Flashback Friday – To Be Fully Known and Fully Loved

“Deep down, our root desire is really about longing for the experience of real love, that somebody would know us totally and at the same time love us completely.”

– Jared C. Wilson

What is the worst thing you have ever done? How many people have you told about it? The majority of us would say none, or maybe there’s that one friend who is “closer than a brother.” But the truth is, most of us are afraid to share the deepest parts of ourselves with someone because we think they won’t accept us. Our deepest desire is to be loved the way we are, but the way we are is messy. And so we don’t open up. We don’t let people in because that leaves open the chance that they might reject us, and we don’t want to get hurt. If love is our deepest desire, then not being loved is our greatest fear.

But what if I told you there was someone who knew everything about you—your deepest anxieties, your dirty past, your present struggles with sin—and yet loved you anyway? That the vulnerability risk was zero? Would you let that person in?

The good news is that there is someone like that. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God saw all our messy parts, every shameful secret, every sin we would commit day in and day out, and yet he chose to give his life for us anyway. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

There is no greater love we could ever experience than the love of God.

Consider what Solomon says about human love—the love between a man and a woman:

Love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised. Song of Songs 8:6-7

Love is powerful—it is as strong as death, has flashes of fire, and many waters cannot quench it, nor floods drown it. Love is precious—even if a man offered everything he possessed in exchange for love, it would be a ludicrous offer and never enough.

While human love is a precious and divine gift to be highly valued and enjoyed, human love will disappoint. No man or woman is perfect; no friendship is flawless. You will have your ugly days, and so will the people you love. If you are waiting for a person to give you the perfect love of being fully known and yet fully loved, you will never be satisfied.

Now, let’s consider God’s love.

God’s love will never leave you or forsake you. God knows you most intimately and yet still says he’s not going anywhere. Human love flourishes and fades like the flowers, but God’s love is faithful and endures forever.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37–39

God’s love is better than life. There is nothing our hearts can crave, no human intimacy (physical, mental, or spiritual), no love in a relationship—there is nothing we can experience this side of heaven that can come close to comparing to the pleasure and satisfaction we can know in God’s love.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you. Psalms 63:3

God’s love is unchanging. It is not dependent on anything we do. God doesn’t love us less on our bad days. And he doesn’t love us more on our good days. His love emanates from the essence of who he is, and that will never change. When God set his love upon the Israelite people, it wasn’t because they were particularly loveable, but because God chose to love them. And it is the same for us.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers. Deuteronomy 7:7–8

In God, all our fears of rejection fade away because “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18a). We are free to be messy, rough-around-the-edges kind of people. God sees every part of us—the roses and the thorns—and loves us anyway. But he doesn’t intend to leave us that way. In fact, God loved us so much that he saw all our thorns and mess, had compassion on us, and determined to rescue us so we could experience the deepest intimacy imaginable—personal, everlasting fellowship with Love himself (1 John 4:8b), the kind of relationship that comes with having faith in Jesus Christ.

Only the love of Christ can perfectly fulfill our longing for love and satisfy our deepest desire to be adored and belong to another—faults and all—with no fear of that love ever failing, waning, or giving up. In Christ, we can finally be fully known and yet fully loved.

V. Rose – “At My Worst”

Discipline Yourself

“The best time to buy used dumbbells is in the spring because people have given up on their New Year’s resolution by then,” said the salesperson at my local used sports-equipment store.

I chuckled a bit. Even though I am a “fitness for life” type of person, I knew his statement to be amusing but true. Many people start with grand intentions and fizzle out like a bottle rocket. Getting physically fit is hard work, and when you don’t always see immediate results, it’s easy to get discouraged. Whether you’re a New Year’s resolution gym-goer or a lifelong fitness junkie, getting the results you want takes discipline, effort, and consistency.

If you’ve never exercised before, you don’t just magically pop out of bed at 5 a.m. each day to go for a run or lift weights. Your body is not used to that type of routine. It takes discipline to start. Even if you’re a seasoned fitness pro, there are days when you just don’t want to exercise. It takes discipline on those hard days to get up and put in the work.

And yes, it’s going to be work—that means it will be hard. There are days when my brain starts bawling because it remembers the strain from yesterday. This is where we must choose discipline; we tell our brains we’re going to do it anyway because, yes, it’s hard, but the benefits outweigh the momentary discomfort. If we don’t put in the effort, we’re not going to see progress.

Developing muscle doesn’t just take effort; it requires repeated, consistent effort. Doing sit-ups once a week is not going to get you the six-pack you desire. Similarly, doing two sit-ups, even if you do them every day, is not going to produce the results you want. To grow muscle and shed fat, you must put muscle under repeated, consistent pressure. Fitness trainers call it time under tension. Time under tension makes your muscle grow; it trains your muscle to do what you want it to do.

The same is true with our spiritual lives.

