Colin S. Smith's Blog, page 88

Is the Word of God a Quick Fix?

When you come to God’s Word, are you looking for a “quick fix”?

I was struck by the following quotation, as I read through one of Pastor Colin’s sermons from the radio series “The Anatomy of Faith”:

God may be saying to you, “Instead of looking for a quick fix to the problems in your life, you need to establish a regular pattern of receiving my Word with faith, so that it will bear long-term fruit that you have not been bearing in years.” You never know what God is going to say to you, but you know He is going to say it through His Word. (Colin Smith)

This statement is striking because it pegs our human tendency to view God’s Word as a “quick fix.” I’ll bet that I’m not alone in wanting to hear God speak truth into my heart. But I’ll also bet that many of us tend to be drawn to Scripture thinking we need an instant solution for our troubles, rather than nourishing, consistent sustenance for our souls.

In effect, the Word of God becomes a means to an end and – I’ll admit it – it’s usually a selfish end! Deliver me from circumstantial trouble. Show me the next step I should take in my own carefully crafted plans. Make sense for me of this enigmatic reality that makes up God’s sovereignty.

God’s Word can easily become information for our brains, rather than nourishment for our souls.
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God’s Word can easily become information for our brains, rather than nourishment for our souls. Instead of genuinely loving and craving the Word, we can use the Word for selfish gain, hoping that it will give us a way out of worldly troubles and suffering. Scripture becomes a “quick fix.”

So how can we learn to love God’s Word increasingly more every day? How can we avoid looking to Scripture as a mere “quick fix”? I think there are three key points in Pastor Colin’s statement above that will help us see how we can—only by God’s grace—grow in loving the Word:

Establish a Regular Pattern

Make God’s Word a necessary part of your day. You must be intentional about making a pattern of reading God’s Word. Know yourself by examining your schedule and your habits; everyone is different in this regard. Then, carve out intentional time to read the Word of God, whether it be early morning, on your lunch break, or before bed in the evening. I find that reading the Word first thing in the morning is best for me, because I personally have the most energy and focus in the morning. Get creative, but establish an intentional pattern here.

Also hear the Word preached on Sunday mornings as a weekly pattern by sitting under the teaching of a pastor who also loves God’s Word. Just as an athlete would make a pattern of training for a race, so God’s people should establish a regular pattern of hearing the Word of God. By committing to your church each week, you will begin to love hearing the Scriptures preached because God delights to faithfully speak and work through his Body of believers.

Receive the Word with Faith

As you establish a pattern for hearing the Word, pray that the Lord Jesus would soften your heart to receive it with faith. It is possible, even while consistently approaching the Word, to do so with a hardened heart. I see this within myself on mornings when I’ve already got a “plan” by 6:30am. I stubbornly rush through the Word, lacking the time or intention to meditate on it. And in doing so, I harden my heart to what God might teach me. I do not receive the Word with faith.

You and I need the help of the Holy Spirit to take God at his Word. Pray, “Father, I want to value your Word and receive it by faith. Help me. Soften my heart to receive.” Rest assured, he will pour out grace and mercy to give you a heart of humility! He will help you to receive the Word with faith.

Praise God for Good Fruit

It is a wonderful thing when God’s people hear the Word, receive it with faith, and then bear much fruit as a result. Hear me say this: Good fruit produced in the lives of Christian believers does not save them. But good fruit is evidence that they have been saved! Pray that the Lord Jesus would bear the fruit of the Spirit in you, as you receive the Word by faith.

Brothers and sisters, may we never see God’s Word as our “quick fix”! Rather, my prayer is that we would love the Word of God increasingly more each day, hungering for it like the Psalmists did, when they wrote, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). Note the delighted anticipation in their prayer; what a wonderful love for the Word!

Friend, look to the Lord Jesus for help today in loving His Word. Be sustained by his life through receiving the Word consistently with faith. Then praise him for bearing good fruit in your life!

[Photo Credit: Lightstock]

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The post Is the Word of God a Quick Fix? appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

A Roadmap for Prayer

When I pray, I’m less distracted if I have a course to follow.

There are several prayer plans out there. Such an aid is easy to remember and follow under various circumstances and pressures. Having a roadmap for your prayer time can help redirect misguided prayers and focus meandering prayers.

I most often use a well-known prayer guide that goes by the acronym ACTS.

