Category Archives: Spiritual Formation

In The Garden

theGarden

By Judy Villanueva

And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.  And He was saying, “Abba! Father!  All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me;  yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:34-36)

Not too long ago I faced an excruciating trial. It was an ordeal I did not want to go through but I saw it coming at me like a freight train!  I prayed and asked all my friends to pray that I would be relieved from having to walk through this trial.  To my dismay, one of my friends, upon hearing my request said, “I’m going to pray instead, for God’s will,”  to which I replied, “Don’t you dare! I really don’t want to do this!” To say “Your will, not mine” is best said on one’s face because there, at least, the body is in a submitted position even if the heart is not. To be honest, I prayed against having to bear this cross and then, kicked and squirmed all the way through it — because I did have to go all the way through it.

It’s terrifying and beautiful to enter the garden and watch Jesus grieved to the point of death. I’m not sure I’ve even touched the edge of this kind of grief but many reading this have likely entered into the heart of it.  It is when deep sorrow and suffering merge and literally push us downward with a crushing weight.  Each year during lent, I return to Gethsemane and quietly watch what happened there amidst the olive trees.  I tend to put the Garden away after Easter, but each Good Friday  I crawl over next to Jesus with my face to the ground and listen closely.

There I hear his labored breath, his sweat that falls like blood to the ground. There, I hear his desperate pleas to be relieved of the cup that awaits him.  Can you hear him with his mouth pressed against the dirt?  “Abba Father! Is there any other way?”  That’s when I look over because I know what he will say next and I want to see his face when he says it.

“Yet           not             my             will            but Yours.”

It stuns me every time! The beauty of it breaks me.  Not just His heart that trusted the Father in His darkest night, but the love that beat within Him for me and for you!  I love the honesty in the garden.  It helps me to witness the part of Jesus that was human like me.  It instructs me on what to do and where to go when I am troubled, full of fear or weighted down with worry.

 I must follow Jesus to a place called surrender and trust that God will stay with me there.

I find, as I lay with my face in the dirt next to Jesus, that I want to reach over and offer Him a consolation from the 21st century.  I want to whisper back to Him, “Thank you!  For not backing away from being crushed, scourged, and pierced for my transgressions — for laying it all down, for trusting the Father, for saying, ‘Not my will, but Yours.’ Thank you!”

“Thank you, Jesus, for the garden! You showed me what it is to surrender all the way.  Help me to follow you to a life that yields to your will and trusts you in suffering places. Amen.”

What about you?

How does looking at Jesus face down in the garden make you feel?

Are you in a garden, a time of waiting or suffering?

God is with you.

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Worship

Ordinary

IMG_0891By Judy Villanueva

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.  (Romans 12:1)

A few weeks ago, I decided to start my days by asking God to show me my purpose for each day.  I imagined it would be something extraordinary, you know, something that could be measured as worthwhile and good!  I  guess it’s not a big surprise that instead, ordinary encounters and simple daily chores became my purpose.  To be honest, the “ordinary” felt a little disappointing so I googled the word and found these descriptives:  usual, normal,  regular, typical.  Not exactly what our culture invites us to aspire to, right?  Then, I bumped into Romans 12:1 in The Message and felt splashed with the coolest most refreshing  perspective!  I found myself inspired and relieved and called to bring my everyday, ordinary, “walking-around life” to God — as an offering!  What a mind and heart shift!

It will never be the profound and amazing me that pleases God and always instead, the me offered to God in my walking-around life.  

Do you ever wake up with an ache in your gut to have your life matter?  I do.  Some seasons are so full of people and tasks that there is little room to worry about such things.  But, other seasons are quieter, lonelier where questions of meaning surface along with the steady conviction that God made us ON purpose and FOR His purposes.  These can be tricky ruminations because we are naturally inclined to compare ourselves with others, supposing everyone else’s purpose to be shinier than ours and more important.

But, the astounding truth is that our lives, when offered to God, are placed in Divine hands — the same hands that made Heaven and earth!

So, how do we place our lives before God as an offering?  Paul helps us understand the need for a shift in focus away from an “all about me” way of living to an “all about Him” life of worship.

“Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves…The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” (Romans 12:3)

What a relief and what a way to approach the day!  By calling to mind the wonders of God, Who He is and what He does for us, we can start the day focused on God and stirred up with gratitude.  We can trust Him to use us as He wills AND, we can pray for His help to stay alert so that we will notice His presence in the this and that of the day — and obey as He leads us into His purposes.  We can even relax when we feel ordinary because, offered to God, we are held in extraordinary hands!

“I place my life before you, God, as an offering today.  Fill my mind with thoughts of You!  Turn my focus to Your face and help me to trust that you have made me and know just how to use me.  Amen.”

What about you?

Have you considered that God made you ON purpose and FOR His purposes?

What might your day look like if you were to place your life before God as an offering?  What would be on your mind?  How would that feel?

Like me, do you need God’s help to shift focus from an “all about me” way of living to an “all about Him life of worship?”

Worship

Forever and Ever

ImageBy Judy Villanueva

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  (1John 7-8)

When I was little, my dad promised my siblings and me that he would live to be one hundred years old.  I look back on this now and wonder if this was such a good idea since he had no control over the hour of his death but, he said it and we believed it.  My dad also said, and still says,  “I love you.”  Pause.  “Forever and ever!”  We do the same, and when we part, we press our cheeks together and say, “Eeee-Eeee.”  As I write this, my dad lays at home in hospice care, gently (and sometimes not so gently) letting go of this life and preparing for the new life that awaits him.  We, too, are in the throws of preparing — saying our goodbyes and struggling to accept and surrender to the loss of a man who has shown us what it looks like to love well.  I might even go as far to say that the power of my dad’s love led me to Christ, even though he was a stubborn agnostic.

There is no doubt in my mind that love has power, and I mean that with all the intensity I can muster.  The love of God is a force!  It holds and heals us.  It imparts life and touches a soul-place in us that nothing else can touch.  Think of the last time LOVE reached out and touched you, or the last time love flowed through you to touch another.  It is not benign!  Giving and receiving love changes us, and always for the better because…

Love cries out with a message from Heaven!  

It tells us that we are known and connects us to the reality that we are loved by God.  Do you know that you are loved by God?  This is the truth that pours pure joy over our heads and empowers us to live life to the full.  This is the reality that I believe God wants to make manifest in and through our lives.  

It’s unlikely that my dad will make it to his 90th birthday.  He is ten years shy of keeping his promise, but we won’t hold that against him because, while he may not have the power to live to be one hundred, he’s always had the power to love and that he has done generously for decades!  Did I forget to tell you that he finally gave his life to Christ 3 months ago?!  Knowing that when he leaves our embraces he will be received by the most faithful arms of God, is absolutely the most precious gift I can imagine!  I recently found the letter my dad wrote to me on my eighteenth birthday and, at the risk of being sentimental, I’d like to say back to him what he said me so many years ago. 

“Now, your time is here.  Fly, my love, and drink in all the happiness and Love that waits for you” — in Heaven. 

I love you, dad…forever and ever.  Eeee-Eeee!  

“Thank you, Father God, for the dad you gave me and for all the ways his love led me to you.  Surround him with your angels now and give him the cheek hug of his life!  Amen.”  

Worship

 

 

 

What If And If Only

DSC_1025By Judy Villanueva

Genesis 28:15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…”

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

What if the plane crashes?  What if the cancer comes back?  What if ____?  Fill in the blank.  The what ifs of life are peace stealers, and as you might guess, their author is Fear.  What ifs depreciate faith and direct our focus onto future unrealities. Then, there are the if onlys!  If only I’d been more patient.  If only I’d stayed home.  If only I’d chosen a different path.  Regret is the author of if onlys.  It beats with condemnation and cultivates sorrow.  If onlys are immobilizing, joy-drainers.  They direct our attention to the past, a time that has ended, a place that is frozen and inaccessible.  If you hear yourself saying, “What if” or “If only,” be alerted that you’ve left the present moment, the very place where the peace of God awaits you.

