Father God, I am so excited to hear what you have to say to us today. I thank you for your peace and your provision and your hope. I thank you that you are already answering our prayers. I thank you for the confirmation you bring and for the signs you send to point us toward your plans for us. I know that the truth you are going to share with us today and in the coming days will profoundly change our hearts and renew our minds. I thank you for this opportunity to grow together with you. ~Amen.
2:1 "I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally."
Once again, this word "struggling" gives me pause. I have read this many times in the last year, and I am never sure what it means to struggle. At different stages of my walk I've felt that this meant different things. I used to read this and think I had to contend...work hard in prayer and petition to God for what He was trying to do in others. Now, I'm so focused on learning to rest from my toil and my labor. I think the verses before where he talks about how he struggles in God's power must be the key for us. Verse 29 says he struggles with God's power. I'm pretty sure I've only just begun to understand the difference between suffering under my own power and struggling under God's power.
Aha!!! I didn't look this up before, but I just looked up verses 1:29 and 2:1 in the NAS Bible. It uses the word "labor." That must be it. Travailing...productive. Like I said when I talked about verse 29, I really believe that when I view all pain and all difficulty as the means to an end, then I have a different view of it. I know it will be as temporary as labor if God is in control. If the enemy is oppressing me, then I know God is working on behalf to free me and to the extent that I can allow Him to work in my heart, I know the suffering will come to an end. He is the God who heals. He is the God who provides. He is the God who does not hide His plans from His people. He will reveal to us His greater works and He will reveal to us the lies of the enemy that keep us shrouded in darkness. There is a big difference for me between a shroud of darkness and a shroud of mystery. God does hide things from us, but only for us to search and seek them out. He does not hide things to keep us from making progress in our lives. If we are stuck, it is by the hand of the enemy.
Jesus, I pray that you will reveal the truth about every place where we feel trapped, stuck, oppressed, or depressed. If there are changes we need to make, I pray that you would give us courage to fight against the lies and push into the truth. I pray that you would reveal the solutions and the keys to our struggle and that we would be eager to push against the lies and false fronts the enemy has placed in front of us to define who we are. Thank you for the power of your word and your Holy Spirit, who reveals to us all truth!
2:2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ..."
Looks like I got ahead of myself a bit in my last paragraph. The mystery of God...Christ. Encouraged in heart. We both need a lot of that right now. Unity in love, too. I used to think that unity meant we would all agree and get along perfectly with no struggles. Now I understand that it's a different unity Paul was after. He was after a unity in pursuing Jesus; a unity in loving the way Jesus loves. When we love the way Jesus loves, without judgment and without condition, we become unified in a far deeper way than when we agree. We create a space for everyone...those who are different, those who are on the outside, those who are believers and those who have yet to believe. When I love other people from the love of Christ, I see them...I see their potential instead of their lack. I see what they are capable instead of what they have yet to accomplish. This is a unity that defies the world; a counterculture that defines true Christianity and destroys the works of Satan.
And this type of love can only manifest itself through us when we have complete understanding of God's love for us, which He demonstrated in Jesus. Jesus was always saying that He was a perfect representation of the Father. He was always saying that He only did what He saw His Father doing. There seems to be a subtle, yet insidious doctrine out there that says Jesus loves us, but if it weren't for Him, God would burn our butts just like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't see Him that way anymore. Our Father in heaven loves us with a passionate, undying love. He gave a part of Himself to us in a way that we may never truly understand, but if we can begin to understand even just a little bit of the Love that He has had for us from the moment He conceived of us, we will never see anyone else through our own stained lenses again. I have tasted a bit of this confidence, this understanding that Paul speaks of, and I can't get enough. He loves me. He loves me. He likes me. His affections are always for me. I can always approach Him, and He will act on my behalf the minute I ask. As I understand His affection, I realize that I can never make a mistake that He can't help me overcome. I can't go wrong. As I understand that I can't go wrong, the worst doesn't happen. I don't just go out and make more of a mess of my life because of my freedom. I begin to see other people through that same lens. I begin to see that other people are caught in their sins and their cycles just like I am. I begin to see that all they really need is a taste of Daddy's love. I begin to see that I can offer them that taste because I've tasted it too. I don't have to worry about whether they receive it or not. I don't have to worry about whether I know how to disciple them all the way. I know that all I need to do is love them the way He loves me, and He will take care of the rest!
