Lacking

Wilderness Day 6 For The Long Haul

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Exodus 33:12-23
Deuteronomy 29:1-15
Matthew 26:36-44

Wilderness, Day 6

When we journey to a new place, we don’t plan on traveling for 40 years, encountering hardship after hardship.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened to the people of Israel.
God delivered them from bondage in Egypt (Exodus 13:17-22), and they began their journey to the land He’d promised.
Then they spent 40 years in the wilderness.

Their wilderness wanderings were marked with struggle and pain and sin . . . and by miracle after miracle, if only the people could recognize them.

Their first wilderness encounter with the God Who Saves is at the edge of the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:5-14) Barely out of Egypt, camped between equally insurmountable obstacles of desert and sea, Israel hears the sound of distant thunder. Turning their eyes from the pillar of cloud embodying God’s presence to the horizon, they see Pharaoh’s army swarming toward them. Panic and horror sweep through the camp, and the people swiftly turn against Moses, the man appointed by God to lead Israel.

But God.
Miracle #1- God parts the sea and holds back the waves so Israel could walk to the other side. (Exodus 14:15-22)
Miracle #1.5- As the Egyptian army attempts to cross, the sea crashes back to its original position and their pursuers drown. (Exodus 14:23-28)

Exhilarated by God’s rescue, Israel turns her face to the Promised Land. According to today’s maps, their journey should have only taken 7-10 days.

Even on this relatively short journey, resources and rations were finite and began to dwindle. When we walk in the wilderness, it’s easy to focus on what is lacking (can you relate?), and so the people turned to grumbling.

But God.
Miracle #2 – Even in the wilderness, there are oases, places of rest and refreshment. God led Israel to Marah, a place of water. Though the water was bitter, God miraculously caused it to become sweet. (Exodus 15:22-25)

Miracle #3 – After a brief stop in Marah, Israel set up camp in Elim, which held 12 springs, with the implication that one had been prepared for each of Israel’s tribes. (Exodus 15:27)

How would you have reacted to this bounty of clean, cool, fresh water after being in the wilderness for about six weeks? Sadly, the Israelites don’t see God’s leading. Instead, they focus on what they lack, even in the midst of God’s miraculous provision. They think their former life of bondage would have been better. (Exodus 16:2-3)

Before we judge too harshly, let’s realize we often do the same. When struggling through a wilderness season, it’s easy to imagine the past season as immensely better than the present . . . even if it was a season of bondage.

But God.
Miracle #4 – Though Israel quickly forgot His faithfulness, rescue, and provision, God still saw them and heard their complaints. Daily, He fed them, giving quail in the evening and manna (a wafer-like bread) in the day. (Exodus 16:4-23) Some people wanted more, deciding they didn’t trust God to provide again tomorrow, so they tried to stock up. However, manna was meant for just one day, and the extra spoiled. How often have we missed God’s perfectly timed provisions because we focus on future worry?
For God does indeed still show up, Sisters, even in our barren and desolate seasons.

Israel continues to grumble and complain, leaning on their own understanding and erecting idols (Exodus 32), yet God holds them.
God faithfully led His ungrateful, rebellious children right up to the Promised Land (Canaan), but, overwhelmed with fear of its inhabitants, they refused to enter. (Numbers 14) They chose disobedience over God’s ideas, and it cost them an entire generation.

Thus began the 40-year road trip.
And the story repeats, over and over.
God miraculously provides, protects, and empowers Israel as He leads them through the wilderness, from victory in battle to shoes and clothes that don’t wear out. (Deuteronomy 29:5) Yet, time and again, His faithfulness and provision are quickly forgotten as His people choose sin and self.

Sometimes, we may realize our own wilderness is due, at least in part, to our sin and our choice to follow our way instead of God’s. This realization is always painful. Yet God, in His faithful love, remains with us just as He was with Israel.

While we may not wander in an actual desert, wilderness seasons remain part of our lives. My prayer is to not miss God in the midst of them. And not be so stubborn (yes, even when I am feeling desolate and empty) that my attitude causes me to stay in the wilderness for what seems like a generation.

How should we respond when finding ourselves in the wilderness?

Look for God-moments in the midst of what feels like aimless wandering. He’s active, don’t miss Him!
Focus on intentionally looking for His hand, for He will keep us from falling into despair.
Lean into Scripture, for even Jesus, God Himself made manifest, relied on Scripture in His wilderness. (Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 26:36-44)
Cling to the certain knowledge that Emmanuel, our God-with-us, is present every step of our wilderness, providing for us, rescuing us, and leading us home.

