When Counselees Ask "Why?"

By Wendy Wood

When Counselees Ask ‘Why’?

By Wendy Wood

A human’s desire to understand the cause or reason for something begins early. Every parent can attest to the “why?” phase that toddlers and preschoolers go through as they seek to understand the world and people around them.  When asked to perform a task like “clean up your room”, your child will want an explanation of the reasoning behind the request. “Why should I clean my room?” When they are looking up at the trees a child will ask “Why are the leaves changing colors?”  As we grow and learn, we continue to seek understanding of our circumstances and especially our suffering. We will inevitably have counselees who ask “why did God allow this to happen?” “Why did my relationship of over a year end suddenly and without explanation?”  “Why did my mom die in a car accident when I was a child?”  “Why is my teenager rebelling when I have parented so faithfully?”  “Why have I had so many trials these last few years?”  Almost everyone who comes to you for counseling will be seeking to understand “why”?

Asking “why?” can be a good question, but it can also reveal a sinful desire for control.  I usually find counselees who think they are asking the question innocently and believe they are desiring to understand God and His ways better, but often it is a deceitful heart that is trying to figure out how to avoid painful circumstances in the future.  When asked from a good desire, the “why” of some situation can be rooted in wanting to see the sin exposed by the suffering.  For example, when a romantic relationship ends that a counselee believed would lead to marriage, the “why did this happen?” question could be a desire to search one’s heart for idolatrous desires or to examine how he/she contributed to the relationship in positive and negative ways and seek to grow in some relational areas. If “why” is used to examine the heart and repent and be sanctified, the “why” questions can be beneficial.

However, asking “why?” can also reveal sinful motives.  Asking “why” might reveal a desire to control future outcomes by trying to figure out how to “outsmart” the situation.  This is really rooted in idolatrous control.  If I can figure out what happened, I can control the next situation.  Rather than submitting to God and being dependent on Him, “why” can become the solution to the problem and God can be eliminated from the situation.  In the example of the broken relationship, if you can answer “why did this relationship end?” with five steps to hold onto a relationship, you can convince yourself you have it figured out and don’t need to surrender your plans and relationships to the Lord.  

Asking “why did ____ happen?” may also be a way of putting God on trial.  By asking “why” in this way, a counselee may be demanding that God explain Himself and that He needs to prove that He is justified in allowing this suffering into his/her life.  Asking God to justify His actions is extremely prideful!  By asking “why” in this fashion a counselee is claiming that God is on trial because he/she knows better than God does and would have made a wiser decision than He did.  We rarely recognize and admit how prideful we are in this area. But this type of questioning often leads to bitterness and resentment to God and others.  If we cannot make sense of our circumstances, surely they are wrong, and the sovereign God who purposed them is therefore wrong, too.

The book of Job records many times when Job and his friends are seeking understanding of the extreme trials Job has endured.  In Job 1 and 2 we read that Job lost all his sheep, camels, and livestock,  all his servants, and all his children.  Job continues to worship God and trust in Him.  But then, Job is struck with boils and sores all over his body.  Job tears his robes, puts ashes on his head, and continues to accept that God gives good and evil.  As he sits alone, his friends join him and wisely stay quiet at first.  Then Job asks “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?... or why was I not as a hidden stilborn child, as infants who never see the light?” (Job 3:11, 16)  Essentially, Job wishes he had died or birth or never even been born.  The suffering is so intense he is seeking to understand why he ever lived if God was going to bring the loss of everything.  He is wanting God to explain the reasoning behind his suffering. 

Job’s friends then respond with some unhelpful advice.  Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar answer Job’s question of “why” with “you’ve sinned and you are getting what you deserve.”  They all tell Job that he needs to repent.  For example, in Job 8:20, Bildad says, “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.” The friends argue that Job is suffering because God is just in punishing sin.  He has not been completely righteous and his sin has led to God’s judgment, is their assessment. They argue God is just and, therefore, Job is getting what he deserves.  If Job repents and turns to God, his suffering will end.  Eliphaz tells Job in Job 15:4-6 “But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering mediation before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.  Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you”.  Eliphaz agrees that Job's question of “why am I suffering?” is answered with “you have sinned”.

Job begins to question God more aggressively seeking God’s response and justification for what Job has lost and the suffering he is enduring.  Job 19:7-11 records Job crying out. “Behold, I cry out, “Violence!” but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.  He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.  He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.  He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.  He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.”  Job feels like God is against him.  In Job 29, Job cries out, “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me” (2-5a). Job longs for the days when God was with him and blessing him.  Job answers his own question of “why?” with “because God has abandoned me”.

As Job and his four friends (Elihu remained silent longer) seek for answers, God remains silent for 37 chapters.  God has listened to all these men ask “why has Job suffered so much?”  God has listened to them as they have tried to answer that question and God has listened as they have mixed truth about his character with lies about his judgment.  None of these five men saw the conversations that took place between God and Satan.  None of them hear God declare Job righteous and faithful.  None of them see or hear that Satan is trying to persuade Job to distrust God and God is holding Job faithful.  This is part of a cosmic battle that humans on earth don’t see.  God is demonstrating his power and glory over Satan by being the anchor of Job’s soul that keeps him faithful to God regardless of his suffering.

In chapter 38 God speaks.  While God remained silent for most of this book and through most of the unfolding of events, the book of Job is all about God.  God speaks out of the whirlwind.  “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. (Job 38:2-3).  God is about to answer Job and his friends.  And, God, being all wise and knowing, responds perfectly.  God doesn’t justify his actions. God doesn’t even address the suffering. God does not owe Job or his friends any explanation.  God responds with 38 questions of His own that reveal who He is.  The best response is to say, ‘Look at God.’ ‘Look at how awesome, mighty, powerful, perfect, good, and wise God is. God challenges Job to answer questions like, ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world?” Or, “Do you know when every single mountain goat gives birth?”  “Do you keep the storehouses of hail?”  On and on, God reveals Himself as the Sovereign King of the universe.  And this is ALWAYS the answer to our “why?” questions.  We don’t have to understand why God does what He does.  God does not owe us any explanation of His purposes and ways of accomplishing His will.  Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us “the secret things of God belong to God” but he has chosen to reveal enough of Himself to us.  We are to trust His very nature.  We are to put our hope in His character.  In humility, we are called to trust God’s essence.  Corrie ten Boom says, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”  Our counselees need to know God.  They do not need to know why God does what he does.

