Many friendly competitions have started with these words – “Ready, set, go!” or “Get ready, get set, go!” These words signify that action is imminent, whether it be a foot race or a marshmallow eating contest. There is this moment of anticipation that something is about to begin.

Ready. When competitors hear that word, they are supposed to prepare themselves. This is mental preparation. The time for waiting is over, and it is just about time to act. Be on the alert because it’s almost go time. Get ready.

Set. This word tells competitors that they should make sure their bodies are in position This is physical preparation. This is the time to do whatever you need to do to be sure that your body can spring into action in the next moment. Get set.

Go! It’s on this command that the competition begins – the moment that the preparation turns into action. At this point, there’s no time for one more stretch or any additional practice. The race has begun. Go!

Today is a day when many of us celebrate love. Valentine’s Day is a Hallmark kind of holiday. There are people who are into it and people who can’t wait for it to be over. But taking the time to think about love isn’t a bad idea. In the words of a song that Dionne Warwick made popular in 1966 – “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”

It’s been a long, hard year. People are tired and worn out. There’s been loss, disappointment, contention, and plenty of stress. As believers in Christ, we have an opportunity to step up and share God’s love with people who really need it. It’s not really a competition, but it certainly is a challenge. A challenge issued to us straight from God’s Word.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” (1 John 4:7-12, NLT)

“‘So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.'” (John 13:34-35, NLT)

We should consider ourselves challenged. Our Father has given us clear directions. If we haven’t loved well lately, today is a new day. Let’s step up to the start line.

Get ready. We need mental preparation for this challenge. We need to find out all that God has to say about loving others in His Word. We need to pray that He will teach us to love like He does and that He will give us opportunities to demonstrate His love. We also need to depend on the Holy Spirit who is at work in us to produce that kind of love. These preparations are completely necessary if we are to succeed.

Get set. There is physical preparation involved as well. We have to put ourselves in a position to love and serve others. We need to be where the hurting people are in order to love them well. That might require leaving the confines of our comfort zones. We might even have to take on a position of humility (I’m reminded of Jesus taking up the basin and the towel).

Love! It’s time to spring into action. There are hurting people all around us who need the hope that we have. Let’s spend ourselves on loving them. As we do that, God’s love can be brought to full expression in us, and the world will know that we are His.

Dear Father, You are love, and You teach us how to love. Please help us to have a compassionate heart toward the people around us who need to know Your love. Prepare us mentally and physically to be able to share Your love with others this week as we have the opportunity. May we have open eyes to see those opportunities, and may Your love at work in and through us bring hope to the hurting. Amen.

-Dana

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

Ring a bell?  I’m definitely dating myself, but the refrain “I get knocked down, but I get up again; you’re never gonna keep me down,” got me through many a night during my medical training. I took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’, or something like that.  Resilience.  Getting back up when you’ve been knocked down.  A skill we have all had ample opportunity to practice over the last year. 

Last week, I got knocked down a few times.  And I realized, I’m not getting up quite as fast as I used to.  But don’t worry, I’m still getting up. 

The Apostle Paul was familiar with getting knocked down.  Here’s what he wrote to the church at Corinth:

“Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. … We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.  … So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:1, 8-10, 16-18

Afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down – yes.  Crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, destroyed – no.  Because of God’s mercy and because He gives us eternal perspective, we do not lose heart. 

Of course we get knocked down; that’s life.  We get up again; that’s God’s grace.  And He uses the getting knocked down to prepare glory for us. 

We can learn like the Psalmist, to talk to ourselves.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”  Psalm 42:5

And we might have to say it more than once – see Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5 – “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”

We can remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and His great love…

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.  I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.  Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” Lamentations 3:19-24

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  Do not gloat over me, my enemy!  Though I have fallen, I will rise.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.”  Micah 7:7-8

And, as we learn to let God lift us up, He can use us to lift up our brothers and sisters when they get knocked down. 

