Nancy Wilson's Blog, page 26

March 9: A Benediction

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).

A benediction is a good word spoken, a blessing. These two verses in Hebrews are commonly used for the benediction, and they are rich with blessing. Consider what we learn about our God and what He is doing in and for us.

1. He is the God of peace.

2. He raised up Jesus from the dead.

3. He is the great Shepherd of the sheep.

4. He made an everlasting covenant with us through His blood.

5. He makes us complete (or perfect) to do His will.

6. He works in us.

7. He is well pleased with the result.

8. And this whole process glorifies the Lord Jesus forever. And ever.

There is enough in this benediction to feed on for a good long while. But just consider a couple of things. God is the One doing the work in us, and He is pleased with His work. He is making us complete. He is making us perfect. Us! Only God can accomplish such an astounding thing. I am reassured and excited when I remember that I am His work in process, and He will finish it.

God is working in us, using good works. Good works are not just so we have something to keep us busy. God transforms us by means of them. They are Him working in us. They are the chisel in His hand, and we are the chunk of marble being transformed into something perfect.

We sometimes think that these good works must be spiritual duties like Bible reading, praying, and attending worship. Of course these are important duties. But there are other kinds of good works on God’s agenda like those on the list in 1 Timothy 5:10: bringing up children, lodging strangers, washing the saints’ feet, relieving the afflicted.

What kind of good works is God using to shape you and perfect you? Probably the kind that require long-term hard work and self-sacrifice. They are designed just for you, and He is making you complete in them. They work something in you that pleases Him.

Has He given you children to bring up? Strangers to feed? Sick to care for? Sorrowing to comfort? This is how God is “working in you what is well pleasing in His sight.”

 

March 8: Contentment, again.

I never tire of the topic of contentment. It is a comfortable topic, meaning that it brings comfort with it. It can be uncomfortable when we first recognize that we don’t have it, but once we have tasted true Christian contentment, we want it all the time, and we want it spread out into all the nooks and crannies of our heart and mind.

Contentment as a worldview; it really does affect the way we view everything in our lives. Contentment is versatile; it applies to most everything I can think of. So first let’s define it, and then I will list a few areas where we can apply contentment.

Contentment is a deep satisfaction with the will of God in your life. Contentment receives the portion God has carved for you (as the Puritans would say) with pleasure and gratitude. Contentment rests in God’s providence, knowing He is a good and gracious Father who loves His children. Contentment believes God’s promises. Contentment rejoices in all things. Contentment is informed.

Contentment can grieve as well as rejoice; contentment can pray for deliverance with faith, trusting that the wise God will do what is right. Contentment is not stoic or hard- hearted or unfeeling. Rather, it is tender-hearted, submitting to God in quietness of spirit. Contentment is hopeful and cheerful, especially in difficulty.

Contentment is not restless or envious and doesn’t look over its shoulder to compare its lot with a neighbor’s. Contentment is not detachment from circumstances or people. It is not foolish or blind. Contentment sees God’s hand in everything, from the smallest details to the biggest.

In what areas do we need to find contentment? In every area! In all circumstances!

1.  In our appearance.

2. In our family.

3. In our health.

4. In our finances.

5. In our church.

6. In our education.

7. In our home.

8. In our friends.

9. In our calling.

10. In our station of life.

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’ “(Hebrews 13:5).

March 7: Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

This verse will always make me think of my Grandpa Jim because as my Dad says, if you jostle him a hymn comes out. He is in a constant state of sloshing out goodness. If you imagine your heart as a bucket, full to the brim with something sweet, when some of it gets spilled, it will still be sweet. On the other hand if your heart is full to the brim with bitterness, when you are jostled in some way, bitterness will come out.

We all know what it is like to accidentally slosh someone who is full of bitterness. Maybe you are clogging up the line at the grocery store and they are harumphing around at you. Maybe they are flipping you off as they make a traffic blunder. Maybe you just happened to be near when someone backed up the dump-truck of resentments and began unloading. But whatever the case we know that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

When you live in constant contact with people, you will have ample opportunity to see what kind of thing is coming out when you are jostled. If you have children, it is like hiring full time jostlers. People with new and creative methods for finding out what is in mom’s heart. They specialize in the unexpected, in the surprise splash. And this is why we should be thankful for jostlers. Because in reality when ugly things come out, it wasn’t put there by them. Our children do not create the frustration, they reveal it. Our spouses do not make us selfish, they reveal our selfishness. Difficult situations are not where ugliness is born, it is what makes the ugliness we have been nurturing come to light.

