March 21--When You Want a Different Life, Try This

Ever wonder if you're living in the right place, under the right circumstances, with the right people?  I have.  And I find answers to questions like these in today's passages:  Numbers 33-34, Luke 4:14-44, Psalm 65, and Proverbs 11:22.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

Numbers 33-34

Luke 4:14-44

Psalm 65, Prayer, Proverbs 11:22

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March 21. When you want a different life, try this. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I spent a lot of time in my twenties and thirties wondering where my place was and if I was doing the right things. I wondered if there were better friends somewhere else or a better church. Was I living my best life, doing what I most wanted, living where I really oughta? After a hard patch I realized that the right place and the best life weren't out there somewhere else waiting. It was right in front of me where I already was, changing diapers, wrangling toddlers, watching soccer practice, walking through the hard stuff. There's no better life for me than the one I'm already living. This family, these friends, this home, this church, this community, these are the people and places, circumstances and issues God's given me to live with because these are his choices and they're what's best for me. I should have paid closer attention to my staghorn ferns. Without words and without drama, these plants model acceptance and adapting in any situation, and they do it gracefully and silently day in and day out. These staghorns thrive where other plants have died. No matter where I put them, they act like this is the best seat in the house, whether near a window or not, whether a little water or a lot, they flourish. I've got four staghorns and every one of them is thriving. Like my trusty staghorns, I've been learning to accept where I am, dig in, and make the best of it. These passages say more about doing just that. The Old Testament chapters are Numbers thirty three to thirty four. A land flowing with milk and honey. This has been the tagline for the promised land since Egypt. But what does it mean exactly? All Israel has to be wondering, camped out as they are just across the river from Jericho, the gateway into this land God's promise them. In these chapters, Moses gives a quick rundown of where they've camped since they left Egypt, and then God tells him who's to help divide up this land for his people, because while they're waiting for the word to move on in, there's quite a lot of prep work to get through first. God doesn't say to get any old guys to help out. He tells Moses who they are by name. He doesn't say to go in and take over any old way either. He says how to do it by driving out the natives, smashing their idols, and making themselves at home because quote, I've given it to you, it's yours, end quote. According to God, this is all the permission they need. There's a lot of specific details, and if you've never been aware of God's affinity for accuracy, you can take a gander here. He gives them the boundaries for the land as a whole, naming specific seas and land passes, cities, brooks, and mountains, and then God says to divide it by lot, meaning divide it by how he decides it, since by lot meant basically by drawing straws. Who gets what peace matters to him and he's involved in these details, including the biggest one, which is helping them fight to take it over? Did you know that God gives us a promised land too? And I don't mean heaven when life here is over. I'm talking about the life we're living here and now, our day to day walking around life. When we turn to God in faith, we get to live into his promises for the life we're living on this side of heaven. Promises like joy and love, rest and peace, blessings beyond belief. These aren't just a benevolent benediction from a random well wisher. These promises have a you can count on this certainty stamped on them from the God who reigns and rules and knows where you live, because he's the one who put you there, and he's the one who's involved in every detail just as he was for ancient Israel. The people he's given and the place where we live are selected by God for us the same way he selected these things for Israel, such as a spouse with these gifts, children with these needs, friends with these interests, coworkers with these quirks, and then there's the creation we live in, the creek we cross daily, the glimpse of sky we get through the trees, the curve of the highway, the critters we spy. All of these details and millions of others he's put in place as the players and context for the life he gives us. But are we living a promised land life here and now with these people in this place? If we're not, maybe we don't believe what God says any more than the Israelites did, or maybe we don't know what he promises because we don't read our Bibles. Maybe we don't think Jesus' claim of abundant living applies today, or maybe we think it's not the kind of abundance we'd like anyway. Maybe we're on guard so we're not let down in case abundant living doesn't pan out. Maybe we're embarrassed that we fell for faith once, but we're more realistic now. So we content ourselves with distractions and addictions, chasing new fads and fictions, hoping to find what we're longing for everywhere, but where God says it actually