God Turns Nobodies into Somebodies

 

We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody.  Romans 4.17 (MSG)

When God chose Abraham was an ordinary guy.  There was nothing spectacular about him.  He had no hidden talents, no supernatural faith, no outstanding ideas, and no blazing personality.  He was a nobody. 

But God took that ordinary man and turned him into a somebody. 

And Abraham . . . well, he simply believed God would do what He said He would.  Day by day, month by month, year by year Abraham’s faith grew stronger and stronger as he discovered who God was.  He clung to the belief that God was the God of the impossible regardless of the way things might look.

Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.  Romans 4.17-18

God is in the business of turning nobodies into somebodies.

I’m an ordinary girl.  I don’t have any outstanding talents, no blazing personality, and no supernatural faith.  But I believe in a God who raises the dead to life and makes something out of nothing.  You see He did that for me!  I was dead, dead in my sins, an enemy with God, completely unaware of my situation.  But that didn’t keep God from sending His very own precious Son to pay for my sins. 

One day I met this Jesus and turned my life over to Him.  I saw my sin for what it was . . .  a vile ugly mess that I could never attempt to clean up on my own.  I opened my heart to His grace; His payment and forgiveness of my sins. And this undeserved privilege, this grace made me one of His own children!  How spectacular is that!!

God took this nobody of a girl and turned her into a somebody.  And He can do the same for you! 

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.  Romans 3.23-25 (NLT)

If you have never invited Christ into your life, this gift is waiting for you.  All you have to do is receive it.

Lord, I’m a sinner and I know there’s NOTHING I can do to rescue me from my sins.  I believe that you did it ALL for me when you paid the price for my sins.  I surrender my life to you.  Amen. 

One Word

It's 2015! 

A clean slate.  A fresh start.  A blank canvas.  Just waiting to be written on.  What will you and I become this year, I wonder? 

To be honest, I hesitate to make New Year’s resolutions because I rarely make it through January before they’re broken.  Discouragement gives way to hopelessness and I wonder if I will ever resolve to do anything that costs me very much. 

But this year, I was recently challenged to consider letting go of the New Year’s resolutions and instead choose “One Word” to give my attention to throughout the whole year.  I was encouraged to reflect on the kind of person I want to become by the end of the year.  It's not about making external changes but internal ones.

 

It's about the heart.

As I envisioned what I want to be, I began to write out heart struggles that I long to have victory over:   

I want to celebrate other peoples success without wishing it was for me. 

I want to be Holy Spirit-driven rather than self-driven.

I want to be an open book, with nothing to hide.

I want to be a lover of God, craving time alone with Him.

I want to embrace the life God has for me, instead of wishing I had someone else's.
 

As I reflected, I discovered my one word . . . Undivided.  Undivided in my love for God, undivided as a follower of Christ, undivided in my passion for Him. 

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  Psalm 86.11

My focus and my attention, as I travel through this year will be to have a heart that is Undivided.   

So what about you?   Will you take up the challenge and discover your One Word to be intentional about? 

What needs to change in your heart?   What person do you want to become this year?

Have you been discouraged with your New Year’s resolutions in the past?  Why not take some time today to discover One Word and a Scripture verse that will challenge you all throughout the year.  Here’s a website that I found to be really helpful in this journey:  My One Word. 

May this be the year, we all look more like the Christ!
 

The Dark Tunnel of the Unknown

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This time of year I always feel like I’m standing on the brink . . .

The New Year stretches out before me as a blank canvas.  The great dark tunnel of the UNKNOWN . . .

What will my world be like in the coming months?  What does this year hold?  Is it pregnant with joy or heartache, pain or blessing, health or illness?  What will it give birth to, I wonder?

I watch as everyone cheers as the ball drops in Times Square, welcoming a New Year and I am apprehensive . . .  wondering what will be.

Fear like a knife cuts deep into my gut.  Honestly, the “what if” . . .  has always frightened me.  What if this is the year I lose someone I love?  What if we face another “great depression”?  What if I gain twenty pounds?  What if my husband loses his job?  What if cancer decides to invade my life?  What if all my hair falls out?  Paralyzing fear.  Heart-stopping terror.  Mind-numbing dread.

In the midst of my fear, God whispers His truth . . . “You don’t know what the future holds but you hold the hand of the ONE who does!"

 

If we knew our future, I wonder, how would we live?  Would we be in constant dread and despair, focused on what was to come and missing what is now?  

God wants us to LIVE in the present.  Embracing each day as it comes.  Grabbing hold of every moment, knowing that He will be there with us in every minute of every day. 

