Remember the poor, and honor God

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Jeff Block

Generous to the Poor

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him. (Proverbs 14:31)

Jesus said there will always be those who are poor (Matthew 26:11). He insisted that we should invite the poor to our feasts, not our friends (Luke 14:12-14), and that whatever kindness we show to a needy person, God views it as being shown to Him (Matthew 25:31ff). The Apostles James and John describe caring for widows and orphans is “true religion” (James 1:27) and remind us that if we (“close our hearts to”) those in need, then the love of God cannot be in us (1 John 3:17).

So why all this fixation on the poor? Why is God honored by our generosity and kindness to the less fortunate and insulted if we oppress him?

poverty1We are all poor

This question is all about your point of comparison. We call some people “poor” and others “rich” by comparing ourselves to one another. I’m poor compared to you, we’re both poor compared to Bill Gates (worth almost $80B), etc. But “compared to other people” is a poor (pun intended) standard by which a Christian should assess wealth. Christians strive to view the world as God does. And from God’s perspective, the divide between “the poor” and “the not poor” among men simply doesn’t exist. Only God is rich. By comparison, we are all desperate, filthy, and living under a box down by the river. And remember that when the Bible speaks in financial terms, it is never only talking about money.

So, to oppress “the poor” — to willfully exploit those who have less than me by earthly standards — means for one desperate, needy person to lord what little they have over another desperate, needy person who doesn’t have it. This is exactly the same sinful, blind arrogance that refuses to forgive a minor offense in the wake of having been forgiven a far greater one. See Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35), in which a master forgives a servant billions of dollars in debt, but the servant then refused to forgive the $100 another servant owed him. The justice in Jesus’ condemning that servant as “wicked” is obvious and satisfying.

poverty2But if we, who are so desperately dependent on God for life and breath and everything else, cannot have pity a woman living on the streets … or share our scraps of bread with a starving man … or love someone who is difficult to love … then how are we any better than the wicked servant in Jesus’ story? God’s mercy toward us and provision on our behalf is SO great, that when we clutch that provision, scream “mine! mine!”, and fail to share it with others, we insult Him! But when we understand that we’re all the same, that we all share in a desperate poverty before God, and are careful and intentional about sharing what we have, then God is honored, and will reward us greatly (Galatians 6:9 and many others).

What is God asking you to do?

feast2God flat out calls some Christians to sell everything they have and give it to the poor (Mark 10:21). That’s certainly not the norm, but have you even considered it before God? Ever? God also makes it clear that giving money to soup kitchens to feed others when you can’t feed your own family is not what He had in mind (1 Timothy 5:8), so there are clearly extremes in the other direction too. Having stuff isn’t inherently evil, but loving it is (1 Timothy 6:10). Is there anything in your house that you would refuse to give away if God asked you to? If so, then consider that it might mean too much to you. You might love that thing more than the One who gave it to you.

It would be missing the point entirely to feel guilty because you have a sweater and you can imagine someone who doesn’t. But if you have 30 sweaters, and you can’t bring to mind a single person who has none, then maybe it’s time to find a couple of them and share. Or if you’re keeping pace with the national average (among Christians) and give less than 1% of your income away (according to a 2008 Christianity Today article), then you may be in danger of insulting God by hoarding what He has so generously provided you.

feast3Get practical about this, and maybe a little ruthless. Give something away tomorrow. Buy a homeless guy a cheeseburger. Adopt a child. Take the time to listen to a difficult person at work. Hold off judgment for once; fast and pray instead. Be especially kind to a person you find it hard to tolerate. Love recklessly. Dare to suffer loss, knowing that this is exactly how God loved you (John 3:16). In all these ways we show God’s love to others, by sharing our “wealth” with them — wealth we only have because God gave it to us. Commit to being generous in a new specific way once per day for the next month. Who knows, you may find that honoring God with all He’s given you becomes habit-forming.

