The Unseen

FIX YOUR EYES ON THE UNSEEN

Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

—2 Corinthians 4:16-18

All of us are surrounded by something we cannot see or feel. Without this particular combination of gases, we would not be alive. I’m referring, of course, to our atmosphere. We can’t see the air or feel it but we know it’s there because we’re here to talk about it.

Many of us have allergy-related asthma problems that necessitate the use of inhalers and/or nebulizers to open up our airways so we can breathe better. Some people have problems breathing on their own for various other reasons and rely on respirators to help them breathe. Either way, the result is the same: we cannot see the air we breathe but we know it is there.

So it is with God. He is our unseen champion, the one who is always there to comfort and guide us through the rough spots in life. It is so easy to give in to the urge to grumble about our circumstances, but that never changes the situation. It just makes us feel worse about things.

In my own life, I am thankful for the blessing of Jesus Christ in my life. As my health has dramatically declined, my faith and reliance in Him has grown exponentially so that I have learned to trust Him for everything, even getting through each day: hour by hour, sometimes one minute at a time.

Even more than our parents love us and enjoy our company, God loves us and longs for close fellowship with each of us. That’s why He made us. When we fix our eyes on Him—even though we can’t see Him—we can trust Him to know what is best for us.

Beloved, that empty cross and tomb means that we can trust that the invisible (for now) God is absolutely here with us, guiding us through our days.

As we respond to His desire for a closer relationship with us, He will walk closer and closer with us, enabling us to fix our eyes on Him in joyful anticipation of seeing Him in heaven forever.

The wonder of it is this: the closer you walk with Jesus, the more you’ll start thinking like Him. And the more you start thinking like Him, the more fully you’ll experience that peace, hope and joy that can come only from Him.

Thankful for Perfect Peace

Thankful Thursday

I know I’ve shared this verse with you several times before but it has so much truth packed into just a few words that it is worth repeating.

I’ll always be thankful that God answered the cry of my heart one day with this particular Bible passage. The New King James Version was my Bible of choice at the time, so that translation of this verse is dear to me:

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. —Isaiah 26:3

I love the use of the word stayed in this passage! I am so thankful that God brings this and other passages to mind when I need them the most but I also keep this verse visible on the home page of my cell phone and written on cards posted in various places around the house.

How about you, Beloved? What Scripture passages spring to your mind when you’re grappling with tough situations? Please share!

Finishing Well

Here’s another devotional written by my wonderful friend, Patricia Knight. I know you’ll appreciate this one as much as I do!

By Patricia Knight

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“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” —2 Corinthians 12:9, NAS

 

At the end of his life and his remarkable career, the apostle Paul turned his responsibilities over to Timothy, his friend and co-worker for Christ. Paul expressed self-satisfaction with serving God and promoting His Gospel; he had totally depended on his Lord’s leadership and power. He carried God’s love throughout most parts of the known world, on four missionary journeys. Paul’s ministry work for His Lord was impeccable.

After being stripped and beaten, then thrown in a dark, dank jail where his feet were secured in stocks as an added measure of security, Paul gave thanks and sang hymns.  From inside another jail he wrote letters to encourage fellow Christians, the same Gospel letters that minister to us today in God’s Word.

Paul asked God repeatedly to remove his “thorn in the flesh,” a particularly burdensome physical problem. Instead of curing Paul, God answered that He would convert Paul’s weakness to His sovereign strength.  We do not know to what extent Paul’s physical problem interfered with his endurance, but we are aware that Paul remained steadfast in his faith and service to His Lord, daily buoyed and empowered by God’s strength.  Paul was determined to boast about his own weaknesses so that Christ’s power could be glorified in his life. Today, God is faithful to convert our weakness into His strength, just as He did for Paul centuries ago.

Humble obedience is God’s intent for us.  Whatever our plight in this life, we are   commanded to enthusiastically accomplish God’s work.  Using our unique abilities, God delights in custom designing a personal service plan for everyone who loves Him.

“Few Christians finish well” is a haunting prediction.  Let us not allow that warning to come to fruition in our lives. By maintaining tenacity of faith and service to God throughout our lives, in the end, like Paul, we can claim, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).  Though Paul readily identified God as his Source of strength, he also persevered during hardship, allowing God’s power to burst through his circumstances.

Our gift of eternal life is secured by grace, not by works. As a result, our good deeds for God and our fellow men spill over as a natural outpouring of our faith.  “Faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). Paul knew that truth and so do we.  Why not practice with discipline that which we know to be true, and finish our life well, with a remarkable career for Christ?

Thank you again, Pat! What a blessing you are in my life!

What We Believe-Part 7

Our church is currently going through a sermon series on what we believe, which is a good reminder for all of us. This is the outline from the first sermon in this series, very basic—sometimes it is good to get back to the basics! Since it is quite long because I decided to fully quote the referenced Scripture passages, I will post a portion of it each day for 7 days. Today’s post is #7 of 7. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here , Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here and Part 6 here.

