So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean. -2 Kings‬ ‭5:14‬ ‭(NASB‬‬)

Naaman was a successful military general in Aram, and God used him to give them victory. But where Naaman did not have victory was with the leprosy that ravaged his skin.

His Israelite servant girl told him that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him (Elisha), so with his king’s permission, he went with a caravan with lots of money and gifts for the king of Israel.

Later, Naaman heads to Elisha, who tells him through his servant that Naaman must simply dip himself seven times in the waters of the Jordan river to be healed. Naaman was outraged that Elisha didn’t see him, a man of great worldly importance, in person, or even tell him what to do in person!

After urging from his servants to go and do this simple thing Elisha advised, Naaman dipped himself in the Jordan. One…two…three…four…five…six…and nothing. No results. Why even bother with a seventh dip?!?

That seventh dip, like the seventh lap Joshua and the Israelites took around Jericho, was the most important action taken in faith. What was asked made no earthly sense, but instead required faith in the face of reason…and faith was rewarded.

In our own lives, we may be facing challenging seasons and people and circumstances, sometimes that recur. With the past examples of faith we see in Naaman and Joshua, we can hang in there through our trials, because the next time around may be that seventh and final time that we take in faith, so that God may work His blessings to His faithful.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” -Psalm 91:2 (NIV)

Everyone hates mosquitoes. In humid Houston, especially after Hurricane Harvey, mosquitoes were running rampant, thanks to sitting water everywhere.

For those who lost so much from the hurricane, mosquitoes are just rubbing salt in the wound.

In this city, it’s already commonplace to see (and feel) mosquitoes pretty much year round. It’s bad enough when they’re bothering you outside, but even worse if they get in your house and find you when you’re trying to sleep!

But something was different this time…there were lots dragonflies around.

Why do I love dragonflies? Dragonflies eat mosquitoes. Oh yes.

So, when I see dragonflies, I know that they’re flitting around, eating the bloodsucking mosquitoes before they get me.

Even when you’re navigating a cloud of bloodsuckers, look closely, and you’ll find pockets of relief here and there. Sometimes, His refuge isn’t found away from hardship, but found in the thick of it.

My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. -Psalm 73:26 (NASB)

It’s when we’re at our lowest, finally at the end of ourselves, when God can use us mightily to His glory. He can take our broken, empty vessels and fill them to the point of overflow. Case in point: The song “Draw Me Close To You.”

In 1994, pastor and worship leader Kelly Carpenter was depleted. Despite all the ministry work he was doing, he realized he was concentrating so much on it that he felt disconnected from God. So he sat at his piano and started pouring out his heart…and out came one of the most memorable praise songs since.

Since 1994, “Draw Me Close” has been covered by scores of Christian bands and performers, lifting and comforting the heavy hearts of countless souls. And in my own life, I discovered it by hearing it sung by children in a lullaby DVD for my baby boy in 2013! Little did I know that God would use that lullaby DVD to speak to my heart.

So if you’re done with the trials and tribulations of life, and can admit that you can’t handle them on your own, open up to God and let His grace and strength and power and comfort and joy fill you to the point of overflow. He’ll buoy you up from nothing to a mighty instrument of His, lifted up, to lift up His other children, to His glory.

Today’s soundtrack

Kutless’ version of “Draw Me Close” adds rock rhythm to Kelly Carpenter’s song about our rock and redeemer.

For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. -Isaiah 50:7

In sports, athletes steel themselves, with faces like stone, as they prepare for a serious challenge ahead. In our lives, when tough times are looming ahead, we can likewise steel ourselves as we step up to the plate.

Jesus did the same thing as He made His way to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), for higher stakes than any athletic match, but for our very souls. And thanks to His finished work, we who choose to believe in and receive Him no longer have to worry about where we will go once we pass through this world.

Instead, we have daily and seasonal, and internal and external challenges to face…and Goliaths and mountains challenge us to trust He will topple them, if only we will move fearlessly through them.

In the wilderness, after two years of traveling, Moses sent twelve scouts to survey the Promised Land. All twelve saw the giants (the Nephilim), but only two of them reported that the Israelites would defeat them. The people chose fear based on the discouraging reports of the other ten scouts…and as a result, God had them wander in the wilderness for another 38 years (Num. 14:26-35).

Whatever mountains or Goliaths you face before you, can you have faith that God will topple them, if only you will keep moving forward into and through them? That the Creator of the Universe can work through you (instead of you in your own strength) to carry you to the other side?

If so, put on your game face. Set it like flint, and watch Him make the impossible possible…and thank Him for making a way where there seemed to be no way (Isa. 43:19).

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. -1 Peter 1:6‭-‬7 (NLT)

Watching my five-year-old son listen and learn intently from everything he is taught explicitly and by example, I see a sculpture in the making.

It’s a little nerve-wracking as a parent, to see the amazing responsibility we wield, but also the trust God puts in us, to shape the gift He brought into this world in our kids. Each word and action we take chisels or scrapes at the identity and soul of our kids. Traumatic experiences could even break off whole chunks.

But his life is no different than ours, is it? We’re sculpted by our experiences, with some deep cuts and scars where rough experiences happened, and finely honed edges where finesse was used. *We’re children, too!**

Some of us are more broken than others…maybe even with a trail of rubble in our wake. But God can use exactly that–our brokenness–to do amazing works in and through our lives. He can even mend us!

Like our children, we’re each a work in progress, never done till God says we’re done and we depart this world. Till then, we can trust He will use all of our experiences–good and bad–to His glory.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. -Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)

In the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, an American teenager is under the tutelage of a Japanese martial arts teacher. The boy, Daniel, has been bullied and wants to change his situation…but doesn’t see what work is ahead to make it happen.

