Through our faith, the mighty power of God constantly guards us until our full salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. May the thought of this cause you to jump for joy, even though lately you’ve had to put up with the grief of many trials. But these only reveal the sterling core of your faith, which is far more valuable than gold that perishes, for even gold is refined by fire. Your authentic faith will result in even more praise, glory, and honor when Jesus the Anointed One is revealed. 1 Peter 1:5-7 The Passion Translation
Change It UP
Yes, we suffer and the tears flow at those times when God does not answer right away. Sometimes we don’t understand why He doesn’t lift the trial off our family, we feel the suffocation of it’s hardship upon us. It is hard not to wonder why God has delayed answering our prayer, we keep praying, we keep seeking Him and we strive to keep a Godly attitude as we wait on Him. Jesus has purposes in play for our family that are not complacent but are chasing after us and eventually will catch up with our hearts desire, at the right timing to overtake our family situation with revelatory God good. It is frustrating when we are waiting really long periods of time, for something to change up, dealing with its consequences, day after day, as it causes incredible stress in our family life. Tears and trials can’t be avoided in family life, they come and there is no family exempt from them. Family members are different in many ways, but we do have a Common Denominator in Jesus Christ, our Savior, Redeemer, Healer, Restorer, Reconciler and King. There is no greater way for a family to thrive and grow through our tears and trials than under the Kingship of our Awe-God.
Pray It Up
Jesus, as we work through the delays of our prayers, we ask You to enlarge the territory of our faith, strengthen our inner core and teach us the joy of patient endurance, which will help us grow through every difficulty and keep our soul saturated in Your Hope. We pray to be a family of hope, a lighthouse for all those seeking safe harbor from the perilous rocky, stormy seas of family life. Refiners fire, come purify us and make our family wholly-holy God’s. We give you total access to our family life. Shape us and Mold us, Jesus.
Refined:
1. Gold is ground into powder and mixed with flux
2. Mixture put in a furnace
3. The gold is heavier so it remains at the bottom
4. Impurities or dross are removed
5. Pure gold
Key, when the fire of trials hit you, impurities surface, even though they are hidden to you, they were not hidden to God. Quote By~ John Bevere
Change It UP
Have you ever felt that way, like your life was being ground up into powder? I know I have? When trials suddenly hit our family life, it is during these times we see just how much our human condition is not tamed or under the authority of God. Strong feelings seem to really storm our soul when things in our family life get way out of our ability to control. We pray and hear nothing and sometimes it causes us to feel abandoned by God. God tests our family, shakes things up, and changes things up in that way only He can and in that way none of us would ever have imagined. God rocks the moorings of our family, purposefully so, to flesh us out and truth in. These are not fun storms to ride out, but in the end, our family rests in the safe harbor of God Almighty. There is no stormy sea God can’t still, so we wait, we trust and we hope, knowing our family is in Mighty Hands.
These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! Habakkuk 2:3 (LB)
Pray It Up
Jesus, I pray for our family life, asking You to continue to teach us the spiritual art of letting go and letting You work. Help us Jesus to be families who have given You total access to our family life. Be at the center of our homes, be the One Who is most spoken too in the midst of our family trials. Help us to flesh out all of our negative emotions and take on the Godly characteristics of Your life. You taught us so much about suffering with grace, patience and wholly-holy trust. Jesus, purify the hearts of our family members, so what comes out of our mouth and what we do, will always bring honor to You.
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
Change It UP
Have you heard yourself mutter under your breath this: “Why does it have to be so hard? Why can’t we just cut a break? There has to be a way out of this. There has to be a way to fix this.” It is in these times the enemy likes to take our sullen discouragement and flip it, shooting adrenaline in our “fixer” emotions. Our enemy loves to give us these ingenuous ideas, really bright ideas. Right? No, so very wrong. The enemy likes to disrupt our course with an independent, I can fix this spirit. I don’t need anyone. I can do it. I will fix this. All this craftily enticed temptation does is lead us further off course to our very own crash and burn dead end that the enemy has tailored just for us. When one family member crashes and burns out at a dead end, our enemy knows it affects the whole family. One stumbling stone, takes out many birds. Independent of God, we fix nothing.
“The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands” Quote By ~Martin Luther
Habakkuk 2:3-4 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
Contrary to popular book titles, there are no Easy Steps to Maturity or Secrets of Instant Sainthood. When God wants to make a giant oak, he takes a hundred years, but when he want to make a mushroom, he does it overnight. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process. James advised, “Don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed.” (James 1:4, Msg) Written By Rick Warren
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8–9).
Change It Up
Our worldly viewpoint is not enough when it comes to delays, God is purposefully planning something in His way. Our plan and His divine purpose sometimes do not align in perfect timing according to our wants. We react to the delay of our prayer out of our human condition, and it is usually a doubtful reaction. God wants us to respond to Him, look to Him, so we can respond to our delays with faith. When we react with doubt, it does not come into our soul unaccompanied, it brings along self-pity, which is so exhausting. If that was the only intent of the enemy, though that is quite enough when we think on it, yet the enemy always takes it that next step farther, from self-pity to resentment. This is why we pray for the self-control to patiently endure, and we chose not to react, we choose to respond to God, wait in His Presence through His power. When you are in the waiting room, it is so nice to have power and not be sitting in the dark.
“Joseph refused to let his circumstances shape his outlook. He allowed no self-pity or bitterness to rob him of energy. Instead, he chose to use each circumstance ― whether at home, at Potiphar’s house, or in prison ― as God’s appointed place where he would serve Him with all of his heart. Like Joseph, we may not see the purpose for our struggles until much later. But also like him, we should remain faithful and trust that God knows what is happening. God eventually blessed Joseph and made him a blessing to others.” Helen Grace Lescheid
Pray It Up
Lord God, change it up in our family from addiction to all things self and selfishness, to a wholly-holy dependence on You. Jesus, we pray You would disrupt the worldly viewpoint in our family life and exchange it for a Kingdom Perspective. Jesus, wholly-holy align us in vital-vertical relationship with You, every single family member, let this be so. Holy Spirit, speak what is true to each of us, so our thoughts are Your thoughts, and the ways of our family are Your ways. Reactions from our human condition can suck the life out of our family, Jesus teach us to respond to You, first, during every situation in our family life that above our pay grade and out of our comfort zone. Father God, convict us quickly when we move into self-pity, stop it in its initial temptation before it works into resentment of You. Father God, we pray You would increase the faith of our family, help us be a family who patiently endures, growing through every family trial, clinging to You, digging our life roots deeply in Your Promises. Lord God, may we be a family who never grieves you with our doubt and fear, but always lifts our head in praise to You, expecting daily, the miracle of Your Providential Care and being content with You Sovereign will for us. Keep us wholly-holy aligned with You, and may each of us position our identity completely in You, giving You total access to our lives.
Hebrews 10:36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. NLT
The Bridegroom’s Café is a great place to come to feed your soul. The Family Table is amazing, it encourages us to pray for our family and at the same time it encourages us as a family member, and we learn and grow in Christ relationship. It is great to have a spiritual habit of listening up to God first. I highly encourage you to purchase my book, The Bridegroom’s Voice, it is a great God Adventure, a journey with Jesus that will enrich your relationship with Him, His way, truth and life. God bless you, much… KimberlyMac
