Reaching Forward

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

SOMETIMES WE FEEL THAT LIFE HAS NOT REPAID US FOR THE EFFORT WE’VE PUT FORTH. We know that we’ve made some mistakes, but even so, we feel that there’s an unfair difference between what we’ve given and what we’ve gotten in return. And so we cry to God for justice. We appeal to Him to set the record straight — and to make up for the blessings that life has withheld from us.

Well, it certainly is true that in specific instances we may have been wronged and that justice has not yet been done. In such cases, the instruction of the Scriptures is clear: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). When real injustice has been committed, it is right to make a heartfelt plea for vindication: “How long, O Lord . . . until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-11).

But before we pray for God’s justice, most of us need to think twice. However wrongfully we may have been treated in particular situations, if ALL the evidence bearing on our lives were to be brought into the courtroom, it would be seen that, on the whole, the injustices we’ve SUFFERED don’t add up to the injustices we’ve COMMITTED. We may have been mistreated here and there, but all things considered, if we’ve been shortchanged, it’s in the area of punishment rather than that of blessing! David had grievous enemies against whom he had legitimate complaints, but David also knew that the larger truth was this: God “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.”

God is a God not only of justice, but also of patience. Most of us would say we’re glad that He’s been patient with us personally, punishing us less than we deserve. But if God chooses to be patient with those who’ve wronged us, punishing them less than they deserve, shouldn’t we be grateful for that too? And besides, in some cases we may not even have been wronged. As the Lord sees things, our enemies may have a better argument than we do.

“Could it be that you deserve the unpleasantness you are now experiencing? Did you bring it on yourself? If you are in any way to blame then you should patiently endure the pain” (Lawrence Scupoli).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“Love . . . is glad when truth is glad” (1 Corinthians 13:6 Barclay).

HERE’S A SUGGESTION: MAKE GOD’S HAPPINESS THE MAIN GOAL OF YOUR LIFE. That’s a somewhat strange suggestion, obviously. The main goal of most people is to make THEMSELVES happy, and the idea that we ought to be more concerned about God’s pleasure than our own would strike some folks as odd.

But Paul said that love is “glad when truth is glad,” and truth is glad when what happens is that through which God can show forth His glory most greatly. Truth rejoices when God’s purposes are fulfilled. It finds pleasure in the same things that He does. It looks at everything from His perspective and is never happier than when He has been pleased (2 Thessalonians 1:11,12).

To what extent are we a people committed to truth? Is our love for God such that we are “glad when truth is glad”? It’s easy to say “yes” with our lips, but what does the evidence of our way of life in the real world suggest? When the requirements of truth involve the sacrifice of our own happiness, what then? Is God’s gladness a higher priority than our own pleasure? This is a question that most of us will find it uncomfortable to answer honestly.

If we want to grow in this area, we need to begin taking a larger perspective on the issue of happiness. In eternity, the ONLY people who will be happy are those who are able to rejoice in the gladness of God. In this life, we may travel a path that goes somewhere different than where God is and, for the time being, delude ourselves into thinking that we’re happy. But that is only because God’s eternal purposes have not yet reached their final fulfillment. When that time comes, His victory will be complete and absolute. If by then we haven’t learned to rejoice in the truth of His goodness, we will be sent away from Him forever. The only ones who’ll REMAIN with Him will be those who can honestly REJOICE with Him. But after eternity has begun, it will be too late to begin acquiring a taste for the things that make God glad. Now is the time to do that. Now is the time to modify our likes and our dislikes — so that what we like most of all is to rejoice at the joy of our Father.

“Does everything in my life fill His heart with gladness, or do I constantly complain because things don’t seem to be going my way? A person who has forgotten what God treasures will not be filled with joy” (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound . . . to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

AS FAR AS GOD IS CONCERNED, NONE OF US IS A HOPELESS CASE. If our hearts have been ruined by sin, He can rebuild them. And not only CAN He give us “beauty for ashes” and “the oil of joy for mourning,” but He DESIRES to do so. Yet we should not be naive. God’s help is not unconditional, and it can’t be enjoyed without commitment on our part. A renovated heart doesn’t come from:

WISHFUL THINKING. Whatever has gone wrong in our lives, it is possible to recover from our mistakes, but more is required than simple dreaming. An actual “conversion,” or turning, must take place. The apostle Peter said, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). In the Scriptures, there are no “times of refreshing” without radical repentance.

