For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. Psalm 92:4, NIV*
Sunday’s sermon taught that God wants us to know He loves us. We need to know it in order to have a close relationship with Him, and to be open to His work in our lives.
We need to know He loves us.
The night before, I’d read in Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts that noticing—naming—in her case writing a list of—those things that bless our spirits is, in a sense, accepting the gifts. God gives them, be they sunsets or fireflies, but if we don’t receive them we miss the blessing.
So… we need to know God loves us. What better way to press it into our hearts than by recording and rehearsing the many small gifts He lavishes on us each day?
Father God, You give so many good gifts to Your children. Many we don’t notice, some we refuse because we don’t like the way they’re wrapped. Help us to know for sure that You are good. Open our eyes to see Your gifts, open our hearts to receive Your grace. Let your gifts prove Your love to our tentative hearts. Draw us into the relationship You’ve designed us for.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30, NIV 2010*
Jesus said this is the most important commandment. Love isn’t just a feeling. It’s an act of will, a choice. And it’s what God wants most from us: love in action.
We know that outward-only love, the going-through-the-motions action without any heart behind it, isn’t what God wants. Nor is it what our family and friends want. It’s legalism, hypocrisy. Fake.
Gratitude, appreciation, respect, honour, obedience… these can be earned. Even required, by people and by God.
True love is a response to who God is, not to what He does. We can’t give it without knowing Him. But we need to throw our whole selves into it: heart, soul, mind and strength.
Father God, please draw our hearts to love You for who You are, to worship You with all that’s in us. Don’t let us settle for anything less than a growing relationship with You. We love because You loved us first. Teach us to reflect it back to You in abundance, with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths, knowing it all comes from You.
All these people [Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob] were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. Hebrews 11:13, NIV 2010*
These and other heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 were commended for being sure of what they hoped for and certain of what they did not see. Their faith was not in themselves or in their hopes and dreams. They put their faith in God, and His nature gave them the assurance to believe.
This chapter highlights some of the ways they showed their faith: understanding that God made the universe (v 3), sacrifices of praise and worship (v 4), obedience (lots of obedience… building the ark (v 7), leaving home for the promised land (v 8), Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac (v 17), believing God’s promise (v 9), blessing their descendants who were one generation closer to receiving the promise (v 20). And the list goes on.
Faith brought a lot of victories, and it strengthened people to endure a lot of pain and persecution. Because they considered the Promise Maker faithful. I love how verse 27 describes Moses: “he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”
So what about us? Most of us are in that safe, ordinary range between the two extremes: we’re not going to be big names in the history books for either our victories or our defeats. But like I said last week, that doesn’t mean where we are is any less important to God.
We’re still called to please Him by our faith. We can believe He made the universe, we can offer the sorts of sacrifices He really wants (mercy, justice, walking humbly with Him). Instead of getting distracted by the here and now, we can live today mindful of God’s promises. He said He’d always be with us in our todays, and He also said we’d be with Him for eternity.
Creator God, You keep Your promises and nothing can change that. Forgive us for getting distracted by the present. Help us to enjoy the present and serve You well in it. But help us keep our eyes on You—and on eternity with You. That makes our time here more purposeful, because we’ll be acting in faith in Your promise.
The LORD said to Aaron, “…I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the tent of meeting. But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.” Numbers 18:1a, 6-7, NIV*
God gave specific, high-visibility roles of service to the priesthood (Aaron and his sons) and to the wider group of the Levites as a whole. Like other places in Scripture, God chose the people and assigned the tasks.
From our perspective, the person in a key ministry position or crucial role is someone important—special. Our star-struck culture inclines us to admire him or her because of the position, not because of character or deeds.
Today’s verse reminds us of God’s view: the high-profile role is a gift to the person, for God’s greater plan to bless the people that individual will serve. The support roles are also gifts, and just as significant. There’s no room for “He likes you more than He likes me” or the other way around.
With the “great” roles comes great responsibility, and it’s better to pray “Lord, use me where You will,” than to set the sights of personal ambition on a high-profile position. Are we here to please ourselves, or to give honour to our Creator?
He puts some of us in the lead roles, and more of us in the supporting ones. But in God’s overall view, each part matters. Our responsibility is to be consecrated, ready, and obedient to His call.
