At our first neighborhood block party, someone asked me what I did. They were looking for a ‘career’ answer and instead out popped, “I’m a kept woman.” Her jaw dropped, but this surprised me too as it had not entered my head prior to saying it.
A lifetime of being dependent on someone else for the necessities of life is quite opposite to North American independence. Many women have jobs and wear their title with pride. For me, that question usually gets my response of “self-employed” or “writer” or something that shows I don’t sit at home and twiddle my thumbs, but I do get tired of the question.
This morning the thought occurs that this lifestyle has perhaps contributed to my spiritual life. As proud and as full of self-effort as I am, perhaps God knew that depending on my spouse would help me learn to be more dependent on Him.
Actually, everyone is dependent on God. The Bible rightly says that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. He gives us life and breath and everything (Acts 17). This is true for our physical lives, and even more pronounced for spiritual life.
Prior to Christ, I was “dead in my sin” and without any eternal hope. I did not understand the Bible nor did I seek God. When the Holy Spirit put a thirst for Him into my heart, I stubbornly resisted trusting Him and relying on His grace and power. Yet God is more stubborn — and wise. He used all the circumstances of life to teach me that He alone can save me from my sin, deliver me from the lies of Satan, help me walk in victory and even give me an abundant life. I agree with the psalmist who wrote:
You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. (Psalm 18:35)
When David wrote this, he had just been delivered from Saul who was trying to kill him. This psalm is a prayer of gratitude for his safety, but it is also a prayer of my heart.
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God, You have given me that same shield. In the New Testament, it is called the shield of faith. With it I am protected from the lies of my spiritual enemy, the devil. Faith shields my heart from his attacks and gives me assurance of Your continual love and care. Thank You for the gift of faith.
I also know the support of Your right hand. The New Testament clarifies who sits there; it is Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. Without Him I can do nothing. With Him I can do all things. Jesus not only supports me, but leads and guides me where You want me to go. Without Jesus, I can do nothing to please You or even obey You. For Jesus, I am eternally grateful.
The Old Testament word “gentleness” in that verse could also be translated as “humility” or “meekness.” These seem odd words to describe Your activities, but it was in meekness that God the Son lowered Himself and became a man. Humility brought You to earth to reveal Your great heart. In meekness, You died for our sin, my sin. It is because of this great humility that I have eternal life. You gently and kindly love me. For this I am also eternally grateful.
Further, your kindness made me great? I don’t see greatness in myself, but that word “great” is also translated as “increase” and “abundance.” In the New Testament, Jesus said, “The thief (meaning Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
I cannot claim greatness as I would use that word, but I do know something about increase and abundance. You have blessed me with such fulness of life that I often weep with gratitude. Thank You, thank You for all that You have done!
Death is the great leveler. Funerals put us face-to-face with our own mortality. Even though I believe in Jesus Christ and know that I will spend eternity with Him, death is still an enemy, a future event that I usually want to be off far in the future.
While no one can control their departure, I’m comforted somewhat by the fact of longevity in my family. I’m also thankful for good health and few pressures from outside threats. The promises of God are my greatest comfort. Even so, death is not a friend.
The Bible speaks of two kinds of death. One is physical, the other spiritual. Both are about separation, from life and from God. Neither are about annihilation. That is, when a person dies, they do not cease to exist. It is as Jesus said,
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:25–29)
This is why the Apostle John could write, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12). (Besides that, no one can do “good” apart from Jesus.)
Jesus eradicated death by the power of His eternal life. For those who “have Him” He gives this life when He enters our lives. Because of Him and by the power of His life, death is only a doorway.
Jesus also declared, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). To offer the gift of eternal life to sinners, Jesus had to first take care of the reason we die. He took our sin upon Himself becoming “sin for us” and bore our punishment — death.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)
Because of what Jesus did, death has no power over those who believe in Him. Satan, who wants us separated from God, cannot hold me in fear when God Himself has promised me everlasting life, life that I actually have right now — whoever who has the Son — has life!
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Lord, I can say with the psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). I know Your presence and Your care for me. Even though I cannot actually see eternity, You have written it in my heart. By grace I have been saved and by grace I will carry on in this life knowing that the next life has been secured. By grace, eternity is as certain as Your death and resurrection and as secure as Your promises.
This morning I’m thinking about besetting sins. These are those habitual acts of disobedience that seemingly are impossible to stop. Sometimes I do something, confess it as sin, then find myself committing the same sin again and again.
The Bible promises that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Why then do I keep repeating the thing when God says my confession results in cleansing?
For a long time I’ve thought the reason is that I haven’t got to the bottom of it. I will confess an action, but didn’t recognize the attitude behind the action. I will confess an attitude, but not go deeply enough to confess my motivation for it, and it is in the area of motivation where I make the most excuses.