When people bump us, it is an opportunity to evaluate what we have been storing up. We are children of God. We have new hearts. What are we doing treating this ugly junk like treasure? Anything that we make on our own – that comes from our natural selves is going to be worthless. It is going to be foul. But because we have the love of Christ and forgiveness of sins, we are free to store up great treasure. We are free to pack the storehouse of our souls with valuable treasure – with things that will bless others.

Through God’s great kindness to us, we have all that it takes to become the kind of women who bless everyone who imposes on them. We can be people who splash out with mercy and joy and patience and love. We can overflow God’s kindness to us on all those around us. We have an abundance of good treasure – but only through Christ.

So if you notice yourself being snarky or bitter or resentful or accusing – ask God to clean out your storehouse. Ask Him to stock the shelves with the kind of treasure that He wants you to share with others. And then rejoice in every opportunity to share it. Be thankful for the jostles that give you an opportunity to share the good treasure you have been given.

March 6: I Samuel 16:7

For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

This verse has all it takes to both comfort and frighten us. God is not looking at you like people look at you. What a relief! God is looking at the heart. Aack!

In this passage, which is about the anointing of David as king,  God told Samuel to not look at the outward appearance, but instead, follow God’s lead and look deeper.

Our first instinct in this passage is to view it as a one time thing. Like you get ready to go be “seen” by man and God, and people see the outside and God sees the inside. The reality is that this is ongoing. We don’t have a week to get our hearts tidy before God does His rounds to check on us. We are not free to take as much time as we need to get it in order before He sees it. God sees us always, and God looks at the heart always. There is nothing that can escape His view. What God sees is the ongoing state of our hearts. He sees every bit of work, every bit of honoring Him, every bit of sacrifice. God sees the heart. He also sees every self indulgence, every fudging of the truth, every bout with envy, every spiritual weakness. God sees the heart.

Now the reason that I brought up this verse today is that I am in the midst of Spring cleaning. I am assuming many of us are. In my house though, Spring cleaning is more of a burning desire than an actual activity. With our houseful of busy little messers, we spend a lot of time trying to pick up. Tidy up. Sweeping pinecones, cootie-catchers, watercolored receipts, and marker lids out from under the table. Getting the dirty clothes off of the stairs, and the cups full of toothpaste out of the bathroom. We live cleaning the surface of our external lives, never getting to the deeper level. Then, on some fortuitous day you get it all picked up. And suddenly, you see it. Filthy baseboards. Walls that have had little hands dragging across them. Carpet that is going to need to just be replaced. Furniture that must go. Curtains that have had a nose wiped on them. Sticky handprints all over every glass surface, and probably on everything else too.

I had a burning trouble with the garage being a big mess, and the storage room being disorganized. Because you can’t clean out anything without somewhere to put the things you clean out. It is like one of those maddening puzzles where you try to slide one tile into the right spot, but in order to do it you have to undo everything and mess up the world. One of the great temptations of this sort of situation is that you still have children. They are still doing monstrous army guy set ups in the living room. The baby still wants to have you smash up a banana and sit down to nurse every 5 minutes. Children still need discipline, and conversation. Dinner still needs to happen. In spite of the huge pile of clothing cast-offs, regular life is ongoing.

In other words, these times of added activity in our lives are times when our hearts are under added pressure. It is easy to get so wound up with how it looks on the outside that we decide to let it all go to seed on the inside. But God looks on the heart. God prefers your ant infestation to a fussy infestation. God prefers a major backup on the dishes to a backup on repentance. God delights in a well kept heart, and does not care about the storage room. God sees the progress of your heart, and does not care about the progress on the outside. Of course the two are connected, but they are often not directly corresponding. Do not look as man looks, but rather look past the appearances.

God looks at the spiritual state of your home. He looks at how you are loving your children as you try to clean the house. He looks at how you handle your heart when you are confronted by physical obstacles. He wants to see our hearts in order, our hearts living joyfully before Him.

