For the season of Lent, our church collectively went through (as an individual or a LIFE Group) our choice of 1 of 6 experiments. We didn't necessarily take something away (as is typical of Lent), but more likely added something to our day-to-day walk with the Lord with the desire to become more like the Christ we worship. The experiments spanned a wide spectrum from "Abiding" to "Community" to "Giving." Below is the testimony I had the blessing to share with the church yesterday of how I was changed by my time with the Lord over the Lenten Season.
The experiment that our life group went through was one of Lordship. This was an important experiment for me to embark on because I find that it is necessary to realign myself again and again in my walk with the Lord to His will and resubmit to His authority over ALL of me.
So I came before the Lord with the question: What area of my life am I not giving you lordship over, and what do You wish for me to change that would have lasting and eternal effects on my life for my good and Your glory?
What God showed me was this: I am an incredibly self-centered person. This translates into the smallest details of my life as I am constantly aware of the most minute inconvenience to the flow of my days. Me me me...And since the whole point of the experiments is to seek to become more like Christ, I was totally humbled by how contrary to this He is. Christ gave ALL of Himself, leaving behind the pleasures of Heaven even to death, for His enemies, for the glory of the FATHER.
I ventured into this experiment with this revelation: In my self-centered world I am pretty much just gross, but there is joy in the opportunity to grow in likeness to Christ, and to therefore become something lovely.
The answer to my question of “What do you want from me?” was this direction:
Pray, praise and write.
Every day I asked the Lord, “Who do You want me to pray for?” I began my prayer with praise, looking intently at the person God placed on my heart and acknowledging His work in them, His care for them, His love and attentive heart to their every need and pouring out praise to our faithful God for them and for His care. Then I brought before Him the needs He placed on my heart on their behalf. And finally, I wrote them a letter of encouragement.
This had a profound impact on me.
As I considered what I would tell you about this, I realized the privilege God gave me through this experiment of putting others before myself, loving others as Christ loves, and not wasting the gifts He’s given me when they were intended to build up those around me...God gave me the opportunity to observe for a moment through His eyes His love and care for His own. The reality is, if you got a letter from me during Lent, it wasn’t because I am loving and was thinking of you...It was because God is loving and HE was thinking of you, and when I was willing to let Him be Lord over me, He gave me the privilege of being a conduit of His affection.
It really is an incredible thing to observe God’s heart for those He loves, to take the time to stop and tune our eyes to see His hand’s faithful, precise and subtle movements on our behalf.
Another thing that struck me during this experiment was the freedom from guilt or burden. Even in the face of failure, I never once felt like a failure, instead I found the layers of my selfishness accompanied by gentle guidance that equipped me to fight for selfless, Christ-centered living.
I only have time to share one quick example with you: Sometimes my husband works very early hours, and I always get up to make him breakfast so he can go to work with a full stomach...it’s something small I can do to help him begin the day well. I actually enjoy doing this, feeding people is one of my love languages. But I wake up earlier than him to prepare, and often times end up waiting for him to make it down to the table 5 minutes or so before he has to leave. One morning, I found myself frustrated by this again. While my attitude had begun in a pure place of joyful servitude, it landed in a grumbling heap of “I got up early to cook for him, the LEAST he could do is come eat the food I made for him while it’s still warm...” But this particular morning as this played out, I felt the Spirit gently nudge my heart with “Hey, that’s all about you, tell Me, what are you thankful for?” And so instead of wallowing in my complaints, I started to consider my very tired husband and began to thank the Lord for him and the things he does, I thanked Him that Nathan faithfully gets up every day and perseveres through his inhumane residency, that he sacrifices his time, his social life, his health, his energies to work hard and provide; I thanked Him that He gave me a husband who not only lets me stay home and take care of Myla, but values that I do; and as I kept listing off the things I was grateful for, my heart changed. When Nathan came downstairs, the Spirit said, “Now tell him what you just told me.” It is immense grace that the Lord would take my grumbling heart and not only softened it with a spirit of thanksgiving (which is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare we’ve been given), but turned the situation into an opportunity to encourage and thank my faithful husband.
