Awake O My Soul

“O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; My whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land…Your unfailing love is better than life itself, How I praise You...I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer…I lie awake thinking of you meditating on you through the night…Because you are my helper I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. “  Psalms 63

Of all the things that keep me up at night, I don’t usually think of God as being one of them.  Bills, busyness, family, and many other things have kept me awake in the middle of the night, only to fade to a more realistic focus by the light of day. The concerns of life always seem to have a magnified importance in the middle of the night.

Lately I have been considering the possibility that God himself is the source of my sleepless night. What if my sleepless night is really a call to spend time with Him-exclusively and completely focused on the Lord; searching for His heart in my awakened soul? I’ve often used a sleepless night as time to pray: for family and friends, for nagging concerns and for many other people and things. Since praying in the middle of the night usually puts me to sleep, I have to believe that those few times when I have actually gotten out of bed and pursued time with God, have been appointed by Him.  Like an invitation to coffee with a friend, comes the invitation from my Father to spend time together. 

What if my awakened soul is a divine appointment with Him, and an opportunity for me to not just put my wants and concerns before him, but a time for me to go deeper with Him? Time spent with God in the wee hours of the morning, for me, are often a more sharpened time of intimacy and closeness to my Father.  It is a midnight meeting with an opportunity for intimacy and relationship, and a never to be reclaimed moment if missed. “I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night”. 

Awaken to hear the invitation. Awake O my soul.

Soul Guardian

Movies are made and books are written that reflect the fact that as humans, we have a yearning to be cared for and protected. For hope to prevail within our hearts and in society, we need heroes. We believe that we are self-sufficient, but deep inside we want to know that there is someone bigger and stronger than us to rescue us.  We can deny it, but popular culture is full of heroes who rush in to save the day, and we rush in to watch or read all about it. 

I heard a story about a young man whose mom was so messed up that she wanted him to fail. The better he did the worse she felt about herself, so the worse she wanted to make him feel.  Fortunately, someone came along who recognized that this young man needed help. Someone who could be responsible for his care: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Someone who said, I"t is my pleasure to see you do well, to see you succeed, to see you grow".  He needed a hero.  He needed a guardian.

 A guardian is an overseer or a watcher. They protect and guide. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the ultimate in guardians. He is in fact, the guardian of your soul.

1 Peter 2:25 “Once you were like sheep who wandered away, but now you have turned to your shepherd, the guardian of your souls.”

It is interesting that the guardian in this scripture is not presented to us in the form of a super hero complete with cape, mask and tights flying in to save the day.  The guardian of our souls is a shepherd. While many of us may not be aware of all of a shepherd’s duties, we can all agree that they care for sheep. They have an entire flock of folks to be watching out for. However, sheep are known for wandering away. We like sheep, also tend to wander. We are looking for the next adventure or the next cool thing, and wander toward the newest bright and shiny light.

In 1 Peter, it says, once we were like these wandering sheep, then we turned to our shepherd, the one who is our protector and overseer. Superman looks pretty spiffy, and Batman is super cool, but our protector doesn’t just watch over our outer shell, he guards our soul…the very essence of who I am, protected by the very one who made me. My soul guardian:  Imagine the cape for that!

Devoted

I was privileged to grow up in a Christian home. From the time I was 5 years old going to church was important to my family, and it was a regular part of every week. We did not just attend because it was the thing to do, we attended because my parents each had a personal relationship with God and saw church attendance as pivotal to fellowship and growth. We were involved in mid week church activities; and my parents attended Bible studies and were involved in church leadership. However, Family Devotions were an elusive part of our family life. Family Devotions were not something to look forward to, they were something we all dreaded. Devotions were even something that were pulled out when we were all being rotten! The kids are behaving badly? Let’s have a family devotion! There is nothing that makes you dread spending time in the word more than being sent there so that you “could think about what you have done”.

 

 I don’t believe that this is the spirit in which God wants us to spend time with Him. While the word of God is designed to point to the sin in our lives, it is also meant to encourage us in our faith by helping us to see the promises of God and how he has worked over time in the lives of his people, as well as how he has worked through His son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world. It is so much more than a reprimand.  It is my delight.  I delight in chocolate so I eat it. I delight in spending time with my sister, so I make time for it.  I delight in walking my dog, so we walk. If I delight in God’s word, I will choose to make time for it. Psalm 1:1-3 says of those who choose to walk with God,

“But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.”

I desire to be delighted with God’s word and time spent with Him, yet the delight doesn’t always translate into time. The desire to spend time with God is something that seems to have an ebb and flow in my life. There are times when I crave that intimacy with Him, and times when I am there out of obedience.  Each has a place, and blessing abounds because he is a good and faithful God who desires my devotion; Devotion to Him, not devotions for the sake of duty.

So Let it Grow

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be perfect?  I think it would be pretty great. I would never be wrong. I would never do anything less than capably, correctly and with great quality. If I was perfect I would never say the wrong thing, never make a bad decision and be an amazing wife, mother and friend all the time. I would be perfect! Life would be perfect! 

In the book of James, God has something to say to us about perfection, and frankly, it dims the glow for me just a little bit:

“Dear brothers and sisters, when trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Ah. So perfection, at least the biblical variety, comes through trouble, testing and endurance.  There are actually people who enjoy endurance…they are quite often runners, and usually do things like train in the rain for a marathon, or enter mud runs and other crazy races. They have the ability to withstand hardship and stress. They know what it is like to persevere.  I am struck by the way James says (about endurance) “So let it grow!!!!”  As for me, I feel like the four (added) exclamation points are necessary. It is like he is saying, “Bring on the perfection! Let adversity and the testing of faith begin! I want to complete and lacking in nothing.”

Hebrews 6:11, 12 “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience, inherit the promises. “ Could it be that being perfect is not about a flawless life, but that being perfect and complete means we inherit the promises of God?

The good news is this. Even if you are not the world’s best wife and mother, if you sometimes say the wrong thing, and if every task you take on is not accomplished in the way Martha Stewart might do it, as a believer in Christ your are perfect and complete and lack nothing because of Christ and his work of completion in your life.  This ongoing work of completion will certainly include hardship, trials and tests.  But we know the outcome: perfect in the sight of our heavenly father. And that is all that matters.  “So let it grow!!!!”