Michael Kelley's Blog, page 6

Don’t Be Afraid to Pray Big (and Small) Prayers

We should not be afraid to pray big prayers. There are lots of them in the Bible:

Joshua prayed that the sun would stand still in the sky (Josh. 10:12-14).Elijah prayed for fire from heaven and then rain to end a severe drought (1 Kings 18).Nehemiah prayed for the heart of a pagan king to be moved (Neh. 1:10-12).

Sometimes we don’t pray big prayers because we have been disappointed in the answers to our previous prayers and we don’t want to feel that disappointment again. Sometimes we are afraid to pray big prayers because we lack the faith that God can and will respond to them. Sometimes we are afraid because it just feels foolish to do so.

We shouldn’t be afraid to pray big prayers like these. These accounts, and others, give us permission to do so. We pray big prayers because we have a big God for whom nothing is impossible. As the children of God, we have the enormous privilege of petitioning. We can come to God with big prayers. Prayers for nations. For leaders. For culture and society. For healing. For huge changes in trajectory. For people resistant and blind to the truth of the gospel to be awakened and brought to spiritual life. We can come to God because He is not only our Father; He is the ultimate power in the universe and is able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine. That means even when our prayers seem outrageously big, they are yet small to God.

We should not be afraid to pray big prayers.

But then again, we should not be afraid to pray small prayers either.

Here again we might find ourselves hesitant – not because it feels like we are asking for too big of a thing, but because it feels like what we are asking for is too insignificant.

For quite a long time now, our family has prayed together after breakfast almost every morning. One of the joys I’ve had as a dad is watching how the prayers of our children have changed over the course of time. In some ways, they have gotten bigger.

When the kids were younger, they would often pray that they would have a good day. Or that the cut on their hand would stop hurting. Or that they would not have bad dreams at night. And then they started to grow, and so did their prayers. I’ve heard them pray for elections. For people they know that are in pain. For world events. For peace.

But one of the most beautiful parts of seeing this growth is that they haven’t outgrown the small prayers. They still pray for their busy days. For their quizzes and tests. For problems they have in their relationships. And there is a lesson adults can learn from this kind of praying.

Why can we pray big prayers? Because we have a big God.

And why can we pray small prayers? Because we have a good Father.

He is both at the same time. He is the God who moves the hearts of kings and causes the seasons to change, and He is the Father who provides our daily bread, whatever form that takes. Because of who God is, we can’t pray anything too big or too small. Let this be a comforting thought for us today – we the people who have big and small needs.

5 Prayers to Pray on the Way to Work

Judging by the traffic over the past year, Nashville is a pretty popular place to move to. As a guy who commutes into downtown everyday, I’m finding that drive time to stretch out a little longer each day. And in the midst of the gridlock, I am also finding that the drive is a good time to become anxious. You’re puttering along at a snail’s pace, knowing that with every passing moment another email could be hitting your inbox and your list of responsibilities could be growing larger and larger.

In light of my tendency to worry about such things, I’m also finding that the drive time is a great time to devote to prayer, and specifically prayer about work. But what to pray? That things will go well? That there won’t be a lot of opposition or criticism? That the stress level will be lower? There’s nothing wrong necessarily with any of those prayers, but prayer, I think, is not only about what we think we need but also an opportunity for God to form in us the kind of character He desires. Given that’s true, the way we pray should reflect it. It’s true about life as a whole, and therefore it’s also true about work.

Here, then, are 5 prayers to pray on your work this morning, that hopefully embrace a redeemed view of what work is:

1. Help me to remember who my true boss is.

It’s easy to forget, isn’t it? You have someone you report to, someone who holds you accountable for your performance in your job. And yet the Bible shows us that something deeper is going on at work, for the authority that sits over you or me sits there because God has seen fit for he or she to do so (Romans 13:1-2). The way we submit to our boss, then, is really a reflection of the way we submit to our greater Boss who put that person in their place to steward our energies. When we remember who our true boss is, we can work with fervor and focus trusting that we are serving Jesus through our efforts, whether plumbing sinks or making Bibles.

