Do Not Depart

Encouragement and Tools to Abide in God's Word

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A Love Challenge that’s Bound to Change Things

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Our world throws away the broken. It’s what we do. We tend to look for the greener pastures. When people don’t meet our “needs” we think about tossing them to the side. At least I do. But that’s not Jesus, or His example of enduring love.

 


flickr photo credit

 

Jesus went to a cross and bled and died for people who hated Him. Then He rose to defeat the consequences of my sin. He intercedes for the wayward. He pursues the lost sheep. He moves towards His own rather than running the other way.

I long to love like Him. But…I can’t.

When left to me I hurt in return. I sling back the same insults. I think up the most effective revenge tactic. I revile when I’ve been reviled.

It’s only when I die to self that His love can come out. It’s only when I confess my insufficiency that His love can birth. It’s only when I believe Him to fill me by the indwelling power of His Spirit that I even remotely reflect my Lord.

People won’t always meet our expectations. They will misunderstand or misrepresent us. But love doesn’t stop just because that other person turns away. True love endures to the end.

It presses through the hard and digs deep in prayer, following Jesus’ example.

We can’t love like Jesus when left to us. It’s impossible. In our flesh, we’re too self-focused and needy. But He can love through us. The God of endurance and encouragement can enable us in spite of us. (Romans 15:5) What grace.

 

My challenge to us today is that we take one step in the direction of enduring love.

 

Just one. Let’s move towards that person we’re tempted to discard, enduring like our Lord.

 
So tell me, what will you do as an act of enduring love today?
 

The Danger of Compromise {Run To Him – Psalm 1}

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Compromise slowly progresses to full on rebellion. We see it in Psalm 1.

First we walk in the counsel of the world, turning one ear to society and pondering its perception of love, marriage, sex, or money. Like when I decide to watch some TV show that completely slanders my God. And I wince at the blasphemy. Until I linger. Until I watch it again.

Then our feet stop. We stand for a while, both ears listening to the world’s definition of truth. And what used to be preposterous now holds our attention. It boosts our self-ego and pets our pride, encouraging us to take a seat.


flickr photo credit: wonderlane

And if we continue to run from His arms of mercy, then we sit. We point and belittle what we once held dear. We turn our face from the One who designed us. And in the end we look like the scoffers hurling insults at that One being nailed to a wooden beam. And it can began with a single compromise.

I desire to be like that tree that bears fruit even in the midst of drought. I want my kids and husband to see His reflection in me. But unless my mind stays fixed on His Word and His ways I will become like the chaff that the wind drives away. (Psalm 1:4) Unless I delight in His Word, I will rebel. We will rebel.

So how do you remain diligent to delight in God’s Word?
What “rewards” have you seen in your own life as you choose to meditate on true things?
For those who participate in the “Run To Him” study, what did you glean from the text this week?

Believing Better :: A Season of Waiting

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There’s often a space of time between the moment God speaks a promise to His child and the moment He fulfills that promise. What we do in the waiting proves our faith — or lack thereof.

 


flickr photo credit: Julian Lim

 

God spoke a very personal promise to me a number of years ago. But days turned to months which turned to years and the promise still hung in the abyss-of-tomorrow. So I found myself doubting. I doubted whether I had truly heard Him. I doubted whether He would actually come through. And in the doubting I grew complacent to His miraculous touch. And I’m certain that it grieved Him.

 

Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

 

God convicted me of my doubt. As a faithful Father He opened my eyes to my unbelief. And I broke before Him. As I confessed, He cleansed me. And then with deep conviction, I declared His promise yet again.

We cannot obtain the promises of God unless we believe Him, regardless of what we may see in our today. (Hebrews 11:33) He who promised is both able and willing to bring it to pass.

When we’re faced with that season of waiting, joy stirs in our souls as we choose to set our minds on what’s to come. As we choose to say with conviction, “I don’t know how. I don’t know when. But my God will faithfully come through.”

 
What promise of God are you standing on today?
 