This prayer aid helps remind me of my priorities in prayer. Even if I have only a moment to pray, and even if I’m pursuing a specific request or concern, praying through the ACTS roadmap helps me focus on God’s will and not my own desires.

ACTS stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Let’s go over each one.

Adoration

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. (Psalm 29:2)

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he started like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). He expresses love in addressing God as Father and respect for him as the Ruler of heaven. He recalls God’s majesty and magnificence by speaking the truth that our Father is holy and perfect. Jesus begins prayer with adoration: praising and worshipping the Father for who he is.

Through adoration we express our love, awe, respect, and even reverent fear, of God. We declare his power, holiness, and eminence. We praise his justice, grace, mercy, sovereignty, righteous anger, and unceasing love. We sit in wonder at his unsearchable knowledge, his unfathomable wisdom, his unending understanding (Romans 11:33-36). We tremble at his unavoidable, undying presence and his intractable will. Basically, we gawk in amazement at everything that he is and sing his attributes back to him in worship.

This is the best way to start prayer. The act of adoration reminds us that our lives are not about us; they are about God. It also reminds us that he is more than capable of handling anything that is going on around us because of who he is. Priming our hearts with adoration before we continue in prayer will help ensure that we are seeking his will and glory—not our own.

Confession

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Confession isn’t just admitting our faults, it’s about continual repentance—turning away from sin and toward God. We confess regularly, not because unrecalled sins wouldn’t be forgiven if we forgot to pray for them, but to acknowledge that we are still ever in need of Jesus.

Jesus’s work of salvation is complete and sufficient for the forgiveness of all our sins, but we need to remember that his work in sanctifying us—becoming more like Jesus—is not yet complete. Confession humbles us. We declare to God that we are lost without him, and affirm this through confessing our struggle with specific sins.

Confession reminds us how much grace we have received from Jesus and how much we still need him.
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Confession is being honest before God about who we are, and what we’ve done, and who he is, and what he’s done for us. God sees us and knows us at all times. We can’t hide and aren’t trying to. God loved us enough to send Jesus to deal with our sin, and he loves us enough to give us his Spirit to strengthen and guide us in our ongoing battle with sin. Confession reminds us how much grace we have received from Jesus and how much we still need him.

Thanksgiving

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,

for his wondrous works to the children of man!

For he satisfies the longing soul,

and the hungry soul he fills with good things. (Psalm 107:8-9)

Thanksgiving naturally comes after confession. What do we have to be more thankful for than our salvation through Jesus Christ?

Thanksgiving is also a type of adoration, as we express our gratitude to God for all his provisions, blessings, and gifts. Giving thanks in prayer trains us to be thankful in all parts of life. When we give thanks to God, we are praising him for his control of all things.

When we give thanks to God, we are praising him for his control of all things.
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Thanksgiving is appropriate and necessary “in all circumstances,” meaning we thank God in his discipline and in his blessing (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We strive to see his sovereign will, his holiness, and his goodness in all circumstances, regardless of the difficulty we are experiencing.

Supplication

…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

For good reason, supplication is last on our prayer roadmap. When we come to God with our requests, we need to remember who he is, our constant need of him, and his goodness to us.

Adoration, confession, and thanksgiving tune our minds to the truth that God is God, and we are not. Only then can we really make requests of him with a right heart. We can ask what we will, but must understand that he gives and takes away as he wills. We must learn to be content with how he answers.

Jesus models godly supplication in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even being fully God, and knowing the ultimate outcome of his work, he dreads the pain of the cross. Jesus is also fully man, so the cross is still a horror (Matthew 26:38). He knows that he will be separated from his Father, even if only temporarily. This has never before happened in all of time and space, and is the greatest sacrifice that our sin demanded of Jesus. Understandably, he looks on his immediate future with dread.

We can ask what we will, but must understand that he gives and takes away as he wills.
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So he prays, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39b). Jesus honestly brings what is on his mind to the Father, but submits to his decision. The concern on his heart brings him to God in prayer three times, but at no point does he insist on his own way (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44). He is emotional, intense, and straightforward. But, he submits and concerns himself first and foremost with the will of his Father.

This is what prayer is for—to orient us to God’s will. We fill our minds and hearts with his Word, and then we pray his words back to him.

We can come to him honestly as long as we also come to him humbly.

