A young couple in their 30s we have been sharing with, have struggled to make a big change in their lives. He has finally decided to quit his difficult job and move back to their home town and see if he can find work that satisfies his heart and his skills. This is testing their trust in God severely.
When they announced on Sunday that they were leaving shortly, we all felt how much we will miss them, but realised it was the right move. My husband talked with him afterwards and affirmed him and gave him a big long hug. (He is 6'6" and my husband is 6'3"!!)
And the young man emailed David later and said "Thank you for your encouragement and the hug. I realise I am seriously lacking in father-love affirmation and touch." What honesty - from a man who usually is not very verbal. How do we know, when we hug someone, if they have a great need for this sort of affirmation? My response to David when he told me was, 'Hug him some more before they leave!!'
His wife told us something lovely she had become aware of. Their little todler daughter was always falling and bumping something - and each time she would put her arms up to mummy and want to be picked up. This mother realised that she did not automatically do that with her Abba. She admitted that when things got painful in life she pouted and cried and complained... but did not reach up for his comforting arms. Wow... what a lesson to us all. She had us in tears with her.
How honest are we with others about our 'learning to love' discoveries?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Is that enough?
Jesus was talking to his disciples just before his arrest and he said, "No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
In one of Jack Frost's DVDs (Experiencing the Father's embrace) he comments on this statement of Philip, "that will be enough." Jack says, 'Wasn't it enough for him to see Jesus raise the dead, and heal the lepers...?'
But I like Philips request. "Show us the Father..." How often do we ask this of Jesus? For Jesus came for that very reason, to make a way back home to the Father, and to reveal him to us. There is a real sense in which every time we look at Jesus we 'see the Father' as they are one... but there is another dimension, when the Father himself, as a tender daddy, is revealed to our inner heart, where we need his comfort, his tender words, his assurances. This is a spiritual/emotional revelation -more than an 'understanding' of the mind.
But I am also intrigued with Philips statement 'that will be enough for us.' What is 'enough' for us? Do we settle for so little and say 'that is enough?' I regularly listen to believers talk and pray who seem to have settled for just 'getting along' -
for the occasional answer to prayer, for a life of struggle, but not victory, for a dreariness, not delight, for none of the miracles, but mostly just grace to get through. We don't seem to ask for much, we settle for a '1st gear' Christianity, and seem to ignore much of the Scriptural promises of his comfort and his enabling. Why? Have we been disappointed, and no longer trust? Are we in fact 'unbelieving believers'? Or have we been taught to settle for this low level faith? I remember a long time ago hearing from my father that he had arthritis in his hand and could not write me a letter so he dictated it to his secretary. I replied - did he ask for prayer from others about this hand? He replied to me, "God has more important things to deal with than my hand." Huh? If he knows the number of hairs on our head, and the fall of every sparrow....??? Go figure!
What is 'enough' for you? How about asking for a hunger and thirst for more? More revelation, more encountering, more enabling through the Spirit.
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
In one of Jack Frost's DVDs (Experiencing the Father's embrace) he comments on this statement of Philip, "that will be enough." Jack says, 'Wasn't it enough for him to see Jesus raise the dead, and heal the lepers...?'
But I like Philips request. "Show us the Father..." How often do we ask this of Jesus? For Jesus came for that very reason, to make a way back home to the Father, and to reveal him to us. There is a real sense in which every time we look at Jesus we 'see the Father' as they are one... but there is another dimension, when the Father himself, as a tender daddy, is revealed to our inner heart, where we need his comfort, his tender words, his assurances. This is a spiritual/emotional revelation -more than an 'understanding' of the mind.
But I am also intrigued with Philips statement 'that will be enough for us.' What is 'enough' for us? Do we settle for so little and say 'that is enough?' I regularly listen to believers talk and pray who seem to have settled for just 'getting along' -
for the occasional answer to prayer, for a life of struggle, but not victory, for a dreariness, not delight, for none of the miracles, but mostly just grace to get through. We don't seem to ask for much, we settle for a '1st gear' Christianity, and seem to ignore much of the Scriptural promises of his comfort and his enabling. Why? Have we been disappointed, and no longer trust? Are we in fact 'unbelieving believers'? Or have we been taught to settle for this low level faith? I remember a long time ago hearing from my father that he had arthritis in his hand and could not write me a letter so he dictated it to his secretary. I replied - did he ask for prayer from others about this hand? He replied to me, "God has more important things to deal with than my hand." Huh? If he knows the number of hairs on our head, and the fall of every sparrow....??? Go figure!
What is 'enough' for you? How about asking for a hunger and thirst for more? More revelation, more encountering, more enabling through the Spirit.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
His glorious soul-satisfying "I am..."