When your counselee asks “why is this happening?”, lead them to God and His character.  Remind them of God’s attributes.  Remind them of the cross as God’s evidence of His love and grace and that God is for His children.  Remind them of God’s promises that He is with them in the storms and trials and that this life is a momentary affliction producing a weight of glory for eternity.

All Who Believe Battle Unbelief

Article by Jon Bloom

“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This plea — this prayer — of a desperate father, who was interceding to Jesus on behalf of his afflicted child, expresses in five simple words a profound, difficult, confusing, and common experience. All followers of Jesus have both belief and unbelief, both faith and doubt, present in us at the same time.

We see this paradoxical presence elsewhere in Scripture. We see it in Peter, who walked on water only to start sinking when unbelief set in (Matthew 14:28–31). We see it in Thomas, who declared, “I will never believe” without physical proof of Jesus’s resurrection, while still believing enough to stay with the other disciples until Jesus finally appeared to him (John 20:25–26). We see it laced through the Psalms, like Psalm 73, where saints wrestle out loud with their unbelief. And we see it all too frequently in ourselves, which is why we identify with the desperate father’s prayer. Unbelief is a “common to man” temptation for believers (1 Corinthians 10:13).

But though it is a common temptation (and often a subtle temptation), it is a spiritually dangerous one, one that can lead us “to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). It is an enemy we must fight vigorously.

“Do not fear God’s discipline; fear unbelief.”

We each fight unique battles against this enemy, because each of us has unique experiences and unique temperaments that make us uniquely vulnerable to certain forms of unbelief. Getting help to see our vulnerabilities to unbelief is crucial to winning our battles. And it is something Jesus is happy to help us with, if we ask him.

Desperate and Vulnerable Father

The father of the afflicted boy in Mark 9:14–29 surely had a unique vulnerability to unbelief. And it’s not difficult to understand why. Just imagine what his experience had been like up to the point when he encountered Jesus.

He had spent a number of years, likely doing everything he could, in order to help his son (Mark 9:21). The terrible affliction had a demonic source, which had tormented the boy since early childhood, causing violent seizures and preventing him from speaking (Mark 9:17–18). The father, and no doubt his wife, had saved their precious child — their only begotten son (Luke 9:38) — from death numerous times, rescuing him out of fire and water (Mark 9:22). Which means they lived with the daily dread that they might not be there in time to save him the next time. And they lived with the future dread of what would become of him when one or both were no longer there to save him.

They also likely lived with a deep fatigue brought on by continual vigilance night and day. They may have endured a kind of recurring relational strain on their marriage that often accompanies stressful and painful parenting situations. They likely lived with the numerous ways their son’s affliction affected them financially, from the direct costs of seeking out help for him, to the indirect costs of having less time devoted to earning a living. And on top of all that, they likely lived with the shame that perhaps they, or their child, had somehow sinned and brought this curse upon the boy — a shame compounded by knowing that others likely wondered the same thing (as in John 9:1–2).

Unique Battles in a Common War

Surely this beleaguered father had prayed often for his priceless son, but with no visible results. Surely he had previously sought out other spiritual leaders or exorcists to drive the devil out, but to no avail.

Hearing stories of Jesus’s power over disease and demons stirred in him enough hope that he brought his child to see Jesus. Not finding the famous rabbi, he pleaded with Jesus’s disciples for help. But they were no more effective than anyone else had been (Mark 9:18). We can understand why his hope, and therefore his faith, seemed to be ebbing low when Jesus showed up.

The reason I say all this is to show how this father was very much like us. His unbelief had roots in his unique experience. So does ours. His fears and disappointments shaped his expectations. So do ours. He was vulnerable, in deeply personal places, to losing the fight for faith. So are we. We can sympathize with this man when he pleaded with Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (Mark 9:22), because we’ve probably prayed or thought similar things.

We might expect Jesus to respond as gently and kindly to this desperate father as he did to the leper seeking healing, to whom Jesus, in pity, reached out and touched, saying, “I will; be clean” (Mark 1:40–42). But that’s not how Jesus responded.

Surprising, Merciful Rebuke

Jesus’s response to this father catches us off guard: “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23). This shocks us. And the reason is because most of us can identify more with the father’s struggle than with the leper’s. We expect Jesus to comfort this man, but instead he rebukes him. It makes us wonder, Is this how Jesus feels about our unbelief?

“All of us who believe in Jesus also have unbelief in Jesus.”

One way to answer is that, in the Gospels, Jesus consistently affirms those who express faith and rebukes those who express doubt and unbelief. The leper he healed is a good example. This man said to Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). This is a declaration of faith, and it moved Jesus to a compassionate response of healing.

But the father of this afflicted boy said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (Mark 9:22). There’s faith in this request; faith is why he sought Jesus out in the first place. But there’s also unbelief; part of him doesn’t expect Jesus will be any more successful than others had been. So, he receives Jesus’s rebuke, just like Peter did in the water and Thomas did when Jesus finally appeared to him (Matthew 14:31; John 20:27–29).

And here’s what we need to remember: Jesus’s rebuke to a believer who is allowing unbelief to infect and enfeeble his faith and govern his behavior is a great mercy.

Mercy of Discipline

Faith is the channel through which God’s graces of salvation and sanctification and spiritual gifts all flow. Unbelief obstructs the channel and therefore inhibits the flow of God’s grace (James 1:5–8). So, Jesus’s rebuke of the man’s unbelief is the mercifully painful, momentary discipline of the Lord intended to expose the disease of unbelief (to use a different metaphor) so the believer can see it for what it is and fight it; because if he doesn’t, he will not share the Lord’s holiness and will not bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:10–11).

In that sense, Jesus is the good physician. He does not coddle doubt and unbelief, just like a good doctor doesn’t coddle cancer in a patient. If left invisible and untreated, it will kill. So, what Jesus is doing is helping this struggling father see clearly his sin of unbelief, just like he did for Peter and Thomas.

And it worked. We see this in the father’s desperate cry to Jesus: “I believe; help my unbelief!” And like Jesus pulling Peter out of the water, and showing Thomas his hands and side, he honored the father’s faith, however defective, and set the boy free (Mark 9:25–27).

Jesus Will Help You See Your Unbelief

All of us who believe in Jesus also have unbelief in Jesus. It’s not surprising, because we all live with deceitful indwelling sin (Hebrews 3:13). And we all live in a fallen, deceitful world. So, we all must frequently fight for faith (1 Timothy 6:12) by battling unbelief.

“Unbelief will block the channels of faith, it will rob you of joy, and, if undealt with, it will destroy you.”

