WHAT YOU REALLY NEED

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength(Isaiah 40:28–29, ESV).

It’s hard enough to admit we need God; what’s even harder is to live like we need Him. Successes in life can cripple us spiritually when we begin to view ourselves as self-sufficient. When we rely on our money, talent, family, or hard work to fix everyday problems, we don’t feel like we need God.

Ask the people of Israel about this brand of pride. They had just received news that they were going to suffer incredible consequences as a discipline from God. Their crime? They forgot who He was. They lost all sense of how great God is and how much they needed Him. His presence demanded awe and they yawned. For multiple generations, they had rebelliously, willfully, happily done their own thing—and God said, in essence...

"HEYYY! ENOUGH!”

Facing doom, Isaiah’s audience cried out for the Lord. Isaiah answered with a moving description of God’s awesome, unchanging nature. “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” (Translation: Didn’t you get the memo?) “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary.”

God is not like us. He’s everlasting; we have short, finite life spans. He never gets tired; we range from drowsy to sleep deprived. He never feels overwhelmed; we are drowning in demands. “His understanding is unsearchable”; our thought processes are transparent and predictable.

God is so beyond us, and we need Him. The good news is He delivers exactly what we’re desperate for in our weakest moments. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” When your battery runs low, God offers power. When you are weak, He dispenses His strength.

Yet some claim they don’t need the Lord—they have their own program. “I have my act together. With a career plan and solid education, I’m heading in a good direction. My future’s bright.” 

We may not say we don’t need God, but we live like it. If that’s you, surrender your pride before He brings you low. Bow willingly before God now. Don’t wait for Him to force you to your knees. 

TRUST ME! 

Like Isaiah’s original audience, we live in decadent days among people who disdain and dilute God’s awesome character. Followers of Christ face a similar choice: flirt with your perceived self-sufficiency until disaster comes, or admit your desperation without Him.

When trouble comes, do you rely on yourself or depend on God? Do you take matters into your own hands or wait for God’s provision in His timing?

Everyone needs the Lord. 

The sooner you learn this, the more you experience His love, power and strength.

I have to admit, self sufficiency is sneaky, and oftentimes....I've been slow to learn.

But I've learned! 

"Two the hard way." 

An empty cup, 

Robbs 

HOW TO DESTROY ANXIETY

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6, ESV).

When Paul coaches us, “Do not be anxious about anything,” it’s easy to react with indignation. “Really, Paul?! Have you looked at my life lately? Don’t be anxious about anything?” Since these are hard words to apply, let’s consider Paul’s advice thoughtfully to see how it bears up when the rubber meets the road.

The core of the word anxiousness is the idea of “a dividing care.” Worry, fear, and anxiety are like troubled sisters. But anxiousness evokes the idea of a dividing care—something that wakes you up at night, a distraction so nagging you can’t fully enter another conversation, a trouble that overshadows all your interactions. A care that divides your mind.

There is no peace in that. When you have peace, things are in their right place—entrusted to God—and no care divides your mind. When Paul tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything,” he is instructing us not to allow a dividing care about anything.

We tend to rationalize our anxiety. Well, Paul’s advice applies to most people in most situations, but if Paul considered what I feel anxious about, he would make an exception. Clearly, I should be anxious about my burdens. But are our anxieties really so unique?

We can all agree that anxiety is natural and understandable, but many things are understandable that are not excusable. Because we believe that God’s Word is inspired by the Holy Spirit, we believe every word is specifically chosen by God—even this word anything. So we must accept that the God who made us wants us to hear, “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING.”

The decision to be anxious is the decision not to trust God about the specifics of your situation, the decision to give up your peace. 

When we choose to sin, we choose to suffer. When God tells us not to be anxious, He is not trying to rob us of something satisfying; He’s warning us about something self-destructive. Anxiety has nasty, proven side effects: irritability, depression, insomnia, fatigue, migraines, muscle pain, elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, ulcers, weakened immune system, susceptibility to overeat and overwork. The side effects of anxiety seep into every area of our lives: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Anxiety is obviously not healthy. Not right. Not good. 

So how do we destroy anxiety? 

