Don't Waste Your Pain

(This is the second half of the the message that was shared at the Be Still and Know Retreat for ClayHouse. This is the part that I spoke - adapted for this blog.)

Turn with me to Psalm 136. This is David’s psalm of remembrance.

V. 1- Give thanks to the Lord for He is good – “His love endures forever”

v. 4- To Him who alone does great wonders – “Hid love endures forever”

V. 10- To Him who struck down the first born of Egypt –“His love endures forever”

V. 12- With a mighty hand and outstretched arm –“His love endures forever”

V. 13- To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder – “His love endures forever”

V. 16 – To Him who led his people through the desert – “His love endures forever”

V. 23- To the One who remembered us in our low estate – “His love endures forever”

V. 24 – And freed us from our enemies – “His love endures forever”

V. 25 – and who gives food to every creature – “His love endures forever”

V. 26 – Give thanks to the God of Heaven - “His love endures forever”

Here in these verses we see that David goes back all the way to the beginning of time to recount the wonders and goodness of God.

He mentions things that God did long before David himself was ever born. In V 16 he recounts one of the driest times in his ancestor’s history – the desert. Yet he is thankful for it and recounts God’s goodness and love in the desert.

Lastly, in verse 26 he refers to God as the one who gives food to every creature. This is a statement of faith based on what he knows about God from the past and what he believes to be true about God in the future based on that knowledge. He believes that God will continue to prove faithful to every creature.

This passage is significant for us because it gives us an example of remembrance. It gives us an example of faith based on God’s character not our circumstances. Faith based on the trust we get from knowing Him.

Remembering how God has proven Himself in the past is a powerful motivation for believing God in our present. Even if we feel like we have to go all the way back to Christ on the cross – start there. Start recounting the memories you have made with God. Your active remembrance of His faithfulness will increase your willingness to trust him today.

Let’s go to Joshua chapter 3.

I will quickly set the stage for you. The Israelites had been wandering in the desert for 40 years. They had followed Moses out of Egypt and into the desert. Moses died and here we are with Joshua and a fresh generation and God is about to do a miracle to show His mighty power. To give them a way into the promised land.

 Read Joshua 3:15- 4:7

Here God is instructing His people in building memorials to remember the great things He has done for them, 1. So they can say “See God loves us. God cares and God is good.” And 2. So they can tell their children about the wondrous works of the Lord.

This is expressed in Joshua 4:18 – “No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the water of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.”

There was no physical evidence of the wonderful thing God had done. If they looked back would they even believe He had intervened in their lives? All they had was the stone altar.

This is what God said about that altar in Joshua 4:21 – “In the future when your decedents ask their fathers ‘what do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.”

And verse 24 – “He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

So, here we are. Facing our Jordan. Facing the unknown. Carrying the past on our shoulders. Maybe you have recently journeyed through a desert or maybe you feel like you are still there. Maybe you feel like you have come so far and endured so much and bare so many marks. Maybe you can look back and see the footprints in the sand that represent your progress but maybe you still feel like your promised land is far away and there is just so much to face on your way.

God is calling you to the banks of the Jordan and as He told Joshua, He is calling to you – “Do not be afraid! Do not fear! Do not be discouraged!”

The banks of the Jordan begin your walk of faith. The walk of remembrance.  Actively remembering God in your past turns into believing God for your future.

This is where we lay down the burdens we brought with us from Egypt. This is where we search our hearts. This is where we lay down, drop our huts and wounds. This is where we decide what we are going to do with our pain. The things we have endured in the dessert. The marks we have on our hearts. We musn’t waste our pain. We must let our pain be the door we walk through to a deeper intimacy with the Father.

If you are like me, you have heard most of your life that “the past is in the past”. “Move on”. “Live and learn and then move on to the next thing”. But consider this, the experiences of the past, including the ones that were painful, just might be the most powerful tools we have for strengthening our future with the Lord and with others. So, again, I say, let’s not waste our pain. Use it to build an altar unto the Lord. A memorial for what He has brought you through.

What are your marks? What are the lies you have believed about yourself? What are the sins you are guarding? What is keeping you from taking that first step into the Jordan?

For me I have been marked by:

D-Depression

A-Anxiety

A-Sexual abuse

P-Perfectionism

D-Doubt

F-Fear

And so much more, but I can say I have faced Jordan rivers recently with regards to these marks.  And now I can say, I picked up my foot. I boldly stepped forward in faith. There was a time I felt like I was being consumed by the desert. Now I see that God walked with me and we made memories. I finally dropped my old marks for new stones of remembrance. I built an altar unto the Lord from the stones He gave me and now when I come to the desert or the river, I can look at my memorial of God’s faithfulness and say, “See! God loves me. God is good. God brought me through once before and He will do it again!” When the enemy stirs up my doubt and unbelief I can go right back to my stones of remembrance and say, “No! God has delivered me from doubt and fear before and He will do it again!”

These are statements of faith based on what I know to be true about God’s character because of what He has done for me in the midst of my pain.

But maybe you feel like you  have a backpack full of old rocks – old pains, old marks on your life and very few or no new stones of remembrance with which to build an altar unto the Lord. Nothing to return to. Start today. Right now.

We all have pains, wounds and marks that fight to define us. But God is here wanting to take you through on dry ground to the other side where He will give you a new identity for each one of your pains. He will give you new stones to replace the old ones. These stones are light. They are full of life.

