Lydia Brownback's Blog, page 2

April 3, 2013

“Have No Anxiety”–Really?

Is anxiety a mental or emotional state we simply can’t escape? According to an article at the Christianity Today website, it is indeed: “Through no choice of our own, we live in a state of anxiety that is largely disconnected…
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Published on April 03, 2013 13:29

March 28, 2013

On-the-Go Devotionals

“Skillful devotionals for those who face the challenge to ‘fit it all in.’ Biblically rigorous and deeply perceptive. Godly insights from a godly sister.” Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life “A…
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Published on March 28, 2013 15:58

May 23, 2012

"Have No Anxiety"--Really?

Is anxiety a mental or emotional state we simply can’t escape? According to an article at the Christianity Today website, it is indeed:
“Through no choice of our own, we live in a state of anxiety that is largely disconnected from the reality of our otherwise normal circumstances.”
Reinforcing the view that we are helpless victims of anxiety is the label assigned it by the National Institute of Mental Health, which calls it GAD, or “Generalized Anxiety Disorder.” The PubMed website offers this prognosis: “The goal of treatment is to help you function well during day-to-day life. A combination of medicine and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) works best.” In Christ, however, we are offered so much more than the ability to merely “function well during day-to-day life.” Sadly, those outside of Christ know nothing of this. Even sadder is when Christians miss it and then richochet from one self-help book or method to the next.

The author of the Christianity Today article recalls her earlier struggle with anxiety:
“On my best days I thought of it as a pesky trial, something that God allowed me to experience; on my worst, I thought it was the absence of God due to my total lack of faith.”
Her view is not uncommon among Christians, and it will certainly typify those who don’t quite get what it means to be "in Christ." Christians who feel helpless about anxiety probably know that Scripture says we have no reason to be anxious, but they cannot apprehend how that’s true. Yet the way the author describes her worst-day experiences—“I thought it was the absence of God due to my total lack of faith”—provides a clue as to why so many can’t apprehend it. The truth is, we will never find freedom from anxiety through mustering up enough faith. Faith is a gift, and it comes to us from, in, and only through Christ. Faith in Christ is faith from Christ. And once we are in him, God is never absent from us again.

Because that is true, Paul is able to write: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil 4:6) Along with most Christian anxiety sufferers, the CT author had heard that before:
"Many a well-meaning Christian had trotted out Philippians 4:6 when I confessed my struggle. . . . The underlying message here seemed clear to me: Pray more. Give thanks more. Don’t focus on your anxiety."
But that’s not the underlying message. Paul’s message is just the opposite: “Christ has given more and done more, and God is in control.”

The CT author expresses frustration with Justin Taylor’s recent blog post, “Eight Reasons Why My Anxiety Is Pointless and Foolish.” In response to this post she writes:
“This kind of treatment (a list of reasons with Bible verses posted beneath each one) only ends up alienating those of us who have seriously struggle[d] with it. Telling Christians that our anxiety is pointless and foolish and pointing to a list of verses as evidence doesn’t serve to create community; rather, it perpetuates fear: fear that there is something wrong with me, fear of being seen (and rejected) for who I really am, fear that I will never trust God enough.”
She finds the blog post condemning because she isn’t looking far enough. Looking to herself or to community won’t free her—or any of us. If our focus remains horizontal—on ourselves or on other people—rather than vertical, we will always miss the freedom from anxiety that is most definitely God’s will for all his children. It is not his will that we spend our energies seeking out and trying to master mere coping mechanisms. Looking to Christ is the way out—and resting in him will progressively free us more and more.

For all of us who struggle with discouragement over our anxiety, here’s our promised freedom, and if we are in Christ, it’s ours already. We just have to stop looking at ourselves, our methods, and our self-made models and start looking here:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:3-14)
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Published on May 23, 2012 07:06

May 11, 2012

Quote of the Week

Another from Paul Tripp. It ties in with a couple of issues we've discussed here recently: waiting and envy. Paul writes:
When God asks you to wait, what happens to your spiritual muscles? While you wait, do your spiritual muscles grow bigger and stronger or do they grow flaccid and atrophied? Waiting for the Lord isn’t about God forgetting you, forsaking you, or being unfaithful to his promises. It’s actually God giving you time to consider his glory and to grow stronger in faith. Remember, waiting isn’t just about what you are hoping for at the end of the wait, but also about what you will become as you wait.
An unwillingness to wait can result in what Paul calls habits of "unfaith," which include:

Giving way to doubt. There’s a fine line between the struggle to wait and giving way to doubt. When you are called to wait, you are being called to do something that wasn’t part of your plan and is therefore something that you struggle to see as good.

Giving way to anger. There will be times when it simply doesn’t seem right that you have to wait for something that seems so obviously good to you.

Giving way to discouragement. This is where I begin to let my heart run away with the “If only_____,” the “What if_____,” and the “What will happen if_____.” I begin to give my mind to thinking about what will happen if my request isn’t answered soon, or what in the world will happen if it’s not answered at all.