I have chosen to repeat the heading portion on each of the 7 posts for your remembering pleasure.

What We Believe: A Doctrinal Primer

The need for sound doctrine –

Proverbs 1:7—“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

2 Timothy 1:13—“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.”

Titus 2:1—“You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.”

Colossians 2:4—”I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.”

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Last Things: We believe that one day every person will stand before God’s judgment.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15—“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

Revelation 20:11-15—“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

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Beloved, thank you for journeying with me through this week’s look back at the foundations of what we as Jesus followers believe—in other words, why we believe what we believe. I hope you’ve enjoyed this review as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.

Here is the bottom line for you to ponder:

Do you know what you believe? Can you support it?

What We Believe-Part 1

Our church is currently going through a sermon series on what we believe, which is a good reminder for all of us. This is the outline from the first sermon in this series, very basic—sometimes it is good to get back to the basics! Since it is quite long because I decided to fully quote the referenced Scripture passages, I will post a portion of it each day for 7 days. Here we go with #1 of the 7!

What We Believe: A Doctrinal Primer

The need for sound doctrine –

Proverbs 1:7—“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

2 Timothy 1:13—“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.”

Titus 2:1—“You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.”

Colossians 2:4—”I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.”

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Systematic Approach – 7 Key Areas

Bible: We believe in the Bible, God’s Word, inspired, trustworthy and true.

Hebrews 4:12—“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17—“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

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Beloved, tune in tomorrow for the next section—God the Father: We believe in God the Father, Creator, Sovereign, Holy and Loving.

Faith in Hard Times

Yep, it’s Wednesday again. What’s so wonderful about that? It’s just another day to struggle with all that’s wrong in our lives, right?

Unemployment, sickness, finances. How to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Why is it that we seem to be going through so many bad weather situations? And what about all the evil deeds going on in our world? Exactly where is God in all of this and why doesn’t He seem to care?

The other day I caught myself grumbling and complaining several times [can "several" mean less than 10? I sure hope so!] about how horrible I was feeling. I was having another reaction to mistakenly eating something with gluten in it, and this affects my entire body: migraine, nausea, mind-numbing fatigue… my body even itches horribly in a lot of places. When I get “glutenized,” it takes me days to recover. And all of this is on top of my normal migraines and fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.

As I was praying that night, the Lord brought the day into sharp focus and all I could see was me complaining—sometimes to myself, sometimes to my hubby, sometimes to no one. And I was horrified at how much of a grumbler I had become. The Lord then brought to mind Philippians 2:14: “Do everything without grumbling or arguing…” I couldn’t believe how far my complaining heart had gone.

So what does this have to do with Wonderful Wednesday?

Everything.

The first thing I did was ask the Lord to forgive my bad attitude and then I asked Him to help me overcome this tendency I have to moan and complain. I also talked to my sweet hubby about it and asked him to lovingly let me know when I fall back into that grumbling pattern.

And then I decided to do some Bible reading about grumbling and complaining, and that led me to search out passages about faith and trust. Not the usual verses about faith like Abraham’s that I’ve somewhat memorized. No, these are more about digging in and having faith that God is with me and at work:

in me…

through me…

and all around me…

even though I may not feel that He is. It is an unconditional trust that in spite of how I might feel about what’s going on with me, God is allowing certain things in my life to hone more of those rough edges. And that enables me to walk closer with Him.

That is the wonderful part. In spite of how much I’ve let my pain overshadow my joy—the joy of knowing Jesus and basking in the knowledge of His saving grace—He still loves me and has been patiently waiting for me to finally get it. And I do!

Here are a few passages that bring me a wonderful combination of comfort, peace and hope. The first one from Psalms is something the Lord pointed out to me in my daily Bible reading:

We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
    even as we put our hope in you.

—Psalm 33:20-22

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This next one from Habakkuk is the last few verses of that small book, what I call Habakkuk’s Statement of Faith. In the margin next to this passage is my handwritten note: “Habakkuk was scared, but waiting. Faith waits on God to take care of things.”

I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
    to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

—Habakkuk 3:16-19

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And one more:

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! —James 5:7-9

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Thank you for allowing me to share this with you. In an attempt to keep things real, I wanted to make sure you understand that limping with joy through a difficult valley does not mean that I am satisfied and happy with this struggle. I am definitely not! But what it does mean is that I have found the only way to live with any of it and still have that peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

It’s a fine line I walk with this complaining issue. Sometimes I need to let Rick and others close to me know exactly what’s going on with me because I usually don’t look like I’m feeling horrible. As Rick is fond of telling me, “But you look so good!” So I’ve asked Rick to specifically let me know when sharing the facts of how I feel turn into complaining.

