Praise During A Storm

Storms. Everyone's seen or heard of one. They're either quick and painless, or wreak havoc on everyone in the way and there's no in between. Just recently, the area I live in in New Jersey was terribly hit by hurricane Sandy. Though where I live, in the northern part of the state, didn't get it as bad as the southern beach areas, though the storm didn't effect me directly, I was still left with the bitter realization of what the storm had done to others. 

Thankfully, through months of recovery and restoration, help from loved ones and strangers, and time, it seems though as New Jersey is somewhat almost normal again. 

Storms in people's lives are so similar. We're either affected or we're not. If it's us, if we're the victim of the storm, we feel hopeless, useless, empty and just the way Sandy left everything in Jersey: big piles of garbage. If it's not us, if we just know someone going through one, we have to watch ourselves stay unaffected while the people we love are suffering through something we can't understand. 

A while ago, someone I love dearly was going through a storm that I couldn't help him or her through and I knew very well that I couldn't possibly understand. Though it wasn't me, though I wasn't hit by the flooding and fallen trees of their storm, I felt the pain. 

Praise turns that pain to joy, doesn't it though? 

Praising God in a storm is the hardest thing- like ever! Cause when things are great we're like, "Yes! Praise be to God our provider and lover and breaker of chains and savior of our souls! Yay!" 

Sadly, something I've realized, even within myself (remember, we're learning this together) is that we're humans. So sad right. But we're humans and we're a  circumstantial people. Encouragement, love, anger, tips at restaurants, our tone to others. Everything we do is circumstantial; it's a product of who someone else is or what they've done or what we're feeling. 

And sadly, praise has been clumped into that category of circumstantiality (I hope that's a word). We praise God when He provides and when someone is healed. We praise God when there are a ton of people at church this Sunday or when we're praying and we feel His Spirit is present. 

But when we're in a storm, when it's raining hard down in our souls and trees are falling left and right in our hearts, we forget to praise God. "Forget." Or we're too depressed. Or we're mad at ourselves for what we've done and we don't wanna face God. Somehow it slips our mind who God is. 

We forget that the God who provided and healed yesterday is the same God, whether you're going through a storm or relaxing in perfect beach weather. 

Today I want to talk about praise in a storm, because it's a lot deeper than reading your Bible when you're disappointed in yourself. 

1) Whether you like it or not, God is worthy of praise in a storm. 

Psalm 148 is very clear about who should give praise to God: everyone. 

Angels and armies in heaven - He is their ruler. 

Sun and moon and twinkling stars; earth and ocean depths - He is their creator. 

Small animals, kings of the earth and all people - He is their master. 

The things they all do on a daily basis brings praise to Him. When birds chirp in the sky. When the sun shines and the stars twinkle hours later. They are like a choir to our God, our creator, our ruler who deserves praise. 

• Praise Him because the storm is not Him trying to trap you. 

This is kinda self explanatory. James 1:13-14 says this:

"And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say 'God is tempting me.' God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires which entice us and drag us away." 

Now, this doesn't mean you're not living out God's will for your life because you're going through a temptation or hard time. I don't remember where (no judging. Jesus is watching), but somewhere in the Bible is says, "You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but You will restore me to life again." God is always fighting for us whether we know it or not, so sometimes He will allow certain things and storms to come our way. I can't tell you why, since I'm not God but from MY personal experience it's been to help other people with that issue, to build me upon the rock that is Jesus and to inch closer to what His plan is for me. And in the end, I was feeling emotions that were beside me. Not broken. Not scarred. Not mad. Appreciative. Thankful. Full of praise. 

• Praise Him because He took your SHAME 

I went to a spoken Word poetry night and I don't remember her name, but one girl (I will edit this when I find out) said something to the effect of this in her poem: 

Jesus was hanging naked on a cross. Yes, He was naked. Churches have Him covered up but He wasn't because He didn't only take our sins and guilt but He took our shame. 

Why is He worth our praise in a storm? Because what we're going through, He went through. He went through it naked, scarred and bleeding, beauty hanging from a tree, and He wants to help us. He wants to help us, the ones who nailed Him down. I think that deserves some praise. 

•  Praise Him because love has 20/20 vision

I love the expression love is blind. I love it because I can't quite catch the meaning. Love walks around with a guide dog? Love walks around is circles? Love has no idea where's it's going? I don't quite understand it. But it makes me think that most people don't know love. 

To be honest, I want to praise Him because a king was crushed to a pulp and nailed to a tree so that I wouldn't be attached to satan at the hip, and that's true love. That's love. 