An amplified proverb (see more in series)

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Uniquely Testifying to the Light

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Jeff Block

Prism

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
(John 1:6-9)

Christians reflect the Light.

moon5Have you ever been outside somewhere far away from the light pollution and really gazed at the night sky? The stars you see in remote areas like that can be breathtaking. So can the moon. You don’t realize how bright a full moon can be until you are sufficiently far from civilization, and the moon becomes the truly dominant source of light in the night’s sky.

However, the fact is that the moon is NOT a source of light. It generates no light at all. The moon’s function isn’t to create light, it’s to reflect it. If it weren’t for the sun’s shining brightly on the other side of the earth, the moon in our night’s sky would be as dark and cold as the rest of the blackness of space.

The same thing is true of Christians. We generate light in a dark world, but only to the extent to which we reflect the radiance of God Himself. The Son (play on words clearly intended) is light. The Apostle John called Jesus “the true light” (John 1:9), “the light of life” and “the light of the world” (John 8:12). Interestingly, Jesus gave Christians that same title (“light of the world”), instructing us to reflect His light so that a watching world would glorify His Father (Matthew 5:14-16). It is our job not to generate light, but to reflect the One who is the light.

How does that work?

My small group has been studying spiritual gifts recently, and certainly that must be at least part of the answer. Spiritual gifts are a key way in which God uniquely equips us to reflect His glory in loving and serving others. By this love and service (each in our unique way), we testify to who God is by reflecting Him.

But in my experience, whenever the discussion turns to the Holy Spirit, people have a ton of questions. The topic of spiritual gifts is no exception. For example, the other night in small group someone asked why Christians each have different spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12, Rom 12:3-8, 1 Pet 4:10-11, etc). So, I wanted to share an analogy that I think helps us better understand both that question and how we uniquely reflect / testify to God’s light.

Seeing God’s perfect light

God is perfect and infinite. Therefore, any reasonable analogy of God as light would have to imagine that light to be very bright, very pure, and very full — in fact, infinitely or perfectly so.

Red RoseBut did you know that white light is the sum of all possible colors of light? The light that comes from the sun contains every frequency of light (each frequency is a different color) the eye can detect, as well as a whole bunch of frequencies we can’t see. But in order for that light to become visible, it has to bounce off something with “pigment” in it. Looking at the sun is just white-hot blindingly brilliant. No color, no discernible shapes, just burned out retinas. But a blue shirt or a red rose or the green grass all contain various pigments which absorbs some light waves and reflects others. A blue shirt reflects the light frequencies that make up that particular shade of blue light, and absorbs the rest. The red rose reflects red light, and absorbs the rest. And so on. Suddenly, you have color. And beauty. And wonder at the world God made.

prism1Another cool way to see the many diverse colors in white light is through a prism. A prism is a crystal shaped in a certain way as to pull apart the wavelengths of the light, in turn separating the colors into a visible rainbow (the natural progression of colors along the frequency spectrum). It is by this same principle that a water droplet forms an actual rainbow in the sky — sunlight is bent and separated when it passes through the water to display its various composite colors.

Refracting, not just reflecting

All of this, I think, helps to explain why Christians have diverse spiritual gifts and adds practical detail to understanding how we reflect the Lord. If God is infinitely pure and perfect light and our job is to reflect that light to the world, then I contend none of us is in a position to reflect God’s light perfectly. So the moon analogy isn’t quite right, because we don’t really reflect a “dimmer and less pure version” of the full spectrum of God’s light.

Instead, I think a better analogy might be to see each of us as a shirt or a rose or the grass. I think it makes more sense to see the Christian as uniquely shaped water droplets — shaped by our unique spiritual gifts. I have gifts of knowledge and teaching, so I reflect and refract the blue light, so to speak. My wife has gifts of service and mercy, so she reflects and refracts red light. And so on. Dozens of gifts, each given by the Spirit to show a small particular facet of God’s perfect whole. Millions of Christians in every generation, each with unique “spiritual DNA,” who in their totality (though still imperfectly), reflect God. The world sees a small aspect of God in the Spirit’s work in me, and a different small aspect of God in the Spirit’s work in you. But in total, as the Church, we become a much more reasonable reflection of who God is than any of us could ever be alone. Instead of the retina-scorching brilliance of God’s blazing white light, the world sees … us.