2. Remind me as I work that I am at rest.

Work is one of those aspects of life into which our identity can be easily intertwined. We use our work to define our worth and personhood and not just our livelihood. When we do that, we find ourselves continually trying to prove ourselves day in and day out through the work we do. But Jesus has already proven Himself on our behalf, and left us with nothing else to justify. He has given us, in the gospel, not only a day of rest, but a state of rest (Hebrews 4:1-13). When we know we are at rest, secured in Christ, we can cease our striving to prove and justify ourselves and are able to work in freedom and joy.

3. Help me to see people as eternal objects of glory not temporal objects of utility.

Most everyone has coworkers. And when you have coworkers, you depend on others to get their work done just as they depend on you. But the temptation in that situation is to view those people who work alongside you as a means to an end. If we’re not careful, we can begin to view those around us not as people for whom Jesus died, but only as those whose worth is determined by what they can give to you. The people who surround us in our offices everyday are more than temporal objects of utility; they are image-bearers of the Living God, and should be treated with dignity, care, compassion and respect. When our only focus is on delivering the product or service we’ve been hired to do, we can easily forget that.

4. Thank you for the chance to express both your saving grace in the gospel and your common grace in the world.

Martin Luther said that God Himself is milking the cows through the milkmaids. Luther, as I understand, argued that God uses the work we do as an expression of His common grace toward the world. So when we produce a good or perform a service, we are doing so for the organization and betterment of those around us. Sometimes in our work, we have the chance to share the gospel with our co-workers or those we come in contact with. That is a good and right thing, and when we take that opportunity, we are a conduit of expressing God’s invitation for saving grace. And beyond that, we have the opportunity to serve humanity through the work we do. That means our work is an opportunity to be an expression of God’s common grace in the world. What we are doing everyday is more than earning a paycheck; that’s a perspective changing truth to ask God to remind us of in prayer.

5. Guard me from the temptation of “more.”

Godly ambition is a good thing, but ambition in general is seductive. We can be ambitious at work for power, for money, for prestige – none of which are godly, but all of which represent an insatiable desire for “more.” But because we know that we are rich in Christ, that God does not withhold good from His children, we can be content with what we have. We take opportunities around us to excel in our vocations, but we also need the voice of the Holy Spirit to help us discern between godly ambition and selfish ambition for “more.”

Chances are you’re going to be doing some work today. You might do it in an office or you might do it on the road; you might do it outside or you might do it in the home. In any case, be encouraged not only in the work that you do, but be encouraged to ask God to frame your perspective on it before you get there.

The “Things Above” Are Hiding Behind the “Things Below”

Every day, you and I wake up to all kinds of priorities and demands. There is laundry to be done. Kids to be delivered. Groceries to be bought. Meetings to be conducted. And so it goes. Day after day. Though the specific items on the to-do list might change, they’re still kind of the same.

In the midst of all the tedium, isn’t there a part of you that wonders if this is all there is? Sure, there are things that have to be done, but still you sense there’s just… more. If you’ve ever felt that way, then Colossians might be the book for you right now.

Colossians is a book of the Bible that calls us to higher things. It casts a cosmic vision of who Jesus is and what our calling is as Christians. By way of example, consider this in the first chapter:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:15-17).

What an awe-inspiring view. It’s like Paul takes us from the valleys of earth to the top of the theological mountains and says, “Take a look around you. Expand your vision. Understand what’s really happening here.”

This is his call to us when we enter chapter 3. After casting this expansive and cosmic vision of Jesus, here’s his first application:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3).

Now that Paul has taken us to the mountaintop, he tells us to keep our vision there. Keep our focus on things above. Let your mind be fixed on the universal greatness of Jesus and don’t be consumed with the trivial things of the world.

But here’s the problem – the earthly things don’t go away. The laundry still has to be done. The meetings still have to be conducted. The errands still have to be run and the mortgage still has to be paid. The problem with fixing our minds and hearts on things above is that we have a thousand earthly things that occupy our minds and hearts. Making it worse is the fact that we cannot – and should not – avoid these earthly things. They simply have to be done.

How do we deal with that? How do we reconcile the call fix our minds and hearts on things above when there are so many things below that require our attention? Here’s how you DON’T reconcile it – you DON’T neglect the things below. You don’t stop taking your kids places or paying your bills.

