Author: Beverly Van Kampen

523

“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” -Traditional Liturgical Benediction

This blog is nearly 10 years old and this is post #523.

The purpose of these posts has been to share some thoughts with you as I walk along the road to knowing God. The writing has helped me to know him better in that it has caused me to think through what I read and learn as I process it to share with you.

Today I sense that I am being directed to take a break – not from learning, or obeying, or growing – but from writing this blog. Maybe not forever. I might, at some time in the future, be able to return to it with a freshness of spirit and approach.

Some of you have been with me on this journey from the very beginning. Thank you for your faithfulness. Others are fairly new followers, so I am sorry to leave you so soon. All of you, though, feel free to browse through the archives if you are interested in revisiting previous posts.

There are many good sources for devotional thoughts these days. Please find them, enjoy them, grow in your knowledge of God through them.

And, if by his grace, we meet again through this forum, that will bring me joy.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Blessed Already

“Let God’s promises shine on your problems. When you know Jesus, you are truly blessed.” – Corrie ten Boom

Somebody sneezes and the person next to him says, “Bless you.” What does he mean? I’m not sure, but it seems to mean something like, “I wish you well.” That’s probably just a tiny bit of what Jesus had in mind when he gave a long list (Matthew 5) of the kinds of people on whom God would show his favor, aka bless.

These are the people Jesus says are blessed: those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who want to be good, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for being righteous. Do you identify with any of those categories? If so, look for God’s blessing all around you. And remember that, while some of the blessings he promises will not be fully seen until eternity, there are some that we can experience in this present moment and they include such things as mercy, comfort, and satisfaction of our deepest spiritual desires.

I take away two very encouraging things from this list:

First, the promise that, no matter what you are going through now, it will be better when God’s Kingdom has fully come.

Second, we can experience God’s blessing and favor right now in the middle of the poverty, hunger, mourning, or persecution.

In short, Jesus promises that, if we are committed to God, at some point all our needs will be met and our desires fulfilled. If we think about that for a while, we will be blessed already!

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” – Numbers 6:24-26

Without Words

” . . . we find that the soul’s silence brings us to God and God to us. Silence takes us beyond the limits of consciousness and into the heart and mind and will of God.” – J. Brent Bill, Quaker Pastor/Author

I have a prayer list in my head – things and people I pray for and about every day. Occasionally I wonder if God gets tired of hearing the same requests over and over again. But, he says we should ask. And Jesus even encouraged persistence in prayer. So I don’t think it’s wrong to repeat our prayers.

Even so, there may be times when we should pray without words, sitting silently in God’s presence in an attitude of worship and waiting while we think about him or focus on a verse of Scripture. After a while, we may find a thought enter our head about someone or something we have been praying about – often it will be an insight about what the real need is and how we can better understand that person or situation. Then, when we pray with words, we can pray the prayer God wants us to pray – one that reflects his will.

“There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in his service.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Paul tells us we should pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Does he mean we should be talking all day long? No. Sometimes prayer can be a quiet connection with God.

Or, to paraphrase Francis of Assissi: Pray without ceasing. When necessary use words.

“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 (The Message)

Less of Me

“We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” – David Platt

We sing a song in our church with these lyrics: “If more of You means less of me, take everything. Yes, all of You is all I need. Take everything.” Wow. That’s a lot to pray. Take everything. Why would we pray that kind of prayer? Maybe because we’ve figured out that our way of doing things really doesn’t work!

We present an aura of confidence, good will, and purity when inside we are none of those things. It’s easy to fall into a life of covering, posturing, and pretending. And it’s exhausting!

Instead of an ego-centered life, God wants us to admit our weakness, so he can be our strength.

He wants us to give up our earthly desires, and let him provide what will really satisfy.

He challenges us to stop trying to be better, stronger, wiser, and, instead, to focus completely on him.

He invites us to relinquish pride, appearances, being right, honor, self-satisfaction, superiority, authority, perfection. He doesn’t want those things to be important anymore.

Why all this giving up? Because God knows that when we always have to be in control, we’re not able to accept the greater gifts he offers us.

When John the Baptist was preaching, he had many followers. When Jesus came on the scene, John pointed to him as the one he had been talking about all along, and he says, “He must increase and I must decrease.” He deliberately steered people’s attention away from himself and onto Jesus.

I think that’s what this is all about. Less of me. More of him.

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:3

That’s what love does.

“Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God. For by it we love him.” – St. Augustine

What do you do when you’re confronted with someone in need? Do you automatically stop what you are doing and reach out to help? Sometimes it’s just that easy. We don’t ignore the elderly woman struggling with packages or hesitate to open the door for someone in a wheelchair, or offer a ride to the one who needs to get to a job interview.

But there are other needs that confront us that really cost us something. What do we do then? If our focus is on what it will cost us in money, time, or pain, we become hesitant to commit, we hold back on helping. Is that how Jesus would be thinking? Our focus is so easily turned from the person in need to what their need may demand of us. His never was.

The only way never to be in such a situation is not to have a family, not to have friends. If we live in isolation, no one will ever need our help. But what kind of life is that? Relationships cost us something. We are called to live in community – to love our neighbors, to support our brothers and sister in Christ, and to give generously.“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” (Amy Carmichael).

We don’t need to solve everyone’s problems, but we do need to love them as Jesus would if he were in our place. That’s what love does.

“…give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” – Luke 6:38

The Front Row

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.” – J.I. Packer

The high priced seats at any concert are those that are closest to the front. Why? True fans want to be up close so they can see and hear everything. And they’ll pay a lot to be able to do that!

When it comes to worshiping God, he has already paid for the high-priced ticket. He invites us to come closer and to experience the awe of his presence.