Making it practical

This not only helps to answer my friend’s question from small group the other night, but it creates a tremendous sense of obligation to examine our lives. If God designed Christians to be a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16) and a reflection of God’s glory, then this cannot remain just an academic question or an interesting small group discussion. It becomes a matter of how we honor God with our lives, and begs the question of how we apply it.

I’ll likely come back to this topic in more detail, but I tend to think of the empowerment of the Spirit in the Christian life by breaking it down into four distinct categories. Much of my understanding on this comes from studying under Bruce Bugbee, John Ortberg, Ruth Haley Barton and others at Willow Creek back in the 90’s, so it’s held me in good stead for a while. But instead of getting into a lot of detail here, let me just list these categories, along with the primary question I recommend you start with if you want to dig deeper. Like I said, I’ll likely write more later. In the meantime, ask yourself, ask God, and ask a trusted Christian friend these questions about your unique Christian DNA…

  1. Godly Passion — What could you stay up all night talking about?
  2. Spiritual Gifts — What do I most enjoy doing?
  3. God-given Personality — In what kind of interactions with others do I most enjoy?
  4. Spiritual Pathways — When do I find myself feeling the most connected to God?

 

Show Jesus!

love-one-anotherDigging into these four areas will help you with mechanics and details, but the true and final call to action in any Christian’s life is to love God and love others in the unique way that only you can (Matthew 22:36-40).

This is what it means to bear witness to God. We reflect and refract His light in our own unique way, in the way He designed for us before we were even born (Psalm 139:13-16).

To that end, I’d like to close with a phenomenal song I first heard months ago in children’s ministry. I loved it then, and I jam to it at least once a week still. It’s by Jamie Grace, who is an insanely talented musician, and every time I hear her song Show Jesus, I think of the moon reflecting the sun or the prism refracting a small piece of the light of Christ into the world, and reminds me that this is what God is calling me to do and be. Maybe it’ll become that kind of “song of remembrance” for you too.

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What are Spiritual Gifts?

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Jeff Block

Wrapped Presents

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)

A Christian is a person who — by God’s sovereign choice and that person’s willful invitation — has been rescued by God from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:13-14). God has thereby freed the Christian from slavery to sin, and adopted him or her as His very own child. One of the most profound and mystical aspects of this redemptive work is that the Spirit of God literally invades the life of human beings, dwelling in and ruling over their lives, regenerating them and making possible their divine adoption (Romans 8:9-17). Almighty God actually takes up residence inside a person, spiritually speaking, and manifests Himself — becomes tangibly visibly to the outside world — in unique ways in every person whom He indwells. This manifestation is the heightened ability of the Christian to glorify God and serve others in his life, to manifest the Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:1-11).

Wrapped PresentsAny and all actions that honor God come from God’s power and life-giving presence. Wicked men (and women) — even those who denounce God with their whole being and are speeding down the road to hell laughing all the way — can occasionally honor God with their actions, just as a broken clock is right twice a day. But even that is also God’s work, not theirs — a function of what is often called “common grace”. The same can be said for people whom we perceive to be “good”, but are not born again Christians (because the Spirit of God does not dwell in them). The Bible is extremely clear that there is no one who is good, only God alone (Mark 10:18).

