Month: February 2020

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

            Do you ever wonder why we don’t seem to catch a break? We’re going through a rough season of life but then it’s finally resolved. Sometimes it seems that we barely have time to breath a sigh of relief before the next struggle hits. We feel as if we’re constantly struggling with something. It may be a relationship that isn’t going the way we would like. Or a battle with a physical problem. Or maybe it’s financial. Those ends just never do seem to meet. Perhaps it’s an emotional struggle with things like depression or grief. When we stop to think of all the struggles that come our way, the list itself can be very overwhelming.

            That’s when it helps me to realize that it’s really just one battle. We have only one enemy. It’s just that the enemy will hit us from every single angle he possibly can. And he has no compassion. When we’re down for the count from a physical battle, he’ll hit us with something financial. Or we’re struggling with depression when a relationship in our life goes awry. Notice that this verse says the battle is being fought both in this world and in the heavenly world. Because our brains are finite and tied to this earth, we don’t always realize that this is a huge battle. It’s being fought by us, but also in the heavens. That means that Satan and his minions are always fighting a war on two fronts. If we can just hold him off by resisting him, reinforcements will arrive to attack on the other front, the heavenly one.

            Too often, when I’m going through a difficult time, I have the wrong focus. I think the enemy is that person, or that pain, or that situation. I’m not saying we don’t need to do something about those things, but they’re not the enemy. The real enemy is one we can’t see or feel. It’s also one who has already been defeated! So why is he still fighting? I don’t think it’s about him trying to win the war. I think it’s because he knows that hell has been prepared for him and he wants to take as many of us with him as he can. The battle now is all about trying to take our focus off of Jesus. If he can get us to focus on our situation and think that it’s the real problem, he’s succeeded in drawing us away from God. Regardless of what your struggle is right now, remember that it’s not your enemy. The real struggle is with the real enemy. And the best way to fight him is to keep your eyes firmly on the One Who is fighting the same enemy on your behalf – and winning!

“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”  1 Peter 5:5

This is a verse that is easy to quote by itself, but means so much more when taken in context.  Chapter 5 talks first about the responsibilities of those who are older.  They are to shepherd those in their care and when they do, God promises them a crown of glory when Christ returns.  Then we come to this verse on submission, followed by another verse that is often quoted alone: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Taken in context, we see that verse 5 is surrounded by promises!  It’s bookended with promises of a crown of glory and peace in the midst of anxiety, and the verse itself includes a promise of God’s grace given to the humble.  In this light, I can see even more clearly why Satan wants us to be proud.  He wants to steal God’s promises from us.  No wonder God opposes the proud!

So how do we clothe ourselves with humility?  That’s a tough one!  For one thing, if we’re concerned about being humble or proud, we’re sunk.  We can’t achieve humility.  We can’t decide to not be proud and expect our pride to disappear.  In my opinion, the only way to be humble is to understand more of Who God is.  If we truly understood the awesomeness and greatness of the God we serve, it would not be possible to have pride.  Pride comes from having our eyes on ourselves instead of our loving Father.

My prayer for all of us is that we would seek God in humility.  May He show us areas of pride in our lives and work gently within us to remove them. And may we be willing to submit to His work in our hearts so we can be clothed in the humility that comes from knowing God.

“Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.” Psalm 19:12-13

            I have always thought that I don’t have a big enough view of God. I know the Ten Commandments and I keep the biggies. The little ones, like gossip, I also keep – most of the time. And I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice when I call them “little” commandments. In God’s law, there’s no such thing. I like to think there are, because then I don’t have to think of myself as someone who breaks the important laws of God. But aren’t they all important? The problem is, like I said, I don’t have a correct view of God. If I truly realized that He is perfect and there is absolutely no sin in Him, then I might realize that He has zero tolerance for sin in me. Any sin. That makes every sin very important. Of course, we know it’s impossible to not sin and we know He’ll forgive us so it’s not really a big deal, right? I think that this very attitude is one of the willful sins talked about in this verse.

            Sin is such a big deal to God that He doesn’t even like the sins of which we’re unaware. We may not understand that something is a sin. I think of the sin of complaining. It’s just making conversation, right? Or venting. Or to be really “Christian” about it, asking for prayer. Besides, everyone does it. So it’s easy to not realize it’s a sin. But this verse is asking God to forgive even those things we don’t realize are sins. The willful sins are a little easier to understand. Those are things we know are sins, but we do them anyway. I looked up the Hebrew root word that was translated “willful sins.” Do you want to know what it means? Not willful and not sins. It means arrogant, proud or haughty. Chew on that for a while! When we commit a willful sin, we’re being prideful. Or to turn it around, being prideful is the very definition of a willful sin. I once heard that there’s only one sin and that’s pride. I’ve never done an exhaustive study to confirm that’s true, but it sure seems like it. When we have enough pride to put ourselves in the place of God, that’s when we attempt to fulfill our fleshly, selfish desires our way rather than follow God’s way.

            It sounds like David had a much better view of God than I. He understood that God is a perfect God and He wants His people to be blameless. How is that possible? Well, again, let’s look at the original language. When David says that he will be blameless, he actually means that he’s in the process. It should say that he will be being made blameless. We are in the process of being completed or perfected. Someday, in heaven, we will be made perfect and what a wonderful day that will be! But this is talking about the process of getting to that point. You know what I love about that? Even though I’ve not been perfect up to this point, that doesn’t disqualify me from future perfection. In other words, it’s not “one sin and you’re out.” Our past sins will be wiped away as if they never happened! My prayer for all of us is that God will give each of us a clearer picture of Who He is and who we are in Him. And even better, who we are becoming because of Him.

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12

            Here’s a short history lesson to get some context for this verse. God had chosen the Jewish people to be His people. He had kept His promises made to Abraham and had led Abraham’s descendants out of slavery in Egypt. After wandering 40 years for their disobedience, God led them into the promised land. You would think a 40 year punishment would teach them a lesson but we humans tend to have a very short memory and the Israelites were no exception. They began worshipping other gods and so God warned them time and again but they wouldn’t listen. So finally God allowed them to be carried off into slavery. Again. He’d rescued them from slavery once, but since they didn’t learn their lesson the first time, off they went again. Different slave masters, different era. But still in slavery. It was during that time of exile from the promised land that God gave Isaiah this verse.

            Have you ever been in slavery? The answer, of course, is yes. We’ve all been slaves to something. Have you ever experienced the joy of being freed from slavery? The truth is that we’ve all be freed from slavery, but not all of us have experienced the joy. Why is that? It’s because we don’t choose joy. God can make the mountains sing and trees clap if He wants to. But He won’t force us to feel anything. We choose what we feel. Too often, we choose to live in the emotional drudgery that accompanies a life of slavery. We choose to live in fear, or in anger and bitterness, or in regret. We sometimes talk about Satan stealing our joy but that’s a lie. He can’t steal it because it’s our choice. When we choose these other emotions, we are choosing to give up our joy. But if we would daily choose joy, the fear and anger and all the rest would fade away.

            There’s one thing I want you to catch. When Isaiah wrote these verses, the people were still in exile. He was instilling hope in them because he knew what was coming. He knew God was going to rescue His people. But how easy do you think it was to feel joyful when your life consisted of living as a slave in a land that wasn’t “home” to them? In the midst of that awful situation, God gives them these words of hope, the promise of a better time ahead. That’s what He says to us today. We may not be in slavery to another human, but we struggle with so many temptations. In fact, we may be a slave to some addiction, or to a situation we would love to change. God is telling us to hang on. There’s a better day coming! No matter what your circumstance today, a day of joy and peace is on the way. What a day of rejoicing that will be!