Tag Archives: sleep

THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 6

Devotion, ,

Psalms 4:8 NIV
[8] “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

How well I remember the way David’s words impacted me during troubled times in my country. I was living in a cottage on a smallholding on the edge of town. The windows of my home had no burglar bars and some didn’t even latch securely!

Dogs and cows belonging to the owner would move around my home at night, making scary noises. The property was not fenced, leaving me feeling vulnerable to possible intruders.

I would often lie awake at night, conscious of strange sounds, and fearful of the unknown. I needed the security which the property didn’t offer me…so I turned to the Scriptures.

Every night, as I lay in the dark, afraid and alone, I recited David’s words until they became second nature to me. I began to feel so safe that, in the end, no strange noises and no “what ifs” bothered me.

Such is the power of God’s Word in times of stress and insecurity…in fact, at any time we need the help that no human can give.

Look at David’s words. Peace…sleep…safety! How many of us wrestle with issues in a very real world full of unknown dangers, in a restless and violent society. How desperately we need the reassurance that God is all around us, as near to us as our breath. He is our safe place, our shelter from harm and danger. There is no human bodyguard more able and more equipped to protect His people than the Lord God Himself.

“Why, then,” we might ask, “do bad things happen to God’s people?” I can’t answer for God, but one thing is sure.

Romans 8:28-29 NIV
[28] “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Not long ago, I listened to the testimony of the late Dr Helen Roseveare. She served as a missionary doctor in the Congo during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1960’s. As a white lady, she was extremely vulnerable and unfortunately suffered terrible cruelty at the hands of people in transition.

The Lord confronted her with these words, “Can you thank me for trusting you with this experience even if I never tell you why?”

What strange and terrifying words! This is not the way God usually works with His people. The Scriptures are full of reassurances of His care and protection in times of trouble. Take Psalm 91, for example. Innumerable children of God embrace these promises in times of danger or desperation, and find God faithful to His Word.

Why, then, does God allow some to suffer in the extreme?

God’s ways are inscrutible. His has no obligation to explain His reasons, but reasons He has, that make sense to Him, if not to us. There are two examples in Scripture, of extreme suffering, one with no reason to the sufferer and one with a good reason.

Job suffered so much loss that he was left reeling…and forsaken by his own wife and his friends. Did God give Him an explanation? No! However, God completed what He set out to do without Job’s knowledge or permission. The outcome? Although Job questioned God, he never stopped trusting and worshipping Him despite his meaningless suffering.

Paul’s life as a servant of Jesus, was fraught with problems, difficulties, and suffering of every description and from every angle, fellow Jews, treacherous “friends”, and the Roman government. He was hated and hounded from place to place, beaten, imprisoned, and even stoned to death. He survived, but he was fed up with the whole deal. Even his prayers weren’t answered in the way he wanted.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 NLT
[8] “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away…”

However, God had a different purpose and a different outcome for Paul’s predicament. Check the background!

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 NLT
[2] “I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. [3] Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know [4] that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.”

Paul had out-of-body experiences so amazing that he had every reason to boast but…

2 Corinthians 12:7 NLT
[7]”… even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God….I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.”

So, God’s response to Paul’s pleas was…”no” to his request but “yes” to a much better purpose.

9] Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

God is always working on our character and stripping off every layer of self-sufficiency and independence, honing faith in Him in the worst of circumstances.

Does this mean that we cannot trust God for His protection because He might have some other purpose in mind? Not at all!

2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT
[20] “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

Even if some kind of suffering is part of His purpose for us, He always, ultimately, honours His promises for our good, and for His glory.

THE SAFEST PLACE!

So, we can weave God’s promises into the fabric of our daily lives, confident that the outcomes will always be for our benefit and His glory.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – LISTEN TO HIM

Bible Study, ,

LISTEN TO HIM

“Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in His glory and the two men standing with Him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He blurted this out without thinking.” Luke 9:32-33.

Once again Peter, the blunderer, exposed the natural human reaction to a great moment of revelation in his life.

This experience was for them; it was to be a defining moment, convincing them once and for all that Jesus was the Messiah and binding them to Him in loyal love for the rest of their lives. What did Peter do? He wanted to set up a shrine to Jesus, Moses and Elijah!

He got it wrong on at least two counts. Firstly, Moses and Elijah were not on a par with Jesus. They were mere men; Jesus was the Son of God. Secondly, this was not about another religious experience to set up another memorial stone, as the children of Israel had done throughout their history. They never learned from their experiences but they kept making religious events out of them.

