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Six Ways to Respond to God’s Steadfast Love

Driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike can be rough, especially when you’re tired. The hills and farms all look the same, and it’s easy to get lulled to sleep by the endless pattern of signs: speed limit, exit, service plaza; speed limit, exit, service plaza.

Many of us read Psalm 136 this way. Every verse contains the refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever.” Though you may exult in this truth in verse 1, you weary of it by verse 13. Your eyes skip along to the “interesting parts,” neglecting the other half.

But there’s gold in the repetition.

Behold the Promise of God’s Love

This psalm is a masterpiece, painting God’s work through history with the brushstrokes of his love.

The psalmist begins by highlighting God’s goodness and his supreme position above other gods (vv. 1–3). The next six verses describe God’s work as Creator: He made the heavens, spread out the earth, and created the sun, moon, and stars (vv. 4–9).

Beginning in verse 10, the psalmist writes of the pivotal deliverance from Egypt. The psalm slows down, crediting God with each step along the way—the Passover, the Red Sea, and the defeat of Pharaoh (vv. 10–16).

In their journey through the wilderness, God gave his people victory over nations who opposed them. In verses 17–22, the psalmist rehearses God’s military might and his provision of land. This stanza connects God’s promise-keeping love (see God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:7 and 17:8) to his commitment to fight for his people.

The psalm closes with a summary: God remembered, rescued, and provides for his people (vv. 23–25), so we should thank him.

Sing the Refrain of God’s Love

Through all 26 verses, the refrain is the same: “For his steadfast love endures forever.” Behind God’s creative work, his saving work, his fighting work, his providing work—through all the high drama, God’s love is the explanation.

And God’s love is not reserved for the mountain tops. His steadfast love is revealed in the valley of the wilderness years (v. 16) and the mundanity of mealtimes (v. 25).

God’s steadfast love is behind and underneath everything he does. None of his characteristics or actions can be separated from his love. We can easily affirm this integration when considering the exodus or promised land, but it applies equally to God’s justice and wrath (see vv. 15, 17–20).

From top to bottom, God is love.

Grasp the Steadfastness of God’s Love

If the biblical authors highlight and underline their writing by repetition, we should pay careful attention to this refrain. It appears in each and every verse—26 times in all.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

Notice the whopping three references to time in this refrain. God’s love is steadfast. His love endures. His love endures forever.

It’s hard for finite humans to digest that word, forever. Everything we see, do, or know comes to an end. What is true for food and clothing, we also witness in our emotions. We’d like to claim that our love (for a spouse, for a parent, for a child) is steadfast, but we know better. In anger or impatience, apathy or bitterness, we withhold our love from those most dear to us.

How different God’s love is from ours! His love is steadfast, never diminishing in volume, never weakening in strength, never retreating, never tainted. Though we may feel alone or unloved, reality is different—his love endures forever.

We struggle to digest this truth; we’re prone to dismiss or forget God’s love. In times of suffering, loss, or deep sadness, we often resist with our heart what we know with our mind. Like the psalmist, we need to repeat this truth as often as possible: God’s steadfast love endures forever.

Personalize the Beauty of God’s Love

Here are two ways to internalize God’s love:

Put the psalm on repeat. Read Psalm 136 every morning and evening for a month. (Read every word, careful not to skip the repeated line!) Listen to it on your phone or tablet. Like the woodpecker, a persistent tapping in the same spot sometimes yields a breakthrough.

Write your own version of this psalm. Take up a journal, recount God’s work in your life, and end each line or paragraph the same way: “For his steadfast love endures forever.”

Consider the Cost of God’s Love

God’s love for his people reached a crescendo in the incarnation. He aimed to redeem his people, and he had to deal with their sin, once and for all. In his steadfast love, God sent his Son. For his love is a pursuing, costly love.

God demonstrated his abiding, enduring love in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. When Jesus was “made sin for us” on the cross, the Father withdrew his protective love for a time. The Father’s love for his people was manifest in wrath toward sin, and the Son was crushed for our iniquities. Jesus knew the Father’s full fury; he experienced the absence of God’s love so we would know it forever.