This Lenten season, I let Him be Lord of my eyes, and the results were firstly, the praise, honor and magnification of Jesus, who loves with perfection, for things I would have overlooked and through means I would have otherwise wasted; secondly, the encouragement of at least 35 people other than me (that’s how many letters I sent); and thirdly, what is hopefully an eternally changed woman who is looking at Christ and continually seeking to love others through His eyes and with the gifts He has given.
So I came before the Lord with the question: What area of my life am I not giving you lordship over, and what do You wish for me to change that would have lasting and eternal effects on my life for my good and Your glory?
What God showed me was this: I am an incredibly self-centered person. This translates into the smallest details of my life as I am constantly aware of the most minute inconvenience to the flow of my days. Me me me...And since the whole point of the experiments is to seek to become more like Christ, I was totally humbled by how contrary to this He is. Christ gave ALL of Himself, leaving behind the pleasures of Heaven even to death, for His enemies, for the glory of the FATHER.
I ventured into this experiment with this revelation: In my self-centered world I am pretty much just gross, but there is joy in the opportunity to grow in likeness to Christ, and to therefore become something lovely.
The answer to my question of “What do you want from me?” was this direction:
Pray, praise and write.
Every day I asked the Lord, “Who do You want me to pray for?” I began my prayer with praise, looking intently at the person God placed on my heart and acknowledging His work in them, His care for them, His love and attentive heart to their every need and pouring out praise to our faithful God for them and for His care. Then I brought before Him the needs He placed on my heart on their behalf. And finally, I wrote them a letter of encouragement.
This had a profound impact on me.
As I considered what I would tell you about this, I realized the privilege God gave me through this experiment of putting others before myself, loving others as Christ loves, and not wasting the gifts He’s given me when they were intended to build up those around me...God gave me the opportunity to observe for a moment through His eyes His love and care for His own. The reality is, if you got a letter from me during Lent, it wasn’t because I am loving and was thinking of you...It was because God is loving and HE was thinking of you, and when I was willing to let Him be Lord over me, He gave me the privilege of being a conduit of His affection.
It really is an incredible thing to observe God’s heart for those He loves, to take the time to stop and tune our eyes to see His hand’s faithful, precise and subtle movements on our behalf.
Another thing that struck me during this experiment was the freedom from guilt or burden. Even in the face of failure, I never once felt like a failure, instead I found the layers of my selfishness accompanied by gentle guidance that equipped me to fight for selfless, Christ-centered living.
I only have time to share one quick example with you: Sometimes my husband works very early hours, and I always get up to make him breakfast so he can go to work with a full stomach...it’s something small I can do to help him begin the day well. I actually enjoy doing this, feeding people is one of my love languages. But I wake up earlier than him to prepare, and often times end up waiting for him to make it down to the table 5 minutes or so before he has to leave. One morning, I found myself frustrated by this again. While my attitude had begun in a pure place of joyful servitude, it landed in a grumbling heap of “I got up early to cook for him, the LEAST he could do is come eat the food I made for him while it’s still warm...” But this particular morning as this played out, I felt the Spirit gently nudge my heart with “Hey, that’s all about you, tell Me, what are you thankful for?” And so instead of wallowing in my complaints, I started to consider my very tired husband and began to thank the Lord for him and the things he does, I thanked Him that Nathan faithfully gets up every day and perseveres through his inhumane residency, that he sacrifices his time, his social life, his health, his energies to work hard and provide; I thanked Him that He gave me a husband who not only lets me stay home and take care of Myla, but values that I do; and as I kept listing off the things I was grateful for, my heart changed. When Nathan came downstairs, the Spirit said, “Now tell him what you just told me.” It is immense grace that the Lord would take my grumbling heart and not only softened it with a spirit of thanksgiving (which is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare we’ve been given), but turned the situation into an opportunity to encourage and thank my faithful husband.
This Lenten season, I let Him be Lord of my eyes, and the results were firstly, the praise, honor and magnification of Jesus, who loves with perfection, for things I would have overlooked and through means I would have otherwise wasted; secondly, the encouragement of at least 35 people other than me (that’s how many letters I sent); and thirdly, what is hopefully an eternally changed woman who is looking at Christ and continually seeking to love others through His eyes and with the gifts He has given.
1 Corinthians 13:1–8a "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
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