Life is different right now.

As we are confined to our homes by the Coronavirus, our minds may be bombarded with questions: Does God care? Has He given up on me and is going to leave me to face disease or financial ruin through this? Can God control this or is this a rampant disease of nature that God has no control over? Will this ever end? Is there hope?

God’s chosen people in the Old Testament also had questions. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet looks toward the future to the time of the coming Babylonian exile. He tells the people of Judah of God’s capacity and desire to deliver them. God had him tell the people, “Do not fear for I am with you.” God said that for a reason – they would be afraid. The people of Israel undoubtedly wondered if God had given up on them because of their sin and if their situation was beyond His power to remedy. The questions running through their minds were most likely the same kinds of questions we have. 

The God who sees and hears and knows knew their heart questions, and He knows ours. Therefore He spoke these words to and through his prophet in Isaiah chapter 40:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Isaiah 40:1

There is Comfort in the Savior. There is Comfort that our sin has been paid for – that our “iniquity is pardoned.” Don’t we long for that?! A clean slate. A “do-over” as my grandson used say when he was 4. The sins of all mankind have been paid for by our Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died on the cross. Our debt has been paid! We are forgiven! We don’t have to bargain with God saying: God if you’ll get us out of these uncertain times I’ll do what you want.

There is Comfort in our Frailty. Until we realize our flesh is faint, frail, and feeble, as James 4:14 says “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” – we feel independent, self-sufficient. Our pride Has us feeling we have no need of a Savior. But through this pandemic we have begun to grasp the transitory nature of our lives, and are more aware of our need of the One who Created us. The Word of God is strong, sure, and secure, the opposite of our frail flesh. He is our hiding place. A firm foundation upon which we can rest. Our sword and shield. Our high tower, protection, security, and salvation. 

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:23-25 

There is Comfort in His 2nd coming. Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus coming as the Messiah were fulfilled, which gives us every confidence that His prophecies about the 2nd coming are also dependable. Knowing that Christ will return to set up God’s kingdom on earth and that we will live with Him eternally gives us comfort and a hope found in nothing else. In our normal daily lives before Covid-19, we we had a routine that depended on no one except ourselves. There was no reason to look toward the hope of eternity. But suddenly we are thrown into this scenario that feels like it is fresh out of some dystopian novel, but it’s not. The uncertainty of these times draws us to that hope of eternity with Christ, a longing for the one who is in authority over all things. Thoughts of His coming again brings comfort!

There is Comfort in the Shepherd.  

He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11

This is one of the sweetest, most tender verses of scripture. He shepherds us. He carries us close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young! (Great encouragement for you young mamas out there quarantined and trying to school a houseful of blessings!) What a picture! Meditate on this verse this week when you are seeking comfort.

There is Comfort that God is the Creator. “Who is like Our God?” Scripture asks. A rhetorical question, of course, because the answer we know is “No one.” Our sovereign Creator can do what we cannot dream of doing.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Isaiah 40:12-14

No one we know can create mountains and seas. No one can offer wisdom and advice to God. He is the source. Look up at the heavens. Who can bring out the stars? He calls everything out, the totality of creation, He summons them by name. Who can do that? Can you? Can I? Do we have His generative power? Can the smartest doctor or scientist? Can Bill Gates, or Queen Elizabeth or Pres. Trump? NO. There is no on like our God.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard?” Isaiah asks. Can you not understand and perceive our insignificance in comparison to the greatness of God? Creation reveals to us Our Father God. Our Comforter. We can rest in Him for the answers for any situation that arises with His creation.

As He Comforts Us, We Wait in Hope!

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

Jehovah is God and there is no other. We just need to rest in Faith in Him!

• He is our Comfort.
• He is our Creator.
• He is our Hope.
• He is our Strength.
• He will Lead & Protect.
• He is our reason Not to Fear.
• He gave us a Savior who freed us from sin & is our Righteousness.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Part 6 – Love and Respect

Somehow in this age of gender confusion, we have tried to make men and women be exactly alike. Women clamor for equality (sameness) with men. They, we women, want the same pay and treatment and opportunities and expectations on us. Nothing wrong with that. But they/we also want men to be like us: more in touch with their emotions, more nurturing, less aggressive. In all this equality talk there has emerged this unspoken idea that women and men are the same. But I must protest on this one. A simple conversation with my male friends, sons, or husband quickly reveals that there are innate and inherent differences in men and women.

This shouldn’t surprise us. God’s word has it written clearly In black and white that there are differences. Although there are variations in extremes according to personality, women tend to want to be loved and men want to be respected. Our Creator God told us this before our enlightened society tried to make us all unisex.

Ephesians 5:33 instructs us to meet each other’s most important need. It states:

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. 