But the presence of unbelief in us is often subtle. We don’t always see it clearly. It has roots in our unique experiences and in our unique temperaments, which make us uniquely vulnerable to its deceitfulness. Our doubts can seem to us understandable, even justifiable. But like all sin and fallenness, unbelief is spiritually dangerous. What we really need, even though we might prefer to avoid it, is for Jesus to mercifully help us see our unbelief, even if it means his momentarily painful discipline.

Having followed Jesus for decades, I have experienced his discipline numerous times, including recently. I have learned to even ask him to discipline me when I recognize the symptoms of unbelief (which, for me, are a lingering, shadowy presence of doubt and skepticism and self-pity and self-indulgence). I ask Jesus to discipline me, not because I enjoy the pain and humbling of the exposure of my unbelief, but because I want the joy of fully believing that God exists and is the rewarder of those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). And I want the channel of his grace toward me unclogged. And so I pray with the psalmist,

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
     Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
     and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23–24)

I have found that Jesus answers.

And he will answer you. He will answer the prayer, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And he’ll help you fight your unbelief by exposing it, that place you want to conceal. But do not fear his discipline; fear unbelief. Unbelief will block the channels of faith, it will rob you of joy, and, if undealt with, it will destroy you. The momentary pain of the discipline, however, is the path to greater joy, for it opens the channels to more of God’s grace — to more of God.

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as teacher and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/all-who-believe-battle-unbelief

Have You Tasted God Himself?

Article by John Piper

“Spiritual understanding primarily consists in this sense, or taste of the moral beauty of divine things.” —Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

Oh, how glad I would be if I could be of a little service to the souls of some of God’s people the way Jonathan Edwards has been to me. Neither he nor I is an inspired spokesmen of God, as the apostles were. But we are, with them, in some measure, “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). These stewards were household managers of the owner’s resources, handling them in a way that brought benefit to the members of the house.

As a good steward, Edwards spoke of these “mysteries” — these once-hidden, now revealed wonders of God — in such a way that for forty years he has quickened my soul like no other teacher outside the Bible. What C.S. Lewis has done to waken me to the beauties of the world, Edwards has done to waken me to the beauties of God.

Here is a glimpse of one way Edwards has transformed the way I see God and his word. Perhaps you might experience something similar.

Two Kinds of Knowing

Most of us have a vague notion that there is a difference between knowing biblical truth intellectually and knowing it spiritually. We have read 1 Corinthians 2:14:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

“What C.S. Lewis has done to waken me to the beauties of the world, Edwards has done to waken me to the beauties of God.”

We have read 3 John 11: “Whoever does evil has not seen God.” And we have surmised that there must be a kind of seeing that is more than the merely intellectual seeing that leaves us unchanged in our sin.

We have read the prayer of Jesus in John 17:3, where he says, “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God.” And we have inferred that this kind of knowing is different from what the devil has. This knowing is life.

Spiritual Understanding

For me, it was Jonathan Edwards who took hold of these two kinds of knowing — intellectual and spiritual — and gathered the biblical fragments, and brought them into the light of their coherent brightness, and showed me the vastness of their importance for all of life.

There is a distinction to be made between a mere notional understanding, wherein the mind only beholds things in the exercise of a speculative faculty; and the sense of the heart, wherein the mind . . . relishes and feels. . . . The one is mere speculative knowledge; the other sensible [= sensed or felt] knowledge, in which more than the mere intellect is concerned; the heart is the proper subject of it, or the soul as a being that not only beholds, but has inclination, and is pleased or displeased. (Religious Affections, 272, emphasis added)

Edwards riveted my attention on the phrase “spiritual understanding” in Colossians 1:9: “We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Then he made the obvious comment:

That there is such a thing as an understanding of divine things, which in its nature and kind is wholly different from all knowledge that natural men have, is evident from this, that there is an understanding of divine things, which the Scripture calls spiritual understanding. (270)

And what is this spiritual understanding? What makes it different from speculative or notional or intellectual understanding? Edwards answered,

It consists in a sense of the heart, of the supreme beauty and sweetness of the holiness or moral perfection of divine things, together with all that discerning and knowledge of things of religion, that depends upon, and flows from such a sense. (272)

New Language, Beyond Calvin

This was a new vocabulary for me: “sense of the heart” and “beauty and sweetness of holiness.” Edwards said that spiritual knowledge “is often represented by relishing, smelling, or tasting” (272–73). This was not the language of spiritual knowledge I had picked up in church or college or seminary.

We are so shaped by who our key teachers are. For example, contrast the ways John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards talk about the fact that the role of the Spirit in giving us spiritual knowledge does not include giving us new information that is not in the meaning of Scripture.

Calvin:

The office of the Spirit promised to us, is not to form new and unheard-of revelations, or to coin a new form of doctrine, by which we may be led away from the received doctrine of the gospel, but to seal on our minds the very doctrine which the gospel recommends. (Institutes)

Edwards:

Spiritual understanding does not consist in any new doctrinal knowledge, or in having suggested to the mind any new proposition, not before read or heard of: for ’tis plain that this suggesting of new propositions, is a thing entirely diverse from giving the mind a new taste or relish of beauty and sweetness. (278)

Both of Calvin’s and Edwards’s statements are true and accurate and important. But the note struck is different. Calvin says the work of the Spirit in giving spiritual understanding is “to seal on our minds the very doctrine which the gospel recommends.” Edwards says the work of the Spirit is to “give the mind a new taste or relish of beauty and sweetness.”

The language of Calvin remains in the realm of mind, doctrine, and sealing. The language of Edwards probes the actual experience of the sealing, and describes it as “tasting beauty and sweetness.”

A New Seeing

Edwards opened my eyes to the experiential biblical reality of Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” There is a seeing and tasting that the natural mind does not have.

“There is a seeing and tasting that the natural mind does not have.”

For example, Paul says that unbelievers are kept by Satan “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This blindness is overcome only because God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

So there is a spiritual seeing that is different from natural seeing. And what is seen by the Spirit is “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Light is seen. But not natural light. Rather, the light of divine glory. The glory of Christ, the image of God.

This is what Edwards is referring to when he says that what the “new spiritual sense” sees is

the supreme beauty and excellency of the nature of divine things. . . . It is in the view or sense of this, that Spiritual understanding does more immediately and primarily consist. (271–72)

A New Tasting

This spiritual seeing is also described as spiritual tasting. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2–3).

