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In the Thick of It

5/31/2018

By Mae Oneday

A note from Erin: Mae Oneday is the author of the ministry, Fellowship Broken (https://fellowshipbroken.com/). She writes under a pseudonym because she is a Christian wife writing about the trials of being married to an atheist. I strongly encourage everyone to go to her website and signup to receive her blog. Her testimony is powerful, as well as encouraging. She reminds us all that we are called to love and minister to all people, especially those who don’t know Jesus.

I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when. Anna was working her way to a colossal mess at the dinner table, Linus and Gwen were gumming each other’s toes in the pack and play, and Max and I were unloading the dishwasher. Max casually said, "I'm not upset or anything, but I want to talk through the other night so I can understand a few things."

He was referring to just before bed one night earlier in the week, when Anna said she wanted to talk to Daddy God, which is how I refer to God when I pray. She then proceeded to chat with God for long moments before she turned to me and asked if I wanted to talk to him. Heart pounding, I quietly thanked God for a few things and wrapped up my prayer. Then she turned to Max and asked, "Do you want to talk to Daddy God?" He replied, "I don't talk to him."

It wasn't a bad response when I think about what he could have said. Silverware clanked as he asked if she was learning that at church or if it was from me. I told him I was the culprit. He iterated why he detests Anna saying Daddy God and said it makes him feel like some sort of earthly stepfather to a not-good guy who doesn't exist in the first place.

I responded, "I am doing as I promised. I preface everything I tell her about God by saying 'I believe this to be true.' You are not doing the same."

A few months back I'd overheard Anna tell Max that Daddy God made her. My stomach had instantly begun to churn.

These were words I'd whispered to her before she drifted to sleep, words I'd prefaced with “'I believe.” Max's response to Anna had been swift. "No, he didn't. Mommy and Daddy made you." Instant irritation had made my face feel hot. I had done my best to respect his wishes and he had trampled all over mine.

But that scene was a bad example to use with Max considering we were the ones who "made" Anna from a scientific perspective. Because I failed to make a logical point, it went downhill from there. Max said he doesn't need to preface anything he believes to be true because it's all scientific theory, which by definition is based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. He went on to point out that my "relationship" with God is purely my emotions running rampant. Goodnight nurse—I had nothing. My pea brain sputtered so loudly I couldn’t process anything else he said.

The old Mae would have listened to Max and done one of two things: 1. Get defensive and make a nonsensical response that would have fast-tracked our afternoon to hell, or 2. Become terrified and get lost in the lonely abyss that is my current situation. Instead I asked the Holy Spirit for help on every level. I listened to Max as best I could and conceded his valid points. I offered no apology but did reaffirm my promise to preface my belief when I speak with Anna about God. And while I loathed every minute of being forced to engage in it, our conversation taught me a very important lesson.

I must always be ready.

A war has been raging since the dawn of humanity and I finally noticed I’m in the thick of it. If I won’t learn the discipline of a prayer warrior and actually engage in battle, those I love will die. I must make time to be trained by the Holy Spirit and then use every other precious moment my mind is not otherwise engaged to pray in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

I did not wish to become a prayer warrior. I despise words or ideas that have been bastardized by over or misuse, which is why to me, prayer often seems like the churchy tactic of last resort. But I can’t argue with James 5:16-18. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

I do not have the luxury of being married to an agnostic who doesn’t really care what our children believe about God. Max is actively hostile toward my beliefs and will aggressively counter whatever I say to our brood with his perspective. I must expect this. I cannot afford to be caught off guard. It is imperative I wake up seeking to be filled to the point of overflowing with the Holy Spirit. It is essential I allow the Spirit’s conviction which leads to repentance. I must ask the Spirit to clothe me in nothing less than grace, wisdom, boldness, courage, humility, and discernment in order to take up the full armor of God so I can stand firm against the enemy—which, by the way, is not Max.

It goes against every instinct I have, but it is only as I sink my knees to the soul-stained earth that God trains me to become a warrior. I am not left unprotected. I feel the earth tremble beneath me at the roar of my Protector just before metal meets metal and the death blow meant for me is thwarted.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." ~ Ephesians 6:12-18

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A Radical Prayer

5/17/2018

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By Erin Elizabeth Austin

There are times in a believer’s life when he or she has what I call a divine revelation, a moment that challenges them and radically changes the way they view life. Recently, I had one of those moments, and I’m still reeling from the daily lessons God is teaching me. My worldview has changed, and I’ve realized I’ve been going about life all wrong. And it all started with one prayer.

