Mikki's Blog - Living in the Grace and Love of God » God’s Help

Finding Faith to Go On

Mikki — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:34:13 +0000

When you find yourself with your hopes and dreams lying in a million pieces around your feet, can you find the faith to go on? I found myself in that place about three and a half years ago. Every time I reference the story, I count the years, months, and days since the dam broke and my life was flooded with the violent waters of trouble. There seems to be some kind of solace in making that time further and further away from today. But in another way, my life will always be referenced from that point.

I don’t say that to be overly dramatic. In a short time period, I found my marriage on the rocks, I lost my job, seemed to lose my ministry, lost many friends who found themselves taking sides, caught in a whirlwind of gossip, and I found myself scrambling to survive emotionally and spiritually.

And yet I did. I survived. And really more than that. I thrived. Eventually. My marriage is healthier than ever. I’ve found a new job and a deeply meaningful ministry. I have wonderful friends and much healing and restoration have happened.

It certainly didn’t happen on day one or two or three or thirty or one-hundred but it did happen. And while the bottom line is that God sustained me, there were choices I had to make along the way. Hard choices. Difficult choices.

The first few months seemed to be a free fall. I identified with Job who lamented about his feelings about God:

12 I was at ease, but He has shattered me;

He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;

He has set me up for His target,

13 His archers surround me.

He pierces my heart and does not pity;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks me with wound upon wound;

He runs at me like a warrior. Job 16:12-14.

When the dust finally settled, I was left to face my reality. With the writer of Hebrews (12:27), I faced what remained. “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

And I dared to believe. Again. Not every day, but some days I began to hope. Somehow God could make something out of the rubble. Purpose could be born in adversity. Eventually, I began to radiate with the quest. I put one foot in front of the other. Again and again. I began to see what God was getting at in me. And it’s always about that. No matter what comes our way, God is there to birth insight and wholeness and purpose in us individually.

The violent shaking of my life opened me in such deep ways that suddenly I could see things I couldn’t see before. I was faced with my own deep brokenness. And I could choose. Would I miss the opportunity to face truth and use all my energy pointing my fingers at others? There were many days I did just that.

Yet I found myself in a dance with God. He invited me to dance with Him. I joined His hands. Then I moved away. Then I took His hands. Then I released them. Over and over, this ambivalent dance continued. At times, I still resist His leading and yet I’ve found the most outrageous truth, one I’ve long taught and believed but I began to experience the living reality of it in a deeper way. God can make something good out of something bad.

And perhaps, is that the essence of faith? God is on the throne. He is good. He is involved. He does care even when we can’t see His handiwork. Even when we can’t feel His presence, He is there.

As I write these words, I am keenly aware that some of you are in those difficult places. You are struggling to survive. You feel abandoned by God and by others. While I wish I could rescue you from that place, I know that it is a place where your foundations can be strengthened. Your life purpose can become clearer. You can find healing and wholeness. I have prayed for you at this moment.

Will you dare to look inside your own heart? What’s there that needs healing? What needs throwing out? What needs changing?

Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world but then he assured us that we could have hope and courage because he had overcome the world. This promise means that even when life is tough, we can access the power to overcome. It may be three steps forward and two steps back, but it is our ordained journey. It is the way we change from glory to glory into his image.

Although your faith may be being tested, I believe in you and the God in you. Although you may be being shaken, there will be a foundation that remains and God will build something true and good on that foundation.

Perhaps you could pray, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” The God who hears and answers prayers is listening and is actively involved on your behalf. "Times New Roman";color:black;background:white">

"Times New Roman";color:black;background:white">

Finding Faith to Go On

Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..

Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin

How Can You Keep On Keeping On When Life is Difficult?

Mikki — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:50:49 +0000

John Eldredge captured the feeling we all have at times when he said that sometimes life feels like a long, brutal assault against one’s heart. Try as we might to explain it away, perhaps the best summary is that life is not what God originally intended. The Fall of Man continues to have rippling effects on all of humanity, and we find ourselves in a less than perfect world with less than perfect people, including ourselves!

The present result of living in a fallen world is often pain, discouragement, and difficulty. We know that God has come to us, offering redemption in our daily lives through Christ and setting in place the ultimate redemption of all when Christ returns. Yet in the meantime, we often find ourselves hurt and misunderstood and having hurt others.

How can we care for others and our own hearts in the midst of pain and suffering?

Jesus gave keys to his disciples in John 14 as he prepared their hearts for the difficult days ahead.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” You have a part in guarding your own heart from discouragement. Note that I didn’t say you could necessarily guard your heart from difficulty. Jesus was not offering an exemption from the difficult days which lay ahead of the disciples; he was offering an anchor for the storm.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart above all else because from it, all of our life flows.

This is not an easy true or false test. The disciples all failed the initial test of this truth Jesus shared. Yet they learned through their trials. They became more equipped to handle difficulty. They became wiser to the devices of Satan.

We can guard our hearts by following the instructions of Jesus in John 14.

