Faith – Page 2 – The Welcome Home

He’s Writing My Story

Every day, year after year, God’s writing my story. Every day, whether or not I can understand the circumstances I face, He has a very good plan for whatever I face. And regardless of my comprehension, His plan is for my good and His glory.

I believe this not only because His word says so, but also because I have seen His work and His glory has been continually revealed in His work in my life and in the lives around me. This isn’t one of those God’s Word says it, I believe it, and that settles it! sorts of statements. Truly, it doesn’t matter if I believe it or not: if God’s Word says it, it’s settled.

But by God’s grace and mercy, my seeing or experiencing God’s work affirms His work to me—it affirms His purpose in me. That’s one of the precious angles of the Lord I appreciate so much. He loves me so much that He affirms His work and reveals it to me. In some of the darkest days I wrote in the margin of my Bible next to different texts that spoke to my heart — things I could neither articulate nor utter. But the Word was so real to me — so living. And now, looking back at those notes in the margins and the accompanying dates they were written, I can clearly trace the Hand of the Lord in what’s been accomplished or experienced in and through those events.

Dark days or heavy trials are interesting things… I feel so isolated and helpless in them sometimes — even though they are the very things God uses to broaden my understanding and deepen my message — or to add to the story He’s writing. So many times I look back now and see that I was going along making a mess of my life—though I didn’t know it or think it at the time—and God has miraculously taken the messes I’ve made and is working them into a beautiful testimony of His faithfulness. Not a testimony of my cleverness to make it through this or that trial. No. Simply, His work to redeem what was hopeless and make it into something He could use for His glory.

I see more and more that’s why we go through trials——–trials prove the Lord strong on our behalf. Trials demonstrate to us our great weakness, our great need — and His great love.

I used to fear “the next trial” so much because I used to think that trials were given in some sort of level of intensity to prepare us for harder or more difficult future trials. And that sure put God in a peculiar position, didn’t it? As if in good times He’s a good God, and in bad times He’s an austere God — as if He’s got a tally sheet, or a punch card, keeping score on everyone. That’s not an accurate understanding of the merciful Lord. While the “next thing” might indeed seem a harder thing to face than the one previously faced, God’s not locked into the box of dealing in varying levels of hardships or trials for His children.

But I do know this—-He surely is a Master Pruner, a Master Gardener, cultivating in our lives the very things we need in order that we will be either more useful to Him or that we will be strengthened in faith to bring Him glory. And He uses trials to develop whatever angle of Spiritual fruit lacking or needing to be revealed in our lives. We would likely never choose those often painful tools the Lord’s chosen for our sanctification, would we? But think back on hard trials… they’re exactly what we needed to bring us to where we are today. And those foolish choices we made along the way? Even those are working together for good. Hard to see it sometimes, isn’t it?

The story He’s writing is a beautiful story — because He is good, He is loving and He is merciful — even when the story seems to have deep, dark valleys and rocky places. Do you see His hand in your story?

Today You Have Today

On the wall in my kitchen hangs a plate that has imprinted the saying: Today you have today. It hangs there every day… every day I walk through the doorway below it and rarely look up to see that plate — or any other specific thing that hangs on the wall, for that matter. Except one of the clocks.

Isn’t it interesting? Many things in our lives we see — but don’t really see — every day. And every day these things are before us and could remind us that we have opportunity to do things today — each day — to recognize, to act upon, to remember things that are important — you know, the people and things that our walls sort of memorialize or showcase… photographs, quotes, awards, treasures of days gone by.

Things on our walls should be more than a memory… more than a decoration adorning a space in our home — though they are or do these things. They should be daily reminders of what God’s done, how He’s worked and what He wants us to remember — not just for the past, but for the future. And the only day of the future I have to live is today, for today is yesterday’s future. In a moment I could be gone… in a moment everything around me could be gone and the only thing left would be what I did with all the today’s the Lord has given me.

He’s only given me my today’s — but I live them in light of yesterday and in light of tomorrow. Does that make sense? Things done in my yesterdays affect or have consequences today. This is so important for me to remember as I live out each day because, as this is true, whatever I’m doing or deciding not to do today will have an effect on, or have consequences for, tomorrow. It’s easy to forget this truth if we just keep walking through doorways and never look up.

Today you have today.

