Some Learn and Never Grow

A Lost Remedy for Spiritual Immaturity

Article by Afshin Ziafat

If you grew up going to church youth camps, you may remember that kid who would seem to have a spiritual breakthrough every summer, only to go back to his former way of living soon after. No matter what he did, he failed to make lasting progress. Maybe you were that kid. Maybe you feel like that kid today.

The book of Hebrews addresses the danger of not living up to what we know is true. The author writes to a group of Christians struggling to continue pursuing Christ. They probably felt the pressure to return to their former Jewish faith, especially after facing persecution for not doing so. So, the author urges them (and us) to continue following Christ, to pay closer attention to what they have heard, lest they “drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1), to not turn back to a life of mere pointers when they have seen the reality itself.

As the author exhorts, warns, and woos, he stops mid-discussion to address something serious that hinders our continuing on in the faith. While reasoning with his readers not to return to the old covenant — because Jesus, of a new priestly order, is better than all the high priests of that covenant — he abruptly pauses to make an observation about his hearers: they suffer from spiritual arrested development.

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11–14)

“Biblically speaking, to hear is not just to listen but also to understand and obey.”

They were grown-ups sipping bottles. Once they had enjoyed spiritual steak, but now they were regressing. Once they had learned “the basic principles of the oracles of God” — that the Old Testament Scriptures point to Christ, and are fulfilled in him — but now they needed someone to teach them again. Once they had heard and obeyed and acknowledged Jesus as Lord; now they had “become dull of hearing.”

Lazy Listeners

The author says that what he wants to teach them is hard to explain. Notice the reason he gives for this. It isn’t because the teaching is too technically deep and difficult to understand. It isn’t some esoteric mystery that only an enlightened few can comprehend. It isn’t because he considers himself a poor teacher. It isn’t because he considers them to be intellectually inferior.

The diagnosis he gives is that they “have become dull of hearing.” Once their spiritual ears were in tune; now they are not. This is something that has happened to them over time. The word that is used for dull is the same word used for sluggish a chapter later (Hebrews 6:11–12). They have become lazy in their ability to hear truth.

Biblically speaking, to hear is not just to listen but also to understand and obey. Earlier in Hebrews, the author speaks of the Israelites who heard God’s word but fell away and didn’t inherit the Promised Land. “Good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (Hebrews 4:2). They heard the very promises of God, in all their lavish mercy and grace, and yet they did not endure. They heard but did not continue in obedience. They heard God’s word, but fell away from their Lord.

Moving On from Milk

Lazy listening led to stunted development. He says that although by this time they should be teachers, they still need milk instead of solid food. They should be ready to graduate from college, but now they need to go back to elementary school. They should be enjoying steak, but instead they need spiritual milk, to learn again “the basic principles” of God’s word.

“Submit all your life to God’s word — to know it, love it, cherish it, and live it.”

It is important to note that the author isn’t downplaying the necessity of milk in extolling the virtues of solid food. A diet consisting merely of milk is not bad in itself. Diapers are not bad. Crawling on all fours everywhere you go is not bad. These things aren’t bad in themselves — not for an infant. What makes them bad is the phrase “by this time.” They aren’t babies anymore, and so behaving like one is a sign of concern.

I remember when my youngest child was an infant. We would celebrate all the little things he would do, from crawling to his first mumbled words. But if my daughter, who is six years older, did the same things, we would not celebrate. We would be seriously worried. Similarly, the author of Hebrews is concerned that they seem to be returning to spiritual infancy. He defines this further in Hebrews 6:1–2:

Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Remember that the readers felt the pressure to return to their former Jewish faith, especially after facing persecution for not doing so. Now that Christ has come, Hebrews wants his readers to cling to the maturity of the new covenant, whatever persecution they face. They cannot go back to Judaism. They must leave it behind and go on to the maturity that is uncompromised life in Christ.

It is very important to clarify what he means here by “leaving.” Leaving does not mean to throw away or dispense with and abandon. It is similar to the elementary student who has learned the alphabet: he doesn’t do away with the alphabet; the letters are essential to the communication of the most advanced learning.

Whether in redemptive history, or in our own spiritual lives, progress to maturity is cumulative. The same is true of Christian doctrine. The first principles are foundational and are essential to every stage of development. The beginning foundation (the old covenant) is not the stopping point but rather the springboard to the new. So too the Christian life is not static. It progresses and grows and matures. Regression is reason for concern.

How to Grow Up in God

What about for us today? Most of us are not tempted to go back to Judaism apart from Christ, but many seem mired in stagnant or even regressed spiritual lives.

“The pathway to Christian maturity isn’t just to become a more educated person, but a more obedient person.”

Notice that Hebrews doesn’t suggest that they simply start eating solid food. It is dangerous to start feeding solid food to infants who cannot process that food. When my son was an infant, there was a period of time when he wasn’t keeping up with a healthy weight for his age. The problem was due to the fact that he wasn’t keeping milk down well. The solution wasn’t to start trying out steak, but to work toward his keeping the milk down. This is exactly how it works with our spiritual growth and maturity: we need to keep down what we already know.

In the Western church, we too often make the mistake that spiritual maturity comes from obtaining more information. We sign up for Bible studies and theological classes to meet this need. While those classes may have much to offer, they don’t necessarily fix the problem of dull hearing. On their own, they don’t move you on to maturity. This is not merely an intellectual or educational issue.

