Write yourself out of a funk

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 31:1-24

TO CHEW ON: "Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart
All you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24

Do you notice how the writer's mood changes as we make our way through this psalm? David starts off in an emotional funk but ends in a much better place. Let's track his thoughts as he journeys from desperation to hope.

1. He cries for help (vs. 1-5):

From his bad place David cries to God "Deliver me...bow down Your ear...Deliver me speedily...Be my rock of refuge...Pull me out of the net...Into Your hand I commit my spirit."

2. He does some self-lecturing (even though, judging by what follows, his feelings aren't yet on-board) (vs. 6-8):

"I will be glad...You have considered my trouble...You have known my soul in adversities...(You) have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place."

3. He lays it all out (vs. 9-13):
David speaks his feelings and fears:  

"I am in trouble...I am a reproach...I am repulsive...I am forgotten...I am like a broken vessel...They scheme to take away my life." 

Thankfully he doesn't stay there!

4. He declares his faith in God (vs. 14-15a):

"But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;

I say 'You are my God'

My times are in Your hand..."

In other words, even considering the worst that people can do, David reminds himself that God, not his enemies, is ultimately in charge of his life.

5. He requests specific help (vs. 15b-18):
David puts into words exactly what he needs:

"Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me... Make Your face shine on me...Let the wicked be ashamed...Let the lying lips be put to silence."

6. Finally he offers praise to God, in faith that God has heard and will answer (vs.19-24):

"Oh how great is Your goodness...You shall hide them (those who fear You) in the secret place of Your presence...Blessed be the Lord...You heard the voice of my supplication when I cried out to You...Be of good courage ...All you who hope in the Lord."

My journal entries are sometimes a bit like this — a writing journey from trouble to trust. I find it helps to pour it all out on paper: the mixed-up feelings, the fears, the self-recrimination and revulsion. But it's important not to stay there but to move from a focus on self back to a focus on God.

If you're in trouble today, try writing your own version of Psalm 31. Just make sure you end up in the place David did — with your eyes on His face that shines on you.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for David's very real relationship with You, showing even his dark moments. I have them too. Help me to work my way out of them and back to You like he did. Amen.

MORE: Journaling resources

How to Keep a Spiritual Journal

Journaling: Being a Brave Soul (with more resources listed within the post and a link to more articles in Ann Voskamp's 2009 series about journaling).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

How do you handle "evil tidings"?

"The Messengers tell Job of his Misfortunes"
by William Blake - 1805-6

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 112:1-10

TO CHEW ON: "He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord." Psalm 112:7

 Ann Voskamp's heart seized up in fear the morning her son mangled his hand in a farm accident. Though she knew, in her head, that God was in control, the death of her baby sister when Ann herself was only four had coloured her heart-perception of God and His sometimes inscrutable ways.

 Jerry Bridges has written an entire book that grapples with this issue. In the introduction to Trusting God Even When It Hurts, he says:

"God's plan and His ways of working out His plan are frequently beyond our ability to fathom and understand. We must learn to trust when we don't understand. In order to trust God we must know Him in an intimate personal way. David said in Psalm 9:10, 'Those who know Your name will trust in You for You Lord have never forsaken those who seek you.' To know God's name is to know Him in an intimate personal way. It is more than just knowing facts about God. It is coming into a deep personal relationship with Him as a result of seeking Him in the midst of our personal pain and discovering Him to be trustworthy" - Jerry Bridges, Trusting God Even When It Hurts, Kindle location 142.

Seeking God in the midst of pain can take various forms. Ann Voskamp came to know and trust Him by practicing gratitude. For over a year she kept a list of God's good gifts to her and wrote about it in the book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Life Fully Right Where You Are).

Another way might be to study what the Bible says about God's sovereignty and love. That's how Jerry Bridges came to write his book.

If we don't have the inclination to do that, we can always benefit from the insights of others. Bridges' book, or others, like J. I. Packer's Knowing God are excellent ways of familiarizing ourselves with God as He is portrayed in the Bible.

Still another way is to memorize, meditate on, and pray scripture passages that assure us of God's sovereignty and love.

Whatever way you and I choose, let's spend time getting to know God today, so that it can be said of us: "He/She will not be afraid of evil tidings."

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to know You so well, to trust You so completely that "evil tidings' will not rock my faith in You. Amen.

