Grace Fellowship Church

A Church in Lawton, OK

Devotional

Focusing on the Blessings

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Let’s tell it like it is. This COVID-19 season we’re in the midst of is difficult. It’s scary. It’s frustrating. It’s inconvenient. It’s overwhelming. And it’s certainly different from what we’re used to. 

A LOT has changed and we’re all still trying to wrap our heads around this new norm that, for many of us, means working from home, home-schooling our kids, social distancing from our loved ones, canceling travel plans, and wondering when all of this will be a thing of the past. 

The unknowns of COVID-19 are many!

But, I’ve learned that the more time I spend asking questions, fearing tomorrow, and looking at the 4 walls around me in self-pity and despair the deeper I sink into my rabbit hole of misery and depression. 

Rather than basking in the negative of our current circumstances of isolation and change, we can choose to dwell on the good in the midst (Phil. 4:8). After all, this is the day that the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24)!

Fixing our eyes on the good in our lives does not nullify the seriousness of this virus nor does it suggest suffering is absent from our lives. 

What it does do is it helps us refocus our thoughts. It centers us on God’s promises and ultimately strengthens our hearts, minds, and souls so that we can be the best spouse, parent, or friend we can be. 

Have you ever walked a tightrope?

I haven’t and I sure hope I never have to!

But, balance and coordination aside, just imagine there’s been an emergency and your only way to safety is by walking a tightrope from one building to another. Where are your eyes focused? 

They’re probably not closed.

They’re probably not focused on the chaos behind you.

And they’re probably not focused on the ground beneath you either. 

Most likely your eyes are focused on what’s in front of you — the safe haven on the other side. 

It’s the “good” of safety offered on the other side of the rope that give you the hope and strength to focus on reaching the other side. 

Focus on the ground beneath you, and your risk of becoming unstable and off-balances increases, as does your risk of falling. 

The same is true for our heart. Where our eyes are focused, our heart will follow.

So what are your eyes focused on today? Are you dwelling in the suffering or are you dwelling in the blessing? 

Proverbs 17:22, NLT warns us to keep a cheerful heart for “a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.”

Just as good medicine offers relief from an illness, so a cheerful heart offers relief from the pain and discomfort we experience in our suffering. Likewise, it strengthens us so we can continue serving God faithfully in whatever role he’s called us (despite the suffering).  

Proverbs 15 heeds a similar warning in verses 13 and 15. The Teacher writes, “A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit.
For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.”

Dwelling in our suffering and focusing on the negative of our circumstances only weakens us; it crushes our spirit and only brings greater anguish. It becomes more difficult to see the good when we’re stuck focusing on the bad. 

On the other hand, choosing to dwell in the blessings and focus on the good not only strengthens our own hearts but it enables us to strengthen others who are struggling with their own hardships as the result of this season. 

To see life as a continual feast is to see our current circumstances —the isolation, face masks, homeschooling, working from home, virtual gatherings— as a time to celebrate. And to find reason to celebrate, we must fix our eyes on the blessings amid the chaos and suffering.

So, where have you seen God moving in the midst of your current situation? 

For me, this season has given me:

  • More time to spend with my loved ones, making memories. As a recovering work-a-holic, this time has forced me to reevaluate how I spend my time. I actually “leave” my office on time now! And we’ve spent evenings playing games thru video chat with those I might see once a year if I’m able to travel. 
  • More time to actually be still and reflect. I’m learning what it means to truly be still in the presence of the Lord. I still have progress to be made, but being sheltered-in-place has forced me to slow down and breath allowing me more time with the Lord — praying, listening, and worshiping. 
  • A greater respect and appreciation for our healthcare workers, teachers, grocery store workers, janitors, postal service personnel, and so many other essential workers who’re often discredited and undervalued. 
  • A chance to finish some of the waitlisted and unfinished home projects. 

I’m blessed to still be working at all, even if it means having a dog at my feet 24/7 and assisting my teenager with classes throughout my day. Not to mention the weather has been beautiful, I haven’t had to fill my gas tank, I have the time (and the energy) to walk the dogs before the end of the day, and I’m finally finishing the last few classes of my Master’s degree.

