For better or worse, richer or poorer . . .

While I’m reading through the Bible each year, and reading the words of Tozer each day, I’m also reading the prayers of a man named Walter Brueggmann. I don’t know much about him but that he prays with great transparency, expressing things that I might feel but do not say out loud. Tozer’s thoughts and Brueggmann’s prayer for today seem related.

First, the Scriptures declare the way the psalmist thinks about the commands of the Lord:

“Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.” (Psalm 119:137–138)

Brueggemann says this in his prayer entitled “You who Command”:

You who command,

You who are our commander,

You who are our commander-in-chief;

We intend obedience, without reserve.

As we ponder your commands, they often come at us

like more nagging from our mothers,

like more rules from our teachers,

like more expectations from our peers,

like more pressure from the church,

like more defeat from our guilty conscience.

Our obedience thins down to resentment,

tired of the nagging and pressure and rules and expectations.

Then we hear your wonderful words of life,

and know that in your command is our perfect freedom.

For your command,

for Jesus’ glad obedience,

for Jesus’ new command of neighbor,

we give you great thanks.

We vow full, glad compliance. Amen.

(Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, ed. Edwin Searcy. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003).

This conclusion that God is acting in righteousness toward us and the same conclusion of the psalmist are positive responses to what could seem like a ‘harsh taskmaster’ to my sinful heart. God wants good for me, but like he spoke to Eve in the garden, the enemy wants me to think otherwise. If Satan can convince me that God is not for me, then he can also convince me to mess with what the Bible says, changing it to suit my selfish pride and reasoning.

Tozer says, “To manipulate the Scriptures so as to make them excuse us, compliment us and console us is to do despite to the written Word and to reject the Living Word.” He is right. Instead of concluding God loves me and wants perfect freedom for me, I will hear Him in resentment.

In contrast, saving faith in Jesus Christ means believing all that the Word of God says. Tozer warns to beware that I do not make up a Jesus that I can accept rather than trust the reality that God has revealed.

True faith is not only about believing what God says. If I genuinely believe then I will obey Him . . .

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” (Romans 1:1–5, italics mine)

Faith is not a sentimental wishy-washy and passive acceptance of the pleasant verses while overlooking the stern warnings. Instead, faith is in the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the One who tenderly forgives sinners yet also with a whip drives money-changers out of the temple and calls the religious leaders in His day hypocrites. I cannot pick what I like about Him and ignore the parts that make me squirm.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, You put blessing into the words of the poet who hears Your strong commands and can say: “Then we hear your wonderful words of life, and know that in your command is our perfect freedom. For your command, for Jesus’ glad obedience, for Jesus’ new command of neighbor, we give you great thanks. We vow full, glad compliance.” Thank You for this and for Tozer’s words that agree and reinforce. I enjoy the pleasant commands yet must also be glad for the more difficult things that You bring into my life. Your love is in them also and for that, I must respond in faith and obedience.