Author: LizG

Romans 8:22-30 PHILLIPS  It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience. The Spirit of God not only maintains this hope within us, but helps us in our present limitations. For example, we do not know how to pray worthily as sons of God, but his Spirit within us is actually praying for us in those agonising longings which never find words. And God who knows the heart’s secrets understands, of course, the Spirit’s intention as he prays for those who love God. Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. God, in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son, that he might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as his own sons.

Romans 8:29-30 MSG  ^29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

Observation

 Romans 8 is a chapter about letting go of our past, patiently embracing all that being “in Christ” provides for us, and patiently putting our hope and faith in the future God has planned for us all (“in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got”).  Paul encourages us to be patient in our “state of painful tension” (in our impatience, anguish and urgency to see results/progress in ourselves and others). He tells us that the Holy Spirit is working God’s love, grace and truth in us and the world around us 24/7/365 (albeit most of the time imperceptibly to us) in powerful ways in hearts and other places inaccessible to us.

He asks us to trust in God’s original and only plan – even when we don’t understand how “everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.”  This is all fine and good when life is going smoothly, but becomes so difficult when we face urgent and heartbreaking circumstances that shake us to our foundation – prodigal children, chronic/fatal illness, death, divorce, and so on. How could God turn such events to bring about good, to accomplish His original and only plan?  How can He give us beauty for ashes and joy for mourning?  Only God, only God!

Impact on Me

Like Paul, I look back over my life to see persecution in times of spiritual and emotional imprisonment, shipwreck and beatings.  So can you. Wounds caused by dysfunctional families, abusive relationships, breakups and/or divorces, mental or physical illness, mistreatment, rejections, abandonment, betrayals, deaths, prodigals, church issues – to name a few – all create wounds that make us sensitive and condition our reaction to the world, situations and circumstances around us. Paul is asking you and me to let Jesus heal the wounds of the past so we can respond according to hope and faith rather than react according to the wounds of our past. 

Paul is asking me (and you) to be defined by God’s purpose to place me in Christ so I can become like Him – “We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him.”  Paul is asking me to focus on God’s future for me rather than my past experiences or what this world can offer. In Christ my past no longer can hurt or limit me – if I allow myself to release the guilt, shame and sensitivities of it. In Christ, I can freely forgive because I have been freely forgiven. In Christ, I am His beloved regardless of how the world judges my worth. In Christ, I can rejoice and trust always even when the world calls me foolish. It is my choice to live as in Christ or of the world.

 “In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my life, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled and striving cease. My Comforter, my all-in-all; here in the love of Christ I’ll stand.”

Prayer

 My God, my God, You are all-in-all – Holy, loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, Creator, Redeemer, Restorer.  You have planned from beginning to end, start to finish, a perfect, majestic strategy to accomplish Your will and purpose. So much of the time I do not understand what is happening or how it can ever be turned around for good BUT I know You do. Forgive me for all the times I have failed and chosen to live as in the world rather than in Christ. Help me to set aside my need to understand or do something to fix it and instead pray, placing my hope and trust in You in those times, remembering “to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.”  Help me to embrace, believe and live as in Christ as I walk through my life on this earth.  I know it is Your desire to see this accomplished in me. Make it so, Lord, in Jesus’ name I pray.

Psalm 139:1-6; 23-24  (MSG)  God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.  I’m an open book to You; even from a distance, You know what I’m thinking.  You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of Your sight.  You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence.  I look behind me and You’re there, then up ahead and You’re there, too – Your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful – I can’t take it all in!…Investigate  my life,  O God,  find  out  everything  about  me; Cross- examine  and  test  me,  get  a  clear  picture  of what  I’m  about; See  for  Yourself  whether I’ve  done  anything  wrong – then guide me on the road to eternal  life.

Psalm 139:1-6; 23-24  (NKJV)  O Lord, You have searched me and known me. ² You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.  ³ You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.  ⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.  ⁵ You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.  ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it…Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24  And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Observation

“Search me, O God…know my heart…know my anxieties.”  This is a cry for an incredibly deep and transparent intimacy, one that is willing to risk rejection for the possibility of the relationship that will hopefully develop.  This is the heart cry of true revival, the kind that is seeded into the heart of an individual who has allowed God full access, trusting in His love and mercy, confident in His grace to cover every failure, every “wicked way” and still remain faithful to lead him/her into “the way everlasting.” 

This is the God Who sent Jesus to the Cross to confirm that we can trust in His love and faithfulness even when our rebellious wicked ways, our faithless anxieties, our shameful failures are fully exposed.  This is the God Who made a way for us to confidently come to Him in our hopeless sin-stained state and, not only become clean, but become His very own children.  This is the God Who seeks us out in our darkest places to redeem and restore us when we don’t deserve any of it.  Why is it so hard to bare our hearts and souls to such a God as this?

