Restoration

I’ve been debating what to write this week, with a couple different ideas rolling around in my head. So I’ll start writing and see where this comes out…

Earlier this week, someone commented on the fact that Christians suffer from depression at the same rates that non-Christians do. Living in a fallen world, we’ve all been impacted by the sin of others, as well as our own sin. For some of us it can take months and even years to work through the consequences of that sin. At times it can feel like the past has been ravaged by destruction and all that is left is a barren field.

When Israel went through a literal destruction by locusts, God spoke through the prophet Joel to say, “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten… You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame” (Joel 2:25-26). Somehow God can restore that which the enemy has taken from us. He can free us from the shame and guilt of our own sin as well as what others have done to us. We all know from Romans 8:28 that God uses all things, both good and bad, to shape us into who He has called us to be.

In Psalm 103, David prays, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (vv. 2-5). God redeems us from the pits we fall into either through our own sin or the sin of others.

As I thought about renewal, redemption and restoration, I realized that they can have at least a few related meanings. It could be the restoration of physical strength and vitality in the present time. It could mean that God restores or gives us a new perspective on the past, so that what has seemed so desolate now has new life. And there is also the sense of ransom from captivity and being freed from the sin and darkness that has bound us for so long. All of these are true, though it can take time for us to assimilate them into our daily walk and belief. We need constant reminders of these truths through the Word and fellowship with believers.

I am gaining a greater appreciation for the psalms of David. Here was a man who experienced great persecution due to the sins of others (from his brothers to Saul to his own son), and he also faced the consequences of his own sin with Bathsheba. He was in a variety of pits during his life and he wasn’t afraid to tell God what he was really thinking. He evidently wasn’t afraid of what others would think of him either, since we still have written record of his psalms today. We can all learn a lot from this “man after God’s own heart.”

Battlefield of the Mind

The title of this post is borrowed from a book by the same title written by Joyce Meyer several years ago. I read it at the time, but I don’t remember much now. Hopefully I can get around to rereading it in the near future.

I wanted to expand somewhat on an earlier post about how our thoughts lead our actions. As Meyer wrote, “Think about what you’re thinking about.” During the course of a normal day thousands of thoughts pass through our consciousness. Most thoughts are related to our work and routine—“I need to write checks today,” or “What should I make for dinner?”  Some thoughts are truly random and meaningless—“I wonder what color Dennis Rodman’s hair is now?” (A good percentage of these seem to end up on Facebook!) Then there are thoughts that influence our choices—“What is on TV that I want to watch? Is it worth watching or should I be doing something else?”

At this time in my life, the thoughts that preoccupy my mind are ones that are entangled with emotions. Our memories are peculiar things, and those memories that involve strong emotions come to the surface most easily. If I ask what you were doing on January 15, 2005 you probably couldn’t tell me. But you can easily remember where you were on September 11, 2001. Of course the same is true of our personal history—the events that were especially good or bad often come to mind even without intentional thought. For those who have experienced some traumatic events, the darkness of that time can tend to overshadow a lot of smaller good events, and it takes some work to cut the trauma down to size in order to focus on something more positive. I’m not trying to minimize anyone’s pain, but we can’t let it color every day of our past, present and future.

Besides trying to put our memories in perspective, sometimes we need to uncover the source of thoughts that may seem random and yet elicit confused emotions within us. For example, if you make a mistake do you say, “Oops, I need to fix that,” or do you say, “I’m an idiot!” If it’s the latter, why are you belittling yourself by labeling one mistake as if it were a terminal disease? We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we are idiots, failures, or hopeless. Speak the truth to yourself.