The apostle Paul says, “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7b–8). The word train could also be translated discipline. That is why Christians call the tools we use to train ourselves for godliness the spiritual disciplines. Think of them like you would crunches, planks, and sit-ups for your ab muscles—they’re the things that help trim away the spiritual fat of sin and worldliness and begin to shape you into what you want to look like—Christ. These are things like Bible reading, prayer, meditation, worship, fasting, and service to others, to name a few.

They are disciplines because doing these things doesn’t come easily or naturally. They are things we must train ourselves to do until they become a habit—a regular, normal part of our day. We want to love God more and our sin less; we want to become more like Christ. But when we do not discipline ourselves to grow in godliness, we’re not going to see the results we desire. Just like exercise, it helps to set a time and place we are going to read our Bible and pray, and then stick to it. Even then, there will be days when we just don’t feel like it. It’s on these days we must remind ourselves that the benefits of godliness far outweigh the strain or difficulty we may feel in doing the work. Paul says that godliness holds promise not only for this life but also for the life to come.

We must put in the work. Paul exhorts us to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12b). Doing the work of training ourselves for godliness (or sanctification) is what he is talking about. The spiritual disciplines require work. Listening to a sermon requires mental effort. So does prayer—Jesus was so focused on doing God’s will (knowing the pain and suffering that was to come) that he shed drops of blood as he prayed (Luke 22:44). Meditating—or dwelling on how we need to apply God’s Word to our lives—also requires mental effort and focus. We may not be lifting heavy dumbbells, but applying ourselves to consider God’s Word requires exertion.

Disciplining yourself for godliness also requires consistency. When our training consists of once-a-week church attendance but is lacking in prayer, Bible reading, and deeply pondering the things of God the rest of the week, we will not really grow in our relationship with God. Yet many will complain that they don’t feel very close to God or see how he is working in their lives. This is like doing a few crunches on Sunday morning and then bemoaning our bellies the rest of the week, saying we don’t understand why we feel lethargic and out of shape!

We must put in diligent, habitual effort to grow in knowing and loving our God more and to be conformed to his ways. Our spirits need time under tension. And the good news is that the results are guaranteed! As we work out our salvation, we’re not doing it alone. As we put in the effort, “it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). His supernatural power is at work in us, building our spiritual muscles in order to bring the work he began in us to completion (Philippians 1:6). That is enough to encourage us to keep going even on the hardest of days!

The previous article was originally published at https://lifeword.org/blog/discipline-yourself/

Flashback Friday – Why Am I Being Tempted and is God Responsible?

Temptation is a common occurrence for humanity. We are tempted to break our diet by that delicious looking morsel of chocolate; we are tempted to sleep in an extra half hour instead of hitting the gym; we are tempted to buy a new item we know we don’t really need. But where does temptation come from? Why are we tempted in the first place? And what hope is there to resist?

Most of us don’t think about the reality of daily temptations any further than quipping on social media about failing attempts to keep New Year’s resolutions. But thinking deeper about the source and purpose of the battles we face each day will better equip us to fight when they threaten to overtake us.

Where does temptation come from?

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, was no stranger to temptation. In three of the four gospels, we can read about the temptation of Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry. Matthew accounts, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

There are two key things to notice here. First, Jesus was led up by the Spirit. God himself was the one guiding Jesus to the place where he would be tempted. How could this be?

There is nothing outside the control of God’s sovereign will. The apostle Paul tells us that God “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). And God’s word, as recorded by the prophet Isaiah, says:

I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it. Isaiah 46:9-11

This is important to remember when considering temptation. Our temptations do not take God by surprise. God wasn’t blindsided by Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. He didn’t scramble around heaven, hastily throwing down some ministering angels to rescue his Son out of a terrible predicament. The whole scene was prearranged by him.

And so it is for us. God leads us to the temptations we face. This is why Jesus models how to pray by saying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

Secondly, it is important to note that although God does the leading, he does not do the tempting. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, it was to be tempted by the devil, not by God. James writes, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). This is paramount for us to grasp so that, in our already weakened state of temptation, we are not also tempted to accuse God of doing wrong. He is too holy and good to be capable of evil.

Additionally, as God is doing the planning and the leading, and Satan is holding out the proverbial forbidden fruit, the Bible makes it clear that we also play a part in our temptation. James goes on to say that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14). If it weren’t for something inside of us that craved the forbidden thing, it wouldn’t be possible for us to be tempted in the first place. The desire inside of us that creates a craving for things contrary to God’s law is a result of our fallen sinful nature. And it is our own desire that gives way to sin and ultimately makes us responsible for our own demise (James 1:15).

For what purpose are we tempted?

Since God leads us to different temptations, it is not possible for them to have an evil purpose because God is not capable of evil. But why does he do it? What good purpose could they possibly have in our lives?