No, the solution is not to neglect them, but to go through them. That’s because the things above are very often hiding behind the things below. Let’s think about it with a common situation.

Let’s say you have a meeting to go to that’s required of you by your job. You know, based on who else is attending, that this is not going to be a well-run meeting. It will be inefficient, frustrating, and generally a waste of time, but you still have to be there. Now you could argue that you are fixing your mind on things above, so you are going to go but not pay attention and instead let your mind wander to bigger things.

Or…

Or you could realize that this very tedious meeting is, in and of itself, an opportunity to fix your mind above. You could keep reading in Colossians to where Paul talks about situations like this and reminds us:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Col. 3:23-24).

Our true boss is Jesus. And this meeting is an opportunity to submit yourself to His authority and to do it with all your heart. This is how the things above are hiding behind the things below. So don’t neglect the tedious. Don’t abandon what seems mundane. Instead, press into it. Find the higher things behind it. And fix your mind and heart there.

4 Effects of Being Rooted and Established in Love

The entire Christian experience is an experience of love. The longer we walk with Jesus, and the deeper our relationship grows with the Father, the more we realize this. It’s not that God loves us more over the course of time; it’s that we have an ever-increasing awareness of that love. This is what Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus:

I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:18-19).

We are indeed rooted and firmly established in the love of God, for God has not left His love in doubt. No matter what might happen to us or around us circumstantially, God has demonstrated His love for us in that Christ has died. This case is closed.

But the love of God is not only the foundation upon which we built the Christian life; it is the continual experience of the Christian life. We are meant, having been rooted and established in the firm love of God to continue to grow in our knowledge of this love.

This is an amazing thing – so amazing that Paul actually prayed that we would be able to comprehend the length, width, height and depth of God’s love. But that’s the thing about the love of God – just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, you are overwhelmed again and again. You might say, as Paul did, that this love is not the stuff of intellectual pursuit, but instead of experience. This is knowing God’s love that surpasses knowledge. And knowing beyond knowing that we are, once and for all, rooted and established in the love of God changes us in any number of ways. Here are five of them:

1. Confidence.

The Christian possesses a unique kind of confidence. It’s not the arrogant, blustering, boastfulness of the world which is marked by self-reliance. No – our confidence is more ironic than that. It comes from the fact that we have been released from the compulsion to validate ourselves. To prove ourselves. To justify ourselves. We are self-assured because we have nothing left to prove to anyone around us because Jesus has already done all the justifying we will ever need. We can walk in the freedom of those who aren’t constantly trying to validate their existence because God has already shown us how valuable we are through the cross.

2. Authenticity.

When we are rooted and established in the love of God, we are also free to be ourselves. And this is indeed a special kind of freedom given how much time, energy, and effort we spend in image-protection. It seems that we, and the rest of the world, live with a nearly paralyzing fear of being “found out.” We are afraid that someone will discover we’re actually not that smart. Or that clever. Or that fun to be around. Or that happy. But God knows us – the real us – and loves us anyway. And if we are rooted and established in that love, then we are free to be the real us because we don’t have anything left to prove.

3. Self-Forgetfulness.

Being rooted and established in God’s love also allows us to live with an increasing amount of self-forgetfulness. We don’t have to try and make sure our rights are taken into account, that we get what’s coming to us, or that we are recognized for our ongoing contributions to the world. We can actually focus on the needs of other people because we are living in the confidence that God will actually take care of us. He is working all things to our good, and because we’re confident He is, we can actually take our eyes off ourselves and put them first on Jesus, and then on others.

4. Peace.

Glorious peace. This is what comes when we are rooted and established in God’s love. It’s the love of God that can drive away our anxiety and our worry. It’s not, though, that God’s love promises us that none of the things we are worried about will happen – they actually might. But God’s love helps us to embrace the future with peace, because we know that when and if the worst does happen, it does not happen outside the will and plan of the God who loved us enough to send His Son to Calvary in our stead. We can look to the future not with trepidation, but with peace, knowing that God will in His time make everything bad into good.

So we pray along with Paul this morning, friends. We pray and thank God that in Christ, we are rooted and established in God’s love, and that today might be a day when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes more widely to the love that will not let us go and has already been fully given.

