A lesson from Asa

A Lesson from King Asa
A couple of weeks ago I was reading in II Chronicles about Asa, King of Judah. The story starts out inspirational… He was a great king of Judah, he did away with idol worship, etc. When Zerah the Cushite came to war against them, he prayed “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us…we rely on you and in your name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.” (2 Chronicles 14:11) God saved them from the army, Asa led Judah in renewing their covenant with God and seeking him wholeheartedly, so “God gave them rest on every side.” There was no more war until he had reigned 35 years. But the next time Asa was threatened by war, he made a treaty with another king instead of relying on God. God was not pleased sending this message through a prophet, “Because you relied on the King of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites..a mighty army?… Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand…From now on you will be at war.” (2 Chr. 16:7-9)
Finally, he got a disease and “Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only the physicians.” (2 Chr. 16:12) That gives me chills. He started out with amazing faith and reliance on God, but by the end of his life he wouldn’t call on God even though he was horribly sick. Scary.
Lessons here:
1. The Lord is will fight for us when we rely on him. No one whose hope is in Him will ever be put to shame. (PS 25:3) EVERY time I have stepped out in faith and relied on the Lord, he has more than met my need and provided. EVERY single time, why do I doubt for the future? I have countless examples, but this is getting long. To be shared at another time.
2. We can and should trust him completely, all the time, for everything. We do not want to make the mistake of self-reliance! Over and over in the Psalms and Isaiah God implores us to wait for him. “Be still before the Lord. Wait patiently for him.” PS 37:3 “Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” PS 27:14 PS 106:13 “But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.”
Saul made the same mistake in I Sam 13, when he took things into his own hands and didn’t wait for Samuel to sacrifice to the Lord. The chilling part in Saul’s story is that “Just as (Saul) finished making the offering, Samuel arrived.” (I Sam 13:10) How many times have we decided to take things into our own hands, just before God is about to move? Very scary thought. The consequence for self reliance in these cases was no small thing either… God removed the kingdom from Saul and Asa was at war for the rest of his life.
3. Victories of yesterday don’t mean anything today or tomorrow. If we don’t continue relying on him every day, we are capable of make the same mistake.
4. “Rest on every side” isn’t always a good thing. It’s comfortable not to have any trials, but not usually very spiritually beneficial. He hadn’t felt the need for God in such a long time he forgot that he did need him every day. By the time another trial came along, he believed he could handle it on his own. Trials cause frustration and a lot of pain, but they can keep us from the delusion that we can rely on ourselves. That’s why James says “Count it all joy, brothers, whenever you face trials of various kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything (Jms 1:2-4) And Peter in I Pt. 1:6-7 “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold…. May be proved genuine and may result in praise… when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
I hope this encourages you and exhorts you to stick it out. Wait for him. You will not be disappointed. His Word is always, always, always true.

The Epitome of Idiotic Impulsivity

I’m not sure if impulsivity is a word, but impulsiveness didn’t rhyme with epitome.
So yesterday my phone had an unfortunate experience with a sippy cup that was not entirely sealed. Not very sealed at all, it turns out. My phone died. UGH.

I went to the store this morning to buy a new prepaid cell phone for $20. Nothing more expensive than that again for this messy mama.

I got it home and tried to insert the SIM card. “This SIM must be a different shape. I thought they were all the same? Am I doing something wrong? I don’t see anything I could be doing differently.” Again and again I tried. It just wouldn’t happen. My SIM card must be ruined, too. UGH!

Urgency set in…I feel a little panicked when I don’t have a phone. I guess I’ll just have to go buy a prepaid SIM and get a land line. I spent all afternoon researching options because I need something…NOW. Qwest had a great deal, but something went awry with my computer like three times and I had to re-type my info, etc. So that took up Gibson’s nap time, plus. And you know what a precious commodity nap time is!

After my new landline was finally ordered, I went to clean up the packaging from the new cell. I began to look at the writing on the box. Included: SIM card. “OH, I’ll try to put this in that way I can have a line out if I need it.” I had the same problems as I did with my original SIM. “I must be missing something!” (Yes, Detective Holmes.) So, I got out the directions. “Blast these tiny pictures and vague instructions! This is no help.” I fiddled and fiddled a little more. “OOoh!....oops” It worked. “Hmm… wonder if my original SIM is going to work?” Yep. “Hmm. Wonder if qwest will let me cancel my order? OH _ _ _ _. I just wasted my whole afternoon being completely counterproductive!"

This is quitessential Erica though… make a move before you have all the facts and explore all options. I totally thought I did though. I swear I am direct descendant of Lucy Ricardo. They could’ve made the show about me; except for I’m not nearly as funny.

And in real time… what’s burning? Oh no… my beans! I just added water! OH!

These are but light and momentary trials.

Wrinkles

...I've decided to think of my wrinkles as newly formed, long, skinny dimples. They seem cuter if I reframe them that way.