MORE: The urgency of sorting out your theology

Rebecca Stark writes:

"In what I believe was God’s providential preparation, in the years right before my husband’s cancer diagnosis, we came to a much fuller understanding of some things about God: that he is working his plan in every bit of the universe all the time; that he has righteous reasons for everything he does, even though we might not—and probably won’t—understand them; and that suffering and death, when they occur, are God’s chosen means to accomplish good things"

She goes on to make the case for sorting out one's view of God (one's theology) before trouble ever strikes by giving examples of how tragedy rocked the faith of some who didn't do that. She concludes:

"If you’ve already come to love a God who you understand to be purposefully working in all things—even the terribly tragic ones—for his good purposes, then you keep on loving and trusting him when real tragedy strikes you. And more than that: You cling to him as the only sort of God who could be a rock for you in difficult times. That you weren’t spared suffering doesn’t throw you for a loop, because you expected that somewhere, sometime, you would have your share of it as God conforms you to the likeness of his son.


You still suffer, of course, but you suffer knowing that there is meaning in your suffering, something that cannot be there if God is simply creation’s uninterested or unknowing overseer. You still suffer, but you suffer with God as a firm comfort and a source of steadfast hope, for you know that your tragedy, in his hands, is working good things."

Read the whole article (and follow the links).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Giving thanks

"Feeding the Multitude" 
by William Brassey Hole

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 6:1-15

TO CHEW ON: "And Jesus took the loaves and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise the fish as much as they wanted." John 6:11

This passage with its narrative of Jesus giving thanks then distributing bread and fish resonates with other scenes and meanings.

• On the following day, Jesus explained the miracle in another teaching session. There He said, " 'I am the bread of life' " - John 6:41.

• We think of the Lord's Supper:

"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body'" - Matthew 26:26.

• We remember another scene where two disciples traveled to Emmaus and along the way encountered an interesting stranger. When they begged Him to stop with them, He blessed their evening bread, broke and gave it to them, and they recognized—Jesus (Luke 24:29-31)!

The words "given thanks" in our focus verse are a translation of the Greek word eucharisteo.

[Eucharisteo  is made up of eu = well and charizomai = to give freely. It means to be grateful, to express gratitude, to be thankful. Eleven of the 39 appearances of the word in the NT refer to partaking of the Lord's Supper, while 28 occurrences describe the praise words given to the Godhead. During the second century, Eucharist became the generic term for the Lord's Supper" - Dick Mills,  Word Wealth, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1453.]

I never hear eucharisteo now but I think of Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts. In it she tells the story of a friend challenging her, in a time when she was searching for a greater sense of God's reality in her life, to make a list of ordinary things (like bread and fish) for which she could give thanks. Could she get to 1000?

This challenge became a practice for her. It put her on the road to a whole new understanding of God's activity in her life and gratitude for it—eucharisteo. She, in turn, challenged others so that the naming of life's ordinary gifts has become a movement of sorts.

And so I am challenged today by Jesus' example and Ann's exploration, to express my gratitude for life's ordinary gifts—like coffee, and my trusty Bic pen—and extraordinary gifts—Him, His body and blood, our mysterious union as I partake of the Eucharist, His life in me as I eat His word ... it goes on and on.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I love the scene of you giving thanks for food before distributing it. It reminds me to reflect on the source of every good gift and to return my thanks to You—instead of mindlessly grabbing blessings as my right. Help me to live gratefully today. Amen.

MORE: Ann Voskamp writes about eucharisteo

"In the original language, 'he gave thanks' reads 'eucharisteo.'

I underline it on the page. Can it lay a sure foundation under a life? Offer the fullest life?

The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning 'grace.' Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks.

But there is more, and I read it. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning "joy." Joy. Ah ... yes. I might be needing me some of that. That might be what the quest for more is all about—that which Augustine claimed, 'Without exception ... all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is joy'" -Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, page 32.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Complaining about the food

"And thou shalt smite on the rocks..." 
Lithograph by Marc Chagall

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 78:1-20

TO CHEW ON: "He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. But they sinned even more against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness" - Psalm 78:16,17

I identify with Carolyn Arends when she writes in Theology in Aisle Seven:

"I was making my way through Exodus, feeling a little jealous of my spiritual ancestors. It seemed they never had to wonder if God was there. They had only to follow pillars of cloud and fire, gathering up the manna served fresh daily from God's kitchen .... I wondered why the present-day actions of the immutable God sometimes seem so muted in contrast to the God of Moses. I wouldn't mind a pillar of cloud or fire when I need direction, or some manna on my front lawn when I pray for provision" - Carolyn Arends, Theology in Aisle Seven, Kindle Location 507.

