TerryLema

I had my six-week postop appointment on Wednesday. I was looking forward to good news. My greatest hope was that the x-rays taken last week showed all was well with the surgery. They did. My second greatest hope was that I could stop wearing the neck brace, especially at night so that I could go back to sleeping in a bed on my side. The doctor told me I could “wean” off the neck brace at my own speed.

Freedom from the brace! Yes! Well, not exactly. Six weeks in a neck brace tends to weaken the muscles. I found that a few hours without it and I needed to be back in it for a while. “Wean” is probably the key word. This is going to take some work.

Then I discovered that going back to sleeping in a bed on my side again without a brace wasn’t as comfortable as I expected. In fact, I think I warped my body with six-weeks in a neck brace sleeping on my back in a recliner. I am back to the recliner, although without the brace.

This was not exactly what I hoped for. But then in life we don’t always get exactly what we hope for. Our hope is often infiltrated by contingencies, circumstances, and unanticipated problems.

Not so with our confident hope of salvation! “This hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” [Romans 5:4-5 NLT]

God loved us when we were still His enemies, still sinners. He gave us His best in the sacrifice of His Son for our salvation. The hope we now have in Him never ever leads to disappointment. It is always MORE than we can think or imagine!

One of the things that drew me to Psalm 136 yesterday was the promise found in verse 23 at the end of the psalm, “to the One who remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.” [NKJV]

I love rejoicing in the Creator God, Deliverer, Protector and Provider. But it is the little words of verse 23 that awaken the greatest of praise in me. “The One who remembered us” stirs my heart to fresh awareness of all for which I have to be thankful.

God remembered us. God remembered me. REMEMBERS me.  ME.

My husband’s mother had Alzheimer’s. The last time my husband spoke to her on the phone, he had to keep reminding her who he was. “This is Bob, your son, your oldest child.” We laughed about it even though we wanted to cry. The concept of being forgotten by your mother is hard to bear at any age. She did not remember her oldest child.

God asks the question in Isaiah, “Can a mother forget her baby?” Yes, unfortunately, she can, but God goes on, “Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Then He reminds us, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . ..”  [Isaiah 49:15-16]

God will not, cannot forget us. God remembers us. God remembers you. God remembers me. Rejoice Christian. Give thanks, O Believer. Your God remembers you.

Psalm 136 is the “His Love Endures Forever” song. It begins by reminding us to “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” and then it goes on to give reasons for the thanksgiving.  Verses 4-9 remind us that God is our Creator and has surrounded us with wonderful beauty.

Then the next set of verses reminds us that God is also our Deliverer and our Savior, “to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt … And brought Israel out from among them … With a mighty hand and outstretched arm …. To him who divided the Red Sea asunder … And brought Israel through the midst of it … But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever.”  [vs 10-15]

To many in this life, God is Creator. They believe a Creator is behind the symmetry and order, the beauty and the majesty, but their comprehension of God goes no further than that. For them, the knowledge that there is a God behind it all is enough.

To God, however, that is not enough. The knowledge of Him as Creator must evolve into the knowledge of Him as Savior, as Deliverer. If we are created, we owe allegiance to the One who created us. God has declared that the allegiance is to be to His Son, whom He sent to bear our sin upon the cross.

As Israel was given the revelation of God as Deliverer when He took them out of Egypt by His mighty-working power and led them to the Promised Land, so we are given the understanding of God as Deliverer when He died upon the cross to take us from the realm of darkness and lead us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love.

We stand whole and clean today because of God our Savior, our Deliverer, our Redeemer, our Lord. His love endures forever.  Let us give thanks.

Ever noticed that at times things get worse before they get better? You pray for something and instead of seeing relief, circumstances get even harder. The children of Israel experienced that prior to their Exodus from Egypt. Moses and Aaron obeyed God’s command and approached Pharaoh about letting God’s people go. Rather than obey God, Pharaoh made the children of Israel work even harder.

Ex 5:6-9: “That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: ‘Do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves. But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy. That’s why they are crying out, “Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.” Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!’” [NLT]

 When Moses and Aaron first told the people that God had sent them to obtain their release from slavery, they were excited. After centuries of suffering at the hands of the Egyptians, they were going to be free. That excitement soon disappeared when the declaration of Pharaoh came down and they needed to go out and gather straw for their brickmaking. Moses and Aaron weren’t too popular at that moment.

Then the plagues began. And something began to change. They found themselves exempt from the fourth to the tenth plagues that affected all of Egypt. In a few months, the children of Israel were gathering riches from their captors and setting out for the Promised Land.

Sometimes when we pray for a release, for a promise to be fulfilled, for a bondage to be broken, or for the Lord to move in our lives, things get worse. We end up having to gather straw to make our bricks.

The children of Israel had no other choice but to hang in there and put their trust in the word of the LORD brought by Moses and Aaron. In our life, we too have no other choice but to cling to the promises of God brought to us by Christ Jesus our Lord and wait for our liberation to come.

Have you read Psalm 25 lately? It is mainly a prayer to the Lord by David. Except for a few verses in the middle where David seems to be telling others about his God, David primarily addresses God.

I’ve heard people say they don’t know how to pray like they should. I know Jesus gave us the outline and main points of prayer in “The Lord’s Prayer,” but David was also good at praying. He put his prayers to music in Psalms. We can learn a lot about prayer from Psalm 25.

It begins: “O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.” [NLT]

That’s where it all starts … “I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God!”  Every prayer we pray is because we have first given our life to God, we have placed our trust in Him and Him alone. Now we have the assurance that our enemies are defeated and that we will not be put to shame.

