Last night we decided to go for a drive and got caught in Los Angeles freeway traffic even though we thought the rush to go home after work would be over. Both my husband and I were aware that this was just another opportunity to practice patience.
Whether a relatively small thing like traffic, or something bigger like life-threatening illnesses, or accidents, or other troubles, God uses the stuff of life to try our faith, even increase it. The faith that He grants to us by grace is a powerful faith. It can stand the tests because the God in whom we trust is powerful. Nothing is too hard for Him. Yet even with this faith and this amazing God, there are times when we tremble and wonder during those tests. Sometimes the people of God even complain.
Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?” (Numbers 11:11)
Moses was leading a reluctant group of people out of slavery and into a land that God had promised them. Their attitude was definitely a patience-developer for Moses as God tested his faith. The man struggled, but God was faithful to him and gave him a solution to this problem.
Spurgeon says that a strong and mature faith will stand the tests. Gilt melts in fire, but gold is purified. A fake gem crumbles under pressure, but a diamond crushes whatever tries it.
Metaphors aside, he also points out that a poor faith only trusts God when friends are true, or the body is healthy, and the bank balance is the same. A mature faith can hang on to God’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when I’m sick, or depressed, or it seems as if God has vanished.
That heaven-born faith is strong, yet sometimes becomes mixed with fear or complaining. The Old Testament man named Job lost everything. At times he wailed and wondered what God was doing, but his faith also said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15, KJV).
The most amazing thing is that God’s people tend to glorify God more in our afflictions than we do in our prosperity. When we can love those who attack us, are at peace when everyone frets, and have joy when our world falls apart, those around us see the grace of God in us. When “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame," (Romans 5:3–5), the Lord is honored by these growing virtues.
Spurgeon says that we would never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched, nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress. We would not discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten, nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed.
This is true, but God’s wisdom and power are also discovered in my trials, when they are happening. Current afflictions may heighten future joy, but they cannot diminish the joy of the Holy Spirit that stays with me even in those afflictions. Our God is an awesome God.
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Jesus, if I gripe about anything from congested traffic to a head cold, I need to remember that this life is a test of faith, and that the faith You give me is adequate for any test. One day, I will be with You and not experience the trials of life. That thought alone is enough to bring a smile in the midst of a traffic snarl and joy to my heart — no matter what else might be happening. Knowing You is enough. I am blessed.
(Photo credit)
God used 1 Corinthians 13 this morning to remind me of how often I’ve failed to love others. As I read, the Holy Spirit showed me that arrogance is at the root of it. When I turned to Spurgeon, he pointed out that God does not choose the wise of the world and the Holy Spirit directed me to this passage. . . .
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:18–31)
This smacks my arrogance by saying that no one can know God by their own wits, wisdom or intellect. I know this. I remember many years of reading the Bible as a habit only. I could not understand it at all. It was a jumble of words to me until Christ came into my life. Only with Him and the Holy Spirit’s eye and heart-opening power did those words begin to make sense.
Nothing has changed. While God quickens the heart and gives new insight to the mind, apart from Him, I still cannot perceive truth or the will of God. I have nothing to be arrogant about.
Not only that, I was not and have never been a powerful person, nor am I of noble birth. It hurts to read that God chooses the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong. I’d like to think myself wise and strong, but I am not.
Further, God chooses the low and despised, the nothings of this world to bring to nothing the things that are. As a Christian, I know a bit about being despised for what I stand for now, but this is not what this passage refers. This is about my status before salvation, about me being not really liked and of no account as a person.
My pride cringes at that too, but as I read the newspaper, it is clear that most of the people in the world have that attitude toward others. People are of little value, easily bought, sold or killed to satisfy the whims or desires of others more powerful, at least in the world’s view of powerful.
God’s value system is radically and diametrically opposite. For one thing, He has no pride. He knows who He is and does not need to boast. God is happy with being God and needs not to push others around to prove Himself. He also knows the weaknesses and futility of humanity. We make big plans and swagger as if we can do it all. The disasters of life, such as hurricanes, famines and stock market crashes, show that we are puny creatures.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2:1–9)
God’s answer to the foolish arrogance of the world and to my pride is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of God, I am in Christ, who is my only wisdom, a wisdom from God that is not my own. I cannot boast.
Jesus is also my righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He died and lived to save me from pride and all sin. That is why He says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
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Father, sometimes pride slides into my life and I do not even notice, at least until I trip over it. By grace, make me more aware so I can bring it to You in confession and repentance. It is better to be in harmony with the way You think about me even though that is shameful, than to think a lie and let sinful pride and lack of love rule my life.
Others give various answers. The most common is, “To get to heaven, I must be a good person.” If pressed, most of those who say this will define “good” by the things they don’t do rather than the good they do. A few might claim church attendance, or giving to charity. Some say that they are kind to others.
One person recently told me she was saved because she believed what her religious organization told her. The main part is the idea that Jesus was a created being who died that she might be able to “exercise” faith. The explanation of exercising faith is that Jesus died so she could do all the right things to gain eternal life. Those who believe this way are continually unsure that they have done enough good to make the grade. All in all, most people fear death and do not want to talk about it.
The Bible has much to say about these and other belief systems. It says enough about doing good to eliminate anyone who says it doesn’t matter how we live. However, God’s Word says more about the way of salvation being by grace not doing good deeds.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
It looks like these verses contradict the idea of doing good. However, they do not. The gift of eternal life is just that — a gift, offered freely by God who paid the penalty for sin. All condemnation was put on Him. Those who believe this have eternal life — and this life actually answers the questions about doing good. This life is powerful and it changes the lifestyle of those who have it.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe. . . . (Mark 16:16–17)
Mark agrees with Paul and James and other New Testament writers. He says that whoever believes is marked by something new that goes along with their faith. He calls it signs. John calls it the love of God. Paul calls it obedience that comes from Jesus who lives in our hearts. James calls the accompanying sign “good works” — not works to earn salvation but to prove that we have it.
Doing good saves no one. In the eyes of the world, and by how humanity measures goodness, there are many good people. However, God measures goodness by Jesus Christ, the only sinless one. To be good in the eyes of God, we must be sinless. Who can claim that? No honest person. Instead, we need His goodness, not our own.
And because of (what God has done) you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. . . . (1 Corinthians 1:30)
Note carefully that the goodness that God wants from us is found in His Son. When His Son lives in us, then we have that goodness. This is not our own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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God, Your plan of salvation is utterly amazing. No one could or would make this up. It condemns sin, yet saves sinners. We have no merit, but in Jesus Christ we are saints. You designed a way for people to be saved yet no one can say, “Look what I did.”
I am blessed as You remind me again that my salvation is all grounded in what You do, not what I do. You might use me like a hand inside a glove, but it is You that moves and lives and gives my life meaning, purpose and the ability to do Your will. Thank You again for saving me.
Attention deficit, indecision, too many interests, whatever the reason, I’ve not known the idea of a “calling” or any real sense of what I want to be when (if) I grow up. The idea of being a “sweet little old lady” appeals to me, but my brother laughs and tells me, “You better get started.”
When Jesus came into my life about forty years ago, one of the first principles God gave me from His Word is that He would use all things that happen to me, good or bad, to transform me into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). This stuck and has become a life purpose. In combination with another verse, I see it also as a calling.
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. . . . (1 Corinthians 1:2)
I’ve tried being an artist, a Bible scholar, a writer and a quilter. I’m a wife, mother, grandmother, even a great-grandmother. I’m a fair cook and can do many other things reasonably well, but my calling is none of these temporary things. Instead I am called to be a saint.
The Roman Catholic church has a different notion of saints than what I get from Scripture. Because of their definition, many think that a saint is someone who is an exemplary model Christian, or an extraordinary teacher, wonder worker or source of benevolent power. This definition certainly includes those who intercede for others and adds selfless, ascetic behavior that often includes refusing material attachments or comforts. These are special people who might also possess some sort of special revelation regarding holiness.
No doubt some people exist who fit this description, but when Paul’s salutation to the church at Corinth is followed by reading the entire book, these Christians he called saints do not fit. He said they were quarreling and living far less holy lives than their calling. Also, even his greeting defines saints as those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is about every believer, not just a few who are special.
This means that I am a saint, certainly not a perfect one, but this is my calling and the goal of my life, both for now and eternity. The other interests and abilities are useful and perhaps arenas where God can use me, but when I grow up, I want to be like Jesus — and that is what God calls me to. It is His supreme goal for me.
Today I also read how God uses the blows of life to turn His people into the shape of this vision that He has for us. He works to make this calling of sainthood both our destiny and a present reality. The author explains that we are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be saints, and that these batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.