Give Thanks for God’s Steadfast Love

Why does the steadfast love of God matter? How does it change us?

One clear application comes out of this psalm: Give thanks. This is the only exhortation in the entire psalm, and it appears four times (vv. 1, 2, 3, 26). In fact, all of the descriptions of God, including the refrain about his love, are given as fuel for thanksgiving.

So give thanks to God for who he is. He is the Creator, Savior, Conqueror, and Provider that Israel needed then and that we need now. Thank God for all the ways his steadfast love has rung out in history and in your life. Don’t hesitate to include the routine aspects of your day; from the miraculous Red Sea crossing to God’s provision of food, everything flows from his love.

And as you give thanks to God, remind yourself and everyone around you about his love. It is steadfast, and it endures forever.

[Photo Credit: Lightstock]

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The post Six Ways to Respond to God’s Steadfast Love appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Key Connections (May 18, 2017)

Embrace the Life You Have (Vaneetha Rendall Risner, Desiring God)

So today, if you are feeling weary and disappointed about your life, allow yourself to grieve. To weep deeply.

Six Things You Need to Know About God’s Wrath (Colin Smith, Unlocking the Bible)

This theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible.

When Satan Demands to Sift You (Kristen Wetherell, iBelieve)

If you’re a believer, what the enemy wants is to fail your faith….But Jesus promises he won’t let you go.

7 Reasons the Gospel is Hard to Define (Scott Lothery, The Gospel Nourished Life)

What is the Gospel?  How would you define it?  If I said to you, “Fill in the blank.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is ______________,” what would you say?

Three great soundbites that make terrible theology (Matt Fuller, The Good Book Company)

Punchy sound bites are great…Yet most of us recognize that if we turned that sentence of great preaching into an absolute statement, then there would be a lot of Christians stumbling around without any eyes.

A Quick and Easy Way to Memorize a Scripture a Week (Mark Altrogge, The Blazing Center)

I have found that setting Scripture to music makes memorizing really easy. So I would like to begin to give you a Scripture set to music every week.

The post Key Connections (May 18, 2017) appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Four Reasons to Meet with God in Secret

“But you, when you pray, go into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6)

Almost everyone has a “special” place where they love to relax, engage in a favorite activity, or be at peace. In fact, some people, like me, have several. A scenic view from a back deck. A cozy basement. But do you have a special place to meet with God and pray? A place where you can “shut the door,” knowing that no one can bother you?

Four Reasons to Meet with God in Secret

In his teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stresses the importance of having such a place. I’ve come up with four reasons why he stresses a secret place: intentionality, privacy, intimacy, and integrity.

1. Intentionality

We go places with specific purposes in mind. When we go to work, we’re there to work. When we go to the gym, we’re there to work out. When we go to our secret place with God, we should be there to spend time with him, and for no other reason. Going to a specific place for a specific purpose produces the type of intentionality that is sorely lacking in the lives of many Christians.

2. Privacy

The word “closet” that Jesus uses in Matthew 6:6, tameion, is defined in Strong’s Greek Dictionary as a secret chamber, a place where a person may retire for privacy, or a place for storage (like a closet). All three of these concepts unmistakably emphasize that this place should be private and cut off from the comings and goings of the household. It should be a place where the world can be shut out. The reason such privacy is necessary for prayer is clear: Privacy fosters honesty, and honesty fosters relationship.

How can we pray freely and openly with God when there are others nearby, who may disturb us and listen to us pray at any moment? Having a secret meeting place with God prevents any hindrances to the unbroken communion that is essential for meaningful prayer.

3. Intimacy

Intimacy comes right on the heels of privacy. Without the safety of privacy, having any depth of relationship with another person is impossible. Even when intimate friendship or relationship is developed in a group setting, it’s because of a certain privacy that surrounds the group, allowing people to bond without the encumbering presence of outsiders. There is no intimacy without privacy.

