music :: worship :: life
Happiness cannot be obtained by pursuing it. Happiness is a product of a life well lived.
Those who think they pursue happiness, find only pleasure. Pleasure, diversion, amusement: these are but momentary things. They thrill but do not fill.
Happiness comes from living life to the full: working well, loving lavishly, fighting fairly. It comes from doing all you can with what you have, wherever you are, day after day. Even in suffering there is happiness, if you suffer well. To suffer well is to take the trial as a test of your endurance, a test of your commitment, a test of your integrity, a means to build your character. Success, too, is a test. The challenge of success is to resist temptation, to resist pride, to remain humble, to keep your integrity intact.
Seasons change, and in each season, be it planting, watering, reaping, or lying fallow, the happiness is found in embracing the unique challenge of that season, and learning the lesson only that season can impart.
Happiness is not the finish line; happiness is running the race for all you are worth.
Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.—Psalm 23:4
Afternoon was waning and the hiker was still far from her destination. The terrain had been rougher than she had expected, and she had been forced to make some detours to get past unexpected obstacles. Now it was getting late, and although she didn’t think she was lost, she knew she still had a long way to go. And from the looks of things, the terrain ahead grew even more rugged. This worried her especially because she was afraid of heights.
There was nothing for it but to do the best she could. She quickened her pace and began to pray. Within minutes, though, a thick fog settled in, obscuring her view. Soon, all she could see was the path a step or two ahead of her. “Great!” she thought, “I start praying and it gets worse! Now I can’t even see where I’m going.” But on she went.
Pacing herself, sometimes jogging, sometimes walking quickly, stumbling a few times, but never falling, praying loud and fervently for God’s protection, disappointed and a little resentful that God was not helping her, she went on, plunging headlong and blindly along a path she could but dimly see.
Just at twilight, the road leveled. And as the last glow faded in the western sky, the fog began to lift. Ahead, she saw the lights of civilization and the promise of welcome rest.
The next morning, looking back over the terrain she had crossed, she could see by the light of day that for the last leg of her journey her path had been along the edge of a deep gorge. The slightest mis-step would have sent her plummeting to her death. Had it not been for the fog, her fear of heights would have caused her to lose her footing and sent her over the edge, or would have paralyzed her and left her stranded in the wilderness to die of exposure.
He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]
So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified].
—Hebrews 13:5b-6
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.”
—Gen 12:1
I know it sounds crazy, but I’m convinced it was the voice of God. It’s the only time I’ve heard God speak in an audible voice.
For many months I had been praying for some clear direction, and God’s silence was getting on my nerves. I had gotten quite adamant one morning and insisted on an answer. “Tell me what you want me to do with my life!” I demanded. “Please.” The response, as ever, was silence.
Days later, while I was working, a voice behind me spoke. “It’s not your life,” it said. “You will know what to do.” There was no one else in the building, and it so clearly responded to my prayer. It made no sense to interpret it as anything but the voice of God. I had absolutely no idea what it meant, but at least it was an answer.
I know God has plans for me, but no matter how much I argue with him, he refuses to let me in on the details. Sometimes he lights the path ahead one step at a time. Other times, he simply opens a door and shoves me through, and I can only keep moving forward until he opens another door, or I reach the wall and have to wait. Often it feels like God has left me to wander in the dark. But in truth, even his silences are purposeful. He uses them to develop our trust and obedience. When I simply trust him and remain obedient, even though the path ahead is dark, I always find that he has invisibly guided me to a destination far better than I expected. Sometimes it has felt like Dorothy awakening in Oz.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
—Heb 11:8
God did not give Abraham a road map or an itinerary. He simply told him to go, and promised to tell him when to stop. I think this is how God’s call always works. He gives us no more than we need to know and says, “Go.” In the words of the song, what he asks of us is that we simply “trust and obey.”
Many more months have passed since God spoke to me, and I don’t pretend to know much more about what his words meant. But I have seen enough to know that the journey is worth the effort, that each stop along the way surpasses expectations, and that at our journey’s end, we will gasp in awe at where he has led us. For as Paul put it,
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.
—1 Corinthians 2:9
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
—Romans 8:28-29
You were set apart by God for a special purpose. Your anointing, your unique combination of gifts and talents, your passion for God and for serving his people, make you a special threat to Satan. He will go to great lengths to ensure that you do not fulfill your calling. To this end, he will stop at nothing. He will use every means at his disposal to stop you. If possible, he will turn you away from God and the church altogether.
Why does God allow this? Because God must be foremost in your life. To fulfill God’s purpose for your life, you must love him more than you love anything else. If you love your church more than you love God, you cannot fulfill your purpose. If you love your friends more than God, if you love your ministry more than God, if you love the people you serve more than God, God will allow Satan to take them. And Satan, in his desire to separate you from God and from your destiny, will use the very things you love most as his weapons. He will spread his lies and slanders, and infect and poison the hearts of those you have cared for, and make them into his most lethal weapons.
