Don’t Wait Until You Feel Like It

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Barbara Harper

It’s time to read the Bible. But I had a late night last night and tons of things to do today. I’m just not in a mental frame to read the Bible right now.

It’s time to pray. But I just don’t feel like praying right now. I’ll wait til I am feeling more spiritual.

It’s time to get ready for church. But I’ve had a lot of appointments this week. I just don’t feel like being around a lot of people and activity. I think I’ll just watch the service from home.

Have you ever faced any of those scenarios? I think we’ve all had times we haven’t felt like doing what we know we need to.

Sometimes it even feels like we’d be faking it if we proceeded with prayer, Bible reading, or going to church without the proper spiritual feelings in place.

But I’d like to suggest that we wouldn’t be faking it. Instead, by doing what we ought to do even when we don’t feel like it, we’d be battling our fleshly nature, what the Bible calls our “old man.”

We received a new nature at salvation. But we still have the old one as well. Our old nature constantly pulls us in the direction giving in to ourselves, yielding to fleshly desires.

If we never felt like doing any spiritual activities, we’d have cause for concern about our relationship with the Lord.

But even having experienced the blessing of prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance, sometimes we’re still sluggish and reluctant to participate in them.

What can we do?

Get enough rest. Sometimes the cause is physical. I’m often too drowsy for my morning Bible reading if I stayed up too late the night before. Those times of life when a full night’s sleep is impossible—when a new baby is in the house or we’re sick—we may have to adjust our time with the Lord into smaller breaks throughout the day.

Search our hearts. Sometimes that sluggish or negative feeling might indicate something is wrong somewhere. We can ask God to “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24). If He brings something to mind, we can confess it to Him, ask His forgiveness, and make arrangements to do whatever else we have to do to make it right (apologize to someone, return an item, etc.).

Search whether we’re filled with other things. Almost every mother I know has had to tell her children they can’t eat sweets or munchies before dinner, because those things would blunt their appetite for good, nourishing food. Maybe we need to lay aside something that’s dulling our spiritual appetites.

Get help. Elisabeth Elliot wrote in On Asking God Why, “When I stumble out of bed in the morning, put on a robe, and go into my study, words do not spring spontaneously to my lips–other than words like, ‘Lord, here I am again to talk to you. It’s cold. I’m not feeling terribly spiritual….’ Who can go on and on like that morning after morning, and who can bear to listen to it day after day?” She chose to read psalms or hymns to help get her heart in the right place.

Don’t turn away from the primary means of reviving us. “I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have revived me and given me life” (Psalm 119:93, AMP). God uses His word, prayer, and His people to work in our lives. When we neglect them, we’re denying our souls the very things they need to thrive. One of my former pastors used to say that one of his best times of prayer happened after he had to confess to the Lord that he didn’t feel like praying.

Don’t expect perfection. We haven’t failed at our devotional time if we haven’t run through our whole to-do list—pray so many minutes, read so many chapters, journal so many pages. Remember, it’s not a routine or a performance. Time in the Bible and prayer is simply communicating with the One who loves us best, getting to know Him better.

Ignore the feelings. That’s part of maturity. Every day we have to do things we don’t feel like doing (go to work, wake up before we want to, make or at least provide for dinner, say no to excess sugar). If we only ever did what we’d felt like—well, many of us would be couch potatoes in dirty laundry living off fast food.

I’ve only rarely had this problem, but sometimes people don’t feel like eating. Or they might, but they don’t want what’s available. But if they eat, the food nourishes them.

J. Sidlow Baxter once wrote an amusing account of trying to get into the habit of regular prayer. First he had to fend off the constant pull of distractions and duties. But then he had to just do it.

I found that there was an area of me that did not want to pray, and there was a part of me that did. The part that didn’t was the emotions, and the part that did was the intellect and the will.

So I said to my will: “Will, are you ready for prayer?” And Will said, “Here I am, I’m ready.” So I said, “Come on, Will, we will go.”

So Will and I set off to pray. But the minute we turned our footsteps to go and pray all my emotions began to talk. “We’re not coming, we’re not coming, we’re not coming.” And I said to Will, “Will, can you stick it?” And Will said, “Yes, if you can.” So Will and I, we dragged off those wretched emotions and we went to pray, and stayed an hour in prayer.

If you had asked me afterwards, Did you have a good time, do you think I could have said yes? A good time? No, it was a fight all the way.

What I would have done without the companionship of Will, I don’t know. In the middle of the most earnest intercessions I suddenly found one of the principal emotions way out on the golf course, playing golf. And I had to run to the golf course and say, “Come back”… It was exhausting, but we did it.