is. Leaning into the life we want with God has to be fought for and won, just like it had to be fought for and won by the Israelites. Jesus died to make this new life available to us, but he and Paul both said we have to strive to take hold of it, and with God's help we can, just like God's people were told thirty five hundred years ago. Here's some of the ways we fight for it, as laborers who work out our salvation with fear and trembling, trusting that God is doing his part to give us the will and the want to, as athletes who go into strict training to win the prize, as fortune hunters who dig for treasure, as hardworking farmers who plant seeds and expect a good harvest, as soldiers who put on God's armor to fight the enemy, including the enemy inside us, as children of God who keep looking to our Father because He promises to answer when we call. God gives us His Spirit to help us, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, the Spirit who brings comfort, truth, and fruit to those who belong to him. His gifts can be seen in our lives when we're in touch with him. If we're not experiencing them, we've likely lost touch, but even so, not to worry. God hasn't lost touch with us. The Christian life is chock full of blessing, but it's on us to do our part to believe and receive them. We aren't passive, we're active, and maybe our most active place is on our knees, confessing that we don't have what it takes. This is where I keep finding myself, asking for faith to trust God when I just can't. Because with him my tiniest seed of faith can move mountains. With him I'm more than a conqueror. I'm a victor, prize winner, investor and inheritor, citizen of heaven and earth, daughter of the Father who never stops saving me, a loyal subject of the King of Kings who rules with selfless love. God's customer support in our promised land is second to none. We can call him up via his word or prayer. Anytime we wanna, we can head to his hideaway and check our troubles at the door by communing with him and worship. We can get over ourselves by thanking and praising him. We can enjoy fellowship with his people wherever we find them. God uses our broken relationships, meager finances, daily disappointments, and unexpected disasters to expose our need of him. Will we turn to him for help with everything? Or will we give up because it's just too darn hard to believe this is all there is to it? It's not stuff that God mainly offers. It's mainly himself whose wisdom, beauty, and abundance are beyond what you can dream up. But you have to seek him to find him like this, quote, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, end quote. When you want a different life, ask God to help you engage differently in the life he's already giving you. The New Testament passage is Luke four fourteen to forty four. In his hometown, Jesus reads a passage from Isaiah and claims he fulfills it. He's God's messenger of good news, quote, to announce pardon to prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, end quote. In short, Jesus' mission was to change lives, but the townspeople get hung up on who he thinks he is. They say, Isn't this Joseph's son? Which amounts to you can't be the Messiah, and they try to throw him off a cliff. The good news of Jesus isn't good news for everybody. For the self righteous and smug, it's the worst news possible because it says you're not good enough, you need saving, which is exactly why I sometimes hate it myself. But for those humble enough to receive him, Jesus offers forgiveness for the guilty, healing for the sick and wounded, power that sets people free from their prisons, just like Isaiah predicted. When you want a different life, turn to Jesus and believe He has the power to change you from Psalm sixty five. When we arrive at God's doorstep, broken and bleeding, addicted and whipped, he takes us in and forgives our sins, and we find ourselves blessed, blessed to be his, blessed to be welcomed like this. We learn we can quote, expect our fill of good things at your house, end quote. God's trophy room displays the wonders of his saving, how he's moved heaven and earth to make us his, and then decked out the earth to join in the celebration. We get rainfall in spring, budding and fruiting, snow covered mountains, rose petal pathways. The hills are set to dance, canyons get dressed with sheep, valleys are draped with flax, all of it shouts and shouts and shouts with praise, singing with us for the glory of the God who saves and saves and saves. I have to point out that the way we get in on all this merriment is this quote, we arrive at his doorstep, loaded with guilt, our sins too much for us, end quote. This is where we begin in brokenness, in repentance, and this is where we keep coming back. The way to God is always the lowly, humble, broken road that Jesus took. When you want a different life, dig deep, find God's joyful welcome through regular repentance and prayer. God, I'm struggling to trust you with family issues, increase my faith. Help me accept this life as your best for us. Help me trust. Thank you for the Savior who walks me through the hard stuff. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 11 22. Beauty is more than skin deep. Cultivate your inner self and watch real beauty break loose. Passages and numbers, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve, debartulated robuck.