Michael Kelley's Blog, page 29

One Specific Characteristic I’m Praying For Our Children to Have

Nothing will bolster your prayer life like becoming a parent. I remember vividly how, 18 years ago, a nurse wheeled my wife out of a hospital in Birmingham, AL, and waited with her and our newborn son while I went to get the car.

And then she left.

And then it was just the three of us, and I’ve never driven so carefully in my entire life. The thought that we had been entrusted with another person – another life – was overwhelming to me, and it became even more so when I began to consider all the things that we simply out of our control as parents.

As much as we wanted to protect our son, to nurture him, to make him happy, there would always be unforeseen circumstances and threats that we could not insulate him from. So what do you do when that realization hits you?

You pray. And your prayers for your children only get more fervent as they grow older. So you pray for their faith. For their friendships. For their growth. For their health. And for a host of other things. But in recent days, I have found myself praying increasingly for something else in the lives of our children:

Fortitude.

That is, Perseverance. Stick-to-it-ness. Persistence. Courage in the midst of adversity.

There are many reasons why I think I’ve felt burdened to pray this for our kids, but those reasons mainly boil down to two:

Firstly, because fortitude is one of the marks of those who follow Jesus. Those who have faith are those who persevere. Those who genuinely believe are those who are willing to stick it out, even when circumstances are hard and opposition is stiff. And though there are many biblical passages that extol that kind of virtue, I think particularly about the simple word given to the Hebrews, a group of people who were struggling with their own sense of fortitude:

We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end (Heb. 3:14).

We want our kids to be firm in their faith all the way until the Lord brings them home. This is fortitude, that they have continued on despite the various off-ramps they will inevitably encounter.

And those off ramps are the second reason why we should pray for fortitude – it’s because we live in a culture of escape. To go one step further, we live in a culture that is increasingly defined by our feelings. We eat what we feel like, like who we feel like, and even define truth by what we feel like. And when those feelings change, we hit the eject button on that relationship or church or belief system or whatever. In a culture constantly shifting like sand due to the unstable nature of our own hearts, fortitude is in short supply.

Against that backdrop, we want kids who stand. Firmly planted by their roots, they do not break; they do not run; they do not constantly seek escape when the studies or the relationship or the truth becomes difficult. They stand. And so as parents, we pray for that sense of fortitude. May God grant it for our kids and for yours:

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit (Jer. 17:7-8).

2 Errors When Thinking About God’s Work in our Lives

God is at work in our lives. All the time. The question is not whether God is at work; it’s how aware we are of His work.

Now there are times when that awareness is very acute. Opportunities open up; events align; things seem to just fall into place and we praise the work of God in doing what is obviously only attributable to Him. But then there are other times – painful times – when it’s hard to see just what God is doing. We might believe God is at work, but we can’t see how through the fog of disillusionment and disappointment.

But time helps with that, doesn’t it? We get a little time and space between ourselves and a season of pain, and we have the benefit of looking back on what was without living in the middle of it. And yet even with the benefit of time, there are two mistakes we might make when considering the work of God in our lives:

1. The error of non-reflection.

The first error we might make is that of non-reflection. We might never look back over the course of our lives and think, even minimally, about the way God has been working in and through us over the years. We might never consider just how many things had to align, how many circumstances had to be brought together, or how many details had to fall just right in order for things to happen as they did.

We might never seek to appreciate the vast wisdom of God, who is always working in big and small ways, and somehow always working for our good even when it doesn’t feel like it at the moment. We might just continue on our way through life, only thinking about what’s directly in front of us and never looking back at what has been. If we make this error, then our faith will suffer, because one of the ways we gain confidence in God’s work in the present is by seeking to appreciate His work in the past. Our faith in what is to come is bolstered, especially if what’s to come is going to be a season of difficulty, by reflecting on the faithfulness of God throughout our lives up to that point. In looking back, we will see how God was weaving together the tapestry of His good will in our lives, even when times seemed dark.

But if we don’t ever take the time to reflect on what was, we will live with a sense of anxiety about what is to come.