And love is not blind. Love has 20/20 vision. 

Love knew who you were, what you would do. Love knew you would be promiscuous. Love knew you would deny Him. Love knew you would be a drug, alcohol and pornography addict and STILL chose to die for you. Love is not blind. Love has perfect vision and the only thing He sees with it is the future you will have if He makes this sacrifice. 

And I don't know about you, but storm or not, addiction or not, chains or not, I think He is praise-worthy. 

2) Praise your shackles off 

Some of the hardest storms to endure are those of personal addiction. It's hard to praise when you can't see Jesus over the mountain. It's hard to praise when you don't know a life without that thing you're chained to.

And it's so easy to feel alone. To feel like you're suffering alone and the only time you can see Jesus through the trial is afterward and all you can imagine is Him shaking His head at you, disappointed. But that's not our God. 

•  Until God opens another door for you, PRAISE HIM IN THE HALLWAY. 

Shackles are nothing compared to our God. Shackles around our bodies look like yarn compared to our God. Praise Him. 

Break through those shackles, not only praising Him when those chains are off, but praising Him while you're still bound and refusing to let that stop you from living out His dream for you.

In Ephesians 6:20, Paul says something that shocks me every time, "I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for Him, as I should." 

He didn't bother to ask the Ephesians to pray his chains would fall off, but his sole request was asking them to pray that they wouldn't hinder him. God still used him. How do I know? Because the man died in prison and I'm still reading his letters 2000 years later. 

So yes, I think it's extremely smart to pray that God will help you through your storm and change it and heal you. But God doesn't care what is hindering you because He is rooting for you and that changes everything. A better prayer, in my opinion, is praying that God will still help you accomplish what you were knit in your mothers womb to accomplish, despite the chains. 

• Until God breaks your chains, PRAISE HIM WITH YOUR SHACKLES ON. 

Personal story: 

There is an on-going storm, chain, addiction, battle -- whatever you want to call it -- that I have been going through for the past 8 years. 

And I'm only 19. 

And after falling into this temptation and needing forgiveness again just last week (yeah, Christians aren't perfect. Go figure)  I found myself unable to praise Him. Not unwilling but unable. And as I laid my head down on my pillow, I felt Jesus next to me and I cried out to Him. 

I was angry that God let this happen to me at such a young age. 

I was angry that I couldn't control myself. 

I felt fake and dirty and worthless. 

And I'll be real and raw with you, I felt like I wanted to die. 

And I kept thinking to myself, "God of the universe, breaker of chains, savior of souls, giver of life, maker of all things new. Why won't you take this from me? Won't you just let me be free?" 

And I felt so strongly on my heart that if Jesus died for the entire world and all the people in it, but only one person changed their life and turned it around, He would do it over again. And that struck me like a knife. 

And I began to praise Him and I said, out loud, if I have to suffer with this for years and years, but in the end I can help one person, I regret nothing. 

And I began to praise Him because only He can make a girl who was a danger to herself a bringer of hope and because only He could make an addict sing with freedom and only He could make a sinner a leader and a lover.  

•  Telling someone could bring Him praise, and bring you to praising Him. 

I'm not very open about this issue of mine, but I knew I needed to be. I needed to be held accountable, I needed to be encouraged and understood but I also needed to be loved to freedom. 

I told someone that I trust with every bone in my body and, to my surprise, she had been through the same thing, if not worse than me. And had been "clean off the 'drug'" for a few months now. 

I was able to praise God because I knew He healed her, and I think she was able to praise God that something she suffered with for years, like I did, would benefit her as she would help lead someone out of the dark. 

But if anything, the praise in me wasn't that I felt a lot better about what I had done, but that I had a new found hope in Jesus for what He hasn't done quite yet, but I believe He is ABLE to do. 


 3) Why do we praise during a storm?

• It confuses the devil

The devil is such a touchy subject among Christians and non-Christians alike. But as the father of lies, I think he takes a little joy in our storms and misfortunes, to say the least.

But there is nothing  more confusing to the devil than seeing you praise God when you should be distancing yourself from God. And there is nothing better for us than to foil the devil's plan, hand in hand with God.

Don't give satan a stage; praise God through a storm.

• It allows hope to become our anchor

Praising God goes hand in hand with having hope in Him. Jesus is our hope, and hope is our anchor (Hebrews 6:19). 

Hope in Him should be the anchor of your praise during a storm; hope in what He is able to do/ will do for you should be the anchor of your prayers and cries to Him. 

But we need to praise Him and trust that He will do a work in us. 

