Month: February 2022

16
Feb
2022
I Will Trust in Your Steadfast Love

I Will Trust in Your Steadfast Love

Suffering. No one likes it and as we wade our way through it, most of us think “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Why me?” or “When will this be over?”

A few months ago, I had Covid. I know that many of you reading this have had it too. I had a fever that would not go away. I was tired it seemed like for forever and couldn’t make it through a day without a nap. Even now, I have this “pain” that comes on me when I am tired or my allergies are bothering me. The long term effects of Covid that so many of us struggle with.

Don’t we so often think when we are suffering for longer than we expect to say “How much longer?”

We saw that last week as we looked at David’s anguished prayer in Psalm 13. He cried out to the Lord saying, “How long, O Lord?” We left off last week with pouring out our anguished hearts to the Lord. When we are suffering, we need to tell the Lord how we feel. It is important to acknowledge our feelings. When we can name them, we then can better identify what is causing us to feel this way. If we do not identify how we feel, we tend to push our feelings down and pretend they are not there. This causes many other issues.

Once we have laid our hearts out before the Lord and let Him know how we feel, we come to the balm in Psalm 13:5, 6.

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

 

So often when we change from looking at the human condition to God, we see the word “but.” In other words, God wants us to see that there is contrast between who we are and who He is. There is a contrast between what humans have to offer and what God has to offer.

When we have laid out our hearts before the Lord, then we need to recognize who God is.

First, we see that God has steadfast love. He has an everlasting love for us that will not be taken away.

When we are crying out to God and asking Him how much longer, we forget that He has a steadfast love for us. We must commit to trusting in God’s steadfast love.

When suffering and disappointment and hurt rage through our hearts and lives, do we commit to trusting in God’s steadfast love?

God does not change. His love for us is steadfast. When we are in the midst of suffering and in pain, we think that God has forgotten us. We think that He has abandoned us and we are in the midst of suffering all alone.

We must make a choice. Will we choose to trust in God’s steadfast love, or will we choose to feel sorry for ourselves? Since God is unchanging and His love for us is steadfast, it is us as changing creatures to make the choice.

What does your heart rejoice in? David says that our “hearts shall rejoice in your salvation.” (Psa. 13:5). If you have “Confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9), then you enjoy salvation.

If you are saved, you don’t need anything else. When life lets us down, the thing we should rejoice in and cling to is that we have been saved. Saved from eternal separation from God. Saved from eternal punishment. Saved to an eternal relationship with our Creator. What else do we need?

But, we think we need so much more. We think we need the blessings that this world says are blessings. When we trust in God’s steadfast love and we rejoice in our eternal salvation, what else do we need?

When we choose to dwell on the good things that God has given to us, it will cause us to “sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:6).

God deals bountifully with us. The problem as humans is we choose too often to look at the bounty that the world says is bounty and think we are lacking in worldly bounty so God must not love me.

God loves you with a steadfast and bountiful love that is never self-centered on His part, is never lacking, and is continual. When we stop measuring the love of God to the worldly standards of love, we will begin to see how steadfast and bountiful His love is.

After you have poured out your heart to God and told Him how you feel (Psalm 13:1-4), you need to then focus on who God is and what He has done for you. Allow these thoughts to rule your thinking and in so doing your emotions will change from pain and hurt to joy and thanksgiving. As David so often did, you will “sing to the Lord.” (Psalm 13:6)

 

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
09
Feb
2022
First Step in Suffering

First Step in Suffering

Last week, I talked about “Imitation is the highest form of flattery” related to the suffering that we experience in life. There is not anyone that would say that life is easy. Life is hard. There are definitely many wonderful things in life, but there are also hard things in life that we have to struggle through. Sometimes, those moments feel like we are in a quagmire of quick sand with no hard ground in sight nor a lifesaving hand from a friend.

The pain is so deep and intense all we want to do is figure out some way for it to go away.

Usually, we resort to what seems like it will bring relief at the moment. We lash out in anger at whoever is nearest. We indulge in whatever food makes us feel better and continue to indulge until we can’t eat another bite. Maybe we drown our sorrows in alcohol or drugs. Sometimes, we hide away and cry for days and can’t seem to move off the couch or out of bed.

Then what?

After we have lashed out in anger, eaten our way through a container of ice cream, drank to excess or “drugged up” until we pass out, or cried until our eyes are puffy and we have missed a week of life; what is it that we have left? What did all of these things do for the pain? Is the pain still there? Is the sorrow still lingering?

And what do we have to show for it but broken relationships, weight gain and clothes that don’t fit, and chores that still are not done and a boss that is angry because our work still isn’t done.

So what do we do?

David went through many difficult challenges in his life. He is such a good example of how to handle the emotional turmoil that we deal with.

