To Be Blessed

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.—Genesis 32:24 NIV

“Bless me, Lord,” we cry. Then, when we discover that our blessing includes a struggle, we complain. We don’t move into our promised land because of the giants to be faced. We back off, and let go right before His bounty flows. Unlike Jacob, we don’t wrestle until dawn to be blessed.  

A blessing is worth nothing without our willingness to grow spiritually. If blessings and promises were readily bestowed with no need on our part to spiritually grow, then they would have little meaning. There would be no need for hope or encouragement. There would be no need for perseverance and commitment—no need to grow in the virtues that foster love and joy and peace and kindness and patience and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

Jacob wrestled with God until daybreak seeking His blessing. When Jacob asked God to bless him, he asked for all that blessing entailed. He knew that what God had to offer was worth whatever came with that promise. “I will not let go until you bless me,” Jacob declared. And with God’s promise came the pain. God wounded Jacob, just as His Son one day would be wounded.

Do you hang on for your promise by loving Him and serving Him no matter what your battle?  He gave His life for you. Are you not willing to die to self a little for Him? You can’t understand the depth of His joy without understanding what Jesus accomplished for you. Hang on for your blessing! Let perseverance finish its work so that you will be mature and not lacking in what you need to stand strong. Don't give up! Seek to know Him. Seek His purpose. Seek His heart. When you have done His will, you will receive what He has promised. And like Jacob, you also will hear, “You have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28 NIV).

©2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/to-be-blessed.html

God Most High—Jesus My Redeemer

There is an Old Testament name of God that speaks of His power to redeem. He is “El Elyon”, my “God Most High Redeemer”. There is also the New Testament name of Jesus Christ, whose surrender at Calvary reveals more than just His power to redeem. His surrender on the cross reveals His absolute willingness to redeem. “I will cry to God Most High,” the psalmist wrote, “who performs on my behalf and rewards me [who brings to pass His purposes for me and surely completes them]” (Psalm 57:2, AMP)! This “God Most High” moves on my behalf, and not only brings about His purpose for my life, but, also, because of His grace completes what He begins in me.

“God Most High” reigns over all the earth in sovereignty and final authority. Because of His majesty, He deserves my highest praise and worship. He deserves my constant love and respect—not just when I need something from Him. He deserves my life and all that I have offered to Him from a grateful heart. I must never assume to put myself in His place, but I often do when I make my own decisions without seeking His wishes. God is the final judge of my heart—the one who has the power to forgive me.

The Old Testament “God Most High” became more than just the judge of my heart when Jesus died on the cross. He became my “up close and personal” Redeemer! Jesus had no sin in His life, yet He willingly took mine. He fulfilled the requirement of the law so I might come without hindrance into His presence. When I come to Him with a repentant heart, He delivers and saves me from all that I have been. He hears my cry, and moves on my behalf. He blesses and rewards me. He is my Redeemer—my Jesus—my Savior, who remains constant and unchanging. My Redeemer yearns for me to honor and worship Him—not for what He can give me or what I believe I deserve, but only because I love Him with all my heart. He has a purpose in the lives of those who honor Him. His desire is for me to know the ultimate fulfillment found in living the purpose He has designed for me.

When my heart is completely surrendered and self is not an issue, I yearn to be in God's will. If I am absolutely yielded to Him, I find His will. When I am renewed in the spirit of my mind and transformed by His power, I discover His pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2). If I yearn for my desire to be His desire, I am completely willing to surrender my personal agenda for His purpose. I am willing to wait as long as necessary for His will or His promise to come into being. I am willing to believe in that promise even if that promise doesn't come into sight (Hebrews 11:6). Do I get so focused on what I believe God's promise is for my life, that I miss the truth that the spiritual growth I receive in seeking Him is actually His will for me right now? When I am transformed into the person He wishes for me to become, I am in His will.

