His Wonderful Acts

 

“I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”

—Psalm 77:12

In this season of Thanksgiving, we need to curb our busy rushings to complete our many tasks, even if for only a brief time, and consider the goodness of our Lord. Over and over in the Psalms, we see the admonition to give our praise and thanksgiving to God. In Psalm 111:4 we read:

He has made His wonderful acts to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and merciful and full of loving compassion.

God intends for us to notice and meditate on the wonderful acts He does for us. He wants us to observe them and to purposefully review them. We can blow our minds, so to speak, by recounting the “mercies and providences of God”—as Christians in past centuries referred to them. Seventeenth century Presbyterian minister, John Flavel, wrote the following: ¹

There is not a more pleasant history than our own lives. If you would but sit down and review, from the beginning, what God has been to you, and done for you. Consider the special manifestations and out-breakings of his mercy, faithfulness, and love in the conditions you have passed through. Let your thoughts dive as far as you can to the bottom, to plumb the depths of providence, and admire them, though we can’t touch the bottom.

If you will allow me to do so, I would like to suggest the following Exercise to help us understand how God has worked in our lives:

• Let us sit in a quiet place and center our minds, perhaps by reading a Psalm full of thanksgiving.
  
  
• Then, taking paper and pen, we should go back over our lives—yes, from the very beginning—and write down major mercies and graces that God has given to us.
  
  
• As you work on this Exercise, think of family, education, life experiences, people, church life, health, material goods, talents, and noble work afforded to us.
  
  
• Also, think about our understanding of God and our personal relationship with God Himself.
  
  
• Next, we should review our lists during this week and arrive at Thanksgiving Day with joy and gratitude in our hearts—joy like we’ve never before experienced.
  
  

I sincerely believe that we will encounter so many mercies and graces that God has poured into our lives that we will have trouble putting down our pens. Through this exercise, I believe we will come to understand that God has given His wonderful acts for us see and to remember!

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1 Flavel, John (author) and Richard Rushing, editor. Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading, Vol. 2. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016. p. 272.

 

 

Time to Hurry Home

 

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

—Proverbs 18:10

I found myself in a suburban Conference Center in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 11, 2001. The news of the attacks shocked me to the core. Insecure and, with my husband in another part of the Conference Center teaching a seminar, I felt very alone. More than anything, I felt it was time to hurry home. On another occasion, as I drove through a blizzard, unable to see either side of the road that I knew was framed with deep ditches, I only wanted one thing: to quickly, but cautiously, press onward until I could see the familiar lights of home.

In thinking about the way we respond when faced with times of danger, or other things unknown, I remembered my experience as an Elementary School music teacher. A little Preschooler in my classroom, insecure and afraid, often cried out and declared through tears: “I wanna go ’ome!”

Spiritually speaking, when we are afraid, lost, lonely, feeling abandoned, or facing danger, where do we first long to go? Job, in Chapter 23 of the Old Testament Book that bears his name, spoke these words:

Oh, if I only knew where I might find him!

For Job, his God represented “home” to him. And, in the loving presence of God, Job knew he would find the place where he could rightly feel at home. As Psalm 91:9 tells us:

If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

When disaster threatens us, or when times of trial overwhelm us, God wants us to hide in Him and trust Him for our security. On such occasions, it is time for us to hurry home. Famous preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, wrote: ¹

God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer … Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides.

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1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Morning and Evening. Mclean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Co., Public Domain. p. 649.

 

 

Perfect Practice Makes a Perfect Performance

 

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.”

—1 Timothy 4:7 NIV

You’ve heard the expression, “Practice Makes Perfect.” From painful personal experience, I’ve learned that more accurately, “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.” In fact, “Perfect Practice Makes a Perfect Performance.”

