What Do You Expect?

I think it's safe to say that this year hasn't gone the way any of us had expected. So many plans have been cancelled, events have been postponed or called off altogether, and our daily lives have been upended. Even as things begin to open up again, things change so suddenly and so frequently, it's hard to make any plans at all. Never before has my generation of Christians (at least in the United States) been forced into such a literal practice of James 4:13-15.

"Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that"

I don't know about you, but it's hard to hold loosely to my plans and expectations about the future, let alone my plans and expectations of what today will look like. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that we cannot expect things to go as we planned. Honestly, we can't even expect them not to go as we planned.

So, what can we expect?

I ran across Psalm 62:5 this morning. "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him"

We wait upon God when we keep our eyes focused on Him, waiting humbly for Him to unfold His will for our lives. It is a moment-by-moment seeking of God, looking for His hand at work, holding our plans on open palms instead of tightly-clenched fists. To wait upon God is to expect only that whatever He does will be done for our good. It is to rest in the knowledge of God's goodness.

The rest of Psalm 62:5 mentions some things we can always expect of God:

• He will be our source of salvation and deliverance v.7
• He will be the only object worthy of our glorying in v.7
  
• He will be our source of strength v.7
• He will be our refuge v.7
• He will be trustworthy v.8
• He will be attentive to our prayers v.8
• He will be omnipotent v.11
• He will be merciful v.12
• He will be just v.12
  

In a world where we don't know what will happen next, we can confidently expect that God will still be God; unchanging, good, and sovereign over all creation!

Psalm 37: Truth for Tumultuous Times Part 3

In the last two posts, we've walked through the first 26 verses of Psalm 37, noting how God wants us to respond to times of tumult by resting and trusting, being content with what God has allowed us, and standing firm on the certainty that God will not forsake His own.

Today, we're picking up our passage in verse 27, with the continued theme of responding to the apparent prospering of the wicked by simply doing right. 

"Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore"

It's amazing in this passage just how many times God tells us why He wants us to respond the way He does. 

"For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever."  (28-29)

Those are encouraging truths, to be sure! Our departing from evil and doing good should be motivated by the fact that we are God's --we belong to Him, and He will preserve us "for ever". The wicked may seem to be prospering, whether with fame, fortune, or success in driving situations or laws to further their own wicked goals, yet the wicked are ultimately acting in vain. God sees, God knows, God will judge. That should motivate us to be living in such a way that the wicked will see that we are different, because we belong to God.  

Next, God paints a picture of what this should look like:

"The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgement. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." (30-31)

This is a good place for us to stop and check our own lives. How is your speech? Is it characterized by wisdom and judgement, rooted in the Word of God? You see, amidst the clamor and chaos of the world, our words should not just echo the din of opinions out there. We should be able to speak with authority from the certainty of the truths of God's Word. 

It is convicting to think how many words I say (or write) each day, and yet how few of those relate directly back to Scripture. I wonder what an impact it would make on our society if we as Christians began to commit to speaking God's truth instead of our opinion.  

God also gives us a portrait of the wicked. 

"The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him." (32)

If it feels like the wicked have it out for you, it's because it really is true. The current crises in our country have made it even more clear to me that this world really does watch Christians to try to catch them tripping up in some way. 

I'm reminded of several men in Scripture who were watched with evil intent: Daniel and Mordecai come to mind right away, and of course, Jesus, whom the Pharisees were always watching, trying to find an excuse to put Him to death. 

Jesus explained this phenomenon when speaking to the Pharisees,

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh it of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Before salvation, sins such as lying and hatred and even murder were natural to us all, for we were sinful human beings, serving Satan. Once saved, the Holy Spirit indwells our hearts and does battle with our sin nature. With God's empowering, we can have victory over the sin which once was just a way of life. The wicked seek to destroy us because Satan seeks to destroy us. Darkness cannot coexist with light, truth cannot coexist with lies. That is why the battle rages. 