Trusting God With His Plans

Trusting God with His plans surely sounds like a worthy disposition for a Christian woman, doesn’t it? Maybe even the proper automatic reaction, too. Were I to be asked, Do you trust God with His plans? I’d probably instantly and emphatically say, yes. Yes, I trust God with His plans. And then something hard to deal with happens, it might not look like it. And it is, I’ve come to believe, in that moment we have a decision to make: Do we act on what we say/think we believe or do we act on what we think we see.

[cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]trust God with His plans[/cp_quote]Many years ago, when facing a testing of faith, I distinctly remember the thought that came to mind: You’re going to need this. At the time I thought I was going to need what I was learning in that moment — waiting on God to heal, provide and guide in that trial. But what I needed was *all* the different ways God would show Himself strong on my behalf. What I needed was to see God be God and that truly, His ways are good. Truly His plans are perfect.

It takes a trial — loads of trials — to see this, to really see that we can — must — trust God with His plans. The more trials we have, the more our faith is strengthened if we seek to see God in them. The more trials we face with this in mind, the more we seek to see how He’ll be glorified in the trial, the sooner we’ll react with eager anticipation for His glory and our good.

Sometimes the trial begins in our mind with a Yet. My word in faith last year was, yet. I couldn’t see some things, yet. I felt I just couldn’t do some things, yet. And surely — surely, surely, surely, by the grace of God, those yet’s became But God. But God who is rich in mercy…

It’s not hard to trust someone who’s proven trustworthy. But we often act like we can’t trust God with His plans — like we know better or something silly like that. But when we’ve been in places where the trial is thick and hard, we cry out… we learn to know He’s all we’ve got. And then we get that marvelous revelation that He truly is all we need. The trial’s there – it’s hard, it’s painful, it’s humbling, it’s long…. but in it, that still small voice of the Lord gives that blessed assurance that He is in it. For us. For our good. For His glory.

This journal entry today is prompted by a powerful article I read this morning coupled with thoughts swirling around my mind as I worked in my kitchen. We’d finished Bible study and prayer… reading in Matthew and the parables Jesus was telling regarding the kingdom of heaven. Then praying for eyes to see beyond what I see.

Then the article… The Heartache You Didn’t Ask For ; and as I read it, I thought back on some of the many heartaches I didn’t “ask” for. But I needed every one of them. Seriously. I needed what each one of them taught me — what each one of them taught me about myself — what each one of them, most importantly, taught me about God. You know, we don’t get to choose the tools for our sanctification. But bcz of His plans, I can trust His plans. His plans have shown me He is my Shepherd. His plans have shown me He is my good and gracious Father. His plans have shown me All His ways are good.
Seriously. Even if/when at the time they don’t/didn’t initially feel/seem like it. To me.

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blindsided

I was once in an accident that blindsided me. It happened in a startling flash! And though nearly four decades have passed, I haven’t forgotten sitting there in the car, shocked that while making a left turn in a blind hilltop intersection, I’d just been spun around and was facing an entirely different direction on the hill I’d intended to drive down to go home. Soon I would talk with an officer and would receive a citation and have to go to traffic court. It was a mercy that a very lenient judge determined that though the accident was my fault for failing to yield right of way, were I to successfully attend and pass the traffic school course, I could, once again, have a “clean” driving record. Completing the course may have changed the record, but I knew differently. Even though I now had no blot on my record (and no one was injured), I still knew the accident was my fault. I didn’t drive again for a long time.

Incidentally, where we lived in Seattle, I didn’t really need to drive anywhere. Even still, it wasn’t that I couldn’t drive anywhere but that I wouldn’t drive anywhere. That accident blindsided me and caused me to believe I ought never drive again. Fear. It caused me to believe I was a terrible driver. It caused me to question if I ever was a good driver. It caused me to think that were I to ever drive again I’d probably get in another accident, wreck the car, permanently mar my driving record, or worse, hurt someone. Everyone would know–they’d know I was a failure and that I should never have been driving again. Shame. It was disproportionate fear and shame.

Fear and shame are powerful things — they can paralyze us, cause us to do or not do things, and can cause us to doubt ourselves, or other people or things. Guilt only adds to the paralyzing results of blindsiding event. Disappointment is another angle that comes to light, and, incidentally, pride does this, too. Sometimes.

