Month: July 2021

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  1 Corinthians 15:58

How often I need to be reminded of this verse!  However, I need to think of it backwards.  First, I need to be reminded that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.  Even when we see no rewards of it.  When it seems as if all we do is labor and there is never a response.  We never see growth.  In fact, we may even see those we’re working with backslide and even relapse.  That’s when I need to be reminded that work in Lord is not a waste of time.  God will use it in His good time!

Once I’ve been encouraged by the last of the verse, I can move back to the beginning of the verse.  Since I know that God will use whatever labor I do in His name, I must do three things:

1. Stand firm.  For some reason, I think of myself on a mountain trail.  There’s a wall on one side and a drop-off on the other.  My job is to stay firmly rooted on the trail.  No veering to either side.  Of course, our spiritual walk is not quite so clear-cut.  We can’t always tell when we’re veering until after we’ve fallen off the cliff, or run smack into the stone wall.  Therefore:
2. Let nothing move you.  A strong wind gust may come along.  Something we didn’t see coming.  That phone call in the middle of the night.  The diagnosis.  The harsh words of a loved one.  Don’t let it move you.  Or maybe we’re enamored by the beautiful view and want to climb to some dangerous place to “get a better view.”  Don’t try it!  Let nothing move you.
3. Give yourself fully.  Not the left-over parts of us, not if we feel like it, not even some of the time.  Always give yourself fully.  How is that possible?!  I think it’s a heart issue.  God’s not asking us to work so hard for Him that we drive ourselves into the ground.  Rather, I believe He’s saying that if we do everything to His glory, then it will not be in vain. I’m reminded of a teenager I knew who had volunteered a month of her summer at a camp for other teens.  I walked in when she was busy making 200 sandwiches.  With a big grin on her face she said, “I’m making sandwiches for Jesus!”  She was giving herself fully.

We may never see the results of our labor this side of heaven, but rest assured that God uses even the feeblest attempts to serve Him.  I know that because of the verse right before this one: “But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Proverbs 12:26

            Summertime means different things for different people. For me it means working in the yard and garden. I love being out in God’s creation and being able to observe His work in growing the plants. What I don’t like is weeds. It seems as if it’s a constant battle to keep the weeds at bay. If the desired plants are growing well, the weeds do, too. And even if the desired plants aren’t doing so good, still the weeds are usually pretty plentiful. Or at least, it seems that way. In fact, one of the ways to keep weeds to a minimum is to make sure the good stuff is healthy. Then the weeds are more likely to be choked out.

            Often when I’m pulling weeds, I compare them to sin. It seems as if sin just keeps cropping up in my life. I try to grow the qualities that God desires, but it seems as if the weeds, or the sins, grow right along with them. And if I’m not working on growing and fertilizing the positive aspects, sins will quickly take over the garden of my heart. It’s a constant battle to weed out those sins. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a weed killer we can quickly spray and all the sins will just wither up and die. Rather, it takes the time and effort of pulling those sins out one by one.

            I recently heard a farmer say that weeds are smart. Science comes up with a weed killer but the weeds just get smarter and learn to live with that particular chemical. Then it becomes necessary for science to invent a different chemical to kill that weed until it outsmarts that new chemical. And so, the weed battle continues. Unfortunately, our enemy is even smarter than weeds. We find a way to kill a sin, and that sin (or rather, the enemy) finds a way to outsmart that method. Then we have to come up with another method. And so, the sin battle continues.

            One weed I enjoy pulling is nimblewill. It’s a type of grass that will take over an entire lawn if we allow it. At first, it looks a lot like the grass we want in the lawn so it can be kind of hard to see until it’s become almost unmanageable. That’s just like some of our sins. They may seem innocent at first. In fact, we may not even notice them until we realize that sin is taking over in our lives. I enjoy pulling it because it spreads along the top of the ground. So while I do need to pull out the roots, sometimes when I pull it, I see some nimblewill from a little ways away come out with it. I didn’t even realize they were attached to one another! It’s the same way with some of our sins. If we can pull out one sin, we may be surprised at others that we didn’t even realize were connected.