The next morning came. I looked at my watch and it was time. I said to Will, “Come on, Will, it’s time for prayer.” And all the emotions began to pull the other way and I said, “Will, can you stick it?” And Will said, “Yes, in fact I think I’m stronger after the struggle yesterday morning.” So Will and I went in again.

The same thing happened. Rebellious, tumultuous, uncooperative emotions. If you had asked me, “Have you had a good time?” I would have had to tell you with tears, “No, the heavens were like brass. It was a job to concentrate. I had an awful time with the emotions.”

This went on for about two and a half weeks. But Will and I stuck it out. Then one morning during that third week I looked at my watch and I said, “Will, it’s time for prayer. Are you ready?” And Will said, “Yes, I’m ready.”

And just as we were going in I heard one of my chief emotions say to the others, “Come on, fellows, there’s no use wearing ourselves out: they’ll go on whatever we do…”

Suddenly one day weeks later while Will and I were pressing our case at the throne of the heavenly glory, one of the chief emotions shouted “Hallelujah!” and all the other emotions suddenly shouted, “Amen!” For the first time all of me was involved in the exercise of prayer. And God suddenly became real and heaven was wide open and Christ was there and the Holy Spirit was moving and I knew that all the time God had been listening.

The point is this: the validity and the effectuality of prayer are not determined or even affected by the subjective psychological condition of the one who prays. The thing that makes prayer valid and vital and moving and operative is my faith takes hold of God’s truth.

The Christian life isn’t without emotion. Emotional highs and lows are expressed all through the Bible, especially the psalms. But emotions are variable and unreliable. They shouldn’t be running our lives. One of my college professors used to say, “Good feelings follow right actions.”

God understands our human frailty. “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). Jesus is the One who told his disciples (and us), “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

It’s wonderful when will and mind and emotion all work together. But when they don’t, let’s not wait til we “feel spiritual” to do spiritual things. God may use what we didn’t feel like doing to create the right feelings.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

This I Call to Mind

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Barbara Harper

In some ways, it’s easy to call on the Lord for help when some outside issue comes upon us—illness, job problems, weather threats, and so on.

But when we’ve gotten ourselves into a mess because of our own actions, lack of action, thoughtlessness, or selfishness—well, that’s a different story. We’re ashamed. We feel we deserve whatever trouble we’re in, so why would God help us out of it?

Actually, we don’t deserve any blessings or help, whether we’ve done good or bad. God blesses us out of His grace, not what we deserve.

But sometimes the consequences of our actions are designed to bring us to the end of ourselves so we’ll look to Him.

I’ve just finished reading through Jeremiah and Lamentations. The prophet Jeremiah’s task was to warn God’s people of impending judgment. God had reached out to them and sent various messengers for years. But the people continued to worship idols, rely on nations that did not know God for help instead of going to Him, and various other transgressions. Now God was sending the Babylonians to desecrate their land and bring most of the population into exile.

The book of Lamentations is set just after the Babylonian invasion. As the title indicates, the author mourns the devastation. Jerusalem had been under siege for so long before being taken into exile that parents were cannibalizing their own children. People had died. The temple was destroyed. The author says, “I have forgotten what happiness is” (3:17).

In the middle of these Lamentations, the author makes an astonishing statement.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:19-21).

What does he call to mind?

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth (3:22-27).

In the midst of an utter wreck of his life and country, the writer remembers God’s mercy and faithfulness.

God’s chastening is not a sign that He’s done with us. The ESV note on verses 31-33 says, “[God] sends judgment in order to effect restoration . . . God’s first instinct is not to punish. He only does so when his patience with sinners does not lead to repentance” (p. 1488).

The prophetic books of the Bible are known for their condemnation of sin and warnings to turn back to God. But they are also full of God’s expressions of mercy and pleading in love for the return of his wayward children.

I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you (Isaiah 44:22, NKJV).

Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:20).

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (Ezekiel 18:23).

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster (Joel 2:12-13).

When we’re down in the dust, God doesn’t want us to stay there. He wants to give us hope. He wants us to look up to Him. He wants us to recall His love and mercy and come back to Him.

Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven . . .

I called on your name, O Lord,
    from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
    your ear to my cry for help!’
You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life (Lamentations 3:40-42; 55-58).

Come, let us return to the Lord.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Christianity Is More Than Getting My Needs Met

Posted on August 11, 2024 by Barbara Harper

God, as a good Father, delights to meet the needs of His children. “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” (Psalm 145:19).

He knows what we need before we ask. But He wants us to come to Him with our needs. He instructed us to pray even for our daily bread.

He promises “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

John Newton captured some of these thoughts in his hymn, “Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare“:

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,
Jesus loves to answer prayer.
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Rise and ask without delay.

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.

