 This past Sunday was “Sanctity of Life Sunday” in the United States. As a result I chose to teach on abortion and the need to speak up for life. It was a difficult message to preach – and yet one that needs to be heard. Yet in the midst of recognizing that there is a life other than the mother that is involved which needs to be protected, I also wanted to emphasize the need for us to be compassionate as we advance the pro-life message.
I am vitally invested in the ministry of the Pregnancy Resource Center. This is a group of people who are committed to sharing the love of Christ and the truth with women who are facing crisis pregnancies. One of the key things we emphasize again and again in this ministry is the need for every woman who walks through our doors to feel our love and the love of Christ. There is a very good reason for doing this. Let me explain. The vast majority of the women who walk through our doors do so feeling like they have no other choice than to abort their child. The announcement that they are pregnant hits them like a ton of bricks. For those who are single (as well as some who are married) there is a panic that comes with an unplanned pregnancy. They may be on a career path or in the midst of getting a college education where a baby will seriously derail the plans that they had made. Often there is a sense of dread when family and others learn of their pregnancy. Some, who already are dealing with poverty in their life, are overwhelmed at the thought of how they will pay for a child – and in some cases – another child. These mind of these precious women are often flooded with many different conflicting thoughts. Then there is the relational issue many of them face as this crisis hits. What about my boyfriend? How will he react? Will he stick around – or will this cause him to dump me? Let’s face a fact – many men are cowards who just turn and walk away from something they’ve helped to cause. And because they don’t have to carry the baby – they feel a freedom (albeit a perverse one) to walk away from the situation they’ve caused. So the young woman who walks through our door has this thought going through her head as well. While we are at it – there are also problems relationally with regard to parents. Will they freak out – even in some cases threatening to disown their daughter because of an unplanned pregnancy? How will friends receive this information? If they are religiously minded – they are also going to face the problem of shame and possibly be ostracized by those around them. We’ve had women come through our doors who face possible medical problems due to diabetes or other conditions. And in very rare cases (most often not ever revealed to us) they were the victim of a rape or of incest. Since justice in these cases can often result in a court case where they are treated almost as badly as the actual crime, many of these women do not come forward. They simply suffer in silence as they have this horror added to their already emotionally overwhelming circumstances. Then there are those women who call us because they’ve already had an abortion. What we hear the most from these precious women is that they feel like they will never be able to be forgiven for what they’ve done. They are plagued by a consistent depression over their choice to have an abortion. Some cannot even see a baby without a sense of loss and guilt. They suffer from a PTSD because of what has happened in their lives, but struggle to even tell anyone about it. Therefore many choose to suffer in silence, thinking there is nothing they can do about their abortion. This is what we face as we advocate for life with the precious women that God sends us. We want them to know that we love them dearly – that Jesus loves them dearly – and that even though we believe abortion is the wrong choice – there is forgiveness available for those who have had an abortion. Make no mistake – I am pro-life all the way. But because of a desire to minister to those women who face the crisis of a decision about an unplanned pregnancy we choose to address every situation we face with a tremendous amount of mercy and compassion. We do this because we know that we may be the only ones who will have a chance to advocate for life in their lives.
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FOUR LESSONS FOR DIFFICULT TIMES
(This was taken from our weekly email newsletter - if you want to receive it regularly, you can sign up for it in the "sign-up" area of the website.) May the Lord bless you and help you in every circumstance in life. May His grace abound in both difficult times as well as those that are easy. May you find Him infinitely adequate for every situation - even those where you feel infinitely inadequate . . . no - especially in those infinitely inadequate times. Last week my mother had a stroke. At that time life moved from what I thought was a difficult time (due to my own myopic view of hard - that is one where I am thinking of my own struggles a little too much) to one that is more in line with what real difficulty probably looks like. But as I've taken time to meet with God and submit myself to what His viewpoint is - even that perspective is changing over time from difficulty to opportunity. If you don't mind - and I hope you don't - let me try to encourage you this week with what I am attempting to learn. Lesson #1 - Embrace your inadequacy! For those of you who read that and wondered about my sanity in this midst of this situation . . . I am serious as I can be about this first lesson. Too often I spend too much time worrying about my inadequacy in a situation. Please understand I am not talking about those who feel they are inadequate - and therefore do absolutely nothing. That is not so much inadequacy as it is irresponsibility. But feelings of inadequacy creep in during every difficult situation we face. Rather than wrestle with feelings of inadequacy - I am seeing that I need to embrace truth - I am inadequate! At least I am inadequate to go through difficulty without God's wisdom, God's strength, and God's grace. My wrong response to inadequacy is to try to become adequate on my own. This is a dead-end street. Embracing my inadequacy - and then turning to God for the needed wisdom, strength, and grace to do what I need to do - is the proper way to handle difficulty. (Just a little note . . . Jesus said, ". . . apart from Me you can do nothing." Therefore your actual range of inadequacy is far larger than you may have ever thought.) Lesson #2 - When the going gets tough - the tough turn to God's Word and to God in prayer! Scripture says, "If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited." (Proverbs 24:10) That may