Until I read Edwards’s Religious Affections, I passed over this kind of language with little appreciation of the profound spiritual, epistemological, and pastoral implications such words contain. But Edwards took me by the collar and rubbed my nose in it until I saw how staggering the implications are for the meaning of conversion, and the miracle of new birth, and the reality of communion with the living God.

For example, Edwards wrote this about Psalm 119:

In this psalm the excellency of holiness is represented as the immediate object of a spiritual taste, relish, appetite and delight, God’s law, that grand expression and emanation of the holiness of God’s nature, and prescription of holiness to the creature, is all along represented as the food and entertainment, and as the great object of the love, the appetite, the complacence and rejoicing of the gracious nature, which prizes God’s commandments above gold, yea, the finest gold, and to which they are sweeter than the honey, and honeycomb. (260, emphasis added)

Utterly and Supernaturally New

These words are not metaphorical for right thinking. They refer to the supernatural fruit of right thinking; namely, the spiritual affections — treasuring, prizing, delighting, relishing, enjoying, being satisfied. These acts of the soul are owing to a new capacity of spiritual discernment — spiritual sensing, perceiving.

This capacity did not exist before the new birth. It was a creation by the Spirit.

The mind has an entirely new kind of perception or sensation; and here is, as it were, a new spiritual sense that the mind has . . . which is in its whole nature different from any former kinds of sensation of the mind, as tasting is diverse from any of the other senses; and something is perceived by a true saint . . . in spiritual and divine things, as entirely diverse from anything . . . perceived . . . by natural men, as the sweet taste of honey is diverse from the ideas men get of honey by only looking on it, and feeling of it. (205–6)

“Drinking the milk of the word will lead to salvation not if you have heard, or known, or decided, but if you have tasted.”

Without this “new spiritual sense of the mind,” there is no salvation. This is what it means to be born again. How many professing Christians lack this spiritual capacity for delighting in God? One way to find out is for pastors and teachers to give more prominence to the conditional clause of 1 Peter 2:2–3:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Every pastor should ponder this if with great seriousness. Peter is saying that drinking the milk of the word will lead to salvation “if you have tasted.” Not if you have heard, or if you have known, or if you have decided. But if you have tasted.

I thank God that over sixty years ago, he entered my life, and gave me a new heart. I thank him that for over sixty years, he has awakened, and reawakened countless times, a taste for “the moral beauty of divine things.” I pray he will do this for you. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Coronavirus and Christ.

Lies that Keep Women From Reading the Word

Busyness Is Not the Problem

Article by Rachel Jankovic

The world is full of good advice. Take showers. Brush your teeth. Wear a coat in the cold. Eat regularly. Sleep.

All of us agree with such basic good sense and would counsel others in line with it. “You simply must sleep, and here’s why.” “Brushing your teeth is more than a nice idea.” And so on.

If someone we know began to ignore such advice, we would urge them to reconsider. “Things are so hectic that you are no longer finding the time to put on clothes? You know what, clothes are not one of the optional things — you are going to need to change your habits to make putting on clothing part of your routine.” “Life is so busy that you decided to quit eating and feeding your children? Apparently life is not so busy that you aren’t making time for your upcoming hospitalization and arrest!”

“The value of the Bible is not in the accessories we bring to it.”TweetShare on Facebook

When we believe that something is absolutely critical to a healthy and decent life, we don’t excuse not making time for it — in the same way many of us do not ask ourselves every morning if we can find the time to put on underwear or drink coffee. We have the time, we make the time, we assume the time, we use the time. Whatever it takes, we will have the coffee, and we will wear the underwear.

Spiritual Bad Breath

Why, then, does the very fundamental practice of reading the word of God fall so badly by the wayside for many Christians? Because when it comes down to it, we don’t think it actually matters. If we did, this practice would not be the monumental struggle it is for so many women — women who are drinking coffee, wearing clothing, organizing offices, feeding themselves and others, coordinating all manner of activities, throwing birthday parties, and thinking ahead on Christmas. In short, women who have the time and intelligence to do the things that they prioritize and believe matter.

I think we have let this category of spiritual eating go by the wayside for silly reasons, and no doubt the enemy is pleased with our apathy. We have told ourselves that it is not essential to a healthy and happy life. It does not affect our physical body directly and immediately, so we do not think it is having a serious effect on us. Because it is not immediately visible to all of our Christian friends how much Scripture we have been reading lately, we let it slip. But we are in a situation where spiritually bad breath, spiritual malnourishment, and spiritual nakedness are all commonplace and look normal to us in other Christians.

The more Scripture-soaked the saints are, the more essential they believe reading the Bible to be. Why is that? Because they understand the nature of it. They have come to see how much it affects their life and shapes their thoughts. They know what it is to have a renewed mind (Romans 12:2), to be clothed in Christ (Ephesians 4:21–24), to be strengthened and washed by the word (Colossians 1:9–11). The thought of doing without the word would feel like going without showering or brushing your teeth.

Doing Without the Word

Imagine if you thought that in order for a green bean to nourish you, you had to eat it in a calm place with nice lighting and no kids. What if a shower cleaned you only when you had a journal on hand to write about it? Or what if toothpaste worked only in Instagrammable moments?

Many Christian women do without the word of God. We have set our standards so unbiblically high for the moments in which we will read the Bible that we have devalued the word itself. The value of the Bible is not in the accessories we bring to it. It is not in study guides and long talks with friends. The nourishment of the word is not found in our organization, or in our self-discipline, or in our achievement of any kind. The word has priceless value without us — and we are invited to partake of it all the time.

“The word has priceless value without us — and we are invited to partake of it all the time.”TweetShare on Facebook

We do not know exactly what God’s word is doing for us each time we read, just like we don’t know exactly what our breakfast is doing each time we eat — or which fingernail is being reinforced by which bite of food. We may read Scripture that does not immediately feel like nutrition or hot, cleansing water. But our feelings are not what give value to the process. This is a gift that we are not the makers of, and by some trickery of the enemy, we have cut ourselves off from receiving it. Maybe we will read it later, when we don’t need it so much.

Time to Make a Change

If you have recognized yourself in any of this, I would like to invite you to make a change. Not a change of increased intentionality or thoughtfulness. A change to start believing in faith that the Bible really is what it says it is. We call ourselves Christians — and Christ himself said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

What does following Christ look like when it comes to Bible reading? It looks like believing him. It looks like taking up the Book and reading. It looks like listening on audio while you get ready, snatching some reading throughout the day as naturally as you might grab a few crackers or eat an apple. It looks like walking in faith to begin eating this word we have been given and waiting to see what God does in you with it. For we know he will begin doing something. And years down the road, when someone wants to know what is most precious to you, the word of God will not be a made-up answer, but a reality.

