The Potentate Of Time

I didn't want to be late for work so I kept checking the time. When I realized the time was drawing near for me to leave I put my cell phone on the table to help me keep track of the time. I gave myself a full hour to get to work even though I knew it was only a forty five minute drive. When I got to work my boss pointed out that I was an hour late. My phone had switched time zones. It had the strangest effect on me. I almost felt dizzy, as if I had been time traveling.

The Sunday following this event we sang “Crown Him With Many Crowns” the last verse of the song says, “Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time.” I was fascinated by the idea of God being the Lord of the years and the Potentate of time. So what does Potentate mean? It means one who has supreme power and position to rule over others. God is eternal and time is a tool in His hand but how does that effect my life?

Daniel was a godly man who lived his life in the confines of time. He lived during the time of the Babylonia captivity. God, who is not bound by time, showed Daniel through many vision and mysteries things that were to take place in the future. The first time this happened Daniel responded, “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” Daniel 2:20 In Daniel I find a man who was bold and brave because although he was bond by time the God he served was not.

“As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.” Daniel 7:9 Daniel saw this picture of God as the Ancient of Days in the same dream that he received night vision from God showing him the scope and sequence of Kingdoms and Empires that were to rise and fall throughout the course of history. Again, I ask the question, how does this effect my life?

Lord Jesus, it is in You that I find understanding because though I am a prisoner of time you are not, yet You entered time and set me free. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1 Thank You, Lord Jesus for though You were the Creator You entered time and became my Redeemer.

A Calm And Stress Free Life?!?

She stood behind me talking on the phone. I'm sure she didn't mean to be talking so loudly but still I heard every word of her part of the conversation. “You know I can't handle any stress. I need for my life to be calm.” All I could think of were the words of Job 5:7 “Yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward”

Not long ago I was asked to speak at a church, the topic they gave me to speak on was “How to keep your balance in an unbalanced world.” I smiled when I heard what they wanted me to speak about not because I'm so totally balanced but because I so desperately want to be. Like the young woman on the phone I too would like to proclaim, “You know I can't handle any stress. I need for my life to be calm.”

I read in 1 Peter 3:4 that a gentle and quiet spirit is precious in the sight of God. I think having this kind of spirit might be the answer to the question about how to have a balanced life. Now I have to ask myself, “How do I develop a gentle and quiet spirit?” The fact that life is both stressful and lacking in calm is not conducive to gentleness or quietness.

What does “quiet” mean anyway? I did a little research and found words like tranquil and still. I am not by nature tranquil or still and my life is full of stress, so how can someone like me living the life I'm living develop this quiet spirit? In my mind's eye I saw a pastoral setting and thought about the words to the twenty third Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.” Sheep are animals of prey and because of this they are very fearful. They have real enemies and the only way they can be at rest, tranquil or quiet is to have a good shepherd. Only when they have a relationship with the shepherd can they lie down, rest, drink at the still waters, and find their soul restored.

Lord Jesus, my world is not balanced. I often find myself stressed out and fearful but in You I find peace. You are my balance, You are my tranquility, You are my resting place. You are my shepherd.

How I Relate To God's Will

In Sunday School we were talking about how we related to God's will. The teacher spoke about dealing with the will of God on three levels. The first was acceptance, the second was surrender and the third was contentment. I thought about my relationship to the will of God. I think in pictures so this was what I saw. When I recognized God's will I accepted it like an assignment.

I saw acceptance like a high ladder that I was to climb. Once I had climbed the ladder I was on the high dive. Surrender meant walking to the edge of the plank and looking down into a small pool of water and then diving headlong into it. But that was as far as I could go with my mental picture. I could not see contentment, I tried but I couldn't. The reason I couldn't see a mental picture of contentment was because I wasn't experiencing it. I felt like I was accepting and surrendering to God's will but I wasn't content.