Also, the sharing of a special, secret place is an intimate act in itself. If there is a place where you meet with one person, and with nobody else, that place becomes a hallowed sanctuary for the relationship. It becomes more than a place. The thought of sharing that place with another person for similar purposes can even seem blasphemous. Simply going to that special, secret place creates an expectation in itself. In the same way, having a special, secret place to meet with the Father creates an expectation, before we even arrive, that God is already there, eager to meet with us.

4. Integrity

In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about outward righteousness and inner righteousness. He speaks of how the Pharisees pray out loud, in public, so that people will see their piety and be impressed. Jesus says that “they already have their reward” (Matthew 6:5), meaning that praise from men is all they will receive for this action. God will not reward them.

Jesus, in contrast teaches his followers to “go into their closet” to pray, so that they will receive no praise from people. If no praise is received from people, then our reward is from the Father instead – a much better reward indeed. Praying in a secret, special place removes the “trying to impress” element from prayer and leaves us naked and open before the Father in a setting where we no longer have any motivation to pray for the wrong reasons.

Obviously, we are to pray often with others as well. Jesus taught clearly about the power of agreeing prayer. If Jesus taught us to pray alone in secret and with others in agreement, there is obviously to be a balance of both in the Christian life.

Find Your Secret Place

This teaching about having a special, secret place to be alone with God has deepened my prayer life in ways I never imagined. And it’s simple and practical! When I first grasped this teaching, I realized that the little “nook” under the stairs in the basement would make for a perfect prayer closet. It’s a hidden, cramped little space that has no other use in the house. So my wife and I used markers to write prayer requests on the walls, as well as Scripture promises pertaining to prayer. Now when I go there, it’s only to pray. And when I go there to pray, there is an expectation there when I arrive: God is already there, eager to meet with his beloved child.

Find a special, secret place to meet with God. It will add intentionality, privacy, intimacy, and integrity to your times of prayer, and you’ll find yourself looking forward to your meetings with your Father more and more.

[This article is adapted from The Psalm Project blog, January 8, 2013. Photo Credit: Lightstock]

The post Four Reasons to Meet with God in Secret appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Six Things You Need to Know About God’s Wrath

As peace is a truth widely loved, wrath is a truth widely loathed. Many in the history of the church has been embarrassed by God’s wrath and have wanted to revise this biblical truth.

Yet, this theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible. This truth is so interwoven with the hope of our peace with one another and with God that if we lose our grasp on the one, we lose our hope of the other.

Six Things You Need to Know About God’s Wrath

The wrath of God is, according to John Stott, “His steady, unrelenting, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestations.”

1. The anger of God is not like our anger.

When we speak about the wrath of God, remember that it is the wrath of God.  So everything we know about God—he is just, he is love, and he is good—needs to be poured into our understanding of his wrath.

The words “anger” and “wrath” make us think about our experience. You may have suffered because of someone who is habitually angry, loses his temper, or flies into a rage. Our anger can often be unpredictable, petty, and disproportionate.

Although these things are often true of human anger, none of them are true of the anger of God. God’s wrath is the just and measured response of his holiness toward evil.

2. God’s wrath is provoked.

The anger of God is not something that resides in him by nature; it is a response to evil. It is provoked.

The Bible says, “God is love.” That is his nature. God’s love is not provoked. He does not love us because he sees some wisdom, beauty, or goodness in us. He loves you because he loves you, and you can never get beyond that (Deuteronomy 7:7).

But God’s wrath is different, his holy response to the intrusion of evil into his world. If there was no sin in the world, there would be no wrath in God. So the Bible’s teaching about the wrath of God is different from ancient mythologies, gods who run around frustrated and fuming. God’s anger is his settled resolve that evil will not stand.

3. God is slow to anger.

Why does God allow evil to continue in the world? Why does he not wipe it out?

God holds out the offer of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9). People are coming to him in faith and repentance every day, and God patiently holds open the door of grace. The day of God’s wrath will come, but God is not in a hurry to bring it because then the door of grace will be closed.

4. God’s wrath is revealed now.

How does God reveal his wrath when sinners suppress the truth about him, exchange the truth for a lie, and worship created things rather than the Creator? God gives them up (Romans 1):

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (1:24).
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (1:26).
God gave them up to a debased mind (1:28).