“But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” We start praying. About what? Everything. There’s no wiggle room or creative way to parse this: pray about everything.

• Your soul
• Your money
• Your children
• Your relationships
• Your health issues
• Your job

There is no such thing as The Unimportant Prayer Request List. Be anxious about nothing; pray about everything. Out with anxiety—in with prayer. 

Write down every concern you can think of in an all-inclusive Everything Prayer List. Take every care, large or small, and submit it to God.

LET'S PRAY TOGETHER:

Father God, forgive me for being anxious. So much is outside my control. In some situations, I can’t even imagine how my problems will change, yet I bow before You, the Sovereign Lord who is in control of everything. Thank You that You are at work in my life and that no detail has escaped Your notice. What an awesome God You are, worthy of my worship. Displace the anxiety in my heart and mind with a deep, abiding sense of thankfulness and with Your peace. In the comforting, reliable name of Your Son, Jesus, amen.

This is an Iced Green Tea Soy Latté. Enjoy God and relax. 

Robbs

I SMELL!

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God(Ephesians 5:1–5, ESV).

Just as the obedience of Christ was a fragrant aroma rising up to God, so our lives also have a scent. If our lives are pleasing to God, then it’s like a sweet-smelling offering rising up to God, and He’s breathing it in. In heaven, God may be sniffing and commenting, “Now her life has a satisfying fragrance,” or “Smell his life!”  I SMELL!!  We smell. We are a stench in God’s nostrils. In order to be a fragrant aroma, you have to live a life of purity.

The opposite of purity is perversion. 

Paul describes perversion this way: “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:3).

First, Paul mentions immorality, from the Greek word porneia, from which we get our word pornography. This word encompasses all forms of sexual sin. This is perversion.

Second, impurity. Jesus used this word to describe decaying bodies in a tomb. It paints an ugly picture of an impure, dirty, decaying, foul life. Another brand of perversion.

Third, covetousness, or greed. What is that doing on the list? I never think I'm guilty of either of these, but that's a lie. But herein lies the rub for me. Think of it this way. In the filing system of sin, the first two words, immorality and impurity, are specific folders in the drawer of sexual sin. The whole filing cabinet is covetousness or greed. It’s a big, summary term, and all the sin in that cabinet is rooted in covetousness—wanting what I want, not caring what God says, because I come first, and I will have what I want. Yet again, perversion.

Notice that Paul says those three things—immorality, impurity, and covetousness—must not even be named among us. Not much squirming room in that! Zero tolerance, don’t mess with it, not appropriate for the children of God.

Then Paul broadens the scope from physical, sexual sin to verbal, sexual sin. “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). Filthiness refers to general obscenity, any talk that sexually degrades someone. Foolish talk literally means moron words—not playful teasing but nasty mouth or silly, base, perverse filler words. Crude joking turns any comment, no matter how innocent, into something obscene or suggestive. This sexual innuendo is “out of place” in the family of God.

All of this is perversion, the opposite of purity, and it stinks in God’s nostrils. Why is God so concerned about a little bit of impurity? Because at the root of all these sins is something sinister: idolatry. 

“For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5:5, emphasis added).

There’s the rub. 

At the root of these patterns, at the root of a life consumed with sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and filthy talk, is idolatry. In that life, God isn’t the object of worship. Who’s worshiped?  -Self. The unstated mantra is “I’m the one I worship, I’m most important, what I want comes first.” And if that’s the pattern of my life, then I have an idol problem! 

God’s never been casual about idolatry. The second commandment is “NO IDOLS” (Exodus 20:4–6). And the insidious idols for me and some of my close friends are not the cultural idols of our day, they aren’t statues but self. Gratifying self instead of pleasing God. And God’s verdict on my life when I am not fully surrendered to Him? It stinks! 

I am taking a nice long shower in repentance with the soap of grace, and drying off with the word, so when I come before Him, He will inhale deeply and be pleased. And I will be whole again. 

Faithful Father worthy of all my devotion and affection, I find this passage deeply convicting. Forgive me for the perversion in my life, whether overt or subtle. Your Word has authority in my life. I don’t care what others say or think; I want to be a holy person whose life has a pleasing smell to You. Thank You for calling me Your precious love and for giving me a pattern of purity for my life: Jesus, in whose name I pray for grace to change and for steadfastness. Amen. 

