Facts, Faith, Emotions

This past month has brought out emotions I didn’t know I had. Our granddaughter’s fall and getting her home to more surgeries is a long story and many days filled with anxiety, but also with joy. Other events and news have made it clear that emotions should be at the caboose end of my train, but that is easier said than done. 

This morning takes me into the first three chapters of Romans, and so much of what God says affects my emotions. Sorrow, frustration, pity, anger, and also joy. This passage alone fills my heart with head-shaking sorrow. 

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:18–22)

As I read, I know that apart from the grace of God and His goodness to me, I would be among the fools who suppress the truth and reject Him and His Son.

Another emotion hits with that thought, and then swings again with this description of the horror of what I would experience if God had given me up to my sinfulness:

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28–32)

If that would not be bad enough, add the result of rejecting His goodness:

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:4–5)

Even as a Christian, at any point in my life with Christ I could harden my heart because some sin or other is so appealing that I don’t want to give it up. Without the promise of God to finish what He started in my redemption, thoughts of where I would be without Him produce more emotions, both great sorrow yet great joy because Jesus died for my sin.

The Bible is clear: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:9–12) and the human way of trying to solve this is to be a “good person” yet that does not do it:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:20-23)

Do all these emotions simply happen because I’m older and losing my stoic self-control? I don’t think so. I am getting older, but also thinking much about the Lord and all that He has done for me. And thinking much less about the non-vital, non-eternal stuff of this life. These chapters in Romans speak of far more serious matters.

Besides all that, I just learned of the death of a friend. She is gone from this life, leaving a legacy but not herself. God’s good news has a range of joyful thoughts, yet her death puts deep valleys among the peaks. Today, I’m thankful for this diagram:

PRAY: Lord, it was good to know and spend time with Lezley, but I don’t know if she is now with you for eternity. That lack of assurance adds another set of emotions. Faith in You helps level me, but grief and other feelings urge me to make sure I listen and obey when You tell me to share You with others. Yet I’m not to let feelings be my taskmaster, just You, the truth that You represent, and the faith that You so graciously have granted me.

Hope in the Lord

We moved the last week of October, about four and a half months ago. I’m still waiting for a day that does not have some chores in it that do not involve “settling in” — not that these are big things. We did move furniture and have purged and carted away a lot of unneeded items. We hung a couple wall quilts yesterday. “Normal” is not in our vocabulary. Yet “grace” is.

We have items on the calendar that call for more than the usual, and surprises that pop up with a frequency that always seem to require more than what we have — more energy, more ideas, more of God’s supply, causing us to rely on Him more often and more deeply than ever. And this is a good thing. It shows the reality of these words:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

Last night we prayed with another couple who has concerns for the spiritual life of their large family. This has been happening for about twenty years without seeing answers, but last night they read an email from one son who praised God for His provisions, and his parents for their faithful prayers. God’s timing might seem slow, but His steadfast love and mercy is great and He rewards those who hope in Him.

I only know a few who read these devotions yet realize many could be in the same situation — praying for years and not seeing answers. It is easy to give up, to go on to other things or to think that God is not listening or not ever going to do anything toward the prayed-for changes. My heart is saying ‘don’t give up.’ His timing is not our timing, but He hears our prayers.

This I also read with joy from Charnock’s book, “The Existence and Attributes of God”…

Since God is not only so good that he cannot will anything but what is good; so wise that he cannot err or mistake; but also so able that he cannot be defeated or mated; he hath every way a full ability to govern the world: where those three (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) are infinite, the right and fitness resulting from thence is unquestionable and indeed, to deny God this active part of his power, is to render him weak, foolish, cruel, or all three.

The four of us who have been praying for this son and other family members agree that in those many years, God has definitely changed us. This is His goodness. We now pray for different things, less for the comfort and well-being of our family members and more that God will use all things to draw them into a deep relationship with Himself. We first prayed for things that would give us comfort and joy, but now pray more for God’s glory — because when He is glorified, the joy we receive is much greater than having any answers that suit our wishes.

PRAY: Lord, after sleeping in and looking at the demands of the day, how good of You to remind me again that Your love never ends and is new every morning. It does not depend on my performance, nor having check marks on my to-do list. It does not depend on answered prayer even though You do that more often than ever before. The joy You give is in You, in Your faithfulness and mercy. When it comes to that, none of Your goodness is earned or deserved, but by grace we are saved. . . .  and blessed. . . .  and blessed. . . .  and blessed. My heart overflows with praise and thanksgiving for all that You do, therefore I continue to hope in You.

Do not hold their sins against them . . .

Judges 3; Jeremiah 16; Mark 2; Acts 7

I’ve been collecting photographs from various sources, lots of quilts because I make quilts, but also pictures from the Hubble telescope because they show the power of Almighty God as do pictures of the incredible recent storms in our area.

Not everyone sees them with God in mind. Some look at the massive storm clouds with terror because of harm that can come with them. Others are extremely excited because something about a storm arouses their emotions. A few think the clouds are beautiful, but I’ve not experienced anyone refer to God regarding what they see.

The OT prophets had the task of connecting the events in peoples’ lives with God. When they sinned and He was angry with them, the prophets declared that those who rose against them were God’s instruments to reveal that anger. He told them, “I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.” (Jeremiah 16:13) The bottom line:

“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” (Jeremiah 16:21)

Some seemed to get it, but this kind of treatment and the revelation that God was God didn’t stop them from turning away from Him to do their own thing. In a milder way, those who see storms as fearful or exciting or beautiful are a little bit like that; they interpret the Almighty’s hand as something else.

The religious teachers did the same thing when they saw Jesus doing amazing things. When a paralytic was presented to Him for healing, Jesus first forgave his sin (revealing His priorities!) but . . .

Some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:6–7)

Instead of the logical conclusion that God was among them, they thought Jesus was a blasphemer. They were quicker to glorify God when Jesus healed the man, but later when Jesus sat and ate with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ they found fault with Him again, as if their God could not possibly associate with riffraff.

Jesus could make lives whole but they accused Him of sin when He allowed His disciples to pluck grain to eat on the Sabbath. In other words, their rules and ideas kept them from realizing that He was Lord even of the Sabbath.

This failure to see God in events also happens to those who follow Jesus. Stephen, who was said to be “full of grace and power” and “doing great wonders and signs among the people” was arrested and those who heard his case “saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” But this did not overcome their own ideas of the value and source of grace in this young man, particularly when he told them:

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51–53)

Those he accused were enraged and ground their teeth at him, but Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He could see the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and told them so, but they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him, casting him out of the city and stoning him to death. Even then, Stephen called out to the Lord to receive him and said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” These religious people could not see the glory of God in Christ or in Stephen — and killed them both.

Theologians try to explain how salvation is the work of God only, yet sinners must realize their need and repent if they are going to be saved. As I read these stories, I see how God moves to bring people to their knees before Him. Trials often are His method, fearful things, or awe and even beauty. Yet sin is entrenched. Unless His mercy softens hard hearts so they cry out in their need, how can grace move in and change lives?

APPLY: Over the centuries, God’s people have asked Him to soften hard hearts. He is can do that yet in compassion, we fret if His methods seem harsh and sometimes give up if they resist the message of God’s mercy and grace. What does God want from me? Persistence and loving patience. Don’t give up.