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:  If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9

God, thanks that You never fail.  You never get knocked down or discouraged or overwhelmed.  You know we do, and You love us anyway.  Thanks that You are our hope and our strength.  You are our light, our keeper.  Because of You, we are resilient.  Teach us to see the problems and suffering of this life as stepping stones to the glory of eternity.  May we reach out for You when we are struggling.  Give us the insight and the opportunity to extend our hand to help our brothers and sisters when they are pummeled by circumstances or weighed down by sadness.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen. 

-Leah

It’s been said by avid readers that some books are like acquaintances, and others are like close friends. While I know that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for instruction, I find the same to be true of passages of Scripture – some are very close friends.

One thing I love about Scripture is that it is inexhaustible. You can never know it all or figure it all out. We spend our lifetime learning from it. Meditating on a verse or a passage is like holding a diamond up to the light. As you turn it and look at it from different angles, you see new beauty. It doesn’t get old. It just gets more and more beautiful.

I have found this to be true of one of my ‘close friends’ passages. The more I ponder it, the more I examine it, the more and more beautiful it becomes.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, ‘This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’) For from His fulness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14-17, ESV)

All of John 1 is worth a closer look, but whenever I get to verse 16, I’m in awe all over again. When I take some time to sit down with this close friend, I am filled with gratitude.

First of all, Jesus is FULL of grace and truth according to verse 14. It is from His fulness that we receive, but the next three words are life-changing. Grace upon grace. Not just a little bit of grace. Truckloads of grace.

Just hold this verse up to the light with me for a few minutes. Look at it from different angles. Let your mind ponder it. We are the recipients of divine grace upon grace. Grace for the past. Grace for the present. Grace for the future. All the grace we’ll ever need.

Grace can be explained in two ways. First, it is getting something we don’t deserve (not to be confused with mercy, which is not getting what we do deserve). Secondly, it is the divine enablement we receive to follow Jesus, to live out the things He has told us to do.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:7-10, ESV)

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8, ESV)

Grace is being adopted into God’s family, becoming His very own child. Grace is being forgiven for every time we have failed. Grace is knowing that we will live forever in the presence of the Father. Grace is having everything we need to do all the things He has asked us to do. Grace upon grace.

So what do we, who have received truckloads of grace, do? We become grace-givers too. We share grace with others. Freely we have received, freely we give. How could we do any less?

Has someone hurt us this week? Grace. Has someone failed to keep their word? Grace. Has someone spoken maliciously or unkindly? Grace. You get the idea. We can’t receive grace by the truckload and then be unwilling to share it. The truth is, for every bit of grace we are giving out, our supply will be renewed. It is a renewable resource, this amazing grace.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:29-32, ESV)

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6, ESV)

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:17-18, ESV)

Dear Father, we are amazed by Your grace. You have lavished grace upon us, and knowing that fills our hearts with gratitude. By definition, we know it is something we don’t deserve. As we live this week in the reality of Your grace, please help us to be grace-givers. In those moments when grace is the last thing we want to give, please remind us that from the fulness of Jesus we have received grace upon grace. We have received freely, help us to freely give. Amen.

-Dana

She took my breath away.  Amanda Gorman’s recitation of her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the presidential inauguration last week was beautiful and inspiring.  You should listen to it if you haven’t yet (and listen again if you have).

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Such an amazing use of words!

“the norms and notions of “what just-is” isn’t always just-ice” …

”And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us

But what stands before us,” …

“That even as we grieved we grew

That even as we hurt we hoped,

That even as we tired we tried,” …

Those are just a few of the phrases that made my heart jump as I heard them.  And there was a reference to Scripture:

“Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,

And no one should make them afraid”

The verse being quoted is Micah 4:4.  I will add verse 3, since it is part of the sentence.

“He shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.”

As I dug a little, I found that this was a verse quoted on many occasions by George Washington.  The same phrase is used in two other Bible verses.

I Kings 4:25 “During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees.”

Zechariah 3:10 “On that day, says the Lord of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.”

