Finding Topics

So, I haven’t gotten much of my study of Acts 7 done, so I don’t know which insights I want to share with you. As a result, I’m feeling topic-less.

There are several things I can do to come up with topics to write to you about. One of those things is to just wait and pray, hoping God will lead me to something. This often works. Turning to God often works in many areas of our lives. I think it’s probably the one most important thing I can do anytime we are struggling in our lives. That’s not saying we don’t have to do our part. There’s always the “footwork” to do, even if it’s just doing the next right thing, whatever that might be. Sometimes that might be making dinner or doing the laundry, but sometimes it’s making us available to someone who needs a friend to talk to. I find that in doing the next right thing(s), God brings to mind ideas about what to write about. Often those topics deal with a struggle I am having preventing me from doing the next right thing. However, I have to remember to seen God in all things, and wait on Him to bring me to the next topic or the next activity.

Another thing I do to come up with topics is review my Quiet Time notes, my letters to a special friend, or my Bible study notes (especially the application section). Trying to come up with topics actually draws my attention back to something I maybe didn’t learn the first time I looked at a certain passage of Scripture. I find it’s a good policy to review my notes and letters occasionally (to be honest, I probably should do this more often). I often see patterns of things that God has shown me over the course of a few days, a few weeks, or a few months. Those things are only apparent after time has gone by. I would miss the patterns if I never reviewed my various notes.

My final resource for coming up with ideas involves talking to people and finding out what they think I should write about (or what they want to hear about). Actually, that’s where the idea for this blog article came from. I was mentioning to one of my daughters that I didn’t know what to write about this week. She suggested I write about what I do when I don’t have a topic readily in my thoughts. I thought about that for a few minutes, came to my computer, started typing, and out came this blog. There are other times this happens when talking to friends. Friends are a valuable resource in my writing and in encouraging me throughout my days.

Thoughts on Hope, Part 3

The third factor in hopelessness is survival. The key result of this hopelessness is a sense of doom. It leads to a sense of forsakenness, limitedness, doom, and helplessness. There are many passages in David’s psalms that depict how David’s very life is in danger. He has a sense of doom and despair. This sense of doom plays into the beliefs that things will never change and that things will not get better. The passages of Scripture already cited deal with those issues.

The sense of doom also plays into my fears about people and the future. I used to have a rule for living that stated, “Nothing I want will happen.” Another “old” rule stated that I believe that all relationships with other people will fail. That’s a sense of doom for relationships. And without other people in our lives, it is hard to survive. However, those rules have been put aside, for the most part, and I try not to slip back into believing them or acting as if I believe them. Sometimes it’s harder than other times to do that. For instance, if I have a conflict with a person, I slip into thinking the relationship cannot withstand the anxiety, tension, hurt feelings, despair, or sadness that comes from being in conflict with another person.

There are Scriptural references which address conflict among people, especially people who are brothers and sisters in Christ. However, several of the passages tell us that the conflict might result in severed relationships even after we’ve done all we can to restore the relationship. Matthew 18:15-17 says,

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” [ESV]

So I have to accept the possibility that a severed relationship might happen. However there’s a lot of work and effort that needs to be exerted before we “give up” and turn it over to God to deal with.

There are other verses that address dealing with conflicts by forgiving the other person and offering to meet their needs regardless of the conflict. The section in Romans 12:17-21 gives us instructions for dealing with our “enemies” with love and concern:

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” [ESV]

These passages do not alleviate my fears that friendships and relationships may end but they give me hope that something can be done to deal with the hurt feelings and frustrations that come from severed relationships.

Scripture also gives plenty of advice for how to deal with conflict. As we saw in the Matthew 18 passage, we need to go to the person and present our case. If that doesn’t work (because the person refused to listen), then bring two or three others (presumably godly others) with you to help mediate the situation. Other passages talk about being forgiving towards those who have offended you. An example of this kind of instruction is found in Colossians 3:13 which says, “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” [ESV] Another familiar verse on forgiveness is found in Luke 17:4 and says, “And if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” [ESV]

These verses and passages give me hope because they place ultimate judgment in God’s hands and make judgment not my responsibility. I need to do what Scripture says about conflict resolution and trust God for the outcomes. And mostly, I need to practice forgiving those who have offended me in some way to maintain a peaceful existence.

Thoughts on Hope, Part 1

           “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12

            A wise woman once quoted this verse to me to explain why I repeatedly had bouts of depression. I heard her at the time but I failed to see the impact it could have on a person’s life. So much of the problems people have in life stem from a lack of hope and not having their desires fulfilled.

            This is not the only Biblical verse that mentions, “hope.” Hope is mentioned in 141 different verses ranging from the Major Prophets in the Old Testament to the apostles in the New Testament. And there are many other passages of Scripture that deal with having hope that don’t use the word hope. And there are other passages of Scripture that talk about things and situations that are not as hopeless as they seem. Having hope could alleviate many of the issues I face in my daily life and in my beliefs about how the world functions, including believing that things will never change, or that things will not get better. However some verses speak more directly to those two issues and I will cite them also throughout this essay.

