Contentment, Part 2

Let's start again with the thought that to be content you must accept your circumstances, no matter how difficult or frightening or painful, as being allowed by God. Contentment comes only through acceptance of your circumstances. Acceptance requires believing God at His Word when He says:

I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11.

Those words rang empty to me as I suffered at the hands of my rapist. How could God define my circumstance as good, as giving me a future and a hope. No, at age 21, I believed my life was over, and I had no hope, no future.

The truth is believing Jeremiah 29:11. You must begin with trusting that God KNOWS the plans He has for you. Psalm 139:16 says:

You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in Your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day passed.

These words were hard for me to read as I considered my rape. If God knew me before I was born and every day was recorded in His book and every moment laid out before I lived out a single one, what this man did to me was in God's plan. God knew it before it happened. Worse, He watched from His throne in heaven as this man committed unspeakable acts against His child...and He did NOTHING to stop it! My heart cried out, God how could this be on Your schedule? Why would You plan such an event? How could you watch it unfold and do NOTHING!

Do you know that place? Have you ever wondered why a loving God would allow your pain?

The more I read, the more questions I had. Part of me was scared of what God would reveal next as I asked more questions. Yet the other part of me was desperate for answers. But in my search, I was led to God's greatest character trait of all: His love. The Bible plainly says that "God is love" in 1 John 4:16. Love is the essence of His being. Further, He promises in Romans 8:38-39:

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Through these verses, God was drawing me closer and closer to Himself, revealing His character bit by bit. He was not revealing His plan. He wanted me to take a leap of faith and trust Him with my questions. He was not asking me to do it blindly. He was showing me why He was trustworthy, why I could trust Him.

As I read these verses and met God in His Word, I physically felt part of my anger against God subside. Somewhere deep within me, I knew God grieved for me as I suffered at the hands of my rapist. How could He do any less? I was His child, created in His image, loved with His everlasting love.

Was I content yet? Definitely not. But God was changing my perspective of Who He was in baby steps. The answer to "why" would be found only as I began to know God more fully.

If you find yourself in a place of searching for answers to your "why," pray this prayer:

Heavenly Father, Author of Life, Sovereign Lord, enter into my pain, enter into my doubts, help me with my unbelief. Open my eyes to see and my ears to hear Your Word. Grow my roots deeper, anchor me in Your Word. Through revelation and knowledge of Who You are, fill me with peace and contentment. Teach me contentment in all things and in all circumstances, especially in the difficult place I find myself today. I love You, Lord, and I ask this in the powerful name of Your Son Jesus!!

This post includes excerpts from my new book, Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: The Transforming Power of God's Story, Chapter Two, Why Did God Allow This?

Sweet blessings to you,

Contentment, Part I

Contentment. Are you content? What does contentment mean to you? Is contentment possible no matter your circumstances?

Scripture tells us that not only are we to be content, but we are to be content in all circumstances. Writing to the church in Philippi, Paul shares this in Philippians 4:11,

... for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

So what does it mean to be content? The dictionary defines contentment as being satisfied with what you are or what you have and not wanting more.

I don't know about you, but for most of my adult life my contentedness depended upon my circumstances. And it was pretty much absent from my life for over a decade. In June 1986, at age 22, just days after my college graduation an armed, masked man hiding in my apartment sexually assaulted me. The afternoon this man spent with me forever changed my life. I lived for years cocooned in a prison of fear, despair, and hopelessness. Contentedness was not in my vocabulary. After that day I believed I would never live a happy, normal life again. He stole everything from me - my dignity, my identity, my security, and my hope.

I was furious with God for years. How I longed for wholeness, healing, and contentedness. But it was nowhere to be found. I tried counseling, medication, and self-help books. Nothing worked. Finally, when I felt I had nowhere else to turn, I fell on my knees before God and poured out my tears, my anger, and my questions.

It was in that place of complete surrender that I found healing, wholeness, and contentedness. They did not come all at once. It was, and still is, a journey. But what I learned was that to receive God's healing and to find His contentedness, I had to accept that God allowed what happened to me that day in June for a reason.

My book entitled Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: The Transforming Power of God's Story documents my journey in search of that reason. It will be released on February 1st...just one week from now. You can click on the book cover in the side bar to purchase the book.

To be honest, I am scared to open this part of my life in such a public way. But, I know it is God's will because of what He says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

He gave me my story so I can bring His Truth, His Hope, and His healing to others. I can honestly tell you as I write today that this horrific violation that once devastated my life is now a blessing. God taught me powerful Truths and lessons and worked in me a grace I have never known.

