Put off the dead stuff…

Imagine having a billion dollar bank account, getting statements each month, but not believing it, so you are working hard to keep afloat financially. If that seems silly, imagine having faith in Christ and being dead to sin, reading what God says and still not sure this is true, particularly each time you disobey God. In both cases, inner thoughts do not line up with facts like this:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:1–10)

Key to both issues is what I am listening to? Is it the statements regarding my wealth? Is it the Word of God stating my status? Or am I looking at something else? The above passage asks, “If you have been raised with Christ” — a question puts those who hear it into a dilemma. How do I measure the answer?

I remember one man who claimed to be sinless. He said that salvation was death to sin and since he was saved, he no longer sinned. Anyone who knew him knew otherwise, but this man measured his answer by what he wanted to be true, and that desire blinded him to reality:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

If I have money in the bank and yet insist I am poor and do not rely on that money, I would be like a person who claims to be saved, but is not relying on the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem him. I might be trying hard to redeem myself, or like the man I knew, denying I needed further work and denying there is any sin left to fight. What is true?

Today’s devotional talks about reckoning or considering. The Bible says that because of faith in God’s Word, I have died and my life is hidden with Christ in God. But it also speaks of earthly things in me, things to put off and not rely on or be involved in. I have to live according to what God says, not according to what I think or want.

The error comes by supposing “to live I must first die” or lose my life and find my life hid with God. However, the Bible says I am already dead. I don’t need to die, but to realize what I already am dead to that old life because of what Jesus has done. Reckoning is thinking the truth, not making it happen. When I think the truth, it shows up in the way I live, not the other way around. In other words, I don’t have to make a large income and deposit it in my account because that account is already full, established, there for me to live. Not ignore as if I didn’t have it and had to work hard to get it.

Putting off the old way is realizing the old way is a lie and no longer alive. Instead, I am not spiritual poor but very rich in the resources of my Redeemer!

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)

Losing the old life is key to discovering the new, but key to losing the old life is realizing and believing it is already lost, dead to God and useless. What I have in Christ is life and truth and reality, not a charge to go get it.

PRAY: Feelings, sinful behavior, any kind of selfishness can mess with truth, and Jesus, that is a big reason You tell me to shed that stuff and live in the joy You give. It happens by loving You and loving others and reckoning truth about me — truth that You proclaim and even put in writing for me to read and rejoice — to believe and obey. Sometimes this is difficult to explain, yet knowing the truth sets me free from that deceptive and useless self-effort.

 

Do not shrug off God’s words…

Today’s reading was another one of those ‘if you don’t believe then you wander on the wilderness and cannot enter God’s promised blessing’ messages. It made me think: “If I don’t believe what?”

I believe Jesus is the Savior sent by God to take care of the problem of sin. Once my faith in Christ was true, then my eternal life was true. But what if I don’t believe I am sinning? What if that unbelief is impeding my growth, or putting me in the dark about many things, or causing doubt of all sorts? This is what happens with many who don’t know Jesus as their Savior, yet could it be a big hindrance to Christians also?

Oswald Chambers says, “When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don’t shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually.”

What does the Bible say about such a situation? It calls it disobedience and sin. What do I do with that? Certainly not shrug my shoulders…

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8–10)

 Certainly a huge part of not moving forward is failure to see or to admit sin. If I am stuck there, how can I grow more? Sin is a barrier to communication with God and honesty with others as well. As Chambers adds, the golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience….If things are dark to me, then there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey. There is only one way to get past that and back into the light. Confession of sin is one of those things I must obey.

John Henry Jowett, said to be one of the greatest preachers in the English-speaking world, says this: “The ability of God is beyond our prayers, beyond our largest prayers! I have been thinking of some of the petitions that have entered into my supplication innumerable times. What have I asked for? I have asked for a cupful, and the ocean remains! I have asked for a sunbeam, and the sun abides! My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father’s giving: it is beyond that we can ask.”

Forgiveness and cleansing sounds simple but it is one of the greatest answers to prayer — as long as I can keep on asking it, every time I sin, fall short, or disagree with God and want to do my now thing, even if my own thing seems okay. Who do I think I am to figure I know better than God? That alone is a huge sinful barrier to becoming like Jesus.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5–8)

PRAY: Jesus, You have been doing things in my life that are so incredible that I want to tell everyone to trust You, to know that Your abilities go farther than our most hopeful prayers. I’ve not always known this, but You keep informing my heart of the goodness of Your heart. It is a fearful thing to consider that my ideas are better than Yours and even more fearful to shrug my shoulders instead of confessing my foolishness.

God never lies

Someone once wrote that the presence of God is just like the air around us in that we cannot see it but know that it is there.This changed my understanding of God in that no matter what is going on, I know that He is here, right beside me, as close as the air the I breathe.