We can come to him with supplications as long as we come in submission.

We can come to him with our needs as long as we come to him for his glory.

We can ask for all that our hearts desire, but our hearts must be first and fully his.

Having such a guide through prayer reminds us seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). When we do that, he will be happy to give us the desires of our heart, because they will be what he also desires for us.

[Photo Credit: Unsplash]

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The post A Roadmap for Prayer appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Do You Care Too Much About Success?

Video Notes:

In a world that often only cares about “what will work,” Christ calls us to care about what is right. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote powerfully during the time of Hitler’s Third Reich, about the idolatry of success:

When a successful figure becomes especially prominent and conspicuous, the majority give way to the idolization of success….They become blind to right and wrong…They have eyes only for the deed, for the successful result. The moral…faculty is blunted. It is dazzled by the brilliance of the successful man and by the longing in some way to share in his success….The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard…

Taken from Pastor Colin’s sermon “The King’s Justice.”

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The post Do You Care Too Much About Success? appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

God Is Working Through Your Disappointment

Now the donkeys belonging to Saul’s father Kish were lost. (1 Samuel 9:3)

No one likes to lose their donkeys. In fact, people don’t enjoy losing anything. Loss is frustrating.

And Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys.” (v. 3)

Out goes Saul, a young man who was an impressive guy in his time (v. 2). He was “a man of standing” and tall (vv. 1,2). So this not-so-basic guy begins to tromp around his neighborhood – and eventually outside it – to find the missing donkeys.

Sounds like Saul’s got a great day ahead of him. Just wait—

The story gets better.

Saul’s Disappointment

So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and through the area around Shalisha, but they did not find them. (v. 4)

Saul looks for a while. But he doesn’t find the missing donkeys.

They went on into the district of Shaalim, but the donkeys were not there. (v. 5)

He looks some more. This time he goes further, into the next district. No donkeys. At this point Saul and his servant have left whatever was going on at home to spend their day walking through hills and around town looking for, yes –

Donkeys.

Then he passed through the territory of Benjamin, but they did not find them. (v. 4)

Ready to give up on the wayward mules? Saul was.

When they reached the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, “Come, let’s go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us.” (v. 5)

Saul has his wits. The search is over, and like a good son, he doesn’t want to make his father anxious by his delayed absence. Enough time has passed that the search has been labeled fruitless in comparison to their personal safety.

But the servant replied, “Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let’s go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take.” (v. 6)

Now, regardless of what we think about this servant’s theology, he has offered a good last resort. Of course a prophet could tell us where the donkeys have gone! They decide to try it.

On the way, like normal young men, they ask some young women for directions (v. 11). Saul and the servant are led straight to the prophet Samuel, and what luck! They hear there’s a feast happening (v. 12).

So their day gets better – thus far. But it had been full of frustration, disappointment, and fruitless exertion.

Ever feel this way?

Saul’s Appointment

Frustrated with a task? Disappointed by unmet expectations? Did you pursue those expectations and end up with dashed hopes and a whole lot of energy spent?

In my own life, the worst kind of disappointment looks like Saul’s: repetitive. We need perspective in these times, which is exactly what Saul needs at this point in the story. And it’s exactly what the Lord gives us in his Word. Peek behind the scenes:

Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed this to Samuel: “About this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.” (vv. 15-16)

Read those two verses again. God says he sent Saul to Samuel, at a pre-ordained time of day.

The donkeys. The missing donkeys. They are no accident.

Ever surprised by what the Lord uses to accomplish his purposes?

Not only are the lost donkeys no accident, but so is the choice of man sent after them. The Lord knows Saul and has hand-picked him for a purpose: to lead the nation of Israel, deliver his people, and answer a national prayer.

Saul has no idea of God’s appointment for him at this point in the story.

He just lost his donkeys.

Now, there’s so much to learn from this portion of God’s Word, but here’s the point: God appointed Saul’s disappointment for a purpose greater than Saul could see.

The Disciple’s Disappointment

Disappointment is too light a word for what the disciples must’ve felt as they saw their Lord fixed on a cross. How many weary ministry days had they been through, and all for this? Their ultimate hope was literally dying before their eyes. The Son of God, their friend and teacher and Lord, is hanging on a cross.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

And yet the LORD tells us through his Word that this was his will. He put Jesus, his only Son, to grief. Why? Jesus was making an offering for his people, embodying the answer to their cries for salvation, not from the Philistines, but from sin. He was answering not only a national prayer, but a generational prayer from the beginning of time. Christ was crushing the serpent’s head in his very death.