This is just an empty cup, I don't want what I want anymore. 

Robbs

ABIDE?! THE TRUE TEST

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31, ESV).

You probably can’t remember the last time you used the word abide in a conversation. Most of us don’t tell our roommates, “If you abide in my house, you live by my rules!” We don’t usually say to our BFF's, “I’m glad we’ve abided together all these years!”

But abide is a time-honored word I like because it makes me stop and think. I’m also drawn to it because Jesus used this word on some significant occasions with His followers. In fact, Jesus said abiding is the test of whether or not we are truly His disciples.

The word abide can be translated “to live within,” “to dwell,” or “to take up residence.” Jesus was basically saying, “If you live my Word,” or, “If your life is a genuine reflection of what I say, you are truly My disciples.” This means that our conversations, interactions, and meditations ought to be permeated with Scripture. We should live so much in God’s Word that it fills us up and overflows constantly from our lips and actions. The beginning of knowing what God wants you to do is knowing what God wants you to know!

Conversely, if we’re not abiding in Jesus’ words—if we’re not basing everything we believe on the book God wrote—we can’t expect to know the truth or experience His freedom. And we can’t honestly claim to be His disciples. When Jesus spoke of the importance of abiding “to the Jews who had believed in him,” He made it clear that recognizing who He is isn’t quite the same thing as surrendering to Him and living for Him.

Abiding in Jesus’ words involves more than saying we believe certain things about Him and about the Bible. It’s about how our lives represent His life and His words. At the practical level, it’s about becoming increasingly familiar with God’s Word over the course of a lifetime. And it’s also about our lives becoming a more and more authentic reflection of the Author.

Abiding means His words are persistently changing us. We’re discovering through practice what David described when he said, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). He knew how to abide.

There’s a lot about your life today that will be mundane and ordinary: driving, working, talking, shopping, listening, and a thousand other things. They can all be done without thinking about God and His glory. But they can also be done while abiding in Jesus’ words, letting His presence and instruction guide your life. The choice you make is an indicator of whether or not you are really one of His disciples.

My personal Integrity Check questions: •During a typical day, when do you most sense that you are abiding in Jesus’ words? 

•When is abiding hardest?

•What about today’s schedule needs to change in order for you to practice abiding in Jesus’ words?

Pray for me and\or with me: 

Lord, it’s painfully obvious to me how easily I go about my daily routine without thinking of You. I don’t want to live that way. I want to walk with You and abide in Your words. I want my life to be a disciple’s life. Yet it’s so easy to get sidetracked with my failures rather than rest in the truth that You want to abide in me and live Your life through mine. Please help me sense today that You long to abide in me so I can abide in Your words. And help me hate evil.  In Jesus’ name and for His glory, I pray, amen. 

The best part of waking up is Jesus and a cup! 

Robbs

"COME."

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1, ESV).

About few years ago I lost sight of my greatest joy and pleasure. [My blog entries tell the story well]. It took a horrible dream at 2am on June 1 2016, to realize the true source of my heartache. 

If you've lost sight of the Lover of your Soul..... like me, God invites you to come back to Him. No matter how far away you’ve wandered or how long you’ve been gone, Hosea 6:1 opens the door: “Come, let us return to the LORD.” That’s the invitation to reviving your heart and soul. 

I love God's voice. 

“Come.” This is a tender-hearted pleading. You don’t have to stay where you are. You don’t have to live the life you’re living. You don’t have to experience the sorrow and heartache you’re feeling. You can return to the Lord. It’s not too late. Return! God is waiting now with open arms. Return to Him!

Doubt can become faith. Discouragement can become joy. Despair can become purpose and fulfillment. Defeat can become victory. How can that happen?

When you return.