CS Lewis so poignantly writes in his book, The Screwtape Letters, that “the future inflames hope and fear…and is of all things, the least like eternity…the past is frozen and no longer flows.”  But, he goes on to say,  “The present is the point at which time touches eternity.  The present is all lit up with eternal rays.”  What a thought!  The peace of Emmanuel, God with us, touches our lives in this present moment.

He holds the future and can heal the past, but God’s company, His heart, His voice, and His love joins us right this minute and in every present moment!

I wonder what would happen if we went on the offensive with what ifs and if onlys.  Rather than fearing the unknown, what if we trusted that God remains sovereign over all the events that happen in life?  What if we stayed in this moment, welcomed God’s divine company and rested with Him a while?

What if we brought our fears to Jesus, laid them at His feet, and then —- sat down next to Him?!

Instead of living under the weight of regret, suppose we carried ourselves to the cross and looked up.  Rather than taking another beating, what if we made peace with our mistakes and accepted the things we cannot change.  If only we’d help ourselves remember, especially when we are afraid, that God is always brave for us!  He IS who He says He IS, the great I AM, our dearest Friend right here, right now, and always.

“Thank you, Father, that you are my most faithful friend, that you watch over my life with kindness and that you stay with me every minute of every day.  Help me to stay in the present where I find peace in your arms.  Amen.”

What about you?

Are you troubled by What ifs and If onlys?

Does fear intrude on your present moments with God?

Does regret drain you of joy?

May the peace of Christ, Emmanuel, spread out around you, with renewed hope and joy in His presence.

Worship

Hark!

IMG_3249By Judy Villanueva

Hark! The herald angels sing: “Glory to the newborn King!”  Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled!

I sang this familiar song at church on Sunday and for whatever reason, heard the word “Hark” as though it was being sung directly to my heart.  “Listen!  Give heed.  Pay attention!”  I often feel handicapped when it comes to hearing God speak to me but, little by little, I’m learning that simply paying attention is helpful in tuning into His voice.  In that moment, I felt called to become aware and attentive.  I’d love to tell you that in the next minutes I understood the “why” of it but, I didn’t.  What I did know with sweet clarity was that, as I gave God my attention,  I felt my heart wake up to His presence! 

Noise and “busy” act like spiritual ear plugs that muffle God’s call to sit up and listen.  And, if we cannot follow our noticing to callings, we will miss all sorts of divine invitations to give and receive love.  We are so often pushed along throughout the day and pressured to keep moving, rather than encouraged to take a minute when something or someone cries out “Hark!” 

So, how do we learn to “wake up” to God ?

I think it can start by simply noticing what we notice.  (Because there’s always a reason we notice!)  I love what CS Lewis once said about “pulling the string.”  Notice what you notice and become curious. Then pull and pay attention (give it some time) to see what’s on the other end of the string!

You might be at work or the market, bathing a child or cooking a meal, when something or someone suddenly stands out to you. Be curious!   I was in church when I literally heard ‘Hark” during worship and noticed.  I pulled the string and asked my whole self to sit up straight and listen.  It became a moment of “receiving” that blessed me way beyond the tune of a favorite carol.  It became an encounter.

No, there were no fireworks or heralding angels, just a gentle moment of hearing “Hark” and waking up to the divine declaration that Christ has come.

He’s come!  Right here.  Right now.  In my life and in yours.  We’ve not been abandoned.  We don’t have to save ourselves.  Hark!  Jesus is here.  He loves us completely, knows each one of our stories, and ardently desires our notice and reception!

“For your constant notice of me, I give you thanks.  And, for knowing just how to help me along in my notice of you, thank you.  Help me to notice your presence in my life with all of its joys and sorrows.  Help me to live my days listening for You!  Amen.”

What about you?

Do you notice what you notice?

Where might God be calling “Hark” in your life?  

When you become aware of something that stands out, what do you do next?  Do you stop and wonder why?

Notice what you notice today and pull the string!  God loves us and loves when we wake up to His presence.  Merry Christmas!

