God is Enough

 
This year started with the thought that God is enough. I picked a devotional book with that title thinking it would continually affirm the truth that God indeed is enough. However, like many church services and preachers, this book is beginning to tell me what I must do and sound as if God is not enough. Even when on the topic of faith, the onus is on me to believe rather than affirming that God’s grace comes to me by faith and this is not on me — it is His gift.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Then the writer shakes a finger at the reader saying if we don’t receive that gift we cannot be saved, as if salvation is up to the sinner to do something. Yet Jesus says,

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

At this, some will even say that I must then be fruitful However, even that is a gift from the Holy Spirit. He produces it; I cannot.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:19–24)

Even that last line telling me to crucify the flesh is His doing:

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)

He died and my old life died with Him. He lives and I live in Him because He gave Himself for me.

At the same time, salvation and the Christian life is not about being passive, just enjoying God at work without any response. Because He lives in me, He will have me busy. One vital activity is that I am supposed to keep short accounts with Him…

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Yet it is He who reveals sin to me, motivates confession, forgives it, and cleanses me. Jesus is involved in every action that He wants me to take. The flesh, even in its deadness, will resist and say NO. The world mocks me. The devil tries to stop me. Jesus is behind every YES, from putting the ideas in my head, challenging the flesh, silencing the devil, and making the world’s ideas foolish and sinful. He is enough. 

I am to declare the good news to others yet Jesus gives the words, the opportunities, even the motivation to not back away but to do it. Paul said, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.“ (Acts 20:27) Yes, some will shrink back and not obey yet even as we do obey, it is God who is making it happen. He is the One who puts the words on our lips and His love for others in our hearts. Without Jesus, none of that happens.

PRAY: Lord, when You are the focus and Your Spirit fills my heart, doing what you say is as natural as breathing. This is what faith looks like — it is living in the total assurance that You take care of everything, from tough times to supplying all my needs. You are enough.

Weeping may last only for a moment?

 

Those who believe that God is only interested in making us healthy and wealthy would not like the thoughts expressed in today’s devotional. It begins with, “Troubles come because of God’s faithfulness, not, as so many seem to think, because of His unfaithfulness.”

The author goes on to explain using the story of Lazarus (John 11). When their brother died, both Martha and Mary thought their trouble came because the Lord had failed to be there when he was in need. Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” and Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus spoke to Martha saying, “Your brother will rise again” and asked her if she believed that those who trusted Him would never die. He said nothing to Mary who was weeping but asked where Lazarus was buried and then wept with her. After that, He went to the tomb.

Before all this, his disciples thought Jesus would go to Lazarus when he was sick, but the text says, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” He deliberately waited until this man died, then went, telling His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” speaking of his death, not sleep. He told them, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

His absence had not been a mistake or an oversight. He planned not to be there; and His absence was for a purpose. He would do something greater than healing!

For me, this is timely but painful. My hubby has learned that his injury could take months to heal, and many like this never heal. The thought of him being in pain for a long time does not raise a question that God does not love him, but it does fill me with questions about His will for us. Does love mean this happened and He has a better plan and is saying, “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there”?

The devotional writer says, “Love can never be glad of anything that hurts its loved ones, unless there is to come out of the hurt some infinitely greater blessing.”

PRAY: Lord, it is difficult to think that this sorrow has a hidden blessing, particularly using this story to illustrate it, for I realize for some that perfect healing only comes to those who have been raised and are in eternity. Like my grandfather who was blind — and now can see. This week has been one of deep emotions, not frustration like Martha but more of the sadness of Mary. I know that You are feeling what I feel and yet You are not finished with us. As the devotional says, no matter how unlikely it seems, beyond every sorrow there is a blessing — and we do not want to miss it by supposing that you do not love us.

God’s Wisdom

 

I love the surprises of God. Sometimes they are little things like all the lights are green when I need to get somewhere on time, or I find a bargain that I’ve prayed to find, or someone calls that I needed to visit. Sometimes He surprises me with unpleasant news. I didn’t expect my sister to die so soon and so quickly. Or Sunday’s sermon ties in to a convicting devotional with both challenging me to unwelcome change.