March 5: Pressing On

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

This is such a great picture of the Christian life: pressing on toward the goal. We are running a race. We haven’t made it to the finish line yet, so we don’t kid ourselves in thinking that we have. We don’t bask in the victories of the past. We don’t dwell on yesterday’s defeats. We forget about those distractions because we are too busy with today. We’ve got a stretch of road ahead of us that requires all our attention, and we’re trying to reach the goal and get the prize which is our salvation.

Sometimes we may think we didn’t get very far in a day. We may even feel like we lost ground (and we may have). But the point of this verse is that we forget that and press on. And the other thing we must realize is that some of our best days, the days in which we actually make the most progress in our Christian life, may be the days that seemed like the biggest duds.

For example, some of you young moms may feel like you didn’t get a thing done all day because all you did was wipe faces and change diapers and read stories and make pbj’s. But what did God see? He saw self-sacrifice and love and much labor bestowed. He saw your children being nourished and trained up, little by little, one more day’s growth and progress.

We often feel like we got a lot accomplished when we have something visible to show for it. But the sum of many days of loving sacrifice will bring a harvest, you’ll see. Your kids will rise up and call you blessed, and then you’ll suddenly realize the impact of those days’ labors.

In all our callings, as we trust God and do the next thing He gives us to do, we are making progress in our spiritual lives. We are learning to exercise our faith more deliberately. We are learning to see our work with the eye of faith and believing that God is doing far more than we know or understand through our obedience.

So don’t stall out. Press on. Don’t be distracted by the past or fearful of the future. The goal is still ahead of us, not behind us. We’re not too late. Push yourself toward the goal. Do the dishes. Sing the baby to sleep. Write that letter to a friend. Do the next thing. That’s what pressing on means.

 

March 4: Proverbs 21:25-26

The desire of the slothful kills him,

For his hands refuse to labor.

He covets greedily all day long,

But the righteous gives and does not spare.

One of the things about coveting that makes it so hard to deal with is that it can largely reside in your thought life. You might not even notice that you are doing it. For the most part, people are aware of it when it starts to come out. At least in Christian circles, it is not considered tasteful to publicly covet. But privately, envy and covetousness can tear us up.

Without an active defense against it, it will be there. We all have vulnerable places – whatever we are currently feeling low about is probably it. Feeling like your house is a mess? You will see people who seem to have it all together. Feel fat? Naturally skinny people abound. Feeling like a terrible mother? You’ll see lots of people who are being sweeter, more thoughtful, more patient, more everything than you. 

But there is one specific kind of envy that I want to address today because it is one that this verse so aptly deals with. I am talking about a kind of envy that hides itself in the desire to give more, especially to your children. The picture in this passage is of a slothful person who won’t work, but is instead coveting what others have. This is contrasted with the righteous who gives without holding back. This verse does not break down who has more and who has less. It isn’t the poor man who covets and the righteous man who has. It is the slothful man who covets while the righteous man gives.

We were recently talking about this at our house, because it is the most natural thing in the world for parents to want to give their children everything: happy memories combined with the piano lessons you failed to get combined with a spectacular education combined with a big college fund combined with a down payment for their first home combined with vacations and really fun decorated rooms, excellent meals, fun camping trips, beautiful traditions and fun toys.

Basically, we want to give our children the world. That is all well and good – except for one thing: sometimes we can’t. Sometimes we don’t have the money or the resources. Sometimes all the things that we so desperately want to give them are all the things that we are coveting. We probably don’t see it as coveting because we think that what we want are all good things that we should want – that we are right in coveting.

But what we have noticed is that whenever you think that you really need something in order to give it, you are probably not giving something that you have. In reality, all of us have enough to give to our children. All of us have been given much. All of us have been blessed beyond measure. We have everything that it takes to leave our children with a rich spiritual inheritance because Jesus Christ is sufficient. Love was freely given to us, and it is free for us to give. Forgiveness belongs to us, and kindness, mercy, joy, hope, thanksgiving, and laughter. No matter what our external situation is, we have riches to give.

The reality is that it takes work to give away the things that we have. It takes diligence, it takes persistence. It is easier to stop working and just desire. It is easier to spend your time thinking of all the things you want to have than to give away freely what you do have. But giving freely is the work of righteous, and the desire of the slothful will kill him.

 

March 2: Forgiveness

“He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates the best of friends” (Prov. 17:9).

“The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression” (Prov. 19:11).