Is this the year I will surrender? Allow Him to prune self for greater growth and purpose?  To understand that the God who has the power to redeem, has redeemed me on Calvary? The Lord will change in me only what I allow. I want to honor my “Most High Redeemer” and allow Him to bring about His purpose in my life.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/god-most-highjesus-my-redeemer.html

Surrender to His Strength

I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

—Philippians 4:13 (NLT)

When Paul wrote these words, he did not just mean that he could forge ahead in everything he wanted to do and then rely on the Lord to bestow strength. It sounds that way, but if you look a little deeper you see something more. Paul meant that for everything he was directed to do by the Lord, he could rely on the Holy Spirit to supply strength. The Lord's strength is discovered in surrender of our own wills to His—of our desires to His—of the things on our lists to get done.  It is found in allowing our weaknesses to be used for His purposes.

The work of the Holy Spirit has been hindered by our own work. Self-driven work finally wears us thin, and we burn out. Self has driven out the Spirit, and the strength that is offered. The Holy Spirit should not only be our direction, but our strength. We are to yield to Him, and wait for the strength He supplies. Like a tiger waiting to burst upon its prey, our spiritual muscles should be tightly coiled ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. We lie still in expectant rest until He calls us forth in His strength. We surrender to His strength.

What does it mean to be still and know that He is God? Those that wait upon the Lord shall not only renew their strength, they shall mount up as eagles. The Lord shall be the wind beneath their wings winging them to new heights. That wind is constant, never wavering of faltering. It is as sure as He is the cornerstone, our foundation. It supports all that we are, and in every way supplies strength for His calling, for our needs, for every moment, every concern. That strength is the beat of our hearts, and we cannot exist without it.

When we become tired and fear attempts to claim our hearts, we focus on the Lord and wait for the His guidance and direction until His strength has become our own. Our time of expectant rest should be one where His strength is renewed. We never seek to work for Him, but only with Him. Discovering that constant wind of His Spirit, we shall be carried to new heights in His strength. If we live with Him and abide in Him, He will open doors for His own purpose in our lives. We will know that in our own weakness, He is strong—that we can do nothing without Him.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/in-his-strength.html

Be Still Until He Says Move

Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still!

—Exodus 14:13a, 14 (NIV)

With the Red Sea in front of him and the Egyptians advancing from behind, Moses stood with the Israelites at the very edge of what appeared sure destruction. He had followed the Lord, and now there seemed to be no hope. There was no visible escape. There was nothing but his faith in the Lord who had brought him to this place. 

Have you also been brought to the place where your faith in God is all you have left—where you know there is nothing you can do but wait on Him to deliver you?  It is the place where you realize your own resources are nothing—where you are caught between drowning in the sea before you and dying from circumstances which have forced you there.

Don’t strive to find a way of escape. You only bring more despair. You can’t deliver yourself. You can’t save yourself from your dilemma. Don’t be consumed with fear. It only rips peace from your heart. You are in a place where you must trust God and love Him with all your heart, mind, and strength. You can only allow the Lord to guide you and deliver you.

Be still and stand firm waiting upon His guidance. Your circumstances advancing from behind are not the end. The Red Sea before you is not the end. But you have come to the end of yourself, and this is where you find Him to direct and guide you. What you see advancing from behind you shall never be seen again. He shall fight for you. So when He stretches forth His hand to make a way through the impossibility of that Red Sea before you, then it is the time to trust Him and move. It is time to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV).

Allow Him to guide you through the sea He has divided in front of you. If you follow Him, your path will always take you straight through the Red Seas of your life.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/be-still-until-he-says-move.html

Lone Willow

For I will pour out water to quench your thirst
    and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
    and my blessing on your children.
They will thrive like watered grass,
    like willows on a riverbank.

Isaiah 44:3-4 (NLT)

Mother’s Day has gone again for another year. My heart was full, yet breaking. My mind had peace, yet missing her. Father’s Day will also soon come. I miss him each day, but I am so very thankful they are together in heaven. How do I explain that I have seen them?  Words are so limiting, aren’t they, when you try to describe the divine in earthly terms? But a picture has been fulfilled in my heart. There at the edge of a green field, the air permeated with the fresh tendrils of new spring growth, a lone willow blows in a gentle wind beside a bubbling stream. Just up from it, a slight rise beckons the two who sit side-by-side holding hands. Her face is soft and young and free of the pain she once suffered. Her gaze rests upon his hand holding hers. His gaze rests upon hers. And there is his smile that I’ve remembered from the years I had with him.

