Disappointments?

 

Yesterday God prompted me to think of the folly of those who put getting rich at the top of their priority list. All day I remembered this amazing promise from Jesus:

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:33–34)

And all day I was thankful that He blessed my life with abundance. Putting His righteousness at the top of the list resulted in blessings never expected. I often feel like a spoiled brat in His kingdom.

Yet this morning I woke up feeling anxious for tomorrow, for family who do not seek the Lord, and anxious for other things and commitments. I sang the truths but felt as if I didn’t mean them or believe them. The sermon yesterday was about disappointments and many of them coming from wanting the wrong things. Is my desire for the salvation of others a ‘wrong’ desire? I don’t think so. Why then this sadness?

Could it be that I wanted instant results? One unsaved family person was here — with no interest or desire in anything but what could be seen on her cell phone. But then we went to an event at church and a boy who spent much of his youth in our home was there and we had the most incredible conversation about our abundant life in Christ. I can rejoice that this boy now a man who seems more like family than some family does.

But this morning the burden for family stuck. Piper points to God and in mixing the order of these verses, reminds me that God…

… determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. . . .  His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. . . .  He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. . . . The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. (Psalm 147:3-11)

Reading them in this order seemed to calm my heart. This God who names the stars (and they do what He says) is able to deal with all whose lives are wounded, sometimes with their own sin. One person comes to mind who has been on a slippery slope for many years and is now in a slimy pit. Is there hope for her? Will this pit break the hardness of her heart?

I might as well ask if the God who tells the stars what to do can bind up her wounds. What folly to think that she is beyond His power. Yes, He could cast her to the ground, but I’m not asking for that, but thinking how He loves us even while we were sinners and I want Him to delight in the day when she hopes in His love rather than in the lure of all that is not only false but ruining her life.

PRAY: God, the burdens in my heart threaten to overwhelm me at times, even after the blessings and joy of deep and sweet fellowship with Your family and mine in the house of the Lord. Forgive me for letting those burdens overrule the peace and joy of trusting You totally and completely. You are fully able to accomplish Your will in the lives of those who seem to never give You a second thought. I know the Holy Spirit has the power to heal hearts that are broken and messed up by sin as well as other wounds. All I can say is ‘have at it’ — humble their pride and in stedfast love and mercy, bring them to their knees before Jesus.

 

One way church and state must mix

Sometimes the Old Testament prophets seem to speak in riddles. I had to do a little homework to understand the ideas expressed in my devotional reading for today. It is Isaiah 28:16-17 and says:

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.”

In those days, the people of Judah had developed a carelessness in their spiritual lives. The leaders were responsible to guide and keep the people concerned about godliness, but they were not doing their job and instead boasted of several things. One was that they claimed to have made a covenant with death so the scourge (punishment God was going to send via the Assyrians) could not touch them. In their deceived and deceptive state, a lie had become their refuge.

One of my books explains that in this passage, Isaiah was using imagery rich with the symbolism of Semitic mythology. For example, the Ugaritic pantheon personified death as the god of the underworld. The leaders of Judah were trusting such gods to save them from the coming Assyrian invasion. History proves that their faith in these false gods was entirely futile.

In these verses, God speaks of a stone and the sure foundation. Most Bible scholars say that is pointing to Jesus Christ, the only basis for physical and spiritual salvation. (Isaiah may have understood that this cornerstone was the Messiah, or maybe understood it as genuine belief in the Lord, but other passages point to Christ as the Cornerstone, such as Zechariah 10:4, Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:6.)

In these verses, the Lord also responds to their boasting. He was not going to let them get away with shoddy leadership. He says their covenant with death would be annulled, their lie swept away, and their defeat was certain.

In today’s world, our political leaders are supposed to be concerned with what is best for the people too. To do that, they must care about justice and they must set a good example. Unfortunately, separation of church and state leaves spiritual care off all political to-do lists, but this rule about separation seems to go even farther and give some leaders an excuse for thinking they are exempt from the laws of God.

I can’t point fingers but I read that a government official in Washington, D.C. once quipped, “We have three parties in this city: the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the cocktail party.” The same story (from Willpower’s Not Enough, Harper & Row, 1989; p. 13) says that Washington, D.C. is high on the list of cities noted for alcohol consumption.

This same source says (at that time) alcohol and nicotine kill 450,000 people annually, while illegal drugs kill about 6,000. Of course illegal drugs are unacceptable, but this raises a question: Is there any hope for the leaders of an affluent, pleasure-loving society that gives lip service to religion and ignores the tragic consequences of their own behavior? If God is going to judge us on the basis of our behavior, what will happen to them, and to us?

My devotional book comments on the way God will measure a person’s religion. These verses in Isaiah hint that it will be by the Cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the plumb line that determines what is straight and what is crooked. While He was often seen eating and drinking with sinners, His leadership was not marked by alcohol consumption or nicotine. Instead, He was “anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).

Today’s political and religious leaders are bedfellows in one sense; far too many leaders in both realms are more concerned with popularity and power than they are with doing good and opposing evil. I’m wondering if God will deal with both in the same manner that He dealt with His people in Isaiah’s time? Will He annul all false hopes, sweep away all lies? Will He send another nation (even one more evil) to defeat all arrogance and self-confidence?

I hope not. I hope that there are many honest leaders in our land, people of integrity who want to do what is right and want to lead the people with justice, leaders who are without spiritual idolatry, covetousness, presumption, false hopes, and vain props.

For those who are, leading as God desires leadership is not easy. I’m not a leader, just an ordinary person who wants to do what is right and just, and who wants to be personally moral and live a godly life, yet I am in a continual battle to do so. If this is tough for me, those who are on the front lines must struggle even more to do what is right. How can I be an influence for good in all of this? 1 Timothy 2:1-4 gives me the answer:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Christians, even ordinary ones who feel that they don’t know a thing about political or spiritual leadership, can pray for those who are up there, even those who are not doing their job very well or those who are resisting goodness. We must do this, first that they know and live the truth, but also remembering that when God deals with their folly, it will not only affect them, but us as well.