Impact on Me

I find it hard sometimes to bare my soul to God and admit that I messed up again.  I don’t believe it is because I think God won’t receive and forgive me.  I am just plain embarrassed and shamed for my failure.  “I’m an open book to You; even from a distance, You know what I’m thinking.”  This psalm reminds me that He knows before I sin, when I sin and even the motive behind my sin – and still loves me.  My confession will not be news to Him, so why hesitate or be shamed to repent? 

The path of my life is littered with the squashed pride, sins and failures that have been submitted to, dealt with by the Holy Spirit, and left powerless on the road when I admit and repent for them.  I am just so amazed that I continue to find another pocket of pride, another judgmental thought/word, another graceless act that need to be dealt with as I  go forward.  However, I am assured that my fickle and rebellious humanity can still refuge in His mercy.  So, I expect I will continue to leave squashed bits along the way as He “guide(s) me on the road to eternal  life.”

Prayer

Merciful, Loving, All-Knowing Father, so glad You also are sooo patient and forgiving with me.  We have been on a journey this far, but I ask You now to search my heart again – let’s find it all, every wicked way – and deal with every thing we find by Your Holy Spirit working in and with me.  I want to move ever closer to You, emptying my fleshly pockets as I do.  I want people I meet to come to know You because they meet You in me.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

1 John 4:8-10 MSG  The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know Him if you don’t love. This is how God showed His love for us: God sent His only Son into the world so we might live through Him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a PhillipsIf I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.

⁴ This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.

^5-6 Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.

^7-8a Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

Observation

Both of these passages are familiar.  The first one is part of a lesson in Sunday School at the earliest ages, so that our children know “the first thing about God … God is love” and “He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”  This is all grace and mercy toward us and, in our gratitude, we set ourselves to increase in the knowledge of God.  The Pharisees were diligent in this pursuit.  So, how did they miss recognizing the God incarnate in Jesus?  The second passage speaks to what they were missing.   They had substituted knowledge and achievement for the grace and mercy of God’s love.

I think today we still forget to emphasize John’s stated condition to knowing God – “so you can’t know Him if you don’t love.”  This love of which he speaks goes far beyond loving those who love us.  “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”  If we want to be like Christ, this love includes our willingness to sacrificially suffer, give up our rights, and be humbled for the sake of the guilty, the angry, the godless, our enemies, hoping that the love extended will bring repentance and a relationship with God.  This is God’s kind of love in action.

Impact on Me

At every wedding where 1 Corinthians 13 is read, I am struck by the amount of self-control, humility and sacrifice this kind of love demands.   Like the Pharisees, I can get swept up into chasing the church culture standards of achievements that prove my spirituality.  In doing so, I forget the first thing about God, the glue for our relationship, is love God and love others as He does.  All the gifts and talents I possess, all the knowledge I gain, all the sacrifices I make, all the appearances of spirituality that are not based in and flow from the God kind of love “achieve precisely nothing.”   

This does not mean that I stop using my gifts and talents, or seek knowledge about God, or make sacrifices, or seek to increase my foundation in spirituality, but it does mean that I need to make sure always that His love is my motive and I let my rewards come from Him, not others.  This is where the self-control, humility, and sacrifice come in.

Prayer

God, my Father, Savior, Teacher and Power to be what You have called me to be, I want to never forget that Your kind of love is my only motive, the foundation of and reason for all I do, have and speak.  May I live out the love of 1 Corinthians 13. May my heart be moved with the compassion of Jesus that held Him on the Cross when I am confronted by challenges to be Your love to my enemies.  Never, never, never let me forget that it is Your kind of love that never fails.  Make it so in Jesus’ name.

1 Cor 13:4-8a NIV  “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ^8a Love never fails.”

Galatians 3:1-5PHILLIPS  O you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I will ask you one simple question: did you receive the Spirit of God by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the Gospel? Surely you can’t be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances? Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere? I simply cannot believe it of you! Does God, who gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you, do these things because you have obeyed the Law or because you have believed the Gospel? Ask yourselves that.

Observation

Jewish legalists in the church were teaching that belief in Jesus had to be combined with obedience to the Law in matters such as circumcision.  After all, they reasoned that God’s promises were made to God’s people, so new Christians had to become more like Jews to be acceptable to God.  This was in direct opposition to Paul’s teaching that salvation is free, available to all humankind, and by grace through faith.  He insists that it is through God’s Spirit working in them – not any performance-based standard – that salvation, justification and sanctification occur. 

