Embracing Holy Spirit's Gift of Inconvenient Intercession - CHRISTY FITZWATER CHARISMA NEWS

Jesus modeled this for us to demonstrate God's heart. (Olivia Snow)

Embracing Holy Spirit's Gift of Inconvenient Intercession

 6/11/2017 CHRISTY FITZWATER  CHARISMA NEWS

It's 5:09 a.m., and the sun is coming up over the Rockies. I've been awake for an hour talking to God about a student whose progress is concerning to me, as we end the school year. Behind this name trails the name of a friend's kid and another friend's kid who are making bad choices right now. Their faces and souls hook themselves to my prayers like monkeys in a barrel.

Sleep would have been nice.

Except people require emotional work, and I'm starting to come to grips with this. In fact, I think it's a gross oversight that we don't write this more concretely into our contracts.

I will wear skirts or slacks to work.

I will not park in the visitor parking.

I will take attendance every day.

I will attend all staff meetings.

I will commit to 13 hours of sleeplessness in order to pray for and to think of how to help a student who is not doing well.

Signature____________________________________________.

Parents should have to sign something like this before leaving the hospital with a new baby:

Show us you know how to properly install a car seat.

Show us you're willing to cry for this child and to labor over him in your thoughts and prayers. Will you agonize on behalf of this person? Sign here.

Seth Godin says:

Emotional labor: That's the labor most of us do now. The work of doing what we don't necessarily feel like doing, the work of being a professional, the work of engaging with others in a way that leads to the best long-term outcome ... Of course it's difficult. That's precisely why it's valuable. Almost no one gets hired to eat chocolate cake.

I think of Jesus in the garden. He was willing to be completely miserable on my behalf. He lost sleep. He prayed and prayed and prayed. He made himself physically ill because of love. He said to his disciples, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Wait here, and keep watch with Me" (Matt. 26:38).

Jesus put himself in a place of emotional misery and did not run from it.

He did this work for me.

He did this work for you.

So I ask—are you willing to do emotional work on behalf of the people God has put in your life? Will you stay awake and pray for them? It is a great internal act of service. 

Christy Fitzwater, pastor's wife and Spanish teacher, is an author and blogger based in Montana.

Christy Fitzwater is an author and pastor's wife living in Kalispell, Montana. She is the author of Blameless: Living A Life Free from Guilt And Shame and My Father's Hands: 52 Reasons to Trust God with Your Heart. Find her devotional writing at christyfitzwater.com.

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When Disappointment Is a Symptom - CHRISTY FITZWATER CHARISMA MAGAZINE

When Disappointment Is a Symptom

 6/6/2016 CHRISTY FITZWATER  charisma magazine

Here's how God may be speaking to you when life isn't going your way. (Charisma archives)

It was empty. I immediately asked, "Is today a holiday?" But no. We just didn't get any mail, so the box was a black hole of disappointment. "Not even a sales flier?"

Shoulder sag.

There it was again—the idolatry of heart that I had been learning about for a few years. I was starting to recognize the groping to find satisfaction in anything and everything except in the heart of God.

Prone to wander, Lord.

I feel it.

So says the old hymn.

So from the time it took me to turn away from the mailbox, walk across the street and get to my front door, I went to church in my heart.

Lord! I groaned. Lord, my soul needs You. I need so much more than mail to satisfy these deep, empty places in me.

My heart went to a verse I had just read, during my time with the Lord the morning before. I had planned to read further in the passage, but I came upon this phrase that tasted like the soft center of a Lindt milk chocolate truffle.

"The Father has life in himself" (John 5:26).

This is what I am always looking for, without even being aware of it much of the time. I want life—the abundant kind that Jesus talks about.

Timothy Keller says that idols always disappoint us, and I'm hypervigilant for this symptom now. Disappointment is a symptom. The feeling sends up a red flag that I was hoping to find satisfaction in the wrong place.

Empty mailbox. Empty. Empty. Empty.

But there is life in the Father—always full and never disappointing. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays the life He delivers.

So let us turn away from meaningless, lifeless idols and seek satisfaction only in the Lord. 

Christy Fitzwater is the author of A Study of Psalm 25: Seven Actions to Take When Life Gets Hard. She is a blogger, pastor's wife and mom of two teenagers and resides in Montana. Visit christyfitzwater.com for more information about her ministry. 

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How Do I Know That God Is Talking to Me? - CHRISTY FITZWATER CHARISMA NEWS

Here's how to discern which voice is speaking. (Charisma archives)

How Do I Know That God Is Talking to Me?

