Sufficient and Necessary

The lessons have been piling up lately. Actually I should say lesson, because it is all part of one larger picture. It started with comments in a couple different sermons from Sam Allberry. In one he referred to John 6:35 (ESV): “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst,’” and he reminded me that Jesus is the only one who truly fulfills all our needs. In the New Testament context bread was a staple of life, not an incidental item. Jesus is not just some side dish, but He is the main course. Everything else is secondary. Later I read this: “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:24). How often have I looked to something else to satisfy me rather than waiting on God to do what only He can do, when I’ve thought that some need or desire was more urgent than it really was?

In another sermon on Luke 22:39-46 he said,

“‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’ It highlights for us the importance of prayer. [The disciples] need to pray so that they will not enter into temptation, so that they will not fall, so that they will be faithful to their master. And that is no less true for us. We will face trials. In His executive summary of what we’re to pray for, Jesus tells us to pray about temptation, that we would be delivered from the evil one [Matthew 6:9-13]. We need to be people of prayer so that when the temptation comes, we will not fall into it. A verse that has been really challenging and haunting me, actually, recently on prayer is James 4:2, ‘You do not have because you do not ask God.’ You do not stand because you do not pray.”

I wonder how often I have missed out on God’s provision, protection, and deliverance because I have not asked Him. How often have I fallen because I didn’t pray or because I was praying for something less than God’s best?

As I’m reading through Isaiah again this verse caught my attention. “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him” (30:18). And He not only waits to be gracious, but He also says, “I will rejoice in doing them good…” (Jeremiah 32:41). I wonder how long God has been waiting to show me grace and mercy and do good for me while my attention has been focused somewhere else.

It’s interesting that by showing mercy God exalts Himself. Through encountering His mercy and grace we see God for who He really is and we’re reminded of who we are both with Him and apart from Him. On our own we are weak, sinful, hungry, and needy. But in Christ we have strength, forgiveness, satisfaction, and fulfillment. It’s easy to forget that Christ is sufficient for all our needs. I need frequent reminders of His sufficiency, but those reminders usually come in the form of tripping and falling flat on my face. That’s always a good time and place to pray.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Refreshed

I recently read this article from John Piper, http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/i-know-god-loves-me-but-does-he-like-me, and I appreciate his reminder that God takes great delight in His children. I was reminded of Hebrews 2:11 (ESV): “For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Or as the NIV puts it: “Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers [and sisters].” It seems to me that our modern, Western idea of family has not only diminished the depth of our relationships within the Church, but has also depreciated our understanding of God as our Father and Jesus as our Brother. God’s love for us is not an obligation, but a deep affection flowing from the heart of a father.

As Piper mentions in his article, our own awareness of our sinfulness hinders our perception of God’s love. How could He desire to be with a person who keeps breaking the law? But that reveals an underlying misunderstanding (or doubt) about what Scripture says of those who are in Christ. Galatians 2:20 (ESV) says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” We have more knowledge of our sinful condition than we do of our holy position in Christ.

In his commentary on Galatians 2:17-20, Martin Luther made the following comments:

“The Law drives us away from God, but Christ reconciles God unto us, for ‘He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.’ Now if the sin of the world is taken away, it is taken away from me. If sin is taken away, the wrath of God and His condemnation are also taken away. Let us practice this blessed conviction” (48). 

“Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: ‘I am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ’s righteousness, victory, and life are mine.’ On the other hand, Christ may say: ‘I am that big sinner. His sins and his death are mine, because he is joined to me, and I to him’” (53). 

“For Christ is Joy and Sweetness to a broken heart. Christ is a Lover of poor sinners, and such a Lover that He gave Himself for us. Now if this is true, and it is true, then are we never justified by our own righteousness. Read the words ‘me’ and ‘for me’ with great emphasis. Print this ‘me’ with capital letters in your heart, and do not ever doubt that you belong to the number of those who are meant by this ‘me.’ Christ did not only love Peter and Paul. The same love He felt for them He feels for us” (57).

You can begin to sense some of the amazement Luther felt when he realized that justification is by grace through faith, not by works. And it’s not just that we are legally made right with God, but that He truly loves us, accepts us, and delights in us. He doesn’t just take away our guilt for sins we’ve committed, but He adopts us into His family on equal footing with His beloved Son, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16-17).

Though I’ve known these truths for many years, lately I’ve encountered several refreshing reminders in Scripture (eg. Eph. 1:4-5; Gal. 4:7; Isaiah 43:4; 1 Cor. 6:11) and in other reading. We can quickly forget who we are and as Piper noted, we need to take a “Bible bath” to renew our minds with the truth.

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Out of the Darkness

“He brought me out into a broad place; 

He rescued me, because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19 ESV).

I read this verse last night and saw it in a new light. Usually when I’ve read it I’ve thought to myself, “I hope that will be true one day.” The cares and pressures of today often leave me looking for a way out of what feels like a narrow valley. But as I looked at it from a bird’s eye view I thought about it a little differently.

Looking back over my life, and particularly the last few years, I can see many examples of ways that God has rescued me and brought me out into open spaces. He’s lightened heavy burdens; He’s brought freedom from some areas of sin and fear; He’s opened doors for honesty that I never imagined. He’s torn down many of the walls I had built to protect myself—walls that restricted me more than I realized. Today I am in a much broader place than I have been before.

In a very real way, God has rescued me from myself. But from an even higher perspective, He has also rescued me from the enemy—from sin and death. As Paul said, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). We have been rescued and made citizens of a new country full of light and open places. I was reminded of the scene from Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian journeys through the Valley of the Shadow of Death in pitch darkness:

“Now, morning being come, he looked back, not out of desire to return, but to see, by the light of day, what dangers he had gone through in the dark. So he saw more perfectly the ditch that was on the one hand, and the quag that was on the other; also how narrow the way which led betwixt them both. Also now he saw the hobgoblins, and satyrs, and dragons of the pit, but all afar off; for after break of day they came not night; yet they were shown to him according to that which is written, ‘He showeth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death” (Part 1 Chapter IV).

The valley is dark and full of dangers, but the road ahead is wide open and brightly lit.

But perhaps the best part of Psalm 18:19 is the ending, “because He delighted in me.” God rescues and delivers us not out of pity or obligation, but out of delight. That is almost incomprehensible to us if we’re honest. There’s not much within us to make us “delightful,” but God sees something we can’t. Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2), and that joy was in the salvation of the children of God.

So I’m reading Psalm 18 differently these days and seeing how God is continually at work rescuing us and bringing us out into open, safe places. Although God doesn’t always deliver us the way we want or expect, there are probably many “little” rescues that we aren’t even aware of. Other rescues happen so gradually that we don’t see them unless we are specifically looking. And then there is the eternal rescue that has been transacted and will be fully realized in eternity. That one makes it worth it all.

“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.