Tag: trials

Things Upstairs Are Still Working

Here in Oklahoma, where I live, we have had a week of brutal, scorching, unrelenting heat. Even walking across a parking lot to the car is draining.  And this is the week our air conditioner decided to break down!  We just had our regular maintenance a few weeks ago, after which the downstairs began getting warmer and warmer.  We had the service company come out and suspiciously, our coils were cracked and Freon was leaking.  Also the unit was frozen, so we had to turn it completely off for a day.  The good news is that our coils were under warranty but the bad news is that labor is not covered.  At 106 degrees, they had us over a barrel.  My husband was trying to explain all this to me and told me that the upstairs unit was still working.  Five days and $1000 later, my house is nice and cool. 

I realize that this is a first world problem.  I think about the people who can’t afford any air conditioning or the electricity to run it.  Some people work outside in this heat and our poor AC technicians had to work in my 135-degree attic to get us up and running.  We are blessed and I know it.  Blessed that our house never got hotter than uncomfortable. It got just hot enough to make us irritable.  We are blessed that we had money in the bank to pay for repairs. And especially blessed with a second unit that still ran.

“Things upstairs still work.” That is what the technicians told us.  And how true that is!  When life turns up the heat and your problems are so energy-zapping you feel weary and exhausted, things upstairs still work.  God is in control.  He told us in His word that we would have trials.  Fiery trials. But He also told us that He has a purpose in our trials and that trials have endings. 

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10

I don’t like trials any more that I like this relentless heat.  I do not believe that God causes all our problems.  We live in a fallen world, and there is evil.  Sometimes we make dumb choices., and there are consequences to those choices. And sometimes life just happens.  The other day our 20-year old granddaughter was driving home from Nashville on I-40 when she had a blowout.  One of our scariest fears.  It was 106 degrees and she was stuck on the center median.  Big 18-wheelers were zooming by so closely that she could feel a whoosh of air every time one passed.  But things upstairs were still working.  God sent a state trooper to calm her and change her tire. In that awful heat!  A real hero and public servant.

Lord, help me to remember these things the next time I face a problem. Before I press the panic button I need to remind myself that things upstairs are still working.

The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Ex. 14:14 NLT

Sidebar: Today we have had a good soaking rain and cooler temperatures.  There is more heat ahead, but eventually fall will arrive.

TURNNING POINTS

On Wednesday, June 21, we in the Northern Hemisphere observed the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  On this day the sun’s rays strike the Earth’s surface at a more direct angle in the Northern Hemisphere than they do in the Southern Hemisphere.  After the solstice, we begin to lose about a minute of daylight per day until the winter solstice occurs and days begin to lengthen again.  The summer solstice is a day of relief for me because I like knowing that the days are getting shorter, even though this decrease in daylight will not be appreciable for some time.  It is just a small comfort to me.

I realize that I am probably in the minority when I say that summer is my least favorite season.  If you know me then you know that fall is my favorite followed closely by winter.  I love the day we go off daylight savings because there is a big jump to longer nights.  There is something I love about being snuggled in a cozy room, maybe with a fire going, while the wind howls in the dark outside.  I can’t say that I love being cold, but I really hate being hot.  At least in the winter I can add more clothes or wrap up in a blanket.  

Although it may be meteorologically incorrect, I think about the summer solstice in this way.  God, who created the sun, knows just how much of it we can take.  It is like He is saying, “ This is the turning point.  If I give the earth more days of sun, it would burn up.”  Even though summer is just beginning, and we in Tulsa, Oklahoma have sweltering days ahead, they won’t last forever.  Fall will come, followed by winter.  In our family, we set our beginning of fall by our granddaughter Hannah’s birthday, which is September 20.  Her mother, our daughter, will tell you when she went into the hospital to deliver Hannah it was summer, and when she came out it was fall.

Just as God knows how much heat (or cold) we can take, He also knows how much stress we can take.  I had a pastor once who said that every trial has a beginning and an end.  I am wondering if there is also a midpoint, a place where God turns the trial toward a conclusion.  You may be thinking about a trial that ends in death and there seems to be no turning point, no time of relief.  But maybe there is and it just goes unnoticed.  Perhaps in these struggles that end in death, there is a point where the soul turns toward home.  That moment when God calls us to Himself.  “You have had enough of this world.  Now come to rest in me.”

