Shaping Me

In the past week, I have had a handful of people text me or specifically call me to share how God put me so strongly on their hearts to pray for me.  How honored am I?!  The non-coincidence is that in the last few weeks, I have felt a unique movement and intimacy of the Holy Spirit.  Literally, I have sensed something new and something fresh in my Spirit.  I have had so many thoughts, impressions, and lessons that are exactly what I need to for some exciting days that are ahead...He is preparing me, equipping me, positioning me.   Literally the prayers of the family of God are SHAPING ME.  I TANGIBLY feel them shaping me.

This leads me directly to a place of gratitude.  I am so thankful that I serve an intimate God that loves me enough that He puts my name on the hearts of the Saints.  Who am I?!  And I am even more thankful that the prayers of His people are effective.

Exciting days ahead...so thankful God is getting me ready...

Disappointment

This past Sunday, my pastor appropriately preached Luke 18:28-40 about the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.  He presented clearly the cultural, geographical, and historical significance and relevance of this story that left me with a deep empathy for the Jewish people. For the first time, it became piercingly clear how the bi-polar Jews went from waiving palm branches and singing Hosanna to several days later handing him over to be crucified.

They were disappointed- to say the least.

Now that my curiosity was peaked, I went back this week and read different parts of the gospels trying to wrap my mind around what transpired in "Holy Week".  But I read it with the lens of the Jewish people trying to understand their heart, expectation, and hope. 

The Jewish people in Jesus' day were longing for a physical King to come and rule and reign their land.  Prophecy after prophecy revealed that one day this Messiah would come and bring an end to their oppression and the days of old would be restored.  The temples would be rebuilt and God would dwell with them.  They longed for spiritual restoration and for salvation.  You can't blame them.  This is what the prophets proclaimed and everything about Jesus was pointing to him reclaiming the throne.  

I can picture the joy and excitement the Jewish people must have had in their hearts as they physically experienced and witnessed the prophecy being fulfilled as Jesus rode in on that donkey.  So much that they did everything culturally (sang Hosanna, waived palm branches, and laid their cloaks down on the road) that declared their allegiance to their King.  Hope had come.  Jesus would reign and all would be restored.  Such relief they must have felt knowing that the God of Israel had come through for them in the way they wanted.

Then I began to think about the hours that immediately followed His entry into Jerusalem.  How anti-climatic it must have been.  Nothing happened people.  Nothing.  Everything was as it was before.  Hope now seemed stupid and pointless.  I am sure embarrassment followed.  Then such deep disappointment.  And then eventually anger because several days later they chose to free a criminal instead and chose to crucify Jesus.  Their hope turned into disappointment and their disappointment  to a place of anger and anger to complete disengagement.  

And that's when I realized there have been so many seasons in my own life when Christ didn't leverage His Kingly authority in a way that I felt was right or just or of any benefit to me.  And then I finally understood why the Jews crucified him.  They were done.  They put their faith in something and when it didn't work out exactly the way they thought they checked out and didn't look back.  

But the Jewish people were short-sited. They weren't all knowing like God.  They didn't understand the immeasurable beauty of the New Covenant that would be poured out for them.  They didn't see the big picture or how God was at work.  

I empathized so strongly this week with the disappointment  the Jewish people must have experienced.  I have lived an amazing 28 years, but man their have been huge seasons of disappointment. Disappointment that has created in my own life areas of disbelief, fear, and insecurity. And disappointment that was so deep that it caused my heart to disengage. 

And the truth is tonight as I write this I am battling areas of my life where years of past disappointment continues to linger leaving me with disbelief and I have spent too many years fighting to keep my heart engaged.  To have fervent faith and a holy hope that in the end might result in the same foolishness the Jewish people must have felt on that Palm Sunday.

But the truth and awesome promise I rest in tonight is that God is King.  KING OF KINGS.  The Covenant promise that I inherited is the greatest gift I can receive as a daughter of the King and I just want to REST in Him.  I want PEACE.  I want TRUST.   And I want every piece of me to yield and surrender to the reign of My King.  I want to believe with every fiber that He is good, that He is who He says He is, and that He does everything for me out of love.    

We have all had seasons of disappointment.  I pray that we fight the urge to check out.  I know He meets us in our unbelief and there is nothing in life more rewarding than a life submitted to the KING OF KINGS.  Let's be vibrantly alive with faith, hope, and love.  

So let'sCELEBRATE this week in the death, burial, and Resurrection of our King Jesus.