Do You Feel Loved by God?

By Colin Smith

Several years ago, I heard about a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School who posed this question to her class: Do you believe that God loves you?

Out of these 120 Christian students preparing for ministry, how many do you think said, “Yes?” Two! The rest gave answers like this:

“I know I’m supposed to say, ‘Yes.’”

“I know the Bible says He loves me, but I don’t feel it.”

“I’m not sure I can really say I believe it.”

How can this be? 

Surely every Christian knows the love of God. Did we not learn this in Sunday school? “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Jonathan Edwards used a simple analogy to get to the heart of this:

There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. [1]

You can know honey is sweet because someone tells you, but you don’t really know its sweetness until you’ve tasted it. You can know God loves you because your Sunday school teacher told you, but you don’t really know God’s love until you’ve tasted His love.

Many Christians live at a great distance from this felt experience of the love of God. So much Christianity in the West is shallow and satisfied. It affirms a creed but it so often lacks spiritual life.

Across the country there are millions of people who have a faith, who’ve been brought up to believe Jesus died and rose, they’ve gone to church, but they have no living experience of God’s love.

We need this prayer:

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance (2 Thess. 3:5, NIV).

This is Paul’s prayer for the church. It’s a prayer that God will do something in us who believe but do not always feel that God loves us. He’s speaking to Christians going through great difficulties, and he says, “My prayer for you is that God will direct your hearts into the love of Christ.”

That means it’s possible to endure persecution and not to feel the love of Christ. It’s possible to go through seminary and not to feel the love of Christ. It’s possible to worship in the seats of an evangelical church for 20 years and to not feel the love of Christ.

I don’t want to be there! And neither do you. People who are not Christians endure great pain and carry great sorrows. They do it by gritting their teeth. They do it in Britain with a stiff upper lip.

Paul is saying to these believers, “I want something better for you. I want your soul to be filled with the love of God.”

Three Ways to Experience More of God’s Love and Christ’s Patience

1. Become dissatisfied with your present spiritual experience.

Cultivate a holy discontent. The person who prays the prayer of 2 Thessalonians 3:5 is looking for something more than he or she already has: “Lord, direct my heart into Your love.”

We live in a “been there, done that” culture, and the great danger is in developing a “been there, done that” form of Christianity: “I know God loves me, that Jesus died for me, and that my sins are forgiven. So, what’s next?” Then one day someone says, “Do you really believe that God loves you?” And your shallowness is exposed.

A.W. Tozer says:

We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found him, we need no more seek him… In the midst of this great chill there are some who will not be content with shallow logic. They want to taste, to touch with their hearts the wonder that is God. I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. [2]

Don’t settle for a faith in which you cannot feel the love of God and the patience of Christ.

2. Ask God to direct your heart into His love.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 is a prayer, so use it. Make it your own. The Scriptures tell us what we should pray for.

Yet, some of you carry a lot of baggage on this. Whenever you think about God, your first instinct, though you believe, is to picture Him with a frown on his face. You feel that He is angry with you and that He is condemning you. You need this prayer.

Listen to this wise counsel from John Owen:

So long as the Father is seen as harsh, judging and condemning, the soul is filled with fear and dread every time it comes to Him… But when God… is seen as a Father, filled with love, the soul is filled with love to God in return… If your heart is taken up with the Father’s love… it cannot help but choose to be overpowered, conquered and embraced by him. [3]

Some of you think God is cold and aloof and harsh and demanding, and these thoughts are deeply rooted in your mind.  Ask God to direct your heart into His love, and go on asking until—like snow melting in the warmth of the sun—your heart begins to thaw in the warmth of the love of God.

3. Gaze into the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Have you ever noticed that people who don’t like each other will merely glance at one another? People who like each other will look at one another. People who are desperately in love will gaze at each other.

As the Psalmist says, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). Survey, gaze, ponder, and meditate on the love of God and the patience of Christ.

What is Your Response?

How would you describe your current experience of God’s love and Christ’s patience?

Perhaps 2 Thessalonians 3:5 awakens something in you—deep calls to deep. Maybe you’re thinking, “I want more of what Paul’s talking about.” For you, this Scripture sounds like a church bell drawing you in, calling you to seek after God.

If this is you, settle it today, in your heart and mind, that you will pursue a sweeter taste, a deeper experience, a clearer glimpse of the love of God and the patience of Christ. Go after it. And don’t ever stop.

Or, maybe you are thinking that Paul’s prayer is not so much like the sound of a church bell drawing you in as the sound of an alarm clock waking you up.

If you are not awake to the love of God, shouldn’t you be concerned about the condition of your soul? I hope you’ll ask, “What is wrong with me? I have no interest in the love of God. Why am I so satisfied, when others are hungry and thirsty for God?” I pray you’d ask these questions.