For the past two years, God has continuously brought me back to a passage in Scripture found in Ephesians 3:14-21. I have felt compelled to read these verses daily. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it says:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

In the beginning, I started reading this because I felt like the black sheep of God’s family. I felt like God loved me because He had to, not because He wanted to. Although I knew it was wrong, I just couldn’t get my thoughts and emotions to believe it. So, I started to pray these verses every day. I prayed that I would realize how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of Christ is for me, Erin Elizabeth Austin. I asked God to help me know beyond any shadow of a doubt that He loves me, willingly, and that I see myself the way He views me.

God graciously answered that prayer, but over time, He had me start looking at the rest of Ephesians 3:14-21. No matter how hard I tried, He wouldn’t let me skip past the part in verse 17 where it says we should be “rooted and grounded in love.” Before I started studying the original language in which the passage was written, I thought it meant I need to know and understand God’s love for myself and be saturated in it. However, that’s not what it’s talking about at all. To be honest, it surprised me. You see, the more I listened to sermons and read books about God’s love, I realized that Christians are missing the mark in a big way when it comes to God’s love. There is so much out there about how big and wonderful God’s love for each of us is, and it is, but rarely do we hear about how we are supposed to love God. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that a genuine love relationship is supposed to be reciprocal, meaning not only does a person love us, but we love him/her in return. Yes, we are supposed to love people even when they’re unlovable, but if one person is constantly pouring love into the relationship and the other person just takes, there is a problem.

The phrase “rooted and grounded in love” in Ephesians 3 actually goes back to Matthew 22:37 when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, and His response was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Admittedly, when I realized to what this passage was referring, I thought I was loving God the way He says we should. If you look at my life, it’s obvious I love God. I started a nonprofit for Him; I have speaking engagements where I teach His Word; I write devotions. Of course, I love God! But then, I heard God say, “Have you prayed about it?”

So, I started each day asking God to help me love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. What I’ve realized since then is I haven’t had a clue how to love God the way I should. For me, one of the biggest areas He challenged me in is my love for reading. Books have always been a way of escape for me. I’m able to get enthralled in a good story and forget my pain and sickness for a brief time. Although reading isn’t a bad thing, when I let it become more important than my relationship with God, it’s a problem.

I think if we’re honest, the majority of us have things we love more than God. For some, it’s their grandchildren. For others, it’s a job. Some people might love social media more than God. And though our first inclination is to say, “I love God,” would He agree?

I challenge you to start praying this radical prayer. Not only has it changed my perspective, but it’s rocked my prayer life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I am seeing God’s power through Him answering prayers on a regular basis.

God will never stop loving us. One of the Old Testament words for God’s love literally means “to be attached to.” God cannot and will not let us go. His love is unchanging. God holds onto us even when we let go of Him. Don’t you think He deserves the same?

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing… But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13

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Persistence and Tenacity

5/10/2018

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By Josie Siler

The nest was taking shape nicely and the progress was impressive. I watched the mama robin hard at work building a safe place to lay her eggs and raise her babies. The daddy robin brought her materials and she placed them on the flat surface of the open feeder outside my kitchen window.

I have never watched a bird build a nest before and the process has been both hilarious and heartbreaking. The mama robin arrives at the nest with a beak full of dried grass and twigs. She carefully lays them in place and then she sits on them. She scoots her little birdie butt back and forth almost like she’s doin’ the twist! Once she’s satisfied, she stands up, does a quarter turn, sits back down, and shakes her booty again. She repeats this process until she’s made a full circle before flying off to collect more materials.

The first time I watched this process I laughed so hard! But the next morning I was heartbroken to see the nest she was working so hard to build lying on the ground in a messy pile of destruction. All that hard work, and strong winds soon blew everything away.

Not too long later, I saw the mama robin building her nest again while the daddy robin helped collect fresh materials. They are a persistent pair and a little wind wasn’t going to stop them from what they needed to do!

I cheered them on and watched their nest grow until one morning I woke up to see it on the ground by the feeder. It still held most of its shape, but what were they going to do now? I wish I knew the full answer to that question. When I got back home one day the nest was no longer on the ground, but back up on the platform of the feeder.

How did it get there? It was too big for one little bird to pick up by itself. Did they pick it up together, working as a team to put it back in place? I don’t know, but they finished that beautiful nest and the mama robin is faithfully sitting in it, with the daddy robin keeping guard from a nearby branch.

Their persistence paid off, but they didn’t just quit working when they accomplished their goal. They are vigilant. The mama robin sits in her nest, but her eyes are ever watching for danger. This morning the nest was attacked by a blue jay. I saw him sweeping in, but before he could arrive, the daddy robin flew in and intercepted him. Mama robin joined the fight and they chased him off.
The persistence and tenacity of these robins remind me of the persistent widow we read about in Luke 18:1-8.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Do you ever grow weary of asking God for healing? Do you ever become weary of fighting the same fight? Do you feel like just as you’re making progress something comes along to ruin everything? Do you feel ignored?