• It makes us stronger

Praise during a storm is like, cardio workout mixed with Spin classes and leg day. It makes us so strong! But it makes us strong in Him. 

Praising Him during a storm helps make our spirits stronger when our flesh has just 1+up'd us.It also give us the confidence to do what it says in Romans 4:17, "to call the things that are not as though they are." 

Thank you, God, that I am free.

Thank you, God, that my chains will be broken.

Thank you, God, that I am free to live out Your dream for me.

It's crazy how many times I've thanked God in advance. For the issue I was writing about earlier, I have been thanking God for almost two years in advance for my freedom. And though it seems I'm still struggling, I am trusting God and praising God and no storm is gonna stop me. 

Defender

"Christian" is a loose term for what we do. A dictionary website defines Christianity as believing in Christ or following Christ. But that's just like, Step 1 out of infinite things. To me, it's who we are, not what we do. Everything we do is stemmed from who we are.

But are we doing the right things? Are we right people?

(quick disclaimer... everything i write, everything i 'preach' to other people, i'm either going through, or end up getting tested on. im not writing because i feel im superior, i just have a huge passion for the word. if you're convicted by anything i've written, we're learning it together.)

I am a big lover of the underdog in every situation. I have never heard anyone bring up the book of Joel in a sermon, so I wrote about it. Today, the book of Jude was totally sitting on my heart and playing with the strings. Underdog is also a loose term; after all, Jude made it to the bible, right? But I think there's so much gold in this book that we can't afford to hear another sermon about HOW GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.

Jude starts this book out saying that he had planned to write about the salvation we all share, but God changed his plans. He had to write about the ABC's of Christianity:

Defend. The. Faith.

Not that salvation is more or less important than defending our faith, but you cannot preach one without the other. We can't offer the salvation of Jesus Christ to others without defending who we are and what we do. 

We need to defend our faith because there are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been attacked by the fiery darts of the enemy. We need to defend the faith for the kids we'll have one day, and the kids they will have. W need to defend the faith because, personally, I am sick and tired of going to funerals of people under the age of 21 who have died of drug overdoses.

Defend the faith because since before time, God has been defending you. Defend your faith because Jesus was literally crushed to a pulp for your freedom. Defend your faith because you've got the God of the universe on your side.

Defend your faith, and defend it gladly because it's not easy to be where you are.

Quick story: 

I don't want to call it a storm, but recently, I've been going through an adventure with God about my future, realizing that what I was doing at the time was not it. After praying, fasting, freaking out, crying and seeking wise counsel, no I don't have it figured out but I know the next step God wants me to take. Then came the scariest, hardest, most gruesome part of the whole adventure: I had to tell my mom. Long story short, she told me that I was taking that step because I wanted to take the easy way out.

My heart broke. There is nothing easy about slaying your giants. There is nothing easy about trying to get the druggie to see what life could be like without being chained. There is nothing easy about getting a suicidal person to see the value behind their lives that the enemy has lied to them about for years. There is nothing easy about loving people so much you want to throw up. There is nothing easy about doing the opposite of what the world wants you to do.

That's why I defend the faith. Because the faith needs defending. Because the world puts the blindfold on us of either, 'Faith is too easy or faith is too difficult,' but no one defends the beauty.

Okay Jackie, great passion. How do I defend the faith? Great question, glad you asked.

• Know the Truth 

The one person you'll be defending your faith to, more often than not, is the enemy. I've said this a thousand times and will probably get this engraved on my tombstone: There is no way to fight the KING OF LIES other than the ULTIMATE TRUTH. If you don't know the truth, do you even know what to defend?

Know it, because the enemy will twist it and manipulate it to get us to do something wrong or to condemn us. We need to know and recognize these things as a lie because what if we don't? What do we think if we thought the only truth in the entire world was a lie? 

Knowing the truth is also acting on the truth. Like I said, we're learning this together so I'll be bold and be the first to say I've JUSTIFIED sins with the sufficient grace of God (2 Corinthians 2:9), or with Jesus saying, "In this world we will have trouble" (John 16:33). Using verses like these, I've justified sins, addictions and temptations. But my study bible puts it this way: Twisting the word is playing with fire... and I think they mean literally. Not only does this lead you into a chain-dominating, addictive lifestyle that will be a (bad word) to get out of, it belittles who God is, as if He won't judge those thing when we get to Heaven, like He won't know our motives when we quoted those verses for our own selfish benefit.

When you give those "properly excused" sins leeway in your life, there is no way you can defend your faith. How you live after you have a grasp on who Jesus is and what He did for us has everything to do with your faith.What you believe, what you think will always show up in your actions.