Trust in God’s Appointment

We know the end of these stories. Saul became king of Israel, and Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples could not have imagined the empty tomb three days later.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?’ (Romans 11:33-34)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18)

Jesus suffered so our disappointment would not be ultimate. Because of our sin, we deserve much worse than unmet expectations from a holy God. Yet Christ willingly left his throne in heaven and embraced suffering that he might bring us near to him.

May your disappointments bring to mind Christ’s provision for your greatest need – reconciliation to God – through his appointed death on the cross.

May you see your disappointments as evidence of God’s hand at work in the details of your life, orchestrating your appointments according to the wisdom of his will.

What’s disappointing you right now? Are you frustrated? If you’re in a “lost donkey” season, take heart:

Three times Saul did not find the donkeys. Three days Christ lay dead in a tomb.

Don’t forget the rest of these stories.

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Key Connections (October 27, 2017)

Lose Christ Alone, Lose Christianity (Stephen Wellum, The Gospel Coalition)

Christ alone isn’t a slogan; it’s the center of the solas by which the Reformers recovered the grace of God and declared the glory of God. Christ alone integrates the purposes and plans of God as he has revealed them in Scripture and as we represent them in theology.

Finding Gladness in the Good News (Jonathan C. Edwards, notthepuritan.com)

From the first time we hear and believe the gospel, the good news should give us more and more joy. The gospel doesn’t affect many of us like it should. We receive it as news for later, but not now. It’s news about what will happen one day, not news about something that is already taking place.

Stay Awake (Kait Myers, Inquisition)

Jesus asks us to “stay awake” in Mark 13:37. Paul reiterates this request in Romans 13:11. Both are referring to the fact that we do not know when Our Savior is going to return and therefore we do not want to be “sleeping” when he returns! Sleeping in this case is referring to basking in our sinful inclinations and not fighting against them in order to walk in the light. Just as I naturally was sleepy at work during the night time, we are naturally sinful as human beings.

10 Bible Verses to Strengthen Your Faith as You Wait (Kristen Wetherell, kristenwetherell.com)

As I’ve been pouring over Scripture this week, I’ve asked God to teach me his character and ways during this time in-between, and I hope and pray the following verses will strengthen your faith while you wait, as they have strengthened mine…

Why Study the Books of 1-2 Peter? (Jonathan K. Dodson, Crosswalk.com)

Immediately, Peter says our hope affects how we suffer: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (1:6). When our hope is recentered in the risen Christ, we can rejoice in trials of all shapes and sizes.

To Defeat Your Sin, Look at Jesus (Joel Stucki, Unlocking the Bible)

If you are focused on your sin, you will run as one being chased. You will always be looking over your shoulder, and you may be overtaken. To win the race, focus on the goal—but the goal isn’t defeating your sin. The goal is Jesus Christ, who has already defeated it.

The post Key Connections (October 27, 2017) appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Spiritual Dry Spells: Causes and Cures

I’m willing to bet that most of us have experienced a spiritual dry spell—a time when we felt far from the Lord, unfruitful, unmotivated, and maybe a little lost. Feelings of closeness and communion with the Lord faded. That fiery desire to love and serve Christ dwindled.

Maybe that’s you, now. Maybe you’re wrestling with the host of emotions that accompany a spiritual drought—anything from confusion to doubt, apathy, even depression.

Three Causes of Spiritual Dry Spells

If we are Christians, if we have been freed from condemnation, united with Christ, and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in our souls, then how is it we still experience these dry spells? What causes them? How do we get through them?

Let’s look at three common causes and their cures.

1. Harbored Sin

In Romans 6:2, Paul asks, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The answer is…miserably. We cannot serve two masters. While “we know that our old self was crucified with [Christ]…so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin,” the battle between our flesh and our new spirit is still very much in play (Romans 6:6). The sinful part of our nature that is wired to respond to temptation is still a dividing force in our lives.

If you’re feeling far from the Lord, if you no longer feel drawn to spend time in his Word, if you’ve become hardened to serving him and maybe even hardened toward other people, odds are that there is a part of your life where sin is reigning free. Sin is always in the business of distancing us from the Father. Sin turns our focus inward instead of upward, and eventually downward into shame and despair.

The cure for this cause is simple—repentance. We have a painfully, yet beautifully clear picture of this in David. David was a man after God’s own heart, who at one point sank so deeply into sin that he justified murder as a means of hiding his indiscretions (2 Samuel 11). Look at his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:11-12. He says,

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

David prayed for the Lord to restore the joy of his salvation because it had been lost to sin. He begged the Lord not to cast him away because he knew that sin has the power to divide and cut off.

If there is an area of habitual sin in your life, put it to death. As a believer, the cost to you is too great to continue in it, and the cost to your Savior was too great for you to ignore it. As John Owen so simply put it, “Always be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

2. Trust in Feelings

Our hearts are fickle. Our emotions are not to be trusted. In fact, Jeremiah goes so far as to say that our hearts are “deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Oftentimes when we feel far from the Lord, when we don’t feel God’s love the way we used to, it’s because we’ve mistakenly put our trust in feelings about our faith rather than facts, what God’s Word says about our faith. That’s what Proverbs 3:5 means when it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

God’s Word is living and life-giving. It’s able to breathe new life into a dry and distant soul.
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The Lord is unchanging, immovable, and steadfast. The same cannot be said of our emotions. That’s why we’re commanded to trust in him with our hearts, rather than trusting in our hearts to understand him.

The cure, in this case, is Scripture. If this cause is ringing a bell, you’re probably spending more time dwelling on your thoughts and feelings than you are on the Word. Turn to passages like Romans 8:31-39 that remind us of the binding love we’ve received through Christ. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ, not even our ever-changing moods and affections. Look at 1 John 4:10 where we’re reminded that our salvation came out of God’s love for us, not our love for him. Our emotions didn’t save us, and they are not what will sustain us.

God’s Word is living and life-giving. It’s able to breathe new life into a dry and distant soul. Like the psalmist, make the Lord’s testimonies your delight and your counselor, not your emotions (Psalm 119:24).

3. A Forgetful Memory

Fear of the future or bitterness over the past can suck a soul dry and harden the heart. Though fear and bitterness are two different states, they spring from the same root. If you find yourself with a fearful or bitter heart, it’s likely that you’ve forgotten the goodness of the Lord. In the case of fear, you’ve forgotten all the Lord has already seen you safely through and his promise to never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5-6). In the case of bitterness, you’ve forgotten the Lord’s mercies woven through your past pain and his power to redeem lost days (Joel 2:25).

Deuteronomy 4:9 lays out this final cause and its cure beautifully with a warning we would all be wise to heed:

Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.

If we aren’t careful to remind ourselves of all the Lord has done for us, memories of his provision, protection, and grace will fade. Along with them, fruitfulness, confidence, and joy in the Lord will fade as well. When that happens, it’s no wonder we feel a sense of emptiness.

To combat this cause, we give thanks. Listing everything the Lord has done for us helps us call to mind his goodness and his faithfulness. We should again be like the psalmist and say, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1).

Washed in the Living Water

Regardless of why you find yourself in a spiritual dry spell—whether because of harbored sin, misplaced trust in feelings, a forgetful memory, or any other cause—pray for your soul, your heart. We know that God, alone, can remove a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

This is why it’s so important that we preach the gospel to ourselves every day. Sin becomes less tempting the more I think on its deadly weight. The more I meditate on Jesus as Lord of all, the easier it is for my heart to submit to his sole lordship. When I remember the grace I’ve been given through my Savior, it’s more difficult for fear or bitterness to take root.

It’s hard for the soul to dry out when it’s daily washed in the living water of Christ, crucified and risen to save it.

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Pray for Your Enemies

My co-worker’s words were unkind and untrue. How could Beth say such a thing about me? She’s a Christian. She should know better. All day her words simmered in my soul. Each time my mind hit the replay button, my eyes narrowed and my jaw tightened.

That night as I lay in bed, I thought about what I’d do the next time I saw Beth. Avoid her? Confront her? Pretend nothing had happened?

At some point during my mental rant, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:44: “Pray for those who spitefully use you…” (NKJV). Humph. I’d rather tell Beth exactly what I think and complain about her to other people. I’d rather harbor a grudge and avoid her. But the Holy Spirit kept poking me: If you want to do what pleases and glorifies Jesus, pray for those who hurt you.