Why is it that the person celebrating six months of sobriety suddenly has alcohol shoved in their face at an office party? Why does the person trying to leave a shameful relationship in the past randomly hear a slew of songs on the radio that remind them of the romance? Why does the person who hates to love to gossip just happen to be in earshot of a private conversation?

Again, we can go to James and see that trials and temptations come in order to test us: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). The purpose of the temptation is that we will learn to resist. We should not see the temptation as a sign that we are supposed to cave but as an invitation to fight.

The alcohol is not there for the recovering alcoholic to give up all restraint and indulge. The love songs are not there for the person struggling with sexually immorality to ignore godly wisdom and call up their old flame. The conversation is not overheard to give the gossiper more fuel for the fire of their tongue. Temptations are a call for us to stand firm against the schemes of the prowling prince of darkness who is cleverly using the desires of our hearts against us. They are a call to remain steadfast under trial, knowing that if we stand firm to the end, we will receive the everlasting crown of life God has promised us through Christ. And they are a call to see our utter dependence on God because we cannot stand firm against temptation without him.

Help in time of need

And God will help us when we are tempted. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God does not lead us into the wilderness of temptation as a cruel joke in order to watch us squirm. He loves us and he knows what is best for us. He knows the only way to melt the dross away from the diamond of our hearts is to expose its dark places, make us face them, and then give us the grace we need to escape them.

Often when we are tempted, we feel like we are the only one facing such battles. We are tempted to think we must bear this burden alone and that there is no way out. But God has not left us to waver in the wilderness alone. He has given us his Son and his Spirit.

Christ is able to help us when we are tempted because he also suffered while being tempted (Hebrews 2:18). He sympathizes with us because he became one of us and went through the same things we do, yet we can look to him because he did it perfectly, without sin. He is there to offer mercy and grace in our time of need and provide the way of escape (Hebrews 4:15-16). The Holy Spirit is there inside of us, empowering us to endure and “not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16), and strengthening our hearts according to the Word.

When we are tempted, instead of seeing it as a greenlight to give in, let us stop, remind ourselves of what is true according to God’s Word, and take our temptations to the throne of grace in prayer:

Lord, I know this temptation is not by accident. I see your sovereign hand guiding me here, not to give me license to sin, but to produce something good in me that wouldn’t happen any other way. I am weak, Lord, but you are strong. Your Word says this temptation is not something I am unable to bear; I do not have to give in. Thank you that you have already given me the power to resist and endure through the Spirit. Deliver me from the evil desires of my own heart. Amen.

Flashback Friday – Room for Doubt

A woman wept alone in her hotel room—a crumpled heap in the middle of the bed, only able to grip the sheets in agony. Each tear assaulted her like a tidal wave of doubt. Her face contorted from crying out as she faced her dilemma: she had been following Christ for many years now, but wondered if someone could be truly saved who had just sinned as grievously and for as long as she had.

Perhaps we have faced a similar crisis—some situation or sin in our lives causes us to be at a crossroads of whether we truly know the Lord or not. So what should we do when we doubt our salvation?

Some people tell you to write the date in the front of your Bible that you prayed a prayer of salvation, or walked an aisle during an invitation, or got baptized. Then if you ever doubt your salvation, those people tell you to open your Bible, look at the date, and be at peace because that one event in your life proves you are a Christian.

This is heresy of the greatest kind and actually harmful to people because it can leave them stuck on the road to eternal torment and punishment for their sins in hell.

It is good to remember the day of your salvation and be thankful for the grace given to you when God began a good work in your life. But the Bible never tells us to look to a date for assurance. If we are dependent on a moment for our salvation rather than currently looking to the crucified Savior, then we may have good reason to doubt our position before God. The true evidence of genuine saving faith is not in a one moment event but rather in a current examination of our lives.

Jesus says that the one who truly believes will demonstrate their faith by a life that bears fruit (Mark 4:20). He is not talking about apples and oranges here. However, just as the outward produce of an apple tree is a sign that it really is an apple tree, a Christian’s life will display evidence that instills confidence of being the genuine article. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

In fact, Paul tells the Corinthian church they should search for this evidence in their lives: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Moments of doubt can actually be a good thing if we use them to look for signs that we are “walk[ing] by the Spirit, and . . . not gratify[ing] the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

If we are walking according to the flesh, Paul says it will be evident. Our lives will be marked by “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19–21). The warning is that if our lives line up more with these things, then we can have no confidence that we will “inherit the kingdom of God.”

On the contrary, the Christian’s life will be marked by “the fruit of the Spirit” which “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). If we truly “belong to Christ Jesus” we will “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).

This is huge. In our moments of doubt, our response to our sin plays a pivotal factor in our assurance. Are we bearing fruit by keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8)? That is, when we sin, is our conscience pricked and grieved over our offense against God, causing us to despise and reject our sin and turn once again to Christ for forgiveness? Are we willing to forsake our sin in order to gain Christ? Are we daily asking the Spirit to help us obey God and not give into temptation? Or is our sin not a big deal to us?