The author says the mature are “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). The issue isn’t a lack of knowledge but a lack of practice. Through obedience, we grow into maturity in order to be able to take in solid food. The pathway to Christian maturity isn’t just to become a more educated person, but a more obedient person.

If God Permits

Practice trains our powers of discernment to distinguish good from evil. Like an athlete who develops muscle memory, when we put God’s word into practice we train our muscles of faith to believe God and refuse sin. We train ourselves by tasting and seeing that God in fact is good when we follow his commands, and our powers of discernment continue to grow. This is what growing in Christian maturity looks like.

But we do not achieve maturity by ourselves: “And this we will do if God permits” (Hebrews 6:3). This is a reminder to all of us that this work of maturity is one that is dependent and directed by God. At the end of the day, we can’t just pull ourselves up by the bootstraps to become mature. We turn to God in full dependence.

Do you feel like you have a stunted or even arrested development when it comes to your spiritual growth? Do you long to go on to maturity in your faith? If your answer is yes, turn to God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and submit all your life to his word — to know it, love it, cherish it, and live it.

Afshin Ziafat (@afshinziafat) is lead pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, Texas. His passion is to teach the word of God as the authority and guide for life, to preach Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and to proclaim the love of Christ as the greatest treasure and hope in life. He and his wife, Meredith, currently reside in Frisco with their three children.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/some-learn-and-never-grow?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=a0023e62-4a7f-4666-ac6e-cf09d22045ed&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=new%20teaching&fbclid=IwAR2or5ZAIzHgdtfyN60nSEJrsmRz9WpuuAIVFyTh6Fbpae73-CB81tCMPtw

He Died to Have Her

Marshall Segal

What happened for you at the cross?

Jesus died for my sins, many might rush to say (and rightly so). However easily those five simple and beautiful words come, though, they are often misunderstood and unexplored. Who was Jesus, and what had he planned to do? And if he is God the Son, the Word become flesh, what would it mean for him to die? And how do we understand sin, and what does it really cost?

“Jesus did not just die so that you might be saved; he died to save you.”

If we’re not careful, our gospel can easily become a shallow and superficial anthem to relieve guilty consciences and dismiss fears of hell. The cross is no longer really about reconciling us to God, but about calming God and skipping punishment. We end up clinging to a sentimental and superficial cross, not the cross of Christ. We need greater and greater clarity, through the eyes of Scripture, to know the real wonders of the cross.

Perhaps the most controversial word of the five, though, is my. What does it mean that Christ died for me? When he was pinned to that wood in my place, his lungs collapsing and blood spilling, what did he achieve for me?

What Did the Cross Achieve?

What happened for you at the cross? Jesus did not just die so that you might be saved; he died to save you. Christ did not die so that you might have him, but so that he would, without a doubt, have you. When he died, your salvation was not only made possible, but made sure. That is the beauty and promise of definite atonement. If it feels peripheral or unimportant, like theological hairsplitting, we have not yet felt just how dead and hopeless we really were in our sin.

Definite atonement (or limited atonement) says that Christ died for a definite people — a definite church, a definite flock, a definite and chosen bride. “Husbands, love your wives,” the apostle Paul says, “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Not for everyone, but for her.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15). For his own, for the sheep, for his friends (John 15:13). For all those whose names were “written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).

“I have been crucified with Christ,” the apostle Paul says. “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” (Galatians 2:20). Not just for anyone, but for me — and everyone who lives by such faith.

John Piper says, “You will never know how much God loves you if you continue to think of his love for you as only one instance of his love for all the world” (From Heaven He Came and Sought Her, 640). When Jesus received the nails, the thorns, the spear in his side, he was not saving everyone in the world, but securing those he had chosen from all over the world. He did not die wondering if you would believe; he died so that you would believe.

“Definite atonement says that Christ died for a definite people, a definite church, a definite and chosen bride.”

The doctrine of limited atonement arose as part of a five-part response (now remembered by the acronym TULIP) to a theological revolt four hundred years ago. In the Remonstrance, followers of Jacob Arminius falsely taught, “Jesus Christ the Savior of the world died for all men and for every man.” They sought to make the atonement “unlimited,” applying to all and not only those chosen by God for salvation. Ironically, by doing so, they limited the atonement far more than they realized. By trying to preserve, feature, and widen the glory of the cross, they unwittingly restrained and diminished it.

The Cross Purchases Hearts

Perhaps no better place exists to discover the certainty of God securing salvation for his people than by going to the heart of the new covenant promises, literally. These precious promises show that the cross not only makes salvation possible, but actually creates in us what salvation requires of us. Through the cross, through “the blood of the covenant” (Hebrews 9:20), God sovereignly forms the faith in us by which he saves us.

The prophet Jeremiah declares,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31–33)

What is different about this new covenant? God will not merely give his people the law to obey, but he will write his law on their hearts. He will put it within them. He continues in the next chapter,

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:39–40)

God will not wait for them to fear him, but he will put the fear of himself in their hearts. Or, as the prophet Ezekiel says, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).

“Jesus did not die wondering if you would believe; he died so that you would believe.”

