Do It Anyway

More than a year ago I collected the following quotes as potential fodder for my blog, though little explanation is required.

“We live in what one writer has called the ‘age of sensation.’ We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationships with God is nurtured” (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 48).

“How does one feel thankful? ...It seems to be something which disappears or becomes a mere word the moment one recognizes one ought to be feeling it. I always tell people not to bother about ‘feelings’ in their prayers, and above all never to try to feel, but I’m a bit puzzled about Gratitude: for if it is not a feeling, what is it? A funny thing how merely formulating a question awakes the conscience! ...Act your gratitude and let feelings look after themselves” (C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack, 95).

“...we have no power to make ourselves love God. The only way is absolute obedience to Him, total surrender. He will give us the ‘feeling’ if He pleases. But both when He does and when He does not, we shall gradually learn that feeling is not the important thing. There is something in us deeper than feeling, deeper even than conscious will. It is rather being. When we are quite empty of self we shall be filled with Him” (Ibid. 101).

“Feelings come and go, and when they come a good use can be made of them: they cannot be our regular spiritual diet” (C.S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night, 109).

These days we might hear someone say, “I don’t feel like going to church... reading my Bible... praying.” But could you benefit from doing it anyway? “I don’t feel like praising God?” But isn’t He worthy of praise at all times? There are a lot of things in life that we do whether we feel like it or not. And although faith isn’t a “to do” list, there are times when we simply have to trust that doing what God has instructed in His Word will be good for us in the end.

The spiritual disciplines have gotten lost in some Christian traditions, because they are confused with works-based salvation. Their value lies not in saving us, but in drawing our attention back to the One who did save us and gives purpose to our existence. Let us therefore draw near to God in worship and gratitude.

“Rejoice always, praying without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

© 2024 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Not Your Church

I’ve noticed two unhealthy extremes when it comes to church membership. On one end are those who won’t join a church, and when anything happens that they don’t agree with, they quickly find a new church. On the other end of the spectrum are members who claim ownership of everything related to the church and won’t relinquish control to anyone, even the pastor. This seems particularly true if the church is part of a denomination where pastors are assigned by an outside body and rotated frequently.

For the first person the mindset is “I don’t need to tie myself down to any church. I can go wherever I’m most comfortable.” For the second person it is “This is my church and I will outlast anyone who wants to change it.” I believe God’s response to both people would be “Remember whose church it really is—Mine.” Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). God “put all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

If we are committed first to Jesus’ lordship, we will endeavor to obey His commands, including all the commands that require us to commit to one another in love and fellowship, “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:24). Those who are inclined to church-hop are a bit like adopted children who only want to be in relationship with their Father and won’t connect with anyone else in the family. While all Bible-believing churches are part of the universal Church, God has given us localized bodies so we can relate to one another on an individual level.

If we are committed to His lordship, we will also obey His command to submit to those in authority over us, including pastors we may not agree with on everything. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17). That’s not to say that pastors and other leaders never make mistakes, but unless it is a doctrinal issue or a legal issue, there should be abundant grace extended. The wise pastor will seek counsel and weigh it carefully to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Christ is still the head of the universal Church and, whether we acknowledge it or not, the head of the local church. It’s not the pastor, not the elder board, not the bishop, not the denomination. Each of those may have some measure of delegated authority, but they are ultimately accountable to Jesus Christ. Much has been said about the increasingly rapid decline of church membership in the West. I believe that is largely due to a faulty understanding of the church. If it is merely a club to which we belong, then we can come and go as we please. But if it is a Body under the headship of Christ, we need to take seriously all the commands from our Head as to how we are to commit to and submit to one another out of love for our Lord.

“And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Under Construction

I came across this quote in The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas:

“This faith is not like a deed to a house in which one may live with full rights of possession. It is more like a kit of tools with which a man may build him a house. The tools will be worth just what he does with them. When he lays them down, they will have no value until he takes them up again.”