Perhaps God will use this to rouse you from the deadness of spirit in which you have been sleeping for far too long.

_____

1. Jonathan Edwards, “A Divine and Supernatural Light” (sermon delivered in 1734), http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/edwards_light.html.

2. A. W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God” (Christian Publications, 1982), 16-17.

3. John Owen, “Communion with God”(Banner of Truth, 1991), 18, 32.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/12/do-you-feel-loved-by-god/

How to Seek Your Joy in God

Article by David Mathis

Come, everyone who thirsts,
     come to the waters; . . .
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
     and delight yourselves in rich food. (Isaiah 55:1–2)

It is almost too good to be true that God not only saves us from the eternal punishment we deserve for our sin, but he also satisfies us forever with himself. And this is the very joy for which we were made. God is not the cosmic killjoy many of us may have feared in our youth. Rather, he is the God who, in Christ, stretches out his arms to us, saying, “Come, all who are thirsty!”

But how do we “come to the waters” day in and day out in the Christian life? How do we “eat what is good” and delight ourselves in rich food for our souls? How do I practically seek my joy in him?

The answer begins with the vital truth that God gives us means. He gives us the dignity of participating in the process, of availing ourselves of the specific channels he has built for us. And he works in us to cultivate and take up various “habits of grace,” based on his revealed means of grace, in our pursuit of joy in him.

Habits for Hedonists

Over the years, I have found long lists of specific practices and disciplines (whether twelve, or fifteen, or more) to be minimally helpful, and often discouraging. What I needed was to press in through the particular practical manifestations and find the God-given principles that wove them together.

“God stops and stoops, bending his ear to listen to us. He wants to hear from you.”

One way, among others, to capture the matrix of God’s grace for the Christian life is in three great means: (1) hear God’s voice (in his word), (2) have his ear (in prayer), and (3) belong to his body (in the fellowship of the local church). So far as I can tell, all scripturally-directed “spiritual disciplines” cluster to one or more of these three centers: word, prayer, and fellowship. The book of Acts brings them together, for instance, in its summary of the collective habits of the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Our various habits of grace, then, are the practices we develop (both individually and corporately) for daily and weekly access to God’s ongoing, soul-sustaining means of grace for the satisfying of our souls in Christ. In particular, these three categories of God’s ongoing grace play a vital role in feeding our joy in ways that make God look good.

Welcome His Word

The very words of God himself, through his apostles and prophets in the Scriptures, are the first and foremost means of his grace to us. The God who is is a speaking God. He speaks first. He, as Creator, takes the initiative to address us as his creatures. And he, as our Savior, takes the initiative to tell us about our rescue. His own Son is the climactic expression of his Word (John 1:1; Hebrews 1:1–2), and he has filled for us — from Genesis to Revelation — a Book of his external, objective words about himself, our race, our world, and our redemption.

Through his word, he extends to us the particular joy of being led, of receiving the initiative he takes toward us. And he is glorified in our joy through Scripture in many ways. First, he is honored that we come to him (and not elsewhere) and treat his words as truth — that we say to him, as Peter did to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Also when we come to him honors (or dishonors) him, in terms of frequency and priority. Do we come to him regularly or irregularly, and do we prioritize his word over other influences and other activities?

How we come to him is also vital. God means for us to come hungry to his word. To come eagerly. To come hedonistically, consciously seeking to satisfy our souls in him, longing for him like newborns who “long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). God means for us to approach him, through his word, as “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13); to come humbly, and welcome his words (James 1:21) — even when they seem strange and startling to us — and seek to obey them, not just hearing his words, but actually doing them (James 1:22).

“The serious pursuit of joy in God is not to be a solitary existence.”

God is glorified not only through our coming hungrily, but also as we enjoy the feast, as we experience his words as “my delight” (Psalm 1:2; 119:16), as “the joy of my heart” (Psalm 119:111), as “the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16), as kindling for the fires of our joy. God is honored when we approach his words as David did in Psalm 19: as words that revive the soul (verse 7) and rejoice the heart (verse 8), more to be desired than gold (verse 10), sweeter than honey (verse 10) and greatly rewarding (verse 11).

To come to God’s word is to come to God himself. He breathes out his words to us as initiatives, invitations, and instruction in order that we might know him. How we treat his words is how we treat God himself. And as we enjoy his speaking to us in his word, he also invites us to speak back.

Enjoy His Ear

Prayer, then, is the next distinct means of his grace. By opening to us the doors of heaven through the person and work of his Son, God gives us the stunning gift of having his ear. We get to speak to him. Prayer extends to us the particular joy of mattering to God Almighty. He not only speaks to us, but he stops and stoops, bending his ear to hear us respond. God wants to hear from us.