More specifically, if a temptation to sin flits through your mind, do you tell yourself, “I can resist that temptation,” or do you think, “I’m such a sinner I can’t even stop the thoughts from coming”? I’m convinced that the enemy plants thoughts in our minds, and just the presence of the thought is no reflection on our faith or holiness. But how we respond to that thought is critical. If we are accustomed to giving in to the temptation, we need to learn to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). It takes ongoing practice to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

In The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges gives perhaps the best explanation I’ve read of our responsibility in regard to holiness. Through Jesus Christ we have received salvation, justification and sanctification. We are no longer slaves of the old master. That means we have the option and ability to say no to sin and to obey God. Jesus made it possible, but we have the responsibility of putting it into practice. Sin is a choice.

The enemy is always going to try to make us sin, and he’s going to try to convince us that we are hopeless and helpless. As we were reminded during communion this Sunday, God convicts us of specific sins we need to repent of, but the enemy condemns us of being perpetual sinners, failures, and unworthy of God’s love. When those accusations come, we need to remind ourselves that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God never said, “I’ll forgive you when you’ve proven you’ve changed and stopped sinning.” I also find comfort in 1 Corinthians 6:11—after Paul has listed many categories of sinners he reminds us, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

When the anxiety about our salvation or our sinfulness comes to mind, we are reminded, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). I used to think these verses were just talking about the typical worries that fill our prayer lists like health, safety, and salvation of loved ones. But lately I find that I’m relying on God to guard my heart and mind in regard to my thoughts, and so I turn those anxieties over to Him and I give Him thanks for what He has already accomplished through Jesus Christ as well as for what He is doing in my life now and in the future. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). What better assurance is there?

Whose Standard Do We Follow?

I’ve been thinking about Sunday’s sermon on Romans 13:11-14 as well as some of the ensuing discussions. Paul makes no distinction between “big” sins and “little” sins in verse 13. As David wrote in Psalm 51:4, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” All sin is committed against an infinitely holy God and is therefore equally wrong. When the Day of Judgment comes, we won’t be compared with one another or with Hitler or Mother Theresa. We will be compared only to the perfect standard of God. Thankfully, as believers we are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), so we don’t need to fear that day.

However, I think many of us tend to get complacent about sin. We’ll let the “little” sins slide without much complaint and often without confession. Jerry Bridges writes, “Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own ‘victory’ over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God” (Pursuit of Holiness). If we truly believed that every sin is offensive to God, wouldn’t we be more inclined to root it out of our lives? Even as I’ve confronted sin in my own life, I think my motivation has been often to “make a better me,” rather than to honor and obey God in all things. Yes, I do want to see progress in my life, but I know it should be for God’s glory, not my own.

This is where we may get bogged down in debates over the reason for obedience. Are we trying to obey because 1) we fear punishment, 2) we want to earn salvation or repay God’s grace, 3) we love God and want to live as His children? There may be some other variations in between as well. I don’t want to get into that debate here except to say that legalism is a poor motivator for real lasting change in our lives. (Has the song “Oh, be careful little eyes what you see” ever helped anyone avoid temptation?!)

In Ephesians 4:22 and following, Paul reiterates what he wrote in Romans, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” It certainly sounds like Paul believes this to be an achievable goal. I have to say that personal experience has left me skeptical, but I hope and pray that one day I’ll be able to agree wholeheartedly.

The struggle we all face is how we can bring our condition in this fallen world more into alignment with our position in Christ. Scripture is full of declarations about who God has made us to be—free from sin, reconciled to God, redeemed, forgiven, totally accepted by God, and secure in His unfailing love. I’m still trying to figure out how it all works. What I do know is that I need frequent reminders of who God is and who I am in His eyes. I can’t get anywhere on my own, without heavy doses of Scripture, and without people who will keep speaking truth into my life. I’m thankful for the brothers and sisters in Christ that God has placed in my life for such a time as this.

I was reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (The Weight of Glory). We prefer the passing pleasures of sin instead of the glorious holiness of God. Sin is easier to pursue and yields quicker rewards, but it doesn’t bring any lasting joy and peace. Loving God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30) is far removed from daily life for most of us. I want to want God more than I want everything else, and my prayer is that He will change my heart such that I seek Him more constantly and consistently than I ever have before.