If the latter is the case, then there is much room for doubt that we truly know the Lord.

When we come up against a “crisis of faith” (questioning if we are truly saved or not), it is a cause for alarm, but not the kind you might think. We do not need to be alarmed that the very act of doubting our salvation will send us to hell. The crime is not in the questioning. Rather, the crisis moment causes an alarm to go off in us, alerting us to the danger of sin.

The Christian’s alarm may be caused by a grievous sin they have allowed to go on in their life without repentance. Now the Spirit is alerting them to the grave danger they are in if they do not flee from it and turn back to Christ.

The non-Christian may be alerted to their sin for the very first time and experience a critical juncture in their life—to repent of their sins and turn to Christ for salvation, or to ignore their current distress and continue living as before.

Doubting brings us to a place where we can receive grace—either the grace of assurance or the grace to repent and believe.

The Christian can gain assurance they belong to God, not by turning to the date written in their Bible and brushing away any nagging conviction of sin, but by repenting of their sin and continuing to follow Jesus. Doubt can bring a non-Christian to the realization that they never knew Christ as their Savior, therefore giving them the chance to call on his name and be saved. Both must look to Christ, and not to themselves, to provide relief from their burden of sin and doubt.

Do not fear those times when doubt creeps in. Do not ignore those moments that nag your conscience. Rather, do honestly examine yourself. Do forsake your sin. Do call to the Lord to save you, and then do cling to Christ in assurance that he promises he will save everyone who calls upon his name (Romans 10:13).

Faithful Follower

Have you ever found yourself somewhere you didn’t want to be? Life takes an unexpected turn, and suddenly, the hopes and plans we had give way to rough circumstances or a particularly long, difficult season of life. Now, what if those unfavorable circumstances are the result of someone else’s sin—either against us or in our sphere? How can we be faithful followers of Christ when life seems unfair?

This is where Joshua and Caleb found themselves. They were the only two spies out of twelve who gave a faithful report when God commanded the Israelites to survey the promised land he was giving them to possess. Consequently, they were the only two people from their generation and older who got to enter the promised land and dwell there (Numbers 13). But before that could happen, they had to wander the wilderness for forty more years!

They had already traveled the desert for forty years just to arrive at the promised land. Imagine how tired you are after a long road trip—it’s sweaty summertime, the kids are whining, everyone’s achy and irritable, and you just want to take a shower and collapse in a soft bed. Now multiply that by forty years, thousands of people, stinky animals, and a whole lot of sand. Now imagine that upon arriving at your hotel, the manager says you aren’t allowed to enter the building! Sorry! Try again in forty years!

Joshua and Caleb were there, not for any wrong they had done but for the sins of other people! Caleb, it is said, was in his prime. He arrived at the edge of the promised land when he was forty years old. He had known nothing but quail, manna, tents, and sand. How sweet the idea of moving into a land flowing with milk and honey and choice fruits must have been! He could have spent some of his best years there—a strong man in the prime of life, serving the Lord and enjoying the fruits of his labor and the land. Yet because of other people’s sins, all of that was stripped from him. It was not until he was eighty-five that he got to enter the promised land (Joshua 14).

When we find ourselves in a similar situation, we can emulate the example of Joshua and Caleb. Although they could have spent the second forty years of their lives bitter and grumbling against the Israelites who had sinned and placed them in this predicament, they chose a different route instead—or rather, the same route they had always followed.

They remained faithful to the precepts of the Lord. When their former leader, Moses, died, God spoke to Joshua and said, “Be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go” (Joshua 1:7). Joshua and Caleb were faithful to obey the Lord even in the midst of difficult circumstances, even when others might have said God was being unfair or unkind to treat them this way when they had done nothing wrong. But instead of believing the lie that God had given up on them, and therefore giving up on him, they were careful to “ponder the path of [their] feet” and “not swerve to the right or to the left” but “turn [their] foot away from evil” (Proverbs 4:26a, 27). We also want to faithfully obey God’s commands even when it feels pointless or unfruitful, knowing that God is worth following no matter what our circumstances.

They made a regular habit of taking in the Word of God. God’s emphasis on the importance of his Word was clear when he instructed Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8). They were to make a daily practice of reading, thinking about, and talking about God’s Word. It was to inform their everyday living, giving the reason, substance, and guardrails for all they did. Just as they were commanded in Deuteronomy 6, they were to talk about God’s Word when they woke in the morning, when they lay down at night, when they were sitting in their house, and when they were walking by the way.

