spiritual life

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

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

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

Encounters with Jesus

True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.  
—Thomas Merton 

How can we live in such a way that encounters with Jesus, as Merton describes above, are possible for us?

We start by wanting to know everything we can know about him. As Christians, one of our missions should be to read and reread the Gospels to keep gaining insights into Jesus – not only his teaching, but also his actions, attitudes, and habits.

Then we will want to know him, not just intellectually, but experientially through a one-on-one relationship with him. We will want personal encounters with Jesus – times when we can sense his presence or hear his voice as a thought in our mind or feel his love reaching out for us.

These moments with Jesus are possible, but they cannot be commanded. They can only be received. We can prepare space for them by walking in obedience to Jesus, desiring to please him in every possible way. Such a moment might happen when we pause in our prayer to listen, or when we’re driving to an appointment, or as we sleep at night. Every encounter with Jesus will cut to our heart, it will change us, we will never forget it, and we will want more.

Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives within everyone who has put their trust in him. If we tune in to his presence and his power, he will respond in his own way and time.

“. . . “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” – John 14:2

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Beyond Fear

“. . . for the believer, fear is always God-forgetful. If God is sovereign and his rule is complete, wise, righteous, and good, why would you fear?” – Paul David Tripp

How do you think God reacts when we are constantly stressed and worried? When I go to him with my troubles, I often find soothing words in the Bible, or I sense his tender care toward me. He responds to our fears, but I found out recently that, at some point, he seems to think we should develop enough spiritual confidence to get beyond fear.

I had been lying in bed worried about stuff (you probably understand). Then I prayed, giving it over to God. And I fell asleep. About two hours later, I was wide awake – thinking about everything that challenged me and assuming the worst possible outcomes.

Before I could even begin to pray about it all (again!), I sensed these words in my head, “Don’t you dare be anxious. After all I’ve done to prove my presence in your life, you have no right, no cause, to be anxious.” Hey, where was that tender touch, that reassurance, that sympathetic response? God was challenging me to grow up spiritually. To learn to really trust him.

Then I remembered when Jesus and the disciples were in a boat and a violent storm came up. When the men called frantically to the sleeping Jesus, he didn’t say “Don’t worry, guys, I’ve got this.” No. He said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Kind of what he said to me. He wants us to grow up spiritually. And the true test of that is whether we really trust him or not.

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise-
in God I trust and am not afraid.”
– Psalm 56:3-4a

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Thirsty?

“Knowledge about Him will not do. Work for Him will not do. We must have personal, vital fellowship with Him; otherwise, Christianity becomes a joyless burden” – John Piper

When I talk to friends who are more health conscious than I am, they always encourage me to drink more water. Apparently, water lubricates joints, is necessary for digestion, delivers oxygen throughout our cells, makes healthy skin, regulates body temperature and blood pressure. We need water, and when we don’t have enough, our body calls for it by making us thirsty.

Thirst is typified in the Bible as a longing for God. The psalmist said it this way: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Do our souls thirst for God? If things are going OK, we just move along sipping here and there, but not really feeling the thirst. That’s when he may take us to the desert for a time so we will begin to thirst again.

I have a friend in the desert right now. She’s not sure how she got there; the journey there was just a little at a time. She’s beginning to feel God’s absence, his quietness, and she wants to sense that connection again. She’s getting thirsty!

God wants us to want him. He wants us to be dependent on him, to know how much we need him. And we do need him, but we don’t always realize our great our need is. The desert, as much as we resist it, creates the thirst that will bring us back to the still waters. He is leading us there.

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.– Psalm 63:1

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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

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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

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First, a bath . . .

“God sometimes takes us into troubled waters not to drown us but to cleanse us.” – Andrew Murray

God hears our prayers and sometimes chooses to intervene directly in our lives to answer them. There are times, though, when he thinks it’s important to do something inside us before he responds to our cries for help.

The Bible tells us about a proud Syrian general named Namaan who had leprosy. He came across the border into Israel because he heard the prophet Elisha had power to heal. But when he was told that he had to bathe in the muddy waters of the Jordan River to be made well, he was angry. Him? A military general? Bathe in the Jordan? No! It took some convincing, but finally he humbled himself, dipped in the waters, and came out cured from his disease.

We ask God to intervene in our lives, to make us well, or to meet some other overwhelming need. He hears and answers, but, as we see with this leper, he sometimes has a bigger plan in mind: A plan to draw us closer to him, a plan for our spiritual good and not just for our physical good.

And, for many (most?) of us, what God addresses first, as he did with Namaan, is the problem of pride. It sneaks up on us, and it gets in the way of our ability to know and respond to God. It’s a barrier to relationship with him and with others.

Let’s not let pride, or any sin, keep us from dipping in the waters of his grace and being restored to a place of humility and spiritual wholeness. Then we can confidently bring our prayers to him. It’s worth the bath!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10

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Misfit?

“For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different . . . must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”– C. S. Lewis

There are times when we all feel like misfits. Why do I feel odd or different? How can I be needed or useful to someone?

Paul teaches in his letters that God is building a temple for himself and that temple is made up of those who follow Jesus. He talks about us all being stones and those stones are fitted together to build a place for God to dwell.

So, if you’ve ever seen an old stone wall, you know those stones are of all shapes, colors, and sizes. No two are exactly alike. And yet, with the work of a master craftsman, they fit together perfectly to make a beautiful, strong, and purposeful wall.

So, guess what? Your peculiarities and mine are actually what make us a unique fit into the temple God is building.

We are (collectively) God’s temple, each of us formed for a specific place in the wall. We must not resist the cutting, scraping, and molding – that’s how he shapes us for a precise purpose.

So we should never feel we are not needed, or we are too odd, or not attractive or talented or strong. God is building his house and he has designed each of us to fit in a particular and unique place. You are not a misfit, but a perfect fit in God’s temple.

” . . . Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. – Ephesians 2:20b-22