Father, thank You for those You empower for leadership roles, and for those You empower for behind-the-scenes roles. Thank You that no job is too big for the person You choose or too small for a person to need Your strength and leading. Help us remember it’s not about us—it’s for Your glory. Give us ears to hear and hearts to obey. Let us neither envy another’s service nor begrudge our own.
∞
Casting Crowns‘ “In Me” is a good reminder of Who we’re serving and where the power comes from.
I manage most of my blog subscriptions through Bloglines (thank you, MerchantCircle for keeping this service going) and hadn’t logged in for a while. Among the posts waiting to be read were three that I’d like to share today:
What we think about most is an indicator of what we are trying to fulfill ourselves with. Is it God? Or is it something else? [Read God’s Girl’s full post here for a practical example of what this can look like–and the difference it can make.]
In “Tuning our Harps” at Canadian Writers Who Are Christian, Judith Lawrence writes:
We may not feel like singing God’s praises when things go wrong in our lives, we may want to wallow in our misery. However, a difficult situation is not the time to hang up our harps but a time to sing the Lord’s song with even more vigour. [Read Judith’s full post here, and consider what freedom from captivity might look like for each of us.]
In “What’s the Point” at InScribe Writers Online, Karen Toews shares “a twisted version of inspiration for 2011 or my dose of ‘this is the real world, girl'”. Selections from the book of Ecclesiastes convince her that there is a point. [Read Karen’s full post here.]
Thank you, God’s Girl, Judith and Karen, for encouraging words for the journey.
Some people go all melodramatic when they’re hurt. Some lash out. Others need to be alone to deal with the pain… or to stoke a martyr complex.
I tend to fall into the “poor me” category. Saturday morning I went to Curves (I don’t happily do Saturday mornings out). After I signed in, I bent to collect my things and stood up—straight into the underside edge of the countertop.
I couldn’t stop a little yelp. The other women were sympathetic, and I could have played it up a bit. I was also tired, my head hurt, and I wanted to slink off and cry a bit.
But today’s verse slid into my mind. That word “gentleness” caught me. When I’m hurt I may exhibit “gentle” but in the beaten-down, defeated sort of way.
Somehow I knew the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to be gentle in the normal way, not the victim way, and to carry on with my workout instead of letting the hurt stop me. “The Lord is near.” That comforted me, said there was no need to look for sympathy from others or from myself. God knew, and He was with me.
In context, Philippians 4:4-7 talks about choosing prayer over anxiety and rejoicing in God’s presence. It’s not about klutzy accidents and self-pity. Or is it?
Father, I praise You for gently caring for me even in the little things of life. Help me be confident that You’ll be just as present in the bigger troubles. Help me keep a gentle, quiet spirit that’s resting in Your will—because I can trust that You are near.
Self-control. Maybe because the King James Version calls it “temperance,” I’ve always thought of this fruit of the Spirit as “refraining from excess and from bad behaviour.”
Last week my Bible study group talked about the Holy Spirit being the fuel… how much or how little of Him to we make room for? We also talked about quieting ourselves to listen and obey, to do things God’s way.
The next day the post at Other Food: Daily Devos continued the challenge: “My Will or His?”
These things made me wonder if this passage about the fruit of the Spirit uses self-control not so much for the outer actions (as important as that is) but to describe bringing our spirits into line with the Holy Spirit, placing them under His direction.
Not in a repressive way, but a submission, a surrender, a placing of self under God’s authority and direction. A making room for His Spirit to shape, develop and refine us.
After pondering and praying about this the following morning, what verse did my eye catch?
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15, NIV*, quoting Psalm 95:7-8)
Lord, help me hear and recognize Your voice. Help me not follow my default pattern of hardening my heart by choosing my way over Yours. Help me to control and quiet my inner self so that Your Spirit within me has room to rise and to develop His fruit in me. To Your glory, and for my own spiritual wellbeing.
∞
“Lead Me to the Cross,” by Chris and Conrad, isn’t the old hymn you may expect. Let it minister to your spirit today… especially listen for the line “rid me of myself”.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6, NIV*
Sunday morning I watched the blowing snow and thought about the 6-hour bus ride Wise Guy Son had booked for that afternoon to go back to university. The route includes a section of highway noted for its whiteout conditions.