As a life-long pianist—having studied in my youth for nearly 20 years with professional teachers and having taught piano to young students myself—I know, all too well, the results of imperfect practice. My first teacher—a nurturing, patient woman who forever placed within me a love for playing the piano—did her best to give me a very solid foundation, even though she readily admitted her own inadequacies. However, I developed habits of poor technique that followed me into my college years. For example, my pinkies had to learn to stand up and I had to help them develop strength and usefulness as “leads” in the making of sonorous melodies. My college professor gave me humiliatingly boring exercises to break many of my bad habits. But, oh, the results I achieved!

Christians develop wrong habits too. Many of them come with us from our lives as unbelievers: selfish and even unaware of God’s higher standards. We may not have spread “godless myths and old wives’ tales,” as the people apparently did in Timothy’s churches. But, we may have learned, for example, to run to friends with juicy tidbits of gossip we hear. The Apostle Paul warns the believers in Colossians 3:9:

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

The Apostle clearly realizes that a practice of lying, or stretching the truth, or deceiving another with a skewed report, can be a habit especially hard to break.

I found in playing the piano that often in practice time my mind would go on “automatic pilot.” My mind would not pay attention what I was playing. So, to break old habits and form new ones, we must first engage our focus. Secondly, we must determine to obey God through His written Word. Then, the long slow process of practice will need perseverance and patience.

How long before a new habit takes hold? Note this report from an on-line article by Signe Dean: ¹

… according to a 2009 study, the time it takes to form a habit really isn’t that clear-cut. Researchers from University College London examined the new habits of 96 people over the space of 12 weeks, and found that the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is actually 66 days; furthermore, individual times varied from 18 to a whopping 254 days.

Progress in making a change in our spiritual lives will sometimes go slowly. Mistakes will occur. Yet, to attain a mature Christian life, the practice and re-practice will yield great results. In speaking about Christian maturity, the author of Hebrews writes about the need for believers to grow up from drinking only milk to eating solid food. In Hebrews 5:14, we read:

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

God expects us as mature—or “perfect”—disciples to give up the old ways and practice the holy disciplines and habits that will result in greater glory for Him through our lives.

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1  Dean, Signe. Here’s How Long it Takes to Break a Habit, According to Science. www.sciencealert.com, September 24, 2015.

 

 

Given Into Our Hands

 

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied.”

—Exodus 4:2

Sam Kressler played the saw. This older gentleman in my home church—a farmer, a man who loved both God and His church—didn’t have any formal musical training. Nevertheless, Sam Kressler had a handsaw and he had a desire to play music to honor the Lord.

Dorothy Anderson, a single woman in a church at which I was once a member as an adult, nurtured fabulous flower gardens. She gave her flowers a great deal of attention. She carefully and lovingly decorated the Communion Table in the church sanctuary with her blooms every week, without fail.

Catherine Winkworth, a Nineteenth Century English woman, had a particular interest in German chorales. As a personal devotional exercise, she began translating German hymns and German chorales into English. By the time she had finished her passionate labor, she had found and translated 400 hymns, including the following well-known hymns, which we cherish in our congregational singing today:

• “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee”
  
  
• “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”
  
  
• “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”
  
  
• “Now Thank We All Our God,”
  
  

The Old Testament Scripture records that Moses only had a staff to offer to the Lord. Oh, but how God used that staff of this famous patriarch! With that staff and with direction of the Lord, Moses brought about the plagues on the Egyptians, parted the Red Sea, brought water from the rock in the wilderness, and defeated the Amalekites.

Similarly, young David had a slingshot and five smooth stones. Yet God used those implements to defeat a giant—Goliath—and his mighty army.

Considering how God has used what He has provided in each of these instances, I am prompted to ask this question:

“What has God put into our hands?”

God has given each one of us something that He wants us to use for His glory. And, God will surely use the gifts He has given us, if He also has our willing hearts. We must never think that anything God has given us is too small, or too insignificant, for Him to use for His glory.

As we give ourselves to God today, let nothing seem out of reach for His mighty use. We will be surprised what He draws on for His purposes.