Getting a Grip When it all hurts Part 4 040414

Getting a Grip  When it all hurts  Part 4

1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] 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. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

[10] 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.

"After a little while."  How long is a little while?  How long?  As we count time a little while is days - but when days pass it is weeks but when weeks pass it is months and on it goes.  God counts time differently and we have to get a grip on that!  But He does mean a little while.

Several years ago I got sick.  Noone could tell what was wrong.  It was just a matter of a few weeks but it seemed like forever.  Every minute was longer - every hour lasted 2 - every day seemed to be 48 hours long.  A little while seemed like ages.

Hopelss, in pain, high anxiety and loosing weight at an alarming rate every second seemed an eternity.  But it was just a few weeks.  A little while.

God counts time differently and His timetable does not run like ours.  His timetable, I believe, runs on our receptiveness to His work in our lives.  Why did Joseph have to be in prison as long as He was, what's up with 400 in Egypt?  Why did Jesus only have 3 years of ministry?  What's up with God and time?

I don't know.  But I do know that in this passage Peter uses "a little while," and I will take Him at his word on that.

Regardless of how long this little while is - isn't it worth the promise of restoration, confirmation, strength and being established?  Is the promise worth waiting through the period of provision.

Perhaps if we could come to see suffering as a period of provision we might do better than we do.  God is never idle and in our suffering He is at work within us and in His creation.  He CAN change things in an instant - He CAN change us in and instance - but except for a rare occurance we just don't see Him doing that in His Word - so can we really expect to be the exception to the norm?
A little while - it can be a tough little while if we are not believing that what is promised is behind the time and circumstance.  We can't know what the restoration, confirmation, strength and being established will look like.  Things may well be very different from what we desire or expect but a promise is a promise - right?  And is it not the promise that should guide us in counting the moments.  Should our "time anxiety" really be a strong expectation for His work to be done and for us to come to that moment of restoration, confirmation, strength and being established?

We live in a, "When you absolutely, positively need it overnight," world.  We want next day shipping from God.  We want it and we want it now.  But when we will come to see that this is not how God always works?  When will we see that for whatever good reason He works in His creation within our time.

Finger Thinking 091113

Psalm 73:25-26 ESV
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. [26] My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

How often is this a statement that we make or even consider?  It is so very easy to get caught up in the everyday to the point that we forget the only hope that we have.  It is so very easy for us to become numb to this truth.

Caught between the World and the Devil our flesh is so easily empowered and our hearts so easily benumbed.  It is only in those providential acts of merciful affliction that we desire to cry out as David does.  It is only in the loss or hindering of His mercies that we see how very precious they are.

There are no small blessings, so insignificant mercies and yet we are so very prone to treat them so.  We miss so very much of His wonder and lovingkindness simply through inattention and diversion.  We hope for heaven and miss the awesomeness of His providence in the everyday.

It does us little good to determine to not be diverted - there is little strength in our determinations.  It does us less good to approach Him as though it were some business or social goal we have set for our selves.

No, it is only in His strength that the distractions of the World and the Devil can be dispelled and we can regain the sight we need to whole-heartedly adore Him and see the value of all the mercies He pour out upon us moment by moment.  

We are to live in and by the Spirit and not the flesh - but this takes - no, demands a submission, a humbling that we are not prone to give.  We are so very oriented to achievement, to works that we bow not our knees for the common and the ordinary.  We have been fooled into thinking that we can deal with those things and only need Him for the "big things."

There is none in heaven for us but Him.  There is truly nothing here of any comparative value.  But we don not live that out in the everyday.

Pray that He will strengthen your heart, your soul, to bend your knees for the common and everyday things we have seen as the products of our efforts.  Do not be fooled into thinking that you accomplish anything apart from His providence.  

There and there alone will we find the peace He has for us.

Be prayed for -

I just want to take a little of your time to encourage you to get prayed for.  I know, sounds kind of weird.  But it is not only part and parcel of the life of the Body but it brings with it surprising blessings.
I had a dear brother pray for me today.  We talk on the phone a couple of times a week keeping one another accountable and encouraging each other.  Today he said he wanted to pray for P and I.  So, over the phone, he did.
OK, when this happens you kind of think you know what's going to be said - right?  Well, not always.  As I listened to his prayer I grew more and more amazed at his words.  It was perhaps the deepest and clearest prayer I've ever had prayed for me.
Oh, he toughed the tough stuff and the needs but then it seems the prayer became deeper.  I won't go into details but I found myself deeply touched and greatly convicted.  He prayed for things I wouldn't have thought of - for needs I had not examined - for things I just skimmed in my prayers.
Was God leading his prayer?  I can see no reason to think otherwise.  Actually I have good and grateful reasons to believe God's hand was in it.  No, it was not a weird prophecy prayer.  Rather it was a prayer that cut right to the chase and it cut deeply.  It was a wonderfully wounding and strengthening prayer.  I was, as the British say, "gob-smacked."
Do you have someone who can pray for you and with you deeply?  Is there someone with whom you don't flinch when their prayer goes deep? 

