Recently, my husband and I had a telephone conversation with someone we have known and loved a very long time. I remember listening as this person began to tell us what was going on in their family life. That call literally made me weak as I envisioned the situation. It was a hard gut punch. My heart was broken, and worry began to engulf me. I still remember the call, and I remember the fear, anxiety, and scenarios that played out in my head.

While that conversation played out in my mind, it caused me to stop and think of other situations in which we were emotionally involved. I thought of both my brother and sister who are facing difficult health issues, my brother who had just lost his daughter, and my niece who is facing a battle with colon cancer.

Remember the old saying “when it rains it pours?” Have you ever had a season like that? It is one really difficult, heart-rending situation after another, and there seems to be nothing but challenges ahead.

“God, please don’t let one more heavy thing come my way right now.”

As I have prayed about the situations in my life, I keep hearing this, “Will you trust Me with the outcome?”

In Daniel chapter three, there is a story of three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were faced with a dilemma. I know many of us are very familiar with the story, but if you are facing hard dilemmas in life, I challenge you to go back and read it again. Ponder the story.

These three guys were facing the dilemma to cave to the pressure being placed upon them or stand strong in their trust of God and risk sure death in a fiery furnace. Let’s remember that they are living this in real time. Real time is harder than reading it after the fact! They chose to stand and trust God.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were about to go into a fiery furnace. They were bound to make sure they did not escape the flames. It was impossible from a natural perspective. There seemed no way to break that which bound them.

Many times, in life, you and I are facing things that seem to have us totally bound with no way out. Our hands are tied, our feet are shackled, and we have no control over the situation. Oh, we might not be physically tied up, but mentally we are fighting the shackles of fear, anxiety, helplessness, and “what-ifs” that life situations bring.

Here is a question for us, “Will we trust God with the outcome, even when we have no idea what the outcome will be?”  Those three young men said, “Our God is able to deliver us … but even if He doesn’t, we will still serve Him.”  Their confession was, “We do not know the outcome, but we know the One who will have the final word in this situation.”

My favorite part of the story is King Nebuchadnezzar’s response after the three men were thrown into a deadly, fiery furnace. Then, King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a god.”

Notice, man had tried to bind them, but God gave them the power to walk about freely even though they should be bound. The trial actually freed them from that which had tried to bind them.

Sometimes, we all face waters that seem too deep for us and flames that are too hot for us. Let us grab hold of the promises in Isaiah forty-three. Read it from the New Living Translation.

“When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.
For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” – Isaiah 43:2,3 (NLT)

That is a promise you can hold onto when you are in deep waters, between a rock and a hard place, or in a fire of oppression. It is then that we can say, “I will trust God with the what ifs and the even ifs.”

My husband and I rarely go to buffet restaurants. There was a time that was not the case! We would go to buffets that seemed to offer miles and miles of food. Thankfully, food was grouped together, so we could scurry to the “good” stuff. I would pass the broccoli, salad, and cabbage. It was much more appealing to head to the steak, fried chicken, fried vegetables, and dessert – I mean desserts. Buffets are à la carte eating at its finest. Buffets offer the opportunity for one to go into a food coma and become useless for the next several hours.

Buffets are marvelous because one can feast on only what a person wants and leave the rest.

It seems that we are in a time of buffet Christianity where we take the Word of God and make à la carte selections. Choose the parts you like and avoid the other parts. Let me give a couple of examples.

Jesus had a lot to say about a real hell, and He made sure to teach that it is not somewhere one wants to end up when their eternity begins. Jesus had a lot to say about hell at the end of Matthew 25 and the end of Mark 9. These are the actual teachings of Jesus. Talking about hell from a pulpit might not fill the building, yet it is something that needs to be taught. Hell is a broccoli kind of subject – let’s head to the dessert bar instead!

Let me give one more example. I have been shocked at the number of Christians, even pastors, who think all roads lead to the same God. That is not what the Bible teaches. We are in a time when the true Gospel message is offensive to those who want to hang out at the dessert bar.

I recently heard a clip that went something like this, “Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can approach the Father except through faith in Jesus (John 14:6). You cannot approach God through good works. You cannot come to God by meditating on your inner self. We can only approach the Father through faith in the sinless Savior of the world. Don’t like that part of the Bible? Take it up with Jesus.”