These are not pictures of a God waiting for us to let him in by faith, but pictures of a God who levels all the walls of our resistance to cause us to repent, believe, rejoice, and obey. And this spiritual heart surgery happens because of the blood of the new covenant (Matthew 26:28) — the death of Christ for his bride, his sheep, his church. Those who argue for unlimited atonement, far from extending the atonement, rob the atonement of its deepest, most vital purchase: the gift of faith for all who would believe.

Savior of the World?

But didn’t Jesus die for the whole world? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Arminians base their argument for unlimited atonement on a handful of familiar verses in the Bible, verses we dare not set aside or minimize. No debate over Scripture should be settled by which proof texts are more true, but instead by what holds the utter truthfulness of every verse together.

So, while John 3:16 may seem to contradict definite atonement, we must stop to ask what Jesus means by “the world” and what he means by “love.” Does world really mean every person everywhere at all times, or might he simply mean people from everywhere in the world (and not only Jews)? The same question applies to other similar texts: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people” (Titus 2:11). “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Paul may provide the key for some texts like these when he calls Jesus “the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). Jesus does love all in some real sense and offer himself as the only possible Savior. If it were not for the death of Christ, we all, without exception, would have been immediately buried in wrath. If it were not for the death of Christ, we could not genuinely offer the gospel to all people everywhere. Jesus is the Savior of all in some sense, but not in the same sense. There is an especially: “especially of those who believe.” He not only covers them in common grace, as he does with all people, but he also raises them with saving grace. As J.I. Packer says, “God loves all in some ways” and “God loves some in all ways” (From Heaven He Came, 564).

Does God Love the World?

God does love the whole world, though, and everyone in it. He desires, at one level, that all would be saved (Ezekiel 18:23; Matthew 23:37), even if he decrees that only some ultimately are. The world in John 3:16 is the world without exception. In giving his own Son, God loved the world, the whole of sinful humanity. And because he crushed his Son, whoever believes in him, without exception, is covered by the blood of Christ. Through Christ and only because of Christ, God is offered to all.

And yet, even in that very same chapter, we learn that we must be born again (John 3:7) and that the Spirit blows where he wishes (John 3:8). God loves all, and desires all to be saved, and yet he chooses some (Romans 9:18). He loves them more — in all ways. Jesus is the Savior of the world, especially of those who believe.

“In the end, the most serious danger of unlimited atonement is that it appears to divide God.”

Whatever texts like the ones above mean by world or all, they cannot mean Jesus truly dies for everyone in the world. Otherwise, no sin would ever be punished in hell. If Jesus died for those who reject him in the end, how then could they be sent to hell? What more is there to pay? While his death, as the sinless Son of God, surely could have hypothetically covered the sins of the whole world (and many more worlds beside), his death could not have literally covered all sins in this world, or all would be saved.

And if he meant to cover the sins of all, did he then fail in his mission? Or, if he meant to cover the sins of all, did that set him against the Father, who elects some to salvation (Ephesians 1:3–4), and against the Spirit, who regenerates some to new life (John 3:3–8)? As Jonathan Gibson writes, “The works of the Trinity in the economy of salvation are indivisible. That is, the works of Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct but inseparable. Each person performs specific roles in the plan of salvation, but never in isolation from the others” (From Heaven He Came, 366).

In the end, perhaps the most serious danger of unlimited atonement is that it appears to divide God, to put the Godhead at odds with himself, to separate what God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — has planned, executed, and achieved, from before the foundation of the world, together.

Does This Harm Evangelism?

But if Jesus only died for the elect, can we tell anyone and everyone we meet, “Jesus died for you”? In some ways, this is where the rubber of this debate meets the streets where we live. Many Arminians and Amyrauldians (those who affirm the other four points of Calvinism, but reject definite atonement) simply want to preserve the freedom to preach the gospel to all people. They want to preserve a “universal offer” of forgiveness and eternal life. Again, while trying to unleash the atonement, so-called unlimited atonement strangely limits it, because unlimited atonement shortens the saving arm of God — first for us, and then for all we love and want to come to Jesus.

When we go to the lost, believing that Jesus not only bought the opportunity for them to believe, but bought the very faith of all who would believe, we can have far greater confidence in our sharing — and far less insecurity and anxiety about rejection. This person’s salvation does not ultimately hang on our persuasiveness, but on Christ’s purchase. Not on our argumentation, but on his propitiation. Not on their decision-making, but on his life-creating, soul-overturning, death-defeating, joy-producing love.

The definite atoning work of Christ is a significant part of the glory of God’s grace. And to know this, by the working of God’s Spirit, inflames the cause of world missions and enables us to preach in such a way that our people experience deeper gratitude, greater assurance, sweeter fellowship with God, stronger affections in worship, more love for people, and greater courage and sacrifice in witness and service. (Piper, 637)

If Christ died for all in the same way, we forfeit one of the most precious blessings he purchased — the faith by which we are saved — and we rob God of the full glory he deserves. Definite atonement, far from dulling love or blunting evangelism or blurring assurance, sets each ablaze with new confidence and zeal. The blood he spilled “is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). For many, even you, if he has made you his own.

Marshall Segal (@marshallsegal) is a writer and managing editor at desiringGod.org. He’s the author of Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating. He graduated from Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Faye, have two children and live in Minneapolis.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/he-died-to-have-her

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.