God’s Answer is “Yes” Even When It’s “No”

We have lots of reasons and lots of occasions to pray:

We pray to give thanks to God for who He is and what He has done.We pray for forgiveness when we know we have sinned against God and others.We pray when we are feeling anxious about tomorrow and what it holds.We pray for our own sake and the sake of others when we are in need.

The list could go on, but the point is clear – there is always, always, always a reason to pray. No wonder the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). But even though we have every reason to pray, all of us have prayed for something to happen – someone to get well, some provision to be made, some circumstance to change – and nothing happens. In fact, sometimes the situation we are praying about seems to get worse. So even though we are in great need of something, and even though we are convinced God loves and provides for us, and even though we bring that need to God in prayer, it seems like His answer is, “No.”

That’s a difficult thing. It’s especially difficult in light of verses like this:

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt. 21:22).

It seems like, based on that verse, that all those “no’s” we seem to get ought to be “yes’s.” How do we reconcile that? Well, there are all kinds of ways, but perhaps a good summary understanding might be something like this:

God’s answer is “yes” even when it’s “no.”

Now that seems like a contradictory statement, doesn’t it? How can God’s answer be “yes” when God’s answer is “no”? Or to put it another way, how can God be answering our prayers even when it seems like nothing at all is changing in the circumstance about which we are praying?

We can understand and accept that contradiction when we start to think a little more about God’s overall will and purposes in our lives. It might help to think about it from the standpoint of a parent. If you’re a parent, you know that your children ask you for all kinds of things. Some of them are good things, and some are less good things. Part of being a parent is being able to look a little further and a little deeper than your child and answering them not just based on what they want, but on what you know is best for them.

So, for example, your child might come to you and ask for candy. You might give them candy because it’s a Saturday, or because they haven’t had any sugar that day, or because you just want to because you want to make them happy. But you might not give them what they ask for because you know the candy they asked for has nuts in it, and if they ate it, you’d be making a quick trip to the emergency room.

You know that. Your child does not. So while you answer is “no” to their request for that kind of candy, it is “yes” to their overall health and well-being. If we, as imperfect parents are doing the best we can to do what is best for our children, how much more is our perfect Father who knows all things committed to doing what is best for us?

God’s answer to us is “yes” even when, from our limited perspective, it feels like “no”:

His answer is “yes” to your soul even if it’s “no” to your feelings.His answer is “yes” to your good even if it’s “no” to your ease.His answer is “yes” to your character and holiness even when it’s “no” to your comfort.

So keep praying, children of God. But as we pray, let’s pray with confidence in our Father who knows what is right and best. Let’s pray with a greater confidence in Him than in our own ability to diagnose the “yes” we really need.

3 Prayers to Pray as you Open God’s Word

Most people have a morning routine. Alarm goes off, coffee pot goes on, maybe you head to the gym – it’s different for every person. But for most of us, the routine follows the same general pattern on a given day. Hopefully, by God’s grace, part of that routine is opening the Word of God. This action, like the routine as a whole, looks different for different people. Maybe you’re in the habit of reading one chapter of Scripture a day. Or perhaps you read a psalm and a proverb. Or maybe you only read a few verses and then journal your way through them.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these plans, and there is also gloriously freedom under grace. Your pattern might differ according to your stage in life, the age of your children, or even your personality. But in the end, there is great benefit if you open God’s Word and take it in on a daily basis. But how do you open it? What is your attitude when you lay God’s Word before you? How do you approach His Word?

Hopefully, you do so with a sense of expectation and prayer. In so doing, you are acknowledging that this book is unique – unlike any other manuscript, this is the inspired Word of God. In light of that truth, here are three prayers you might pray as you open God’s Word each day:

1. Thank you for loving me enough to tell me the truth.

Jesus prayed for His disciples: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth” (John 17:17).

We can trust God to tell us the truth, and that is a truly wonderful thing. In a world of half-truths, mostly-truths, and non-truths, we have a Word of truth at our fingertips. We have a God who loves us too much not to be honest with us. Of course, that means opening the Bible is not always a comforting experience. In its pages, we will find the Holy Spirit challenging our thoughts, our behaviors, our fears, and our doubts. But in each case, we can be confident that God is telling us the truth even if the truth is not necessarily something we want to hear.