Giving way to envy. When I am waiting, it’s very tempting to look over the fence and wish for the life of someone who doesn’t appear to have been called to wait. You can’t give way to envy without questioning God’s wisdom and his love.

Giving way to inactivity. The result of giving way to all of these things is inactivity. If God isn’t as good and wise as I once thought he was, if he withholds good things from his children, and if he plays favorites, then why would I continue to pursue him? Maybe all those habits of faith aren’t helping me after all; maybe I’ve been kidding myself.

Paul concludes:
The reality of waiting is that it’s an expression of God’s goodness not empirical evidence against it. He is wise and loving. His timing is always right, and his focus isn’t so much on what you will experience and enjoy, but on what you will become. He is committed to using every tool at his disposal to rescue you from yourself and to shape you into the likeness of his Son. The fact is that waiting is one of his primary shaping tools.

You can read the entire article here.
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Published on May 11, 2012 08:17

May 10, 2012

Happy Mother's Day to Single Moms

Some women dread church on Mother’s Day. They’ve learned what to expect. Perhaps they know that the holiday will be the focus of the entire worship service. For others, there’s just that inevitable mothers-please-stand-up-and-be-noticed moment. Single mothers can be among those who dread it.

The term single mother indicates something’s gone wrong. It’s not what God intended in his design for family. Single mothers walk into a gathering of Christian people, whether that be a worship service or a dinner in Fellowship Hall, and feel the stigma that accompanies the status. Some feel like second-rate disciples, especially in Christian settings.

But Jesus doesn’t view them that way. Consider that some of the women who closely followed Jesus and accompanied him during the years of his earthly ministry were hardly mainstream. Who knows what their past was like and how that past defined their present? Whatever it was, we can be sure that somehow, someway, it was instrumental in bringing them to the privileged place of Jesus’ inner circle. Jesus removes shameful stigmas, the hurt of rejection, and the bitterness of guilt and regret and gives all his women a new identity.

Because motherhood is God’s design, we are right to thank and praise him for it in church on Mother’s Day. And we can praise him even when sin--ours and others--has tainted the beauty of his design in our own lives, because of what he tells us:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. (Isa. 61:1-3)
Happy Mother’s Day, single moms!

UPDATE: My friend Rochelle sent me a link to a terrific Mother's Day post by Russell Moore. Well worth a read.

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Published on May 10, 2012 07:31

May 1, 2012

A Tragic Death and the Gospel

Last week the Christian Post published an obituary about the death of a much-loved friend and colleague, Gabrielle Devenish. The thirty-year-old woman died on April 19 from complications of the eating disorder anorexia. She weighed 66 pounds close to the time of her death.

Gabrielle’s story is sad on so many levels. Sad, of course, is the fact that the life of a talented young woman ended. Sadder still is how it ended.

If you read the archives of her column, “Dying to Live,” at the Christian Post, you’ll see her candor about her struggle with anorexia, a sin she battled since her teens. In the column she was upfront about her dark desire for control and how that desire had worked itself out in destructive ways in her life. Gabrielle had been told there was no chance for physical recovery; she knew she was dying and was at peace with it. She anticipated being face-to-face with her Savior, and her writing makes clear that she never doubted God’s love and forgiveness. Now her sin battle is over, and those who loved her and share her faith are surely comforted in their grief by the hope of the resurrection.

But that’s exactly where another sad aspect of the story comes in. Where was that resurrection hope in how her battle with anorexia has been portrayed? From the columns I read, it isn't clear that Jesus died not only to pay for her sin but also to free her from it. And while it is sure that we all have besetting sins, some of which we will battle until the day we die, those particular sins don’t have to steal our life away. For those in Christ, we have this promise: “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).

For that reason, refusing to call sin “sin” is anti-gospel, and it obliterates hope. To believe we are puppets to the capricious whims of our emotions and that our destructive choices spring solely from physiological roots is anti-gospel. The truth about Jesus's power over sin—both in its penalty and its power—is diminished or hidden when believers stop calling sin “sin” or believe themselves to be helpless victims of it.

Some of the wording in Gabrielle’s obituary seems to read a bit like that, beginning with the title of the article, “Anorexia Steals Life of Colleague, Friend.” And where is the promise of Romans 6:14 in how Gabrielle’s experience is described?
“A young 30-year-old woman in the prime of her life was tasked with preparing her journey to heaven instead of starting a family or climbing a career ladder.”
And the gospel is hidden from view here:
“Elle knew anorexia was her demon. She knew that anorexia was not just about trying to be skinny, but that it was a mental and an emotional disease that overwhelmed her at the most stressful times in her life. She learned it was about control and how she could use it as a tool in some areas while it was slipping out of her grips in others.”
What Gabrielle actually learned was this dimension of idolatry: whatever we try to control will inevitably wind up controlling us.