In his book Love & Respect Emmerson Eggerichs discusses these differing needs in the sexes and offers ways to live together in ways that offer understanding, respect and love that allows each gender to live to their fullest potential that their Creator made them to be. Upon reading this book several years ago, my husband and I had a discussion. It was more like a “Do you really feel that way?” kind of conversation. I had always assumed that every human in the world wanted to be loved more than anything. But he reinforced Dr. Eggerich’s research with his own anecdotal evidence; he could know I loved him, but if I acted in a way that he felt disrespected it ate away at him even though he was loved.

Ladies, I encourage you, do not expect the men in your life to be like you. Study men. Study their needs and reactions. Ask them their preferences and wishes. Respect them.

So what does a real Christian marriage look like in this respect? I’m afraid far to many of them are like mine was before I read this book – they are well-intentioned, but uninformed and misguided. They go on assumptions that the other spouse has their same needs, but this is not true. Men need our respect.

But ideally, men need us to see them as individuals and see how their personalities and longings and dreams play into the way they want to be treated. Isn’t that what we women want from them –  to be seen for who we are and treated honorably? Men want to be treated well and respected for their contribution to the world whether they work hard physically doing construction, or they seem to play at work coaching, or if they are an esteemed doctor, a truck driver, a hard-working contributor in a gigantic corporation, a craftsman, a journalist, a mechanic, or one of a thousand other things. Whatever they are, wise godly women should seek to give respect to the men in their lives.

Almost 2 years ago I inherited my “Grand dog” when my daughter moved out of the country. He’s a bouncy ball of fur, and I’m his favorite person.

I didn’t know much about dogs. I had grown up in the generation where you kept a dog out in the yard and tossed scraps to him for food. So my daughter had to educate me on his routine, his commands, his particular food, his immunization schedule, his exercise schedule, all the no-nos about him, and that he was a companion dog. OK. Aren’t all dogs companion dogs? You know, the whole “man’s best friend” thing – that says companion to me. But no. As I read the informative dog book she provided, I found that certain breeds are companion dogs, not lap dogs, or guard dogs, but companion dogs.

As I’ve gotten to know sweet Poppy over the course of this year, I see why he is that type. He loves to be around me. When he wakes up in the morning he lays on my bed until I get ready to go to the kitchen and he follows me. If I’m feeling bad, He snuggles right up against me or climbs up on my side to sleep. If he goes outside, he wants me to sit out on the porch while he lies in the sun or chases squirrels. If I walk out of a room, he follows. He loves for me to play with him. He sits on the bed and watches me fold clothes, follows me to the bathroom, and is up on the couch before I can even get seated. If he’s sitting beside me, I am required to be petting him unless he dozes off. He wants to be with me, to be my companion. He adores me, my touch, my company.

Are we like a companion dog in our relationship with our Heavenly Father? Are we constantly longing for God’s touch on our life? Is our favorite place resting by His side? Do we jump up and follow wherever we see Him go wanting to be in the room with Him?  Do we want to hear His voice and do we run quickly to Him when He speaks? Do we long to have Him with us as we lay beside Him with no agenda? Do we love to soak in the sunlight of His Word?

May you find yourself becoming God’s companion this year.

Each year as I begin again reading through the Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, starting my yearly journey through God’s Word, I come to some point in between Exodus and Deuteronomy when I say to myself, “What does this have to do with my life?” (I know that’s self-focused thinking, but that’s what I do.) Generally it’s when I’m reading a long list of “begats,” or numbering of tribes, or detailed descriptions of something unfamiliar to me that I can’t seem to visualize.

This year it happened in Exodus. As I was reading through chapters 35-38, about the construction of the tabernacle and all its furnishings, curtains, and articles, I once again had a what’s-in-it-for-me thought. As I read that particular day, I started asking myself, “How can I apply this?” “What do you want me to learn, Lord?”

And you know what? When we ask, He listens and answers.

I recalled how the tabernacle was the place where God came down to dwell among His people in His Shekinah glory. It was God’s house on earth. I remembered it was Holy and set apart and consecrated. And those thoughts made me think of these New Testament verses:

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16

I began to notice in the Exodus description, the rich materials that were used: the finest woods, rich beautiful fabrics, gold and precious metals and jewels. Not only were the materials the best, the craftsmen were the best at their craft as well. The men called upon to do the metal-work, the weaving, the hand carving and such were all noted to be very skilled “experts” in their area. Even the people themselves were called upon to offer their best gifts to be used in the construction and decoration of the tabernacle. They brought materials from their own personal wealth: jewels and yarn and spices for the incense. Not surprisingly, they brought it willingly; Exodus 35:29 specifies that it was a freewill offering. No one was compelled or taxed or forced; they offered to God things to make a perfect dwelling for Him among them.

So we ask: Father, how do these chapters from Exodus, about the building of the Tabernacle, impact our lives as your temples here on earth?

1. We offer God our best. Not just our best material possessions – which is a given – but the best job we can do, the best/first of our time, energy, intellect, and passions. In so doing, we seek to become the best, the purest, a worthwhile holy gift to give to Him.
2. We work heartily at whatever our hand finds to do. (Ecclesiastes 9:10) Seek to learn, organize, prepare, train – to become better, faster, more expert in any area where He gives us a job. I’m not just a mom, I’m creating a home and training these little ones. I’m not just putting words on paper, I’m using my skill to craft winsome and enlightening prose that God will use to touch others. I’m not just a singer, I’m a worshipper leading others to the throne of God. I could go on, but you get the picture. Are we reading up in our area, keeping up with developments, seeking training, honing our skills, doing improvement exercises in order to give our best self to the effort?
3. We bring gifts to Him. Tithes and offerings and service in His house and to His people. Beautiful, precious gifts, not our leftovers. Intentional gifts that require much of us.
4. We give willingly from our heart. If I, as a grown adult, am still giving my tithe just because I’m supposed to, I probably have an issue in my heart. As we grow with Him through the years we give to Him out of love. The giving brings joy. Our heart is in it and we desire to give. In fact, we probably even wish we had more to give! Pray: Father, help me want to give out of a willing generous heart. Amen.

So as you go about your day today, remember that You are God’s Temple – a beautiful temple that He is building brick by brick for His glory. Decorate your temple. Take care of what is furnishing your heart. Make yours a finely crafted temple, made of the finest materials, given to Him from a willing heart!

Are you a contented person? Willing to be satisfied with what you have without all the acquiring and manipulating? Or are you, like many of us, one who tries to fill the emptiness, hoping to get enough to be able to be content? What about when you are in those long, lean, tough times; are you able to be content then? Although I’ve walked with the Lord for years, I struggle to dwell contentedly when times are tough and I’m waiting for an answer from the Father.

This past week, a simple story about the Israelites, which we’ve all heard, brought me face to face with my lack of contentedness and lack of faith. Here’s the heart of the story from Numbers chapter 11.

Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. … ⁴ The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”…

1. The people complained. God miraculously supplied manna to feed them, but they got tired of it, griped, and looked back longingly to their days of captivity. Sounds like us, huh? Discontent with what we have we begin to gripe and look back to “the good ole days” which were really not that good.

¹⁰ Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. ¹¹ He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

2. Moses, their leader then begins to gripe about his job. Also sounds like us. “Lord, look at these people I work with. I’m fed up. I can’t do this. Just kill me Lord.”

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

3. God intervenes. He provides 70 reliable men to help Moses so he does not have to bear the load alone. Father God will send us helpers to walk alongside us as well.

¹⁸ “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.¹⁹ You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

4. The funny interlude from the Lord – at least I think so! I can just hear God saying, “O, so you want meat to eat, do you? I’m gonna give you some meat. so much meat that you will be sick of it.” I’m glad He provides and teaches in kind but memorable ways!

²¹ But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²² Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

5. Moses doubts God. Where in the world was God going to get enough meat for 600,000 people for a month?! They were in a desert. … O wait! … God created all the food in the first place, so hmmm… I guess He could create meat out of nothing…

²³ The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” …

6. “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” – my favorite line of our story. That’s a rhetorical question, and the answer is an implied, definite “No!” The Lord’s arm is totally capable of providing for these children of Israel, and it is also totally capable of providing for our every need today. Luke 1:37 says it this way, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

7. And as Paul Harvey would say, “Now for the rest of the story.”

³¹ Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. ³² All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. …

8. A wind from the Lord blew in quail from the sea. And not just a little. Quail piled up 1 yard deep for a days journey on each side of the camp. Hard to picture that, huh? I though at first maybe the size of a huge mall and its parking lot, but no, not nearly enough. The World Wide Web tells us that the average healthy person can walk 20-30 miles in 8 hours (a day’s journey would be at least that if not more). Don’t know where you live, but if you’re in the Birmingham, Alabama, area, that is basically from Leeds to Jasper with the midpoint representing the Israelite’s camp! All that area covered with quail a yard deep! Now that is provision, with a little bit of God’s humor, and a little bit of  #theyllrememberthislesson.

Dear ladies, Our God is not only Our Creator, The Lover of Our Soul, Our Savior & Friend, but He is Provider of our every need. We can rest content in our Faithful Lord. He is faithful to us, will we operate in faith towards Him? Will we be content in Him come what may?

I don’t know what you are facing, but the Lord will provide for you! Don’t take my word for it. Take these scriptures to heart and walk forth in faith and contentment.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Isaiah 64:4

We have choices in life. With choices come the connected consequences. Make the choice today to not keep company with the wicked. Instead, delight in and meditate upon God’s Word. This choice will yield a flourishing, fruit-bearing life watched over by the Lord. Whereas the opposite choice yields a drying up and destruction.

Be blessed today through your attitudes, actions, and desires. A heart going after God will hunger and thirst for righteousness, and will be meek, merciful, pure, and peace-making among other things. Things that yield blessing. It won’t always feel good. We will be persecuted. Remember, the right way is often difficult.