Though wonderful, this is also a belief we must fight for, and I don’t mean in this case fighting in the public square. I mean fighting in our own hearts. We must each approach the Bible, on a daily basis, reminding ourselves and thanking God that He is indeed telling us the truth. Thanking God for this, if we truly believe it, will determine in large part what comes of our Bible reading.

Will we read and obey, even it it’s a costly obedience? We will do exactly that if indeed we believe God is telling us the truth. That means, uncomfortably, that our standard of obedience is reflective of something more than our willpower; it’s reflective of whether we believe our God to be honest or a liar.

2. Read me, even as I am reading this Word.

In a prayer like this, we are acknowledging the unique power of the Bible. We are further acknowledging that we are coming to God’s Word not for mere education, not to satisfy a vain curiosity, not to just out of habit; we are coming to God’s Word acknowledging its authority in our lives. If God has given us His Word, then as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the way our thinking, our believing, and our behavior falls out of line with it, then we will repent.

The Bible will do this. It will, through God’s Spirit, become like a mirror to us, showing us ourselves in the light of His holiness and, mercifully, His grace. In other words, the Bible will read us even as we are reading it:

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account (Heb. 4:12-13).

3. Help my heart to be good soil today.

Jesus told a story one day about a farmer that went out to sow seed, and he did so liberally. The picture we get is of the farmer, in a non-discriminate way, throwing the seed from his bag onto all different kinds of soil, and the seed had varying results. But it was the same seed – the quality of the seed never changed. The only difference between the seed that was picked off by the birds and the seed that eventually resulted in fruit-bearing vegetation was the quality of the soil. So it is with us.

The quality of the Word of God doesn’t change. But what does differ is the state of the heart on which the seed of God’s Word falls. And the state of that heart might change even in us day by day and year by year. When we come to God’s Word, then, we would do well to check our hearts. Are we obstinate? Are we stubborn? Are we proud? Or are we coming, acknowledging our need for a Word from Him, ready to receive and be taught and transformed? Yes, Lord, help our hearts to be good soil today.

Come to the Bible, Christian. Take it and read. And as you do, let the confident prayer of someone who expects God to speak through what He has already spoken be on your lips.

God is Looking… Will He Find You?

“Where are you?”

The question rang out across the garden. The first humans, who had enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator and lived in perfect harmony with the rest of His creation, had walked and talked in naked transparency with God and with each other. But not anymore.

Now they were hiding.

Now they were self-conscious.

Now they were filled with the guilt and shame that came from their lack of faith and rebellion.

And God was looking for them. This kind of search is something we find happening several times in the Bible. God is looking – searching – but His search is not based on lack of information. In the garden, God wasn’t looking for Adam and Eve because He didn’t know where they were; He knew very well where they were, just as He knew very well what they had done. And when we see God looking for other people throughout the Bible it’s not because He is lacking in information. God knows where the person or people are He is looking for, and yet He searches anyway:

God looks down from heaven to see if anyone is wise or seeks God (Psalm 14:2).God looks down from heaven to see if anyone is wise, worships him, or seeks God (Psalm 53:2).God was searching for a man stand in the gap on behalf of the land (Ezekiel 33:20).

And one of the ways you can describe the entire ministry of Jesus Christ is that of searching:

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

So God is, among other things, a searcher. And that is actually very good news for us. It’s good news fundamentally because even when we were not searching for God, He was searching for us. Jesus came and found us, sought us out, and brought us into the family of God. But even now, God’s search is good news. Consider another example of His divine search:

“For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Sometimes we think we have to beg God to help us. To strengthen us. To give us aid. But that’s not the posture of our searching God. He is active and on the hunt. He is looking for those who are devoted to Him, eager to find them and strengthen them for His purposes. What good news if you are feeling weak today! What a great word if you are feeling a deficit in strength and fortitude and courage! God is on the hunt – the question is whether He will find you.

And that’s the thing. If God doesn’t find us, it’s not because He’s not looking. And it’s not because He’s not good enough at looking. It’s because we are not actually the people He is looking for. It’s because we are prideful or self-reliant or self-centered – we are everything except wholeheartedly dedicated to Him.