sound like a "university of duh" statement - but it is a very wise one. Here is a parallel to it - "If you are slack in the day of distress - guess whose strength you're relying upon to handle it? The word "slack" is telling here. It means to slump down, to sink, to become discouraged and eventually fall. Difficult times can overwhelm you - believe me - this set have led to several times that I've felt overwhelmed. That is a great time to turn to God's Word. If you don't have time to open a Bible - cry out to Him in prayer. The godly men and women of the Bible did exactly that! It doesn't matter that you don't know what to pray - just pray that to God and keep talking. It will come out as you turn to Him. Then when you can get a chance open your Bible and read it. Turn to Psalms and write down His promises and His comforting statements. A wise person would either memorize those - or at least have several on a 3X5 card - or on their cell phone. Lesson #3 - When your difficulties have you down, don't cry, "Uncle," cry "Body of Christ!" I have said it numerous times in the past. I don't know what people do who do not have the church during their difficult times. If you want to see the church at her finest - go through troubling, difficult times. She tends to rise to the task in those moments. There were several times in all of this that I just wanted to cry, "Uncle!" and give in to the sense of being overwhelmed. God's grace kept me from it. Also remembering that all this got me in the past was a unhealthy dose of freaking out - depression - moments of anger - emotional paralysis - etc. These things pretty much stink if you've ever gone through them. In this situation, I've had to call on the church for help. James and Debbie have been indispensible at the office. The elders have been prayer warriors and those who have sought to encourage me. They also have tried to ease my concern about being away a long time. Plus all those who have either messaged me - emailed me - and facebooked me with promised prayers, support, and encouragement. Yeah - crying "body of Christ" rather than "uncle" is a much better way of dealing with all of this. My present circumstances are far from over - and I know that. This will be a long-term time of difficulty. (Just a note: Let me say that when it comes to family and friends and the body of Christ - these times are guaranteed to come in one way or another. We were born for these moments - and true love rises to the top when they come.) My guess is that there will be many more lessons for me, and for all of us when we face them, to learn. In the midst of these - there are also probably times when all the feelings of being inadequate in myself, in need of prayer and promises, and just overwhelmed will surface again. That is when I will learn Lesson #4 - I need Endurance to run this race. I appreciate your prayers as I seek to run this part of my race well. The Bitter Lie of Self-Reliance - 2 Chronicles 16
"In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians." When I read this passage my heart sinks for Asa - and those who are offended with God's discipline and correction. Asa was corrected for his actions - that he turned to himself and human means rather than turning to God - to embracing weakness - to embracing a situation where he would have to turn to God in prayer for answers. Earlier in his ministry Asa did turn to God when the Ethiopians attacked with over a million men. That had to be difficult to experience - facing the thought of your own annihilation - of being so weak and unable to defend yourself - and facing the uncertainty of whether you would survive the attack of the enemy or not. BUT THAT IS HOW GOD WORKS - HE GIVES US TIMES OF WEAKNESS INTENTIONALLY - SO THAT WE HAVE TO EMBRACE BEING WEAK - BECAUSE WHEN WE ARE WEAK IN OURSELVES - WE BECOME STRONG IN HIM. The problem was that Asa did not want to embrace weakness the second time he faced terrible odds - and the necessity of turning to God. He was proud - and that pride manifested itself when God corrected him. He became angry with God - angry with God's prophet - and eventually angry with even serving God later in his life. God allowed another need to come upon Asa - a disease in his feet. How appropriate for his situation - diseased in his walk in life/even as he was becoming more diseased in his walk with God. He would not turn to God in prayer for this situation - only to the doctors. He spent, amazingly, the last 2 years of his life in this affliction and even died of it - rather than turn to God. His bitterness consumed him - first spiritually - and then even physically. Am I willing to embrace weakness? Is pride an issue in my life? I hate to admit it but I know that it is. I don't like being weak - don't like being reduced to nothing save God in prayer. I want to be able to do some things myself (which is nothing more than an excuse to want to do all things myself - the deadliness of pride!). Being reduced to nothing - and seeking God in those circumstances to be my everything is meant to be gloriously hard. It is embracing humility - total humility! And . . . if I will not embrace it - I will find myself diseased in my spiritual feet. I will be unable to walk. I will not turn to my God for that - and then eventually won't turn to Him for anything. All I will have is man-made deliverance - man-made hope - and that is precious little (actually nothing) deliverance and hope. Embrace humility! Embrace being little . . . being nothing . . . so God will be everything. He is everything - it is only the brief deception and mist of lies of this life that makes us ever think otherwise. God have mercy on me! I've been so filled with pride. I have been so filled with self-importance and lying self-sufficiency! Oh the sad state of my feet - and my ability to walk in humility, brokenness, and self-emptying trust and prayer before You. Please forgive me the arrogance, pride, and foolishness of this way. Restore me to full reliance upon You - upon Your infinite resources - and upon a life lived in complete dependence on Your grace. May God give you the blessing of training up the next generation of servants who will continue to live and preach the truth to His church as well as continue the work of His kingdom. I thought I was finished with the series of articles on being overwhelmed and exhausted. But as I thought about the directives that God gave to Elijah to get him back on the track of serving Him—I was amiss in presenting one last thing about how God deals with our sense of being overwhelmed and exhausted. This last thing has to do with God telling Elijah to find Elisha and anoint him as the one who would be prophet in his place.