My Logos Bible study software has many books and in searching for besetting sins, I found one called Love to Eat, Hate to Eat by Elyse Fitzpatrick. It is about eating disorders and has a great section on the usual excuses made for sin. Here is the list:
My Mama Made Me Do It. This is blaming childhood experiences and how they shaped me. It is often used by criminals who go for softer sentences by claiming they were raised in a dysfunctional home. Christians use this excuse when we feel trapped by our past.
My Computer Has a Virus. This worldly idea says we are mere machines that work on a GIGO principle. Fitzpatrick’s book calls it the carrot-and-stick theory. A donkey will always pull the wagon if the carrot (reward) is big enough (positive reinforcement) or if the stick (punishment) is substantial enough (negative reinforcement). Mixed that with spiritual truth and I think I could conquer sin if I just put my focus on the reward. It does not work.
Help Me, Doctor, I Think I’m Sick. With eating disorders, some say their problems are genetic, or food allergies, or certain chemicals in the brain. While this might be so, the Bible never allows such excuses for disobeying God.
Feel the Force Within You. The book says, “Even some Christians believe that they need to discover their ‘resident inner power’ and then clear the obstructions to this power through visualization, positive declarations, and energy direction.” If I am struggling with some unwanted behavior, it is because I’m “not listening to my inner guidance, and must change my energy through positive declarations.” This is not dependance on God, but idolatry.
The Devil Made Me Do It. Some Christians also believe that besetting sins are directly caused by spirits or demons. This is refusing to take responsibility for sin. It also is refusing to acknowledge that Christ conquered Satan’s power and that He saves us from all sin.
I Don’t Love Myself Enough. The idea here is that if I could just learn to love and accept myself then I would not punish or reward myself in sinful ways. It says I can do this by my own power, another form of idolatry.
It’s Not My Fault. “You are not responsible for your behavior,” is a strong manifesto in our society. But the Bible teaches that one day, “each one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). I cannot use that excuse either.
The verse that prompted this search was from Spurgeon’s devotional for today. He used it to show that David confessed his sin of murder without making excuses.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. (Psalm 51:14)
He called his sin exactly what it was and when he did that, he had grounds to ask God to forgive and cleanse him. With that, I realize that some of my own sin has not been overcome because I’ve failed to recognize and confess their root motivation, or have made excuses like some of those listed in the book about eating disorders.
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Lord, You have opened my eyes again. You remind me that all sin is about inner desires. I want something (even legitimate things) but those desires get out of control as I try to fulfill them in the wrong way. It is just as James 1:14 says, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”
These days, lust is associated with sex, but in the Bible lust refers to any strong desire. It can be for food, which is a good thing until it gets out of control and becomes a lust to overeat. It can be a desire to help another person, another good thing until it gets out of control and becomes meddling where I’m not helping at all. It can also be a desire for a repeat blessing, yet instead of waiting on You for that, I try to “make it happen” and wind up disobeying You.
This gives me a great deal to think about and pray about. Thank You. Keep me on the right track. Help me recognize the bottom line when I sin and confess my sin. I know that confession and the blood of Christ wash sin away. I also know that obedience keeps it from coming back.
Last week I had a short visit with an old friend. She once loved Jesus with all her heart and was determined to follow Him. However, she has changed. She told me she was about to do something “bad” and went on to describe her far-from-biblical plan. The bottom line was that the world’s way of doing things had more appeal to her than following the way of Jesus.
Even though Jesus Christ ate and drank with sinners, He was separate from the world, sanctified, set apart for God and not like us in our sin or temporary desires. He had eternity in mind, but was despised for this, rejected and abused because of His godly perspective and lifestyle.
The Bible challenges me to be like Jesus. It also says that if I live a godly life, separate from the world and dedicated to serving Him and not myself, I will suffer as He did.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12–13)
This set-apart life is not appealing. For one thing, it can be lonely and for Jesus, it had to be worse than any loneliness I’ll ever experience. His own disciples did not understand Him and near the end of His life, they ran away rather than stick by Him.
The disciples did come back, to their credit. As the above verse says, the alternative is to go from bad to worse. They could have become deceivers, but remained true to His teaching because of their love for Him. I want to be in that number.
On the other hand, those who crucified Him were oblivious to His innocence and did not know what they were doing. They had no idea who He was or what He offered them. Yet even as they put Him to death, they unwittingly fulfilled the foreshadowing of the sacrificial law that pointed to their Messiah.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11–14)
Just as the sacrificial animals were disposed of outside the city, Jesus died alone and apart from the people He came to save. He was treated as worse than garbage, yet willingly accepted this separation for He knew the real basis for it. He was so pure that they could not bear His presence.
