Last week I got a text message from a friend saying she had finished reading Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife, which reminded me that last time I started reading the book myself, I had not finished.  So, today I picked it back up where I left off in chapter 12–”Submission”.  As always I was not surprised to find Martha Peace clearly relaying God’s Word, convicting my heart and motivating me all at the same time!

It is not a coincidence that the beginning of the page where I had left off about a year ago is the verse I memorized last week!

Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
Psalm 119:11

Sometimes I really struggle with having joy obeying all of God’s commands all the time.  I know that I need to obey them, but I don’t always have the right attitude in doing it.  I get distracted by how overwhelming the situation is and so instead of responding how I know God’s Word says to, I give in to temptation to be angry, have self-pity, sin with my mouth and then I just become frustrated or discouraged and my joy is sucked right out.

There is an inseparable connection between our obedience and our joy.  We can’t just want life to be easy and when it’s not and we don’t like that, sit and pout at God as if He’s done us wrong.  I loved how Martha Peace wrote in this chapter:

Joy results from trusting and obeying God’s Word.  God’s testimonies, His Word, were a joy to the Psalmist.  He did not have joy in some of God’s testimonies, but all of them.  For the Christian wife, biblical submission to her husband is one of God’s testimonies and should be a joy for her.

The Excellent Wife, p. 132

For the Christian obedience is to be a joy not a burden.  We need to see God’s commands for what they are, perfect and always for our good!  They aren’t to be begrudgingly kept, putting up a fight all the way till we do it.  We need to be quick to say to obey God’s commands, so that we can be disciplined to be thinking about, saying, and doing what is right.  That is a joyful life!

Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,
For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

A few weeks ago my pastor’s wife, Carlynn, challenged me and my fellow ministry sisters to memorize this verse.  Before I left that dinner she asked “What are your fears?”  I thought about it, but didn’t have an immediate answer so she encouraged me to prayerfully consider what they are.  Every day that week in my quiet time I put fears that came to mind before the Lord, trying to figure out if they are even legitimate and why I even have them.

Each day of doing this, of course I uncovered fears, some I knew about already–for example I’m terrified of deep water and sharks–and others that just thinking about fears made me start having fears–what if Bobby or Tyler died suddenly, what if my children never come to repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ?

At the same time as I was evaluating the fears in my heart I was working on memorizing the verse and something started to happen…  Praying and committing Scripture to heart has begun to eliminate the fears.  Praying about them, actually turned into confession time, that I’m not trusting God with those worrisome, often just “what if” thoughts.  And also, my heart became deeply convicted that I would hold on to any fear when God, in Joshua 1:9 has specifically commanded me not to!

For some, this might seem obvious and I’m a little behind here.  But honestly, this was a powerful realization for me.  Harboring fears is debilitating because when we consider potential outcomes or circumstances and our response is most often to be either terrified or discouraged.  We give way to anxiety, nervousness, stress, and live trying to control things or we lack joy and passion because we are so focused on what the situations are or could be that we don’t keep moving forward through entrusting ourselves to God’s more than capable hands.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

One of the reasons that my prayers about my fears turned into confession is because of this command in Philippians:  Do not be anxious about anything.  “Anything” is pretty inclusive!  My response to fear is to be prayer and as I petition and give thanks to God those fears will be eliminated.

The other part of Carlynn’s challenge that drove and kept this reality home is that I got to memorize the verse.  Not just scan it over and then spout it back so I can be done with it.  But to mull it over, to say it all throughout the day and explain it to other people so I really know it, committing-it-to-heart kind of memorizing.  By nature, we will always forget.  We can’t just read Joshua 1:9 and say “Okay, great, I’ll do that.”  And then actually keep it up for long.  Unless we plan out to and are set to refresh our minds we won’t be into it a few weeks down the road. That is why committing God’s Word to heart is so important.

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

The Psalmist knew about the safeguard that God’s Word is in keeping our hearts from sin, including giving way to fear.  If we are going to live according to God’s commands we have to remember them!  As I’m going about my day and I feel fearful about evangelizing my neighbor because I don’t know what she’ll say or think of me, if I pray, right then and there and refresh my mind with Scripture (specifically commands to evangelize) I am going to be much more likely to live according to those commands instead of my fears.  What if instead I have to go home, look up some passages about overcoming my fear to evangelize, spend time praying about it and go back outside…at that point my neighbor is done walking her dog and I’ve missed that opportunity.

If instead of being terrified and discouraged by things in life I was praying and reminding myself of God’s Word, I would definitely be more strong and courageous.  I would always be ready to do whatever God is asking me to do.  Living fearlessly is living ready.  I got a glimpse of this in the last three weeks and I am so excited about how freeing it is not to try to justify or validate my fears and then not being effective because they are bogging me down.  When I give them up to the Lord in prayer and keep my mind refreshed with His Word, nothing is holding me back from jumping all in each day living for the Lord!