The Hebrew term translated return is used more than one thousand times in the Old Testament—more frequently than almost any other term describing what God desires for us. Hosea uses the term twenty-three times. In fact, the entire book of Hosea assures us that good things await those who return to the Lord. [I cannot resist smiling right here! 😇] 

Returning is a picture of repentance and a decision made at a *point in time. Imagine a smoke alarm suddenly going off. You have an instant choice to make: remain where you are or move away from the danger. You may be slow to respond or simply ignore the alarm, hoping it will reset. Perhaps that’s the danger.

In the same way spiritually, when you hear the alarm, how do you respond? Have you grown deaf to God’s call? When God has spoken, have you simply ignored Him? Do you hear His voice today, beckoning, “Come, return”? 

Turning to God means . . .

1. Recognizing. The first part of turning is recognizing that behaviors rigorously rationalized are the real issues in your heart. What has to go? As you let God shine His light on your activities and inner thoughts, you’ll realize, “This is wrong or harmful to me and to those I love. I recognize this for what it is: sin. That used to be attractive, but it repulses me now.” Sin is a barrier to returning, and we have to open our eyes and see clearly.

2. Repenting. When you see what got you where you are, you don’t want it anymore. You’re ready to be honest with yourself and with God. “I’m wrong, God. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I have no excuse for my choices. I’m unworthy, I’m undeserving, but I’m returning.” There is no downpour of mercy without returning, and there is no returning without repentance.

3. Re-turning. If you want to experience the downpour, then you have to come back. This is not just an emotional response or flippant change of mind; it’s also an exertion of your will to get moving again in the right direction. It’s a choice: “I’m leaving this sin behind. I don’t want this anymore. I’m not hanging around that temptation—I’m shutting it off and moving away. I’m returning to the Lord. I want what God has for me—first, most, and best.”

Think of returning to the Lord as discovering a destructive weed in the garden of your heart. First, you recognize it: “Hey, that’s a weed! Get it out of my garden.” Second, you pull it up by the roots—that’s repenting, demonstrating that you are really done with that weed. Third, you dispose of the weed so it can’t sink its roots into your garden again. That’s putting serious distance between the sin and your life.

Today do you hear the call: “Come, let us return to the LORD”? Don’t delay. Don’t try to fix yourself or sort things out before you return. You don’t have to be clean in order to get right with God. He makes you clean! He doesn’t need you to fix yourself (as if you even could). 

He wants my heart and His to be as close as possible as soon as possible.

Come. 

He wants yours too. 

Lover of our Souls, this invitation in Hosea 6:1 says so much about You. You love me. You want me to come home. You want what’s best for me. You’re waiting for me with open arms. Thank You for being “the LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). Today when I hear Your voice, I do not want to harden my heart. No more delays, no more wandering. I’m coming home. I choose today to recognize my sin for what it is, to repent of it, and to return to You. In the name of Jesus, who paid the price for my sin, amen.

This cup is Caffeine Free!!! And on the house! I'm back. 

Robbs 

QUESTIONS JESUS NEVER ASKED

How is your walk with God? 

It's a question that wraps around you like a blood pressure cuff, and the way you answer it says something about your success or failure. 

If I answered "It Sucks! Then it stands to reason that I'm doing something wrong. 

Are you reading enough? Are you remembering God IS Good? Are you praying? What about attending church services? 

Ask me about my walk with God these days, and I mostly hem and haw. I don’t know what to tell you about the state of my faith, which seems to ebb and flow with the seasons and the hours and the moments of my daily life.

While I recognize the importance of the spiritual disciplines of prayer and quiet and Scripture reading, I no longer believe that they correlate directly to that vibrant, heady spirituality that I used to frame as “success.”

I’m not even sure that “walk” is the truest metaphor for my particular spiritual journey. So many days it doesn’t feel like I’m moving anywhere – forward or backward. Rather I’m just here, still – waiting for something like faith to grow inside of me.

It seems truer to talk about my faith life as a tree – so dependent on the soil and the weather and the rain and the sun. Dormant during long stretches of the year, but reaching ever toward a hope I cannot fully understand. My faith is not a movement – a walking toward. The growth is so slow and quiet that you’d never even notice that it’s happening.

Out of curiosity this week, I Googled questions that Jesus asked. I wanted to know if this How’s your walk with God question had any biblical grounding, and so I read through several lists compiled by pastors and bloggers and theologians.

