/bible/matthew/16-19) I found this interesting because we need to place the key or the power in the hands of our priest, Jesus Christ in order to keep satan from running us like a scared cat.

Lord, forgive us for placing the power in the wrong hands, for allowing satan access into our lives through fear and intimidation. Help us to recognize when satan is trying to put his foot in the door of our hearts and get us on the run. Help us to remember that he is a defeated foe and we do not have to run from him. Give us the strength and courage to tell satan to back off and to remind him of his future. Help us to walk in the confidence of your defeating blow from the cross and resurrection.    

A Clean Cup

“When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.” Luke 11:37-41

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their religious looking “clean” cup. Yes, from the outside all looks pristine and lovely but all the while the inside their hearts were full of filth. The Pharisees were known for having the appearance of perfection in the religious world. They looked like they were doing everything right from the outside, but inwardly they were in complete opposition to the word of God. I think it’s safe to say that in one-way shape or form, we have all walked down this road before. We have all made ourselves appear to others as if everything is peaches and cream, but inside our hearts are not right with the Lord. As far as everyone else knows our world is perfectly fine, but we know that our hearts are not in tune with our Heavenly Father’s. We may even have a feeling of distance between us and the Lord. We continue to go to church week after week, put a smile on our face and wear that “everything is fine” mask. All the while, no one knows that our walk with the Lord is on shaky ground. Please tell me I’m not the only one who is guilty of cleaning up the outside of my cup only to neglect the inside. Yes, I have walked down that road in my past and believe me, if you are not there now, and you never have been there, please do all you can to keep your heart right before the Lord because living like all is well when your walk with the Lord is dying is a horrible place to be. God would rather our hearts be clean, pure and right before Him with our outward appearance looking like it’s in shambles then the other way around. 

“...The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Another side of the “Clean Cup” Mentality
The other aspect of this clean cup mentality that I have been thinking heavily about is this whole disillusioned notion that we have to clean ourselves up before we come to the Lord. Some people will even go the extreme of thinking that before they can ever set foot inside the doors of a church building they need to be perfect. I can not recall one time in scripture where it says to get all your ducks in a row first before Jesus will have anything to do with you. In fact, scripture tells us just the opposite. Christ came to seek out and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). Christ loves us so much that while we were still in the midst of our wrongs, in the depths of our addictions, and in bondage to our sin, in that very moment is when He willingly laid down His life for us (Romans 5:8)! This is the beauty of our Heavenly Father. He loves us right where we are at. Now, please note here that while He laid down His life for us while we were yet in our sin, it is not His desire that we remain there. Christ did not lay down His life to set us free just so we can feel better for a short time only for us to return to the bondages of sin once again. No! Christ came while we were in the depths of our sin to set us free so we can stay free. So we can live a life that is full of love, joy, and peace. He called us to live a life that beckons others to come to the feet of Jesus and find freedom as well.  

Clean Enough
Have you ever gone to the Lord thinking that you have “cleaned yourself up enough” only to have the Lord convict your heart? I have to say, I must raise my hand on this one. I am so guilty of trying to clean up myself and then trying to approach the Lord only to realize that when I put my cleanest, whitest clothing on and then stand beside the King of Kings, I look quite dingy and stain ridden next to the creator of all perfection. It is in these moments that I all I can do is say, “Here I am Lord, dirty, spotted, stained, tattered and torn. And despite my best efforts, this is the best I can do. I place the rest in your hands.” Jesus, with all compassion in his heart, looks back at me and says, “My daughter, I never wanted you to try to clean yourself up. I just wanted you to come as you are. For it is an impossible thing for you to do. This is why I have poured out my blood on the cross for you. It is only by my blood that you can be made clean, unspotted, unstained, whole, complete, and as white as snow. I love you as you are. Let me do the heavy cleaning from now on.” It puts tears in my eyes just thinking about how much the Lord loves us, that He wants us to come as we are so He can do the dirty work of cleaning the sinful mess that we have made of our hearts. He doesn’t want us to try and do His job. Besides even when we try, we will always fall short. We are not capable of cleaning up sin. When we try to clean up the sin in our lives all we end up doing is making a bigger mess by smearing, smudging and possibly even adding to it. I sometimes wonder why we as Christians feel the need to do God’s job. Is it that we don’t trust Him with our heart or is it that we are too ashamed of what we have done and wished it wasn’t so bad? I’m guessing it’s a little of both at times. 

How to keep a clean heart
God is looking at our hearts and not just the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). He is looking at our secret place. He is looking at everything that everyone else cannot see. There is nothing hidden from the Lord (Hebrews 4:13). He desires for our hearts to be a place of righteousness, honor, and truth. He wants our hearts to be pure and upright. But what must we do in order to keep a clean heart?

