Revert to Invert

“When you revert to old ways revert to new truths”

Loren Thornburg

Ever feel like you’re back where you started, like you’ve reverted? Revert is to return to a previous state, condition or practice. You worked so hard to become a better you, only to find you are back in the same struggle, with the same feelings, and now the disappointment too of being back there again when you thought you were moving forward. However, although the feeling may be the same you are not the same. All that you learned and all the ways that you grew that helped you move out of the old place are still there. So you are not in fact right back where you started, even when it looks and feels the same. Instead when you revert you can revert to all you have learned and all that you know is true so that you can invert which is to put in the opposite position. You can turn backwards into forwards as you go back to what is true.

“Now I am deeply discouraged but I will remember your kindness…”
Psalm 42:5 NLT

Discouragement is something we are all familiar with. It comes in all shapes and sizes and the enemy does not hesitate to use it and play off of it. One way he does that is in getting you to feel like all the work that you have done was for nothing and even less than nothing but you wasted your time because now you are back where you started. The enemy would love for you to think that, to become discouraged in feeling like you will never get through it, and to stay in that place even longer. Instead when you feel that you’ve gone back, go back to the Lord, go back to who He is, and go back to the truths He has shown you. For when we go back there we find the hope we need for our discouragement to be inverted into encouragement. Remember the kindness of our Lord!! You are not back where you started!

Expect without Expecting

“Don’t miss your what looking at your how”

Loren Thornburg

An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen. We expect things big and small. Expectations can be good for they include the hopes and dreams of what we believe one day will be. Yet sometimes we miss “what” we hope will be when it comes in ways different than “how” we expected it to. Often our dreams come through the trials of disappointment, our hopes through the pain of loss, and things promised to us beyond the burden of conflict. In the midst of the disappointment, the loss, and the conflict it can be easy to give up on that which we expected or to miss it completely because we expected to come a different way, at a different time, with an easier process. But don’t miss it, even when it gets hard. Keep expecting...Expect dreams to be seen, expect promises to be kept, expect good things to come. Just do it without expecting... don’t expect it to come when you thought, don’t expect it in the way you hoped, and don’t expect it exactly as you envisioned it would be. If you do you might miss it.

“Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? Those who dress like that live in palaces, not in the wilderness.”

Matthew 11:8 NLT

Jesus is speaking here to the crowds about John the Baptist. He is affirming that John is indeed the one the scriptures referred to as the one who would come before Jesus to prepare the way for Him. But as was true with Jesus they expected him to look differently. They had heard many great promises of a great kingdom to come with a mighty king, savior and defender and they believed that all of these promises would in fact come to pass. However, many people missed it because it looked different than they thought; He looked different than they thought. They were expecting a man dressed in expensive clothes and residing in a palace. I can’t say that I blame them since this is what they knew of a king and so this is what they expected. The same thing is true for us in the promises that God gives us. We expect them to come as they did before or as they did for someone else or as we think would be best. I don’t want us to miss Him or His promises. So keep expecting but in different things...for God to be faithful, to be sovereign and to be good!!

Knowing When

“There is a time to fight and a time to stand still; A time to speak and a time to remain silent; A time to and a time not to...The key is knowing when.”

Loren Thornburg

In watching the Super Bowl I was wishing life had an option for a video review to go back and see what really happened. A chance to change the call that had been made and potentially change the entire outcome of the game. It often seems that sometimes people are getting a different story of what “really” happened. Unfortunately life and most of football doesn’t work like that. Even in football you only get a few opportunities to use the video review option. The key is knowing when to use it. For there is a time to fight the call, but more than not is the time to accept the call and move on. Often times the call is not what actually happened as often times in life we get called things that didn’t actually happen. Yet as in football the key is knowing when to fight it and advocate and when to keep silent. When to move on from the “bad call” knowing that in the game of life we don’t have to fight every time things are misunderstood. Instead we can get up and keep playing knowing that it’s not time to fight, but time to play.

“If anyone attacks you, don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them, and if any should attack nothing will come of it. I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer--but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God’s servants can expect. I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” God’s Decree.

Isiah 54: 15-17 MSG

He does! God sees that everything works out for the best! Yet if you’re like me you face things that makes this hard to see, hard to believe and hard to trust. And so we try to take matters into our own hands, relying on ourselves to set things straight, not trusting that God will be our justifier. We forget that God really does care for us, He really is shepherding us, even through this time that we face. Reputation and all...He cares for you! Even when life gives us “bad calls” we have the ultimate referee. He always sees it right, always protects, always advocates, always justifies. It may not be as you would do it but it will be for the best!

Taste more Settle less

“Why settle for less when you can taste more?”

Loren Thornburg

We miss so much in our willingness to settle for less. There are many kinds of settling but what I’m talking about is when you are accepting something that is less than satisfactory; when you are okay with less than okay. We are getting robbed of joy, of peace, of life. I mean if someone stole your money, your car, your phone you would be upset and do what it took to find it or at least find justice. Yet our joy is being stolen and we act like we are living like that’s okay. It happens with a little something here and little something there until it becomes our way of life. Now I am not saying that we should be excited about everything that happens in life. For there are things that happen that bring much sorrow and struggle. But, what I am saying is don’t settle for staying there. I’m saying you don’t have to live a life without joy, without peace, without life. There is more. So join with Sugarland in singing… “I ain't settling for just getting by; I've had enough so so for the rest of my life; Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high; Just enough ain't enough this time; I ain't settling for anything less than everything”

“The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.”

