 I’ve been listening to how people describe themselves. I’m noticing how I describe myself too. In different contexts this week, I’ve been grateful and exhausted, nervous, excited, fearful, irritated, and hopeful. I haven’t once described myself as confident.
Maybe that’s because I’m a woman who isn’t supposed to be. Or maybe, as a Christian, I don’t want to sound arrogant. Or maybe it’s because I’m an ethnic minority, an immigrant, or just insecure. Or perhaps it has something to do with my faith. There is a boldness to the Christian walk and boasting in our faith. A confident assurance that’ll have us selling all we own (Matthew 13:44), ditching lucrative careers (Mark 2:14), and knowing the impossible is possible with God (Luke 1:37). Are you a biblical boaster? We should be. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken! (Jeremiah 9:24) The prophet is writing, but it’s God speaking. Don’t boast in your wisdom, wise man. And you mighty man, don’t boast in your strength. Rich man—don’t you dare boast of your wealth. Boasting is good; only when you boast of me that you understand and know who I Am. And who am I? I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. But you might say, boast has such an ugly connotation in the English language. It means praising oneself extravagantly in speech and speaking of oneself with excessive pride. Yes, it’s icky if you or I boast in ourselves, but is there any language on the planet, any words in any language adequate to express the wonder and mysteries of our God? Not only do our lips struggle to boast of God, but language itself buckles under the glorious weight of his name. But God still wants us to give it a try. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none besides me. ‘Only in Yahweh,’ one shall say to me, ‘are righteousness and strength.’ In Yahweh, all the offspring of Israel shall be in the right, and they shall boast.” (Isaiah 45:22, 24-25) I went to Psalm 27 for the ending—because I wanted to remind myself that I would see the goodness of the Lord in my life—but I stopped at the beginning because David said the words I couldn’t. Yet, I will be confident. (Psalm 27:3) Boasting and confidence are linked. Intimacy with God is the basis for our biblical boast. But we can’t boast about a God we don’t know. So boasting is also linked to faith and, ultimately, the regenerating work of God’s Spirit, who calls us to an awareness of glory. Before we can boast in the Lord, we must know him. Know him. Not know of him or cool facts about him, but actually know him. And as we grow in this holy relationship, our boasting will increase. We’ll hear it in our prayers and see it reflected in our lives. This is how I determined my lack of confidence in the Lord isn’t mainly due to my baggage but a lack of faith. When I know who he is, my mouth will open in praise. Intimacy with God makes me brave. Confidence in Action It’s the David of Goliath fame who’s writing Psalm 27. He’s past his glory days as a child giant-slayer and has been slain a few times by his sin. Testing and affliction have come to him as fire to burn away arrogance and confidence in personal wisdom, might, and wealth. And so, he takes ink to scroll and boasts in the LORD. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1) Who are these adversaries that don’t frighten King David because the LORD is his light and salvation? They are flesh-eating evildoers (27:2). An enemy army encamped around him, set on bringing trouble (27:3, 5). David isn’t using hyperbole or speaking romantically. He’s acknowledging real evil. Armies determined to bring war and death have surrounded him. The predator is waiting, planning. In David’s day, this spoke of enemy nations of the earth and demonic antagonists working behind the scenes. Evil is physical and spiritual. For David, a time of trouble was a time to boast in the LORD. According to the New Bible Commentary, this psalm shows faith is sufficient when enemies become armies and enmity, open warfare. That’s faith! But to boast like that about God, we’ve got to take the time to know him deeply. With the grace extended to us from on high, we’ve got to do the soul work. We’ve got to get in the Word and let the Word get in us. We’ve got to listen to the still, small voice of God’s Spirit and walk by faith. We should feel the conviction of personal sin (not merely judging others for theirs) and move to repentance. We need to talk with God and listen to God in prayer. We’ve got to love the world with the love of God. As Christians, we can pray what’s on our hearts but let our prayers move from soggy suitcases of doubt, insecurity, and demands to tactical rucksacks designed to survive the apocalypse. Learn who God is by reading his Word (the Bible) and getting near his people (the Church). Pray big. Pray boldly. Wait. Weep. Lament. Repent. Be silent. But please, stop whining. This world isn’t Disneyland, and prayers aren’t wishes. They are powerful, source-direct words by faith that transport us beyond the confines of earth and into the heavenly throne room of a gracious God. Learn who he is. Accept by faith who you are in him. Boast about that. And you will say, like David, when darkness encircles you, “yet, I will be confident.” Finish Well, Dionne