I want to spend the next few posts sharing how God brought me to contentedness because I can honestly say it is a holy place, a gift that only God can give. We who put our trust and faith in God and His Word can make a place of weeping and sorrow a vibrant spring of living water.

If you know that place of sorrow and despair I am talking about, I would love to hear your heart. If you have known the healing of our amazing God, I would love to hear your story. Your comments bless me every time I read them.

Inauguration Day

The Constitution of the United States of America, Article II says,

"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America..."

Tomorrow we will inaugurate Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

Monty and I had the great privilege of attending George Bush's inauguration in 2000. It was an amazing experience...one I will never forget. I was especially moved as we listened to Franklin Graham offer a prayer for our new president and our nation. Tears came to my eyes as I remembered God's Word...

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;

wisdom and power are His.

He changes times and seasons;

He sets up kings and deposes them.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

He reveals deep and hidden things;

He knows what lies in darkness,

and light dwells with Him.

Every president, beginning with George Washington, has been chosen by God. He appointed the times and places they would live. Below you will find quotes from some of our past presidents. Quotes that remind us of our Christian foundation and Christian heritage. Let us pray for our new president. That he too will know the One Whom He serves and will seek Him first as he serves this country.

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. Abraham Lincoln

With firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me. James Monroe

It is impossible rightly to govern the world without God and the Bible. George Washington

The Bible is the rock on which our republic rests. Andrew Jackson

The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country. Calvin Coolidge

Oh God, we pray that You would lead and guide our new President day by day, step by step. We pray that he would know you have called him to the highest post in the land and look to You for that leading and guidance. Father surround him with men and women who know You, who seek You, and who pray. Protect him, Father, and keep him safe. Grant him wisdom and knowledge far beyond his years. Give him courage to stand for Truth. May he believe on and obey the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. Lord, keep him humble and reliant upon You in all things.

May God Bless America,

Love: The Extraordinary Gift, Part IV

Thank you for those of you who have shared your comments on the blog as well as via e-mail and with me personally. I love to see how God is working through His Word...not only in us personally but in our marriages and in our families.

For me this week, I prayed each day to love my husband with God's love, the love we studied in Corinthians. I asked God to help me with the commitment I had made. But what God led me to do was not what I had prayed. Rather, we had several projects around the house that I had been asking Monty to do...FOR MONTHS...and he had not gotten to them. Over time, my frustrations had risen, and I found myself making sarcastic, biting comments about the projects left undone "to make a point."

While he was in Nashville for three days this week, I took on a few of these projects myself. The Lord laid them on my heart, and I did them. As I did the first one, it surprised me ... I felt no bitterness and no anger. In fact, I found myself singing worship songs and praying as I did it. I even prayed for Monty. When I was done, a wonderful feeling of satisfaction filled my heart. The project was done. It was off my "to do" list....plus, it was done to my satisfaction!! A little side benefit. :0)

As I end this series on love, I am reminded that God's love is mine and it is yours. His Holy Spirit produces this love. As we submit our hearts to His, the Spirit's work produces fruit - like love - consistent with God's character and contrary to our sinful, selfish, self-centered nature.

My prayer for us as we go forward seeking to love with God's love is that...

we, being rooted and established in love, may have the power,

together with all the saints,

to grasp how wide and long

and high and deep

is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -

that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!

Paul prayed this prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19. God, who is infinite in all His attributes, allows us to draw on His greatest attribute...love.

And know right now that this walk will not always be easy because of where we began this series ... CONTROL. We have a natural, fleshy human desire to control. But God ordained that as part of His plan before time began. It was the punishment for rebellion and pride. God has mercifully given us a way out. But to be victorious over that sinful desire to control, we must stand firm in our position as children of God. It will not come naturally. We must intentionally surrender each and every day. We must pray for a daily filling of the EXTRAORDINARY GIFT of God's love.

Blessings to you,

Love: The Extraordinary Gift, Part III

Before you begin reading today, I invite you to pray. Will you believe that God desires to speak personally to you? Will you trust He has a Word for you that can change your heart? I believe that. I have prayed for you, that you would be led to read today's message...not because of what I have to say but because of what God has laid on my heart. He is teaching me as I write this, and I believe we are learning together. I LOVE your comments. They encourage me and some have really stretched me and caused me to dig deeper. It amazes me that we live miles from each other, but yet God has connected our hearts!!