• Know the Author of the Truth

The knowledge of the Truth, which is the Word of God is so important, but that relationship with Christ needs to be there. Why? Because He loves us and wants it, because He knows what's best for us and does what's best for us, and if we didn't have that relationship with Christ... well, as my Pastor Miriam has said before, we become Christians that just know stuff. We become Christians that just come to church and warm up a seat.

If anyone knows me, I am one of the silliest people you'll ever meet and that doesn't change when I'm meditating on the Word: I advise all of you to DANCE with Jesus.

What?

Is?

She?

Saying?

Talking with Jesus is one thing, because for the most part we talk to Him and we don't wait for Him to talk back.

Walking with Jesus is cool, but all that's done on walks is observing.

Dancing is like this crazy thing where you need to work on yourself to better the person you're dancing with so as not to make them look bad, especially if they're not. Though there are no words, dancing is this crazy-intimate thing where the silence shared between the two partners is the loudest, most beautiful sounding passion ever. It takes trust to know your partner will catch you. It takes encouraging. And like all relationships, it takes time and patience to perfect.

Dance with Jesus. 

Defend your faith in this way, by knowing Jesus personally because you will never understand God. That's like the understatement of eternity. You won't ever completely understand God. But if we are lacking in relationship with Him, we will start to belittle what we can't understand. What kind of defender  of the faith puts their treasure in a box because they're not sure how it works? Without knowing Him personally, we can't let His beauty shine and defend the beauty. 

• Keep in mind the ABC's of faith.

Christians, as ironic as this sounds, don't agree on much. 

Contemporary or traditional?

Jeans to church, or skirts down to our ankles? 

Should we keep the organ or get a guitar instead?  

Those things don't even matter. They don't. What matters is the ABC's of Christianity. Prayer. Fasting. Breaking Addictions. Reading the word. Making a commitment. Before all else, defend the ABC's. 

I mentor someone who I call my little sister. And though she has come such a long way, I still bring up the ABC's. Its not enough to just know it. As a mentor- no, as a BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST, it is our responsibility- no, PRIVILEGE to make sure that the ABC's are defended and people are reminded of them. THIS is the common ground you will find between every Christian. Stick to it.

• Produce fruit

In Jude 1:12, Jude says that false teachers are like 'trees in autumn that are doubly dead; they bear no fruit and have been pulled up from the roots.' If apple trees do no produce, they are useless. Keep your faith alive, safe, radical and defended by producing fruit. Mentor. Volunteer in your church with kids. Sow seeds of encouragement to your enemies. Produce fruit. Don't allow yourself to be pulled up from the roots.

• Make sure God has good roommates

Towards the end of the book, Jude talks about bad people with ungodly desires but tells us we know better because the Spirit of God lives in us. 

Who is God's roommate in your heart? Who is He sharing the space with? The entertained thought that will lead to sin? The addiction to things you know that will destroy you?

Defend your faith, because it's worth defending, but defend your faith with a clean and right heart. Make sure the greater Spirit who lives in you compared to the one who lives in the world is GLAD to share room in your heart. Passions. Love. Care. Cleanliness. Good roommates. 

Remember, you will be the only Jesus some people may EVER meet and the only Bible some people may EVER read. My friend Cathy told me this once, and since then, that is my main motivation to want to keep a clean heart. I want the Spirit of God who lives in me to flourish and pour out to others, not be suffocated by crappy roommates.

PS: In about a month, I will be in CHINA! Woop woop! God bless. 

You and Delilah

Have you ever read a story in the Bible and thought, "Wow he was obviously not the brightest sheep in the pen."? That happened to me recently when I was reading the book of Judges, where there is a story of a man and woman named Samson and Delilah. Here's the pocket-sized version:

Samson was set apart by God. He had insane, God-given strength and long hair which was the source of his strength. God commanded him not to cut it or tell anyone the secret of his strength. He meets this hottie with a body named Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines desperately wanted to know the secret of his strength, and so they bribed his wifey with money to find out the secret. She asked him and actually nagged him so many times that he gave in and told her that his hair must never be cut. When he fell asleep with his head on her lap (...if you're single...don't do it) and a man went in to shave his head. He thought he would be just fine walking out of the tent, but he didn't realize his strength had drained from him. The Philistines gouged his eyes out and arrested him and he basically walked around like a fool until he cried out to God to let him take these meanies down, even if he has to die with them. God honored his prayer and Samson took down the two pillars of the temple, killing more people in his death than in his life.