The point is, I cannot predict what God will do, except those times when I pray with absolute assurance that He is going to answer the way I’m hoping. We once tried to rent a house only to be told it was taken, but I knew we were going to live in that house. The person who planned to changed his mind and we were given the house.

Another time I knew that I should call a store and confirm a sale price, even though it was printed in the newspaper. I did, went to the store, and was told the sale was over. I said, “But I called…” and the clerk said she remembered that call and gave me the item for the sale price.

More recently, I was praying for a prodigal and a song came to mind that he would soon be “coming home” and I was so certain of it that I just kept singing that song. Within a few days, he called to share he was again actively following Christ.

These things are wonderful when they happen, and when they do not, I feel like a starving person. When the devotional writer says we need to be careful that we are not worshiping the gifts more than the giver, I am convicted. Yet how can the two be separated? It is the same with our dearest friends. They give us reasons to consider them dear, and those reasons cannot be laid aside. They define who that person is.

The devotional writers says if we wiped every promise out of the Bible we would still have God left and God would be enough — but without the things that God does, how would we know that He is enough? If He just surprised me all the time, prayer for help in a crisis or guidance in making decisions would be pointless. I would have nothing to base my hope and confidence on if I didn’t know that God makes and keeps His promises.

It seems the devotional writer is saying I should not assume that God will do whatever I want Him to do or be presumptuous in any way. I can remember a plebiscite taken in a town we lived in and a Christian was certain the vote would go God’s way. I thought of sports pundits and news people who predict winners and are often wrong, but did not say anything. How can we mere mortals be certain what our God of surprises is going to do? In this case, the plebiscite was voted against what that person was so sure would happen and I learned something about God. Again, who can second-guess Him?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9)

Still, God is enough, yet this is the gist of it — not that all that God does is missing or unseen, but  His way of thinking and dealing with the world, the mess in the world, and the sinners that seem happy and in control is beyond my way of thinking. I don’t need a specific promise nor do I need a more solid doctrine, or deeper understanding. I just need to remember that He is able and my inability to see or deal with any of it with insight and understanding will always fall short. God’s ways will always be beyond my comprehension and that is precisely why I can trust Him. My ignorance of what God is doing is actually a form of proof for His greater power.

PRAY: Jesus, You know how I want to be a know-it-all who can figure out the reason things happen and the possible solutions that You will bring to those things. That is sheer arrogance on my part. It shows up in my pouting when it becomes apparent that I really have no clue what You are doing. Forgive my pride and lack of letting go of my suppositions, even if they are based on Your prior revelations of Yourself. I should have learned by now that even though You are faithful and reliable, You are also not likely to do the same thing twice. You will always surprise me with Your answers to my perplexities.

Walk by faith, not by sight or…

Since having pneumonia, changing to a Mac instead of a PC (learning curve) and having challenges come at me one after the other, I’m realizing a helplessness that is important to Christian living but I’m not enjoying it very much. Being dependent on Christ alone is not as easy as the words to many of our hymns and songs claim it to be.

Today’s devotional says many Christians sing words like: “Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find” but the author doubts if we could honestly say those words express the reality in our experience. I get that. Recently being several times in situations of helplessness, I’ve felt like being in a foreign land where I don’t know the language, have no one to guide me, and the map isn’t making sense. Lost, no routine, not even a friendly face.

Yes, that is an exaggeration, and I do realize that this is part of the sanctification process. I do want to honestly say God is enough, but my experience has been pushing me in many directions. I would like a constant realization of His presence, a sense of His love, and consistent answers to my prayers. Even so, I’m not sure what ‘Christ alone’ looks or feels like. Maybe David didn’t either when he wrote these words;

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. (Psalm 62:1–2)

It might be easier to describe what this means by what it does not mean. I do trust Christ alone for my salvation. Helplessness adds to the truth that in ourselves, we are not able to be godly people, never mind set ourselves on the way to heaven or gain eternal life. This is a given.

However, to say that God is enough is not about having sound doctrines. While having them challenged does not make them unsound, it does wipe any cocky confidence out of my heart. I cannot rely on every jot and tittle in my beliefs when helplessness also mocks them. If I know it all, why then do I suffer as if I know nothing?