But Asaph, the writer of today's psalm, reminds us that despite that luminous GPS, six-day-a-week meal service, and all the other tangible evidences of God's presence, the Israelites still struggled with bad attitudes of discontent, grumbling, and rebellion. Why?

Perhaps verse 18 holds a key to their problem: "They tested God in their heart..."

[Test—nasah—means to put to the test, try, prove, tempt. It's the thing that God does to us through life, not we to Him. As the Word Wealth writer of my Bible's notes concludes: "In this reference, the wilderness generation insulted and grieved the Lord by tempting and limiting Him as if to test His patience or His power" - Dick Mills, Word Wealth, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 747.]

Note the place those discontented complaints and rebellions originated: "their heart." It was an inner thing first before an outer action. Really as simple as choosing to see life's glass half empty instead of half full.

And so you and I too have a choice to make. Do we focus on what's wrong with life, the things we wish were different, what we would like more of, and so in effect test God, telling Him He's not doing a good enough job in our circumstances? Or do we, in our hearts, focus on gratitude, thankfulness, what's right with life? For it's as easy for us to test God as it was for the Israelites—as easy as complaining about the food!


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to live with gratitude every day, choosing to see life in a positive, not negative light, choosing not to test You in my heart. Amen.

MORE: Ingratitude—the catalyst of all my sins?

"From all our beginnings, we keep reliving the Garden story.

Satan, he wanted more. More power, more glory. Ultimately, in his essence Satan is an ingrate. And he sinks his venom into the heart of Eden. Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve are, simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave.

Isn't that the catalyst of all my sins?"

- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p. 15.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Thanks and thanks again

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28


TO CHEW ON: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Paul's little list of to-do items would make more sense to me if it was inverted: in everything give thanks + pray without ceasing = rejoice always.

Thankfulness in everything is a choice. It's easy to be thankful for the little and big blessings that keep appearing throughout our day: a morning carafe of coffee, a hot shower, electricity and a functioning computer, a drawerful of pens... But the things that aren't good on the outside: a morning headache, a sick child, a snowstorm on the day of the outing. How can we be thankful for these?

Two lines of thought come to mind.
1. We can usually find something in the situation to be thankful for. My morning headaches get me out of bed early. They usually dissipate with my first coffee. When kids are sick we can be thankful for doctors and medical help. The day's plans wrecked by weather may lead to a set of new ones with their own reasons for thanksgiving.

2. Our intentional thanks, even when we don't understand, confirms, expresses, and grows our faith in the goodness of God who has allowed this circumstance to touch us.

Pray without ceasing is what we do as we continually think, whisper, say out loud, even sing our thanks to God.

Rejoice always is the natural result, in our attitude and emotions, of such determined thanksgiving.

Need help with this? Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are is a powerful apologetic for thankful living. But you don't have to wait until you have it in hand to be thankful. Begin taking note of things for which you're thankful today. One way is to keep a gratitude journal. Here's a mini-journal to make that will get you started (with instructions for assembly here).

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this reminder to be thankful always. Help me to do this as I face the highs and lows of this day. Amen.


MORE: Only 17 more sleeps

Advent Calendar - December 8

Christmas Fact:


The poinsettia was originally cultivated in Mexico. The leaves that crown the end of each poinsettia stalk undergo a seasonal color change in December, turning from green to red. As Christianity spread across Mexico during the colonial era, this color change turned poinsettias into a popular Christmas decoration. The Mexicans call the plant flor de la Nochebuena or "Christmas Eve flower".

– Encyclopedia of Christmas p. 474

Open December 8

Visit the Poinsettia Pages to learn more about this popular Christmas plant.

A temporal spanking?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Hosea 2:2-23

TO CHEW ON: "For she did not know

That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,

And multiplied her silver and gold —

Which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore I will return and take away

My grain in its time

And My new wine in its season

And will take back My wool and My linen

Given to cover her nakedness." Hosea 2:8-9

When children are little, physical punishment is something they understand often better than words and reasoning (even though spanking is certainly out of favour with the modern parenting gurus). Here God threatens to administer a temporal spanking to Israel, who has been pursuing affairs with idols, just as Hosea's wife Gomer has gone after other men.

God's tone is one of hurt aroused to the point of indignation as He speaks to Israel about her unfaithfulness:

"She did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, oil; Therefore I will return and take away My grain...and new wine...She has said 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me,' so I will make them a forest..." Hosea 2: 8, 9, 12.

Israel is interpreting her physical abundance as the payment for her allegiance to Baal instead of coming from the God of heaven. So God says, in effect, I'll take it away. Maybe that will drive you back to Me.