When Suffering is Long and Hard

By: Sue Nicewander Delaney

My husband’s stroke in 2013 initiated a three-year period of suffering and loss for us. After he died in 2016 and I embarked on an unsettling role as a widow, the following years brought more major hardships that led to despair. How can you help someone whose suffering intensifies, with no endpoint in sight?

General Principles for Counseling

Love well. She has come to you for help because her world is crumbling, but she won’t open up unless she believes you are compassionate and competent—that you won’t judge her for suffering, and that you will steadily point her to hope in Christ.

Listen before speaking. Hear her losses and how they are affecting her life. Recognize that long-term suffering has stages or segments, each of which bears a range of theological questions:

1. Crisis

2. Experiencing the extent and permanence of losses

3. Major adjustments (perhaps including worldview changes)

4. New or additional suffering and grief

      For each stage, evaluate:

• What physical and spiritual challenges does she face? What should you address, and what should you delegate?

• How is she handling the adjustments she must face? What is most difficult for her, and why? Is her major struggle as sinner or as sufferer?

• What does her honesty (or reluctance) to share her heart tell you about her faith? How might you guide her to build faith and endurance in God? This is your most important role.

• Observe negative emotional patterns of anger, fear, or despair. What do her emotions reveal about what she believes she needs most?

• How does she perceive God views her? Is she a believer? Where does she find her identity? How have her changing roles challenged her self-image?

• How does she relate to God in her suffering? To His people?

• What questions is she asking, especially about God?

  • God seldom provides explanations, but answers “Why?” with reasons to trust His character (e.g., Job 38-42). Does she accept this, or does she demand answers? Is she willing to submit to God’s plan if it differs from hers? If not, where does she seek meaning and peace?

  • Listen for foundational questions: Does God love me? and Is God able to help me? (A discussion of the depths and significance of this struggle must be left for another time.) Briefly, the gospel answers both questions:

    1. Christ’s death on the cross proves God’s love, which cannot be earned, but is His free gift (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8, 12; 8:37-39).

    2. The resurrection proves that God is powerful enough to help her (Eph. 1:18-21).

    3. How is she responding to these truths? What hinders her? Resist arguing with her answer; be grateful for her honesty.

    4. Measure your response simply, saturated with prayer, grace, and kindness.

Speak Carefully, Using Scripture

Hear her. Even if you have a similar experience, assume you don’t understand her suffering or her heart. Let her ask hard questions without scolding her. Listen and learn.

Express Christ-like sorrow, acknowledging her painful trial without condemning her human frailty (2 Cor. 12:8-10). Be gentle with her tears, avoid attempts to cheer her up (Prov. 25:20); respect her grief without indulging self-pity.

Avoid platitudes like, “It’s going to be okay.” Accept your inability to fix what is broken. You have a more eternal purpose. Instead, help her learn to walk with God in a fallen world where life is not okay. Point to God as a hearing, caring God, using examples from her story.

Let Scripture move her toward God. Look together at a short passage or biblical example that reveals God’s heart and perspective toward one of her pressing questions. Ask her how the Word lands on her today. Gradually compile those passages into a list of helpful statements tailored to her questions and struggles. Ask her to read the list every morning and every evening. For example, “God is with you. You are not alone.” Hebrews 13:5b: I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Exemplify gentle compassion and kindness. Recognize the overwhelming nature of intense suffering; respect her mental and emotional overload. Avoid declarations or much instruction. Talk about God’s faithfulness, and let Scripture speak to her. Ask questions that build hope, keep suggestions simple and practical, and find out what she thinks and does with the counsel you offer. When does she act, and what motivates her actions? Do you perceive faith or doubt? Discouragement or weariness? Memory difficulties or despair? Adjust accordingly.

Build hope and network help.

• Urge her to keep going, not to give up (2 Cor. 4:16).

• Provide or suggest places of quiet refuge when needed.

• Teach her to pray. Pray for her.

• Enlist her church for practical and spiritual help.

• Show her that she is not irrelevant, used up, or ruined, but that God loves her and has a purpose for her (Phil. 1:6).

• Point out that the sufferings of Christ, Peter, John, Job (and others) were evidence of God’s favor, not His disapproval. She is being deepened rather than damaged.

• Help her reach out to others as she grows, to avoid self-absorption and isolation (2 Cor. 1:3-6).

Questions for Reflection

1. How might you understand the evolving challenges in each segment of a lengthy trial?

2. How might your counsel better reflect God’s compassions with those in prolonged suffering?

3. When your counselee is overwhelmed, how might you simplify your use of Scripture and biblical examples to address her major questions?

Resources

Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop (Crossway, 2019)
God’s Healing for Life’s Losses by Bob Kellemen (BMH Books, 2010)
God’s Grace in Your Suffering by David Powlison (Crossway, 2018)
Craving Grace by Ruthie Delk (Moody Publishing, 2013)
New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp (New Growth Press, 2014)
Did I Say the Right Thing? By Mitch Schultz (Exalt Publications, 2011)

Guilt Leading to Repentance

By Kyle Gangel

“Guilty!”

So cries our consciences, our hearts, and most importantly, God’s Law. We have all felt the painful reminder of our guilt. Thoughts of regrettable words and actions can keep us awake at night as we recall the past. Despair grows with each painful replay. How do we respond? How do we think biblically about guilt so that we might honor the Lord?