But in the life of a Christian, where God’s Spirit dwells, God gives the power to honor Him in specific and unique ways. This empowering is what the Church has come to call “spiritual gifts”, because they are spiritual — from the Spirit of God — and gifts — great blessings to both the Christian herself and to those she serves using her gifts. Many varied lists and descriptions of spiritual gifts exist in Christendom, and I’m hesitant to even attempt some kind of definitive version of that. I’m not sure God would fit very well in whatever kind of box that ended up creating. But many churches agree on gifts like leadership, hospitality, shepherding, giving, teaching, miraculous healing, selfless works, etc. In each case, God has decided in His sovereignty to give one of His children an ability or two that can only be adequately explained supernaturally. When you hear people talk about “gifted teachers” like James MacDonald or John Ortberg or Matt Chandler, they’re referring to the pronounced spiritual empowerment to teach God’s word in a powerful and Wrapped Presentseffective way. Those who are always thinking of how to encourage others may have the spiritual gift of “encouragement.” My wife is constantly looking for ways to serve others behind the scenes and never has any interest in recognition or limelight. I believe she typifies the spiritual gift of “works” or “service”. And so on.

God gave us each unique gifts as an outworking of His grace and with the expectation that we would use those gifts for His glory and for the common good (Romans 12:3-8). If you have given your heart and life to Jesus, make it a priority to explore and understand the unique way God is empowering your life and equipping you for ministry, and ask God to bring the full force of His Spirit to bear on the world around you through His uniquely-shaped presence in your life. It will be an adventure worth writing home about!

Christians serving together
For the interested… Here’s are links to a couple different spiritual gift assessments,
one from Willow Creek and one from Harvest Bible Chapel,
which you can use to learn more about your own gifts, if you’d like.

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Embrace contentment, and be strong

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Jeff Block

Girl Praying by a Lake

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. (Proverbs 14:30)

Peace is hard to come by, especially in our modern gadget-laden, overstimulated lives. We work hard, run fast, and claw and scrape for more of everything. Much has changed since Solomon’s day, but at least one of the motivations for all our mad scrambling has not… comparing ourselves to others. One of the quickest ways to murder your calm is to try to keep up with the Jones’s. If you embrace the urge to buy the same lawn gnomes or put your kids in the same sports or have the same shoes or get the same promotion as your friends, neighbors, or siblings, then holding on to the peace God promises is going to be next to impossible. If you find yourself investing long mental cycles wishing you had what they have — his wife, her clothes, their house, their kids — then sin crouches at your door waiting to destroy you (Genesis 4:7). God created you to be defined by HIM, not by your neighbor, and certainly not by your ungodly desires or your unrealistic comparisons or the rose-colored fantasies you nurture about someone else’s life.

Where resting in God’s Word and His promises brings health and peace and contentment, envy and jealousy sap them away. Jesus came that we might have life in all its fullness (John 10:10). That begins with redemption and adoption into God’s family, but it doesn’t end there. New life in Christ includes settledness … the experience of God as enough for you, a tranquil heart, and a peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). Resting this way in God’s provision and enoughness will strengthen your spiritual muscles, and make it pretty hard to burn a ton of calories on lawn gnomes, new shoes or unhealthy fantasies. Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). And if you are spending your days obsessing about what someone else has or does and how you can get it too, then you are in real danger. In fact, Solomon would say that your envy is not just hurting you spiritually, but emotionally and physically as well. Ignore it for long, and the very structure that holds you up — the wellbeing and strength that God’s rest provides, even your physical bones — will begin to fail you.

Train yourself to be content with what you have. Understand that God has given you one thing and withheld another on purpose, out of His great love for you. Trust Him; He knows what He’s doing. Create a thankfulness journal. Write a minimum of 3 things a day in it for which you are grateful to God. Review it with Him. When feelings (maybe old familiar ones) of jealousy or envy or ungodly ambition rear their heads, renounce them before the Lord, ask forgiveness, and move on. If you struggle with this, tell a trusted friend, and ask them to pray for you as well. Consider giving something away which you highly value. Maybe even do so once per month until you break the hold stuff has over you. Or how’s this for radical… Make a budget, stick to it, and put the next raise entirely in the bank each paycheck. Or refuse the next promotion. Don’t let desire control you; do whatever it takes to break its grip. Contented rest in Christ will make you strong; promotions and possessions will not.