FAITH ONLY. In the New Testament, we find a clear pattern with regard to conversion. Beginning with Pentecost (Acts 2:37-39) and continuing through each subsequent account of conversion (Acts 8:35-39; 16:14,15; etc.), those who had heard the gospel and were convicted of their sinfulness were told to be baptized in order to receive the remission of their sins. Paul, for example, was told by Ananias, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). If we want God to reconstruct our broken-down hearts, we must be on the inside of a forgiven relationship with Him, and in the New Testament, baptism was always the door through which that relationship had to be entered (Romans 6:3,4; Galatians 3:27).

Let us not miss the point, however. When we turn to God, faithfully obeying the gospel, what we’re seeking salvation from is THE WRECKAGE OF OUR OWN HEARTS. And the wonder of the gospel is that God can do this. He can rebuild a heart that we have wrecked.

“O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that you may enter in. It is ruined, O repair it! It displeases your sight; I confess it, I know. But who shall cleanse it, or to whom shall I cry but unto you? Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord, and spare your servant from strange sin” (Augustine of Hippo).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“. . . and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23,24).

IF IT’S IMPORTANT TO HATE SIN, IT’S EVEN MORE IMPORTANT TO LOVE RIGHTEOUSNESS. The love of God involves not only being repulsed by the idea of disobedience; it means being ATTRACTED by the opposite idea: the idea of obedience. Living within our Father’s love must come to be, among other things, DELIGHTFUL.

In Ephesians 4, Paul discussed the two sides of godliness. Whereas we used to take delight in disobedience, “you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (vv.20,21). So we must “put off, concerning [our] former conduct, the old man” (v.22). But that is only half the battle. On the positive and more important side, we must “be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind” (v.23). We must make the choice to “put on the new man” (v.24).

If we’ve been satisfying our desires in unlawful ways for a long time, it will not be easy to learn a new set of delights. It can be done, though, and making the COMMITMENT to do so is the first step. If we want to be people who take deep delight in pleasing God, we must get past our WHAT IFS, our MAYBES, and our YES BUTS and make an actual commitment to be renewed in our thinking.

Since the good that awaits us is so much more joyful than the counterfeit pleasures we’ve been accustomed to, our main regret will be that we didn’t delight in God sooner. We’ll scold ourselves for having been so foolish for so long. What were we thinking?

Granted, counterfeits can be quite convincing. The things we used to enjoy were really enjoyable, or we wouldn’t have spent so much time with them. But whatever pleasures may have come from satisfying ourselves unlawfully, the lawful satisfaction of those same desires is so much deeper and more genuine that the comparison defies description. The “new delight” we can have in God is the real thing. It’s what we were made for. It’s all we’ve ever dreamed of and then some. And the main thing about it is that it centers on God Himself. He, finally, is all we really desire.

“Show unto me, O Lord, your mercy, and delight my heart in it. Let me find you, whom I so longingly seek” (Jerome).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Ephesians 4:20-22).

AS LONG AS WE DELIGHT IN EVIL, WE WON’T HAVE MUCH SUCCESS REMOVING IT FROM OUR LIVES. In any contest between the head and the heart, the heart will almost always win. Our loves, whatever they may be, are powerful things. They direct our actions almost irresistibly. For that reason, we must constantly work on our desires and diminish those that lead us away from God.

In dealing with our desires, there is one thing that is helpful to understand: most of the time, it is not our desires themselves that are wrong, but rather our willingness to fulfill them in unlawful ways. The Scriptures teach that temptation comes to us in three basic ways: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). With each of these, the devil is simply trying to exploit some natural desire that God has given to us.

For example, when Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, she saw “that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). It was not wrong, in itself, for her to be physically hungry or to desire the possession of something beautiful or even to have the satisfaction of being wise and personally significant. The problem lay in the devil’s suggestion that she should go OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARIES OF GOD’S WILL to satisfy these desires. When she turned away from God’s provision for each of these and tried to fulfill them in a “better” way, she sinned — and she died.

So how do we get rid of our sinful desires? We do so, first, by recognizing the murderous lie behind the devil’s offer. Then, remembering that our desires have been given to us by God, WE MUST HOLD ON TO OUR LOVE FOR HIM. However pleasurable an unlawful act might be, the thought of gaining that pleasure in a way that grieves God ought to be so repugnant that the deed seems repulsive. With Joseph, we must learn to say sincerely, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).