Abiding Fruit :: Gentleness :: One Thing I Try To Remember

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I can pinpoint the sin of others really well — especially those closest to me. If they asked, I could give them a detailed, alphabetical list of exactly what’s “wrong with them.” Meanwhile I have this huge plank hanging from my own eye. It’s causing me to hemorrhage but I don’t notice.

That’s why I have to actively remember something.


We’re all in process. All of us. Including me. Especially me.





Paul tells us to restore others in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch of ourselves lest we be tempted. (Gal. 6:1) If I forget that I am in process, just like everyone else on this planet, then I start pointing fingers. If I forget that I’m desperate for the grace of my God, then pride tempts me.

Love sometimes gets a little messy. God sometimes calls us to confront the sin in another. But we’re to do it in a spirit of gentleness. To maintain a gentle spirit, especially when my emotions flare, I have to remember who I am in light of God. I have to remember that I too am in process.


How do you keep a spirit of gentleness when confronting the sin of another?

What spoke to you this week in the Abiding Fruit study?

The Tragedy in Jonah Wasn’t the Big Fish

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I’ve heard the story since before I could walk. Jonah disobeyed God and got swallowed by a big fish. But last week as I waded through the short pages of the book of Jonah, a deeper tragedy hit me.

Jonah’s heart.



God lavished His grace on Jonah. But Jonah couldn’t pour out that same grace on his own enemies. Instead he wanted God to smote them. He wanted revenge.

But God was grace.

I needed that reminder last week. I needed to remember. When left to me, the only thing I *deserve* is His judgment. Yet He so mercifully pursued me, even when I rejected Him. He so tenderly extends great grace in my life, day after day after day. How dare I not extend that same grace to those beside me.

To think I could have skimmed that familiar story and missed it. I could have flipped through the pages instead of allowing His alive Word to minister to my deceptive heart.

It’s so tempting to do. We come to a passage we’ve read before so we rush through. But even those familiar passages breathe with life. Even the story of Jonah contains a fresh word for my today.

How do you remain intentional in your Bible study even when reading those familiar passages?


Three Necessary Actions to Knowing God

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Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3



To know Him — truly know Him — means He affects my moments. It means my view changes and my response softens when dinner is late, stuff spills, and kids need me. When I can’t touch peace as easy or my feelings flare, to know Him means I press into Him — the Source of peace. And then I change.




Three basic things have to happen in order for me to know Him. These aren’t the only things, but they are necessary for me to say I actively know God:


  1. I observe Him — I pause and glean from His Word. I watch Him through the pages of Scripture. I note how He moves and learn what He expects from me as His child. I observe Him.


  2. I reflect upon Him — I think about what I’ve observed. I meditate upon His ways and His words. I hold myself up to His Word and honestly evaluate my own heart. I linger, reflecting upon Him.


  3. I experience Him — It’s His day — His plan. So I commune with Him. I submit to Him. I believe Him to fill me full of His Spirit. Then I listen to His promptings and ask Him to strengthen me towards obedience.


I often get distracted. I stand in the middle of my kitchen with water boiling in the background, the table covered in craft project leftovers, and I react. I overreact. Yet He graciously whispers, “Know Me. Know Me.” So I stop, close my eyes, and think upon the God I observed that morning. I commune with Him. I know Him. And He changes me.



How do you personally know God? What do you do to know Him?


Abiding Fruit :: John 15:1-11 {The Benefits of Abiding}

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I do so well at abiding and obeying…until everyone else wakes up for the day. To be real honest, people and circumstance challenge my footing.

But I desire to bear much fruit and bring glory to my God, even when life gets wild. (Jn. 15:8) That’s my ultimate longing. So I need my feet rooted deep in Him, not just resting on the surface. I need to abide.

So I’ve asked Him to teach me how to remain in Him and how to have His Word dwell in me richly. (Jn. 15:7) Because the benefits of abiding are priceless.

To think that I could experience His joy to the full even when things don’t go as I’ve planned or hoped. (Jn. 15:11) To think that His “calm delight and cheerfulness” could be “crammed” to the top of my soul, “making (me) replete” with joy.* The thought overwhelms me.