There are a lot of people associated with the Church who have never picked up those tools. They may have come to faith at a revival or camp, but have not taken any real steps after that. Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock… And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7:24, 26). There are those who’ve sat down on the Rock but have never gotten around to building anything. In Douglas’s words, they think they’ve been handed the deed to a completed house and can now settle in and do nothing.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church:

“I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it… Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Cor. 3:10-13).

Though Paul was writing to the church as a group, the same is true of individuals, and the church is not built up if the individual members are not growing. I picture a house with a wall here and a window there, but nothing holding it together.

I was talking this week with a publisher of Christian education materials, and we were wondering what church programs are going to look like after the pandemic, because even before COVID many churches only had older adults in Sunday school and small groups. It’s a struggle to get young adults and kids involved in the church. Many of them attend so sporadically that they are never getting the big picture of the Bible and redemption. The tools are there, but they have not chosen to pick them up and use them.

The Church always has and always will struggle to compete for the time and attention of people, even those who say they are Christians. The world, the flesh, and the devil will provide abundant distractions from spiritual growth. Church leaders all want to do everything possible to engage people with their faith, and we must start with prayer for the hearts and minds of our friends, family members, and church members. Apart from the Spirit’s work, we can accomplish nothing through human ingenuity.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Crumbs of Manna

As I’m reading through Exodus again this spring, I started thinking about the Israelites gathering manna six days a week for the duration of their wilderness wanderings. How long did it take them each morning to pick up about two quarts of the fine flakes for each person? (Multiply that by the 600,000 men plus women and children mentioned in Exodus 12:37!) Certainly, there was grumbling about the inconvenience and lack of variety, along with groaning about aching backs.

The manna foreshadowed Jesus. “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). The Israelites couldn’t just stock up for a month or stop gathering the manna. They needed the daily grace of God’s provision for them. We too need God’s grace every day for forgiveness, sanctification, and maturity. Jesus taught us to pray for our “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). We receive God’s provision through Jesus’s death on the cross and His intercession for us, as well as through Scripture, prayer, and gathering with the Body of Christ on a regular basis. We can’t just accept Christ as Savior and expect to live and grow in our faith any more than we could eat one meal and expect it to last a lifetime. The provision is there if we will make the effort to gather it.

It’s curious that Exodus reports, “They gathered [manna], some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack” (16:17-18). This is reminiscent of Jesus’s miraculous feeding of five thousand with five loaves and two fish in John 6, the act that preceded His statement that He is the Bread of Life. The crowd followed Him because they wanted to be filled without expending any effort and without understanding that Jesus wanted to give them something far better than daily sustenance.

In our consumer-oriented society, how often do we settle for a few fringe benefits of faith rather than digging deep for our daily nourishment from the Bread of Life? How many in our churches expect to be spoon fed when (or if) they show up?

Let us press on to maturity, “for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14). Let’s make it our constant practice to gather manna daily from God’s word and through interaction with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

The Right Harvest

Have you ever read a familiar Scripture and suddenly realized you’ve never really paid attention to it before? That happened to me this week with 2 Corinthians 9:10 (ESV):

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

In the context of the chapter, it’s easy to focus on the ideas of giving and tithing and to overlook the last few words. One commentary notes, “Righteousness shall be itself the reward, even as it is the thing rewarded.” Do we really believe that righteousness is a desirable reward, or are we interested only in more tangible rewards? Are we working to cultivate righteousness? The prophet Hosea wrote, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12). Righteousness does not grow where it is not cultivated.

As I think about some of the challenges of life in the world today, perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong questions at times.

• Not “what is legal,” but “what would contribute to righteousness?”
• Not “how can we protect our children,” but “how can we teach them to love righteousness?”
• Not “how can I avoid sin,” but “how can I develop a greater desire for righteousness?”

If the pursuit of righteousness were our first priority, how might that influence our daily choices? I’m always convicted when I read Psalm 101:3a, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” There are plenty of worthless things all around us. We could resolve not to look at any form of media, but avoidance is not necessarily the same as seeking righteousness and holiness. (Here’s an article that differentiates these two similar terms.) We can also do all kinds of religious activities without having any real interest in righteousness. I fear that the modern church often contributes to religiosity and self-righteousness without relationship to God.