God is enough is not about good feelings either, no more than I can rely on ‘my feelings, or on any righteous works, or fervent prayers, or earnest striving’ as the devotional writer says, because waiting on God can seem like building on the sand. He cannot be second-guessed. That means “God is enough” is not being sure about much of anything else.

At the same time, in all that uncertainty, I cannot put my trust in God alone because all else fails and there is nowhere else to go. I need to trust Him alone just because God is God — whether I can hear Him speak, or see Him at work, or know for sure that He is answering my prayers.

PRAY: Lord, it is easiest to trust You when You speak and when I can see You in action. Yet when I cannot, You have not changed. You are who You are and faith means knowing You will do what You do whether I am in on it or not. Keep me close.

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1–3)

When Joy takes a holiday

 

Since the middle of January up until two days ago, I had many hours of wondering if this was the way God would take me home. Much of the time I felt as if I would not survive or not ever feel normal again. I joke that normal is only a setting on the dryer, but when illness hits and does not go away, normal takes on a different meaning.

Not only that, my joy vanished. All through the years, the joy of the Lord has always been there, deep in my heart and through good and bad, but this past few weeks, it was missing. Knowing self-pity drives it underground didn’t help. Praying that I would not feel sorry for myself didn’t help. All the kindness shown to me in the hospital and after at home didn’t help. Whining like OT Job with “why this” questions went unanswered.

Finally I stopped all my asking and surrendered to the will of God without knowing what that might be. I belong to Him and He would do whatever He wanted for me, and I accepted that. The very next morning His joy returned. Still coughing and somewhat more tired than usual, but “normal” came back in that when I asked for the joy of the Lord, He granted it to me — and those who know this joy also know that hardships lose their power when joy takes over.

Today’s devotional says joy is not a thing to rejoice over, like the return of health or an outside event, nor is it to be idolized as something to put on a pedestal. Instead, it is the gladness of truth, of realizing what Christ has done, that I know Him, and that no matter what might be happening, He brings delight to my heart. Outer well-being does not do that. Joy goes beyond circumstances in this world with a clear comprehension of who God is and who I am because of Jesus.

The devotional author says we “do not on an earthly plane rejoice in our joy but in the thing that causes our joy. And on the heavenly plane it is the same. We are not to rejoice in our joy, but we are to rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation.” The OT prophet put it this way:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places… (Habakkuk 3:17–19)

Not only can no man or devil take this joy from us, and no earthly sorrows can touch it unless… and God answered my “why” questions with this final paragraph:

All the spiritual writers of past generations have recognized this joy in God, and all of them have written concerning the stripping process that seems necessary to bring us to it. They have called this process by different names—“inward desolation,” “winter of the soul,” “dispensation of darkness”—all meaning the same thing, which is the experience of finding all earthly joys strained or taken away in order to drive the soul to God alone.

PRAY: Jesus, I would not thought of being so sick as a stripping process or even these other names for such an experience, but am thankful that in it, You have shown me in a deeper way than ever before that You are enough. No matter what happens, I can rejoice in You, the only One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God is Enough

 

This new year begins with joy and with the strong conviction that God is enough. He sent Jesus into my life more than fifty years ago. I’ve been in His bootcamp for much of that time, learning how to live as a soldier for the Lord and most of the time feeling like I’d never be able to measure up. However, He finally got it through my thick skull that I will never measure up — for He does not measure me but Christ who lives in me. 

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (Psalm 62:5–7)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

My righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The new life He gave me is His life, not a better version of my old life. For that reason, He tells me “to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”  (Ephesians 4:23–24)

This is an amazing resting place, part of realizing that God alone is enough — enough to be all that I need to be, and enough for all my needs. He bestows the goodness required to live here as His child and to walk through the gates of heaven: 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1–4)

Again, and I can shout it: GOD IS ENOUGH!

In our church, this has become a motto using slightly different words. We say ONLY GOD when He does what only He can do. For example, every year in December, our church budget faces a shortage. This year it was overwhelmingly huge, yet yesterday morning our lead pastor announced that the giving that week not only met the budget but exceeded it. We said, “Only God” and “God is enough!”