I know this image in my mind is inspired by Lone Willow Farm in Indiana. My father’s home in his youth. The farm in my vision isn’t quite the same as I remember it. That stream would not be just beside the tree. Always a busy working farm, it now looks at ease. Parched fields are no more. What has been thirsty is now quenched. 

“Oh, my sweet parents, that I have loved, you have been loved so much more by Him!  I may miss you terribly, but you left a legacy—His message for those you have loved. The lives of pain you lived on earth, now free in heaven, were never in vain. He has promised that He will pour out His Spirit on your descendants—His blessing on your children!  They shall be ‘like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season’ (Psalm 1:3a NLT). Just as willows along a riverbank, your descendant will flourish. They shall be watered by His Spirt, and thrive in His love you once lived.”

That willow tree had to be cut down on Lone Willow Farm years ago. It gave out just like my parents. But it thrives and lives again just like them. It beckons in my vision with promise. What believed ended, now lives on. What believed lost, is now found. Hope is vibrant assurance. It brings great life to your faith, and encourages you in what can’t be seen. “No eye has seen,” Paul wrote, “no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthian 2:9, NLT). There is more here on earth and more in heaven than you can ever imagine.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/lone-willow.html

Become Less

Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.

—1 Peter 5:6 (NLT)

Humility is the state of a heart that has surrendered. Place yourself in God’s hand. Give up any rights you feel are yours. He wishes to exalt you above whatever you have imagined, but you don’t achieve honor by feigning humility. Become less so He can be more.

Dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

—1 Peter 5:5 (NLT)

Become less so another person might become more. Put on humility until it becomes a state of your heart. Dress yourself in humility for your relationships to thrive. God opposes a prideful spirit that insists on his or her right. He gives grace when you have nothing to prove. You are free to lay down your life because He laid His life for you.

Instead be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

—Ephesians 4:32 (NLT) 

Two need to share their feelings; two need to lay down their preconceptions; two need to be willing to listen. A relationship is only worth how much two people work at it. If it lies dormant, that relationship will die. Open, honest, and even painful at times, that relationship can thrive. But there is something that only requires one person to do. One person must first be willing to become less.

For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.

—Psalm 149:4 (NLT).

You are ready for His greatest freedom when you are willing to lay down all He has imparted—all you know He has given—and allow Him to wash your feet. Stripped of all that stands in the way of His Hand upon you, you are unhindered by need or perception or anything at all. He, who need not become less for you, now has. You are His, and you realize that He has brought you to a place of victory that you never imagined. At His feet you learn what it means to be crowned with victory because He was willing to humble himself for you. You know love full of glory that no word can describe because He gave His life for you.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/become-less.html

Five Loaves

Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

—Matthew 16:9 (NIV)

How soon we forget what the Lord has done!  When our minds are fleeting, we don’t remember. We become bogged down with what we consider priorities, and we allow fear of the unknown to clog our thoughts. Have we forgotten how he fed us when there was nothing? Have we forgotten His plenty when all appeared scarce?

To be filled we must be emptied of self. We can’t be filled if we aren’t starving for Him. If we aren’t hungry, our baskets will remain empty. “He has filled the hungry with good things,” Luke writes, “but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:53, NIV). Are we too rich in our own merit—our own goodness— that we just expect to be filled without emptying ourselves of our own resources?

We need to get this! This is truth for His child. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6, NIV)! We can’t fill ourselves with His honesty and virtue. Only He makes us righteous. We have been made “right” only by the gift of His life for our sin. If we empty "self" and seek Him, we shall find Him. We can stand on His Word. We can KNOW that He has five loaves in that basket that appears so empty.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/five-loaves.html

Your Gift for His Purpose

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

—1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NLT)

                                                            

You have been given certain spiritual gifts by God. These are gifts that the Lord has chosen for you to help build and edify believers. Whatever spiritual gifts God has chosen for you, use each one for the benefit of the body of Christ. When using your spiritual gifts properly and in the way that the Holy Spirit desires, believers are encouraged, trained in righteousness, unified in purpose, and receive a passion to share the Good News.