Forgiveness is about pardoning wrongs and cancelling debts. It is a glorious thing, according to the Scripture above, to wipe out a transgression. Forgiveness promotes fellowship and love. Jesus says in Luke 7:47 about the “sinful woman,”Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

When we receive forgiveness, when we have a sense of how big the debt was that was cancelled for us, then we love much. If God has forgiven us much, and we know it, we love Him much. But if we don’t understand forgiveness, or if we think our sins were no big deal in the first place, then we don’t love God as we ought.

Forgiveness should always result in love for God. When we love God, we extend forgiveness to others, and this is what Scripture calls our glory. We are glorified when we forgive people. When we refuse to extend forgiveness, we are condemned.

A fervent love is characterized by forgiveness (1 Peter 4:8). Forgiveness should be something we extend often and readily. Love doesn’t just cover a couple of sins. It covers a multitude of them (1 Peter 4:8) . Forgiveness is like the silver polish on a blackly tarnished piece of silver. The more forgiveness extended, the more glory revealed in the forgiver.

The way we forgive others is the way we are asking God to forgive us: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt. 6:12). How do we want God to forgive us? The same way we forgive our kids or our parents or our friends. Quickly. Generously. Lovingly. And that is glorious.

 

 

March 1: Spring Cleaning

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

Think of the things that women generally work hard to keep: the house clean, the laundry done, the kids in order. Women also work hard to keep their figure, their job, their budget, their husband…you get the idea. We all work hard at keeping many things.

This proverb tells us be “keeping” our hearts because our hearts are where the action is. All we say and do (“the issues of life”) comes right out of our hearts. And if our hearts are not doing well, our lives won’t be doing well either.

The trouble is that our hearts are a whole lot more difficult to monitor than our weight or our job performance or our love life. Our hearts can deceive us (Jer. 17:9),  and James warns us (1:26) not to deceive ourselves. This requires wisdom.

So how do we keep our hearts? Clearly we need God’s help, and obviously He has provided a way for us to be vigilant without becoming self-absorbed. Keeping our hearts means we are paying attention. It means we are persistently attentive. We don’t cut ourselves slack, make excuses, pass the buck, or take a day off from godliness. Here are a few ways we can exercise oversight of our own hearts.

1. We pay attention to Scripture. For example, Romans 12:1-2 tells us not to be conformed to the world. So we think about what that means; we don’t just brush it off and assume we are fine.

2. We pay attention to our obedience. Are we doing what we are learning? If we learn it today, we must do it today. Otherwise we will put it off, and by putting it off, we soon forget what we learned in the first place.

3. We watch over our habits and make sure they are wholesome, the kind that promotes holiness. Thomas Watson said, “Take heed to that which nourishes sin.” What kinds of things are feeding sin in your heart? Daydreaming? Covetous thoughts? Laziness? Unwise entertainments? Expel them! Do some spring cleaning in your heart.

4. Anytime we expel something ugly from our hearts, we must replace it with something lovely. When you confess bitterness toward someone, begin to pray that God will bless him. When you confess envy or jealousy, replace it with thanksgiving.

Not only does this kind of diligence help us spiritually, but it enables us to teach our children how to do the same thing. Rachel often asks her children, “Who is your boss?” and the correct response is, “You, Mama.” The next question is, “Who’s the boss of your heart?” And the reply is, “I am!”

 

 

February 28: Perfect

God is perfect, but He is not a perfectionist. After all, He loves us, His very imperfect children. His priorities are always straight. He sees the dirty dishes in your sink, but He cares more about the ones in your heart. He sees your piles of unanswered emails and unpaid bills, but He is more concerned about the burdens piled up in your heart. In other words, we often miss the point. We think we would hit the mark if we could just get our to-do list done, but God is doing a work indoors, in our hearts. (Matthew 23:26.)

God wants us to live in His presence, aware of His love, relying on His grace, seeking His glory, handing Him all our burdens and worries, knowing that He is not far off but at our right hand. He tells us to cast our cares on Him. Why? Because He cares for us. He wants to carry them for us. While we want to clear our desk, He wants us to clear our hearts.

It’s not easy to understand this love of His. It is like nothing on earth. It has a height and depth and width that cannot be measured or comprehended. This is the love we must receive, this transforming, renewing, restoring, re-creating love of His that makes us new creatures every morning. That is the love we are to walk in.

