Walking With Jesus

The Power of Words

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.’” (Genesis 1:1-2a NLT)

When God speaks, things happen! When God speaks, the heavens and earth obey! When God speaks to the darkness, light overpowers it and chases it away! When He speaks, even the demons tremble!

God set a precedent with the use of words. He could have formed the heavens, earth, sea, and sky with His hands, with a motion, even with a thought, but instead He chose to use the power of His words.

We too often forget the power of words when we use them unwisely, cruelly, in anger, unjustly, or with malice or ill intent. We can forfeit the power of words when we remain silent when we should speak, and, at other times, speak when we should have remained silent.

How can we know when to exercise the power of words and when to be quiet? The short and simple answer is when words are called for. But the reason behind every reason is: when God believes words are necessary. What’s the point?

If we will learn to listen to God’s still, small voice, it will save us a lot of heartache and agony of spirit. I’m still learning, so, I’m not an expert, but I can share what He’s teaching me.

How many times have we spoken and almost before the words reach our listener’s ears, we know we shouldn’t have said them? Why did we? Two reasons, we didn’t listen first, but, secondly, we thought we knew what to say and didn’t need to listen. Andy Mineo wrote: “God used words to create this planet so be careful with them.”

Words are my refuge in this season of my life. They are my respite, my hiding place in the midst of the noisy, passion-filled, dangerous moments of my life when I’m struggling to know what to feel and why to feel that way.

Words balance me in ways nothing else can. I can write words, leave them, come back, and they speak to me differently than when I left them. Conversations with myself are preserved in ways that may move me, anger me, frustrate me, or make me hold my belly with laughter. I see things, understand things, wrestle with things that words present to me, and depending on their source, may frighten or disturb me.

I’ve been a lover of words for years, but now, as the Lord is speaking more or, perhaps, I’m just listening more carefully, He’s completing me. He’s expanding my heart, mind, soul, and strength in an effort to receive and, in some ways, absorb each one. With my memory fading, it’s as if I need a constant influx of words to instruct, encourage, inform, awaken, correct, guide, cheer, and heighten my awareness, or a thousand other reasons He may desire or demand my attention.

Perhaps that’s a main reason He gave us His Word – the Bible. In our haste we think we can live as a Jesus follower without ready, studying, memorizing, and hungering for His words, but it’s always to our peril.

We are alive, literally and figuratively, in Christ, because of the power of His words, yet, if we don’t know them, how will we ever live by them? Or share them effectively?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Changing Culture

“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.” (Romans 1:21-22 NLT)

As a nation, and as a world community, how did we lose our way? And don’t misunderstand, we didn’t make the proverbial wrong turn, we have become a world of people with a completely wrong agenda.

Recently I listened to a powerful and frightening message by Jonathan Cahn entitled “Sign of the Antichrist,” in which he makes reference to George Orwell’s book 1984. In his book Orwell speaks of a totalitarian government that changes the meanings of words into their opposite that was called “newspeak.” For example, As Cahn put it: “If the government’s agenda is oppression and hate, they call it love; if it’s war, they call it peace; if it’s propaganda and lies, they call it truth.”

In a pre-election speech Kamala Harris referred to abortion as a “fundamental freedom,” while in God’s eyes it is, as it’s always been, murder. Two young men shouted out in one of her rallies, “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is King!” and she told them, “You’re in the wrong rally!” and they were forcibly removed.

Why is this a concern? Because her warped interpretation of the meaning of words we’ve understood in a certain way for decades, even centuries, is now being revealed to mean something entirely different, but that’s not the scary part. The terrifying issue here is that she’s merely a puppet shouting the acclamations of her “master,” the one who is really in control of this precisely designed shift in the way things are seen. His name is Satan. And he’s right on schedule.

Google the word “Newspeak” and this is what you’ll find. Newspeak is a propagandistic language characterized by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings¹ ². The term was coined by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-four and was designed to diminish the range of thought ¹. It was the language preferred by Big Brother’s enforcers ¹. Newspeak eliminates or alters certain words, substitutes one word for another, and creates words for political purposes ³. The idea behind Newspeak is that as language becomes less expressive, the mind is more easily controlled ⁴.

Is that not terrifying to you? What are the implications? To me, the most startling is, the more confused we become, the more complacent we are to what’s happening, thus more easily controlled. When Ms. Harris asked the students to leave the most disturbing part to me were the faces of those in the crowd cheering with approval.