But most of our trials do not end in death.  Isn’t it a comfort to know that even though we may not be able to see it, our ordeal may be coming to an end?  When we think we can’t go another mile or endure another day, we dig in and press on.  We take comfort in the knowledge that Jesus is walking with us through our valleys and He knows when to turn things around.  And while we are enduring, God is chiseling away, sculpting Christ-like character into us (Rom. 5:4).  If you are going through a valley right now, take heart.  Be encouraged by the words to this beautiful song by Selah:

When the valley is deep
When the mountain is steep
When the body is weary
When we stumble and fall

When the choices are hard
When we’re battered and scarred
When we’ve spent our resources
When we’ve given our all

In Jesus’ name, we press on
In Jesus’ name, we press on
Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

In Jesus’ name, we press on
In Jesus’ name, we press on
Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

We find the strength to press on
To press on

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Daniel L. Burgess

Press On lyrics © Wb Music Corp.

 https://youtu.be/AKJ6dmKV0Gc

POWER OUTAGE

The winter storm we have been experiencing all across the nation has led to widespread power outages.  We woke up this morning thanking God for our power, and as I write these words we are still on line.  But there are many who have lost power, and others whose power is unstable.  We are currently sitting at a temperature of -4 degrees with a wind chill of -21.  At those temps it doesn’t take long for a house to cool down.  And for the homeless it is a life or death situation.  It is dangerously cold!  I was supposed to have an important Zoom call this morning, but others on the call have lost power, so we are changing plans.  We are so reliant on power and an outage changes things quickly.  

As I was thinking about the importance of power this morning, my mind shifted to spiritual power and what it is like when we lose that kind of power.  In the first chapter of Acts, Jesus promised the disciples of a power that would come to them after He departed.  And in the very next chapter it happened, just as Jesus said it would.  The Holy Spirit came in like a rushing wind and filled them with power.  This power enabled them to do the work they were called to do.  Likewise, when we receive Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and empower us, instantaneously and permanently.  While we can never truly lose this power, we can, in a sense, become disconnected from it.  The Bible calls this the quenching of the Spirit.  It can flicker and dim, just like what some of my friends are experiencing this morning. 

What would cause a power “outage” in the life of a believer?  1 Thessalonians 5 gives us some instructions. The first thing that comes to mind is sin.  Disobedience.  While we are secure in our salvation, we still live in a sinful world with trials and temptations.  And we still have that pesky free will that often yields to temptation.  That is why the apostle Paul admonished us in Romans 12 to present our bodies as a living sacrifice (not giving in to the temptations of the flesh).  He went on to tell us that we are not to follow the behaviors and customs of the world.  Instead we are to let God transform the way we think.  

And that brings me to the second reason we might lose our power: we neglect God’s word.  For me, this is where that transformation of thought occurs.  Where I have my “aha” moments.  I need to think God’s thoughts and see the world through His eyes.  The only way I can do this is through studying the Scriptures.   The bible is where God reveals His heart to me, where He tells me how He sees others and me.  In order to put on the mind of Christ we must know the mind of Christ.  God’s word guides me.  David said, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Ps. 119:105 NLT.  There is nothing like a power outage to revel how much we need light!

The other way we can lose our power is through prayerlessness.  Prayer is where I meet with God and get my spiritual batteries charged.  Oh, the mistakes I have made when I have gone off alone without consulting God.  My car is not going to get out of the garage unless it has gas in the tank.  When I run low on gas, it is time to get to Quiktrip and fill my tank.  In the same way, Christians will soon venture off God’s path and run out of spiritual gas without the constant filling of the Spirit we receive through prayer.  I’ve heard it said that power failures are prayer failures.  

Finally (and this might have gone first), is pride.  When we start getting real with God we will see what a problem pride is and how it keeps us from being all we can be in God’s kingdom. We get so full of self there is no room for the Holy Spirit.  And we lose power.  We are told that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5).  Life is tough enough.  I certainly don’t want to go up against opposition from God Almighty.           

Sometimes the storms of life cause power outages, just like the winter storm we are enduring now.  We need to be prepared because storms are inevitable.  Confession of sin, Bible study, prayer, and humility all serve as backup generators for the sudden storms of life.  I must always be on guard against the things that disconnect me from God’s power and I must continually rely on His grace.  

Thank you, Lord for the gift of your Holy Spirit.  Please give me the grace to stay connected to you.