Come

All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep

--From the song "All Who Are Thirsty"

 

Some of you  have been told that you’ve got to get it together to come to Jesus. Maybe you’ve always thought He doesn’t want you because you aren’t “churchy”.  You think you’ve got to fit in with the church goers you know, but you don’t. Perhaps you carry a burden that you thinks makes you too messy for Him. Or maybe you believe it’s too late for you, that you’re too far gone and stuck in your ways. But none of that is true. You, just as you are, are what Jesus wants. Your aches and pains, loads and messiness do not take Him by surprise. Without the mess, none of us ever learn to depend on Him and trust Him. And we will never know what healing is like if we’re “perfect”! He didn’t come for the perfect, but the messy.

 

He didn’t come to make the morally upright more right. He didn’t come to help us follow the rules. He didn’t come to beat  you over the head with the threat of punishment, but to offer you another way – a better way! He came to offer you security, permanent and true. He came to offer you forgiveness from all the stuff you’ve done and grace for what you will do still. He will deliver and bring you right into your true purpose. He wants a relationship with you that Is free from barriers caused by a hard heart, shame, bitterness, judgment, self hate or the hate of others. He will set you free from them all as you journey with Him.

 

He won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, granted obedience it a choice and love always offers one. But you’ll find that His way always ends better than yours. He won’t make you act, look, dress and think like your fellow believers. We’re all created to express an aspect of His vast creativity and we are never more unique than when we follow, listen to and interact with Him. Whatever you inherited from your Father will come out in relationship.

 

Jesus never expected perfection from us. He came because, without Him,  we cannot experience freedom in order to truly live out our time here with purpose. He came because He loves us too much to see us live in shame and condemnation and with hard hearts that separate us from truly hearing from and interacting with our Father. He doesn’t care if you go to church; it isn’t a qualifier to get His love. He doesn’t care if you know scripture, but He will teach you. He really doesn’t care what you’ve done wrong because His forgiveness, when you ask for it, is unlimited. His hands are held out, arms full of love for you. He welcomes you- just as you are, right now and every day after. You’ll never know your purpose better than what He shows you through relationship. Be courageous and take His hand!

The Sacrifice

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Psalm 51:17

 

The Lord is looking for us to step fully into the water, not to merely dip our toes. He is looking for us to bring our blind, hardened and aching hearts, lay them on before Him and allow Him to tenderize us. There is no “half in”. Either we’re in or not. Either we trust Him with our hearts or we don’t. And part of doing so means we trust Him to re-teach us whatever it is that is in us that doesn't agree with Him. Without a tender heart, we will not have the discernment to know what that is. We can't be like Jesus at all with hearts of stone. 

 

Under the Old Testament covenant, everyone in the tribes of Israel was required to offer sacrifices at the temple under very strict rules. Every sin of every person was to be atoned for by the offering of their most perfect livestock. They couldn’t keep it for themselves; they had to offer it as a means of fulfilling their end of the covenant and to prove they trusted God to provide more. However, under the new covenant the blood of Jesus atones for all of us-once!  We are no longer required to offer up livestock to atone for our sins. But we still have a part in this- we are called to offer up the sacrifice of our whole hearts. This takes a whole lot more courage and faith. Laying down our walls is no easy task!

 

To follow Jesus is an invitation that comes with the calling to offer up your whole heart to Him. You expose it to what He wants, you keep it tender to hear His voice and you allow Him to break your heart for what breaks His. It means we accept a life of pain and hurt and allow it to shape us into being more useful to others who share similar experiences. Without pain, we can never relate to the lost and broken. Without ever having been broken ourselves, how can we assure others that He still heals? 

 

Let's be honest, we’re all human and have a tendency in all to clench up. We harden our hearts out of fear and a habit of guarding ourselves. But God can be trusted with our hearts. He can be trusted to do right by us. Sure, having a tender heart is going to mean pain. But that pain makes us more like Him, more compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and others-centered. When life is easy, the human heart has a habit of becoming entitled, judgmental, self-centered and merciless. We get comfortable and lazy. We become all about making our lives even more comfortable, not able helping others. It ain't pretty! But when we allow our hearts to be broken by what breaks His, we honor our part of the covenant- offering our hearts as an unwavering sacrifice to fulfill His desires. 

We cannot “follow the rules”, yet keep our hearts from His touch and expect to be made righteous. For it takes more courage and faith to give your heart to someone you cannot see than it does to live morally right. I’m not saying that living morally right is bad; I am saying that it’s not enough to please God. It takes a relationship built on trust to lay your heart bare and let The Great Heart Doctor do whatever He wants with it. Allowing God to hold your bare heart and have free reign with it opens you up to a wide range of experiences with Him, teaching you more about who He really is and who he is calling you to be. 

