Angela Parlin

So Much Beauty in All This Chaos

Don’t Drift Away

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drift away

On my birthday this last summer, my family blessed me with the gift of making the day all about whatever I wanted.

Talk about a Mom’s wildest dream! 🙂

We were staying at my favorite place, the North Carolina beach where the sun first kissed my skin and stole my heart and ate up weekends when it was only the two of us and two first real jobs.

It was the perfect day. There was running and music and my favorite people, warm sunshine and a light breeze, and all six of us jumping restless waves with screams and laughter.

We were headed back to the sand, and I was chatting away like I was already standing, stable on the shore.

My husband turned around and saw the giant wave coming over my head, but it was too late for a proper warning. It swallowed me, for a moment. It swept me right off my feet, while I carried on without a clue.

When I came up drenched and gasping, I had no idea I was missing something.

“Weren’t you wearing sunglasses a minute ago?” My husband asked.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t wearing the cheap backup pair that day. In which the ocean ate my sunglasses–happy birthday to me. 🙂

All of us looked for the frames, but they had clearly drifted away, never to be recovered.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. Hebrews 2:1

I think that’s one of the saddest phrases in the Bible. Drift away. So that we do not drift away.

It tells me that’s a possibility, people knowing Christ yet drifting away. Maybe they didn’t hear the warning. Maybe they heard, but they didn’t listen to it. Maybe they didn’t even realize they were slipping away.

Hebrews gives this warning–to pay the most careful attention–to Jewish believers, those who had heard the gospel and believed. Though they had tasted of heaven, some of them still drifted back to what was familiar. Though they embraced Jesus Christ as Messiah, they were going back to the old rituals, the old religion, the old sacrifices in the temple.

Everybody was doing those things, it seemed, living there in the shadows, stuck in the customs of their culture and trying to earn their way to God.

So this warning came, to listen carefully to the truth. The word therefore points back to the why, to the message of Hebrews 1, which I wrote about last week.

Because Jesus sits in the place of highest honor, at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:7) Because Jesus is higher than the angels, higher than the prophets.

Therefore, pay attention, because you’re in danger of drifting away.

My friends, drifting away is easy. It happens quickly, naturally, even without realization. Paying attention is the hard part. Paying attention requires effort and awareness. It’s listening, but it’s also obeying, even though obedience to God’s Word is counter-cultural.

I want to encourage you to hold fast to the truth.

Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd and the Gate, the Resurrection and the Life, the True Vine.

Are you anchored in the superiority of Jesus? Do you hold Jesus above all else in your life?

Or could you be floating with the world’s current, drifting away like sunglasses swallowed by a wave, unaware?

Hold Him fast.

~Angela

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Jesus, Where Are You? {#RaRaLinkup}

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right hand

Sometimes, life leaves us wondering, Jesus? Where are you?

Sometimes trials last year after year, and we don’t see how God works good things through those hard places.

So often, we need a reminder of who Jesus is and what He’s done and what He’s still doing for His loved ones.

The book of Hebrews begins by telling us that God speaks through Jesus to the world.

Previously, God spoke to the prophets, the Old Testament writers. He revealed Himself to them, with divinely inspired revelation, but that revelation was incomplete. He also spoke to people through angels. The original audience for this book, the Jews, had highest regard for the ministry of angels.

But now, God wants us to know, He has spoken in a far superior way.

God has spoken to the world through the person of Jesus Christ, His Son, who is greater than prophets and angels.

Hebrews 1 offers 7 awesome descriptions of Jesus Christ:

  • He is Heir of all things. He owns the world.
  • He made the universe.
  • He is the radiance of God’s glory. As the sun’s brilliance cannot be separated from the sun itself, so Jesus’ glory is also God’s glory. (NIV Study Bible)
  • He’s the exact representation of God’s being. Jesus is not just a reflection of God. He is God!
  • He sustains all things by His powerful word. In the beginning was the Word, John chapter 1 says about Jesus. Jesus holds everything together, sustaining the world with His powerful word (Colossians 1:17).
  • He provided purification for our sins. Through His death on the cross, He provided the payment, to fully redeem us.
  • He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

The right hand of God is the position of highest honor and limitless power. It symbolizes privilege, power, dominion, and authority.

