Category Archives: Grace

Fasting: I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!

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Missed any of our 31 Days of Fasting in January? All of the posts are in one place just for you, see them here! So thankful for everyone that has been here, whether you come every day for encouragement or pop in now and then, you are so welcome to gather with us. Be blessed as you fast unto the Lord.

How many of you have seen the commercial where the older woman is sprawled on the floor, obviously without choice, and calling into a little button,

“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

That phrase quickly became a byline for many a situation. Not that it was funny that an elderly person had fallen, it was catchy and memorable and it probably sold product like crazy.

If you have been on the fast for any length of time you may have fallen…off the wagon. There’s another one! Where did that phrase, fallen off the wagon originate? According to WiseGeek.com, when you say someone has fallen off the wagon it means they had vowed to stick with one thing but they failed along the way. It was especially referring to the consumption of alcohol. Dating back to the temperance movement, those that consumed were encouraged to get on the water wagon instead of drinking hard liquor. The water wagon was a horse-drawn cart that watered down the dirt roads to control the dust. Those that were encouraging abstinence said they would rather drink from the water wagon than even think of touching alcohol, so if they slipped up it was said they had fallen off the wagon. Who knew?

Maybe if you have been fasting for a few days or even a couple of weeks, you have possibly had something that you didn’t intend to have, found yourself sitting in front of a dessert or favorite food and took a bite before you even thought about it. Maybe you have been on a water-only fast and became so weak and hungry that you just had to have a little bit of nourishment. Either way, you gave in and then as soon as you did, Guilt showed up.

Guilt is not from God. Let’s get that out of the way. He doesn’t put shame or condemnation on His children, He doesn’t sit in Heaven shaking His head and rolling His eyes every time we fail!

Guilt and Shame come from the enemy. It is his specialty! He loves to make us feel as if we have failed, that we aren’t good enough and we might as well give up. Sometimes the pressure is so bad that we feel as if we have to pay penance for a wrong. We have to fix it, undo it or cover it up somehow by doing a good deed.

Friends, this is not what God intended! “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.…” Romans 8:1,2

There is no condemnation if you are walking with God.

He has set you free from Guilt and Shame!

If we do make a mistake, we ask for forgiveness, He hears, forgives and forgets and we pick right back up where we left off. Naturally, we do not think in advance that if we fail we can just say we are sorry and start over again. We don’t intentionally stumble knowing He is always gracious, which He is, but we try to do what is right, in this case with fasting, we pray and do our best to stay committed. But if we do forget, and absentmindedly eat something we shouldn’t, we don’t beat ourselves up over it. We just keep going!

If the enemy is whispering in your ear that you are a failure and that your fasting is all in vain, he realizes the power in prayer and fasting and would do anything to get you to stop. Don’t succumb to his pressure but pick yourself up, grab your sword (the Word of God), find a scripture or two that you can pray out loud and do just that.

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” Jude 1:20, 21

Have you fallen and feel as if you can’t get up? Jesus is waiting for you to grab His hand; He is your biggest supporter and He will encourage you to keep going because your relationship with Him is worth every sacrifice. Fasting changes the inner man, changes YOU and helps you hear the voice of God. Fasting breaks chains that cannot be broken by prayer alone. Warrior angels fight in the spirit world on your behalf!

Be encouraged in the Lord today, even if you have stumbled on your fast, just dust yourself off and keep going. Victory is ahead!

Don’t forget to grab your copy of The Daniel Fast Devotional! Good for any fast, it is a great, easy read with devotions for every day of a three week fast. Get yours on Amazon here!

When we are guilty of Schadenfreude

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When we are guilty of Schadenfreude.

I never did really care for slapstick comedy. The Three Stooges? Ugh. I couldn’t wrap my head around their warped sense of humor; twisting Larry’s nose or slapping Curly across the face just didn’t seem to be funny to me. But, then again, others loved it.

Dick Van Dyke did a spoof years ago on the comedy of seeing others in pain; the typical chair breaking, smashing his fingers, getting his tie caught in a drawer, etc. And he stated that people can relate to that type of humor because we all love a little sarcasm. And, when that misfortune happens to someone else, well, that is even better.