Worship

A Word Breathed By God

vMOUNTBy Judy Villanueva

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him… In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”  (John 1:1-4)

“We have it in us to be Christ to one another… to work miracles of love and healing…to bless with him and forgive with him and heal with him…to grieve…and to rejoice…. And, who knows but that in the end, by God’s mercy, the two stories will converge for good…His story will come true in us at last. And in the meantime, this side of Paradise, it is our business…to bear witness to, and live out of, and live toward, and live by, the true word of his holy story as it seeks to stammer itself forth through the holy stories of us all.”  (Frederick Buechner)

I was lucky enough to witness the birth of my first grandchild.  It is difficult to describe the joy that swept through the room when that precious baby came into the light and drew her first breath.  The miracle of birth proclaimed itself and the beauty of new life reached out with gifts of hope for all.  She gasped and inhaled for the first time. I gasped and exhaled dumbstruck at the sight of her little hands and feet, her mouth wide open in protest and her eyes straining to see the new world around her. She is a little word breathed by God with a story to tell, of Life and Light.

Have you ever considered that you are a word breathed by God?  Who did God breathe you to be?  What story did God breathe you to tell?  These are the questions that have kept me company as I have kept company with John 1:1-4 this week.  The God, who moved over the surface of the waters and spoke “Let there be light,” also spoke me into existence.  And you, too!  “Let there be a you,” and there was!  God’s words create life and light. 

He speaks and it is, and IT IS with a purpose and a story to tell. 

How does it make you feel to consider that you are a word breathed by God with a purpose and a story to tell?

It makes me a little giddy!  It might also make me anxious if I slip into thinking that I must figure out the point and purpose of the word that is me!  Do you know what I mean?  “We have it in us to be Christ.”  That is the truth that keeps setting us free and lighting our way. 

Christ in us IS our hope and power to bless and forgive, heal and grieve and rejoice and love!   

He IS the story that comes true in us at last, one day at a time, as we seek to know Him and as we “bear witness to, and live out of, and live toward, and live by, the true word of his holy story as it seeks to stammer itself forth through the holy stories of us all.” 

“Prompt me, Lord, to pray as I inhale and exhale throughout the day.  To take time to breathe in Your refreshing presence that fills me up and to breathe out with surrender and faith and gratitude.  Amen.”

What About You?

Have you ever considered that you are a word breathed by God with a story to tell? 

Who did God breathe you to be?  (He knows even if we do not)

What story is your life telling?

Have you breathed in the Life and Light that Christ offers?  

 Worship

Are You The One?

DSC_1050By Judy Villanueva

Matthew 11:2-6

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

John’s was the voice that cried out in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord!” He is in the guy who wore camel hair shirts and ate locusts with wild honey. We definitely get the impression that he was sold out for Jesus, and bold in his message to repent and be baptized! Yet, here in this passage, we find him in prison sending his disciples to Jesus to ask a curious question. “Are You the One, the Messiah or should they wait for another?” It seems to suggest that John was off balance and in need of reassurance. It makes me wonder if he wasn’t scratching his head trying to make sense of the life unfolding around him. Was being in prison part of the plan or did something go wrong? No doubt, his circumstances were not what he had expected!

John the Baptist might seem like a hard guy to relate to, but as I witness him straining toward Jesus in need of strength and direction, I feel an immediate connection! John’s question is my question and was my question this very morning.  I ask it often during times of disappointment or fear, and certainly, whenever I cannot make sense of how the pieces of my life fit together.  You know those times when life is not how we imagined, or when it seems like God is taking forever to answer our prayers?  I’m afraid we might find Jesus’ response to John less than comforting. He doesn’t say, “Hang in there, cousin! I’m on my way to break open the prison doors!” Instead, Jesus tells John that the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised and the good news is being preached to the poor. In other words, “Take heart. I am He! I am the One!”

Jesus’ words feel both reassuring and disconcerting because while they announce His reign as Messiah, they do so right alongside John’s plight in prison. This is always the case!

Jesus is Lord and Messiah, always AND right alongside the life that is ours…the life that we may love, as well as the life that may include the hardest trial we’ve ever faced.

It was John’s challenge, as it is ours, to hear Jesus announce His reign and to trust beyond his own understanding. I need to hear Jesus say, “I am the One!” when life has caused my heart to falter…and allow the reality of His reign to strengthen and remind me, that despite present conditions or anything I may not understand, His kingdom has arrived.  It’s already here! That’s what Jesus was telling John.  That’s the good news being preached to the poor and that’s the blessed Truth that sets us free today. Take heart. He is the One! Look no further!