2. The error of presumption.

But the opposite error is also possible – that is the error of presumption. We might spend a significant amount of time looking back at our circumstances. And we might gain an appreciation of just how intricately God worked in the midst of our circumstances. And at the end of that time of reflection, we might pronounce with certainty: “Now I see what God was doing!”

But this, too, is an error; not because God wasn’t working during our past, but because we are presuming to know the totality of what He was doing.

Who do we think we are to make such a statement? How deep do we think our insight goes? How much stock are we placing in our ability to know the mind of the Lord? How much hubris does it take to think that we perfectly understand the ways and will of God? The truth is that we might be able to have a slight gleaning of what God was doing, and yet we cannot even begin to imagine the complexities of everything He was accomplishing through those circumstances. Let’s not make that error either.

Let’s instead take the posture of humility and gratitude. It’s the attitude that recognizes by faith that God is indeed at work for our good and His glory, and let’s be thankful that we can have a glimpse of how that is worked out. But let’s also be humble enough to recognize that we cannot know everything He was doing. And when we adopt that posture, we will say along with Paul as we look back over our lives:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen (Rom. 12:34-36).

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. To Be Free, You Need Self-Control

Contrary to the popular belief that freedom is a lack of restraint, this article will help you see that freedom is found by living within limits and boundaries.

2. Unraveling the Riddle of Rejoicing Always

The key here is recognizing that we are rejoicing “in Christ.” Always.

3. Embrace the Art of Neighboring

This article is written to young adults, the there is a good charge here for those of us who are “less young” as well.

4. The Tallest Snowman

It was 122 feet.

Don’t Be Discouraged by the Bigness of God’s Glory

There’s an old song sung in many church contexts that begins like this: “To God be the glory, great things He hath done…”

At first glance toward the subject of glory, we would likely to be all nods and grins. Of course God deserves the glory. He’s the Initiator and Sustainer of all things, so He should get the credit He deserves. And in a sense, that’s what glory is: It’s recognition. Honor. Respect.

We could name any action, person, structure, artistic expression, or anything else on or off the planet, and if we were honest, we would be forced to recognize God as the source. It’s true that there are great painters and song-writers, but God is the One who endowed them with their gifts. It’s true that there are marvelous architects and mavens of business, but it’s God who gave them their resources. It’s true that there are athletes with incredible physical prowess, but it’s God who puts spring in their step. Even the atheist who curses the name of God as a fabrication and crutch for the weak-minded only does so with the breath God Himself puts in his lungs on a moment-by-moment basis.

It’s no wonder, then, that the pages of Scripture are replete with acknowledgments of the glory of God and exhortations to engage in the business of glorifying Him. The glory of God is the second half of the song of the Seraphim in Isaiah 6: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; His glory fills the whole earth.” The writings of prophets like Habakkuk reveal a longing for the world to be filled with the glory of the Lord (Habakkuk 3:2). We see God’s refusal to share His glory or praise with the likes of idols in passages like Isaiah 42:8. In fact, the glory of the Lord was a tangible reality in certain sections of the Old Testament.

God’s glory was like a white-hot, consuming fire on top of the mountain when the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:17). Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock as the glory of the Lord passed by Him (Exodus 33:22). And the glory of the Lord consumed the sacrifice and filled the tabernacle when it was completed (Leviticus 9:23-24).

God is serious about His glory. His own glory is, indeed, God’s chief concern in all things – even the Hebrew word for glory points to this, as it stems from the root word for weight. God’s glory is a mighty thing; a weighty enterprise; the center of all existence, including our own. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

I can see how we might be discouraged at such a description though. Because in the midst of all this weight; all this universal purpose; all this description of world events and cosmos creation; that we wonder how in the world are we to actually do this? How can we actually bring glory to the God who created all things? The One who, even now, receives the constant recognition from everything around us:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:1-4).

When confronted with such a weighty task, such a high purpose, such a cosmic goal, we might well be moved to paralysis. And yet in the midst of all that weight comes this very encouraging word from the Apostle Paul:

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Eating? Drinking? Whatever else we do? These are small things. And that is the encouraging part of this whole purpose because it means that we do not have to compose great works of literature or paint masterpieces. We don’t have to be incredible athletes or the greatest thinker of our age. We don’t have to major in greatness to bring glory to God. We do it at the dinner table. We do it on the sofa. We do it looking at the spreadsheet and on a bike.