One writer states, “Paul is not teaching that one day God will punish Roman civilization for its vice and decadence. On the contrary, the vice and decadence are themselves God’s punishment…Their punishment was their greed, envy, strife, deceit, violence and faithlessness.” When we see the moral fabric of our culture being torn, then as Christian believers we should cry to God for mercy.

5. God’s wrath is stored up.

The whole Bible story leads to a day when God will deal with all evil fully, finally, and forever. This will be the day of wrath, when God will recompense every evil and bring to judgment every sin.

God will do this in perfect justice. The punishment for every sin will match the crime. When the judgment is done, every mouth will be stopped because everyone will know that God judged in righteousness and justice. Then God will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, which will be the home of righteousness.

6. God’s wrath is on sinners.

In John 3:36, he does not say, “The wrath of God will come on [the disobedient].” He says, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” It is already there. Why is it already there? By nature, we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). It is the state in which we were born.

What, at the end of the day, is the greatest human problem? It is not that we are lost and need to find our way on a spiritual journey. It is not that we are wounded and need to be healed. At the core of the human problem is that we are sinners under the judgment of God, and the divine wrath hangs over us unless and until it is taken away.

How God’s Wrath Is Removed

The Bible speaks about God’s wrath being poured out at the cross: “I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you” (Ezekiel 7:8). This takes us to the heart of what happened there: The divine wrath toward sin was poured out on Jesus. He became the “propitiation” for our sins (Romans 3:25), which means that the payment for our sins was poured out on Jesus at Calvary.

Don’t ever get the idea that God loves you because Christ died for you. No, it’s the other way round. Christ died for you because God loved you! He loved you even when you were the object of his wrath! God so loved the objects of his wrath that he spent the wrath on himself at the cross.

The outpouring of God’s wrath was the greatest act of love this world has ever seen.

The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus.
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The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus. Sin was laid on Jesus and the Divine wrath toward it was poured out, spent, and exhausted in the darkness of Calvary. And when it was done, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished!” The wrath of God that will one day be poured out on all sin was spent at the cross with regard to all who are in him.

Then Christ rose from the dead, and he stands before you today, a living Savior! He offers to you the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and fill you with his Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and he is able to bring you in.

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 171, InterVarsity Press, 2006.  Donald Macleod, The Wrath, Present and To Come, The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, p. 239, Nov. 1986.

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The post Six Things You Need to Know About God’s Wrath appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Four Things That Happen When You Don’t Read Your Bible

The longest psalm, Psalm 119, is a masterpiece, and the subject of its artistry is God’s holy Word, the Bible.

The Word of the Lord is like a tall tower—no part stands alone. All the prophets, all the books of wisdom, every book of the New Testament, and all the words of Jesus stand firmly on and within the very first scriptures. So Jesus is found even in the revelations before his incarnation because God is a master story-teller; he has been giving us insights into his plan from the beginning.

Therefore, Psalm 119 applies not only to those scriptures available at the time of writing, but to all God-breathed scriptures, and gives insights into the benefits of living with and in God’s Word. By looking at the benefits, we can also infer the detriments of neglecting it.

So what happens when you don’t read your Bible?

Your Sin Is Distorted

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!  Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! (Psalm 119:1-3)

Those who walk the narrow path of God’s law are counted blameless in his sight. While this is impossible for sinful humans, the whole of Scripture—law, history, prophets, etc.—looks to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. We are counted blameless forever because of Christ’s work.

Exposure to Scripture increases our joy in Scripture.
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We aren’t perfected; perfection is something awaiting us in heaven. Rather, our blamelessness means our sin is not counted against us. Christ took responsibility for our rebellion, absorbing our iniquities, and God’s wrath at our sin was poured out and spent on Jesus.

When we do not spend time with God’s Word, our comprehension of the scope of Jesus’s work is stunted. We are not given daily, fresh insight into how much we owe him, how great his gift is. Our love for him grows slowly and pitifully apart from daily nourishment at his scriptures, which remind us of our state without Jesus and with him.

If you want your love of Jesus to be small, your comprehension of his grace to be insufficient, and your guilt for your sin to feel either heavy or nonexistent, neglect the scriptures.