I remember the day I prayed that first prayer of trust in God, August 1973. It was at a small interdenominational Charismatic Prayer Group run by perhaps the oddest couple in history. She was 80, he was 50. I had been witnessed to by my Pentecostal great aunts for years. I had been bullied into driving my mother that day. I had no desire, no intention of being anything but a chauffeur. And God met me there.

My life turned around forever with one little prayer, which was nowhere near as eloquent as David’s “O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God!” but still every bit as effective. I became His and my trust and my hope in my Savior, Jesus Christ, has only increased over the decades.

The “ber” months have begun! My favorite season, SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER and DecemBER. They are my reminder to once bathe my thoughts in gratefulness. Also, I am not a summer girl, so having the cooler temps refreshes my soul.

I am especially hopeful because on SeptemBER 3 (just two days), I may be set free from this neck brace, to start some physical therapy, be allowed to drive again, and return to a more “normal” lifestyle. This neck brace has felt like a shackle. It affects everything I do. It is relenting in its discomfort. It makes me yearn for freedom – counting the days until I am released from its grip.

Wearing it makes me think of the hold that sin has on our lives. It touches every area of our lives. Our only hope is for someone to set us free as we cannot unlock sin’s shackles by ourselves. Jesus promised “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” [John 8:36 NLT]

Only Christ Jesus through His cross, resurrection and ascension has the power to set us free from sin’s hold. Now sin’s power is broken through our faith in Him. Now Paul reminds us to “Give [ourselves] completely to God … [and] live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

“Give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” [Romans 6:13-14 NLT]

How we should continually rejoice that we are living under the freedom of God’s grace!

Wow! Two days in a row my daily MedNews from Drugs.com had an article that caught my attention. This one was titled, “A Sense of Purpose Can Protect Brain Health in Aging.” (Link Below)

I loved the last paragraph that summed up the article. “What’s exciting about this study is that people may be able to ‘think’ themselves into better health. Purpose in life is something we can nurture,” researcher Dr. Thomas Wingo, a UC Davis Health neurologist, said in a news release. “It’s never too early — or too late — to start thinking about what gives your life meaning.”

Paul wrote about purpose … “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.” [Philippians 1:27 NLT]

“Fighting together for the faith” is the purpose of all who call on the name of Christ Jesus as Savior and LORD. That plays out differently in each person, and I believe that it also plays out differently in various stages of our lives.

As I have aged, my body does not enable me to “fight for the faith” as I once did. I am more limited in what I can do physically. But I have learned to “fight” in different ways now. I once stood behind a pulpit now I write. If I can encourage just one person to lift their head to the LORD, my life will have meaning. Amen

A Sense Of Purpose Can Protect Brain Health In Aging - Drugs.com MedNews

I was reading an article on depression and stress titled, “Drowning in Chaos? A New Mindset Can Protect Against Depression, Stress” found in Drugs.com MedNews. (Link Below)

It was the title “Drowning in Chaos?” that grabbed my attention. Researchers say, “Changing your mindset can help protect you from the stress caused by disease outbreaks, wildfires, earthquakes, political uproars and traumatic life events.”

They added, “Mindsets are the core beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that serve as a foundation for how people see and engage with the world … These mental ‘lenses’ can dramatically change how events affect a person.”

As I read through the article, I thought the researchers were a bit behind. God provided those truths centuries ago! And God’s truths hold true in the secular world as well.

God told us to change our mindsets through the renewing of our minds in Romans 12:1-2.

God promised that He will cause “everything to work together for the good of those who love [Him] and are called according to His purpose for them.” [Romans 8:28]

Jesus let us know that “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” [John 16:32-33]

When we allow our minds to filter the chaos of this world through God’s truths and principles, we truly can protect against depression and stress.

Drowning In Chaos? A New Mindset Can Protect Against Depression, Stress - Drugs.com MedNews

Decades ago, I traveled from California to Pennsylvania in a small motor home with my youngest child who was ten years old at the time and my brother and his two daughters. It took us 10 days, and we visited 12 states. Somewhere along the way I picked up a trivet inscribed with “If your wife doesn’t treat you as you deserve, be thankful.”

That trivet has been in my kitchen ever since and every time I notice it, it reminds me to thank my LORD and Savior…because I read it as “If God doesn’t treat you as you deserve, be thankful.”

The Scriptures are clear about what we deserve and why we deserve it. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” [Romans 3:23 NLT]

The Scriptures are also abundantly clear that those who accept God’s offer of salvation don’t get what is deserved but receive His grace and mercy instead.

“For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.” [2 Timothy 1:9 NLT]

And for that we should be continually and eternally thankful! Amen!

I came across another quote the other day and I can’t remember where I found this one either. It made me think of our relationship with our LORD. “Relationships don’t come packaged in perfection—they only come wrapped with potential—and they can’t survive if only one half is doing all the work.”

“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” [John 14:26 NLT]

As Christians, we have a relationship with the Living God. Like all relationships it won’t work if God is doing all the work.

I understand that God does DO all the work of salvation through Christ Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. I understand that He provides ALL the grace and strength we need. I understand that the Holy Spirit comes to live inside our hearts and has the job of teaching us the ways and truth of our Holy God and our salvation.

But I also know that we can refuse to learn. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul writes, “I plead with you to give your bodies to God,” and “…let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” [NLT]

Look at those three words … plead, let, and learn. We have our work to do in this relationship with our LORD and Savior. Let’s do it well.