Prayer glorifies God when we approach him as the God he says he is: as a treasure, not a killjoy; as kind, not cruel; as attentive, not distracted; as near, not distant; as caring, not apathetic; and, mark this, as our magnanimous Lord, not our domestic servant. As John Piper writes about cultivating such a hedonistic impulse in prayer, “When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory are one” (Desiring God, 159–160).

God is glorified in our asking him (this is, prayer) to meet our needs, as he says in Psalm 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Through prayer, we get the joy of deliverance, while he gets the glory as Deliverer. Prayer simultaneously serves the pursuit of our joy — “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24) — and the pursuit of his glory — “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

Cherish His Church

Finally, but not least — encapsulating both his speaking to us and his hearing from us — are the corporate habits of grace. We are not alone in the Christian life. God gives us the gift of belonging to a body, called the church, the very bride of his own Son.

The reality and experience of the church extends to us the joy of belonging and togetherness. God made us for life together, not only to receive his grace through others, but also to be living, breathing means of his grace to each other. In all this, God himself is the great end and source of our joy. His gifts, rightly received, point us to him as the deepest and most enduring source of joy — our joy.

God is glorified in his people’s joy through the church in our unity in his Son, as we “together . . . with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6). He is glorified as we receive his grace through each other as gifts from him (1 Corinthians 12:4–11). The church is the first context in which we live out the obedience and life-change which Christ calls us to, and produces in us. Our joy in him changes us, and he means for us to demonstrate such change for others to see, which begins in fellowship with others living out their joy in him, and then extending into our world.

“God is not the cosmic killjoy many of us once feared.”

The serious pursuit of joy in God is not a solitary existence. In fact, it will be, for most of us, an uncomfortably corporate journey. No doubt, we need our moments of being “alone with God” in his word and prayer, but we also will regularly receive his words together and respond to him in prayer together, as we do in corporate worship. Those who are serious about pursuing their joy in God will not be among those “neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,” but will consistently, urgently, and joyfully encourage one another (Hebrews 10:25).

The camaraderie of Christian Hedonism is not a gift God means for us to wait on till the age to come. He offers it now, in this life, and makes the lives and influence of fellow Christians an irreplaceable avenue of our pursuit of joy in him, as together we welcome his words in Scripture and access his ear in prayer.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Church in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is a husband, father of four, and author of The Christmas We Didn’t Expect: Daily Devotions for Advent.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-seek-your-joy-in-god

Counseling with Psalm 19

Tyler Shores

Psalm 19 is all about divine revelation, which is to say that it is all about how God has communicated Himself to us. In terms of divine revelation there are two types: general/natural revelation and special revelation. General revelation is a “term used to declare that God reveals something about the divine nature through the created order.” (Grenz, Guretzki, & Nordling, p.54). Special revelation is “God’s manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with him.” (Erickson, p.201).

The beauty of Psalm 19 is that it speaks to the benefit of general revelation (v.1-6), while showing the superiority of special revelation as encountered in the Word of God (v.7-11). As we think through Psalm 19 there are three applications I want to consider in regards to biblical counseling: (1) God desires to communicate Himself to us through both the created world and the Word; (2) What we learn about God from His Word takes priority over what we learn about God from the world He created; (3) God intends for the revealing of Himself in His Word to produce holiness in us.

1. God desires to communicate Himself to us through the world He created (v.1-6).

As we read the opening lines of Psalm 19 we begin to sense that perhaps David is gazing into the skies and breathing in the vastness of God. He sees the stars, Moon, Sun and he assesses that the “heavens declare the glory of God” (v.1). David recognizes that although these created things do not have a literal voice (v.3), there is a sense in which their voice is heard throughout all the Earth (v.4). Along with Paul, David takes notice that creation is designed to communicate God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20, ESV). 

What David teaches us as counselors about general revelation is that we need to recognize the spiritual benefit of God revealing Himself to us and our counselees through creation. This is not a call to take expensive trips to remote locations but it is a call to step outside and become a student of God’s creation and consider the lilies (Matthew 6:28). 

On my desktop computer there is an incredible picture of the towering granite walls of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. I would love to visit Yosemite but logistically this is difficult. However, God’s very good creation is all around me. Even as I walk down the cracking sidewalks of my Midwest neighborhood and hear the hum of cicadas (loud bugs), the power and beauty of God are being revealed to me. It’s not quite Yosemite, but it will have to suffice because I was designed as a human to learn about God in these moments. Psalm 19:1-6 teaches us that God’s creation is useful for teaching us and our counselees about God and therefore should be engaged. 