And not only that, my abiding affects my prayer life. If I abide and if His words abide in me, He will answer my prayers with a “yes.”

“Whatever I want? Are you telling me He will give me whatever I want?” Um, sort of.




It reminds me of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Getting what we want begins with delighting, or “remaining pliable” in Him.* It begins with abiding.

Something interesting happens when I truly delight in Him, when I faithfully remain. The desires of my heart change. They transform. What my flesh once desired now seems bitter.

Revenge on those who hurt me, or gaining more “stuff,” is now irrelevant. It’s love that tastes sweet. His selfless, sacrificial love flowing through me onto those beside me becomes my earnest desire.

And He will say “yes.”

To gain the benefits of abiding — bringing Him glory, being filled full with His joy, and having my prayers answered with “yes” — begins and ends with the abiding.


So tell me, how do we abide even when life sends us on a wild ride?
What did you glean from the “Abiding Fruit” study last week?



*See Strong’s Concordance.

I’m Remembering, Because Stuff Will Happen

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Sometimes I feel like I say the same things over and over. I guess it’s because I DO say things over and over, like use an inside voice or brush your teeth or take your finger out of your nose. I say that about 843 times each day.

I say these things again and again because my kids get distracted. They know what they are supposed to be doing but the Nerf gun on the floor grabs their attention or their Webkinz puppy calls from cyber-space. They get distracted.

But I get distracted.



Today, this day, I need to be reminded of true things because stuff will happen.

The daily lists and chores and errands and kids will happen. And they happen loud and quick. Disease and betrayal and death may knock, aiming to steal my footing. But regardless, I have choice with every single moment of today.

In this day, by His grace, I want to choose to believe what He says. Because His Word works.

Believing His love to be over me and surrounding me causes the fear to bow down. Casting all my cares upon Him brings peace that passes all earthly understanding. His Word is true. And when we choose to meditate upon it and reckon it so, blessing flows.

In the moments of this day, I’m telling myself the true things…again. Because, no doubt, stuff will happen.


What promise are you actively believing today?


We have a Faith-Race to run.

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Throughout my life, summer has meant slowing down. A silencing of the schedule. A softer pace through the longer days.



But the wise words of a professor from years ago hit me afresh recently,

“We cannot coast through a single day.”

Not a single day.


Do you not know that those who run in a race all run,
but one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone that competes for the prize is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25


I’ve recently started running. Physically running. If you can call it that. I huff up the hills, and then praise him for gravity when I start down the hills. But running has made these verses from first Corinthians come to life.

We are in a faith-race. And in this race we can choose to run fervently and passionately, or we can choose to sit on the curb and eat donuts in defeat. Every day we have a choice. And coasting will not lead us into victory. Coasting will only cause our hearts to become entangled with deception.

True, it’s summer. But the enemy does not take a summer vacation. The flesh does not cease from striving against the Spirit. Unless we keep running — keep hiding His Word in our hearts — we will not live in the daily abundance promised by our Lord.

So I leave you with what I’m now tempted to yell out of my car window when I see fellow runners hitting the pavement. “You go, girl. You run that thing.”



What truths or promises from His Word are you standing upon these days?
How would you say your endurance in this faith-race is going?



Philippians :: Week 6 :: Complaining is Not a Spiritual Gift

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My little ones copy me. And if I’m not diligent, I copy those Israelites of old who complained about what wasn’t. It comes so natural — the complaining and questioning — but ultimately it reflects a deeper soul conflict. It reflects distrust and disbelief.


“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…”
(Philippians 2:14-16)


I’m pretty sure that Paul meant all things. Do all things without complaining. Do all the wife-things, do all the mommy-things, do all the house-things, do all the job-things, do all the life-things without grumbling and questioning, so that we can shine as lights in our homes, in our workplaces, in the grocery store, and in our church buildings.