An amplified proverb (see more in series)

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Slow down, and be wise

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Jeff Block

Good Listener

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

Wisdom leads us to speak less and listen more, and to react slowly to what we hear. We must not be too quick to react to one another, especially in anger. First, by our measured response, we will honor God and bless our neighbor with our patience. Second, we will learn far more that way. Listening to others, even when we disagree or feel threatened, and then taking that to God in prayer breeds humility in our spirits, and it makes us a teachable vessel whom God will gladly fill with knowledge and wisdom.

On the flip side, responding angrily, lashing out, or rushing forward impatiently (even if only in our hearts) cements us in the foolish certainty that we are right and others have little to offer us. Plus, that makes it extremely hard to learn anything from the other person. Make a habit of that kind of thinking, and we’ll end up trapped by it, mired in the “folly” Solomon spends so much time warning us about, and turning people off in the process.

In your next conversation about something you care deeply about or have a lot of strong feelings about, ask God to help you achieve the following three things, then discipline yourself to do them:

  1. Not to think about what to say next until the other person is done speaking
  2. Never to interrupt the other speaker
  3. Pause for a full second each time you intend to speak

An amplified proverb (see more in series) 

 

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Satisfaction Guaranteed

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Jeff Block
No satisfaction

I can’t get no … satisfaction!

The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want. (Proverbs 13:25)

According to Solomon (who probably wrote the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament), the righteous will always be satisfied. Really? That sounds good. But pondering the verse above, it’s easy to come up with a ton of questions about it. What does it even mean?

Who are the righteous? Satisfied with what? We assume that means God will satisfy them. Is that right? Or how about a really basic question… What is satisfaction, anyway? What appetites are we talking about here?

First, we’ve already talked about how to read the Book of Proverbs. We require God’s revelation and some careful discernment to understand how to read wisdom literature like Solomon’s proverbs.

But that said, I think we can all agree that everybody wants to be “satisfied”. In today’s Western culture, “satisfaction” could mean a lot of things… to get what I want, to have that “I just ate the perfect amount of my favorite meal” feeling, to get even with someone who wronged me, or (maybe the most common) to be guaranteed the immediate fulfillment of my desires in real-time and an ongoing easy comfort in which to enjoy them. Wow! That’s a tall order, but if we’re honest, that’s what it takes for some to be satisfied. Or maybe we could just say that to be “satisfied” is to be “happy” or “okay” with life. That’d be nice!

Is God promising us all of that? Any of it? How do we read God’s Word in this matter?

LuxuryHome3The Satisfaction You Can’t Have

Well, I would submit that Solomon isn’t talking about immediate wish-fulfillment. When he wrote this Proverb, I doubt he was thinking about having enough cars or cookies, comforts or concubines. He had all those things in spades, but repeatedly wrote that a life full of stuff (but not full of God’s presence) is meaningless (Eccl 2:11).

LuxuryCars1And I don’t think he was talking about getting even or being happy either. The Bible is clear that we should leave justice, even vengeance, to God (Deut 32:35; Matt 5:38-48; Rom 12:9ff) and that the life of a Christian isn’t a life of shallow, easy happiness (Matt 10:16-39; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Luke 9:57-58; James 1:2-4). In fact, these verses sound more like the opposite of worldly happiness — more about suffering than satisfaction.

So what gives? Is God maybe a little unclear on what “satisfaction” means?

The Enoughness of Knowing God

All throughout Scripture — whether in the life of Moses (Exodus 33:15-23) or John (John 17:3) or Paul (Philippians 3:8-11) — the message I see is that we are designed to know and love God, that He is enough for us. This is what I call (from Genesis 3:8), “walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day.”

Peter says that God has already “granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us [to become like Him]” (2 Peter 1:3). In all of life, everything we need has been given to us by God through our experience of knowing (knowledge of) Him. So, if you know God, then you a) are righteous (godly), and b) already have everything you need for life (satisfied). You may not have everything you need to be materially wealthy or the bell of the ball or the world’s greatest nobody-will-remember-in-20-minutes-anyway, but God has said that if you know Him, then you do have everything that you need. You (probably) don’t have a Ferrari or an island or hundreds of loyal friends or the perfect spouse or flawless kids or the ultimate church or whatever … but I guess that means those aren’t really what God feels you need. And how much time to we waste pining away after that which we don’t really need (or worse, that which would harm us if we had it)!