As biblical counselors we are right to uphold the Word of God (special revelation) as essential to spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellness. Without the Word of God there is no hope because there is no other way of being in relationship with God. As a result, our first instinct in assigning homework is often to get counselees into God’s Word. This is right and good. That being said, we should not be uncomfortable with assigning the kinds of homework which pushes the objective of revealing The spiritual benefits of engaging the created world. This could look like encouraging a counselee to take a daily walk and account for how God is good in creation. This type of assignment is certainly helpful in someone gaining a greater sense of God’s power and majesty. Perhaps, in glimpsing God’s glory in creation, our counselees will be more eager to hear and obey God’s revealed will.

1. What we learn about God from His Word takes priority over what we learn about God from the world He created (v.7-11).

As Psalm 19 unfolds David continues to speak of divine revelation but we notice a shift in subject starting in verse 7. As good and necessary as general revelation is, the focus of David’s attention becomes the Word of God (which is special revelation). David is not attempting to diminish the value of general revelation but is instead highlighting the superior value of God’s Word when both are considered. This value is articulated as David makes six bold statements concerning the benefits of God’s Word. These statements deserve careful attention but unfortunately the restraints of this blog post will not allow us the space to do so. That being said, there are a few broad observations about what David says which help us not to miss the big point:  

First, Allen Ross explains that David “uses all the major terms for the stipulations of the covenant [law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, rules] to call attention to the mercy and love of God.” (Ross, 469) What Ross is getting at here is the key difference between general revelation and special revelation. This difference is that the content of God’s Word is about the covenant faithful God and the salvation He provides. This is not the case with general revelation. Bavinck correctly points out that general revelation is “insufficient for human beings as sinners; it knows nothing of grace and forgiveness.” (313) We can look at the world around us and learn a lot about God but it can never bring us to the point of knowing God. 

Second, Ross goes on to say that “Because of these clear references to the covenant, the covenant name of Yahweh is used seven times.” (Ross, 469). In the first section of Psalm 19 (vv.1-6), David uses the name El for God (v.1). Whereas El is a more general name for God in the Hebrew, Yahweh is the more personal name for God (Exodus 34:6). It is no surprise that David chooses this more personal name for God when discussing the Word of God Again because it is the Word of God which makes it possible for us to be in relationship with God. 

Third, David’s statements about the spiritual benefits of God’s Word are exclusively true of God’s Word. There is nothing else in this world which can revive our souls, make us wise, cause true rejoicing in our hearts, or enlighten our eyes. The Psalmist views the Word of God as something uniquely precious and rightly so. The benefits of Scripture are unparalleled. 

The application that the Psalmist’s high regard of God’s Word has in the counseling room is straightforward. If we want to be people who feel and experience God as He is then we must be people who are engaging with the Word of God and people who are doers of the Word. Likewise, we cannot consider ourselves to be doing the work of biblical counseling until we busy ourselves with helping people engage God’s Word and the life giving hope of God’s Word. In the counseling room we want to be men and women who speak the Bible, demonstrate a life changed by the Bible, and call those who are hurting to be helped by the Bible. Again, this is not David calling us to abandon the value of general revelation but is rather an emphasis on the absolute necessity of God’s Word. 

1. God intends for the revealing of Himself in His Word to produce holiness in us (v.10-14).

The psalmist concludes by teaching that God’s Word is to be more desired “than gold” and is “sweeter also than honey” (v.10). This bold claim flows from the truth that God’s Word guides the believer into holiness for the glory of God, which is God’s goal in revealing Himself. God reveals Himself uniquely and exclusively in the Word because He desires for struggling sinners to be “blameless” (v.13) and “acceptable” (v.14) in His sight. There is nothing more satisfying than being transformed into the people that god has designed us to be. 

The question which Psalm 19 leads us to reasonably ask ourselves as counselors is: what do I hope to see accomplished in the life of my counselee? If the answer is something other than holiness we have veered from the straight-forward teaching of Psalm 19 and we should reassess our goals in counseling. What makes biblical counseling ‘biblical’ is not only that we use the Bible as our source for instruction but that the God of the Bible sets the agenda for counseling. 

posted at: https://gospelmercies.com/2020/10/02/counseling-with-psalm-19/

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.

The God of All Grace

Jerry Bridges from the book “Transforming Grace” page 174

“When we come to God’s throne, we need to remember He is indeed the God of all grace. He is the landowner who graciously gave a full day’s pay to the workers who had worked only one hour in the vineyard. He is the God who said of the sinful nation of Israel even while they were in captivity, “I will rejoice in doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:41). He is the God who remained faithful to Peter through all his failures and sins and made him into a mighty apostle. He is the God who, over and over again, has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us (i.e. Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Psalm 94:14; Isaiah 42:16; Hebrews 13:5). He is the God who “longs to be gracious to you” (Isaiah 30:18), and He is the God who is for you, not against you (Romans 8:31). All this, and more, is summed up in that one statement, the God of all grace.”

What Do You Love About God?

