Recently, life overwhelmed me and I lost my sense of joy. I felt strangely dead. Even my connection to the Lord seemed to disappear. I could make a list of God’s amazing attributes, all good reasons to praise him, but I wasn't moved.
When we aren't joyful, is there anything we can do to draw near to the Lord with sincere devotion? I can hear my mentors saying, “Press on. Feelings aren’t important. They're fickle. They come and go.” That's true. But throughout Scripture, we're exhorted to pay close attention to our hearts.
Is there anything we can do to help our hearts engage with the Lord again? I think so.
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Paul says that our spiritual formation is as radical as dying and being recreated. I’ve spent some time recently reflecting on what this means.
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I was flying to Chicago and although I had my own books to read, I started flipping through the Southwest Airlines magazine. I never read the airline magazine. Tucked inside was a nugget of wisdom, hidden treasure from the Lord.
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2017 was a year of spiritual discernment for the NEWIM Board and me. As we transitioned from Jackie's leadership to mine, we sought to discern God's leading. What is spiritual discernment and what does the process look like? I found Henri Nouwen's book on Spiritual Discernment very helpful in confirming what I understood about the process.
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It's really easy to get buried in too much work, only to have one more thing come up that we must do. Of course we say, "Yes," and before long we are living overwhelmed. I've been quite surprised that even during retirement when I'm not reporting to a boss, I still find myself running ragged. It seems that no matter what stage of life we are in, the only way to have some time to rest is to schedule it.
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We often live as if heaven were far away, lost somewhere beyond the clouds. Yet, we affirm that Jesus said he would never leave us and we know the Holy Spirit lives within us. If the Presence of God brings heaven to us, if as Paul told the Athenians “we live and move and have our being in Him,” we don’t want to miss Him, living as if there is a distance.
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How can we make progress in our struggle against sin?
We are "fearfully and wonderfully made," yet we find in ourselves an incredible bent toward selfishness and overconfidence in our own abilities. Earlier generations expressed this truth by saying that we are “crooked timber.”
Is there anything that we can do?
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Over the mountains and the sea
Your river runs with the love for me
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Are there prerequisites for Christian ministry? I think so.
Jesus really wants us to know His love. When we get to heaven, I think He will ask us, “Did you know that I loved you?” He wants us to float in the river that is His love. He doesn’t want us to just stand alongside the bank of the river getting splashed every so often. He wants us to jump in, be fully immersed, letting the current carry us downstream. That's a prereq for ministry.
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I’ve been surprised to notice how often the Puritans prayed that they could enjoy TODAY one of the blessings we are promised in heaven. For example:
"Let there be unrestrained fellowship with Jesus, today.”
“In heaven we will hear the Divine Accolade, may we hear today, “Well done”.
“In heaven, we will breathe joy. May we be filled with joy as we receive the gifts You give.”
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Moses begins his psalm, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations..." Moses did not say that he lived in the palace in Egypt, nor the back country of Arabia, nor the desert and crags of Sinai, but the Lord was his dwelling place. It seems that if I could learn a little bit about what it means to dwell with the Lord, then I wouldn't get so tossed about in the turbulence of life.
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I remember feeling so disconnected from the Lord. I was actively involved in ministry but feeling totally out of it. I had no idea what I needed, but I knew that I needed something.
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“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31b, NIV).
When the Lord called His disciples to come away with Him to a quiet place to get some rest, He wasn’t inviting them to take a nap or cease from activity!
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"He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:10-13, NIV).
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