Our Friend

My Theophostic class was Saturday, and when it was time to practice TPM, I was the one who got to receive ministry.  I was dealing with fear of rejection, and I was remembering my elementary school days when I was very quiet and shy and not popular.  I was quite intimidated by one popular girl; she was never mean to me, but I didn't have her social skills and considered myself inferior to her. I was always afraid I'd be rejected if I said or did anything dumb. The Lord gave me a picture of me as a little girl, standing in front of the other girl.  Then Jesus put his arm around me.  It made me realize that His friendship is unconditional; He's my friend even if I say or do dumb things.  This was very powerful!
After the ministry session ended, I mentioned a verse in John 15 where Jesus said that we are His friends if we do what He commands.  This verse freaks me out because of my perfectionist flesh.  Pat, who teaches my Theophostic class, said that my interpretation of this verse might change in light of what the Lord just showed me.  After meditating on it, here's what I came up with:  It's very obvious that the Lord's friendship is unconditional.  The verse that helped me with this is Romans 5:10, which says, "when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son."  Jesus is a friend to every Christian, no matter what.  So when Jesus said we are His friends if we keep His commandments, He must have been saying that obedience is a way of us expressing love to Him; certainly it means that we'll experience our friendship with Him more if we obey His commands.  But it doesn't mean that He stops being our friend when we sin, hallelujah!  When we sin, He is for us (1 John 2:1)
I pray that we will all be blessed by the Lord's unconditional friendship.

What Do You Think?

I've been reviewing my Theophostic prayer ministry manual, written by Ed Smith.  Dr. Smith says that much of what we call Christian spirituality and maturity is behavior that unbelievers can do.  Why do you think that is?  If Jesus lives in us, why isn't He making much of a difference?  I'm not trying to discourage anyone; I think there's a solution to this.  (Ed Smith does too.)

Prayer/Being a Comforter

PRAYER

Here is some good Scripture about prayer:
Psalm 34:9-10  There is no want to those who fear Him.  The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
Luke 11:10 He who seeks finds.
Psalm 40:16 Look up at the Lord with gladness and smile. (NAB)
Psalm 62:8 Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.
This last verse is particularly encouraging to me, because it tells me that instead of just praying through a prayer list, I can ask the Lord to put the important things on my heart, and then I can pour out my heart to Him.


BEING A COMFORTER

Empathy, gentleness, compassion, and comforting others are not my strengths.  My apologies to any of you who have suffered as a result of these character flaws of mine.  I was feeling bad about this, and the Lord brought this verse to mind:  "If there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy..." Philippians 2:1.  There is consolation and comfort in Christ, and Christ lives in His people; so then I must conclude that He has made me a comforter.  All I need to do is learn from Him how to be who He's already made me.  This is true for all character qualities:  we who are in Christ are Christlike in our spirits.  We just need to grow into the loving people we already are.
"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified"  Hebrews 10:14.  I pray that we will keep this truth in mind and be blessed by it.

It's OK to Struggle

There was a year or two of my life when I wondered if I had committed the unforgivable sin and had lost my salvation.  I don't struggle with this as much any more, but this week I've been wondering about it again.  I've given up on trying to define what Jesus meant by "blasphemy against the Spirit" (Matthew 12:31).  It has helped me a lot more to look at His character and His way of thinking.
The sin I'm wondering about is when God doesn't do things the way I think He should and I get angry and accuse Him of wrongdoing.  I always repent of this quickly, but I have worried that this disrespect for the Lord might be repaid with His wrath.  Today He quieted my heart with 1 Samuel 16:7 which says that the Lord looks at the heart.  The Pharisees in Matthew 12 had no desire to honor the Lord, but only to accuse Him.  I, on the other hand, had no desire to dishonor God; I was merely having a moment of struggle in my faith.  After my brief anger, I chose to continue to believe in God's goodness.  I don't think the Lord kicks people out of heaven for struggling, hallelujah!  Rather, I think He saw this as a victory for me, since in the end I gave him my vote of confidence.  Also, it was a great opportunity for Him to work on jarring me out of my legalistic thinking.
About legalistic thinking:  what a burden!  Every moment I'm anxious because I'm afraid I'll sin or make a mistake and someone will be angry at me.  But because the Lord made me His child when I trusted in Jesus, He never gets angry at me (Isaiah 54:9, Hebrews 8:12).  His  forgiveness is so complete and before-the-fact (meaning that He forgave my future sins at the moment of my salvation) that He's still delighted with me even when I've just sinned.  Often I can picture the smiling face of Jesus, and this is especially comforting when I've just committed sin.  Amazing grace!
I pray that we will all experience this grace more in 2013.