God’s reasoning for meditating on his Word was clear—“For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” This was a reminder of his warning in Deuteronomy 6 that once they entered the promised land, they might be tempted to forget about God and how he sustained them through trials. But if they stayed grounded in his Word, they would be prosperous in more than just the bounty of the land. We, too, are reminded that if we are faithful to God’s Word in the hard seasons, it will be easier to remain faithful to him in the abundant times.

They prepared for when their circumstances would change. There were physical preparations to be made—they had to get provisions and their possessions ready to cross over the Jordan River and enter their new homeland (Joshua 1:11). If they did not prepare, they would not be ready in a few days when God called them to move. No one wants to be a last-minute packer when you finally get to enter the land you’ve been waiting on for forty years!

There were also spiritual preparations to be made. God repeatedly commanded them to be strong and courageous—to continue to trust him despite the surmounting circumstances and to have their hearts ready when he called them to go (Joshua 1:6–7a, 9). Similarly, we may not see the timeline for when God is going to bring us out of our dry circumstances and into a place of bounty and rest, but we want to be ready when he does, even if that time is not till he calls us to heaven. We want to be like the faithful five virgins who were ready and waiting with enough oil for their lamps instead of the five who were lacking in provisions (Matthew 25:1–13).

They wholly followed the Lord, through good and bad. From the time Caleb was forty years old and spied out the promised land of Canaan till the time he was eighty-five and had been wandering the desert all those years for the sin of his fellow Israelites, it is said he “wholly followed the Lord [his] God” (Joshua 14:8b, 9b). Other people’s sin did not cause him to sin, waver in his faith, or turn away from God. He remained true to God and firmly convinced of what he had always believed—that God is a good, faithful, and strong provider and that he is worthy to be followed through the good times and the bad. When all seemed to be lost, Caleb knew God had not lost him.

When we consider the difficult times of our life—times when it may be easier to complain, be bitter, or give up—we will be helped to remember the example of these two men in the wilderness. They continued to faithfully obey the Lord, made a daily habit of being in his Word, were prepared for when their circumstances might change, and wholly followed God through the rough and the smooth places—even when they had to wait to see the fruit of their faithfulness. When people look at our lives and the hard places we are in or have come out of, may it also be said of us, “They wholly followed the Lord their God.”

The previous article was originally published at https://lifeword.org/blog/faithful-follower/

In Jesus’ Name

Perhaps the most misunderstood three words in the English language are in Jesus’ name.

Some people use these words like an incantation over wishes they want to come true. To others, it’s nothing more than an empty phrase they were taught to say as a kid in church—they don’t really know why they say it, but it’s polite and expected. It means nothing more to them than saying “you too” after the cashier says, “Have a nice day,” or “Thank you” when grandma passes the butter.

Yet some think saying in Jesus’ name is putting God’s cosmic stamp of approval on their prayer. Without it, their prayer was ho-hum; but now, suddenly it is signed, sealed, and delivered.

This kind of thinking is not as ludicrous as it may seem. Like many misunderstandings in the Christian faith, it finds its touchpoint in Scripture before it goes askew.

Jesus himself says in John 14:13–14:

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Does this mean we can ask for a new car in Jesus’ name and immediately look out the window to find a shiny vehicle with a big red bow on top? Can we ask for millions of dollars in Jesus’ name and then win the lottery the next day?

James would answer these questions with a big fat no. Many people have done this and have not received positive results. Why?

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).

There is a way we can ask for things in Jesus’ name and yet still ask wrongly—when we ask out of selfish motives. When we are primarily concerned with fulfilling our own desires and lusts instead of what will most glorify God, then we cannot expect our prayers to be answered the way we want.

To understand what Jesus means when he says he will do anything we ask in his name, we must first try to understand what Jesus’ name means.

Jesus claims the name of the one true God of the Old Testament when he uses the phrase “I am” in John 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This is the same name God used when he appeared to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3:14–15:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

God revealed to Moses that his name, “the Lord” or “Jehovah,” meant “I AM WHO I AM,” or more simply, “I AM.” In addition to calling himself “I AM,” Jesus is also called “the Lord.” We know that Jesus does not falsely claim the name of God because, as pastor/theologian Joel Beeke says, “It is inconceivable that God would share his special name with someone not God, for he says, ‘I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory I will not give to another’ (Isa. 42:8).”

Jesus can claim the special name of God because he is God. By claiming God’s name, he also claims everything that name denotes.

“I AM” reveals God’s self-existence and eternality—that God’s existence depends on nothing or no one else, and he has always and will always exist. It reveals his sovereignty—God rules over all, and he has the power to do all his holy will. And it reveals his unchangeableness and faithfulness—God does not change in his being or change his mind, and he is trustworthy to keep all his promises.  