 

When we live with the mission of protecting ourselves, we wall up and miss out on chances to connect with God and people. I believe people who do this are more miserable than those who are tender. There is so much to gain from life that you can only get by having a tender heart. At least that's been my experience. You see, He doesn’t just call us to lay our bare hearts out there unprotected. He protects us. If we trust Him by staying tender, we get greater protection from Him than we could ever provide ourselves.

 

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 

And His ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,

And delivers them out of their troubles.

The Lord is near those who have a broken heart, 

And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 

But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He guards all his bones; 

Not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked, 

And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, 

And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Psalm 34: 15-22

Taking Time to Heal

We spend so much time trying to bury our pain. We think we're stronger and growing by distancing ourselves from the pain. In actuality, by pretending we are hindering the healing process. It takes strength to allow your heart to break, to feel the pain and to admit all those raw feelings. Feeling those excruciatingly hard things isn't easy, but we find out so much about ourselves when we do. We find out just what parts and mindsets need a fresh look.

It takes courage to share those feelings with someone, but it takes the most courage to share them with God. I'm convinced that it's the ultimate act of worship as we seek to build intimacy with Him. I have no doubt that He would much rather us be real than try to appear strong, only to fall apart later because we didn't take the time to heal. 

Take it from me. I used to think that distancing myself from painful things made me stronger. I heard all the common sayings of "wisdom" that is common today and I thought that protecting myself from pain was somehow my "calling". So, I bottled up years of feelings and convinced myself I didn't hurt so bad. But boy, I did! The more I bottled, the more I began to swell up from the pressure. I had a choice- let myself heal or let this stuff come spewing out uncontrollably. 

Maybe I just hadn't let myself hurt in the past. I had hardened myself. In doing so, I only threw dirt over my mess. Pretending never made it go away. It only make it harder to get to the bottom of the pile later. (Please don't misunderstand my comments to mean that boundaries are a bad thing. They're crucial for an emotionally and spiritually healthy lifestyle but they should never cause us to harden or feel apathetic in any way. )

Jesus is really changing my mind about this stuff In this season of life. God is calling me to let myself feel the pain, every ounce of it and to use this time to uncover things deep inside that need facing and healing. He is calling me to rest, examine what's going on in me and be honest about it. From the day the current turmoil in my life began, He has been whispering to me, "Let yourself feel this- don't push it aside." He wants me to truly heal. Without staring that stuff in the face, I can't. None of us can. We'll just keep struggling with the same issues over and over and never overcome them. If we're going to be truly free, we have to take every chance we can to see what's beneath that mound of dirt. And it takes a lifetime. 

God is our safe place. He welcomes us to let it all out before him- no matter how ugly or raw it is. Some things may be hard to say, even to God. But he wants us to say it- to be real and honest. He wants to help us through it and heal us in it. He won't judge us for what we feel. Honesty is an act of intimacy and our willingness to talk to Him is not overlooked. And when we talk to Him, He talks back. Eventually He will give wisdom to us. It may seem to take forever or come slowly but, at some point, we will find ourselves living out of a supernatural wisdom and discernment as a result. But we cannot skip meeting with Him and pouring out our hearts. 

He doesn't want us to pretend to be tough; He wants us as we are - real. He wants to make us tough, but in His way. Strength lies in being vulnerable and weak, in staying humble and tender-hearted. Truly strong people don't have to harden their hearts. They can remain tender when the storm threatens to bend them. Why, because they know its not truly their strength that will save them. 

Don't make the mistakes I did; Don't resist the chance to heal when you're in pain. It's easy to skip right on along and pretend things don't hurt so badly, and so often the world expects us to. Keep in mind that your heart is your responsibility and it will live on long after your body is gone. Your heart is what's important to God. He wants you to have a heart like His and, in order to do so, you have to walk through the hard stuff slowly and with your spiritual glasses on. 

Of course, it's not a comfortable place to be, but rushing through it only hurts you. Rest. Don't try to act strong. Remain tender towards God and let His desire be he only one that matters in it all. Be where you are and let Him show you who He is in the midst of it. Contrary to popular belief, that's how you really become stronger. 

One Thought At A Time

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.

Psalm 119:45

I heard someone recently say to a child, "Don't wear that to school or people will pick on you!" I suddenly saw the bondage behind comments like that. It made me sad that so many of us, with the best intentions, teach our children to model their lives after what's publicly acceptable and expected. I've done it, I'll admit. We do it for good reasons in our own minds. We do it to help them "fit in" and be seen in a good way by others. We think we're protecting them, when in fact, we are putting them in bondage to living their lives like other people expect them to. Jesus doesn't call us to any such thing, but to the very opposite. 

