God has something better…

 

World news and local events have some Christians thinking that the return of Christ is eminent. It could be, yet the Lord has given me and my husband long-term projects which convince us that it is not next week.

The church at Thessalonica were in some confusion about this and wondered if they missed it. For that reason, Paul wrote and told them to calm down rather than being shook up:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

Why be shook up? Don’t we long to see the face of Jesus and the righteousness that He will establish when He returns? Aren’t we distressed about evil being called good and good being called evil? Why would we not long for the rule of Christ rather than the anarchy that seems worldwide? Is it because we have loved ones who are not ready? Or is it because some of us are hooked on the pleasures of this life?

Today’s devotional suggest that God’s people cannot be stable in their faith or follow the Lord fully if we are tied fast to anything else. If we are ready to live in the city of God, we must be detached from all that holds us here. The OT example is Abraham:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you… So Abram went, as the Lord had told him… (Genesis 12:1-4)

Thinking of my thirty-two relocations, I understand Abram more than if we had lived in one place all our lives. At the same time, I know the difficulty of leaving behind something that has become dear to me. The reason this man is an example is because he “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)

Abram realized that as good as ‘home’ might be, God has something better. The ability to turn from life as I know it is easier when I am looking ahead rather than clinging to what is now. The NT says:

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:14–16)

Jesus said that He went to prepare a place for us. The Bible speaks of what God has prepared, not clearly yet as I understand Him more clearly, then my confidence grows in His ability and desire to make that eternal city more delightful than anything I’ve ever known.
This means letting go of what I know, not relying on anything but God. As Corrie Ten Boom said, “I have learned not to hold to anything too tightly for it hurts when God pries my fingers loose.”

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:26–29)

It is not me that God consumes but He shakes me loose from any idols that I might cling to instead of trusting Him. All idols will not survive. This term was first used in that connection:

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23–24)

PRAY: Lord, I get it. The stuff of this life cannot do any of what You do for me. "On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah" (Psalm 62:7–8) YOU ARE ENOUGH for now and forever!

Do I know what’s next?

Today I feel like Abraham must have felt when God called him to go — not knowing where and what awaited him there. God is asking me to change many things. Part of that was a deep desire to simplify my life, to be more efficient, to listen more closely to Him in areas where habit dictated action rather than the Holy Spirit. However, I know that whatever lies ahead, I am clueless yet eager to discover what will happen.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

MacArthur begins today’s reading with: “The life of faith begins with a willingness to forsake everything that displeases God.” If that is applicable to me, then living by habit is His target rather than any gross sin. Yet I know that sin is sin, whether it is shaking my fist in His face or merely not asking Him how He wants me to spend every minute of each day.

Abraham is the biblical example of the living by faith. He was not perfect, sometimes taking matters into his own hands, but the Bible is clear; not only was this man the father of the Hebrew nation, by example he was the father of all who live by faith in God.

He (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. (Romans 4:11)

The first-century Jews thought God selected this man because of his righteousness, but Abraham was a sinful man living in the idolatrous society in the Chaldean city of Ur. God’s call to him was like this: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1–3) and his response: “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” (Genesis 12:4)

He listened, trusted and obeyed. His pilgrimage of faith began when he separated himself from the pleasures of a pagan land to pursue God’s plan for his life.

There is a certain pleasure of being in control of life, doing things that are easy for me, keeping habits, living my days with a schedule of events and activities of my own choice. Most people would not consider any of that as sinful or pagan, but the closer God pulls me to Jesus, the more I see that He did not live that way. His prayer in Gethsemane was, “Not my will but thine be done” yet He prayed and lived that way all the time.

MacArthur says, “So it is with you if you’re a man or woman of true faith. You’ve forsaken sinful pleasures to follow Christ. And as your love for Christ increases, there’s a corresponding decrease in worldly desires.” Right now, I know that sinful desires include managing my own life without asking Him about all things. In a sense, this is practical atheism — living by my choices as if God did not exist.

God wants my focus on fulfilling His will for my life when I get up, whenever I eat and drink (see 1 Corinthians 10:31), and do daily chores (or not), finding out what He wants rather than simply living according to my to-do list without asking or listening for His input. He may not take me away from home, but I am already realizing that increased prayer will be part of it. I prayed three rather outrageous requests this week and He answered them. It wasn’t what I prayed that mattered, but He is showing me that I can pray for His will to be done with confidence in the outcome, no matter how impossible the request might seem. He wants me to always know the joy and assurance that come from following Him.

PRAY: Jesus, grant me the grace and spiritual courage to walk by faith today rather than by habit and in my own strength and thinking.

PONDER: How does this passage describe the way that I run my own life?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)