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How to Take Heart in Hard Times

by | Sep 7, 2021 | Devotional, Learning Story, Suffering, Weekly Gospel Meditation

How to Take Heart in Hard Times

Win books! This month, as we celebrate the one-year-birthday of From Recovery to Restoration, I’m giving away four books each week. See above for this week’s books. Enter for a chance to win. To have more chances to win, share about the book more often or share the excerpts on the blog and let me know how many times you shared. 

Today’s blog is an excerpt from the devotional. I’ll be sharing excerpts every week. You can continue to share and have chances to win different books each week. 

Be of Good Cheer

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33 NKJV

Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, hurricane season threatens every year, tossing its mighty winds and roaring waters through our mind’s eye, arousing fears of future devastation and memories of past disaster. It’s been about fifteen years since Hurricane Ivan wreaked its havoc on our hometown, Pensacola, Florida, leaving a swath of blue roofs in its wake. 

We’ve recovered. But some never did. Some lost homes, businesses, even marriages to the disaster. They may have found a new home or started a new business, but the heartache of the catastrophe lingers. Maybe you haven’t been hit by a hurricane; maybe it was a divorce, a sudden revelation of a spouse’s affair. Maybe you were slapped with a cancer diagnosis. Or maybe your twenty-three-year-old has just renounced her faith.

The hard reality is that we may never fully recover from some of the disasters we endure. How can we live with hope in a world in which some losses will never be recouped? Jesus, in his final words to his disciples, anticipated this question. Shortly before his brutal crucifixion for a trumped-up crime, he prepared his followers for the disasters that mark life in a fallen world: 

“In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NKJV). 

Jesus’ words confound many of us, because western culture has fed us a lie: “This world is all there is,” it tells us, “and the things in it are here to make us happy.” Jesus contradicts this lie, telling his disciples, “Yes, in this world, you will suffer. I’m teaching you how to live in my world, my kingdom. Not only that, when I die and am raised again, you will have the resurrection power to live a different life, a new life, to recover what was lost in the fall. When you suffer, remember these things I have told you, and you will have peace. Not only that, you can be ‘of good cheer,’ ‘take courage,’ ‘not be afraid,’ ‘take heart’—because ‘I have overcome the world.’”

One day, not yet, but “soon,” Jesus tells us, I will return (Revelation 22:7). Then you will live with me in a new world, the world you were really made for. In that day, all of the pain and sorrow of the disasters you have faced will be washed away. All the sin—the clawing to get your own way, the clashing against loved ones over small differences, the clinging to things you think will satisfy you—it will be over. Overcome. Defeated. By me—your King. Love, Jesus. 

Dear friends, let’s take heart. There is something better that awaits. It is beyond recovery. It is restoration. It is renewal. It is reunion. Cheer loudly and long. Jesus has overcome the world.

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Thank you for setting us straight. We are far too focused on finding joy in the things of this world. Help us to trust you when we suffer, to know that in you alone we will find peace and hope. In your cheering name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read John 16.

Listen to “What a Friend” by Sara Groves.

For Reflection

What hope do you find in Jesus’ words to his disciples? 

Waiting with Hope

by | Sep 1, 2021 | Devotional, Suffering, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Waiting with Hope

Dear Friends,

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, I thought this excerpt from the book From Recovery to Restoration:60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis would encourage hearts today. Please share it with someone you know who needs it. Also, be sure to sign up for the chance to win free books every week in September as we celebrate the one-year birthday of From Recovery to Restoration. 

Waiting with Hope

We too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Romans 8:23b, ESV

Waiting for hours to buy gas after a hurricane.

Waiting for weeks for workmen’s compensation to authorize a surgery.

Waiting for months to recover from a heart attack.

Waiting for years to have one happy day after the death of a child. 

Whenever our stories are shattered by crisis, a season of waiting will likely follow. Waiting can be irritating at a long pharmacy drive-thru line, but in the profound losses of a crisis, it can be agonizing. What does it look like to wait with hope as we grieve our losses?

First we must recognize the difference between earthly hope and biblical hope. Earthly hope focuses on good outcomes in the here and now, or at least the near future. There is nothing wrong with such hope—hoping that the surgery is approved and that the recovery goes smoothly, hoping that the betrayal will sting less tomorrow than it does today. And yet, earthly hope is often limited by our own short-sightedness, our inability to see everything our all-seeing God sees. To all earthly hope, we need to add biblical hope.