Training up our replacement may seem like a task that will add to our being overwhelmed and exhausted, but as I hope you will see, such a task refocuses us on what is important—vitally important to the work of God. In addressing Elijah’s exhaustion and sense of being overwhelmed, God did one of the most wonderful things He could do—He gave Elijah a protégé—a servant—a disciple if you will. Elisha was that disciple. One of the reasons that we get overwhelmed and exhausted is because we try to do God’s work, our way. We think that we are supposed to foster massive movements and set up awesome “ministries” for God. Yet, when you look at what Jesus Christ did while on the earth (and He said He lived to do the Father’s will), it might amaze you what He devoted Himself to doing. He did spend large amounts of time teaching and ministering to those who came around Him, but not in the way of fostering a huge movement or organization like we do today. He spend the majority of His time ministering to twelve men—seeking to reproduce what He did and was doing through them. If anything, He actually shunned the idea of building a huge organization. In short—He disciple men. This is what God was doing with Elijah as well. He would pour the last months and years of his life into a young man, Elisha, who would continue his prophetic ministry afterward. What is even more wonderful to see is that by the time Elisha moves into the full swing of his ministry for God, he has a group of men with him which we could loosely call, the school of the prophets. Elisha’s legacy would be not just his own ministry as prophet and a replacement—but a wonderful ministry—and multiple prophets who could spread the Word of God far further than he could do alone. Sometimes we are overwhelmed and exhausted because we see NO END in sight for us to carry the ministry we have—ALONE. Even Jesus did not do that. He gave Himself to raise up 12—and actually by the time they were praying in the upper room prior to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—there were 120. That would definitely lessen our load and help preclude further exhaustion and a sense of being overwhelmed. So, as I close this week’s article I only have one question. “Who are you working with to be your replacement in the work of the kingdom? This is part four of a study on what to do if you are overwhelmed and exhausted. This week we need to look at a question that God asked Elijah twice in dealing with his sense of being overwhelmed and exhausted. You might be surprised at what God was trying to do to help Elijah.