We might be tempted to settle for surface-level answers that distract us from feeling guilty. We might assume the answer is to convince ourselves that we are not quite as guilty as we thought. Not surprisingly, God’s Word has a fuller and, ultimately, a more satisfying answer.

Before we look at guilt as a feeling, we need to first consider it as an objective reality. If you sat on the jury of a murder trial, you would not concern yourself primarily with the feelings, guilty or otherwise, of the defendant. You would examine the evidence and discern whether he had committed the crime of which he has been accused. Likewise, we should first concern ourselves with the forensic aspect of guilt before considering feelings of guilt.

The Objective Reality of Guilt

Guilt is a state of being before it is a state of feeling. Our understanding of guilt should begin with recognizing the universality of sin: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The first man, Adam, served as the representative of every person. When he sinned, all of mankind was cast into iniquity. Consequently, every person is condemned and deserves to bear the just penalty for sin.

In our sin, we stand guilty before a holy God. This is our greatest problem. The only solution is the good news of Jesus’ coming to rescue sinners from their condemnation. Christ dealt decisively with guilt on the cross by taking the judgment for sin in himself. Now, those who turn from sin and rely on Christ’s substitutionary work are united with him and credited with his righteousness. In other words, if you are in Christ you receive something better than a “not guilty” verdict. You even receive a greater verdict than “Innocent of all charges.” In Christ, you are declared “positively righteous.” This is made clear in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Feelings of Guilt

Feelings arise from our thinking, so, our feelings, like our minds, can be deceptive. Feelings of guilt are no exception. For instance, it is possible to be guilty of breaking God’s commands yet experience no feelings of guilt. (See Leviticus 5:17 as an example of being guilty of sin while having no knowledge, and therefore, no feelings of guilt). It is also possible, through a weak or misinformed conscience, to feel guilty for some act that was not truly sinful. Therefore, feelings of guilt cannot be accepted without suspicion. We ought to consider, perhaps with the help of a wise friend, whether our feelings are a result of wrong thinking or a conscience gone awry.

Though feelings of guilt can certainly be amiss, they can also serve as the first step in genuine repentance. If we correctly discern that we have sinned and acknowledge our sin in light of God’s holiness, we will experience guilty feelings.

Even when we perceive our guilty feelings to accurately reflect our actions, we often do not know what to do with these feelings. We regularly deceive ourselves into thinking that God would have us wallow in the misery of our guilt—after all, this is what we deserve. Nevertheless, feelings of guilt are not God’s mechanism of punishing his children for sin. We can be confident of this truth since Christ took on himself the full punishment for every sin. Instead, these feelings are meant to drive us back to his kind embrace.

Repentance

After discerning our feelings of guilt are according to the truth, we are left with one appropriate response: repentance. Charles Wesley summarized well what repentance looks like:

Now incline me to repent
Let me now my sins lament
Now my foul revolt deplore
Weep, believe, and sin no more

Charles Wesley, Depth of Mercy

Weep. Consider Paul’s teaching on godly sorrow over our sin: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to a salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Both Judas and Peter wept upon betraying their Lord. Only one truly repented. There is worldly sorrow, exemplified in Judas, that is self-centered and focuses only on what is lost or denied as a result of being caught in sin. It results in despair, bitterness, and self-pity. However, there is godly sorrow, seen in Peter, that leads to genuine repentance. This is brokenness before God over sin. Peter’s tears proved to be genuine as he turned again to the Lord and served him faithfully.

Believe. Specifically, we believe in the truth of the gospel. We call to mind the work of Christ on the cross and are assured that his love for us is unassailable. He truly delights in our running to him because he died for that very purpose. Dane Ortlund reminds us that Christ “does not get frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That’s the whole point. It’s what he came to heal.” (Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, page 34). The Good Shepherd delights in bringing back the wayward, in binding up the wounded, and in strengthening the weak (See Ezekiel 34:15-16).

Sin No More. True repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of action. By the power of the Spirit, we put to death the desires of the flesh and are conformed to the image of Christ. This is the end goal of acknowledging the reality of guilt and feeling its weight. When feelings of guilt arise from a proper acknowledgment of our objective guilt, they are a divine mercy that leads us to repentance and change.

Posted at: https://biblicalcounseling.com/guilt-leading-to-repentance/

What Does the Body Say?

The Voice of God in Human Form

Article by Abigail Dodds

Christians have incredibly good news for a world full of body loathers and body idolaters. God made you, and that you includes your body.

The Creator of all things chose to image himself, to represent himself in this world, with embodied souls. It’s almost beyond comprehension. Why would God, who is spirit, create soul and body? Minds with thoughts attached to brains and neural pathways? Feelings connected to beating hearts and churning stomachs?

“God made you, and that you includes your body.”

I don’t know a complete answer, but I do know that the overflow of his goodness made him do it. I do know that bodies are not a cosmic bummer or an accident or something to refashion in the way that seems best to us. No, God made our bodies and called them “very good” (Genesis 1:31). He assigned each one of us the particular body we find ourselves in, with all of its uniquenesses and intricacies, as a part of a plan that extends into eternity.

For those in Christ, our bodies will last forever in the new heavens and new earth. Oh, they may take a detour in the grave; they may decompose beyond recognition. But the promised resurrection means that your hands, your feet, your body will be raised imperishable when Jesus says it’s time.