Now it’s your turn! I challenge you to go even deeper in seeing the good.

I crafted these 5 simple steps —prepare, pause, pray, pen, and praise— as they’ve helped me stay focused on the blessings despite my suffering and I hope they’ll help you to stay focused all the same.

Prepare – Grab your Bible, a notebook, and a pen or pencil (and maybe some coffee, too). 

Pause – Look for opportunities to pause and reflect, distraction free. 

Pray – Ask God to open your eyes to the blessings all around you and to focus your eyes on what is good. Lay the pain, worry, discomfort, frustration, whatever you’re feeling, at the foot of the cross. 

Pen – Open the notebook and start listing anything and everything good in your life. You might write one word (i.e. time) OR you may choose to elaborate more (i.e. time with my spouse and my kids). 

Praise – Now, thank God for those blessings. Go through the list and give thanks to God (i.e. Thank you Lord for the time I’ve been given to spend with my spouse and my kids). 

—Brooke

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 

Be Still & Know

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Written By: Pastor Tanner Church

“Be still and know that I am God.” 

Psalm 46:10

In a time that is full of uncertainty and fear a verse like this seems both so needed and so difficult.

Being still is not what I want to do at all but how can I do that?

There is so much happening and so much to worry about and to do.

We struggle so much because the pace of modern life is fast. It’s constant movement and we have become accustomed to this way of life. Being still seems like a far off and uncomfortable thing to do.

I have struggled with this and have come to the place in my life as a husband and father and most of all a Jesus follower where I am not ok with this pace.

Jesus has some incredible and refreshing things for us, but they are only found when we go at his pace which is much slower than ours.

I have been on a journey for a few months now trying to figure this exact thing out. And while I haven’t arrived by any means, I have seen the faithfulness of God and he has shown me things that have been so life giving. Some of what I am going to talk about may seem simple or obvious, but I think that it’s the things we think are simple and have overlooked that are what we need to break through in order to experience the fullness of life that Jesus has for us.

So, lets do it.

Prayer

I think for a lot of us prayer can be difficult or strange. I think this has a lot to do with an unhealthy idea of prayer. We think prayer is a mental ascent to God who is in some far away location. I must have my mind free from distraction and focus so that God can hear me. I need to have the right words and have it all in the right order so my prayer will work. Expectations like these can make prayer difficult, or at least a bit of a struggle.

Here is how I think about it and how I think the Bible would pose it.

Our soul is the real us. (This might seem random but go with me.) We are not a body, but a soul made in the image of God. Our soul is the real us, what we feel, our personality, our desires, our emotions, everything we are. Our soul is real and and it is unique to each of us. If you were to do an Xray of my entire body (again I know this is random, just go with me) or to look through my body, you would not see a soul. It cannot be seen but it is more of who I am than my entire body. God occupies all the space around us in the same way our souls occupy our bodies. He cannot be seen but he is as real as our soul. God is not in some far off location but very literally in every space around and in us.

God’s closeness to us is crucial in understanding prayer. We don’t have to mentally struggle to connect with a God who is far off. He is closer than your own skin!

Knowledge of this, for me, makes prayer easier. There is no way God could not hear me. He is in the very breath I breath. I don’t have to strain with energy to connect with him, like someone holding there phone as high as they can on the tips of there toes to get better signal. I can just speak with the knowledge that he is listening.

So, find a spot, maybe a chair, a spot on the floor or in your garage. Wherever that spot is, take a few minutes — like 10 or 15 if you can — and talk. Talk about everything. And remember, He is your Father who cares about everything. Big or small. He wants to hear. Thank Him for things in your life, ask him for things you need, apologize for things you have said or done that you know were wrong. Say it all.

Another form of prayer that I love and I think is so life giving is “breathe prayers.”

An old pastor of mine told me about this and I have no idea where it came from but its wonderful. If you are busy or stressed and don’t have time to find a spot or 10 or 15 minutes, you still have time to breathe.

