Faith rests yet also acts . . .

 

READ Zechariah 5–9

At times, I thought I could combine the practice of fasting and prayer with my desire to lose weight. It never worked and these verses from Zechariah tell me why:

Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

First lesson for this day: God does not honor mixed motives or using spiritual disciplines for personal gain.

Zechariah has more from the Lord: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

The second lesson is that being God’s child is not a list of don’t's but more about doing! Sadly, Zechariah’s hearers “refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.” Because of their refusal to listen, God was angry and said, “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear” and He “scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” (Zechariah 7:4–14)

I belong to the Lord and He is jealous that I trust Him, and not myself. He had that same attitude for His OT people and had wonderful plans for them:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath . . . . I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. . . . Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets . . . . If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight?  . . . . Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness.” (8:1–8)

He “purposed to bring disaster” when they provoked Him to wrath in the past, and He did not relent, but also purposed in those days to bring good to them. They must “Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” (8:14–17)

His commands are not only for His people but to draw others into His forever family:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ” (8:20–23)

Zechariah also speaks of the coming One: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey . . . . and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea . . . .” (9:9-10) His promise displays His goodness: “On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!” (9:16–17)

This is the God that I worship today, a day still filled with a personal threat of Covid to my husband’s health and the threat of larger conflicts reported in world news, yet a day when I know the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the peace of heart that He alone can give. Thank You, Jesus.

 

Faith without works? Or what?

Numbers 19; Psalms 56–57; Isaiah 8:1–9:7; James 2

A man attends our church who has a handicap. His handicap does not bother me, but something does and I’m not sure what it is. He is overweight, often unkept, and has the attitude that everyone should wait on him. The handicap bus used to transport him but the driver was so annoyed with his demands that he refused to do it any longer.

I’m instinctively repulsed by this man. I don’t want to talk to him or help him find his way through the brunch line. Others do, but I struggle to be anywhere near him. I’ve not heard him say anything that honors Jesus. Perhaps this is what bugs me. I’d like to think the Holy Spirit is giving me discernment without explanation but that seldom happens. Maybe I’m just a respecter of persons?

James wrote, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” (James 2:1) Obviously Jesus never turns away those who come to Him. He did shake His fist at hypocrites though. Is this what is behind my reaction to this person? Or am I making an excuse?

My commentary says that, “Complete and consistent obedience is required if spiritual maturity is to be attained. The believer is commanded to accept his brother with courtesy, compassion, and consistency.”

James would agree. He goes on to say:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14–17)

This illustration can also give me another excuse. This man is not lacking in clothes or food. He does not require those kinds of things. Yet “the law of love gives no excuse for respect of persons, so the possession of faith gives no license to dispense with good works. A believer must not only demonstrate his love by ready acceptance of others, but he must also demonstrate his faith by responsible aid to others” meaning I’ve no reason not to help the man or to feel such repulsion toward him. But I do.

Our live-stream church service this morning gave me an answer. It was on Matthew 5:3 that says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The pastor did an excellent job of explaining what it means to be poor in spirit. He summed it up: poverty of spirit means realizing that I do not have what it takes to meet the challenges of life.

Simply put, I cannot love those that are unlovable; that is the work of Jesus in me. In this situation, my poverty of spirit is showing up. There is nothing in me that can do what James says about being impartial. I simply cannot do it. Instead of looking for reasons why, I’m to confess that I cannot accept all members of God’s family without favoritism and I cannot to minister to them with a working faith. I am not trusting God for both direction and enablement. It matters not why I have this gut reaction to this one person, but I know that will be my reaction unless or until God enables a different attitude.

APPLY: Talk to God about this. Poverty of spirit is not a bad condition. He says that it is blessed, even a mark of those who belong to His kingdom. First step is getting past using “I cannot do this” as an excuse and after that, I need to be willing to ask the Lord to change my attitude — and I can’t do that either.