There's really only one thing to say about this story: What the hell is wrong with him?

Like dude, God told you not to do something and you did the exact opposite! Dude couldn't you see that this lady was total trouble?! 

For a while I had that mindset. Gosh, he really is stupid. That was a dud move. And the more and more times I've read this part of Judges, the harsh reality hits me:

I am Samson, and I am married to my own personal Delilah.

Let me give you some background on my boy Samson and some of his flaws: 

First things first, he had a first almost-wife. She basically had tricked him and trapped him in a very similar way that Delilah had. When he saw this woman he was like, "Yup. Mom, dad, I wanna marry her. Bring her to me." And his parents objected! Dude no, she's bad news don't do it. See, one of his flaws was that he was deceived by his eyes. He was controlled by his eyes. He loved this woman because of her beauty. He loved Delilah for the same. This falsely-advertised 'love' he believed was what got him to trust this devious women so easily, and that is what led to his downfall. 

His eyes controlled him, and because of this, in-turn, when he was captured, he walked around blind and powerless. It was how he had always been, deep down. Blind and powerless.

But he is who we are, whether we've admitted it to ourselves or not. Aren't lies so beautiful? Aren't men and women so beautiful? Isn't flattery so beautiful? Aren't these beautiful things so tempting? At first it is our eyes that are tempted, but where your eyes go, your heart goes and where your heart goes, your life surely follows. Following the deceit that was before him without thinking practically was eventually his greatest downfall. 

Second: He used his gifts and talents unwisely. When I say gifts and talents, that is an understatement. This man could tie 300 foxes tails together in a swift motion. But he wasn't wise about things. After sleeping with a prostitute, he used his strength to get out of it by ripping the city gates from the ground. When he lost a bet, he used his power to kill all those men. 

This past Sunday, my assoc. pastor Justin was talking about talents at one point in the message saying that God gives us all these amazing talents and gifts and we get to heaven and God is kinda like, "I gave you this amazing talent to sing and you did it for the cars and I gave you this ability to write or speak and all you cared about was money." Being wise with the talents God gives us is the only way we can give God a worthy gift, in my personal opinion, and a lot of us think we're walking around with just skin and bones, with no soul or gifts when in reality God wants to pour them through us, but for His name-sake not ours.

Third: He could not deal with persistence and gave in so quickly. If you read through Samson and Delilah's story in Judges, you'll see that she literally asked him, "What is the secret of your strength and how could you be tied up?" And every time, he would lie to her. But she literally almost nagged him to death and he gave in! When his first wife, who I mentioned before, asked him for the answer to something secret, he could only be bothered so many times before giving in.

This man could rip a lion's jaw open with his bare hands, but could not break free of his lust and disobedience. 

Like us, he was lured by persistence, attractiveness, and how persuasive something sounded. He easily gave in because he was tired of what he kept hearing and did not want to keep fighting, which is odd for one of the strongest men in the Bible.

I hate to be the one to say he had great potential, but he did. He did and ruined himself. Potential, though a beautiful thing, is usually followed by something negative and, "What a shame."

I encourage you to be unlike Samson in this way: Don't be the person to just sit on your potential like a dang goose egg waiting for the right time for it to hatch. Now or never. There is no PLAN B! Make people say, "Wow, we did not see that coming." 

Be resilient. The dictionary definition of that word is returning to the original form or position after being bent. When you realize, okay maybe this isn't what the plan for my life is, or maybe this isn't the talent God had blessed me with, RETURN to your original shape! God will let us bend and never break, but sometimes we allow ourselves to get that far. 

I also encourage you to beware of your personal Delilah. She was a Proverbs 5:3 woman; honey on her lips and poison in her heart. She actually tied him up so many times and literally asked him, "What is the source of your strength and how can you be tied up?" I mean HELLO she obviously was wearing her intentions on her sleeve! But beware. Delilah is not always a person.

Delilah is that thing you keep in the back of your closet that you promise to never go back to but can't bare to throw it out.

Delilah is that number in your phone that you just can't delete.

Delilah is the voice that tells you one drink won't hurt.

Delilah is your downfall. 

But we will mess up sometimes. And it's okay. Here's why:

This section of the Bible ends with this sentence... Judges 16:22 "But before long, his hair began growing back."
That's hope. That's a new mercy. That is our awesome God taking a garbage-dump of a situation and making it beautiful. And when we do mess up, which we will, we have to trust that He will do just that.

Ps- sorry about the weird highlight over the words. I wrote this on a word document before I pasted it onto here. Sorry!