“A world of insight is hidden in four words in Matthew 14:22: ” He [Jesus] dismissed the crowd” (NIV). This wasn’t just any crowd that Jesus dismissed.
These weren’t casually curious.
These weren’t coincidental bystanders.
This was a multitude with a mission. They had heard the disciples. They had left their homes. They had followed Jesus around the sea. They had heard him teach and had seen him heal. They had eaten the bread. And they were ready to make him king.
Surely Jesus will commandeer the crowd and focus their frenzy. Surely he will seize the chance to convert the thousands. Surely he will spend the night baptizing the willing followers. No one would turn down an opportunity to minister to thousands of people, right?
Jesus did.
“He dismissed he crowd.” Why? Read verse 23: “After he dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray”(NIV).
He said no to the important in order to say yes to the vital.
He said no to a good opportunity in order to say yes to a better opportunity. It wasn’t a selfish decision. It was a deliberate choice to honor priorities. If Jesus thought it necessary to say no to the demands of the crowds in order to pray, don’t you think you and I should, too?”
Excerpt from Max Lucado’s “Experiencing the Heart of Jesus.”
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Still Moments
“Lord, teach me to listen. The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continually assault them…let me hear Thee speaking in my heart. Let me get used to the sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking voice. Amen” A.W. Tozer
What are you holding on to?
My son battles with stress-induced anxiety. When under pressure, he becomes hyper-sensitive. Everything is enhanced and he will become very aware of any ache, pain, or sound to the point of maddening distraction. He is on sensory overload. He becomes agitated, begins to shut down, and cannot see reason. He also avoids, at all costs, that which is causing him the stress. It literally slams on the brakes of his life and our family. In exasperation I have talked, I have pleaded, and I have yelled. (I am not proud.) I have prayed over him, prayed for him, and prayed with him. Yesterday we found ourselves in the middle of one of his firestorms and I finally looked at him and asked that one simple question…What are you holding on to?
He is reaching out for help with one hand but the other hand refuses to let go of the frustration and agitation. Have you ever found yourself in a pit like that and it seems that no matter how much you climb and struggle you only get deeper? What are you holding on to? It is only dragging you back down, slowing your progress. God is not going to pry it out of your hand. You must open your hand and let it go.
I love the story of the mountain climber who, when stranded, hanging by a single rope with nowhere to go but down, he finally yells in desperation, “If there is a God up there, help me.” To his ultimate surprise and astonishment an immediate reply was forthcoming. “Yes, ” said a thundering but kind voice, “I will help you. All you have to do is let go of the rope.” The startled mountain climber thought about this for a moment, and again raised his eyes to heaven and asked, “Is there anyone else up there?” Author, Gerry Boylan puts it this way. “I am seeking God without seeking God’s help.”
Stop fighting. Stop struggling. Wave the white flag. Release the death grip of control. Surrender. The actual act of surrendering is the easiest thing you will ever have to do. Getting to the place where you are ready to surrender may, in fact, be the hardest. Your victory comes through surrender.
Father, you know what is on my heart today. You know what I have my fingers clamped around, what I am unable or unwilling to let go of. You know what my heart is holding hostage. Please change my heart Lord. Help me to loosen my grip and let go. Help me to forgive, to move on, and most importantly open my eyes so that I can see the freedom that surrender brings through your salvation. Through You Lord, and only through You, I know that I can claim victory. Lord, save me!
Still Moments – Mountain of God
Though I walk through…
Through the valley deep, through the valley dark, through the valley of the shadow of death.
I will fear no evil for I am not alone. God’s glory will be revealed in me and through me. I will stand upon the mountain.
Do you know the valley? Today, be still and makes the words of 1Peter 1:6-7 your prayer.
