Amy J. Bennett

I was sitting in church last Sunday morning thinking about you.  I thought about how maybe you haven’t been to church since last Easter or maybe never at all.  I wondered how you might react to hearing the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection one more time.  I wondered if you thought that’s all we talk about at church—pain and death.  I was a little sad because I thought of all the sermons I’ve listened to since last Easter.  They cover so many topics—finances, marriage, parenting.  I wish you could have heard those too.  Yes, it all starts with understanding the message of Easter, but it’s so much more.

I kept thinking about the reactions you might have to next week’s sermon.  I had a feeling it could go either way.  First, you could be bored out of your mind and all you can think about is the ham at your grandmother’s after church.  The words coming out of the pastor’s mouth will be like Charlie’s teacher. I get that. It happens to me every once in awhile. 

But then, I think there’s going to be a second group of people that will have another type of reaction.  Something will start making sense.  You’ll be drawn to what the preacher will say. But undoubtedly, I think you will have an actual physical reaction to this.  I think your fight or flight system is going to turn on. Either, you will want to reject what is said and fight it, coming up with all the reasons that you know this to be crazy, how you don’t want to be “one of them”, how you don’t want to change your life, how no one really knows this stuff to be true, how the Bible is just a history book—fraught with human error, at that.  And then some of you will have the flight syndrome.  You’ll just want out of there.  Stop talking to me, quit playing the music, quit being so dramatic, I just want to leave! 

This is normal.

Our bodies are meant to have these reactions when we fear something, when we don’t know the outcome.  Your body is trying to get you to do something to protect you.  But, listen, I’ve been sitting at church for thousands of hours of my life and I can tell you, this is the best feeling.  For me, I usually feel like my stomach is moving somewhere up in my throat and I can’t breathe.  Talking is difficult.  My heart starts beating super fast even though I’m sitting still.  I feel a pressure on my chest like an elephant is stepping on it.  Sometimes I cry. And in my experience, this is what it feels like when God is trying to talk to you.  He is literally pressuring you to answer Him.  And in my experience, you need to quit trying to fight it or run from it and say yes.

See, God isn’t trying to condemn you for who you are or what you’ve done since last Easter. I know it kind of feels like it because of the pressure and all.  But that’s not it.  What God’s really trying to say is I love you, I love you, I love you.  I love you so much I want you to feel it.  You have chosen to spend one hour to be still enough to hear about God and now he’s trying to talk to you.

The very best thing you can do in this moment is just say “yes”.  Yes, God, I’m listening and yes, God, I want you to love me.  That’s all he wants.  In fact, you’ll hear about it next Sunday.  He loves you so much He died for you.  No one else has ever done that.  And the really cool thing about God is he came back to life. Did you know YOU were not only his reason for the pain, but also his reward for going through all that pain?  All he wants is to love you and spend time with you.  He’s got big plans for you.  But he needs you paying attention to him more often so you can know what they are.

As I was sitting there in church last week, I was thinking about my youngest daughter and how when she gets a bruise, she hates to put on band-aids.  I beg her, thinking about how it needs protected so it can heal.  I think about how if it gets junk in it or scraped again, that it will get hurt even worse and the pain will last longer.  I never get why she won’t let me put a band-aid on it.  I think maybe she’s afraid it will hurt even worse.

And I’m thinking that’s the way next Sunday will be.  A lot of us have bruises in our life.  Sometimes we’ve made a mess of our lives on our own and sometimes other people have done things to us that have royally bruised us.  And sometimes, our lives sorta-kinda work ok, but we’re still not totally happy.  God has a band-aid, if you will, named Jesus that will cover our bruises.  He will heal us if we let him. But God never forces Jesus on us.  We have to let him heal us.  We have to say yes.

So, as you sit there next Sunday, I hope you are not in the first group that feels nothing.  I’m praying you are not in that group. I hope you are reminded of your bruise that needs healed.  I hope you experience some type of reaction.  And I hope you say yes.  He loves you.  He really does.

For those of you reading that are like me that have sat in hours of church since last Easter, I’m praying the same thing for us.  The cool thing about God is he loves to remind us he loves us. I hope you feel the tension too and are reminded all over again what he did for you and how he keeps covering us and healing us.  Let our yes whisper out like a thank you.

At the beginning of our “Prayer Experience” on Saturday at the Priscilla Shirer simulcast, Priscilla implored everyone to stay engaged.  Prayer time was not something to be glossed over in between worship and teaching, but it was “the thing” of the day.

She explained how they take prayer requests at each of her events. The requests tend to fall in a few broad categories.  As she introduced each one, she asked for those that felt God had given them victory in that particular area to stand.  Then, she asked for those with prayer requests in that area to raise their hands.  Those with victory were to go to those with needs and pray for them.

The first category was marriage.  If you know our story, then you know I stood up in victory through Christ.  I was able to pray for my sister’s upcoming marriage and the marriage of other women from my home church. 

She then asked for those that had found freedom from addictions—whether it be to a person or thing.  Well, if you know why our marriage was struggling, then you know I had an emotional addiction to a person. I was again able to pray for my sisters in Christ.

She then mentioned finances which hasn’t been an area where we’ve struggled with yet.  And then she asked for those that have been healed, whether physically, mentally or emotionally.  I’ve written here about the healing of my hearing as a child and also just wrote this month about the healing and freedom of my mind.

I was almost laughing as I stood up so many times—probably more than anyone there.  I giggled to my church friends, “I’m such a mess!”  One replied, “No, you’re a testimony!”

And she was right. I’m so, so, so thankful he doesn’t leave us where we are.  We should be eager to stand and give glory to God.

We were all so encouraged by what God had done for the women in the room.  We clapped and celebrated and mostly didn’t even know one single detail.

********************************

On Sunday, my dad finished a 100 mile race after 27 hours.  For real.  He was in extreme pain all over by the end and he declared it the hardest thing he’d ever done.

As I was working out at home during the beginning of his race, I was hating the mountain climbers I was being put through by the guy on the DVD.  But then I remembered my dad at the beginning of his long race.  Surely I could make it for 45 more seconds of mountain climbers.

As my dad’s race was winding down, my sister posted on Facebook, “My dad just finished running 81 miles. That makes my 30 min walk/jog sound doable this morning.”

********************************

After this weekend, I was reminded how much we need someone to stand up and say, “Hey, I’ve been there and God brought me through.”  Even if you aren’t going through something difficult, you are reminded how loving, how gracious our Father is.

I want YOU to write the rest of this post in the comments.  It would be so encouraging if everyone could comment on a category where God has really worked in your life—marriage, addiction, finances, healing, salvation, etc.  What is your story?

And, if you have a need, leave your category of need so others can pray for and encourage you.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Gal 5:1