04.27.09
SEEKING GOD FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
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This devotional was written by by Sarah Jennings, Crosswalk.com Family Editor
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SEEKING GOD FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
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For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1: 21
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I ran across an article a couple years ago that really touched me. In her piece “A Change of Plans,” Lindsy Pike details the excruciating decision to call off her wedding to a man she loved dearly. Reflecting on the mix of pain and peace that comes with any situation where we must give up something precious, Pike rewinds a few centuries to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac:
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“God promised to give Abraham a son and finally, after years of waiting, God came through, with Isaac. Why in the world would God ask Abraham to give up that gift? In my opinion, it is for the same reason He asked me to call off my wedding. God wants us to love Him more than we love His promises. The minute we get those out of order, He readjusts us.”
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While we don’t really know the mind of God in Abraham’s situation, Pike’s simple thought sheds light on a struggle I think all of us encounter at some time in our lives — the struggle to love God above everything else, even His blessings. God wants us to love Him because of who He is, not what He can give us. Yet, how often do we confuse our love of God’s promises with love of Him? How often do we see Him as the divine blessing machine, ready to dole out happiness on our terms? The popularity of “prosperity theology” reveals how easy it is for believers to twist love of God into the pursuit of earthly happiness.
To be honest, it’s not just greed that gets in the way of loving God. It’s also a limited understanding of who God is. I used to wonder how some Christians could sit for over an hour praying. Is God really that interesting? I’d wonder. This type of thinking reveals a fundamental flaw in how I perceived God, and I think that flaw is what keeps many from coming to Christ in the first place. It’s easy to see Him as limited like we are limited. It’s easy to forget that God is truly our all in all. As C.S. Lewis once said, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
Still, had I not gone through a similar situation, I might not have believed Pike’s sincerity when she says: “I am thankful for His grace that saved me from ruining my life by pursuing my dream.”
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In a “reach for the stars, be anything you can be” culture, the idea that pursuing any dream could ruin my life seems foreign. The more I think about it, though, the more I see that living outside God’s will — even if it is for a “good reason” — is a recipe for failure.
Yet, when we give up our dreams for something greater – for Someone greater than ourselves – we begin to see we can trust God no matter what. We find solace in the incredible peace that comes with knowing that even if life here includes sorrow or dreams unfulfilled — which it very well could — there is a God that transcends not only all that’s missing in this life, but also all the good this life has to offer.
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Intersecting Faith & Life: This week, do something for God without expecting any reward or blessing in return.
02.24.09
“GROW IN THE GLOOM”
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Mrs. Charles E. Cowman Streams in the Desert February 24
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GROW IN THE GLOOM
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“I have all, and abound” (Phil. 4:18).
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In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, “Flowers that Grow in the Gloom.” It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners–may rather like them and flourish in them.
And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul ?
Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before.
Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an “encircling gloom” to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance. Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. You may make their material lot a desert, but “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”–Dr. Jowett
“Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it swings in the sunlight.”
Where there is much light there is much shade.
11.14.08
“CROSS ROADS”
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Luke 9:23-26 NIV
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
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Phil 3:7-11
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
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Grace comes in many forms. Sometimes, we encounter grace through unmerited favor and forgiveness. However, there is another category of grace where we are given the strength to deny our very selves in order to pursue Christ. In fact, any person who ever walks the roads of grace in seeking to follow Christ comes upon “crossroads; i.e. junctions where a cross needs to be embraced in order to come after Christ.
As we come to maturing junctions in our walks with Christ, we cannot be ignorant of the heavy cost we are called to pay; the gains of our self oriented kingdoms. But by grace we are given power and perspective to see that what we do truly gain far outweighs whatever temporary cost we incur.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning , will you reflect on how God has showered grace on you in the form of unmerited favor and forgiveness? Will you acknowledge that though that grace comes free to us, it came at a heavy cost to Christ as He embraced the cross for us?
- Will you acknowledge another kind of grace; that is the empowerment He gives to embrace self denial and take up our cross? Where are the “crossroads” God has brought you/us to at this season? Where specifically might God be calling you/your church to die to self, that you might live to God, His Kingdom and His righteousness?
- Will you tell Christ that you consider everything now a loss compared the surpassing greatness of knowing and gaining more of Him? Will you pray this representatively for your church?
