Complaining?

Attitudes are often evaluated by whether a person considers a glass half-full or half-empty. Yesterday I heard a radio sermon that judged current Christians by all our failures. It was a call for a revival and likely needed, yet I would rather the speaker had focused on successes.

For instance, Samaritan’s Purse is in place at world disasters to bring help and hope long before any other aid arrives. A local mission is feeding lunch to nearly a thousand students in over a dozen schools every day of the school year. Hundreds are being reached with the Gospel in the Middle East by Christians risking their lives to faithfully share Christ. A woman in a US state has a prayer room in her store where customers can pray, leave requests, and take the requests of others home to pray for them. Our church has brunch every Sunday and some of the several hundred who are fed do not attend the service. They come in at the end so they can eat and no one tells them to leave.

The song says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what the Lord has done.” Christians are blessed with new hearts, new life, a desire to live for Christ. As we follow His teaching and love His Word, He blesses and guides us into new and challenging territory. Consider how cooperation with Him brings blessing:

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:1–3)

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. (Psalm 112:1–3)

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. (Psalm 128:1–4)

These blessings are linked to obedience. Take care of the poor, delight in His commands with an awe that produces obedience, and He takes care of us in illness and blesses our families! No wonder the psalmist wrote, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!” (Psalm 84:12)

These OT material blessings are for this life yet God does not stop there. He says much more in the NT with these words: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:3)

The link between obedience and blessing is stronger in the NT also. When someone blessed another person, Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)

Other NT verses repeat this verse, a favorite from the Psalms: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1–2) Here are a few more:

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:25)

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:14)

PRAY: Lord, You know that I woke today with a negative attitude. You gave me songs that lifted my spirits, and now these reminders of how much I am blessed. Who can remain crabby and praise God at the same time! In You is fullness of joy. That joy alone is a great blessing as it swallows up my petty complaints. You so often save me from myself. I am grateful.

PONDER: Count my many blessings, name them one by one . . . !

 

 

Advice like no other . . .

 

One of our former pastors strongly defends spiritual principles are sufficient to meet every human need including those that many people would take to a psychologist. He often refers to this biblical reference:

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. (Psalm 19:7–9)

For me, that passage, plus the following description of the Messiah by Isaiah, plus my own experience is convincing:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

In the OT, this word means “someone who gives advice about problems.” It can refer to people who give godly advice who are often called “wise” men, or others who “counsel in doing wickedly.” In the description of Jesus, the word “wonderful” is used only here in Isaiah. It means “of an extraordinary nature making it mysterious or difficult to comprehend.” Jesus’ advice is unique!

I get that. One example is when our son was in a new school and was being threatened by two older, larger boys. I prayed. The answer was so odd that we both gulped. However, we did what the Lord advised and it worked wonderfully, just as this Hebrew word implies. As another former pastor often says, only God, only God.

My Bible version uses counselor only in one place in the NT: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:34) This Greek word means the same as the OT word. The verse is significant in that it asks a rhetorical question: “Who can give advice or tell God what to do?” Who indeed! It is a term used concerning Jesus only. No one else is called a sumbŏulŏs.

I’ve heard interpretations that the Holy Spirit is said to be a counselor yet for Him, consoler, encourager, mediator, helper, advocate and other terms are used. Even so, the Spirit does convey to God’s people the counsel of God. That word is used extensively in both testaments,

I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel (plan) of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:27–28)

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel (plan) of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11–12)

I counsel you (give advice) to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3:18–19)

The differences are slight; the idea is that God has a plan and in wisdom counsels His people according to His divine purposes — to bring us to Christlike living so we reflect and glorify Him — and uses His Word to advise us to that end. He says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8)

Lest anyone thinks His counsel is not the best, He contrasts it with that of worldly people: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1–2) and “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” (Psalm 33:10–11)

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The more I know Him, the more I’m convinced that His counsel is all that I need. Every issue and problem I’ve ever had has been resolved through biblical principles. This is why I often pray:

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:24–26)