“Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.” Psalms 62:5-6 NLT

What is your hope in?

I think if someone asked me that question, I would have quickly said that God is my only hope, but if I’m honest, I don’t know that my emotions always reflect that belief. Recently there have been some changes in my job, and it has caused me great angst. The uncertainty exposed that a lot of my hope was in my job and in my ability to provide. I think for a lot of us, this pandemic has exposed that our hope may partly be in other things than God.

When things get out of control, can you quietly wait on the Lord, or do you find yourself shaken? If you’re like me and find yourself shaken, I would encourage you to revisit these truths:

God is your Rock. He cannot be moved. In a world that constantly changes, He never changes.

God is your Salvation. He has saved you from the punishment of your sins. He has saved you from your own self that constantly chooses the things that lead to your destruction.

God is your Fortress. When things get crazy or scary or just too much, He is not just a shelter from the storm; He is like a fortified city that protects you from anything outside, because nothing can penetrate His walls. 

God is your only Hope. Everything you truly hope for comes from the Lord, and it is well worth the wait. You don’t have to guess about God: He never changes. Everything He says, you can count on. 

Spend some time asking the Lord to show you where else you might have been placing your hope. Confess these things to Him and place all your hope back in the Lord.

The next time you feel troubled and your emotions seem to run rampant, grab onto the One who can’t be shaken. He will be your rock, salvation, fortress, and hope.

“…If you are thirsty, come here; come, there’s water for all. Whoever is poor and penniless can still come and buy the food I sell. There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious, and beverages, pure and good. I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish or work so hard for what leaves you empty. Attend to Me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest, most delectable of things.” Isaiah 55:1-2 Voice

What do you long for? What do you hunger and thirst for? Is it to be out of this pandemic? Is it to be married? Have kids? Be rich? Be popular? 

We can spend all of our efforts on things that don’t last and don’t satisfy. God is offering free food for your souls. He is offering what your soul has always been longing for. Some of you have tasted it and found that it is good and true. 

Maybe you don’t long for anything right now. Maybe sin has dulled your senses and clouded over your longings, so you can’t feel or see anything. 

The offer is still there. True satisfaction for what your heart truly longs for is yours for the taking; however, to get it you have to look past the things you can see, that seem like the best option but never deliver, and trust in the One who always delivers even beyond what you can even dream of. Then “your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

“I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.” John 16:33 TM

You don’t become unshakable and deeply at peace simply by knowing Jesus. These come when you learn to trust Him. On paper, Jesus seems pretty trustworthy. He created the Heavens and the Earth and everything we see touch and feel. He took off His “God clothes” and came into our world to rescue us. He payed the ultimate sacrifice to save us from hell. He rose from the grave, defeated death, ascended to heaven, where He reigns with full authority at the right hand of the Father. He has done everything He has ever said He would. He loves you with a love that is incomparable. 

Jesus has the credentials to be trusted. Why do we struggle so much to trust Him? 

What is keeping you from trusting Jesus? What areas of your life do you find hard to trust Him with? Why do you think that is?

Spend some time praying, and ask the Lord to help you to trust Him. Ask Him to reveal the things you’re holding on to that keep you from relying on Him completely. 

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” –Jesus John 14:23

What a concept! The God of the universe living inside of us. Crazy when you think about it. 

What does your “home” look like? Maybe you’ve done a good job on the exterior with landscaping and a fresh coat of paint, but are you ok with Jesus coming inside the front door? What will He find inside? What does your kitchen look like where all your appetites live? What about your library? What kinds of things are you reading or watching? What about your bedroom?

Maybe you feel pretty good about your home, but what if Jesus snooped around a bit and looked in your closet or even in your attic?

Maybe it’s time to go back through the rooms in your life, and see where you might have made a mess.

P.S. There is a great little book that expounds on this idea by Robert Boyd Munger called My Heart Christ’s Home. It’s an easy read. Check it out!

“You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to Me, He gives you.” John 15:16

Jesus wanted to make it clear that He chose you first. Why is this distinction so important? Because He wanted you to know that He didn’t choose you out of obligation. Most people love someone else because he is family or because of what that person has to offer, i.e. he makes me feel good, he provides for me, or he did something for me, etc. Jesus loved you and chose you before you had any affections for Him, before you had anything to offer Him. You were chosen not because of what you have to offer or how good of a person you are; you were hand picked to bear fruit simply because He chose you. 

You were chosen by God to “bear fruit,” to advance His kingdom. You’ve been given unique skills, talents, and personality to do so, and you simply need to ask God to provide in areas where you lack: You may feel like you are a poor speaker – Moses in the Bible was like this, and yet God provided for him and used him to bring the Israelites out of slavery and into the promised land. You may feel like you don’t know enough, or you are not confident enough, or you don’t have what it takes. Rest assured, He has chosen you and will give you whatever you feel you lack to accomplish His purposes for you. 

How has God uniquely gifted you to serve His kingdom? What is keeping you from using those gifts and talents for Him? Is it courage? Knowledge? Desire? Awareness?

Spend some time confessing to The Lord what you feel you lack, and ask Him to provide those things. 

You were created for a greater purpose than you allow yourself to believe. God has chosen you specifically to advance His kingdom. How cool is that?!

"...don't be afraid, I've redeemed you.
I've called your name. You're mine. 
When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you.
When you're in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you're between a rock and a hard place,
it won't be a dead end-- 
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
[traded in nations for you] 
That's how much you mean to me!
That's how much I love you!
I'd sell off the whole world to get you back,
trade the creation just for you.
So don't be afraid:
I'm with you..." Isaiah 43:1-6 TM

What does this say about the heart of God?

Do you know God this way? How passionate He is for you? I admit I have trouble reading this – that God loves me that much. It’s hard for me to grasp, hard for me to receive, but it makes it no less true.

You have nothing to fear, because you have a God who loves you. When you feel overwhelmed, or like you can’t go anymore, or like you won’t be able to get past this last failure, do not fear; God is with you. The God who loves you so much, He will trade the entire creation for you; you are precious to Him.

Spend some time thinking about you last day or your last week. Were you governed by fear? Overwhelmed? Did your circumstances own you? Or were you motivated by God’s love for you? Ask Him what is keeping you from receiving the Lord’s love for you. Spend a few moments listening. Ask the Lord to help you receive His love for you.

“You see, God takes all our crimes— our seemingly inexhaustible sins— and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.” Psalms 103:12 TV

Too many Christians walk around with the guilt of past sins. It cripples them. It renders them ineffective and causes them to give up. For those who are in Christ there is real forgiveness. 

The east and the west never meet, so the distance between them is infinite; therefore God’s forgiveness is infinite and permanent. He doesn’t go back and rehash our old sins like we do. 

There is no sin that you have committed that has more power than the Cross. No amount of sins that can trump what Jesus did on the Cross. 

All of those past sins that the enemy uses to bring you down and make you quit, it’s time to give it to the One who paid the penalty of our sin, so we didn’t have to. 

Spend some time confessing your sins to the Lord, and release to Him the guilt of your sin as well. Then get up and move forward in your relationship with Him pursuing love and joy and peace. 

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith–life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well–developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4 TM

Pandemic, quaratine, economic downturn, job loss, social injustice, rioting, natural disasters. We’ve been facing a lot these last couple months. My family has been quite a bit of stress lately with our businesses and many changes in our lives. It can all be pretty overwhelming; I find myself just wanting to get out from under all of it. Do you ever get like that? 

Most of us never grow in our faith, because we never put it to the test. We fight so hard to just always be comfortable that we bypass what the challenges in our lives could be telling us. We scratch and claw to get out of hard times or circumstances; we put everything on hold until we’re out of it, so much so that we miss out on what God has for us right in the middle of it. 

We work so hard to get out of every uncomfortable situation we are in.  Rather than running from every hard situation and just trying to get through it, what if we turned to the Lord and to our faith? What if we “let it do it’s work” in us?

“There is a sure way for us to know that we belong to the truth. Even though our inner thoughts may condemn us with storms of guilt and constant reminders of our failures, we can know in our hearts that in His presence God Himself is greater than any accusation. He knows all things.” 1 John 3:19-20 VOICE

Many times we get stuck in our own self-accusations. We beat ourselves up to the point that it renders us useless for anyone or anything. It is very easy to do. We keep making the same mistakes over and over. How can God forgive us?! We are not worth His effort. We should just give up, right?

Wrong! The Bible says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). What Jesus did on the cross was complete. There is no sin or amount of sin that trumps the power of the cross. 

The truest thing about you is found in God and what He thinks about you. Many times we project how we think we should be dealt with onto God, but He is different than we are; his love is perfect, and through Christ we have been reconciled and made right before Him. 

Don’t let your mind tell you differently. Know the truth about how God feels about you. 

“And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17

You were made in the image of God and therefore were made to bear His image to a world who desperately needs to see it. How are you bearing His image? What kind of God are you showing? Is He loving? Forgiving? Joyful? Patient? If your friends, who don’t know the Lord, had to write a description of who God is based off what you show them what would they write?

I realize, as I write this, that my answers to these questions are not what I would hope they would be if I am honest, but asking them helps me move toward the question, “What changes do I need to make in my life to better reflect the God I know?”

Maybe for some of you, you don’t know the heart of God very well, so you’re not even sure how to reflect Him. I encourage you to spend some time in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and watch the heart of God on display in the person of Jesus Christ. For others of us it’s just a matter of choice and priorities, so the question becomes, “How do I want to reflect the image of God?” And then again, “What do I need to change in my life in order to bring forth that reflection in what I say and do?”