Rachel Jankovic (@lizziejank) is a wife and mother of seven children. She is author of You Who? Why You Matter and How to Deal with It, and is heavily involved with a Bible reading ministry for women.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lies-that-keep-women-from-the-word?fbclid=IwAR0E3AM34vsEcgVYooez0EtcTEwmTTYz2tFGwXUv1q7a-NrufNTqUlD-jTE

A Life-Changing Sentence in Deuteronomy

When was the last time you started a Bible reading plan with the book of Deuteronomy?

Maybe you should. There’s a life-changing sentence in the first chapter of this historical book that we need more than ever today.

To briefly set the scene, God commanded his people to leave Horeb and enter the Promised Land. The Israelites were understandably afraid of the battle that lay ahead, but instead of bringing their fear before the Lord, they chose to murmur in their tents.

The result of their self-counsel? Their conclusion is shocking: “Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deuteronomy 1:27, ESV)

This Old Testament narrative couldn’t make it any clearer: we are always preaching to ourselves.

There’s something else to be said: theology is not just something we study in the academic classrooms of seminary; theology is the lens through which we examine and respond to everyday life. Our understanding of God will inescapably shape our perspective on our circumstances.

But maybe their conclusion shouldn’t be so shocking. I’m deeply persuaded that we, just like the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 1, are always asking five deeply theological questions. The way we answer them will push us toward hope or panic.

1. Is God Good?

You can rest assured that the goodness of God will confuse you. What looks good from God’s perfect eternity-to-destiny perspective doesn’t always seem good to us at street level.

2. Will God Do What He Promised?

Few questions in life are more important than this one. Since we are small and weak, since we never really know what is going to happen next, and since God calls us to do difficult, sacrificial things, we need to know that his promises are reliable.

3. Is God In Control?

In some ways, all the other questions rest on this one. God’s promises are only as trustworthy as to the extent of his control. What good is his goodness if he lacks the authority to exercise it?

4. Does God Have The Needed Power?

You will be motivated to do what you don’t have the natural ability to do when you know that God’s awesome power is with you. Confidence in God’s power produces courage in the face of weakness and enables you to admit your limits while living with courage and hope.

5. Does God Care About Me?

Perhaps this is the question we’re most conscious of, but the Bible never debates God’s care; it assumes and declares it. God’s care is foundational. It lets me know that all that he is, he is for me.

What are you preaching to yourself? What are you saying to you about the goodness, promises, control, power, and care of God?

As you ask these questions, remember that he is so rich in grace that he will never turn a deaf ear to your cries.

God bless,

Paul David Tripp

Reflection Questions

1. Read the first full chapter of Deuteronomy. What additional application can you find in the text? How does it relate to your life right here, right now?

2. Which of the five questions have you asked most recently? What prompted you to ask this question?

3. How did you answer that question? Where did your answer find its inspiration or evidence?

4. Are you murmuring in your tent? What unbiblical thoughts or beliefs are you preaching to yourself? How can you combat these with gospel truths?

5. Who do you know who is discouraged or afraid? How can you help them avoid a Deuteronomy 1:27 response? Be specific.

Posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word

Have a Healthy Fear of God

The coexistence of fear with joy and human flourishing seems to be difficult for many people to understand. Yet the psalmist says, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). Fear and joy not only can exist at the same time, but must.

The combination of fear with joy is not limited to the Old Testament; the New Testament is full of warning passages directed at Christians (or at least those who have every outward indication of being saved) which draw their motivational force from the production of fear. These warning passages exist alongside assurance passages which stress the confidence, hope, security, and joy we have in our faith.

The Fear of Fear

Nonbelievers have long mocked and rejected the role of fear in Christian teaching and proclamation. Bertrand Russell famously focused on fear in his critique of Christianity in the early 20th century. He argued that, “Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. . . . Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion has gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things.”

Christians likewise seem terribly afraid of fear. We want to stress motivation from positive emotions such as love and gratitude, and tend to be very uncomfortable with any use of fear appeals to motivate conversion or growth in holiness. Such fear of fear, however, comes at a cost, and the warning passages throughout Scripture suffer neglect or interpretive abuse as a result.

Many Christian leaders seem determined to convince their hearers that they should never experience any emotional discomfort when contemplating God’s holiness, justice, and judgment; “the fear of the Lord” is always understood to mean respect or awe and never, we are told, indicates that we should actually be afraid of God.

Divine Threats

This avoidance of fearful exhortation directed towards believers and unbelievers based on the reality of God’s holy and just judgment was not shared by the authors of the Bible. There is no space to explore the many warning passages, but we can briefly consider several direct threats from Jesus through John to his church in the book of Revelation.

Ephesus: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5).

Pergamum: “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16).

Thyatira: “Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works” (Revelation 2:22).

Sardis: “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you (Revelation 3:3).

Laodicea: “I will spit you out of my mouth. . . . So be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:16, 19).

John did not follow up on these threats by assuring his hearers that they didn’t really apply, weren’t really severe, or didn’t mean what they seemed to mean. He doesn’t seem worried about potential emotional discomfort; fear producing threats were necessary to wake up and shake up the Christians and motivate them to repentance, perseverance, and faithfulness.

So how do we reconcile the biblical use of fear appeals and threats with our widespread cultural conviction that such rhetoric should be rejected? Recent research by argumentation theorists on the evaluation of threats in argumentation points to several points for evaluation.

Legitimate Threats

The context is key for determining whether a threat is appropriate. For example, if a salesman concludes his sales pitch by threatening to punch you in the face if you don’t buy his vacuum cleaner, the context would suggest the threat is inappropriate. Likewise, you would not want to conclude a marriage proposal with a threat. But threats are appropriate in other contexts. An academic dean can threaten a student with expulsion for plagiarism and a judge can threaten to take away your license for drunk driving. The legitimacy of a threat depends upon the context and whether the threatener has legitimate authority.

The Bible reveals a God who is sovereign and powerful, the ultimate legitimate authority. Since he is our Creator, we belong to him and he has every right to command, threaten, and judge. This reality is, of course, offensive and contrary to ideas of ultimate human autonomy and self-determination. We want to be in charge, and we want to determine for ourselves what we should and shouldn’t do, but such aspirations don’t align with reality or human capacity. We will always fail when trying to play God; our frail human bodies weren’t built for that.