He calls us to live a life of TRUST rather than fear.  Trusting that He holds our future in the palm of His hands.  Trusting that His plans are for our good and not for harm. (Jeremiah 29.11)  Trusting in the Hope of an Eternity yet to come. (Romans 5.4-5)

Did God give His life for me so that I could live in dread of the future? NEVER.  He died so that I can laugh at the future, embrace what He has for me and never have to live this life on my own again.

And so this year, I set my fears aside and lay claim to these words that the Apostle Paul penned so long ago, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate me 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 me from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate me from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Romans 8.38-39)

 As you face this New Year, I don’t know where this finds you, maybe many of the fears I named are your reality.  Remember this, my friend:  You don’t know what the future holds but you hold the hand of the ONE who does.  He loves you and will never let you go! 

 

 

Where's Jesus?

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Are you familiar with the books entitled, Where’s Waldo?  These books have no words just pictures.  What makes them unique is that this no-word-book-with-only-pictures is designed for big kids and even adults!  Each page has a quirky little guy wearing a red and white striped hat but the tricky part is finding him.  There are so many things jammed onto each page that it’s difficult to see him and there begins the hunt . . . finding Waldo on pages that are crammed full of stuff.  

As I was thinking of Christmas this year and remembering years past . . . the constant hustle and bustle, gifts to purchase, goodies to make, cards to send, traditions to uphold, decorating, partying, planning, caroling and on and on the list goes. 

I couldn’t help but wonder, does my life look a lot like a Where’s Waldo book, only it’s not Waldo I’m looking for, it’s JESUS! 

 

Is my world is so crammed, jammed and packed with stuff, there’s no room for Him?  (Can I just say, I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem! ) 

How ironic it is.  The ONE who is at the center of our celebration is so pushed into the background that we struggle to find Him anywhere.   

We leave no space for Him. 

So often even the “good things” we do cause Him to fade into the background.   

You know how I can tell this?  By what’s on my to-do list.  I have on my list, serving at Church, making gifts for my neighbors, caroling to a nursing home, preparing great meals for my returning kids . . . but nowhere on my list is spending time only with Jesus, being still and knowing Him.   

I rush, rush, rush, everywhere doing good things for Him but never spending time WITH Him.  

What would it look like for us to take everything off the page . . . all the traditions, present-wrapping, card-writing, meal-cooking . . . EVERYTHING and sit down with God and ask Him what He wants us to do?    

What if we re-evaluated why we’re doing all the things we do?  Is it to impress?  Because it’s expected?  Because we’re worried what people will think? 

What would we look like, if putting Christ in the CENTER became what was most important in our lives?  

 

John’s final words in his book of 1John are so poignant . . .  Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.  (1 John 5.21 NLT)  

Are you willing to do the hard work of stripping away the busyness, the superficial and the expected to ensure that nothing takes His place in your heart? 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

-Helen Lemmel

 

A Thankful Heart

 

When I was growing up, my parents drilled into me the importance of saying, “Thank you” and  I turned around and did the same thing with my children.

As I sit and reflect on this Thanksgiving week, I am reminded that saying thank you and having a heart of thankfulness can be and often are so vastly different from one another.  

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, it is a shipwrecked-whipped-stoned-imprisoned Paul who reminds us to, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”  This isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command.  

It’s the way of life . . . for someone who follows Jesus. 

In the very same breath, Paul instructs us to, “ALWAYS be joyful.  NEVER stop praying. 

Did Paul really expect a person who’s just been devastated by the loss of a spouse and then discovers the money's gone, to be joyful and thankful in the circumstances they've been dealt? 

How do you give thanks when the refrigerator blows, you can’t find your car keys and you’ve just been told that an outstanding hospital bill is being sent to the collectors? 

Where do you find joy and thankfulness in the catastrophic and the mundane? 

 

Jesus said, "For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.  A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. " (Matthew 12.34-35) 

So what are you treasuring?   

What have you been caching away?  Trust or doubt? 

  

Joy and thankfulness come from a heart that trusts!  Trusts that God is good.  Trusts that He is for you.  Trusts that when He says, “ALL things work together for good” . . . , He means it.  You can’t expect to have joy and thankfulness, if you haven’t forged a life of trust. 

 

It’s a choice, not a feeling!  

What do you get from a heart that has stockpiled doubt?  Discouragement.  Hopelessness.   Despair.  There’s no room for joy and no room for thankfulness where doubt reigns. 

Trusting in a God we can’t see doesn’t come naturally.  Our propensity is to control, to carry the burden and say we trust God when we really don’t.  Then we wonder why we struggle to find joy.  We question how it is possible to be thankful in ALL circumstances.   

What does the treasury of your heart look like?  Do you have a storehouse of trust or a cache of doubt?  Choose to trust!  And joy and thankfulness will follow.