God’s name expresses the meaning of his very existence, or his character. Even though some of that meaning remains mysterious to us as finite human beings, when we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking God to bless our prayer with all the power and meaning his name possesses. We can expect that God will answer prayers which are in line with his name. When we pray for things that are good, loving, merciful, wise, and righteous, we can be confident God will give us what we ask because God is all of those things. When we pray for things that line up with God’s Word, we can know that God will do the things he has promised because his name means he is a covenant-keeping God.

In all of this, we must remember that to rightly pray in Jesus’ name is to pray God’s will—because God wills that which will most glorify his name.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

Praying in Jesus’ name is not a powerful tool to be wielded for our every whim; it is asking the very person of God to do what lines up with his holy being and to do it in his sovereign power, timing, and faithfulness. The more we understand God’s name, the more our prayer life will be altered as we begin to pray for things that accord with his character. Praying in Jesus’ name will no longer be a manipulated and misunderstood tagline but give confidence and life to our prayers.

The previous article was originally published at https://lifeword.org/blog/in-jesus-name/

Flashback Friday – Comparison-itis and the Preeminence of Christ

When I get in a room of other women I don’t know very well, I’m not immediately uncomfortable. But then they start talking, and my insides start to squirm a little. This is what happened the last time I was at my Homeschool Co-op. But let me backup the story a little bit.

I am 30 years old. I have been a Christian for 15 of those years. Christ, in his kindness, has sanctified me past the superficial, first impression uncomfortableness that we ladies tend to get when we gather—you know, the “check-out-if-your-shoes-clothes-hair-makeup-physique-exceed-or-fall-short-of-the-other-women-in-the-room” routine. God has graciously brought me to the understanding that he desires beauty on the inside (Proverbs 31:10; 1 Peter 3:3-4) and that my treasure is my Lord, not earthly possessions (Matthew 6:19-21).

But back to the room full of women. When the conversation starts, what do women like to talk about: their kids, their homes, their hobbies, their husbands. This day was no different. And I immediately started to feel like anything I said would be stacked up, measured, and found lacking in the light of the other ladies. Don’t get me wrong; I was in a room of lovely Christian ladies who were being kind and just trying to build relationships. So why did I feel this way? Why do I struggle with this? Why do I, and so many women, kill ourselves with comparison?

After this last bout of comparison-itis, I tried to get to the root of the problem—the heart. I know I struggle with wanting others to think well of me. I don’t necessarily want to make them feel bad about themselves, but I want to be praised. I want the attention and applause. And during these conversational quests for the limelight, I sometimes struggle to be interested in what other people are saying. Some of my anxiousness, A.K.A “the squirmies,” comes from impatiently anticipating when the other person will stop talking so that I can be heard. I am preoccupied with wanting others to listen to me, but don’t always care about what they have to say. This is easy not to notice about me. I am shy, kind of quiet, and am mostly a good listener. But the sin of idolatry is in my heart, and I secretly (well, not secret anymore) want to be on the throne in my life and in the lives of others. I am more concerned about my fame increasing than God’s fame. I want to be made much of and to be seen as great, instead of pointing people to the greatness of God. I want laud, honor, and preeminence.

Now that I know the heart issue, what about the solution? To find it, I went to the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit graciously reminded me of these verses:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

When I start to think of myself as great or desire my own fame, I need to ask myself a few questions: Am I able to create the universe and everything in it with my words? Have I existed before all of creation began? Were all things created for me, or am I just a blade of grass, graciously allowed to enjoy the sun shining down on me during my short life? Am I able to resurrect myself from the dead, or do I need a perfect Savior, who overcame death and the grave to be the only acceptable sacrifice for my sins before the Father, making me alive with him? Was the fullness of God pleased to dwell in me? Or am I able to reconcile all the things in this sinful and broken world to the Father through myself?

The answers are in the text! If ever there is a time that I desire to be lifted high, I need to read these verses and ask God to bring me low! We will get a right perspective on our position if we meditate on the preeminence of Christ!

When I start to compare myself to other people, I need to recognize that the only person I should compare myself to is Christ. When I clearly do not measure up, I need to thank him that he died for me even when I was a sinner, all for his fame; that his name would be made much of, not mine. I also need to realize that because Christ redeemed me from sin and the grave, now I am a beloved child of God and precious in his sight. What does it matter if I do not measure up to others, because “the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but The Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). When God looks at my heart, he now sees one of perfect righteousness, imputed to me by grace through faith in his Son. If I dwell on the greatness of the God who would crush his one and only Son to purchase my soul, then it will not matter if I get to be heard or look good in front of others. It will only matter if I make much of him and spread the greatness of his name to everyone around me.

A Fresh Start: Should I Make a New Year’s Resolution?

A new year. A fresh start. Turning over a new leaf. So many of us look forward to better things to come as we turn that last calendar page over to reveal a clean slate. We long for better health, mended relationships, spiritual victories, and success in a myriad of other areas. To accomplish this, we make New Year’s resolutions and vow that this year will be different . . . better somehow. But should we even make New Year’s resolutions, and if so, how do we get them to stick?

First, we must admit that there is nothing sacred or holy about January 1. If we want change that badly, why wait? I typically do not make New Year’s resolutions because I believe that if there is something I want to change in my life, I can do it any of the other 364 days of the year.

Secondly, jumping on the resolution bandwagon doesn’t have a well-proven track record of success. I have made New Year’s resolutions in the past, such as losing X number of pounds or exercising more. Most of those goals only lasted till the end of January, if that! February failures seem to be a common theme for most people.

However, there is nothing wrong with wanting change for the better, and if January 1 seems like an appealing date for a fresh start, that’s okay—go for it.

No matter the date, how do we go about keeping the changes we desire to make? Too often, if you are like me, we set out with good intentions, but they don’t last.

Paul knew about this all too well in the realm of spiritual matters. Every time he tried to do good, he did the opposite:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:15–24)

Do you ever feel that way? That there is something that you want to do, but you keep doing the same old thing again? That you have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out? That you are captive to your old ways? I have certainly felt that way! Paul was so sick of his sin predicament that he shouts out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

You see, Paul knew that he could never do the good he wanted to do on his own because there was nothing good about his own person. He knew if he wanted to do the right thing, he needed someone to deliver him from himself. It is the same for us. We are all in bondage to our flesh and sin, and “there is none who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). The wages we earn for our sin is death (Romans 3:23). That’s why Paul cried out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

The answer to that question for Paul, and for all of us, is in verse 25:

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

(There should be 1,000 exclamation marks after that statement!)

Paul knew we all needed a Savior, a Rescuer, who could free us from the curse of our sin, and that Rescuer is the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

The first step to keeping a New Year’s resolution is acknowledging you are a sinner in bondage to your sin and that you cannot do anything good on your own. Then call out to the Rescuer to deliver you from your body of death.

The next steps, for any resolution, whether spiritual (reading your Bible more, praying more, memorizing more Scripture), physical (losing weight, exercising more, eating healthier), or fighting a bad habit or sin (quitting smoking, battling anger or lust or laziness) would be:

1. Seek the Lord first and prayerfully commit your ways to him.

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act” (Psalms 37:4–5).

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:6).

If you are delighting in God you will love the things he loves; your desires will be aligned with his will. That is when he gives you the desires of your heart; when they are his desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord, and he will act. Acknowledge him (seek him, ask him for his wisdom about every situation) and he will direct your paths.

2. Realize you cannot do this in your own strength but in his.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10).

We are called to be strong, but it is never a pull yourself up by your own bootstraps kind of strong. It is a strength that comes from total dependence on someone greater than us. (This is opposite to the world’s view of strength.) We are to be strong “in the Lord” and “in the strength of his might.”

3. Fully rely on God’s abounding grace.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

In our flesh, we will fail at every good work, but God’s grace is able to make us abound in every good work.

4. When we fail, boast in our weaknesses.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Christ’s perfect power is displayed and glorified against the shredded backdrop of our weaknesses and failures. Don’t get discouraged or heap guilt on yourself when you mess up again, but rejoice that you are weak and your Savior is strong.

Happy New Year, and God bless you with his love, kindness, and grace this year!

This article was also published at https://lifeword.org/blog/a-fresh-start/

 

Peace – Advent 2023

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:4–5)

The prophet Micah spoke of a great shepherd and ruler who would come from Bethlehem to stop the oppression of his people and be their peace. Isaiah prophesied of a child who would come to end bloody battle tumult and rule in unending peace. The angels proclaimed peace and goodwill at the birth of the Messiah who fulfilled these sayings.  

But too often we do not feel at peace. Anxiety, unrest, and turmoil abound inside us, in our relationships, and in our world. We long for peace in our hearts, with others, and for our neighbors all over the globe.

Peace in our hearts begins with the birth of the Christ-child in the manger. God used the plan of a humble birth to usher in his perfect plan of peace “to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (Colossians 1:20). But his plan for peace didn’t end in a manger—it culminated on a cross.

You see, God was reconciling the world to himself by allowing that little baby to grow to manhood and then “making him to be sin who knew no sin” by letting him die on a cross “so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

God knew that our greatest need for peace was with him, for our sins make us his enemies. But Christ was born in order to die for his enemies, “making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). He reconciled us to God, and now, not only has he given us the ability to have peace with others by offering them the same forgiveness we have received, he has also given us the ministry of reconciliation.

As his ambassadors, we must proclaim to the rest of the world that true peace is available by trusting in the Prince of Peace to take away their sins. We must plead with them to be reconciled to God. And then we must watch and wait as one by one, God’s peace begins to reign in the hearts and lives of those around us.

Flashback Friday – The Dangerous Deception

Satan has been sowing seeds of deceit in my family. This is not surprising or unique to us because Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44) and he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Sometimes he uses the same old things; sometimes he uses the unexpected. For us it looks like a couple of different things right now.