If I’m honest, most days I’m more concerned with doing my job to the best of my ability and simply surviving another day or week or year. If someone asked, “What are we here for?” I would probably say something about glorifying God, but I wouldn’t even think about cultivating righteousness. And yet Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). I suspect most of us are more interested in “all these things” than we are in the kingdom of God and His righteousness. For many people, the image of eternal life is more about our own hobbies and pleasures than it is about the promise of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:12).

The Apostle John reminded his readers, “Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous… Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:7, 10). Thankfully, the practice of righteousness does not depend on our perfect obedience to the law, because we are incapable of doing that. We receive the righteousness of Christ (imputed righteousness), and we live it out by the power of the Holy Spirit (progressive righteousness). John Piper said,

“[We] can’t make any progress in practical, lived-out righteousness until we are accepted by God, forgiven for our sins, and declared to be perfectly righteous with the imputed righteousness of God in Christ. That’s tremendously important to see because it means that the effort that we make by faith through the Holy Spirit to put to death sins and become more and more practically righteous is not the basis of our right standing with God. It is the consequence or effect of our right standing with God.

How do we pursue righteousness? It’s not by trying harder to avoid sin, but by nurturing our relationship with God. The more we get to know and love Him, the more we will desire to please Him. We will seek His power to overcome temptation, and we’ll become more sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in our lives. None of that can happen apart from the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, and involvement with the Body of Christ. We become Christians by simply accepting what Christ has done for us, but it takes a lifelong process to be transformed by the renewal of the mind and to be conformed to the image of Christ (see Romans 8:29 and 12:1-2).

May we never be satisfied with a faith that doesn’t cause us to change and grow, but may we seek a harvest of righteousness for the glory of God.  

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

One Body

Lately our church has been discussing the biblical basis for church membership and what that should look like. As Sam Allberry points out in this video clip, in Hebrews 10:25 the “opposite of not going to church is encouraging one another.” How can we encourage one another when we have no relationship? How can we obey all the “one anothers” of Scripture if we aren’t actually with one another on a regular basis?

Along those lines, it struck me that the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 says, “Forgive us our debts…” It’s not “Forgive me as I have forgiven others,” but is rather a corporate statement of our need for forgiveness as a Body. (Not that we can’t pray it individually, but that shouldn’t be the only way we pray.) I think inherent within the prayer to “forgive us” is the need for forgiveness between members of the Body of Christ. Just prior to these verses Jesus had said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (5:23-24 ESV). I don’t think it is inconsequential that the order in Jesus’ teaching is: 1) reconcile to your brother, 2) go make your offering, 3) worship together as the body and confess your need for forgiveness. It is similar to Matthew 18 in confronting a brother for sin first privately and then increasingly publicly if he refuses to listen.

The point is that our actions as individuals do not just impact our own lives but also the Body of Christ. God has joined us together through the blood of Christ, and “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). The sin of one member of the Body effects the rest of the Body, and we need other members of the Body to help us walk in the forgiveness and newness of life that we have in Christ (Romans 6:4). As Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 5, one person’s sin was a bad influence on all of them, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (5:6). Those in the church were told “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty… Purge the evil person from among you” (5:11, 13).

Obviously some sins are much more visible than others, and some sinners require much more rebuke than others because of their hardness of heart. One person might need to be publicly disciplined while another needs only a quiet word from a brother. It is true that each of us individually can confess to God and receive His forgiveness, but it’s also true that God designed us to live in community. As such, we are meant to be exhorting and encouraging one another in our fight against sin. There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

After studying Greek in college, I realized that we need to read the epistles from a corporate mindset. The vast majority are written in the plural, which does not come through in English, and we can miss a lot by reading from a singular, independent viewpoint. First Corinthians 6:19 could more accurately be translated (in Southernese), “Do y’all not know that the body of y’all is the temple of the Holy Spirit in y’all, whom y’all have from God? Y’all are not your own.” Paul isn’t just saying that each of us individually belong to God, though that is true, but that we belong to Him together and we belong to one another as well (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).