Today we continue to learn about Love, but not just any love God's Love...the perfect love...the pure love...the best love.

Romans 5:5 says,

For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

We cannot forget that this love came at great cost to God...the shed blood of His One and only Son. The measure of God's love for us is seen in the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross.

Paul describes this love:

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

Love does not demand its own way.

Love is not irritable.

Love keeps no record of being wronged.

Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever Truth wins out.

Love never gives up, never loses faith,

Love is always hopeful, and endures through all circumstances.

At first glance, I became so discouraged when I read this list because I do not love this way in any relationship I have, most especially with my husband. I do keep "score;" I do (too often) demand my own way; I am irritable; I am not always patient, and my words are not always kind.

But God tells us in His Word that He does not give His Word to discourage us or condemn us, He gives it to teach and encourage us. So as we read these characteristics of love that are ours in Christ, we need to meditate and pray and ask the Lord to show us how to live them out day by day in His strength and power. We don't have to change all of them all at once. Rather, let's choose one area that we can give to Him, one area where we invite Him in and help us change to love more like Him.

What will you choose? Do you want to be more patient? Do you want to be less jealous? Do you want to forgive and let go of past wrongs? Do you want to let your husband do things his way more?

I choose to work on not demanding my own way. I am a BIG control person. I like things done my way. If he doesn't do it, I get upset, and if he does do it but not how I like it, I get upset. Go figure!!

Let's start with baby steps. For the next few days, let's together commit one area to the Lord. Take small steps, perform small acts, say tender words...do whatever the Lord leads you to train you heart to be more like His. That is what we are doing...taking positive steps toward getting rid of our sinful desires (to control, to have our own way, to be right, to get back for a wrong) and replacing them with spiritual desires (patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, forgiveness, holding our tongue).

Share with me what God does. I really want to hear!!

In Christ,

Wendy

Love: The Extraordinary Gift, Part II

1 John 4:8 and 4:16 tell us,

...God is love.

It does not say God loves us, though He does. It does not say God is about love, though He is. It does not say God commands love, though He does. It does not say God is loving, though He is. It says God is love. His nature, His essence is love. It is His DNA. Just as I am woman. God is love. Nothing and no one can ever change that. No action on my part, nothing I ever do will change who He is. We can know and rely on this just as we can rely on the fact that 2+2=4. God's love is perfect love, untainted by anything...love in its purest form.

1 John 4:19 says,

We love each other because He loved us first.

Bible commentator Matthew Henry writes, "His love is the productive cause of ours." We love others because we first have been loved by God . When we confess our sin, when we ask forgiveness for that sin, when we invite Christ into our hearts, we receive God's pure love.

There is nothing more powerful than God's Love at work in us. When we are faced with the part of us that still acts selfishly, the part of us that continues to sin, we have HOPE. The hope we have is our right as children of God to come to Him at the foot of the cross and empty ourselves of our hurt, our pain, our bitterness, our anger, our unforgiveness, our selfishness. In turn, God extends His amazing grace to us. He cleanses us and pours more of His Holy Spirit into us. He fills us with a greater measure of the fruit of His Spirit, one of which is love. It is then that we can invite God to love others through us. Not in our own strength but in His.

Applied to marriage, we are no longer wives trying to love our husbands in our own strength. God pours Himself into us enabling us to love our husbands with His love. Oh, how I wish I could say that I love my husband with this pure kind of love. But I don't. I fail everyday. I start my day with a prayer asking God to help me but within 30 minutes of getting up, I speak some critical word, usually pointing out something he failed to do or did but failed to do it my way!

If you identify with what I am saying I would love to hear from you.

In my next post, I will examine this love that lives within us....the love found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. I would love for you to join me, and as we read it together, let's invite God to sear it into our hearts. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give every woman seeking Your love for her marriage a fresh look at these verses. Though we have read them many times, maybe even had them read at our wedding, would You speak anew to us. Bring Your Word alive, penetrate our hearts, humble our hearts so we can receive every word You have to speak.

AMEN

Love: the Extraordinary Gift

I have had the pleasure over the last five years to be in Bible study with amazing women. We began with a dozen women and have grown to over 40! We have studied many subjects over the years - contentedness, godliness, women of the Bible, various books of the Bible, prayer, and our purpose in Christ. After much prayer, this semester we decided to study marriage. Many of us were nervous because of how private and personal this subject matter is. But we as leaders truly believed this was the time. This is what God had led us to despite our fears.