We do it… whatever we do. Our days are replete with opportunities to bring glory to God. If we only have the right perspective and see them as such. If we only don’t just go to work. Or just manage money. Or just have conversations with others. No – all these things are glory rich opportunities. If only we had eyes to see.

Our Greatest Ally in Loving the Sovereignty of God

The word “sovereign” can be either an adjective or a noun.

As a noun, a “sovereign” is a a person who has supreme power or authority. As an adjective, the word is used to describe someone with supreme rank, power, or authority. And while we might use either form to describe an earthly ruler, we know that using the word like that has some inherent qualifications.

For example, to use the word in reference to, say, the British monarchy, implies great power and authority. And yet even in such a case we know there is a limited sense to that sovereignty. King Charles, the British sovereign monarch, cannot control how much rain falls on London.

That’s important to understand because when we call God “sovereign” we mean something similar, but different, than when we use that word in another context. And that’s because there are no limitations to God’s sovereignty. Rather, God’s sovereignty is the exercise of His power of His creation.

The weather? The orchestration of world events? The flight patterns of birds? Yes, and more:

“In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water
    that he channels toward all who please him” (Prov. 21:1).

It’s true, then to say that God is sovereign over all earthly sovereigns. Job sums up this truth well in Job 42:2:

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

That might be a terrifying truth for you. To know that there is a God who is directing all things to His ultimate ends. It might make you feel ridiculously small and feeble and weak… and it really should. But it’s only terrifying when it’s not blended with the truth of who this God is who is sovereign over all things.

If God were isolated from us – if He were uncaring and unmoved – if He were dispassionate and unconcerned about His people – then yes, we have every reason to be terrified. But that’s not true, and the reason it’s not true is because we have seen what God has done for us. He has sent His Son to die in our stead; He has loved us with the full extent of His love. And now He promises us that His sovereignty is fully employed for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).

But even then, the truth of God’s sovereignty can be a difficult one to love, especially when you are walking through a season that feels anything but loving, and anything but in control. When you sit in the hospital room or face down an uncertain future or pray for a child who is wandering… these are the really hard and painful moments of God’s sovereignty. It’s in these moments when “trust” is hard work; it’s a conscious choice in the moment to believe that God is not only in control but working for good. It’s very hard to believe in God’s sovereignty, much less love God’s sovereignty. But we do have an ally in loving this good doctrine:

Our greatest ally in loving the sovereignty of God is time.

There are moments for all of us when it feels like we are in the soup. When confusion and darkness seems to reign. When we exist in a fog, just trying to put one foot in front of the other, and when we cannot imagine how anything redemptive will ever come from what we are experiencing. And then time passes.

Time passes, and we look back, and from the benefit of a future vantage point, we can see things we were blind to in the moment. We get a slight glimpse of what possible good could come from something that felt, at the time, so bad. And from that vantage point, we would never look back at the disease or evil or pain we experienced and call that “thing” good in and of itself, but we might, by God’s grace, be able to see that time and time again God took what was evil and painful and trying and brought good from it.

So, friends, if you’re in the middle of a season in which you don’t love the sovereignty of God, don’t despair. Give yourself some grace. Believe that time is a good thing for perspective. And in the meantime, just keep hanging on.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. Subjective Feelings Need Objective Truth

It’s not enough to “feel peace.” Our feelings must be brought under the authority of Jesus as revealed in His Word.

2. Reform Your Faith. Don’t Deconstruct It.

There is a huge difference – reforming your faith still relies on the standard of Scripture in the midst of questions.

3. Chipping Away Our Confidence in Christ

One of the dangers of seasons of ease is that we grow self-confident. That self-confidence slowly chips away at our confidence in Christ.

4. The Epic Filming of Helm’s Deep

This sounds like a terrible experience with an incredible result.

3 Prayers for Parents Who Want to Raise Their Children in the Lord

There is a certain kinship parents feel with each other. It comes with a specific kind of vernacular, shared experiences, and common difficulties and pain. As a result, when you meet another parent, especially one that happens to have children around the same age as yours, there can be, many times, a very quick connection.