Lord, change my heart. Help me to see the joy that lies ahead on your mountaintop. Even today, though I may have to endure many trials, help my heart to grasp the knowledge that these trials will show that my faith is genuine. Your word says my faith is being tested and purified and strengthened, so that when it remains steadfast through these trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor. My head may know that Lord, but today, help me to be still so that my heart knows that as well. Help me to raise my eyes from the valley to mountaintop, to the place where you reign. Strengthen my resolve to put one foot in front of the other until I emerge from my valley.
You can’t DO peace…
Calm me, O Lord, as You stilled the storm. Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm. Let all the tumult within me cease. Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace. (Celtic Traditional)
If you claimed yesterday’s prayer as your own (More than a cliché) and found your heart longing for more than a cliché as I did, the next logical question is, “So, now what?” You have a longing for something more. For me that longing is for calm, for peace, for still waters. Don’t we all want that? Peace in your family. Peace in your marriage. Peace in your job. Peace from an illness. Peace from pain. Sometimes it feels like we are engaged in a great battle and all we want is a break, an opportunity to say “Time out!” so that we can catch our breath before re-engaging. If you are like me you have recognized your need for something more and you have realized your inability to find this on your own. Without the hand of the savior guiding and holding onto us we will inevitably slip back into our old patterns and tendencies. I get very quickly tired of battling against my sinful nature when I try to do it on my own. I do not have enough in me, on my own, to defeat all that weighs me down. That is when we need to cry out “Lord, save me!”
“I find rest in God; only he gives me hope. He is my rock and my salvation. He is my defender; I will not be defeated. My honor and salvation come from God. He is my mighty rock and my protection. People, trust God all the time. Tell him all your problems, because God is our protection.” (Psalm 62:5-8)
Max Lucado says, “We must let go of our own security to experience lasting peace. Lasting peace comes only from God. We cannot have the peace of God until we have peace with God.” I personally love that last statement. Looking for peace without God is like trying to swim upstream, it is exhausting, a constant battle. We can’t fight our way to peace. Peace comes from letting go, it’s not something you “do.” Lucado goes on to say, “Experiencing Jesus’ peace often comes at a great price to our idea of security – what we can control. We have to let go of what we know and step out in faith.” This is where faith stops pretending and becomes real.
Today I heard this thought provoking question. When you reach the end of your life will you be able to look back and say that you really lived? Today, are you living or are you simply existing? Are you chasing a peace that always seems just beyond your reach? Maybe today you find yourself someplace you never thought you would be and you aren’t entirely sure how you even got there, but you know there has to be more than simply existing. If that is the case I invite you to seek God, allow yourself to “be led beside the still water.” Let Him have you, really have you. All of you, not just the pieces that you are willing to let go of. Choose what is better, choose peace. Find your rest in God.
Only God gives true peace – a quiet gift He sets within us just when we think we’ve exhausted our search for it. – anonymous
More than a cliche (Troubled Waters, Part C)
When I started on the first Troubled Waters post on Saturday I had no idea it was going to lead to two additional posts. It wasn’t until the first one was finished and I re-read it that I thought, yes, God comes to us in our troubled times, all we have to do is cry out to him but that isn’t quite the whole story. Peter’s prayer, “Lord, save me!” was prayed as Peter was seeking Jesus in the midst of the storm. Peter took the first step, Peter was following Jesus’ command, Peter got out of the boat! Which led to Part B yesterday. I woke up this morning and was going to just post a “Still Moment” but found my spirit troubled by some of the lofty words of yesterday’s post. We have all heard the saying “If you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat.” Oh, ok thanks. That clears it all up. What does that even mean? Christians can be great at going around and spouting off clichés. Be anxious for nothing, pray for everything. (Biblical yes, but is it backed up by any “meat” in their own life or is it just off the cuff advice to combat your deep-seeded anxiety? Take two of these and call me in the morning type advice. And oh, by the way did they offer to come alongside and pray with you over it?) So as I re-ready yesterday’s post, I felt it a little cliché to say, “So I will go, out into the crashing waves, out into the deep to meet Jesus. If that means trying and failing, at least I have failed while trying.” Very well put but what the heck does it even mean? I am calling myself on this one because I hunger for more, for the nuts and bolts of faith.
