gladitudes

The past months have been challenging in my life. For a variety of reasons, it’s been to tough to stay encouraged and motivated to do what’s right. There’s been a bit of soul-searching to figure out what’s going on.

I read these verses this morning and think they shed some light on stuff.

Psalm 89:15-17

“Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, LORD.
16 They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. They exult in your righteousness.
17 You are their glorious strength. Our power is based on your favor.”

The idea here is that when we respond to the call to worship the LORD–when we WORSHIP Him, there is happiness and strength. In light of my experience, this resounds as true, but I often let my circumstances eclipse this truth.

I heard a message by John Piper a couple months ago that talked about (more or less) worship being the key to true mental health. How true that is. When our focus is set completely on ourselves, it’s hard not to get stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, confused, etc. because all we can see is ourselves: our needs, our problems, our strength (or lack thereof)… you get the idea. When we’re willing to let our focus shift off of ourselves and on to our glorious and merciful God whose loving-kindness never fails, whose power never ends, and whose wisdom is infinite… When we do this, we find freedom. It’s true freedom, though, which is not doing whatever we want, but rather being liberated from our own spiritual or moral to-do lists because we’re trusting God to take care of our needs.

Yeah, so it’s good here I think.

(For a little related goodness check out: Hebrews 1:9)

Matthew 13:44 (ESV)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Matthew 13:45-46 (ESV)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about these three verses this weekend. There’s a lot of good in my life. God has blessed me with a great job, an amazing family, the best friends I could imagine, and much more. But, in the midst of all this blessing, I’ve found restlessness stirring up in my soul—a dissatisfaction with my life and where I am in it. As I’ve tried to work through it and figure out why; I’ve come to some conclusions. Read more

Over the past couple months, I’ve kind of had to come face-to-face with some of my own weaknesses. It’s a really hard thing for me. I pretty much hate seeing where I fall short; it makes me feel sort of angry and defeated. My natural reaction, I’ve found, has been to try to figure out a way to make myself right—to find a way to fix myself.

I know from experience, though, that all my efforts to make myself better always fall short. Sometimes there are small improvements, but never the deep, transformational change that I really desire.

I read this verse this morning and it gave me some good perspective on stuff. In context, the Apostle Paul is talking about his own weakness:

II Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

My thought is just this: instead of trying to run from weakness, why don’t I embrace it as an instance where God can come in and provide for me? I think that instead of hating my weaknesses, I ought to love them because at the places where I fall short, it provides an opportunity for God to prove Himself faithful and sufficient. As He does, then I will know him more and He will be more glorified in me.

Every once in a while, I have these moments where the intellectual ground that I have been standing on begins to shake a little bit. Not that it crumbles, but that it makes me question whether or not I’m standing in the right spot. This weekend, I sort of had one of those experiences. I don’t know the best way to explain it, but I feel that it’s so important that I want to try. Here it goes.

As a Christian, I am well aware that “Jesus died for my sins.” We hear or say that very frequently. I know that Ephesians 2:8 says we’ve been saved by Grace not by our own works. Despite of these things, I know I often find myself striving to achieve some level of righteousness on my own, messing up and failing, then trying to figure out how I can make myself better so that I won’t feel so miserable. When I hear sermons or read the Bible, a lot of the time in my mind I’m constructing a new to do list—appending the laundry list of things in my head that I have to work harder at achieving.

In Galatians 5 Paul writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free,” but the life I live a lot of the time feels more like slavery than freedom. Honestly, I frequently find myself just not wanting to try any more. There are verses like Psalm 63:3 that says God’s love is better than life and Philippians 4:4 that says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” I hear those verses and I think better than life? I can’t see it. Rejoice? Why? I begin wondering if I’m missing something. If God’s so good, why do I feel like this? It doesn’t seem right.

Well, in talking with a friend over the weekend, I’ve been reminded of a really important truth: Jesus died for our sin! Yeah, nothing new, but really think about it. He died for all of them for all time. We are no longer obligated to try harder—we are already right with God. Now, it sounds blasphemous, but the reality is we don’t any longer even have a responsibility to try to be righteous. Jesus has already made us righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God has made us to be his righteousness by having Jesus Christ die for us.

So, what does this really mean? Well, it means one thing primarily in my thinking. If Jesus has died to make me right with God, I no longer have to worry about being right with God. My concern now is simply to enjoy my right standing with God. He made me and loves me and I want to discover the good life he has for me.

What does it not mean? It doesn’t mean that we just forget trying to live righteously. We still ought to live righteously, but not because we have to, but because when we do we will experience God’s goodness to the fullest degree.

In light of this, I am going to begin taking a new direction on this web log. Instead of writing about ways to try harder, I will now simply reflect on God’s goodness. I will attempt to praise God here by talking about all the ways I can see and discover God’s blessing in my life.

If this strikes a chord with you, try this today: take 3 minutes and for those three minutes, just try to be thankful for stuff. Don’t be fake or over spiritualize it. Thank God for the things you are really thankful for. If you’re thankful for good coffee, tell God. If you’re thankful for a fun experience you’ve had or are looking forward to, thank Him for it. If you’re thankful for your good looks, thank him for it. Whatever He’s given you, give God glory by just recognizing it as coming from Him and enjoy it!

God’s good today.

Today when I was reading the Bible, I came across a passage in Galatians that I have read, I’m sure over a hundred times, yet it really hit me again.

Galatians 5:13-14 says,
“For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. ¹⁴For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (NLT)

I think, as a Christian who is seeking to live in God’s grace, it can be easy to forget why we have been freed from the law. Sometimes, we can focus on the fact that we are free, and forget that we must respond in a way fitting to the gift we have received. We have not been freed to go live however we want to—that would be quite ungrateful. We have been freed so that we can love and serve those around us. I don’t fully understand how this works, but it makes me excited to trust God to show me as I attempt to do it.