What a wonderful weekend...

Last weekend was one of my favorite Memorial Day weekends ever. Saturday morning
I ran a 5k and way exceeded my expectations, so that felt amazing! Then Bob's mom, brother, sister-in-law and their 2 kids came to visit. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. The kids played at the beach and went for walks...we grilled and ate out on the porch... the weather was perfect. Gibson was entertained practically the whole weekend.... We had a bonfire... I made playdough for the kids monday morning because the weather wasn't as nice. We played games. Ahh... it was just so relaxing and refreshing. I made up most of the food ahead of time which was fabulous because it made the rest of the weekend super easy and stress free. Pictures to come.

...That's what I get for wearing makeup

Ran to target yesterday morning early before my Y class because I desperately needed new workout pants. Seriously, I have one pair that I bought right after I graduated from college that have a few little holes and several bleach stains. The catalyst to finally go out and buy the pants was that I needed to do laundry. Anyways, checked the clearance rack, as I always do when I'm there and I found a really cute shirt for $4.48! Yeah! I'll take that and the so-so black fitness pants that were 30% off. (As opposed to the fabulous $20 ones that never go on sale).

Had a great workout, stopped at the health food store to get some raw cashews and dried fruit, showered while Gibson was napping (score), put on my new shirt and make up and left for piano lessons. I was feeling good.

Gibson played great at my lessons. Toward the beginning of lesson #4 I heard a noise like he was choking, so I looked and....

he was vomitting all over. His incredible precision landed the up-chuck right on the edge of the only rug in a whole house of wood floors. I scooped him up right away and he proceeded to vomit... at least4-5 more heaves all over himself and me as I was trying to keep more puke from getting on these people's floor.

"EW!!!! This is disgusting. Hold it together. You've got to hold it together," I thought every few minutes as I was cleaning it all up. I managed to get through the ordeal without getting sick myself, but ... that's what I get for wearing makeup!

I hate showering

I really really hate showering. It's such a pain. I so wish I could just stay clean. It wouldn't be so bad if if didn't require so much time! Oh no! I forgot to tape the Dr's episode on home birth yesterday. Shoot... maybe it'll replay this summer. Anyways, I know I should go bathe myself. Ugh!

More on God's Powerful Word

… Wow. God is continuing to burn this message into me, it seems, at every turn. The words we speak are POWERFUL. In fact, according to scripture, they hold the power of life and death. That’s one of the easiest verses to merely interpret figuratively, diminishing the authority of its absolute truth. (There are certain power packed verses, I think most of us glance over, thinking “Oh… that’s nice”).

Tonight I was reading a book entitled Heaven by Randy Acorn. On page 12 he uses such a poignant example from C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair that it makes my skin crawl. He sets it up this way:
…Puddgleglum, Jill and Eustace are captured in a sunless underground world by an evil witch who calls herself the queen of the underworld. The witch claims that her prisoners’ memories of the overworld, Narnia are but figments of their imagination. She laughs condescendingly at their child’s game of “pretending” that there’s a world and a great ruler of that world…

She says to them hypnotically, “There never was any world but mine,” and they repeat after her, abandoning reason, parroting her deceptions. Then she coos softly, “There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan…”

I find it easy to put myself in the shoes of the captives, as many times I have succumbed to similar prisons spiritually. I think about the power of those words to abolish hope, which renders me ineffective, depressed and - without intervention - dead.

In The Silver Chair, it is not until Puddleglum begins to speak (not think) words of encouragement, life, hope and truth that the witch’s spell is broken and Rilian the king of Narnia comes to slay her.

C.S. Lewis was an allegorical master at depicting our spiritual lives. It is the exact same way for us. The Word is our Sword. The Word is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword, in fact (Heb 4:12).

I feel a little cooky saying “speak The Word,” but it’s not cooky; it’s Biblical. I’ve been sitting on my most powerful weapon for 17 years! It’s not a magical antidote, but the Word of God does hold power that we can’t even fathom.

I have been reading Proverbs almost everyday for a couple months. (Oh the wisdom I desire to imbibe). I don’t have a count off hand, but there are sooo many verses talking about the power of words, the wisdom in holding your tongue, how pleasant words are like honey... James 3 talks about the power of our tongue. In Mt. 12:36 , Jesus says we will be judged for every idle word. And what’s up with all of the blessings and curses spoken with words in the O.T.? Right? Something to them?

All of these things make me have such a reverence for what comes out of our mouths. I’m almost afraid to speak anything because I know all too well my natural propensity to say stupid or hurtful or meaningless words. But my prayer is that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be pleasing in God’s sight (PS 19:14) and that no unwholesome talk would come out of my mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it might benefit those who listen (Eph 4:29). A tall order. Thank God he doesn’t give up on us and that he loves us through the process.