Status: Delayed
Here in this post are the statuses I put on Facebook that represent some of the things I feel God has been teaching me lately. There were things I also learned which I did not get around to posting on social media. Those will no doubt come up over time, but for now, I found these enjoyable to ponder afresh. Thanks for reading them. :)
December 6, 2015: A thought on food (sorta):
"...and give us this day our daily bread..." The Word of God is like daily bread to the Christ-follower. Sometimes, though, I am ashamed that I can go so long neglecting to eat it. But it's like, I've been given the tools to really dive in all proper-like. I have the three different forks and spoons and I know which one to grab to start experiencing the fullness of the feast. So why don't I? I think it's because I feel like all I have time for is a quick hotpocket which contains only a little bit of real meat and then a whole lotta processed goodies. The hotpocket's not bad, often it's been processed well, but it sometimes seems to me like it would insult the Chef of the fanciful feast to grab a hotpocket when He's cooked a culinary masterpiece and already set the table... and so then I eat neither the hotpocket nor the feast. I tell myself, "Just plan in the necessary time for the big feast and then you'll be really full." - all the while I starve myself waiting for the appropriate amount of time to sit down and enjoy it properly with all etiquette applied.
Maybe it's better to grab a hotpocket than to starve...
January 16, 2016: I think I had heard it said from a young age that really no one is actually happy or feels a sense of purpose without a little Jesus in their life. They might look happy, but deep down they must really be in serious anguish, or they have a million problems that you just can't always see.
But I just don't think that's always true.
No, I think actually one of the great schemes of the devil is to let you live a comfortable life with your own sense of purpose and accomplishment. Because as long as you don't think you "need" some divine intervention you may never give the Gospel a second thought. It's true of Christians as well, that as long as life is going well it's easy not to think about Jesus so often. Much like Israel in the days of the Judges, it's when our foundations are shaking that we cry out "God, help!"
I still believe we are far too easily pleased. God is more than just a lifeline and there is a deeper, more unfathomable joy offered in Him when we live to glorify Him more than ourselves or any other.
January 27, 2016: I was thinking about how sometimes when you have big things going on in your world it almost stings to see the seemingly petty things other people get their panties in a wad about. And then I thought about how when I pray to God, He is simultaneously listening compassionately to my concerns and also watching and weeping for the suffering that is happening on a much grander scale in other parts of the world. And suddenly I think perhaps I have become the petty person whom God must "tolerate". The cool thing about God, and this is one of the many things that just perfectly demonstrates how unfathomably greater God is than I, is that He doesn't just "tolerate" my "burdens". I believe His heart gets every bit as grieved as mine or more sometimes and He desires that I never stop bringing my burdens to Him no matter how big or small they may seem because each time I do it's a worshipful expression of my dependence on Him and a chance for Him to mold my heart to be more like His. Makes me wonder if when I trivialize the concerns of others it demonstrates my failure to grasp God's heart, His great interest in my concerns and His love for me. I make Him out to be so small...
June 5, 2016: "They (people who are trying to be good) hope, by being good to please God if there is one; or - if they think there is not - at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us." -C.S. Lewis
June 28, 2016: The word "revival" is often used to mean a renewal of commitment to our faith. But truthfully, I feel like more often what we really mean is we want to see a change in behavior. We want revival because we long to see ourselves or our nation do better. Whether it be to have better morals or just to be better at adhering to the morals we have, our goal is to improve ourselves, and we would like to arrive at "better" as soon as possible. The problem with this kind of thinking is, in the words of Miles Stanford,"Our consecration, surrender or commitment will never hold up if it is our responding to Him from any other motivation than the response of His life in us. Yielding to Him on any different basis will simply amount to our trying to live for Him in the self-life. And even if that were possible, He could never accept it, since in that realm there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18), plus the fact that He has already taken the old life to the cross and crucified it (see Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; II Tim. 2:11; I Pet. 2:24)."
To make oneself better apart from Christ living in us is to believe we have the power to be good or to please God in and of ourselves. If that were so, Christ dying was wholly unnecessary. God doesn't want people to try to live like Christ, I believe He wants us to live in Christ and to allow Christ to live in every part of our lives so that we can say, "It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives within me." (Galatians 2:20). It will probably take a lifetime to work out submission of all of me to all of Him, won't be a quick weekend journey to perfected sanctification, but I'm up for it. :) "Life is meant to bring a succession of discoveries of our need of Christ, and with every such discovery the way is opened for a new inflow of the supply." I don't know that God so much wants a massive revival of moral zeal as He wants hearts to finally bow.
July 7, 2016: If ever I give off the impression that I think more highly of myself than I ought, please know, rarely is it true; and the brief moments I do, I surely am brought back to reality swiftly in a short manner of time. I have enough insecurities that if they were edible could end world hunger. The problem isn't thinking too much of myself, it's thinking of myself too much. At the heart of insecurity is really a deep concern for self, and no others. Or at least, far more than I am concerned with others.
Sometimes truth hurts, but if it helps us shed the "old self" in favor of living in the new, let every weight and sin be thrown aside.
I think as God teaches me how to grow in this, I'm learning that the cure for not being so preoccupied with me is to accept me, and then move on from looking at me to see the glory of God in me and others. I love the words of Andrew Peterson in one of his recent songs:
"How does it end
when the war that you're in
is just you against you against you?
You've got to learn to love, learn to love,
learn to love your enemies too
You can't expect to be perfect
It's a fight you've got to forfeit
You belong to me whatever you do
So lay down your weapons
Darling take a deep breath and
believe that I love you"
I also really like what the article said that Lori Ann shared - when we're focused on how we look or how others see us, that's a "mirror mindset". True humility, and I would add godly self confidence, sees these things as a window through which we behold and savor God's glory.