Beloved, what are you struggling with today? Have you found your hope in the one true God? The One who is your Strength and Salvation? Please contact me with any questions about any of this: annap at annapopescu dot com.

Be Joyful Always

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Rejoice always,

pray continually,

give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

—1 Peter 5:16-18

He Cares for You

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Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. —1 Peter 5:6-11

He is Risen Indeed!

Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

—Psalm 16

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This might seem like a strange way to say Halleluiah! on this Easter Sunday. I could have written about how Jesus’ resurrection from the grave paved the way for us to join Him in heaven when we die. Or maybe I should have spoken of the fact that Jesus completely obeyed his Father by taking on the penalty for our sins—not His sins, because He was born sinless and lived a sinless life. Perhaps I should concentrate on how trusting in Jesus for our salvation is the only way to heaven.

Hmm… I guess I just did all of the above!

Do you ever, like I often do, wonder what life will be like in heaven? I doubt that we’ll be forever lounging on clouds and eating bagels with cream cheese [like that old TV commercial], but my mind does conjure images of a place where there are no worries or anxieties, no sickness nor pain…and no death.

Everything and everyone will be focused on worshiping Jesus Christ, our Savior and LORD. We will not want for anything because we will have all we want and need in the LORD.

Wow!

Thoughts of the pleasures we’ll experience in our eternal home should help us see our difficulties in a different way. God completely understands our frustrations and sadness about things in our lives that seem beyond comprehension. The list is long and getting longer every day we live on this earth.

But… rest assured that our God understands all of it and simply asks us to trust Him enough [there's my word again!] to get us through it. In fact, it is only through Him that we can bear up under any of it.

Psalm 16 above is one of those defined as a Messianic psalm because it is quoted in the New Testament as predicting the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as God promised through David’s words that Jesus would be resurrected and not “see decay,” so we can be assured that He is by our side, guiding us in our “path of life.”

Beloved, as we struggle with our everyday burdens, let’s not forget that Jesus Christ suffered so much for so many. He shed His own blood to give us the opportunity to live with Him forever, free from the burdensome realities of life here on earth. When we seem to be at the end of our rope, let’s choose to rejoice with Him, that He has made a way for us to live with Him forever.

The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon! —Luke 24:34, ESV

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Beloved, rejoice!

God is Always Enough

Earlier this year, I shared with you that God gave me the word enough for 2013. I blogged about it here and here and will continue to do so whenever I read, write or come across something significant about this simple word.

Today I read this piece in Wayne Stiles’ blog, Connecting the Bible and Its Lands to Life and knew I needed to share it here. The emphasis on the word enough (just like this) is mine.

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Never Settle for Second Best with God

Their request seemed like commonsense. But it wasn’t.

“Let this land be given to your servants as a possession,” the people of Reuben and Gad said to Moses, “do not take us across the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5).

(Photo: Land of Gilead, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

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The tribes of Reuben and Gad had huge herds, and the land of Gilead and Jazer had lush pastures.

So they settled east of the Jordan River instead of crossing over into what God had promised.

Bad idea.

Their choice shows us why we should never settle for second best with God.

When God’s Best isn’t Good Enough

Rather than wait on the Lord and receive the best of what He had planned for them on the west side of the Jordan River, they settled for what they saw in front of them.

History bears the constant struggle these tribes would endure because they chose this land.

God’s best for us seldom comes immediately. But it’s always worth the wait. (Tweet that.)

How often have we run ahead of the Lord instead of waiting for His best?

• A lonely believer marries an unbeliever.
• An eager couple makes a poor financial decision.
• A family joins a church for its location in spite of its doctrine.

Many people fail to see God work in their lives because they fail to wait on Him to supply.

Let us then look on what we have and give God thanks for it, and know that if we should have more, He would give more. —Richard Greenham

Why We Should Never Settle for Second Best with God

The Scriptures reveal the Lord can provide anything, anywhere, and at any moment:

• food from heaven and water from a rock (Nehemiah 9:15)
• bread and meat from ravens (1 Kings 17:6)
• even a coin from a fish’s mouth (Matthew 17:27)

God’s promise to provide frees us to concern ourselves only with obedience to Him. Never settle for second best with God.

What God wants to give us is always far better than what we want Him to give us. (Tweet that.)

We should never settle for second best because we only see today. God sees the implications for eternity.

The grass will always seem greener east of the Jordan.

But can God also not richly bless within His will?

Question: How have you experienced that waiting for God’s best pays off? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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Beloved, have you ever ran ahead of God, thinking that your way was better than His? I have definitely been in that position at various times in my life and have finally learned [I hope!] to wait on God’s timing, trusting that He always knows what is best for me.

I pray you are as blessed by this as I was and I wish you enough.