Schadenfreude is taken from the German language; Schaden, which means harm and Freude, which mean joy. But, put them together, and Schadenfreude means malicious joy at the misfortune of others.

Someone falls down and you laugh? It’s Schadenfreude! (pronounced SHAH:dən:froy:də or my simple pronunciation, SHA-den-froi-duh. A recent study indicated that children as young as two years old experienced and expressed Schadenfreude! “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5 ESV.

As intrigued as I am by the word itself, and how much fun it is to say, it really isn’t so amusing, is it?

Before our granddaughter, Norah Jayne, was born, one of her uncles bought her a Onesie with the words “Silently Judging You” screen printed on the front. Little did we know that Norah, in her delightful personality, would also come with a furrowed brow at times that seriously does look like she is silently giving us the once over. (smile)

But I think we are all a little like that Onesie. We SAY we don’t judge, we SAY we wouldn’t laugh at another’s calamity or misfortune but inside we are likely guilty, at some point in our lives, of doing that very thing.

Jonah was one that came to mind in the Bible of someone who might have possessed a little Schadenfreude. He had a little trouble obeying God to begin with but he finally gave in, journeyed to Nineveh, delivered the message God told him to preach and then, basically, sat down and waited for the show. He knew they were going to be destroyed and he wasn’t really that unhappy about it. It was no secret that they deserved judgment. As a matter of fact, he was downright aggravated when they repented and God spared them! (You can read his story here.)

And aren’t we a little like Jonah, too? It’s so hard to admit that we could have any of these ugly attributes inside of us, but without prayer, without spending time in the Word and filling our hearts and minds on the good things of God, the ugly can creep in so unaware. Before we know it, we are standing back, silently judging and thinking things that we wish would go away.

It’s also hard to confess that we are human and prone to sin. Even as a child of God, we have to die out to that flesh every single day. Paul said we had to keep it under subjection, and the only way to do that is to make sure that we have relationship and connection with Jesus Christ.

Wile E Coyote would do his best to make a trap for the Road Runner, with the help of the ACME company supplying all of his tools necessary to carry out his diabolical plan, in the middle of the desert, no less. Of course we all realize that Wile E Coyote possessed Schadenfreude, he would so enjoy seeing the Road Runner get what was coming to him…even though every cartoon would end without that satisfaction. But I can’t help thinking that crazy Road Runner was really the one with the Schadenfreude problem. He would torment that poor coyote, watch him plunge off a cliff and with that silly grin on his face, holler the only two words we ever heard him say, “BEEP, BEEP!”

You see friend, the enemy knows how to work these things into our minds. He realizes it isn’t likely, as a Christian, that he can cause you to stumble with alcohol or drugs. You aren’t likely to go rob a bank or solicit on the street corner. He can’t entice us with things we think of as BIG SINS, because they would be obvious. But the sins of the heart, the not-so-obvious Road Runner sins, here is where he can start putting thoughts in our heads about others, sneak in the jealousy, envy and covetousness. Before long, we find ourselves feeling that malicious joy at the expense of another’s misfortune. We may even justify in our minds that it is okay to feel the way we do toward this particular person because of their actions. “I knew they wouldn’t make it anyway…” “It was bound to happen again, that’s just the way they are.”

“Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble. For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them.” Proverbs 24:17-18 NLT.

God, help us today to realize that it is YOUR mercy that keeps us from falling every day. It is also of the Lord’s grace and kindness that we are not consumed for our actions and thoughts! He extends such compassion and forgiveness to us on a day to day basis and we are, in turn, to offer that same hand of mercy to others. And since most Schadenfreude takes place in the mind, and heart, that is where we must begin; submitting our hearts, our human frailties, to God and allow Him to take out the ugly and replace any malicious joy with His spirit.

For the kingdom

 

Jesus Uses Broken Things

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When The Sweetheart and I first arrived in the country of Latvia in 2011, we were part of a team; a team we had never even met. We were of varying ages, from different areas of the United States, most married, some not, others with small children, some conquering life with teenagers. But, we all discovered we had one thing in common, we had been through STUFF. The Sweetheart even fondly called us The Misfits. Why, we wondered, with our different backgrounds, did God bring us all together to start churches in another country, another world to us? (You can read part of my story here.)