Carey Nieuwhof wrote: “The culture is changing and never bothered to ask your permission.” Culture changes at the whim of those willing to shout their demands the loudest. It’s not about right or wrong anymore, it’s about who’s willing to persist in pushing their agenda on every unsuspecting soul they can. They make it sound palatable by using familiar words, but with a very distinct and different meaning.

Killing babies becomes a woman’s “freedom,” child exploitation and mutilation become “love,” trafficking slavery of young boys and girls become “pleasure and entertainment,” and lies and propaganda are sold as “truth.” Our world is upside down and we let it happen with our apathy and unwillingness to be involved. Dear believer, did you even vote?

As believers we’ve been so reluctant, fearing we’d do the “wrong” thing, we’ve done nothing and we’ve let the extremists take over our countries. And the sad truth may be that it’s too late to change the course the world is now on. So many in our churches and even the many who profess to have a relationship with Jesus, but are not even a part of a church, have so twisted the Gospel of Christ that salvation has become license and those who oppose or seek to correct them are bigots and hypocrites.

Have we reached the point of no return?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

I Do Every Day: The Worst Moment in Your Marriage

*On occasion, when my heart is arrested by the power of an article, I want to share it in its entirety with you. Today is such a day as I share these much-needed words by Janel Breitenstein. This is a Family Life Devotional by the same title as above.

I hesitate to even bring it up—because even saying “the worst moment in your marriage” can conjure some aching, terrible moments.

They’re moments you never envisioned when you two were doe-eyed at the altar, when your vows had little more than imagination attached.

Maybe it was the day a parent died or a terrible miscarriage. Maybe it was a lost dream or the vision you had for a child. Maybe it was the day you found him with porn or the texts on her phone.

As a wife who’s walked through dark days, I ask an honest question: What if the next worst moment in your marriage … could be one of your best?

I’m not saying flowers and unicorns will spontaneously erupt from the next agonizing day before you.

But in some of those moments where life felt ripped open, I found myself pleading—at times in unintelligible gasps—for God’s wisdom. I’ve asked for the impossible. I’ve begged Him to somehow, somehow create beauty out of what could only be ashes. Sometimes, I’ve only been able to whisper some form of “Help.”

And following those moments, I see a distinct pattern of baffling follow-through on God’s part.

Most frequently, God has helped me to move beyond knee-jerk reactions that stem from the soil of profound fear. Rather than my instincts to control or punish or despair, He’s substituted supernatural gentleness. A relational pursuit to bless the other person rather than curse them. A trust that somehow, God can create new life from every loss, every death.

God has given both me and my husband the power to repeat a version of what Jesus did. He’s granted the power to trust Him with what’s most precious to us. He’s helped us to forgive and move toward each other in kindness and sacrifice, rather than revenge.

Essentially? Those worst moments are opportunities for the message of Jesus to speak the loudest. They turn our stories into love stories—not of the Disney variety, but the kind that go the distance.

What could God do with your next worst moment?

Do you have unrealistic expectations for your marriage? Read on.

What Difference Does the Holy Spirit Make?

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.” (John 16:7-8 NLT)

What comes first to your mind when you think of the Holy Spirit? Power is the most predominant thought when I think of Him. Then I think of Acts 1:8 that says: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” But power for what? “And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere…”

What do you think about when you hear that the Holy Spirit empowers you to be Christ’s witness? Speaking to people about Him? Yes, of course, but there’s so much more. Jack Graham wrote: “The Holy Spirit enables us to do ordinary things with extraordinary results.” And yes, of course, that includes sharing our faith with others. But the reality is, everything we do, say, or even think reflects the Spirit’s activity in our lives.

The more awareness we have of the Spirit’s activity in us, the more focused we can become on what a huge difference He is making in the world around and through us. We tend to be very self-centered and self-focused. Our attitude, even as a believer, is too often that God’s activity should bless, protect, guard, guide, help, encourage, satisfy, bring pleasure, enjoyment, and encouragement – TO ME! TO US!

How He’s working in the world is almost nonexistent in the hearts and minds of many, if not most believers – BUT THAT’S GOD’S FOCUS ALL THE TIME! Notice Jesus’ words in the verse above: “He will convict the WORLD.“ And yes, of course, that includes you and me, but we’ll be blind to much of the difference the Holy Spirit is making if we only view Him through the lens of what He’s doing in ME!