This is not the only instance where Paul wrote about the free gift of salvation for Gentiles and Jews alike, separate from the observance of Jewish Law, tradition and works.  We are redeemed and remodeled “not by any works lest they should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-10 MSG) and God works in His own way to do it using “the foolish things of the world to shame those considered wise” (1 Cor 1:26-30).   God chose to provide – free to us – salvation (our repositioning from existing in the world to living in Christ) through the humiliation, shame and suffering of the Cross because it was the price only God Himself could pay.  Jesus was the only sinless sacrifice ever born as a human. 

Impact on Me

So, I tell people that I am a recovering over-achieving perfectionist and some days I am not recovering.  I was raised in a high-performing family and a denomination with a heavy weight of rules to follow to be acceptable to God.  As a rule follower and striving to be perfectionist, I rated myself always not quite good enough in both areas.  When I surrendered my life to Christ and began to read the Bible for myself, I discovered that obedience to Christ was not necessarily the same as living up or obedience to the rules and traditions I had learned growing up.  I realized that God has a different standard of perfection and achievement than the culture of this world.  “I will ask you one simple question: did you receive the Spirit of God by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the Gospel?”

“Does God, who gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you, do these things because you have obeyed the Law or because you have believed the Gospel?”  So, on the days I am not recovering from the drive for perfectionism, I fall into the unbelief of doing something to look good to others when it is either not what God is asking of me or just for show.  Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is quick to convict me of my display of pride so that I can repent and seek God’s will and purpose for me – visible or invisible, doorman or doormat, blessing or sacrifice – so I can walk in obedience to Him regardless of what others may think. I am so glad that God created repentance because I need it often!

Prayer

Father God, You are Love past understanding.  Sending Jesus, Your Son, Love Incarnate, to provide for us salvation, restoration and true life through faith alone.  Never allow me to forget that only by Your work in me am I ever who You dream for me to be.  May my obedience to you be my act of love in return.   Keep me mindful of the virtues that make me more like You and mark true achievement in Heaven – love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control, mercy, grace, compassion and justice.  Let me see with the eyes and love with the heart of Jesus.  In Jesus’ name I pray.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (MSG) I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Observation

I know that God is All-Wise, All-Knowing, perfect in every way, incapable of making an error, and never blind-sided or surprised by unforeseen twists and turns, but at times like this, I wonder if He didn’t regret making us human. He’s our Creator, so He could have chosen to make us something more consistent/less fickle, less driven by emotions and passions, not so free to make all of our own choices – in other words, a less aggravating and worrisome child, one who listens and learns from experience.  Instead, He gave us free wills, completely in charge of the choices we make, good or bad, beneficial or harmful, wise or foolish.   

As I reach the end of Deuteronomy (the “again I say unto you” of the First 5 books), Father God is saying that He has demonstrated to this people over and over again His commitment to them and proven His ability to deliver what He has promised.  This same offer (choosing between life and death) is before me today and what I receive is based on the choices I make.  Just as these people have experienced His faithfulness, His miraculous deliverance, His power, His protection, His promises fulfilled, so have I.  The choice is theirs as well as mine today – to choose life or death by whom they/I choose to trust and serve.  I pray that I will be better at obedience than they were. 

Impact on Me

Each time I come again to repent for some bad choice (trusting more in what the world or I can do than in Him), I often ask why He made me human. Like Paul in Romans 7, I struggle even with following through when I do make good choices:

Romans 7:21-25 PHILLIPS When I come up against the Law I want to do good, but in practice I do evil. My conscious mind whole-heartedly endorses the Law, yet I observe an entirely different principle at work in my nature. This is in continual conflict with my conscious attitude, and makes me an unwilling prisoner to the law of sin and death. In my mind I am God’s willing servant, but in my own nature I am bound fast, as I say, to the law of sin and death. It is an agonising situation, and who on earth can set me free from the clutches of my sinful nature? I thank God there is a way out through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is then that the still small voice reminds me that He made me human so I would need Him, so that my heart would ache passionately over my unfaithfulness in response to His perfect love, grace and mercy, that I would repent and return and, in His embrace, provide an opportunity for Him to pour out His love for me once again.  What an amazing love, what a wondrous God we serve! 

Prayer

Dear, dear Jesus, what a wonder You are.  You suffered and died so I would have a choice and the Holy Spirit power to sustain it.  I thank You that You give grace along with forgiveness, second chances with repentance, encouragement with conviction, and stick with me when I fail again and again.  Work in me Your holiness, Your peace, Your wisdom so I may consistently choose to live in Your life and blessing.  In Jesus’ name, amen.