wisdom – Live the Crazy Life

Bible, community, love, Steadfast love, surrendering, surrendering

What kind of sign are you?

October 5, 2021 No Comments

Everyone is fighting for something these days. Whether it’s public safety issues like vaccines and mask mandates, to school curriculum content, to saving the earth. I think it is great that people are finally taking an interest in the laws and rules that affect their daily lives. My issue is not what you are fighting for but how you are fighting. Before you get all offended keep reading, and hear me out.

Two phrases keep rolling around in my head; one from the Bible and one from well known Bible study teacher Beth Moore. Beth asked the question in her Daniel Bible study “do you regularly wound the enemy?” That is a very thought provoking question. If I am honest my answer is no, not even close. I am a conflict avoider in the natural and most definitely don’t go looking for spiritual warfare. However it seems that spiritual warfare has found me. So the question stands ‘do I regularly wound the enemy’?

The second phrase is from Psalm 86:17 it says “Make me a sign for good, so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. For you, ADONAI, have helped me and comforted me.” (TLV version of the Bible.)The word sign according the Lexicon means “a token for good.” In other words David is saying “Let me reflect goodness so that those that are not good will be ashamed.” Why would David pray that? I believe the answer is two fold. One so that his enemies would realize that they took the wrong side. And two that they might realize ADONAI is the one true God. The whole Psalm is about God who is slow to anger and full of steadfast love.

My question to you today is not where you stand on issues but rather how are you taking that stand? Are you allowing God who is slow to anger to show His steadfast love through you? Are you being a sign of the goodness of God as you fight for whatever it is? At the risk of offending you, have you asked God where He is at on the issue? Have you sought Him to see if this is the battle he wants you in? If you have, then I say go for it. If you haven’t asked Him, please do. So much more is at stake here, truthfully more than personal freedoms. How we represent God when we stand for a public issue has monumental effects. Are you allowing God to use you as a ‘token of good’? Or is it more about what you want? Are you allowing the steadfast love of God to influence your voice on the issue? Are you showing lovingkindness to those you are opposing?

Back to the Beth Moore quote. As you take your stand on your issue, what impact are you making in the spiritual realm? Are you regularly ‘wounding the enemy’? Or is he using you to wound others? My point in this blog isn’t that you stop fighting for what you feel is right. It’s that you do it as a believer who cares about the souls of those around you who don’t know Jesus, and that you are aware of the enemy’s schemes. You should be taking a stand for personal freedoms and injustice and school curriculum and all the other hot topics that are out there right now; but how you take that stand might be more important in the long run than what you are standing for. Matthew 16:26 says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole word, but forfeits his soul?” (TLV version).

There is a way to fight that honors God. You can take a stand and still be used as a ‘token for good.’ You can regularly wound the enemy (not your opposition but your true enemy the devil) and voice your opinion. If you yield your heart to the Lord on the matter and ask Him to use you, YOU will be a light in the darkness, and make an impact. As you fight for your issues ask yourself, “Am I being a sign for good? Who or what am I really wounding here?” Then in the words of 2 Timothy 4:7, go ‘fight the good fight, finish the race, keep your faith.” Be a lasting sign for good.

Bible, Memorizing scripture, wisdom

Living in light of wisdom

May 4, 2018 No Comments

It’s May!! Wow, this year is flying by, and what a year it has been. It has had some amazing moments and quite possibly some of my very lowest moments, too! This year, which started with my theme word for the year of steadfast love, slowly morphed into a year where two words – steadfast love and wisdom – (thus far) are making the framework for how I view everything. I still am learning to see everything in life through the steadfast love of God; which by the way is a great viewpoint to live from. Then, slowly, wisdom crept into my line of sight. There has been so much that I don’t know how to respond to, or I simply respond in my own ways -which usually lack wisdom and end up making a mess of the situation. So I found myself creating the monthly memory verse this month and hoping I could return to steadfast love but found wisdom swirling in my heart and mind. So here it is.

James 3:17 “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

I want to live with God’s wisdom in all situations – never my own. I fail at this a lot, but I promise it is a goal. So I am learning to distinguish my wisdom from God’s. That, my friend, involves prayer. Before I go any further in what I believe this verse to mean, I must disclose that prayer is the key to the whole thing. You can’t have wisdom from God if you are not talking to God about whatever the situation may be. Ok, now that that is established, let’s look at the verse a little deeper.

