Tag: security

What is Your God Plus?

On By sashakatzIn FemmeFuel by Sasha Katz1 Comment

The past few weeks, God has been giving me a chance to really see where my security rests.  He is causing me to ask myself, Do I trust in Him or do I trust in the things He has given to me?  That’s a hard question when what you expect is not exactly what you see.  Do I trust in the fact that He gives me the ability to work?  Financial security?  Or do I trust that the Giver provides exactly what I need?  In His timing.  These are the things I ask myself as I move through a season of change.  As I move through what feels uncomfortable to me.  From the past, I know that God is always faithful to me.  What I don’t know is what that looks like from season to season.

Looking back in time, I see that my God shaped hole has to do with being afraid.  And, the biggest part of my afraid is going somewhere alone.  I have no idea where I would be going that God would not go with me.  But, when I am stretched, when I feel limited, when I feel weak, my fear is that this is the point in which God is going to send me off for a run on my own.  The fear is in part abandonment.  The fear is in part a question of His love.  That God shaped hole, that He filled so long ago.  I admit that God is using this short season to fill in the tiny leaking crevices.  In that God shaped hole.

When I look deep inside my soul, I see that I trust God.  But, I also have the fear that He just might make me go alone.  Although that is alternative to every Word our God speaks, I fear alone when life puts me in a pressure cooker.  If I really think about it.  If I believe it’s God who is allowing the pressure cooking.  If I believe He is the Master of All.  If I believe He is the bottom line for how much pressure He will allow.  If He’s the one flipping the on button, picking the temperature and choosing the time.  If He’s the one who is locking the top and putting us in there together.  He’s the one who is with me.  If I believe He is the Master of All.  If I believe He is who He says He is, I can’t be alone.  In the pressure cooker. Or ever.

Inside the locked top, He is the one who knows what causes me to grow.  He is the one who is letting the heat burn off my self security.  He is the one who tells me that He is my Helper.  He is the one who calls me to give sacrificially to Him under all circumstances.  The primary reason I don’t want to be inside the pressure cooker is my fear that I will find myself alone.  With no power or tools or faith to make it through the short season.  And that my whole life and all of my efforts will burn up in the cooker.

And, now the smile is rising up in me.  Now, I catch the wisdom of the Lord.  Yes, all that He really wants is for me to live like my whole life and all of my efforts are burned up in the pressure cooker.  He wants me to live my life welcoming the crashing waves as they pull out the sand from the shore.  He wants me to live my life welcoming the pulling out of my self security.  He wants me to live in anticipation of what He places within me after He pulls out something from the flesh in me.

I pray that you would ask yourself today where your security rests.  I pray that you would examine what you think sustains you in this life.  I pray that you don’t look surfacely and conclude you don’t have any secret requirements.  We all have a tendency to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls and then add something to that . . .  that looks and feels more secure than God alone.

What is your God plus?  Look into the eyes of God and ask Him to take it.  He is who He says He is.  His intimacy, power, love and goodness stand higher, deeper and stronger than whatever you are limiting Him by.  Sister, whatever you have decided to give up today, please do share so that we can all be strengthened by the deep wisdom and power of our God.

FF Dec 7

Finding Refuge During the Storm

On By femmefuelIn FemmeFeatures by Bindu Adai-Mathew, March 2012Leave a comment

By Bindu Adai-Mathew

To me, there is almost nothing more satisfying than lounging on my living room couch with a blanket, hot cocoa, and a good book in the midst of a storm and torrential downpour outside. As I watch the rain thrash against my window pane and I listen to thunder boom outside, I sink deeper into my couch and sigh with blissful satisfaction and peace. I love the feeling of warm and comfort my blanket and hot cocoa give me. I love the support and security that my fluffy couch provides. And I love the safety and security I feel, knowing that I am in my home, protected from the raging storm outside.

That, my friend, is what it is like when we find our refuge in God. Like our home, he protects us in the midst of the storm. Like our blanket, He covers us, providing us with sustenance, with comfort, with peace. We can rest assured, knowing that despite whatever is going on outside, He is with us inside, protecting us, comforting us.

Before he became king, David had to find his refuge in God. He literally had to live and hide in caves as King Saul pursued him. Imagine his predicament from his viewpoint. As a teenager, Samuel showed up in him home, anointing him the next king of Israel…and years later, in his early 20s, where is he? Is he sitting on the throne, being fanned by palm leaves and fed grapes while also ruling a nation? No, he is running from cave to cave, living like an outlaw as he awaits God’s appointed time.  Imagine the despair, the frustration, the disappointment he had to battle through as he struggled during that time. You actually don’t have to imagine it…you can read about it in many of the psalms he wrote. You can hear the despair in his voice as he pleads with God to protect him from his enemies. He faced setback after setback, but the scriptures tell us, David encouraged himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30: 6).

Sometimes the struggles we face are torrential downpours and we can find comfort and safety in our home, watching and knowing we are safe…but sometimes, those torrential downpours are like hurricane winds, threatening to blow our house down…or like a tornado that leaves nothing in its path unscathed. But again, that is when we have to dig in deep and find our comfort, peace, and security in our faith and God.

There is a childhood song I remember singing in Sunday School:

The Wise Man Built His House

The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rain came tumbling down

Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the wise man’s house stood firm.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rain came tumbling down

Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the foolish man’s house went “splat!” [clap hands once]

So, build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
And the blessings will come down

Oh, the blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayer go up
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what is your “house” built on? If it’s built on God, even hurricane winds and tornadoes cannot touch the security and protection that only God can provide. He will envelop you under his wing and protect you through the storm…until that appointed time, when you will soar like an eagle.

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31