2 Corinthians 5:5

God has given us what we need so that we’ll never settle for less. He’s given us His Spirit! And we need Him!! We are in a battle. The enemy can’t steal the salvation that is in store for those who believe but he can steal the life on the way...and he’s not dumb. He is very sneaky and smart in the ways that he does it so that we don’t even know it’s happening. Yet, God has given us all that we need so that we won’t settle for the enemies plans to steal our life, joy and peace. He provides in all sorts of ways...His Spirit in us whetting our appetite, the word of God calling us to truth, the people around us raising us up, the miracles and wonders of creation, and so much more. It speaks to us saying, ‘you don’t have to stay there’. We have Jesus who is with us, we have the Spirit who lives in us and we have the Father who is for us. No, you don’t have to stay there. It may take time but it’s worth the fight. Don’t settle any longer for anything less than joy, peace, and life.

Take the Limits Off

“Although we may be products of our past, our past does not predict our future.”

Loren Thornburg

We all love a good story. But, what I find even better is the good story that is true. Like the recent movie Blindside of the family that took in a young man, Michael Oher with no family and no place to go who is now a professional football player. The movie may have taken some dramatic liberties yet the story line remains the same that a young man’s life was changed in a way he never dreamed possible. Who he was when that family took him in was very much a product of all that had happened to him growing up. Who we are is largely impacted by the things that have happened to us and the ways that they have molded us. Yet his past did not determine his future. Change is possible. It’s not just in the movies. It’s happening all the time. The seemingly impossible that becomes possible. Sometimes it comes and gets us but other times we have to go and get it. Either way it is possible. So either way we can live outside the limits of what has been. We can take the limits off of ourselves. Think beyond your past, dream beyond where you’ve been, see beyond your limitations. Take the limits off for what’s been does not mean what will be.

“They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed. They will revive them, though they have been empty for many generations.”

Isaiah 61:4 NLT

We have been called despite our past. It’s easy to look back and see all that hasn’t happened and almost without realizing it assume that it couldn’t happen. When you have known things one way for so long it can feel beyond possible to have things any other way. We all have our things whether it be things we’ve longed for that have not come to fruition, dreams that have died and so we’ve stopped dreaming, lies we’ve believed, addictions we’ve been caught in, depression that we’ve lived under, the list goes on and on. Yet the Lord can revive the ruins, the emptiness, the destruction. Time is not a factor for Him no matter how long things have operated in a certain way. Although it feels like it has been this way for so long and there is no way it could ever be different that is not as great as the ancient ruins that God rebuilt and not as great as the greatness and power of our Lord. His work is not at all dependent on what has been. So take the limits off of our God and off of what He can do through you when you are holding onto Him.

On the Way

“On the way to where you’re going

on the way to what’s ahead

there’s signs and wonders all around

if you will only lift your head.”

Loren Thornburg

We are all on our way somewhere...on our way to work, on our way to the store, to the bank, through our to do list with no time to stop. We can’t stop if we want to be on the way to a promotion, on the way to getting married, to dreams, to hopes of what will be our next reality. Sometimes we are so focused on getting there that we miss all the life that happens on the way there. There is beauty to be enjoyed, interactions to bring us hope, and opportunities to help. They are all around you. You don’t have to schedule it in because it is happening on the way to where you’re going. The beauty of the sky on your way to work, the friend you haven’t seen on your way to the store, the neighbor, the stranger in need of help. It’s there if you will lift your head from the business and worry to see it on the way. It may be the very thing that helps you get where you were on the way to...the promotion, the marriage, the dream. Don’t miss the life on the way to where you’re going.

“How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road...Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way.”

Romans 9:32-33 MSG

Jesus is an 'on the way' God. Much of what He did happened while He was on the way somewhere. It was on the way to Galilee that He ministered to the women at the well because Samaria was on the way (John 4). Can you imagine how different life must have been for that women and all who came to believe because Jesus stopped on the way? And knowing the heart of God, there is much joy that came to Jesus and the Father in seeing the women and all those in the village who came to believe. All of this, which happened on the way to somewhere else. There are many much like this woman in need of hope that God is putting on your way to where you are going. Just the same there are many God is putting on your way to speak hope to you. Will you be willing to look? Will you be willing to stop? Will you be willing to find that God is on the way to meet them through you?

Time to Praise

“When we see past our expectations into possibilities then we can praise.”

Loren Thornburg

I don’t know about you but life does not look quite how I thought it would at this point in my life. We have this picture in mind of what it will be like. It’s good to hope and dream, but it’s the expecting that gets us into trouble. Often we have seen how what looks to be a disaster can turn into something better than we had ever imagined. You’ve seen it in your life time and time again. Yet still we despair when things don’t go our way or turn out the way we thought it would. It’s easy to do. It feels right too. But what if we stopped just for a moment to see other possibilities, to see there might be something else going on here, something bigger beyond what we thought or what we can see. There, in our stopping, we can acknowledge all that is to our benefit, all that could be good, even better, and there we can begin to praise. There we will find it’s time to praise even when things don’t look as we thought they would.

“She became pregnant yet again-another son. She said, ‘Now maybe my husband will connect with me’...She became pregnant a final time and had a fourth son. She said, ‘This time I’ll praise God.’ So she named him Judah (Praise-God)…”

Genesis 29:34-35 MSG

Talk about a bad deal. Leah found herself married to Jacob, the same man as her sister, yet unloved and unwanted and nothing like she had thought things would turn out. She was however blessed with giving Jacob children which she thought would make him love her, connect with her, and want her. Each child she hoped would change things, but with each one she found her expectations unmet. I love what she comes to see with her fourth child as she says, “This time I’ll praise God.” It seems she came to the point where it wasn’t about having expectations met, it wasn’t about finding praise or adoration from people, but it was about God. She came to the place where she chose to believe that even when nothing looked like she had hoped it would that she trusted that God was still writing a great story in her life. You can believe that too, because it’s true. God is writing a great story with your life...even when it doesn’t look like you thought it would. That’s why we can join with Leah in the midst of disappointment and despair, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’