Category Archives: religious

“He calls them each by name”

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Have you ever had that moment when things are suddenly put into perspective and you realize how incredibly small you really are? Like when you watch a video like this?

I mean. Come on! Can you even comprehend the HUGENESS of the universe, and the complete minutia of our little lives in it? I know it absolutely boggles my mind. We are most definitely not the center of any universe, but there is a God in heaven who is! He is both the center of it – the point about which every single thing in the universe revolves – and the beginning of it and the end. The Alpha and Omega of every speck of matter in all of creation. Even more boggling, He knows each person, every creature, each star intimately. Psalm 147:4 says, “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” I am in such awe, as I write this with tears in my eyes just at the mere fact that He calls me by name as well. Isaiah 43:1 tells us what God told Jacob, “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Please insert your name here:
But now says the LORD, He who created you, O _________, He who formed you, O______: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.”

God formed us with infinitely more care than the stars, He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs (Jeremiah 1:5), He chose us and planned for us before earth’s foundations were laid (Eph 1:4). I love this verse, it has been a favorite of mine since the beginning of my walk with Christ – one of the first He led me to read:

Psalm 8:3-5

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.

See, Beloved, God made all these things – these huge and wonderful things for us. He created the most incredible artwork for us to gaze upon and to know Him in His most revealing beauty, He wanted to give us a piece of Himself and so He created the moon and the stars. He wants us to look up and marvel at His glory, at the beauty He made for us. He wants us to see the world He created for us and to know of His incredible love for us. See, the God that made each star, each moon, each planet, is the same God that made each blade of grass, each beautiful butterfly, and each perfectly made person.

Not only is He master of every galaxy in creation, but He’s master of every situation you will ever find yourself in. Not only does God concern Himself with the rotation of the earth around the sun, but He concerns Himself with the minute details of your life.

YOUR PAST

YOUR DEPRESSION

YOUR PAIN

YOUR HATE

YOUR ANGER

YOUR DOUBT

YOUR FEAR

YOUR SHAME

YOUR EATING DISORDER

YOUR SELF HARM

YOUR ANXIETY

YOUR LONELINESS

YOUR SCARS

YOUR ADDICTIONS

Not only is God concerned with all of it – He is BIGGER than all of it. There are always excuses that we make for not reaching out to God; typically, it has to do with the negativity we feel about ourselves. What is keeping you from God today? Trust me in this, I’ve been in a lot of ugly situations in my life and if He can conquer my ugliness, Beloved, He can conquer yours. God is bigger than any problem you may have – any addiction, any immorality, any shame, any fear. He is bigger, and He will give you victory over all of it!!!

Deuteronomy 20:4 says, “for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

No only does He fight for you, Beloved, in any trial, but He is going before you – He has already given you the victory! You just have to reach for Him and take it. ❤ Give Him your battle today and let Him give you victory. Amen.

Haggai 1:3-9 “Consider your ways…”

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I am struck by this passage out of Haggai tonight. Go read it: 1:3-9.

First a short history lesson: The Hebrew people were exiled under King Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC (Daniel 1:1); he besieged Jerusalem and took all the Israelites captive, reduced their city and temple to rubble, and returned with them to Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar’s son lost his throne to the Medes and the Persians (Daniel 5:31). When King Cyrus of Persia took the throne, he released the Israelites to return back to Jerusalem and rebuild both their cities and their temple (538 BC). When these people returned, they came to a place of rubble – a destitute place without food, homes, or most importantly for this passage, a temple.  According to Ezra, the Jews came out of exile with a drive and excitement to rebuild the temple; however, “the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia (Ezra 4:4-5).” Thus, Haggai comes on the scene around 519 BC to tell the people of Israel God’s desire for them to resume building on the temple.

This is where we pick up in Haggai 1. Actually. Read Ezra 4:4-5 again. Did you notice why the Israelites stopped building the temple in the first place? Eventually King Artaxerxes of Persia ordered them to cease work on the temple in 521 BC, but that was 17 years after the Israelites had returned from Babylon (Ezra 4:21)!” The Israelites folded from outside pressure: God asked them to do one thing, but they did not have faith that God would take care of the obstacles they faced in their task. God often calls us to do things that seem to have insurmountable obstacles, but when will we learn that those are the places where we get to see God do incredible things? So many times I have been asked why God doesn’t do miracles or why we don’t see God’s work – but here’s the thing: We will never see God perform miracles on our behalf if we never put ourselves in places where His miracles are needed. If we don’t step out in faith to do a task that we know without a doubt that we cannot do by ourselves, when do we give God the opportunity to show His hand?! Like the Israelites, the opposition seems too fierce and we become discouraged and do not finished our work. Discouragement is Satan’s most prized possession. Do not be fooled; when God has led you into a task, discouraging words, discouraging thoughts are the Devil’s way of obstructing the completion of it. See here’s the thing – the ONLY way the Devil wins against God is through OUR WEAKNESSES. If we are willing to have faith enough to see it through – there is NOTHING that can stop God’s will from being fulfilled. Our fears and lack of faith are the only thing that keeps God from using us to do incredible, miraculous things in His Wonderful and Glorious Name! Can I get an Amen?!

Back to Haggai 1. Again :). The LORD told Haggai to tell the Israelites that He was not happy with their lack of progress.

“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: consider your ways.