But the Christian life isn’t only about getting our needs met and our problems fixed. God is not a cosmic vending machine where we insert prayers, make our choices, and receive everything we ask for.

You’ve often heard that Christianity is a relationship with God. That’s true. John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

But even within that relationship, the focus of the Christian life isn’t on us: it’s on God. We acknowledge that He is Lord. We bring our thoughts in line with His. We submit our wills to His.

God created us for His glory: “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7). He tells us to do all to His glory and to “Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

That might sound strange to us. If we heard a man proclaiming his own glory or asking people to glorify him, we’d wonder who he thought he was.

The difference is, God is the only one who deserves glory. He created the world, the sky, the stars, everything from the tallest mountain to the smallest cell to the farthest celestial body.

He’s not only powerful, He is intrinsically good. He’s not an egomaniac.

He doesn’t need our glory. He has been self-sufficient for all of eternity. He doesn’t need anything from us.

So then, why does He want us to glorify Him? Someone has said that God doesn’t need our glory, but we need to give it to Him.

There are probably a multitude of reasons God wants us to glorify Him, but here are a few:

To give Him His due. He deserves glory, as we said earlier. He’s God. No one can do what He does. ““Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

To express gratefulness. If we were rescued from a burning building by a firefighter, we’d sing his praises for the rest of our lives. How much more should we sing God’s praises for all He rescued us from and all He has done for us?

“You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20, NKJV).

To avoid false worship. If we’re glorifying someone or something else, we’ll be led astray. Nothing else is God. Nothing else can help us.

To be transformed. We’re changed by beholding His glory. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Sometimes we try to change in every way except by looking to Him.

This doesn’t mean that we glorify Him for selfish reasons. But the better we know Him, the more we won’t be able to help glorifying, thanking, and praising Him.

To help others know Him. “They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom” (Psalm 145:11-12).

To keep a right perspective. Even when doing things for God and relying on His grace and power, we can be tempted to feel proud of ourselves rather than give glory to Him. Two passages that help me with that are Psalm 115:1 (“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!) and Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

How do we glorify Him? Once again, there are many ways, but some are:

Acknowledge God for who He is. Romans 1 details the sad decline when people “ exchanged the glory of the immortal God” for lesser things.

Praise. “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me” (Psalm 50:23, NKJV).

Pray in Jesus’ name. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

Live honorably. “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).

Grow spiritual fruit. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8). Verse 4 says this is done as we “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

Sexual purity. “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

Give cheerfully and generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 tells of bountiful giving to others’ needs which results in their glorifying God.

Suffer in His name. 1 Peter 4:12-19 tells us not to be surprised when trials come, to rejoice when trials come, to trust their souls to a faithful Creator. Verse 16 says, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

Honor God with our choices. 1 Corinthians 10 shares considerations to take into account when Christians differ over what’s right or wrong in areas not clearly spelled out in the Bible (specifically eating meat offered to idols, but the principles apply to various situations). Instead of clinging to our “rights,” we’re to consider others’ consciences and good. Paul concludes with “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (verse 31).

The glory of God is a subject too big to fit within one blog post, but these truths help me keep my interactions with God from being lopsided towards self.

Which of these reasons for glorifying God most resonates with you? Are there other reasons you can think of, or other ways the Bible tells us to glorify Him?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

God’s Solutions Are Better

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Barbara Harper

A man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years laid beside a pool in Bethesda. An angel was said to come down and stir the waters occasionally, and whoever stepped into the pool first was made well. This man had tried several times to get to the pool, but someone always got in ahead of him. But still he came, or was brought, to wait beside the pool.

One day a stranger approached him and asked if he wanted to be well. He explained that he hadn’t been able to make it to the pool in time. Perhaps he thought this stranger would help him get there.

Instead, the stranger said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

From a human standpoint, we wouldn’t have been surprised if the sick man said, “But, sir, that’s exactly what I cannot do.” Instead, before those thoughts could even form, the man found that he could stand. Not only that, he could carry a load. No physical therapy, no reawakening atrophied muscles, just instant, complete healing.

This story, as you probably know, is from John 5. I had read it many times over the years before something stood out to me.

The lame man was fixated on one solution to his problem, and had been for a very long time. His one focus was to get into that pool, and he kept trying despite repeated failed attempts. He didn’t recognize that the stranger standing in front of him could provide another solution, much less be a better solution. And the invalid did not even realize that the healing of his body was not his primary need. When Jesus found the former invalid later, Jesus told the man to “Sin no more.”

We have a tendency to fixate on our own solutions, too, don’t we? If we can just marry that guy, land this job, get that loan, treatment, or whatever, life will be perfect. We’ve looked at the situation from every angle, and, yes, this is what we need. And we overlook Jesus in the process.