Are we not all guilty of masking the gospel in some form or fashion? I know I am. Yet the hope of the gospel will inevitably shine through all who truly belong to Christ, because he is greater than the world, the flesh, and the Devil—and all our sin. That is the final word. And it was for Gabrielle too, as her friend and colleague wrote:
“What she also knew was that Jesus was stronger than Satan and in the end, no matter how long she lived, she would spend eternity cradled in his presence.”
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Published on May 01, 2012 06:52

April 24, 2012

Waiting

An unmet need, a perplexing circumstance, a hoped-for deliverance—where is God in the midst of all this, and why doesn’t he seem to answer? In times of waiting, we can find ourselves emotionally fragile, and if we’re not careful, our faith can also take a hit. That’s why it’s vital to see what Scripture says about waiting.

1) A Pattern of Waiting
Abraham and Sarah were made to wait years before God’s promise to them was realized. Moses was basically sidelined for decades before he stepped into his ultimate calling of leading God’s people. Hannah had to wait until she knew the answer to her prayer for a baby. Jesus made Mary and Martha wait to receive back their brother Lazarus from sickness and death. In Scripture we find example after example of God’s people being made to wait. We see a pattern of waiting as God works in and through his people. Therefore, God is surely up to something in our waiting too.

2) Waiting Is Always Preparatory
We’re restless for results, but God is just as concerned with the actual process that gets us there as he is with the ultimate outcome. Look at the Bible’s heroes and how many of them were set apart on the sidelines or held captive to difficult (sometimes horrendous) circumstances before being called and empowered by God for their special task. Since we see this pattern in Scripture, doesn’t it stand to reason that God is preparing us for something too? Perhaps it’s preparation for a call to kingdom work. Perhaps it’s preparation to receive a blessing beyond our imagination. Perhaps it’s preparation to know Jesus more intimately in some sort of difficulty. We don’t know the personal particulars, but we do know that it’s always preparation for eternity.

3) Waiting Is Always a Test
Just consider Job (talk about waiting!). Job lost his livelihood and his children, and then he got sick. He waited for healing. And while he waited, his faith began to waver. Demanding, as Job did, that God explain his ways to us is always a sign of wavering faith. Doubting God’s goodness is another. How easy it is to question the goodness of God when he doesn’t act as we think he should! Waiting exposes our lingering unbelief, and it refines as gold the faith we have.

4) God blesses waiting.
The test of waiting is always worth it, and, whatever the outcome, we will see that God is worthy of our trust. Consider this:

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame (Ps. 25:3)

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! (Ps. 31:24)

Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land (Ps. 37:34)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (Ps. 62:5)

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isa 30:18)

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isa 40:28-31)

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (Lam 3:25)

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. (James 5:7)
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Published on April 24, 2012 07:29

April 20, 2012

Quote of the Week

"God won’t call us to keep one command in a way that would cause us to break another."
--Paul Tripp, Dangerous Calling (Crossway, forthcoming)
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Published on April 20, 2012 08:03

Pilgrim Broadcast Update

We have solved the download problem! Below are links to the series airing on Pilgrim Radio this month. Once again, here's the schedule.

Apr 14, 15: "Building on Sand"

Apr 21, 22: "Where Is Your Faith?"

Apr 28, 29: "Resting in Christ"
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Published on April 20, 2012 06:24

April 19, 2012

Loneliness

Judy Garland once lamented, “If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?” She put words to the delusion we all have—that if we can shape our lives a certain way, we can exempt ourselves from loneliness. But if we persist in this delusion, we’ll never escape the mental treadmill of “Something’s missing,” and our lives will be shaped by going after that illusive something.

It’s all to easy for those of us who are single to think that marriage will solve our loneliness. But while it will usually solve our aloneness, it won’t eradicate our loneliness. We know that marriage is a God-ordained means of alleviating loneliness, but it certainly doesn’t abolish it. In fact, the loneliest women I know aren’t the single ones; they are those in a difficult marriage. If we get married believing that we leave the loneliness of our single years at the altar, we will sooner or later, at one point or another, find ourselves echoing Judy Garland: “If I am a wife, then why am I so lonely?”

Loneliness goes with being human. There are no circumstances that exempt it. Jesus was lonely. Consider this:
“Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here, while I go over there and pray.’ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”
If that doesn’t describe loneliness, I don’t know what does.

I recently read something really interesting about loneliness:
“Loneliness is so difficult because it’s the soul’s certain but disguised rejection of God. Where God has been shut out, loneliness enters. When loneliness overcomes and overwhelms, the hope of the gospel is at risk. . . . The message of the gospel is specifically this: even in the most unimaginable, uncontrollable, hellacious scenarios, God is in control. Even on the cross Jesus cried out of the darkness of his vicarious loneliness for us, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’”
The key is in what Jesus did. He did loneliness for us, and in the process he bought our way out of it. Because of that, we, too, can cry out to God and find rescue. We don’t have to turn anymore to our empty attempts at escape—or even to our God-given earthly blessings—to find the alleviation from loneliness we’re so desperately looking for. Christ found it for us.
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Published on April 19, 2012 06:22

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