1. Believe. “You believe in God, believe in Me.” Faith in God and Jesus are necessary to enduring the trials of life. It was simpler for the disciples to believe during the days of glory and miracles, but Jesus knew that their emotions, minds, and faith were about to be challenged beyond anything they had previously experienced.

2. Look for the bigger picture. Jesus reminded his followers that there was something beyond this realm and that his purposes included making that available for them to share with him. Their difficulties were very real and yet temporary.

3. Stay focused on helping others. “The works that I do, you will do also, and even greater works.” There is a life-giving flow which happens when we reach beyond ourselves.

4. Know that you are not alone. Jesus taught his followers that they would have a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would be with them forever.

5. Access the peace that Jesus assured his disciples that he was leaving with them. There is a place of peace found in Jesus that transcends our earthly circumstances. God’s peace is beyond reason and is available even when life is challenging. The peace of God indicates our trust that this life is not all there is and that God is still on the throne even when we don’t have a clue what He is doing or is going to do.

I hope this list encourages you. It is not intended to be an easy bandage. I don’t pretend that I am able to consistently do all of the above, but it seems that if Jesus felt these guidelines would help his followers during their tough times, they can also help us.

You can do it! Guard your heart. Believe. Trust. Look for God’s bigger picture. Help others. Lean on the Holy Spirit who is always with you.

God has promised to walk with us through difficult days and is always at work in our lives, redeeming, restoring, and breathing new life into our hearts. Keep on keeping on because God has an amazing purpose for your life. He has plans to give you future and hope. His plans are good and not evil. His plans include abundant life, both in this world and the world to come.

I believe in you and the God in you, who is able to do more than you can ask or think because of the power of Christ who lives in you.

Keep on keeping on! Christ is in you and he himself is our hope. You can do all things through him!

How Can You Keep On Keeping On When Life is Difficult?

Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..

Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin

With God in the Valley

Mikki — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:39:45 +0000

Recently I’ve been pondering how God leads me, at times, into the valley of the shadow of death, where life is uncertain, the terrain is difficult, and it’s just downright scary at times.

color:#4F3C30">Well, you might say, “God doesn’t do that.” Uh, I beg to differ. The Psalmist David, the one God Himself said was a “man after my own heart”, invited us to explore the reality of walking in that valley. Job, who was called “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil”, certainly walked through the valley. Jesus Himself was “driven into the wilderness” to be tempted, and on the cross he faced the greatest darkness, as he took my sin and your sin and the sin of all humanity on himself and cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

color:#4F3C30">The mysteries of human suffering are beyond our grasp, and yet God invites us into them. While I do not believe that God causes evil and I understand that all evil and pain in the world are a result of the work of the enemy, I do believe that God uses human suffering to change us.

color:#4F3C30">In the valley, we struggle and grasp for answers. We wish we could explain the workings of God and the workings of evil in neat theological boxes and all the while God is whispering to us that it’s not so much understanding that we need but a releasing of our need to understand.

color:#4F3C30">Yes, God wants us to learn through our struggles and our suffering. Yes, God wants to give us insight, but beyond that God desires to lead us to the point where we can trust Him in the midst of our suffering.

color:#4F3C30">Frankly, I’ve flunked that test more times than I’ve passed. Oh, I passed lots of easy tests. The true/false ones. The fill-in-the-blank ones. But the essays! How I’ve hated those! The ones where I have to process through and come to a conclusion.

color:#4F3C30">Yet learning to trust God is a lot like those essay tests; a long and purposeful journey. Trusting God is a lifelong process. While I may be quite comfortable trusting God in one area of my life, I may find that I am completely unable and often unwilling to trust Him in another.

color:#4F3C30">And He knew that before He invited me to come into relationship with Him. He didn’t require my perfection. He knew my story before it began to be written. Through my story, He pursues my heart, wooing me to Himself. He challenges me to open new areas of my heart to Him. He asks me to live in the mystery.

color:#4F3C30">The work of God in me is “inside out”. I may be able to fake most of you off. You might spend an hour with me and think I’ve got it all together. You might even attend my church and think I’m a super Christian (you know what I mean, the ones with the S on their cape). But nothing in me is hidden from God. My times in the valley expose the depths of who I am and what I really believe about God, life, and myself. God is able to handle the truth about who I am and where I need to grow. He is committed to lead me into that truth, enabling me to face my own personal truths with His Spirit, and giving me extravagant grace to change.

color:#4F3C30">Sometimes the changes are easy, but often they come like winning a war, one battle at a time. The battles leave me wounded at times. Scarred. Limping like Jacob, but if I find what God is offering me, I leave the battle with deeply understood truth about who I am and who He is. Such truth leads me into new levels of trust. Surely such a God who would walk with me through the valley, correcting me at times, comforting me often, is worthy of my trust!

color:#4F3C30">My journey is much like peeling an onion, layer after layer of my resistance, my need to control, compare, and compete, get peeled away and I become more able to face the naked truth about myself and my life. I can live in the paradoxes. I can live in the mysteries, and I can say with the Psalmist David, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…I know you are with me.”

With God in the Valley

Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..

Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin