Legacy of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6OcIaa5jo

Your Nature ~ The Belonging Co. Featuring Kari Jobe

 

Then he said to them, “… Stay here and keep watch with me.” ~ Matthew 26:38 NIV

 

I have been thinking a lot, lately, about the legacy of my grandfather, Lyle Hayes. Most people wouldn’t recognize his name. While most of his grandchildren—and possibly even great-grandchildren—remember him as a quiet, gentle man who loved to sneak his sweets, (and then share them with us), I also know another side of him.

 

As an adult, my grandpa told me that he prayed for me every day, just as he prayed for all his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Most of the time I thanked him but didn’t really think about it. But in later years, after seeing some of the fruit of his labor—at least 3 relationships restored, physical health restored, mental and emotional health restored, strong marriages, jobs found, etc.—I was in awe of his labor of love.

 

I don’t know when he started praying for his family. I never thought to ask. Regardless, the power that one man’s prayers had in so many lives was more than he could imagine. Whether he prayed at church or home, I know he knew that Jesus was praying with him.

 

In Matthew 26:36-46, Jesus takes the disciples with Him to Gethsemane and asks them to keep watch with Him, (v. 38). Later, Jesus told them to, “Watch and pray,” (v. 41). According to Bible commentator David Guzik, Jesus told them to watch and pray, because they needed to combine spiritual power with their physical action to be effective, (Blueletterbible.org). Guzik also suggested that many spiritual battles are fought and won long before we see the crisis.

 

Looking back at his life, my grandpa was always a fighter. Physically, he fought as a bombardier in World War II, serving and protecting his country and family. Through his prayers—a soldier for Christ—he has fought and won many spiritual battles on behalf of his loved ones. I’m proud of his service in the military. I am forever thankful for the decades he fought as a soldier for Christ.

 

Jesus calls us all to keep watch with Him, to watch and pray. Though we don’t know the battles up ahead, we’d like to have the victory even before the crisis arrives. Today, I implore you, do not leave to chance the protection of your family. Keep watch with Jesus, watch and pray!

©Heather Potts 2022

Quickened by Jesus

What am I supposed to do once she’s gone?

It hurt my heart when Savannah asked that of her friend whose family is moving away next week. This will be the second significant loss of a friend within her lifetime. Four years ago, at the end of this month, we moved from Florida to Wisconsin, leaving many friends behind. Now, one of Savannah’s closest friends is moving away. What do you say?

I’m grateful Savannah easily accepted my help last night, because it was only two days ago that she was sobbing. Just like Savannah, I believe we’ve all asked the question, “What am I supposed to do now?” as our lives change. Change is hard enough when it’s something we want or choose, but when it’s happening to us, not of our choosing… It can be so hard.

If I had not found encouragement in your law, I would have died in my sorrow. ~ Psalm 119:92 NET

Psalm 119:92 is an expression of deep gratitude, the kind that is born out of a trial and a close-knit relationship with Jesus. Based on the surrounding text, the author wrote it while still in the midst of a trial, and not after it. Have you ever felt pain so piercing, you truly believed your heart would shatter if one more thing bumped into it? How do you survive that? Not by isolating or trying to fix it on your own, but by running to the One who can heal and help you. 

I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me. ~ Psalm 119:93 KJV

“Thou hast quickened me.” Though written in Early Modern English,  it captures the beauty and sentiment expressed by the psalmist. Just as a broken heart is not given a bandaid, a life in distress needs a quickening spirit, found only in Jesus, (1 Corinthians 15:45). The quickening, referred to in Psalm 119, is a reviving “from discouragement of the spirit; from faintness; from death,” (blueletterbible.org). In the middle of a trial, life can feel like it’s getting harder before it gets better. Part of that may be the dross dripping off as Jesus watches closeby, waiting for the precise moment that He’ll pull you out, as pure gold.

I pray that when life gets hard, we will have the same close-knit relationship with Jesus as this psalmist, whose life and spirit were revived and brought to life out of a pit of deep sorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhoEktYO5w8 ~ Rest, Kari Jobe

©Heather Potts 2021