Daniel has to wash and wax cars by hand over and over again. He has to paint fences, sand decks, too. What?

As we all know, these seemingly repetitive motions have a purpose…to condition Daniel for greater challenges ahead. They also give him perseverance and patience in the face of seemingly endless, grueling situations.

In life, God may put us through painful, grueling situations without any end in sight–at least to our limited view. Can we trust that He has His reasons in them? Can we find His blessings in them? Can we hone our technique of looking at the situation with eyes of compassion, and responding with grace?

In applied terms, this might be understanding that hurtful people are really just showing how hurt they are inside. It might be stopping to take a deep breath before responding, so that our words and actions please God, rather than our flesh. And it most certainly is trusting and thanking God for these trials, because He wants to refine us further…ever closer to Christlikeness.

He’s not done with us yet, which shows His love for us. We love and praise Him always, and entrust Him with our future, always praying and believing.

Wax on, wax off!

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. -1 Peter 5:10 (ESV)

God gives us amazing learning and teaching opportunities through His children. My little boy’s been battling wave after wave of illness, probably caught from fellow classmates.

Finally, after trying every over the counter remedy on his symptoms, it was time to see the doctor. After determining the infection could be treated with antibiotics, he wrote us a prescription for it.

And, of course, it didn’t come in cherry or some other kid-friendly flavor, like the over the counter medicines did. My boy balked, ran, and even hid in fearful expectation of the next dose.

He asked why this new, yucky medicine didn’t taste good? I told him that sometimes the only medicine to get us feeling better wasn’t sweet…but we’d be stronger and healthier after we took it for the whole course.

And with that, I could see what God wanted to remind me of: that tough seasons and times may be the nasty-tasting pill prescribed for us to get us through to the other side. It’s too easy to want sweeter and easier, but life is sweeter on its own after we experience the bitter, harder road.

Today’s soundtrack

Laura Story’s “Blessings” poses the question: What if our blessings are in the raindrops and tears?

Did this song move you? Consider buying it on Amazon Music »

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. -Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)

Remember the movie Rocky III? In it, the hero and defending champion, Rocky Balboa, faces an impossible opponent, Clubber Lang, who is quickly rising in the professional boxing ranks.

Rocky, however, has been resting on his laurels after defeating Apollo Creed, the previous world champion. Fight night finally arrives, and Clubber Lang wipes the floor with Rocky, taunting him the whole time.

Rocky has to regroup and refocus. We often have to do the same when we start resting on our laurels, and the world takes us down a few notches…or to the floor.

After much training, Rocky is in leaner and meaner form than ever before. This time, Rocky uses discernment, and does not try to match up with Clubber blow for blow. Instead, he deftly avoids most of Clubber’s brutal attacks…and then Clubber is too worn out to endure as Rocky launches his counterattack. And this time, Clubber is on the floor, and down for the count.

For us to outlast this world, we need to stay focused on God, not on what we see in front of us. We need to regroup constantly in His Word, in fellowship, and in prayer. We need to put on His armor. And finally, we need to face our trials with godly suffering, where He carries us, not ungodly suffering, where we get needlessly and unproductively pummeled to a pulp.

With God’s help, we can righteously endure all trials and seasons, bear fruit, and outlast to His glory.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. -John 1:5 (NASB)

The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. -Romans 13:12 (NASB)

When you’ve been traveling in darkness and doubt so thick that you could cut it with a knife, you might wonder if it will ever end. But one thing that we learn as believers is that we are not helpless victims of the darkness. We were reborn to fight it.

In the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, we learn of a mystical sword the hero wields that glows as a warning in the presence of evil enemies. In our real lives here on earth, we wield the Sword of the Spirit–God’s Word–that similarly pierces darkness and makes it hide.

The interesting thing about light is how powerfully it pierces the darkness. A single match or candle can turn a room of fear and mystery into sights you can identify and face. Light makes things that don’t like light scurry and hide.

The darker the night, the brighter light shines. As children of the light, we carry God’s light into the deepest, darkest, dankest corners of the earth. Sometimes, those corners are in our own homes and lives. And God does not give us timidity, but boldness where we didn’t have it.

Don’t be afraid of the dark. You carry God’s light. Watch how darkness scatters when you remember to wield the light of His truth!

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. -Psalms 145:19 (NKJV)

What do you do when you’ve got unscalable cliffs to your left and to your right, stormy skies pouring down from above, and only uncertainty ahead in the fog?

The Psalms are an amazing place to take refuge in the bible, especially when you’re trudging deep in a valley and season of trials, tribulations, and despair. The longer you’re in the valley, the more chances you have to fall prey to the enemy’s whisperings of doubt and fear.

But God’s promises and plans are far better than anything we face in our time on this earth…no matter how bad. No matter how intimidating. No matter how seemingly hopeless. His Word we are to hide in our hearts and carry with us (Psalm 119:11), and retreat into His Word when there is nothing but terror and grief and strife and uncertainty all around us.

We continue to walk, and we walk in fear (reverence) of the Lord, and He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He hears His children and will save them! Let us instead walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), in complete faith, obedience, and surrender.

Though it may appear endless from where we stand, God’s much longer, larger view and scale of our lives reveals His grand design…far beyond our comprehension. He’s using these times to shape and strengthen and grow us.

Our seasons and times are far from endless. The only truly endless and infinite entity is God, who has endless love for us. It’s in Him whom we trust our now and our future.

Today’s soundtrack

Lauren Daigle’s “Trust In You” reminds us that even when He doesn’t act right when we want Him to, we trust completely in Him.