Some wonder how to know God’s presence. Some claim an inward revelation that makes them know Him, but for many the presence of God is not there without some special event. As today’s devotional points out, this is not what knowing God means. If requires no special event or mystical interior revelation, which is delightful when they happen, but can be inconsistent or uncertain.

Knowing that God is present with me is based on what He says, not based on my experiences. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” which is the plain knowledge of what God says about Himself, and believing it.

It is believing what is written — whether accompanied by any eureka moment or not. As my mom wrote in her Bible: God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

For example, when I read in the Bible that God is love, I am to believe it just because it is written and the Word of God who does not lie, not because I have had any inward revelation or amazing experience that proves it is true.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10–11)

This is true because God says it, and in this truth about Himself, He actually showed it to the world be sending Jesus. However, not every statement God makes has a dramatic event to go with it. Knowing God and His power includes believing statements such as:

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:26–29)

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)

Because God said it, I am to believe it, not because God arranged someone to give me a new wardrobe but because He said He would take care of my needs. Knowing His omniscient power isn’t because He made known by a Google search or some other way the number of hairs I have. He says He knows this and I believe Him. He does not need to do something. He says He knows all about me — and all the proof I need is in His statement and I also know that He does not lie. Knowing that is a matter of faith in what He tells me about Himself.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says faith comes by hearing — and faith is simply believing what You say. How did I realize that You speak truth? If proof was needed, all I need is to look at the OT promises that said You would come, the story of Your short life here, and the cross where You died. Those who don’t believe You have been listening to someone or something else!

Love believes . . .

 

Yesterday at our ladies share and prayer group, one main topic was the prodigals in our lives. Some of them have never known Christ, but others made commitments and walked with Him for several years, then for reasons unknown to us, they abandoned their faith and wandered off in worldly pursuits. Today’s devotional is a timely one. MacArthur points to part of a verse that says “love believes . . . ”

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:7)

One of the ladies is particularly concerned for an adult child who seems to have lost his faith. Our encouragement was two-fold. One, if he was not saved in the first place, the power of God is sufficient to bring him to the foot of the cross. The entire NT testifies to that power!

The other encouragement is realizing that he could be where he is for a purpose. I shared how one of my prodigals had been saved as a child and wandered away in his late teens. He then had many work experiences that created a reputation for him as a fair boss and a respected person. His workers listen to him.

Then one day he called to tell me he’d wandered from God long enough and was coming back . . . and he did . . . big time. He is bold in his witness and discerning regarding truth. He remembers what he’d learned and now lives as if he’d never drifted away. However, had he been like that when he started his career, his co-workers would never listen to him as they do now. God used his back-sliding to create a bridge to others who need Jesus.

This story encouraged that mother, as does this verse:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

If God started a life of faith in a person, He will finish it, no matter what the ‘middle’ looks like now. For reasons unknown to us who see our prodigals wander, God is doing something in their lives, maybe just to reveal to them how much they need Him.

And this is where “believes all things” comes in, believing all that God promises. When we pray in faith and trust Him to do His will, He will answer, usually in surprising ways. When He says something like that verse, He will do it. Believing Him does not make it happen; believing Him sets our hearts at rest until it does happen.

Every Christian knows people who are far from God. We want to see them in heaven and pray for them. Sometimes we share with them or preach at them, but the bigger task and the most difficult for many is to love them (and God) — by believing all things, trusting God to do what He promises to do. Some of those promises come from the OT, such as: “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” (Isaiah 54:13)

Yesterday we also talked about what God is doing in the lives of us who pray and wait. Jesus’ story of the prodigal tells how the father waited and his wayward son rose and headed home. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

The temptation could be to scold with “What took you so long?” or some other negative attitude, but Jesus wants us to have His heart of welcoming sinners home with forgiveness and joy. It may take some of us awhile to get there.

Besides that, the NT is clear about dealing with the trials that come, including this one of a heavy burden for people we love who are not walking with Jesus:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

For me, the task is to keep trusting and praying, but also to let the pressure of unanswered prayer work in me to produce a steadfast patience, a maturity of trust, a love that believes all things that God says!

PRAY: Lord, having faith in You for the prodigals in my life is a test of faith, not only for those who have wandered away from their first love, but for promises like Romans 8:28-29, that You will use this for good in my life to transform me into Your image. Remind me often that it is Your job to save souls and my job to love and obey You and to reflect who You are to the people around me. Confidence in You is a big part of what it means to love others!

PONDER: Make a list of the burdens in my heart, then add a list of promises from God that I need to believe in response to those burdens. Use Vera Wurtz’s book, “Overcoming Negative Thoughts: Sure-Footed in the Truth” if necessary.