But if, on the other hand, we are devoted to Him, to His will, to His kingdom, then God will find us. And He will find us today.

3 Reasons Why Christians Should Be the Best Listeners

We have an increased opportunity to run our mouths more than any other generation. That’s because we can run those mouths not only with our actual mouths, but with our devices as well. We have at our fingertips the ability to broadcast our deepest thoughts, most profound opinions, and hottest takes more easily than ever before. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why we are such a loud people – it’s because we have the opportunity to be loud. And man, are we loud.

That’s not to say there aren’t moments to be loud. There are. Being a Christian doesn’t mean we don’t get angry, but being a Christian does shape the manner in which we are angry, what makes us angry, and how we express that anger. Similarly, being a Christian means that we should not primarily be known for our anger and outrage so that when that anger and outrage does come, it actually means something instead of just being the latest expression of an enraged heart. Before we are speakers, we ought to instead be listeners. In fact, Christians ought to actually be the best listeners, and here are three reasons why:

1. Because the Bible tells us to be.

“My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness” (James 1:19-20).

Into the throng of noise steps this command from James – the command to listen. Not tweet. Not broadcast. Not Facebook live. But listen. And then be slow to speak in all the various ways we can.

True enough, the Bible doesn’t only tell us to listen. We are to preach; we are to give testimony; we are to sing. There is all kinds of talking that we are meant to do as Christians. It seems, though, that we tend to swing the pendulum too far away from the listening side. If we are truly people who believe in the authority of Scripture, then the simplest and most obvious reason why we ought to be good listeners is because the Bible tells us to be.

2. Because we are most aware of our own faults.

Part of being a Christian is a deep understanding of your own sin. In fact, you can’t really be a Christian without that understanding – that we are, at the core, sinful people in need of grace. But it’s not only that we are sinful in heart – it’s that we are also flawed in other areas. We aren’t experts on everything in the world. We have varying degrees of education, experience, and even wisdom.

As Christians, we don’t have to be afraid of knowing those shortcomings. We can humbly acknowledge them, and in so doing, we can assume a posture of listening and learning because we know ourselves. Our inability or refusal to listen to others is, more times than not, steeped in assumption. We either assume the worst about someone else or we assume that we actually know better than another person. In either case, the result is a failure to listen. But when we are aware of our own faults, we make a different assumption – we assume that we have something to learn before we have something to teach; something to receive before we have something to give; something to understand before we seek to be understood.

3. Because we have greater security.

We are all, at some level, still living middle school. We all have our own particular insecurities that are constantly in the background. We are concerned about our appearance, our intelligence, our ingenuity, or something else, and those long held insecurities affect us more than we think we do. One of the ways they do is they make us assume a posture of defensiveness. We feel attacked even if we’re not. So when we find ourselves in a conversation with someone who doesn’t think, believe, or behave as we do, we take it personally and are quick to move on that perceived attack. We talk. Argue. Attack first. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For the Christian it should not be that way.

The Christian ought to be daily confronting his lingering insecurities through the power of the gospel. For in the gospel, we know that we are fully accepted in Christ. We are the chosen sons and daughters of God. And the confidence that comes from that knowledge, among other things, bolsters our ability to listen.

Friends, we are all talking. A lot. Let’s make sure that as we speak, our words are seasoned with salt. And what’s more, let’s make sure that overall our posture is of listening so that we don’t say more than we ought to.

The Good News About Being a Sheep

This is the technical definition of a “sheep”:

The common name for many species of wild and domesticated ruminant mammals of the genus Ovis of the cattle family. The male is called a ram, the female is called an ewe, and their offspring is a lamb. Sheep are bred for their wool, meat, skins, and milk. They are found in temperate climates and thrive on roughages.

Now that’s a pretty technical definition, but it should have a particular relevance to us because of the biblical importance of the metaphor of the sheep. Out of all the animals in the world, the Lord chose this one to describe us. It is a familiar metaphor for anyone who has read much of the Bible. It is the dominating image of the most famous of the Psalms. In Psalm 23 David describes himself as one of God’s sheep and goes through the means by which the shepherd leads him. Throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah God is described as a shepherd, one that lovingly carries his sheep. And in Ezekiel 34, the Lord is angry because the shepherds he entrusted to his flock have done a bad job in leading them. He is the shepherd, we are his sheep.

