Pressing On In His Footsteps

Isaiah 26:3-4 (AMP) “You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].  Trust [confidently] in the Lord forever [He is your fortress, your shield, your banner], for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].”

Philippians 4:6-7 (Phillips) Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.

Observation

The world around us seems in such upheaval – people calling what is evil good and what is good evil.  Crime is on the rise, our government is crippled and people are celebrating acts of terror.  It seems like the perfect moment to lose our sense of peace and security.  However, the perfect and constant peace, shalom (resting in Christ), the peace of God is not shaken by circumstances around us.  Circumstances are temporary and fluctuating; the peace of God is everlasting (“perfect and constant”). 

To have and rest in this perfect and constant peace requires a close and consistent relationship with the God of Peace.  One key phrase is He “will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.”  Another is “one whose mind is steadfast…Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].”  Any enforced peace (essentially, peace-keeping, lack of conflict) will pass and provides only a temporary pause in the chaos and upheaval.  Only Shalom, the peace that comes from resting in Christ Jesus, will make real change, turning the hearts of hatred into hearts hungry for perfect and constant peace that only comes from trusting in God.

Impact on Me

So, I have been thinking about what resting in Christ Jesus requires.  I think it requires some detachment from the events around me.  I don’t mean ignoring what is going on, but rather allowing all the events and circumstances to become prayer points, actually putting them all in God’s hands to work out.  If I really believe that God is sovereign, almighty, omniscient, and working His plan from before the creation of the Earth, I have to make a decision whether I trust Him or not in the face of dire circumstances which seem to be evil conquering good.

This requires me to be ready to say “yes” to what He requires of me, whether action or inaction.  Peace-making is not the absence of conflict or avoiding risk; it is being an agent of His grace, mercy and forgiveness so the Holy Spirit can begin resolving the root of the conflict, dissolving the animosity, the division, the hatred.  This kind of miracle only happens when I bring God’s peace into the fray with me.  I can only be that kind of agent (the kind that Jesus was on this earth) when my heart and mind are stayed on the shalom that only God can provide.  He is the only source of that perfect and constant peace.  His plan is for all of us to be His agents of peace to the world – regardless of how we are received.

Prayer

Lord God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, I worship You and purposely embrace Your peace.  First, make me full of mercy, grace and forgiveness so I can move past terrifying or wounding circumstances to be what You have called me to be and do what You have called me to do. Teach me to walk in that perfect and constant peace, Your shalom, the wholeness that comes from resting in Christ Jesus.  Draw me closer to You, deeper into relationship with You, so I can be a better and more effective agent of Your peace to the world.  I ask this all in the name of Jesus.  Make it so.

(NKJV) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  ³ He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  ⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.  ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Observation

Sheep depend on their shepherd for everything; the shepherd is literally their source for green pastures, still waters, safe passage, shelter and defense.  The shepherd’s crook (a long strong staff or rod with a curve at the top) served many purposes, such as a weapon to repel predators and a tool to gently guide wandering sheep back into the herd.  Sheep are not equipped to survive on their own.  Neither are we.

The last part of this psalm is about Jesus as host, showing grace and favor to us.  The word translated “follow” has the meaning in it of “chasing after”.  This psalm is God singing His love and protection over us as His children, His personal responsibility. Our part, our choice, is to accept and rest in what He has prepared for us.

Impact on Me

I have heard this psalm read at so many funerals.  I never really took the time to recognize that it was meant to bring hope and comfort to the living, not describe the reward of the person for whom the funeral was being held.  This is a song for the living, to encourage – and, yes, even carry – us through the “valley of the shadow of death” – those dark, desperate and threatening times and places in our lives where we feel like we are alone, abandoned, defenseless and surrounded by evil.  This is God declaring His promise to be our protection, to lead us in righteousness and peace, to be present and active in our lives – as we allow Him to be. 

The culture in which I live can raise barriers to choosing to be that Psalm 23 sheep.  I often have to wrestle with the way I have learned to understand my world and the way God wants me to engage my world.  Surrender and submission have become “shame” words in our culture.  They have come to signify defeat, weakness and subjugation.  Surrender and submission to the Lord are exactly the opposite, signifying my embracing of His victory, strength and freedom as I submit to His care and leading. 

Prayer

Lord God, Everlasting Father, Great Shepherd, Lover of my Soul, help me to become that Psalm 23 sheep, submitted to Your care, Your protection, Your pathway for my life.  May I look to You when the way seems dark and desperate, allowing Your staff to protect me and keep me from wandering, knowing You are always with me.  Help me to see this world and Your purpose for me through Your eyes and with Your heart.  I pray this all in Jesus’ name.  Make it so.

