Posted on by Renee Meyer

Why isn’t the promise of God-With-Us (Emmanuel) in the New Testament? (Don’t worry, it’s good news!)

God is WITH ME. I’m hanging on tight to that promise.

HE IS WITH US. That’s good news, but it isn’t the end of the story.

In this season I feel God inviting me deeper.

When I searched the Bible and pulled a long list of God’s WITH US promises, I saw that they are all over the Bible… Until you hit the end of the Gospels.

Then you don’t see “WITH YOU” promised again until it’s fulfilled in the Revelation, with “the tabernacle of God … among men…”

In all these years of clinging to the promise of God with us, I never noticed that the promise doesn’t come up in Paul’s writing or any letters from the early church in our New Testament. Paul and the other NT Writers don’t talk about God WITH US. Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer

Hanging on to the promise: God with us

God is WITH us. This is gospel, this is good news.

We invite people to become Christians.  And we’ve hopefully responded to that invitation ourselves. But do we live the truth that believing Jesus is just the beginning?

Trusting Christ opens the door to a life WITH Jesus. John says, “THIS Is eternal life, that they may KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

What difference does it make, as you think about walking with Jesus, to know that you are more than just a Christian? You are one who lives her life WITH GOD. You are more than “saved”, you have a WITH YOU God.

I don’t know what you are facing today. But I do know that God is WITH you.

Will you respond? Will you say YES to the great with you promise of Jesus? Will you welcome Him in, remind yourself that you’re not alone, put out the hands of your heart and hold on to Jesus, with you in whatever you’re going through?

I hope so. Because I personally am hanging on TIGHT to this promise. Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 2 Comments

Do we need to ask God to “be with us”?

I’ve rarely prayed in a group where SOMEONE hasn’t asked God to “be with us”, I’ve prayed it myself. And it can’t be wrong, since Paul prays it: Now the God of peace be with you all.  (Rom15:33, also 16:20, 24, end of many of his letters)

But I try to catch myself, I try not to pray this anymore, because I don’t know that we have to ask God to be with us. We can thank Him that He IS with us. He’s already promised that He is.

God with us is part of the Original Design: Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer

Welcoming 2018: A Prayer

This is the year the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I welcome You in this new year, Lord, and I want more of You. Remind me of how much I need you. Make me small in my own eyes, but remembering I am greatly loved. Keep me close to you, always.

I receive this new year from you, Lord. I welcome all it brings, whatever it brings.

I trust you. Whether this year holds that which looks good and easy, or that which seems hard and harsh, I trust You.

I release my thoughts, plans, and expectations for this new year. I release my illusions of control. I release my tendency to manage outcomes (for myself and others). I release even my hopes and dreams.

I welcome Your control, Your outcomes, Your hopes and dreams for me and for the world around me.

In this new year I welcome unexpected twists and turns. Not my will, but Yours be done.

As I walk the path of 2018, let me walk in love. Let me walk in faith, not fear. Responding rather than reacting. Gentle with myself and others.

And let me walk in hope. Not hope in my plans or desired outcomes, not even in the hope that You will do what I want.

In 2018 let me walk in the great hope that you are with me, always. And let me walk in the hope of redemption: that your goodness is big enough to bring goodness even in things that are not good, in all this year holds, whatever this year holds.

Amen.

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 2 Comments

On Knowing When to Speak and When to Be Silent

I have a voice.

Sometimes it can be loud, and I hate being shushed. My voice is one of the things that makes me feel like I am too much for people. Being loud makes me feel like I’m not feminine or soft or “Christian womanly” enough.

I have a voice.

Because of my life, job, different opportunities and even my (sometimes too loud for people) personality, people listen to me.

I have a voice, and I am not afraid to use it.

I want to speak up for the oppressed. I want to draw out the silenced. I want to encourage the discouraged, speak truth into lies, speak life and value over myself, my family, those close to me, and anyone who crosses my path.

I have a voice.

But sometimes I feel silenced. It can feel like a woman has to speak louder than is socially acceptable in order to be heard, and I don’t want to be “that woman.” It feels like my little words have no impact on the lies and fighting and noise in the world. Even in prayer, it can feel like what I want, what I’m asking God to do in my life and in this hurting and broken world, are just words thrown to the wind.

