Category Archives: Purpose

God, You want me to do WHAT?

October 23, 2014divorce, Freedom, joy, personal growth, Purposelouise

What is God currently asking you to do that makes NO SENSE given your situation? Are you fully engaged and with Him in it? Or did you tell Him, “I can’t?” Are you thinking Unattainable! Inconceivable! Insurmountable! Hopeless! Or are you fearful, hedging and saying something like, “I will as soon as ____ happens?”

May I suggest, if you don’t hear God calling you to something WAY beyond your comfort zone and your ability to make it happen, then maybe you need a little more time being still, to listen to Him and read the Bible? He wants to use you in impossibly important ways. Your family and those you encounter day to day are entrusted to you. Only God knows how He will choose to use you.

The stories of Moses, Noah and Gideon are great examples that suggest God wants us living beyond what we can do using our own resources. He wants us living toward that which is impossible without His divine power. It’s a zone of trust when we’re afraid, impossible odds and incredible feats. Many times the way is uncomfortable and difficult. It requires vulnerability, humility and an admission of incompetence, so that it’s obvious that He orchestrates any good that is accomplished.

It’s also a place of great joy and growth. A place to remember He defines who we are.

Writing this blog is one such area for me. God hasn’t let up; I feel He wants me to continue writing about what He’s doing in me, despite my discomfort in sharing. It’s always scary clicking “publish.” I would prefer to live a “facebook life” where my smiling highlights reel is on display, and my backstage struggles and deficits are off the grid. Instead, God called me to vulnerability, authenticity, and the risk of writing publicized “duds.”

My technological challenges are also highlighted. Pink Reflections represents all the web building skills I possess. My blogging “success” so far is measurable primarily in my obedience. I thought maybe I should help it along… I spent the morning reading the posts of a few big time bloggers — humble people with well-known names — trying to garner tips.

What I learned from my blog stalking is how very different I am from many well-known writers. They are eloquent, often educated in theology, and seemingly far along in a life of faith. They can take even the mundane details of their days, see God — and through them teach us to be more like Him. They are inspired, prolific writers, preaching, teaching and leading conferences. They love Jesus, and He uses them to produce impressive and helpful stuff.

While I’m happy for them, I’m also a little bit jealous of their giftedness and their blessings. Many times their words touch me beyond measure. Othertimes, it seems they live so far outside my experiences, that I struggle to relate and apply their thoughts to my “real life.” Or — I finish reading their posts with more regrets than encouragement.

How ordinary I am — in my living and my writing. For a familiar moment I was doubtful and discouraged, “Does God really want me doing this?” Then it occurred to me, that possibly the typical messiness of my world is just what God wants to use. Maybe, He wants to reach someone who relates to my struggles, imperfection and mistakes, and also sincerely loves God and desires Him to transform them. Or maybe it’s all about Him molding me? He gets to define success in all His plans and purposes. My role is to say yes in faith to His call, then to work diligently with the confidence that God will do what He sets out to do.

I wish I had “gotten it” and begun my journey of surrender at an earlier age. I also wish I had the vast knowledge-base my seminary professors possess. The truth is that God didn’t create me to be like any of them — or the singers, doctors, farmers, accountants, lawyers, builders, mechanics, engineers and countless others who do great things that simply aren’t in my tool box.

Even worse, I can no longer retain and retrieve all I once knew! It’s as if I have a mental library with bulging and overflowing file cabinets that make up my brain. Only a small amount of what I once knew fits in the file marked “immediately retrievable.” I imagine other cabinets marked with labels such as requires a prompt, only accessible at 3 am, must retrieve hard copy, image only, and lost till heaven.

Today’s world keeps the information overload coming — like drinking from a fire hydrant. I’m constantly needing to make more space. These extensive files seem useless at times — like everything’s on microfish in an electronic world.

So what else do I have to offer in my weakness? My God-given, common gifts are the things people point out to me that take me by surprise. Because they are so much a part of me, I don’t recognize them as unique. My spiritual gifts are the things God gave me as His child — specifically for the purpose of edifying the body of Christ. You have gifts too. Our gifts and our faith are all we need — in addition to Jesus — to succeed in the impossible things God created us for and calls us to.