Too, while we’re so focused on that one area of desire, we can miss the greater need: the need of our hearts for forgiveness and a closer walk with Jesus.

There may be nothing at all wrong with what we want. It may, in fact, even be the Lord’s will to provide us with that very outcome. But it might be God’s will to bring that answer about in a different way than we had planned, or to provide a different (and better) outcome, or to withhold the answer we wanted while providing grace to deal with it.

There’s nothing wrong with planning and seeking solutions. In fact, the Bible often commends planning. But instead of presenting our agenda to God for His stamp of approval, God’s Word encourages us to seek Him, His guidance, and His direction.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”(James 4:13-15).

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

And then sometimes we feel like Jehoshaphat when he faced a bigger army than his own. He confessed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.“

God sees the big picture. He knows what’s ahead. He knows all the ramifications of all our choices. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He knows what we need more than we do. And He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

The “cares of this life” can choke the seed of God’s Word. By God’s grace, let’s not overlook the Lord in our desperation to get our needs met. Let’s not neglect our spiritual needs while trying to fulfill our desires. Let’s seek Him first.

(Revised from the archives)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

One Book That Can Speak to Everyone

Posted on July 28, 2024 by Barbara Harper

A few years ago, I attended my first writer’s conference. I hadn’t given any thought to attending one until I learned of a small one in a town where I used to live. I decided to try it out, and it spurred me to get serious about my desire to “write a book someday.”

I kept hearing at that conference that publishing was not what it used to be. Writers could no longer simply finish a manuscript and send it to a publisher, who would do the rest. Now publishers want potential authors to have an audience before their company will consider taking on a book.

Since shortly before that conference, I’ve been reading books, blog posts, magazine articles, and listening to podcasts about writing and publishing.

One piece of wisdom I’ve seen over and over is that telling a potential agent or publisher our manuscript is for “everyone” is a fast route to a closed door. Authors are advised to be as specific as possible in the audience they aim for.

I confess I struggle with this a little. For several years I wrote a newsletter for the ladies of the church we attended. I’m used to writing to women of all ages and stages. Occasionally we’d have an article focusing on one aspect of womanhood or another–single women, young wives and moms, older women—but most of what was written was applicable across the board. I’ve had the same approach with this blog.

Some of my favorite books seem the same way. The authors may have had a specific age group in mind, but it’s not obvious to me as I read their books. People of various ages and situations have bought certain books for years.

This trend towards specific audiences has led some books, like Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages, to be transformed into versions for parents of children. parents of teens, singles, couples, men, and women. I wondered how he managed to write the same material for all these different groups. The illustrations would likely change in each, but it seems the basic principles would be the same.

Similarly, Stormie Omartian’s The Power of a Praying Wife led to the power of a praying husband, praying woman, praying mom, praying kid, praying teen, praying grandparent, and more.

In my more cynical moments, I wonder if this converting general books to several different audiences is a ploy of publishers and their marketers to sell more books.

But I can see that it would be helpful to take general principles and apply them to different specific situations.

These musings led me to this thought: there is one book that’s good for any age, gender, or life situation. The Bible is inspired and “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

There are study Bibles packaged in camouflage or sports paraphernalia for boys and pink or unicorns for girls. Bibles have been designed and illustrated for teens, women, men, even outdoorsmen.

The packaging would appeal to different specific groups, as would any devotional material or added notes. Those things can be useful. But I wouldn’t say they are truly necessary. The Holy Spirit can help us understand and apply the Bible at any age and stage of life.

Someone has said that the Bible is shallow enough for a child to wade in, but deep enough for an elephant to swim in. (1)

There are parts a child can understand. God told parents in the Old Testament to teach His Word to their children and grandchildren. Paul says Timothy has “from childhood . . . been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

Of course, there are parts a child would not understand. There are parts the wisest theologian doesn’t understand completely. But I can testify, coming up on fifty years of reading the Bible with some degree of regularity, that it speaks to us and is applicable to us all through life. As we read it through different life stages, we continue to find applications to our situations.

The Bible is even good for those who oppose it. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” Viggo Olsen tells in his book, Daktar, how he and his wife promised her Christian parents that they would look into the claims of Scripture. However, they secretly planned to disprove the Bible so they could get her parents off their backs about Christianity. Instead, they became convinced the Bible was true and God was real. They became Christians and later went as missionaries to Bangladesh.

The same thing happened to Lee Strobel. He and his wife were both atheists and planned to remain that way. When his wife became a Christian, he tried to disprove the Bible’s reliability and claims with the zeal of the investigative reporter he was. He says in his book, The Case for Christ, that the more he searched, the more convinced he became that the Bible was true after all. He became a Christian and went on to become a minister and wrote several more books about Christianity.

