Slowly Perfected by the Lord

Have you ever baked a scrumptious cake or another yummy dessert?  Have you ever made a delicious dish that was so awesome, you couldn't help but give yourself props?  What is it that makes the perfect dish?  The answer is time. My mom always told me to cook on low heat and to let the food cook slowly. The longer you let something cook, the better it turns out. The flavors have time to slowly merge and richly compliment the dish. I have to admit that sometimes, I'm in such a hurry that I pull the dish out too soon. To my dismay, it's often not ready, and back in the oven or stove it goes.  Our Christian walk is similar to this.  God is slowly perfecting us to be that mature Christian and powerful men and women of God He has called us to be.
James 1:2-4 tells us,

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [testings]; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

God's testing in our life is meant to bring us to perfection or spiritual growth.  When we are tested, God is producing patience in our lives. It is that patience that brings us to spiritual maturity and to the place God is taking us to.  If we try to interrupt what God is doing or take matters into our own hands, we are cutting our process short and not letting the flavor of God truly develop within us.  If I may say,we are taking the "dish" out too early.  Therefore, we won't be fully perfected and entire.  When we allow God to fully make us into what He wants, we end up truly winning because the finished product is fully done and nothing more needs to be added to it.  We become what God truly intended us to be.  We will lack nothing spiritually because God has truly finished what He has started. T.D. Jakes wrote the following words. Keep in mind, although it was written for a woman, it applies to men and women alike:

Every woman who walks with God walk through storms winds and rain. O woman of God, your life is filled with challenges and victories, smiles and tears. You are like a sweet salve mixed by an apothecary. You are a careful blend of life’s many spices. Your personality is a potpourri of so many different things that years of knowing you will not reveal everything that makes you who you are. You are carefully concocted, slowly simmered, and stirred patiently by the Lord. It is amazing how deliberate God is in preparing you for you destiny. He knows what event it will take to bring you to a place of maturity in Him. He is your Lord.

Let us allow God to take His time in forming and molding us.  The final product will be amazing. 

The Pilgrim's Journey

In light of the coming holiday season, here is some food for thought. Am I getting excited about the holidays? Absolutely. LOL.

This last month in my 8th grade U.S. History class that I teach, we've been exploring the colonization of the Americas in its early beginnings. Colonists had many reasons for relocating to the Americas.  Many people left Europe hoping to free themselves from debt, start new businesses and make profits, and some just wanted a fresh start.  Later, a group of people came from England and settled in the New England area in what is now Massachusetts. These people left England because they desired to have freedom of religion, the right to worship God as they saw fit. They became known as the pilgrims and separatists. The pilgrims desired a better place than where they came from. They sought a destination where they could explore the realms of Spirit without fear of persecution. They were blessed in that they found a destination, and through them as well as other colonists, the United States of America was birthed. Today in our country, we still enjoy the privilege of being able to worship God freely and serve Him as He has been revealed to us.

     As I reflect on the pilgrims' journey, my spirit nudges me to another group of pilgrims listed in the book of Hebrews 11. Abraham, Sara, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Moses's parents, Joseph, Joshua, Rahab, Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jepthae, David, and Samuel as well as so many others were pilgrims in the truest sense. Hebrews says this about our heroes and pilgrims of the faith:

"Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (v. 32-40).

These pilgrims as you will note, were wanderers, meaning they settled in no particular area. The reason being that they desired a better country, a heavenly one (v.16).  They did not involve themselves with the cares of this world for they knew that this world was not their home, they were just passing through. Hebrews 11, referring to two of the greatest pilgrims, Abraham and Sara, says that by faith, they journeyed to the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with their families. They looked for a city that had foundations whose builder and maker was God (v. 9-10).  Why did they dwell in tents when God had already given them the land? They could have made a permanent dwelling, yet they understood that God had prepared for them a heavenly dwelling better than this world could offer. Now that's faith! Referring to the pilgrims of faith, Hebrews also says,
 
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (v. 13-16).

 

These pilgrims understood they were on a journey whose destination was heaven. They had eternity in their hearts.  They could have returned to their old way of life, but they knew that it meant nothing in the greater picture. They desired something better. They desired Jesus Christ. In the light of Jesus Christ, the cares of the world were foolish and unimportant. It was this attitude that caused God to open his arms to them and made Him not ashamed to be called their God.  He was preparing a special city for them.  These pilgrims would not be let down. Later in Hebrews 11:38, its says that this world was not worthy of these people. This world will never be worthy of the kind of people who give it all, even their very lives, to serve Jesus Christ

      My question to you today is simple. Are you a pilgrim or a settler? If you are a settler, you have become comfortable and content with your place and success in this world. You see the world as being able to offer you riches, houses, money, fame, love, success etc.  The end of this life will soon come, but you cannot take those things with you to eternity. Have you become too comfortable in this life? Does heaven even excite you anymore? If not, then it is possible that you have become a settler. 