11/7/2015 CHRISTY FITZWATER  charisma news

Yesterday I pulled out a manila file labeled "colors." That's the theme of the week in my Spanish class, so I have plans to bring colors to my students through various mediums.

Skittles are on the docket, because if a student tastes the rainbow, he might be more motivated to remember its colors. I also have a color by number, a color wheel, and a stack of paint swatches. For my upper level students, I have a devotional blog post about colors to translate.

We do a variety of activities, because one pass over information isn't enough for anyone to learn well, and the same is true in the way we learn from God.

God often speaks to us in multiple layers.

For example, over a week ago I signed my very first book contract, and that is a strange new world for me. Matt keeps imagining my grand book tours on the east coast, bless his heart.

But the whole book thing sent me into a fierce heart battle over motive. I set a stopwatch, and I clocked myself lasting about four minutes with godly motives. Then off my wretched heart would go—longing for fame.

I would halt those thoughts and go through a Scripture list I've made up, to define my purpose in writing: To glorify the name of the Lord, to help others know Him, to shine light into a dark world, and to teach people to live by God's commands.

Then pretty soon I was imagining myself famous again.

Oh Lord, help me. 

Friday night I told Matt about my struggle, as we crawled under the covers.

"I can't seem to maintain a humble, godly motive for even two seconds!" I told him.

"You should be encouraged that you recognize your wrong motives," he said. "That's a sign the Holy Spirit is working in you. You know, it's funny because our sermon tomorrow night is about motive."

Sure enough, the sermon passage:

"For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you" (1 Thessalonians 2:2, NIV).

By the end of the singing and sermon that night, I was fully reminded that I am a sinful woman, and my motives are naturally impure. During the closing prayer, I sat in my chair and held my head in my hands.

Dear God, redeem my motives from the dark side.

The next day I was reading a book by Paul David Tripp called Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. He writes:

"Sin makes us glory thieves. There is probably not a day when we do not plot to steal glory that rightfully belongs to the Lord ... We crave glory that does not belong to us."

Yes, I am a thief.

Then I sat down to write my next newsletter to those of you who have subscribed to my website (if you haven't subscribed, wanna join us?) I want to send you guys something valuable each month, and it's going to be a homemade micro-lesson in how to study the Bible. As I was preparing this Bible study for the newsletter, I did the scientific thing and opened to the Psalms, closed my eyes, and let my finger fall on a verse for us to study. Don't you know my finger landed on a verse about glory and motive? (Coming to you this Sunday.)

But God wasn't done talking to me about motive yet.

Yesterday I watched a news video about a pastor in Germany who is facing fierce opposition because he is preaching that Jesus is the only way to God. But he said he also started getting thousands of encouraging emails from followers of Christ, and he started to think he was really something.

"I am really a great pastor!" he said to himself.

Then he shook his head in disgust and said he had to remind himself, "No, I am nothing. I am only a sinner. I am only a tool for Jesus Christ."

Yes, brother. Me too.

So my point is that good teachers layer information, so that it sinks in and makes a lasting impression in the learner's thinking and lifestyle. Like God keeps impressing on me that I need to be rescued from bad motives.

God is an excellent teacher, and when He wants us to know something, he very often will bring the same information to us from multiple directions.

On our part, we have to be excellent listeners who are attentive 24/7. Bibles open. Hearts prayerful. Reading and listening to things that are bringing us godly messages and not just entertainment. We also have to be hungry to grab the new information and believe and obey it.

What message has God been sending to you from every direction lately?

Christy Fitzwater is the author of A Study of Psalm 25: Seven Actions to Take When Life Gets Hard. She is a blogger, pastor's wife and mom of two teenagers and resides in Montana. Visit christyfitzwater.com for more information about her ministry. 

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When You're Stressed About Money - SPIRITLED WOMAN

When You're Stressed About Money

 5/27/2015 CHRISTY FITZWATER  charisma magazine

We don't like to talk about money yet their are a lot of scriptures about finances. Here are 3 scriptures to speak over your finances regardless of whether your rich or poor. (iStockPhoto | kovalvs)

My first car didn't have power steering. It was a '67 Chevy, with bench seats and an 8-track player, from which I played Barry Manilow at full volume. I was a young girl, and he wrote songs of love and special things that made me cry.

You didn't try to eat a soft-serve cone while driving that car, because it took both hands and upper body strength to turn the wheel, which had the diameter of a large Chicago pizza.

My heart doesn't seem to have power steering either.

I say this, because I see the words "trust" and "lean" in the Bible, but it takes more than an index finger of movement to get my soul going in that direction.