Biblical hope, as defined by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman is a “vision of redemption in the midst of decay.” Biblical hope is based on faith, on remembering how God has rescued in the past: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV). Biblical hope focuses on the end of the story, the day when Jesus will return and restore all broken things (Romans 8:18-19). In that day, we will be restored to our Father as his adopted children, and all of creation’s groaning will end in fruitful labor, Christ’s perfected new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

When we wait with biblical hope, we will continue to pray for God’s good gifts on this earth: gas to fuel generators after a hurricane, a sweet memory on a loved one’s death day. Biblical hope leads us to pray, “God, if I don’t get the gas today, help me be patient and trust your provision,” or “If I am sad all day long, be near to me in my grief.” When our earthly hopes are disappointed, biblical hope compels us to look and lean toward the final day when “all things work together for good” in the lives of those who trust God for life and salvation (Romans 8:28). 

Dear friends, when the wait feels excruciating, remember that you have evidence that your deepest hopes will not go unfulfilled: Christ has already come to rescue and redeem. Remember what you are waiting for—glory itself!  Knowing this, keep hoping with an active imagination, leaning into the future, leaning into God’s loving purposes in our hardest waits.

Prayer

Lord,

How long? This is our cry as we wait in impossibly long lines or for seemingly improbable recoveries. Draw our eyes to the horizon, to see Jesus “coming soon” to end our grievous wait. In Jesus’ already-redeeming name. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Romans 8:18-30. 

Listen to “Spring Is Coming” by Steven Curtis Chapman.

For Reflection

How has waiting felt for you in this crisis? What earthly hopes have been disappointed? How might remembering the end of the biblical Story help you wait with patience?

Celebrating Our True Freedom in Christ

by | Jul 13, 2021 | Devotional, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Celebrating Our True Freedom in Christ

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Have you ever been running happily along in your Christian life only to be suddenly tripped up by some new teaching? That’s what happened to the Galatians. Paul says they had been “running superbly” (Galatians 5:7, The MSG), but then a false teacher came along and insisted they needed to be circumcised like God’s people, the Jews, in order to be real Christians.

Paul says, “Just say ‘no’ to such gospel insanity.” Why? To put it more simply, the false teachers proclaim that salvation comes by Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus some outward work. I’ll illustrate how this works with an example from my own life.

When I was fifteen, I finally grasped the good news of the gospel I had been hearing about in Young Life talks for the past six months. I trusted that Jesus had saved me from my sin and had made me right with God (justified me). I was running along superbly, hanging out with other Christians, reading the Bible, growing in prayer, generally enjoying my newfound freedom in Christ. But somewhere along the way, some more “advanced” Christians led me to believe that I wasn’t a “good-enough” Christian. I needed to do more to please God—pray more, memorize more verses, make more disciples. There’s nothing wrong with doing these things, except when there is. When does a good thing become a bad thing? When we think that our doing it earns our favor with God. That’s what the false teachers told the Galatians—get circumcised and obey the law perfectly, and God will love you. That’s what the false teachers told me, “Do more spiritual things, and God will love you more.” What terrible news. As my pastor said about Abraham, “He did not become blessed because he was a good man; he became a good man because he was blessed” (See Galatians 3:5-8; “Blessings, Curses, and Hope”).

As Pastor Tim Keller explains, in order to live in the freedom for which Christ set us free, we must do two things:

First, recognize the truth about ourselves: we are too sinful to save ourselves.

Second, recognize the truth about Christ: he has borne all of our sins; he has taken all of the punishment due to us on himself (See Isaiah 53:6; Tim Keller, Galatians for You (affiliate link) .

When we recognize these truths, we will run in freedom, freed from enslavement to an ineffectual savior, freed for the purpose of enjoying and glorifying God as we were designed to do.

Let’s consider what this freedom might look like:

In Christ, we are freed from…

Working obsessively.

Performing perfectly.

Seeking approval relentlessly.

Building God’s kingdom laboriously.

Doing good works guiltily.

In Christ, we are freed for…

Enjoying God and enjoying others.

Resting in Christ’s saving work for us.

Trusting that God will build his kingdom, even through our imperfect service to him.

Loving our neighbors and ourselves as much as God does.

Inviting people to run in this freedom with us. 

Dear friends, be not persuaded by a false gospel. Jesus has saved you. It comes by grace, as a free gift. It comes through faith, through believing in his work for us. If we trust this truth, we are free.  We have much to celebrate. Let’s rest and run in this good news.

Prayer

Gracious Jesus,

Thank you for the freedom we have in you. We believe, but we struggle to believe this incomprehensibly good news! Help us to respond to your freeing grace with gratitude that invites our family, friends, neighbors, and even enemies into this glorious freedom.

In your freeing name. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Galatians 5:1-18.

Listen to Living Hope by Phil Wickham.

For Reflection

Have you ever gotten the impression that you needed to do more to be a better Christian? 

What would it look like for you to truly embrace the freedom you have in Christ?

Learn More about True Freedom

Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

"Whether it be in the midst of physical pain, addiction, abandonment, abuse, or habitual sin, Elizabeth will redirect your gaze over and over through scripture to meditate not on the gaping hole of your loss, but on the relentless pursuit of Jesus's love."

