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Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

It would seem strange that God should allow physical limitations in the lives of those He touches deeply with His grace. It would that is if it were not for the deep and dark sinful nature of humanity. He places a limitation on those He loves, allowing us something that causes us to return to Him for strength and grace. These weaknesses – such as Jacob’s limp after wrestling with the angel – turn into blessings for they help prevent us from straying.

The goal of the Christian life is not comfort and pleasure so much as it is holiness and usefulness to the Master. We are created in such a way that the only true contentment and happiness, peace and joy we feel are when we have surrender all into His hands. The crucified life is the biblical ideal, the life that is placed in His hands, dead to sin and self, is the life that experiences His resurrection and sees His glory. The biblical imagery of the winepress – the grape pressed until the juice comes out (2 Cor. 1:4) – and the seed – the seed dies to itself so that new life can sprout through it (John 12:24) – these depict the biblical standard of discipleship.

We often come across Christians who are bright and clever, and strong and righteous; in fact, a little too bright, and a little too clever — there seems so much of self in their strength, and their righteousness is severe and critical. They have everything to make them saints, except … crucifixion, which would mold them into a supernatural tenderness and limitless charity for others. But if they are of the real elect, God has a winepress prepared for them, through which they will some day pass, which will turn the metallic hardness of their nature into gentle love, which Christ always brings forth at the last of the feast.[1]

The wine presses of God are many and varied: physical weakness, emotional trauma, personality weakness, betrayals, and even the results of our own wrong-doing. Faithful are the wounds of friendship (Prov. 27:6) and we have no greater friend than our Lord Jesus. If after we have prayed God chooses to allow a sorrow to remain, if He elects to permit weakness to remain with us, it is to prevent us from being proud and conceited – and to encourage us to find our joy and contentment in Him. He knows the capacity of each heart and He knows that He is sufficient for our soul’s need. One of the most meaningful and encouraging pictures of the Old Testament was the image of Jacob, Old Israel, leaning upon his staff, using it as a cane, and worshipping God (Gen. 47:31). His constant limp caused by the disjointing of his hip as he wrestled with God – receiving a blessing in the process – limited the old manipulator and trickster, “heel snatcher”, but also reminded him of God’s sufficiency.

It is a wonderful moment when the child of God ceases to struggle against all of his weaknesses and accepts that there is a hidden blessing there, allowed by the hand of the Almighty. It may be said of many that we have all the ingredients of discipleship, except crucifixion, but until we die to self and live to God the joy and peace, the usefulness and contentment, the power and fruitfulness of God will not be ours to their fullest extent.

Do all you can to remedy your weaknesses. Pray all you can as well. Then leave them in the hands of God, and you will find if He chooses to let them remain that they will serve ultimately for your spiritual benefit.

Prayer:

Lord, forgive us for searching for life in anyway other than in and through You. Fill us with Your Spirit. Amen.

Evening Devotionals conceit, crucifixion, humility, pride, sickness, sorrow, suffering

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:30-31

I confess that I am increasingly disappointed with the lack of creativity in the mind of modern man. If the capacity for fantasy and imagination is exercised at all it seems to be mostly expressed in an unrealistic manner – pure escapism. This seems to all be the results of two plus centuries of Western Society focusing on humanity’s fight against nature or against God. In the Christian faith, imagination can be fueled to consider the greatness of God – even the telling and sharing of stories has some manner about it to reflect the Creator and redemption. But this point is lost on a purely humanistic audience.

Having dethroned the Almighty and cast Him into the gutter, along with every form of superstition, the only thing we worship these days is man’s “genius” – and in light of the problems of modern life, we must have completely lost our minds to have done so. I am now nearing my seventh decade of life and no one even close to my age, I hope, could say seriously that it is only man’s efforts that have gotten human civilization this far. Our life spans are so short, our imaginations and knowledge so limited, our passions and prejudices run so deep, that only God’s invisible work of controlling human society has kept us from killing ourselves.