And I would imagine that most of these parents also share something else – a dirty little secret. One that we don’t like to talk about, and yet one that is never too far from mind. True enough, it can fade into the background somewhat, but with every changing season in the lives of growing children it once again pops up. Here’s the secret:

None of us know what we’re doing.

That’s despite all the books, all the seminars, all the podcasts – we still don’t know what we’re doing. We don’t know what we’re doing with babies, with toddlers, with pre-teens, or with teenagers. Most days, we are muddling our way through it all because there is no real instruction manual for raising your children in the Lord. There is, however, prayer. And surely most parents have that in common as well – to feel the desperate sense of need as we try and help shape these little humans. So what do we pray when we want to raise our children to know and love Jesus? Here are three suggestions:

1. Lord, help my children love Your Word.

We know, as Christians, that reading the Bible is vitally important. God’s Word is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path; it is the measuring stick of all truth and reality; it is the means by which we know who God is and what He desires from us. But we also know that it’s important for our kids to read the Bible for themselves. In fact, according to Lifeway Research, the single biggest factor in predicting the spiritual health of young adults is whether they read the Bible regularly as kids.

Isn’t that what we want as parents? It’s not just for our kids to like Sunday school classes, but to see them as vibrant, growing, and contributing Christians decades from now. If that’s the case, then we should pray they love God’s Word.

2. Lord, help my children have a backbone.

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9).

This was the word of the Lord through His prophet to a trembling king when faced with adversaries. It was an admonishment to not look to the size of the enemies at hand, but instead trust in the power of God on his behalf. Stand up. Let your backbone be fortified with the truth of the promises and power of God.

While we all want our children to be safe, comfortable, free, and happy, perhaps we should also be praying, in light of the times in which we live, for something different. Their mettle will be tested. Their faith will be challenged. They will be pressured to succumb on any number of fronts. By God’s grace, we will raise them not to shrink back into the shadows, nor to be intentionally argumentative and betray Christian kindness and compassion. That they will stand, and stand firmly.

3. Lord, help my children to be quick to repent.

One final prayer for parents is that our children would be quick to repent. We all know that sin has a “creeping” factor to it – the longer you allow sin to maintain its grip in your heart, the longer it remains hidden and unconfessed, the more it grows. And eventually, inevitably, it grows to something you could not have imagined.

For that reason, let us pray together that our children would not just get caught doing whatever it is they’re doing, but that they would be quick to repent. For as they repent, they will experience the love and grace of a heavenly parent that is far better than we are. They will run to his arms early, often, and quickly, so that sin might never gain a significant hold in their hearts.

Pray, parents. Pray for your children. Because in the end, even with the best of intentions, only God can change these little hearts.

God is the Only Sufficient Reference Point for Life

I’ve been deep sea fishing, but only once. That’s all I need.

One morning several years ago, two friends and I got on board a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico and headed out with the promise of “big fish.” I’m not sure how far we went, but it was far enough to where the land was no longer visible, and that’s when we baited our lines and threw them in the water. It only took about 15 minutes for me to get a bite, feel the exhilaration of fighting with what must have been a sizable fish on the other side, and reel in the biggest fish I’d ever caught.

It only took another 5 minutes for me to start throwing up. The constant rocking of the small boat, the smell of the fish, the heat of the sun – and I spent the next several hours alternating between laying on my back and leaning over the side. The only relief I was able to get during that day was by taking the advice of the boat owner. He told me that I needed to find a fixed point on the horizon, and focus on that. By focusing on something solid and stable, you can get your equilibrium under control, and despite the constant motion around you, actually feel normal.

I’ve thought about that day and what he told me many times over the years, though most of the times when his advice has come to mind had little to do with fishing. Instead, I’ve thought about his words during turbulent “life” times. When everything went upside down. When circumstances were out of control. When what I thought was certain suddenly was not.

Francis Schaeffer once wrote that God is the only sufficient reference point for life, and that, too, makes me think of the day on the gulf.