I don’t have this all figured out and I will never claim to. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We try to understand Him in the only capacity we know how, which in turn puts Him into a human-size box and He is so much more. Infinitely more.
Here is what I should have said…
Father, I love you. I want to seek you and I want to obey your commands. I know that I don’t always do a good job. Sometimes I see something shiny and I get distracted for awhile, but You, in your mercy and grace, always bring me back around to what You have planned for me. You bring me back into your will. Please forgive me for the times when I have failed, when I have been distracted, when I have chosen my own path. Lord, you see my heart and my secret thoughts, and you know that sometimes the things that you ask of me are daunting. They are big, and they are primed for failure and disappointment and I am driven out of my comfort zone. Please remind me on those days that was what you were trying to teach Peter. That is what walking on water really is. It is conquering whatever is impossible, whatever is terrifying, through You. It is where you are waiting to display your power through me, and where you are waiting to show your love to me. Please help me to become more like you. I want so much more than to live in clichés. Lord, save me!
Today, I challenge you to do the same. Get back to the nuts and bolts. Strip your faith back down to the basics where it is just you and Jesus, alone on the water. What would you say to Him? And more importantly, listen for what He is saying to you. Where is He leading you? What “water” is He asking you to brave? I know sometimes its hard to hear Him through everything else clamoring around you. It’s why I started running. It’s why I started writing. Please, just be still…
Troubled Waters, Part B
“So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.” (Matthew 14:29)
PETER GOT OUT OF THE BOAT! Yesterday (Troubled Waters, Part A) we looked at how Jesus rescued Peter from drowning after Peter took his eyes off of Jesus during his walk across the water. But how did Peter get there in the first place. Did he fall overboard? Was he pushed? Peter choose to get out of the boat.
“PETER GOT OUT OF THE BOAT!” I can see the chaotic scene in my head, hear the disciples screaming for Peter as the storm rages around their boat. It is 3am and they are exhausted from fighting against the wind and waves for hours. Then they look out into the storm and can add terror to their list of ailments as they think they see a ghost, because who, or what, could be walking across the water towards them in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm?! It is an impossibility! Then, Peter, realizing that it is Jesus, gathers his robes around him and steps over the edge of the safety of the boat (what little it was providing at the time) and jumps right into the wind stirred waters. They had to be looking at him like he was crazy! What was he thinking?! Was he suicidal? Not in the least. Peter was going to where Jesus was, in the middle of the storm. Peter was following what Jesus had commanded him to do.
Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” (Matthew 14:28-29)
The disciples had no control over the weather that night and they were fearing for their lives. In the same vain, we don’t get to choose our circumstances. No matter how hard we may try to manipulate things there will be days when we are huddled in our boats riding out the storm. When we find ourselves there we have two choices. We can choose to be like Peter, follow the Lord’s command and “come” which means stepping out of the boat right into the middle of the storm or we can take the safe route and huddle in the boat like the rest of the disciples. God wants us to choose Him. He can’t make us get out of the boat, but He is there among the thunder and lightning and driving rain bidding you to “come on in.” Jesus saved all of them that night, but in the process Peter sought out Jesus and was the only one who got to walk on the water.
Some will say that Peter failed because as he “saw the wind” he began to sink. But it was Peter’s willingness to risk failure that helped him to grow. His faith and trust in Jesus and His power and promises grew exponentially that night as Peter had an intimate, personal encounter with Jesus right in the middle of the storm. Theodore Roosevelt says “It’s not the critic who counts;” (the disciples sitting in the boat saying “Is he nuts?”) “not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.” (“Peter sank, if I would have gone out there I would have kept my eyes on Jesus and run over there to him in half the time.”) “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
Ignore your critics. Making the choice to follow Jesus out where the sea is high and you lose your footing is a hard and scary choice. It goes against every fiber of your being but it’s where Jesus is and he has commanded us to “Come.” So I will go, out into the crashing waves, out into the deep to meet Jesus. If that means trying and failing, at least I have failed while trying.