God is a good, good father. “Which father, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:9-11) Don’t you think that God, being a perfect Father, will give you what you need? Don’t you think that the One who created us out of nothing but His good pleasure knows how to satisfy our bodies and our souls?

And what this perfect Creator-Father has given us … is Jesus … who is everything we need for life and godliness.

How does that work?

Knowing God, being with God, bowing before and walking beside God … whether you realize it or not, that is enough for you. Or at least, it’s supposed to be. That’s the way God designed you. The reason we pine after other, lesser, silly things is that we don’t believe God; we reject Him in our hearts, and whore off searching for something else (anything else) to stuff into a hole in our hearts that only He can fill. And that’s why we’re not satisfied. Augustine said it well, that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

Jesus — God wrapped in flesh; God’s perfect self-expression; the only God you will ever see and touch (John 1:1-18) — is the only thing that fits in the hole in your heart. He is the great Satisfaction, the great Enough. Allowing Him to draw near to you is exactly the deep satisfaction of knowing God.

In practical terms, I contend that appropriating the “enoughness” of Jesus — of being satisfied in knowing God — comes down to a few straightforward (but costly, from the world’s perspective) things. This might not be an exhaustive list, and there’s nothing magic about it. But if you make these four things the “hot pursuit” of your life, I believe you will have what Solomon described as the satisfaction of the righteous.

1) Leave sin at the cross

Come-to-the-CrossThere is no righteousness for anyone other than through the cross of Jesus. No one leaves sin behind unless God invades their life and does for them what they can’t do for themselves. So, there is no righteousness and no satisfaction without first coming to Jesus in desperate need of forgiveness. (Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9)

Examine your life. If you find rebellion and sin, repent (which means to change your mind), turn around and go the other way. Ask God to show you sinful choices and attitudes you might not even at first be ware of. Then whatever it costs you, leave those destructive, dishonoring, disastrous ways behind, and ask God to give you a heart that earnestly desires purity in His presence. Confess your sin to others who love God. Don’t be afraid. Ask for their help. Sin is like a poisonous, life sucking vine that grows in the dark but withers in the light of day. As long as it’s still wrapped around you, you’ll never know the life that Jesus died for you to have. And no matter how shiny and enticing it may look, you’ll never find satisfaction in your sin.

2) Spend time in God’s presence

Conversation between FriendsYou can’t know someone you never see, talk to, or interact with. Take time to be with God. You make time for your wife, your kids, your friends, your job, your hobby, your favorite team, your sleep, your TV shows, etc. Here’s a thought… Give your first and best time to the One who is of first and highest importance, and see what happens. If you have to quit something, do it. Even if you have to change jobs (which I contend you likely don’t need to do). Whatever it takes, your time with your Heavenly Father should be a) first and b) unassailable / immovable / non-negotiable.

Read God’s Word. It’s what He would say to you if He were physically sitting at your dinner table tonight. It’s a love letter from the God of the Universe. It’s the source and grounding of all knowledge God has chosen to reveal about Himself. You can’t know Him without knowing His Word.

PrayerAndScripturePray. It’s not a ritual. God won’t hear you because you speak the right incantation or repeat something enough times or say it passionately or piously enough. It’s a conversation. Reflect back to God how amazing He is and ask Him for what you need like a 3 year old asks her father for her needs. Don’t try to be grown up about it. Just run to God. And here’s a great prayer… Ask God to change your “wanter,” so that you increasingly believe that you need what He already knows you need. Then hold on for an amazing ride!

coffee-together1And make sure you listen. What friendship is deepened by a person who babbles on endlessly? Like any human relationship, make it a two-way street. Especially given that you have no human friend who even approximates God’s unfathomable wisdom. That’s worth listening to, right? Maybe God has more to say to you than you think!

