For When You feel You Could Never Recover

Near my house is a field of  avocado trees. One day, driving by I was shocked to see the trees had all their branches severely lopped off until there was truly only a 4 to 5 foot stump left and every inch had been sealed over with glaring white paint.

What before was a field of vibrant green, tall and verdant, blowing in the breeze and producing bounty was now a stark view of bare brown dirt and white skeletons dwarfed to a mere fraction of their former size.

Not a single leaf, branch or twig could be seen anywhere.

It was so distressing to see that the owners of the field felt compelled to post a small sign providing a phone number that those concerned for the trees could call and they would explain this drastic procedure.

Beautiful large and strong branches had been violently severed from their only source of life, never to recover.

What remained was completely sealed off - isolated into itself.

Sometimes we go through a season where this mirrors our experience.
The cutting is so deep and so pervasive and prolonged, we feel we may never recover from this. Ever.

Made all the more painful by the sight of the beautiful branches laying severed and lifeless on the ground.  What took large amounts of time, energy and resources to produce, is now lost and dying.

Seemingly a senseless loss.  One can imagine no purpose or meaning to this.

And yet, the wise farmer knows the long term benefit of such outweighs the loss.
Please Lord, let us hear your words and let them sink deep down in.

 1-3 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

Please Lord, let us hear you.  Sometimes you prune off what is not fruit bearing in our lives. 

But sometimes you prune off even what IS fruit bearing.  It appears senseless and meaningless.  But you do have an end result we cannot see or even imagine right now.

Please help us to keep open and vulnerable and trusting in you.  To let your word still reach my heart.  To not shut you out or harden my heart to you.  To grieve with you and through the tears and loss, know you can bring life from death, light into darkness. 

4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

Yes, Lord, help me to pursue You and a deeper relationship with you.  Please help me to communicate honestly with you and let your words of hope and comfort in. To know you are with me and will not leave me.  Praise you that anyone, ANYONE can be connected to you through what you have done to die in our place and take away my sins and shame.

5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

This is all you ask of me, not to separate myself from you. Not to run away and shut you and others out. Not to give into the rage and pain and despair. To let you hold my hand and hold me in this. 

9-10 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.  John 15:1-10 The Message

Yes, Lord Jesus, help me to make my home in your love, to turn my gaze onto your beautiful face and rest in who you are. 

23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.   
John 14:23 Holman

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faith,[a] 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. 
Galatians 5:22-25 Holman

Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
    Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.

Isaiah 53:1-6 The Message

Yes, Lord, you are working in ways I could never see or imagine
In where I only see loss, you see what I cannot
You want to bring me deeper into yourself
Praise you that through your wounding we are made whole
I love you, Lord

The following post by Bonnie Gray was a great comfort to me:

http://www.faithbarista.com/2016/03/why-we-all-need-someone-onewordlent/

What is Truly Effective?

"to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity"

and yet...

Later, Jesus showed himself to his followers by Lake Galilee.[a] This is how it happened: 2 Some of the followers were together. They were Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the two sons of Zebedee, and two other followers. 3 Simon Peter said, “I am going out to fish.”

The other followers said, “We will go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat. They fished that night but caught nothing.

4 Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore. But the followers did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Then he said to them, “Friends, have you caught any fish?”

They answered, “No.”

6 He said, “Throw your net into the water on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they did this. They caught so many fish that they could not pull the net back into the boat.

7 The follower whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  John 21:1-7 ICB

Praise you Lord, you are not limited by our limitations

you are not restricted by our restrictions

You can bring complete and utter transformation into something I have done

repeatedly and fruitlessly for years....

You are able to change me in ways i could never imagine

You are able to change situations and relationships and dynamics

The Lord replies,

“Look at the nations. Watch them.
    Be totally amazed at what you see.
I am going to do something in your days
    that you would never believe.
You would not believe it
    even if someone told you about it....

The message I give you
    waits for the time I have appointed.
It speaks about what is going to happen.
    And all of it will come true.
It might take a while.
    But wait for it.
You can be sure it will come.
    It will happen when I want it to.