There are multitudes of reasons for reading the Bible: it provides light, joy, comfort, encouragement, builds our faith, helps us fight sin, tells us more about God. But the primary reasons for reading Scripture are that it is God’s message for us and our main means of getting to know Him.

If you’ve never read the Bible, I encourage you to. You might start with one of the gospels. John gives the most in-depth look at the Son of God and His ministry.

If you’ve had a stop-and-start pattern of Bible reading, don’t be discouraged. Many of us tried in fits and starts before getting into some kind of regular pattern of Bible reading. I shared tips for finding time to read the Bible here. I’d advise starting small and simple. Too often, we make grandiose plans but then can’t keep up with them.

If you’ve been reading the Bible regularly for years, wonderful! Keep at it! There’s always more to learn, but we need the reminders of old lessons, too. If you feel you’re in a devotional rut, these tips might help.

Whatever stage of life you are in, the Bible can speak to you.

_____

(1) Variations of this statement have been attributed to Augustine, Gregory the Great, Jerome, and John Owen, among others. Andy Naselli tells why he thinks Gregory the Great is the original source here.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Fading with Age

Posted on July 21, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I remember sometime in my youth talking with an elderly person and noting that not only was his hair very white, but his skin was pale almost to the point of being white as well. Even his eyes seemed faded. I wondered, “Is that what happens when you get old? Do you just . . . fade away?”

Now that I’m nearer the category of “old,” I’ve learned that not everyone gets paler as they age. And no one ages in quite the same way: we’ve known people well into their eighties who traveled internationally as public speakers and even got married.

But it does seem we fade a bit in many ways. Win Couchman called it “The Grace to Be Diminished.”

First, energy decreases. We may not be able to do all we once did. We can’t push ourselves like we used to. Physical issues of various forms may creep up.

Then our influence can decrease. When we first visited a particular church in one state, a young woman was showing us where our Sunday School class would meet. As we passed one room, she said, “You don’t want to go there; that’s the old people’s class.” I suppose I should have felt gratified that she didn’t think I belonged in the old people’s class yet. But the attitude disturbed me. Later, in the same church, when facilitating a ladies’ group, a younger woman maybe in her mid-thirties told me she didn’t come to the ladies’ meetings because the attendees were all older women. Most of us were in our forties and fifties—we were by no means ancient. But I remember being shocked and hurt that someone would not want to be with us just because of our age.

We can lose our jobs and ministries as we retire.

We lose our independence as we have to give up our car keys and may not be able to live alone any more.

We lose our dignity as someone else has to feed and change us.

And eventually, we lose life itself.

That would all sound pretty dreary if that were the end of things.

But we were told that life would be fleeting.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6).

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away (Psalm 90:10).

“We all do fade as a leaf” (Isaiah 64:6, KJV).

A radio preacher said one reason our bodies start falling apart as we get older is to encourage us to let loose of them. We need the reminder that this life is not forever.

C. S. Lewis said in The Problem of Pain, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). This world, as the old song says, is not our ultimate home. Our transitions as we age help prepare us for our true home.

Does that mean when we reach a certain age, we just sit in our rocking chairs and wait to die? By no means.

Elisabeth Elliot has said that our limitations don’t hinder our ministry; they define our ministry. We may not be able to coordinate VBS for 100 children any more (if you can, go for it!) But we can pray with the psalmist, “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (Psalm 71:17-18).

How we proclaim His might and wondrous deeds may vary. We might be able to teach a class, write a book, or speak to groups. However, I’ve often thought that when Paul told older men and women to teach the younger, he probably didn’t have classes and retreats in mind. There’s nothing wrong with those; I have been blessed by many of them. But they probably weren’t done in Bible times. I think he probably had in mind interaction in the everyday course of life.

Godly women have influenced my life in just that way. One family had me over frequently as a teenager who came to church alone. I don’t think the wife of the family thought of me as a “project.” She was just being hospitable. Yet visiting their family and seeing her interact as a wife, mother, and homemaker was instructive for me.

Another woman passed along a vital piece of advice as we worked on a church bulletin board together that shaped my thinking in parenting teens. Another said something in passing while we worked in the church nursery that greatly encouraged me. Another was an invaluable and unwitting example to me as she was trying to prepare an event for a group, and her husband asked her for something in a critical moment. She didn’t snap; she closed her eyes briefly and then calmly directed him to what he needed.

Jesus said that we speak with our mouths out of the abundance of our hearts. As we fill our souls with God’s presence and Word and seek His guidance, then we will be able to share about Him in odd moments as we interact with others.