God wants you to understand that all the love and everything else you have poured out upon the people you served is not lost. All of it came from him. He is the sole provider and source. You have no reason to expect them to return anything to you. They do not have your passion; they do not have your anointing. Their destiny lies elsewhere. But nothing you have given is lost. Nothing you have done through the power given you by the Holy Spirit can ever be undone by Satan. All that you poured out came from God, and he will continue to provide you with everything you will need. He is still your only source, and as you have been learning, his provision is more extravagant in its abundance than your most forlorn hope.
So continue to love the Lord. Continue to wait upon him. Continue to do what is right with what he provides you. Continue to pour out all you are given upon those of his children he places before you. Continue to be faithful in the small things he entrusts you with as he continues to entrust you with larger and more challenging things. This is the way he has been preparing his servants from time immemorial. Look how he prepared Joseph—how he carefully brought him through stages to ready him for his service. But then look how he blessed Joseph and how he used him to bless others. God greatly blesses those he greatly uses, so that his blessings can be greatly spread. But he greatly disciplines those he greatly uses, to transform them into fit instruments for his service.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
—Romans 8:18-21
God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?”
—Hebrews 13:5-6
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
—Matthew 25:21
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
—Genesis 45:4-8
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
—James 1:2-4
God abhors a vacuum. Every time I rid myself of non-productive activities and clear out some space in my life, the space is soon filled with other activities. Part of this is spiritual growth: as you grow spiritually, activities that were once fruitful for you become less productive. Also, when you are in God’s service, he exposes you to a variety of experiences so that you can learn the things you will need in order to be equipped for the roles he is preparing you to fill. We don’t know in advance what those roles will be, so some of our experiences don’t make sense until later. God is the Master Potter and he is continually shaping and reshaping us. The ultimate design of the vessel he wants us to be is known to him alone.
Last September I took part in a prison ministry called “One Day with God” that was held at the Leblanc Unit in Beaumont. We were given special t-shirts to to wear so we could be easily identified. I had to go out to my car to exchange shirts.
When you leave the unit, you have to stand in front of a video camera until the guard buzzes you, then you can open the gate. About 20 feet further there’s another gate with another camera, and the process repeats.
When the guard buzzed me, I opened the first gate and walked through. But when I got to the second gate, I stood and stood and stood. Finally I got tired of waiting, and pushed the button to call the guard. She said, “You have to go back and close the gate behind you before I can open the gate in front of you.”
Friends, this is a brand new year. Last year is gone. A lot of good things happened last year; a lot of bad things happened last year. But for better or worse, those are in the past. All those blessings, all those trials—all are in the past. In Lamentations 3:25, Jeremiah says: “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (ESV) Friends, a lot of us are waiting at the gate for God to buzz us through, but we haven’t shut the gate behind us. And though we stand there for eternity, until we go back and shut the gate behind us, God is not going to buzz us through. God has blessings in store for all of us, but we have to shut the gate behind us first. God has blessings ready and waiting, but he cannot give them to us until we let go of the old stuff. His blessings are like manna from heaven. You cannot store yesterday’s manna; it quickly rots in the basket and becomes worthless. And you cannot collect new manna if your baskets are full of the rotten manna from yesterday.
The same chapter of Lamentations says:
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
—Lamentations 3:19-22
The word translated as “hope” here means something very different than it does in our ordinary modern usage. When we say “hope” we mean something like “wishful thinking”. When we say we hope it doesn’t rain, it means that we are wishing for clear weather or that we would prefer clear weather. It would be inconvenient if it rained, and it would be nicer if it did not rain. I hope it warms up. I hope the Cowboys win. I hope the economy improves. “Hope” in our everyday usage, simply means that we would like something outside of our control to happen, and that we wish for it, but cannot be sure it will occur.
But in Hebrew, the word translated here connotes a sense of assurance, of expectation, of waiting for something we know will come. Hope, in the Bible, means waiting for what you are sure is going to happen.
The difference between our word “hope” and the Hebrew word for “hope” is like the difference between wishing for a child and expecting a baby. When you wish for a child, you have no assurance of it. But when you are expecting a baby, though there may be nothing yet to see, you know it is on the way. It is only a matter of time.
This moment is pregnant with God’s blessing. We need to prepare a room for it.
When Jeremiah says that reflecting on God’s unfailing love gives him hope, it is because he is expecting him to act. He is saying: “I am waiting patiently with expectancy. I am expecting God’s mercy. I am expecting God’s blessings. For his mercies, just like manna from heaven—his blessings, his gifts—are new every morning. Fresh gifts, fresh mercy, fresh grace, fresh love, fresh blessings, fresh anointing every morning.”
But he cannot give us new blessings until we let go of the old. He cannot fill our hands until we come to him with hands empty. We can wait forever at the gate before us, but until we close the gate behind us, God cannot buzz us through.
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