And in the meantime, God speaks to us through them.

Mind over Matter?

Much has been said about the similarities and differences of men and women, but perhaps much more still needs to be said, especially in regard to our bodies. When it comes to the positions Christians hold on the Bible’s view of men and women, egalitarians and complementarians usually agree that men and women have biological differences. Good-faith Christians stand together on this most obvious and observable fact. Yet I wonder how many have reckoned with the implications of that simple, large reality.

We live in a world steeped in its own version of Gnosticism, where physical bodies are, in the final analysis, irrelevant to our identity — where “mind over matter” is so universally accepted that entire generations of women (and men) grow up estranged from their own bodies, not sure what they’re for, and, if told, suspicious and often angry about it.

In such a world, we Christians who have agreed on the reality of biological differences have too often unwittingly assented to this same mindset. Those who hold that the differences between men and women are only biological seem to act as though biology is relatively inconsequential, just a small thing. It’s a little bit like, Of course there are biological differences, but why should that matter?

Bodies Speak — Are We Listening?

The implications of being made with male and female bodies reach far and wide. Those implications refuse to stay in any small, fenced-in area we might try to build. Why? Because our bodies go with us everywhere we do.

“What God has shaped and fashioned as male and female is an irrevocable statute.”

The existence of my female body is part of God’s communication to me. It tells me what I can and cannot do. It sets me on a trajectory in life. The ontological reality of my body makes some pursuits fitting and others unfitting. Because of my body, I can be wife, not husband; mother, not father; sister, not brother; daughter, not son. Because of my body, I have the potential to nurture and grow life inside of me and outside of me.

Our bodies speak commands, shalls and shall nots, as authoritative as the direct commands in Scripture from the mouth of God. The commands inherent in our bodies also come from God’s mouth, for it was God who formed and made our bodies — God who breathed life into them. What he has shaped and fashioned as male and female is an irrevocable statute. No matter how we might try to change our bodies, the deeper realities of chromosomes and DNA cannot lie. They speak what God tells them to speak.

The plain teaching of our bodies also extends into areas of oughtness. For example, men generally ought to physically protect women and children; women generally ought to take particular care for young ones. Why? Because men generally have larger and stronger bodies, and women generally have bodies made to nurture young life — and with the Creator’s design come emotional and psychological fittedness as well.

So, when Paul speaks his (in)famous commands to wives and husbands, we shouldn’t be surprised. Wives submitting to husbands and husbands loving wives fit in relation to our bodies. There is a design at work, and it is not arbitrary, but profoundly good. Peter explicitly makes biological differences the basis for why husbands must treat wives with honor: they are physically weaker, “the weaker vessel,” as well as co-heirs “of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7).

Instruments for Righteousness

You don’t have to be a Christian to acknowledge biological reality. But you do have to be a Christian to receive biological reality as through Christ and for Christ — which it certainly is (Colossians 1:16). You do have to be a Christian to understand that the body is made for the Lord, and the Lord for the body — that is to say, the body is meant to be holy, a place where the Spirit of the Lord dwells (1 Corinthians 6:13, 19).

What does holiness look like in our bodies? It looks like presenting the members of our bodies for righteousness. It means that we take our arms and legs, our minds and eyes and ears, our distinctly male and female bodies, and we offer them to the Lord to be used righteously (Romans 6:12–14). Exercising self-control empowered by the Holy Spirit, we tell our bodies what to do in order to love and serve the people around us. We spend them for Christ. Our bodies belong to him.

“No one has a purposeless body, despite disability or disease or dysfunction.”

What that will look like in each situation will vary. Mothers’ bodies are particularly surrendered for the sake of nourishing and nurturing the life of children. What a glorious privilege. But every body matters. No one has a purposeless body, despite disability or disease or dysfunction. My son’s feeding tube is not a hindrance to holiness. It cannot prevent God’s good purposes. Rather, God’s purposes shine forth through it. The pain of imperfect and malfunctioning bodies causes us to groan with all creation as we await our resurrected Lord.

Human Bodies in Heaven

Jesus took on human flesh in his mother’s womb, nursed at her side, grew through toddlerhood and puberty, used his hands as a carpenter and his legs to walk from village to village. He touched the unclean and diseased, extending healing to a broken and sinful world. His body was beaten, mocked, crucified, pierced, and killed.

Yet Jesus never sinned with his body. And on the third day, God raised his physical body from the dead. Jesus, in his physically resurrected body, is now seated in the heavenlies (Ephesians 1:20). He has promised to return to make us like him. “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). And with our lips and mouths and voices, we reply, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Our bodies are for the Lord, from the ordained praise of an infant’s mouth to the final sigh of the saint whose body has lost all function and ability. Our bodies are for the Lord, both now in our daily tasks on earth and in the future new heavens and new earth. Our bodies are for the Lord, as beautiful and living sacrifices of worship for now, but also as imperishable, immortal prizes to come.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-does-the-body-say

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.”

When God Doesn’t Choose You For A Miracle

by Kasey Johnson

Christians love to tell seemingly instant stories of redemption. The alcoholic that gets saved and never goes back to the bar. The husband that after an affair, immediately comes to his senses and rebuilds a beautiful life-long union with his family. The woman with chronic pain that wakes up one morning healed.