As I read this, I think how we are often like that too. We attribute success, provision, all the good stuff we have as resulting from our own hard work, or keen intellect, or stable government, or luck, or karma — anything but God. It's interesting to view, as a contrast, the range of temporal blessings that the Bible says come from God's hand and are an evidence of His favour:*

• The wealth of the patriarchs - Genesis 24:35; Genesis 26:12.

• The sturdiness of the Israelites' clothes and shoes while they wandered for 40 years over rough desert terrain - Deuteronomy 29:5.

• The well-being of Obed-Edom's household while he housed the Ark of the Covenant - 2 Samuel 6:11.

• The riches and honour of Solomon, given as a by-product of his request for wisdom - 1 Kings 3:13.

• Rain and the seasons to make earth productive - Psalm 65:9; Acts 4:17.

• The success of secular rulers to the extent that even the animal kingdom is on their side, as they serve God's purposes (though they may not realize or acknowledge it) - Jeremiah 27:6

• Along with material wealth, the ability to flourish spiritually - 2 Corinthians 9:10.

Do we acknowledge the real Source of the myriad blessings in our lives? When week after week there is food in the fridge, money for gas, health to live comfortably, do we thank God? Or do we, like the Israelites, attribute those blessings to ourselves or someone else? If we do we may, like them, be at risk of God withdrawing His bounty as He seeks to draw our attention back to Him.


PRAYER: Dear God, help me to understand the degree to which I am dependent on You for all the good things in life. Help me to be a person of habitual thankfulness for Your blessings to me throughout my days. Amen.


MORE: "How is God making my life full right here, right now?"

In her book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp writes about how nurturing an attitude of gratitude toward God changed the outlook of her life. Moira Brown of 100 Huntley Street interviewed Ann about the book in March 2011. In the two segments below, Ann explains what brought about the focus of gratitude in her life and how she continues to foster it.

Part 1 − 8:30 minutes

Part 2 − 9:38 minutes

*Email subscribers: to read the verses without looking them up, visit the article on the web, where a text box widget displays the verse when you hover the mouse over the reference.

Marvelous things without number

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Job 5: 1-27

TO CHEW ON: "But as for me, I would seek God,

And to God I would commit my cause

who does great things and unsearchable

Marvelous things without number." Job 5:8,9

Ann Voskamp's little sister died in a tragic accident when Ann was only four. That incident dyed her life's outlook so that even after she had her own six beautiful children, she lived in the night of mistrust. She writes in her memoir One Thousand Gifts:

"The fruit's poison has infected the whole of humanity. Me. I say no to what He's given. I thirst for some roborant, some elixir to relieve the anguish of what I've believed: God isn't good. God doesn't love me.


If I'm ruthlessly honest, I may have said yes to God, yes to Christianity, but really, I have lived the no. Infected by that Eden mouthful, the retina of my soul develops macular holes of blackness. From my own beginning, my sister's death tears a hole in the canvas of the world" -  One Thousand Gifts, Kindle Location (KL) 139.

Job, whom Eliphaz is addressing in today's reading, had every reason to be skittish around God too after the series of calamities that pounded him. Though not all of Elphaz's advice is worth following, his admonish to Job to shift his focus to God's doings of "great things and unsearchable" is good.

That's what rescued Ann. A friend's challenge to her to identify, name, and list one thousand things for which she was grateful — in other words, to start noticing God's good gifts — outfitted her with a whole new set of life lenses.

I personally have joined Ann's "Gratitude Community." We share each Monday, at her A Holy Experience blog, our lists of gifts from the past seven days. The clincher for me was finally "seeing" the reference to thanksgiving in even my own life verse:

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God...- Philippians 4:6,7.

Why don't you try it? Today, instead of focusing on worries and what ifs, on aches and pains, on dour predictions and dark expectations, turn the tapestry of your life around and study it for blessings. You may find, with Ann:

"The act of naming grace moments, this list of God's gifts, moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side. The other side of prayer, the interior of His throne room, the inner walls of His powerful love-beating heart. The list is God's list, the pulse of His love — the love that thrums on the other side of our prayers. And I see for now what it really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love. It really is a dare to name all the ways God loves me. The true Love Dare. To move into His presence and listen to His love unending and uncontainable. This is the vault of miracles - One Thousand Gifts, KL 780 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me, today, to catch that "love that thrums on the other side of my prayers." I want to live with my eyes open to your "marvelous things without number" today. Amen.

MORE: #1

The book trailer to One Thousand Gifts is more than just an advert for a great book. Watch it (below), then count it as #1 on your own list of 1000 gifts.