I knew I could spend the whole day fretting about his safety, and the only thing I’d gain would be muscle tension. Been there, done that.
It took several times of consciously stopping to commit the situation back into God’s hands (and to remember that the bus driver is a trained professional who presumably dislikes death and lawsuits) but I was able to join in morning worship instead of worrying, and to relax in the afternoon instead of checking road conditions online.
The bus reached its destination safely and almost on schedule, and I’m praising God for the answer to prayer but also for the progress He’s making in my heart.
Usually my prayer is something like, “See the problem, God? Please help.”
I thank Him for His power and love, and for being with us. I thank Him for the plans He’s already made, that whatever the situation is has not caught Him by surprise. But I keep aware of the problem.
Now I see a bit more to the “with thanksgiving” part of today’s verse. I need to thank Him with expectation that He will act. Not to decide how He’ll act, because that’s His call. But after committing the need to Him, I need to stop looking at it and trust Him.
He reinforced the lesson by not bringing this devotional together until Tuesday mid-afternoon. I schedule them to post early Wednesday mornings, and this particular week has no time Tuesday evening to write.
He’s been giving me a Wednesday devotional thought every week since He nudged me to start blogging in March of 2008. It’s not usually this close to the line, though.
My prayer wasn’t “Lord, do You have something to say?” so much as “Lord, help me not to miss what You say.” Still, there was a definite choice to make. Would I go through the day reminding Him of my need, or would I look expectantly for His reply?
To me, there’s a difference. The first way still has the tension, the uncertainty. The second has a confidence that God will do what He planned, even if I don’t see it yet.
Father God, Your plans for us are good, and You love us. We don’t always like what happens to us, nor do You. But You are our Creator and Sustainer, and Your patient grace teaches us to trust You. Give us the confidence to pray with thanksgiving and with expectation that You have heard… and that You will act. Thank You for your grace.
∞
Here’s another song from the newsboys that expresses our confidence: “Strong Tower” from their Devotion CD.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1:3a, NIV*
“Sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
I don’t know about you, but to me the world seems a little out of control. Natural disasters are more frequent and widespread, society’s morals keep sliding, sickness and anxiety thrive. Of course, it doesn’t help that I finished 2010 by reading the book of Revelation.
Today’s verse is from the beginning of Hebrews, and later in the same chapter we read about the heavens and the earth perishing. The writer ends that passage by reaffirming that God does not change.
God the Father won’t grow weak or fail. Jesus the Son will sustain all things. The Holy Spirit will never leave us.
I take comfort in that. The world may be a scary place, and material things will wear out, break and decay, but I can trust the God who made the universe to sustain what matters to Him… and that includes us.
Mighty God, we can depend on You to sustain us. Give us the grace and faith we need to keep our confidence firmly fixed in You, who alone are worthy. Because of who You are, we can rest in hope.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:20, NIV*
My automatic response to the second part of this verse is that it’s much easier to love God, who is perfect—and worthy of love—than to love imperfect people who may not seem “lovable”.
And the brother or sister I’ve seen, worked with and discovered the foibles of is harder to love than the one I’ve only met online and gotten to know the positive side of their nature. I’m sure others feel the same about me.
When I find myself arguing with Scripture, I know there’s a problem. This time, reading these verses, I stopped to think.
Maybe what I’ve been calling love for God, that response of my spirit to His, is worship, not love. Adoration, even.
That’s not a call to manufacture or pretend warm feelings toward one another. It’s a call to active love.
That brings a second question: if loving my brother and sister, whose needs I have seen, is the act of caring for them, what does it look like to love God? In the next chapter, John says we love God by keeping His commands.
We need to do this in His strength and by the power of His Spirit in us. With willing, thankful and surrendered hearts, as an offering of worship. There’s no room for legalism here.
Father, give me Your heart towards others, Christians and non. Empower me by Your Spirit to actively and practically show love to them, and by so doing to love You as well.
∞
If Christians work together, imagine the difference we can make. Here’s a song from Russ Taff: “We Will Stand”.