We know from God’s Word where Jesus is. We don’t ever need to wonder.

Jesus is in the position of honor, at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, actively ruling with God as Lord of all.

It’s interesting that it says “Jesus sits,” isn’t it? You don’t sit down unless your work is done. Jesus sits to symbolize that His work is complete. He has already paid the greatest cost to rescue us, and His work is complete.

Hebrews 1 continues to explain Jesus’ superiority to angels, quoting 7 Old Testament scriptures which show Jesus as God’s Son and the One whom even angels worship.

Angels may be fascinating to us, but they are simply God’s servants, His messengers, “sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” They’re not rulers. They are beings God created to help carry out His plans for His people.

But the point of this chapter is not angels at all. The point is Jesus.

When our lives leave us wondering, Jesus, where are you?, we only need to be still in His presence and remember the truth.

Having completed His work for us, Jesus sits at the Majesty’s Right Hand in heaven, sustaining the world with His powerful word.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my Right Hand, I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:8

Kelly Balarie (22)

Hello to all my blogging friends who are here to join the #RaRaLinkup today…I look forward to reading your words this week!

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Learning to Live in the Now

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live nowI stood out on the sidewalk recently, talking with a friend. She spent her days at home with a little one, not always sure what to do next, and she felt like Facebook was taking over her days.

She realized she often looked to the apps on her phone when exhausted, when she didn’t want to make another decision.

The phone is a perfect distraction when we don’t know what to do next.

But my friend didn’t like what her life was beginning to look like. The constant pull of Facebook made it impossible for her to stay present in her days. She didn’t want to miss precious moments with her daughter, but she also didn’t want to drop out of Facebook altogether. It can be a great way to stay connected with friends and family.

Still, something needed to change.

I could relate. My phone addiction problem comes and goes, often depending on the current season’s schedule as a Mom. Sometimes I’m running crazy and too busy to even notice the apps on my phone.

But other days, I can’t stop checking the phone, with all the little red flags waving notifications that someone has said something or liked something or needs my attention.

In those times, I’m looking for something. Something in my life is missing or incomplete, and I’m restless until I find it.

The problem is, I never do. I only waste time looking for more.

I seek shallow connections, rather than open my ears to the concerns of the people in my own living room or outside my front door.

I received a new inspirational magazine a few weeks ago called Simple Grace: Your Daily Dose of Hope. In it, a reader shared her story of being addicted to the distraction of carry-along technology.

Out to lunch with her daughter, she constantly checked for texts, emails, and status updates. It bothered her daughter that she chose the phone over living in the now.

The phone caused her to miss beautiful moments of her life, like this opportunity out to lunch with her teenage daughter.

“It’s so tempting to get pulled into habits that tickle our mind but leave our soul wanting. We end up feeling so unfulfilled…” ~Simple Grace, August 2015, p. 30

When we feel like we’re lacking something, our natural response is to look for what we’re missing.

These days, with technology at our fingertips, it quickly becomes habit to reach for our phones.

What if instead of chasing every flutter of our phone, we remember it will never deliver what we’re really looking for?

What if we walk away sometimes and ask the Lord to fill our hearts and minds with what we really need–His grace, His unending love, His always presence, and His power?

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. John 6:63

***I’d love to have you join me weekly at this space. Enter your email address in the box to the right, to receive updates in your inbox. 🙂  Thanks for visiting, ~Angela

 

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When the Enemy Attacks Your Confidence

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confidentIt is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.  It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Psalm 118:8-9

I was young when the enemy started his attack on my self-confidence.

Maybe he did this to you as well. He attacks us in different areas, but for me, it was often about worth. I looked around and compared myself to other girls, and all I could see was how I fell short.

Many people kick into competition gear at that point, don’t they? But I didn’t really have that gear. It just wasn’t me. And so I didn’t try to compete.

Instead, I tried to prove myself.

I wanted to prove myself worthy somehow, to show up and become enough to earn people’s respect.