It’s not a particularly uplifting metaphor. If you continue reading the dictionary definition, you find that a sheep is not just a species of a wild or domesticated animal of the cattle family; when the term is applied to a person, it means someone unable to think for themselves. It is a gullible person; one that has no real sense of time or comparison and is just in life for whatever is in front of their nose at that precise moment. Further, sheep are a “prey” species which means that their only defense mechanism is just to flat out run away when facing danger.

Sheep aren’t particularly wise or strong or courageous; they aren’t overly ambitious or fierce. I know of no sports teams whose mascots are the sheep.

What, then, could possibly be the good news about being a sheep? Simply this – it’s that sheep have a shepherd.

The sheep are not strong, but the shepherd is.The sheep are not brave, but the shepherd is.The sheep are not wise, but the shepherd is.

So when the sheep have a good shepherd, there’s really only one thing the sheep have to worry about – it’s recognizing and following that good shepherd.

In other words, the sheep have the luxury of a relatively simple life so long as the shepherd is trustworthy. And oh, how trustworthy is our shepherd:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:11-15).

Are you feeling anxious? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you feeling paralyzed by the complexities of life? If so, there is good news for you as a sheep. All you really need to focus on is better hearing and recognizing the voice of the Shepherd and following Him.

The Psalm That Keeps Your Ambition in Check

There is a godly kind of ambition.

This is the kind of ambition that makes us press on toward godliness; to grow ever deeper in our knowledge and experience of the gospel; to want to maximize our resources for the sake of the kingdom. This is the kind of ambition that embodies the Christian who has a watchful kind of posture, knowing that Jesus is coming back, and that we are to make the most of who we are in Christ and what we are stewarding for His sake.

Yes, there is a godly kind of ambition. But my goodness, how difficult it is to live in.

That’s because there is also a worldly kind of ambition. This is the never-ending pursuit of “more” and “else,” never satisfied or content with our station in life. More power. More money. More recognition. This is the heart that has no room for gratitude, no room for real joy, no room for godly satisfaction. They’ve all been squeezed out by the cultural lie that has become virtue – that ladder-climbing, in whatever arena you’re in, is not only right but is also good.

It’s infectious, this ambition. And what’s worse, we find ourselves not only infected by it, but carriers of it. We pass it off to our co-workers as we jockey back and forth for position. We pass it off to our children as we demand more touchdowns, more A’s in math class, more invitations to more parties. It’s a self-perpetuating disease that runs rampant through materialism, posturing online, and jealousy masquerading as “friendly competition.” We would do wise to recognize just how prevalent this corrupted kind of ambition truly is. And that’s why we need – we need – Psalm 131:

Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I do not get involved with things
too great or too wondrous for me.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted my soul
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like a weaned child.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
both now and forever (Psalm 131).

The song cuts right to the chase. Let’s call ambition what it is. Pride. Haughtiness. Biting off the things that are too big for our souls to handle. But thankfully, the psalm also offers us a better way. For the psalmist, the way you combat corrupted ambition is through the gospel.

The imagery presented here is of a child and a parent. Surely, if you’re a parent, you can remember those days. The days when home was a safe place. When your children were free from self-consciousness and anxiety. When they were (at least sometimes) content with the smallest things, and especially so when they were with you. Their father. Their mother.

For they knew without even knowing they knew that they were loved. Accepted. Safe. And because they were, they had no compulsion to validate themselves or prove their worth.

But now we are adults. We’ve had all that innocence beaten out of us by failed relationships, career disappointments, and subtle betrayals. And yet there is a way back. And the way back is through the gospel.

For it’s only through the gospel that we truly have a Father that accepts us, not because we have validated ourselves to Him, but because of the righteousness of Jesus. The security that comes in that kind of relationship is the antidote to ambition because in the arms of our Father we can know beyond any doubt that we have nothing left to prove.

We are His. We are home. We are safe.

Embrace it again today, Christian. Remember who you are. And let that memory temper the ungodly desire for “more.”