The Problem With Exhortation

What I really want to spill out on these pages is poetry. Somehow, though, it just doesn't come out of me.

Instead, I have the spiritual knack of exhortation. I sit down, heavy with something the Spirit said, and I write. When it's all done, it is not poetry, but a pleading with you, the reader, to do something. To perform in some way.

The problem with exhortation is that sometimes, grace gets lost.

I have been exhorting you to open your Bible this month. I am doing much better in opening mine, and I hope you are too.

Last year, I put more discipline into my prayer life and learned much about the power and blessing that prayer can be. I wrote a series of posts on prayer.

And then do you know what happened? My daughter began having problems. When a diagnosis was given, I didn't have the words to pray. Though I communed with the Spirit, it wasn't traditional prayer, in which I put forth effort. He poured into me. Currently, He has me doing a lot of intercessory prayer. It isn't organized like a traditional "quiet time". The miracle is that the names pop into my head, along with the prayers. He is giving me the gift of prayer, through no effort of my own.

The other day I told you I was committing myself to laughing every day with my children, to bless them and assure them that everything was going to be okay. And do you know what happened the very next day? My emotions crashed, as they're apt to do some months. No laughs that day, and maybe only a few times this week. Tears come easily at these times for me. Laughter? Not so much.

Oh, the irony.

The notion that I have power, that my striving is the answer, always gets shot down. He reminds me that all power comes from Him.

He loves you. When you pray, when your open your Bible, and when you don't. We don't always adhere to our own best plans, because life is messy. Though I exhort you to do things, never suppose I'm saying that your striving is the answer. Sorrowful things happen, no matter how you "perform". Grace triumphs over sorrow. Grace triumphs over our failings.

There will be times you possess spiritual discipline that surprises even you. God's power is upon you then, possibly preparing you for a storm. Other times, it will seem like you're incapable of discipline. You're too frail. You might have four mothering days in a row that knock you out, and your Bible remains unopened. On the fifth day, you open it.

God doesn't condemn you for days one through four; He rejoices with you on day five.

The enemy wants us to believe this:  it's all or nothing. He convinces us we're pitiful and we sometimes believe him.

Let me repeat these words: He rejoices with you on day five. 


Let us keep that in our heart, always.