Happy Independence Day

[Judy Harder]

Self-Monitoring

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? - 1 Corinthians 2:16

Our contemporary culture desires things to happen as quickly and conveniently as possible. Yet when it comes to knowing others, and knowing ourselves, "quick and convenient" breeds superficiality. Our love for expediency is making us strangers to one another, and strangers to ourselves.

A wise man long ago said that an unexamined life is not worth living. I would add: an unexamined life is impossible to live faithfully and well. One reason for this is that controlling our desires has everything to do with getting to know ourselves better—that is, understanding what people, situations, and substances give us problems, and what responses are effective in countering them.

A good way to begin practicing the examined life is to ask yourself what you're feeling before you indulge your cravings. Our cravings are often the result of—and a superficial way of dealing with—some negative emotion. . . anger, depression, anxiety, boredom, loneliness, etc.  Once you've identified the feeling behind the drive, you can more appropriately express or deal with it, instead of engaging in some appetite you think will make the feeling disappear.

When you learn to know yourself and express your feelings appropriately, your appetites can stop being emotional buffers and once again serve the purposes God intended them to serve.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind." - William James (1842-1910)

[Judy Harder]

Self-Talk

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.  Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. - 1 Peter 2:1-2

Go ahead and admit it, you talk to yourself. It's not something to be embarrassed about—self-talk can be used to your benefit in order to greatly improve your success in controlling your desires.

One way to use it is to constructively direct the anger you feel when you're tempted by an unhealthy or inappropriate desire. Instead of getting angry with yourself, get angry at the offense, and at the stumbling block it poses. This will help you resist it.

Another way self-talk can be used is to confront yourself and your appetites in order to bring rationality back into play when temptation threatens to confuse and disorient you. When you actively engage your mind by talking to yourself, you'll be less likely to act without thinking, and you'll reinforce what you believe to be true, right, and good.

Make no mistake about it. Self-talk can be a very spiritually wise thing to do. Listen to what the master theologian, J. I. Packer says on this topic in his book, A Quest For Godliness: "Richard Baxter convinced me long ago that regular discursive meditation, in which as he quaintly put it you 'imitate the most powerful preacher you ever heard' in applying spiritual truth to yourself, as well as turning that truth into praise, is a vital discipline for spiritual health. This unanimous Puritan view is now mine too."

"If you hear a voice within you saying you are a painter, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." -Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

[Judy Harder]

The Key to Success!

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God - Romans 5:3-5

Looking for an edge in life? Consider this: God is the key to any success you may have in learning to control your desires. He must be your strength, your counselor, and your sure foundation.

Why is God so important? Because He's the source and fulfillment of all human life, including yours.  In other words, you were created by God as well as for God. We often forget the latter.

St. Augustine made this beautiful confession nearly seventeen centuries ago: "Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You, O Lord." It was true for him then, and it's true for you now.

"My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." (Psalm 84:2)

"Whoever drinks the water I give Him," said Jesus, "will never thirst...[it] will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 14:4)

"I am the bread of life," said Jesus, "He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (John 6:35)

Behind all your cravings is a craving for God. And this craving can only be filled through a relationship with Jesus Christ—your true food and drink.

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." -  Michelangelo (1475-1564)

[Judy Harder]

Believing God's Promises

For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever. - Psalm 37:28

I read and study God's Word because it's a map—an instruction manual—for my life.  As the psalmist said, Scripture's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths.  Yet there's an important discipline to consider when we spend time in Scripture: and that is believing God's promises.  Listen to a few:

God is always near and will never forsake you.
God has good plans for you.
God listens to you when you pray.
God will forgive you when you fail.

From first to last, Scripture is filled with God's promises to us. These promises of God fill us with hope and love, and they give you courage to live in the world, but not of the world.  Believe God's promises to us.

"How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter." - Woody Allen (1935-     )

[Judy Harder]

Cultivating a Divine Appetite

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. - Isaiah 55:2

Unlike physical hunger, our appetite for God is never fully satisfied.  Once we've satisfied our physical hunger we no longer want to eat, at least until we become hungry again.  In fact, the sight, smell, or even the thought of food can repulse us after we've eaten our fill.  Proverbs 27:7 describes the phenomenon like this: "He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."

But the opposite is true with regard to our appetite for God. In the very act of satisfying it, the appetite intensifies.  This may be something new and different for you, so let me explain.

If you've never tasted cheesecake, gone to a professional football game, or watched the sun set over the ocean, you can't really know what you're missing.  Consequently, you probably don't have much of an appetite for those things.  It's only when you've experienced something that you realize you want more of it.

That's what Psalm 34:8 is telling us:  "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  Experience for yourself that He's good, and that He satisfies completely.  And when you do, something wonderful and life changing will happen–you will find yourself wanting more and more of Him, and less and less of the world's cheap substitutes for Him. 

"Life is as a jelly roll. When you think you have it eaten, it comes out the other end. " - Christopher P. Buonanno

[Judy Harder]

Delight in the Lord

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. - Deuteronomy 11:18

Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight in the Lord and He'll give us the desires of our hearts.  What does that mean?  It sounds like some magic formula, like rubbing the genie's lamp to get what we want. That's not the way it works.

