Showing posts with label present. Show all posts
Showing posts with label present. Show all posts

Saturday, November 16, 2013

With a View to the Future


I was driving grandson Blake home this week and the sky was a brilliant blue. Not a cloud to be seen. I guess because the sky was so clear and blue, we were able to spot other things in the sky. Blake saw them first – a huge flock of geese flying in formation, headed south. Then we saw a smaller flock doing the same thing.

Just as I looked away from the birds I saw a glimmer. As we got to a stop, I looked through the trees and spotted it! It was a jet.  I told Blake to look but he couldn’t see it. I kept saying turn your head to the right and other directions but he could not see the jet.  Finally I pulled into a parking lot and said again, “LOOK!”  He turned His head, climbed up into my window and put his face right where mine was. He saw it!  Racing through the sky it looked like a silver bullet in the sun trailing a streak of clouds behind it.

Until he got my viewpoint he couldn’t see what I was seeing.  He might have just said never mind. He might have just gone on. He might have missed the magnificent view entirely. But he kept looking until he could see it from my perspective. 

God speaks to my heart: “With a view to the future”.  Such simple words. But He’s speaking to my heart and maybe you need to know it too beloved.  Often we are caught in a scene that’s right out of a horror show. It could be that we’ve held something so dear that we don’t want to let go. We see no point, we  feel no reason, we hear no promises. We’ve been rejected and that’s all we see.  We’ve been left out in the cold and that’s all we feel. We’ve been passed over, turned down, unanswered.  Unless we can get God’s perspective on our present situation we are going to feel frustrated or fearful or maybe even quit. 

It’s up to us.  The view is there. God’s openly showing it to us. He’s trying to get us to quit looking at things from the earthly view.  He’s urging us lovingly to keep looking, keep straining toward God’s face, keep seeking His heart.  He may even ask us to pull over and sit a moment alone with Him until we can find God’s peace.  At some point we have to let God in on our pain and let Him assure us. Who else can soothe us really? And how blessed are we that we have a God who didn’t just create us and leave us to try to figure out the scenes of our lives alone. No, He’s fully acquainted with us – fully prepared to walk us through every single day with us – fully prepared to give us His perspective, even though He’s the Lord of Heaven and Earth. After all, He is our Abba Father as well. Christ has gifted us with the opportunity to have a rich and intimate relationship with God Himself. If we can just let ourselves and our pains go and get into Father God’s lap and see things “with a view to the future” we’ll be able to live seeing God’s face when nothing else makes sense. We’ll know there’s a future for us because He has said so.

Oh beloved, climb up in Abba Father’s lap. Let Him wrap His loving arms around you. Let Him speak truth into your life. When you get his perspective, when you can view things as though you are going into the future, looking beyond yourself, you will know that God’s ways are best. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God and nothing can keep you from seeing into the blue skies of His perfect will. He loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth slowing down, opening His Word, resting in His promises and moving into the future with fresh determination to live in the light of His Word.

 

Psalm 77:11-13 But then I recall all You have done, O Lord; I remember Your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts.  I cannot stop thinking about Your mighty works. O God, your ways are holy.     Is there any god as mighty as You?

Psalm 73:23-24 Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.   You guide me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Run to the Spirit of Christmas - Christ Himself!


Our whole family loves A Christmas Carol. There are many versions, from the original movie of 1938 to the most recent Disney remake of 2009.  The story revolves around Ebenezer Scrooge who has spent his life being a grumpy self-centered agnostic. Because of the original Dickens’ story and subsequent movies, people with his personality are referred to as “Scrooges”, especially during the Christmas holidays.

There are three ghosts or spirits in this movie as well. They are sent to try to get Mr. Scrooge back on track and to help him see the error of his ways and thus to give him redemption. Through the visitation of these three spirits – Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future – Mr. Scrooge is sent on a trip of self-discovery and self-loathing, but eventually he finds himself changed and the change becomes well…dramatic to say the least.

We too have to deal with these spirits or issues - Our past, our present and our future.

Christmas past may hold the pain of unrealized dreams and hopes. Nobody’s perfect, especially parents, so there may be hurts that make us unable to enjoy today. If we hold onto those hurts we will find ourselves mourning what we could have had rather than enjoying what we do have. Are you hurt beyond imagination and still reeling from things you could not control? Or maybe you did the wrong thing and you’re still making yourself pay.

Christmas present holds much promise. This year will be perfect! But it’s hard when others don’t share the joy of the season. Or you are facing tragedy, resentment, unforgiveness. Like ornaments that are so heavy they bend the limbs of the Christmas tree beneath the load, these weights tend to bend us over and make us want to forget Christmas altogether. Who needs the pain?

Christmas future holds the highest hopes. We plan for the future and ignore the present because somewhere in the future things will be better, right? So we hold so tightly to our imaginary day somewhere in time ahead that we can’t enjoy the present. We feel destined to repeat the same offenses, but all the while hoping, just hoping that things will be better next year. What is in your perfect Christmas? Love, joy, peace? You’ll never find them on your own.

Oh beloved, run to the Spirit of Christmas – the Lord Himself!  He will take your mistakes and sorrows and rejections and replace them. Just as ornaments on the tree get broken and ruined, God takes each one and gives us a fresh new start! Just as our trees get old and lose their needs, God gives us a fresh today! No need to live with the past, it’s dead and gone. And, His future for us is brighter than the Morning Star! Let the Lord love you today and watch as He says, “Crawl up in my lap and let me tell you about your wonderful life! Speak your Christmas “wish list” into My ear! Give your past mistakes, present worries and future hopes to Me and let Me remake the entire movie into our love story! For I have loved you always. I AM with you in your past, I AM with you in your present and I AM with you in your future. If you let me, I AM able to make this a Christmas without regrets. Don’t turn your eyes on the tinsel or the glitter or the packages or the people, even those you love oh so much! Just turn your eyes on Me, the Author and Finisher of your Faith. I love you and I AM on your side. This is my gift to you this Christmas. Rejoice in My Love for I AM your Redeemer!

1 Chronicles 29:11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

2 Samuel 23:5 “Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not indeed make it grow?

 Job 42:2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

Romans 8:29 We are assured and know that God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. (Amplified)