My Easter Promise

We died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. —Romans 6:4 (NLT)

I am free, Lord, because you cared more about me than you cared about yourself. You died for me—for my ugliness and my sin. I am new Lord, because you walked out of your tomb resurrected and restored. Freed from all the bondage of my failures, I can also can walk out of my own tomb, resurrected and restored from all that has claimed my life. No more hiding because of my failures and sins and weaknesses—I leave the old me in the tomb. That person is no more. She is gone. I rejoice in your freedom. I soar in your healing. I bask in your love that knew no limits. Once, your love was something I could never grasp, but now it pulses within each beat of my heart. You are now all which was once beyond me. Your Easter promise now lives within me.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

The Same Power

The same power that rose Jesus from the grave
The same power that commands the dead to wake
Lives in us, lives in us. —Jeremy Camp

We sing this chorus in church, but do we really grasp its truth? We sing of the power of God that rose Jesus from the grave, but do we really understand its message? If He is Lord of our lives, the same power that lived in Jesus lives in us.

In the upper room the night before His crucifixion, Jesus comforts the disciples over His coming departure. He tells them that they should not be troubled. He is leaving to make a place for them in heaven. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by accepting Him.

“If you really know me,” Jesus declares, “you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:7, NIV). Philip, like many of us, can’t grasp what Jesus imparts, and demands, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8, NIV).

Can you imagine Jesus’ sadness that Philip hasn’t realized what has been right before him? “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’” (John 14:9, NIV)?

“Believe me,” Jesus says, “when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:11-13, NIV).

We are so like Philip and just don’t get it. He is with us, but we don’t see. He is the evidence, but we don’t believe. Do we believe that He truly rose? Do we believe that by dying for us and taking our sins to the cross we are forgiven? Or do we live defeated lives not living in the same power that rose Jesus from the grave? Why do we not live the miracle of our faith? Why are we not on fire with His message of grace and forgiveness and love and power?

Today is Good Friday. In three days we celebrate His Resurrection. Do you grasp this? The same power that rose Jesus from the grave now gives you life. Rise up, Philip, and believe. “You may ask me for anything in my name,” Jesus imparts, “and I will do it” (John 14:4, NIV).

“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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV).

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Request

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, 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. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

I don’t have to beg God to hear the cry of my heart. I present my request to Him, believing and trusting that no matter what I lay before Him, He will answer. I know His answer is always best. But I know more than that. He will take care of anything that I release to Him. Just knowing that makes my heart thankful and peaceful. I don't have to be anxious because He is God. He loves me.

God already has provision for whatever need I lay on His altar. All I must do is ask with whatever faith I can supply, and He will supply beyond anything my limited mind can imagine. His supply takes my little mustard seed of faith, and brings a great harvest. He hears my prayer; He carries my burden, and He supplies my need. I’m assured of His never-changing love and provision for me.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God,” John wrote. “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14, 15, NIV).

With this truth in mind “let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, NIV).

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Need

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.  —James 4:14 (NLT)

Life is like a mist. It is here at one moment and then gone the next. But while we are here on earth, we rush and plan and maneuver and control and try to fix everything until life exhausts us. Instead of enjoying the gift of life He has given, we clutter our lives with so many plans that we lose sight of a great truth that has the power to release us from our own expectations. “We can make our plans,” Proverbs states, “but the Lord determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NLT). This explains our frustration. When we don’t allow Him to be in charge, we go astray. When life doesn’t go as we plan, frustration with all its baggage of envy and selfishness and impatience rules our hearts.

While I walked the dogs early this morning, I thought of all I needed to do within the next few weeks. I needed to do this, and I needed to do that. I needed to make lists. I needed to make progress. I needed.  I needed. Frustration quickly grew, and then I heard Him break through the stress of the moment. “I need you,” He whispered. “Don’t you need me? Look up.”

The eastern sky beckoned. Balanced on the edge of the horizon, the sun rose above the flaming clouds to calm my heart and settle my mind. “Allow me,” He whispered. “I will direct your steps.” His peace enveloped me. He was in control. There was nothing I had to fix—nothing I had to do.

Pippin strained on the leash wanting to forge ahead. Lacey lagged behind wanting to smell the grass. And I stood absolutely still. There was only the eastern sky. There was only His heart claiming me and setting me free to bask in His presence.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Smaller Purposes

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

—Romans 12:2 (NIV)

You love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. You live a surrendered and obedient life—one that seeks to please and honor the Lord. You seek Him every day through prayer and the Word. You seek His intimacy because, without Him, you are lost. You pray for others because if you don’t, you will fail Him. You are available when He needs you, and you reach out to those who need help. He gives you what to say when you need the words, and He is able to direct your steps. You constantly seek to be closer to Him and to be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. You belong to Him, yet in your mind, you are struggling to discover His great purpose for your life.

You have longed for a great purpose in your life that brings passion to your soul. You have cried out to God to know His perfect will. You know that if you are in His will, you shall be fulfilled. You have struggled to discover it. In your seeking, perhaps you have missed the fact that smaller purposes can make up a greater one. Perhaps smaller opportunities that God has sent your way have been overlooked in the search for that one great purpose. With that overlooked opportunity, you have missed the passion and fulfillment you have sought.