“Lord, help me to hear you announce that You are healing, raising the dead and reigning over all!  Help me to lay down my need to know everything and instead, to bow in faith. Thank you that you are the One! Amen”

What about you?

When do you feel off balance and in need of reassurance?

What does the arrival of God’s kingdom mean to you?

Are you able to rest, knowing that Jesus reigns?

Above and beyond whatever circumstances you find yourself in, God is good and He reigns!

Worship

 

He Sees You

cross By Judy Villanueva

Luke 7:11-15

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Huddled close together we prayed.  A stranger to me, she came forward after Sunday service and shared her story of buried hopes and disappointed dreams.  She recounted one loss after another and described a sadness that broke my heart.  Hopelessness seemed to surround us and I could feel its crushing weight.  “No! No! No!” were the words I quietly prayed  in response and “Jesus, come save us.”  Sometimes life deals us blows that knock the wind right out of us and leave us vulnerable and tired.  Sometimes all we can do is trust that God sees us, that He cares deeply and can call us back to life!

The widow had already lost her husband and now her only son has died.  I imagine that hope and joy lie next to him lifeless, as well.  I wonder if she knew Who it was that noticed her that day—Whose heart went out to her and said, “Don’t cry.”  Do you ever feel that your life is happening way down here on earth…out of view?  Every time I read that Jesus sees one of His beloved, I am relieved, reassured, and so, so glad!  That He feels for the widow confronts my wounded notion that Jesus, being God, knows everything and has no reason to feel for us. On the contrary!

“God with us” means that He travels through our moments in “real time” and feels our life with us!

The widow watches Jesus touch her son’s coffin, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”  I’m guessing that before she can even make sense of what she has just heard, she sees her son sit up and feels him placed back in her arms!   Can you imagine?   Instead of her worst nightmare, an unbelievable joy sweeps her up and twirls her around!  He’s alive!  Her son lives!  Have you ever felt helplessly at the mercy of your circumstances?  Has disappointment ever stolen your hope?

This story reminds me of a kind God who sees me in the middle of my life and cares.

It helps me to remember His compassionate heart that says, “Don’t cry” when I am utterly devastated and compels me to watch for His power to defeat death in my life!  It helps me to NOT lean on my own understanding but to put my trust in God.  Watching Jesus give back this son to his mother places hope back in my arms and fills my heart with joy!

“Thank you, Jesus, that you notice my coming and going, my joys and sorrows…and feel my life with me!  Help me in my helplessness and please tell my lifeless hopes to “Get up!”  I pray for anyone reading this who may feel weary and hopeless…that they would feel Your love today and Your touch on their life.  Amen.”

What about you?

Have you ever felt helplessly at the mercy of your circumstances?

Has disappointment ever stolen your hope?

Do you have friends who will be with you in your sorrows?  Is there a prayer team waiting for you to come forward?

God sees your life and cares!  His heart goes out to you today!

Worship

Want God?

FOVTetons

By Judy Villanueva

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.  (St. Augustine)

My eyes opened and I peeked out from under sleepy eyelids to see what time it was…5:00am!  I should’ve gone back to sleep but all I could think of was hot, brown, yummy coffee with cream and sugar!  I had awakened to the prospect of sipping a mug of  “wake me up and make me happy” goodness, so drifting back to sleep was pretty unlikely.  As I sat in the dark waiting for the beep that would signal “the best part of waking up,”  I became acutely aware of a lacking in my hunger for God, or at least, a weakness of fervor compared to my morning passion for a cup of Joe.  Yuck.  I don’t want that to be true, but there it is…the whole, caffeinated truth of it.

How does the soul pant for God?  We have been made for Him and even if we do not believe He exists, our souls know better! 

There is a “sacred place” within us that longs for its Maker, remembers its true home, and yearns to be with God.