Threatened by Love

A legitimate authority can still be critiqued for the inappropriate, overbearing, or cruel use of threats, but at this point the character and intentions of the threatener become very important. Is the threatener cruel, vindictive, arbitrary, and reckless or loving, caring, and kind? What does the threatener intend by the threat? Does he intend to humiliate, manipulate, and harm or does he intend the threat to lead to well-being, wholeness, and flourishing?

God’s love for us in our brokenness and sin is a major theme throughout the Bible. While we were still weak, unrighteous sinners, God demonstrated his love for us through Jesus’s death on our behalf (Romans 5:8). God’s love for rebellious and broken humanity motivated him to send his Son to rescue us (John 3:16). God intends his warnings and threats to motivate us to repentance, perseverance, and growth in holiness — this is the way to shalom, wholeness, and human flourishing. Rejection of sin and pursuit of holiness leads to a life increasingly free from debilitating addictions and the sin that dehumanizes and destroys.

Living with Fear and Joy

Healthy fear and joy in the God of our salvation not only can go together, but must. We will never find joy in God while willingly and habitually living in unconfessed sin.

I don’t find the motivation to flee temptation and sin by assuring myself that sin isn’t dangerous or that my choices don’t matter; motivation comes, in part, by recognizing the terrible danger that sin poses, even for Christians. This fear, however, is not debilitating or destructive; it motivates us to cling closer to Christ in desperate and persevering faith and trust. Such constant dependence through faith produces an unspeakable and glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8).

Alexander Stewart is academic dean and associate professor of New Testament language and literature at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/have-a-healthy-fear-of-god?fbclid=IwAR3M2poRJoVDI97dYSeRznCaE_PN81ec5IEWvOCT7P5SKiyMX4fIdY9XR4M

Spurgeon's Top 4 New Year's Resolutions

Article by Brandon Freeman

Charles Spurgeon preached at least 14 sermons about the New Year in his 38 years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Though many themes arise in his comments, belief is as pervasive as any.

“Oh, to believe from January to December!”

Spurgeon prayed and called for belief in every New Year's sermon—for Christians and non-Christians. He hoped that the New Year would bring forth the new mercy of the new birth.

“I pray God that a new year may not be begun by you in sin, but may God begin with you at the fall of the year, and bring you now to know his power to save.”

“Ere yet the midnight bell proclaims the birth of a new year, may you be born to God: at any rate once more shall the truth by which men are regenerated be lovingly brought under your attention.”  

“If this New Year shall be full of unbelief, it will be sure to be dark and dreary. If it be baptized into faith, it will be saturated with benediction. If we will believe our God as he deserves to be believed, our way will run along the still waters, and our rest will be in green pastures. Trusting in the Lord, we shall be prepared for trials, and shall even welcome them as black ships laden with bright treasures.”

Spurgeon's New Year's Resolutions

On the last evening of 1891 and first morning of 1892, Spurgeon gave two brief addresses. He hadn’t preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in several months because of sickness. He was a month away from death. In reflecting on 1891, he spoke about the God-intended lessons of the year, such as the “instability of earthly joys.” As friends came together again in the morning, he gazed upon the new year journey of 1892.

Spurgeon's New Year's resolutions involved seeing more than being.

“Let me tell you, in a few words, what I see as I look into the new year.”

So what did Spurgeon resolve himself to see? Here are the preacher's top four resolutions:

1. God’s Sovereignty

“I see a highway cast up by the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Nothing of the future is left to chance; nay, not the falling of a sparrow, nor the losing of a hair is left to haphazard; but all the events of life are arranged and appointed. Not only is every turn in the road marked in the divine map, but every stone on the road, and every drop of morning dew or evening mist that falls upon the grass which grows at the roadside. We are not to cross a trackless desert; the Lord has ordained our path in his infallible wisdom and infinite love.”

2. God’s Guidance

“I see, next, a Guide provided, as our companion along the way. To him we gladly say, ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.’ He is waiting to go with us through every portion of the road. ‘The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee.’ We are not left to pass through life as though it were a lone wilderness, a place of dragons and owls; for Jesus says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’”

3. God’s Strength

“Beside the way and the Guide, I perceive very clearly, by the eye of faith, strength for the journey provided. Throughout the whole distance of the year, we shall find halting-places, where we may rest and take refreshment, and then go on our way singing, “He restoreth my soul.” We shall have strength enough, but none to spare; and that strength will come when it is needed, and not before…God all-sufficient will not fail those who trust him. When we come to the place for shouldering the burden, we shall reach the place for receiving the strength. If it pleases the Lord to multiply our troubles from one to ten, he will increase our strength in the same proportion….Our lamps shall be trimmed as long as they shall need to burn. Let not our present weakness tempt us to limit the Holy One of Israel. There is a hospice on every pass over the Alps of life, and a bridge across every river of trial which crosses our way to the Celestial City. Holy angels are as numerous to guard us as fallen ones to tempt us. We shall never have a need for which our gracious Father has furnished no supply.”

4. God Glorified

“One thing more, and this is brightness itself: this year we trust we shall see God glorified by us and in us. If we realize our chief end, we reach our highest enjoyment. It is the delight of the renewed heart to think that God can get glory out of such poor creatures as we are….We hope that God has been in some measure glorified in some of us during the past year, but we trust he will be glorified by us far more in the year which now begins….We wish our whole life to be a sacrifice; an altar of incense continually smoking with sweet perfume unto the Most High. Oh, to be borne through the year on the wings of praise to God.”

Only God Knows the Future

On the morning of January 1, 1892, Spurgeon confessed, “We know nothing of the events which lie before us: of life or death to ourselves or to our friends, or of changes of position, or of sickness or health.”

Though Spurgeon didn't see much of 1892, he put his trust in the fact that God knows the future. This truth blessed him and made him dependent on God in all things.

Whatever is before us in 2018, let's rest in God’s sovereignty, lean fully on God’s guidance, rely on God’s strength, and live for God’s glory. As Spurgeon said:

“Throughout this year may the Lord be with you! Amen.”

Originally published at The Spurgeon Center Blog

Brandon Freeman

Brandon Freeman is a member of Liberty Baptist and a Master of Divinity student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from Ouachita Baptist University. He is married to Kaylee Freeman. You can follow Brandon on Twitter at @brandon_free_. 

