Philippians 4:8

in His strength

Karla LeesLeave a comment

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Last night, I stepped out of my comfort zone and took part in a 12 hour worship burn…where we offered God praise and worship for 12 hours straight. Six teams, 2 hours each.

As a vocalist, usually two hours is a good maximum for keeping your voice strong without too much strain.

I had the beginnings of a cold when I woke up on Friday morning.

And was signed up to sing for 2 two hour time slots, 2 hours apart, in the wee hours of the morning (1-3 am) and when I am usually getting up (5-7 am).

I prayed and asked Him if I should cut back, and the following familiar verse came to mind:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

So I didn’t, and I prepared for two sets.  From the time I arrived, I stayed away from caffeine and sweets, drank about 8-10 glasses of water, rested my voice way more than I usually would, and only had the two things to help keep my throat moist besides water, shot glasses of pineapple juice and a few potato chips (the chips are apparently Amy Grant’s go to before a performance too).

And more than all that, I had to depend on Him in a way I normally never ask for help in.

An early riser, I am usually down for the count by 10 pm.

Last night, I didn’t get any sleep, nor did I sense God wanted me to.  I had a strong reassurance I would be able to make it through without sleep, and without losing my voice or incurring too much strain.  Since I am also singing Sunday morning, this was quite a bit outside my comfort zone.

I chose to trust He had me in His grip, and would get me through.

When I got to work this morning, I happened to look up the verse to double check it was the verse I remembered. I was stunned to see what Philippians 4:13 says in the Message translation:

 

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

I stepped out, and God stepped up to meet me there. I am still stunned with the wonder that I have now been up for 29 hours straight, and do not feel as exhausted as I would have expected.

God took me in His strength beyond what I am capable of in my own strength, and then beyond even more!

When we step out and trust He is more than enough for all we will encounter and endure, our trust is not placed in vain.

If the Maker of the universe made me, He knows what I am capable of, both on my own and with His empowerment.

I can place myself with confidence in His care.

When I expectantly come close into His Presence, He never fails to meet me in each instance.

I am able to do far more than I realize when God holds me together and strengthens me.

Which He does because of:

  • His great love for me
  • His character – God of compassion, refuge, power, might. Its part of who He is
  • His desire to draw close to be with His Beloved
  • the truth that I now live in and within Him, so His strength is an overflow of His loving kindness

and not the least, due to

  • His acute awareness of how much I need Him!

 

what to do when you catch a glimpse you prefer you hadn’t?

Karla Lees4 Comments

Yesterday, I decided to walk around the mall I work in, and explore.

As I work on the top floor in one of the professional spaces, I don’t see many of the other businesses, beyond the food court & the stores I pass on the set route I take to catch my bus.

On my walkabout, I was struck dumb by a way larger than life ad from a company I usually have found to not be provocative or rude in their imaging and marketing.

The slogan was brilliant, the image was offensive.

It has rankled within me since I inverted my eyes in the mall, and kept walking by.

Last night, I decided to look up the company’s website to find contact info, and was confronted with the same ad on the home page. Again, shocked but this time not unexpected.

What do you do when you are confronted with something that offends you, or is counter to your beliefs?

1. Turn your eyes away from it. As soon as possible, avert your gaze. It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and as His Kids, we want the spark to set the fire of pursing Him aflame, nothing inappropriate to distract us from our pursuit!

2. If you see it along a route you take, try to avoid it. Take an alternative path, or purposefully read or chat with a friend and keep your eyes fixed somewhere else. Don’t let someone else’s muck cause you to stumble.

3. Complain. Speak up. I tweeted my disappointment to the company respectfully, and informed them of my intention not to return until the ad is down… My voice matters when it impacts sales, period.

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If evil is its source, God calls us to align with Him, and use our voice to point out the truth, no matter what it is.

4. Take your business, and/or presence, elsewhere. Don’t support businesses or buy products that cross the line.
I am a fairly loyal shopper, and I like to support local businesses and companies that reflect excellence, quality and are respectful to their customers.

5. Pray for them. Pray for the companies to listen to those who are bothered by their actions, ads or decisions. Pray for the models or actors who take roles that do not represent them as a whole person.

6. Keep your eyes fixed on Him, keep His Words in your heart & mind. Stay grounded in His truth and goodness, His holiness and love which will last forever vs the temporary thrills trying to trick you into thinking they are in the right. Allow Him to shield you.

7. Decide on a personal or family ‘code’…Let me give you a few examples:

Don’t go to the movie theater without thoroughly checking out the movie you are going to see through a reputable godly reviewer. Have a three strike rule and you are willing to walk out (we do this with dvds too). I have left a theater twice over the years and never had a problem getting a refund when I was offended by content. I also don’t mind missing the first few minutes of a movie if it means I miss the previews, which are the only wildcards left if you did your homework. We recently saw a movie that I didn’t check out through our usual wise reviewer as we impulsively headed to the show, and the last five minutes of the movie ruined it for us with unnecessary smut.

