Alone Together #3 Roller Coaster Emotions

Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning;

For I trust in You;

Teach me the way in which I should walk;

For to You I lift up my soul.

Psalm 143:8

How is your soul today?

So many thoughts and emotions jockeying for position right now: anxiety, fear, confusion, grief, loss, frustration, anger, security, hope, love, peace and unshakable joy. It takes every ounce of strength to stay out of the “What If…?” spiral. Some days I do better than others. Some hours I battle the onslaught. You may find your sleep disturbed. You may be exhausted as the mental and emotional toll of this crisis leech our strength and stamina. Please respond to increased need for rest for both your body and mind during this season.

Our world is shaking while our King is securely on His throne. How do I reconcile this in my head and heart?

My #1 suggestion: spend time in the Psalms. These poems do not shy away from the tough conflicts. They allow us to pour out our soul through every emotion known to man. The psalms coach us through from lament toward praise. They teach us to pray when we have no idea how to begin. From fear, confusion, attack, suffering, betrayal and ever other pain to reliance, faith, remember, and anchoring our selves in an unchanging God.

I invite you to read 5 psalms a day (with one entire day for 119) for one month. Then repeat for the rest of your life. Literally. Use the 20/20/20 from Alone Together #2 to read, reread, slow down, meditate, absorb, then respond to these poems. Let them guide you as the Divine Mentor holds us and walks us through to learn to fix our eyes on Him.

More tomorrow on how to process the emotional roller coaster…

Overview of Psalms from the Bible Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9phNEaPrv8

Alone Together #2 God has not Changed

Greetings fellow quarantined friends. I trust you are all sheltering in place, only venturing out for essentials. Rough news increasing around the world. We continue to pray without ceasing.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

(James 4:13-15)

So many cancellations, delays, changes, and disappointments. Minor disappointments and heartbreaking grief of loss. So many things we have counted on or taken for granted now gone, delayed, or upended—for a season or permanently. If this crisis teaches us nothing else, it should crush that any delusion we may entertain that we are in control. We are not sovereign, but God is.

The world has changed. God has not. ”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) Do I believe that? Really? When the rubber meets the road, can I lean into His sovereignty and trust His character, no matter what happens?

Today, I invite you to pour your heart out to God. Many of you have done Pete and Geri Scazzero’s “Explore the Iceberg”. Pull out your journal and set aside four pages titled mad, sad, anxious, and glad. Begin to write what’s in your head and in your heart. We need to write because things will flow out of your pen you may not have realized were in your head or heart. Know that many items will wind up on multiple lists. That’s okay. Especially right now, we are a jumble of emotions and thoughts.

When you have spent some unhurried time pouring out your soul, bring the entire jumble before God. Surrender to His sovereignty. Lay every detail out to Him. Write a prayer or even a psalm to the Lord. Invite the Prince of Peace to rule in your head, heart, and hands.

My prayer is often, “Lord, meet me where I am, take me where you want me to be.” Invite Him to meet you in the depths of your iceberg, then spend some time remembering and rehearsing who He is—His names, attributes, character, past faithfulness in your life. Selah: take some time in silence to let Him whisper to you.

May I invite you to sing and meditate on one of my favorite hymns:

The Solid Rock by Edward Mote

    My hope is built on nothing less

    Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

    I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

    But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

        Refrain:

        On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

        All other ground is sinking sand,

        All other ground is sinking sand.

    When darkness veils His lovely face,

    I rest on His unchanging grace;

    In every high and stormy gale,

    My anchor holds within the veil.

    His oath, His covenant, His blood

    Support me in the whelming flood;

    When all around my soul gives way,

    He then is all my hope and stay.

    When He shall come with trumpet sound,

    Oh, may I then in Him be found;

    Dressed in His righteousness alone,

    Faultless to stand before the throne.

Lean into the unshakeable truth that God is still sitting on His throne.

The LORD sat as King at the flood;

Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.

Psalm 29:10

Rest. Go in peace and the peace of God attend you.

Alone Together #1 The Divine Mentor

I’ve been sharing encouragement and tools for staying connected with God with those who signed up for “Alone Together” during this challenging season. I thought I’d share a few online in case they might encourage you too…

Good morning! Or Good evening, as the case may be! How are you holding up? My kind friends have loaded me up with food and TP, so I am set for a indeterminate quarantine. Hopefully I can share some good resources and encouragement with you during this season.

Today, first things first: Psalm One

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

If we are alone without the Word, we can wind up in introspection, emptiness, and distortion. There’s more Christian content available than ever, but some is devoid of Scripture, some is decorated with Scripture, but very little gets us into Scripture. How many of you have started out January 1 with honorable goals to read through Scripture, only to wind up lost and giving up in the wilderness of Leviticus or Numbers? How can we absorb the truth of Scripture while socially distancing?

Wayne Cordeiro has developed a simple plan to get us into the Word from Genesis to Revelation. Many of you have done this with me before. The beauty of this plan is that it can be done alone, with a spouse or friend, with your family or small group, with 1, 2, 5, 10, 100, or 1000 people. And it gets us into the whole of Scripture, instead of a verse here and there.

Three steps (with cheat sheets attached):

1. Read the passage silently (in a paper translation instead of a paraphrase or electronic gadget). Read slowly, as if you’ve never seen or heard this before, and meditate on the passages. You may have time to read both multiple times, or you may be drawn to spend most of your time in one passage or chapter. Leave everything else alone and simply read the Scripture. Do not cross-reference, do not flip to other passages, do not take notes. Rein yourself in and remain only within these passages.

1. When the timer goes off, pick up your pen and journal and silently respond to God. Is there one particular word, phrase, or passage that grips you? Is there message of comfort? Or a good kick to the head? An answer to prayer? A marching order? What do you see about God? Is there any encouragement or challenge for you? Write a letter to Him, confess, worship and adore Him, list the attributes of God or instructions from the passage, consider how this relates to your life, whatever the Lord prompts you to do in response to what you’ve read.

1. When the time goes off again, discuss and pray… If you’re on your own, you might want to go straight to prayer. 😉

Some links to help:

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Mentor-Growing-Faith-Savior-ebook/dp/B00B85A7WC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGh6Xke1sPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyP6zOnObk

https://www.lifejournal.cc/