Faith is a necessary element to Christianity. But faith in what? I want to grow in faith that God hears me.

And as I grow in certainty that He hears me, I want to grow in claiming Him as my first audience. I want to go first  to Him with my fears, concerns, joys, and worries. Before I let something rattle around in my head for days and weeks, before I pour out complaints and fears to a friend, before I share a praise or celebration online, I want God to hear my voice.

Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning.
Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray.
In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

Psalm 5: 1-3 (NASB)

In a world that is loud, how do we practice silence? How do we avoid contributing to the noise and strife and outrage-fueled peaceless-ness?

In a world that silences us, how do we learn to speak up? To claim our right to consent, own our own preferences, opinions, feelings? How do we claim our right to speak in a world that doesn’t want to hear our voice?

Perhaps this is a purpose for prayer, a reason why we pray.

Not to get what we want, not for answers, but to teach us.

Perhaps prayer is a place where we can practice believing we are heard.

Perhaps if I submit my voice to God first, I will gain confidence in being heard, valued, loved by my heavenly Father.

And perhaps then I will learn when to speak, and when to be silent.

I love the Lord, because He hears My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.

Psalm 116:1-2 (NASB)

When to Speak, When to be Silent quote (1)

Photo in my images is by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Posted on by Renee Meyer

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for India

I traveled home from India by myself, needing a few extra days before the boys started school.

I have always loved traveling by myself, finding that I hear from the Lord and am able to process in a deeper way while traveling. Also, I love airports. And as any parent knows, after traveling with kids flying solo feels like a dang vacation.

My flight was at 3:30 AM on a Friday morning. I spent Thursday saying goodbye to dear friends in India, giving and receiving gifts, and having last sweet moments with our group of college students. I thought when they left our hotel room at 11 that I was seeing them for the last time. But as I arrived downstairs, I saw big grins on the faces of all the hotel staff and found our whole team waiting to sing me a song and say one last goodbye.

Matt and our friend Abhik dropped me off at the airport at 1AM. I breezed through check in and security, since hardly anyone else was there besides a sweet family who were also traveling through Qatar to Chicago (on their way to Seattle, so they had a longer trip ahead of them: small children.)

That left me with a couple of hours to kill in the Kolkata airport. Knowing I needed to stay awake, and wanting to take the time to think and process over the past 3 weeks, I opened my journal and thought through all that I’d learned and seen in the 3 cities I’d visited. The universities, slums, gardens, rock quarries, malls, the wide variety of places we visited. I wrote about the friends I made, the welcome I received, the things I’d learned. I wrote about the weather and the food and the beautiful people of Kolkata, where we spent the bulk of our time.

Then I thought back to our first days, with the Hope Venture. I thought about what it meant to me, returning to a place of privilege and comfort, after seeing such sorrow and hardship, but also hope and help. I thought about the precious Indian friends I made who do not turn their eyes away from the hurting and broken in their neighborhoods and city. And I asked myself what I could do in my own neighborhood and city for the hurting and broken.

Here is the prayer I wrote that morning. Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer

The Prayer That Never Fails

I’m pretty picky about Christian fiction (because I was an English major, and therefore a book snob), but there are a couple of Christian series that I really love.

One is the Mitford books, by Jan Karon ,  about Father Tim, an Episcopalian priest who lives in a small town in North Carolina. They are kind of old lady books, slow and sweet. But the characters are so well-drawn it feels like I’ve been to Mitford, NC and am friends with the people who live there. When characters die (from old age, usually, these aren’t really action & danger books), I cry like it was my Grandma.

The faith of the characters and their walks with the Lord are very subtle, sweetly woven into the fabric of the story. It’s kind of cheesy to say, since they’re fictional people: But I feel like their faith and hope have encouraged my own. One of the themes echoing throughout the series is “the prayer that never fails”…meaning “Your will be done” (from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.) Read more

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 2 Comments

Sometimes you have to shout joyfully, even if you aren’t feeling it. {Psalm 100}

Sometimes you have to shout joyfully, even if you aren't feeling it.