Now to some, the above message is broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage all in one bowl!

Do you like buffets? Well, I can offer you a great one! Go to the one offered in the Bible. I challenge all of us to go to the whole counsel of God. Eat from all parts. Read whole books of the Bible and taste of the broccoli, the fried food, the steak, and the desserts.

Read the Bible à la carte on occasion, but don’t eat that way all the time. Don’t be a picky eater. We need to eat of all that God’s Word offers. Come to the table, taste and see that the Lord is good. Eat bountifully from all that He has to offer.

Never have I been a good water-drinker. I am not a person who is thirsty by nature; so, if not careful, I will go long periods without drinking something.  My body has known a lot of dehydration over the years. Once while watching my son play baseball on a very hot summer day, I watched the entire game without drinking anything.  By the time I got to my car, I almost passed out. The problem was dehydrated living.

Recently, I have been determined to drink more water. Determination is wonderful, but it still requires follow through, which did not happen, so I continued to suffer from dehydrated living.

One day I discovered something called an infusion pitcher. The infusion pitcher takes plain old water and infuses it with flavors from fresh fruits and vegetables. After filling the pitcher with water, a cylinder is filled with fruits and/or vegetables and put into the core of the pitcher of water. The openings in the cylinder allow the fruit to change the taste of the water. Each new pitcher offers new taste and new refreshment. I now go looking for a drink of that water. The difference is the core.

So many people are dehydrated in life, and some of those people are believers, God’s people. One can get up every morning out of the same old bed, eat the same old breakfast, drive the same old route to work, do the same routine things, come home to make the same old dinner, watch the same old television and go back to the same old bed, wake up and do it again the next day.

When walking with God, it is so easy to get into a perfunctory relationship with Him. Read a chapter a day in the Bible, go to the same old church, listen to the same old pastor, sing with the same old worship team, go home and do it all over again. That is dehydrated Christian living. We have lost the core that flavors that walk and gives meaning to “taste of the Lord and see that He is good.”

At the core must be the presence of and reliance on the Holy Spirit. When I invite the Holy Spirit to be present with me as I read God’s word, as I worship, as I pray and I walk through life, it destroys spiritual dehydration. It is easy to jump right in without first inviting His presence. When the Holy Spirit is at the core, He will open heaven, and give victory from that which sucks the life out of us. The Holy Spirit will continuously pour into our lives “springs of living water.”  Our lives are only as effective as what is at the core. When the Holy Spirit and His fruit are at the core, the Word comes to life, worship is powerfully intimate, and we experience an overcoming life.

I have said goodbye to dehydrated living! How about you?

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.” – Isaiah 44:3-4

It has been twelve years since we lost our son Bryan. If I stop and think about that Saturday morning phone call, I can still feel the gut punch from the news, “Your son went into cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated.”  What? Did we hear that correctly? How can this thirty-seven-year-old man, husband, son, brother, and soon-to-be father be gone?

Gaylon and I had served God and been in ministry for more than forty years at that point in our lives. We had walked with God, and God had walked with us. Though that was the case, the next several months were dark and hard. Twelve years later we still miss our son, but the difficult days of heavy grief are fewer and far between. Notice, I did not say we never experience grief, but that the very heavy days are fewer and far between.

This past weekend, Gaylon and I attended the tenth annual Bryan Benton Memorial Golf Tournament in Hickory, North Carolina. I saw many of the young men and women that Bryan had gone to college with, played football with, been friends with. Many had been a part of Bryan’s wedding, and on the day of the tournament, there they stood with their own spouses and children. They showed up to honor a friend and colleague.

I stood there as opening remarks were given, and to my surprise, tears began to flow. Some of my tears were certainly from recalling my son and his life, but many were thanksgiving to God for life after deep grief. As I looked at Bryan’s son Tucker and his mother Sarah, I saw their laughter and joy. I rejoiced with them that their lives had been renewed and filled with happiness. I saw Bryan’s friends, who loved him deeply, and they had joyous lives.

We had all learned to live with grief but not die in grief.