Hope Blanton and Christine Gordon, Authors, At His Feet Studies

Buy now!

The Hopeful Freedom of Belonging to God

by | Jul 6, 2021 | Devotional, Suffering, Weekly Gospel Meditation

The Hopeful Freedom of Belonging to God

This month, we’re focusing on freedom, especially considering how to live in the freedom for which Christ sets us free (See Galatians 5:1). Many of us live in a world that prioritizes autonomy, the freedom of self-rule. The battle cry of the 21st century may be best summed up by a phrase I used to hear my children say often to one another when they were young: “You’re not the boss of me!”

The Bible offers an unlikely route to freedom, telling us that belonging to God brings the freedom we really long for. The catechisers of Heidelberg espoused that our only comfort, our greatest comfort in life and in death, is knowing that we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Today, enjoy this excerpt from The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in a Health Crisis and consider the freedom of belonging to God.

For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:7-8, NLT

As I waited in a dimly-lit hospital hallway for our son to finish his first MRI—the one that followed the incidental discovery of a “something” on his brain, my mind turned to the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism: 

 “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”

I had pondered the answer just days before our son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A slew of family members had suffered illness and loss: my mother, my father-in-law, and my uncle had all suffered significant health issues. As I prayed that the Lord would comfort my family members, I recalled the Heidelberg’s proclamation of hope, based on Romans 14:7-8:

 “My only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”

How odd it seems at first that comfort comes from knowing that we don’t belong to ourselves. In the twenty-first century, much emphasis is placed on our autonomy. We are taught to value the idea of not being owned or directed by anyone. 

And yet, as the apostle Paul explains in Romans 14:7, the assurance that we belong to the Lord eases our fears about life and death. Written into our very being is the basic need to belong. The good news of the gospel is that we do belong to a faithful and loving Savior who suffered so that we might have new life and eternal life. In Christ, whether we live or die, we honor the Lord. This reality brings us peace and comfort as we live in the uncertainty of the waiting room. 

Prayer

Lord, you are a loving and good Father who has claimed us as your own. Thank you for giving us your comfort as we wait – the knowledge that we and our precious ones belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Help us to be confident that whether we live or die, we do so for your glory. May that knowledge bring surpassing peace. In the name of your Son who died for us we pray, Amen. 

Further Encouragement:

Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Job 12:10; Acts 17:27-28.

Read Heidelberg Catechism Question #1.

For Reflection: What brings you comfort as you endure a hard waiting season? 

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

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Links to The Waiting Room are affiliate links, which means I will be paid a handful of change if you order a book. Thanks!

Love and Sacrifice in Our Many-Splendored Kingdom

by | Feb 23, 2021 | Devotional, Gospel living, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Love and Sacrifice in Our Many-Splendored Kingdom

….and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10

Dr. Irwyn Ince, in his beautiful book, The Beautiful Community: Unity and Diversity and the Church at Its Best, recalls the day he first learned that his skin color differentiated him. The ten-year-old New Yorker had traveled with his family to Disney World for the first time. He was playing in a hotel pool with another young boy. The boy asked Ince to use his float, and Ince readily agreed. But when Ince asked his new friend if he could borrow his float, the boy said flatly, “No. You’re colored.” Ince, who grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood and had not known his color could be a hindrance, told his Indian-American teacher about the incident. She replied simply, “Well he doesn’t know that he’s colored too. White is also a color.” (The Beautiful Community, 13).

The story demonstrates an essential truth sometimes forgotten by the white Euro-Christian culture: the many-splendored kingdom of God will be  multiethnic, multiracial, and multi-variegated. There is, in fact, no dominant culture status in our heavenly kingdom. In order to begin growing more fully into our identity as priests of this kingdom, many of us need to do two things: first, search our hearts in prayer to see if there be any “grievous way” in us (Psalm 139:23-24), and second, spend more time imagining this many-splendored kingdom.

Some of us may need to hear and heed Frederick Douglass’ piercing observation: “Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.”.⁠1  For example, as a white American Christian, I need to ask, “Do I prefer my dominant culture status?” Probably. Do I prefer the comfort and familiarity of “my way”  of doing church? Probably. Am I willing to experience discomfort for the sake of the current minority, so that our community reflects the beautiful community in which we will one day dwell forever? I hope so. As I humble myself in confession, the Holy Spirit reshapes me, making me more suited to dwell in the many-splendored kingdom of priests.