“As long as I delight in any evil, as long as sensuality is more gratifying than purity, indiscretion than moderation, flattery than correction, how can I even aspire to friendship which springs from an esteem for virtue?” (Aelred of Rievaulx).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve”‘” ( Matthew 4:8-10).

OUR ADVERSARY, THE DEVIL, IS A MASTER OF DECEIT. He has found some very creative ways to persuade us to move toward him rather than toward God. He knows that what we want is joy, and he shrewdly tempts us to seek it on his terms. His argument runs something like this: “I’m not asking you to desire anything different; I’m just showing you a better way to get what you desire.” But that is a lie. He knows it, and we know it too, as soon as we take the bait. The path he offers is not simply a better path to the same destination; it’s a different destination altogether. The devil is asking us, in the most ultimate sense, to switch goals.

How many people would do what the devil suggests if they knew what he was up to? If we knew that death, not joy, would be the result of going his way, we wouldn’t go there, would we? But many of us do know what the devil is up to. Why do we let ourselves be seduced into changing the direction of our lives?

For most of us, the answer is not hard to find. When we switch goals, we think of ourselves as doing it only TEMPORARILY! After we’ve indulged ourselves, we’ll get back on the path to God. And we naively suppose that since God will see our sin as nothing more than an insignificant “lapse,” nothing very radical or traumatic will be required of us in the way of repentance. But what we fail to see is how INSULTING to God’s love our sin is. When we turn away from a God who has loved us to follow His archenemy, we take our place in the ranks of those who’re in REBELLION against God.

We need to see sin for what it is: a worshiping of the wrong god. Sin — any sin — is a denial of God. Samuel summed it up starkly when he said to Saul, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). Not many of us would want to be known as idolaters, but that’s what it comes down to when, at the devil’s suggestion, we exchange God, our hearts’ true desire, for anything else at all.

“The whole effort — the object — of temptation is to induce us to substitute something else for God. To obscure God” (R. H. Stewart).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills . . . a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing . . . When you have eaten and are full . . . beware that you do not forget the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:7-11).

POVERTY IS NOT AN EASY EXPERIENCE, BUT IF WE STOP TO THINK ABOUT IT, IT’S OBVIOUS THAT WEALTH HAS ITS DIFFICULTIES TOO. When we speak of “hard times,” we need to be careful. For all the hardship we face when we suffer a shortage of life’s necessities, we face an even greater challenge when we suffer a surplus.

The challenge of prosperity is greater because it challenges us at the level of our character. Poverty’s hardship is mostly physical or outward, but affluence presents a host of harder problems that are spiritual in nature. Granted, there are some spiritual issues that must be dealt with when we’re poor, but most people who’ve been poor would report that they found their inward characters growing in positive ways during that experience. By contrast, most people would have to say that their characters tend to weaken when life is completely comfortable. Indeed, it’s all we can do to keep from DYING in the suffocating atmosphere of affluence.

Paul made an interesting statement in Philippians 4:11,12: “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” It takes some “know how” to be full and to abound without losing our souls! When we’re wealthy, our spiritual survival is anything but automatic. In fact, according to Jesus, the odds are quite against it: “And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).

These truths have sobering implications for those of us who live in one of the wealthy nations, particularly the United States of America. We face some spiritual hardships that our brethren in poorer cultures don’t have to deal with, and frankly, we’re not handling our abundance conspicuously well. We’re “full,” but in all too many cases, we’re letting our spirits starve to death.

“If adversity hath killed his thousands, prosperity hath killed his ten thousands” (Robert Burton).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“. . . strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:22).

IT IS ONLY TO BE EXPECTED THAT WE WILL MEET RESISTANCE IN OUR PROGRESS TOWARD GOD. Satan will surely try to defeat us with problems and pains, and God knows that it’s better to allow these difficulties than to prevent them. “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God,” said Paul and Barnabas as they encouraged certain new converts to remain steadfast.

In the Homilies of Pseudo-Macarius, there is this observation: “We read in the Bible about some people who pleased God. They are considered God’s friends and favorites. We miss one important detail. They suffered for God . . . We applaud them and wish we could be honored in a similar way, but we ignore the cost.”

