Souljourn

Prayerful parental expectations

Our two oldest children - Mercedes & Emerson - will be returning from a youth missions trip to Mexico on Wednesday.  Sometime quite early on Tuesday morning they are going to climb into a van and begin a 30 hour ride back home.  Although they will have been gone for almost two weeks, I anticipate that within two days our household patterns and rhythms will return back to normal (I think the volume level will be back to normal within a matter of minutes).  I looking forward to their return and our family falling back into familiar patterns.  I've missed them, and it has definitely been different not having them in the house.

But while I'm looking forward to the quick return to familiar family rhythms after their arrival, I am praying that in some ways life will never be the same again for them, and us.  I know that during their time down in Mexico they were involved in ministry and activities that served to strengthen the good work that was already in place (thank you Joel & Sally!).  Their efforts will definitely bear fruit because of the ministry that went on prior to their arrival, and the ministry that will go on long after they have returned home.  And as the pastor of a local church that sends out people and teams on missions this is extremely important to me.  But as a parent, I must honestly admit that the focus of my prayers is what will have transpired in the hearts of my own children.

Here are some of the areas I have been praying that my kids will experience growth in:

• an enlarged worldview and love for the local church in it's different expressions
• an increased faith as they have seen God provide for them, protect them, and minister through them
• an increased clarity and passion to pursue God's great calling on their lives
• an enlarged sense of adventure and willingness to simply 'go for it'
• a heightened awareness of God's goodness and His pleasure over their lives
• a more intimate devotional and prayer life
• placing a demand on the anointing of Holy Spirit in their lives and the gifts He has made available to them

It is going to be good to have them home!

I am a slow learner

For the last week my sleep patterns have been oddly interrupted.  I have been unexplainably waking up around 4:00 am, feeling very tired and forced to spend the next while trying to get back to sleep (it seems the harder you try the less success you have).  Eventually I would fall back to sleep until my alarm would rouse me from what seemed a far too short night.  

My first thought with these early morning interruptions was that I had consumed too much caffeine the day before.  I'm 40 now and I can no longer have a caffeinated beverage after early afternoon.  When I do it results in sporadic interruptions through the night.  This was where I first turned my sleuthful gaze but I quickly confirmed that this was not the cause of my interruption.

In my devotions on Wednesday I read in Isaiah 50:4 - Morning by morning He awakens me and opens my understanding to His will... and I wrote about it in my journal and spent some time praying about how great it is to have a God who interacts with us daily.  Even as I did this I never connected this verse to my early morning interruptions. (it does make me wonder what other glaringly obvious things I'm missing)

Well this morning the penny dropped.  Sadly not at 4:00 am when I again woke up, but in the 'thin space' that seems so close to God when you are between snooze button hits.  

I'm sure glad God is patient with this slow learner.  If I wake up tomorrow morning I'm getting up.

Devotional thoughts - Partnership

I'm reading through Isaiah in my devotions right now and this morning I came across a great description of the partnership God wants with me .

Isaiah 50:4,7 - Morning by morning He awakens me and opens my understanding to His will...therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do His will.  And I know I will not be put to shame.

The first thing I saw in these verses was that God is not interested in silent partnerships.  He is not interested in either one of us taking a back seat or being a casual observer.  He wants a daily interaction with us.  Not just putting in time, but an interaction that results in our understanding of God and His will being enlarged. And it is clear to me from these verses that God makes Himself available for this daily interaction.

As God does this, my  response is to be one of determined action.  I  must act on what God speaks to me. (Isaiah 43:20 speaking about Israel's sin says, '...you see and recognize what is right but refuse to act on it.  You hear with your ears but you don't really listen.') 

My part of the partnership is to respond in obedience to what God has revealed to me.  And as I do this, I can have the confidence that it will work (...I will not be put to shame...).

Just some thoughts.  Have a great day.