The devotional book I’m reading is divided by a reading plan that is not dated. In other words, it takes me through 120 chapters from the time started until the end of the year. Some days are one chapter, but some chapters are divided into three days. The reading for today is three sentences at the end of a chapter, not very helpful yet it has a line that prompts two thoughts. The line is: “It doesn’t matter what happens to me if I can just live to the glory of his grace.”
Of course Piper makes that line the application for his readers. However, it made me think again of John MacArthur. His final sermon began with an outline of what he was experiencing; three heart surgeries and one on his lungs. Then he said almost the same thing as this line from Piper’s devotional. John was a humble man, and a fine example of living to the glory of God. He had his flaws, but his life shoots holes in any excuse that living for God's glory is impossible.
At the same time, I cannot say that this is a fine goal for a prominent preacher but not for an ordinary wife, mother, homemaker, etc. God did not save me so I could hide behind an apron.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:15–17)These words of Jesus are packed with the reasons I am here, not behind a pulpit or in any position of prominence, but to bear fruit. What kind of fruit is He talking about?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:22–26)These attitudes are action words. Love may be a noun in Greek but it is a verb in practice. In my role as a wife, it is about the way I interact with the man I married. Loving him means wanting the best for Him (God’s will) and doing things that are helpful, edifying, and encouraging.
Just in case anyone thinks love is an easy task that does not require being filled with the Spirit and bearing the fruit He supplies, the NT says this:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22–24)Some Christians believe this submission is a cultural thing and not for today, or that it makes a doormat out of a wife. However, doing it follows the model of Jesus who came here in humble obedience and did all that His Father asked for the eternal good of a sinful world. I am saved because Jesus submitted. I cannot use that excuse to have the final say in my home or even consider myself better, smarter, etc. than anyone else. Love is not about competition. And love is just one ‘fruit’ that I was chosen and saved to bear in the task of living for God's glory. The others, joy etc. also are impossible apart from the grace of God.
PRAY: Jesus, no wonder these things are called the fruit of the Spirit — no way can I live like that without Your grace, input, and power. Pastor John and others prove it can be done, and You are the ultimate example. I bow my head at the many times my ‘fruit’ was shriveled, or not ripe, or not there, or just rotten, instead of being genuine and produced from abiding in You. Fill me today and always remind me why I am here.