Grief is a challenging thing, and there is no handbook or magical formula to say how long one will feel its heaviness. Grief is the painful, complex process of dealing with the losses we encounter. Maybe you have received devastating news, an unexpected diagnosis, or the dreaded phone call of a loved one that has died. It is easy to feel as if you will never breathe again.

Twelve years later, may I offer a little advice to help us with the journey of grief? This is not perfect advice, and it is not time-stamped as to how long these stages take. I do know that God wants to help us walk all the way through the valley of the shadow of death.

1. Feel what you feel. Even if you are a strong believer or Christian leader, grief is grief, and you do not have to pretend the sorrow is not there.
2. Cry as much as you wish. It is okay to cry and would be shocking if you did not cry in the midst of grief.
3. Let God bring you comfort. He will carry you – He will! Friends try their best to say or do the right thing, and sometimes that is helpful and other times it is not. As hard as it might be to do, sit down and ask the Holy Spirit to come and strengthen your hurting heart. I did this during the day and sometimes in the middle of the night. I cannot explain it, but there were times God showed up in the middle of those times and brought comfort. Cry out to Him and tell Him your heart is worn out and you feel like you cannot take another step.
4. When the time is right, start being around others. Don’t let yourself become isolated forever. This might feel difficult at first. Start with close friends going on a lunch date or meeting for coffee.
5. Accept the new normal. I do not have to like my new normal, but I have to come to terms with the fact that my family has a new normal. Part of my normal includes realizing that Bryan’s death is a marker in my journey of life. I might say, “That happened before Bryan died, or after Bryan died, we did so and so.”  During football season, we will sometimes say, “Bryan would have been so excited about this.”
6. Give yourself the freedom to laugh again and live again. Bryan died on February 11. For the next several months, when the eleventh of the month came, I would stop and say it is the eleventh of the month. Then one month, it was the fourteenth of the month, and I realized that I did not remember the eleventh of that month. At first, I felt guilt, then I realized that God was helping me to learn to live again. Life was emerging again.
7. Encourage others who are facing grief. (This part does not come quickly. It might take time, and that is okay.)  I do not have the right words for someone’s grief, but I can encourage them that I am praying for them and thinking of them. I occasionally contact those who are going through loss. I just want them to know that I am thinking of them and praying for them.

If you are grieving, and feel stuck, stop now, and pour out your heart to God. Ask Him for strength to take one step forward, and then take it. Then, take the next and the next and the next. Keep walking. God does give supernatural strength to press on. There is life after grief.

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18; “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” – Psalm73:26.

Recently, I felt so surrounded by life. Do you know what I mean? When there seems to be pressure on every side? The feeling I had was like the timid kid on the playground who was surrounded by the meanest bullies around. That kid feels overwhelmed, afraid, and maybe helpless. There seems to be no way through the bullies.

As we deal with a season of spiritual warfare, especially when it is warfare over the ones we love so much, it can feel like being surrounded by bullies that are bigger than we are, stronger than we are, and smarter than we are. I have felt this way, haven’t you? I want to believe there is a strong lion inside of me, but at times it feels like a little kitten.

A great man of God named Elisha experienced this situation. The story is told in Second Kings chapter six beginning with verse eight. It is a remarkable story to read, giving us insight into the spiritual battles that we face. An enemy army surrounds Elisha and his servant. It is just the two of them being surrounded by an entire army. Surely, there is no way out. Elisha’s servant began to panic and said, “We are surrounded. There are two of us and an entire army circling us.” In other words, we do not have a chance!

Elisha was surrounded by the same army as the servant. He was in the same battle as the servant. BUT – Elisha knew a greater source than the source that was surrounding him. Elisha looked at the servant and said, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” I would love to get a look inside the brain of the servant. He must have thought, “Oh great! Not only am I surrounded by an army, but I am also in the middle of the circle with someone who is out of touch with reality!”

Then, Elisha prayed a marvelous prayer! “Oh Lord, please open his eyes that he can see.” Elisha did not belittle the servant who was facing a faith crisis. Elisha knew that only God could open the man’s eyes. The Bible tells us that the Lord opened his eyes, and the servant saw. Here is what he saw, “Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”  The servant got a vision of the unseen world which was much more powerful than the vision of the natural world. That glimpse into the spiritual realm changed EVERYTHING!