If grace is a kingdom
I’ve stopped at the gate
Thinking I don’t deserve to pass through after all of the mistakes I’ve made

The Apostle Peter experienced plenty of STUFF on his own. As a follower of Christ, he was able to see so many of the miracles of our Lord and vowed to follow Him to the very end. We know that instead, out of fear of the people, he actually did what Jesus said he would do: he denied Him, not once, but three times!

But I heard a whisper
As Heaven bent down
Said, “Child, don’t know you that the first will be last and the last get a crown.”

Peter’s mistakes didn’t keep him from being used of God, and in a mighty way! He preached the first message after the Upper Room Outpouring at Pentecost and saw 3,000 people saved in one day. He didn’t stop there, but right along with Paul and many others; kept preaching the Gospel until his death.

Now I’m just a beggar in the presence of a King
I wish I could bring You so much more
But if it’s true You use broken things
Then here I am Lord, I am all Yours

King David was christened with the title, Man after God’s own heart. Yet David committed adultery and murder! Of course we know sin is sin but David paid dearly for his sin against God and Uriah, the Hittite, with the death of his infant son, born from his relationship with Uriah’s wife, Abigail.

The pages of history they tell me it’s true
That it’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that You use

Did that mean it was over for David? No, David repented and God forgave because David desired to please God, he loved the law of God! David is credited with writing over half of the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Most of them were born out of trouble and over and over David repeats how much he loves God’s Word. Psalms 119:47–48: “For I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.” 

It’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
The misfit heroes You chose
Tell me there’s hope for sinners like me

There are many, many other people in the Bible who failed God.

  • Jacob cheated
  • Peter had a short temper
  • David had an affair
  • Noah got drunk
  • Miriam gossiped
  • Martha worried
  • Thomas doubted
  • Sarah couldn’t wait
  • Moses stuttered
  • Zaccheus was short! (there’s hope for me!)
  • Jonah ran away
  • Gideon was afraid
  • Rahab owned a brothel
  • James and John wanted special seats beside God
  • And Lazarus was dead

True, they, and many others too numerous to mention, made mistakes, they fell down, stumbled and maybe even involved others in their mishaps. But, the good news is they got back up and allowed God to take their slip-ups, their bloopers, gaffes and outright sins and forgive, forget and then empower them to do great things in the Kingdom.

I hope you haven’t missed reading the lyrics in this post. They are from a powerful song, Broken Things by Matthew West. The first verse grabs me because he stops at the gate. Why? He didn’t feel worthy to enter, the enemy was whispering in his ear his past, his many mistakes, and it hindered him from being all God wanted him to be.

It’s never the perfect that God seeks out! It’s the ones with the scars, those that have been through STUFF, such as our team in Riga, Latvia. Maybe just like you. But who better to reach broken people than people that have been broken?! We have learned, we have persevered and we have compassion for others who may also be struggling. (I could turn this into a series on my mistakes alone!)

It is said that if God chose the perfect, those that seemingly have no mistakes in their past, then the credit would go to them, not to God. But when He chooses the imperfect, those that have humbled themselves before God, discovered that they can’t make it without Him, have needed Him to bail them out, save them, deliver them, etc., then God receives the praise and the glory!

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 ESV.

Do you feel as if you belong in the band of misfits? That maybe you have made too many mistakes for God to forgive? Or maybe you have accepted His forgiveness but think that you can’t be restored to ministry? Remember these heroes of the faith that believed GOD was able to take their mess and turn it into ministry.

Grace is a kingdom
With gates open wide
There’s a seat at the table just waiting for you
So, come on inside

He calls the broken because they are dependent on Him, they rely on His power and His might and when they turn it over to Almighty God, no one can turn them away from the King’s table. They are not perfect but continually chase after the One who is.

Enjoy this song, let it be a blessing to you today or pass it on to a friend. God is ready to restore and use you again! And be sure and comment, share with us someone in the Bible that may have messed up or had a past to overcome that God was able to use regardless of circumstances.