3) Study and obey God’s law

Few things will draw you closer to Him than to delight in knowing and keeping God’s commandments. John makes it clear that to know God is to obey him (1 John 2:3-6). You will be amazed what it will do to your desires to study God’s word and train yourself to do what it says, even in small ways. If you read Scripture and you don’t understand it, ask God for help. If you understand it and find it hard to obey it, ask God for help. And find some men or women (same gender as you) who love God and want more of Him too … ask them to walk with you down this exciting road!

4) Depend on God’s word

Whatever God asks you to do, do it … even if it’s hard. You’re right to think that you’re not smart enough or strong enough or good enough, but God will be your wisdom, your strength, and your righteousness. There’s no adequate way to explain what that means, but anyone who has experienced it knows exactly what I’m talking about. Step out in faith, and watch Him act. Make it a habit to put yourself in places where God has to show up or it’s not going to go well. Then ask Him to show up in power. You’re better off erring on the side of being a little crazy for God than being cozy and safe for yourself. Soul satisfaction will never be found in nursing your fears or reinforcing worldly security.

get-out-of-the-boat

The dissatisfaction of being full

One more thing I think it’s important to understand about satisfaction — about pursuing God and being filled by Him, in contrast to chasing idols and continually being left wanting…

The more of something we have, the more we want it. Every time we gorge ourselves (even on healthy food) and feel like we could bust and never eat again … it takes a little more to fill us up at the next meal. That’s why sin escalates — bigger and riskier, higher highs, stronger drugs, sicker perversion. The nature of the human heart is to always want more.

Why?

Because we were designed by God for true satisfaction — the filling of an infinite hole in your being with the presence of an infinite God. Said another way, only the infinite, endless pouring from God into man can complete us, make us whole, satisfy us. So there’s majestic-waterfallan odd dissatisfaction in being filled by God. The more we have Jesus, the more we want
Jesus.

But this is a different “dissatisfaction” than what results from the addictive pursuits of earthly life. Knowing God is like never wanting to leave the hot sudsy water of a soaking bath or to break up rich conversation with friends after a good meal. Wanting more of Jesus is like feeling, “I’m so satisfied that I never want this to end.” And the great news is that the soul satisfaction God offers never will end. Anyone who wants Jesus will be poured into and totally satisfied by Him for all eternity. Only God can do that!

In contrast, the world’s filling brings leanness, not satisfaction (Psalm 106:15). For the one who loves money, there will never be money enough. Perversity begets deeper perversity. Anger, bitterness, jealousy (and a thousand other vices) all entrench and escalate over time. Worldly dissatisfaction is like feeling, “I have to have one more of these to be satisfied.” It’s the endless digging in an tar pit for a clean rag to wipe the tar off your face. The deeper you dig, the less likely you are to find what you’re looking for.

Your loving Father would satisfy your soul with:

  1. Freedom from slavery (redemption)
  2. Adoption as sons
  3. Inheritance of His kingdom
  4. His presence
  5. Eternal life

To stare all that in the face and proclaim it’s not enough is wickedness. Think about it. What would you buy in this world, even if your resources were endless? Jesus asked, “What would a man give in exchange for his soul?” What would you trade for even one of these five things, and think to yourself, “What a great deal!”? Even if the love of this world didn’t cost you these things — and Jesus is clear that you can’t possess both the things of this world AND the things of heaven — how deeply satisfied could the things of this world ever really make you, especially in comparison to the stuff on this list?

Benediction

So as we embark into a new year, let’s be honest in evaluating our desires. What do we want and why do we want it? Let God’s word drown out the demonic voices which call like sirens perched atop every trinket or earthly treasure, and reserve the search for fullness and soul satisfaction for the only place it will ever be found… In walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
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.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
Over the man who carries out evil devices! (Psalm 37:3-7)

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