following God

Direction, not Perfection

“Hope in God, who is not the God of the perfect only, but of the becoming.” — George MacDonald

Don’t we all sometimes think that we want to be further along in our spiritual life than we are already? That God must sometimes shake his head in disapproval of our spiritual status? That maybe he’s getting impatient with us? If so, read on for some encouragement.

The people of Israel had wandered away from God for many years. King Hezekiah cleaned up the temple and wanted to call the people back to worship. So he scheduled a Passover celebration, an annual commemorative feast commanded by God, but that had not been kept in years.

People began to come to Jerusalem for the celebration. But when Hezekiah realized that some of the people had not done the proper spiritual preparation which was required to participate, he was worried. He didn’t want them to be excluded, but he didn’t want God to reject them either. So he decided to pray.

Hezekiah said, “’May the Lord, who is good, pardon those  who decide to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors, even though they are not properly cleansed for the ceremony.’ And the Lord listened to Hezekiah’s prayer and healed the people” (2 Chronicles 30:19-20).

Do you see God’s response to Hezekiah’s bold request? He accepted and blessed those whose hearts were turned toward him. They didn’t have to have followed the rules perfectly, they just had to have the desire to please him. He would forgive what needed to be forgiven.

What an encouragement! We don’t have to be perfect to be blessed by God, we just have to be pointed in the right direction and moving toward him. That’s what he wants.

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” – Psalm 25:4

Adventuring

“. . .if you have not been enchanted by this adventure – your life – what would do for you?” – Mary Oliver

Do you ever just pause and consider the wonder of living? The amazing fact that we are alive, breathing, thinking, seeing, processing, planning, eating, talking, sleeping, and waking? It’s an adventure walking through this life with God. We trust him, we know he has our best interest at heart, and we know that, no matter what, he is with us.

But, someone reading this is saying, “Adventure? But, I have big problems.” Yup. There are problems. As I was taught by a friend many years ago, “Problems are opportunities.” Opportunities to grow, to be courageous, to prove ourselves, to learn, and to know the joy that comes at the end of the struggle.

Attitude plays a big part in living an adventurous life. Every person on this planet has problems, it’s just that some people’s issues are more visible than others. We get to choose how to face life – with joy and anticipation and trust in our all-powerful, all-wise Father or with dissatisfaction and fear, thinking we have to control everything ourselves.

What is it that would make us truly joyful about the life we are living? I believe it is when we walk in lockstep with Jesus, following him and his teaching, believing he is preparing a place for us, and trusting that everything that happens to us has a benefit we cannot see. That’s trust. Faith. Confidence in the One who is in control. As we learn to do this, it becomes easier, and life, even with problems, turns into an adventure!

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,” – 1 Peter 1:8

How do you treat a friend?

 A rule I have had for years is: to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend.– Dwight L. Moody

Years ago, a simple statement transformed my thinking. A. W. Tozer wrote, “God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can.” I read that and began to think about how I treat people with whom I’d like a relationship.

First, I’m willing to spend time with them. Eventually, we both begin to share things close to our hearts – ideas we were pondering, spiritual struggles, family, hopes, fears. Over time, those shared concerns create a loving bond.

So, I began to do that with God. As I went through my days, I talked to him about family, worries, struggles, and dreams. I knew he was listening and felt him near. I read his word so I could get his responses to the things I brought up during the days and nights of our conversations. In short, I learned to spend time with him as I would do with any friend.

Then Tozer said, “God is a person, and in the deep of his mighty nature, he thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may.” If God has feelings similar to humans, how should I treat him? If a supposed friend ignored me or didn’t return my calls, that would be hurtful. If, though, that friend loved me, listened to me, or followed my advice, I would be pleased. I decided I wanted to do and say only things that would give him pleasure.

A lot changed for me when I began to think of God as a friend. It can for you, too. Just hang out with him, include him in everything, and enjoy his company. You’ll both like it.

“Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” – Exodus 33:11

The kind of person who . . .

“True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.” – Dallas Willard

I have been revisiting The Ten Commandments lately and realizing the commands to honor parents, respect property rights, tell the truth, not to be envious, put God first, and so on are as relevant today as they were then. So, what do we do?

We can do our best to keep them, but that’s been proven for centuries to be impossible.

