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 1

We live in a day when society at large is clamoring for many things. I'm not here to get into politics, but I do have to acknowledge that many of the things being pushed for right now are contrary to the word of God. The outright, unashamed wickedness being applauded by the world and even some Christians is appalling to say the least. Our streets are filled with protests that end with looting and violence, hatred and bigotry are hurled by both sides of the protests, and let's not forget that a pandemic is still raging. It can seem at times like the world, or at least our part of it, is spinning out of control.

But then, there's God.

Psalm 37 is a striking call to God's people to trust Him during tumultuous times. In the very first two verses, we are encouraged to see past our fear of the wicked, and our envy of their apparent success, to the truth of God's ultimate control over the situation.

"Fret not thyself  because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb."

We are also told how we should respond to times when the wicked seem to prosper:

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

We are to trust in the Lord, to continue to do good, just as He has commanded. We are to delight in Him. --Have you ever noticed how worry and delight cannot coexist? When we are delighting in the Lord, we will not be worrying about the wicked. 

Those things we worry over, those concerns and burdens, the desire for the wicked not to prosper any more; those are the hearts' desires we can trust God with. He may not do exactly what we would desire the way we think it should be done, but we do know that we can take our desires to Him, knowing that He will do what is right and best. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth often says that God's will is what we would choose if we knew all that He knows. We can trust God with our heart's desires.

Not only are we called to delight in the Lord, we are to commit our way unto Him,

"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."

Again we are told to trust Him. But again, we are told the result --and it is glorious!

"He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday."

No matter what the wicked do or say, God will never be fooled. He will one day recognize the faithfulness of those who meet the onslaught of wickedness with a consistent, Spirit-filled righteousness. I don't know about you, but to me, a "well done" from God is well worth having to bear the censure of the world.

The next verse calls us to something surprising: rest. With the wicked seeming to prosper, society applauding them and pressuring us to applaud along with them, we're supposed to rest?

But that's exactly what God says to do:

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."

Notice that the way we are to rest is by waiting patiently for the Lord. I don't know about you, but I often have a hard time waiting, and an even harder time waiting patiently. Interestingly enough, when we look around at the world and see the individuals swept up in the chaos of riots, what characterizes them?

Impatience.

They want justice. That's not wrong. But they want it now. That's where the riots come from. These rioters are too impatient to wait for the due process of the law.  Our country is built upon principles and laws that make provision for the lawful pursuit of justice. Rioting is not one of them.

These concerned citizens have the right to protest, to publish their pleas for justice, their opinions about what the problem is, and their plans for a solution. In our age of technology, they can do this via poster, newspaper, magazine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, television, documentary, not to dismiss the venerable tradition of the old-fashioned mailer. But any effort at change requires a measure of patience.

The same holds true to us as we watch changes taking place in our country and our society that serve to pull people farther away from God. We watch, we worry, we fume at times over the blatant wickedness being held up for approbation, but God calls us to rest.

Why? For the simple reason that He is the Judge of all, and will surely make everything right in the end. In fact, it's not just rest and patience that are required.

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil"

When we are resting in the knowledge of God's perfect justice, we not only will be able to rest in Him, we will "cease from anger, and forsake wrath". Did you know that impatience with God's justice system results in anger? And anger unchecked will result in evildoing.

Take the recent protests, for example. The people were protesting because they wanted justice. Yet their protests began long before our justice system even had time to hold a hearing concerning the three officers involved. They wanted "instant" justice. Sounds like impatience, right? Then, as they protested, they became more and more angry, and their anger, once unleashed, led to certain of the protesters committing injustices of their own: looting, destroying others' property, injuring, and even killing others.

This is what God is commanding us not to do in the face of injustice. We are to patiently wait for God's justice, to allow our trust in His timing to remove all anger from our hearts. We are to do good instead of evil, refusing to allow anger to make us act in a way that reflects the wicked actions that made us angry in the first place.

There is good reason for us to trust. God Himself says it:

"For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

For yet for a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.

The Lord shall laugh at him: for He seeth that his day is coming.

The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken."

(Psalm 37:9-15)

Take heart, weary Christian, God will act in due time!

A Biblical Response to Feeling Overlooked or Marginalized

This week, I revisited some study notes on the book of Esther, and I got to thinking about Mordecai. (If you need a refresher on who Mordecai was, go read the book of Esther)

 The kings of Persia were known for their liberal generosity to those who showed their loyalty. Mordecai did just that by exposing the plot to assassinate the king, but he was inexplicably not rewarded. He was forgotten, and his great service to the king treated as if it were nothing at all.

Mordecai probably couldn’t help but be stunned at this turn of events. Of course, there is no indication that he had acted merely for reward, but in a situation when one has done something worthy of reward and is overlooked, it can be more than a little bit disappointing.

Perhaps you have felt like that before. I know I have. When something we have done or a skill we possess is worthy of recognition, but is overlooked, it hurts. It doesn’t matter whether it was purposeful or accidental, or whether there were extenuating circumstances or not; it still feels like being personally rejected. In Mordecai’s day, the king’s accidental slight would have been like a slap in the face to a faithful servant. So what did Mordecai do?

He kept on faithfully serving.

He stayed humble and just did what he knew was right, whether or not he was rewarded. There are several other Biblical characters that come to mind when I think of people who would seem like they had a right to feel marginalized or overlooked.

Joseph- He was literally thrown away by his brothers, sold into slavery just because they wanted to get rid of him. Then, after faithfully serving and repeatedly displaying great skill in his work, he was lied about, unjustly imprisoned, and then forgotten.

David- The prophet Samuel, the most important man in Israel at the time, came to visit his family and asked specifically to meet the sons, and David was left out with the sheep.

Jonathan- His father was Israel’s first king. As firstborn son, Jonathan was considered the rightful heir to the throne –until his father disobeyed and God chose a new king.

John the Baptist- Was famous, all sorts of people traveled into the wilderness to hear him preach. Then Jesus came and the crowds began to fade away.

Bartimaeus- Was blind and had to beg for his daily bread. Jesus was well known to be able to heal people, but when Bartimaeus tried to get Jesus’ attention, the crowd told him to be quiet.

Jesus- Came to earth to save mankind from our sins. When he presented himself in His hometown, He was met with anger and rejected.  The people even tried to throw Him off a cliff!

So, what did these people do when faced with being looked down upon, despised, marginalized, forgotten, or rejected? They just kept doing right. Joseph, like Mordecai, kept on serving faithfully. David kept carefully tending the sheep. Jonathan threw all his efforts into promoting David’s eventual reign. John the Baptist said “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Bartimaeus kept calling out for healing, and Jesus quietly, humbly went on to the next city:

“But he passing through the midst of them went his way, And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.” (Luke 4:30-31)

Each of these, and of course the Lord Jesus most of all, serves as an example of how we should face those times when we are overlooked, when our efforts, abilities, or ideas are dismissed, or when we are blatantly rejected. We should keep on, committing ourselves and our “right” to recognition, acceptance, and approval to God. As I Peter 4:19 says:

“Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”

We can trust God. And He is faithful. Mordecai was honored, Joseph was promoted and his abilities recognized, David was made king, Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and now sits enthroned in glory. --Not all of the situations were turned around. Jonathan and John the Baptist had to wait for heaven to receive their reward, but notice that they were fully content just to serve God and others while they lived. Their eyes were on God's approval, not man's.

God is faithful whether or not we are recognized and accepted by others. No matter how many people reject or overlook us, serving God should be about God. When our focus is right, His approval and recognition not only becomes enough for us; we begin to see that it is all that really matters.

Finding the Purpose of Your Wilderness

Have you ever been in the middle of nowhere? I remember once, on a trip with my sister, driving away from the highway into a terrain of low hills, with nothing but dirt as far as eye could see. It was late summer, and the ground was dry and dusty. The road was good, but the farther we got from “civilization”, the more I began to feel the suffocating feeling of being far from human help with no cell phone signal. 

My imagination began to conjure up “what-ifs”. The car could break down, we could get a flat tire, we could be on the wrong road entirely and not realize it until we ran out of gas, hopelessly far into the wilderness… all this ran through my thoughts within the space of a minute, then sped back through for another lap. Round and round they raced. I asked my sister how long it would be until we got there, and her reply bought me a few seconds of relief before my imagination got to work again. -I was so happy when we finally pulled into the dusty little town to which we were going!

There’s just something about being in a wilderness that is panic-inducing. I think for me it is because in a wilderness I become acutely aware of the fact that I am helpless, needy, lacking necessary resources, and completely cut off from human aid. 

I got to thinking about wildernesses today as I pondered the current state of our world. We are helpless in the face of this virus. We are needy and lacking necessary resources as workers are forced to stay home and companies reel with both the loss of business and a lack of workers. In addition to our economic resources, some other daily resources are in short supply: grocery stores have been out of staple food items, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies. Healthcare professionals in many places are facing a lack of masks, equipment, and medicine. 

As so many states and nations issue stay-at-home orders and social distancing has become the norm, we have become a people cut off from human aid, both physically and emotionally. We cannot gather together in person for encouragement or socialization, we cannot reach out to touch another person for fear of imparting or receiving a deadly illness. As masks become a more widespread precaution, we are even unable to smile at others when we do see them out in public.

Yes, this moment in history does feel very much like a wilderness.

And yet, did you know that God often takes His servants into a wilderness in order to fulfill a specific purpose? A quick scan of Scripture reveals many of God’s servants being sent into a wilderness for several purposes. Perhaps God will use one of these to encourage you today about your corner of the wilderness!