It is why, I believe, it matters to us that our lives have meaning.  It accounts for the angst we experience when we are silent, or agree to sit still.  In the spaces between moving around and being busy with this or that, we can feel our soul hunger for God.  This part of us doesn’t believe for a moment that we “just happened” after a big bang, but retains the precious truth of our origins.  Sadly, it is possible to ignore our soul and after a while, we can become impervious to its longing for God.  I’m not sure there is anything more tragic than that a soul should forget that it belongs to God.

The image of a deer panting for water is a vivid picture of focused desire, not unlike my morning quest for coffee.  “Wanting” so often is driven by habits and hungers, both real and imagined, so how do we tune into our soul’s desire for God?  How do we learn to sit patiently next to Him, when everything in us wants to squirm away and fill up with temporal things?

I want to learn to follow my soul’s yearning into God’s presence and hold myself there long enough to experience His embrace.

I want to drink in the Lord more fully and not get up until my soul overflows.  I need to slow myself down, linger in prayer, ponder God’s word,  and savor the joy of belonging to God.  His company is what I want to anticipate when I peek out from sleepy eyelids in the morning and He is what I want to fill up with each day.

“Lord, help me to pay attention to the hunger pangs of my soul and learn to want You, as I open my eyes in the morning.  Call my soul to come and teach me how to enjoy Your presence more fully.  Amen.”

What about you?

Did you pant for God today?

Are you aware and paying attention to your soul’s longing for God?

How do you bring your soul to God?

You have been made for God.  He is your home and place of rest.

Worship

Applause!

DSC_1440By Judy Villanueva

“The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. (Zephaniah 3:17)

A fifty-something year old woman walked onto the stage, an unlikely victor in the talent competition my husband and I were watching.  She had a gap in her teeth and her dress was too short for a woman her age but with a twinkle in her eye and a smirky smile, she began her comic routine. Then, it happened. Upon finishing her schtick, the audience rose to their feet in an uproar of cheers! They loved her and as the sound of corporate approval filled the air the camera zoomed in on the woman. Overcome, she shuffled her feet and covered her face as tears filled her eyes. Enveloped in applause, she looked out at the audience stunned and deeply moved by the many voices that declared emphatically, “You are loved!  Well done!”  Aren’t these the words we all long to hear?

The need for assurances of our worth is a universal soul longing.  We look for it every day, aware and unaware, and hunt for proof that we matter.  I remember Tim Keller once saying that all of us

“…need someone we think the world of to think the world of us!”

So, we work hard, strive to look nice, endeavor to please, produce, and perform all in an effort to conquer the insidious fear that who we are is not enough.  Can you feel your need for applause?  Are you aware of the subtle drive to prove yourself worthy?  I am.  Especially when I’m not “doing” something important I can feel it creep up on me with indictments that I haven’t sufficiently earned my life.  I can also feel it when offered a compliment and, instead of simply enjoying the blessing of having done something well, I clutch the praise tightly, hoping to squeeze out a kind of worth that lasts.

But what would happen if we were to imagine that we are the ones on stage?  Imagine…

You walk out and stand there — being you. Your hair color, your height, weight, bone structure and temperament. You come with talents and gifts, rough edges and blind spots, good intentions and selfish ambitions, accomplishments and failures. The spot light reveals everything and all that you are (and aren’t) is apparent. Then, imagine…try to imagine… that after you’ve put all of you out there on the stage, you wait trembling for the silence to break…with a judgement of who you are.  And then it breaks!  An eruption of cheers fills the air and surrounds you. It’s ecstatic and happy and filled with joy — for you!  Feel it!

You are loved!  

Through tears you look up, curious to see the audience whose vigorous shouts of approval are healing and filling your soul.  Can You see Him?  It’s Your God!  Celebrating you, blessing who you are, and showering you with love.  He thinks the world of you!  And, there’s nothing more true than that!

“Thank you, Father, that in your eyes I find approval and a love that quiets my striving and invites me to rest.  It’s your applause that fills my soul.  Help me to stand before you everyday and listen for your cheers.  Amen.”

What about you?

Can you feel your need for applause?   Are you aware of the subtle drive to prove yourself worthy?

Have you ever thought about God rejoicing over you with shouts of joy?  What does it make you feel?

Where are you looking for approval?   In what ways are you trying to prove that you matter?

God thinks the world of you!  I pray you seek to know Him better.

Worship