Jesus asks me, based on what He has done, to separate myself from the world (in attitude, not in body). I am not to care about the things that others care about. I am not to be preoccupied with the temporal stuff of this life either. This includes not only sin, but the ordinary activities of life. They are passing away, yet those who do the will of God live forever. My perspective is to be eternal.
However, as I try to do that, I need His grace. This world is a place of ridicule and reproach. Its residents accuse Christians of believing fairy tales, being brainwashed, and having lost our senses. In their minds, we are garbage to be tossed rather than earthen vessels sent from God containing a great treasure for them.
The world cannot understand anyone whose goal is to be like Christ. Everyone else looks out for themselves, builds their own empire, and lives in a kingdom of bigger, better, more. On the other hand, Jesus bids me to consider others more important than myself. I’m charged to build His kingdom without becoming entangled in the affairs of this world.
This means cost-counting, for it is costly. I will be ostracized, lonely, misunderstood and the brunt of ill treatment.
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Lord, this sounds more like bad news than the good news of the gospel. However, the alternatives are plain. If I do not walk with You, then I will walk with the world. There is no middle. Without You, I will become me-centered (even worse than I am), without concern for others and without concern for eternal matters. I will go from bad to worse, even believing lies and telling them. I will be preoccupied with those things that do not last.
I might be able to slide into that worldly attitude without a lot of protest, but one thing I cannot do is become separated from You. I could not bear it. You were taken outside the camp — therefore I must be taken (or go willingly) outside the camp. You were persecuted — I must stay with You and be persecuted too.
You did all this “for the joy set before” You and I understand that. Yet, by the miracle of Your grace, when I am “outside the camp” with You, Your joy is never something set off in the distance. Instead, You put joy in my heart every moment, even in the moments of greatest need. You amaze me with joy!
The world does not understand this either. They cannot see or know the blessed joy of the Lord, because they do not see or know You. I pray that You will bring those without You from the darkness in this world to the bright and glorious light of being outside the camp with You.
For years, certain prayers have gone unanswered even though they are “in God’s will” and not selfish, or so I’ve thought.
Today, Spurgeon talks about humility. He says that God always blesses a humble spirit. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3) and my devotional adds, “heaven with all its riches and treasures.” Certainly this describes a life of answered prayer and of the honor that God bestows on those who are humble of spirit.
The devotional also points to verses that spell it out plainly; humility comes before honor. I cannot expect God to hear me when my heart is full of pride.
The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15:33)
I’ve connected my unanswered prayers to pride, but not like the Lord brings it home today. One sentence in today’s reading clearly shows me why He holds back the blessings that I pray for. Before getting to that one sentence, the Lord set me up with several reminders.
First He says that I’m to empty my heart of self and let God fill it with love. While I love the people that I pray for, some aspects of those prayers are for me. I know that because of the way I talk to God about them and my assumptions for why He has not done anything. I actually apologize for not doing my job right — as if God is limited to my performance. I bemoan my own inadequacies as if I could do what only He can do. From that, I realize that if He did what I ask, I would probably take some credit for it.
Second, He says if I really want close communion with Him and want Him to answer my prayers, then I need to remember what He says about my attitude: “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). My pride, even a smidgen of it, can stand between me and my audience with God. Much of the time I have far more than a smidgen.
Then God uses this sentence to tell me the reason why He is not answering certain prayers. “If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one.”
Oh, my. This hits home. The hard reality is this truth: If my heavenly Father were to let my proud spirit win a victory in His holy war, I would pilfer the crown for myself. Then, when I meet with a fresh enemy, I would certainly fall. God keeps me in this state of not seeing a “yes” answer to my prayers — for my own safety. I cannot handle the answer.
Spurgeon adds that when a person is sincerely humble and “never ventures to touch so much as a grain of praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do for that person.” Humility makes us ready to be blessed and equips us to deal efficiently with all issues of life for it causes us to rely totally on the only One who can give us all that we need.
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Now what do I say to You about this? I know and abhor my pride. I know that my heart would swell with it should You do some of the things I ask. This is a mockery of grace. Why should I feel proud when it is You alone who is responsible for blessing others, blessing me, even bestowing honor? I earn or deserve none of it.
Oh Lord, this battle against pride also puts my focus on me. Only You can save me from self-focus, self-righteousness, and the insidious ruin of thinking of myself too much and too often and more highly than I ought. You tell me that I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), obviously because my own is corrupt. Lift my thoughts to You and put my pride where it belongs.