Things that’ve blindsided me in life have revealed one or any number of these things and I’m pretty sure these are what have caused me to seek God’s purposes for them– and much more so with each passing year. I’ve determined to ask, why is this thing making me ashamed or afraid, or is this thing hurting (thus revealing) my pride, or why did this thing bring such instant and great disappointment, or why do I feel so guilty or responsible for this problem, or was thing to add to or to strengthen my faith?

I’m resolved to really quickly assess what’s going on when I experience and react to a blindsiding event. I have to chuckle at this point; this is reading as though a blindsiding event occurs regularly. Even though it feels like it, it’s not true. I’m just learning along the way to seek to repent or correct my actions quickly, to be circumspect, to keep short accounts, to guard my blindsides: to determine to be real careful how I initially react when things seem to come out of nowhere.

I can sincerely attest that initial reactions, statements, or decisions can be dangerous, or damaging to myself, hurtful to others, or to relationships if the reactions are not harnessed and words not carefully chosen — especially when/if they’re of the flesh and not of faith.

I can also affirm that there’s never a second chance to say the right thing first. Lately a guiding principle has been: How would I wish someone would treat me were I to be in this same position? Most importantly, I sincerely know the things that happen in my life are for God’s glory and my good — this is where blind faith is continually established or cultivated. He’s already sifted all the events through His loving hands – and if this is true, and it is, then what’s happened may have blindsided me, but it didn’t blindside God.

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Faith. Falling into the Hand of the Lord

In First Peter, regarding faith, we read: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.” 1Peter 1.3-10

Every day we have opportunity to witness God’s work, His Word, His “doings” in our lives. Opportunity, I say, because we can either acknowledge (and accept) or ignore (and disregard) His will, His work, His ways with us. Opportunity abounds. Distractions, false teachings (!!), self-will, sin, or ignorance keep us from seeing these opportunities, from yielding to the Truth — keep us from hearing His voice. They also keep us from seeking the Truth. And that’s probably one of the devil’s most superlative weapons: to distract from or to distort the Truth.

So distracted are we, that we look around for a better way, an easier way, a less painful way to live. Falling into the Hand of the Lord seems hard sometimes, seems scary sometimes, seems foolish sometimes, seems ignorant sometimes, seems careless sometimes. Strangely, falling into the hand of the Lord is at once all of these and none of these. Falling into the Hand of the Lord is an act of faith… it’s an act of obedience, it’s an act of trust, it’s an act of hope, and it’s an act of love. Falling into the Hand of the Lord is the safest, surest place to be.

hebrews111pamelaspurling

When a lot of things around you (okay, maybe everything around you) seems like a mess, an absolute mess, what’s not true is that God’s forgotten you. What’s not true is that He stopped caring about what’s happening to you. What’s not true is that God has forsaken you and doesn’t have good plans for you. But the devil doesn’t want you to know that. He wants you to believe that your mess, your life, your stuff’s just beyond hope… that your mess is beyond redemption. That’s a lie.

Faith… (Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith) is the assurance of things hoped for.
Faith… (Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith) is the evidence of things unseen.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him
[atonement and redemption]
endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12.2

The Hard Life of Young Mamas

Bookp1 I just read a blog post written by a young mama — a thirty something year old mama. She wrote about the stage of life that’s hard. The repetitive dailies that are particular to young motherhood. She’s a great writer, part of a group of mamas who have a website to which they contribute entries. It’s for encouragement and help for other young moms — I suspect they are helped more themselves by offering the same to others. I’m so glad I read it (and I hope lots of other young mamas read it, too). It’s a hard stage of life. What great encouragement they are to one another and to all the readers of their blog. God bless them.

I’ve had women ask me countless times through the years if it gets easier. I try to encourage them that they’re doing a great job. And, to answer their question, I tell them, no. No, it doesn’t get easier. It gets different, but it doesn’t get easier — bcz other new hard things come along. There are many things that improve — but I don’t think they improve because the children get older so much as the mama gets wiser. While the children are being trained and are more helpful, there are other difficulties added to the mix. Mama starts improving her serve, as it were. She learns how to do things more efficiently and forces herself to do them that way until they’re habit — second nature. Efficiency fosters confidence and enables her to accomplish more in less time. All this enables her to be more attentive to her husband and to better care for her children. I tell young mamas they’ll cry for these days. They look at me like I’m nuts. And I understand.