I know Christians who see no need to be involved in a church, and there have been times I’ve wanted to disengage as well. But I don’t think that is really an option for anyone who loves God wholeheartedly. He didn’t just adopt us into relationship with Him as our Father, but into a family with one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15), and many of the commands in Scripture are to be carried out in relationship with one another in His Body. How can we choose to ignore those commands and still claim that we love Jesus?

In Ephesians 5, Paul writes about how we are to relate to one another. He didn’t totally change subjects when he hit verse 22 and started talking about marriage, he simply zeroed in on one type of relationship within the larger context of the Body of Christ. The marriage relationship is intended to reflect the relationship that Christ has with the Church (5:32). Being part of the Body of Christ is not always easy, just as marriage is not easy. It requires sacrifice of time, energy, and personal priorities, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (5:21), nourishing and cherishing one another “because we are members of His Body” (5:30).

If we think that church is something we can simply add on like a new hobby, we are missing the point. We cannot function as individual parts if we are not connected to the Body. We cannot grow in Christ if we are not involved in the life of His Body. As Pastor Matt said, “We grow together or we don’t grow at all.”

“So as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:4-5).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Worthy Prayers

For some time now I’ve been using the Scripture-Based Prayers to Pray for Your Pastor card that was put together by Terry Teykl. I’ve added to that a list of prayers mentioned in Paul’s letters. Paul’s prayers are packed full of theological details, and could take a year-long sermon series to unpack and work out. Two of these are:

• 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (ESV) – “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Colossians 1:9-10 – “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

What caught my attention this time around was the declaration that it is God who makes us worthy of His calling and enables us to walk in a worthy manner. In and of ourselves, we have no ability or innate good that would make us worthy of God’s holy purposes for our lives. He is the one who calls us to follow Him and gives us work to do, and He makes us worthy to do it. It’s mind-boggling if you think about it very long. The best analogy I can think of is an inventor taking a pile of scrap metal and creating an android out of it. But unless you work on the starship Enterprise or on Tatooine, you can’t have an intimate, growing relationship with an android. God created us for much more than that.

Not only does He make us worthy, He gives us fruitful work and enables us to do it in a manner that will bring Him glory. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking “This is my job and I’ll put in my hours every week to earn a paycheck, but it doesn’t ultimately matter.” God’s calling does have ultimate significance, whether it’s a calling to be a pastor, teacher, mother, construction worker, or bank clerk. There are ways and opportunities for everyone to glorify God and bear fruit for Him, though that may look different in each type of vocation.

If nothing else, these verses make me want to consider what “every resolve for good and every work of faith” should look like in my life and in the life of my church. That’s a type of strategic planning that is often overlooked. Just dealing with the weekly routine keeps us all pretty busy and distracts us from setting priorities and seeking God’s direction. I also know that just trying to pray consistently and coherently is a challenge before we even get to the point of figuring out how to pray more biblically and in line with God’s will.

It’s ironic that we are made worthy to enter the presence of the Creator of the universe, and yet most of us would say that we are not good at praying. Our church is in a season of learning about prayer and joining together in prayer. My hope is that this won’t just be another passing interest, but would change the way we pray, serve, fellowship, and worship together.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

© 2015 by Dawn Rutan. 

Comfortable Christians?

In Sunday school we’ve been studying the Spiritual Disciplines, based on Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. A couple other good books are Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, and his son Nathan Foster’s The Making of an Ordinary Saint, among others. The latter book illustrates one man’s attempts to live in the disciplines, and is perhaps the most encouraging example for those of us who try and fail.