But lest we be discouraged by this reminder that the world (and our greatest enemy, Satan) watches us with the intent to destroy, God followed this truth up with another promise:

"The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged." (33)

God has already won the victory over Satan, and the wicked of this world will likewise perish, but even if it seems that God leaves us in their hand in this life, we will be free from their persecution for eternity to come. In the final judgment, all their efforts to destroy God's children will come back upon their own heads, and we who have accepted Christ's gift of salvation will be pardoned and welcomed home. 

The following verse gives another admonition:

"Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." (34)

I think this encapsulates everything God says in this psalm about responding to the wicked. Waiting on God covers delighting, resting, committing our ways to Him, and being content with what God has allowed. It includes keeping our eyes on God, letting Him order our steps and lift us up when we fall. If I had to choose one thought to give you from this passage it would be this: wait on the Lord. 

But God is not done. There's even more to encourage us!

"I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." (35-36)

Here, as in verse 25, David gives us his Divinely-inspired words of testimony. This time, he illustrates the truth of just how fragile the rule of the wicked really is. 

I am reminded of the time (long after David's reign) when Jerusalem was besieged, and the hosts of Sennacharib had surrounded the city in all their pomp and might. Yet, when Hezekiah humbly prayed for deliverance, God took care of them in one night, without the Israelites having to do a thing! (2 Kings 19) 

 No matter how mighty the wicked may seem, no matter how strong the forces of spiritual warfare may appear to be, we must always remember that God is infinitely mightier and stronger, and it is He who will triumph --who has already triumphed-- on our behalf. 

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off." (37-38)

Here is one last contrast: The end of the righteous is peace, but the end of the wicked is destruction. This should encourage, but also burden us. As easy as it is to talk about "the wicked" and "the world" (and it is Biblical to do so), it can be just as easy to forget that both those categories we speak of are collections of individuals. The wicked are headed for destruction, and while that is obviously meant in this passage to encourage us to do right no matter what they do, it also means that each one of those individuals in the world who have rejected Christ are headed to Hell for eternal punishment. More than anything, they need us to be Christlike testimonies and bold witnesses to the saving work of Christ. 

It is appropriate to pray for God's justice to be done, for that is God's heart: "to fulfill all righteousness", as Jesus said. (Matthew 3:15)  but it is just as much a part of God's heart and nature to pardon. We should never pray for the wicked to be judged without also praying that the wicked might be saved. 

After all, that's what we're here for, right? 

This psalm of encouragement ends by bringing us back to the root of the matter: 

"But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him." (39-40)

Whatever happens in this crazy, turbulent, chaotic world of ours, we can rest assured that God is at work, and that our salvation from sin as well as our victory over the wicked are not of ourselves, but of God. It is He who gives us the power to "Depart from evil, and do good".

True Peace

We live in turbulent times.

Last night, my little town's four-block downtown was scheduled to be the site of a protest. You've probably heard the horror stories of the recent protest-turned-riot trend; buildings set on fire, stores looted, people hurt or killed.

As my family and I settled in for the evening, we weren't sure what to expect. I remembered a video someone had posted on social media earlier in the week from a city where protests were happening. Throughout the video, you could hear sirens and what sounded like someone shouting through a megaphone in the background. Would that be the soundtrack to our evening? We were only a short walk away from the protest, so if anything catastrophic unfolded, we would be sure to hear it.

So, we settled in for the evening, waiting, wondering, but oddly enough, I've never felt more safe. I had a sense of inner certainty that whatever the evening might bring, it would not be more than we could handle, because we were resting within the protection of our heavenly Father's care.

That is true peace.

One thing I think everyone can agree on is that we want peace for our nation, our states, our communities. We don't want to have curfews, or be in fear of our city being set on fire, We don't want to turn on the news only to hear of more violence or discord.

But collective peace comes from individual effort. Until we can be at peace individually, until we can be self-controlled and measured in our individual responses, until we are set free from the slavery of our own individual hatred and bitterness towards others, there will be no peace. And each of these individual qualities can only be addressed within the heart of the individual.

Instead of shouting or chanting or lying on the ground, what if the outrage sparked by recent events caused Americans to respond with quiet strength, to look first within and see what was in their own hearts, and then, having dealt with the beam in their own eye, to try humbly and patiently to help their brothers remove the specks from theirs?