(Here's the list I love to read: The Questions of Christ) 

Reading through Jesus’ questions, so odd and beautiful, so simple and complex, I was arrested by him all over again. I found myself in quiet awe of Jesus who asks:

Who are you looking for? (John 20:15)

Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:13-15)

“Why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26)

"Where is your faith?" (Luke 8:25) 

"Why are you sleeping?" (Luke 22:46) 

This is the Jesus who doesn’t, in the end, ask How’s you’re walk with God? Nor does he ask How’s your prayer life? Are you doing your devotions? Are you in the Word? Are you plugged in to a church?

In fact, none of his questions seem posed to assess the spiritual "performance" of the people he’s talking to. Instead, they reach deeper, toward desire and identity.

His questions reach into the hidden places, the unwell places, the broken places – not to suggest that we get it together, but to show us that HE is holding it together for us.

He is asking: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:32-22)

He is asking “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)

We need Jesus' questions to remind us it’s not our job to fix ourselves. Our work, despite the mixed messages from our DIY culture, is not to give one another spiritual health assessments and then offer 10 steps toward better faith.

Rather, our work has to do with making space for Christ, with making space for healing after we have suffered, with offering grace and mercy, kindness and love.

Ask better questions, sweet pea. Ask them to yourself. Ask them to one another. Ask the questions Jesus asked. Ask that which you cannot answer and then be quiet........

Wait for the whispering of God’s love to fill in all the gaps.......

He always answers. 

"Who do you say that I am?" 

This is an Iced double shot espresso. 

Robbs

DO YOUR BEST...

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:14–15, ESV).

Woven into everything the apostle Paul told Timothy in his second letter are stirring words of long-term, finish-line thinking. 

Paul wanted Timothy to live with the end in mind. 

It’s not those who have a great start, but those who finish well who get the reward. Here is one of those summary challenges toward pursuing a well-lived life: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed. 

The verse begins with a helpful standard of performance, “Do your best.” This can also be translated be diligent, which means make every effort or extend yourself. 

Paul follows that standard with specific actions. As always, the wise foundation for living requires that we stand firmly and passionately—but not arrogantly and not obnoxiously—on “the word of truth.” Consider it this way: you begin by “rightly handling the word of truth,” leading to choices for which you have “no need to be ashamed,”culminating in being able to “present yourself to God as one approved.”

What does it mean to be “one approved”? A person who is approved by God is “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Understand this: God is watching the way we handle His book! Someday we are going to have to account for what we did with His Word. Paul was telling Timothy, and us, to make sure we don’t end up being workers who are ashamed. God wants to say to each of us, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

“Rightly handling the word of truth” has to do with a couple things. First, it has to do with spending time in the word each day reading and studying to know the heart and mind of God. Rightly handling the word of truth has to do with NOT jamming God’s Word down people’s throats—but also not soft-peddling it. It means using the Scriptures in an appropriate, measured way. 

The original expression is literally cutting it straight. It’s used of a bricklayer laying out bricks in a straight row, or of men building a highway. Cutting the Word of God straight means identifying what it doesn’t say and emphasizing what it does say. You rightly handle the word of truth when you don’t compromise it, complicate it, or water it down.

Every time you DO YOUR BEST to insure your effort can meet up with God's grace, to handle God’s Word rightly, you can be sure of His approval. And you will be living with the end in mind.

Paul told me to "remind you of these things!" I hope you will benefit from my effort to present myself to God as one approved, who will not be ashamed because I have rightly handled the word of truth! 

Drip Coffee with Free Refills!! 

Robbs

I AM SO DOUBLEMINDED

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8, KJV).

Have you ever found yourself wanting one thing but doing something totally opposite?

Like maybe after spending an hour at the gym, you decide to eat a Sprinkles cup cake. Chances are, you’ll never reach your goal on the bathroom scale that way. Or you want a good marriage, but you want to keep being selfish. You want to make impulsive purchases at the mall and have financial growth and security. Or you’re not ready to let go of your private addiction (eg: Scandal night), but you want a growing relationship with God. Stop! It doesn’t work that way. These things can’t co-exist, and it’s double-mindedness to want them to.