God had a plan for us from the beginning. Psalm 139:13-14 says “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God knew us before we were conceived – and He loved us. He also has had a plan for our lives since the beginning: “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

More great news… we can start fresh each day, no matter what mistakes and regrets our past holds. In Isaiah 43:18-19 God says ““Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”

God knew us better than we know ourselves — and He loved us just the same. He uses everything to make each of us a unique “me” and to achieve the purposes He has for our lives. That takes so much pressure off! It’s all up to Him. We just add faith and obedience when He calls us.

God asked you to do WHAT??? You CAN do it with HIM! “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13) I would love to hear from you! What is God calling you to do? Please share His faithfulness in your life to encourage the rest of us.

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Prayers that Move Mountains and Why they Matter to a Sovereign God

October 17, 2014heart of prayer, Like a little child, personal growth, Purposelouise

Do you pray with confidence and assurance that your prayers will be both heard and answered by God, Creator and Ruler of the universe? Do you believe your faith-filled prayers are a critical part of God’s plan? These are BIG ideas we often dismiss as impossible.

In Matthew 21:20 “Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, Go throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done.'” How does this verse apply to the life of a modern day Christian? To you and to me?

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) These similar yet deepening repetitions suggest Jesus wants to impress us with an important truth: that we can and must expect answers to our prayers.

They also emphatically point to His understanding of our hearts, and how doubt and distrust toward God are our natural responses. He knows how easily we can check the box “time spent in prayer” without having vulnerable hearts and without any real expectation of a specific answer — even though we believe God is the Hearer of our prayers. Grabbing hold of the promise of answered prayer isn’t a half-hearted religious work — it’s spiritual and very intimate.

At the outset of His instructions to those learning to pray, God asserts that prayer is effective and profitable. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24) If we are asking and not receiving– the problem isn’t God’s faithfulness to His promise, but something is amiss in our prayers. “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3)

To be clear, I’m not a believer in the name-it-and-claim-it prosperity gospel. Sometimes God’s answer is a refusal, because the request is not in alignment with God’s Word. He will redirect our petitions, but He doesn’t leave His seeking children in uncertainty as to His will. Secondly, any honest prayer in relationship with the Father through Jesus is good, and He will use it for His purposes. There are many kinds of prayer. He wants us to pour out our hearts to Him. Here, I’m exploring prayers of tremendous faith, because I have avoided them.

I feel challenged to authenticity in my prayer life. God’s asking me to explore what’s true about my actions and my heart for prayer? My faith? If I believed all Jesus says about my prayers — would it not change everything?

I’ve been guilty of weakening God’s Word around prayer by adding and applying my faulty human wisdom to it. God wants us to be confident in prayer. To pray like a child, trusting and believing. It is easier for my flesh to submit to “whatever happens,” without risking specific prayers and specific answers, than to take time to yield to the Holy Spirit — to be searched and purified so that I can pray His will with faith.

Admittedly, I’ve been contented with “politically correct prayers.” I knew God wanted me to pray, but I didn’t always understand why. I believe part of prayer’s purpose is to align my will with His. Sometimes I was confident of where He led me. Other times, not so much — so I rambled prayers that made sense from my best human understanding. It’s hard enough discerning HIs will in my own life, how could I consistently know His will around the lives of others?

Intercessory prayer has been confusing and even frustrating to me at times. But I knew, for some reason God understood (but I didn’t), I was to pray earnestly for others. My MO was to pray in broad, sweeping stokes of obedience. I covered a lot of bases, asking for safe things like salvation, wisdom, peace and blessings. For security I always added a qualifier, “These are my wishes, God, but your will be done.” It felt right, surrendered, and submissive to pray this way. I’m not saying these were “wrong” or “bad” prayers, but definite answers to specific prayers of great faith were the exceptions, not the rule in my daily experience.

If I’m honest, the Bible verses suggesting I’d receive whatever I asked for in prayer felt like arrogant impossibilities. I was praying prayers of submission and prayers of trust in God’s wisdom — but my life was sorely missing prayers of child-like faith. I had no picture of knowing God’s will confidently enough for my prayers to impact His hand. God is beginning to teach me otherwise.

God has a special will for the prayers of each of us. Just as we can’t do all good things, we can’t effectively and boldly pray for all things. We must ask Him for guidance in prayer. Sometimes I seek God’s will only in my inner feelings and convictions through the Holy Spirit. Other times I rely strictly on the Word. I’ve found I have the most confidence in prayer when I spend enough time to marry the two. When I am abiding in Him, listening to the Holy Spirit, and allowing the Word to dwell and abide in me, I learn what God wants me to pray for, and His will in the situation.