Being renewed in your mind means being changed in the way you think. Think differently about the little things that you do each day for Him. Don’t believe that you have failed Him because you haven’t perceived a great purpose. Live each day with expectancy that you shall be used by God. Ask Him for opportunities, and you shall receive. Discover the purpose of your day: to bring Him glory. Make yourself available with a joyful spirit. Discover your passion in what has been given for you to do now. With a yielded heart of surrender and a mind to receive the direction of His Spirit, you can test and approve each opportunity that a day presents. Set your hand to the plow for the day and plow your purpose. You can “commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3 NIV). You shall be in His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Remember that God does not consider any service small. If you seek and serve Him faithfully in what you consider the small things, you will one day learn just how big they really are. You shall know that you have found the great, passionate, and perfect will of God for your life.

Form Me, Fire Me, Fill Me

© 2017 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Aunt Leona

Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

—Colossians 1:9 (NLT)

Aunt Leona, my grandfather’s sister was important in my life. Although I learned about God at home and in church, it was my great Aunt Leona that instilled in me a desire to really learn how to pray. It wasn't that my grandfather, Big Tom, or my grandmother, Gigi, didn’t talk to me about God. It wasn’t that my parents never shared Christ with me. They all did. Big Tom wrote songs and sang about it. Gigi had a spirit of giving. She probably gave me too many things. Daddy had a gentle spirit that with one look could reduce me to repentance. Mother read Bible stories and kept me in line by sending me to get my own stick when I needed to be punished. Each one was necessary. But Aunt Leona taught me something that has changed my life. She taught me about prayer.

 Aunt Leona kept me when I was two and three. Often each day would begin in the kitchen. She would place a huge pink crockery bowl in front of me on the table, fill it with hot water and Ivory Liquid. I'd stand in a chair. She'd hand me the egg beater, and I would turn and turn that handle until fluffy white froth poured over the edge of the bowl and streamed down on to the vinyl covered table. Laughing, she'd pick me up and hug me so tight. In the afternoon, just after lunch, she'd settle me down to rest, excuse herself to the front bedroom, and commence praying. How Aunt Leona prayed! I thought the ceiling might crash in! She cried; she sang; she rejoiced! When finished, she returned from her bedroom, face all aglow.

Her radiant face is what emerges in my mind. The joy in her eyes, although red and slightly swollen, revealed the fervency of her time in prayer. Hair tousled, apron askew, she'd smooth out the wrinkles, and I would crawl up on her lap for a Bible story. I heard about what she called "men of faith". At such as young age, I didn't really know what that meant or who they were, but her voice was soft and peaceful. It drew me into a safe cocoon. I began to desire the peace of that cocoon. I knew my Aunt Leona always brought it to me after her prayer times. As I got older I realized that I could bring it into my own life. 

Through the years I know that many have prayed for me. But I also know now that those times my Aunt Leona prayed, she was not only praying for things beyond my grasp. She was praying for me—a little girl— to one day be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all the wisdom and understanding that He gives. She never stopped praying. Each time I hear the Holy Spirit and understand what He imparts, I know it is because my Aunt Leona cared enough to pray for me.

Who are you praying for? Don’t ever stop. God hears every prayer. They soar through the years, bringing about His purpose in the life of someone God has placed on your heart. They are never forgotten, but held by His love, to one day bring about His purpose in the life you have brought before Him. Perhaps, one day, I shall be an Aunt Leona, and others will find their purpose and their worth in the miracle of His grace. But that will never be realized if I don’t bring Him my prayers now.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

In Whatever Season

The friend I quote in this devotion is Andrea Higgins. Thursday she was married. Today is Thelma Copeland’s wedding day.  May the Lord rain His blessings on this new season of marriage in both their lives!

In Whatever Season

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

—Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 (KJV)

Life always presents a new season. One moment, you are in pain, and the next, you rejoice. One moment, you develop something new, and the next, it is gone. Whatever season of your life you are in, there is a purpose in it. Sometimes when you are going through a time that is hard, it is difficult to see yourself in a better season of life. Try to seek His purpose in whatever season of life you experience rather than pushing hurriedly through to the next. When you push and try to rush through that season too quickly, you miss what the Lord wishes to accomplish in your life. Each season the Lord imparts is given for His reason. The incredible value of the lessons learned can give greater faith to make it through all the difficult seasons of life. They can also give the greatest fulfillment in the seasons that bring abundant joy.

A friend of mine told me recently that she recognized a pattern in the way the Lord gives her scripture. Every other day or so, He gives her a harsh word—not to condemn her but to warn her to be cautious and to understand that things she faces, like trials or hardships, are all for a purpose. She smiled and said, “When He takes me to a scripture like that, the next day, He gives me a scripture on praise or love. No matter what happens, He wants our praise—and He still loves us!” She has grown to understand that life’s changing seasons will always present a new challenge. God is faithful through each one. He loves. He teaches. He corrects. He empowers. He imparts wisdom. He guides, and He brings you into the next season with more faith than you experienced in the last.