Whatever gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon you, allow Him to use them in your life. Don't neglect them (1 Timothy 4:14a). Only use them under His divine direction for His purpose. If they are not exercised in His power and in His anointing they will remain fruitless. No one will be edified. His purpose will not be served, and in fact, spiritual damage may be the result. You and I are absolutely accountable for the gifts He has given to us. What we do with each gift and how we use each gift reveals if God's desires are fulfilled or not. If you in humility surrender each gift to His hand, He will use each gift in your life to bring about His purpose. Through each gift, appropriately exercised in His power, lives will change. Believers will seek Him; prayer will become a way of life; the Word will bring life to dry bones, and the church will rise to become His instrument of power for greater service.

Your gifts are just that—gifts. He has chosen wisely for you. He knows you intimately, but for you to know and exercise the gifts that He has chosen, you must know Him intimately. You seek Him, and not the gift. You do not choose your gift. He chooses, and bestows as He wishes. He knows which gifts are the best for you. Love Him only. Open your heart to receive, and use what He pours into you. Don't ever neglect what He has chosen for your greatest potential. When you have experienced what He can accomplish through your surrendered life, you yearn to be consumed by all of Him. You cry out in complete surrender, just as Peter did, “Lord, wash all of me!”

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Fire Me for Joy

Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.

—Psalm 143:8 (NLT)

No matter what I face each day, Lord, the first thing I long to experience is your unfailing love for me each morning. The first thing I want to hear each morning is you, Lord, speaking above the troubling call of my day—encouraging beyond the worry that attempts to claim me. I hush the call of fear rising in my mind. This is my time with you and not with the voice of defeat that speaks before my day has even begun. I silence it for I am trusting you. I have chosen you, and I have placed my faith in you. Nothing can happen this day that you have not allowed for your greatest purpose in my life. Lord, if my attitude is one of expectancy that I shall learn greater character this day, then I shall find in what comes, a joy that has been fired to be lasting and strong.

“These trials will show that your faith is genuine,” Peter writes. “It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7, NLT).

“When troubles of any kind come your way,” James also imparts, “consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (James 1:2-4, NLT).

No matter what happens today, Lord, I wish for this day to prove my faith is genuine and my joy is overflowing. I look to you to show me where to walk. I give myself to you for your purpose. Fire me for joy. Perfect in me your best.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2018/05/fire-me-for-joy.html

But...

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

—1 John 1:9 (NIV)

“I’ll never make myself good enough,” I declare.

“Of course, you won’t,” He says. “You are only good enough because I loved you enough to die for you. You are good in my eyes. I only see you clean and whole. So why do you strive so hard to win the love that I have already given you on the cross?”

“But…” I try once more.

“There are no ‘buts’ in my kingdom. I only see you through my unconditional love and grace. I’ve forgiven you. Forgive yourself. Quit trying so hard. Learn who I am. Read my Word. Make good choices for your life, and allow my grace to accomplish in you what only I can accomplish.”

“You make it sound so easy, but…”

“There is that ‘but’ again. Surrender is only hard when you refuse to let me have control.”

I leave ‘but” unspoken. However He knows it is there.

“You continually confess and ask for my forgiveness, and don’t get the fact that I forgave you once and for all on Calvary. I purify and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Because you have asked for my forgiveness, you are pure and whole. It is the only way I see you. My heart is for you to see yourself through the love I have for you.”

I’m listening now.

“Just catch a glimpse of my love for you—the way I see you, and you will begin to see yourself as I see you.”

Would a glimpse be enough?  He looked down from the cross and glimpsed my heart. His last breath secured my forgiveness. No “buts” on Calvary. It was finished. Yes, His grace is sufficient. I choose to surrender. And I glimpse His overwhelming love for me. It is enough.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com