Elisha’s servant moved from natural thinking to supernatural thinking. In the supernatural realm, the servant’s fears were gone. He no longer thought it was two against an army. He realized the army of God was there to do battle with him.

This is the way we need to live on a day-by-day basis.

Some either do not acknowledge that there is a war between spiritual forces, or they are afraid to talk about it. There is an unseen world around us. Part of that unseen world is the army of evil that is trying to pull us away from God and cause us to walk hopeless and defeated. Today, God wants to remind us of the other army that is far more powerful than all that comes against us.

I highly encourage you to read this story today and the rest of the days this week. Let it lift your faith to see into the unseen world, the supernatural world.

Today, I pray that God will help us to see beyond what we see! Let us allow God to help us to live in light of the spiritual power He has placed within us! I had already prayed for situations that seemed insurmountable today. Now, I am stopping and saying, “Open my eyes to see into the heavenly realm, to see that those things that surround my life are surrounded by You!”

My four-year-old grandson stood in front of my chair just staring at me with a puzzled look. He was literally two feet from my face. He said nothing for a moment, so I asked, “Judah, are you okay?”

Judah looked at me and said, “Why is your face so red? It “wooks” kind of like a “cwown’ (clown).” I chuckled and said, “I have on something called blush. Do you think it’s too red?” Judah nodded his head.

I got up and looked into a mirror. Because the room was sunny and bright, I could see that indeed, my cheeks were a little too blushy. I proceeded to take a tissue and wipe off some of the blush. After a few strokes of the tissue, I asked Judah if it looked right now, and he answered me in the affirmative.

Earlier that morning, I had put on a little blush, but I did not turn on the lights. I thought I could see well enough in the natural light, but once the bright light shined on my face, I could see the correction that was needed. But I would never have looked at my face if someone who loved me had not pointed it out to me.

Who do you have in your life that you allow to correct you when something is off spiritually? Maybe even something you do not see in yourself.  Let’s face it: Accepting correction can be hard. It is easy to fall into thinking that we know best and that someone else does not have the right to tell us to change. Oftentimes, we interpret correction for judgment.

Hebrews 12:11 says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” I believe that a loving rebuke is one of the highest forms of love that one person can express to another.

It is painful to be corrected, and it is painful to be the one doing the correcting. As I look back through the years, I can pinpoint painful experiences when a friend or friends cared enough about me to wound me. I hate to think of where I might be today had they kissed-up to me rather than showing me things that were harming my growth in Christ and my efforts at ministry. I am a stronger person today because of these friends. These were friends that I knew loved me and cared about my walk with God, not someone I hardly knew who just did not like something about me.

When someone corrects you, or points out an area where you might need to grow, what is your first reaction? Let me guess. It is probably not, “Thanks, I was really hoping someone would point that out to me.”

We all have “blind spots”—negative parts of our life or character that we cannot see. Sometimes, we even know we are willfully walking in sin. We all need someone who loves us and will say, “You need to get this out of your life.” A true friend will love us enough to tell us the truth, even at the risk of hurting our feelings.

We all need at least one friend, a good, godly friend who inspires us to be more like Christ — a friend who is positive and encouraging, but painfully honest when needed. If you do not have a friend like this, ask God to help you find one. Such friends have been some of the greatest blessings in my Christian walk.

In Second Samuel chapter twelve, there is a story that illustrates the need to have someone who will speak the truth in love. It is the story of King David who lusted after a married woman named Bathsheba. When she became pregnant with his child, he had her husband killed and married her to cover up his sin. 

However, this sin was not hidden from God. Thus, the Lord sent Nathan to David with a message. 

Nathan told David a story of two men, a rich man, and a poor man. The rich man had a large number of sheep, while the poor man only had one little lamb that he loved dearly and treated like his own child. When a traveler came to the rich man, instead of slaughtering one of his own sheep, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the traveler to eat.

David responded with great anger. “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:5-6).

Nathan replied, “You are the man!”  David had everything, but still took another man’s wife. David had been described as a man after God’s heart, yet he needed a Nathan to say, “Look what is in your life.”