A few years ago, we decided as a family to do away with our cable/satellite TV, as we were constantly turning the channel to avoid a risqué commercial or TV show. I was also tired of spending money on preset programming bundles when we only follow about a dozen shows a year.

Instead, we purchase DVDs (Downtown Abbey!) or episodes online. We no longer watch commercials, spend less time and money watching TV, and are not seeing images we would rather not enter our home or minds. The only time we have really missed it? Major sporting events, but we have family & friends who don’t mind inviting us over to watch the games together.

Filtering what we allow in is not only up to us…

Most importantly #8: In all things, seek to honor Him first. My general rule of thumb: if God would likely take part if He was with me, then it passes. As He is always with me, I need to listen to His prompts and leading over the cultural clamor’s sometimes sloppy seconds.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

9. Break off the impact of that glimpse.
By seeing something that God didn’t intend for us to see, we need to repent, and ask Him to cleanse us from its negative impact.

10. Ask Him to help you stay the course, every day.

We don’t try to be holy because we want to be holy. We become holy when we allow God’s holiness to permeate us from the inside out. Only then will what bugs His heart bother ours.

Keeping yourself from seeing what we know was not intended for us to see is honoring the One who died to separate us from the world. As citizens of heaven, we are to live under His authority & guidance, as He wants the best for us as we live here!

As lights in the world, may we all speak up where we can when evil tries to lure us to the dark side.

Because we know light wins in the end, and we should want that for everyone we encounter, every day.

3 ways words pack a wallop

Karla Lees1 Comment

Many of us can recall a time when we were hurt by someone else’s actions.

But we likely all can remember a time when someone’s words hurt.

Words bypass race, size, religion, gender, class and strike right at the heart of us, often before we know it.

There are three ways we can be wounded by words have been wielded as a weapon:

Unintentionally:

Gossip can catch us off guard, and broken telephone can contribute to us being hurt when we hear things behind our backs.  Hearing your BFF actually hates your new dress but tells you how flattering it looks to your face because they know how much you like the color & they don’t want to hurt your feelings… still hurts when you realize they withheld the truth from you when asked for it.

Sometimes we don’t know the other person well enough to not accidentally make a comment slip (like how you dislike Timmy’s coffee and it turns out to be their favorite daily coffee place) and hurt their feelings.

Be careful what you say when you don’t know all the facts or people in a situation. Ask God for wisdom to help you steer clear of unintentionally using words that hurt.

Accusingly:

When we hear an accusation, we are all initially hurt: either by the truth, or by the lie.

The truth can pack quite the wallop when we are hiding from it, can’t it? There have been times when I need to catch my breath from its jab. The point of these words is to rebuild & restore us, despite the surgery that may be involved uprooting what shouldn’t be within us.

Unfortunately, the delivery method can pack as much of a punch as the words spoken.

When God speaks the truth to us, whether in His word or through another follower, it might be blunt but it is to be delivered with love and a desire for God’s best. Not the judgment that tends to slip out, which reveals the state of our own hearts.

Which leads me to the other way that an accusation can hurt: when its a lie.

You know, “lie” is a word I prefer not to use, because I like to lie down to rest, and I don’t like to use words in two ways when I have an options. Lies as a plural, is perfect. As a writer, word choice is important to me for setting the right background or revealing the best picture.

I choose to use the word “falsehood” for two reasons. False is the opposite of Truth, which also shows we are aligning ourselves with the enemy “hood.”

Falsehoods hurt because of their design. They are enemy snipers designed to take us down any way they can. When they are used by a non-Kingdom dweller, we aren’t as surprised, for we know who they are aligning with by association.

When falsehoods are used by a believer, a tear forms in the fabric of the Kingdom, and a tear falls from the face of its Leader.

We are not designed to speak what is false, but:

Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable —if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —think on such things.

Philippians 4:8 NIV

We are not to walk back into the enemy hood we have been delivered out of, but keep the best of the Kingdom on our hearts & in our minds, as the above verse suggests. Even more clear is the comparison seen in the Message version of the same verse below:

Fill your minds and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 MSG

Which leads to the last way words can wound us when they are wielded as a weapon:

Deliberately:

This reveals more about the character of the speaker than the hearer.

Deliberately using your words, whether truth or false, shows you have a foot in the enemy hood, whether you would like to hear that or not:

Because you KNOW your word will hurt.

And that knowledge means you purposefully are aiming at another person to wound them.

Not cool.

I have been the recipient of deliberate, calculated falsehood in a time of great loss or shock, from those I adored.

Although I have forgiven them, the scar remains.

Those deliberate words? They are the bombs to the single gun shot of unintention and the Uzi of accusation.

Last Word:

All of these wound causing word weapons can come with a complication. How it impacts our relationship with the speaker of these words.

We need to run to God first to ask Him to separate how we have been hurt from the person who hurt us. Once we have dealt with the wounding, then we need to ask Him how we are to speak to the wounder. He may reveal an insight we could not know, and have us either set up a new boundary or reinforce our friendship, addressing the situation from His perspective.

Words hurt, but in His hands we can be fully healed.

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