As I finished reading these books, the thing that stood out most to me was that the reason we tend to avoid many of the Spiritual Disciplines is that we don’t want to be uncomfortable. Studying and memorizing Scripture takes time, and we don’t want to give up something else in order to make time. Evangelism can lead to some pretty awkward conversations, and we don’t want to look bad. Stewardship means we have to give up some of our resources, and we don’t want to find ourselves shorthanded. Fasting means going without food for some period of time, and most of us have never really experienced true hunger. Prayer seems a little easier, provided we aren’t asked to pray out loud or for a long time. And most of us are used to attending worship services, though we may not actually worship often. Solitude may seem desirable, especially for parents of busy children, but we may be reluctant to use that time to seek God.

I think “comfortable Christians” should be an oxymoron, but it is all too common, especially in the Western world. We’ll put on the religious act so long as it doesn’t inconvenience us or make us look bad. But if it interferes with our work, entertainment, hobbies, and habits, Christianity gets put on the back burner.

Donald Whitney says this about the role of struggle in the Christian life:

“Referring to the Godliness mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, the Apostle Paul writes in verse 10, ‘And for this we labor and strive.’ The word labor and strive tell us that becoming like Christ involves a lot more than to ‘let go and let God.’ The Greek word translated ‘labor’ means to work until one is weary. We get our English word agonize from the term rendered here as strive” (242).

Does that sound like the kind of effort that most Christians put into seeking godliness? Whitney lists several other Scriptures:

• Colossians 1:29 (ESV)- “For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”
• John 15:18-19- “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
• Galatians 5:17- “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
• Galatians 6:8- “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
• 1 Peter 5:8- “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• Ephesians 6:11- “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Those don’t sound like encouragement to “make yourself comfortable” while waiting for Christ’s return. No, they are commands to remind us that the battle is real and that we have an enemy who will do anything to try to pull us away from Christ and prevent us from being effective witnesses for His kingdom.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 Paul writes, “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” In this dark world, it’s easy to get complacent. Even though an abrupt end is coming, we lose vigilance as time goes on with no end in sight. Darkness seems so pervasive that our little lights don’t seem to make a difference. It’s easy to get distracted with the routine of living and forget that this world as it currently exists is not our eternal home.

The Spiritual Disciplines are meant to keep our focus on God and to prepare us for eternity. They remind us that some things are more important and comfort and convenience. They help us to run from sin and run to our Savior. They call us to run the race with perseverance, keeping our eyes on the true goal of life only in Christ.

“Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” -1 Timothy 4:7-8

Fruitful Works

This week I’ve been working on memorizing Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV): “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” At the same time, I’ve been praying my way through Colossians 1:9-12. Verse 10 says “…so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

In reading those two passages together, I felt that perhaps I was not “bearing fruit in every good work” at least in some areas of my life. I was reminded also of Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” So if God has equipped us with everything we need, and He has prepared the good works for us to do, why does it feel like we’re not bearing fruit the way we should? I think there may be a few reasons:

1) We may be expecting the wrong kind of works. I think we’d all like to be known for accomplishing something great for the Kingdom—saving thousands of people at a crusade, writing a worship song that is sung worldwide, raising a million dollars for missions, etc. But God may have an entirely different agenda—taking care of your kids and raising them to know Him, teaching a Sunday school class, counting the offering every week, or praying for those in need. We’re all doing some small thing every day that can have an eternal impact in our own lives and the lives of those we love. That may be the good work set before us.

2) We may be expecting fruit to grow too fast. The fruit of raising children in a godly home may take decades to realize. Not many people will accept Christ as little children and never stray away. The fruit of being faithful in prayer may not be in ways we can immediately see. The fruit of studying Scripture may be a slow pull away from the things of this world. God never said our good works would change the world overnight.

3) Our good works may be hidden or hindered by life in a fallen world. Being a good, upright employee working for an ungodly boss may feel like a waste of time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should change jobs or give in to the corporate culture. Even Christian organizations can be hindered by the distractions of pleasing people and funding programs. Being a prayerful, godly parent may be tough if the other parent doesn’t agree. Scripture is full of examples of people who had to remain faithful in the midst of difficult circumstances. They may not have seen the fruit of their labors, but we can still read about them today.