Praise Him no matter what season you are in. Learn what He wishes to impart. Rejoice in the lesson to be learned. It is just what you need. Apply it to your life. Allow God to take you where He wishes. Allow Him to mold your heart. The pain you may feel now will definitely be part of your joy later. Also, the joy you may feel now will carry you through any difficult season that lies ahead. Wherever you are, He is with you, guiding you from one season to the next. Give Him your hand. Trust the One who gave you this life to carry you safely and joyfully through it.

Form Me, Fire Me, Fill Me

© 2017 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Goodbye Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. 

—Numbers 6:24-26 (NKJV)

I remember your smile when I came in the door. It would start at the corner of your mouth and work its way up to your eyes lighting up your whole face. Your blue eyes would twinkle, and my heart would sing. Has it only been two months since you left?  It seems like forever since I’ve seen your smile. Now it spreads through my mind illuminating my thoughts. Unexpectedly I remember the benediction you would often sing when you were preparing to work on your choir music.

Your voice floods my mind. “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine upon you.” The New Living Translation reads, “May the Lord smile on you.” Just as you once smiled, your smile has now melded into His. My heart catches with the memory of your voice dropping to sing, “And give you peace.” This morning His peace is your benediction to me. Your goodbye blessing. But it will not always be goodbye. One day it will also be…hello.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

My Altar Waits

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

—Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)

Through any distress and loss that you face, I am with you. The waters will not rise above the strength that only I bring forth in your life. Oppression will only strengthen and refine you. When you advance through the rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. I will be your haven—your safe harbor. Whatever your sorrow or pain, it will not last forever. Whatever your heartbreak or despair, it will be over one day. You will not be burned up. You will be refined as gold.

At my altar, you discover my peace. My peace comes when you repair the altar that has been waiting far too long. Oh child, it has been broken in stages! Have you believed you had more pressing needs than spending time with me?  Have you placed me last so often that now I seem too far beyond your reach? My altar is a place of sacrifice and obedience. It waits for you. It calls you. Oh, if only you had fallen upon my altar each day! It would not have taken this moment of crisis for you to realize your fragile state and that peace could be so elusive. But here you are, and in this moment, you realize you need me.

My altar always waits for you. It has never grown tired of your absence. The promise of my love and peace is still just as real. Fall upon your knees in absolute surrender. The anguish you know right now will soon anticipate my promise of peace. Come to me, and grasp my promise that “weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b NLT).

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com

Praise

Tucked within the folds of the last chapter of Hebrews is a thorny, but powerful verse. “Through Jesus,” the writer imparts, “let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-—the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Hebrews 13:15, NIV).  It is thorny because it pricks us to surrender, and it is powerful because, when accomplished, greater faith is the product.

Praise comes easily when we have reached the top of the mountain. It is a different when the valley holds us captive. However, the command is still very clear. We are to praise God in the valley. How you respond in the valley speaks volumes about your relationship with the Lord. You don’t have to be a Christian giant in order to praise God when you’re in pain. Just your willingness to surrender speaks your heart’s condition. If you really read this verse you will discover that the actual way to achieve its instruction is revealed within the treasure of its wording.

Let’s look at what we are actually instructed to do. Offer God a sacrifice of praise. Your praise is to be an offering. An offering is a gift. It is not just offered as something that is expected, but as something that is given out of love.  If you truly have experienced the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, you love Him deeply, and long to return His love. A sacrifice of praise carries you forward from your initial salvation experience and teaches the sanctifying selfless love of Christ. “We also rejoice in our sufferings,” Paul writes in Romans, “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4, NIV). We are instructed to offer a sacrifice of praise because we have the ability to grow spiritually from our suffering. From our growth, we learn hope. This is the kind of hope that fuels our faith.

We are also told in Hebrews that this sacrifice of praise shall be spoken. Praise cannot rest silently within our hearts. Unless it is spoken, it has no power to change us. When declared, praise shall truly be the fruit of our lips that confess His name. In Psalm 22, King David writes of his fear. “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me” (Psalm 22:14, NIV). Later in the same chapter, David writes of the power discovered in voicing praise to God. “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. You, who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows” (Psalm 22:22-25, NIV).

Within Psalm 22:25 we are able to understand how David achieved his sacrifice of praise. His praise came from the Lord, and from a personal commitment to fulfill his vow. This statement reveals the way in which the command of Hebrews 13:15 may be attained. The Lord has His part, and we have ours. The Lord has faithfully rendered His part through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. Our ability to praise the Lord in times of suffering is the Lord’s gift to us. Our part is to render the gift back to Him, and that can only come from a personal commitment to fulfill our vow. It was only through God that David could offer praise, and it is only through Jesus that we are also able to speak of God’s faithfulness. When praise is spoken, greater faith becomes our reality. When we praise God continually in the midst of pain or discouragement or loneliness or failure or sadness, we are changed by the power He imparts through a sacrifice of praise.

Do you praise God in the valley?  If not, the direction in Hebrews 13:15 is obvious.  All it takes is your recognition of His gift to you, and a willing heart to offer a sacrifice of praise.  Faith is your reward, and your promise of things not seen.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com