1. Walk in Forgiveness
“ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Our clean heart starts with walking in forgiveness. We must seek forgiveness from Jesus Christ in order for us to be purified and cleansed from our unrighteousness. Christ cannot and will not cleanse sin from our hearts if we are not willing to seek forgiveness first! A clean heart begins with forgiveness from our Savior! 

2. Walk in Humility
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10

This was one of the problems that the Pharisees had. They refused to humble themselves. They wanted to be lifted up without walking in a place of humility. Walking in pride got them nothing but one big chastisement after another from Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I have found myself tripping over my pride more times then I care to admit. I thank God for his grace because without it I would find myself so deep in trouble that Solomon in all his wisdom might just be stumped in getting me out of my pit.

3. Walk in Love for the Lord
“He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

 Forgiveness washes us clean but love can keep us from going from wanting to go back and be repeat offenders of those same sins. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Love can keep us walking in freedom from our past sins. It can keep us from wanting to run back to the bondages that we once found ourselves so easily entangled in. I can think of a time or two when the love of others has kept me on the straight and narrow. How about you? Can you think of times in your life when the love flowing from someone for you has kept you from sin and danger? This is just how our Heavenly Father works. He loves us so much that His love is capable of keeping our faces turned toward righteousness and away from sin in so many instances.

The same thing goes for when we love the Lord with a fervent type of love. It will keep us from the desire of sin in our lives. Now, does this mean that if we keep our love for Christ in a passionate state that we will never sin? No, because we are human. We are bound to miss the mark even when we are not trying to do so on purpose.  But loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength can sure keep us out of a lot of unrighteous situations.

4. Walk in Obedience
“He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:28

When we hear God’s word and obey what it says this is yet another way of keeping our hearts clean before the Lord. At the very core, this is what our Lord requires of us, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). We can not walk with God if we are too busy disobeying His word. I would like to point out that this verse does not say blessed are those who hear the word only. The blessing does not come unless we hear and obey. Blessing comes with obedience. One of the blessings we get from obedience is having a clean heart before the Lord.

Lord, Help us to not just look at the outward appearance and pretend that everything is okay while completely ignoring the inner workings of our hearts. Help us to remember that we must walk in forgiveness, walk in humility, walk in love for you and walk in obedience in order for our hearts to be kept pure. You desire for our hearts to be righteousness. Help us not to just clean up the outside, but to clean up the inside as well. Thank you, Lord, for the direction of your word and we desire to walk in obedience to it. In Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Unchecked Emotions And God's Faithfulness

Just the other day we had a ladies meeting at our church. The main text was from Psalms 34 and the woman delivering the message shared just how easily it is for us, especially as women, to become overwhelmed by our unchecked thoughts, fears and emotions. In today’s post I wanted to share with you yet another testimony of God’s goodness, faithfulness and how He continues to make my jaw drop in amazement.

The very next day as this whole idea of submitting our thoughts, fears and emotions to the Lord was still very fresh in my mind I received a phone call. On the other end was a friend of mine who was in a panic. “Jessica, what in the world am I going to do with this situation?” She began to share the events that had just transpired. She was flooded with emotions of frustration, anger and was very heavy hearted. The tears began to flow, and I was finding that everything I knew to say in a situation like this did not help her perspective to change. It seemed that the more I tried to share the more her emotions piled up on top of her. Her situation was one that I truly did not have a clue how to solve in and of myself. It was in that moment that I realized that the Lord had allowed me to hear that message the night before for situations such as these. I heard that message not  just for dealing with the unchecked emotions in my own life, but also helping others to deal with unchecked emotions in their lives as well. So I did the only thing I knew to do in a situation like this. I placed her at the feet of our Heavenly Father. I prayed with her, cried with her and for her and for the situation that she faced. When I finished praying I heard a change in her voice. There was a peace that passes all understanding guarding her heart and mind through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Her situation did not change, her problems were not solved, but she had simply placed them at the foot of the cross. She had laid her burdens down and left the outcome up to the Lord. This is exactly what God desires for us to do, he wants us to give up our burdens to Him. The burdens we try to carry are not meant for us to pick up. This is why we feel so heavy hearted. This is why we feel so overwhelmed, like we are being crushed under a weight too heavy for us to carry, because it is a weight too heavy for us to carry. We must put it down and allow the Lord to pick it up for us.

 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30

The Lord’s burdens are light. When my friend gave her burdens to the Lord, He replaced them with his burden of peace. I don’t know about you but I would much rather be walking around with a burden of peace than a burdened heart, overwhelming frustrations and a weight of anger on my shoulders any day of the week!