One of the problems that happens when we are overwhelmed and exhausted is that we lose perspective on life. We become so burdened and weighed down by our present circumstances that we cannot see where we are any longer. God asked Elijah a simple question. His question is one we need to ask when we get this way. “What are you doing here, Elijah,” God posed to his exhausted servant. What is fascinating is that God asked this question twice. Elijah spoke of his great zeal for God—Israel’s great sin and unfaithfulness to God—of Israel’s rejection of every prophet sent to them—and finally of the fact that now they are seeking to kill him too. This was Elijah’s answer to God both times he was asked the same question. Notice anything about these answers? Let me help you if you’ve missed it. Neither of them answered what God was asking. God wasn’t asking Elijah what he had been through recently—but why he was where he was now. Elijah answered both times with the circumstances that were overwhelming him. Let’s look at how this should instruct us. Elijah was focused on what had happened in the past—not on where it was landing him right now. That is a sign of someone who is overwhelmed. They cannot see past what has happened—to where they are now. Elijah’s answer is telling though. Where he was had to do with what he thought about God. He was zealous—He addressed Israel’s unfaithfulness—He was persecuted—and He was facing death threats. Notice something about this answer. It was all about what HE had done—and—how God was not coming through like He should be based on what Elijah was doing. One of the reasons we get overwhelmed is because our “expectations” are not being met the way we think they should be. Part of our problem is that we have entered into strong labor—exhausting labor—even labor in obedience to God—but we have entered into it with expectations of what God should do because we are laboring. What happens to us when God does not come through with OUR expected results? Often we get seriously stressed out. Most think that maybe they just need to work harder, which does not help our stress level at all. Each time God does not come through with the expected results we get even more stressed. Finally, we snap and wind up under a tree or on a mountain side having God ask us what we are doing there (well, actually that was Elijah—but we have our places too, don’t we). Here is God’s wisdom for us. We are servants—and we serve as our Lord has commanded. We serve in faith desiring good results. We labor in the strength He provides—hoping for an outcome. But we labor leaving the results up to Him—even if they are not what we want—or they don’t come as soon as we think they should. If we do not take this view . . . we will end up with unmet expectations that stress us out. But our stress is not due to what God has commanded. It is due to our unmet expectations. Lay down the expectations and serve Him without them—and you will be amazed at how your stress level—your exhaustion and overwhelmed level will drop. This is part three of a study on what to do if you are overwhelmed and exhausted. If you thought from last week’s article that God’s Word was going to let you quit for good, you are unfortunately mistaken. This week we will look at what God did next to help alleviate Elijah’s sense of being overwhelmed and exhausted.
Something that often is overlooked in this passage is the fact that God pretty much encouraged Elijah to lay down and rest—sleep if you will. He did this twice—taking time to feed Elijah each time when he awakened. Now there is a view out there that says when we are serving the Lord, we should work to the point of utter exhaustion. Unfortunately, there are many who have taken that advice—and have worked themselves to that point of being exhausted. Such a view is contrary to God’s Word. Let’s take a look at what might have caused Elijah’s exhaustion (and possibly yours too). Elijah said in his first statement to God, “I am no better than my fathers.” This statement revealed a little of Elijah’s mistaken reasoning that led to his exhaustion. It had to do with the expectations that Elijah was carrying. He was to be “better” than his fathers. Now granted, his fathers were the people of that generation whose actions and choices had led to a gutter-level low point in Israel’s spiritual history. But whether our fathers are awesome or awful spiritually the same Biblical principle holds on this issue. We are not to examine ourselves with ourselves. The standard to which Elijah was to adhere was God’s—not one that was compared to the failings or the excelling of his fathers. This can be a burden that is unbearably heavy. For Elijah this burden was most likely one where he could not make even one mistake. He had to be absolutely faultless and perfect to best his fathers. What is amazing is that until Jezebel threatened him—he was doing awesome. But HAVING to do awesome every moment of your life, winds up not being so awesome. Mess up once—and your house of cards comes tumbling down. You tried so hard to keep them up, and now they’ve fallen. You might say, Elijah? Building a house of cards? Look at where he wound up after all his efforts. He is under a tree wanting to die. The problem with doing “better than your fathers” is that when you do—you become proud. But that pride goes before a fall, because one slip—and suddenly you are “no better than your fathers.” Here is a little secret for you. God expects you to do what He says, in the strength He provides, and according to the Word He uses to instruct you. There is no hidden agenda of you being better than anybody else. There are no charts where you are trying to be number one by out-doing, out-serving, out-sharing, out-witnessing, out-loving—or for that matter out-anything-elseing any other person who knows the Lord. God simply wants you to know Him, love Him, and serve Him as He directs you. He knows your frame—and He knows that you are human (which means you are prone to goofing up in life). You might find that once you’ve taken the ‘got-to-out-do’ everyone else monkey off your back that you begin to learn to serve God in peace—rather than serve Him in one-upping your fathers constantly. Who knows, you might find that loving God this way becomes much less overwhelming and exhausting? Last time we saw that God did not rebuke Elijah for venting when he was overwhelmed and exhausted by all that he had done for the Lord. In fact, instead of rebuking Elijah and pointing out how incredibly sinful he was—God facilitated a time of rest for Elijah. This might seem a little bit of a shock for some of us who feel guilty for relaxing and taking a little time to rest. Even Jesus knew when He and His disciples needed rest saying to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest awhile.” Vance Havner quotes the King James translation which says, “Come apart , , , and rest awhile,” which he then used to say, “If we do not come apart and rest—then we just will come apart.”