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/spurgeons-top-4-new-years-resolutions

A Different Kind of Profanity

Article by David Prince

What would you do if one of your children walked in your house and spoke a string of four-letter words? What would you do if one of your children walked in your house grumbling? I fear that most of us would drop everything and confront their intolerable use of four-letter words (and rightly so) but would say nothing about the grumbling or maybe say something like, "I am sorry you are having a bad day." You may say, "Yes, but the four-letter words are profanities." So is grumbling.

We tend to reason that grumbling is not a big deal because it is not actually doing anything it is simply talk. In contemporary American culture grumbling is often ingrained as a way of life and many treat it as harmless personal therapy. We tend to rename it as something like venting in order to remove the stigma. Grumbling is so habitual that we often miss the irony of our words when we stand in front of closets full of clothes and murmur that we do not have anything to wear. Or when we stand before refrigerators packed with food and say we don't have anything to eat.

In the Bible, grumbling is described as corrosive. A grumbling spirit never stays self-contained but begins to infect all aspects of life and thought with an entitlement worldview. Parents who model grumbling or treat it as acceptable when their children grumble are placing their kids in character quicksand. Grumbling and thankfulness cannot coexist. One always vanquishes the other. A grumbler becomes immune to gratitude because no matter what happens circumstances will always bump up against our personal desires.

In Exodus, the Israelites leave Egypt walking between sovereignly walled up water; then, within one month of that event the awe-inspired gratitude is erased. Why? They are thirsty (Ex 15:22-17:7). The irony that they saw the power of a God who can control the Red Sea and now a bit of thirst has them complaining should not be lost on us. Moses had courageously been used by God to confront Pharoah and lead the nation out of bondage in Egypt but now they get a bit hungry and ask him, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Ex 16:3).

God had provided them water and he now provides them bread and quail. They are instructed to gather only as much bread as they need for each day, but not everyone obeys (Ex 16:20). When they get thirsty again and say, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (Ex 17:3). You get the point. Grumbling vanquishes awe-inspired gratitude. Moses rightly asserts, "Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD" (Ex 16:8). The same is still true. Parents who grumble and permit their children to grumble are catechizing them in discontent with the Lord.

In the New Testament, John 6:25-59, Jesus asserts himself as the "bread of life" after his miraculous feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1-15). Jesus, like Moses, provides bread and meat for the people. Jesus tells them that they are to believe in him (John 6:29). Ironically, the people who just saw an amazing sign say they require a sign to believe. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst (John 6:35). How do they respond? "So the Jews grumbled about him" (John 6:41, see also, 43, 61). The Greek word for "grumble" is "gonguzō," which actually sounds like murmuring.

Paul tells the church at Corinth not to grumble as Israel did in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:5-11). He says, "these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come" (1 Cor 10:11). James admonishes his readers not to "grumble" against each other' (James 5:9). Likewise, Peter tells his readers to "show hospitality to one another without grumbling" (1 Pet 4:9). In Philippians, Paul exhorts the church to have the mind of Christ and reflect his self-sacrificial example on display in his incarnation and crucifixion (Phil 2:5-11). Then, one of the first applications of how to do so is, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing" (Phil 2:14).

There seems to be a vast discrepancy between the way most of us think about grumbling and how the Bible speaks of it. We are wrong, the Bible is right. Parents often fixate on grades, success, and achievement in the lives of their children. However important these things are, they are far less significant than whether or not our children become grumblers with an entitlement worldview. To profane is to treat that which is holy as common. In Christ, our very lives are holy and our words are sacred. That reality is why grumbling in the Bible is profanity.

Grumbling is doing something, something profane and corrosive. Grumbling vanquishes thankfulness and makes us insensibly immune to awe. In other words, when we grumble, we are using our words to preach hellish sermons, not holy ones--sermons for which Satan would gladly say, "Amen." May we see grumbling as profanity against God, and correct it in our lives and in the lives of our children.

About the Author: David E. Prince is pastor of preaching and vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky and assistant professor of Christian preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of In the Arena and Church: The Promise of Sports for Christian Discipleship and Church with Jesus as the Hero. He blogs at Prince on Preaching and frequently writes for The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, For the Church, and Preaching Today.

Posted at: http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2018/12/a-different-kind-of-profanity.php

Relying on God in Times of Desperation

Article by: Meredith Hodge

His heart pounded, his lips quivered, decay crept into his bones, and his legs trembled (Habakkuk 3:16). He was confused, angry, terrified, and desperate for relief. He cried, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). Habakkuk, an Old Testament prophet, experienced a season of trials that seemed endless. He was desperate for relief, for change, for God to intervene. Does that sound like something you can relate to? 

I too recently felt like Habakkuk. The weight of grief, depression, and anxiety consumed me to the point where my heart pounded, my lips quivered, my legs trembled, and it felt like decay crept into my bones. My heart and flesh screamed for relief—and in my desperation, I found myself tempted to stray from the truth of God’s Word. I desired comfort above all else, but was called to rely on the Lord in my season of desperation. 

When you and I feel like there is “no hope for a harvest” (Habakkuk 3:17), when desperation distracts us from God’s truth, and when our faith is shaken, what do we do? We can learn from sufferers like Habakkuk to: 

1. Rely on God by faith

Every believer in Jesus Christ is called to a life of faith (Galatians 2:20). Faith beckons us to rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God our Savior (Hab. 3:18). When we love and are joyful through trials, it is the ultimate demonstration of true faith. Christian faith doesn’t rest on what is seen and what is temporary—it relies on the all-sufficiency of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:18). 

In many seasons of desperation, it’s often challenging to rejoice in faith. When we feel spiritually dry and cannot pray as we ought, we can rely on God through the Holy Spirit. The Father sent us the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, One who helps us in our weakness by interceding for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). We can rely on him to convict, guide, help, and comfort us in and out of trials (John 14:26; Isaiah 11:2; John 16:7:15). The Spirit gives us freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) and enables us to abound in hope (Romans 15:13). 

2. Be Honest with God

Habakkuk was far from denial regarding his situation. Through his knowledge of the Father’s character, he fueled honest prayers. He expressed himself passionately, honestly, asking “Why are you silent?” (1:13) and “Why do you tolerate wrong?” (1:3). Our Savior Jesus modeled this numerous times in his earthly walk, where it’s recorded that he prayed all night to God (Luke 6:12). We also see Christ’s honesty about his circumstances in Matthew 26, where three times he asks the Father to take the cup of suffering away from him (vv. 39, 42, 44).   

