A reason to pray . . .

 

I’ve been praying for the salvation of a person I know because her extreme selfishness is ruining lives. She is oblivious to her condition and her attitude is a childish ‘I will have my own way’ no matter what anyone else might want. In other words, I want God to fix this mess for those reasons.

However, God rebukes my motive for praying. He starts with this statement and a verse: Every dimension of life, whether physical or spiritual, is a testimony to God’s mercy.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)

When God saves, it is not because anyone is special, more deserving, or more needy. Nor is it because their sinfulness is interfering with the faith of others. It is because He sovereignly choses to love and extend His great mercy to that person.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4–5)

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)

As today’s devotional says, God addresses the pitiful condition of mankind because of His great mercy. Unregenerate people are totally depraved, dead in trespasses, enslaved to sin, cursed to eternal damnation, unable to help themselves, and in desperate need of someone to show them mercy and compassion. That’s the good news of the gospel: God loves sinners and extends mercy to all.

Of course, we need to be willing to admit we need it, but that is God’s doing also. We are told to repent yet also told that God grants it:

God exalted (Jesus) at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:31)

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24–26)

Without Jesus, repentance is not a purely human action. Esau sold his birthright and regretted his actions, then afterward, “when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:17) This was an ‘I’m sorry I got caught’ repentance, not the kind God wants. His “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Bottom line: as I pray for this person, I need to ask God for mercy. He loves sinners and as the OT says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22–23)

My prayers need to look more like this: “For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!” (Psalm 108:4–6)

Also, when I pray, asking for godly repentance must be included. This is not a case of ‘fix it for my comfort’ but a case of ‘turn her life around, granting repentance that You may be glorified.’

PRAY: Jesus, You always address the needs of my heart first before You grant the desires of my heart. In this case, my desires were more about me than the other person, never mind that my concern ought to be that You are glorified in the answer. I’m thankful for Your great mercy. By it, I repented and received eternal life and an eternal inheritance. Without Your goodness and grace, I would be just like that person whose selfishness is so destructive.

PONDER: Mark 10:46–52 tells how a blind man called out for mercy and received it. When God granted mercy to me, I didn’t call out for it nor realize how much I needed it, yet He came into my life anyway. For those who are caught up in ‘me, me, me’ the Lord God knows exactly what to do and how to demonstrate mercy and His great love and power. I need Him to show me my part in doing the same.

 

 

Can your idol love you like you adore it?

Idolatry is substituting human love for the love of God. Human love by today’s definitions covers everything from lust to noble tenderness, from pornography to pizza. While these definitions may be broad in scope, this kind of love falls short when measured with the love of God.

God’s love is eternal. He says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” (Jeremiah 31:3) The love of humans might be extended to our idols, but the idols are not obligated to love us in return. Money or the things it buys cannot love us, and adored humans may not even know we exist.

God’s love is merciful. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . .” (Ephesians 2:4–5) Idols might build our ego or make us feel important, but they cannot lift us from the deadness of sin, forgive those sins, and give us eternal life.

God’s love changes who we are. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (1 John 3:1) Human love can set the heart sailing and produce delight and joy. It can make a man change diapers and a woman wash dirty socks, but it cannot make us a child of God or change us so much that the world cannot figure us out.

God’s love does much more. Even the following short description is far beyond the reach of human love . . .

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

Because of Jesus Christ, this “love of God is poured into our hearts . . .” (Romans 5:5) and as Christians obey Him, He pours it from our hearts into the lives of others This is the huge difference between human love and God’s love — the focus. My love focuses on me, on what the object of my love can do for me, what benefits I get from ‘caring’ about someone or something else that I’ve put on a pedestal. The love of God benefits me too, but it is not about me. His love is about others, about loving Him and loving those made in His image.

Love from God is transparent, open, a ‘being myself’ kind of love that trusts God entirely. Because I know that He will meet all my needs, even my emotional need for love, I am free to do whatever He asks in relationship to others. This includes sacrifice of time, effort, money, anything that will show love to them. This love includes grace (giving when undeserved) and mercy (giving even if the opposite is deserved) and loving like God loves has an eternal focus. There is no trace of “what’s in this for me now” when God’s love flows through His people.

If idols could love, they would lap up the attention or affection given them to build their own sense of importance. Idols cannot and will not give back without full consideration for themselves. God is not like that — and Jesus Christ proves it. 

I am NOT God

A few years ago, a well-known actress twirled about on a beach chanting the exciting discovery, “I am God” — not even a small “g” — as she decided that in essence she is the creator of all things.

This actress and others who have come to her same conclusion, would have a field day with a phrase from these verses in the New Testament. Unfortunate for them, the phrase does not stand alone. It must be read in its context.  

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:2–4)

The phrase is: “you may become partakers of the divine nature.” This looks something like “I am God” but then the other phrases in this passage clarify that being a partaker of the divine nature is not the same thing as becoming God.

Peter writes that grace and peace are multiplied to his readers “in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.” The word used here for “knowledge” means “full discernment.” It isn’t about awareness of their existence, but a much deeper knowing, even a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ. He also says “our Lord” which implies a shared submission. If everyone is God, how can you submit to all of them?

Next, Peter says that God’s divine power grants to His people everything they need for life and godliness. Even those who think they are God have no rational basis to assume they created their own life. No one can plan their own conception and birth.

As for making godliness of their own doing, they must change the meaning of the word. This is not about being godlike (even if they get that definition correct), but is about being holy. Holiness is “other than” — totally pure and utterly far above all other things. To have this bestowed by God results in a contrite and humble heart. To boast that “I am godly” immediately makes it not so. Godliness never includes pride.

God calls His people to His glory and excellence. He is not in the business of making me all that I can be, but is transforming me into the image of His Son. This cannot happen unless He deals with my sinful desires. One of those is to “be like God” as suggested to Eve in Eden. She was already made in His image, but that was not enough. This desire led her to temptation and sin. Since God is sinless, her and Adam’s disobedience ruined the image. It is being in this image of God that faith in Christ restores.

That means the essence of Deity is never mine, as Satan suggested to Eve. However, as the first humans were initially created in the image of God, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit I am also recreated in the image of the Most High. It is in this sense that Christians are partakers of the divine nature.

For instance, “God is love” and by the filling of the Holy Spirit, we become able to love like He does. “He that loves is born of God.”

God is truth. Those who believe in Him become true and lovers of whatever is true. He is good, and He makes us good by His Spirit and grace. Apart from Him, “There is no one who is good.”

He also makes us members of the body of Christ and puts the life of Christ in us. In that way, Christians become partakers of the divine nature in a higher sense than merely by how we think and act. Because of His power, the same life that makes Jesus alive also is our life. 

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — (Ephesians 2:4–5)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Our union with Christ is the only reason for any godliness or Godlikeness that we possess. It is this life that ought to make us stand out in our sinful and dark world. All that we say and do should flow from the One who lives in our hearts and gives us life. To say that any goodness I have is my own is arrogance. To say that I am God is sheer blasphemy.

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Lord, as Your Word says, godliness is a mystery. Yet this mystery has been revealed by Your Spirit. You say it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” So many times I’ve patted myself on the back instead of giving You the glory for all that You have done in me. Forgive me. As for those who think they are good, or that their “goodness” is their own, or who think they have become deity, have mercy. Forgive them, give them light and draw them from this deception into truth.