I tell them they’ll long for these sunny days they think will never end. I tell them they’ll wish for one more pregnancy, one more nursing, one more diaper to change, one more story, one more potty training success day, one more jelly faced kiss, one more push on the swing, one more second of being clung to like glue, one more moment of being the only one to console a crying baby, a fearful toddler, a disappointed gradeschooler, a nervous teenager. They’re sure they will not. Ever. And I understand.

We all need every hard day of motherhood. The longer I’m a mother, the more sure I am of this truth. I cry for those early days… those early days when it was just us. Just us two. Just us three. Just us five. Just us seven. Just us nine… and so on. Everything was new. Everything was amazing. Days when it was just us reading bedtime Bible stories and praying beside beds, just us piling into the car, gathered around the table, sitting in the row at church, going on a trip, pushing a cart full of groceries, pulling a cart full of kids. Hard days. Days when lots didn’t get done. Days when so much growing was going on. Just us.

We all needed those hard days — those hard days brought us to these hard days. Those hard days brought us through all the hard days in between those early hard days and these hard days. I’m mindful of this as I look ahead to closing chapters of life—I want to remember I need these days and all I’m learning of the Lord and His ways through the years. I know I will need what He’s shown me and look forward to what He’ll teach me in the days ahead.

Though I know it doesn’t necessarily get easier, I do know He is faithful and that allows me to look forward to the different days ahead.

Wasting Time

teacuppamela Do you ever feel like you’re just wasting time?

As I was washing dishes the other day, I found myself mentally wading into the pond of regrets and perhaps for the first time ever I stopped mid-thought and wondered what I would have done differently were I to have the opportunity to not waste time.

I think when one has faced the cold reality of failures in life, it’s easy to get hung up on failure or to get caught up in rehearsing failures. It’s also easy to be plagued with the fear of failing again — dreading repeating the same mistakes over and over. It’s also easy to slip into the paralyzing thinking that the failure defines us–that whatever we’ve done wrong is who we are. Forever.

If we’ve been wasting time, we feel we’re doomed to spend our days wasting time or we’re scrambling like mad to not waste a moment. Sounds a lot like works based faith, doesn’t it. If we work hard enough, we’ll be good enough and if we’re good enough: we won’t fail. Ever again.

Until we do. And it all starts again.

I looked at the work of our exchange student sitting across the table from me as I was teaching a couple of our children this morning. As I saw the completed geometry lesson pages (and believe me, it’s incredibly impressive in Chinese), I thought, Wow, I’ve sure been wasting a lot of time. And it all started again.

[cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Galatians 5.1[/cp_quote]I then must ask myself, where is the Lord Jesus in all of this? Did I not trust Him? Did I not confess my sins, my faults, my failings, my wasting time? And, in pouring out my heart to Him, seeking His forgiveness and His covering and His direction, did He not answer me? I can hear Him saying, O foolish girl, why are you going back into bondage? If I say, O, I completely trust You Lord and know Your forgiveness and Your care — and then go back into that pit of rehearsing failures, I am in effect saying, Your atonement is not enough — Your grace is not sufficient for this (or me).

Gripping, right? So if you’re like me and you’ve been wasting time (or if this or other issues keep repeating), ‘fess up and press on. Do this with me: Do what you’re supposed to be doing today, tomorrow or whenever. Remember this with me: There’s so much life to live, so much praise to give, so much for which to be grateful and opportunities to do what ought to be done… no more wasting time sorrowing over wasting time.

Thanksgiving 2015

spurlingfamilyjune2015TWHblog From me (and my family) to you, Happy Thanksgiving 2015

We celebrate God’s merciful kindness this Thanksgiving!
I’m filled with awe and gratitude for the opportunities the Lord
has given me and I am thankful to be able to share this blog with you.
I sincerely wish you love, peace, joy, hope, contentment and patience.
May we all give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. always only good.
May the Lord encourage your heart as you count your many blessings.
May He increase your faith as you recall His loving kindness.
May your joy be full regardless your circumstances.
May your love abound more and more.
May your faith ever be unwavering.
May your all hope be in God.
May He bless you
more & more.
with love
to you.