Being true to me I looked at what all the different words that describe wisdom mean. Some mean exactly what they say, and others had deeper meanings. Let me show you. Wisdom means intellect. Uh, could have guessed that. But pure means in a condition prepared for worship. So when I am seeking wisdom from God it will come in the form of intellect that puts my heart in a place of worship. That is not all that pure means. It also means not mixed with guilt. Meaning whatever I feel the Lord saying to do will not make me feel guilty for doing it in the end.

Peaceable means God’s gift of wholeness – knowing the Lord’s will and obeying it. God will make clear the best way to respond to the situation, and your job is to obey it. Then it is gentle. I just loved what I found this to mean. You would expect it to mean easy or soft in some way; but not so much here. It means truly fair by relaxing overly strict standards in order to keep the spirit of the law. God won’t hold us to some impossible standard. He will never change what is right and what is wrong, but how He leads through wisdom is usually a curvy path rather than a straight line.

Then comes open to reason, not meaning that you are open to being swayed by what you feel the Lord has said in a given situation, but rather that it is easy to obey. When you spend time seeking God in prayer, you place yourself in a position to obey. He moves your heart to that place of obedience. Mercy means what you would expect mercy to mean. But good fruit means something amazing here in this verse. It means everything done in true partnership with Christ resulting from two life streams – the Lord moving through our lives to yield what is eternal. Lastly, impartial means being certain, and sincere means free from hidden agendas.

Ok, that was a lot. Let me put all of this together for you. Life bombards us with decisions. Some have no impact on our life beyond that moment. Others have an impact that lasts years, and some for eternity. When those big decisions need to be made, God will give you wisdom. James 1:5 tells us God will give us wisdom when we ask. When He does, it brings peace and makes us stand in awe and worship God. It isn’t a strict and heavy burden to carry. You won’t have doubt. You will approach the whole thing full of mercy. It will yield eternal impact, and you won’t have hidden agendas in your heart.

This year has led me to make HUGE decisions I never imagined having to think about, let alone decide the right thing to do in the situation. They have been heart-wrenching hard choices, but I have been able to make those decisions in peace because I leaned into God and sought wisdom from above.

Click Here for the May memory verse

Bible, Memorizing scripture, Parenting, Prayer, Raising Teens

Bright Shiny Stars

April 8, 2018 No Comments

It’s April which means it’s time for a new memory verse for the month. And, yes, I know once again I am a few days late in getting this post done. I somehow feel as if someone has sped up time in my life, and I just never seem to have enough.

Ok, on to this month’s memory verse. I had stated in January that my word for the year was steadfast. Steadfast love to be exact, and it still is. But recently God has added another word to be a theme for my year. Wisdom. The word is used about 235 times in roughly 222 verses. That’s not counting words associated with wisdom like “wise”. It isn’t the most used word in the Bible, but it is in there a lot.

Allow me to explain how wisdom became a word for me. I have 3 teenagers. Who are awesome kids. But they are kids, and they do, on occasion, do things that are not wise. They have been known to act without using wisdom. So I began to pray that they would gain wisdom. Not just wisdom like in school (I do pray that, too) but Godly wisdom. That they would make wise choices; that when they talk with their peers, their words would be filled with wisdom from the Lord. I began to ask the Lord to help me have wisdom in how I parent these 3 teens. Through these prayers, it was like the word wisdom seemed to become highlighted in my Bible reading. Then one day, I came across an interesting, somewhat odd, and very cool verse about wisdom.

Daniel 12:3 says, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Bam, it hit me! That is what I want for my kids, for me, for my husband, for all of us. I want my kids to shine in their high school with the light of Jesus. I want them to be filled with so much Godly wisdom that when a friend is in trouble or in need of help, they have the wisdom of the Lord in what to do or say. I want me & my kids to help turn other kids towards righteousness. I want that for myself, don’t you?

If I and my family could become this verse in the lives we live, it would change so many things. It would have such an impact in our spheres of influence.

So for April, and maybe longer, I am praying this over us. That we would have wisdom from God that would shine in a world full of darkness like a beacon of hope for those lost at sea. That God through our words would turn us towards righteousness and also those around us. That the dark scary parts of our world would be filled with shining stars of heavenly wisdom, and twinkly with righteousness, too.

Will you join me this month in memorizing this verse and praying it over yourself? Would you become a bright shining star for Jesus in your world? Will you bring light to the darkness and righteousness to those who need it?

I can’t wait to hear how God uses wisdom in your life to brighten lives around you.

Click here for April’s memory verse.