Forgiveness for selfishness

Last night I over-indulged in some junk food. I went to bed feeling unpleasantly stuffed and guilty. All day, I had been thinking about this verse:

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:4)

One of the aspects of loving the world is indulgence, doing selfish stuff. And I know better. Not only am I spiritual convicted, my doctors would frown. Jesus gives me the victory over such stuff by trusting and obeying Him but I did not exercise any faith and paid no attention to that still small voice telling me to not do it.

Some would think this is no big deal. The enemy uses that line. He also says stuff like “everyone does it” or “nobody is perfect” to give me excuses — when I know better.

In a sense, to ignore the Holy Spirit, I am denying that God is right and that He has the right to direct me in the way I should go. I’m essentially brushing off what He gives me — the power to overcome the world — as if He is lying to me. In that sense, this is a big deal. This is what John wrote about lack of faith and its connection to what I think about God’s words . . .

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever 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, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:9–13)

Earlier in my Christian life, I wrote an article about how God prunes the sin out of our lives. I likened it to pruning a tree. He first lops off the biggest and most offending branches. Then He saws away all those things that interfere with fruitfulness in smaller ways. Finally He gets out a scalpel and picks at the offensive parts that perhaps only He sees but are nevertheless a hindrance to my spiritual life and walk with Jesus . . . things like self-indulgence when no one is looking.

I know that He forgives all sin, from the ‘big’ things to the picky things. That is not dragging me down because:

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 I feel down, disappointed by my lack of desire to please the Lord (and take better care of myself) in the small things, those disciplines that deny self in order that I might be more like Jesus — who I can safely say that He was never self-indulgent.

The other thing noted in the passage from 1 John 5 is that lack of faith in anyone is equivalent to calling God a liar. I suppose that some might say that they don’t believe the Bible is God-inspired or that God does not exist, yet in doing that they are calling liars of those who testify to the Lord’s work in changing their lives. One person said to me, “Oh, you just did it yourself.” If I did it myself, why on earth would I give all the credit to Someone else?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, because of You I have life. I also have victory over the world. I do not have to indulge myself and certainly do not want to insinuate You are  liar by behaving as if You have not given me the power to say no to selfishness. I know that You forgive me. You also promise to cleanse me from my foolishness. I wait on You. Self-discipline includes every part of life!

Today’s thankful list . . .

- God’s power and faithfulness to forgive and cleanse unrighteousness.

- the Word of God that lets me know the mind of God.

- the mind of Christ that lets me know His thoughts when His book is not open before me.

- His help in doing some chores I’ve been procrastinating over.

- Finding just the right gifts for my sister’s birthday.

- freedom

Lies are the companion of idols

Worship involves truth. That is, if I put anything on a pedestal and rely on it to meet my needs in any way, I’ve put myself in the realm of falsehood. Not only is my idol a false god, but I believe a lie when assuming it will do anything real and lasting in my life.

Paul wrote, “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8) because he had learned that lies and loving God are polar opposites. No one can worship and serve God and at the same time entertain that which is false. Jesus said . . .

The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23–24)

I’ve realized that whenever I put myself, another person, or any valued thing on a pedestal, I’m also failing in some way to deal with reality. I must lie to myself or believe a lie in order to dethrone God. It has always been like this in the lives of His people too . . .

For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law . . .  (2 Chronicles 15:3)

During this period of their history, Israel needed a fresh dose of the truth. In their distress, God sent them truth and, “As soon as Asa heard . . . the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord . . . And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul . . . They swore an oath to the Lord with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.” (2 Chronicles 15:8, 12–15)

Putting God on the throne always involves seeking Him, and in seeking Him, the people were seeking truth. That is, truth and God are inseparable. “The Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King . . .” (Jeremiah 10:10)

Jesus said that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. This means that whenever I dabble in idolatry of any kind, I am also messing around with the enemy instead of resisting him and his lies. He will do anything to keep me from trusting the Lord by telling me lies about myself, about others, about the past, the present and the future, and mostly about God.

Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3) He is the only true God. Every other god that tries to claim my trust is a lie, and not to be trusted. Far better to learn this reality by facing reality than to learn it the hard way by being deceived into believing lies.

Daily confidence

Those who study Scripture without faith stumble at unfulfilled promises and prophecies. God says Jesus will return and they say, “Yeah, right. The world keeps turning and it is not happening.”

Old Testament promises to Israel are also scorned. It appears that modern Israel is not that interested in God and worse, God is not interested in them. When the Bible makes predictions and promises like those in Isaiah 45:22-25, the skeptics are not convinced. These verses say:

“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory.’”

Part of the skeptics’ problem is the superlatives. Notice all 3x, and every 2x. God says every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall take an oath of allegiance to Him, but more people see very few bent knees and more tongues cursing Him instead.

This passage also says that God’s people will credit God for their goodness and power, be confident that all will come to Him, and know that all those who are angry with God will be ashamed. Even that prediction seems to fall short as many Christians lack confidence for the future, some without realizing that God is in charge of the future.

Yet without faith, who can trust the promises of anyone? I remember an alcoholic that I knew. He often said he would quit drinking soon, yet so much of his talk about other things was embellished with lies that no one believed his promises.

Faith and trust in God depend on His truthfulness. When God says something that proves to be true, my trust level goes up. However, my head might tell me (and Scripture says) that He cannot lie, yet when I look at promises like this, like the skeptics, doubt can creep into my thoughts also.

Yesterday I was challenged with this question: “Has God ever lied to you?” I began thinking about the times when I thought He wasn’t listening, but later realized that true to His promises, He hears me. I thought of times I’ve prayed for things that seemed impossible and even stopped praying because of my doubt, yet God surprised me with answers to those prayers.

Some say they trust God because they love Him. For me, it doesn’t work like that. I trust God because He does not lie. He has never lied to me. Sometimes I don’t understand what He is doing, and sometimes I don’t like what He is doing, yet He never tells me one thing then does another. He is true and He is truth.

These verses from Isaiah speak of things that are true and things that have not yet happened. But God never promises to work on my timetable. Eventually every knee will bow and every mouth will confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2). Eventually all who do so will recognize that their righteousness and strength come from Him. Those who are angry with Him now will be ashamed. In Christ, those descended from Israel (not sure if this is literal or those who are children of Abraham by faith), will be justified and glory in Him.

The Bible says that I must walk by faith, not by sight. Sight will show answered prayer and fulfilled prophecies, but faith is based on the faithfulness of a truth-telling God. He never lies.

Knowing this is highly practical. I can live in confidence because I am certain that even though He has not done it yet, if He says that He will, then I know that He will!