Audio Transcript of John Piper

Happy Monday, everyone! Welcome back and thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. Pastor John joins us today remotely over Skype. Our question today comes from a listener named Sam, who lives in Los Angeles. He sent in a really short question, but an important one. “Dear Pastor John, what do you love most about God?” That’s it. Pastor John, what do you love most about God?

In a sense, to answer this question authentically, I probably ought not spend any great time theologizing, studying, doing exegesis, or assessing God’s attributes. I ought to simply blurt out — just blurt out — what I feel about God, what I really treasure about him and value and admire. Wouldn’t that be the most authentic answer to the question “What do I love about God?” rather than some long-studied, complicated, fill-up-an-APJ, theological answer? And I think the answer to that question is yes, that’s right. So, that’s where I’ll start.

Flavored with Grace

My first, most visceral, immediate, heartfelt answer to the question is this: I love the grace of God.

• I love the mercy of God.

• I love being loved by God.

• I love being treated graciously and kindly and patiently by God.

• I love being accepted and forgiven by God.

• I love God’s grace toward me.

Piper: “I hope to be spending the rest of eternity knowing and loving all of God’s excellencies better and better.”TweetShare on Facebook

I think all of those statements I just tumbled out there are ways of saying that the grace of God is very, very, very precious to me. I would be undone without a God of grace. Late at night, early in the morning, facing conflict, facing guilt feelings, facing judgment from him — ultimately, possibly — or from critical people, facing the world, I would be undone without the grace of God. It is on the front burner of my affections for God all of the time. Even when I’m thinking about all kinds of other attributes of God or ways of God, they’re all flavored with the grace of God.

So, that’s my most visceral, heartfelt, unreflective, immediate, desperate response to the question of what I love most about God.

Love the True God

But the reason I said that answering this way is in a sense the right way to answer this question is that there’s another sense in which the Bible encourages us not just to speak from our inmost or most immediate perception of things, but to ponder — in the light of God’s word and in the light of God’s action — what we mean by what we most immediately say, and whether there might be contained in this immediate response aspects of God’s grace and mercy and kindness that need to be made explicit for the sake of our own souls, as well as for the sake of others, lest we fail to honor God as we ought, and lest we subconsciously find ourselves loving not God supremely, but our own selves.

There are numerous instances in the Bible where people showed some measure of spontaneous devotion to God. And then when God said something or did something that they didn’t like, their devotion evaporated, which means that what they said was love for God wasn’t really love for the true God, but only a love for their imagined God, their picture of God. And then the real God does something out of step with their expectations, and their love is gone. Now, that love was not really love for God.

So, even though it’s right — and I’m going to say it again — for me to give a spontaneous, heartfelt, visceral, gut reaction to what I love most about God, every person who lives under the authority of the Bible, including me, will want to discern from the true, real God revealed in the Bible whether what I’m saying corresponds to reality. Is God really like what I say I love about him? And is my heart so much attuned to the true God that no matter what he reveals about himself, I will still be totally committed to him, and in love with him, and valuing him, and treasuring him, and cherishing him, and being satisfied in him? Then, with the Bible’s help, I’ll know that I love the true God, and not just a figment of my own religious imagination.

The Greatest Gift of Grace

So, what John Piper needs to do, having given his immediate, heartfelt answer — “I love the grace of God toward me in Jesus” — is ask, “Piper, what do you mean by ‘the grace of God’? If you love that most, you should have some sense of what you’re talking about. Or are those just empty words?”

And my answer (now I’m doing the reflective thing: testing my guts and my spontaneity) would be this: God’s grace is his disposition and action to give the greatest possible blessing to the least deserving creatures at the greatest cost. That’s my definition of God’s grace.

1. The cost is the suffering and death of his one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 8:32: “He . . . did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.”

2. The least deserving creatures are human beings — me — who have desecrated God’s glory by committing treason in preferring other things above God. Romans 5:6–8 says, “Christ died for the ungodly. . . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

3. The greatest possible blessing purchased at the greatest cost for the least deserving is . . . Think to yourself, Now, what’s that? And at this point we are at the most critical juncture. How shall we state the greatest possible blessing that grace gives to the least deserving recipients like me? And it won’t work to say, “Well, the greatest possible gift of God’s grace is grace.” That’s just talking in circles; that’s not going to answer the question.

So, you can see why it’s an inadequate answer when John Piper says that the greatest thing I love about God is his grace until I’ve answered the question, What’s the greatest blessing that God’s grace has given to me in treating me so much better than I deserve at the cost of his Son’s life? To love the grace of God in a way that honors God is to love grace because of the specific content of the blessing given by the grace of God — namely, God. The greatest gift grace gives is God for our eternal friendship and enjoyment.

• 1 Peter 3:18: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

• Romans 5:10: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”

The grace John Piper says he loves about God is not the grace of God unless the capstone of that grace is the gift of God himself. And the love that I say I have for that grace is not a love for God unless what I love most about the grace is that it brings me to God.