The story could end right here and that would be a pretty great testimony in and of itself of gaining peace in an not so peaceful heart, but our God has a way of blowing the doors right off their hinges just to show how He is able to move on our behalf. I no sooner got off the phone with my friend and within about 10 minutes it rings again. She was calling to inform me of an update in her situation. God had completely changed the heart of the other person that was involved! My friend had received a tearful apology with deep heartfelt conviction and was so blown away that she wanted to call and inform me of the 180 degree change! My friend told the other person involved  that she had called me and that I had lifted her and the situation up in prayer. This other person involved said, “That is why I felt so convicted! God was using those prayers to move in my heart.” And with that the situation was resolved!

All I can do is sit back in awe! We serve a pretty amazing God, one who can change a heart in an instant and make a very bad situation be resolved in a moment. Now, I realize I did not go into exact details about the situation, but all I can tell you is that unless God changed the hearts of each person involved, it would not have ended well for anyone. I thank God for His unending faithfulness and answers to prayers. If you are dealing with emotions and fears that are unchecked, or maybe you have a situation staring you in the face and you have no idea what to do with it. Take your thoughts, fears, emotions and your situation and lay them at the feet of Jesus. He is faithful! I can not promise that the situation will work out as you might want, but it will always work out for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Lord, I thank you that you desire to work on our behalf. I thank you for desiring our thoughts, emotions, and fears to be laid at your feet. I thank you that you desire for those things not to overwhelm us. Thank you that your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Help us in those moments of crises to lay everything down at your feet so that you can carry what we were never meant to ever carry. Thank you for the answers to prayers even when we don’t see them answered in the way that we would like, because we know that you have a greater good in mind for us than we can see in this moment.  You are a truly awesome God. We love you so much!

Fruit Of The Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

There has always been something I found rather intriguing about these two verses. In fact, there is just one word in these verses that seems to catch my attention every time I read them, and that is the word “fruit.” I want us to notice something here. These verses do not say “fruits of the spirit.” They say “fruit”. It is a singular word. In other words, we can not pick and choose which ones we want and which ones we don’t want. God did not give us a fruit bar here. The word fruit is a singular word because love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control all comes from the spirit of God as one gift. Let me explain what I mean by giving you a math lesson to illustrate my point. Let’s think back to elementary school when we were all introduced to a circle graph. When all of the fruit is living and active in our lives we have a whole graph, all put together nice and neat. But when we try to pull out one section of the circle graph, or one of the “fruits,” our circle graph  is no longer complete, it is missing a section. In other words the fruit of the spirit is designed to work and function as a whole. We are to have all of these things working and functioning in our lives not just the ones we like while ignoring the rest.

A delicate balance

How often do we miss the mark in keeping each one of these areas working in our lives in such a way that we don’t end up with a piece of our circle graph running on empty? I personally, I feel like it is a constant battle to keep certain areas in check. It feels like a day will not go by without me running to the feet of Jesus and asking for a in pouring of at least one of these areas, if not several on any given day. If you are anything like me you will know just how overwhelming it is to make sure the circle graph stays filled up in each area. In fact, without the help of the Lord it really is an impossible task.

A recent experience at youth camp helped me to see that we all struggle with this delicate balance of the fruit of the spirit in our lives. I had the opportunity to be a counselor at a Christian youth camp this past summer. All of the campers who attended had been raised in the church and were at least exposed to scriptures like this one on a regular basis. On several occasions I had to correct inappropriate behavior and I found it most beneficial to correct them with the word of God. I would ask them to list for me the fruit of the spirit. Once they got through listing out each one, I would ask them how their behavior lined up with this fruit that God expected of them. Not one of them could say that their behavior was what God was expecting. So from there we discussed what would have been the better action in order to make sure it looked more like the fruit that God had intended to be flowing out of His children. I would conclude the conversations with asking them what they needed to do in order to make the situation right. With each camper I happened to have to this particular conversation with I could literally see the spirit of God bring conviction to their hearts. It was such a privilege to watch God’s word working so deeply in the hearts of these young people.

Possible only with God

I have shared these examples of myself and of these campers to show that the fruit of the spirit can not be managed in one way only.

But Jesus himself said…

“...with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

Yes, ALL things are possible with the Lord, including this delicate balance of the fruit of the spirit! I am so thankful that Jesus is willing to help me with this load. The Lord is more than willing to help you with this delicate balance in managing the fruit of the spirit in your life as well. I know that I surely could not manage this intricate juggling act my own. It is only possible with the continuous help of the Holy Spirit at work in my heart and mind.

Father, I thank you that you are the great manager. I thank you that you are able to balance and juggle the things we can not. I thank you that in those moments when we feel like we are going to drop all of the fruit, that you will be an ever present help in our time of need. Your word promises to be right there to help us. Thank you for your fruit. Thank you that we can have tangible evidence of your spirit working and moving in our lives. Thank you that others will be able to see your fruit in our lives and know that it is not coming from us. We pray that this fruit will not only be evident in our lives, but it will convict the hearts of others and lead them straight to your cross.