You Can't Fool a Flight of Stairs

O, Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Psalm 139: 1-3

There is an ad currently running on a local radio station for an area pharmacy. In the ad the question is asked, "What kind of physical shape are you in?" They go on to say that it is difficult to fool a flight of stairs.

How true. Before every legislative session I make a concerted effort to get into better shape, because I know that the demands of the legislative session will take their toll. But, most importantly, I know that the elevators will be extremely crowded during the session, and in the interest of saving time, I will have to take the stairs. But, I don't get to stop at one flight of stairs. The minimum I challenge myself to master is the number of flights it takes to get from my office to the House floor.

The year we officed on the fourth floor of the Capitol and the run to the House floor was two flights down, was the easy year. Currently we are in the underground and there are four flights up to reach my objective. My huffing and puffing after two flights is a dead giveaway of my physical condition. You can't fool a flight of stairs.

You can't fool God, either. As you contemplate the idea of humbling yourself and turning from your wicked ways, remember that nothing you confess to God is going to take Him by surprise. He already knows what condition you are in.

Lord, You know me. You know the things that need to change - even the things of which I am not yet aware. Show me, Lord, the condition I am in so that I can agree with You what needs to change.

Turn from Your Wicked Ways

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Early voting began this morning. For those in the political realm, it is the beginning of the end for the elections cycle. On the other hand, for those more interested in policy than politics, the election in two weeks will represent the end of the beginning of the legislative process.

Have you noticed that while the motivation behind this devotional was to seek God's face on behalf of our nation, there has been little time spent on "the headlines." So far, things have not improved. We still have a health care bill we do not understand and cannot afford. We are losing personal liberties on a daily basis. Our national deficit promises to plague our children's children. And, every economic indicator is shouting out warnings of what lies ahead.

But, don't let the news distract you. Those issues are not the problem. They are only the symptoms that are a result of the underlying decay caused by our failure to turn from our "wicked ways." "Wicked ways" is an incredibly politically incorrect concept in today's society. But, we all understand the concept. Our wicked ways are the things we are doing that we shouldn't be doing.

Unlike God, who was able to put His expectations down on a couple of stone tablets, there are currently over 50 title of federal statutes, representing countless pages of expectations of behavior. In addition to the federal statutes, there are another 25 feet of book shelf space writings in federal administrative expectations. Then, we have all the state statutes and local ordinances to deal with. How realistic is it for a person to keep up with all those laws?

Well, for the devotional purposes, I am going to give you a pass on everything that was not on God's top 10 list. If you will just take care of those areas of your life, the rest of the stuff generally falls into place. So, just for review, here's the list:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
   
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
   
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
   
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
   
5. Honor your father and your mother.
   
6. You shall not murder.
   
7. You shall not commit adultery.
   
8. You shall not steal.
   
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
   
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
    

So if we had a pop quiz on how you are doing on the top 10, how would you score?

Lord, help me to see my actions as You see them. Please give me the gift of conviction and repentance in those areas of my life which are not pleasing to You.

 

Be Still . . .

I'm in a bit of a rush this morning. You know how it is. Things to do, places to go. But, I set aside some time to "practice the presence of God" to get an indication of what needed to be in the devotional for today.

Initially, I heard nothing. It was a very loud, very prominent nothing. There was no missing it and no mistaking it.

As I watched the limited time I had chipped away at, ideas for devotional topics I have had in the past began to go through my mind. Maybe I could use one of those. Remembering, however that I had come before the Lord asking for an answer, I was hesitant to use an idea of mine and credit the Lord with it. The only honest choices I had were not writing an entry at all or admitting to you that the devotional today was about nothing.

Just as I decided to see how much I could write about nothing, the Lord reminded me that He had given me the topic yesterday.

Be still and know that I am God.     

Sometimes it isn't about what He says. It is enough to just know that He is.

Lord, thank you for the reminder that You have already given me the answers to most of the questions I have. And help me to be still so that I may know You and who You are.

Practicing the Presence of God

That as for the miseries and sins he heard of daily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them, that, on the contrary, he was surprised there were not more, considering the malice sinners were capable of; that for his part, he prayed for them; but knowing that GOD could remedy the mischiefs they did, when He pleased, he gave himself no further trouble. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Several years ago the little volume The Practice of the Presence of God was recommended to me. It consists of a series of letters written about the author's conversations with Brother Lawrence, a lay brother living in a monastery during the late 1600s. Since then, the book has been included in my re-read at least once a year stack. In my prayers about the devotional this morning the excerpt from above came to my mind.

Truly, we spend a lot of time worrying about things over which we have no control. And, if they worried God as much as they do us, He could certainly remedy the situation if He so chose. So, if God (who can "remedy the mischiefs") does not see fit to do so, why do we (who have no control over the situation or the outcome) fret about it?

Two possible answers come to mind:

1) We overestimate our power to do things only God can do.

2) We underestimate the power of God to do things only He can do.

Do you see yourself in either scenario? Do you feel a compelling need to fix situations or things that other people are dealing with? Or, are you content to pray and only do what the Father tells you to do? Parents often cross the line in this area, trying to rescue their children from the consequences of their actions. Actions have consequences. When a parent continually shields their child from natural consequences when they are young, it is a rude awakening for them when they get out into the world. Likewise, making excuses for our bad behavior or choices or the behavior and choices of those around us (think drug and alcohol use, sexual sins, lies, cheating, stealing, . . . .) gives the false impression that the sin has a solution other than repenting. It indicates an unspoken belief that if God was as smart as we were He would know the reasons that people act the way they do and make exceptions to the natural consequences in these circumstances.

