Tune My Heart

One of my favorite hymns over the years has been "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". As I played it for church recently, I got to thinking about its words which were penned by Robert Robinson in the 1700s. Whether or not you're familiar with these words, they bear reading again:

Come, Thou Fount of ev'ry blessing, 

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, 

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above; 

Praise the mount --I'm fixed upon it--

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer-- 

Hither by Thy help I'm come; 

And I hope by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, 

Wand'ring from the fold of God;

He to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee;

Prone to wander-- Lord, I feel it--

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart-- O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Our hearts need to be "tuned" to sing of God's goodness. After all, if the only thing we had to praise God for was our salvation from sin and an eternity in His presence, we still would have enough to keep us busy praising Him every moment of our lives. 

Charles Spurgeon once said, "God is so good that every moment of His love demands a lifetime of praise."* God's goodness is what, as Robinson wrote in his hymn, binds our wandering hearts to God. We are prone to leave Him, to get distracted and wander off spiritually. But the remembrance of His goodness to us should bring us right back to His feet, hearts tuned to sing His praise. 

Romans 2:4 states that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance". When we consider God's goodness, we are naturally led to a deeper realization of just how far short we fall in comparison. A heart tuned to sing God's praise is a grateful heart, but also a humble heart that acknowledges just how much God has done for us, and how gracious He was to do it, considering just how unworthy we are apart from Christ.

So as you get ready for church tomorrow, consider: is your heart tuned?

"I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me." 

Psalm 13:6

*Spurgeon, Charles. The Practice of Praise p. 43-44

Joy in the Midst of Crisis

Our world is in a state of crisis. It is a crisis with the potential to reach into our very homes, putting us and those we love dearest in peril of our lives. These are indeed serious times.

Yet because of the seriousness and the universality of the crisis we are facing, it is more important than ever that Christians maintain a Christlike outlook on what God has allowed at the global, national, state, and personal levels of our lives.

So how do we do this? How is a Christian to face a time of crisis such as we are living in? Hebrews 12:2 gives us the answer:

"Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

We can in this crisis, as in all others, take Jesus' conduct as the example of what our own should be. Jesus faced crisis. He was betrayed by a friend, wrongfully arrested, falsely accused, found innocent multiple times, but then sentenced to the cruelest of executions, having been passed over for a pardon in favor of an undoubtedly guilty murderer. He was beaten, mocked, made to carry a heavy cross uphill to the place of His execution, He had nails driven into His hands and feet, and then endured the agony of the cross.


And how did He handle it? This Hebrews passage, as well as the Gospel accounts, indicate that Jesus faced this enormous load of suffering calmly, patiently, and confidently. He saw the shame of the injustice of His trial and suffering as nothing. He despised it -that is, He saw it as insignificant in comparison with all it would accomplish.

The reason He was able to thus dismiss the shame of His trial and endure the weight of His suffering, is "for the joy that was set before Him". Jesus looked ahead to the joy that would come as a result of His suffering.

Matthew Henry says: "He rejoiced to see that by His sufferings He should make satisfaction to the injured justice of God, that He should make peace between God and man, that He should open a way of salvation."*

The joy of what God would do through the crisis is what kept Jesus going throughout all the suffering He endured for us; It is that same joy that can keep us going through our current crisis, and any other crises we may face.

We can face sickness, suffering, even death with the calm assurance that God's Word is true, that Romans 8:28 is not just a hope, but a reality!

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

 My pastor commented on Hebrews 12:2 once in a sermon, and I thought what he said was particularly striking. He made the statement: "Christ's joy insulates us from the happenings of life."*

Think about that. It insulates, but does not remove. The joy set before Christ didn't remove the suffering He was to endure; but it did insulate Him from the spiritual effects of that suffering by placing it within a greater purpose. He felt the physical and emotional pain, but bore it with spiritual grace and fortitude because He knew what it would accomplish.

Our current crisis has a greater purpose. We know that because we know that God has already promised to use it for good to those who love Him. --COVID-19 is included in "all things", right? Then we can trust that God will do as He has said and use it for good.

The world is watching us, to see how we respond. Will they see us gripped by fear and worry, depression and despair, or will they see us respond with joyful grace and confidence in Christ?




*Matthew Henry: Matthew Henry's Commentary p. 1926
*Dr. Ben Jaquith, from a sermon Oct. 20, 2019

Walking in the Light of God's Countenance

Sometimes, life can seem bleak. We can become so consumed by the ordinariness of everyday duties and routines that it seems as if nothing else exists. Particularly now, during this period where life has slowed to a crawl across the nation and even across the world, it can seem that there is nothing to be anticipated but tedium, trouble, and worry.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much loveliness God has allowed in my everyday life, even during this time of difficulty. There are leaves and flowers beginning to burst from their buds, a flurry of birds has suddenly appeared, cheerfully singing as they dart from branch to branch, and even when I am stuck inside, there is the loveliness of having time to take a few extra minutes to read and enjoy a cup of tea.