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Alive Day 6 Adopted

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Alive Day 6 Adopted

Rebecca Adams

September 20, 2021

Adoption,Beloved,God,Holy Spirit,Love

Read His Words Before Ours!

John 1:12-13
Ephesians 1:3-10
Titus 1:1-3
Romans 8:14-17
Hosea 1:10-11

For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:14-17)

Father, You know I love you.
You also know the level of overwhelmed I feel right now, Lord.
I know You’ve been faithful to preserve me before, and I know You will continue.

But, Abba?
No matter how hard I try and pray and organize and squeeze in time, there is just not enough. I’m empty. I can’t keep this up. I can’t do everyone’s job. I keep praying, throwing myself on You, but the hours of work aren’t disappearing and my time narrows. How do I manage all this AND be un-burdened?

Daughter, come to Me. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Yes, I know. My coming to You has been pretty lacking. My quiet time has been, well, lack luster. I feel so far from You, Lord. I can’t muster up anything.

I died for this.
For your feelings of alone. For your sense of being abandoned. For your inability to follow Me on your own power. I died so those lies could be defeated, holding no weight.

What other lies did You die to defeat, Jesus?
I really need some anchors for my flailing feet right now. My marriage, friendships, kids, grieving places, failing areas, the places I’m hurting, the places I’ve hurt others… I keep running rickshaw over all of them. I hate that I’m doing it, but I just can’t seem to stop.

I died for you.
Full stop, my heart. Lord, I know this…but, do I?

I died for you to be mine, my Own, my Beloved One.
I died so you would never need to cling to fear, and could instead run from it, filled to overflowing by the fullness of truth and grace found only in relationship with Me.
(Colossians 2:9-10, John 1:14)

Only in Me. (John 14:6-7)
No other Father will love you like this. (John 10:30, John 15:15-16)
Never will I disown. Never will I forget you. I cannot, for I am perfectly faithful.
I Am here. (Isaiah 49:15-16, 2 Timothy 2:13)

All the riches of eternity are ours to share because you are Mine and I am yours. (Ephesians 1:3-4)
That’s adoption.

And when you don’t feel close, when the mountains loom larger than life,
when the walls are closing in, and you feel crushed beneath it all,
remember adoption has hemmed you in on all sides behind and before.
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10, Psalm 139:5)
Once you are Mine, you cannot escape My hand. (John 10:28-29)
I am your shelter, your shield, your very great reward. (Genesis 15:1)
The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for you, (Psalm 16:5-6)
and though others abandon you, I will never forsake you. (Psalm 27:9-10)

You’re adopted.
You are my enough, Yahweh. (Psalm 121)
Who am I to call into question the lavish love of a God who sacrificed Himself for me when I hated Him, loathed Him, spurred Him? (Romans 5:8)

God, who has the highest right to be offended and every right
to disown all of us as hell-bent rebels, chose us.
Never will He UNchoose us. He cannot.

“To all who received Him, He gave them the right to be His children, to those who believe in His Name.” (John 1:11-12, emphasis mine)

Sisters, with all urgency, we must not miss this!
Only those who respond to His warm welcome of adoption are finalized as His own.
Only then are the spiritual “papers” signed and His Spirit comes to dwell within us as His down-payment to prove His promise that He will one day complete the good work He has begun in us by welcoming us Home. (Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:15-16, John 14:16-17)

He has paid the price of our adoption by spilling His own blood in humble sacrifice, the response is ours to give, accepted only by faith in Him. (1 Peter 1:18-19, Hebrews 11:6)

He is willing to become ours, will we become His?

The God who crafted each freckle on your cheek, each pivot of your naval, and every fleck of color in your eye, has already chosen to offer adoption since before time began. (Titus 1:2-3)

This God, who simply could not let us drown in the demise of our deathly, sin-loving ways without offering His perfect love to us, is holding out the adoption papers. (John 1:12-13) He desires us to understand that to be adopted by Him is far more than belonging, it’s to embraced by love on purpose.

His adoption is a love story lived out in every thread of our lives, woven behind and before, above and beneath, as we explore again and again, how magnificent it is to be known and loved, chosen, and adored.

This is adoption.
What will you do with this grand love?

Tags :
Abba,adopted,alive,Come to Me,eternity,father,Lacking,Mine,quiet,Riches,Urgency
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Ready Day 5 Truth We See

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Read His Words Before Ours!

