Author: kezha1

It’s only because of the good grace & benevolence of God that we are made right before Him. It’s only His tender regard for our misery & the consequences of sin that God made a way possible to alleviate our plight and enable us to receive new birth. This new birth shining forth … exhibited in the person of Christ, Who is the very embodiment of God’s lovingkindness towards us and the foundation of our salvation. (Ephesians 2:7) And the Good News is, this unmerited favor & compassion of God’s has appeared to all men. (Titus 2:11) But this gracious gift must be understood as a gift & has nothing to do with our own works…for we are totally dependent on it, and not the other way around.

Why is it so easy to misrepresent the facts about ourselves? A lot of it I think has to do with pride, vanity, and our egos getting in the way of the truth. In Revelation 3:17 John chastised the Church in Laodicea for their distortion, “You say, ‘I’m rich; I have acquired wealth and don’t need a thing.’ But you don’t realize that you’re wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Anytime we pretend to be something we’re not, we can get caught up the the tangled web of deceit & lies, no matter how small they seem. For there’s really no need to pretend…and come on, it’s silly… God already knows the truth!

When I read this quote from Charles Spurgeon this morning , I had to laugh out loud! He wrote, “If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.” That is so true! Just as the answer to the rhetorical question posed by this Proverb is a resounding, “No one is pure & clean!” (Isaiah 64:6) We were sinful the moment we took our first breath, for we’re all born with a inherent sin nature… without a trace of innocence. But back to Spurgeon’s quote…When someone thinks badly of you, let them. For there’s one thing they can’t do and that’s read your mind…for if they could, they’d really think badly of you, and with just cause.

Some people we are immediately drawn to and like…some others just seem to rub us in the wrong way. But we must never allow those likes & dislikes to rule our Christian walk. For true Christian character isn’t found in doing good, but in God-likeness…with Christ’s sacrificial love for us as our ideal to follow. Matthew 22:38-40 spells it out…the Law of God is the Law of love, and we are to love one another as Jesus first loved us. (I John 4:19) So it goes to reason that love fulfills the Law, because it sums up God’s commands & motivates us to obey them…by loving one another.

Surrender to God isn’t simply relinquishing our life to Him, but of surrendering our will to His. And one of the biggest battles of crisis we’ll ever face is this submitting of our will to the Divine Will of God. Yet our gracious God never forces, begs, or cajoles…He just waits patiently for the time to occur when we have come to the end of ourselves…and everything we’ve tried has failed… and so we finally yield willingly to Him. So why can’t we catch on that in this “Battle of the Wills” God will always win in the end? It’s because this “giving up of our will” means accepting the absolute authority of God, and “God is God, and I am not” kind of submission. For in the end, if you think about it, we’re all under His authority whether we bow willingly now, or do it later. (Isaiah 45:23)

The voice of the Holy Spirit is gentle, so soft that unless you’re living in complete fellowship & oneness with God, you’ll never hear it. That’s because the Holy Spirit’s Presence is perceived in near silence, and if your heart’s “ears” aren’t sensitive enough to detect His voice, you’ll ignore it. Sadly, the “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12) of the Holy Spirit can easily be drowned out by the clamor & chaos of today’s world around us… and unless we’re listening intently for His warning & restraint, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 4:30) Also, the Apostle Paul’s writings about the Holy Spirit being a person, not some impersonal force, was not new but something he had quoted from Isaiah 63:10-11, where God’s people rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit… only to be punished & impaired spiritually.

Psalm 56 has the characteristics of both a lament & a psalm of confidence. Here within these first few verses David expresses both fear & faith…trouble & trust…horror & hope…with faith prevailing in the end. Anxiety & fear will visit all of us at one time or another, so our response to it is important. David writes, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.” First, he not only acknowledges the cause of all his distress, but then addresses the elephant in the room…”I’m really afraid & anxious right now God!” But rather than wallowing in the fear, David makes a conscious decision of the will and determines to trust in God for his deliverance. That’s because faith must be exercised in times of fear…and when it’s applied, the result is the resolve to trust…which overcomes any fear.

Having godly wisdom is the key to this Scripture, especially when faced with questionable & misleading words or actions. Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “Discernment isn’t knowing the difference between right and wrong. It’s knowing the difference between right and almost right.” Now the devil has only two Modus Operandi…two methods or patterns of operation…them being deception & discouragement. And over the ages he has perfected the art of twisting the truth, tweaking it just a bit, and spinning it in his favor… so for the causal listener it sounds right. But when placed up against the Word of God, it reeks of trickery & deceit. If you’d stop someone on the street and ask if they know the difference between right & wrong, most people would say yes. But it’s that gray area, that almost right area, where most get sucked in and taken advantage of because they lack wisdom. But the good news for us all is, God will gladly give you wisdom if you just ask! (James 1:5)

Do you ever feel like your prayers hit the ceiling & fall back to the ground, or that the prayers you’ve been praying for years & years still go unanswered…to the point you’ve become discouraged & defeated? It happens to all of us! But let’s look at this Scripture for a minute to gain context. Two things we see right away about this prayer is that Jesus starts out grateful for the opportunity to pray to His Father, but He also is boldly confident & rock solidly reassured that His Father not only hears, but accepts, and will answer His prayer. So, when Jesus prays – God always hears His prayers…so if the Son of God has been formed in me – the very image of Christ impressed on my heart, (Galatians 4:19) it goes to reason that my Heavenly Father will always hear, accept, and answer my prayers. But I must see to it that He is exhibited in my human flesh in a correct & righteous way, since my body is the “Temple of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 6:19)

Other manuscripts show this verse as reading, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” and “Things work together with those who love Him to bring about what is good…” Only God can work good out of evil…for only God’s sovereign overruling of wicked human work can accomplish His Divine & Ultimate purpose. In Genesis 50:20, we see the evil the brothers of Joseph attempted to do God turned around to save not only them but many more during the great famine. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” So when hard things come into our lives we need to remember that the purpose of God guarantees “good” for His people – God’s providence rules in such a way as to ensure that everything that happens to us is working for our ultimate good & His glory.