It’s grace words that reflect our Lord — blameless and harmless. But for grace words to spill from our lips, grace thoughts have to fill our minds.




For too many years a complaining heart stole my joy. And the grumbling spilled out. But God so faithfully opened my eyes. He tenderly began transforming my mind.



I'm starting a new series on the thought life over at my personal blog because in Christ we have been given the tools — the weapons — to think grace thoughts even when life seems to be spiraling. Even when the laundry piles and the kids whine. Even if, as in Paul’s case, the chains have us bound and our very tomorrow sits with grave uncertainty.



As we meditate upon the truths of our God, as revealed through his word, victory comes. In verse 13 Paul lays out a key truth. He tells us “why” we can live without complaining, regardless of our circumstance. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) God is working in the lives of his children. He wills and does for his good, holy pleasure. He transforms us and gives life abundant. Our call is to believe him.



We can live these moments apart from complaining as we meditate upon the sovereign love of our Maker. As we trust that he is indeed working, even through this. As we choose to think on his promises and believe his claims, then the words that fill our mouth will be peace words. Praise words. Grace words.



Do all things without complaining and disputing. Our God is reigning secure.



The #hellomornings group is studying Philippians 2:12-18 this week. What from the text spoke to you?

How do you stay diligent to do life without complaining?


Oh for His Word to Invade Our Moments

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It has become my mantra of sorts…


“If what I teach does not invade and transform the moments of my own life then I am missing the point.” ~lara williams


If what I teach only graces my lips in front of a group of ladies and never affects how I “work out my own salvation,” then I’m missing it. I’m missing the abundance rightfully mine in Christ.

It’s like when  if I were to grab a toy out of my kids’ hands while saying, “Don’t grab toys from people!” Then, yeah. Somewhere we have a breakdown.






He wants freedom for us. He desires we live the fullest life. He sent his own son to die an excruciating, humiliating death to redeem us, while we were still his enemies. He loves us beyond all human reason. And he graciously guides and pierces through his sweet word.



Studying his word is crucial, necessary, and right. Edifying others with his word is our call. But if his word isn’t meeting us in our own moments with our kids, or affecting how we treat our husbands, or challenging us beyond our comfort zones, then we are missing its power to heal and transform our own lives. We’re missing the point.



Let’s just be really real. We are all on this journey. We are all in process. We all speak out of our selfishness at times and react in our flesh. We all need his grace and mercy to fall on us. But none of us have to stay where we are. In Christ, the old is gone and he has new things — freedom things — for us to experience.



Pray with me that he will reveal areas of discrepancy in our daily living. That he will open our eyes to things that need purging. Let’s dare to ask him to show us, through his word and through his Spirit, places that need his touch.



Sending love to you, friends.



How do you stay diligent, allowing his word to invade your own daily moments?
How have you struggled with the discrepancy?


the day His word came to life

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Oh, I was on-fire for Jesus. The kind of on-fire that calls old friends to make amends and weeps with joy over a forgiven past. He redeemed me from so many pits. He lifted me out of myself and opened my eyes. Then like only our wild God can do, he led this prodigal to seminary.

I craved him deep. I wanted to see him and know him. I wanted to love him and believe him. I wanted to hear him.

I’ll never forget that particular day. I had been studying for my classes when his word came to life. As I poured over the pages of scripture, he personally, intimately spoke to my soul. He bent down into time and his word pierced me. It met me right there in that little coffee shop. And I knew he saw me…and loved me. I knew he was speaking.

When I got back to my dorm room the thought overwhelmed me. I threw my bible down on the bed, looked at my roommate, and said, “The thing is alive and it’s freaking me out!”

 

It is. Alive.

 

His word breathes. His word is. His word stands. And we are a needy people. We  are needy for his truth to meet us in the everyday moments of life, from the mundane to the monumental. Guiding us. Defining us. Sustaining us. Affecting us…if we are willing to listen.

Remember with me today. His word is alive and active. He is willing to speak to our souls and invade our day. So let’s dig deep and believe him.


How has his word come alive to you?

 

 

 

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