Everyone sitting under their own vine and fig tree definitely indicates living in peace, safe and unafraid.  At first glance, I assumed it also meant prosperity, but as I have pondered it, perhaps a better word than prosperity is “place.”  The number of vines and fig trees isn’t mentioned, but does seem clear that these are individual properties.  Sounds idyllic to me!  Peace for all and a place for all.  

Paul encouraged believers to pray for the people in government, with a similar outcome in mind, 

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”  I Timothy 2:1-2

Even as we pray for and work for a world like this, let us remember Jesus.  Jesus gave the ultimate promises of peace and place.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  John 14:27

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”  John 14:1-2

In Jesus, we have peace that does not depend on circumstances.  We have a place, even when we feel like we don’t belong.  And Jesus takes it a step further when He talks about vines and fig trees.  

Jesus told us He is the vine and we are the branches, and that as we stay connected to Him, we bear fruit (John 15).  He cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit, and He used figs to remind us that the fruit of our lives comes from what is inside us.  

“You will know them by their fruits.  Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?  In the same way every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus you will know them by their fruits.”  Matthew 7:16-20

So, taking this a step further, as we believe in and connect to Jesus, not only do we have peace and the promise of a place with Him, but we are enabled and expected to bear fruit.  We are changed on the inside and because of that change we live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22).  Then, reflecting back on Zechariah 3:10 from above, we can invite others to come and sit under our vine and our fig tree, and we can share with them the peace and the place and the fruit we have been given.  

God, we long for peace in our world.  We long to see everyone have a place and be secure.  We pray for our leaders, that You would lead them and use them to bring this type of peace and equality.  We pray that You would show us how to work toward those ends ourselves.  But more important than the circumstances of our lives in this world, we pray for the peace Jesus gives.  We pray that we would not let our hearts be troubled, but that we would believe.  Transform us, so we can bear the fruit of changed hearts.  Teach us to share what You give us with the people in our lives.  Thank You for the beauty of poems and the power of words.  Thank You for reminders that You are present and at work.  Amen.

-Leah

“Therefore let all the faithful pray to You while You may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:7, NIV)

Right now, I find myself in a hard place, and I can feel the mighty waters rising. The precious words of this psalm ring so true. They are true now, and they have been true for all of the other times in my life when I’ve been in hard places.

God is my hiding place, and He not only protects me from trouble, but He also surrounds me with songs of deliverance. Have you ever experienced a ‘song of deliverance?’ For me, they are like life preservers – something to hang on to in the middle of the storm. If you’ll indulge me, I’d love to share some of my life preservers with you today.

1. Sovereign Over Us by Kathryn Scott
2. Sing on the Battlefield by Kathryn Scott
3. Faithful by Steven Curtis Chapman
4. Beauty Will Rise by Steven Curtis Chapman
5. Unredeemed by Selah
6. Press On by Selah
7. You Are For Me by Kari Jobe
8. Love Came Down by Kari Jobe
9. Never Once by Matt Redman
10. Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman

That is far from a complete list, but I can tell you that at different points in my life, each of those songs has been a close companion and a means of grace to me.

If you are reading this today and you find yourself struggling, I would love to lend you one of my songs of deliverance. Better yet, pray and ask God to surround you with songs of deliverance, and He will be faithful to lead you to just the right ones for your specific situation.

These songs certainly don’t change our circumstances, but they remind us of who God is, of His faithfulness, and of His enduring love for us. They help us to look up to where our help comes from. They give us hope that there is more to life than this particular trial we are in, and they gives us words to express what we feel in our hearts when our own hearts just can’t seem to find the right words.

God is good. And He is faithful. He does not always keep us out of deep waters, but He will always be our hiding place, and He will always surround us with His amazing songs of deliverance.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV)

“Deep calls to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have gone over me. By day, the LORD commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:7-8, ESV)

Father in Heaven, thank You for Your great love for us. Thank You that You have promised to be our place of safety, and beyond that, You have promised to surround us with songs of deliverance. Today, we rest in these promises, and we lift our voices in worship to You with the precious words of these songs that so accurately express what we feel in our hearts. We lean in to Your grace today. Amen.

-Dana