Even though it may seem that our days are being wasted while we are stuck at home, the reality is that every day has both purpose and beauty, because each day is the day that God has planned specifically for you to live. As the Psalmist says, "This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24)

For the Christian, there is always a reason to rejoice, because God is always present and at work in our lives. At the very least, we can rejoice that God's mercies are new every morning! (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Consider Psalm 89: 13-18

"Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand.

Justice and judgement are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. 

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. 

In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

For Thou art the glory of their strength: and in Thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

For the Lord is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king."

What did it say about those who knew "the joyful sound" of the mercy and truth which accompany God's presence? It says that "they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance."

So how do we walk in the light of God's countenance?

To walk in the light of God's countenance is to see all the world around us in the same light as God sees it. For example, if God intends your life and mine to be lived for His glory, do you think He will put us on a path that wanders aimlessly or without purpose? Throughout the Bible, we can see glimpses of what God is like, and at every turn of the page we see Him. Down through the ages, at every point in history, through every blessing, every calamity, God is there, working out a distinct purpose.

If I believe that God is good, loving, powerful, and at work in my life, how can I complain that life is purposeless or bleak? There is something to be learned, done, or said each day that brings glory to God. To view my life in the light of God's countenance will necessarily mean viewing it as having purpose and meaning.

This one truth holds a powerful application: it means that each new day is like a gift to be unwrapped. God already knows what it will hold, for He has planned it out for our good (Romans 8:28). It only remains for us to open it and choose to see the gift through the eyes of the Giver.

I say this a lot, but it bears repeating because it is true. What we need when we feel that life is dull, boring, or tedious is simply to renew our focus on the Lord. After all, it is in God's name that the people in Psalm 89 will rejoice. He is the One that brings favor, strength, protection, and leadership. He is the source of all things for the Christian, and it is to Him we must look to be satisfied.

When we are focused on God and His plan for each day, we can live in joyful and constant anticipation of what He will do. Even when we are by ourselves, God can work. He is not limited in His ability to be glorified simply because we are limited in our ability to interact with others.

So look to tomorrow with joy and hope, and let us all choose to walk in the light of God's countenance.

Only by Pride

Every once in a while I have a day where it seems the world is out to get me. I know, of course, that this is not true, but it seems that way nevertheless. (Ever notice how one’s feelings can so easily fail to correspond with reality?)

On those days, whether it is friction with family, disappointment with other drivers in traffic, or a classful of students who seem bound and determined to make their day (and mine) as unpleasant as possible, by the end of the day it can feel like there is conflict all around me.

The reality usually is that there are only one or two people actually being difficult, and the rest is all the result of my grumpy attitude’s skewed perception.

Of course, God knows all about us, and has anticipated the contention we so commonly experience in life. Instead of turning outward in selfish anger from a bitter, grudging view of how everyone else is to blame, God directs us toward ourselves:

“Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom” Proverbs 13:10

So there it is: the only source of contention is pride. I therefore have the responsibility to meet contention with humility. It is very rare that I have experienced contention in which my own pride has had no part. There is almost always something I can humble myself and ask forgiveness for in any situation of contention.

Taking a situation from the perspective of humility not only helps us to avoid contention (if we can be humble in the first place, contention won’t have a chance to appear), it also helps with the resolution of contention.

When you’re holding onto a grudge or a grumpy attitude there’s nothing that takes the wind out of your sails faster than having someone come in humility and apologize for something you were partially responsible for. Like I said, it’s usually not hard to find something I could have done better in a given situation. Being the first to ask forgiveness is hard, (what an understatement!) but it goes a long, long way towards mending the rift caused by contention. I Peter 5:5 says we should be “clothed with humility”, which is crucial, for as it goes on to state, “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”.

If we hold on to that feeling of the world being against us, we are in reality refusing the grace God offers for every situation in our lives. –Perhaps it feels like the world is against us because we are pridefully holding on to our “rights” and God is –faithful to His Word—resisting us.

When we respond in humility, however, we open up the floodgates, as it were, for God’s grace to work. We are in agreement with God’s perspective of us as we really are in His sight, and we can more readily see others in the light of that reality as well. Instead of focusing on their faults, we see our own, and are reminded that we are sinners in need of a Savior, just like anyone else.

Humility will also prompt obedience, whether restitution or asking forgiveness, or simply praying for the person with whom the contention was happening. Whatever action the Holy Spirit prompts, pride will balk at it, but humility will embrace it.
So, next time you’re tempted to grumble about the people God puts in your life, remember that you are a sinner saved by grace, and accept God’s grace in humility.