This weekend my husband (who is a high school pastor) preached part two of a series called, “God Calls It Love.” It is four part series to train our students to think and re-think guy-girl relationships and if they are living them out according to God’s Word.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Young people are always looking in their Bible for the words “dating” or “courtship” but neither of them are actually in there.  Sadly, many of them conclude that God must be silent on the topic of guy-girl relationships then, but He is not!  His Word is useful for teaching us to do every good thing.  A relationship that will lead to marriage is one of the “every good works” that His Word equips us to do.

People say that “dating” is how the world does relationships, “courting” is what Christians like to call it, but really it doesn’t matter what you call it.  God calls it love.  And the Bible has a lot to say about loving others!  Some of the most clarifying wisdom from this series is God’s 3-step plan for guy-girl relationships straight from Ephesians 5:31.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

1) Leave parents, to be here you are not dependent on them for your life.  Even many college students think they have left their father and mother because they don’t live at home, but they are still entirely funded by their parents.

2)  Be joined to your husband or wife, be married.

3)  Grow together in marriage as one flesh.

When I hear a 16-year-old high school girl telling me she is going to date a guy it makes me ask, “Are you really in a place to think about marrying this person?”  Based on this plan in Ephesians, a high school student is on step zero.  They are in no place to be thinking about being independently married and are not even able to be providing for a new family of their own.

At this point young people need to make sure that they are putting a lot of thought and prayer into any dating relationship they enter.  Bobby encouraged them to take it first to the Lord, second to their parents and/or an older spiritual mentor before they ever acted on their feelings.  The point of dating is to be married, so a single person who desires to be married should prepare for the role of their life as husband or wife.

I hope you will listen to Part 1–Getting to the Heart of the Dating Confusion and Part 2–Keeping the Priority of Your First Relationship.

If you are married, this message will be beneficial because we all have single friends or family that we could use to share with about this.  And if you are a parent, especially if your children are dating or at the age where they are wanting to date, this will bring some helpful points to light.  No matter who you are, this series will give you wisdom from God’s Word about about guy/girl relationships.

This week I have been on vacation to a cabin in Lake Arrowhead.  Before we came here I had noticed that I was having a heart issue, but was not sure how to diagnose it accurately.  It’s not news to you that I haven’t been excited about blogging the last couple of months, and that lack of joy has seeped into many other areas of my life.

My problem with being able to nail myself with what I was doing wrong was because I couldn’t really see that I had given way to any blatant sin.  I was trying to live for the Lord.  Doing all of my duties I was not complaining, neglecting my home or family.  I was keeping at my quiet times each day, serving my church family, spending time with friends.  I’ve prayed about it for weeks and talked with my husband about it, but there was still something in my heart I just couldn’t put my finger on.  Something wasn’t right and I couldn’t seem to break through.

One thing I like about vacation is that we get away from the normal routine of life and spend some time with family and friends and read a lot of God’s Word and other books.  I almost always come back refreshed and inspired!

The first day of this trip I started a new book called Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick.  In the introduction to the book Fitzpatrick recounts the Luke 2 story in which Mary and Joseph had left Jerusalem after celebrating the Passover.  After a day of traveling they realized that Jesus was not with their group and frantically looked for Him before finding Him in the temple dialoging with the teachers.  Fitzpatrick makes the connection that sometimes we are like Jesus parents…joyfully celebrating Jesus and our salvation in Him, but then eager to set about living for Him, we sometimes loose awareness of who He is and fail to acknowledge His presence.  Then she writes, “We haven’t felt his absence because we are so preoccupied with living for him.”

I mulled this quote over and over and all I kept thinking was, “That’s me.”  I had become so focused on living the Christian life as if the commands are somehow separate from the Person.  Cultivating love in my heart for the person of Christ had become secondary to cultivating my own spiritual growth and disciplines in godliness.

The reality of who God is and the unmatched love He initiates with me is relevant for my daily life, not just something to be reminded of from time to time.  I got down on my knees and asked the Lord to convict my heart of this mechanical, dutiful service for Him and renew it with a wholehearted passion to know Him and to respond to His love with a joyful offering of all that I am.  This is a vacation I am going to remember!

“But because of his great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions—
it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him
in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the coming ages
he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:4-7

This week I’ve really been enjoying Psalm 40!  It’s a wonderful song about how God is to be exalted for how great He is and the amazing things He has done.

1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

4 Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.

5 Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.

I’ve been reading this over and over and all of these elements resonate with my heart–God is attentive to my prayer, give me a place to stand, His praise is in my mouth for the wonders He has done.

Verse 10 made me want to write this blog says,

10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

God has done such great things!  He is faithful to me, has saved me.  Why would I conceal this and keep quiet about His goodness to me?  That does not make sense!

All summer I have seen God doing wonders, especially in the ministry at our church.  A couple of my high school girls that I’ve been praying for and meeting with have repented of their sin and put their faith in Christ.  We just had an awesome week at our student ministries summer camp Revival where many students were saved.  He’s also been so good to Bobby and me in blessing us with another baby, due February next year!

I don’t want to conceal His love and His truth and I hope you won’t either.  Let’s share with others about His greatness.  Let’s exalt Him for who He is and the wonders He is doing in and around us!

16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
“The LORD be exalted!”