     If you are a pilgrim, you see your life as a vapor, short-lived. You understand that only what you do for Christ on this earth will last  into eternity. You have chosen to set your affections on heavenly things (Colossians 3:2) and you're storing your treasures in heaven because that's where you want your heart to be (Matthew 6:20). Your heart is set on Jesus Christ. When we see our lives in the light of eternity, we realize that all hurts and pain we have experienced in this life do not even compare to what will later be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Just like the pilgrims, our temporal pain is just the entrance way to eternity. The pilgrim's life is the most rewarding.  If you are a settler, there is still time to change your mindset. It simply takes you picking up your tent, just like Abraham and walking on with eternity ahead of you, never looking back. Won't you do so today and make heaven your home?  I leave you with the words to one of my favorite songs:
 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

Letting Go of Ishmael

Sometimes it's hard to let go. Giving up our own dreams, our wants, our desires, and our plans can be just plain difficult initially (you will later see that God's plan is wonderful and perfect). When God gives us a promise, He has his very own unique way of fulfilling it that does NOT require our help. Our temptation is to sometimes think that we can help God along in fulfilling His promise, as if the Almighty Sovereign One needs our assistance. When God gave Abraham and Sarah the promise that they would have a son, they both realized that the task was completely out of their hands. Afterall, they were well beyond the age to have children. After much frustration and impatience, Sarah took matters into her own hand and had Abraham go into her servant Hagar, hoping that an heir would be born to them through an alternative method. Ishmael was born, yet God still confirmed to the couple that this would not be the heir that was part of his divine plan. Time passed. When Ishmael was still a young child, the Lord spoke to Abraham again and reconfirmed his promise to him concerning Isaac, "I will bless her [Sarah], and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations...And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!"  (Genesis17:16,18).  At this point, it is evident that Abraham and Sarah had long given up on the promise of God for their very own son.  They already errored in taking matters into their own hands and trying to fulfill the promise of God on their own, but what was worse is that they were still willing to settle for less than what God had for them. Their plan may have slighlty resembled  God's promise, but it was not the real thing. Ishmael, no matter how much embraced and loved, would never compare to God's plan and would never be God's plan.

     When the time came for Abraham to let go of his son and his mother, the bondwoman, Abraham had trouble letting go. As we read, he told God, "O that Ishmael might live before thee." Abraham at this point had come to love Ishmael and was close to him. He had warmed up to being a father. Everything probably  felt so right to him, except for the little voice in the back of his mind telling him there was something more that God had for him and Ishmael was not it. Abraham probably wanted so badly for Ishmael to be the one, but the truth is, when its not of God, it's not of God.  Nothing can change God's sovereign will, not anybody or anything. We see that Abraham finally came to terms with his mistake and eventually, once Isaac was born (aah, finally!),  was forced to send Ishmael away with his mother. Sending him away, although painful, meant that God's plan of Isaac would flourish.  Both plans, the one of the flesh and the one of God could not coexist.

Sometimes in our human or fleshly spirit, we birth things that are not of God.  Sometimes in our impatience to see God fulfill a promise given to us, we produce something of our own will.  We embrace it, we nurture it, and we hope that God will fit it into his plan for us. Our plan may feel like a bit of the real thing, but its' not the real thing. What is of the flesh is flesh, and what is of the spirit is spirit. The book of  Romans, referring to Abraham and Sarah's ordeal says, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed, for this is the word of promise...(Romans 9:8).  Galatians also says, "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewomen. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the freewoman was by promise....What saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." (Galatians 4:23, 30)  This scripture has many applications, but I would like to use it to show how what is born out of our own will cannot coexist with the promise of God.  Just like Abraham, we must be willing to give up what is not of God to receive from Him what is. We cannot keep our own plan and have God's plan for our life as well.  Sacrifices must be made so that God can fulfill His perfect will in our lives.  His will is sovereign and nothing can change it. Our will can never be his will no matter how much we wish it.  This will end in heartbreak for not only us, but for others who we involve. Ishmael and Hagar were hurt  and damaged because of Abraham and Sarah's disobedience which is quite sad, but in the end, God's plan stood supreme. I have had my share of Ishmael's in my life, watered down versions of what God really wanted to do in me. Take this from a gal who has started three different masters programs for example. lol. Thank God he kept nudging me on to something better.  I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I would have allowed God to work perfectly through me instead of taking matters into my own hands. Yes, God is full of grace, as we see that he had mercy on Abraham and Sarah, but we must be careful with the consequences of letting our plan exist too long.  What problems they could have avoided if they would have continued to trust in God and not have allowed their frustration and impatience to get in the way. I remember the testimony of Nona Freeman from years ago. She talked about her work in Africa and how much God used her and her husband for a special calling. Yet, she notes how as she looked back, she realized how much more God could have done through them  if their wills would have been pushed out of the way completely.

My question to all of us is what Ishmaels do you need to release today?  What is keeping you from receiving what God really has for you?  Is it a job, a person, a dream, a plan of your own. In Jesus Name, I pray you have the strength to let it go so that God can work perfectly through you and release His dream, His desire, and His plan for you.  You may not understand now what God is doing, but know that His plan is beyond what we can understand. It was through the promise of Isaac that we have salvation today. Imagine what this world would have missed out on if Abraham and Sarah would not have let Ishmael go. Hold on to the promise of God as if it is already fulfilled. Nurture it. Embrace it. Believe it.  Let go of Ishmael and see God do a work in you that will have eternal blessings.

April