The first four words of the Bible are these: “In the beginning, God…” Though only four words, there is incredible truth packed into them. We learn, for example, that because there was a beginning, there was also a Beginner. These first four words actually give name to the “Beginner” in question. God. He was not part of the beginning; He existed outside of and prior to the beginning of everything else. And if that’s true, then He has power and authority over everything that comes next. He is not bound by the constraints set up in “the beginning” for He is apart from it.  

It’s interesting to note what doesn’t appear in those first four words: You. Me. None of us. Only God. That’s because God is the main character. Everything revolves around Him. He is the reference point on the horizon; the one thing that makes everything else make sense. And apart from that fixed point, we will constantly be in a state of tossing and turning, of ebb and flow.

So this is what we do when everything is in motion around us. This is what we do when the core of our equilibrium is upset. We find the fixed reference point, and focus our eyes there.

3 Reasons Why the Bible is So Important

“Read your Bible.”

If there was one piece of tried and true advice applicable in almost any situation, it can be expressed in those three words:

What should I do if I’m feeling afraid?

Read your Bible.

How do I grow closer to Jesus?

Read your Bible.

How do I know what God wants me to do?

Read your Bible.

Some might scoff at that. Some might say that those three words are an easy answer to complicated problems; that this kind of advice is trite given the complexities of the world in which we live. And if that’s the response to those words, then the question behind that response is also very simple:

“Why is the Bible so important?”

Even if you believe the Bible, you can surely sympathize with the question, can’t you? I mean, we have more sources of information than ever before. You can find the answer to almost any question you have with just a few quick keystrokes. A universe of knowledge is at our disposal – so why is this book such a big deal? Why is it so important? The answer to that question is very long, but to get to a start, consider what the Bible says about itself:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

In those verses, we find three overarching reasons why the Bible is so important:

1. Because of what it is.

The Bible is God-breathed. It is God’s Word. In its pages we find God’s revelation of Himself, and that’s the main purpose of the Bible. It’s not to tell us what to do or give us a roadmap for life; it’s meant to show us who God is because everything else in life flows from that understanding. 

God breathed out this revelation of Himself so that we might know what He is like, and so that we might worship and follow Him rightly. He did not leave us in the dark about who He is or our origin in Him, but instead gave us this word which is perfect. Unalterable. Unchanging. This is the nature of the Bible and this is the first reason why it’s so important.

2. Because of who we are.

The second reason why the Bible is so important is because of who we are. Notice back in 2 Timothy all the things the Bible is used for – “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” So who does it teach? Who does it rebuke? Who does it correct and train?

Us. And that’s because we need all those things. We have an immense capacity for self-deception, but God’s Word will tell us the truth about ourselves. It will, through God’s Spirit, correct and rebuke and teach us. We need God’s Word to do this because we cannot be trusted to do it for ourselves.

3. Because of what it does.

The final reason the Bible is so important is because of what it does. Yes, it teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains, but if we keep following the passage we see that it also equips us for every good work. How does the Bible do this?

And how does it do this especially since it does not speak specifically to many of the issues we find in the world today? For example, we don’t find many of the issues surrounding sexual identity explicitly spelled out in Scripture. Neither do we find a particular parenting checklist or a manual about how to have a healthy marriage. And yet what we do find there are the basic principles that apply to all these specific situations. The way the Bible equips us for all we encounter is not by telling us what to think in all those situations; it equips us by teaching us how to think in the midst of all those situations.

The Bible does all these things and more, and yet it does none of these things if it stays on the shelf. So if we believe that the Bible is what it says it is and does what it says it can do, then the only sane thing for us to do is…

Read the Bible.

—

This post originally appeared at thinke.org.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. The Glory of Church Graveyards

While I’m not sure I’m ready to advocate for newly built churches to include room for graveyards, I very much appreciated the perspective of this article.

2. Sometimes Efficiency is Overrated

That’s a hard truth for me personally, but is nevertheless important. The gospel takes the long way, and many times, we need to as well.

3. A Rest for Any Restlessness

There is a deep gnaw of restlessness in the human soul. The only solution is an unending Sabbath.

4. Val Kilmer’s Secret Weapon in Tombstone

This is one of my favorite movies, and this is one of my favorite performances.