You have sown much, and harvested little. you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” Haggai 1:4-9

These are such hard words. In the Old Testament, people of God did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide them like we do now – that’s why they had prophets in the first place. That is also why we see God withholding success and prosperity from His people – it is a message of God’s displeasure. Once Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave, he opened a way for us to dwell with God, to hear God speak, to know God’s pleasure and displeasure for our actions, to feel the conviction of His ways in our life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. During the Old Testament times, however, they did not have this and so we continuously see passages like Haggai 1 throughout the Scriptures. God used natural elements and neighboring peoples to convey His pleasure or displeasure with His people. In this case, He withheld prosperity until they learned to put Him first. They had forgotten their true love, they had forgotten to be faithful to Him first. In this passage, Haggai is explaining to them why they are not having any success in any endeavor they undertake: they forgot God first.

I just love the Living Bible Translation of Proverbs 3:6:

In EVERYTHING you do, put God first and he will direct you and crown you with success.

Do not get me wrong: I am not preaching a “prosperity” message here. Neither I nor the Bible promises you without a doubt that if you love God you will have all the material possessions you ever desire. No. Not at all. God is not nearly as concerned with your comfort as He is your character and He will use hard situations to mold your character into His likeness. You are promised trials in this lifetime, some of those may be material. What this does promise, however, is that if you put God first then He will provide all your needs according to His good purpose (Rom. 8:28). If you align your will with God’s, commit yourself to “Your will be done, not mine,” then you will be successful in every situation God takes you into. The Israelites left God’s plan for them to rebuild “His house,” and instead focused on their own houses. What they forgot is that without a temple their path to God, their atonement through sacrifice, or His presence with them, was not possible. So they left His path and were totally unsuccessful in every aspect of their lives.

We, too, are called to put God first. If your path is not successful, like the Israelites, if your crops are not flourishing (metaphorically speaking), then maybe you need to ask yourself why. Check your relationship with God. Check the reason for your endeavor: is it God’s path, or is it one you are trying to cut yourself? Like God said through Haggai, “Consider Your Ways.” Follow God’s path for your life, put Him first, laugh at the opposition, praise God for the incredible miracles He will work for your sake, work towards your goal, and watch as He exceeds any expectations you ever imagined! Hallelujah and Amen!

Acts 21:12-14 Let the will of the Lord be done.

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I didn’t plan on writing on this today, but I simply cannot let its beauty go unnoticed. Go read this section (really Acts 21:10-14 for context). What a beautiful scene this is to my heart. A prophet named Agabus had just come from Judea, most likely from Jerusalem and he comes to Paul, took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'” Essentially, this man had just come from Jerusalem (Luke uses “Judea” and “Jerusalem” interchangeably throughout Luke and Acts) and God had given him prophetic insight as to what would happen to Paul if he chose to enter its gates. God allowed Paul the unique opportunity to be fully informed before he chose to fulfill God’s plan for his life. He gave Paul foreknowledge of his own demise, should he do as God asked and return one last time to Jerusalem.

Has this ever happened to you? Has God given you insight into something bad that will happen if you did as He asked? Did you do it anyway? What do you think God’s purpose is in giving you this knowledge and did it help or hurt you to receive it? I have never personally experienced this, but I would love to hear your testimonies!

We move on to v12 when the Christians around Paul hear this terrifying possibility and beg him not to go. I love that Luke includes himself in this – he doesn’t hide his plea for Paul to avoid Jerusalem. There is such beauty in this, the love of a friend. Even though it was God’s will for Paul to go and they knew this, it is so hard to accept it when a loved one will face unspeakable pain and trials. I am reminded of Matthew 16:21-23 when Jesus predicts his own death and Peter says, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never happen to you!” Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” See, Peter did not understand Jesus’ role in God’s plan for the world. All Peter saw, like us, is a beloved friend being hurt and taken from his life. Luke and the others were so like Peter; they did not see God’s plan but only the pain both they and Paul would endure before it was over. Like Jesus, Paul was quick to respond, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus (v13).”  Can’t you just imagine this scene? Can’t you see the pressure they are putting on Paul to leave God’s path and avoid imprisonment and death? I love his words, “Why are you breaking my heart?!” Can’t you hear his distress at their pleas? Sometimes the call of God is hard enough that it doesn’t take much for us to be tempted to leave his path for our lives. Thank God that Paul was so focused on God’s will that even his friends’ pleas couldn’t force him to stray. It is so important to keep our eyes on God, not looking to the right or the left.

V14 says, “And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, ‘Let the will of the Lord be done.'” Sometimes it takes an exhaustion of all other options before we are ready to accede to God’s will. Can you imagine the New Testament without Paul’s writings? The majority of them were written after this event in Acts 21, after he was in custody. How we are blessed in so many ways because of Paul’s faithfulness – his courage!

Sometimes God’s plans for our lives are so frightening, but He gives in our exact moment of need. Just Google “scripture about courage” and see how many verses come up. It’s crazy! See, God knows that He asks us to do some nutso things – things that simply don’t make sense or are just inconceivable to our small brains – so He provided us with so many words of encouragement, that we may know of His faithfulness and our victory in Him. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged – for the LORD, your God, will be with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9-11.

It is not often that God calls us to imprisonment for His sake – though it does happen – but God often calls us into the unknown, into frightening circumstances beyond our control. Let’s resolve to stand firm in God’s will like Paul and take the courage of the Spirit and face the future with strength and commitment; we know that God is with us through all things and He is working them for our good according to His good purpose (Romans 8:28). Take courage from Paul’s example, and follow likewise. ❤