As another psalmist said, we can tell “things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,and the wonders that he has done. . . that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (Psalm 78:3-4, 6-7).

We don’t have to approach our old age with dread.

God has promised to take care of us: “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

He has promised our fruitfulness: “They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him” (Psalm 92:14-15).

He has promised a bright future to those who know Him. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

As we look back at His faithfulness all our lives, we can trust Him for the future. These stanzas from John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “My Birthday,” encourage me: I hope they’ll encourage you as well.

I grieve not with the moaning wind
As if a loss befell;
Before me, even as behind,
God is, and all is well!

His light shines on me from above,
His low voice speaks within,–
The patience of immortal love
Outwearying mortal sin.

Not mindless of the growing years
Of care and loss and pain,
My eyes are wet with thankful tears
For blessings which remain.

Let winds that blow from heaven refresh,
Dear Lord, the languid air;
And let the weakness of the flesh
Thy strength of spirit share.

And, if the eye must fail of light,
The ear forget to hear,
Make clearer still the spirit’s sight,
More fine the inward ear!

Be near me in mine hours of need
To soothe, or cheer, or warn,
And down these slopes of sunset lead
As up the hills of morn!

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Be Careful of Your Strengths

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I don’t consider myself to be good at public speaking. Even in a few interviews I’ve done, when I’m responding and not talking by myself, I don’t feel I do well. I don’t think quickly “on my feet.” It takes me a moment to process and respond (which is one reason I like writing better).

The nerves usually calm down exponentially once I get started. But for days afterward, I think of things I should have said or could have said better.

But I want to be faithful with opportunities the Lord gives me. So when they come, I spend time in prayer while I prepare. It comforts me that Paul told the Corinthians that he had been with them “in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3), though it probably wasn’t public speaking itself that made him feel that way.

Hopefully, these skills will improve over time.

I told someone recently that these things would be so much easier if I could turn off the nervousness. But then I realized those nerves probably keep me dependent on the Lord, so ultimately they’re good.

When we’re asked to do something that we’re not sure we can do, that feels too big for us, that isn’t in an area where we feel gifted, it’s almost instinctive to run to the Lord.

When we attempt something that we failed at before, we plead for and depend on the Lord’s help.

When we know we might be facing a big temptation in an area where we’re weak, we fortify ourselves with prayer and Scripture.

But what about the areas where we feel strong, where we feel our best gifts are, where we feel we can function well? Those things that we do without even thinking to pray?

It’s not that we can’t approach some tasks with confidence or the assurance that comes from experience. But we often forget we need God’s help in those areas, too. Whatever gifts we have, He gave them to us. We don’t hold them in perfection yet: we’re still growing and learning. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

One of the most chilling Scripture passages to me is the story of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. He began to reign in Judah at the age of sixteen. “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper” (verses 4 and 5).

The next several verses tell about Uzziah’s victory in battle, his buildings, herds, crops, army, and machines. He was skilled in many areas. “And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong” (verse 15).

“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense” (verse 16).

It’s sadly possible to receive God’s grace and help for a task and then get puffed up as if we accomplished what He wanted us to do on our own.

He forgot where his strength, gifts, and skills came from. His pride led to presumption. Only the priests were consecrated to burn incense in the temple. They withstood him. He got angry.

Then leprosy broke out on his forehead. In that era, leprosy required quarantine. He lived the rest of his days in a separate house, and his son reigned in his stead.

His situation reminds me a bit of Samson, who took his gifts casually and flirted with the wrong kind of woman who tried to find the secret of his strength in order to tell his enemies. When she told him the Philistines were coming for him, “he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20).

Jerry Bridges said in The Discipline of Grace, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24 tells us, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,’ declares the Lord.”

I don’t want to go about my tasks without God’s power. I want to remember that I don’t have anything except what I have received from Him. I want to be just as dependent on Him when I feel sure of myself as when I feel overwhelmed. I want to remember that every good gift comes from Him and is to be used for Him.

The prayer in the song “O Great God” is what I want to express for myself. The last stanza talks about living a life dependent on His grace, for His glory:

Some additional songs that help my thinking:

Lord, I Need You
All Glory Be to Christ
May Christ Be All
All My Boast Is In Jesus. I love the lines here that say, “O foolish pride, be crucified” and “Rise up, my soul, and bless the Lord. Who else is worthy?”

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

“All Sunshine Makes a Desert”

Posted on July 7, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Rain can be awfully inconvenient.

Outdoor activities planned months in advance can be ruined, or at least need to be rearranged, when an unforeseen rainstorm blows in. Grocery shopping becomes a big mess when we have to cart our bags in and out in the rain. Rain makes roads slick, creating driving hazards.

Rain can also be gloomy when we haven’t seen the sun for days.

