Day 7 :: Avenue to Meet God

My children spent some time visiting with their Great Grandmother yesterday.  I've always been fascinated by her life.  She spent the majority of it serving the Lord in Africa as a missionary.  She's experienced joys and sorrows in life.  And, at 86 years of age, she has much wisdom to offer.

As she bounced Mason on her knee, she looked at me and said,

"How are you doing accepting this new situation in your life?"

I summarized as best I could, and shared how God is using it and how He is changing me, giving me a desire to know Jesus better.

She kept bouncing Mason, and smiling said,

"It's just an avenue to meet God."

We visited a bit longer, catching up, laughing, and remembering God's faithfulness.  I couldn't stop thinking about what she had said.

When we got home I looked up the definition of avenue.  Of course it is a type of street in a city. There were some other definitions that caught my attention:

- a means of access or attainment-

-a channel for pursuing a desired object-

Yes.  This is what is happening.   This journey we're on with our son, although hard, has given us a new way of meeting God.

How do we meet God?  We meet Him in His Word.  We meet Him in prayer.  We meet Him in worship.  

Do I look at the twists and turns in my life as roadblocks or as avenues?  Can I use the hard stuff to pursue God?  Certainly.  It's a choice I must make every day.

Day 6 :: Never Leave the Rock

The faint heart finds the Rock.

And guess what?  It should never leave.

We need that Rock in the weary times and the times of great victory.  Nothing can be achieved apart from Him.

"He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God."  - Psalm 62:6-7 -

Be you faint or think you are strong, don't come out from the refuge of the Rock.

Day 5 :: Faint Hearts find the Rock

Sitting in the waiting room at the eye doctor, I see them.  A middle-aged mom walking with her adult son.  He wears glasses, velcro shoes, baggy pants.  I can't turn my eyes away.

That's going to be me one day.  I don't want that to be me.  Oh, please, God, NO!

The tears flow later, violently.  My heart is faint, overwhelmed.

How will I ever survive this pain?  Will I ever feel normal again?  How can I keep going?

I can't answer these questions because the pain is so real, so vivid, so powerful.

I read the Psalms and there I find an answer:

"Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint..."

Keep calling out.  This I can do.  I can call to God in my pain and ask Him to listen.

"Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy."  -Psalm 61-

source

He can take me to a resting place, a rock, a refuge.  I don't know what's going to happen after I get there.  But, I know the rock brings protection, shelter, something to lean on.  The pain is still there, but I'm safe.

A truth driven heart knows where to go to rest in the midst of pain.

We go to the Rock.

Please, take your faint heart to the Rock, and find refuge in our Great God.

Day 4 :: The Truth and our Time

Source: via Lindsay on Pinterest

If we're going to talk about a truth driven heart, we have to talk about our time.

Time is precious.  There are countless things that pull us each day, stealing those minutes we hold so dear.  Seasons of life bring changes in the way our time looks in a given day.

Regardless of the season of life, every day will always have 24 hours.

Having a heart driven by the truth means that some of those 24 hours must be spent in the truth.  This means opening up the Word of God and reading it.

source

In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel were required to write a copy of the law of God, and then Deuteronomy goes on to say,

"And it [the law] shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left."  {Deuteronomy 17:19-20}.

I'm pretty sure the Kings of Israel were busy.  But, God gave them a command, even in the midst of their busyness, that gave priority to His Word.  He knew that by reading the law, the heart of the king would be driven in God's ways.

Devotional books are helpful, Christian living books have a lot to offer, blog posts centered on the Word of God talk about truth.  However, nothing should take the place of actually opening up the Bible and spending time reading what God has to say.  {In fact, I don't want you to read this series if you haven't first spent time reading God's Word}.

The days following Mason's birth were rough.  Sleep was hit or miss, as it always is with a newborn, and emotionally I was worn out.  But, I found that the most important thing for me to do to walk through all of that was to spend time in the truth.  As the truth flooded my heart my faith increased and I was able to face a hard time with confidence and peace in God.

Let's not be deceived into thinking that somehow we can put aside God's Word during busy seasons of life.  Make it a priority.  For me, that means getting up a lot earlier than the rest of my family so that I have time in the Word.  It might look differently for you, but it must happen in every season of life if we want to have a truth driven heart.


My friend Mary Beth touched on this same issue yesterday during her 31 Days series.

Day 3 :: Dealing with the Hard Stuff

Hard stuff happens.   

The Bible addresses hard stuff countless times.  James calls hard stuff trials, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds" {James 1:2}.

