We live in an era where those who are chosen for honor and accolades are the most skilled and gifted, the most talented and attractive, the most popular and charismatic, and the most attractive and appealing. But it’s true that mankind has tended toward such criteria for choosing leaders or those destined for some special position down through history.

 

The covers of our magazines choose the rich and the famous, the beautiful and successful. TV and movies choose men and women whose figures and hairlines are often flawless. Only the very best minds receive academic scholarships and only the athletes with the strongest and most consistent performance are drafted for college and professional teams.

 

With God it’s a different story…

 

He consistently chooses the unlikely one.  

 

Rebekah carries within her twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and at every turn Jacob connives and cheats Esau out of his birthright and father’s blessing. He deceives his father and yet it is Jacob who is chosen to be in the line from Abraham who shows up in the lineage of Christ.

 

The children of Jacob (now Israel) are enslaved in Egypt and God chooses Moses whom He spared in the bulrushes to lead His people to the Promised Land. Yet Moses has a hard time speaking and needs to ask his brother Aaron to do the talking for him.

 

When Joshua sends the spies into the Promised Land to scout out the city of Jericho, the spies are at risk to be caught and killed, but God chooses a prostitute, Rahab, to hide them. Her choice results in her salvation when God gives Jericho into the hands of Joshua and puts her in a marriage that adds her name to the lineage of Christ.

 

When Israel wanted a king, Saul was chosen. He towered among many of the day and seemed a likely choice; but when He disobeyed God and chose his own way, the Lord rejected him. Whom did He choose next? He sent Samuel to the house of Jesse who was blessed with many sons who were skilled and experienced, but when He made His choice it was the youngest and least likely…David…who would be made king of Israel.

 

When Jesus came to earth and was starting His ministry, He called ordinary fishermen to be his disciples rather than the religious leaders of the day. He even chose a tax collector.

 

God honored a small man named Zacchaeus to have dinner at his house even though he was hiding up in a tree.

 

In the midst of preaching on a hillside to thousands of people, Jesus became concerned that people there were hungry and needed to be fed. He asked the disciples to get food. They had no food with them, but a small boy with a sack lunch provided the meal Jesus blessed and everyone was fed.

 

After Jesus ascended into heaven and His disciples were gathering together to follow His commission, Saul, a learned Pharisee did all he could to stop them. Then God stopped Saul on his way to persecute more new believers in Damascus and changed his life and name forever. Saul (now Paul) became the great missionary to spread the gospel to the Gentiles.

 

And it didn’t stop there.

 

From the beginning until now, God has chosen the least likely, the ordinary, the broken and the flawed, the misunderstood and maligned.

 

No matter who you are or what your status, no matter how you have failed Him, His love pursues you and if His love pursues you, He has chosen you.

 

You may well wonder at that. I certainly do, but it is Paul whom no one expected to become a believer that points to God’s reason in 2 Corinthians 4:7 (TPT):

 

“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that the extraordinary overflow of power will be seen as God’s, not ours.”

 

 

When I was in college studying to become a teacher, a children’s literature class was a requirement. The class demanded a lot as I recall, but what fun to read so many stories and poems that I could put in my toolbox when I started teaching.

 

One project involved making a poetry collection that needed to be typed up (Yes, no computers back then!), categorized into sections, and collated into a notebook. My dad got involved by suggesting he make a notebook that would be sturdy for use in a classroom. The wooden laminate covered project has stood the test of time and sets on a bookshelf in my home today.

 

I still recall many of the poems it contains. One of these is by Charles Kingsley who was an English poet from the 1800’s. The short lines made an impact on me that I still periodically recall.  The words are these:

 

         “If you want to be miserable think of yourself, about

         what you want, what you like, what respect people

         ought to pay you and what people think of you.”

 

I recalled it again today and reflected on what powerful truth it contains. When my focus is solely on myself, I cannot see anyone else accurately nor can I see the Lord. Focusing on myself to the extent implied by Kingsley can lead to depression, self-pity, victimization, blaming, resentment, bitterness, and so much more.

 

I was often tempted to move to the opposite extreme of never thinking of myself or counting myself worthy of attention or love as I was growing up and the result was still the same because it still focused on what I didn’t have or didn’t get. It still was out of balance with the focus on “I”.