Hebrews  4:12-16  JBP – For the Word that God speaks is alive and active; it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword: it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being: it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart. No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. ^14-15 Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our faith. For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned.  ¹⁶ Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.

Hebrews 4:12-16 MSG  ^12-13 God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what. ^14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin.  So, let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

Observation

“No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”.  We forget this!  We think there are motives and thoughts hidden within us that God cannot see and continue unrepentant in those areas either from arrogance or shame.  Nothing is hidden from God and it is foolish to think we can hide anything from Him.  Arrogance misses the mercy and grace because it cannot admit failure and the need for help; shame misses it because of fear that our value to God is so small that the offense is too great and was not covered by the Cross.  We have an Advocate, One Who is on our side in the Throne Room – Jesus, our great High Priest (“a priest who is [not] out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all.”).  Because of Jesus, we are welcome at the throne of grace. 

Jesus stands ready to provide us the “mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need” – fully cognizant of our sin condition, our past, our rebellions, our arrogance, our shame.  Because of Jesus, God embraces us in our repentant state and releases us restored and redeemed to wholeness – forever changed by the contact and, hopefully, hungry for a increasingly deeper, more intimate, relationship, seeking opportunities to bring joy to the heart of our God, alive with gratitude and love for our Redeemer, and searching for ways to respond to that love so other’s will come to trust in and receive that same grace-filled embrace.

Impact on Me

Before I received Jesus as Lord and Savior, I had many locked rooms inside me – hiding places for my shame, anger, failures, wounds and all those things I didn’t want exposed for fear of rejection.  I had a firm grip on the keys to all those rooms.  No one was ever going to enter them.  Those keys and the contents of the rooms held me captive.  Over the years, as I allowed His Word, His grace, His redemption to work in me  (cut away with His Word), I learned to trust one key after another in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  He could clean out those rooms because He already knew what each room contained.  He knows my “place where soul and spirit meet, … the innermost intimacies of a man’s being….” He was waiting for me to trust Him with my darkest secrets, my most painful moments, my deepest wounds.  I came to know by experience that His Word, when allowed freedom to work in me, “exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart” and, yet, gives grace, redemption, healing and freedom for the evil, hurt and failure that previously held me captive.

So, as I continue to submit to and conform to His Word, the Holy Spirit performs surgery on my soul – “For the Word that God speaks is alive and active; it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword.”  This surgery to remove “diseased parts” hurts until healing does its work to leave only a scar as a reminder.  Allowing His Word to do its surgery will sometimes bring embarrassment, pain and sorrow as it exposes our shame, sins and failures, but submitting to the knife of the Word of God will expose His grace and mercy, bringing healing which allows me to embrace a deeper relationship with Him. 

Prayer

Lord God, Great Surgeon, Merciful Father, Fountain of Grace, I am so grateful that I can be sure of grace and mercy as I come in repentance to bow before You in praise and worship.  Use that sword of Your Word on me to cut away fear, shame and all the unlovely, unproductive, worldly motives, desires, words and actions.  I desire to please You – first, foremost and always.  May I be everyday more like Jesus, living and walking as He did on this earth  – confident in His relationship with You, a humble, obedient and bold servant and, when necessary, a sacrifice.  May I be focused only on fulfilling Your will and purpose no matter what the cost to me.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.

Micah  6:6-8 (MSG) – How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God?  Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves?  Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil?  Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?  But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.  It’s quite simple:  Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.

Micah 6:8 AMP – He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?

Observation

Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah circa 800 BC, was one of the prophets who began to speak for God directly to the people rather than to the king (as did Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha).  Micah spoke both God’s warning regarding injustices committed on a personal level and, also, of hope because of God’s willingness to forgive those who will commit to change their hearts.  Micah made it very clear that God is against those who think they can wash away deliberately committed sin with a sacrifice (the “I’m going to do what I want now and I’ll repent later” syndrome).  This portion of Micah is reminding the people that trusting obedience (listening and obeying even when we don’t understand) is better than any amount of sacrifice (see Saul’s big mistake in 1 Samuel 13:9-12).

Micah 6:8 brings pleasing God down to 3 things. 

• Treating others justly (fairly, decently, equally, honestly). 
• Being kind and merciful (forgiving, forbearing, compassionate, gracious) to others. 
• Walking out this life humbly (respectfully, simply, submitted) with and to God.  

These 3 echo another familiar set of verses describing how God wants us to walk out this life.   1 Corinthians 13 (NIV) ⁴ 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.  Choosing obedience in these, too, requires a true openness and submission to allowing the Holy Spirit to change our selfish human flesh-driven hearts.  It can only happen when we condition our souls to listen to and obey the Spirit of Jesus in us rather than going with the pre-salvation flow.