    1.      To meet with God

Moses was sent into the wilderness, where he met God, who spoke to him from the midst of a burning bush. It was in this encounter that Moses’ walk with God began. As far as I can tell from Scripture, Moses went into the wilderness viewing God solely as the God of his fathers, distant and impersonal. But by the time he left the wilderness, God was his own God, the God whom he now served and spoke with directly.

Perhaps this is you. Perhaps your wilderness is for the purpose of making God your own, of beginning or developing a true relationship with Him. Perhaps God has slowed your life down so that you will have no excuse but to take time to get to know Him.

    2.      To build your faith:

Israel spent over 40 years in the wilderness. Yes, it was in judgement for their unbelief and disobedience when they first got to the land, but God always has a loving purpose behind His judgements. He is just, but He is also merciful.

In the wilderness, their faith was tested and built over and over again. With every fresh difficulty came a fresh opportunity to learn to trust God, and to see that He is trustworthy.

The Disciples also found themselves in a wilderness at one point, and it was there that they brought to Jesus a lack of resources. They didn’t have food for the multitude, and it was too far for them all to walk to the nearest supply, but Jesus did a miracle and showed them that He was not hindered by their lack of resources.

Perhaps God is giving you an opportunity to learn to really trust Him. Look around you. Are there difficulties you can’t solve yourself? Those are the difficulties in which your faith can be the most effectively built as you learn firsthand that God is worthy to be trusted. God often removes our resources so that we can learn to trust Him to provide, just as the disciples had to trust Jesus to feed a multitude with just five loaves of bread and two small fish. (Matt. 14)

    3.      To prepare you for service

David spent years in the wilderness watching sheep, during which time God was preparing him to fight Goliath. He then spent years in the wilderness again while running from Saul, and was prepared to be king by the development of his leadership skills and the strengthening of his character. But more importantly, both of David’s wilderness periods were preparing his heart by teaching him first of all to delight in God, and then to wait upon God. He was being prepared spiritually as well as physically and mentally.

John the Baptist also lived in the wilderness until it was time for his ministry to begin. His was a solitary time, so far as I can gather, and it prepared him to hold fast to the truth God had for him to proclaim, no matter if people agreed with him or not. It prepared him to be bold with the truth and to stand firm, even when it meant prison and death.

Perhaps this time is a solitary time in which God desires to knit your heart to Himself, preparing you for later ministry through this time of decreased distractions. Perhaps the lack of human companionship is meant to teach you to delight in God, and perhaps the uncertainty of this time is meant to teach you to wait upon Him. (A book I’ve been listening to recently is Waiting on God by Andrew Murray. I highly recommend it!)

    4.      For Victory

Jesus Himself was led into the wilderness, not just to fast for forty days, not just to be tempted by Satan at the end of that time, but, --perhaps most importantly-- to have victory over temptation and the tempter.

Perhaps your corner of the wilderness is a corner fraught with temptation. This is the time to get close to God, cry out for His help, search the Scriptures for the truths that combat the lies Satan is using to try to trap you, and to finally experience the victory Christ has already won on your behalf!

Whatever the purpose is in your particular corner of this “wilderness”, know that it is a good purpose, for the will of God is “good, and acceptable, and perfect”. (Romans 12:2) Look to God, and ask Him to show you what He desires to do in your heart. Seek Him, dear reader, for He has promised to be found of you.

“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord”

Jeremiah 29:13-14a

“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Luke 11:10

When God Withholds

Yesterday was Valentine's day. And you know what? It wasn't horrible.

I woke up this morning and was reflecting on what made this year's Valentines day different. I'm still single like I was the years it was so hard, I'm still living at home with my parents like I was, and honestly, not much has changed. What has changed, however, is the focus of my heart.

The Bible says "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11b)

For years, the focus of my heart was on the "someday" when God would stop withholding that which I was sure was His plan for me. I was just biding my time until God decided to bring the right one along for me to marry.

But that attitude and that heart-focus both run contrary to the character of God. He does not withhold that which is good. If He does withhold something, it is because it would not be a "good thing" for us.

I had come to understand this in the last few years, and that has helped my contentment enormously, but this morning the Holy Spirit pointed out this verse during my time with God and took me to the next step with this truth.

It's not just that marriage is being withheld because it isn't a good thing, it's that singleness has been given because it is. If God had given me what I wanted, I would have been so busy with husband and kids and housework that I would never have learned all the things being single has taught me. And I also would likely not have become a writer.

The more I thought about this, the more I could see how God had given me this season of singleness on purpose, because it is exactly the "good thing" I needed to propel me into the place of influence and purpose He planned for me to fill.

And since I know that God sees singleness as a good thing, and meant this season exactly for me, I don't need to feel left out or as if something is missing. I have all I need because He has provided. That's why this Valentine's day was not the day of discouragement and discontent it used to be, because I have a sense of purpose that calls me to trust the Lord's plan and be content in His loving care.

Contentment chooses to see what is given, rather than that which is withheld.