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
-Oceans (Where Feet May Fail,) Hillsong United
Troubled Waters, Part A
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start now
So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
-Oceans (Where Feet May Fail), Hillsong United
Tired. No, not quite right…Exhausted and beaten down. A hurting body and a mind that is something akin to mush. A heavy, burdened heart. This is closer to the truth. I know that I am not the only one who can relate. It’s like a perfect storm and I am in search of the One who can calm the stormy, surging waters before I sink in their murky depths, but sometimes it is hard to see anything for the crashing waves. We are helpless to do anything to save ourselves but Jesus is standing amidst the waves holding out his hand to us, ready to rescue us with peace and rest. Call out to Him, He will hear your cry and save you. (Psalms 145:19)
Isaiah 43:2 says “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (NIV, emphasis mine) This is not an if but a when. But the promise is that God will be with us, always. Sometimes we lose sight of that as we are beaten by the raging storm around us. If that is the case you are in good company. Matthew 14:22-32 tells the story of Peter’s experience with walking upon, and then sinking in, the waves. Vernon McGee writes, “When he [Peter] began to sink, he prayed the shortest prayer in the Bible,” Lord, save me!” If Simon Peter had prayed this prayer like some of us preachers pray, “Lord, Thou who are omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent…” Peter would have been twenty-nine feet under water before he would have gotten to his request.” Charles Spurgeon once remarked that “the best style of prayer is that which cannot be called anything else but a cry.” This is the prayer of a drowning person in need of help from a savior, and aren’t we all? Here is the best news of all, Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. (Matthew 14:31)
Today my prayer is that if you are struggling to keep afloat you will take the outstretched hand that offers hope and help. I pray that you would have the strength to cry out “Lord, save me!” If you aren’t struggling, look around you just may see someone in need of your hand outstretched on Jesus’ behalf. You may be their lifeline to Him.
Still Moments
Today I have but one question. It is simple but thought provoking. Take some time to be still and answer it.
What if today you woke up with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?
He chose me…
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:4-5)
And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20)
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Ok, confession time again. I am going to let you all in on a little secret. I am a closet Veggie Tales movie watcher. They are so entertaining with catchy little songs and teach practical Bible truths in a fresh way. I often find myself chuckling out loud. If you have never watched one I invite you to check them out. Although they are made for kids they are quite clever. So the other day I got to have my niece and nephew (4 & 2) over to “play” and we pulled out the Veggie Tales Tuba Warrior, a story about Gideon, and while I was sitting playing dolls and cars on the basement floor watching the movie I was struck by a prayer from Gideon. This was Gideon’s prayer, just before going into battle.
“Hey God, it’s me. You and I both know I can’t do this on my own, but you can, and that’s good enough for me. I pray you’ll be with us tonight and your will be done. That’s it I guess. Oh, one more thing. You could have chosen anyone but you choose me. Thanks. Amen”
A simple little prayer offered up by a cucumber resonated so deeply that I found myself days later still thinking about it. This little clip made me realize how thankful I am that God chose me. He chose my path, He chose my struggles, He chose my disease, specifically for me. All of these things have shaped and molded me into the person I am today. He has realigned my will, my thoughts, and my desires, all the while holding my heart in his hand to keep it from breaking in to an irreparable mess. It sounds crazy even to my own ears, thankful for a disease?! But the changes that God has engineered through it, in myself and in my family, are something to be thankful for.
God, you could have chosen anyone, but you chose me. Thank you!
Today, I pray that you can live in gratitude as well. No matter what your circumstances.
PS – In case your curiosity has gotten the best of you and you want to see the clip of Veggie Tales with Gideon’s prayer here it is. It is about 7 min long and comes from the end of the movie. There is also a great exchange between Gideon and an angel about how hard it can be to trust God
sometimes when what He is asking us to do doesn’t make sense. Like I said, they are full of great truths!
Run and Be Still 