I am exploring the phrase "the God of all comfort" and reading Hannah Whitall Smith's book of the same name. I am aware that in my deep heart I do not yet know his comfort in some places.
She begins by talking about his name "I am". Let me quote:
"Every attribute of God, every revelation of his character, every proof of his undying love, every declaration of his watchful care, every assertion of his purposes of tender mercy, every manifestation of his loving kindness - all are the filling out of this unfinished "I am."
God tells us through all the pages of his book what he is. "I am," he says, "all that my people need": "I am their strength"; "I am their wisdom"; "I am their righteousness"; "I am their peace"; "I am their salvation"; "I am their life"; "I am their all in all."
This apparently unfinished name, therefore, is the most comforting name the heart of man could devise, because it allows us to add to it, without any limitation, whatever we feel the need of, and even "exceedingly abundantly" beyond all that we can ask or think.
But if our hears are full of our own wretched "I ams" we will have no ears to hear his glorious, soul-satisfying "I am." We say, "Alas, I am such a poor weak creature," or "I am so foolish," or "I am so good-for-nothing," or "I am so helpless"; and we give these pitiful "I ams" of ours as the reason for the wretchedness and discomfort of our spiritual lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank cheque of God's magnificent "I am," which authorises us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.
If you are an uncomfortable Christian,(not comforted) then the only thing to give you a thoroughly comfortable spiritual life is to know God. The psalmist says that they that know God's name will put their trust in him, and it is, I am convinced, impossible for anyone really to know him (experience him) and not to trust him. A trustworthy person commands trust; not in the sense of ordering people to trust him, but by irresistibly winning their trust by his trustworthiness."
Further reflection has led me to believe that there are a number of reasons we do not access his comfort.
a. We have deep wounds of not being comforted as a child and have come to believe that no-one is there for us when we are in distress, so we become stoic. ("Go to your room, and when you have stopped crying you can come out!")
b. We have come to believe it is 'part of who we are' to complain, or express self-pity or cynicism... we would not know ourselves if we did not have this pessimistic streak!
c. We have the habit of seeking comfort in people feeling sorry for us, in the substitutes of TV, food, spending money etc... and do not consider we dishonour our "God of all comfort" and rob ourselves of his grace.
d. We are suspicious of optimistic 'sunny' people and think they are being 'unreal' because life is full of trials and hardships.
More of this coming....
She begins by talking about his name "I am". Let me quote:
"Every attribute of God, every revelation of his character, every proof of his undying love, every declaration of his watchful care, every assertion of his purposes of tender mercy, every manifestation of his loving kindness - all are the filling out of this unfinished "I am."
God tells us through all the pages of his book what he is. "I am," he says, "all that my people need": "I am their strength"; "I am their wisdom"; "I am their righteousness"; "I am their peace"; "I am their salvation"; "I am their life"; "I am their all in all."
This apparently unfinished name, therefore, is the most comforting name the heart of man could devise, because it allows us to add to it, without any limitation, whatever we feel the need of, and even "exceedingly abundantly" beyond all that we can ask or think.
But if our hears are full of our own wretched "I ams" we will have no ears to hear his glorious, soul-satisfying "I am." We say, "Alas, I am such a poor weak creature," or "I am so foolish," or "I am so good-for-nothing," or "I am so helpless"; and we give these pitiful "I ams" of ours as the reason for the wretchedness and discomfort of our spiritual lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank cheque of God's magnificent "I am," which authorises us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.
If you are an uncomfortable Christian,(not comforted) then the only thing to give you a thoroughly comfortable spiritual life is to know God. The psalmist says that they that know God's name will put their trust in him, and it is, I am convinced, impossible for anyone really to know him (experience him) and not to trust him. A trustworthy person commands trust; not in the sense of ordering people to trust him, but by irresistibly winning their trust by his trustworthiness."
Further reflection has led me to believe that there are a number of reasons we do not access his comfort.
a. We have deep wounds of not being comforted as a child and have come to believe that no-one is there for us when we are in distress, so we become stoic. ("Go to your room, and when you have stopped crying you can come out!")
b. We have come to believe it is 'part of who we are' to complain, or express self-pity or cynicism... we would not know ourselves if we did not have this pessimistic streak!
c. We have the habit of seeking comfort in people feeling sorry for us, in the substitutes of TV, food, spending money etc... and do not consider we dishonour our "God of all comfort" and rob ourselves of his grace.
d. We are suspicious of optimistic 'sunny' people and think they are being 'unreal' because life is full of trials and hardships.
More of this coming....
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