The devotional reading for today says, “No soul can really be at rest until it has given up dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone.” It seems to me that many of us stubbornly put our expectation in other things and have to learn that nothing but disappointment will be the result, as if we have to touch the stove before we believe it is hot. How sad. The ideal is like Abraham who simply believed God and obeyed Him. 

Yesterday the Lord spoke to me again about keeping my focus on Him so that I’m not plagued by my attention-deficit tendencies. Stop all self-effort and simply trust Him to do what I cannot do. Again He tells me that He is enough.

PRAY: Jesus, what a delight to rest in You. May this new year be marked by a deeper faith in the reality that You are enough! I can safely and confidently rest in You for everything I need and to hear my cries and answer my prayers! You are enough!

But God…

One more day the devotional that I am reading speaks about the brook that dries up. God’s prophet Elijah is taken to a place of protection during a drought that plagues the land…

So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. (1 Kings 17:5–7)

God may wean me from whatever I rely on other than Him by taking it away. He may bring me into greater relationship with others who suffer. He may use the loss for good in several ways and by teaching me that grace is sufficient. Yet sometimes the brook has been that sense of His grace — and even that dries up.

I cannot speak of my worst experiences for that would cast a pall on the reputation of others. I can speak of being devastated to the core, of seeing no options and feeling great fear, pain and horror. Bread, meat and the brook were dried up and so was my soul. 

Then two words lifted me: “But God.” These words are repeated more than two hundred times in the Bible. Some of my favorites include:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 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 2:3–5)

For (our fathers) disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10)

The deepest truth found in the story of the dried up brook is that all else fails, but God remains. For me, the end of my own resources meant the beginning of a deeper, closer relationship with God, a God that never fails. 

The devotional writer talks of the “faith that runs through the green fields of childhood” and some never lose that, but for most of us the brook dries up. Whatever the cause (moral failure, doubts, financial reverses, loss of loved ones or other losses) we struggle and yet eventually discover that the loss of our brook is nothing compared to the God that we gain in that battle. 

Yes, those who experience devastating loss may limp forever afterward, yet nothing can take away what is gained. Even the loss of health, prosperity, love, or anything else that finds no comfort in condolences or substitutes, is a gain when the end result is not mere good but God Himself. 

I know that the blessings I enjoyed before and those now are nothing compared to seeing the face of God in the worst situations of life. Whatever I have or everything I’ve ever wanted might be represented by a stream of refreshing water, yet all of it is a mere empty brook compared to that ocean that is eternally full.

No one enjoys the pain of loss, but when God fills the void with His own amazing self, who would trade that back for the way it was before? Not I. No, not I.

The hardest lessons . . .

Last night something woke me. It was silence. We have an air filter in our bedroom that battles allergens with ultraviolet light. It makes a hum and it wasn’t humming. When I couldn’t turn it back on, I thought it had burned out. This morning, after fixing several flashing clocks, I realized that the power had been off, a rare occurrence in our part of the city.

This morning I started thinking about all the things I depend on. My car to get me places, the lights to turn on at the flick of a switch, clean water from the taps, even the sunshine and the seasons. After reading the newspaper, I’m reminded that not everyone in the world can depend on even these simple things. For some, the stability of the ground under their feet is iffy, air quality is dangerous, and severe weather is killing them.

Psalm 62:5 talks about what I ought to depend on. It says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”

Is it? And if I really think that it is, is my soul silent? Or am I hoping that this person will come through for me, and that person will meet my needs? And if I am waiting on God, how much noise do I make about the fact that what I hope for is not happening yet? Do I grumble when I should be thanking God that He hears and answers prayer? I may not see answers to my prayers, but if my expectation is in Him, why be anxious and complain? Isn’t God dependable?

Today’s devotional reading contrasts my needy condition and the dependability of God who meets all my needs. It says that God will bring me into a great sense of my own poverty, inability and destitution before He communicates the greatest of His blessings. The author says that my soul cannot be truly satisfied until I experience and enjoy the union of my helplessness and His almighty strength. It is in feeling the greatest need that I will experience the greatest blessing.