One of my worst rain experiences came when I was driving home alone. The rain fell so heavily, my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. I literally could not see anything around me except the faint glow of other headlights. I somehow made it to the parking lot of a convenience store and waited til the showers abated, hoping no one would run into me.

And then there are thunderstorms with the potential to down power lines, send limbs crashing from trees, or strike lightning.

Yet, we need rain.

Rain softens the ground, making it easier to plant seeds. Then those seeds transform into flowers or food with more rain and sunshine.

Rain relieves the scorching heat of summer.

Rain provides water to drink and replenishes water tables for future needs.

Rain washed impurities out of the air.

F. B. Meyer wrote:

We all love the sunshine, but the Arabs have a proverb that ‘all sunshine makes the desert’; and it is a matter for common observation that the graces of Christian living are more often apparent in the case of those who have passed through great tribulation. God desires to get as rich crops as possible from the soil of our natures. There are certain plants of the Christian life, such as meekness, gentleness, kindness, humility, which cannot come to perfection if the sun of prosperity always shines. (1)

That’s true, isn’t it?

Just as I don’t like rain to interrupt my plans or make my tasks harder, I don’t like when trials and problems come up. They’re hard, painful, and sometimes costly. They take time and thought and energy from things I’d rather do.

But they have a good purpose.

When life is going well, we can get complacent. People who get everything they want and have everything just the way they like it sometimes start to feel entitled.

Though we know we need God’s grace and help in every circumstance, we feel our need of Him more during trials.

Trials soften us by humbling us. They show us our lack of strength and our need for His. They help us depend on Him more.

Trials help us grow. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

Trials help us to be grateful for what we have.

Trials can help wash impurities out as we search our hearts and confess wrong thoughts, deeds, and attitudes to God. Trials don’t always come because of sin, but when they do, they have a cleansing effect.

Trials point us to those unseen resources I mentioned last week. Hidden water tables of grace sustain us during dry periods.

God’s Word refreshes us with His promises:

And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26).

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth (Hosea 6:3).

He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17b).

One of my favorite childhood memories involves rain. My mom let us put on our bathing suits to go outside and play in a mild rain shower. I don’t know what time of year it was, but it had to have been during warm enough weather to get wet outside. Perhaps the rain was cooling on a hot summer’s day.

There was no thought of mess or inconvenience or disrupted plans. Instead, there was pure joy at the opportunity to do something so different and refreshing.

I can’t honestly say I dance for joy when trials come. But I am trying to learn to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 3:2-4). God has good purposes in trials and sends them in love and faithfulness.

Rain can be inconvenient, but also refreshing. All sunshine, as the saying goes, makes a desert. God keeps us from desert hardness and barrenness by sending trials our way. As William Cowper says in his hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way“:

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

________

(1) This quote comes from Our Daily Homily by F. B. Meyer. I’ve not read this book, but I have seen the quote in Warren Wiersbe’s book Be Satisfied as well as other places.

Are You Thirsty?

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Even before summer officially began, we experienced record heat waves.The Farmer’s Almanac predicts hotter than normal temperatures for much of the country this summer.

I admit, I prefer sunshine to rain, particularly thunderstorms. But even I can appreciate the need for rain to cool the air, replenish the water supply, and help crops grow.

I don’t know that I have ever been in a true drought. We’ve had dry conditions where fires were banned in the county, water for lawns was restricted, and people were concerned about the water table.

I’ve been thirsty. I’ve had that cotton-mouthed feeling at times, but I don’t know that I have ever been parched.

That imagery came to mind this week as I read Jeremiah 17 this week:

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (verses 5-6).

Jeremiah had to preach God’s judgment on His stubborn people who looked to other gods and nations for help instead of Him. When hearts turn away from the Lord, they dry up. They can’t grow and prosper. They’ve cut themselves off from their source of life and nourishment.

By contrast, Jeremiah says:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (7-8).

The tree by the water is continually nourished and fruitful. It “is not anxious in the year of drought.”

So is the soul who trusts in and depends on the Lord. Have you ever watched someone go through a great trial or heartache and wondered how they seemed to be at peace? They had unseen resources feeding their soul, because their trust was in God.

We see this imagery in other places in the Bible as well:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:1-4).

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (Isaiah 58:9-11).

Here we see the importance of not just hearing, but delighting in and obeying the Word of God.

Though I don’t recall feeling parched physically, I have been spiritually. I’ve had times I would not have made it without God’s help, grace, and word. I’ve cried out with the psalmist, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:5-6).

And I have found God faithful to strengthen and uphold me. God can turn “a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water” (Psalm 107:33-38).

Do you feel dry spiritually? Is your soul parched? Do you fear you might not have the resources for a coming trial?

Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, asthe Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

Come and drink, as often as needed. His well will never run dry.

You shall be like a watered garden. Isaiah 58:11b

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

What If You Have Good Reason to Fear?

Posted on June 23, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I was sure a headhunter watched me while I slept.

As a child, I woke up one night to see a rounded shape beside my pillow on the top bunk. I was convinced a headhunter was standing by my bed, looking at me. I’m not sure why—headhunters weren’t known to roam southern Texas in the mid-1960s. Perhaps I had recently read a book or watched a program that included headhunters.

I decided to handle the situation by shutting my eyes tight. Perhaps if he thought I was asleep, he would go away. But if I tried to get past him, I was sure to be no match for him.

Somehow I did go to sleep. When I woke up the next morning in the full light of day, I saw the rounded shape by my head was my teddy bear.

I felt foolish, but relieved.

Since then, I’ve wrestled with many unreasonable fears.

What if:

No one chooses me for their team?
I get lost?
I stand up in front of my speech class and my mind goes blank?
My husband is late from work and might have had an accident?
Something might be wrong with my unborn child?
My husband loses his job?
One of us gets cancer?
He dies before I do?

. . . and more. I have an uncanny knack to imagine all the ways in which something could go wrong.

There’s some chance that any of these things could happen. But there’s no sense worrying about what might happen. If what we’re worried about doesn’t occur, we’ve wasted all that time and energy and angst. And if it does come to pass, we’ve doubled our pain by adding worry to it beforehand.

But what if what we fear is a very real possibility?

Almost thirty years ago, I woke up one morning with my left hand feeling funny. Thinking I had just slept on it wrong, I went about my morning routine. But that numbish feeling grew in area and intensity. Within three hours, my whole left arm, both legs, and my lower torso were numb. I couldn’t walk on my own.

The eventual diagnosis was transverse myelitis, an autoimmune response to a virus that attacks the spine. The body attacks the myelin sheath around the nerves of the spine as well as the virus.

I’ve told that story in more detail elsewhere. Thank God, I was able to walk again after a lot of physical therapy and prayer. Most of the feeling came back to my limbs, but my left hand still feels like I have a glove on, and my lower legs don’t have full feeling. My biggest after-effect has been trouble with balance.

Like many illnesses, healing from TM is not a straight, steady upward path. Sometimes the numbness and tingling were worse than others. In addition, sometimes I felt odd sensations in other parts of my body–a buzzing feeling, or involuntary movement, or a feeling like something was touching me when nothing was.

When symptoms escalated, especially that “slept on it wrong” feeling anywhere, I’d panic that I was having another TM attack. TM doesn’t often occur twice, but it can. If it does, the doctors begin to suspect multiple sclerosis rather than TM. The “multiple” in MS means these kinds of attacks could occur throughout life.

I wondered how people who had heart disease lived, knowing they could have another heart attack at any time. Or how people who had recovered from cancer coped, knowing their cancer could return. These issues felt like living with a medical sword of Damocles hanging over people’s heads.

I had to remind myself that, if God allowed another episode of TM, or if I was diagnosed with MS, He would be with me and help me through it just as He did the first time.

A passage I pondered with amazement in my early Christian life was Psalm 46:2-3: “Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

I’ve been in a couple of very minor earthquakes, and even those mild tremors were quite disconcerting. I can hardly fathom something of this magnitude. Mountains falling into the sea? That sounds like good reason to be scared.

But this passage says, even in that scenario, “Therefore we will not fear. . . ” What’s the “therefore” that causes the writer not to fear?

Verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

You know what comes later in this psalm?

Verses 10-11: “‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Whatever our fears, real or imagined, unlikely or plausible, God is with us. He is our refuge, strength, and help. In Isaiah 41:10, He promises: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

In Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest, Edward T. Welch says:

The sheer number of times He speaks to your fears says that He cares much more than you know…The way He repeats Himself suggests that He understands how intractable fears and anxieties can be. He knows that a simple word will not banish our fears.

Search Scripture and find that our fears are not trivial to God. ‘Do not be afraid’ are not the words of a flesh-and-blood friend, a mere human like yourself. They are not the words of a fellow passenger on a sinking ship, who had no experience in shipwrecks, can’t swim, and has no plan. These words are more like those of a captain who says, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know what to do.’ When the right person speaks these words you might be comforted.

Another verse that comforted me during my TM recovery was Lamentations 3:32-33: “Though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” He’s not capricious. Whatever He allows is for a purpose.

Trusting God’s presence and purpose in whatever He allows, trusting His ability to sustain and assist us through any situation, trusting His character and love for us, will all help us deal with any fear, real or imagined.