It takes a lot of intentionality to keep my heart and life under His influence day by day. I regularly lose my focus on Him, and my spirit (and prayer life) wanders. The desire of my heart in alignment with Him is weak and often not visible in my actions. The world wins my attention and affections way too often. But the joy of those faithful prayer times, when His will is clear to me, is addictive. I turn back to Him time and time again.

Once God reveals His will to us, what is the practical purpose of our prayers? God is Sovereign. We get confused as to what that means. We think that what God wills must inevitably take place. He’ll do what He deems best — so why pray? Through God’s prompting, reading the Bible and classic writings, I’m beginning to understand how my erroneous thoughts and resulting confusion have limited my faith.

God wills a tremendous amount of blessings to His people that never come to them. Despite his earnest will and perfect love, they cannot come, because we do not will it. We were created with free will: one of the Bible’s great mysteries. I don’t pretend to understand it, but it does seem through our salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our free will is also renewed and redeemed. We can align our will with His, when we die to self.

God has chosen to make the execution of His will, in many (not all) things, dependent on the will of man. Much of God’s will that is revealed in His promises will only be fulfilled as our faith accepts it. Prayer is the catalyst by which otherwise inert blessings come to pass. Faith is the power by which God decides how much of His will shall be done in us.

With the advantage of hindsight, I can see these truths have been operating in my life for a while. When I have sought God for Who He is, clung to Him and His Word as my sufficiency, and asked for very specific things — He has blessed me beyond my imagination. Seeing His hand in my life gives passion to my faith and makes me want more of Him. I have experienced this child-like faith mostly when I was so broken that I knew God was my only hope for life. But isn’t this our condition everyday?

It’s God’s very Nature to love and to bless, but He leaves it up to us to pray and petition where the blessing is to come. What an honor! I’m learning in baby steps through joyful faith, not grit, to add bold prayers of faith, once I know His will, to my conversations with God.

Of course I’ll never fully understand God or prayer while on earth — both are way larger and more mysterious than my mind can comprehend, but growth is always my goal. I welcome your thoughts, experiences and comments below. We can all learn from each other. It’s also a great time to mention I would be honored to pray for you — specifically. Just ask! 😉

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CARPE DIEM! But how in the world do we?

August 12, 2014Busyness, Freedom, heart of prayer, personal growth, Purposelouise

no, it’s not Carrie and Vince… but another wonderful duo at YL Camp

I LOVE hearing Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill’s version of “How Great Thou Art.” Recently, I couldn’t resist clicking on a friend’s facebook link to it. I cried again — for the 10th or 12th time. I love the ending, when the crowd of stars is all on their feet, and Carrie Underwood is simultaneously wiping tears and beaming a huge smile. I get the distinct feeling that the cheers are even more about our God and how great He is, than they are about Carrie’s amazing voice or the undeniably awesome performance.

Without much awareness I continued clicking randomly and moved on to a spontaneous act of culture by the Philadelphia opera — singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Macy’s at Christmastime. Commerce stopped, as shoppers joined in and gave enthusiastic applause. It seemed everyone in the mall sensed the sacredness in what was happening and fully attended to the moment of celebration and praise. Job 8:21 says “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.”As I watch, I can’t see for the tears I am wiping as a smile, alone in my night gown in my kitchen… Do I look like Carrie? Maybe just a little?

Watching these feel good videos is addictive! I’m compelled to keep clicking an unmapped, but easy to follow path to similar videos. It’s like the Sunday pleasure driving of old — where people just meandered slowly about with no destination in mind (don’t you remember calling the slow people “Sunday drivers” when you had places to be?) They were visiting as they enjoyed whatever they saw and experienced along the way. In our crazy busy world, this type of “wasted” afternoon is all but unheard of. At least we have Godvines, google, facebook, and youtube.

Even “every day” occurences compel us — the antics of family pets, animals in nature, babies laughing, the face of Jesus in a cloud… How many pictures of sunsets have you “liked” on facebook? Or mountaintops? Vacation scenery: the serenity of a beach, a wide open field, quaint towns, or colorful flowers? A great meal, family photos, silliness, athleticism, perseverance, beauty, accomplishment and triumph — all make us “like,” them, smile, cry and just plain feel good.