2:3 "...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
In Jesus! In Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which is prized higher than rubies, which I know are sometimes even more valuable than diamonds in our worldly system of value. In Jesus. We are in Jesus. He said this. That we are in Him. Our lives are hidden in Him. Our souls are hidden in Him. This means that our souls are hidden in the same place as the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Is it possible that we are the repositories of His wisdom and knowledge? That we are the vessels He has chosen to hide His wisdom and knowledge within? He has definitely chosen to reveal Himself through us, and He is wisdom! He is knowledge. He is everything that is ever worth experiencing, knowing, understanding. And He is in us. We have the wisdom and knowledge of the ages at our fingertips. I pray that we will begin to grasp just a little bit of the big things that He wants to reveal to us in our lifetime. I pray that the mystery of Christ will sink so deeply into our souls that we will see this wisdom and knowledge springing up in the most unlikely places...solutions to problems in our families, ideas for our cities and governments, creative ideas for bringing in provision for our families, solutions to world hunger and disease. These ideas could very well rest inside you and me. One of us may be harboring the key to the AIDS epidemic, or the child sex trafficking industry issues, or the perhaps the starving orphans in other countries. I'm so excited to see what He is waiting to unleash from within each of us.
2:4 "I tell you this so no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments."
Somehow I think I have been deceived in my life by fine-sounding arguments. They go something like this...you are wicked, you are depraved, the promises of God are for you but not until you die and go to heaven. They go something like this: God is upset with you because you never get it right. He can't use you because you're so broken and He doesn't even know how to fix you. There's no cure except for Him to wait for you to die so He can start over without your soul. These are harsh statements that I've culled down from fine-sounding arguments over the years. I have been truly looking at the things I have believed about God over the years...like that He's always mad at me, waiting to smack me upside the head whenever I do something wrong; like that He wishes I would just finally surrender my addiction to food and sugar and get on with my life...get skinny so I can be a better witness for Him. And there is the real deception...that God loves me only for what I can do for Him. I was taught this! I was taught that if I'm not ministering for Him, then I'm not living up to my full potential. That I'm only valuable to Him when I'm mature, fully serving Him and finally giving back. He's put so much into me and He's just waiting and waiting for me to finally get it so I can give it all back to Him with abandon.
I don't buy this deception any longer. God loves me just like I love my son. Am I eager for him to grow and be able to contribute to the family? Yes, but not because I want a slave. I'm eager for that because I know how proud he's going to feel when he can finally feel the position he has grown into in our home. I love Orion because he is Orion...nothing more and nothing less, and that will never change. Can Orion disappoint me? Yes. Can he let me down? Yes. Do we let God down? I don't know. I don't think he worries over us the way we worry over our children. He is not afraid for us. He knows what is inside of us, and especially those of us who have already chosen His Son. The burden is not on us to remain. Jesus says that it is God who kept the disciples in safety. God is responsible for our well being. I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point. This doctrine of God being angry with us makes me really angry, if you didn't notice. Hehe.
2:5 "For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is."
I am comforted to know that even though we are separated in body, you and eye are together in spirit, Tina. I am delighted to hear your heart as you share your thoughts on God's word in these blog entries. I have so longed to have this connection with you again. I am amazed that we are united in our pursuit of Jesus once again in a way that will have tangible results for both of us; we will see Him move and work within us and we will also get to delight in each others' faith and actions as we walk this leg of our journeys together.
Father, I thank you for Tina. I thank you that you have comforted her with the reminder of the dreams you gave to her for her girls. I thank you that deep down you can encourage her with trust in You to take care of Kiah and Echo. I thank you that that's what those dreams really meant to convey to her...that she is powerless, but you are not. Nothing is going to snatch Kiah out of Your hands. I thank you for the opportunity you gave me the other day to speak into Kiah's life on Facebook, and I thank you for the angels you are posting around her to help her and protect her. I thank you for the inspiration and the ideas that you are going to give Mark and Tina to navigate these next few months with her, and I thank you that Tina is reading the acting out correctly...that Kiah is just crying out for attention. I thank you that Tina will follow your leading on how to reach out to her and let her know that she is loved, accepted, and appreciated for who she is and not what she does or does not do right/wrong. I thank you for this family. I thank you that the obstacles they see right now in front of them are nothing compared to the love and plans you have for them. I see them standing strong, holding hands, united in their differences and their purposes because they love you. I see the differences creating an unbreakable circle from which will flow streams of living water. I see them jumping up for joy and celebrating together, holding hands and celebrating your goodness, which you are just about to unleash from heaven over them. I thank you for the joy that will begin to well up from within as you begin to unload them from all their burdens. I thank you for my friends and am so glad that you've given me such a hope for them that I can pray from. ~Amen.
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