4SpiritualSecrets

“…rejoice in your sufferings knowing…” (Romans 5:3 NIV)

Rejoice in your sufferings, knowing what? In the fifth chapter of his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul begins by writing that God has given us access, by faith, into grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ in this world and live a life that glorifies God.

Imagine how it must make God feel when He has given us access to all the grace we need to live for Christ in this world and we never access that grace. According to Paul, because God loves us He permits suffering to enter our lives that we cannot bear without drawing on this grace we can access by faith.

Paul writes that as we receive the grace to endure our suffering God produces mature Christ-like character in our lives such as perseverance. When you ask the question, “How does an orange get to be an orange?” The answer is “By hanging in there.” That is the essence of the meaning of this character trait of perseverance.

When some followers of Christ find themselves suffering, their immediate response is “Lord, deliver me from this, immediately!” He can and sometimes He does. But He often does not. When He does not it may be because it is His will to grow spiritual character in the life of His follower. When that is what God is doing Paul is telling us we should rejoice in our sufferings, access grace by faith, and then grow spiritually.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

These familiar words of consolation and exhortation are found in the context of a great calamity described by the psalmist. Many believe this calamity is prophetic and relates to the great and terrible Day of the Lord. By application these words, and other words of consolation in this psalm, can be related to any calamity we experience as the people of God.

As the hymn writer declares this calamity to be a total devastation, in the midst of this devastation he exclaims, “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in times of trouble.” Since Hebrew is not as precise as Greek, the New American Standard Bible offers helpful alternate readings in the margins throughout this psalm. The alternate reading offered here consoles us with the thought that God can be a very present help to us in our “tight places.”

The helpful alternate reading presented alongside verse 10 is “Relax, let go and prove that God is – and what His will is. He is God and He wills to be exalted among the nations and in the earth.”

When you find yourself experiencing calamity be still long enough to experience these great realities: that God is God, that He is there for you, and that He can help you in the tight places of your calamity. So relax, let go, and prove Him. Then ask yourself how your response to your calamity just might align with what He wills; that He might be exalted among the nations and in the earth through the way you live your life here on earth for His Glory.

“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say ‘who will show us something good?’” (Psalm 4: 5, 6)

David wrote these words in the middle of the night because he could not sleep. Like many of us he was doing the expedient thing and not the right thing. That kept him awake because he was a man of great integrity.

In the middle of the night he had a little “board meeting” with himself. He then resolved to make whatever sacrifices he needed to make to do the right thing. He was doing the expedient thing because he didn’t see how he could possibly survive if he did the right thing. That’s why in addition to doing the right thing he resolved to put his trust in the Lord.

His motivation for this values clarification was that he knew he was governing people who were hoping and praying that their leader would be a man who would do right no matter what it cost him.

In our world of relative morality with no universal, absolute truth regarding right and wrong there has never been a greater need for those who lead believers to resolve to make whatever sacrifices they must make to do what is right-and then put their trust in the Lord.

If you are a spiritual person facing a similar kind of challenge if you would implement David’s resolution it would be an example to a lot of people-and it would glorify God-big time!

“Goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.”
(Psalm 23:6)

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

Two of the most beautiful words in the Bible are “mercy” and “grace.” The mercy of God, which is the unconditional love of God, withholds from us what we deserve, while the grace of God lavishes on us all kinds of blessings we do not deserve, accomplish, or achieve by our own efforts.

As we thank God for our blessings, at the top of the list we should thank Him for the mercy that withholds and the grace that bestows. The good news of the gospel is that when He suffered on the cross for our sins, everything we deserved that we might have peace with God was laid upon Christ (Isaiah 53: 5, 6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

If you want to grasp the meaning of these two words observe when and why they turn up in the Bible. Try to understand what we deserved and why. That will grow your appreciation of the mercy of God. Then investigate all that is bestowed upon us by the grace of God. As you find these two beautiful words in the Bible you will understand why I have written that when you pray, at the top of your thanksgiving list, you should put “The mercy that withholds and the grace that bestows.”

“The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want…” (Psalm 23:1)

The shepherd psalm of David is loved by God fearing Jews and all those who follow Jesus Christ whatever denominational labels they may wear. One reason for this is that the opening words of the psalm state a philosophy of life that has been, and is believed, by those who believe in God. David goes on to write that when we can say the opening words of this psalm we can say we have all the blessings he presents metaphorically in this ancient hymn of praise.

The psalm could be paraphrased: “When the Lord is my Shepherd I have green pastures, still waters, the restoration of my soul, the comfort that results from knowing He is guiding me and protecting me, a table of provision in the middle of all my enemies (or problems), and a cup that runs over and never empties.”

