What’s in it for me?

 If honest, most would admit coming to Christ with self-serving motivations. I wanted my pain to cease. Some seek healing and reach out to God. Some have financial problems or other disasters that they realize can be fixed only with divine assistance. Others want conviction of sin to stop, which is the best reason, or at least the one we must eventually come to before our salvation is solidly determined. Fair weather faith will not do that, nor will it endure.

Dealing with sin is the issue. Once a man said to me, “I believe Jesus died for the sins of the world. What is the big deal about that?” I replied, “But what about your sin?” Long pause. “Oh, I see what you mean.” He was okay with faith but didn’t want to make it personal. But personal is what salvation is about. Jesus prayed:

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

He also said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’" (Matthew 7:21–23)

Salvation and eternal life is about knowing God, not just knowing about Him, because the NT says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19)

Other passages tell of this relationship and how Jesus comes to live in us by His Spirit and that we are given the mind of Christ. This is intimacy, not mere knowing or being introduced to who He is. Believing in Him goes beyond knowing He exists. Faith is about believing that He died for my sin, was buried, and after three days rose to life. It is about knowing His death was to secure my pardon for sin and to satisfy the wrath of God against all sin. But it is also about the trust that simply knows that all He says and does is true and that His great love and goodness is available for those He came to save.

Yet so often sinners first come to Him for selfish reasons. As today’s devotional reading says the  Prodigal Son is an illustration of this. He was not concerned with his father’s love or longing. He wanted comfort and “more than enough bread.” It was only after seeing his father’s great joy and experiencing such undeserved welcome that his father could say, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” (Luke 15:32)

My experience was like this too. My life was in the ditch and I wanted it to be better. It took me awhile to realize that I had the cart before the horse. God sent Jesus to die for my sin, then to give me all that I need, not usually the other way around.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

Since that day He came into my life, He has taught me not to come to Him first and foremost with my ‘gimme’ list but to enjoy our relationship, praising and thanking Him for all He does. I want to be more like He is, and need grace and strength to obey, yet I’ve had to realize than when I ask and do not receive, it is because I have asked wrongly, to spend it on my selfish desires. God resists my prideful thinking. While grace is not earned or deserved, it is for those who are humble. (James 4:3-6) Hard lessons but being in an intimate relationship with Jesus rather than trying to earn His favor, those lessons are welcome not ignored.

PRAY: Jesus, every day, all day, I need to be alert to any motivation that seeks personal gain. You know how I resist the difficult tasks, or those that tire me out and how I would rather be comfortable than making sacrifices. For me, routine is easier than surprises, yet the days are replete with unexpected challenges. For all this, I need You. I cannot be obedient without You granting grace and reminding me to say NO to those fleshy and selfish desires. Thank You for being here, for never leaving or forsaking me, even when I forget You.

Faith in the impossible . . .

 

 

READ Matthew 17-20

Sometimes those Christmas gifts under the tree are a disappointment. We give them with well-meaning, but the recipient only unwraps them and never uses them. Both giver and receiver are haunted with disappointment and a sense of ‘what do I do now’ rather than the joy intended.

The NT says that faith is a gift from God, an ability to believe that we cannot conjure up ourselves. This gift comes through listening: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” and we wonder about those who never hear it, but the next verse says everyone hears it one way or another: “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for 'Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ ” (Romans 10:17–18) Romans 3 explains why God gives it this way. It is because without God’s help, “No one seeks God . . . .” We need that gift.

Faith is defined as believing God exists, and believing He rewards those who seek Him. It is an inner assurance involving hope and a conviction that what God says is true, even if we cannot see it with our eyes. (Hebrews 11)

Yet this raises another question. Some who profess faith in Christ seem to assume that faith for salvation is sufficient. Yet we also are told to walk by faith, pray in faith, and trust the Lord for all things. This seems a most obvious thing to do, yet I wonder if the Lord sometimes becomes frustrated with believers today as He did with His disciples on a certain occasion . . .

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:14–20)

Later Jesus told them they needed to be more like children, humbling themselves with childlike trust if they wanted greatness in His kingdom. He also said they had to agree and be united in their prayers to experience His presence with them (Matthew 18:3–4; 17-20)

In other words, living a life of faith requires abandoning former values. Greatness was not about power and huge confidence in ourselves. It was not about externals either, like prosperity and being popular or having the admiration of others. While He used wealth in this example, He could have used any other respected and sought-after value system to say the same thing:

“Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

This astonished the disciples. Their faith was too little. When they heard Him say it, they asked, “Who then can be saved?” Then Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23–26)

I can relate. I note the words “all things” and then listen for my own voice that so easily mumbles: “I can’t do that” or “She will never change” or “This is too difficult” — and listen to other believers for the unbelief in our lives, lives that claim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but have slid into negativity concerning the power of God to do the impossible.

I need to remember that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) and like any other sin, this “little faith” needs to be confessed and forsaken, for without faith, it is impossible to please God — and along with that doubt, in my mind a whole lot of other things become impossible as well.