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and have been justified by faith (Romans 5:1). Therefore, we can freely approach him in honest prayer and with faith-filled hearts. By drawing near to and seeking him in humble prayer, we will receive a heavenly reward (Hebrews 11:6). And because our heavenly Father knows our deepest thoughts (Psalm 139:4), it is to our spiritual benefit to communicate with him honestly. Yet, we must rely on his grace, not his response. 

3. Rely on God’s grace

We have a warm invitation from the Creator of the universe to approach his throne of grace to find mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). By faith, we acknowledge that God is not obligated to respond to our questions or cries—but we rely on the gift of his justifying grace to us through Christ (Romans 3:24). On this side of heaven, we may never comprehend why God acts or withholds in our lives—but we can rest in the truth that his grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

James exhorts us:

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:6-10)

4. Rely on God’s Power in Christ

When you face trials, remember God’s power and love displayed through his Son Jesus (John 3:16). Christ demonstrated and fulfilled his mission to live a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22), yet we see that he also desired relief (Luke 22:42) and felt the Father’s silence (Matthew 27:46). Through his obedience and painful suffering, Christ canceled our debts through his perfect sacrifice. The marvelous truth is that pain and death were not the end for Jesus Christ—and they are not the end for you. Our all-powerful Messiah defeated death and rose to life and glory, where all who believe in him will be also. 

We can rely on Christ’s power, which has been perfected in our weaknesses and rests upon us (2 Corinthians 12:9). Christ’s power can be more clearly demonstrated through our weaknesses when we submit to his plans. He is willing and able to accomplish even greater things than we could ever do in our own strength. Like Paul, we can say, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). 

Trusting in God’s Perfect Timing

Remember, the Lord was not ignoring Habakkuk’s or Jesus’ prayers, and he does not disregard ours either. His silence is not equal to a lack of care; he works behind the scenes, where together all things work for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). By faith, we must trust in his timing. God responds to Habakkuk’s complaints by promising, “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (2:3). And in time, we will stand in awe at what he has done (Habakkuk 3:2). 

As you rely on God’s power and grace by faith, I pray that you “stand in awe” (Habakkuk 3:2) and are “utterly amazed” (Habakkuk 1:5) as you confidently proclaim alongside Habakkuk:  

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19, NIV)

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2018/12/relying-god-times-desperation-habakkuk/

Burn Your Boats: A Warning About FOMO

Article by Aimee Joseph

Columba was a sixth-century abbot who left his native Ireland with 12 men to bring the good news to the Picts, a pagan people in Scotland. The missionaries founded an abbey on Iona, which would become a vibrant center of literacy and faith for centuries to come.

But shortly after reaching Scotland in an animal-hide-wrapped wicker boat, Columba did something drastic. He knew he and his companions might be tempted to leave when life became uncomfortable or dangerous. And so, the story goes, Columba burned the boat.

After reading about this single-minded commitment, I’ve began noticing how, by contrast, I like to keep my options open, just in case.

One of the hallmarks of my generation is an aversion to commitment. We suffer perpetual FOMO (fear of missing out) and, more seriously, struggle to commit to a marriage or a career. In a world full of potential paths, we have a hard time picking one and remaining on it.

Let Me First Bury My Dad

But while the fear of commitment is trendy, it’s nothing new. Jesus himself engaged would-be disciples with similar struggles:

He said, “Follow me.” But [the man] said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” . . . Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” (Luke 9:59, 61).

While these requests may sound understandable, it’s helpful to know that the first man’s father may not have been dead—or even close to dead. In the culture of the day, “Let me bury my father” was often used in an idiomatic way to express, “Let me get my family and personal life in order.” Put in 21st-century terms, it might sound something like, “I’m interested in following Jesus more seriously, but first I want to find a spouse and get some traction in my career.”

One of the most common phrases I hear from would-be disciples on college campuses carries a hint of that first-century hesitation: “When I have children of my own, I’ll make Christianity a bigger part of my life.”

When called to Christ, we sometimes want to hedge our bets, to buy ourselves a little more time. But such responses—even when expressed warmly and kindly—reveal a heart not captured by the wonder that the God of the universe is personally inviting us to himself.

Don’t Look Back

Both men in Luke 9 have a desire to follow but a reluctance to commit. Jesus’s respective responses bear particular poignancy in our FOMO culture:

Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60)

No one who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)

Jesus didn’t mince words, nor did he lessen the cost of discipleship. He didn’t lower the bar or paint a rosy picture of a life spent following and proclaiming him. He didn’t alter the truth to expand his audience or make a hard pill more palatable to swallow.

Jesus was in the business of full disclosure. But he also knew the sweetness and rewards of a life centered on him would far exceed the inconvenience and discomfort.

In essence, when we decide to follow Jesus, we must burn—and keep burning!—the boat. Tensions and temptations will meet us on this path. We’ll be tempted to look back, and turn back, to an easier way of life. But from the outset, Jesus summons us to commit to him.

Burn the Boats

Columba and his crew had to burn the vessels that might have tempted them to escape back to the familiarity of kin and country. Likewise, each new disciple of Christ has a boat (or fleet of boats) that might lead back to a life more lucrative, more culturally celebrated, or simply more comfortable.

For some, a former relationship that trumped Christ is the boat that beckons backward. For others, the approval of unbelieving family continually whispers, Don’t be a religious fanatic. Loosen your grip on Christ, just a bit. Often in our money-minded culture, the boats that demand burning would drift us back to a more padded retirement fund or some financial frivolity.

Whatever their shape or style, any boats that lead us away from following Christ must be burned as often as they’re built. While this sounds overwhelming and almost impossible, remember that the One who asks for a commitment to himself, his Word, and his ways has also fully committed himself to us.

Committed to Us

Before we were born, before time was wound, the Son of God was committed. He knew he would leave it all so we could have it all in him. Even now, he gives us his Spirit to work within us, coaching, convicting, and comforting.

When we have Christ, we have not missed out on anything. We have gained everything.

By his grace and his power, may we burn the boats that might take us back to a comfortable and cross-less life. May we fix our eyes on him who has gone before us (Heb. 12:1–2). And may we find courage in his constant commitment to us: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

Related:

• Why Christmas Is the Antidote to FOMO (Sam Allberry)

Aimee Joseph works alongside her husband, G’Joe, who directs Campus Outreach San Diego. They love watching college students brought from lost to leaders through Christ in the church for the world. Parenting three little boys keeps her busy; writing on her blogand studying the Word keep her sane. She has a passion to see women trained to love God and his Word.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/burn-boats-warning-fomo/