December 6, 2015: A thought on food (sorta):
"...and give us this day our daily bread..." The Word of God is like daily bread to the Christ-follower. Sometimes, though, I am ashamed that I can go so long neglecting to eat it. But it's like, I've been given the tools to really dive in all proper-like. I have the three different forks and spoons and I know which one to grab to start experiencing the fullness of the feast. So why don't I? I think it's because I feel like all I have time for is a quick hotpocket which contains only a little bit of real meat and then a whole lotta processed goodies. The hotpocket's not bad, often it's been processed well, but it sometimes seems to me like it would insult the Chef of the fanciful feast to grab a hotpocket when He's cooked a culinary masterpiece and already set the table... and so then I eat neither the hotpocket nor the feast. I tell myself, "Just plan in the necessary time for the big feast and then you'll be really full." - all the while I starve myself waiting for the appropriate amount of time to sit down and enjoy it properly with all etiquette applied.
Maybe it's better to grab a hotpocket than to starve...
January 16, 2016: I think I had heard it said from a young age that really no one is actually happy or feels a sense of purpose without a little Jesus in their life. They might look happy, but deep down they must really be in serious anguish, or they have a million problems that you just can't always see.
But I just don't think that's always true.
No, I think actually one of the great schemes of the devil is to let you live a comfortable life with your own sense of purpose and accomplishment. Because as long as you don't think you "need" some divine intervention you may never give the Gospel a second thought. It's true of Christians as well, that as long as life is going well it's easy not to think about Jesus so often. Much like Israel in the days of the Judges, it's when our foundations are shaking that we cry out "God, help!"
I still believe we are far too easily pleased. God is more than just a lifeline and there is a deeper, more unfathomable joy offered in Him when we live to glorify Him more than ourselves or any other.
January 27, 2016: I was thinking about how sometimes when you have big things going on in your world it almost stings to see the seemingly petty things other people get their panties in a wad about. And then I thought about how when I pray to God, He is simultaneously listening compassionately to my concerns and also watching and weeping for the suffering that is happening on a much grander scale in other parts of the world. And suddenly I think perhaps I have become the petty person whom God must "tolerate". The cool thing about God, and this is one of the many things that just perfectly demonstrates how unfathomably greater God is than I, is that He doesn't just "tolerate" my "burdens". I believe His heart gets every bit as grieved as mine or more sometimes and He desires that I never stop bringing my burdens to Him no matter how big or small they may seem because each time I do it's a worshipful expression of my dependence on Him and a chance for Him to mold my heart to be more like His. Makes me wonder if when I trivialize the concerns of others it demonstrates my failure to grasp God's heart, His great interest in my concerns and His love for me. I make Him out to be so small...
June 5, 2016: "They (people who are trying to be good) hope, by being good to please God if there is one; or - if they think there is not - at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us." -C.S. Lewis
June 28, 2016: The word "revival" is often used to mean a renewal of commitment to our faith. But truthfully, I feel like more often what we really mean is we want to see a change in behavior. We want revival because we long to see ourselves or our nation do better. Whether it be to have better morals or just to be better at adhering to the morals we have, our goal is to improve ourselves, and we would like to arrive at "better" as soon as possible. The problem with this kind of thinking is, in the words of Miles Stanford,"Our consecration, surrender or commitment will never hold up if it is our responding to Him from any other motivation than the response of His life in us. Yielding to Him on any different basis will simply amount to our trying to live for Him in the self-life. And even if that were possible, He could never accept it, since in that realm there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18), plus the fact that He has already taken the old life to the cross and crucified it (see Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; II Tim. 2:11; I Pet. 2:24)."
To make oneself better apart from Christ living in us is to believe we have the power to be good or to please God in and of ourselves. If that were so, Christ dying was wholly unnecessary. God doesn't want people to try to live like Christ, I believe He wants us to live in Christ and to allow Christ to live in every part of our lives so that we can say, "It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives within me." (Galatians 2:20). It will probably take a lifetime to work out submission of all of me to all of Him, won't be a quick weekend journey to perfected sanctification, but I'm up for it. :) "Life is meant to bring a succession of discoveries of our need of Christ, and with every such discovery the way is opened for a new inflow of the supply." I don't know that God so much wants a massive revival of moral zeal as He wants hearts to finally bow.
July 7, 2016: If ever I give off the impression that I think more highly of myself than I ought, please know, rarely is it true; and the brief moments I do, I surely am brought back to reality swiftly in a short manner of time. I have enough insecurities that if they were edible could end world hunger. The problem isn't thinking too much of myself, it's thinking of myself too much. At the heart of insecurity is really a deep concern for self, and no others. Or at least, far more than I am concerned with others.
Sometimes truth hurts, but if it helps us shed the "old self" in favor of living in the new, let every weight and sin be thrown aside.
I think as God teaches me how to grow in this, I'm learning that the cure for not being so preoccupied with me is to accept me, and then move on from looking at me to see the glory of God in me and others. I love the words of Andrew Peterson in one of his recent songs:
"How does it end
when the war that you're in
is just you against you against you?
You've got to learn to love, learn to love,
learn to love your enemies too
You can't expect to be perfect
It's a fight you've got to forfeit
You belong to me whatever you do
So lay down your weapons
Darling take a deep breath and
believe that I love you"
I also really like what the article said that Lori Ann shared - when we're focused on how we look or how others see us, that's a "mirror mindset". True humility, and I would add godly self confidence, sees these things as a window through which we behold and savor God's glory.
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