This is why the Apostle Paul could say he took pleasure in being needy. He had learned this lesson that, for me, seems so hard to learn. In his case, he’d experienced more “highs” with God than any believer, yet he also had serious troubles. In 2 Corinthians 17:7-10, he says:

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The lesson is spelled out by Psalm 62:5 also. Both Paul and the psalmist could say that they waited for God alone because their “expectation is from Him.”

I’m not sure a great blessing awaits me, but I do know a sense of inability and weakness that seems to increase. I’ve not yet learned to take pleasure in it, which is what God wants me to do, nor have I learned to be silent while I’m waiting for this hard lesson to take hold.

Eternal joy vs. temporary stuff

Yesterday we went to a pipe band concert that was just a little different. As with most Scottish bands, there were drummers, dancers, and a song or two, but this presentation included a nine-person jazz band that could do amazing things by combining Aretha Franklin with bagpipes. For me, a lover of jazz and bagpipes both, this was incredibly delightful.

The audience agreed; everyone was smiling, clapping, enthusiastic. What was weird is that we went to the same concert (or similar), about two years ago, but I cannot remember being there. I love pipe bands and this one (in our city’s incredible Winspear music center) offers an exceptional performance. How could I so totally forget it?

Yesterday held another fascination. Personal issues (involving people whose permission I would need to publish details) have not changed. The storms I wrote about yesterday still raged then and into today, but when God urged me to rejoice in Him, my mood changed.

The joy of the Lord is hard to describe. I sit here and just rest my mind and I can feel it bubbling inside me like an artesian well deep in the cleft of a rock. Joy is there. If I focus on the problems and storms, joy does not vanish but the sense of it is muffled by anxiety and sorrow, and I know if I remain in that mode, this joy could be overwhelmed.

However, if I think about the power of God, His sovereign purposes, and His promises to meet needs and answer prayers, joy gurgles like a happy brook, washing over stones and carrying away sorrows like leaves tossed in its flow. The joy of the Spirit is more powerful and will not quit.

My devotional reading today tells how God created us in such a way that only He can truly satisfy the needs of our hearts. Because He knows that, and I don’t (or at least I didn’t at first), He understands the importance of me being detached from fleshy and worldly pleasures. How else would I discover the grandness of His joy if I were focused on other sources?

He created me with a God-shaped void that I’ve tried to fill it with all sorts of things which, of course, do not fit. All around me I see people who are obsessed trying to make their chosen ‘things’ fill that void. These are driven people. Some are still having fun because they have not yet realized the void remains unfilled, but most are unhappy and fearful. They know something is missing, but don’t know what it is.

God is Enough says, “We must come to the end of everything that is not God in order to find our joy in God alone,” not that God is out to rob us of all things, but to help us discover that His joy is superior. The joy of other things come and go, obviously. How else would I forget the joy of that concert two years prior? Obviously it delighted me because this one did, but I do not recall that delight. It didn’t fill the void.

The joy that Jesus gives is here, inside me, not depending on what goes on out there. I never have to struggle trying to remember it. My big struggle is in trying to keep my focus on Him, the One who so freely gives it to me.

The Psalmist wrote, “Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” (Psalm 43:2-3)

Those verses remind me that my enemy is not flesh and blood but Satan, the one Jesus called a liar and a destroyer (Ephesians 6 and John 8). Satan tells me that only this thing will make you happy, only that event will give you lasting peace and joy. When I follow his line of thinking, my focus goes off God and my faith is derailed, but when God gives light and truth, and when I respond by turning my eyes and heart toward Him, I rediscover once again that He is my exceeding joy. He fills the holes in my heart, and He is enough.

Facts then faith, and then feelings—maybe

Lately I’ve struggled with trusting God concerning other people. This morning He speaks to me about the alternatives. Psalm 16:4 says, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god.”

Duh! Who or what else will I trust? When I think that someone’s hardness of heart is too strong for God to break, who am I saying is in charge of things? When I compare what my eyes see with who God says He is, and become unsure of God, who am I declaring is more reliable?

Sometimes God challenges my silliness with the smallest things. While no one should base their life on slogans and pithy little sayings, occasionally He uses one to jolt me, particularly when it’s read in context of biblical truth. This morning it is one written in the back of a Bible and can’t even find, but I remember what it says: “God said it; I believe it; that settles it.”