This week was our first meeting of the new year. How I prayed for God to be fully present in our small groups. I prayed for vulnerability, trust, and honesty among the women. I prayed that God would make my house a safe place, a refuge for every woman, a place she would feel safe to share her heart.

God was so faithful to answer that prayer and true to His promise do abundantly more than I could have ever asked or imagined. We selected Melanie Chitwood's book, What A Husband Needs from His Wife. One of her questions asked us to share one character trait which helped our marriage and one that hindered it. I listened as women honestly and sometimes tearfully answered this question. The common denominator we discovered in our answers regarding what in us hindered our marriage was the word control. Each of us expressed it in a different manner, but it came down to control. We want things done our way, and we use various and asundry means to get it, most of them hurtful, disrespectul, and unkind.

Near the end of our time together, the Lord prompted me to open Genesis Chapter 3. And there I found words I never remembered seeing before. As I read the words aloud, a hush came over the room. Chills came over us. God said to Eve:

I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth
And you will desire to control your husband
but he will rule over you. (Genesis 3:16, NLT)

Wow! Our desire to be in control, to want the household run our way, to have our own way is not a surprise to God. In fact, it is the result of Eve's disobedience. It is sin.

For the next few posts, I would like to examine this concept. Why? Because reading those words gave us great hope. If our desire to control our husbands is sin, as a child of God, as a believer of Jesus, we have already been forgiven of it. Through Jesus' death, resurrection, and victory on the cross, sin is no longer ours! We have a new life promised through faith in Jesus Christ, one no longer controlled by sin and selfishness, but one cleansed and filled by God's Love empowered by the God's Holy Spirit, and guided by God's Word.

Join me as I look at this extraordinary gift of God's Love and how in that Love we can overcome anything, especially this curse found in Genesis 3. As a taste for next time, please read 1 John 4:19

We love each other because He loved us first. (NLT)

Experiencing God to the Full

Paul prays an incredible prayer for the Church in Ephesus, and we find it in Ephesians 3:16-19.

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Oh, that we would live in that love and in that power. This is a power that does not come naturally. It is a supernatural power...something only God can give and more than that...something He WANTS to give!!

It is our Father in heaven's desire that each one of us EXPERIENCE Him through His Word. He does not want us to just read it. He wants it to seep deep into the marrow of our bones, so much so that it begins to renew us and transform us. I have a dear friend who survived a year long journey with leukemia this past year. What saved her life is a bone marrow transplant from her sister. As her sister's healthy bone marrow entered her body, it began to renew, refresh, and replace all that was bringing her closer and closer to death.

I went back to my journal and found this prayer for her

Father, we thank You that Your Word abides in Paige, that the power of Your Holy Spirit resides in her body, the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead. It is Your Word and this power that will deliver her to wholeness in body and spirit to the very deepest parts of her body, even to her joints and the marrow of her bones and her blood. We claim the Promise in Your Word that it is medication and life to her flesh.

We need to live every day knowing and believing that we, as children of God, as daughters of the King, are filled with the fullness of God! His Word tells us that in no uncertain terms. We need to yearn for experiencing the fullness of God every day. In that yearning and searching we will find health for our body and healing for our bones. We will find wholeness and a joy that is incomprehensible!

My prayer for each of us is that every day we would live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and we would hunger deep in our hearts for His Word and that nothing else would satisfy us but time alone with Him.

Sweet blessings to you,

Wendy

LIVING TRUTH

Friends,

Over the past week I have received e-mails and heard stories which have given me a glimpse into the hurting hearts that are all around us. What I see is fear, pain, and anxiety consuming hearts that are meant to be filled with the all consuming fire of God. Each woman seeking help, seeking direction, seeking answers to their pain.

My heart cries out for these women because I KNOW that place. I spent so many years living my life consumed with fear, with unforgiveness, and with anxiety. Then I met Jesus. I met Him in His Word. No counseling, no medication, no advice can replace the living, powerful, and effective Word of God in healing hurts and transforming lives.

I have entitled my blog LIVING TRUTH because I have come to know God's Word as Living Truth. First, because He tells me so in His Word: For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Hebrews 4:12-13a. Second, because God has taught me how to "Live" Truth by claiming it for myself through believing prayer.

