I Haven't Had My Jesus Today...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love my coffee.  People often ask me how I handle all the challenges of being a momma to 7 kids and I always answer, "Coffee!"  I have even considered asking my doctor if there was a way we could start an IV drip of the delicious energy giving drink sometime around 4 am daily.  The only thing that has stopped me from asking is that I could not taste the coffee if it was given intravenously. 

A few summers ago my family and I spent a week camping.  Yes, it was the hottest week of the entire summer. Yes we were TENT camping, and yes we had tornado like winds that nearly carried all of our belongs away.  It was, after all, a Graham vacation!  

When we first arrived it was just the girls and I. We set up camp in the last twinkling minutes of daylight and just did the minimum.  The next morning came, way too early, and we ate a quick breakfast and set out enjoying all the nature around us.  Shortly before lunch time, one of my children looked at me and said, "Mom, you haven't had your coffee yet today have you?" 

Now I am not sure what made him think this, (I was my normal jovial self I am sure) but it must have been bad because he offered to go buy me a cup from the camp store with his own money!  

            I was thinking about this memory lately and it struck me, my kids, and probably others can tell when I haven't had my coffee, but can they tell when I haven't had my Jesus?  I have recently taken up the challenge by my friend and Speaker, Rhea Briscoe.  Her challenge comes out of the passage in Isaiah 50:4-5,

"The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.  He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.  The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away."  

 

After sharing that passage she challenged me to ask the Lord to wake me up every morning to spend time with him.  As a momma of 7, pastor’s wife, ministry leader, and now radio co-host, I really struggle with finding time for my quiet time with Jesus.  So I took Rhea up on her challenge, and do you know what the Lord did?  He woke me up?  No kidding, but me and my stubborn heart needed a bit more convincing.  You see, the first morning He woke me up at 5 am….I said out loud, “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” and then I put the pillow over my head and went back to bed. 

            Morning 2 was not much more successful, again at 5 am the Lord woke me, and this time I tried bargaining with Him, “Lord, do you remember all those kids you gave me?  Well they suck the life out of me and I am too tired to get up this early.”  You know what HE said?  “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest…” (Matthew 11:28) Just like Him to use scripture!  It is at this point that I would like to say that I got right up but shamefully I did not.  I am so glad that God does not give up on us, even though we are so stubborn. 

Morning 3, I at least managed to get out of bed, but promptly laid on the couch, offered up a few meager prayers and went back to sleep.  But hey by Morning 4, I was starting to realize that God was going to keep waking me up, so maybe He had a plan.  I got up, sat at the kitchen table this time, and had one of the best quiet times I have had in a long, long time.  And you know what?  Not one of my kids woke up until I was finished, or should I say until God was finished? 
            You know what else?  I am certain people saw Jesus in me that day and have in the days that have followed as I walked in obedience to my wake up call.  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 makes this promise,

“¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  

But, we cannot be transformed into His glory unless we spend time with Him.  I can always tell when my kids have been around certain people, because they begin to talk, and act just like them.  In fact, I have a friend who spent her early years in the south, down in Louisiana.  She came back here to Illinois when she was in grade school, and if you talked to her you might still be able to pick up a bit of her southern speech.  However, when she spends any amount of time down south, she comes back sounding like she never left!  We are a reflection of the people we spend time with.  I want to be a reflection of Christ, so I best be spending time with Him! Beth Moore puts it like this in her Bible study, Breaking Free, “We glorify God to the degree that we externalize the internal presence of the living Christ. A life that glorified God is not something we suddenly attain.”   We cannot show Christ on the outside if we do not have Christ on the inside!  So, as my friend Rhea says, “I hope I look more like Jesus today than I did the last time you saw me."
            As I wrap up, I want to challenge you to spend time with God, get in His word.  I promise He will show up if you do!  Hey, maybe you can even ask Him to wake you up?  Just be careful, because He is a God of His word, so if you ask, He will answer!  And the next time someone asks me how I handle being the momma of all these kids, I am going to say Jesus  instead of coffee!  But hey, maybe they won’t even ask because they will just see Jesus oozing out of me and know that He is the reason!?  Here’s hoping!

When your "happy place" isn't making you happy...

I would definitely consider Starbucks my "happy place."   In fact, I like to think of it as my office, which makes my ministry world wide, right?  Anytime I am feeling even a little stressed, just the thought of sipping a delicious coffee treat, brings instant relief.


However, recently, my family and I have been walking through some really dark day.   In fact the words of Habakkuk echoed my heart's cry:

² How long, LORD, must I call for help,
   but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
   but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
   Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
   there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,
   and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
   so that justice is perverted.

Because I was having such a hard time over the weekend, some good friends met me at my "office" to just love on me and encourage my heart. Guess what?

It didn't work...though I loved being with my friends, my heart was just as sad when I left as when I first arrived.  Then today, I was reading through my devotion when I came across these words from Deuteronomy 8:
¹ Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
It is Moses speaking to the Israelites just before they are going to enter the Promised Land.  He is taking a trip down memory lane to show them that God has done things differently than they expected (which neither you nor your ancestors had known).  He also wants to show them that God has been incredibly faithful to them but that he has "humbled" them to teach them that "man does not live by bread alone."

I guess that could be translated into Marlanese as, "A girl does not live by delicious coffee drinks alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."  So I guess that means that my "happy place" isn't guaranteed to make me happy but that I can always count on the faithfulness of God.  And I suppose, after reading my husband's facebook post that said, "Help fight heartache, it's the leading cause of most addictions" that I might agree I am addicted to that great coffee place and that MAYBE just MAYBE I have used it as a substitute for prayer and searching the Scriptures for comfort. 

How about you?  Have you counted on other people, places or things to bring you happiness instead of resting in Christ alone?  Would love to hear your thoughts!