Your Hope Is Diluted

My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! (Psalm 119: 28)

A primary way God chooses to impart strength is through the testimony of Scripture. Through his Word, we see his character, his work, his faithfulness, his justice, his promise, and his love. These give us strength in suffering because they remind us of the truth—that we are being made into the likeness of our greatest love, Jesus, and are being prepared to live with him in glory. This doesn’t mean we won’t have heartache and setbacks on earth, but that we have an unshakable hope to get us through those times.

Without the regular infusion of hope from the Bible, we will more easily fall into despair. Feelings of hopelessness will grow instead of security in the promises of God. If you want to be tossed around by every struggle, succumb to every sorrow, and be overwhelmed by the pain of the world, neglect the scriptures.

Your Service Is Deflated

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! (Psalm 119:32)

The Lord energizes us for his work through his Word. Consistency in our Bibles helps us run with the work he has given us. It helps us put aside what entangles us and serve God more effectively and efficiently. Scripture increases all our holy capacities for the glory of Jesus.

Without the nourishment of Scripture, we easily lose steam. We become spiritually winded and require more rest, more time away from the active pursuit of Jesus’ earthly work. We will be slow and plodding, lacking energy and will.

If you would move with God at a crawl, carry unnecessary burdens, and run low on energy and enthusiasm, neglect the scriptures.

Your Love Is Deadened

In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. (Psalm 119: 14)

Exposure to Scripture increases our joy in Scripture. Sin fights to keep us from God and his Word; the corruption of the world and the flesh are why so many Christians struggle with regular time in the God’s Word.

However, familiarity with the love-filled, hope-giving message of God breeds greater joy from the Bible and a greater desire to spend time in it. Even the parts of the Bible we don’t grasp ultimately increase our joy, because they increase our trust—we may not grasp what is happening, but we know that God does, and that he’s working for his glory and the good of those who love him.

The Bible tells us God’s character: He loves his creation and hates sin; he will justly punish those who persist in doing evil; he is pleased to save those who humbly seek him; he is creating a holy people for himself out of those who were once angry, violent rebels. Just as lovers take joy in learning of each other, we also take joy in learning of our Lord, and we take joy in the medium by which he tells us of himself, the Holy Bible.

If you want to know less of God, have less joy and greater struggle in reading through the Bible, neglect the scriptures.

We Need the Bible

Just as our body weakens when we go without food, so our soul faints when we go without God’s Word. Neglecting regular time with Scripture increases our struggle in battling sin, in finding comfort and strength in God, in serving Jesus, and in loving God’s Word. Pursuing regular time with Scripture grants us greater knowledge of our Creator and brings us into a more intimate relationship with our King and Deliverer, Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all joy and peace.

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Ten Biblical Reasons to Memorize Scripture
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The post Four Things That Happen When You Don’t Read Your Bible appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

An Open Letter to My Daughter on Mother’s Day

To my youngest daughter, for Mother’s Day,

Have I ever told you that I consider Mother’s Day a celebration of you more than me? When your older sister was made for heaven, and not for earth—taken there, graciously, before she was even born—I knew how dear to me were all the children God would see fit to give. I knew that it is a child who makes a mom.

My mother’s day is a celebration of you and her, probably more than it is a celebration of me. And this open letter is to you, my daughter on earth—supremely, to celebrate grace. Our lives have become meddled and interconnected (meaning, you’re stuck with me). You’ve come into me, even after being born from me, to the extent that my theology has been improved by way of you, my God-image-bearing daughter.

Children make a mom in more ways than one.

You don’t remember being born, but I do—the moment you cried, alive, and were placed on me. How I wanted to sweep you up and swell your life with everything good; how fragile and resilient you were in one—facing this new place with high-pitched triumph, but all in need.