Keep A Settled Heart

teacuppamela I don’t know of a time of year that has more potential to be more oppressive, more directive, or more influential regarding thoughts and emotions than this time of year — this “holiday season.” [cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear… Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life… and health… Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life… and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on… Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.”
Proverbs 4.20-26 [/cp_quote]I’m compelled to write today to affirm or to warn myself (and you) to keep a settled heart — to be thoroughly rooted and grounded in God’s Word, to be wise with our eyes, careful in our conversation, guarded with our desires, daily feeding on the fresh bread and drinking from the rich well of God’s Word. For the onslaught will come, at the least anticipated moment, it will come. It may come subtly or in a sudden flood. From the least expected source, the inundation of want and desire, the compulsion to buy, to have, and to get some more. It sure is easy to be discontent when such floods rush in.

And that emotion of discontent will grip me if I don’t daily determine to keep a settled heart.

The ads in the internet sidebars, the magazines, music in the stores, signs, newspapers, mailers, radio commercials: all designed to influence and appeal to our mind, will, and emotions. You may not have needed a single thing this morning, for example, but by the time you glanced at Newspaper, Facebook, the daily mail or walked through the grocery store, or Costco or wherever else you might have been, you were probably struck with all kinds of images, sights, scents and sounds that stirred up your emotional impulses.

I know mine were stirred today as I drove along seeing that “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” I briefly lingered over a song as I pressed buttons on the radio in the car, “I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me…” and I thought of times past when I heard that song and wept for those who wouldn’t be home that, or any other, Christmas. I saw trees being decorated, and strings of lights being hung on homes in a neighbourhood I was driving through. Instantly, I needed lights — in one moment I went from being content with no twinkle lights to needing them.

There’s an almost intoxicating aroma from the bags of heavily scented cinnamon pinecones that flank the doorway of our local store. I thought, Ooooo, I need those! Just up the street, carts were collecting all over the Costco parking lot — not a one by the entrance — but, Oooo, the scent of fresh pumpkin pies wafting out the doorway! A whole lot of shop, shop, shopping going on. Food, electronics, gifts and more gifts filling the unending streams of clanking carts — and though I was just there for some normal grocery shopping, I felt I needed to look around at all the stuff — compelled to see all the pretty lures. Do you do this, too? Do these feelings wash over you, too? It’s pretty important to keep a level head — to be content with such things as we have (or are able to purchase or not) and to be thankful regardless our circumstances. There is always something to be thankful for. Always.

Keep a settled heart, I remind myself.

His Grace is Enough

Are you having a difficult time seeing and believing that the grace of the Lord is sufficient for you — for whatever concerns you — for the circumstances in which you find yourself today?

Do you long to know — to see and believe — that His grace is enough?

[cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]And he said unto me,
My grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is
made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12.9[/cp_quote]

* HisGraceIsEnoughpamelaspurlingcard

[cp_dropcaps]I[/cp_dropcaps]n seeking to rest in knowing that His grace is enough, I pray, Lord…. please show me that Your grace is sufficient for me. Please show me Your strength in my weakness. So I determine to not run from this place of weakness — or to reject this season of struggle, change, and uncertainty — this season of weakness. I don’t want to waste a day of His grace, I don’t want to waste a moment of weakness. For it’s here that I find Him — it’s here that I clearly find His comfort and grace for each moment. I don’t want to wish this all away—for I surely want the power of Christ to rest upon me.

I recall to mind the many times He’s shown me His great grace (or, actually, the many times I’ve noticed). I wonder what He had for me that I missed — I wonder what grace I’ve dismissed or exchanged for despair, worry, regret. I wonder what peace I’ve passed up. I wonder how He would have/could have used me had I been yielded to Him. What a thought, eh? But you know what I’m discovering in this great season of redemption–this season of the Lord redeeming the time for me? There’s grace for all those things, too. This is the love of God. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Yes, and throughout my life, wherever I’ve been… while I was yet a sinnin’, yet a falterin’, yet distracted… Christ ever lives to make intercession for me. I miss this great grace, this great love when I’m too cool, carrying on in my own strength, independent, “in need of nothing.”

Yes… His grace has been sufficient. It’s enough. It’s full. How full is full? Enough. Enough is full.

Tag: Faith