Nathan did not do this so he could let David have a piece of his mind. He did it for David to come back into alignment with God. David repented of this wrongdoing (which he writes of in Psalm 51).

Every one of us needs a Nathan. We get so used to our sins that often we have become blind to them, or sometimes simply enjoy having them around. We do not even notice them anymore. We all need bold, loving Christian friends who call us to repentance.

“Everybody Needs a Nathan!”  Who is yours?

Reuben Gonzales was in the final match of a pro racquetball tournament. In the fourth and final game, Gonzales made a super kill shot into the front wall to win the game. The referee called it good. Two linesmen affirmed that the shot was in. But Gonzales, after a moment’s hesitation, turned around, shook his opponent’s hand, and declared that his shot had hit the floor first. As a result, he lost the match and walked off the court. Everybody was stunned. They could not believe that a player with victory in hand disqualified himself at match point and lost! When asked why he did it, Reuben said, “It was the only thing that I could do to maintain my integrity. I could always win another match, but I could never regain my lost integrity.” 

I have often pondered the word integrity. As a Christian, integrity is especially important in my life. There was a time in my Christian walk that I was a bit loosey-goosey when it was convenient for me. Today, I can truly say that I do not want to confess one thing and live another. Integrity is sorely lacking in our world.

With twenty-four-hour news available to us and more social media posts than I care to think about, there is a constant churning out of stories of people doing things which show a lack of integrity. Who can forget the scandal of musical duo Milli Vanilli passing off recordings of songs that were not even their voices? Politicians are accused of taking bribes, lying, cheating, and sexual misconduct. Priests and pastors are suspected of abusing children or leading a hidden life of immorality. I recently read the story of a church deacon arrested for killing another driver in a case of road rage. It can make a person wonder if there are any people of integrity anymore.

My heart has been grieved and deeply troubled by the growing number of well-known ministers who have fallen because of a lack of integrity. They were people who were very gifted and adored by thousands and thousands. It matters not how gifted a man or woman of God is if there is a lack of integrity in their behind-the-scenes life. This is true for those in the pulpit and those on the pew.

I make an appeal to all of us to bow at the altar of God, ask for a cleansing, and commit ourselves to walk in integrity. People should be able to look at our lives and witness a standard of God’s morals and character. As believers, we should be who we declare we are not just in words, but in behavior, actions, and lifestyle, and walking in Christlikeness.

“Integrity may not always offer the quickest path to fame or riches, but it offers the path that leads to blessings, not just for you, but for those around you too. The blessing of being a person of integrity is the blessing of being the person you were created to be, being the person God wants you to be, and being the person the world needs you to be. –  Dr. Brian Koning

Brothers and sisters, integrity matters.

“The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices.” – Proverbs 21:3

Is there a lot going on in the world around us, a lot of hard stuff, frightening stuff, dark-filled stuff? Your response might be, “That is a very dumb question!”

Gaylon and I pray together every day. We come humbly thanking God for His goodness, His blessings, and His sustaining power in our lives. When the time to bring petitions to the Lord comes, we have quite a lengthy list of people for whom we have agreed to pray. We also pray for a country that I believe to be in perilous times. We ask for divine intervention in our lives and in our country.

Occasionally, I look at the prayer list, and I get a bit overwhelmed. It is so easy to get bogged down with the enormity of the needs. Cancer. Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s Disease. Families facing autism. Broken families. Those who have recently lost loved ones. A move of God in our churches, our families, and our land.

I think David often felt that way. No writing of David better expresses the depth of emotions when facing a dark time than does Psalm 13. It might very well be the deepest of pits that David endured.

O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
    How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
    with sorrow in my heart every day?
    How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
    Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
    Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.
    I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
    because he is good to me. – Psalm 13 (NLT)

The writings of David in Psalm 13 and other Psalms are very revelatory. David’s psalms are a journal of sorts as he reveals what was on his mind. David did not act like he was never afraid, never rattled, never angry, nor exempt from trouble. Yet David also journals something over and over – the goodness of God.

In times of trouble, he reminds himself of the characteristics of the God to whom he belongs. He trusts God, gives thanks to Him, and praises Him. He tells of His wonders. He lists a number of things that he can count on God to do, even if it appears on the face of it that the enemy is strong. The statements he makes are expressions of faith, not descriptions of what he sees around him. Often what started off as how tough life is, ended with shouts of praise!

