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Invisible God I can remember being asked as a child what superpower I would most want to have. Without hesitation, I answered, “The power to be invisible!” The thought of being invisible was intriguing. I mean, the list of things you could get away with is endless. In a world where we struggle to be seen and recognized, it’s humorous that I thought being invisible was a great superpower. The greater irony is that the hardest thing to embrace about belief in God is that He actually is invisible. The author of Hebrews says that our faith is hope for what our eyes have not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). Spirituality in Christ is based on belief without sight. We have sunk our hope in a story about a God whom we have never seen. It is amazing to think about the sheer power of this because, as believers, we are saying our faith acts like a super invisible power! Several years ago, I traveled to sing in a small Methodist church just outside of Boston. I was stunned to find that their worship leader was blind! She had such a profound joy and was a deep well of faith. While we were walking into the sanctuary, my handbag tipped over, and some change fell onto the floor. Without hesitation, she said, “Rita, you seemed to have lost a quarter, a dime and two nickels!” I looked down and, sure enough, that exact change had fallen out of my purse! Her precision astonished me. Her experience with blindness had sharpened her hearing so that she would know the exact sound each coin made as it hit the ground. Her world had no physical imagery, but her hearing let her know what was real. When we look for an image of God in our minds, we can probably conjure up pictures we have seen. As we set out to know God, we connect with the invisible and put shape to it with our faith. If you struggle with God not being present because your eyes cannot see Him, be encouraged. Trust your faith and tune your ears to hear what you cannot see. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6yaWPmnu8XZDfgS61N8RaeVxCBIRR3ZY17wPw0/?igshid=1ihbpbd5lzxmw

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at Buckeye, Arizona https://www.instagram.com/p/B6yZIhqHALxER2_VSU77TeNvZ1Vy0QtrSuiM140/?igshid=nqo85jedq47w

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Carried Away “You’re the only one that calls something broken beautiful, you’re the only one who calls something cripple, healed! You’re the only one who leaves ninety-nine to find one lost, and carry me on your shoulders home.” For about seven years of my childhood, I lived on a 300-acre ranch in the Leona Valley mountains of Southern California. My father had met the owner of an old horse training facility, complete with acreage, barns, fields, and a broken-down, old redwood home. We took care of the property in exchange for a place to live. We were extremely poor, and we even had to pump water up into the house from the front field, which lay miles away. I grew up with five siblings, and our poverty was overshadowed by 300 acres of mountains and dirt in which to play make-believe. One day, at about six years old, I was roughhousing with my siblings. I fell on a fence post in one of the fields, and a massive sliver of wood drove itself into the base of my right palm. My parents knew a couple who were visiting, and the husband came running toward the field when he heard my cries for help. He lifted me into his arms and ran all the way up the mountain to our house. It is odd how clearly I remember the details of him picking me up and rushing me to safety. I remember my vulnerability and how it truly felt like a rescue. I love the Scripture’s image of the lost lamb found by the shepherd: “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off” (Matthew 18:12–13). How easy is it for us to wander in our thoughts or convictions? We all have seasons of spiritual clumsiness, and we fall into places of pain that distract and detour us. As our Shepherd, God is aware of when we misplace ourselves and need Him to redirect us. He comes running. It’s not always comfortable when He finds us. Our pride can cause us to hide even though we are aware that we need attention and help. If you need Him to carry you to safety, tell your hear https://www.instagram.com/p/B5kh4jvnCU7ZkKvoWH__o9ZXZVvA0MS_DcyrM40/?igshid=181wn5r2ahtsz

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Defender  Feeling undefended in the middle of personal crisis can make for a tough season. When our faith is stretched beyond what we think is even possible, feeling that someone has our back is a gift. I have found myself in that place many times. I remember once feeling caught off guard as I labored over why I felt so unprotected in a situation that was not my fault. The Lord spoke very clearly to me and told me that I had been too offended by the situation and my offense held off His defense. I remember feeling stunned by that truth and reflected on its accuracy in that situation. My hurt had created an offense, which had become the reason I could not feel God defending me. I love Psalm 18 because the entire song is about God coming to our rescue! David cried out for the defending action of God, but he began the psalm by describing the Lord’s power. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer” (Psalm 18:2 NKJV). I love that this psalm begins with establishing who God is. I know that it is a practice of faith to settle into a knowing that God has my back. There are daily struggles that only God can fight. Yet, in how many of them do we not allow Him to be our defender because we have grown offended? He establishes Himself as a rock, a fortress. I also love that it says, “From his temple he heard my voice, my cry came before him, into his ears” (Psalm 18:6 NIV). When we struggle to feel heard by God, this psalm clearly encourages us to know that even from a faraway places, our cries reach God’s ears. Then David says, “He parted the heavens and came down…” (Psalm 18:9 NIV). The defense of God operates as a verb. It will always require movement and action. He hears. He comes. He shoots arrows at our enemy and scatters our foes. I realized that my own offense toward my accusers hindered God from being able to bring about Psalm 18 in my situation. I accused God of not using His power to defend me. I had to resubmit the issue and lay down my sword. We cannot escape circumstances, but we can embrace certainty and dare it to raise the bar of our faith. David sums up God’s defense of us: “He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves m https://www.instagram.com/p/B5ifEH7nF141QzDCDB-r5IclMyQo6F6x8QdqBc0/?igshid=1pxb2funp0dt7

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Never Lost  The saying goes, “You win some, and you lose some.” Life is like this, or at least it can feel that way. Life is a wave that rolls in and then back out. When we find ourselves in the middle of tough circumstances, we hope for better outcomes but struggle sometimes with what God allows. We want God to wear a wristwatch that we set with alarms that go off to prompt God on when to show up on the scene and save the day. I wonder if we believe today what God spoke over King Jehoshaphat’s fight in 2 Chronicles 20. When all of Judah came together to fight against the Moabites, God told them that they were not to fear because it was not their fight. God assured them that He was with them. Can we believe that God has never lost a fight? Can we trust that if God is for us, no one can stand against us? Can we see cancer take a life but still stand on Christ winning over death and stealing its sting? There is not a fight that Jesus has not won. Jesus overcame so that we would not feel overwhelmed. It is sheer choice to see the truth as truth, even if it does not come in the package we want. I have decided to stand in the face of circumstance and believe wholeheartedly that Jesus has broken the curse and that He has never lost a battle and never intends to. We may not live in Old Testament times. Our fight today is more internal and spiritual. Paul asks us to put on protective armor and gear up for facing the hard stuff (Ephesians 6). Our struggles may not be fought on actual battlefields, but what we war against is greater. The apostle Paul says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV). Whatever you fear, whatever your struggle, if you know Jesus, you know the one who never loses. He is about to show you how He wins a fight. Declare over your circumstances today that your God, Jehovah, has never lost a battle. He is for you, and you need to just let Him show off His strength. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5gI_DWHUWoHRFf8k8Da1yArFXLGZNnS3bX7hY0/?igshid=vahfxjjdsuls