Habbakuk 1:5 and 2:3 NIRV

The KEY is to hearing your message...

How can I hear you and be moving along in your plan 

and not just stuck in my own universe of what I want and feel and desire?

In physics, it is proven that it is impossible to determine the motion of one object relating to another object from the viewpoint of either of these objects. 

If you are in one, it looks like the other one is always moving but you are still

but you may be moving and the other object is still. 

Like when you are in a parked car and the car next to you begins to move 

you have a sensation that you are moving if you are looking at the car next to you, but in fact you are not moving at all

motion can only be confirmed by a non mobile observer from a completely separate vantage point

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ....

8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed...

12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure...

2 Corinthians 10: 5, 8, 12-14a KJV

 Now I am going to appeal to you personally, by the gentleness and sympathy of Christ himself...

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds.

 Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defence that men erect against the true knowledge of God.

 We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ. Once we are sure of your obedience we shall not shrink from dealing with those who refuse to obey....

12-16 Of course we shouldn’t dare include ourselves in the same class as those who write their own testimonials, or even to compare ourselves with them!

 All they are doing, of course, is to measure themselves by their own standards or by comparisons within their own circle, and that doesn’t make for accurate estimation, you may be sure.

 No, we shall not make any wild claims, but simply judge ourselves by that line of duty which God has marked out for us, and that line includes our work on your behalf. We do not exceed our duty when we embrace your interests, for it was our preaching of the Gospel which brought us into contact with you. Our pride is not in matters beyond our proper sphere nor in the labours of other men. No, our hope is that your growing faith will mean the expansion of our sphere of action, so that before long we shall be preaching the Gospel in districts beyond you, instead of being proud of work that has already been done in someone else’s province.

17 But, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’.

18 It is not self-commendation that matters, it is winning the approval of God. 

2 Corinthians 10: 1-6, 12-16  Phillips

(Note: I have really selected a few verses out from a longer passage - for the context of the whole chapter see:  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2011&version=PHILLIPS )

Paul is effective and fruitful in what he is doing because:

1. He understands it is a spiritual battle 

2. He seeks to bring/let his own thoughts, perspectives and attitudes be brought into the light of God's word and evaluated there

3. He seeks to obey Christ, beginning in his thoughts and inner life

4. He does not try to figure out where he is and how he is doing by comparing himself to others

5. He is seeking to be in the boundaries that God has given him

Like the disciples hearing the direction - put the net on the right side of the boat  - put it here not just anywhere

O, Lord, sometimes I have a pretty clear idea what you want me to do be doing and most of the time I don't really.  I have so much trouble knowing where healthy boundaries are, in my thoughts, in my relationships, in my work

Lord please show me my sphere, 

help me to be in the boundaries of where you want me and do what you want me do to

no more and no less

to not go beyond and be overbearing and controlling

to not shirk responding to a need you are presenting to me that you want me to respond to

I wake up each morning and there is more to do than can ever be done

more needs around than can ever possibly be met

help me to abide in you and walk with you

to simply hear and respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and 

be in the flow of what you are doing

in the sphere you want me to be in

amen

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. 

Trust in God. 

Trust in me also....

Remain joined to me and I will remain joined to you...

 I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me. "

John 14:1, John 15:4-5

For When I am Forgetful

All that I am, praise the Lord.
    Everything in me, praise his holy name.
2 My whole being, praise the Lord.
    Do not forget all his kindnesses.
3 The Lord forgives me for all my sins.
    He heals all my diseases.
4 He saves my life from the grave.
    He loads me with love and mercy.
5 He satisfies me with good things.
    He makes me young again, like the eagle.
Psalm 103: 1-5  International Children's Bible

Only he can do great miracles.
    His love continues forever.
Psalm 136:4 ICB

Oh Lord, 
help me to remember all your kindnesses
to not forget these two things:

You alone do great miracles

Your love endures forever

Emblazon this on my consciousness today

You are the God of miracles

When all I see and feel is limitation and pressure and concern
the parameters I cannot get beyond