Sin seems more obvious in these last days. EVERYONE is talking about it. EXACTLY! More and more people are becoming aware of the world’s sin, which is, hopefully and ideally, a short step from seeing their own sin. Nothing becomes powerful in and for us unless and until it becomes personal. It’s like seeing all that’s wrong in the world and even in our own lives and asking: “When is someone going to do something about this!”

It’s the Holy Spirt who turns that question upon us and asks? “Good question! When ARE YOU going to do something about it?” Sin, as hideous and disastrous as it is, is ultimately a PERSONAL problem. Things aren’t sinful, people are sinful, but things become dangerous in the hands of or under the control of sinful human beings.

Nuclear missiles aren’t the problem, the sinful human beings that conceived the need of them in the first place and hold in their heart and mind the power to use them are the problem. The world isn’t going to change until the hearts and lives of the people in the world change and that’s the Holy Spirit’s role – to change the hearts and lives of human beings like me and you.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to change US, He’ll help us focus on others, then we’ll begin to see a change in the world. That’s among the biggest differences the Holy Spirit is making.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Practice of Profession?

“So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, ‘We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” (Acts 6:11 NLT)

The quality of Stephen’s life and the power of his words so convicted the Jews that they had to bribe men to lie about him in order to build a case against him. Is that what someone would need to do in order to make an accusation about you or me? I pray that would be the case, but how do we know for sure?

Status or reputation is a hard thing to gauge in this day and time. Public news channels, social media and other internet outlets can build a case against almost anyone, making false claims and dropping innuendos that purposely mislead people to believe lies about someone. Yes, of course, we expect it when it’s a politician, but it’s far more widespread than that.

What we say or “imply” about one another through texts or through our Facebook page comments can build up or tear down someone with a few keystrokes. But what is says about the author of those comments is much more important than what it says about the person about whom the comments were written. A person of character tells the truth, a person without character tells lies.

Which are you? Which am I? The practices of our life – how we treat others, especially those with whom we live, how we conduct our business transactions, how we prioritize our day, how much time we devote to God’s Word and prayer and contemplating the implications of those words to our life, how we care for our body – in short, how we live out our commitment to Christ each day is far more important and valuable than what we say about our own profession of faith.

Mark Driscoll wrote: “Christianity is about what you practice, not just what you profess.” It makes little difference how powerful the words of my mouth or the flattering words of our admirers, the only opinion of us that matters is that of our Lord. What does Jesus think about my commitment to Him? Ultimately, He’s the only One before whom we’ll stand to give an account of our lives. He will be our only Judge, not the opinions of those who tickle our ears with their kind words.

Who are you trying to please with your “Christian” faith? Your friends and “admirers,” or your Lord? And please don’t hear what I’m not saying. It’s well and good to have friends to whom you can give positive input regarding their faith walk and from whom you can receive such feedback. But if it’s always positive and no one ever dares confront you with a glaring inconsistency in your walk, of what value is their friendship?

Love confronts when we misstep! Love calls our bluff when we’re walking the edge of moral failure! Love cares enough to tell us the truth, risking our friendship for the health of our walk with God and others. Profession is good and needs to be made, but practice puts power in our profession. It gives credence to our credentials as a person of God.

Please, we must never rest on the laurels of our reputation or upon the accolades of man. Our goal is to please our Master and get our input as to how we’re doing with that, from Him. He will reward us or correct us.

We live to an audience of One. Only His opinion matters and only He can give validity to whether what we profess is being practiced.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

All In?

“The teacher of religious law replied, ‘Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love Him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” (Mark 12:32-33 NLT)

Giving all of anything can be difficult. We promise to make ALL the payments on our new ________; or keep ALL the vows we make to our spouse or business partner or new employer. We too often enter into agreements, both verbal and written before we count the cost and ponder the implications of our “agreement.”

What about our “agreement” with the Lord? Often in the emotion of the moment all we can think about is what the Lord is giving us – forgiveness, hope, eternal life, His Spirit, Heaven – that we completely ignore or fail to consider what this “commitment” is going to cost us. We rarely ask ourselves what any of the things the Lord asks of us means to us in practical terms.