 

Thankfully, the Lord brought people into my life that helped me see there was a better way, a balance, which could only come when I allowed the Lord to adjust my perspective and my line of sight. I began to recognize how many other people around me dealt with similar feelings no matter what their age or how much bravado appeared to be present when I interacted with them. When I had a better lens to see others more clearly, I listened carefully to what was said as well as what I did not hear. It helped me to stop comparing myself to others and showed me that we all struggle with some level of self-doubt and uncertainty. We all lose people or things we love. None of us experience the fulfillment of all our hopes and dreams. We don’t live in Eden before the fall.

 

I began to realize that I had spent too long wanting what was taken instead of looking at what was given. That truth opened my heart to overflowing gratitude so that even on my worst days I could discover things granted to me, how much had blessed me. It also freed me to love others better because I had gotten out of the way so it was the Lord’s love that shone versus my own selfish version. I could better give others what I wished for myself without expecting to receive it in return.

 

Today as I sat with my cup of tea I saw so many evidences of the Lord’s love, grace, and mercy despite the discouraging news all around me. It reminded me of a favorite phrase a precious young woman used to describe them. She called them “God winks”, little reminders of His goodness. These are the antidotes to the problem Kingsley describes.

 

Look for “God winks” in your day today!

 

⁸ So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always. ⁹ Follow the example of all that we have imparted to you and the God of peace will be with you in all things.

Philippians 4:8-9 (TPT)

 

 

 

 

Old habits die hard they say.

 

One of those is what we understand about guilt. Before we come to know the Lord, unless our conscience is seared we experience what we call guilt and its lingering shadows. Those shadows touch more parts of us than we often recognize.

 

What we understand about guilt after we invite Jesus into our lives depends on what we are taught to think and feel about guilt. Sadly, sometimes when we are growing up we hear messages suggesting we should feel guilty when we have made a mistake. As a result, even after we are believers we can still label what we feel as guilt when we make a mistake or fall prey to sin.

 

Sometimes the problem of guilt seems less common today than it once was perhaps. The new independent individualism typical of our current culture tends to result in justification for mistakes or sinful choices. It is commonplace to hear statements like “that’s just the way I am” or “that’s the way God made me”. We easily deflect responsibility and blame. We also tend to shift blame to others.

 

It is rare to hear someone accept personal responsibility for his or her choices and decisions.

 

I see that as I look at my own life and how little I understood about this issue of guilt as a result of a lack of discipleship when I first came to know Jesus.

 

I also saw and heard it for many years in my counseling practice. People were locked up by guilt for things past and present. I still hear it now as I overhear conversations.

 

The effects of unhealthy guilt in our lives have tentacles that wrap around several areas of our life. The first and easiest to spot is hostility and defensive reactions in which someone else is blamed for the issue or problem.

 

A second group of effects include self-condemnation reactions such as insecurity, anxiety, an inability to relax, the refusal to receive compliments, a pessimistic outlook, and a feeling of inferiority.

 

These first two can lead to social reactions that can cause us to isolate and alienate ourselves from others. Ultimately all of these can produce physical symptoms as a result of the stress we experience from the unrelieved habit of guilt.

 

Guilt leads to death within us.

 

Here is the good news!

 

If we learn to differentiate between unhealthy guilt and godly conviction, we can be set free from the confusion these can cause.

 

What does unhealthy guilt look like?

 

• It causes confession about how bad we are and usually the confession is compulsive, impulsive and repeated.

 

• It deals with laws and rules, the should and should not’s.

 

• It refuses to yield to forgiveness.

 

• The primary focus is on self and the past.

 

• The motivation for change is to avoid feeling bad.

 

• Our attitude toward ourselves is frustration.

 

By contrast, let me give examples of godly conviction:

 

• Confession that is concerned with the act itself of sin or mistake rather than how rotten I am.

 

• Godly conviction deals with relationships (God, self, and others).

 

• Godly conviction always yields to forgiveness.

 

• The primary focus is God or others and damage to others and a desire to correct future deeds.

 

• The motivation for change is to help others, to do God’s will and experience feelings of love.

 

• Our attitude toward ourselves includes love, respect, and concern.