1 Thessalonians 2
2 Peter 1:3-11
Romans 15:13-20

Ready, Day 5

“For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our visit with you was not without result.”
– Pastor Paul

Is my life making a difference?
Does this sacrifice count?

The dishes that perpetually pile up.
The floor that always needs swept.
The times I held my tongue from that cutting remark,
or walked away from the gossip I wanted to hear,
or breathed deeply to respond with gentleness instead of anger.

It’s hard, isn’t it?
This in and out breathing, filled with a million mundane decisions that collect over time constituting a whole life. We want to leave our mark on the world. We’d love for the impact of our everyday to outlive the beating of our hearts.

How do we know that our everyday expenditures matter?

Paul’s words, penned centuries ago, ring fresh across the monotony of our moments.
“You know….our visit was not without result. On the contrary, …you know we were emboldened by our God…” (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2)

As I’ve read Paul’s letter to the new believers in Thessalonica, I’ve felt a kinship with them.
I’ve felt their fears. Their questions, some unspoken, and some voiced, have found their way across the strings of my own soul. Did they wonder what I’ve found myself wanting to ask, but pressed down the question for fear of being discovered as lacking faith?

Was it worth it, Paul?
Was your visit here, worth it? You were run out of town, plans didn’t go as you hoped, innocent people were punished. Everything felt jilted.

Do our sacrifices matter? Is God watching our everyday? Will this madness end well?
Does He see our fear, our wonderings, our sometimes-lagging faith?

Paul writes of knowing or remembering five times in the second chapter. Every single time, he addresses the Thessalonians by reminding them of a truth they already knew. He wasn’t writing them something new, he was lovingly shoring up their confidence in a truth they’d already anchored into.

Like a warm blanket to a shivering body, it feels as if God Himself tenderly lifts my countenance through Paul’s Spirit-led words, wrapping His truth sweetly around me.

I already know that yes, doing the dishes every day matters, even into eternity.
When I’m slow to anger, when I pick up the toys for the hundredth time, when I sit and listen to my 6-year old’s story about rocks and worms again, and when I call the friend God laid on my heart. Yes, even when I fall into a heap on my closet floor, sobbing for all the ways I’m sad, lonely, tired, afraid, or angry, I still know, the truth.
Even this is not without eternal result.

Knowing doesn’t equal feeling though, does it?
And how can we know? Are we sure?

Paul writes on with evidence to encourage the Thessalonians, and us.
Painting vivid strokes so we can see the brilliant truth we may not always feel.

You know our visit was not without result. (verse 1)
The Evidence?
Yes, the suffering was intense, the circumstances were messy and bleak, but the Lord is a God of all hope (Romans 15:13), so Paul prompts his friends to open their eyes and see the truth and its evidence around them.

You know we were emboldened by God to speak the gospel in spite of great opposition. (verse 2)
The Evidence?
The gospel was preached! God stirred up His power inside believers to hold out His truth in the face of their fear. He turned them away from the world and toward His purposes. This work wasn’t about the missionaries, it was about God IN them.

You know we never used flattering speech, had greedy motives, or chased our glory. (verses 5-6)
The Evidence?
The believers moved among one another, fearless of consequence, with the tender gentleness of a mother. They demonstrated dear care by laying themselves down entirely, being motivated to not only preach Christ, but share their very lives with each other. (verses 7-8)

You remember our labor and hardship among you, brothers and sisters. (verse 9)
The Evidence?
As carriers of the gospel of Jesus, the believers labored to imitate Christ in daily life. Their hard work was not found in mustering up their own righteousness, but in submitting to the Spirit at work in them to bring about a righteousness from God. (verse 10, 1 Thessalonians 5:23)

You know we treated you with the loving affection of a father toward his children. (verse 11)
The Evidence?
Marking their days, their relationships, their mundane moments and their bold ones, their body language and voice tone were beautiful brush strokes of encouragement, comfort, and firm urging to walk worthy the God who called them each to partake of His own glory and kingdom.

What lavish grace!
What unfathomable love!
What rich evidence of solid truth!

And so we constantly praise God… proclaims Paul. (verse 13)
God was at work. The sacrifices were indeed worth it, God was making sure of it.
The evidence was everywhere.

I look around my life again, sobered and encouraged by the Spirit’s words through the apostle from long ago. I see dirty dishes where food and laughter were shared. I see piles of laundry that covered healthy bodies of people who live in my house, people I praise God for the privilege of living alongside. I see a home where, if I choose to surrender again and again to the all-powerful Spirit of God within me, I will continue to see evidence of His truth at work all around me.

What do you see?
Will you surrender?

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Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

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