“Lord,” I said, “please show me how to pray for Beth with a sincere heart.”

Be Honest with God

The next morning I settled into my favorite chair to have my devotions, but my heart was restless. First, I wrote Beth’s name on my daily prayer list. Then I admitted my feelings to God. “Lord, I don’t like Beth or what she did to me. She’s difficult to get along with anyway, and now she’s spreading gossip about me.” God knew what had happened. I didn’t need to airbrush what she’d done or camouflage how I felt about it.

Next I confessed my unwillingness to change my attitude. “Lord, I can’t get over this. I’m too angry, too hurt. I don’t want to pray for Beth, but I want to obey you.” I reminded myself that Jesus’ blood had washed away her sin as it had washed away mine. God loves her as much as he loves me. I said, “Lord, help me see what you see when you look at Beth.”

Use God’s Words

After I prayed, I opened my Bible to Matthew 5. I read Jesus’ words in verses 43-46:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”

“Okay, Lord,” I prayed, “work in my heart and in Beth’s. Show us that we’re on the same team—your team. Heal this wound in my heart. Heal the wounds in her heart. Help us both to be the daughters you’ve designed and redeemed us to be.”

Next I turned to Colossians 1. I often pray verses 9-11 for my children, so why not use Paul’s prayer as a guide for this situation with Beth?

“Lord, Give us wise minds and spirits attuned to your will. Help us to move toward a thorough understanding of how you work and how you want us to work together. Enable us to make you proud of the way we honor you in our workplace. Give us the strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy” (MSG paraphrased).

In the days that followed, I continued to incorporate God’s Word into my prayers for Beth. When I read Psalm 37, I asked God to give her the desires of her heart (v. 4). When the day’s reading was James 1, I asked God to give her wisdom (v. 5) and to help her be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (v. 19). I prayed the same things for myself.

Wait for Him to Work

As I prayed for Beth, my anger and resentment decreased. At work, when we passed each other or sat in a meeting together, I greeted her with less animosity churning in my stomach. I asked about her kids and her husband. Yes, the conversation between us was awkward at first, but gradually we both relaxed.

Several weeks passed. One day Beth and I were both working in the copier room. She seemed agitated when I said hello, so I asked, “How’s your day going?” As she revealed details about an ongoing trial, I realized why she might have misjudged me, why she’d misinterpreted some of my actions and words. I recognized that I’d misjudged her too. The Holy Spirit nudged my heart. See? Aren’t you glad you’ve been praying for her?

When Beth finished her story, I could honestly say to her, “I’ve been praying for you, and I’ll keep praying for you.” She smiled.

Pursue Peace through Prayer

…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8,10)

Though we were opposed to him and all his ways, Jesus died for us, removed the barrier of our sin, and brought us into relationship with God. Because his reconciling love now resides within us by his Spirit, we can extend that love to others. God no longer counts our sins against us, so we no longer hold other people’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Our attitudes toward those who offend us won’t change overnight. Sometimes the adjustment takes months, years, or maybe even decades. But God will be faithful to change our perspective as we come to him in prayer. Praying for those who have hurt us is not only obedience to God’s Word, but also opportunity for him to work in our hearts and within other people. He will help us move beyond our sinful attitudes about others and toward his love for them.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he wrote,

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister….Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. (Romans 14:13, 19, NIV)

Because I was honest with God, prayed his Word for Beth and myself, and waited for him to change my attitude, God healed my hurt and softened my heart toward her. He helped me avoid putting obstacles in her path and seek the attitudes and actions that led toward peace. He freed me to extend the love of Christ to her, as he first gave this same peaceable, forgiving love to me.

People are bound to hurt us. But if we take those hurts to God, he can help us pursue the path that will glorify him and edify others.

Do you need to add someone to your prayer list?

Not her real name

The post Pray for Your Enemies appeared first on Unlocking the Bible.

Three Reasons to Be Glad When Trials Come

A friend is the victim of slander at work, and she’s finding it hard to forgive. A young mom is facing the sixth month of her husband’s unemployment, and she’s scared for the future. A mentor just told you the diagnosis is cancer, and he’s angry at God. Are you shocked by these confessions? What do you say, beyond “I’m so sorry”? Do you change the subject?