A. W. Tozer uses the tabernacle in the Old Testament as a picture of doing that*:

The tabernacle courtyard was for everyone. It was wide open space for all who chose to come. It’s where we begin in our relationship with God.

If we want to grow closer, we move to the Holy Place. There the focus was on Torah. In other words, this is the space where we learn about God, and for most of us, that is through the church. If we want to get closer to God, we need to be willing to learn.

The inner room was the Holy of Holies. The encounter there was one-on-one with God. Since Jesus came to make us clean, this inner place is open to us. We can go in alone to meet with God through prayer, meditation on his word, and worship.

I don’t know about you, but I want to spend more time in the Holy of Holies soaking in his presence and bowing in adoration. Why hang around the courtyard when the door is open for us to come inside and be all alone with God?

“. . . in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:11b

*From Pursuit of Christian Maturity, A. W. Tozer

It takes practice.

“Peace is the will of God for you in every situation.” – Fenelon

Do you ever get caught in a downward spiral as you deal with day-to-day problems that are part of our lives? If we pray during a time like this, our prayers tend to be cries for help, requests for God to change our circumstances. Sometimes he answers those prayers just as we want him to do.

At other times, though, he doesn’t intervene. Instead he walks with us as we trudge through the mud and mire. I’ve lived long enough to have experienced many of those kinds of times. I did pray. I did try to be obedient. I surrendered my will to his. But he didn’t fix things every time.

Here’s what I am still learning: In every situation there’s something to be thankful for. We search until we find that one thing and then we thank God. Another will come to our minds and another. If we keep doing that every day and every hour, we get better at it, we begin to feel calm, and our minds turn gradually away from ourselves and toward God.

But it doesn’t come easy. We have to make a choice to be thankful. There are musicians in our family and, when we hear them play, they sound great. But they have to practice to develop their skill. The more they practice, the better they get.

The same thing is true of praise. We have to practice it is if it is a skill be be developed. It’s hard to give thanks when things are not going well, but we do it in obedience to God, in reliance in his love, and, ultimately, as we keep on practicing praise, peace creeps in.

“I will praise the name of God with a song;
    I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” – Psalm 69:30

God has bigger plans.

“Whenever God calls a man, he bids him come and die.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God has bigger plans for us than anything we can accomplish ourselves. So he tells us we have to die to ourselves and yield every desire of our hearts to him. We can be sure doing that will be a struggle!

The things we hang on to usually relate to our comfort, security, appearance, or reputation. We long for praise, recognition, and control. But we’re unaware that holding tight to managing our lives around those values creates a barrier between us and God and all kinds of anxiety within.

For our own good, he invites us to let him take control. Then he waits until our desire to let him lead is greater than our desire for living our self-centered, and often desperate, lives.

As, over time, we keep returning to an attitude of surrender, we will begin to see changes: We will care about what others are feeling more than about what they’re thinking of us. We will no longer be so focused on physical comfort: sleep, preferred foods, the way we dress, personal safety or health. We will accept circumstances and see beyond them.

Finally, we come to a point where we no longer look to God for what he can give us, but for who he is. When that happens, he comes close, and we find we’ve given up nothing, and we’ve gained everything.

Dying to self is not easy, but it is the only way to true joy and peace. It starts with a simple prayer: “I surrender.” He’ll show us where to go from there.

“I have been crucified with Christ . . . the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – from Galatians 2:20

Are you sure you’re right?

The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.” – Paul Tournier

When Jesus asked Peter “. . . who do you say that I am?”, Peter answered correctly. A short time later he made a big mistake in telling Jesus he should not be talking about crucifixion and dying. Jesus gave a strong reprimand saying, “. . . you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter was thinking from a human perspective, and this encounter becomes a caution to us that, when we are setting our mind on earthly things, as Peter was, we get the answers to life’s most important questions wrong.

Paul was passionate about arresting and killing Christians because, in his world view as a Pharisee, it seemed like the right thing to do. Then Jesus met him along the road, and everything changed. Paul saw the truth and, we know from his later writings, he was horrified at how wrong he’d been. When he was thinking from a strictly human point of view, he was following wrong answers to life’s most important questions.

Paul was wiser by the time he wrote to the Christians in Rome telling them not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by renewing their minds and, when they do that, they will know God’s will. They will correctly understand the answers to life’s most important questions.

We get to direct where our mind goes: To things above or things on earth? To the things of God or the things of man? If status quo is OK, we keep doing what we’re doing. If we want transformation, we have to be intentional about directing our minds into spiritual thinking.

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” – Colossians 3:2

Just One Question

“To know him in your world now is to live interactively with him right where you are in your daily activities. This is the spiritual life in Christ.” – Dallas Willard

I love the account in the Bible about the Jesus followers who walked with him on the road to Emmaus and didn’t realize who he was – at least not at first. But, what an opportunity they had to talk to him, to ask him questions, and to be in awe of his resurrected presence. If only they had known who they were walking with!

Then I wondered: If I had a chance to walk with Jesus along a path, what would I want to ask him? Then, what if we had limited time, and I could ask only one question. What would it be?

I was surprised at what my question was when I imagined myself in that situation. It was not all the “why’s” I have demanded of him throughout my life. It was not asking for a miracle or a rescue. I realized that the real question I had for him wasn’t about any of my personal issues, it was about him and who he was.

Then I thought back on my prayers – for direction or special provision, or “why is this happening?” I couldn’t help thinking that if I had a better picture of Jesus in his glory, not just as a good teacher or a friend, my prayers would undoubtedly be different.

How about you? If Jesus gave you a chance to ask him only one question, what would it be? What would your heart want to ask? We don’t see him physically now, but he is present. Go ahead and ask your question!

“Jesus asked them a question, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ?'” – from Matthew 22:42 

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