Notice three things the Bible says about double-mindedness:

First, double-minded people are everywhere.
There is double-mindedness in all of us. There are competing things we want that we try to make go together. And we have to begin to think differently about this.

If I really want this, I’m not going to have that. I have to get off the fence and stop with the in-between. No more half-measures. I have to settle this. What do I really want?

Second, double-mindedness creates instability.
Are the friends wondering which You is coming out today? Is the extended family worried about how that uncle is going to act at the next family gathering? Are all the employees on edge anticipating what the office will be like when "she" or "he" arrives?

Or maybe it’s you. You’re unstable, and you know it. The people around you sure know it. You’re unpredictable. You might try to hide it in public, but people close to you see it and they never know what to expect from you. The bottom line is that you want two things that can’t coexist, and it makes you unstable.

Third, double-mindedness affects everything.
Seriously, everything. The Christian who is double-minded about daily bible reading and prayer? It's affecting his relationship with God and eternal security. The guy who is double-minded about his marriage? It’s affecting his career. The woman who’s double-minded about her finances? It’s affecting her parenting. 

You might protest, “I make some bad financial decisions, but I would never do anything to hurt my family!” Well, you actually are. Double-mindedness affects everything.

Ending double-mindedness isn’t easy, but it’s pretty simple. You have to want to think differently. And you have to take action that reinforces your desire.

Later in that same chapter of James, we read, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22, ESV).

Are you ready to put an end to double-mindedness?

Want what God wants. 

Seek His ways in His Word. 

Confess your desire for two things that cannot coexist, and put off the behavior that is keeping you from doing the thing that will make you more like Christ.

Pray with me:

Heavenly Holy One , I confess that I don’t always want what You want. Sometimes I desire one thing but act in a totally different way. I confess that my behavior can create instability in other areas of my life and hurt those around me. Thank You, Lord, for opening my eyes to my double-mindedness. Help me to think differently. By Your grace, help me to do the things that reflect Your power in my life. In Jesus’ character changing name, amen.

Doppio to Go! 

Robbs

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

“Do you want to be healed” (John 5:6, ESV)?

Whether you’re in the midst of a rough marriage, a health crisis, or just feeling the weight of our sin-worn world, nothing in your life is going to change until you change the way you think. You have to care enough to hope for something better. Bottom line: you have to want it.

Remember the story of the guy who waited for 38 years by the pools of Bethesda until Jesus showed up and healed him? John 5 explains how the angel of the Lord would stir up the pools, and whoever got in the water first got healed. Pretty cool—if you’re the first one in the pool.

Imagine how often the water churned only for this guy’s healing to escape him. How many times in the first year alone did he watch other people get the breakthrough he longed for?

Maybe at year five he was still making a plan. But what was he thinking in year ten? By year twenty or thirty-five, had he resigned himself to permanently camping out and begging by the side of the pool? “This is my life. This is how it’s always going to be.”

Sound familiar? Maybe as you’re reading this, the biggest thing you’re battling is simply the fact that you still think the way you’ve always thought. 

What gets lost is hope, and when you stop hoping, you stop caring.

Remember what Jesus said to the man by the pool? He knew he’d been there a long time, but Jesus said . . . wait for it . . . “Do you want to be healed?”

It sounds like a rather obvious question from the God of the Universe, doesn’t it? So, clearly, He was after something different. He wanted to know what the guy was thinking.

Was he still hoping to be healed? Or had he lost hope?

Do Christians lose hope? Yes, we can. We stop hoping for several reasons.

We stop hoping because hopeless people suck the hope out of us.
Picture this. You get up in the morning, get into God’s Word, and spend some time in prayer. You get your mind set on Christ and leave your house super positive, ready for the day and trusting God. Then someone shows up and says, “I would be so depressed if I were you! You must be miserable! How long have you been single [or sick . . . or out of work. . . .]?” You had some hope, but they drained it right out of you. 

Are you surrounding yourself with people who have hope, or people who suck the hope out of you?

We stop hoping because it’s hard to hope.
Hope doesn’t come naturally—you have to work at it. Think about it. Nobody works at negativity—that just shows up, right? You have to discipline your mind to think differently.

