Our eyes are upon you...

This week has been a nightmare. We all have them...unfortunately. Those weeks where it appears that the world has turned on you. It is particularly discouraging when someone is spreading unjustified hatred and lies about you. Now let's ratchet up the pain by making that 'someone' a person that you love. 

The details are unimportant. And ruminating about 'why' people behave as they do is inconsequential. It will not change anything. The hurt is real and while loved ones and friends try to help, it is deeply comforting to receive heavenly reminders that God 'sees' and that He has our back. 

This is just what it felt like today when I opened my email to see a message from our campus minister, Dr. Wes Brashier, at the university where I work. The devotion he sent to the staff and faculty read as follows:

King Jehoshaphat’s prayer, recorded in the 20th Chapter of 2nd  Chronicles, is among the greatest prayers in all of Scripture. When the king had received word that three enemy nations were coming to attack him, he immediately responded by calling the people together. Not in order to prepare for a battle, but to pray to God publicly:   

"O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

                      2 Chronicles 20:12

Instead of running away from the army coming against him, Jehoshaphat chose to lead the people of Israel in a prayer that confessed their total dependence on the Lord. 

You may think you do not have an option when facing a difficult challenge, but you do. You can choose to turn to God and bow before Him, or you can turn and run away in fear. 

The enemy has one goal for your life, and that is discouragement - to influence people to give up and become ineffective for God. You are called to follow Christ for a purpose. When challenges come, go to God in prayer. Confess your inability and your need for Him. Humility is a sign of great strength, not weakness. 

Then trust God to do the impossible in your situation and give you victory. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, You have a solution for the challenges I am facing today. I trust you to do the impossible and bring the victory. Amen

I hope this message ministers to you today. 

I do not believe in coincidences; but I do believe in a living, loving, omnipotent and omniscient God. How reassuring is that! God is living; He is alive and active today. He loves us unconditionally. He is omnipotent - all powerful, and omniscient - all seeing and all knowing. In other words, not only does He see all but He knows all. He has the answers. So, as King Jehoshaphat did, we should set our eyes upon Him. 

A dear friend calls these chance moments serendipitous but that lovely word has a capricious sound that implies the 'universe' just happened to align coincidentally for a moment to create a marvelous little random miracle. God's thoughts and plans, while higher than ours and often incomprehensible, are never capricious or random. Rest and trust in this eternal truth today. 

Is this what I think it is...?

"Is this what I think it is?"

Looking up I see my ‘baby’ boy, now a grown man, holding ‘the leash’.

Now mind you, it is not really a leash, it is a harness.

A baby blue set of straps attached to a long cord, 

with a teddy bear on the front.

Cute, but, a harness nonetheless; 

one that his siblings still tease him about to this day.

Seeing this item from oh, so, long ago reminded me of the number of times through the years that I have had to eat my words

or eat crow as we say in the South.

This one obscure item taught me a lot about grace, humility, and judgment,

while

hacking away at my self-importance and pride.

I remember seeing poor, beleaguered parents being dragged about by their boisterous toddlers with just such a harness. 

I can also remember smugly looking at my husband to say, 

“I would never…. 

That is inhumane… 

I cannot believe…” 

and a list of other superior, conceited comments.

That is before Ian arrived –

Bless him,

Ian - my most exuberant child,

#5 of 6.

Whoa Nelly, as a friend of mine likes to say, he about undid me.

So, I laugh in response to his question, “Yes, it is”. 

My son remembers a ‘leash’;

alternately,

 I recall a harness that probably saved his life a time or 2 or 10.

And more importantly,

a lesson that tamed my oft-times, conceited spirit.

And with that said, 

I laugh again and mutter back to him,

"Now put that thing back in the attic; it’s important...”