What a great spiritual habit to develop. While your brain is listing all your troubles and trials, let your mouth and pen list all the wonderful traits of the God to whom you belong. Write your own psalm to and about God. As I pray over my list of worries and cares, I am going to stop periodically along the way and proclaim the goodness of God, the power of God, and the trustworthiness of God.

That is faith building. Just ask a guy named David!

Recently, I read a story about a newly married couple. One of their favorite pastimes was to go for a drive in their truck in the evenings.  The husband would get in the driver’s seat and the wife would sit in the middle of the bench seat, sitting as close to her man as she could.  In order to have quiet time from the activities of life, they took this evening drive frequently.

A few years went by, and they kept up the routine of the drive, perhaps more out of habit than anything else.  But as time went by, the wife slowly inched away from sitting close to her husband. Eventually, she completely stopped sliding over next to her husband at all.  Instead, she would just climb in and sit in the passenger seat.

One day she said, “I miss the days when we were so in love that we were inseparable and cuddled close.” The husband replied, “I never moved.”

Recently, I realized that I had slipped away from my closeness with God. Oh, I was saved. I prayed prayers every day, although rather perfunctory at times. One night as I was tossing in my bed unable to sleep, I felt troubled. As I lay in the darkness, I asked God, “Why don’t I feel You like I once did?” I know feelings are not the basis of my walk with God, but there are those times, when I realize that my relationship with God is suffering.

The year 2024 has not been a dream year for our family. We have faced the death of a brother, a brother-in-law, and a niece who faced a hard battle with ALS. Another sibling is battling memory issues, and another has had so many medical issues. I could list other burdens, but you get the picture. Life gets extremely hard.

Whether intentional or unintentional, I began to scoot across the seat from God. It was not all at once, but little by little. I was a restless, careless drifter from the presence of God. That night in bed in a darkened room, I decided that things were going to change starting the next day.

Revelation 2:1-7 addresses the issue of “scooting across the seat” as believers. Jesus spoke to the Church at Ephesus. He commended them for all the work they were doing and all the evil they were shunning. In reading those verses, it is almost as if Jesus is saying, “Thanks for all you stand for and all you are doing in my Name. However, it is YOU that I long for. You no longer love me as you once did. I miss you cuddling right up next to me.”

Jesus did not say that the Ephesians had lost first love, but that they had left first love, had forsaken first love. They were still in church. They were still doing good deeds. They were still standing for righteousness. They were “good” Christians. As admirable as all of that is, the heart of Jesus said, “I miss YOU.”

Rick Renner stated it this way, “As we walk with the Lord, there is always a danger that as each of us grows older in our spiritual walk and become more structured, polished, refined, and doctrinally developed, we will slowly start to forfeit the zeal and spiritual fire we once possessed. What we once held as precious tends to seem routine over time, and as we become accustomed to God’s precious Spirit in our lives, too often we unintentionally begin to simply “traffic” in the things of God.”

The morning after my wrestling in my bed, I remembered the words of Revelation chapter two. Jesus gave a formula for restoring first love: Remember. Repent. Redo.

1. Remember. I have often been known to break out in a song while teaching the Word of God in a conference. Quite often that song is, “If you could see where Jesus brought me from to the place I am today, then you would know the reason why I love my Jesus so.”  I remember what a mess I was when Jesus took me in His arms. He forgave every sin. I remember how Jesus Christ healed the trauma, confusion, and anger I was carrying. Remembering caused me to rekindle first love. It would do us all well to pay a visit to the foot of the cross on a regular basis. Oh, what a Savior!
2. Repent. I knelt in the presence of God and repented of allowing so many things to rob my time with Him. I repented of the attitudes and ugliness that had taken over my tongue, at times. I asked Him to forgive me. It is easy to ask forgiveness for what we call the major sins. Yet, I think it is the attitudinal things of the heart that trip us up most. Lord, I repent. Forgive me.
3. Redo. What did I do when I first understood this Savior of mine? I began to worship on a daily basis. I would play worship music, singing at the top of my lungs, while cleaning my house, and handling the normal things of life. I invited Him into everything. I praised Him through all things. His praise was ever on my lips. I began to practice the presence of God from early morning and through the day.