            I was recently reminded of another aspect of sin. My neighbor is not able to remain diligent with the weeds in the yard. As a result, I need to be the diligent one to ensure those weeds don’t creep into my yard. That’s when I was reminded of the verse above. If we spend our time with others who choose to live a life of sin, those sins could very easily creep into our own lives without us noticing. I’m not saying we should never be around a sinner. We’d lead a pretty lonely life if we did that! Rather, what I believe this verse is saying is to be cautious of who we select as close friends. Of course, everyone is a sinner. But are we consciously emulating a person who chooses a life of blatant sin, or someone who wants to glorify God even if it means doing the hard work of “weeding” their heart? If it’s the latter, we can be a great encouragement to one another as we dig out those sins. Then our association with others can show a relatively weed-free garden of the heart, something that is a delight to behold. We will be able to reap the joy and peace of God’s love. In addition, we will be able to share that with anyone and everyone with whom we come in contact.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

            Have you ever had a relationship with a person through a third person? Let’s say you’re friends with Susie and Susie has a friend, Joe. Does that automatically make you friends with Joe? Maybe you’ve met Joe, but you don’t really communicate with him or spend any kind of time with him. You just hear about him through Susie. You maybe even talk about Joe as if you know him. Would you say that you and Joe are friends? I don’t think there are many people who would call that a friendship.  To have a relationship of any kind, there needs to be time spent together and there needs to be communication. Without those things, you can’t really get to know the person. You can only get to know about them.

            How often do we do that with God? Maybe we hear a lot about God. We go to church and hear sermons about God. We need that. We need to be a part of the body of Christ to encourage one another and learn from each other. Maybe we read devotionals every day. Nothing wrong with that! They can give us a new point of view or point out something we hadn’t thought of before. We may even talk about God a lot. We have Christian music playing and we sing along without really hearing the words. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, it can all be very helpful in our Christian walk. But as we do those things, are we also talking and listening to God? Do we go to Him in prayer and share with Him what’s on our hearts? Do we listen for His voice? Are we spending time in His word and asking His Spirit to teach us? Or are we relying on a third person to be the intermediary between us and God?

            A friend was recently helping me with computer issues and we were talking about the wireless modem. He made the comment that it’s always better to have a direct connection. In other words, wireless is good and convenient, but there can be things that may interfere with the connection. But when we have a wire that goes directly from the modem to the computer, those interferences don’t have a chance. It’s the same with us and God. When we depend on others, whether it’s a pastor, author, musician, Bible study leader, or anyone else, we’re basically depending on the less-than-perfect wireless connection that can be interrupted and distorted. What we need is a direct connection with God. That can only come by approaching His throne ourselves. We do that by spending time in prayer and in His word. That’s how we receive God’s mercy and grace, those things we need to get us through the trials we face on this earth. When we have that direct connection, even the storms raging around us won’t be able to interrupt the tie we’ll have with our God.

O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life.  You have seen, O Lord, the wrong done to me.  Uphold my cause!”  Lamentations 3:58, 59

Have you ever been falsely accused?  It hurts, doesn’t it?  You want to proclaim your innocence to anyone who will listen, and you want your accuser to admit they were wrong or that they lied.  You want justice!  But what if the accusations are true?  Suddenly justice doesn’t seem so appealing, does it? 

Our biggest accuser is Satan himself.  He delights in lying to us, trying to convince us of all kinds of things.  We know we’re guilty, we know we’ve sinned.  But that lying sneak will try to convince us that we can’t be forgiven, or that God forgives grudgingly, or that He loves us a little less because of what we’ve done, or any number of other lies.  Often, the lies are so subtle we don’t even realize we’re believing them until we’re living in a mass of lies. The truth is, God has our back.  He is our attorney.  He fights the battle for us.  We stand accused, but God is the one who defends us.  Can’t you just picture the court room?  The prosecuting attorney is spouting his lies and half-truths while we sit condemned and waiting for the sentence to be pronounced.  There may even be some in the courtroom who are looking forward to seeing us punished.  But our defense attorney boldly steps forward.  With love in His eyes He agrees.  That’s right, He agrees that we’re guilty.  We slump down in our chair, hopeless.  Slowly, He lifts His hands until everyone can see the nail holes there.  The judge’s gavel jars us as it bangs and God Almighty Himself declares the penalty for our sin paid in full!  He has redeemed us!  We don’t need to listen to Satan’s lies any longer!  Satan accused, Jesus defended, God ruled, and we are free!  Praise God for His incredible love