You are the God who is outside this box that I feel trapped in
You are the God who busts the box apart
You are not limited by anything
You are able to work in ways I cannot imagine
You are able to do what I could never conceive
You are amazing

You may not do what I want 
when I want it

But you are working, loving, caring and doing
in ways I cannot understand or perceive

And your ways and works are glorious

But even more glorious

You are the God of enduring love

No one loves like you do

10 True love is God’s love for us,
 not our love for God. 
God sent his Son to die in our place
 to take away our sins.  I John 4:10 ICB

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
I Corinthians 13:4-8a The Message

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. 5 Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not become angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it. 6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices over the truth. 7 Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always continues strong. I Corinthians 13:4-8a ICB

8 Love never ends.

Only you are all these things all of the time

Praise you O Lord

 help me to remember these two things today:

Only he can do great miracles.

    His love continues forever.

Psalm 136:4 ICB

For the Joy of the Lord is your strength

"For the Joy of the Lord is your strength"  Nehemiah 8:10

My good friend shared this with me in the context of not being crushed by surpassing difficulties and concerns.

This thought has sustained me and the following passage is, to me, a vivid example of this

David’s Strength Was in His God

30 1-3 Three days later, David and his men arrived back in Ziklag. Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They tore Ziklag to pieces and then burned it down. They captured all the women, young and old. They didn’t kill anyone, but drove them like a herd of cattle. By the time David and his men entered the village, it had been burned to the ground, and their wives, sons, and daughters all taken prisoner.

4-6 David and his men burst out in loud wails—wept and wept until they were exhausted with weeping. David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken prisoner along with the rest. And suddenly David was in even worse trouble. There was talk among the men, bitter over the loss of their families, of stoning him.

6-7 David strengthened himself with trust in his God. He ordered Abiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the Ephod so I can consult God.” Abiathar brought it to David.

8 Then David prayed to God, “Shall I go after these raiders? Can I catch them?”

The answer came, “Go after them! Yes, you’ll catch them! Yes, you’ll make the rescue!”

.... David rescued everything the Amalekites had taken. And he rescued his two wives! Nothing and no one was missing—young or old, son or daughter, plunder or whatever. David recovered the whole lot. He herded the sheep and cattle before them, and they all shouted, “David’s plunder!”

.....26-31 On returning to Ziklag, David sent portions of the plunder to the elders of Judah, his neighbors, ... He sent them to the elders in Bethel, Ramoth Negev, Jattir, Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, Racal, Jerahmeelite cities, Kenite cities, Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athach, and Hebron, along with a number of other places David and his men went to from time to time.

I Samuel 30:1-8, 18-20, 26-31

to read the whole passage see:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+30



(small note - It is upsetting to read about David having two wives. The fact that this detail is included in the Bible does not mean in any way that God condones or endorses David's choice to do this)


Disaster comes to David

Upon arriving home, David finds an unforeseen disaster has occurred

those he loved: gone

what he had built: destroyed

his place of  shelter, homecoming, and refuge: obliterated

his companions: distressed and despairing

blaming him and wanting to wreak their grief on him


David encourages himself in His God

Nothing in the situation to find courage in

Nothing in his friends to help him

No reason to hope

Except in who God is

The Wellspring
There is always courage and encouragement in dwelling on the character of our great God

He is powerful
He is kind
He cares
He is loving
He is never discouraged or weary
He is never confounded or unsure
He is the I am God


It is this truth that can strengthen my heart to face the hard situation

David found encouragement and courage to pursue and to recover in God

6 Do not worry about anything. But pray and ask God for everything you need. And when you pray, always give thanks. 7 And God’s peace will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace that God gives is so great that we cannot understand it.

8 Brothers, continue to think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. 9 And do what you learned and received from me. Do what I told you and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.  Philippians 4:6-9 ICB

One place there is always something true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful to focus on:
God himself

Abundance

not only did David recover

But he gained an abundance

to share and bless others as well

Nehemiah 8:10International Children’s Bible (ICB)

10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy good food and sweet drinks. Send some to people who have none. Today is a holy day to the Lord. Don’t be sad. The joy of the Lord will make you strong.”