I purposed in my heart that I would set aside no less than thirty minutes each day to read, sing, pray, and slip across the seat and get closer to God. In a matter of days, the difference was undeniable. U-N-D-E-N-I-A-B-L-E. I found that the time with Him got longer and longer because I did not want to leave His presence.

Is it possible that you have slipped across the seat from God? Has your relationship with Him become mundane? Today, God is simply saying, “Draw close to Me, and I will draw close to you.”  I am so glad to serve a God who is more interested in my relationship with Him than keeping a tab of all I am doing for Him.

As I write this, my own heart is stirred once more to stay close to God. Is God calling to You today to scoot across the seat? Remember. Repent. Redo. He awaits you.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” – James 4:8

If each of us had a long time to talk and share our lives based on our scars, we would hear many stories, stories of pain. From a fleshly vision point, we often think of our scars as being ugly. After all, we are in a world where beauty and youth are worshiped.

Let me share a few stories of scars that I have on my body.

The largest scar that I have is several inches long and is on my abdomen. It is not pretty, believe me! Though it is a bit unsightly, there are times the scar beckons me to gaze at it and recall why I have that scar. When I was forty-four years old, I was suddenly faced with a frightening diagnosis. After examinations, an MRI that lasted thirty minutes, blood tests, and a long talk with my doctor, he told me that tests seem to indicate that I had ovarian cancer. Surgery would be required, and a surgical oncologist would accompany the doctor. The oncologist would take over after the tumor was removed and stage the disease.

There were more mind battles during that period of time than I care to think about or describe. Yes, I am a Christian believer, but that does not inoculate me against the battlefield of the mind.

Miraculously, a large tumor was removed, and to the doctor’s shock, it was benign. There had been much prayer, even prayers of relinquishment that God would have His way no matter the report. I wanted Him to be glorified.

Today, nearly thirty years later, God has blessed me with a good life, flowing with the river of His presence, filled with a new generation of Bentons known as grandchildren, and a ministry of teaching His Word.

Yes, the scar is ugly, but oh the scar is beautiful! It reminds me of that period of time when God was present even when I had no idea of the outcome. God was with me!

I also have a scar that I wish I did not have. It is on my nose, right between my eyes. As a young child, a sibling threw an empty vegetable can and hit me on the nose. Where the can had been opened was sharp, and that part hit me causing an ugly gash. Had I been taken to the emergency room for stitches, the scar would not be so prominent for all to see. There was no money in the budget for that!

Occasionally, the scar on my nose will catch my eye, and I am reminded of my childhood. Even though the cut at the time was painful, my childhood was much more painful. I have often shared my scars from childhood, not to get attention, not to get pity, but to speak of the healing power of Jesus Christ. While my wound on my nose was visible at the time, and my scar is visible now, my childhood wounds were rarely if ever visible. The years of abuse that my siblings and I endured were so hard. They deeply wounded my young heart and robbed me of innocence and joy. That nose scar represents years of tears and sorrow, but that scar epitomizes that God can give beauty for ashes. He can turn mourning into dancing.

Were those days hard? Indescribably hard. BUT … I love that scar now. I had no idea that the God who created the universe, would make me a new creation over time. Those internal wounds from childhood are now internal scars showing that healing has occurred! I share those unseen scars with others. I want to be a herald of the good news that Jesus not only saves, but He also heals emotional damage and restores new life to dead places.

My scars represent more than the presence of a previous wound. They represent healing. They represent new life. They represent miracles. They represent God at work in hopeless times. They represent God’s provision.

What scars are you carrying today? Stare at them and remember what God has brought you through. That same God will bring you through what you are facing today.

It would be nice not to have scars on this fleshly body of mine, especially the highly visible one between my eyes. But, oh the stories behind the wounds that are now healed. Thank God for my beautiful ugly scars!

“…I will give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. I will give them the oil of joy instead of sorrow, and a spirit of praise instead of a spirit of no hope. Then they will be called oaks that are right with God, planted by the Lord, that He may be honored.” – Isaiah 61:3