God is perfect, but He seems to love messes. He loves to untangle our knots, sort out our disasters, restore broken relationships, heal diseases, forgive sinners, bear with the unbearable, comfort the downtrodden, eat with sinners.

So bring all your imperfections to your perfect God and hand them all to Him. Then stand back and watch and wait. Trust Him and see what He will do. He is faithful, and He has provided for us in His Son, whom He raised from the dead. If you are His, you are in Christ. Rest there, in Christ. Live there, in Christ. Receive His perfections, and live in them.

February 27: Psalm 1

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

It is the first portion of this wonderful Psalm that I want to look at today. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed is the man who does not join the scornful. Blessed is the man who does not let the unrighteous shame him, but rather stands in their presence and delights in the law of the Lord. He shall be like a tree. Un-moveable. Planted by the water of life. He shall stand in the judgement because he stood in the presence of mocking. He stood in the presence of the scornful and delighted in the Lord. 

This is so applicable to basically every situation that  Christian might be in. A college student who doesn’t believe in evolution. A lawyer who decides to go home with her children. A mother with her van at the grocery store. Honestly, can you think of any righteousness that the world would not mock? Have you ever tried to explain submission to anyone? Have you ever been mocked for that? Have you been mocked for being pregnant as though you didn’t know that you don’t have to bear children? Have you ever been mocked for being a virgin before marriage? Have you ever been mocked for being “just” a wife and mother? Are the scornful bothering you? Are they embarrassing you? Are they making you reconsider everything? When we do not listen to the counsel of the world, we will be open to it’s mockery. What does the world counsel women to do with their lives? Is the world an older woman teaching us to love our husbands, love our homes, and love our children? Does the world have any interest in seeing us being faithful wives and mothers? Of course not. Once we show ourselves unmoved by the serious counsel of the world, what comes next? Mocking. Scorn. Laughing. Questioning your intelligence. Questioning your abilities. Questioning you.

This is why this Psalm is so beautiful. What does the righteous do? What is the response to all of this mocking and scorning? The righteous delights. The righteous stands. The righteous meditates on the law of God day and night. So basically we have the perfect playbook for handling this.

The first step is to delight in the law of God. Your source of joy should not come from the world. Your source of joy should not be an approving glance from other people at the grocery store. Your delight should be in the law of God. Delight yourself in that. What does God think of your work? What does God think of your commitment to your husband? What does God think of your life purpose? Delight yourself in that. God delights in our obedience, and we delight in His law.

The second step is to stand. Stand in the midst of it. Do not change. Do not make excuses. Do not pretend that the Bible doesn’t teach submission. Do not try to water down the word of God so that you too can make fun of the faithful. Do not be afraid of people – God says that some people are like trees and some are like chaff. When we delight in the law of the Lord, we have the joy that we need to stand, because we have roots. Deep roots that are planted by the river. Do not listen to the counsel of the world. Stand.

The third step is the one that I think presents the biggest challenge to women who are in this position. You believe God’s promises. You believe the Bible clearly teaches that your place in the home is important. You are at home, but maybe you have questions. Maybe you can’t figure out why exactly this is of value. Maybe you are just interested in what might be going on elsewhere. You are imagining what amazing things that you could have accomplished by now if you weren’t always changing diapers and trying to figure out what is for dinner. This is not what the righteous meditates on. This passage tells us what to fill our thoughts with day and night. Too many christian women become absorbed with trying to answer the mockers. They spend their time feeling angry about that bizarre interaction at the store. They think again and again of a slighting remark that a working woman made towards them and they meditate on that. But we are to meditate on the law of God. Meditate on what we delight in. send your mental roots to the river. Drink. Delight.

And of course the promise at the end is that the fruit will come in it’s season. In it’s time the chaff will blow away. The fruit of our children is a generational activity. It takes time. When you are buckling people up and cleaning up and sorting toys all day long, you can easily buy into the lie that what you are doing is not important. That it is not as fulfilling as sitting in the seat of the mockers. But the reality is that trees grow slowly but strongly, and chaff grows quickly and lightly.

Delight yourself in the law of the Lord. Stand in His word. Meditate on Him. And you shall be like a tree bringing forth fruit in season, whose leaves will not wither. Whatever you do shall prosper.