Facts, I’m supposed to base my faith on facts, not feelings. Duh, oh slow of heart is me.

My devotional reading nailed me again with this: “If, for instance, we feel a glow of love toward Him, then we can say heartily that He is enough; but when this glow fails, as sooner or later it is almost sure to do, then we no longer feel that we have found our all in Him. The truth is that what satisfies us is not the Lord but our own feelings about the Lord. But we are not conscious of this, and consequently when our feelings fail, we think it is the Lord who has failed, and we are plunged into darkness.”

Years ago I went round and round like this concerning the presence of the Lord. Sometimes He seemed near and sometimes He seemed far away, but no one had moved. It was only my fickle feelings. An author wrote about the all-permeating presence of God and likened Him to the air around us. That worked for me. Now, whether I feel the presence of God or not, I know He is right here, as close as the air I breathe.

Facts then faith. David wrote, again in Psalm 16, “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope.”

The fact of God’s continual presence is my stability too. So many times the certainty of His nearness gave me all I needed to overcome all sorts of issues. I understand how it works. It is not about feelings.

However, I also know that the “therefore” part that David added needs further explanation. Knowing God’s nearness produced overwhelming joy for David, but this is not necessarily a given. Sometimes joy bubbles, but sometimes it simmers and stays inside because the situation may be grave, terrible even, and one that does not call for rejoicing. When my mother died, the presence of the Lord gave me a deep peace that sustained me through her funeral, but it was not the same giddy joy I felt when my forty-year-old nephew gave his life to Christ. The presence of the Lord produces joy, but the Holy Spirit knows appropriate levels!

Now to today’s issue. Faith follows facts. God is sovereign over all life. No matter how the heathen rage, He will deal with all those who raise their fist against Him. No matter how deep the darkness surrounding some of those I pray for, His light can melt it in an instant. These are facts. Faith follows them, or it should.

When I watch a person from my prayer list flounder in darkness and guilt and sin and all sorts of things that Christ can fix, my heart fills with a burden that often overwhelms me. I get my eyes off the facts and let my feelings of sorrow and despair take leadership. Once that happens, faith falls off the rails and crashes into a blank wall. Ouch.

I’ve been here before, and God bailed me out each time. Now He takes me to another kind of wall and reminds me that He is in charge of everyone, always. He reminds me that just as I may not feel His presence all the time but still know that He is here, I can also know He is in charge, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Faith follows facts, not feelings. Feelings usually derail the train. Facts keep me going on my faith journey. Facts are the things God says. Faith is me believing it, feelings or not, and I’m thinking that ought to settle it.

How is this practical? When I pray, instead of focusing on the huge problems in front of me, I will say affirming words from His Word about God’s great power and mercy above me. I will remind myself that just as He is always here, He is also always enough.

Will an “I promise” deepen my faith?

Two young girls were talking, and one said she had ten pennies. The other girl looked at her hand and only saw five. She said, “You only have five pennies.” The first girl replied, “I have five and my father told me he would give me five more tonight. So I have ten.”

She understood that her father’s promise was as good as done.

I cannot remember my children ever pleading with me using, “Promise?” to add additional assurance to what I already said I would do. I guess that is a good thing. Even though promises are important, they believed in me whether I made them a promise or not.

In April 9, 2007, I wrote, “Because many people fail to keep their word, saying ‘I promise . . .’ has become almost a joke. Politicians who renege, exaggerated retail claims, broken wedding vows, and the like have destroyed the reputation of a promise. Does anyone expect them to be kept?

“I wonder if our crumbling expectation concerning promises has anything to do with Satan’s constant attack on our spiritual lives. Are broken promises part of his attempt to stop us from trusting God? Certainly, God makes hundreds of promises. If everyone else fails me, can I still believe He will not?”

I ended this article with, “‘We walk by faith, not by sight’—which means that if I can be confident of a heaven that I’ve never seen just because God promised it to me, I ought to be just as confident in that same promise-giving God for answers that haven’t yet happened.”