 

Godly conviction leads to life!

 

The good news, the gospel, tells us in Luke 4 in the words of Jesus quoting out of Isaiah 61 that He came to set the captives free, to bring pardon, to bring life.

 

When you are tempted to get mired in guilt, remember that guilt leads to death. Because Jesus came to bring life and IS life, guilt would not be coming from Him. His enemy who condemns us and brings death still likes to masquerade and confuse us on this topic.

 

When Jesus sees us caught in a sin or ensnared in a habit that can destroy us, He brings godly conviction (not condemnation). That brings life. It isn’t any wonder, is it?

 

Jesus is life. He came to bring us life and life more abundantly.

 

 

 

 

 

A Spirit-filled life – that’s the goal, right? But what does that look like in the life of a believer beyond simply offering a definition we have read or been taught somewhere in our walk with the Lord?

 

According to Kenny Luck, three things will be evident even as they were in the beginning as seen in the book of Acts:

 

“Three things characterize the first community of Spirit-filled believers: uncommon attitudes, uncommon actions, and an uncommon unity of life and purpose.”

 

That translates into a desire to truly see, lift up, and encourage others and set aside the tendency to self-focus that can so easily occur to any and all of us. To see others means we are not so consumed by our agendas, schedules, thoughts, and goals that we miss the words you say, the inflection in your tone when you say them, the demeanor on your face when you share them, or the bearing of your body as you express yourself.

 

It can be so easy to be not only engaged in the busyness of life, but also the many ministry involvements of ministry that we can miss the ministry opportunity right in front of us. Are we so busy being a Christian that others miss the reality of Christ within us?

 

So many challenges bombard us each day. All of us could be buffered from that bombardment with some little moment of encouragement, especially when it is unexpected. Yet, that moment of thoughtfulness when we acknowledge the waitress that serves us or the clerk who checked us out can pass by when it would cost us so little to express it.

 

We can only do that if we are connected to the One who never fails to encourage and lift up. It can only happen when we are not walking through each day in a state of weary ambivalence that dulls the nudge of the Spirit within us.

 

“God tells us that the hot and searing sun of ambivalence, disconnectedness, and self-absorption bakes and hardens a soul unwatered by encouragement. A hard coating forms over people’s minds, which isolates them and makes worse any part of their life that is broken, selfish, discontent, cynical, or skeptical. Without life-giving encouragement, over time, people will begin to believe lies…”  Kenny Luck 

And there is another important truth to be aware of – those who are under-encouraged cannot be great encouragers.

 

I recall so well the upheaval the deaths of my parents resulted in for me. They died just three months apart from one another and with a sibling who was mentally ill and handicapped, all the details fell to me. Then when family had gone back home and I was trying to sort through my parents’ clothing and personal items, a friend called. She learned that I would be going to my parents’ home again to work on dealing with those details and she simply said she would bring banana bread and coffee and help me. I had not asked her, she offered.

 

When she arrived with the banana bread still warm from her oven, she sat with me in my parents’ bedroom as I pulled out various items. She listened as I shared memories of certain things and she didn’t rush me. When I felt overwhelmed about what to do with things, she suggested a way to sort them into categories: sell, donate, throw away, or ‘no idea.’ When she left that afternoon, she also took each stack to deliver to the place or person I had decided would be best. How well she loved me that day! This was a Spirit-filled life in action.

 

It has been 23 years since that day and Shirley’s Spirit-filled action remains imprinted in my mind and heart.

 

The Lord has placed each of us in close proximity to many people each day even if we live alone. How can we be a means of encouragement and grace to them? It starts with an understanding that each person we meet is suffering from encouragement deficiency.

 

To be one who notices, responds, and moves in encouragement will be so unusual to most anyone around us that it will clearly be evidence of the light within us.

 

But remember…it isn’t supposed to happen only on certain days or when we are not too busy…as believers, it is supposed to be our lifestyle.

 

“Dangerous good behavior is Spirit-empowered behavior that is counterintuitive to a watching world. It’s show stopping: Just when they expect you to do the self-protective things, you do a Spirit-filled thing out of love for God and people. You take the road less traveled, and the tension inside of you releases itself into faithfulness to Christ for the sake of another.”   Kenny Luck