Here is the second thing you need to do when you are overwhelmed and exhausted according to 1 Kings 19. God is OK with you resigning from everything. That is what Elijah did when he sat under that juniper tree in the wilderness. He said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers." (NAS) That was a resignation from life itself. We need to note that Elijah was not contemplating suicide. He was asking God to take his life—not that he himself was going to do this. Elijah was at the point of resigning from life itself. He was exhausted, overwhelmed and ready to quit—everything. And, for a period of time, God allowed Elijah to do just that—resign from life itself to get refocused. Note the place of this resignation was before God, and that is imperative for us to see here. Don’t do anything rash anywhere in this world. Don’t turn your resignation in from all your positions with men—just before God. Go ahead and turn them all in to Him. Here is what I want you to understand with this very interesting section of Scripture. There is a very real, very helpful time to get into God’s presence and resign everything—even life itself. It is part of “venting” before Him. The wisdom in this is that God will take the time to minister to you before accepting all your resignations. When you turn them in to Him, there will be no long-term ramifications. He is OK with you pouring out your heart to Him—including your desire to quit—even quit everything! This is the BEST place to discuss your frustrations, hurts, fears, etc. Just know, though, that this is not a permanent thing. God is committed to loving, ministering, and restoring you to where you WILL be able to pick up your resignations later—and with His wonderful refreshing—be wonderfully refocused and re-energized to continue life. Before God is finished with Elijah, he will nderstand what brought him to this point of being overwhelmed and exhausted. But for now Elijah needs to know that someone will still love him even if he quits. That One more than any other is God. Too many walk away from everything—including God. That is where they make their biggest mistake. Getting over your exhaustion and overwhelmed-ness will be nearly impossible if you choose to leave God too. He, more than anyone else, wants to help you through this time. So, here is the biblical advice this week. Go ahead and quit—resign everything for a time—just make sure that you turn those in to God Himself—and that you do not quit Him. Talk TO Him about all this—and keep talking to Him. Would all of you who are tired and worn out please make the incredible effort to raise your hand. If you know what it is like to be part of the common human condition as an American—you know what it means to be utterly exhausted. Well, you’ve come to the right place this week, because I want to share with you the 35 step process to deal with your exhaustion! Actually, I was just kidding about the 35 step process—but it does illustrate a point. Part of the reason we are exhausted is because even our answers to exhaustion are too complicated and too exhausting to do—leaving us with the choice to just keep plugging along until we eventually drop.
Fortunately for us, Elijah reached that point as well. And since he was God's prophet for a difficult time in Israel's history, we get to watch as God brings him through his exhaustion and sense of being overwhelmed. He had been fighting the wicked King Ahab and his not-so-delightful wife Jezebel. After having what Elijah thought would be the final breakthrough at Mount Carmel, he figured he could relax. But immediately after that wonderful, exhausting victory—Jezebel said she was going to kill him. Elijah snapped—exhausted and overwhelmed by the load he was carrying—he did what any good prophet or man of God does when they are in this state—he ran . . . oh, and he quit . . . for awhile. Ever been there before saints? Ever been so overwhelmed and tired that you just ran and quit (even for a day or two—and even though no one else actually got your resignation?) Well, maybe we can glean some important information from God’s answer for Elijah. Who knows we might find that this counsel might work for us. By the way, this pastor's pen is going to be in several installments—so if you are exhausted and overwhelmed, I’m only sharing the first point of this teaching. I figured that you’d probably be too exhausted to deal with multiple points anyway. In 1 Kings 19 we read of God's encounter with Elijah. The first thing God did was allow Elijah to vent with him. Then Elijah went to sleep. He woke up when an angel had water, hot baked bread for him—and he let him sleep again. This happened twice—and the second time, after he had gotten some much needed rest, the angel fed him again and said that the journey was too great for him. What a great thing for the exhausted andoverwhelmed to know. God did not chastise Elijah for this—in fact, He facilitated it. Now, don’t just go to sleep without the turning to God to vent part. When people are depressed they just sleep—but don’t talk. God wants you to vent to Him. Let it all out! It is what you need! Don’t vent to anyone before you vent to God. Believe me when I say that this is such a healing moment. Remember—you’re overwhelmed! You need to vent it to your Father (oh, by the way, He already knows—you just need to admit it). He did not rebuke Elijah—but cooked twice for him—and eventually told him that this journey was too great for him. Kind of comforting to know that God knew this, isn’t it. Soooo . . . If you are overwhelmed and exhausted—that is the first thing you need to do—then come back next week—I’ll tell you more then. |
Biblical ArticlesMost of these articles are taken from the Calvary Courier, a weekly newsletter that is sent to the folks who attend Calvary Chapel Jonesboro. Due to the response to these articles, we've decided to print some of them which proved to be very helpful to God's people at the fellowship. 
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