Not only do we ignore the cost, some of us avoid difficulty so often that a pain-free life almost appears to be our main priority. But why should we want to be exempt from the hardships that so many of our brethren have suffered? How fair would it be for us to be granted the special consideration of an easier path to God? Do we not remember that old hymn Am I a Soldier of the Cross? The second stanza should prick our conscience: “Must I be carried to the skies on flowr’y beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”

The matter really comes down to a simple question: do we really want our hearts to be adjusted to God’s holiness or not? If we do, there is a price to be paid and a discipline to be submitted to. Jesus’ glory was on the other side of His suffering, and so it must be with us (Mark 8:34). Paul wrote that he was glad to have made sacrifices in order to know Jesus Christ: “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10,11). The crown of Christ is for those who, with Him, have borne the cross.

“We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom. There is no other entrance. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved” (Helen Keller).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).

THERE ARE CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO, RATHER THAN WORKING TO ACHIEVE GOALS, SPEND MOST OF THEIR TIME LOOKING FOR SHORTCUTS. Unwilling to accept the PROCESS that leads to a result, these folks are always angling for some advantage that will eliminate the journey and get them to the end of the rainbow right now.

Some students, for example, would like to know their stuff without studying. Some athletes would like to win the trophy without training their bodies. Some businesspeople would like to get rich without investing their money. Some farmers would like to reap the harvest without working the field. Some soldiers would like to win the war without fighting the battle.

And some Christians, let’s face it, would like to be spiritually mature without going through the process of spiritual growth.

In reality, however, those who would be mature in God’s eyes must pass through some difficult stages. We’re a long way from where we need to be, and the destination can’t be reached without crossing the distance. It’s foolish (and dangerous) to try.

But here is the point: we should not only TOLERATE the process of growth; we should EMBRACE it willingly, gratefully, and even joyfully. The process of spiritual growth involves no small amount of pain. But James says that we are to “COUNT IT ALL JOY WHEN YOU FALL INTO VARIOUS TRIALS, KNOWING THAT THE TESTING OF YOUR FAITH PRODUCES PATIENCE.” The pain is not pleasant, but it PRODUCES something that is very pleasant, and for that reason we should embrace the process with joy. It is not too much to say that we should DESIRE the process. We desire it because we desire what it leads to, and we are grateful for the manner in which God has deemed it best for us to get there.

It is sad to see a person who does nothing more than “put up with” today while he frantically looks for some shortcut to tomorrow. How foolish. Today is how we get to tomorrow! And if today is difficult, as it often will be in this world, we ought to do more than tolerate it. We ought to taste it deeply and give thanks for it.

“Everyone wants peace, but very few care for the things that produce it” (Thomas a Kempis).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands. I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land” (Psalm 143:5,6).

JUST AS THERE IS NO HIGHER OBJECT OF OUR THINKING THAN GOD, THERE IS NO HIGHER USE OF OUR MINDS THAN TO THINK ABOUT HIM REVERENTLY. If we think of our minds as “instruments” that God entrusted to us, the most noble and powerful use to which those instruments can be put is to use them meditating on Him in a way that properly reflects His glory. Most of us do meditate on God from time to time, but we can do better about it than we do. In regard to the use of our minds, most of us make two mistakes.

FIRST, WE DON’T THINK ABOUT GOD ENOUGH. Yes, we think about Him while offering thanks before meals, while doing our daily Bible reading, and while attending church services. But few of us have cultivated the habit of meditating on Him as we go about the round of our daily activities. And even fewer of us have ever retreated from our regular activities for times (perhaps a day or two) of extended prayer and concentration on God Himself.

BUT SECOND, WE DON’T THINK ABOUT GOD REVERENTLY ENOUGH. Even when we do think about God, too frequently we think only of what we need God to do for us, rather than meditate on Him for His own sake. Our thoughts about God are too self-centered and selfishly motivated. We must learn to think about God in such a way that our ideas are characterized by words like these: awe, wonder, worshipfulness, penitence, humility, gratitude, and love.

One consequence of our failure to think often and reverently about God is that our ACTIONS toward Him tend to be weak and ineffectual. We are not as powerfully motivated as we would be if our thoughts dwelled on Him more worshipfully and for greater lengths of time. There’s no use denying that our actions spring from our thinking — and if our thinking were to be filled with the adoration of God, just imagine what the result would be! Our deeds would be drawn toward Him with a force that all the evil armies of hell would be helpless to stop.

“Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God” (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com