This weekend I was stressed about money, and I'm just going to come out and say it. For some reason, I fan out the deep issues of my life for you to see, but money matters seem too personal to share. But don't we all deal with financial concerns every day? And Jesus talked about money a lot, so maybe I should talk about it, too.

I was awake at 3:00 in the morning running every worst case checkbook scenario I could think of. The antithesis of counting sheep. What if we get hit with a big medical expense this year? What if the furnace goes out? What if the hot water heater goes out? What if they both go out at the same time? What if gas prices skyrocket this summer? What if painting the house costs more than I budgeted?

I let my thoughts veer into the ditch of fear and hopelessness.

But that made me cranky, because I am a person of faith trying to encourage you to be people of faith. Why is it so hard to just trust the Lord with these things?

I decided it is hard. Hard work to steer our thinking.

So I put on tennis shoes, even though I didn't feel like it, and got on the treadmill. For 30 minutes I put effort into trusting the Lord. I mentally walked through some Bible verses I have memorized, and I lined up my thoughts about money with those truths from God's word. I acknowledged the greatness of God. I gave thanks. I begged for help in getting my thoughts going in a right direction.

When I stepped off the treadmill, I was joyful and calm. I was a new person.

But it wasn't an easy turn of the heart.

Three of My Go-To Verses When I Have Money Anxiety

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7 (I always replace the words "chariots" and "horses" with whatever I'm tempted to lean on at the moment, like a savings account balance.)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5 (Anxiety, fear and hopelessness are flashing signals that tell me I'm leaning the wrong direction.)

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9 (God probably has a solution to my financial concerns that is beyond my imagination.)

Money concerns are always going to be stressful and will always challenge our faith, but I figure if I can maneuver a tank of a '57 Chevy that lacks power steering, I know you and I can do the work to keep our thoughts between the lines.

Christy Fitzwater is the author of A Study of Psalm 25: Seven Actions to Take When Life Gets Hard. She is a blogger, pastor's wife and mom of two teenagers and resides in Montana. Visit christyfitzwater.com for more information about her ministry. 

Are You Worried That You're Going to Miss God's Plan?

 3/24/2015 CHRISTY FITZWATER    charisma magazine  SPIRITLED WOMAN

"I was just talking to a young woman who is feeling like she has ever so many things she wants to do for the Lord, but her life doesn't seem to be going anywhere." (StockFreeImages.com)

After stopping at my daughter and son-in-law's apartment in Bozeman, the halfway point on my way to visit my mom in Wyoming, I packed up my suitcase in the morning and pulled it over snow-covered sidewalks to my car.

Driving out of the parking lot, I took the detour around a construction site on the MSU campus.

There wasn't much constructed yet, except a cement block stairwell.

I had watched construction like this in Kalispell months before. They were building a large hotel, and I drove by it often because it is close to Target.

I have the weirdest anxiety about this stairwell thing.

Out of the middle of a barren piece of earth, the men put up these blocks, and I can see they're working on other parts of the building.

What if they don't meet up? I want to yell at them.

What if they've built that sturdy cement tower, but when they continue on with the other parts of the building and get to the joining place they realize they were six inches off in the wrong direction.

My anxiety may stem from the fact that I have never measured anything, much to my father's chagrin.

That's why we have eyeballs, I say.

If you eyeball a picture and it's a little off center, it's not that big of a deal to hammer another nail and fix it. Well, maybe another inch this way. Nothing a bucket of drywall mud can't cover up if I ever decide to move that picture.

I can't imagine being so confident in my detailed measurements that I could build one part of a building over here and another part over there and not even lose sleep that they're going to line up when they get close together.

This brings Ephesians 2:10 to mind:

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Do you see how God made this stairwell of good works out ahead of us, and then He's creating us way back over here. And the plan is that we, the created, will meet up with the good works. God is that good at what he does. That precise.

But it's easy to feel anxious like I do when I see that construction site.

What if I don't meet up with what God wants me to do?

Well, that's how lazy eyeballers think who refuse to measure, make a mess of everything and hope to cover it up later.

I was just talking to a young woman who is feeling like she has ever so many things she wants to do for the Lord, but her life doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

This is for you, sister, and for anyone else who's in the construction phase of things.

We can trust the Master Builder.

He has actually measured and planned where our lives are going.

Phew.

Christy Fitzwater is the author of A Study of Psalm 25: Seven Actions to Take When Life Gets Hard. She is a blogger, pastor's wife and mom of two teenagers and resides in Montana. Visit christyfitzwater.com for more information about her ministry.