This was a quick snap of the Grand Tetons on my road trip to Montana with Rebekah last summer. Oh, last summer! I loved you so much, with all your delightful travels!
During my personal Bible study time this summer, I wanted to spend time in the Old Testament focusing on books that are less familiar to me. But since my easily distracted brain needs structure, I wanted some kind of study guide.
What to do? Then I remembered the notebooks packed with lessons sitting on the shelf in the closet at the top of the stairs. For seven or eight years – while I was raising tiny humans – I attended Bible Study Fellowship, or BSF for short. They had a separate program for preschoolers, so both moms and kids spent time learning and visiting with peers.
The studies were pretty intense, requiring 30 minutes or more six days a week to complete. And if you didn’t complete your weekly lesson, you weren’t allowed to talk during discussion time. Guess who almost always did her lesson? THIS girl who loves to chat!
Each lesson includes 15-20 questions and an overview, commentary and suggested applications from the passage.
Anyway, when I wanted OT materials to help me study, I decided to pull out one of my BSF notebooks. The one I’m using focuses on Israel and the minor prophets. From looking through my notes, I realized I did this study from September 1996 until May 1997. At the time, I had two little ones: a reading-obsessed 5 year-old (seriously, her first word after Dada and Mama was “book”) and a 2 year-old who asked approximately 3,600 questions a day. Baby No. 3 hadn’t shown up yet, bringing her own adorable brand of utter chaos.
What insights could the hormonally sleep-deprived 50-something me learn from the kid-related sleep-deprived young mom from 1997?
A lot it turns out.
As I’ve looked back on my answers and reflected on the last quarter century of my life, I realized I still struggle in responding with faith right away when trouble hits. My typical pattern is to stress and stew for a while and THEN remember to pray and trust God.
Why do I do that?
Friends, let’s eliminate the part where we focus on what could go wrong or what is going oh so wrong in that moment and instead turn to the one who lifts us up.
But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. – Psalm 3:3
I love that! God is my shield, my glory and the lifter of my head!
God may not rescue us from a difficult situation, but He will help us navigate it when we hold tight to Him.
I’ve written about following God in difficult times quite often lately. Here’s a post about Moving forward with joy and overcoming disappointment and another one on the lessons of hardship in Where is God when things get worse? Welcome to adversity bootcamp.
Here, as in those other posts, I’m reminding myself and anyone who will pay attention, we have a choice when the going gets tough. We can choose to focus on misery or we can focus on the hope that comes from faith.
How do we live by faith?
One question I encountered as I reviewed my 25-year-old lesson and studied the book of Habakkuk was on this verse:
Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. – Habakkuk 2:4
The question was, What do you think it means to “live by faith”? Avoid a “glib” or “pat” cliché.
My answer: To act with confidence on what you know about God, often going against what the world would have you do.
Hmmmm. That answer still seems quite relevant to the older me. Now, as much or more than any other time in my life, I’ve sensed the calling to act on what I know about God and not give in to the fears the world is presenting on so many fronts right now.
The next question also caught my attention:
This phrase (to live by faith) was the key to Habakkuk’s problem and confusion. How is it the key to every problem the Christian faces today?
My answer: If I live by faith I am exactly where God wants me to be; I can see Him at work and be used by Him when I trust Him. Even when the problem is beyond my control, I can receive God’s comfort.
The older me knows that soooooo many problems are beyond my control, but the younger me had the reminder that trusting God gets me out of those worn ruts of anxious thoughts and onto a path of peace. God’s peace is not contingent on me having my act together or all going right in the world around me.
Traveling in Austria last summer was a blast! I loved the historic beauty of Salzburg.
How do we act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God?
Another truth bomb came when I was studying Micah. Micah 6:8 is a familiar passage and certainly appropriate for this time:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
In the BSF commentary, the writer says that “to act justly” means God requires of His people integrity and holiness of personal life. God calls us to holy living; the Holy Spirit empowers us to do that.
In regard to others, we are “to love mercy.” That means we extend forgiveness to everyone, even when it is not deserved. As we realize how much we are forgiven in Christ, we can truly love others.
Here’s a line that cut to my heart: “It involves renouncing a critical spirit and indifference to others.” How often do I avoid the pain of others or think critical thoughts of those in trouble? Those are sins, and I need to repent and engage with love and mercy.
As believers in Christ, we are called to care for all kinds of people: rich, poor, strong, weak, progressives, conservatives, those of other ethnicities and religions. Everyone who comes in our path (in person AND online, yes, I said it). We don’t have to agree with them to love them.
Have you made a choice “to walk humbly with your God”? That means you cultivate your personal relationship with Him. You spend time reading the Bible and praying. You also submit to His working in your life as He changes you to become more like Him.
A summer trip to Plum Prairie Ranch has charms that COVID can’t take away. Like my dog chasing frogs in a slimy pond while a great horned owl watches the show.
Small steps of obedience
The last idea I want to mention comes from studying the books of Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah. They all cover the period when a group of exiles returned from captivity in Persia to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
Imagine the hardship of leaving your home in a modern city for abandoned ruins that you were going to rebuild and having plenty of outside opposition to your efforts. They worked for years on the temple, sometimes stopping their efforts because of the enemies working against them. Other times, they remembered God’s goodness from the past and power in the present and persevered.
My BSF overview of Ezra caught my attention in several ways.
First, God has called us to a work. If you believe in God, He calls you to be about His business. The way that looks for each of us may be different, given the gifts and talents we have. But whatever the work, it should point others to Christ, and it should love others well.
In today’s outrage-fueled culture, following God may be difficult, and we may find opposition forming against us.
But Ezra reminds us that we shouldn’t yield to opposition. We’re called to persevere in “that place of hardship but spiritual blessing,” so my overview said.
Many of us are in a place of hardship today. Life is oh so messy right now. But God calls us to keep following Him.
In some rough days lately, my prayers have taken on a new urgency. And God is showing up and, on occasion, showing off. Sometimes it’s a huge request, other times it’s significant only to me and my house. Today by choice, I’m rejoicing in God’s grace and goodness.
Small steps of obedience matter because we’re growing our faith in Him.
I love this passage from Zechariah,
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” – Zechariah 4:10a
What work has God called you to do? What small step of faith can you take today?
If you have found this post encouraging, please share it! I’ve dropped a pinnable image below.