In addition to praying and searching our hearts, we also need to immerse our imaginations in this kingdom of priests composed of colorful characters from every tribe, language, people, and nation. As we read Revelation 5:9-10 and Revelation 19:6-9, we imagine the multicolored priests of the kingdom heading to a kingdom feast. A coffee-colored New Delhi woman robed in a turquoise and silver sari strolls arm in arm with a pale Okinawan woman robed in a scarlet and gold kimono. A midnight-black Nigerian woman decked out in a tangerine-colored tie-dyed wrapper is escorted by a sun-browned Mexican vaquero sporting his best black cowboy boots. The kingdom feast features a lavish spread of the most delectable foods in the world—Turkish delight and fried turkey, seaweed salad and Salade Niçoise, peanut curry and collard greens, snowflake cake and apple strudel.

Dear friends, extraordinary wonders await us in the many-splendored kingdom. Let’s remember that we’ve already been recreated by Christ to be priests in this kingdom. And as we await the day when God’s kingdom will be fully consummated, let’s prepare for eternal life there by building beautiful communities made up of wildly diverse people with wildly diverse tastes. By God’s grace, may we taste of this kingdom delight today.

Prayer

Father, forgive us for the ways we seek comfort in our smaller stories of church and community. Open our eyes to see the beauty of your kingdom and prepare our hearts to worship in this many-splendored kingdom you are creating. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Further Encouragement

Read Revelation 5:8-10, 7:9, 11:9, 14:6; Ephesians 1:10.

Listen to “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”

 For Reflection

In what ways does your church and community reflect the many-splendored kingdom of God? In what ways could it grow in becoming more like this many-splendored kingdom?

The Beautiful Community is an affiliate link. That means I make a few cents if you purchase it after clicking on that link.

1 Quoted in “The Radical Christian Faith of Frederick Douglass,” D.H. Dilbeck,

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/january-february/frederick-douglass-at-200-remembering-his-radical-christian.html

When Changing Our Minds Is a Good Thing

by | Feb 16, 2021 | Devotional, Lent, Weekly Gospel Meditation

When Changing Our Minds Is a Good Thing

Dear Friends, as Lent begins tomorrow, I wrote this meditation about repentance, a little understood and less embraced essential truth of the Christian life. Remember, if you’d like forty (free) printable Bible verses to help you in your preparation for Easter, you can get yours here.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew 3:2. 

I stared glumly at the stoplight, willing it to turn. I was uneasy under the harsh glare and loud shouting of the slender young street preacher on the corner. With his Bible raised high like a bludgeon, he screamed, “Repent!!! The kingdom of heaven is near!!!!” Is it any wonder many of us cringe at the call to repent?

As kingdom servants, though, we must recapture the message of repentance as a powerful call to change that comes with the enabling power to change. First John commanded it. Then Jesus commanded it (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). We cannot ignore their call. To embrace repentance, we must understand at least five things about repentance.

First, repentance can’t be severed from the gospel, the “good news” that Jesus came to bring. After John was arrested, Jesus came, “proclaiming the good news of God,” telling people, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15). The good news—our Saving King has come, leads to the bad news—we must repent of our sins, which leads to the good news—trusting our Saving King for salvation.

Second, repentance is a complete and utter change of heart, mind, soul, body, the only logical response for a citizen of the kingdom of God. It is a radical change of mind about the king we serve and the kingdom we inhabit. Repentance turns us away from the kingdom of self we so often seek, the kingdom of security and significance, of houses and cars and kids and followers and likes. 

Third, repentance generates grief, deep sorrow for putting ourselves on the throne. That grief turns us happily toward the king who, because he loves and delights in us, died for our sin. As we return to the king, we seek first the things of the kingdom of heaven.

Fourth, repentance bears fruit as we seek the things that matter to Christ: faith and hope and love; trust and imagination and sacrifice, things that can’t be found in a condo on a beach or a grade on an exam. 

Finally, the most important thing we need to know about repentance is what the young street preacher failed to share—the power to repent comes from the Holy Spirit. While we are too blind to see our allegiance to self-rule, the Spirit graciously (and sometimes painfully) removes those blinders, opening our eyes to our sin. While we are too hardened of heart to change our ways, the Spirit softens our heart, making it pliable. To repent, we must collapse on Christ, and we must do it again and again and again. 

Dear friends, join me in repenting, in collapsing before the true King for all of the things we need for “life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). In “repentance and rest” is our salvation (Isaiah 30:15).

Holy Spirit,

Use your laser of love to heal the cataracts clouding our vision of the true kingdom. Draw our eyes to gaze on the majesty and mercy of our one true king. Compel us to collapse on Christ every day, every minute, every hour, in repentance, for his kingdom is near. 

In Jesus’ life-changing name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Matthew 3:1-12; Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15; 2 Corinthians 7:10.

Listen to “Patient Kingdom” by Sandra McCracken.

For Reflection

Have you ever “cringed” at the call to repentance because of the way it was given? What realities of repentance give you hope to obey Jesus’ command?