Or we can start right now to ask God to make us into the kind of people for whom keeping the commands is automatic. Instead of thinking “I can’t fudge on my tax return because God says not to,” we say “I am no longer the kind of person who steals.” Do you see the difference? It’s about inner change, not just outward behavior. It becomes part of our nature to never want to do anything that would hurt God or another human being by not following the way of life as defined in God’s law.

How does God change our character to be persons who always do what is right and just and true? By spiritual disciplines: Prayer, worship, Bible reading/meditation, relationships with other believers, and even by trials that we go through. He molds us. Makes us more like people who are enabled to do what he wants, who long to please him, who love him completely, and love others as we love ourselves.

It will never work by trying harder. It only works by yielding to the One who can make us into people who think and act like Jesus. It’s a long journey. Are you in?

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” – Romans 13:10

Maybe it’s time to act.

 “The believer at minimum can declare by his will that he wants the truth, that he wants to know and obey the truth.” – Watchman Nee

There are times in life when we have the luxury of thinking things through then making well-reasoned decisions. There are other times when we have to make an immediate choice.

Such was the case in the time of judges in Israel. The battle was on and the tribes of Israel were called by Deborah and Barak to send fighters to defend their land and their families. Many came immediately. Others refused. The tribe of Reuben simply thought about it too long, and the battle was over while they were still thinking: “Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart” (Judges 5:15b).

We can get paralyzed with overthinking when God is calling us to act. We want to do things right and to confirm God’s leading, but we don’t always have the luxury of deliberation. What then?

If we are consistently reading the Bible and taking it into our hearts and lives,

If we are people of habitual prayer, and

If we are growing accustomed to sensing God’s direction in our lives

Then we often can proceed without the prolonged “great searchings of heart” experienced by the Reubenites. Why? Because we will have been trained by God and his Word to think biblically, to understand the way he leads, and then to respond in confidence when we need to make a quick decision. After all, we don’t want to deliberate too long and then find out we have missed a God-given opportunity.

Wisdom tells us to practice biblical thinking every day so when we need it most it will be ready to use.

“Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.”

– Proverbs 3:6 NLT

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Unshakable Joy

“Joy has its springs deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only Jesus gives that joy.” – SD Gordon

I think God likes it when we laugh – true, deep-down, teary-eyed laughter! He wants his children to be happy, to live in joy. Sometimes God-given joy is light-hearted laughter and, at other times, it’s quietly internal. But, if we follow Jesus closely, there will be joy, no matter what circumstances we face.

This is what biblical joy may look like:

“. . . my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;” (from Psalm 16:9). I get the picture here of a dog wagging his tail so hard his whole body is in motion!

” . . . the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). Have you ever noticed that you have more energy when you are joyful?

And even this one: “. . .we rejoice in our sufferings” (Romans 5:3). OK, that one’s harder. But it must be possible if Paul, who suffered a lot, can say this honestly.

Real joy isn’t something we can conjure up. It’s a gift – one given directly from God. Joy is part of the fruit the Holy Spirit grows within us. It starts small, and as we get to know Jesus better, it grows bigger, stronger, and more evenly consistent over time.

Creating (or pretending) joy is not on our spiritual “to do” list! Our job is to keep our eyes on Jesus. See him in his Word, in his creation, and in his actions in this world. He is here. He will reveal himself. The more we make Jesus the center of our thoughts and the more we learn to trust him, the more we will have genuine unstoppable joy.

” . . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control;” – from Galatians 5:22

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Patient and Kind

“There is no termination date on my commitment to you. You can’t get rid of my grace to you. You can’t outrun my mercy. You can’t evade my goodness.” – Dane Ortland

A friend once told me about her adult son who was always getting into trouble, mostly related to his penchant for alcohol. One time he came to her with yet another problem and said, “I bet you wish I’d never been born.” She told me that story with tears in her eyes, not because of the problems he caused, but because he could even think she would ever stop loving him.

God’s like that. No matter how much trouble we are, we are his, and he wants us to be close.

A friend once likened God’s relationship to us as that of a human trying to housetrain a puppy. When the puppy doesn’t make it to the papers, does a good master kick him for missing the mark? No, he picks him up and moves him to the papers. After awhile, the pup, wanting to please his master, begins to understand and do the right thing.

