Waiting on God?

On By jillmhollingsworth1 Comment

I was on staff at Highpoint Church for several years before I had my boys. One of the tests that all staff members were required to take was an assessment called StrengthsFinder. This test is designed to help you figure out what you’re good at and apply it in your work and personal life. Many on staff’s top strength is Activator. People with this gift love to act; they don’t have time to sit and analyze their decisions, wait for dozens of confirmations, or endlessly debate and discuss. They’re ready to get it done.

I am the opposite of Activator. I can analyze and debate and question until it snows in July. Pair this with a previously-held belief that I should simply wait (read: do nothing) until God fulfills His promise, and the result was… well, nothing.

One morning during my time with God, though, He challenged my thinking. In the passage I was reading, God called Abraham to leave his people and his home country and go to a land that God would show him. When Abraham got there, God gave Abraham two promises: “To your offspring I will give this land” and “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky”. Now fast forward a couple of chapters to Genesis 24; Abraham and his wife Sarah had been given their promised son, Isaac, and he was old enough to start looking for Mrs. Right. So, Abraham sent his chief servant back to his home country to find a wife for Isaac and bring her back. Because of God’s promise, Abraham was confident that his servant would have success. After all, his descendants can’t be as numerous as the stars without Isaac getting a wifey.

I don’t know about you, but when God gives me a promise, I am tempted to kick up my feet and wait (again, read: do nothing). I was convinced that true faith would mean believing that God would miraculously drop Isaac’s wife out of the sky. God promised it, right? So why couldn’t ol’ Abraham just sit back, relax, and believe it would happen in its perfect time?

But this is not what Abraham and his servant did at all. First, Abraham makes his servant take an oath that he will go back to Abraham’s home country and get Isaac a wife. He doesn’t simply trust that it will happen; he proactively pursues what he knows to be God’s will. Second, the servant takes 10 camels and all kinds of other expensive gifts to offer the future wife’s family. Does he just assume, because God has promised, that he can show up empty-handed and expect a stranger to come back with him? No way! He prepares by bringing all he can gather to make the journey successful.

In addition to preparing all of the supplies for the trip, he decided to go to the well with his camels at just the time when all of the women from the town would be drawing water. More to choose from, right? When he saw the one he wanted, the word of God says the “servant hurried to meet her.” I sure hope some single men are reading this! He didn’t sit and analyze or wait on her to approach him if “it’s God’s will”, he acted in faith, knowing God would be faithful to fulfill His promise.

So I encourage you to ask yourself- What is it that God has promised me? How can I live everyday believing and acting on what He said?

And just in case you’re wondering…The servant was able to talk that beautiful gal at the well into coming home for Abraham’s son, Isaac. His work of faith was richly rewarded. Yours will be, too. It’s a promise!

2 Thessalonians 1:11 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

 

 

On Battling Disappointment, Part 2

On By jillmhollingsworthLeave a comment

Last week I shared about a recent battle with disappointment and a prompting to praise God despite my feelings. If you missed it and want to know the back story, you can read it here. Today I want to share another strategy for battling disappointment that will restore your peace and joy.

Although I’ve experienced this strategy to be super effective in my own life, I’ve never seen the power of praise coupled with it as beautifully as in a scripture I read last week in Psalms:

“May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints.
Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 149:6-9)

Now before I lose you with all this talk of war and vengeance, consider the link between the enemies of God’s people in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Throughout the Old Testament, we see Israel battling other nations and kingdoms, physical nations and kingdoms. In the New Testament, though, we are told that our battle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

They battled physical enemies. We battle spiritual ones. Their weapons were praise and a double-edged sword. Our weapons are praise and the double-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…”

I sure hope I’m not the only one giddy about this fun connection!

Our enemy, the father of all lies, loves to deceive up into disappointment, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear. He whispers lies about God, about us, and about others that threaten to leave us crushed and ready to quit. But we don’t have to walk in this defeat!

Look again at Psalm 149:6-9. Do you want to bind your spiritual enemy with fetters and shackles of iron (v.8)? Do you want to be a co-laborer with Christ to carry out the sentence written against Satan himself (v.9)? You can! All you need is a firm resolve to fight back with praise and your Sword, the Word of God.

You can defeat the father of lies with the Truth!

Here’s an example of what this looks like in action: God will never stop loving me (2 Chronicles 20:21), and no weapon formed against me will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). God protects me from the enemy and lifts up my head. He will answer my prayers (Psalm 3:3-4). God hears my cries and will deliver me from all of my troubles (Psalm 34:17). The Lord longs to be gracious to me and will rise to show me compassion (Isaiah 30:18). The Lord directs my steps, and He is able to work all things together for my good (Psalm 37:23, Romans 8:28). The Lord will provide all of my needs, and He will fill me with peace and joy as I trust Him (Philippians 4:19, Romans 15:13).

If any of those statements especially moved you, I’d encourage you to make a note of the referenced Scripture in your phone or even write it on your hand or an index card. Read it out loud to yourself several times a day, allowing it to transform your thoughts. Don’t be surprised if the enemy comes at you with another lie when one stops working- just search again for truth in His Word and tear down each lie he throws your way.

We CAN walk in victory; that’s a promise!

 

 

 

On Battling Disappointment

On By jillmhollingsworth5 Comments

It’s been a battle of the will to write lately. I sit down at the computer most every day, but each word typed just doesn’t seem to come out the way I’d wanted. Part of it is the dark cloud that’s been over my mind and heart for several days now- you know, the feeling of apathy mixed with a sense of disappointment that parts of life just haven’t turned out quite the way you’d hoped.

These feelings aren’t new to me; no, this has been the enemy’s strategy many times. Yet I hear the gentle words of the Spirit saying, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 43:5)

Praise. “I will yet praise Him”, the psalmist says. In 2 Chronicles 20, the people of Israel were being attacked by a foreign enemy. Their king appointed men to sing praises to God as their enemy approached, and this is what happened:  “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir [their enemies] who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.” (v.22)

…As they began to sing and praise. Praise.

I was sitting in church yesterday morning, and I began looking over some of the later Psalms. It dawned on me that they all start with some sort of, “Praise God”. I immediately thought, “I should probably use these to do the praising that I’m feeling called to do during this season.” Later the same day, I get this text from a dear friend, “You have been on my mind today! The last 5 or 6 Psalms in the Bible are of praise. I arm myself with those. Have a good day!” And that- things like that– are the confirmations and mercy of God in our weakness.

As I’m sure anyone that battles emotionally knows, sometimes you worship with your mind, but your feelings just can’t quite seem to get there. And this instance is no different. I sit, writing and saying these Psalms aloud, yet my feelings remain largely the same. Even still, I’m convinced that as I make the choice to obey this prompting despite the way I feel, He will deliver me in His perfect time.

And isn’t that what we’re all asked to do? Wake up each day, put one foot in front of the other, obey each small step He tells us to take, and trust Him with the victory.