So, steady your heart and open our ears. Jesus is here. The Holy Spirit is here and He longs to speak to you. Even as you sit at your computer, reading this,  you can ask Him to speak to you and you can hear His voice.

You can pray this prayer right now -

Father, I thank you for opening a way for me to speak directly to you and to hear what you have to say to me. Right here where I sit, I invite the Holy Spirit only. No other spirit may speak to me. I open my ears and heart to hear your words for me.

Now, as you read this and pray, God will show you the pain, the wound, the sin, the mark that has been deceiving you, hurting you, disabling you. God does not reveal things to you to embarrass you. He does not reveal things to you unless He plans to heal you of that thing and to help you through it. Pick up a rock from your garden, or a piece of paper from your desk or anything you can write on.  Ask Him to show you what mark He would have you write on your stone, your paper or in your journal.  Then, write in faith.

When you have written the word or letter on your stone (or paper etc) and you are ready to die to that thing. To lay it down. To drop it. To let go. To step in the healing waters of the Jordan. Move forward in faith believing He is bringing you through that Jordan. When you are ready to make this move with the Father, throw out that old stone or paper or mark out that word in your journal. Drop it, lay it down. Ask the Lord to reveal a new word of healing for you. What is the word He is speaking to you to replace your old mark? Maybe it is “Healed”, “Free”, “Whole”, “Brave”, “Cherished”…. Then write that word on a new stone, or on a new paper or a new page in your journal. Put it in a place that you will see it. For this is the stone that will begin or add to your memorial unto the Lord’s faithfulness and goodness in your life.

Maybe it’s not your stone of remembrance, maybe it is your stone of faith. A representation of your first step into the deep waters of trust with the Lord.  Maybe this will be the very first stone of faith you place in your life. Do not fear! He is faithful!

Hosanna!

Recently, my children and I have been studying ancient history and a big part of that is walking through the Bible one book at a time. We are in Second Kings now. There are few things that have been standing out to me in light of the upcoming Passion week.

1. How different life really was back then. In fact, how different life is for us here in America than many other places on this planet.  There is a link going around on facebook that highlights the difference between a child’s bedroom in many of the developing countries around the world as compared to our children’s bedrooms here. The stark contrast is evident in the the size, the décor, the level of comfort items etc. Basically, there are many many people living today with practically nothing. To some of these, I imagine many of these people, it is just their way of life. It is not a bad thing or a good thing. It just is. This is how it was in Bible times. There was not much to be had by most.  This is an excerpt from David C. Cook’s Journey through the Bible: an Isrealite woman spent almost all of her time working around the home. She had no time or money to spend on beauty care. Baths were rarely taken… Only a few women were wealthy enough to own makeup…. A woman spent most of her day preparing food and spinning cloth for clothing. It took hours to grind grain into flour… After the flour was made, it was baked into bread. Everything had to be done by hand. Each morning and evening, it was the woman’s job to walk to the well and draw water for the family’s needs…. At night, she awoke several times to refill the lamp that kept burning till morning.

2. These people valued the small things they did have. Allow me to read another brief excerpt – Almost everyone owned a cloak, but most people had just one. Cloaks were similar to the outer coats of today, but much more versatile, and taken almost everywhere. Most cloaks were made from animal hides, goat or camel hair, or from wool. Because it took so much time to make them, cloaks were valuable and were not thrown away until completely worn out. It was a common sight to see a cloak that had been patched many times. A cloak was worn as protection against the burning sun, and for warmth in the cold night. But these were just two of its uses. On a warm night, a cloak made a soft pillow. At a meal, it was lid on the ground and represented a special seat for an honored guest. A bundle of goods was carried home from the village in a cloak. A farmer tied his cloak into a bag, emptied his seeds into it, and planted his fields by hand…. A cloak was sometimes given to a lender as a pledge for a debt. And when torn into pieces, a cloak symbolized great sorrow or grief.

Keeping this in mind let’s read Matthew chapter 21:1-11

"Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethpage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them’ and immediately he will send them.' All this was done that it  might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying: “tell the daughter of Zion ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Remembering the glimpse we have taken into the life and culture of these people it is astonishing and humbling to hear of them laying their garments, their cloaks, on the road to honor the King of Kings. Some of them may not have even been sure who He really was. Still they laid down the one thing that was so incredibly valuable to them. The one thing that could cost much time and money to replace. The one thing that they could call theirs and they most likely cherished. They laid it down on the dirty road in front of a couple of lowly donkeys. Yet they laid it there in honor of the One who came to them. In honor of the One who, in a short time, would actually be laying His life down for them.

What do you have today, that you are willing to lay down in front of the King? What have you been holding on to, thinking “I might need this someday?”. What have you cherished, and coddled and held as a treasure? Or maybe it is something you have hidden away to keep it safely whole. Maybe it is something you have not been willing to bring out into the light. Maybe it is an acceptable addiction (or not so acceptable). Maybe it is the love of comfort. Maybe it is materialism. Maybe it is hidden sin. Maybe it is your heart. Your life, your talents, your calling, your dreams, hopes and desires. There is much to be brought before him. Much that he wants and would be honored by our relinquishing of.

Here we are tonight. Embarking upon the holiday we use to commemorate the Life that was lain out, bare, before the world. The Man who took all of our things, our stuff, our hidden secrets and personal treasures upon himself. What is it that you will lay down before him in honor of His life? In honor of his kingship? In honor of his Sacrifice? In honor of his love?

Lay it out. Lay it down. Let it go and give it to Him.