Once we’re adopted into God’s family, we are his – forever. If we keep falling into the same sin, he still loves us. If we fail to keep our promises to him, he still keeps his promises to us. He helps us get back up when we fall. Even if we run from him, he chases us to bring us back – just like a master would do with a runaway puppy!

And that kind of love makes us want to return to him. The thing we must never think is that he no longer wants us back. Our Master will never turn away one who wants to please him.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” – Exodus 34:6b

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Say “yes”.

“There is no one who is insignificant in the purpose of God.”– Alistair Begg

We are so bombarded with sales-pitches today, that we have conditioned ourselves to say “no”. There are times, though, when our conditioning might block us from doing what is really best for us. Our predetermined “no” may keep us from doing something God himself is putting in front of us. Let’s not always be skeptical!

God met Moses at the burning bush and told him he had been chosen to lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt and into the land God had promised to their ancestors.

Moses’s response: Not me, Lord. I’m not the right guy for this job. I have no influence. The people won’t accept me as their leader. And, I’m not even a good speech maker. You need to find someone else.

As we know, God gave Moses some supportive tools, including miracles he could perform to show God had sent him and including his own brother Aaron to give the speeches. Somehow I think God might have been happier if Moses had just said “yes”.

God says,

“Love me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”

“Be holy as I am holy.”

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

“Go into all the world and tell them about me.”

He wants us to say “yes” to all those things.

Here are some other things to add to our “yes” list:

Discomfort

Uncertainty

Humble service

Change

Living by faith

Caring – a lot

Teaching others

Giving back to him everything he’s given to us

Showing compassion

If we say “yes” to these things, we also are saying “yes” to supernatural and unexplainable peace, hope, purpose, and joy. Let’s practice saying “yes” to God!

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” – 2 Corinthians 1:20 .

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Holy Bewilderment

“It is not that the Annunciation leads Mary out of doubt and into faith; it is that her encounter with the angel leads her out of certainty and into holy bewilderment. Out of familiar spiritual territory and into a lifetime of pondering, wondering, questioning, and wrestling.” —Debie Thomas

We like to think of faith is an assured confidence – and often it is. There are other times, though, when stepping out in faith leads to what Debie Thomas called “holy bewilderment”.

Mary was chosen to be part of the turning point of history – the time when God would enter this world as a baby and grow up to be the God-man who would sacrifice himself for the sins of the world. I’m sure Mary had expectations when she learned she would bear God’s son, but confusion set in as the story unfolded. She didn’t anticipate so much suffering, rejection, pain, and uncertainty. But all of that was part of the journey she set out on when she said “yes” to God.

In this Christmas season are you finding yourself “pondering, wondering, questioning, and wrestling”? Don’t despair. This is part of living a life of faith. If we could see how our story ends or could understand what to make of our quandaries, it wouldn’t be faith.

What did Mary do with her bewilderment? She went to see her older cousin Elizabeth. Maybe we, too, can find someone a little further down the road than we are in the life of faith and get some good counsel. We, too, can develop a life of prayer as Mary doubtless had already. We, too, can do the next right thing day-by-day until we begin to understand God’s plan. That’s what faith means – trusting God even when we’re full of questions.

“For we live by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7

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I did it my way.

“There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.” D.L. Moody

If you’re one who prides yourself in doing things your way, beware. There are examples in the Bible where the “my way” approach didn’t work out so well. Here’s one:

In Israel’s early history, the Ark of the Covenant was captured by an enemy. When David became king, he was determined to get the Ark back. So he sent people to bring it home. God had given specific instructions about this Ark – how to carry it and who could get near it. I imagine David saw this as a one-of-a-kind situation – an exception – and chose efficiency over obedience. By doing it his way instead of God’s, a good man died while trying to steady the Ark so it didn’t fall off the cart. The problem was that it never should have been on a cart in the first place, and God was not pleased with the “my way” approach.

Obedience to God can be hard because what he asks may not always make sense to us, but we realize he sees things we cannot see, and he has standards of right and wrong that only he has a right to define. If we are wise, we humbly accept his way as the way we will follow – even if it means we have to give up something we really want to have or do.

We have ideas for living our lives that seem reasonable to us, but if our way includes things that are not part of God’s way, we’re asking for trouble. His way is always right – no compromises, no “just this once”. Our way is never better than God’s way.

“Be careful to observe my commandments. I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 22:31