Let me encourage you to ask God to bring into your life brothers and sisters who will pray for you deeply an for who you may do the same.  Certainly we can and should do much to encourage and help one another - but prayer is the greatest thing we can and may do - let's pray we find the people and places for which to do it.

Father, don't let me be afraid of seeking deep and pointed prayer from my brothers and sisters.  Bring me those with who and for whom I may pray openly and honestly and who will reach into my heart and lift up my needs as well.  Father let us not avoid Your throne of grace, the opportunity to seek You and Your provision for one another.

Amen

Psalm 7:17 Even when it hurts.

Psalm 7:17 ESV
I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

I will!  But that's not always an easy thing.  Our flesh is weak and we struggle with fear and doubt for many reasons.  Some reasons are common others are rare and toxic.

When things are hard and we are anxious we need help in giving thanks and singing praise.    That's our struggle and it's not uncommon.

Let me encourage you to read the Psalms and search out those wherein David struggles as we do.  Pray those if you can't pray your own.

Let me encourage you (and myself) with the words of Richard Baxter - we should,
"Do it as we can in order to learn to do it better."

Little by little, step by step, agonizing prayer by agonizing prayer let us seek His power and mercy to give thanks and sing praise.  

Even as we weep upon our beds until we fall exhausted into sleep - let us thank and praise Him for His goodness and faithfulness and that He has made us His and keeps us so.

Father - I want to cry out in my distress.  It hinders my thankfulness and praise.  Help me Father, help me to reach above my need and anxiety to do thank you and praise you even when it feel shallow and forced.  Father, enable me to do it little by little and better and better for You are indeed worthy of my thanks and prayer.

Amen

Free slaves?!? Faithful Master!!!!

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.   (1Pe 2:16)

Free!

Free?

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   (Rom 6:22)

This is the whole of our freedom.

Whether Peter is referring to a freedom from the Law is not certain, but we know that Paul references it:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.   (Gal 5:13)

We are free from the bondage of sin and free from any pretense that we can in and of ourselves resolve the conflict we had with God when we were still unredeemed. 

We are free but it is not a wide-open freedom rather it is a freedom in Christ, by Christ and for Christ.  What we undertake, that we cannot undertake in His name, is never an act of freedom.

Jesus said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (Joh 8:34-36)

Sin and freedom are mutually exclusive.  We are free from the imposed rule of sin but when we sin, we are submitting to that which has no rights over us.  When we sin, we are re-shackling ourselves – binding ourselves to that from which we have been loosed.

We receive our freedom for we have been redeemed, forgiven, saved.  But though the grace of God has no limits for us, to abuse and misuse it, to rebel against His rightful authority over us, is to bring into question the surety of our redemption. 

Consider:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,   (Heb 12:1)

Forgiven we may be – free of sin’s bondage we may be – but free of Christ, never. 

It is sometimes the way of believers to see themselves so utterly apart from the “world” that they may do or say what they will for they are “saved.”  Yet ours is a freedom that is defined by the One who provided it, the One into whose hands God has delivered all things.

Many use their freedom to vilify unbelievers.  Many use their freedom as a red cape to a bull.  Many use their freedom as an excuse to disassociate from those to whom they are called to witness.  Many use their freedom to – just go along as they have – only avoiding the grosser types of sins.

But this verse has a catch.  We are free – free servants of God.

But – that word “servants” is troublesome.  The “authorities” I regularly consult in my studies hold that it is more accurately translated slave.

One reason for this is quite simply:

for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.   (1Co 6:20)

and 

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.   (1Co 7:22-23)

We were bought out of our bondage to sin to be the slaves of Christ.  In this we have great freedom – freedom from sin and freedom to serve God as His.

Though it may irritate some, our freedom in Christ is far beyond any freedom a document written by man can give – anyone.  The tough side of our freedom is that we are free to be oppressed, harassed and even killed because of it. 

In chains, on the rack, in dungeons, on desert islands, and even in the flames we are free.  We have to keep in mind that this freedom is not of man and indeed is often opposed by man.   With this freedom we need to accept:

Luk 21:17  You will be hated by all for my name's sake.

Father, help me understand and appreciate my freedom as well as Your ownership of me.  Make me quiet and trusting under Your loving hand.  Teach me, patiently, to be a good and faithful servant.  Teach me Your faithfulness as my Master.

Calm my heart and still my mind with the assurance of Your sovereignty and grace.

Amen