One person suggested that the newness and excitement wear off because we get taken up with the things of this world. Spurgeon agrees. He illustrates by pointing to a mountainous area of Europe. He says many people who live in the valleys are deformed. They have a sickly appearance because of the miasma in the atmosphere. The air is stagnant, unwholesome and oppressive. However, a hardier group of people live on the mountain. They breathe the clear fresh air blowing from the Alpine summits.
Spurgeon compares this to Christians. Those who continually dwell in the valley of this world with its “marshes and the fever mists” would do well to rise above that oppressive stuff and “inhale the bracing element” high on the hills. This is a metaphor for spending time with God where the focus is on the rare and pure air of eternal matters.
Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. (Isaiah 2:3)
Chinese missionary and martyr, Watchman Nee was asked about being a Christian. He said it was like having two dogs fighting inside of him. The winner was the one that he fed the most. Getting away from the cares of this life to spend quality time with Jesus is feeding a winner. Our spirits need spiritual nourishment to thrive and live victoriously.
Yesterday I spoke with a neighbor. A few years ago she made a commitment to Christ. However, she has been attending a mainline church where the Bible is not studied. I was appalled to hear her doctrinal deterioration. She once had a firm and certain knowledge what a person must do to be saved. She knew that Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one can come to God except through Him. (John 14:6)
Now she is unsure of many things. She says she cannot judge how people get to heaven, thinks maybe repentance is necessary but hedges, and doubts whether a person needs new life in Christ to become a Christian. What happened? It appears she has stayed too long in the valley.
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Lord, some mornings I am tempted to bypass devotions and get on with the day. My to-do list is long, or I’ve this nagging notion that You will be silent and I will be wasting my time reading Your Word. Forgive me for thinking that I can survive in the miasma, and that it will not affect my spiritual well-being. I need time with You. Otherwise, I will not know Your ways or walk in Your paths. I know myself and my tendency to move downward. I need You to always draw me to the heights. I need to spend time basking in the glory of who You are. Save me from those things of earth that pull me down into spiritual neglect and decline, and keep my focus on things above and on You.
Friday’s funeral was blessed. Even those who do not know Jesus were comforted by the clear and appealing gospel message presented by a pastor we barely knew. He told those present that their abhorrence of death could be overcome by a relationship with the Savior.
Spurgeon’s verse for today gives me pause. If anything was missing or at least not emphasized on Friday, it was this reality.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Perhaps funerals are not the best place to talk about sin. People are grieving a loss as well as brought face to face with their own mortality. Emotions run deep. Any words that sound like “you are a sinner” throw a barricade in front of divine comfort. However, sin actually is the great barricade between us and God. How can God comfort anyone if sin stands between them and Him?
This is where the grace of God comes in. Sometimes He comforts anyway. One person told us that she listened to every word spoken and every word in the hymns. The heavy burden of grief was lifted from her shoulders. Even though she has rejected God for many years and He did not have to do that, He did.
She was not the only “sinner” at the funeral. This verse is inclusive. All of us have turned from God’s way to our own. This is even the definition of sin. We are all guilty before God.
The verse is also personal in that everyone turns to his own way. We each have a particular direction where that turning takes us. My sin is not like the sin of others. We each have a distinctive self-determination that takes us away from God.
The good news is here though, even in the same sentence as the bad news. Yes, we are all like sheep and have each turned from God to do our own thing, but the Father has put all that sin on the Son. Jesus experienced the weight of all our sin and died for all of us. He took our guilt and suffered our penalty so we can be forgiven and have eternal life. This is grace.
Friday, a portion of grace was automatic. That is, those who do not believe experienced a measure of God’s comfort in their sorrow. They did nothing to earn or deserve this comfort; God just gave it.
Yet the fullness of grace that includes forgiveness of sin and the sure promise eternal life is not automatic. This grace is not bestowed on everyone, regardless. It comes without earning it or deserving it (who could?), yet it must be received. He never forces it on those who push Him away.
The pastor used the words “it must be received.” I wondered if the hearers needed an explanation. How do you receive forgiveness and eternal life? Or was this also made plain by the Holy Spirit? Did He open hearts to show that the grace of God is like any gift?
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Father, we miss Mom, yet have assurance that we will see her again. She knew your grace and believed that You died for her. Today my prayer is for those who heard on Friday about grace, but have not yet received what they heard or Your gift offered to them. Open their hearts to their need. Help them see that sin separates them from You, but You have already offered a way to have victory over sin. It isn’t in brushing it aside, but in sending Jesus to suffer the penalty that we deserved. It is in asking for and receiving forgiveness. It is in inviting Jesus into our hearts, to share our lives and to show us the way to heaven. Because He lives forever, we can also. Eternal life is Christ and Christ is Your gift to us.