Such action also indicates that God is not able to "remedy the mischiefs" if we just sit back and let Him do what He does. So, it's a two-fer problem. We think too much of ourselves and not enough of God's power.

Instead, consider it from Brother Lawrence's perspective. Pray about those things you see happening around you. But, don't let them trouble you too much. God can remedy them. And, He is faithful to do so when we get out of the way. That knowledge only comes from being in the presence of God.

Lord, help me to practice being in Your presence.

 

Act Like You've Been There Before

Recently a friend called to tell me about a scenario that simply had no hope of a good outcome. After telling me the facts and the possible consequences of each proposed action, my response was to recommend the least pleasant course of action, and pray for the Lord's favor and mercy. It involved taking responsibility for one's action. My point was that sometimes going ahead and owning up is less painful than anticipating the penalty of an action. (Yes, I rip band-aids off, I do not pull them off slowly.)

Knowing that most people who request your advice don't really care what you have to say, after shooting up a quick, "Lord, have mercy" prayer, the issue drifted to the back of my mind. Later on my drive home, I called to see how things had worked out.

When my friend answered the phone, she was crying and I had to ask her to repeat herself so I could understand her. I knew things were bad, but was wondering how much worse they had become in the time since we last spoke. She finally pulled herself together enough to choke out, "God answered your prayer."

It took me a second to gain control of my mouth before I blurted out the first responses that came to my mind. They included non-edifying pearls of wisdom such as:

"Well, duh."

"Of course He did."

"Don't act so surprised."

"What were you expecting?"

Fortunately I realized that the Lord was using this as a faith building experience for my friend. So, instead of laughing at her disbelief, I just chuckled and reminded her that it had been her prayer, too. All we did was agree with God with what He wanted to do anyway. And, that's the joy of prayer. Not that we have a to-do list that we present to the Lord and ask Him to sign off on. But that we have an opportunity to enter into communion with the creator of the universe, be shown what He is doing, and then get to be a part of it through agreeing in prayer.

It is a favorite of football coaches to tell their players that when they get to the end zone they should act like they have been there before rather than celebrating like it is New Year's Eve. The sentiment is true in your prayer life. If the fact that God answers your prayers surprises you, it is time to work on the fundamentals of your faith.

Lord, thank you for the gift of faith. Show me what it is that You are doing so that I may enter into prayer in agreement with Your purposes.

 

 

Humility - Again (Yes, it's a theme)

Take a second to look at the ring finger on your left hand. What do you see? Now, for the next few minutes, I don't want you to think about the things that are associated with that finger. Don't remember the time you shut it in the car door and flattened the nail bed. Don't think about the ring on that finger (or lack of one) and contemplate what that means about your personal relationships. Don't consider whether you need a manicure, or moisturizer or if your hand is beginning to look its age. Really, stop thinking about what you are looking at.

Are you still thinking about your hand? That's how I am with humility. Anytime I purpose to humble myself before the Lord, my mind immediately begins to shoot off in tangents about how humble I am, why I am not humble, what happened last time I tried to humble myself, or whatever.

The problem is, humility is not about me. It is about my relationship with the living God.

The solution is to lose myself in Him.

Still thinking about your hand?

Get lost. It is not about you.

Lord, You are the answer. Deliver me from trying to understand all the questions.

Whining

If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14.

There are 20 days left before the November 2 general elections. That puts us at the midway mark of the 40 days of prayer and fasting. I'm not sure about you, but 40 days doesn't seem like that long for me to master all the skill sets required in my humbling, praying, seeking and turning so that God can do His part. But, I'll give you the good news up front in this segment. This is like riding a two-wheeler bike. You take the training wheels off and fall. You try. You fall. You try. You fall. You try. You fall. But then one day, suddenly, you can ride the bike. Oh sure, there will still be a few falls and a couple of major crashes. But, they won't keep you from getting back up on the bike, because you know you have places to go.

But, success is not the topic for today's devotional. It is not unusual for me to get a spark of an idea for a devotional when my mind is actually engaged in other activity. Experience has taught me to jot the idea down for future mulling over. Yesterday the spark was "whining." The thought came to me in mediation over 2 Chronicles 7:14 in the section where it says that God will "… hear from heaven…". If the conditions for God hearing are the "humble, pray, seek and turn" issues, then if we pray without doing those things can God hear us?

It brought two thoughts to mind. First, our oldest basset hound is the master of whining. Yes, he can bark and howl with the best of them, but his favorite form of communication is whining. We refer to it as murmuring. If he wants his spot on the chaise lounge, he whines. If he wants food, he whines. If he wants in or out, he whines. When he whines too much, I wine. (Just a little alcohol humor there to see if you are paying attention.) Anyway, nothing seems to solve the problem of his whining, other than giving him what he wants or banishing him to his crate and ignoring the additional whining that ensures. In the interest of true confession, more times than not I cave in to shut him up. I need to work on that.

The other thought that came to mind was the way whining was handled with my children. It was not tolerated. When a young child of mine whined, they got one warning that, "Mommy can't hear whining. If you want something, you have to speak up." After that, mommy became deaf to all the whining in that conversation. Being really quick learners, they gave up the whiny voices.

As teenagers the whining was not so much tone as, "It's not fair."

Mom's response, "Life is not fair. Deal with it."

And the conversation was over unless they actually had some concrete facts to bring into the conversation.

So, my question is this, when we are praying and using either the whiny tone or the life's not fair card with God, can he hear us?

Lord, deliver me from whining and whiners. Remind me to keep to the facts in my prayer life.