And the irony of it all is that humanity’s denial of God has left them very angry with God – try to make sense of that. I see people almost every day that are angry at God, while they deny that He exists. Obviously their denial is not completely sincere. The greater questions of the universe are not sincerely pursued by most people. Instead they wallow in the shallows of selfishness, asking such things as “Why aren’t I better looking?” “Why did my mother not love me more?” and “Why can’t I be rich?” The question of the suffering hordes of humanity is thrown into the air for debate not because they really care about them – after all, they are not trying to help them, really – but more in the sense of “Why am I bothered with hearing about poor, sick, suffering people?” So, they are mad at God for creating a world where people must work and help one another to make it beneficial to all, where there is responsibility, accountability, and the possibility of innocent victims. Guilt is the big thing to be avoided – not problems, pain, or immorality – unless they are my problems or my pain. My immorality, however, is another matter, for then the average individual is very likely to complain that there exist such things as sexually transmitted diseases. Instead of stopping and thinking and musing that perhaps the Creator is making a point, it is just more anger that “God,” who they insist does not really exist, is just a big Killjoy in the sky.

But there is another way of looking at life. I have found the Bible and God’s explanation of life to be not only plausible but wise and I believe it to be correct. That does not mean, of course, that I accept every interpretation of every interpreter, but the basic story is plain enough: God created the world perfect, human beings sinned, and then proceeded to mess it all up. The position given to human life was to be the caretakers of creation, but because of sin humanity abdicated the position. And this role could not be given to another or handled irresponsibly without some effect being felt by all creation. As Derek Kidner, as he summed up the effect of the fall, so eloquently put it, “Leaderless, the choir of creation can only grind on in discord.”[1] The world in which we live, the universe, has a cause and effect nature about it –and this is not merely evident in physics but in morality as well. God holds us accountable and has a day planned when He will judge all, but our capacity to hurt one another is evidence of our failure, not God’s. The effect is now that the creation is unable to fulfill its purpose completely of declaring the glory of God, or as Paul wrote, “The creation was subject to frustration” (Rom. 8:20).

The biblical story does not end in human failure, with God and angels shrugging and saying, “Good luck there, fellows.” There is a story of a Redeemer and of human redemption, and it is not simply some fictitious account, drawn up by wishful and wistful thinkers. God acted in Christ to accomplish our salvation. When He could have justly condemned the whole race, He acted in love and redeemed us. Christ came at one time, to one generation, and gave proof of His deity and His mission. And the redemption of human life leads to the redemption of all creation, again as Paul wrote, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed … that the creation itself will be liberated from decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19-21).

God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Believe you should, deny you may, but there is nothing inconsistent in philosophy, logic, history, or science with the biblical account. The miracles? Easily acceptable if we consider Christ was God in human form – in fact, we should expect nothing less. Nor anything more, for that would be grandstanding, some effort of showmanship from an insecure creator – which, of course, the true God is not. The resurrection? Again, the testimonies bear it out, the existence of the church also bears it out as it suddenly burst upon the scene in history with the credo, “He is risen!” The logic? It is also there, espoused clearly in John’s gospel, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (3:16). The logic of love motivates us to do whatever it takes to help the ones we love – and God acted for our salvation out of His love. Unexplained mysteries? I would prefer to consider them matters beyond our capacity to understand, but we should expect nothing less from God. Where I to enroll in a class in quantum physics, I should expect there was something which I had to learn, some new information. Even more so if I consider those much deeper subjects of theology, morality, history, purpose, redemption, and eternity. The presence of mystery validates the biblical story of redemption, again, we should expect nothing less.  

All that is left is to kneel before Him, turn from sin and self, and trust. It may feel at first as though if you believe that you will have crawled into some flimsy structure that is sure to collapse as soon as the first strong wind of doubt or controversy blows, but you will find instead that this is the house set upon the rock that endures all the storms of trouble, of doubt, of skeptics, and of time. Our redemption was accomplished by Christ and the words were all written down that you might believe and have life.

Lord, thank You for Your love. Give us the grace to see clearly Your truth and to leave those things that remain mysteries to our minds in Your hands. Amen.

Evening Devotionals anger with God, gospel, liberalism, responsibility, unbelief