How do we live out our salvation on a daily basis? How do we illustrate our commitment to Christ with a flesh and blood response? How do we reflect and live out the “all in” attitude of our heart we felt at the Men’s Conference, Women’s Gathering, or Camp experience in and through our life today and each day hence?

Paul David Tripp wrote: “Live today in the power of the resurrection, power to say ‘no’ to what leads to death and the power to say ‘yes’ to what gives life.” That sounds great and it stirs emotion, but what does it mean? What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? How do we receive the Spirit’s power into our lives? How do we activate that power when faced with temptation? How is it reflected in how we live and love?

Those are questions we must ask and answer for ourselves, but I can offer some suggestions. We all walk our own path, but, truthfully, we’re never alone. The Lord is ever-present, which means He’s as close to us in any given second as the air we breathe. The Lord also, ideally, gives us a person or group of persons with whom we can walk.

Our individual journeys may lead us in different directions, but we can learn from one another and garner strength and courage from others in our walk. We activate the Spirit’s presence through prayer and conversation as we invite Him to make Himself known as we navigate the course of any given day. We confess our need of Him and our desire to please Him. We explain in our own words and our own ways that we want to accomplish His will as He gives us instructions throughout the day, but we need His guidance.

When we’re tempted to say “yes” to what will rob us of vitality in our walk with Him, we confess and ask the Lord to strengthen us and give us courage to turn away. We formulate godly disciplines that will shape us and mold us in ways that will make it easier for us to keep our mind on Him and our steps on the right course.

Being “all-in” for Jesus isn’t simply a declaration that someone may make about us at our funeral, it’s a decision we make each morning as our eyes open to the light of a new day. It’s our declaration of allegiance to Jesus as we begin the day and as we take each step with Him throughout the day.

These are the things that will lead to whether we’ll be “all-in” for Him or not. It’s not simply a “life-time” decision, it’s an “each moment of this day and everyday decision.”

Are you living “All-in” for Jesus today? If you’re not, why not?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Sure It’s Time?

“Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him!” (Matthew 6:8 NLT)

Time is a tricky thing, isn’t it? When we’re with someone we love and/or doing something we love to do, time flies, but when we’re in pain or doing something we really don’t like doing, the time drags. I was visiting a friend in another city when he began getting severe pain with which I was all too familiar – he was having his first kidney stone attack.

We got to the car as fast as we could and began our journey to the hospital. Being unfamiliar with the area and following his directions as best I could, I came to a stop at a traffic light. I had every intention of going through it once I determined there was no traffic, but before I could complete my scan of traffic, my friend reached over with his leg and pushed the accelerator to the floor. Every second counted to him in his unbearable pain.

We’re like that with God sometimes. We’re in “pain” and we want answers, but it seems God is being too slow, and we’re determined to “help” Him in any way we can. The frustration that builds and the mental and emotional anguish it creates in us often blocks our mind and misleads our heart in believing God has forgotten the prayer we prayed.

It may have only been 3 days, but it seems like 3 years. Why is God so slow in answering our prayers? Beth Moore wrote: “Give it time. God is at work underground. Quit trying to force fruit that’s not yet due.”

The Lord has taught me over the years that His clock keeps perfect time. In my haste to hurry God along, I’ve often made mistakes I’ve lived to regret for a long time. When I was selling cars, I was introduced to Saabs. They don’t make them anymore, but Saab first made airplanes, so they were originally designed to be functional and practical, not necessarily attractive. But they’d been around several years when I came along, so I thought they were not only practical and functional, but very nice looking.

Long story short, I leased one. It was all I’d ever hoped it would be and more – until the payments started coming in. Almost from the first payment I regretted leasing it, but the terms of the lease required me to make 12 payments before they would let someone else take over the payments. Even though I loved the car, I hated that I’d jumped ahead of the Lord to get something I didn’t need and shouldn’t have gotten. It was a glorious day when the new “lessee” drove it away.

What have you “leased” or maybe “purchased” that you knew almost from the moment you signed on the dotted line: “This is a mistake!” Maybe it wasn’t something you bought, but a person you met. Nearly from the moment you said “yes” to beginning the relationship or to getting engaged or to getting married. Or maybe it was a job or some other kind of commitment that you so wish you hadn’t made.

All you can think or pray for is deliverance. But the plot thickens because you know better than anyone that no one made that commitment but YOU, now you’re begging God to get you out of it. Did the Lord know about this? Of course. Did He caution you not to make the commitment? A million times, but you didn’t listen. Has He written you off and left you to your own devices? No, of course not.