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 Off we go! Ever had a moment when you need to know if the Bible is true? I don't mean vintage morality, quotable Christian platitudes or even epic doctrine you’ve window-shopped but never tried on. I mean, truth in scripture that’ll bear your weight when you stand on it. A fact of God, that’ll keep you afloat in a deluge of doubt. A new reality that you perceive but can’t quite grasp, yet treasure like a billionaire’s signed check. You don’t have the money yet, but it’s coming, and it’ll change everything. We know we ought to live by faith (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38), but often we don’t. We live by pseudo-faith. Praying for God’s will (that’s actually our own), denying the denying of self (because crosses suck), and putting our trust in whatever power we have access to. Some examples are youth, health, our partner or friends, education, wealth, substances, beauty, good deeds, and distraction. Blah, blah, blah. Human nature is so cliché. I know this is true about you because I know this is true about me. Because the Bible wouldn’t have to repeat this message if it were natural to us. Hebrews 11:6 says it's impossible to please God without faith and I'll add it's impossible to live by faith without holy help. Did Paul Throw Me a Life Preserver, Or Am I Going to Drown? So, I’m having a hard time. My kids (there are seven) are sick, and it feels like I’m at the doctor’s office or urgent care or the ER frequently addressing this. And some kids are up at night (can we abolish the ‘sleeping like a baby’ idiom? Babies don’t sleep all that well.) My little kids NEED ME RIGHT NOW. They are whiny and snotty and need diaper changes. My teenagers need me, too, in big and complex ways. The laundry is piling up. Everyone is STARVING. The dog threw up. The cat got out. The van needs gas. And I’m exhausted. My prayers are smoke signals. My water bottle of faith is down to the dregs. And I need to know, like, really know, if Paul (the author of Romans and much of the New Testament) is telling me God’s truth or Hallmarking me. Keep your sermons and hashtags. Keep your pretty out-of-context scripture verses and your Pollyanna interpretations of purpose. I’m not looking for cute Christianity, rainbows or unicorns, a palm tree on a beach or even a shoulder to cry on. I need power. I need hope. Paul writes: And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of eternal salvation]. Such hope [in God’s promises] never disappoints us, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3-5, Amplified) Paul, Are You Telling the Truth? Right before this, he writes that I’ve been justified by faith and have peace with God through Christ. In addition to peace with God, which is incredible, I also have access by faith to grace. Faith --->Peace with God Faith ---> Access to grace Pseudo-faith gives false security and a random seat in the nosebleed section. Real faith sweeps you through the crowd and into the throne room of grace. Grace. Charis. It means joy, pleasure, and delight. Another helping of the Helper, my helper, the Holy Spirit who pours God’s creating, sustaining, transforming love into my heart. There’s the billionaire’s signed check. The eternal promise. And faith is the bank, where the words become wealth. Not only do I have peace with God and access to grace by faith, but Paul says this peace and access, which ultimately leads to an invincible hope, should cause me to rejoice and exult EVEN IN my trials. For real, though? Am I supposed to rejoice over the mommy slog of my life? Am I to exult in diaper changes and diagnoses and fatigue and mismatched socks? Exult is a verb, from Latin’s exsultare. It means to “leap up.” Rejoice is Old French, rejoiss. It means to experience joy with force (that’s what the prefix ‘re’ means.) How am I supposed to leap up and have forceful joy in this enduring situation? Clearly, Paul didn’t have seven kids! But he was beaten frequently. Shipwrecked, hungry. Lonely, imprisoned. He was called names and delivered in chains. And when he wasn’t sleeping on a cold stone floor behind bars, he didn’t have a spouse and seven children to return to. Lord, forgive me for complaining, and thank you for sustaining. This family, this life, is life. And I can do all things through you. I've Got the Power Here's the thing. I'm not an apostle like Paul who has had epic visions and whose writing credits include the Bible. I'm not a theologian, scholar, pastor or anything super churchy. I’m a mom. I've got children who are biological, adopted and who have been entrusted to me through foster care. I live on mission. Which is to say, I live with a limp. And that's why I had to sit long with Paul's words. As my grandmother would say, "I needed to be propped up, on my leanin' side." Paul and I do have something in common though: peace with God and access by faith to grace. We've both got the Holy Spirit--all believers do. Salvation is our hope, eternal security is our promise. God showed his love for us by sending his son to die on our behalf, while we were still sinners. How much more peace, access, grace can we expect now that we're justified? Faith is the Key It’s not our trials per se that get us jumping for joy (crosses do suck), but the hope in God, the revelation of Christ, that the trials initiate, that should get us geeked. We rejoice in sufferings, not because they’re cool, but because God is. Our hardships, big and small, ignite the fuse of faith, producing endurance (faithfulness over time) and proven character (integrity, spiritual maturity) that leads to hope. Hope for eternity and hope for today. Because if God has already taken care of the biggest thing, he is faithful to see to the smaller things. This is not an insecure hope, as in, “I hope this works out” or in my case, "I hope Paul's words are true." Oh, no. This is a joyful expectation of eternal salvation. As C. S. Lewis said, "Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in, aim at earth and you get neither." It’s as though heaven's chalice has been dipped into the everlasting, overflowing reservoir of God’s love and poured from beyond the stars into the prepared human heart. A heart prepared for grace, charis, by trouble. No distress, no affliction, no trouble—no infusion of heavenly grace, no endurance, no proven character. No hope. No hope! So, at least from Romans 5, an ingredient of temporal and eternal hope is some form of affliction, trouble, or distress. And here I am, thinking my enduring challenges mean God is distant. Instead, it’s actual proof that he’s right here with me. The believers’ hardships are proof of God’s closeness, not his distance. That makes me smile big and jump a little. Finish Well, Dionne  My daughter, leaping! |
Dionne"Lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles and run with endurance the race set before you. " Archives
June 2023
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