Eternal Excellencies

And I think this is why, in Ephesians 1, Paul says that the eternal election of God and his predestination and his planned adoption of redeemed people through Christ, all according to the good pleasure of his will, has as its ultimate goal “the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6). And that glory, the glory of grace, is the beauty of how all the attributes of the eternal God — his goodness, his righteousness, his unimpeachable justice, his unfathomable wisdom, his omnipotent power, all that he is in his God-ness and his holiness — how all of that unites, fits together beautifully, to plan and perform creation and redemption in a way that magnifies the capstone of his deity — namely, the glory of his grace.

“The greatest gift grace gives is God for our eternal friendship and enjoyment.”TweetShare on Facebook

In other words, the eternal excellencies of God give rise to the wise ways of God, for the praise of the glory of the grace of God, so that when we say we love the grace of God, we ought to mean that we have some sense of those eternal excellencies and those wise ways of God.

All of which brings me back to where I began: I love the grace of God, which now means

• I love that he’s the kind of God who didn’t spare his own Son.

• I love that he’s the kind of God who justifies the ungodly.

• I love that he’s the kind of God that gives to the least deserving the greatest blessing — namely, himself.

And I hope to be spending the rest of eternity knowing and loving all of his excellencies better and better.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-do-you-love-most-about-god?utm_campaign=Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94483232&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-81oi0MLEWVYN7eR-hkpbWUC7vplXtLOP0gEYJhQ47Alj_MM7bprs0ZPX5d01UmCcpxZddLRYFNxMfQfS2RPE_Up2EVug&utm_content=94483232&utm_source=hs_email

Is God Enough?

By Karen McMahon

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Is God enough?” I have. Many times. I know my heart well enough to know it is “prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love.” It is a liar. It deceives me and it is wicked. In my wayward heart I can think, God is enough, and at the same time cry out, “I don’t deserve this,” “Life’s not fair,” and “Why me Lord?”

Do you ever noticed that what people say they believe about God doesn’t always line up with how they respond to challenges in life? On Sunday mornings, with hands raised, we sing, “Christ is enough…I surrender all,” but is that really our heart’s cry in the midst of a life turned upside down by difficulty?

For example, do we remember we offered our life as a living sacrifice, “surrendering all,” when cancer is the diagnosis? When we lose a job and then our house? When friends betray us and children become prodigals? Do we embrace Christ as enough when we desperately want marriage, but are single?

How Do You Know When Christ is Not Enough?

Even outside a season of difficulty our heart’s alliance can quickly shift from the Creator to His creation. We can know this by examining the deeds of our flesh (Galatians 5:17-21). These deeds are our responses to events in our life and evidenced by works: worry (Matthew 6:24-25), hurt (Psalm 34:18), a struggle to forgive (Colossians 3:13), anger (Ephesians 4:31), gossip (2 Corinthians 12:20), discontentment with life (Philippians 4:11), trials without joy (James 1:2), unfulfilled dreams (Isaiah 30:15), weariness (Hebrews 12:3), fear about the future or hopelessness (Psalm 39:7).

Good desires become lusts when you lose sight of your greatest need—Christ. The outworkings of a heart not satisfied with God reveals where your heart’s true alliance is. One way to recognize a heart that doesn’t find Christ to be enough is to ask, “What do I love most?” The answer to this question will tell you what controls you.

We are Controlled by What We Love Most

If you love financial security and your finances dry up, you will find out quickly how important this idol is. Does love for God control you even when God’s sovereign hand challenges your thinking in this area? Either God controls you and is satisfying or something/someone else does. We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).

Or take another common illustration: worry about what others think. This is a mind controlled by fear, not God. Fear says, I want others to think well of me therefore I’m controlled by what others think (people pleasing/fear of man). Let’s take that thought even farther. What if the Lord orchestrates or allows your reputation to be tarnished unjustly? Is Christ enough because you know God cares about your character (which is what you can control), not reputation?

See how this plays out? We may pray that we surrender all, but do we really surrender all? Our comfort, jobs, ministry, health, reputation? Do we really hold loosely to everything we have and say like Job, “Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” (Job 13:15)

The truth that God is enough is where I want to live 24/7. But I don’t. To say this, to know this, that’s the easy part. To put it into practice is not a simple thing to do. When the day-to-day pressures come upon any of us, we can easily slip back into old thinking patterns. We must press forward through moments and times when life consumes and feelings seem impossible to ignore.

Feelings Don’t Rule

Truth does. How can your heart sing that Christ is enough no matter what is gained or lost in life? By knowing Him and remembering truth. Remembering truth is renewing your mind all throughout the day. Mind renewal doesn’t happen automatically. We need to put to death wrong thinking (Colossians 3:5) and be renewed through His Word (Romans 12:2). Daily victory is won with each small, miniscule step forward as you push through feelings and choose to trust and find satisfaction in Him alone.