Why? You could argue this is wasted time. Then why do we never tire of seeing the joys and beauty of relationships and our world? The smiles and hugs, the praise of God and his handiwork in creation? Why do scores of people emotionally respond to a flash mob’s singing about Jesus in a country that we hear has all but secularized Christmas? Why are we so drawn to the human spirit that overcomes adversity, to laughter, to the hands of creativity and to the heart that is wide open to love? Could it be it’s because we are made for this?

Yesterday, Robin Williams committed suicide. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are exploding with tributes to a tremendous artist (one of my favorites) who made us laugh out loud. The world loved his wit, compassion, and exuberance. Who would have ever thought he was living in a world of darkness? His death is our corporate loss; the private pain was all his to bear. This real life story makes virtually all of us sad and confused. Why then do we willingly enter similar darkness in both overly sensationalized news, reality TV and the fiction of Hollywood?

images — A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22

Robin Williams was a master of his trade. He created thoughtful, uplifting, feel good TV and movies. Romantic comedies, sitcoms, dramas, adventure stories, cartoons, and science fiction have inspired us over the past decades. Lightened our load. Given us hope. They were feel good entertainment, and it was the norm to leave the theatre thoughtful and smiling. Today? Not so much.

it's just me, but still creepy — it’s just me, but still creepy

When Rob and I want to relax with a little “mindless TV” or have a date night at the movies, we struggle to find anything decent. With some exceptions, a large portion of what we call entertainment has gotten violent, dark, vulgar, scary, and sexualized. It brings us down, even as it draws so many in. Are we addicted to watching darkness in the lives of others to help us make sense of our own world? Or are we being lemmings, just following the world’s trends?

It’s not a novel idea to say we are overloaded with bad, evil, fear, and hate. The major networks must now fill the time 24/7 with “news” that sells ads and attracts viewers. “Local on the eights” makes sure we know the danger is very close to us, as well as across our nation and abroad. We need to be informed. But is this overload of “news” really necessary? A typical hour watching or reading news or entertainment could understandably leave us drowning in depression and anxiety, as if we’re drinking from a fire hydrant of ugliness.

There is little mention of the good stuff. I have become somewhat desensitized from so much trash, and I just feel sort of numb after watching. Resigned. Empty. Tired. But Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Like when I watch Carrie Underwood, Vince Gil and Robin Williams!

Many noisy extremists around our country would have us believe America is no longer a Christian nation. But America is our people. According to a 2012 Gallup survey, 77% of the adults in the US claim to be Christians. Our nation has a desire for God. Why are we letting politicians, entertainers and news anchors bring us down — creating a society where record numbers of men, women and children report regularly suffering with depression and anxiety? What then shall we as Christians do to combat the darkness being fed to us?

As believers we can seek to truly know the Savior and Lord we follow. God, the Creator, is constantly revealing Himself to us. Romans 1:20 says “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

He created us in His image — therefore we are creators too! The art of cooking and conversation, painting, writing, performing arts, serving, medicine, business — virtually anything we do with our gifts to the Glory of God are reflections of Him. We can share ourselves and God In Us with others.

In an earlier post, I wrote “Why do we try to live life in our own knowledge and power — as we see fit? So often, we do what feels right, looks good, and what we want to do — rather than slowing down and giving God our first fruits of time — in prayer and reading His Word (living and personal to us) for the day. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” We need the Bible to see clearly what God’s will is for us — each day. When we don’t seek Him, we’re in danger of being sucked in by the world’s patterns and noise.

“Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2, NIV). I want to eliminate as much of the junk the world is screaming at me in so many ways, and listen to what God says to me in prayer and in His Word. That means giving Him my time and attentions first. What’s most important is Who He is, Who He says we are, and what He says He will do. More to come on that…

Philippians 4:8 says, “whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent and praiseworthy — think about such things.” And Ephesians 6:11 tells us “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

Have your quiet time. Watch a few “feel good” videos! Catch up on the oldies: Cosby, Robin Williams, Andy Griffith… Why should we let the darkness of this world enter our minds where we don’t have too?

Romans 8:6 reads, “so letting your sinful nature (the allure of the world’s ways) control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control you mind leads to life and peace” (parentheses mine). John 10:10 says “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” We are not made for what this world presents us, but for the abundant life God offers us in His Word.

Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

James 4:8: “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

Proverbs 4:23: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Carpe Diem! But I want to seize today knowing God is with me. Where you lead me Lord, I’ll follow. Let’s love and laugh together.