I knew that you were a sinner by nature—though not yet by choice and, in that limited sense, pure. I yearned to have no responsibility for influentially introducing you toward sin—and I still do. Before you were born, I was far into the mindset of being cautious with what I watched on TV, but you admitted me into this new, more brilliantly holy sense of God’s purity. I still see dimly; this I know. But those precious, new-to-the-world ears receiving blares of commercials’ gratuitous gunshots and screams, senselessly foul language, slanderous shouts, and far-less-than-holy conduct—even once—it couldn’t be. You and that couldn’t rightly co-exist. So how could I? I’ve become more careful than careful with what I watch. Your newborn-ness pealed away another layer, to better purity. Thank you.

Let’s move forward in time, because you’ve grown a bit now, and I need to cover two years in one letter; that’s how old you are soon—two. As I type, you’re playing rapid keys on the piano and will soon discover the puzzles that I set out—I’m fairly sure. But you don’t understand yet what I see laid into you. It has been swift that this woeful knowledge of evil bubbled to the top; the Bible tell us it’s always been there. To you, to your person, this knowledge is an ornery enemy, a dense shadow. I see that it’s too heavy for you! That you can’t shake it off yourself—that I can’t either. That it means you need my help and compassion, as co-sojourners. That I want to afford to you all possible holiness; however can I?

Jesus, only Jesus, can make you (and me) better.

For how long have I seen the great compassion in God’s command—don’t eat from that tree? I certainly do now. It won’t go well if you do. You won’t have Me in the same way—that is, until the sacrificing, serpent-crushing, righteousness-depositing Savior comes, and then, by grace, we can have him better. God wanted all for us, and we as mankind grimace—without his aid—that he gave that command at all. That he set us up—that he could have done better by us, we think.

No, he wanted to hold us back from the mass of it. And now, since that heavy knowledge crushed us back to dust, he came to be crushed.

Daughter, friend, I give you the same speech over and over. Don’t obey mom because she’s perfect, but because it’s what God wants to work into our hearts; as it’s too hard for you, ask Jesus to help you. Yes, God has instructed you to obey me, but it’s not for me—we sponsor exactly no showdowns in this family of the wills against each other. Know this—I seek to point to what’s best and what’s most glorious, for you.

My aim is to serve as a transparent facilitator through whom you can see to God. By through, I mean through—like, I pray with all my might and usually without being able to find words—as straight through as possible. He’s better—look up. Look to him for his penal substitutionary atonement so that you can trust as you surrender your life to his ways and see yourself reborn in him; he’s good. But you’re only almost-two. And we’re still laying theological groundwork.

We’re all babies in God—you and me, and everyone you know or will know; the apostle Paul speaks about becoming mature in Christ—but it’s all relative to the grace and sight we can have here. When I look at you, I see me all along the way—I cannot right now imagine his presence or glory any more than I think you can comprehend penal substitution. (Thank goodness I have been here about 28 more years than you and can manage to afford you more than what you have.) We’re fragile in sin, daughter—but while we were weak, that’s when he did for sinners what he did.

I am afraid this Mother’s Day letter had to take a rather un-celebratory route; but here it is—the triumph. Celebrate this: the God who said that when sinners were sinning, he longed to be a “mother” to them. Grace upon grace—Mother’s Day is all about grace upon grace, as I conceive of it.

Every smile of yours—especially the running, lifting, twirling, no-one-else-around-in-the-world ones—a sample of the grace of God. But your cries too—oh, how much God wants to give us, how pleased he is to do so. And when the knowledge of evil seems especially hard for you—that curtain he tore in two, the glory-light he made to shine through it, and the eternal levity from sin he gives. I didn’t deserve you, but he gave me you; you’re simply a joy, and he’s making me with you. Run to him.

Happiest of Mother’s Days to you—you and your sister have made mine, by his grace.

[Photo Credit: Lianna Davis]

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The post An Open Letter to My Daughter on Mother’s Day appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Key Connections (May 11, 2017)

To the childless on Mother’s Day (Chelsea Patterson, The ERLC)

As a childless woman, Mother’s Day can be a painful reminder of what I don’t have, and what I long for.

Seven Things Church Members Should Say to Guests (Thom S. Rainer, LifeWay Pastors)

Today, I am looking at a very basic barrier: lack of friendliness to church guests.

Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer? (Sarah Walton, Unlocking the Bible)

Although I’m encouraged to see God at work in a way that brings him glory and relieves someone’s pain, I’m tempted to wonder, Why not me?

Ten Questions Christians Should Ask of Their Entertainment (Kevin Halloran, Anchored in Christ)

We need to understand the complex and often subtle effects of media on our lives.

Bible Reading Is an Art (David Mathis, Desiring God)

When your Bible reading seems unremarkable, or when it seems like you don’t have the skills or knowledge to grasp all of what’s there, remember that God’s work always runs deeper than we can see.

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What Does It Mean to Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

Hunger and thirst are frequent human urges. It’s immensely satisfying to eat a meal when starving or to drink of water when parched. Hunger is often used to convey a consuming desire, like a young and inexperienced sports team hungry for a win, or an individual who, after a string of failures, is hungry for success.

The Bible often uses hunger and thirst to exemplify powerful desires:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!…Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)

Jesus used these references in the Sermon on the Mount to communicate a blessed appetite for a particular pursuit: righteousness.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

More Than Morality?

Yet, the idea of righteousness being an intense desire raises questions. This is much different than how we usually think of it. The definition of righteous in modern times is,

Characterized by uprightness or morality
Morally right or justifiable
Acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous

A life pursuing these qualities, without the proper motivation, sounds a little more Pharisaical than is comfortable. Upright, moral behavior is only righteous if it comes from a righteous heart, which is what Jesus regularly taught the Pharisees and anyone else who would listen.

But the biblical definition of righteous is more nuanced than the dictionary’s interpretation: Righteousness is more than observing the law and far deeper than checking commandments off your list of “right things to do.” So what exactly is righteousness?

Righteousness Is Imputed

Christians know that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that when by faith we receive Jesus’s sacrificial death and resurrection nothing that we do or don’t do can change our status with God. This is the gospel, the very good news that Christians share with the world. 

Furthermore, we’re told in Romans 1:17 that righteousness is achieved by faith alone: “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.'” 

That means that Jesus offers us his righteousness, like putting a beautiful coat over our sin. Through faith, God sees us in Jesus’ righteous coat and not in our old, ratty, sinful attire. It all happens by faith alone, which still amazes me. It is the gospel truth that Jesus’ perfect life is available to all those who realize they need it.

Colin Smith writes this of righteousness in Momentum:

People who come to Christ in penitent faith realize that they don’t have what it takes before God. That is why we come, and when we do, we receive the marvelous gift of Christ’s perfect righteousness, draped over us and counted by God as if it were our own…The righteousness of Christ is a gift to be treasured, not a virtue to be sought.

So why hunger and thirst for righteousness if we already have it by faith? How can we hunger for something we’ve already been given?

Righteousness Is Pursued

This is a major challenge of the Christian life. We are saved by faith alone, yet we are called to grow, to mature, to live a more upright, more righteous, life. We want to live a life that is attractive to those who don’t know they need the astounding truth of the gospel. We also live with the constant tension of the sinful world and our sinful desires dragging us away from true righteousness.

I can be starving for righteousness, follow Jesus’ lead, and feel immensely satisfied, but then a few hours later, say around dinner time, I might be earnestly desiring…dinner. My hunger for righteousness apparently comes and goes, and sometimes my hunger for worldly things takes over. It’s frustrating.

Colin Smith, again from Momentum, speaks to this:

The difference between the righteousness that Christ gives us and the righteousness to which He calls us is important to grasp…to all who are in Christ, God gives His Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts and creates within us a new and deep desire to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. Christ’s people hunger and thirst for righteousness, because while we know that we are forgiven and accepted before God on the basis of all that Christ is and all that He has done, we also know how far we are from all that Christ calls us to be. (Emphasis mine)

Empowered Righteousness

There is tension in the knowledge that we are righteous by faith in God’s eyes, but that we do not live a completely upright life. One day, when Jesus comes again, he will close the gap between his righteousness and our unrighteous lives. Until then, we exist in the guarantee that we are righteous in God’s eyes and that his Holy Spirit dwells in us, empowering us to pursue righteousness, by the strength he provides.

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