Our Satisfaction Has to be in God

Nothing in this world will satisfy (Ecclesiastes 2:17)

• When I am in debt and don’t know how I’ll pay my bills, is God enough?

• When my marriage is not what I want it to be, is God enough?

• When I lose my husband to cancer, is God enough?

• When I need to forgive what seems unforgivable, is God enough?

• When my spouse uses words to hurt me, is God enough?

• When someone will not forgive me, is God enough?

• When my friend betrays me, is God enough?

• When a parent’s health is declining, is God enough?

• When my marriage is over, is God enough?

• When a boyfriend breaks up with me and I don’t know why, is God enough?

• When my child dies, is God enough?

• When my church disappoints me, is God enough?

• When I remain single and all my friends are getting married, is God enough?

• When they find I have cancer, is God enough?

• When my child is living a destructive life, is God enough?

• When my spouse tells me they don’t love me anymore, is God enough?

Final Thoughts

God never guarantees us a happy stress-free life. He certainly doesn’t promise we won’t have troubles in this life (John 16:33). Don’t believe the lie that you need more. Don’t give in to fleshly fears. Don’t let Satan tempt you to doubt God’s Word. Satan will whisper, “God is not enough. You need more, you won’t be satisfied with just Him….” That is a lie! Don’t buy into it. Taste and see that the Lord is good! He is enough (Psalm 34).

Whether you have plenty or nothing, or when circumstances become more than you think you can handle, Christ is enough. You can lose everything and be okay because no one can take away Christ. When those times come, and they will, fight to remember truth. Thank Him for the trial, for the loss, for never leaving or forsaking you. Cry out to Him in your pain. He knows and sees all. But always stand firm on truth and remember,

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

He is sufficient for you and for me.

This blog was originally posted at First Evangelical Free Church of Maplewood, MN, view the original post here.

Praying Psalm 63

by Paul Tautges

“Oh, God, You 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.”

When David was desperate in the wilderness of Judah he had a choice to make. He could focus on the wilderness and his difficult circumstances or he could meditate on his God and what he knew to be true of God’s character. He chose the latter. As a result, our lives are enriched by having Psalm 63 in our biblical repertoire.

This marvelous song flows out of a commitment to praise God, which was birthed from meditations on God. “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name” (vv. 3-4). That is his commitment to praise. But the deeper source of his praise is revealed in verse 6: “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.”

What are some of the truths about God that David chose to meditate on? How does this precious psalm lead us into that same kind of worship? Here are eight truths that jump out from the sacred text. Let them be a starting point for prayer and worship. Say, with David, “O God, You are my God,” and then give to Him particular praise. Here is a suggested way to pray.

You are the God who wants to be thirsted after and who rewards those who seek after You. “I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary” (vv. 1-2a). “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

You are the God of all power and glory. “Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory” (v. 2). “Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; and may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen (Ps 72:18-19).

You are the God of lovingkindness (grace), which is better to me than life itself. Because this is true, “My lips will praise You” (v. 3). “I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, and You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place” (Ps 31:7-8).

You are the God who satisfies my soul. “My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness” (v. 5). “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light” (Ps 36:7-9).

You are my Helper. “You have [already] been my help” (v. 7). “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me; O LORD, be my helper” (Ps 30:9-10).

You are my strength, my defense, and my life-support system. “My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life to destroy it, will go into the depths of the earth. They will be delivered over to the power of the sword; they will be a prey for foxes” (v. 8). “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD” (Ps 118:14-17).

You are the God of truth and justice. “But the king will rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him will glory, for the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped” (v. 11). “You have a strong arm; Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You. How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O LORD, they walk in the light of Your countenance” (Ps 89:13-15).

Meditating on God will result in a heart filled with praise for Him, His gracious and faithful character, and His mighty works. Let us bless Him as long as we live and lift up our hand unto His name!

[Originally posted February 13, 2013.]

Posted at: https://counselingoneanother.com/2020/09/08/meditating-on-my-god/

“But God” - 2 Chronicles 20:15

“But God” - for the battle is not yours but God's

By Nancy Williams

2 Chronicles is an old testament book in the bible, written by Ezra to all of Israel to remind the people of God to humble themselves, pray, seek the Lord’s face and turn from their wicked ways, but their fearful responses keep the peace of God from them. Only God could bring true peace for He is greater than any enemy, army, or nation. All Israel had to do was to be faithful in their responses, trust the Lord and allow His peace to dwell in them. Just as their faithful responses was key to their peace and survival as a nation, so is our obedience to God as individuals if we are going to experience God’s peace.