Even if you have never thought about it we all have a philosophy of life that determines how we live out our life in this world. David is telling us that the opening words of this psalm are an invincible philosophy of life because they lead to the blessings in life we all seek. This has been my philosophy of life for many decades. If you don’t have this mindset I emphatically recommend it to you.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6

The reality that God loves us unconditionally is often described in the Bible by one word: “mercy.” This word is found 366 times in the Bible – that’s one for every day of the year, and it even includes leap year – because God knows we need His mercy every day. 280 of these references to the mercy of God are found in the Old Testament.

My favorite is the last verse of the 23rd Psalm where David wrote: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Hebrew scholars tell us that the word “follow” could be translated “pursue.” This means that David believed the unconditional love of God pursued him all the days of his life. What a dynamic truth. God not only loves us unconditionally, He pursues us with His unconditional love all the days of our lives.

Does that mean He loves us when He is cutting us back or chastening us? Absolutely! The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that if He did not chasten us we would be like illegitimate children and not His sons and daughters. Chastening confirms the reality that He loves us.

When we are experiencing one of those cutbacks, rather than thinking that He does not love us anymore – the opposite may be true. He is pursuing us with His unconditional love.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

When Jesus told us that He is the Vine and we are branches, He also told us that when a branch is fruitful His Father cuts it back that it might be more fruitful.

I do not consider my limitations as a bed-fast quadriplegic a setback, but a cutback, because some of the most fruitful and lasting things I’ve ever done never would have been done if I did not have my limitations.

This concept taught by Jesus was not new to those who heard it. When God’s people were not fruitful God often sent them a famine, which cut them back severely, got their attention, and ultimately made them more fruitful.

All indications are that we are entering into a time of cutback as the people of God. Some of my godly friends have already been cut back severely having lost millions in 2008. When you listen to the news these days it always seems to be bad news, and our leaders are preparing us for the reality that it’s going to get worse.

When we put a spiritual perspective on this recession is it possible that what’s happening is not a setback but a cutback?

“…Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

A word that has been on the hearts, minds and lips of millions this week is the word “inauguration.” A synonym for this word is “beginning.” The common usage for this word is something like “a celebration of the beginning.”

Every day we live is the first day of the rest of our life. There is a sense in which we experience an “inauguration” with every new day, week, month and New Year we live. Our Lord’s advice to us is to celebrate the beginning of every new day and accept it from Him as a gift – a clean slate with no marks on it.

We cannot change the marks we put on the slate of yesterday. And He told us not to worry about tomorrow because one day’s trouble is enough for one day. If you think about it, today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. He therefore emphasized one day at a time – as in “Give us this day our daily bread.”

I challenge you to celebrate each new day with a private “inauguration” ceremony and ask God to give you the grace and strength to be all you can be for His Glory, one day at a time.

“…If you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins…” Matthew 6:14-15

We need forgiveness in three dimensions: when we look up, when we look around, and when we look in.

If we believe the Gospel, the first dimension is a given. The great Bible word for that is “justified.” It literally means to ‘un-sin’ our sin. You can break up the word this way: just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned. Plus, the word means that He declares us righteous. In the 18th chapter of Luke, Jesus pronounced that anyone who prays, “God be merciful to me – a sinner,” is justified. Can you see why I say the first dimension of forgiveness is a given if you believe the Good News?

The second dimension is more complicated. You need a special measure of grace to forgive those who have greatly harmed you. And you can’t control whether or not those you have hurt will forgive you. But Jesus mandated that we have forgiveness in this second dimension. When He taught his disciples how to pray, He literally told them to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we have already forgiven those who have sinned against us.”

At the end of His teaching His disciples how to pray He added a solemn commentary: “If you do not forgive those who have sinned against you, then My Father in heaven will not forgive you your sins. In other words, if you don’t have forgiveness in this second dimension you lose your forgiveness in the first dimension. What a solemn truth!

Those who have sinned grievously will tell you that the third dimension of forgiveness is the toughest one. When devout people fall into sin, they especially have a very difficult time forgiving themselves.

Pray for forgiveness in these three dimensions because the greatest obstacle to inner healing is un-forgiveness.

“In so far as your own responsibility goes, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18, J.B. Phillips translation)

The Apostle Paul shares a great truth about responsibility in this great verse about reconciliation. There is a place where our responsibility begins and there’s a point at which it ends. God does not hold us responsible for that over which we have no control. We can’t control that person who is alienated from us. But we can control the reality that we are at peace with him or her.

A Christian psychologist wrote that if our serenity depends on what our adolescent children are going to do, or not do, our serenity is very fragile. We experience a great deal of emotional pain because we do not accept the boundaries of our responsibilities.

A former mentor of mine said: “You cannot control the weather or rainy days but you can control the emotional climate that surrounds you. You cannot control the height that your head will be from the sidewalk but you can control the height of the contents of your head.” After sharing several more examples of this, he continued, “Why worry about the things you cannot control? Accept responsibility for the things that do depend on you.”

Your responsibility begins with what you can control; you are at peace with all the people in your life. Your responsibility ends with what you cannot control – like whether or not they are at peace with you. You will have more personal peace when you accept that responsibility boundary.