We are a single income family of six, living paycheck to paycheck on a minister’s salary, which is considered poverty level by our government. We are so thankful for God’s good provision, and we try our best to be good stewards of what he has given us. In the past, however, we acquired some credit card debt. It was not a matter of living frivolously or buying “extras” at Walmart that we didn’t need; it was a matter of survival. God provided, and we no longer have to use any credit cards and are working toward paying the old cards off completely (praise the Lord)! We would like to start saving money, but it seems like any time we think we might be getting the slightest bit ahead, something always happens! Like four cars quitting on us in six months and then accidentally scratching the side of the truck we had borrowed and trying to pay for the damages! It is easy to wonder if God will provide (even when he has in the past) or why he has placed us here.

I also have a beautiful friend my age, Danielle, who has cancer and a rare bone marrow disease. She has always been jubilant, bubbly, compassionate, and full of the light of Christ. She spent a year on mission in the bush of Africa and is now married to a pastor. Sometimes it is hard to understand why God chose her to go through a year and a half of pain, sickness, chemo treatments, nausea, vomiting, throat sores that keep her from eating, a bone marrow transplant, countless days stuck in a hospital, and more.

Although Satan’s tactics vary, they are not new. In fact, they are really, really old. Genesis old:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1-6)

Satan’s first tactic, the very first time we see him speak in the Bible, is to sow seeds of deceit—shadows of doubt. “Did God actually say . . . ?” This seemingly innocent question is laden with lies and leaves the door wide open for the woman to begin questioning God. God had already graciously provided for his creation. After God made man in his image, he blessed them and said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them as food” (Genesis 1:29). Satan knew God had not said “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden,” but he cunningly twisted God’s words to trick Eve into doubting God’s goodness.

As Eve listens to the serpent, she begins to add her own twists to God’s words (Genesis 3:3). And as the serpent moves from lying about God’s words to calling God himself a liar (Genesis 3:4-5), Eve begins to believe the lie. This is where all sin begins in our heart—believing something untrue about God’s character or about his Word. What is the lie Eve believed? That God is not good. That God didn’t have her best interests in mind. That he was holding back. That maybe God didn’t really love her.

Think about it. If God was good, wouldn’t he want Adam and Eve to have the best? The serpent said that God knew if they ate of the tree their eyes would be opened, so right now their eyes must be closed, which is obviously not as good, right? And look at the fruit. It was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and it was desired to make one wise. Those all sound like good things, right? Clearly God must not want us to have what is good.

Or is it possible that the good things we think we want or should have aren’t always the best things for us? Could God have something even better than our eyes can see and our hearts imagine in store for us (1 Corinthians 2:9)? Have we considered that if God gave us everything we desired, we would be in a world of trouble?

Like Eve, not everything that looks good is for our ultimate good. When Eve saw the yummy fruit dangling in front of her, she desired it more than she desired God. In fact, she wanted to BE God because she wanted to be in control of her life instead of trusting that God’s plan was best. She believed the lie that she knew what was good for her better than God. She bought into the deception that God’s plans for her couldn’t possibly be kind or good or loving if he was withholding this desirable fruit from them. The forked tongue of the serpent stirred up a desire in Eve, which gave birth to sin (James 1:13-15). She took a bite of the forbidden fruit, and we all know what happened next.

And we are just the same. Satan doesn’t need new tactics because the human heart hasn’t gotten any better since the Fall (Genesis 6:5, 8:21). When we see the dollar amount in the bank account is less than the bills piling up on the table, Satan hisses in our ear, “Why can’t you afford that? Does God really love you?” When we see cancer ravish the body of our beautiful friend, Satan slithers, “Why her? Surely God wouldn’t want her to have cancer. Is God really good?” When we struggle with the duties and roles of motherhood, the disobedient children, the job, or the place God has put us in and think I just want something else! It shouldn’t be like this! Satan smiles as we take a bite.

So what can we do when we find ourselves lured by the Liar and dwelling in doubt? Remind ourselves of the goodness and sovereignty of God and his steadfast love to his children.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:16-17).
There is a warning not to be deceived in these verses. God gives good gifts to his children, and because he never changes, we can be confident that he will always give good gifts!

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)


If you are a Christian, then God is working all things for your ultimate good, which is to make you more and more like his Son, until you reach the end of this life and are glorified with him. And he is sure to do it, for “He that began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Have you ever considered, Believer, that everything you go through in this life is for your sanctification? That puts a new perspective on everything!

For those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the only Savior from the condemnation of our sin, have you ever considered that God is working all things to draw you to himself to rescue you?


The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:24-27)

Do not be deceived by the lies of the devil when life is hard. God is perfect and good and loving. And so is his sovereign plan for you. Will you trust him?