Impact on Me

Micah 6:8 is a life-defining verse for me.  When the Word of God says that He has shown me what is good and pleasing to Him, I need to pay attention to what follows.  God is not asking me to fix all of the world’s problems.  He is asking me to allow Him to fix me so that others can see Him working in and through me, evidenced by the fruit of His Spirit and His love guiding my behavior, my choices.  It is my part to choose to listen, obey and walk humbly in submission to Him so I can be changed into what He needs me to be to do what He has called me to do. 

These 3 commands are all within my ability to choose to obey, irrespective of the circumstances surrounding the opportunity or what I think it might cost me.  I can choose to be fair, decent and honest even if the one benefitting is not a nice or honest person or, in my estimation, deserving of what he/she will receive.  I can choose to be kind and merciful (forgiving, compassionate, gracious) whether or not I receive the same in return.  It is my choice whether to steal God’s glory or give Him all the credit when I am fully aware that, without His power, grace and anointing, I would be merely another human worshipping myself and my accomplishments.  Living in this Micah 6:8 mode is part of the Romans 12 “putting it all on the altar” in order to be conformed to God’s kingdom, His principles and His methods.  As I choose this life style of consecration, the Lord will share with me the part I am to play in bringing others to the knowledge of Christ and the salvation available in Him.  The actual calling on each of us is God’s prerogative; we serve at His pleasure.

Prayer

Father God, Almighty, Omniscient, Everlasting, Savior, Lord of my life, remind me often of this simple list that brings You pleasure.  There are so many areas and individual circumstances where I struggle to hear and must weigh the options because I am not sure what is pleasing to You at that moment.  This simple list will help me choose.  My bottom line is always a desire to give You joy in Your heart in everything I do.  Lead me in doing so.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.

2 Cor 10:3-5  ESV   ³For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 MSG  The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Observation

Paul knew we needed to be reminded often that we do not operate on a purely human level.  The true battle of the ages occurs in the invisible realm of our souls – our minds and hearts.  What we can hear, touch and see may seem more real to us, but our minds and hearts are where the most powerful battle rages, affecting not only our life on this earth but also our life ever after.  These eternal battles are spiritual, unseen, and outside our human comprehension, so we should not be surprised that the weaponry for battling in the spiritual realm may seem strange but nonetheless is incomprehensible in its power.  We forget that all we can humanly do is nothing compared to what Christ can do in and through us if we will conform ourselves to “the structure of life shaped by Christ.” 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time could ignore all of the miraculous power and authority in and through Jesus because He did not fit the picture they had of Messiah, a great and mighty warrior who would merely change their earthly situation – overcoming and driving out the Romans to re-establish a Jewish state.  How tragic that their fixed expectation caused them to miss Messiah in the flesh.  What we determine God should do in a situation – the plans and accomplishments we have determined are just and right in our human senses and culture – are not always in sync with what God is set to accomplish.  He is willing to trade winning individual battles in order to win the war.   Just obedience (doing what He teaches us to do) rather than following our flesh (what we want to do), whether we understand or agree or have confidence that His way will work, has a high impact in the spiritual realm.  If we will really be so gracious and forgiving as to turn the other cheek rather than be offended and strike back, the enemy has lost his power and control over us in that place – one victory for Jesus’ side!

Impact on Me

So, I want to always be equipped with “powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”  This requires setting aside what I can do on my own, with my own hands, and becoming (surrendering as) an instrument in God’s hands.  Obedience requires that I take the Sermon on the Mount seriously because it will equip me with those powerful God-tools in my service to Him.  Obedience requires that I trade my human weapons for His weapons and trust that any cost to me is worth the benefit to Him.

Therefore, I recognize that the weapons of our spiritual warfare are the same ones Jesus used in His ministry – prayer, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control, grace, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, among so many others rooted in the relationship modeled by Jesus for us as He walked this earth and by Father God for us over the ages.  I must commit to take captive every thought of offense, pride, personal praise, revenge and every other un-Jesus-like judgment.  Will I always succeed?  No, but I do know how to repent and be restored.  Thank You, God, for creating repentance, reconciliation and restoration of relationship with You.

Prayer

Lord, cause me to be aware of the choices as I live out my day.  Teach me to war with Your weapons.  Let me be intentional in the weapons I choose for each battle, led and guided by You in how I fight, when I fight, and the battles I choose. I want to be an instrument in Your hands for bringing Your victory.  Help me on the journey of “fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” I want to be obedient and accountable to you in all things.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.