Take a few breaths and talk with your Father. Breathe out anger, shame, worry, and breathe in His love, His peace, His forgiveness. Within a breath, express yourself to God. If it helps to even say what you are breathing out and in under your breath, do it. And remember above everything else, there is no law about this. There is no condemnation here. Practice makes perfect and he sees your steps and is not expecting perfection. He knows and loves you.

What am I supposed to “know” about God?

Psalm 46 says to “Be still and know God” so how am I supposed to know him? And what am I supposed to know about him?

God is a person. He has emotion and preferences like any other person. Obviously, God is very different than us, but nevertheless, He is not an emotionless, human being. He is a person with characteristics and personality.

Imagine how your best friend or spouse would react if you said that you “knew” them but you really only meant you acknowledge that they were are physically present before you. That would not feel good to anyone. We want to be known. We make ourselves known by showing and sharing our emotions and thoughts with people we are close to and care about. We have characteristics and it feels so good when the people who we love and are close to recognize those characteristics and see us for who we have shown ourselves to be.

One of the most harmful things that can happen to a person is to be seen and known by someones idea of you and not who you really are. So, what are we to “know” about God? That he is a person who wants to be seen and recognized by who He has shown himself to be and not by our idea of him. To recognize that he has shown who he is and how he wants to be known and loved through his word. We need to “know” who God is, how he has presented himself who he has shown himself to be.

One of the best ways to know God and show him love in a way that he loves to receive it, is through worship.

This can for sure look like singing but it is not limited to that. John 4:25 says to worship God in spirit and in truth. This means to worship him with your true self. Who you truly are. Your personhood and your personality pressed into God. Enjoying him and his presence.

We have made worship hard. Something that is difficult and that seems like we have to work for it. It’s not true. We are literally made to worship. It comes as easy to us as anything does. We focus on and rejoice in so many things throughout our day. This is natural and easy for us because it was placed in us by God himself. Simply rejoicing in, focusing on and being in his presence is worship to him. He loves it.

So, throughout your day, when you have a pause or a free moment, just rest and be in his presence as a righteous and loved son or daughter of God. That is worship and that is knowing him and giving him love in a form that he loves because of who he is.

My last encouragement for all of us is this: Christians are notorious for trying really hard to do these things and then we fail.

So, lets not try really hard, but lets train really hard. You don’t try to run a marathon. You train. You make little steps forward every day. We are on a journey and if you mess up or fall short, go again, get back up, train harder. God sees our training and our work and he loves it and it means so much to him in and of itself. He is your Father and he loves you.

So, my thought and challenge for myself and for you, if you are willing, is to acknowledge that God is closer to me than I am probably comfortable with and I can speak to him easily.

There is no strain or pressure, but speaking as one does to a friend.

And, to explore who God has shown himself to be and not whatever my idea of him is (which is informed by parents, pastors, politics, friends, culture, movies, and the list goes on and on).

God has shown himself as his true self in his word. A great place to start is the Gospels. Jesus is said to be the visible image of an invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and everything he did and said is what his Father in heaven does and says.

I truly believe that if we spend time in prayer and communicate to God our thoughts and feelings, it will give us a sense of his closeness and true affection and love for us as well as making us feel known. And if we spend time knowing God for who he is, our relationship will expand and thrive is a way that is special and beautiful.

Some potentially helpful tools and books to read are:
– The album “Forever Amen” by Stephanie Gretzinger
– Psalm 139
– Matthew 6 (The Lords Prayer)
– The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
– The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

Bitterness: The Choice is Ours

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Bitterness is one of the the most consuming of emotions. It’s human nature to feel disappointed, betrayed, envious, and frustrated at times; but we must be cautious as to how we refine those feelings on a daily basis. If we aren’t regularly tending to our heart it quickly becomes a breeding ground for seeds of bitterness and eventually leaves us with a garden of resentment. Hebrews 12:15 stresses this very value.
“Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.”
The choice is ours. We choose how we cultivate our hearts. We choose who we give control to. We choose if we forgive those who’ve wronged us. We choose. Our heart can either be a place where bitterness thrives or one where bitterness dies — the choice is ours.   –Brooke