That mindset, as common as it is, is dangerous. I'm convinced it's what keeps many Christians and non-believers alike from living their lives to the fullest. What if the Holy Spirit calls them to do things that don't fit that mold. Will they listen or will they be too paralyzed by the fear of what others think and say? A huge portion of the Christian and non-Christian population are hung up on what other people think. They find themselves in debt trying to gain the approval of their friends and neighbors. They  base their life choices on the opinions of society. 

If this is you, please believe that I'm not saying any of this out of judgement and condemnation, but to call attention to a destructive mindset. I have been guilty of these things too. 

My journey with Jesus has taught me that, more often than not, He will call us to do things that society will think bizarre and eccentric. Other people have often tried to stop me from doing things I felt led to do, thinking I was embarrassing myself. And maybe to them I was. But it is far more important to obey God than be acceptable and blend in with people. His direction is more rewarding than the approval of men. He knows what's best for us, and sometimes that includes doing things that go against the norm. 

Our minds have been programmed to think that we must live our lives from a socially-written template. It keeps so many people in fear of living out their convictions, using their God-given gifts, loving people in radical ways or going where God wants them to go. Yes, even well intentioned people can cause such damage by spreading this mindset because they, too, are caught up in it. 

Good intentions never produces perfection. Whatever bondage is in someone's heart will drive their lifestyle and the way they teach their kids. It will be be in every piece of advice they offer and, more importantly, in their marriages. This is why, beloved, it's so important that we each walk the path of freedom with Jesus. We need His lessons and freedom so that we can teach our kids His freedom, have better marriages and other relationships. It's a tough calling- to stop ignoring and justifying our own damaging mindsets and to adopt new, better ones. 

So often we don't see those mindsets until Jesus or someone else sheds light on it. At that point, in order to truly follow Jesus, we've got to pray, seek help and a new mindset that matches His. We have to continually ask Jesus if our mindsets match His. We have to avoid defensiveness since it's a barrier to growth. We have to practice listening and staying humble. We have to try, over and over, to see ourselves realistically. We, humans, go through a lot of change in life and need constant examination. And we need honest people around us. Even more so, we need to be in constant communion with Jesus. And then, we need to be humble, brave, persistent and gracious to ourselves and others as it takes time to overcome those bondages. 

Mankind's Greatest Struggle

Scripture speaks a lot about the importance of humility and pride. Have you ever wondered why? I'll be honest- I didn't really get it for much of my walk with Jesus. But through some pain and a lot of trials I am learning. Based on all those things I've experienced I believe the call to humility is for our growth as well as our relationships. Relationships are what the Bible, and our God is all about. He didn't just create one or two humans and stop there; He created countless humans throughout the years. And He tells us repeatedly what the key is to loving one another in that one word- humility. 

Pride keeps us defensive; it is that voice that says, "We're enemies" or "No one has been through what I have!" It provides the excuses for the wrongs we do to one another. It poofs us up like pillows when that voice of God convicts us in any way. Defensiveness keeps us from hearing, truly hearing what other people have to say to us and therefore is a barrier to relational healing. When we can't listen, we can't be open-hearted to our fellow man. A closed heart is most destructive to our relationships, also quenching own growth. 

Humility, on the other hand, keeps our hearts open. We have no reason to defend ourselves when we accept our own flawed state and the possibilities for us to make a mess of anything. We have no reason to get angry with those who confront us when we realize that it is a good thing that not everyone thinks like us. When we look for other perspectives and views outside what's in our own heads or agrees with us, we blossom. God uses community to shape us, so we need to be willing to speak up and listen too. But people need to feel safe to be honest with us, and even more safe to take feedback from us. They need to know we mean it in love and that we're on equal ground. 

In my experience, relationships with people who refuse to see themselves as others see them are the most miserable. They live with no concern for how they impact others because they are blinded to the pain they cause. Maybe some of them see it but feel stuck because of pride. But we all need to feel we have a voice - that our feelings and our perceptions matter. And to God they do. If we truly strive to be like Him, we will strive to make others feel safe to share their insight with us. 

The healthiest relationships are those where both parties listen to one another and are open to changing where it is necessary. It's not about blaming or pointing fingers but about mattering to one another. If this country is to change and this world is impacted by us in good ways, then we as individuals have to start by taking responsibility for our own mindsets and actions. The more we listen to God's convictions, the more we're willing to hear from other humans too. 

Life is not a competition. Jesus meant it to be a partnership with him and with other people. But the first step is acceptance our own state and dropping our walls of pride. If we truly believe there is no condemnation in Christ, then our walls of defense make no sense in the kingdom of God. 

The Freedom of Forgiveness

Recently, I was counseling my teenage daughter about something she was dealing with. I watched how she carried herself with shame over a mistake she had made, so much so that she had withdrawn from people in general. With every interaction she did have, her anger spewed. When I looked closely, she seemed to be struggling to forgive herself and that unforgiveness was heavy on her. I felt led to speak into that and although I didn't know what to say, God did. 