We stop hoping because it hurts to hope.
The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). When we hope, we make our hearts vulnerable to being disappointed. Inevitably people let us down, things get us down and it hurts. 

Maybe you are hoping—or were hoping—for God to do something in your heart and life, or say, in one of your friends or family members, but you haven’t seen it yet. So you’re not praying anymore and you’ve hardened your heart.

But ask yourself this: can you see that it hurts even more not to hope? Can you see what happens when you don’t care anymore—when you don’t even pray?

You have to think differently. 

Scripture tells us to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer”(Romans 12:12).

As Christians, we know that no matter how many peaks and valleys we go through in life, this whole thing is heading fast toward a massive, forever celebration. We’re fired up about that, and we look forward to it!

The world sees only a hopeless end; Christ-followers see an endless hope. And this hope lives not just in eternity, but here and now as God meets needs, answers prayer, carries burdens, forgives sin, changes lives, and increases joy as we journey to that endless hope.

Heavenly Father, my hope is in You. I praise You because You are faithful and loving and always have my sanctification in Your sovereign plan. Help me to discipline my mind to wait on You, pray to You, and rejoice in Your eternal hope until the day my faith becomes sight. I need your grace to do this.  In the name of Yeshua, our living hope, amen.

DRINK & PRAY

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit.” 

Verses 19-21 describe the effects of being filled with the Spirit. The effect in verse 19 is very musical. Clearly joy in Christ is the mark of being filled with the Spirit. But not only joy. Also gratitude in verse 20—perpetual gratitude, gratitude for everything. (Which obviously eliminates grumbling and pouting and self-pity and bitterness and scowling and murmuring and depression and worry and discouragement and gloominess and pessimism!) 

But not only musical joy and universal gratitude, but also loving submission to each other’s needs (verse 21). Joy, gratitude and humble love—these are the marks of being filled with the Spirit. To this should also be added boldness in witness from Acts (see Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 13:9). No one can fail to be bold and eager in witness when the Spirit is producing in him overflowing joy, perpetual gratitude and humble love. O how we need to be filled with the Spirit! Let’s seek it! Pursue it!

How? 

Start with the closest parallel: “Don’t be drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit!” How do you get drunk with wine? 

You drink it. Lots of it. The wine of Paul’s day was so weak you would have to drink for hours to get drunk. So how then shall we get drunk (filled) with the Spirit? Drink it! Lots of it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “We were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Jesus said, “If anyone thirst let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit.” (John 7:37f).

How can you drink the Spirit? 

Paul said, “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). We drink the Spirit by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. What does “setting the mind on” mean? Colossians 3:1, 2 says, “Seek the things that are above…set your minds on things that are above.” “Setting the mind on” means seeking, directing your attention toward, being very concerned about (Philippians 3:19), being devoted to and taken up with. So drinking the Spirit means seeking the things of the Spirit, directing your attention to the things of the Spirit, being devoted to the things of the Spirit.

What are the “things of the Spirit”? When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man does not welcome the things of the Spirit,” he was referring to his own Spirit-inspired teachings (2:13) about the thoughts and ways and plans of God (2:8-10). Therefore, “The things of the Spirit” are the teachings of the apostles about God. Jesus also said, “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life” (John 6:63). Therefore, the teachings of Jesus are the “things of the Spirit.”

So drinking the Spirit means setting our minds on the things of the spirit. And setting our minds on the things of the Spirit means directing our eager attention to the teachings of the apostles about God and to the words of Jesus. If we do this long enough we will get drunk with the Spirit. In fact we will get addicted to the Spirit. Instead of chemical dependency we will develop a wonderful Spirit-dependency. (I totally want to be under the influence here!) 

One more tip: the Holy Spirit is not like wine because he is a person and is free to come and go where he wills (John 3:8). Therefore Luke 11:13 must be added. Jesus said to his disciples, “If you then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” If we want to be filled with the Spirit we must pray for it. And that is just what Paul does for the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 19. He asks his Father in heaven (verse14) that the believers “might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Drink and pray. Drink and pray. 

Drink and pray.