One thing I learned long ago was that when I don't have the answers to my questions I need to ask. So I began asking God in prayer to show me how to be content with His will. My lack of contentment made me so miserable that I also began seeking the answer. When my children were little and I would be in my room and they needed me they would knock persistently on my bedroom door because they knew I would  respond to their need. In this same way I was asking, seeking, and knocking because I knew my Heavenly Father had the answer and would give it to me. What does it look like to be content with the will of God?

This is the understanding I have come to about the will of God. Before accepting, or surrendering, or finding contentment in His will I need to identify it. I believe that the will of God and the love of God are inseparable. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:1 My first picture of dealing with God's will looked more like a slave obeying orders. When I began to see His will as His love the picture changed to that of a bride receiving the love of her groom.

Lord Jesus, I want to accept Your love and believe the words of love I find in Your word. I want to surrender to Your love as a bride surrenders to her beloved. I want to find all my contentment and my identity in Your love for me. “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever...” Psalm 138:8

If My Life Was A Song

My friend and I were eating breakfast together when she shared this idea with me. She said, “If your life was a song what would the lyrics be?” I guess if I was really creative I might write my own song but instead I started thinking about the hymns that I have sung during different chapters of my life. For instance as a teenager I would always sing:

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands;

I's rather be led by His nail-pieced hand

Then there came a dark period in my life. I felt very afraid and I couldn't see past the pain and confusion and I would sing:

But “I know Whom I have believed,

And am persuaded that He is able

To keep that which I've committed

Unto Him against that day.”

When my husband and I married we would sing the words to the song “Are Ye Able,” Said the Master.

“Are ye able,” said the Master,

“To be crucified with Me?”

“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,

“To the death we follow Thee”

(I think I can say the phrase “Sturdy dreamer” could easily have described me.)

“Lord, we are able” our spirits are Thine;

Remold them make us like Thee, divine.

Thy guiding radiance above us shall be

A beacon to God, to love and loyalty.

From my earliest memories I have struggled from bouts of depression. I've had seven pregnancies and have been blessed with four children. Still, when I lost the other three I sang in the night:

You are my hiding place

You always fill my heart

With songs of deliverance

Whenever I am afraid

I will trust in You

Lord Jesus, I sing my songs to You because I can come just as I am. Thank You, that I don't have to wait till I have rid myself of sin before I sing my songs to You. It was You who cleansed me by Your blood.

Just as I am, though tossed about

with many a conflict, many a doubt,

fighting and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

A Lesson Learned

I was seven years old when my mother had her ninth child. My oldest brother was ten. It would not be an understatement to say that my mother had her hands full. Something else happened when I was seven years old. That was the year I learned a very important lesson about love.

I was in the second grade and that was the year I was supposed to learn to read, but I didn't. My teacher had a huge class and no one to assist her and if that wasn't bad enough she had me for a student. It wasn't that I didn't try, I tried, I really did, but I still couldn't seem to learn to read. I became a target for her frustration. All through the day she would call attention to the fact that I was failing to read, or spell, which meant I wasn't doing well at writing either. Sometimes I would forget to be on my guard and I would suck my fingers in an effort to find comfort. That never worked very well because then she would have the class look at me and that brought no comfort only more ridicule.

Some people have asked me, “Where was your mother?” My mother was at home with a new baby and a two year and a three year old and a four year old, need I say more. Not only that but it never occurred to me to even tell my mother what was going on. I was only seven and this was only my second year in school I thought this was just the way life was. It was my teacher who called Mother. She just couldn't take my ignorance any longer!

I remember sitting in the hallway when my mother was talking to the teacher. I was swinging my feet because they didn't touch the floor and, yes, I was sucking my fingers. When Mother came out of the office her face was very sad. She was silent for a long time. Finally, Mother looked at me and began to speak. “Sarah, I want you to pay very close attention to what I am about to say.” I leaned a little closer to my mother. “Sarah, I know you want everyone to like you and you try really hard to make that happen.” I shook my head, yes. “Your teacher doesn't like you and it's not your fault and you can't make her like you.” This information set me free but the next thing she said gave me an anchor. “Although your teacher doesn't like you, I love you. Nothing you do will ever make me love you more. Nothing you do will ever make me love you less. My love for you isn't based on your performance.”