These stories are inspiring and they fill us with the wonder of what God can do. We invite these stories into our worship services, and they go viral on social media. God can do these things, and He often does. And it ought to inspire worship. 

But, they don’t tell the whole story of how God works in his church. And I think we do the body a disservice when we don’t celebrate slow sanctification.

How should a wife live in a difficult marriage when it seems like God isn’t answering her prayers?

How should the infertile couple think about God when we know that giving life is easy for Him?

What about the faithful single man that is waiting for a wife?

How do we respond when it feels like God doesn’t choose us for a miracle?

First, remember that He is good, and He sees us.

He is not indifferent to our pain. Scripture describes the heart of Christ as gentle and lowly. Your struggle is not a surprise to Him, and He has not left you.

Second, remind yourself of what God actually promises.

It can be tempting as a Christian to think that if you spend a certain amount of time obeying God, then He will reward you with a changed circumstance. This is an insidious lie, that can take root in even the most devout believer’s heart. Root out any whisper of this. It will turn to ash in your mouth, and harden you towards the good gifts that God does promise us.

He has the words of eternal life, where else would we go? His ultimate promise to us is eternity with Him. It is worth following Him no matter the outcome because He is Lord. (John 6:60-71)

Third, remember that scars shape us. 

We talk about life being a vapor, which it is. But seasons also come and go. Don’t react out of fear or impatience. You don’t know what God holds in your future. There may never be the healing that you hope and pray for, but God will be faithful in his promise to sanctify you and bring you peace despite your circumstances. A way out of your particular circumstance may not come, but He will deliver a way through, day-by-day and hour-by-hour.

Lastly, create pathways to press in to the Lord in profound ways.

This should be true for every Christian, but this will be especially live-giving for those that feel they are bearing a disproportionately heavy burden.

Take practical steps to draw from the words of scripture and pray deeply. Make sacrifices to pay for Christian therapy. He won’t compete with the noise and business of life. Take care of the physical limitations on your body by going to bed early, and waking up before the stresses of the day consume you. Implement a sabbath day. Commit to getting in nature regularly. Get around other Christians that are walking out a long obedience in the same direction. Don’t be tempted to surround yourself with others that will commiserate with you.

Let God create a redemptive road map in your life. Be an example of long suffering to a future generation (maybe your own children!).

Even the above list of items can be a temptation to check off, and hold expectations for getting what you want. Continually check your motives.

It can be easy to assume stories of redemption were easy for others. The Instagram square and caption just looks so tidy. But don’t be fooled. Change isn’t magic. You will fail. And God will be faithful to complete the good work that He began in you (Philippians 1:6).

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/when-god-doesnt-choose-you-for-a-miracle/

The ‘New You’ Isn’t the Answer

TREVIN WAX

When life doesn’t turn out the way we want, the relentless quest for both self-acceptance and self-perfection leads some people to retreat and consider starting over. It’s time for a new design.

The “look in” approach to life that prioritizes looking inside yourself to discover who you are, your true self, your desires, your dreams, then looking around to others to find affirmation and applause, can result in failures that lead us to a redo. I call this the “redesign” phase. I tried to pursue my dreams and desires, but perhaps I got it wrong. Let’s try it again––a new me, with different dreams and desires. So you take the effort to go back into yourself, figure out what it is you really want, and bring that out to the world again. 

You see this reinvention in the entertainment industry with stars who change up their image in order to remain relevant. In some cases, it may be that the famous person doesn’t know anymore who he is, and so he tries on different personas much like he’d give a performance, trying to figure out what fits. In other cases, perhaps the celebrity felt she was more authentic in the past, but over time came to doubt the flattery from all her fans and so adopted a new design—a different persona—to see if her followers would still accept and love her. 

Our Longing for Newness

You don’t have to be a movie star or celebrity to be drawn by the desire to have a new start or develop a new public image. In an age of social media where we constantly broadcast the details of our lives, it’s easier and feels more natural to try to redesign yourself than ever before. And that’s what many do. After growing frustrated with the person we’ve presented to the world, we may retreat for a time, or disappear from online interaction, not so we can stay forever hidden from the eyes of others, but so we can change costumes or rework our image. We consider ways we might redesign our lives, our look, our way of being in the world so we can be more popular or because we feel bored or unfulfilled. We used to call this a midlife crisis, but nowadays it can happen every few years. In the adolescent stages, it seems like it can happen even more frequently.

In an age of social media where we constantly broadcast the details of our lives, it’s easier and feels more natural to try to redesign yourself than ever before.

This longing for newness—to have a new name, a new image, a new reputation—drives us deeper and deeper inside ourselves, but all the digging begins to wear us out and wear us down. Just as we felt overly flattered or overly criticized for the person we put on display before, we wonder if we will feel the same after unveiling our new self. The doubts and self-criticisms mount in our hearts, and we wonder if we’re really being authentic, or if we’re sacrificing the path to reaching our fullest potential. The endless self-analysis can make us feel like our phone or computer when there are too many apps or windows open; it’s best to just shut down and restart (or look for an upgrade). 

The commonsense wisdom of the world says, Do it again. Go through the process again. Distressed and disappointed with yourself? Don’t wallow in guilt and anxiety. Just take another good, long look inside to discover your deepest desires, find a better way to define yourself, then display your individuality for the world to see and affirm. The cycle continues. We emerge with a “new and improved” self, and we go through the same anxiety-ridden process of seeing how others respond.