Or do you buoy their hearts with all the reasons Christians have for gladness in trials, that a line of battle has been drawn, and faith can be tested once again? James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (emphasis mine).

Three Reasons to Be Glad When Trials Come

Trials can be momentary or life-altering, but they are all unpleasant. They are the potholes of life that shake our faith and reveal what we’re made of—especially where we’re lacking. For believers, the hardest part of a trial is seeing the weakness in our faith and wondering why we find it so hard to trust God. We like to think we have it all together, but we don’t, and we resent the events that bring us face to face with our limitations.

The following verses have revolutionized how I view trials, specifically those that reveal lack of faith. I’ve learned how circumstances that reveal sins like hidden fear and doubt are not reasons to tear up, but reasons to cheer up.

1. The intentions of the Tester are good.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:3-4)

You may feel like this trial is too heavy for you, that you can’t stand up under its weight, and your faith is going to collapse in response. But the good news behind the test is the character of the Tester—our sovereign God who has declared his intentions in showing you the weaknesses in your faith. He intends good, to produce in you the strength you need to stand, and you can trust his steady, capable hand.

2. Testing reveals our hearts.

We try hard to believe that deep down, we are basically good people. The ugliness that surfaces in response to trials is therefore unusual, out of character, a temporary madness. Its source must lie somewhere outside of us, we think, so we are not at fault. For Christians who hold fast to the sovereignty of God in all things, this thinking can quickly descend into blaming God for the faithless reactions to the trials he allows to test our faith.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:13-14)

Suppose we think of our situation as A + B = C.

A is me, B is the God-ordained trial, and C is my sinful response. If we truly believe we are basically righteous, the temptation to sin must come with B, the God-ordained trial.

Embrace trials with joy; God will give you what you need to endure them faithfully.
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But James tells us something different. He tells us that the evil comes from A, the desires of the heart that have been corrupted by indwelling sin. The God-ordained trial, B, is designed to bring the sin in A to the surface and give us the opportunity to let the Spirit change our heart. Just because financial strain usually produces doubt of God’s provision, or just because a life-changing diagnosis usually makes us angry with God, these trials doesn’t have to.

It’s good news when we embrace these opportunities to look at what’s in our hearts and take what we find before the Lord. Since God is not the source of the temptation, and the trial itself is not deterministic, we can take a step back and look at the situation as a diagnostic tool. No longer a vehicle of doom, trials become useful helpers to show us who we are, and provide opportunity for change.

This is the miracle of the new creation: A + B does not have to equal C! In fact, our trials can produce good fruit and change us for the better where they used to leave us defeated.

3. God gives without reproach.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

You see your lack of faith and feel worthy of condemnation—but God doesn’t see you that way. Our Lord is gracious to sinners! Because of Jesus’ saving work, you can receive the wisdom from heaven you desperately need, simply by asking.

The reproach we deserve for faithlessness in the face of Almighty God was born by Jesus on the cross and forever removed from our blood-bought souls. Meditation on our reproach-free standing before God is a great reason for gladness, but that is not all that is offered to us! Just as our Lord is generous with his heavenly pardon the moment we received salvation, his generosity continues in the daily wisdom and grace he offers us to build our faith to completion, even and especially when trials come.

Embrace Trials with Joy

Take heart weary struggler: God is generous and near! And he has good and perfect gifts that he will generously pour out on you when you ask in faith (as weak as this faith may be). With this mindset, you can embrace trials with joy because you know they are not without purpose; they will helpfully reveal hidden sin so it can be dealt with; and God will give you what you need to endure them faithfully.

[Photo Credit: Unsplash]

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Joyfully Embrace What God Is Doing
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To Defeat Your Sin, Look at Jesus

Strategies abound for dealing with sin.

There are mountains of books to help us develop habits to stop lying, beat various addictions, control our thoughts, grow in generosity, or develop contentedness. A quick Google search will reveal list upon list of verses about sexual purity, anger, worry, unbelief, idolatry, business ethics—any area you can think of where Christians struggle to live the way God call us to live.

By all means, read the books and memorize the verses. Many of them have been extremely helpful to large numbers of people. Bad habits do indeed need to be replaced with good ones. I’m not anti-strategy.