Count it joy.  This is a tough one!  It's easy to count that good stuff joy, but trials?  What would make me crazy enough to think that is a good idea?  I really have to count it joy that my son has Down Syndrome?  It was a challenge for me to find any joy in this.  I sure didn't feel like rejoicing.  I only felt like crying.  

But, the verse doesn't end at this.  We're given a reason for why we can count it joy.  

"...for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" {James 1:3-4}

We can count hard stuff joy because going through hard stuff, with Jesus, is meant to make us more like Him.  

As I walked through the days and weeks after Mason was born.  I began to see that my faith was tested.  I came to realize that I was okay with Down Syndrome.  I learned that I wasn't given a bad thing.  And, as I grew in these ways, I began to see that God was changing my heart.  

The testing was producing and I knew that God was using this to bring me closer to Him.  

That is joy.  HE is joy.  

You have hard stuff, too.  How are you going to deal with it?  

Go here for a great article about choosing joy and a free printable.

Day 2: Bad is About Perspective

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The day that we came home from the hospital with Mason, I remember sitting on the couch with my mom, breaking the news to her that Mason might have Down Syndrome.  We cried together, and Bradley answered her questions, as best as he could.  During our conversation I remember distinctly saying to her, "This is awful."  And, I meant it.

For about a week I couldn't stop thinking this.  I would find out more of the health risks associated with Down Syndrome, and would panic at the thought that Mason might have leukemia, be deaf, or have a hard time speaking properly.  Mostly, I didn't want him to be made fun of. Ever.  In my mind and heart this was a bad thing.

As I prayed about this, begging God to not allow Mason to have Down Syndrome, I started really thinking through the word bad.  

We use it so often,

"I had such a bad day!"  

"They received some really bad news."  

"I just don't want anything bad to happen to me."

Why do I think that something is bad?  What makes it bad?  Or, rather who makes it bad?

I began to realize that if I thought a situation in life was bad, then I must think that God is bad, because He allowed it and, in fact, gave it to me.

This hit me hard.

I know that God is not bad.  I was reading through the book of Psalm at the time, and came across 25:8, which says, "Good and upright is the LORD."  Again in Psalm 34:8, "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" There.  Proof!  God is good!  Okay, so if God is good, what about this 'bad' thing that I thought I had in my life.

Bad is about perspective.  

If I look at life from a human standpoint, then yes, certain things might appear to be bad.  If I try to look at life from God's perspective, then I will see that He is much greater than those things.  He has purposes I know nothing about.  Isaiah 55:8 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."  

I had to remove the word bad from my vocabulary, from my mind, from my heart.

Hard.  Yes, life can be hard.

Countless times in Scripture we see people facing hard challenges.  Job is the most famous of all.  His life was hard.  He lost his family, his possessions, his health--and yet he praised God.

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.  In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong,"  Job 1:21-22.

As I started to change my perspective, I began to see that Down Syndrome was not bad.  Something bad hadn't happened.  I didn't receive bad news that day in the hospital.  God was allowing something in my life that was hard.

Why would He do that, you might ask?  Come back tomorrow...

31 Days of a Truth Driven Heart

On Friday I alluded to the fact that I would be participating in 31 Days, hosted by Nester.  I tossed around quite a few ideas of what to write about for the month of October, and finally landed on a topic that has been driving much of my thoughts this year.  I shared in January that my 'word of the year' was HEART.  Little did I know how my heart would be stretched, exposed, challenged, and blessed during this year.

Our son was born in April, and was diagnosed shortly after with Down Syndrome {read a little bit about that here}.  The days and weeks following his birth I found myself longing to cling to the truth of God's Word, and in the midst of that found that my heart wasn't always responding in the way that I had hoped.  This new challenge in my life was exposing some areas of my heart that needed to be changed.

I somehow found it easy to think on the truth, but I wanted more than that.  I wanted my heart to be shaped and driven by the truth so that my responses to life would truly reflect what I believed.  Enter, my 31 topic:

The truth of God's Word is a powerful thing and the more we know it the more our lives will be transformed by it, and our hearts will be shaped, molded, and driven by the truth.

I've put together a portion of Psalm 15 as my theme verse for this series.  The psalmist begins by asking, "Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" {verse 1}, and then the remainder of the Psalm answers this question.  Verse 3 says, "He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart."  And verse 5 concludes by saying, "He who does these things shall never be moved."

Join with me this month as I share how I've been striving to have a Truth Driven Heart.

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Day 31

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