The words that came out of my mouth were something like this, “It’s important that you forgive yourself; give yourself some grace. Forgiving yourself is just as important as forgiving others. If you do not, you will repeat the behavior you feel so much shame for. Accept that you are human and learn from this how to respond the next time you’re in that situation, but don’t stay tied to this. You’re going to make more mistakes, but those you don’t forgive yourself or others for somehow get repeated."

That was totally not of my own “wisdom”, but of God’s. It’s true. What we don’t forgive holds us hostage. It pins us to the very behavior or sin that caused pain in the first place. Whether it be something we did or someone else’s actions, forgiveness is powerful. It can set free to move forward into change or it can tie us to certain sins for generations. Forgiveness isn’t just about own our purity of heart, but also our freedom from sin and bondage.

People don't change for the better under the weight of disapproval. The freedom offered through grace and forgiveness sets us free when we accept it for ourselves and offer it to others. We can then start to truly live without the fear of inevitable mistakes. We humans are made to need forgiveness, and plenty of it. The best way to learn that though is to learn to seek to see ourselves realistically. 

Forgiveness is an act of humility and mercy. It is best done when we truly see ourselves for the vulnerability within. But when we see ourselves as stronger, more flawless than we are, we aren’t prone to forgive anyone. Our vision is blurred and we’ve bought the lies that come out of that and judgment is the result. I honestly don’t think we can have a proper view of ourselves without the Holy Spirit. Without Him, it always comes out from one extreme to the other - either self hate or self worship. 

For years, I held grudges I swore I had forgiven. My lack of forgiveness would come out in subtle ways, through anger or ill feelings. Other times, I would get so caught up in my own shame that I withdrew from everyone around. As much as I held grudges against others, the ones I held against myself were greater. I had held myself to such standards that no human could meet, and then I imposed the same ones onto others. I just didn’t see it. 

Just like me, many of you may be convinced you have no bitterness within. The real proof is how you speak and think about the other party involved, or yourself. Another sign of unforgiveness, I believe, is the fear of making mistakes to the extent that we miss out on life. We need to ask ourselves whether we are truly living, taking risks, getting back up when we fall down. Are we as gracious with ourselves and with others as Jesus is with us? Do we accept that Jesus' forgiveness is enough or do we somehow think he died to make us afraid to live?

It is important to remember that accepting forgiveness, as well as extending it, has the power to set us free from a life of paralyzing fear that causes us to miss out on life. We can take on life more boldly when we aren’t afraid of skinning our knees or bruising our elbows. We’re all human; we’re going to make mistakes. But He never meant for us to take a seat on the bench for fear of falling down. He meant for us to love freely and forgive freely, taking risks that will sometimes leave us bruised. This world is broken; we’re going to get hurt. But our time here is a gift and a mission and we need forgiveness to get through it. 

Beyond the Veil

Jesus shouted again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:50-51

The curtain separating the inner temple, the place where the Spirit of God dwelled and only the high priest was allowed was ripped in half when Jesus breathed His final breath. I can imagine the panic at the temple as the Earth shook and that veil was mysteriously torn, allowing access to anyone who wanted to stand before God. Years prior to that, God gave the Israelites strict instructions about the layout of the temple, the process of sacrifice  and who could enter the holy place of His dwelling. No man, woman or child other than the high priest could go beyond the veil. But now that Jesus paid the price of every sacrifice ever necessary and served the role as the high priest, anyone can stand before God without another human intercessor. 

Step forward to modern times. Even though we all have access to God directly through Jesus, so many of us are living as though we don't. Shame, fear, and other bondage keeps us from walking through that torn veil to experience God personally. And the enemy loves that. He is keeping people full of lies that make them ashamed, believing that they aren't worthy to stand before Him. None of us are, but that's not the point. Yours and my enemy is behind every single thought that God doesn't want you or that you are useless to Him. Satan wants you to think God doesn't love you or won't forgive your sins to keep you from entering The Safe Place, where the Master Warrior himself will cover you from Satan's schemes. 

Jesus has paid the price, and there is nothing you can do that He will not forgive. But part of the process of coming to God, standing before His holy presence, is to accept what He gives you. If He says He will forgive, He will and you need only to choose to believe Him over your feelings of shame and sorrow. You'll probably need to keep choosing to believe Him every time the enemy's accusations come at you. Remember that Jesus's atonement is more powerful than your sins. Draw near to Him and ask for faith to believe when you need it. 

You no longer need carry any shame as one who follows Jesus. And we no longer need to shame one another. As believers, we've been set free from anything that keeps us from following Him 100%. The best testimony of Jesus is the freedom we live in, not the rules we make for ourselves and others. If God forgives and shows much grace, we must also. 

And if you aren't yet His follower, it is never too late to start.