This morning my devotional book brings together those thoughts and the confidence of a child. The first sentence grabbed me: “We say sometimes, ‘If I could only find a promise to fit my case, I could then be at rest.’”

I can relate to this because in my prayers for people, and in my desires for certain things to happen, I think that if I could just find a promise in the Bible regarding this thing, I would not be so anxious about it. I would have assurance that God will do it, and that promise will be enough.

The reading goes on to point out that promises can be misunderstood or misapplied. Instead of placing all my confidence in a promise, I need to think about the person behind them. Who is God? And am I one of those children who nags Him with “Promise?” or one of those children who knows His character so well that I simply trust Him to do the right thing?

It isn’t that God resists making promises. He loves to declare what He will do for us. Willmington’s Book of Lists offers forty-one verses that use the word “promise” yet there are dozens, even hundreds more where God says He will do something for His children.

The reading challenges me with, “Should every promise be wiped out of the Bible, we would still have God left, and God would be enough.” Do I think of God in those terms? Or am I like a child who is not confident that her father will come through so asks, “Promise?”

When I read through that list of forty-one things, I realized that most of them are easy to believe. For instance, where God promises abundant life (John 10:10), a crown of life (Revelation 2:10), a heavenly home (John 14:1-3), or a new name (Isaiah 62:1-2), I have no problem. In fact, forty of the list are great assurances that I never question. These are promises that regard me, my spiritual life, my relationship with God and my salvation.

One of them is, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

I know God has given me Himself and all that I need. He will take care of me. The only one on that list that I struggle with is the promise that relates to other people. It is found in 1 John 5:14-15. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

Why am I so sure about God’s care for me, and so not sure about Him taking care of others? Why are His promises toward me so easy to believe? Maybe when it comes to me, I am determined to cooperate with God, but that’s silly. It is God who has worked that spirit of being yielded into me; I didn’t do it. Why then do I doubt that He will do the same in the lives of those I pray for? Is it because I have no control over their cooperation?

After reading these things and thinking about it, I’m feeling as if always looking for a Bible promise about other people is not the right thing to do—at least if it expresses that I am not sure God loves them too (how arrogant), or that I’m trying to tell God what to do (more arrogance), or just that I want Him to take away my burden for people so that I don’t have to pray for them or talk to them about Him, which is more selfishness oozing out of my heart.

Whatever it is, the title of God is Enough now turns into a challenge. If am so certain that He is enough, then why am I not so certain that for others He isn’t?

(photo from Moments)

He is enough—tell Him so!

Because I can’t see it, I tend to forget how much events in the spiritual realm affect my sense of well-being. When I’m sad for no reason, or have a negative attitude for no reason, it is almost always because God was or is doing something special and my spiritual enemy does not like it, so goes after me. Often, the worse I feel, the more important the event.

Sunday was a great day. My Bible class studied and discussed how Jesus shared the salvation message with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). Out of that study, we saw many principles that apply to our own sharing of the gospel. Then, right after the class was over, God gave me an opportunity to actually do what we had been talking about. One of the women (who does not know Him) lingered behind to talk. To top that off, in the service that followed, the sermon topic was exactly the same thing that I had shared with her, so she heard it twice.

Monday brought unbelievable fatigue. I’d had a good night’s sleep so should not have felt so tired, but I did. I the usual tasks as well as several with deadlines, so I couldn’t loaf. I dreaded doing everything on my list, as if these ordinary chores were the most difficult in the world. In the evening, our church hosted a farewell for one special person. Attending that perked me up a bit. At the end of the evening, I took a few minutes to give a few ladies a brief quilting lesson (the same room had been double-booked with the party, so we compromised). That perked me up a bit more.

After another good sleep, Tuesday was worse than Monday. My feet dragged. My chore list was not my own as it involved taking up the slack for a couple of people unable to do their normal part toward a large mailing. I spent most of the afternoon in my car going from place to place and while not rude or impatient with others, it seemed as if the day was black and difficult.

This morning’s Bible readings were not much help. God is silent. Usually when that happens it is because I already know what He wants from me. This time, I remembered some verses from Monday, Habakkuk 3:17–19.

“Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.”

