Getting a Grip 01 In Him

Getting a Grip 01 In Him

Psalm 44:6 ESV
For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.


As I read this verse this morning I was struck by how often I do trust in my bow and/or my sword.  It's a really bad habit for me and is a constant issue in my prayers.  I think I can - and that I can without His help.

It's like I want to show Him how I can do things without Him.  A lot of it is the old "Look at me Daddy," needs we grow up with.  I want Him to be proud of me and to see me do (on my own) amazing things.  I don't think it is as much rebellion as it is immaturity, an echo of a childhood of never being good enough.

Do you know what I mean?

I titled this Getting a Grip becasue this is something (among others) we all need to get a grip on.  We need to have Him bring us to the place where we can accept and be comfortable with our every present NEED for Him.

It's is not a matter of inability - we all have abilities - but rather it is a matter of recognizing and accepting that serving Him is a cooperative effort.  We bring what He has gifted us with and He makes it accomplish what He wants the way He wants.  It is about using our talents to bring the glory to HIm.  Perhaps we could say it's a, "Look at God folks," thing.

I am too full of myself too often.  I want God (or at least I act like I do) to sit and watch me do for Him and have Him applaud.  But I am learning that although He does value all I do for Him, if I do it on my own it may be good and nice but it will always be, in some way, deffective and deficient.

 John 15:5 ESV
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

We make much of being branches but too often we act as though we were vines.  It is only in being attached to the vine that allows the brach to be fruitful.  What a branch produces apart form the mine is simply kindling for the fire.  That's a tough thing to realize and accept but it is true.

We want to glorify God in all we do but we can't do that until we are willing to accept that He glorifies Himself in and through us.  He needs no help - but graciously allow us to be a part of His workings.  We need the humility, the awareness and the willingness to be second fiddle.  It's hard work and takes consistant watching and prayer.  But in those moments when we are indeed being branches we have a sense of it.  As we work we see the fruit and revell in it - it's His fruit but He used us in producing it.

John 15:5 ESV
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

I read this verse and the last part always strikes me.  I find myself rewriting it - for  my own benefit - to make the point to myself.  Here's my version:

"Apart from me, anything you do, is nothing."

That's an "ouch" but isn't it true.  Isn't everything - anything we do apart from Him simple self-loving attempts to get noticed?  Are not our attempts to show God we can do it on our own subtle attempts to show Him we don't really think we need Him (ouch).

I recommed you commit to memory two verses.  Of course one if John 15:5 and the second is:

Philippians 4:13 ESV
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Use these as book-ends for your prayers and planning. Stay between these two hedges - on the right path.

Do nothing - Do all things.

Which would you prefer?

What's "more than?" 012413

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?   (Mat 6:25)

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

"Life," here is the Greek word for "breath."  It carries for us the meaning we see in Genesis where God "breathed" life into Adam.  Call it what you are comfortable with but the intent is for us to consider now so much our "living" but our "life" itself.

The Westminster Cataclysm asks what man's "end" his sole "end it.  The response it to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  This, in brief is what "life" is for.  It is the main and plain purpose for us - for all men - but especially for believers

"Body," is the word "soma" meaning the body as a "sound whole."  It directs us to the fact that we are not a this and a that and another thing but rather we are a "whole" creature.  

Jesus is taking us to a place that most of us find, well, kind of weird.  He is talking about (I think) more God's desire for us as living creatures than He is about just the physical, mental and spiritual "parts" we find is so convenient to discuss in isolation from one another.  We are a whole being whose existence is utterly dependent upon the "breath" that gives us life.

It is not only what we are (and are intended for) but that God given "breath" that allowed us to become living souls.

So what's the point?

Perhaps it is that we worry too much about what sustains and adorns the "body" and what our "life" achieves instead of our fundamental purpose.  Which is, as we've said, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever - even here.

Well, you'll not find yourself "enjoying" God here without the requisite "glorifying" of God here.  The enjoyment can only be experienced in the glorification.  

John 9 is my favorite chapter in all the Word.  Jesus is asked if a certain man was born blind because of his sin or his parent's sin.  Jesus replies:

 "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.   (Joh 9:3)

God is glorified in the miracle of this man receiving his sight.  But as wonderful as this is we must accept that the man was afflicted with blindness from birth.  This was not a condition in that day that has the options available in ours.

Consider:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 

(Rom 8:16-18)

Many of you are "suffering" now and I am sure, like us, you want a reason.  Paul gives it here.  Keep in mind that Paul did not just suffer persecution, he suffered from all the everyday, garden varieties of difficulties and affliction we suffer.  

When we read of suffering in the Word we need to be very aware that if there were no sin there would not even be a "common" cold or allergies or infections.  Living in a fallen world, for the redeemed, must be understood as a time of suffering - either ordinary suffering or extra-ordinary suffering.

BUT - regardless of which type of suffering we are experiencing it is for His glory so that His works made be seen.  His glory will be seen in His magnificent deliverance and/or in our faithful trusting and standing for Him.  

It is His faithfulness and our faithfulness that is more than food or clothing - or anything else.  

Consider:

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.   (2Co 1:9)

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.   (2Co 4:11)

. . . . as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. (Php 1:20)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ   (Php 3:7-8)

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 

(1Pe 5:10)

I pray that you and I can grow in our knowledge and love of God that we might, like Paul and Peter (and soooo many others) come to understand that through His power and Spirit we can accept whatever He allows (or brings) into our lives and that He will be glorified in our faithfulness.

I know some of you are wondering why these blogs are so personal and intimate.  Well, if Paul finds it appropriate to "boast" in his weakness I will follow his example - praying that God will be glorified.  God is strong and gracious to deliver and he is strong and gracious to sustain.  As He works in our lives He is glorified as we rely upon Him for it.

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.   (2Co 12:9)

“This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus.”   ― John Newton