So, what should you do? Do the only thing you can do – WAIT for the Lord! Let the Lord work it out in His time. What should you do in the meantime? Learn what caused you to make that dumb move in the first place; otherwise, as soon as the Lord delivers you, you’ll do it again. It can be a slow, agonizing process, but please, wait until you’ve learned what you need to learn before you blame the Lord.

Make sure it’s the right time for deliverance, then thank the Lord when the time is right!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Whose Terms?

“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.” (Jude 1:21 NLT)

Whenever we enter a relationship with anyone, whether personal friendship or a business relationship, we come with certain expectations. Typically, in a formal contract, things will be spelled out, hopefully, to the understanding and agreement of all parties. But in friendship, unless entering into a marital commitment, our expectations are, hopefully shared, but usually unwritten.

Why does that matter? Largely, even if written, our expectations are personal and sometimes not clearly stated, thus opening the door to misunderstanding. For example, we may be sharing an apartment with a friend, and we’ve “agreed” to share expenses for groceries. Things go well for a while, until you begin to see what your $150 a week for groceries is actually buying.

You’re a “meat and potatoes” kind of person, but your roommate is more the “Caviar and Wine” type, so out of your $150 weekly grocery bill, only about $63 is yours and the rest theirs. So, you go to them and say: “Whoa! This isn’t what I signed up for!” While that’s a real problem, in some ways it’s not unlike what we do with the Lord.

Of course, with the Lord, He lays it all out from the beginning: “You get all of me, and I get all of you!” Having followed the Lord for many years, I’ve discovered He always gets the short end of the proverbial “stick.” But initially, it can be confusing to us.

We REALLY like our sin, so much so, we don’t want to give it up. But the Lord comes to us one day and says, “Remember when I told you: ‘When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!’ But you’re not following My directives. You need to make up your mind whose terms you’re going to follow, Mine or yours!”

Notice Jesus says in John 15:10 (above paragraph) “WHEN” not “IF” you obey My commandments:” To believe we can come to Christ, be forgiven of our sins, and have a promise of eternal life without submitting to Christ’s authority and obeying Him, is to believe a lie of the devil. Jared C. Wilson wrote: “If you will have Jesus on your own terms, it’s not Jesus that you have, but an idol.”

Perhaps that’s why people get disappointed with “following” Jesus, it’s not the Jesus of the Bible they’re following, it’s some construction of Jesus we’ve made up in our own mind or been given to us by a “friend” or follower of a non-Christian cult.

Jesus says very clearly what it will cost us to follow Him. In Luke 9:23 the Bible says: “Then He (Jesus) said: ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.’”

Here’s the truth: with Jesus, the only “terms” that matter are the ones He gives us. We either accept them or try to find another way to heaven. Personally, I’ve found that just following Him is a much easier way than trying to find a way on our own, a way, by the way, that doesn’t exist. Besides, He’s a very loving and kind Guide.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Obedience

“If you love Me, obey My commandments.” (John 14:15 NLT)

Obedience is rarely easy. I loved my mom’s chocolate cake. She used to bring one to me when she and my dad would visit when I was in college. But when I was a kid, after she baked one, she never told me: “Eat all you want!” Usually it was: “You can have a piece after dinner!” So, I waited.

What was my willingness to wait based upon? It wasn’t my love of chocolate cake; I would have stuffed myself the moment my mom left the room. It was my love and respect for my mom. We don’t obey the Lord because we don’t want to participate in or do whatever it is He’s told us not to do, we obey the Lord because we have love and respect for Him and His authority over our lives.

Corky Calhoun said: “Obedience is not a requirement of Christian commitment and discipleship, it’s the by-product of an undivided heart.” The 1^st Commandment doesn’t call us to obedience, it calls us to love. Our desire and willingness to obey the Lord grows out of our desire to please Him above ourselves. If you think about it, that’s the pathway to overcoming sin’s stranglehold on us as His followers.