It was exhausting. I never “made it” far enough. But now I see the enemy’s work for what it was.

The enemy wanted me to spin my wheels and keep my focus on working harder to become more.

The enemy wanted me to twist God’s words and to swallow that twisted version down.

The enemy will try to keep us from fully believing God’s truth, from truly receiving God’s love.

But Jesus changes everything when His love breaks through.

As for worth, Jesus already proved my worth and yours, when He hung on the cross in order to free us and make us His people.

As for proving ourselves, there’s not a thing any one of us can do to make ourselves more valuable. We already ARE more valuable.

As for truth, let’s reject the enemy’s lies, and let’s accept real and powerful truth, who we are in Christ.

Jesus is able to transform our thoughts and demolish those lies we’ve built our lives upon.

In my last post, on the Object of Our Confidence, I wrote about hoping in the Lord and not in ourselves. About how we need deeper trust in God instead of greater confidence in ourselves.

It got me thinking about the relationship between self-confidence and confidence before God.

We have confidence before God because of our relationship with Jesus Christ. That confidence comes from Christ’s work for us–His sacrifice which covers us once and for all–and grows because of His work in us.

Through faith in Christ, we enter the Most Holy Place—the presence of God–with freedom and confidence.

It is there, in the presence of God, where He works in us. He transforms us from the inside, so that our trust in Him deepens. The result of deepened trust in God? We grow in confidence before God and man.

Confidence is this quiet assurance that God is near and He cares for us personally.

Confidence is also trust that all we are is from God, and that He made us for His glory. So we can be bold and courageous and confident as we move throughout this world.

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

 

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The Object of Our Confidence

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confidenceI started this year reading through Psalms slowly. I was learning to sit alone with God to pray, making it a practice to adore God each day. I quickly understood it wasn’t coincidence at all that I had begun this reading plan along with the desire to grow in prayer.

The Psalms filled my mind with ideas and images about who God is and what He does.

God is the One enthroned in heaven, Most High, maker of all, majestic, righteous ruler & judge, our Rock, our refuge, our strength, the One who sees, and these are only the beginning.

As for His actions, in the first few chapters alone, God surrounds the righteous with His favor like a shield. He watches over them and leads them. He blesses all who take refuge in Him. He listens to their prayers and answers them. He delivers, gives relief, disciplines, and judges evil. He fills hearts with joy and peace and brings prosperity.

God is King of kings, who made the world and owns the world and rules the world and sustains it.

So then, what does all this mean about us?

God chooses to be involved in the details of our lives, we learn in Psalms. And also?

He is worthy of our confidence and trust.  

David, who wrote many of the Psalms, had such deep and abiding confidence in God. I’m convicted by it, in the area of belief.

Don’t get me wrong–I don’t usually struggle with doubting God. But sometimes I struggle with doubting me. Deep down, that’s an issue of confidence in God—that He is who He says He is, that He does what He says He’ll do, and especially, that He does it for me.

I do believe; Lord, help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

I don’t think we need more confidence in ourselves. Because at some point in life, even the most self-confident among us will experience their confidence shaken. We are human, and in this state, we are dependent on God, whether we admit that or not. It doesn’t matter how much confidence you were born with or how much you developed through the circumstances of your life.

What matters is that we hope and trust in God.

At the beginning of our school day one morning, I asked my kids what they think it means to have confidence in God.

One of them said, “You just trust Him, because you know He’s God.”

Another said, “It’s like Hope. You have confidence because you hope in God.”

Doing a quick word study using confidence, I found the Greek word parresia, and the Hebrew word, mibtach. 

Parresia allows us to look ahead with confidence–because we know Who is in control. With parresia, we have freedom and boldness, but only because of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Mibtach carries the idea of security, trust, hope, and certainty.

Mibtah assumes our confidence is based on the object of our confidence.

It’s the word King David used when he prayed in Psalm 71~

Lord, You have been my hope, my confidence since my youth.

That was David’s beautiful confession, and his story. Because of what Jesus has done for you and me, this can also become the story of our lives.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. Jeremiah 17:7

See this post also at PurposefulFaith.com.

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