A higher view of tragedy

Five major items recently added to my prayer list are on my heart. But so is a song. How does Jesus do that? I don’t understand the ‘how’ but do understand the ‘why’ — He knows I could not bear all this unless He gives me joy and even a thankful heart.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9)

I’ve not ever wanted to count my blessings by comparing them to the troubles of others. Yet there are blessings to count that are not measured that way. In this passage, all the personal pronouns are plural. That is, when Peter says ‘you’ he is referring to us, the people of God, not just the reader. This means that we are in this together, both the trials and the rejoicing. This is a blessing!

God’s people are born again to a living hope that cannot be destroyed; God is keeping it in heaven for us. All of us have our faith tested. All of us love Jesus. We cannot see Him but we believe in Him. All of us rejoice as He works in us to perfect our faith and bring us through to full redemption. Because of this, as Tozer says, we ought to be the happiest people in the world!

This is good to read. The people involved in those five prayer items are all Christians except one. This passage tells me that God has shown them mercy, given them a living hope in Jesus Christ as He guards their hearts and their salvation, yet He is also testing their faith. I can pray for healing when sickness is involved, and reconciliation when conflict is involved. I can pray for His great mercy and strength for those whose families have been shattered by the unspeakable. I can even pray for the salvation of the one person whose mind is messed up asking that God helps her see life through Jesus’ eyes.

Even as I write this, I notice how my thoughts go from the temporary tragedies and my inability to deal with them to the eternal promises of God and our ability to trust Him. God lifts my prayer requests from the level of human comfort to a higher purpose — His purpose — in these trials. He is proving the genuineness of our faith, theirs and mine.

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Lord Jesus, this gives me light in how to pray. While any one of these five things could devastate most folks, these events and situations are purposeful and have an eternal perspective. As I go to prayer, I’m thinking, “God, have Your way. Accomplish Your purposes. Build faith through all of these and even though lives are threatened or taken, Your eternal plan brings eternal glory to Your name. Help me think the way You think.

Only God Satisfies

Each year I read through the Bible. This morning, these verses jumped out at me with a truth that I’d not noticed before. Isaiah is describing those who cut down a tree to cook supper and then make themselves. He concludes with this . . .  .

“They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’” (Isaiah 44:18–20)

The making of idols is a lie; the idol-maker cannot deliver himself from his idolatry, but even worse, he is oblivious to the lie that has deceived him.

Those verses in the context of today’s New Testament reading suggest that idolatry could be a large reason for spiritual blindness. Jesus said to His disciples:

“'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’ But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” (Luke 18:31–34)

The disciples, like most of the people of Israel, were expecting a Messiah that would deliver them from political oppression and restore to them the greatness of their nation. In other words, they preconceived a Messiah of their choice and when Jesus arrived and talked about deliverance from sin and His crucifixion they didn’t get it. Their notion of ‘Messiah’ blinded them to the reality of God’s plan.

A young woman we knew had the idea that Jesus would never allow pain or suffering. We were discussing how He uses the challenges of life to change us into His image, but she said, “My Jesus would never do that.” She had a Jesus in mind that was an idol, not the true Messiah.

The cults are the same. One of them believes in a created being that is secondary to God. One of their members indicated that Jesus was deceptive and would lie to his followers. That is not the Jesus of the Bible, but their determination created an ‘idol’ resulting in blindness to the real Messiah.

I once thought God was like my dad. I didn’t realize this was idol-making. My interpretation of God blinded me to much of what God really is, that He is far greater than my dad and certainly not going to treat me the same way. Without the revealing power of God, I’d be stuck with that and blind to His true nature.

Chambers’ words take a different path for this passage. However, a couple of lines give my heart reassurance about idols and spiritual blindness. Chambers says, “The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him . . . A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.”

Idols will fill our hearts with complications and unease because idols cannot satisfy like God satisfies. An idol leaves me craving more and more, but with God I have all that I need — I am content.

How do I know what God is really like?

The Lord is my shepherd . . .  (Psalm 23:1)

Today’s devotional reading ends with this thought. “The image of God that you carry deep in your heart is the one you will relate to in a moment of crisis.”

David called the Lord His Shepherd. This man was a shepherd himself. He protected his flock from predators like lions and bears, going against them with his bare hands. For him, God was like that. Other psalmists picked up the same image, perhaps because of their background and used the image of a shepherd to describe God.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might and come to save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved! (Psalm 80:1–3)

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, their experiences dictated their view of God. Instead of seeing Him as a Savior, they thought He was a harsh taskmaster like their owners. Even after He delivered them from Pharaoh’s army, the first time they ran into trouble, their false view of God came out . . .

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:11–14)

The same principle is illustrated in Jesus’ parable of the talents. A master gave funds to each of his servants, expecting them to invest it and make a profit. Two did, but the third one failed . . .

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:24–29)

His failure was based on his view of the master. He knew he was a hard man and reacted accordingly, rather than do what he was told.

For me, this is an ah-ha moment. I’ve had a view of God that runs deep. It comes from certain life experiences, all negative and all painful. It is not a biblical view, but a lie about the nature of God and His care for me. While the stories are long, the description is short; I’ve been deeply afraid that God will abandon me as have others who promised they wouldn’t but did. Instead of believing what the Bible says about Him, I can see how my deepest view of God comes from life, but that view is from the pit of hell, fed by many instances of being forsaken when I most needed those who turned their backs.

Of all my memories, those are the clearest in my mind. Instead of seeing God according to His promises, I’ve let that fear become deeply buried, even though I’ve memorized verses like Matthew 28:20, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” and Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”

When the psalmists felt abandoned, they countered this by running to God and praising His nearness. I’ve not always responded that way, and in my fears, let the image of Him turning His back go too far into my mind and heart.

Feeling as if God is not there comes out in moments of crisis. I can see that this is a lie from Satan who wants me to rely on me (which is emptiness also) instead of leaning on the Lord who is my Shepherd and who will never walk away.