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for giving my mother the wisdom and the words she needed. She did what she could and it was enough. Thank You for giving me a mother who showed me what Your love looks like. “How great is the love the Father lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1 And to think I did nothing to deserve that lavish love.

The Spinning Has A Purpose

Have you ever felt dizzy, like you were spinning round and round and round? Have you ever felt like you were not only spinning round and round but that some outside force was applying pressure on you while you were spinning? Me too, I don't think it's our imagination. “But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isiah 64:8 So round and round we go while we are being shaped by the hands of the potter.

So here I am a lump of clay spinning round and round and if I only focus on that it is a very blurry picture. The fact is that this is often how it seems to me, blurry. I am grateful for the perspective I gain in Isiah without this perspective I would feel my life was simply spinning out of control. However, seeing myself on the potters wheel give me a completely different picture. The spinning of a potter's wheel is controlled by the potter. The pressure applied by the potters skilled hand is for a purpose. I, as the lump of clay, can only feel the pressure and the dizzying whirl of the wheel but it is not what I feel that determines what this process produces. In end product comes from the potters mind.

Who is this potter? First, Isiah calls him LORD. This word means master or owner that would give him permission to do with the clay whatever he wanted. That would give him permission but that is not as comforting to me as the next name, Father. Knowing that my Heavenly Father's foot is controlling the spin and His hand is responsible for the pressure gives me comfort. I have children. While I was raising them I often brought pressure to bare upon them. My love for them caused me to be actively involved in their life.

Sometimes my children would rebel against the pressure I was placing on them. However, I loved them far to much to simply give up and walk away. This is the same picture I see when God told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house and watch. The clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. He didn't throw the clay away he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. What a comfort to me to know that the one who does the reworking is also the loving Father.

I come to You today O LORD, You are my Father, you are also the potter. You alone know the plans You have for me. What I know is the pressure and confusion I often feel. Thank You that I can rest in Your love. Thank You that even when the hardness and rebellion of my heart causes You to rework the clay it can never change the goodness of Your heart or You kind intentions towards me. I saw this in the garden when the lump of clay into which You breathed life rebelled against You and You responded by promising a Redeemer!

Following The Cues

I was trying to buy some thing at a yard sale and every time I tried the woman who was selling raised the price. Finally I got it, she didn't want me to buy the item and instead of saying that she just kept raising the price out of my range. Sometimes I'm slow picking up on the cues people give me. One of the Scriptures on guidance says, “A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Sometimes I find myself pushing on doors that will not open. In my mind I must get through the door to reach my destination. However, if it's true that the Lord is directing my steps I think it's always a good idea when I cannot make a door open to ask the Lord if He has other plans for me. This is what I see in the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. Balaam was furious with the donkey for not going in the direction that Balaam wanted him to go in until God allowed the donkey to speak. It was only then that Balaam became aware of angle who was standing in the middle of the road with a flaming sword. Numbers 22

Once I was walking on the country road. Suddenly I felt like I had encountered a wall of fear. I have never been a fearful person so my first instinct was to ignore this feeling and keep going the problem was the feeling of fear became almost a tangible presence. Finally, I stopped and prayed. I realized that it was possible that God was using this feeling of fear to cause me to turn around. Later I found out that a murder had occurred on that road about the same time I was on my walk.

Sometimes the plans that we have for ourselves and the direction God has for us matches. Still, God calls for us to pursue our plans with a heart that is surrendered to Him. From the time my father in law was a young man he wanted a farm. For years he and his wife spent all their week ends searching for a place that would fulfill that dream but finding nothing. Finally, he prayed and told the Lord that he would give up his search if he hadn't found a farm by the time he was thirty five. He signed the papers for a farm on his thirty fifth birthday.

Lord Jesus, help me humble myself and surrender my plans to You. Please help me be sensitive to the leading of Your Holy Spirit. Give me wisdom to know. when to keep going and when to turn around and go in a different direction. By faith Lord let me be lead by the hand I cannot hold.