Psalm 13:1 starts with “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

Don’t you feel like God has forgotten you and the pain is going to never end? Don’t you just want to ask God how much longer He will make you suffer?

Go ahead and ask Him. Go ahead and tell God how you feel. We feel like God has forgotten us in our pain and in our sorrows. We feel like He doesn’t even care about us and our suffering. “How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psa. 13:1).

God wanted us to see the struggles of David, who was a “man after His own heart,” (Acts 13:22), and how he handled the challenges and the calamities of life. He called out to God. David did not deny how the suffering made him feel, he did not try to hide from the pain. Rather, he took the pain to the Lord and told the Lord how he felt.

Have you done that? Have you told the lord how heavy the burden is? Have you told the Lord how you feel about the situation?

What happens so often is we deny how we feel and try to cover our feelings and pretend we aren’t hurting, or we go to a friend and tell them everything about the situation and how we are feeling. Neither one of these are the solution.

David showed us that we must take all the pain to the Lord and tell Him how we feel. Have you done that?

David asked the Lord, “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” (Psalm 13:2). This is how we feel. How much longer is this pain and suffering and sorrow going to go on for?

We don’t know the answer, but God does.

So go to Him and tell Him how you feel. Don’t bury it. Don’t hide it. Don’t drown it. Don’t run away from it.  Take the pain to the Lord.

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
02
Feb
2022
Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery”  (Oscar Wilde)

Have you heard this saying?

I have said this to my daughters often when they mention to me that one of their sisters or a friend is copying their attire or something else about them. They usually are not very happy with me, and remind me that they want to be unique and not have others copy them. My daughters have me pretty well pegged these days, because before they even tell me about someone imitating them they tell me “I already know what you are going to say.”

Imagine if Jesus had the same reaction with us for imitating Him. Imagine Jesus sitting on the right hand of His Father and saying, “You are not going to believe this, but ….is imitating me again.”

Rather, when God our Father or Jesus catch us imitating Jesus, they exclaim, “They are acting like we want them to act, speaking like we want them to speak, thinking what we want them to think.” This is what God has always wanted for us, to imitate Jesus.

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you and example, so that you might follow in His steps.” (I Peter 2:21).

What did Jesus do for us?

He suffered for us.

Suffering is hard. Suffering leaves us broken and hurting. Suffering causes confusion in our brains. Our hearts feel like they are so broken and heavy they are going to literally fall out of our chest. Our eyes are tired from the tears. They are red and irritated. We can’t eat. We have trouble sleeping. We are “weary and heavy laden.” (Mt. 11:28-30)

Christ suffered for us so we could follow in His steps. He suffered for us so we would know how to suffer. He suffered for us because He loved us so much.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4).

Did you ever stop to ponder that while Christ was on the cross bearing the burden of our sin, He was also carrying the weight of our griefs and our sorrows? Go back and look at Isaiah 53:4 again.

He loves us so much, He carried the weight of our sorrow with Him on the cross. Doing this while being rejected by man and having His Father turn His face away because of the sin that Jesus was bearing for us.

When we are on the floor face down crying out to God because of our pain, remember that Jesus experienced it first. He felt the weight of your sorrow and your grief. You are not going through the suffering alone, Christ is by your side reminding you, “I know how this feels, I know how heavy this is.”

Then He wants you to trust Him.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Do you trust Him to go in this field you are in and let Him carry the weight you are carrying? Do you trust Him enough to learn from Him? Do you trust Him enough to take on the yoke that He offers you?

 

We don’t understand the path that we’re on

The pain is heavy and the road is so long

We can’t see the end or the way to carry on

So we look to our Savior who will do us no wrong

 

The burden is heavy and cumbersome too

It hurts and is painful each step of the way

If only the pain could ease for a few

So we look to the Savior for a glimmer a ray

 

He told me He’d suffered and felt all this pain

There isn’t one thing that is foreign to Him

Nothing surprises or causes disdain

So we look to our Savior with eyes so dim

 

Will He really walk beside me and teach me the way

Never leaving me to go a moment without Him

This path is so hard and I just want to stray

To a way that makes this pain not so grim

 

Though that way my be easier this moment, dear one

The end will result in more grief and more pain

Take the pain to your Savior, don’t walk my dear one, but run

Let Him help you bear the weight of this burdensome pain

 

Then search His Word

The way to obey Him you must

For in obedience to truth

You will find Him to trust

 

Faith is key to the way through this pain

Do you trust your Savior who bore all this grief?

There will still be pain

But His share He will bear, and in this you will find great relief.

 

So imitate Him in how He bore His sorrow

He went to His Father asking for wisdom and strength

To bear all the pain of His sheep for tomorrow

Look only to the Savior with eyes full of faith

 

Rest in His promises

For here there is peace

For tomorrow His mercies will be ever new

So trust in Your Savior He died out of love for you

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments