Daniel's Prayer.

 For the past couple of years, I have been writing out Scripture. It helps me focus on the Word better, and I see things I wouldn’t normally see if I just read it.

I’m currently in Daniel. As I wrote out chapter 9, I was drawn into the prayer of Daniel beginning in verse 3. Jerusalem was in desolation, destruction all around. In the midst of this, he offered up a prayer of confession and repentance, associating himself with the sins of his nation over 32 times!

We can agree our country is in a desperate need of a move of God. We say we want it. We pray for it. But when I read Daniel’s prayer, I was broken.

Verse 5 says, “We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances.”

I remembered a blog post I wrote several years ago, “Ten Little Rules.” (included below)

If we, like Daniel, want revival in our land– if we want God to move to restore righteousness and justice– we need to pray like Daniel did, identifying with the sins and transgressions of the nation. And I challenge you with this–as I challenge myself– with just one area. One step. Are you keeping the Ten Commandments? All of them? Or have we gotten to the point of complacency where it’s “okay” if we fudge a little here and there.

Think about it. Let God speak to you about it. 

If we truly want God to move in our land, we need to be serious about doing things His way. There are many “if”/ “then’s” in the Bible. God’s hand is often connected to our obedience. Are we truly willing to do that? 

Ten Little Rules

Ever had a time when God dropped something into your mind and you thought, “Oh. Okay. That was interesting. I wonder what that’s about?” I have.

One day while walking my dog, I heard God say these words: “Six days shalt thou labor.” I don’t often hear such clear, distinct directives from God, but there it was. I didn’t have to think very hard to know what He was referring to. Over the years I have allowed work, shopping, and other things to encroach on God’s Sabbath day—the one set aside as a holy day—a day of rest. And not unlike the proverbial frog dropped in a pan of cool water which was gradually heated until he was cooked, my observance of the Lord’s Day had slowly given way to shopping and “little” chores around the house, to full-fledged home projects which consumed the entire day. It had become easy to make the seventh day of the week just another day. So when I heard those words in my ear, I knew He was speaking to me.

Every day for a week I heard the same words, “Six days shalt thou labor,” and every day I began to tell God I understood and would honor the coming Sunday as a day of rest. But as each Sunday came, there were errands to run and tasks to do—especially since we had just moved into a new home that needed work. My husband worked 50+ hours a week, and we still had the other unsold home to maintain with lawn work, so his at-home work hours were very limited. How could we possibly get everything done on one weekend day? Three Sundays went by and work was done, all the while my head kept hearing those same words reverberate: “Six days shalt thou labor.”

I told God I understood, but did He? Did He know all we needed to get done with the new and the old house? Did He realize how quickly those hours of the day go by? Of course He knew all those things. Of course He knew how tired my husband was after a long, stressful week and how dividing chores over two days was better than one. But He also knew how tired and stressed my husband was, and how desperately he needed to rest body, mind, and soul. He knew how truly insignificant those “things” are that we strive to get done at the cost of our health--physical, mental, and spiritual.

Again the words came but expanded. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”  Okay. Okay! This Sunday I won’t work, but that means I have to tell Rob not to work either. I wondered how that would be received since God didn’t tell him that.

Sunday morning came. As we walked our dog after morning coffee, Rob began to list the things he wanted to get accomplished. “Honey,” I began, “God has spoken to me for over a month saying, ‘Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.’” Then I proceeded to tell him how we could do some minor jobs around the house if he wanted to. His response: “No way! Not after what you just said.” He almost seemed a little happy! Maybe he does need the rest—maybe he wanted the rest but felt he couldn’t ask for it.

I am not a perfect. I strive to please God, to seek forgiveness for the sins I commit and the ways I fail Him every single day. When God recently brought “six days” into my life, I realized something. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being a Christ-follower, but then I realized I wasn’t even obeying the Ten Commandments! Ten little rules. 

Our focus tends to be on the “big ones”:  murder, committing adultery, bearing false witness. You know... the “obvious” ones; the ones easiest to avoid. But when God hit me between the eyes with commandment number four, I realized I was not as obedient as I thought. Greater conviction came when I realized I had disobeyed for years without it even really bothering me.

I wasn’t resting or honoring or keeping the Sabbath day holy as He had commanded. I could look around me and see thousands of other people doing work on Sunday and try to justify my actions, but He was speaking to my heart.

Someone recently posted a meme on Facebook which stated we have thousands of laws on the books all because we can’t obey Ten Rules on stone. A quick search led to this:

“No one knows how many laws there are in the United States.  Apparently, no one can count that high.”

“They’ve been accumulating, of course, for more than 200 years.  When federal laws were first codified in 1927, they fit into a single volume.  By the 1980s, there were 50 volumes of more than 23,000 pages.”

"New laws mean new crimes. From the start of 2000 to 2007, Congress had created at least 452 new crimes, so that at the time the total number of federal crimes exceeded 4,450." 

(Kowal Communications, Inc. Blog)

“New laws mean new crimes.” Of course. The more you make anything against the law, the more likely it is that someone will violate that law. It’s sad that we have come to this. All we had to do was follow ten little rules, but because we don’t, we now have thousands and thousands of laws in place telling us what we can and can’t do. Isn’t the root need for all these laws because we broke or ignored the original ten?

In addition, God said we needed a day to rest. He knew how crazy our world and lives would be. He knew the stress and busyness. He knew the toll it would take on health, sanity, and relationships. He knew we needed a day to simply rest. God Himself rested after He made all of creation in six days. I think it’s probably important for us, too.

But it goes beyond needing rest. In honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy, we acknowledge who God is. It’s submission to His Lordship. He is our King and we need to honor and worship Him on the day that He Himself has established. 

Will I submit my will to Him, even when I see a huge “to do” list in front of me and have few hours to complete it? Will I recognize that worshiping and spending time with Him is more important than any earthly thing I may need to accomplish? Will I open my eyes to see that when I place Him first, He will enable me to finish the things on my list? If I spend my time resting and honoring and worshiping, my work hours will become more fruitful as He enables, and perhaps are re-prioritized to what He sees as most important. 

Since God spoke to my heart about honoring the Sabbath, my husband and I have made the effort to not work or go shopping on Sunday and it has helped us focus more on God and His word, as well as simply relax and rest. Do we still struggle? Yes, because old habits are hard to break. But God has brought to our attention our disobedience of one of God's 'ten little rules" and now we strive to align ourselves more to His will and commands.

God is always working to conform us more and more to His image. He prods and corrects us when we need it because He is a loving Father who seeks to keep us from harm and to align us with His plans and purpose. The Ten Commandments aren't restrictive, they are God's boundaries of safety and well-being. It's never too late to begin anew. I encourage you to examine your own heart to see what God may be speaking to you. 

(Originally published 6/24/2020)

I’m Sorry

As one gets older, we tend to look back and see things we wish we had done differently. Reflection can be good if it helps us live better lives here and now, but we can’t get stuck regretting past decisions or actions.

I recently thought about my parents, now deceased, who lived 300 miles away from me during my college years and after I was married and had children. It was a five to six hour one-way drive, so it wasn’t a trip we could make often. Rob and I both worked, and with babies, and later a child in school, it didn’t afford much time off.

It didn’t bother me very much that we didn’t get to visit them more than a few times a year. I was busy with my life. They came our way, too, so that helped fill in the gap, but I could tell they wished we saw them more. The invitations made over the phone, the wishful “hope to see you again soon,” as we left their house to head home; desires verbalized.  An aging parent wanting more time with the children she raised, loved, and wanted to spend time with. Time. A commodity we often take for granted.

I guess the reason I started ruminating over these visits, or the lack of them, lies in two reasons. 

First, I am now a grandma myself. I have two beautiful granddaughters I love to pieces. Their parents are pretty special, too, and there can never be enough time spent together with them. I understand much more what my mom had wished for. Secondly, Christmas is coming. I know that sounds like a huge disconnect, but Christmas is a time for family and gatherings. As I was thinking about my parents, I recalled how few times we were actually at their home, or even together, for Christmas day. Of course we celebrated on another, reasonably close day, but it wasn’t the same.

I realize how selfish I was all those years. We could have occasionally skipped the annual family gathering that was local to where we lived and drove to my parents more often– maybe every other year as work allowed. (I was a nurse so working holidays was a frequent occurrence.) I know it must have felt lonely and sad for my mom. She must have ached to have us visit more often. I feel sad for her now, and sad that I didn’t give more to her when I had the opportunity.

Life is busy and we have to share our time with all those around us; our nuclear families, extended families, and friends who all want the joy of being together with us. We all have to “give and take” because we can’t be everywhere at once. It was a fact back in my parent’s day, and it’s a fact now. 

We all long for the perfect set up. We have dreams and visions of how we would like Christmas or other holidays to be experienced, but they are dreams that dwell in a perfect, imaginary world. A world where time stands still and there are no constraints on anyone.

I looked back and saw what was. It made me sad for my mom and dad, but especially my mom because I think women have stronger emotional ties to the holidays and gatherings than men do. I just want to say, “I’m sorry, Mom. I love you so much and wish I could go back and do it better than I did. I’m sorry I made you sad. I’m sorry if you felt less important to me than you were. I’m sorry we didn’t share more special days together. I’m sorry.”

Knowing the great and loving God we serve, I have a feeling all those missed “special” days will be more than made up for when I am reunited with my mom and dad in heaven. There will be no end to the time we can spend together. No work constraints, no miles between us… forever together.

Until then, I will do my best to be there for the ones I love in the here and now whenever we can make it happen. Yes, there are still work schedules, and miles, and school, and many other things that keep us from being together as often as we’d like.

We can look back and learn from our regrets, but then we move forward, no longer stuck in the past. We then take each moment we get and make it the best we can.

Until heaven… Until we are all together forever...love.