It's hard to believe until you've experienced it, but if you're desiring something sinful, destructive, or something you can't afford, and you're truly delighting yourself in the Lord, He'll change those desires and replace them with new ones.  Don't get trapped into thinking of God as a magician who provides things that would only distract you from Him.

So then, what does it mean to "delight in the Lord?"  Consider what it means to delight in a friend's company.  Whenever you have opportunity you spend time with that person.  You talk openly and honestly with him or her; you look forward to your time together; you seek ways of knowing that person more fully and intimately; and you guard yourself from doing anything that would hurt, disappoint, or bring open shame upon your friend.

Well, that's very much what it's like for us to delight in the Lord. We delight in Him by reading His Word; by trusting what He says is true, by spending time in prayer and meditation; and by seeking to honor Him in every area of our life.

"A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother." - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

[Judy Harder]

Prayer and Meditation

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. - Habakkuk 2:20

Although we don't think about it much, our communication with God consists of two equally important parts: prayer and meditation. Prayer is talking to God. Most of us have this aspect down. Meditation is listening to God.  And it's here that most of us need a bit of work.

Have you ever been in a relationship where the other person does all the talking? It gets old fast, doesn't it?  The one up side is you become a good listener while the other person gets everything off his/her chest. But there's a down side too: always listening and never talking leads you to begin to feel unknown, a little unloved, and sometimes, even used.

Now, think about how this applies to your relationship with God. Are you doing all the talking, without ever taking the time to listen? If you're sharing with Him from the depths of your heart, that's fantastic!  By all means, keep it up.  Just make sure, that you also take the time to use the ears of your heart to listen to God as well.

Remember, God tends to speak with a still, small voice; He very rarely shouts at His children. I heard it explained this way once, "God is a gentleman." That's why meditation is such an important aspect of prayer.  It teaches you to develop a quiet, patient heart and an open, attentive ear. These are essential components to growing in your walk with the Lord.

"Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time." - Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

[Judy Harder]

Studying God's Word

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. - Isaiah 2:5

When I receive a letter from a close friend I usually find myself doing two things: first, I read the letter with interest—hanging on every word; and second, I read the letter a second and in some cases a third time—hoping each time to gain insight or catch something I might have missed previously.

Who wants to be closer to us than God? The same should be true with regard to God's Word, and by reading that message intently and repeatedly, we can get to know Him truly and more accurately.

In Psalm 119, David likens Scripture to a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. You need to keep God's Word close by and read it often. Otherwise, you'll find yourself walking in darkness. And if that happens, you're sure to stumble and fall.

Remember, God's Word, the Bible, is a series of letters from your closest friend. Read them closely. Read them often. And after you read it once, read it again!

"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in." - Arlo Guthrie (1947-    )

[Judy Harder]

A Better Way

I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. - Malachi 3:6

Let me be honest. Too many of you travel through life basing every decision you make upon how you feel and what you experience. You don't study God's Word, and you spend very little time talking and listening to the Lord.  Consequently, you don't know much about the Good Shepherd who is expecting you to follow Him, no matter how you feel and regardless of your circumstances.

Now let me give you some encouragement. If you place your focus squarely upon Christ and you try to see things around you as He would, it will become second nature to look to Him and depend upon Him rather than yourself. And you won't get lost when you walk through dark seasons of life. Jesus will be your unshakable strength. And your focused gaze upon Him will keep you from altering your direction due to momentary discomfort–and from drifting off into spiritual shipwreck!

In a world that is endlessly fickle and fleeting, God is an immovable Rock.

Our faith, when focused on the true God, will not be shaken by adversity or unexpected turbulence. As long as we hold tightly to Him by faith—trusting in His goodness and love—we can come through pain and struggle with a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus, rather than a strained faith resulting from a prolonged failure to seek the one true God.

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." - J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

[Judy Harder]

Maintaining Focus

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. - Hebrews 3:1

Has it ever been easier than now for a believer to become distracted and lose focus on God?  If the apostle Paul found himself "greatly distressed" that Athens was "full of idols" (Acts 17:16), what would he think after checking out today's culture–the internet, TV, movies, DVD's, video games, radio, faxes, email, cell phones, etc.?

A recent Wall Street Journal article quotes an Internet guru who plugged the word "God" into a popular search engine.  He received 600,000 responses—remarkably close to the 775,000 sites listed for "sex."  Yahoo lists 17,000 sites devoted to religion and spirituality, compared with 12,000 about movies.

And these figures are expanding exponentially.  We're only a mouse click away from countless links, Web pages, and chat rooms, that attempt to define God, recast Him into our own image, or explain Him away altogether.

With all this at your fingertips, it's more important than ever to stay connected to and focused on the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ.  Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked by things that aren't true.  In other words, hold onto God's Son for dear life!  Even when the distractions of the world are tugging at your sleeve to let go.

"We can tell from our experience that His light is more powerful than the deepest darkness. . . How wonderful that the reality of His presence is greater than the reality of the hell about us. - Betsie ten Boom, to her sister, Corrie (1930-1944)