What a strange and challenging time we are living in! A virus has disrupted and taken numerous people. Sin has destroyed lives, and hurt has fueled hearts. Brokenness and sadness are everywhere. Amid an order by our governor to stay at home in April, I became very sick. On Easter Sunday, April 12th, my body was throwing off sodium to the point I couldn’t think. I was fading in and out. Suddenly I couldn’t stand, and I fell. Later I found out that with such a low sodium number, it was a miracle that I didn’t have a seizure. Easter Sunday night when I ended up in the hospital, I knew Jesus Christ was with me during those hours I didn’t even know where I was. I had always loved God but never like the love I have experienced since the night I almost went home to be with Him.
Our pastor shared in his message yesterday that we don't need to be slack and let our faith grow dull. We need to press on in the Word—to pray—to share our faith—to encourage each other and trust Him. Before that Easter Sunday night, these were the things that I had always done. Writing devotions kept me in the Word. Prayer was essential to life. Sharing my faith through writing and teaching were things that I believed He had called me to do. Encouraging others built my faith and trust in God. But that Easter Sunday night changed what I had practiced in my life into something more than what I needed to do. Since that night, studying the Word, praying, sharing, serving, and encouraging others have grown to be an overwhelming outflow of my identity in Jesus. These priorities well up in me. They have become not what I need to do but who I am in Him and the defining purpose of my return to this life.
The Holy Spirit explained that I would write and speak of Christ’s redeeming love in depths He would reveal to me through the Word. He declared that I should be bold and speak His life. "Death and life is in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21, NKJV). Speak life, He whispered to my heart. Tell my children to speak my life—my truth—my grace. If they speak the truth of my redeeming love, they will know the good fruit that I have given them and live it. If they speak condemnation and negativity, they will not understand my life in them and shall live the lie of their old life. Write to inspire them to know who they are in me—to learn to speak my truth and to love with my grace.
Here I am—studying the Word—seeking Him in prayer—attempting to share His redeeming love and to encourage those who need hope. Jesus Christ is my life. Inspiring others to receive His love and then encouraging them to allow His grace to transform their minds is my commitment.
I'm not any more significant than anyone else. Now is also your time to dig in and hunger for more of Christ. Don't put your spiritual life on pause! Don’t allow the enemy to pull you away from intimacy with Him. Speak God's truth to your own faith, and then believe what you have spoken. Commit yourself to “be” His purpose. Through His revealed Word—through prayer and sharing His truth—through encouraging others in their faith, you will know how to stand firm. You will trust Him more than ever when you know who you are in Him. Serving God because He loves you will be something that unceasingly streams from your heart. Service won't just be something you have to do. Service will be Jesus drawing and empowering you to give yourself away.
Learn who you are in Jesus through studying the Word and seeking Him in prayer. Grow through sharing your faith and giving encouragement. He changes you through His finished work on the Cross. When you study the Word, your perspective changes from your perspective into God's perspective. You become transformed from a "me" mentality to an "others" mentality. Service is then an outflow of His life-changing grace. You “do” because He first loved you, and that truth has filled you with His overpowering love for others.
I miss my church family and being a part of their fellowship. If you are physically unable like I am right now or unable to be in church because you are high-risk for this virus, God will send people for you to love. If you can attend your church, realize the treasure He has given you! Be hungry for Him! Go and share His love! Allow your faith to encourage others, and their faith to inspire you.
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near" (Hebrews 10:23-25, NLT).
Jesus washed your feet. Serving in His love speaks life.
©2020 Lynn Lacher
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