What we need to recognize, however, is that all these books and verses, and any other helpful tools, are just that—tools. They are not a cure. You will not suddenly cease to be tempted by porn just because you read Every Man’s Battle. You can memorize every verse in the Bible about financial responsibility and still be addicted to gambling. And those struggling with homosexuality cannot just “pray the gay away.”

Ultimately, focusing on sin will not rid you of it. It is Jesus Christ who saves, not books, tools, or strategies. No matter how deeply you understand the nature of your sin, you cannot rescue yourself from its power.

Jesus Changes Lives

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus changes lives. It’s a statement of unbelief to say you can’t stop or that you can’t change. It’s true that you can’t change yourself. But “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As new creations, we’re not to manage our sin, but to cease from it: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). We don’t focus on our sin as if we can defeat it through the right strategic approach. Instead, we focus on the One who has already done all that is necessary for its defeat and our redemption.

Christian, know what you are forgiven for, but most of all love the One who forgives you.
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Jesus isn’t satisfied with simply eradicating this or that particular sin—he demands our whole lives. He didn’t die and rise from the dead just to save you from pornography or gambling or your bad temper. It is too easy for us to think and act as if a homosexual would be just fine if only they were straight, but that isn’t what the Bible says. Sin runs deeper than mere actions. All mankind is opposed to God and needs the redeeming power of the blood of Christ and his reconciling peace.

Love Motivates Holiness

Christian, know what you are forgiven for, but most of all love the One who forgives you. The Bible tells us we have forgiveness of sin through him. Jesus said whoever has been forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:47). We need to be aware of our sin, but not for its own sake; instead, awareness of sin drives us to repentance, to holiness, and to love the One who forgave us:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)

…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1b-2, NASB)

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

The Goal Is Jesus

If you are focused on your sin, you will run as one being chased. You will always be looking over your shoulder, and you may be overtaken. To win the race, focus on the goal—but the goal isn’t defeating your sin. The goal is Jesus Christ, who has already defeated it.

So cast yourself upon Jesus. Be conscious and deliberate about following and worshipping him in all things. Ask for his help. Pray without ceasing. Pursue him wholeheartedly in everything you do, for it is he, not you, who conquers sin.

[Photo Credit: Unsplash]

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Are You Ready to Follow Jesus?
Turning From as Much as You Know of Your Sin, Part 1

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Key Connections (October 20, 2017)

Idolatry at the Office: Confessions of a Workaholic (Kathryn Butler, Desiring God)

During these years, I worked so feverishly, not to serve God, but to relish the approval it brought me — and because I feared the implications for my identity should the praise fall silent. Our world, it seems, condones such idolatry, and even trains us in it.

Rejoicing as a Safeguard (Kyle Johnston, Biblical Counseling Coalition)

When we rejoice in the Lord, we are strengthened by Him. Through faith, we experience the joy of the Lord being our strength (Neh. 8:10). By faith, the Holy Spirit empowers us as we rejoice in Jesus. Another aspect to this, I think, is that rejoicing inevitably displaces negative and unfruitful thoughts. To rejoice in the Lord is also a decision to not dwell on things that are untrue or unhelpful.

The Gettys Share the Power of Song (Josh Philpot, The Gospel Coalition)

And when we sing the great truths of the Bible, we’re changed from the inside out. Singing that is triune—God-honoring, Christ-glorifying, and Spirit-filled—“moves out in concentric circles, changing your heart and mind” (35). In turn this changes our families, our churches, and ultimately our world.

Servant of Another Kingdom: Reflections on Visiting the Mamertime Prison (Kevin Halloran, Anchored in Christ)

Like Paul and Daniel, following the way of the cross may lead straight to the lion’s mouth (2 Timothy 4:17). Even so, we take heart knowing that even if our enemies kill us, they can never take our life (2 Timothy 1:1; 4:18).

The Distinguishing Mark of Christianity (John MacArthur, The Gospel Coalition)

Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) is the distinguishing article of Christianity and marks the essential confession of faith (Romans 10:9). Jesus proclaimed it to His disciples, His enemies, and His casual inquirers alike — and He refused to tone down its implications.

The Loving Service of Listening (Sophie McDonald, Unlocking the Bible)

One of the best acts of service you can give someone is your ears and heart engaged at the same time…It is through words that people give us their stories and hearts, so why would we not learn to cherish and serve one another, and represent Christ well by listening well?

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