So perhaps we need to adjust our expectations. In writing about the discipline of service, Nathan Foster says:

“Certainly by our standards Jesus was really unproductive. He spent thirty years in a broken-down, working-class town doing what? In his ministry he really only invested in twelve guys, and even they didn’t seem to understand what he was really trying to do. He didn’t write books or leave clear, concise discipleship methods. Jesus even gave the responsibility of furthering his message to Peter, the guy who had just ditched him. According to worldly values, his service work was inefficient. Jesus was relaxed; we are stressed. Jesus was patient; we are obsessed with progress. Jesus was content; we want more. Jesus’s church was small; we insist on mega” (The Making of an Ordinary Saint, pp. 124-125).

God’s idea of success and fruitfulness has a lot more to do with our relationship with Him than with completing some grand task. The Apostle Paul also links fruit with knowledge of God and His will. Besides the Colossians passage mentioned, in Philippians 1:9-11 he prays “that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment… filled with the fruit of righteousness…” In Ephesians 5:8-9 he says, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”

May we be found faithful in seeking the Lord and His will so that we will bear fruit in the good works He has appointed to us.

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” –Matthew 25:21 

Serving in Weakness

In Souvenirs of Solitude, Brennan Manning quotes Father Michael Buckley on the qualifications of a priest: “Is this man weak enough to be a priest? …Is this man deficient enough so that he can’t ward off significant suffering from his life, so that he lives with a certain amount of failure, so that he feels what it is to be an average man?” Manning follows up with the comment, “I believe that this applies to every follower of Christ because we are a ‘priesthood of all believers’ (see 1 Peter 2:9). It is in this deficiency, in this interior lack, in this weakness, maintains the book of Hebrews, that the efficacy of the ministry and priesthood of Christ lies.”

Hebrews 4:15 tells us “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (ESV). How amazingly incomprehensible that the same God who created the universe came to earth and lived in weakness, inability, and suffering. Philippians 2:7 says He “made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” In His obedience to the Father, He chose not to exercise the powers of deity in many circumstances. In the temptation in the wilderness, Satan suggested that Jesus could short-circuit the process of salvation by using His power rather than submitting to weakness.

You’ve probably heard the question—could God create a rock so large that He couldn’t move it? This is called the omnipotence paradox because it is a logically impossible question. Supposedly, no matter how you answer, it proves that God is not omnipotent. However, I would assert that God already did create a rock so large He couldn’t move it. When Jesus was dead and in the tomb, He was physically incapable of moving the stone away from the entrance. Just as He wouldn’t come down from the cross (Matthew 27:40-42), He wasn’t going to do anything to compromise the salvation He was offering. If the stone had been moved away prior to Sunday morning, the evidence of His resurrection would have remained highly questionable.

Jesus chose weakness in order to fulfill His ministry. That’s completely foreign to most of us. Our work is determined by our competency in a particular field. Promotions are given to those to surpass their peers. Education and training are seen as being of paramount importance. Even when it comes to positions within the church, we look for who is most qualified, and people are likely to say, “I can’t do that. I don’t have the abilities.” While there are varying spiritual gifts within the Body, some folks are reluctant to try anything new and may have no idea how God has gifted them.

I think we tend to apply the same logic to the spiritual disciplines. “I can’t fast… I can’t pray… I can’t study the Bible… I can’t memorize Scripture…” Have you ever tried? The funny thing is that God delights in our weakness because He can then be proven strong.

• “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). If the Spirit Himself if praying for us, what excuse do we have to not pray?
• "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:6). If the Lord is the One who gives understanding, what excuse do we have to not study the Bible?
• But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). If the Holy Spirit serves as our memory and prompter, what excuse do we have to not memorize Scripture?

If all we say is “I can’t,” we’re limiting what God can do in and through us. However, if we say “I can’t, but You can,” we open the door for God to glorify Himself by revealing His strength in our weakness. The question is not “Do I have the ability to do this?” but “How can God work through me?”

“For He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but in dealing with you we will live with Him by the power of God” (2 Corinthians 13:4).