Finding Yourself by Looking Up

Self-discovery displayed for all to see, hoping to find affirmation, failing, “redesigning” ourselves to become someone new, and furthering the cycle continues to leave us depressed and unsure of ourselves. We still haven’t found fulfillment, purpose, or peace. We’ve found the opposite.

Change the process completely and not start by looking inside yourself, but by looking outside yourself, looking up to the only One who can truly make a ‘new you’—a better you, the you he created you to be.

The world’s anthem that all you need is to be you, to express yourself, to keep trying until you find “yourself,” over and over again, fails at so many levels. You end up simply running in circles when what you need to do is to stop.

Change the process completely and not start by looking inside yourself, but by looking outside yourself, looking up to the only One who can truly make a “new you”—a better you, the you he created you to be. There, and only there, are the answers we’re looking for.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/new-you-isnt-answer/

Help for Stagnant Hearts

Linda Allcock

“I just feel a bit…” My friend furrowed her brow as she wrestled to find the exact word.

“Stagnant,” she finally said, with a despondent look on her face. Without the regular accountability of attending church in person, and with the disruption of everyday routines and her tiring shift patterns in pediatric intensive care, she was struggling in her faith.

It’s not the greatest word, is it? A puddle is stagnant when it’s been there a bit too long with no fresh rain falling on it. Water so murky, it no longer reflects the sky like it used to.

I have to be honest in saying that, throughout COVID-19 lockdown, I too, struggled with feeling stagnant—and I’ve written a whole book about meditating on God’s word! I was still in the habit of Bible reading, but let’s be honest: there’s a fine line between a habit and a rut. I wasn’t being changed by what I was reading, and so I wasn’t reflecting God at all well to those around me.

There’s help for stagnant hearts in Proverbs 2:1-6, where the Bible teaches us how to read the Bible.

Reading the Bible is Like Searching for Hidden Treasure

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding (Prov. 2:1-6, NIV).

In this passage, listening to God’s word is likened to searching for hidden treasure. That helps us know how to read the Bible and get past that stagnant feeling about it.

Let’s just slowly walk through that description and dig deeper into what those words mean. Searching. Hidden. Treasure.

Treasure

…if you look for [God’s Word] as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Prov. 2:4-5).

Treasure. That’s how the writer of Proverbs describes God’s word in verse 4. Why? Proverbs 2:5 further defines the reward for searching in God’s word: we will “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Infinitely weightier than any worldy treasure, of supreme worth, we can know this God! What riches!

When our hearts are stagnant, we reach for the Bible on the shelf without being prepared for how weighty it is. We need to raise our expectations—of Scripture. Bible reading is far more than ticking off a box on the reading plan. Through it we can know God! What greater treasure could we ever hope to find?

Hidden Treasure

…indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding…then you will understand (Prov. 2:3,5).

Why is this treasure “hidden”? Proverbs 2 shows that it’s hidden in the sense that it is a gift that the Lord gives, for “from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (v. 6). And verse three hands us the tools with which we are to dig: “call out” and “cry aloud.”

If we dig into Scripture armed only with the tools of our own experience, it’s little wonder that our hearts are unmoved by what we read. We need to lower our expectations—of ourselves. Whether we are Bible scholars or baby Christians, we must recognize that we cannot know God unless he gives understanding. Believing that the Lord promises to give wisdom (v. 6), we can ask him for more insight.

Searching for Hidden Treasure

…accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding… (Prov. 2:1-2).

Searching is not easy. As we call out to the Lord for insight, we must also turn our ears and apply our hearts (v. 2). This is a real challenge, especially at this time when we are physically separated from our churches. Going to “church online” can result in Zoom fatigue, lack of accountability when watching alone, and struggling to concentrate. There are things we can do to help ourselves, such as taking notes and connecting with a friend to discuss what we are learning. But, essentially, turning is repenting: confessing where we have been distracted by the treasures of this world, and turning to Christ for forgiveness and help to treasure him.

Searching implies a goal: finding the treasure. Proverbs 2:1 tells us what to do when we find it: accept and store up. Proverbs challenges us to think of our hearts as a treasure chest—far from a stagnant, murky puddle. Seven times in six chapters of Proverbs, we are told to store up God’s commands within us, to write them on the tablet of our hearts (2:1, 3:1, 3:3, 4:21, 6:21, 7:1 and 7:3). Memorizing God’s word is integral to the vitality of our walk with the Lord.

We’re quick to put in the effort to help our kids memorize maths equations to pass exams. Do we invest even a fraction of that effort into learning treasure that is of eternal value? Writing a little symbol on our hands or texting a Bible verse to ourselves can help us remember the truth we’ve learned and can motivate us to repent of ways we haven’t lived in line with it. Meditating on God’s word throughout the day can help us to obey and worship God.

The moment we put away our Bibles without capturing what we’ve learned and deciding how we will store up that truth throughout the day, we’re in danger of walking away unchanged. When we open our Bibles searching for hidden treasure, as Proverbs 2:1-6 instructs, the Lord transforms our hearts.

Stagnant puddle or treasure chest: which do you want your heart to be?

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/10/help-stagnant-hearts/