When my kids are especially full of complaints I make them give me 5 things they’re grateful for, telling them “Thanksgiving is like magic, it makes the grouchies go away.” It worked like a charm on my oldest but the younger two are more resistant, determined to fight for their right to be in a foul mood (wherever could they get that from??)

I’ve been praying the Psalms as a spiritual habit for the past few months. I guess I’ve been doing it for the past 100 days, since I prayed Psalm 101 this morning. Though I’ve missed some days, and there were a few Psalms that spoke so directly and poignantly to my exact feelings that I stayed with them for a few days.

It has been a good and life-giving habit, celebrating the character of God and being honest about the realities of life. If I can pray the Psalm for myself and others as a “we” then I pray for us all. If I can’t relate at all to the circumstances of the Psalmist, then I think of someone or a group who could relate, and I pray for them. It has been stretching and good, teaching me to pray beyond my own present experience.

Most of the time this practice has stretched me toward praying for hard things I don’t often experience – enemies, the need for revenge, oppression. But this week I was unexpectedly stretched by Psalm 100.

Sometimes you have to shout joyfully, even if you aren't feeling it. {Psalm 100}

The 100th Psalm is a favorite favorite, a passage I’ve read and written and sung and taught and LOVED over the years. But yesterday I wasn’t feeling it. At all.

It was a tired Monday morning, I woke up with lots on my mind, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to start my day by shouting joyfully to the Lord. I wasn’t really even feeling much like sitting joyfully in the Lord.

Psalm 100 is only 5 verses long, so I wrote out the words in my journal and made myself think about them. This song is a call to praise Yahweh, 7 commands in 5 verses:

SHOUT (Joyfully)

SERVE (with Gladness)

COME (with Joyful Singing)

KNOW (the Lord is God)

ENTER (His gates, His presence, with Thanksgiving and Praise)

GIVE (Thanks)

BLESS (His Name)

It wasn’t really in me in that moment to shout or sing joyfully, and I was feeling a bit resentful about serving with gladness. But in verse 3 I found something I could do:

Know that the Lord Himself is God, and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

So I stayed there for a while, knowing that the Lord Himself is God. And then I found that I could enter His gates (His presence) with praise, I could give thanks and bless His name.

In verse 5 we’re given the reason to answer these calls to praise:

The Lord is GOOD. His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.

That is true truth, true on a grouchy Monday morning, true on good days and bad, true for the rich and for the poor, true for us all. The Lord is GOOD.

And I realized: I was grouchy because I was fighting battles in my mind that are not my battles to fight, fighting battles with people who are not my enemy (people who are, as Psalm 100 reminds me, His people and sheep of His pasture.) I had my eyes on little things rather than the one BIG thing (The Lord is GOOD.)

And as it turns out, Thanksgiving IS like magic. It chased my Monday morning grouchy away. I was able to enter my day with thanksgiving and serve with gladness.

Even I still wasn’t ready to shout.

Sometimes you have to shout joyfully, even if you aren't feeling it.

 

Posted on by Renee Meyer · 3 Comments

On the Front Porch with Jesus {Prayer}

At some point in my twenties, my friend Anne mentioned sitting in silence with Jesus,  a concept she’d read in one of Jill Briscoe’s books. Anne is a godly (and super fun) older woman and I’d heard Jill Briscoe speak, I trusted both of these women as a voices that would consistently encourage me to put my roots deep down into the Living Water Jesus offers. So I thought, “Sure, I’ll try it.”

I was skeptical when Anne said she had trouble making it to five minutes, despite much effort: How hard could sitting be? But when I tried sitting in silence with Jesus myself I found even two minutes nearly impossible. I think I tried it once. And then I went back to my previously scheduled “quiet time” routine of Bible study, journaled prayers, and reading every book I could get into my hands. Usually with some sort of music playing in the background. Those habits served and still serve me well, but perhaps there is some irony in the fact that my “quiet time” contained so much activity, and so little quiet?

Fast forward to the twenty-teens and contemplative prayer and “sitting with Jesus” are popping up in sermons, blog posts, books, podcasts, and in the lives of several close friends and co-workers. After hearing the three hundredth person extol the helpfulness and benefit of sitting with Jesus, I decided to try it again. Read more