Skip to main content

This And That


            You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3) 

            What prevents you from rejoicing in the Lord always? (Max Lucado, Anxious for Nothing Study Guide, p. 27) 

            In my reading for the day, Mr. Lucado challenged me to take a few minutes to contemplate the answer to his question. What’s your answer? I don’t want to put my words in your mouth. It seems to me, however, that they most obvious answer is that selfishness keeps me from rejoicing in Him. How can I rejoice when I am lacking this or that? How can I rejoice when He hasn’t delivered what I wanted? How can anyone rejoice in Him when the world is so messed up? Or when our lives are so much less than we ever thought they would be?
            As I wrote the previous paragraph, something else stood out to me. In addition to the repeated I’s, there are thises, thats, whats, and worlds. How can we rejoice in the Lord when we’re looking at things?
            This isn’t a new problem. God told the Israelites that He would be their God and King. They wanted gods and kings like everyone else had. The Levites weren’t given an inheritance among the Israelites because God was their inheritance. We’re told to seek His face, but instead, we seek His hand, and we sing a Christianized version of “Santa Baby.”
            Of course, God has commanded us to submit our requests to Him. We are to intercede for each other. God created us to need things. The prayer we call “The Lord’s Prayer” includes requests for our daily bread and for forgiveness. But how often do we forget the Our Father, the Who art in Heaven, the Hallowed be Thy Name, the Thy kingdom come, and the Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven?
            And as much as we should thank Him for that daily bread and forgiveness, are we rejoicing in the  benefits rather than the Benefactor?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more