For the three disciples, this was another landmark on their journey towards getting to know Jesus as their rabbi, but much more than their rabbi. He was their Lord, the Son of God and Messiah. How else would they be convinced that He was who He said He was? Jesus was not interested in setting up another religious “festival” to add to the Christian “calendar”. Of what use would that be if this experience did not influence and change their lives?

Of what value is all the carry-on about Christmas, Easter and all the other highlights on the “Christian calendar” if it does not contribute to transformation into true disciples and sons and daughters of God? Over many weeks we have been meditating on who Jesus is and what He expects of us. We have learned that it was never His idea to set up another useless religion.

It grieves me to see what is done in His name when He NEVER told us to do it. Jesus does not want shrines and memorials, and church buildings, and fancy clothes, and chanting and rituals, all done “in His name” which are all out of character with who He is and what He wants.

He said, “Follow me!” What is He doing and where is He going? He still wants to reach out to the world, to heal the broken hearted and to restore everything that was broken through Adam. His message to the world is still “Follow me,” because He wants to take us to the Father.

“While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: ‘This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to Him.’

“When the voice died away, they saw Jesus alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days, of what they had seen.”  Luke 9:34-36.

It was the Father who put Peter in his place and corrected his cock-eyed thinking. No long explanations — just a terse instruction: “This is my Son; listen to Him.” Forget Moses and Elijah; they have served their purpose. It’s all about Jesus. It was then and still is now.

What if you and I made it our life’s purpose to follow Jesus – in our homes, in our work places, in our communities — being merciful, caring and generous instead of worshipping at our little shrines of experience and carrying on in our old selfish ways as though nothing had happened?

When you have “seen” Jesus, don’t set up a memorial. “Listen to Him.” That’s what it’s about.

Drugged By Grief

Christian Life, , ,

DRUGGED BY GRIEF

“He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, ‘What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.'” Luke 22:45-46 (The Message).

Even in the midst of His own ordeal, Jesus was teaching His disciples (and us) a powerful life lesson. The words “drugged by grief” in this paraphrase capture the truth He both modelled and communicated to His disciples.

The disciples were in the grip of a “drug” that paralysed their will and robbed them of their ability to know what to do in this predicament. Instead of preparing for the unknown by submitting themselves to the Father and receiving His strength to resist the devil (James 4:7), they copped out by sleeping.

Unlike them, Jesus used the situation to prepare Himself so that, when the temple guards swooped down on Him, He was not taken unawares. He was equipped, through His “reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:8), to accept the entire cross event without resistance or retaliation according to His Father’s will.

Emotions are a powerful and truthful gauge of the thoughts and interpretations of our life experiences. As we have followed Jesus through the Gospel of Luke, we have recognised that His perspective was always God-centred. Time and again He had to correct His disciples’ misunderstanding of their experiences by bringing them back to a God-awareness which gave them a proper understanding of what was happening.

Because they had filtered out of their minds Jesus’ warning that He was going to be arrested and crucified, but that He would rise again, the disciples were caught up in paralysing sorrow. The only way they could handle it was to sleep it off, perhaps hoping that, when they woke up, it would have only been a nightmare!

If we grasp this principle, it will save us from unnecessary emotional pain and enable us to live in the inner rest that kept Jesus from falling apart in His time of severe testing. Jesus is our supreme example but there are others in Scripture who exhibited the same attitude to their suffering and came out on top.

Joseph stands out as an Old Testament character that recognised God’s hand in his circumstances, refused to become bitter, gave excellent service to his master in spite of his suffering and emerged a winner because he trusted God instead of collapsing into self-pity. Likewise Daniel centred on God and served Him in Babylon, probably the worst pagan environment of his day. No threats or manipulation could move him from his purpose to obey God, no matter what.

Our emotions are the clue to what we are thinking. If we view our situation as hopeless, we feel despair. We become depressed and our depression becomes the drug that paralyses our desire and ability to do live normal lives. Depressed people are so self-absorbed that they shut out the world and retreat into a prison of hopelessness which is the perfect environment for the devil to sow his seeds of self-destruction.

What is the antidote to emotional “drug abuse”? Jesus said, “Pray!” What must we pray? The Apostle Paul gives us the answer in Philippians 4:6-7. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The key is not that you pray but what you pray. In this instance to “present” implies to reveal – come clean with God about what is really in your heart – anxiety and all its accompanying emotions. Expose them and give them to God, and He will replace them with peace that does not make sense to anyone else but you.

Had the disciples done that, they would have been released from their emotional drugs and in their right minds to face their situation and not give way to fear. God steps in with the grace to go through when we expose to Him what is really going on inside.