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The Everywhere God As a child, the concept that God was everywhere seemed magical. I used to think He was like the Invisible Man. I longed even then to see Him, hear Him, and to be seen and heard by Him in return. Christ was given the name Immanuel, which means “God with us.” Twelve years ago, I adopted a baby boy whose Zimbabwean birth mother gave him a Shona name that means the very same thing. That name holds great value and reminds our household that no matter what, God is with us. In Matthew, God told Joseph an incredible story in a dream that seems unbelievable (Matthew 1:23 NIV). Think for a moment about how the validity of that dream could have been questioned more than any other dream. God told Joseph something outrageous and gave him a name that described the child in Mary’s womb. He woke up to simply obey and believe. I talk to many people who question God being with them. How can God be everywhere and right here all at the same time? I hear others speak about a circumstance and wonder, “Where was God?” When Immanuel came, He never left. The where is God is the right here is God.  When I wrote the song, “Our God Is With Us,” I remember receiving that chorus first and just singing it over and over. “Our God is with us, our God is with us, He will never leave.” God knows our weakness in believing that He can be everywhere all at once. God knew what Joseph needed to get through what was about to happen, and God knows what you need. When God has a plan, nothing can stop it except your doubt in His nearness. If tonight you were given a dream of completing a task that seemed impossible, yet God told you that Immanuel would be with you the whole way, would you wake up to obey or would you run in doubt? The lyrics to the bridge of the song say, “He is for us, no one can stop what he’s doing. He is with us; we will see all that he’s promised.” Mary and Joseph didn’t fear because they were promised Immanuel. God was with them in the form of Jesus. Jesus is still with us. My prayer is that you stop doubting and just believe it. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5K0Xbxnw2EFXPkjFKYV79MSIBcUjr87vWCEk00/?igshid=lq15v5m3jytp

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Battles and Front Lines In military terms, being on the front lines indicates that you are in the position closest to the area of conflict. For many, life can feel like a constant frontline experience. The Bible contains many supporting words about facing trials. In fact, no verse in the Bible exempts us, as believers, from them. The word battle creates imagery in our minds of a struggle for something or a fight against an opposing force. Ironically, we rarely hear the word battle and think automatically of the word victory. In my frontline experiences, I began to realize that my focus was much more on the fight than on resting in the promised victory. The Word of God promises me that even when there are wars and rumors of wars, I am already able to declare victory merely by my faith in Christ. It is not, however, in our human nature to think peace first and fear second. We usually fear first and fight for peace later. God has set us up to do the opposite—we should never fear but instead always be at peace. Only when we have peace can we feel victorious. When God spoke to me about recording again, I wanted to write songs that felt victorious, even though the conflict had not yet been resolved. I wanted to take that word battles and the feeling of being in a frontline conflict and infuse them with melodies of joy and the certainty of the win, regardless of an outcome. James says, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors” (James 1:2 The Message) I truly believe this is what Scripture means when it asks us to consider joy when walking through trials. The pressures we face become the picture of the faith we carry. We count trials as joyful, not because the trials make us feel that way, but because our God has already given us power to defeat them. This faith shows us off to God, telling Him that we believe He will be our follow-through! The outcome may look bleak in the natural, but the soul is shouting that it’s winning, even in the middle of the fight. How powerful is this truth!—to be willing, to be ready, to be able https://www.instagram.com/p/B5IQVMSHSMZBSoZKVoLAIINu6xkFtiL6-rduEQ0/?igshid=8inoz077g6zb

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Every couple can experience passion in their relationship for the rest of their lives. It isn’t for a lucky few. It isn’t for those who marry their perfect “soul mates.” It is for every couple that is willing to do what I’m about to explain. Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 6:19–21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus’ words contain the absolute secret of passion in any relationship. He was telling His disciples to invest their lives in the things of God and not to focus on the things of this world. And He concluded with a powerful sentence: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. To understand the importance of that statement, let me help you understand the meaning of two words Jesus used in the original language. In the Greek language that the New Testament was written in, the word for treasure is thesauros. It means treasure or wealth. But it also means a treasury, or the place where we deposit our wealth. The second important word in Jesus’ statement is heart. It is the Greek word kardia. It means the seat of our emotions and passions. Here is a paraphrase of Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:21: Wherever you are depositing the treasures of your life, your passion will be there also. Jesus knew if His disciples were investing their lives in worldly things, they would lose their focus and passion for Him. So He wisely exhorted them to lay up their treasures in heaven. He did this because He knew an important truth: You cannot separate your treasures from your passions. In other words, you will always be most passionate about the people, pursuits, and places where you are investing the best of your life. Your passions will always follow the investments of your time, energy, and strengths. https://www.instagram.com/p/B42TdwCn9UdgmoAT133NZgeTE_H4db7a-Tqfp40/?igshid=x6gors01qbtt

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