When the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer offer no encouragement, when life and my attitude seem to be out of sorts, with or without a reason, God still asks me to praise Him. He is the delight of my life, not the highs of Sunday (highs are always followed by lows unless I pray myself down off that mountain), nor the normally pleasing routines of life on Monday or Tuesday.

Besides that, the joy of sharing His good news on Sunday created ripples in the spiritual world. I cannot see them, but I felt them. The enemy of all souls does not like it when God’s people exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not like it when one of his captives hears the good news and responds with delight in her eyes and heart. He is unhappy with God’s people when any of us share the power of God with someone who does not yet know it. He fights back.

This same enemy is also a joy thief. He sneaks in and makes ordinary things seem like unsurmountable mountains. He whacks at ‘enough rest’ until it feels as if it never happened. He magnifies challenges totally out of proportion. If I let him, he gives me a huge case of the I-don’t-want-tos, so that even the easy things have giant minus signs painted on them.

Even though merely doing what I had to do made all his lies moot points, my accomplishments didn’t restore the joy and sense of well-being that God normally gives. The only exceptions were being with His people (fellowship), and teaching the quilting group (exercising my spiritual gift).

Sometimes I feel like such a dummy. One day without praise is sad. Two days without praise is depressing. I’m thankful that today, the third day, He gave me a small kick in the behind and reminded me that though all my normal sources of physical nourishment (like olive trees, fields and livestock) come up empty, I can still rejoice in Him. He is the God of my salvation and, regardless of other ups and downs, that never changes. The Lord God is my strength, and that never changes either.

While the Lord can make my feet like deer’s feet, and make me walk on my high hills and conquer all challenges, large or small, even if He doesn’t, I can still rejoice. I have Him, and He is enough.

Perfect assurance because . . .

January 10, 2008

Holidays, especially at the beginning of a new year, are a great time for reflection. As my husband and I experience the simplicity of being ‘away from it all’ and the enjoyment of ‘no schedule’ I tend to think about ways to reorganize my life, perhaps to make it more like a holiday?

Other thoughts on my mind include those things I am sure of, things that I can build upon. Life holds few guarantees, yet I’m fairly assured that when we arrive home, I will still teach, quilt, cook meals and need to keep my house clean. Of course there will be all those interruptions and sideswipes that push their way into the simplicity of that to-do list making even the basics an uncertainty.

One thing is different: spiritually I stand on solid ground. God is true and no matter what happens He will not change—and whatever is based on His character stands forever. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

The promises of God are also a certainty. Some of them do depend on my response, but even that response comes from Him. Consider this from 1 John 5:10-13:

“Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

“Anyone who believes” depends on verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 that declare how faith is a gift from God. It comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), another gift of His grace.

This passage goes on to affirm that eternal life is also a gift. This life is in Christ, and those who have Christ also have life. He lives in those who believe in Him. When God granted me faith, He also gave me Jesus. Now that I have Jesus, I also have eternal life—and I know it.

I’ve known it since that day Jesus Christ made Himself known to me and came in. That was more than thirty-five years ago, and even though I’ve had many ups and many downs since then, I’ve never doubted that I belong to Him. This secure knowing and deep assurance are not based on me, or what I do, or even on how much I trust Him. It is about Jesus. He is the source of my salvation, not myself.

Some may think that this wonderful eternal life depends on faith, as if a person stopped believing they would no longer have it, yet defining the word ‘eternal’ does not allow for that. Eternal is forever, without beginning or end. It has to find its source in Jesus, not in faith which can come and go.

Apart from semantics, eternal life is definitely a God-thing, not what I do or do not do. There was a short time when I did stop believing, or at least tried to because I was losing a battle against a particular sin and came to the conclusion that this being a Christian is far too difficult. Yet God held on to me. He dropped verses into my situation to show me that He was sufficient and that I could win that war. In other words, my salvation (as well as my eternal life) does not depend on my performance but on the power and sufficiency of God.

This is solid ground. It will not change. This new year could bring all sorts of challenges. My husband has an incurable cancer. Any number of disasters could happen to friends, to family, to me, but God is. He is my anchor, the keeper of promises, my life and eternal destiny. Because He is who He is, He is enough.