I experienced this on Sunday, but also yesterday and no doubt will today. While I’d love to focus only of this lofty vision He has for me, I cannot live in that pie-in-the-sky world. This would render me useless in the ordinary stuff of human life. And this is where the wonderful aspiration of sainthood meets the reality of daily experience. As the devotional reading says, the little ‘I am’ always sulks when God tells me to be saintly. Instead, I’m to let that little ‘I am’ be shriveled up in God’s indignation — “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.”
To be a saint, the Lord Jesus Christ must dominate. This is not about the pleasure of being a nice little old lady that everyone hugs, and who smiles without trials because her days are always sunny. Instead, sainthood is about being an obedient servant of God who does what He asks me to do, both in the tough situations (where obedience is often easier) and the ordinary daily things where obedience may not seem as important. It is about accepting the batterings and allowing Him to shape me. It is about loving Him no matter what life hands me.
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Father, I am on a short holiday with my husband. I’ve no great assignments, nothing that seems vital other than daily prayer and being loving to him, polite to strangers, and helpful when necessary. Yet You are still throwing challenges at me to live up to my calling. Obedience to You and attention to what You want me to become is always important to You. Saints do not have vacations.
Someone accused me of something that was a total figment of their imagination. My first thought was that I must defend myself. My next thought was retaliation. Then I decided to make sure there was no shred of truth to the accusation. After prayer and listening for a word from the Lord, my conscience was clear. Not long after that, my blood pressure started to rise again.
Earlier in the day, our ladies’ Bible study group discussed the idea of sin being like tipping over. Someone said that she’d experienced situations where the temptation was strong, but the desire to fight it was also powerful. In that battle, she felt like she was on tilt. We joked a bit, even using words like feeling “tipsy” to describe this very serious struggle. After that accusation happened, this word picture jumped back to mind and helped me remember that I must stay upright.
Sometimes temptation hits without warning and I dismiss it. Sometimes I give in before realizing that it was pulling on me. This time I felt the pull, but I also felt the power of God as I prayed for grace to stand. Several minutes passed where it seemed I was standing on one leg. However, the Holy Spirit came alongside to help me. Soon the desire to strike back changed to compassion and the Lord gave me a deep concern for my accuser’s spiritual well-being.
This does not happen every time. Sometimes, as I already said, I am blind-sided and tip over before I realize what hit me. Sometimes the temptation is more appealing to me than being like Jesus, so I make a choice and give in. Yet I am aware that this is not what God wants or provides. He says . . .
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
This verse first lets me know that I am not alone in my temptations. Everyone struggles with them. However, God knows my heart and what tests I can pass. He also provides a way to stand, to escape the temptation. This way is not firm resolve nor even trying harder. Nothing of my own efforts will rescue me. Only Jesus can do that.
Therefore (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:17–18)
Jesus walked this way before I did. He knows all about false accusations. Mockers accused Him then and they still say shameful lies about Him. In all of that, He remains sinless. Because He lives in me, I can rely on Him to help me. I do not need to give into temptation. Even though the enemy of my soul wants me to disobey God, God is stronger. He is able to control what comes at me. Nothing can tempt me without His permission.
God also supplies a way of escape. This escape is not will power (or won’t power). It is the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Because of Him, I can put myself in His hands and let Him meet all accusations and any other type of temptation. This is what it is like to have a Savior. He saves me. I totter and struggle, but by calling out to Him, I also experience being able to say no to sin and yes to God.
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Lord, yesterday’s challenge proved again that You are faithful. I’d love to be protected from people who want to harm anyone who loves You, but I know that will not happen. Jesus did not escape such abuse and neither will I. In this experience and with the temptation to retaliate, I learned that I can teeter on the edge, but You are totally faithful. You pulled me back and kept me from tipping over.
Sometimes I feel as if I live in two worlds. One is the realm of God where prayers are answered and blessings abound. The other is the world that I can see and smell and taste, a world that contradicts all that I know in the other one. This is the world that defies my faith and yells at me that I am foolish and stupid to believe in Jesus Christ.
In the New Testament, Jesus took three of His disciples up on a mountain where they saw Him in His glory as He was transfigured before them. Then they came down the mountain. . . .
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” (Mark 9:14–22)
Peter wanted to stay on the mountain top and build tents for Jesus and the others. But they needed to come down to the other world and deal with its contradictions and miseries. As my devotional reading today says, they were “brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling.”
The author goes on to say that I must live in the valleys for the glory of God. I might see His glory in a million ways in my spiritual experiences, but my worth to God is not measured by the wonders He does on the mountain tops. The reason? In my selfishness, when all is going well and I am being blessed, it is easy to do things for God. In the valley, in the reality of this earthly realm, trust and obedience must be motivated by faith, not by the emotional delights of being on a high with Jesus.
The man asked, “If You can do anything. . . .” and in that valley of ordinary life, called the valley of humiliation by the devotional author, this is where I’ve experienced similar scepticism. Do I know the power of God in the ordinary? Is He still who He is in places where everyone else seems to ignore Him and have no idea of His power?
When grand things happen, when prayers are answered and people are saved, it seems much easier to believe in Him and His power. When I am up against the “facts of the valley” then God challenges me to still believe, to be faithful and minister to others. He says to me, “All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23)
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Lord, this week has been filled with these highs and lows; the highs of answered prayer and seeing You do amazing things, and the lows of ordinary life where it seems You are absent and not even hearing my prayers. Your promise of “all things are possible” remains, yet in the valley it seems like You are not even here, nor are You listening to cries and requests for help and compassion.
I know that I cannot live on those high places all the time. Your love and grace must also be shared when I feel the emotional and spiritual void of the valleys. I know that You promised to grant me whatever I need to be consistent. May my faith and trust never be based on perceptions and mountain top feelings, but based on the reality that You are the same in the valleys as You are on the peaks, the same yesterday, today and forever.
Fiction in a novel depicts truth in real life. The one I’m reading tells of a well-off man who is discontent and thinks more money will make him happy. His pursuit of more money feeds the greed in his heart. When something happens to threaten the gains he hopes to make, he resorts to fear, hatred and then murder. His discontent became a slippery slope.
This is where fiction meets reality. For many, sin seems rather harmless in the beginning. Who will it hurt if I . . . but in the end, it turns on you, bites you, enslaves you, makes you do things that in the beginning you never thought you would do.
Paul describes his real battle with sin. He became a Christian as an adult and while theologians differ on whether he was talking about his life before Christ or after he was saved, every Christian knows this struggle at least at some point in our lives.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:14–23)
In another place, he wrote, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:16–17)
Paul came to the conclusion that winning this battle never involves “trying harder.” He learned, and so have I, that the efforts of the flesh are no match for sin. This is because those efforts are also corrupted and sinful. As Isaiah wrote, sin is “everyone has turned to his own way.” This includes our own efforts to be good people.
In the mind of God, evil includes all the bad stuff like murder, idolatry, jealousy, and so on, but it also includes the innocent looking “I can do this myself” attitude that leaves God out of the picture. That is why the Bible says that God’s thoughts are “higher” than our thoughts. We grade sin on a scale; He does not. If someone does anything out of His will, they have gone over the line. It doesn’t matter how harmless their actions seem or how small. We tend to compare ourselves to the worst, like Hitler and Clifford Olsen, but He compares us to a high standard.
Not only that, God’s black and white view of sin makes the white side much whiter than most can imagine. The righteousness of God is far holier than most of us can envision. When He talks about good, we tend to think comfort, no hardships, ease. However, He thinks, “Does this match up to My Son, Jesus Christ?” and “Will this develop the image of Jesus in My people?”
Jesus is God’s standard for humanity. He never sinned. His motives were pure, as were His words and actions. All that He did was in obedience to His heavenly Father. Beside Him, I am a foul and ugly mess. Without Him, I have no hope of righteousness, no possibility of gaining favor or honor from God.
The good news of the gospel is that God accepts and forgives sinners, not because we do anything to deserve it, but because Jesus Christ died for our sin. The price is paid. He also lives to give us Himself, and by accepting Him into our lives, we have His righteousness. Because of Jesus, God gives me favor and glory. He puts me into His family, into His kingdom, and lets me enjoy His protection.
Yet I still battle sin. If I give in to that battle, I will suffer loss, including the loss of fellowship with the Lord. Yet this is temporary, not forever. As soon as I confess my sin, He puts His arms around me and again pours out His blessings. His goal is that I be like Jesus.
Being a Christian makes this battle with sin far different from the one facing those who do not know Christ. We can win it, not because our “try harder” is more effective, but because our Savior has conquered sin and continues to fight it in us and for us. For that reason, I can say along with the psalmist these words,
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:10–11)
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Lord, I’m aware of my own battles with sin and sometimes wish this was not the reality for Your people. However, when I compare the struggles I face with the same struggle in the lives of those who do not know You, I rejoice. Truly, a day with You is better than a lifetime without You. A tiny role in Your kingdom is better than any glory outside of it. You are my light and my protection. You do not hold anything good from me, and that includes the realization that what You call “good” is far better than any “good” that this wicked world could offer me. Thank You.