Oh, friends, I’ve been right there with you! I’m pretty sure Jesus has been too; He was fully human. He knows! Why else would He tell His disciples this story “to show that they should always pray and never give up”?

Let’s take a lesson from the persistently tenacious widow and robins. Let’s keep praying. Let’s look to the Lord for His answers and His will in His timing - not our own. Let’s trust that He knows what we need and that in His love for us He will provide.

And while we wait, let’s keep fighting. Maybe, like the robin, it’s starting over with a new dream God gives us or a new medication to try. Maybe it’s picking up the pieces and watching God patch them back together. Or maybe our job is to simply sit and pray, crying out to the Lord like the persistent widow.

You’re not alone. As brothers and sisters in Christ it is our responsibility to fight with and for each other, just like my little robin friends. Share your prayer requests below so we can pray for and encourage one another.

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” ~Luke 5:16

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Let's Get Real

5/3/2018

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By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I’m proud to be a Southerner. I use words like y’all and fixin’ on a regular basis. Sweet tea is my beverage of choice. There’s nothing like sitting on a wraparound porch in a swing, and one of my favorite sights in all the world is a field of cotton before it’s picked. I am a Southern woman and I’m thankful I’ve had the privilege to always live in the Carolinas. Yet like any culture, the South has its share of problems, and one of those problems comes in the form of church.

For those of you who live in other parts of the world, the southern part of the United States is often referred to as the Bible Belt. What this means is the Christian church plays a much stronger role in our society than other parts of the United States. It’s not hard to find a church down here because they’re literally all over the place. Even if one doesn’t regularly attend church, more people are familiar with the Bible and it’s teaching than is common in the rest of the world. Many people claim to be a Christian and go to church on Sundays because it’s what everyone else does, even if they don’t realize what being a Christian truly means. Now don’t get me wrong; the more the world changes, the more the South moves away from Christ and His teachings. Still, for those like me who grew up regularly attending church, we know that when we get to church no matter how our day is going, we put on a happy face because it’s what’s expected.

Because of this, pastors now remind the congregation that instead of presenting a good front, people need to be open and honest before God. Rather than pretend everything is okay, we need to come to God as we are and admit when we’re struggling with something. Yet I still remember being a little girl, arguing with my sister on the way to church and being aggravated with my parents, but as soon as we opened the car door in the church parking lot, everything was wonderful. And that little girl in me still sometimes struggles with admitting I need God’s help in changing an area of my life. The Southerner in me wants to put on a happy face and pretend like everything is alright.

So, I struggle with worrying about what the future holds. What’s the big deal? It’s not like that’s a big sin, like murder or rape. Compared to others, I’m good. Right, God?

As expected, God always answers with a resounding “No!” You see, God loves us so much that He doesn’t want to leave us as we are. He knows who He created us to be, He sees our potential, and He wants to help us achieve it. For our benefit and His glory, God loves us enough to not leave us as we are, but that means we must get real before God. Pretending we’re okay or ignoring an area we know we struggle with doesn’t help us, and it’s not honoring to God.

In Mark 9, we find one of the more quoted verses of Jesus’ ministry in verse 24 when the father of a demon-possessed son cried out to Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” If you go back and read this passage, you’ll see that this came after Jesus asked the disciples why they couldn’t heal the boy. The disciples had seen Jesus do the miraculous numerous times, and they still struggled with faith. Yet rather than admit they needed Jesus’ help, it was the boy’s father who was honest. And that’s when we see Jesus step in and do the impossible.

Whether or not you grew up in the South, many of us struggle with admitting we need God’s help to change. We like where we are in life; it’s comfortable. We know what to expect. Who cares if we struggle with an area of our relationship with God? In the grand scheme of things, it can’t be that important. Yet we forget that anything which interferes in our relationship with God is a sin.

God doesn’t need or want us to be perfect. We don’t have to have everything figured out before we go to God. As Timothy Keller said, “Helplessness, not holiness is the first step to accessing God.”[i]

Is there an area you’ve been trying to ignore because you know it’s not honoring to God? Let’s get real before God today and stop pretending everything is okay. He’s already aware of the problem. He’s simply waiting for you to cry out to Him.

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” ~ Hebrews 4:16

[i] https://www.lifeway.com/leadership/2015/09/14/best-quotes-from-propel-women/

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In the Thick of It

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Persistence and Tenacity

Let's Get Real

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