Whichever side you may be on, there is no denying that the vehement, violent, destructive responses are fueled by individual hate. It is hate that motivates the individual to throw bricks, set fires, or shout in people's faces. That is not peace, love, or tolerance.

"There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked." (Isaiah 48:22) For the Christian, the state of our communities, our nation, and the world is not what determines whether or not we have peace. It is natural that the wicked be without peace, for we were not designed to have peace apart from God.

In John 16:33, Jesus says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."  He tells us we will have tribulations, but then tells us to be of good cheer. Humanly, that makes no sense. If we're going to be experiencing trouble, why would we be happy? Because Jesus has overcome. He is in control, and He is stronger than any force of evil we will ever face. Whatever trouble comes to us must first pass through His loving hands.

I read John 14 this morning in my time with God, and I was struck by Jesus' statement in verse 27. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

A Christian's peace is not the peace of the world. The world has peace only when everyone is getting along and everything is going well. Its peace is dependent upon circumstances. As Christians, our peace transcends circumstances. No matter what is happening, no matter who opposes us, no matter how bleak our circumstances, we can be at peace, because we trust the One who is overseeing and orchestrating those circumstances for our good.

This is the same reason Christians can choose a measured response to wrongs committed against them or their loved ones, because they trust that God knows what He is doing in allowing those wrong things. Justice is right and good, but must be obtained through appropriate measures, and with a heart of forgiveness --not condoning the wrong, but extending to them that forgiveness which we ourselves have received from God.

So, how's your peace? Are you resting and trusting, or fearing and fighting?

When Life Gets Busy...

The school year has fully ramped up, as have my church ministries and I am once again in the "you want me to be out past 8:00 on a schoolnight?" season of life where sleep and coffee are both highly prized commodities.

It's not just me, either. Everyone I know seems to be more busy now than they were even a week ago. --Funny how everyone tends to get overwhelmingly busy at the same time, huh?

So, how do we handle this intense busy-ness? The natural tendency is to madly rush through each day, distracted by all the things that demand your focus, trying to keep it all straight in your mind and sort out what needs to be done first. --In short, we tend to run around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off.

To cope with the overload of demands on our time, energy, and mental focus, most of us look for ways to pare down the demands, getting rid of that which is not "urgent" or "necessary"

And for many of us, one of the first things to be pared down is time spent with God in prayer. Maybe we don't cut it out all together (although it is very common for the busy Christian to rush out the door, meaning to get their time with God in later on, and then forget altogether in the hustle and bustle of the day, waking up late the next morning only to repeat the cycle.) My temptation when overwhelmed by how much I have to do each day is to minimize or cut short my time with God.  But as I was reminded in Pastor's sermon this morning, the busier we become, the more we need to pray.

Think about it.

When you feel you are taxed beyond your limits with the busyness of life, work, ministry, family, whatever puts pressure on your time, you can go to the omnipotent God who has no limitations, and who offers you His strength for each day.

Isaiah 26:3-4 is an oft-quoted verse, but have you ever stopped to consider the last part of verse 4?

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

Everlasting strength. strength that never ends, that never fails, that is never exhausted. Through God we have access to this strength. Ephesians 3:16 indicates that God does strengthen believers with His might.

So how do we access this strength?

Look back at Isaiah 26:3

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."

The way to access peace in the midst of our busy-ness is to stay our minds on the Lord --to talk with Him in prayer and to read about Him in His word. When we take the time to stay our minds on Him, He helps us trust in Him, and notice why the "perfect peace"-filled individual is trusting God -"for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength". Ephesians 3:14-19 also ties God's act of strengthening to closeness to and knowledge of God on the part of the believer.

So working backwards, to get God's strength, we must trust that it is everlasting- that it is enough (and more!) for our day. And if we trust that God's strength is greater than our own, we will take the time to seek His strength by staying our minds on Him.

In other words, you have to be willing to put aside what you think is urgent and take time for God, trusting Him to enable you to get everything accomplished in your day.

I think it was Martin Luther who remarked to a friend that he had so much to do that day, he had to spend an extra hour in prayer. --That's the mindset we need if we are to live our busy lives empowered by God's limitless strength.

"He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day" 

-John Bunyan