            There are several thoughts on hopelessness. One article that I read said there are nine forms of hopelessness based on three basic issues: attachment, mastery and survival. All of these issues are addressed in Scripture. For instance, attachment deals with feelings of alienation, forsakenness, or being uninspired. David is a great example of all these forms of hopelessness, as is Job. Both men felt the total despair that comes from feeling like no one cares about them anymore and have been separated from those people for various reasons. In Psalm 62:5-8 David says, 

“My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.” 

Only a person who feels utterly alone would say that his only hope is from God. It doesn’t come from his loved ones, his friends, or his family. He feels abandoned by all and can only rely on God.

            Throughout the book of Job, Job’s friends and family tell him to give up and die. But Job responds that he will not do that because he has hope in God. At one point it is said of Job, “Is not your fear of God your confidence, And the integrity of your ways your hope?” (Job 4:6). Again this is a person who could only trust in God; his friends and family had forsaken him and believed he was in dire trouble and would die.

            The antidote for this kind of hopelessness is to trust in God and in His Word. Psalm 130:5 says, “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.” In Ecclesiastes 12:13 it says, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.” So no matter what we hear from other people (or don’t hear from other people) the final word is to fear God and follow His Word. Hope is found for even the friendless, in God.

Affirmations

Last week in my commitment statement I said “I will write one truthful statement from the Word of God in my journal . . . “ to combat the suicidal thinking. I found that doesn’t just happen. I couldn’t think of a single affirmation at the point of distress. So I decided to start making a list I could keep in my journal, which I almost always have with me, to reference when a crisis moment presents itself. I’m still working on that list gaining insights from the promises of God I’m looking at each day in my devotional time.

So far I’ve come up with four. The first one is from the verse I have at the top of my commitment statement: “He has by his own action given us everything that is necessaryt for living the truly good life . . .” [2 Peter 1:3 Phillips] Basically the affirmation is: God has provided me with everything I need to have a good life.

The second one comes from Galatians 6:9: “Let us not grow tired of doing good, for, unless we throw in our hand, the ultimate harvest is assured.” My affirmation based on this verse says, “In time I will reap a harvest, if continue to do good.” I can look forward to seeing some results from the good I’m trying to do.

The third affirmation comes from 1 Corinthians 9:24-25. Again in the Phillips it says, “Do you remember how, on a racing-track, every competitor runs, but only one wins the prize? Well, you ought to run with your minds fixed on winning the prize! Every competitor in athletic events goes into serious training. Athletes will take tremendous pains—for a fading crown of leaves. But our contest is for an eternal crown that will never fade.” My affirmation statement puts it this way: “There’s a crown if I don’t give up the race.”

And my last one, so far, is from Jeremiah 29:11. In the NASB it says, “ For I know the plans that I ^[a]have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” This is an affirmation I used a lot this week. In it’s most basic form I just say, “God has a plan for my life.”

I will continue to look for and notice possible affirmations from Scripture and add them to my list. Eventually I hope to have 5 – 10 solid affirmations I can look at whenever I’m feeling like life is not worth living. I’m open to suggestions from anyone who wants to offer one. It may get added to my list.

Steep in God-reality

In reading part of the gospel of Luke each day, I’m learning a lot about what our lives should be filled with. In Luke 12 it deals with being filled with God and not self:

“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods –  who gets it? That’s what happens when you fill your barn with self and not with God.’”

I asked myself, What would someone see when they opened the doors to my barn? What am I filling my barn with? If it’s God, then my life should look more like God and Jesus. What is there inside me when people look in? Godly faith? Distraught fear? Corrupt self? Probably people would see some of each. Thank God it’s a process and not an all or nothing situation. In Alcoholics Anonymous there’s a saying: “Progress not perfection.” That’s what I’m striving for, progress; maybe it is slow but steady change. I need to work toward being filled with more and more of God. Then what is inside of me will overflow the barn doors and others will also see more and more of God in my life.

Farther into Luke 12, it says, “Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.” How does someone steep in God-reality? As I thought about this I realized that it’s really pretty basic. We find God showing up in our lives when we are regularly involved with Him in our lives; regular and frequent involvement in our lives. There are several ways for me to do this. Where do I see and recognize God-reality the most? In the Scriptures, so I need to be reading my Bible regularly, dare I say, daily, or multiple times per day. Also, there’s meditation and prayer. If I can keep an attitude of conversation with God my conscious contact with God greatly improves. Listening and talking to God as I go throughout my day is a great way to experience God-reality.

So today, and for the next 24 hours, I’m going to try to remember to pray and listen to God once each hour I’m awake. I set my alarm on my phone for each hour and I will pause and listen and pray. That’s one way to steep myself in God-reality. It’s one way to try to keep putting the things of God in my barn.

[Quoted Scripture from The Message]