If we truly DO what we LOVE, we’re going to obey the Lord over sin EVERY TIME! But what if I’m an addict? At some point you’ll have to decide who you love more: yourself and God or your sin. Yes, of course, many times, depending on how long you’ve been addicted, it will take time to be “weaned” from your habit, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

At some point you’ll have to decide: “ENOUGH! I’m done!” and begin your journey to healing and wholeness in Jesus. There are times when He will deliver you immediately, miraculously, but most of the time you must wrestle with your healing process for months, even years. But what’s the key? Taking it one step at a time; one temptation at a time; one “Yes, Lord” at a time, until that wonderful day you’re able to cheerfully and wholeheartedly say: “Thank You, Lord, for delivering me!”

Freedom from sin is the result of obedience to the commands of God which results from an undivided heart. When your loyalties are divided, your heart and mind will be in a constant state of flux. Decisions will be hard, with uncertainty as to the outcome, because we’ll never quite know for sure whether we’re walking in obedience to the Lord or not. The question behind every question becomes: “Whose will am I truly seeking? Mine or His?”

Before we come to Christ and recognize Him as Savior, we want what we want, without regard to what God thinks. But once we yield our life to Him, we know, at least in our mind, that we should want what God wants, so, the battle of wills begins. Slowly the desires of our mind, what we know to be right, become the desires of our heart, to do what ONLY He wants.

It’s at that point we’ll begin to see victory on the horizon of our soul. In this season of my life ALL I want is what God wants for me. Nothing owns my heart except Him. Am I perfect? Only as He views me. Do I ever “miss” it, in terms of hearing His instructions perfectly? I do, but my heart is right. So, when it becomes clear to me that I’ve misunderstood what He’s instructed me to do, I make amends where necessary or I otherwise do what He tells me to do to make it right.

You and I won’t always get the outcome perfectly until we get to the other side, but in the meantime, we must allow Him to train our heart to hear His voice above all others and desire His will above our own.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

In Due Time (Part 2)

“O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and you restored my health. You brought me up from the grave, O Lord! You kept me from falling into the pit of death. Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30: 2-5 NLT)

The night I asked the Lord Jesus to forgive me, come into my life and fill me with His Spirit, was a very emotional experience for me. I more than cried, I gasped with uncontrollable wailing. I’d never cried like that before, and only on rare occasion since. It was like I was undergoing an internal cleansing, which, of course, I was.

What I didn’t know or understand then that I see clearly now, is that the reason I had that spiritual breakthrough that led to my new “birth,” was because someone had been praying for me – specifically for me – by name.

Early in my walk with God I read a book on prayer by Dick Eastman who said essentially: “Behind the saving grace of every believer is someone praying.” The quote may not be exact, but I believe I’m staying true to his intent. Understanding that informs me in two ways: First, I wouldn’t know the Lord if someone hadn’t prayed for me. And, secondly, it fuels my desire to pray diligently for those in my spheres of influence who need to come to the Lord.

C. H. Spurgeon wrote: “In due time the weeping intercessor will become the rejoicing winner of souls.” There’s that phrase again: “In due time!” What does that mean? Peter addresses this in 1 Peter 5:6 when he writes: “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor.”

What can possibly be more honoring than praying for someone’s soul to be redeemed, then seeing it happen? When I was pastoring, we had in our church an evangelistic training program that helped people have a track to run on as they shared their faith with others. The best way to learn how to do something is by doing it, so, I would take a couple of people with me to visit those who had come to our church for the first time.

On this night we visited a family of six – mom, dad, and four children ranging from teens to maybe 9 years old. After explaining to them what Jesus had done for them and how they could respond by faith, I began with dad, then mom, and each of the kids, asking each one: “Would you like to receive God’s gift of eternal life by putting your faith in Jesus tonight?” One by one, each one said: “Yes!” For that family “in due time” meant right then!

I’m confident you have those on your prayer list for salvation, as I have, for whom we’ve prayed for years. Here’s our hope: “In due time!” Do we get discouraged and stop praying? Do we lose faith that God even hears our prayers? Do we turn our prayers to the ones we deem more “ready?” No! We persevere because we know that “in due time” they’re going to say “yes,” just like that family so many years ago.

Maybe for you it’s not someone’s salvation, but their healing, a means to provide for their family, the healing of a relationship, or something else that has captivated or entrapped their life. Please don’t give up. Please don’t lose faith or stop praying. I can’t explain it and, honestly, I don’t always understand it, but we have to go on the basis of what we DO know, not what we don’t know. And I KNOW that God is faithful, that He hears us, and that He will answer “in due time!”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