Today, my heart is overwhelmed by these hurting hearts, by remembering where I was so many years ago. If this describes your heart, I encourage you to read your Bible and ask your Father in Heaven to reveal His living Word to you, to bring it alive. Plead with Him to show Himself as an all-consuming fire that will consume your fears, your hurts, your doubts, your worries, and cleanse you from the inside out!

Here is my prayer for you:

Heavenly Father, I pray for every women opening her Bible wherever she may be. I pray that You would show up in a powerful and mighty way. Thank You, Father, that You promise that when we seek You with all our heart we will find You. I claim that promise for every hurting heart calling out to You today. Give each woman a hunger as she studies and seeks after You. Reveal Yourself through Your Word. Draw each woman to You in a powerful way, Lord. Move her to yearn to be in Your presence. Use her time with You to heal and to fill the hurting, empty places. Fill her with the fullness of Your Spirit so much so that she physically feels You. Refresh and renew her, Lord. Light a fire in her heart to carry her through the rough times. May Your healing balm soothe and calm all that concerns her, carry her through whatever the days and weeks hold. Show her more and more of You every day!! I ask this in the Name above all names, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. AMEN

God Speaks Today

Have you read the story of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9:14-32? In this story, the father brings his child to Jesus, explaining that his son has been sick since he was a small child. He asks Jesus if he could heal the boy. Jesus replies, "What do you mean, 'if I can?' Anything is possible if a person believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaims, "I do believe; help me with my unbelief."

Can you identify with the father? I had a time in my life where I totally identified with that father. He said, "I do believe!" But he was honest enough to admit to Jesus that he also had unbelief. His son had been sick for years, and he prayed many times before for healing. He had even asked the disciples to drive out the spirit, and they failed. His son's circumstances had not changed.

The father humbly asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief. The Greek word for unbelief is apistols, meaning "untrustworthy, not worthy of confidence or belief." The bottom line is the father was not certain Jesus could heal his son...but he wanted to.

Is there something for which you are desperately crying out to God? Do you want to believe with all your heart that God can transform your circumstances? Are you like the father in this story, you want to believe but are not sure you can fully trust God?

I had a time in my life when I answered "yes" to these questions. I had been the victim of a terrible crime. I wanted to believe God would avenge my crime - He would orchestrate circumstances that would lead to my rapist's arrest and conviction. I wanted to believe I would no longer have to live in fear of him. And there were times when I experienced moments of trust. Then the police lost the evidence in my case. In that moment, I gave up on God and lost all hope. I wondered what God was doing...how He could let this happen.

In direct answer to my questions, God led me to 2 Corinthians 5:7 which says, "walk by faith, not by sight." Up to this point in my journey, I had spent my life walking by sight. Beth Moore writes, "Christ isn't asking us to believe in our ability to exercise unwavering faith. He is asking us to believe His is able." It occurred to me that I had been judging God based on what He had done for me and not on His unchanging character.

The crucial question for you and me is this: Do we believe God is able to do what His Word promises? Moreover, do we really even know what His Word promises, especially when it comes to trials and suffering? If you identify with my heart today, if you can answer "yes" to these questions, will you share your thoughts with me? Will you take a step further and write a prayer sharing your thoughts with God and asking Him to help you with your unbelief?

Prayer

PRAYER. Does just hearing the word intimidate you? Do you feel like you never pray as well as the woman across the circle? Do you refuse to pray out loud because you are embarrassed? That was me not too long ago. Then someone taught me a beautiful truth about prayer. She said prayer is a glorious encounter with God in which we come to know Him better and love Him more. Period. That's it. There is no formula. God has no agenda. He simply delights in being with us.

Zephaniah 3:17 says, "For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

Can you imagine a more wonderful picture? My daughter Lauren is 15 and extremely busy with school, cheerleading, and friends. When she accepts my invitation to dinner or a trip to the mall, I am happy because between our schedules, mother-daughter outings are rare. However, when Lauren initiates the invite, I am overwhelmed with joy because she has chosen to be with me. It does not matter what we do as long as we are spending time together. When we come to our Father in prayer, He feels much the same way. He has no expectations. God does not care how eloquent our words sound. He simply delights in the fact that we come to Him. His delight is so great that He rejoices over us with songs of joy!

Will you come to Him today? Will you join me in my prayer that I wrote for our Proverbs 31 Devotional today? Will you take that prayer and make it your own? Let me know what you experience today with God? I would love to hear your stories.