2 Chronicles 20: 13-17 “Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

But God’s

As the enemy army bore down on them God spoke through Jahaziel to not be afraid or discouraged for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Did you see that, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed the battle is not ours but God’s. 

We may not fight battles with armies but every day we battle with temptation, sin, pressures, and rulers of the dark who want us to rebel against God (Ephesians 6:12). It is easy to forget in these situations that we need to be obedient to God if we are going to experience His peace. We as believers have been blessed with God’s Spirit in us. We have access to God to help us when we face struggles of any kind and God will fight for us and with us for the battle is His. 

How do we allow God to fight our battles?

By realizing the battle is not ours but God’s – most struggles we face are spiritual - will we obey God or not. Will we stand firm in the Lord, and see the salvation of the Lord on our behalf? 

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 

We have all sinned, not one of us is innocent. 

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

Jesus Christ died for us! Jesus’ death paid for the price of our sins. Jesus’ resurrection proves that God accepted Jesus’ death as the payment for our sins. Battle won!

Romans 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins and rescue us from eternal death. Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, is available to anyone who will trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

Romans 5:1 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

What a great message that through Jesus Christ we can have a relationship of peace with God.

Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

Because of Jesus’ death on our behalf, we will never be condemned for our sins. 

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

The greatest battle for our soul is won by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Once we have surrendered our life to the Lord our next battle is to continually die to self, my ways, my wants and to remain obedient to the Lord.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

Philippians 1: 6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

 Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” 

Philippians 1:27 "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." 

1 Corinthians 15:58 "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." 

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And 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.”

 Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” 

John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

That continual dying to self allows us to grow in our likeness to Christ

Colossians 3:1-17 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[d] with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 

And as we become more and more like Christ, we learn to trust Him with our life. 

Isaiah 26: 3-4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock 

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 

Jeremiah 7:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Because the battle is His, I can trust the Lord to fight for and with me as I obey Him with my life.

“But God” - Acts 3:15

By Wendy Wood

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” Acts 3:15 (NIV)

We are very quick to look at our circumstances and allow our feelings to determine if things are “good” or “bad”.  If things seem to be going as we want them to go, we feel happy or content and determine life is good.  If situations are not going as we hoped they would, or what we expected to have happen, we tend to get frustrated or discouraged and think life is not good.  “But God” are the two words that dispel the belief that our perspective or view of our circumstances can determine if our circumstances are “good” or “bad”.

As Jesus was hanging on the cross, circumstances did not look “good”.  Jesus was bloodied and his flesh was torn and hanging from his body.  His cheeks were tear-stained and the dirt from the long walk made mud as his tears of pain and hurt mixed with the dusty earth.  The Romans soldiers and Jewish elite were cheering and declaring victory over the traitor and rebel they believed Jesus to be as Jesus suffered and died.  The disciples were confused and bewildered that the Messiah they had followed and believed in for three years was now dead.  They wondered if they had just wasted three years of their lives and abandoned their livelihoods for nothing.  The sobbing crowd and the cheering enemies saw this same event from different perspectives.  The sobbing crowd mourned the loss of the One they hoped would rescue them from Roman rule and set up His own kingdom on earth to reign.  The cheering soldiers and Jewish elite were convinced their problems had been solved.  The death of Jesus meant their leadership and influence would not be questioned anymore and they could regain their status as respectable, honorable, important men.

Nothing more clearly shows that God is the decisive, sovereign ruler every single moment in time like the words “But God”.  No matter how circumstances look, God is who determines the outcome.  “But God” reminds us that God is always at work for His purpose, His will, and His glory.

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.”  Acts 3:15

The death of Jesus did not surprise or frustrate God.  We know from Ephesians 1 that God purposed Christ to die “before the foundations of the world”.  We see in Genesis 3 that God had already planned that Satan would bruise Jesus’ heel, when Jesus died on the cross, but Jesus would crush Satan’s head, when Jesus raised up from the dead victorious over Satan, sin, and death.  When the situation looked bleak and without hope, God’s plan was being carried out.

But God reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways.  Human wisdom would never have a crucified Savior, but rather a ruling and reigning one like the Israelites were hoping for.

But God reminds us that God’s plan is always carried out.  When circumstances look bad, when we think nothing good can possibly happen from this terrible situation, we are reminded that God is working all things according to the purpose of His will.

But God reminds us that nothing can thwart God’s plan.  Satan, enemies, and even our own sin, cannot alter or change God’s perfect plan.  What man intends for evil, God will use for good.  What Satan attempts to tear us from God’s grasp, God’s hold on his children is secure.

But God reminds us that God is all-powerful and that nothing happens outside of his control.

This series of blogs has addressed several different stories and situations in scripture that involve a “But God” statement.  Think about what would have happened if “But God” wasn’t there.  

Take some time to thank God for the “But God” moments in His word!