Forgiving God

The God of all creation is faithful, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He loves us with a jealous love, which is one of the reasons why he will correct us when we sin against him. You may have heard the phrase, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”, meaning that we shouldn’t hurt the one who helps us. Though this is a wise sentiment, it is in our nature to sin against God, our redeemer. But thankfully, it is in God’s nature to love us and to ultimately forgive us even when we’ve disobeyed him or have made him angry. I believe this applies to us in our personal relationship with God as well as collectively as a nation. The book of Lamentations highlights this truth this way in chapter 3, verses 31 through 33 which says:

“For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.” 

Though individually, thousands of believers faithfully follow Christ, as a nation we have turned our back on God. We are not the only nation. There are several others around the world who have all but abandoned the faith, have worshipped other gods, or have embraced paganism. But God loves us. And in his love he may correct us in ways that are uncomfortable. He has done it in the past, in many ways he is doing it now, and if we persist, he will do it in the future. It is to our benefit that God loves us so much that he will not leave us to our own devices. He will give us every opportunity to repent. This is also true for us individually. The Bible reminds us that it is not his desire that any of us perish. In our disobedience, he may turn his face from us in our rebellion, or he may show compassion on us in our brokenness. But one thing is for certain, he is for us, he does love us, and it is his desire to be in right relationship with us. Lamentations says, “for men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.” So I would encourage you to pray for our nation and our world. And if you are away from the Lord, I encourage you to pray for forgiveness, because God is compassionate and his love is unfailing.

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It is true that God is slow to anger and abounding in love. But it may take God’s hand of correction to bring us back in right relationship with him. None of us wants to feel the disappointment or anger of the Lord. But tough love is still love. And there are times when that is exactly what we need to save us from destruction. But Lamentations reminds us that “men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.” So I would challenge you, as I challenge myself, to embrace these verses as a warning to us individually and a call to prayer for our nation. We need to humble ourselves before the God who loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us. We do not want to bite the hand that feeds us, so to speak. True believers want to love him, honor him, worship him, and obey him.

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Eyes on Jesus

When calamity strikes it is so easy to focus on the problem, to worry about the outcome, and to stress over things that are out of our control. For some reason, many of us forget that control is, and always has been, an illusion. Jesus is our only true constant; our only true rock. Even still, when problems arise, we often take our eyes off of Jesus, which is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We lose faith, when we should be exercising our faith. A good analogy of this dichotomy can be found in the Bible when Jesus was seen walking on the water. You may be familiar with this story because it is often shared in Sunday school, Bible studies and from the pulpit. It is when Peter, along with the others in the boat, saw Jesus miraculously walking toward them on very rough waters. Then Peter said in Matthew, chapter 14, verses 28 through 31:

“‘Lord, if it is you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’.” 

As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he had faith enough to believe in the miraculous. It was only when he took his eyes off of Jesus, and focused on the situation, did his faith waver and he began to sink. Likewise, when we going through rough waters, our best course of action is to keep our eyes on Jesus. As long as we place our faith and our focus on him, our true security, we come to realize that he is our strength in weakness. We understand that he is the source of our deliverance, our true hope, and the peace in the middle of our storm. But when we allow what we may call, “reality” to set in, when we focus on what our eyes can see, and when we allow the fear of the natural world to overtake us, we falter and sink. Mature believers remember that God is greater than any circumstance. We understand that trails, struggles and persecution are bound to come in this world, but that he has overcome the world. The truth is that whatever situation you face in this life is, and has always been, in God’s hand. Our job is to cry out to him and to trust him; to keep our eyes and our faith on him, not our circumstance. Then, we will find a peace that passes all understanding and a faith that will keep us above the waves instead of letting them overtake us. Peter had faith enough to step out of the boat, but even still, Jesus said, “you of little faith”, because his faith did not persist through his circumstance. Let us learn from this story. Let us put our full and complete faith in Jesus when things are going well, and also, when the waves of life want to overtake us.

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Life is uncertain. As humans, we don’t know what the future holds. It is in our nature to put our trust in what we can see with our eyes and understand with our reasoning. But God is the author of life, and the architect of our reality. To place our trust only in what is seen is like an infant placing their trust in their crib. Their crib may seem to protect them, to give them comfort and to fit within their immediate reasoning. But it is their parents who are their real sustainer. However, with infants, it doesn’t take long for them to realize and embrace their dependence on their parents. Why, then, does it take a calamity for us to realize our dependence on our Heavenly Father? So I encourage you to always remember that there is a truth beyond what we can see with our eyes and understand with our minds so that when the waves of life try to overtake us, we are able to keep our eyes on the rock and do not doubt.

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Authority Given

Divine power, wisdom, and authority are God’s and God’s alone. It is by his power that everything we know came into being. It is by his wisdom that he is able to know everything that there is to know. And it is by his authority that he is able to decide what will happen, when it will happen and how it will happen. If you are a mature believer, you may know that, at times, God may even allow his people the privilege of experiencing some of his divine power, tapping into some of his divine wisdom, or even directing some of his divine authority. In Matthew, Jesus granted a level of his divine authority to his disciples. He gave them the authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. It says in Matthew, chapter 10, verse 1:

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” 

From their own lips, and by their command, impure spirits obeyed them and disease and sickness left the bodies of those inflicted. This happened through them, only because God gave them the authority. Not one of us can perform a miracle on our own. Nor can we conjure something out of nothing or know the future. We don’t even have the power to save someone’s soul. These things fall under the power, wisdom and authority of God and God alone. Though this is true, we can appeal to him that he may exercise his power, wisdom and authority on our behalf. Have you ever asked God for a miracle? Have you ever asked him for wisdom in a situation? Maybe you’ve asked him to heal someone through you, to save a lost soul through you, or to use you in a mighty way. If you have, and if he has granted your request, then in that moment you were like one of his disciples in Matthew 10:1. He granted you access to the miraculous and the divine. I’m not sure how often God gives humans blanket authority to perform miraculous like he did with is disciples in Matthew, but I do believe that he is still in the business of allowing a level of divine power to flow through his people if we would ask, if we would have faith, and if he is willing. So I would encourage you to have the faith of a disciple; to know that God is able to grant you the authority to do the miraculous. If you are able to do this with humility and the right heart, then maybe God will use you as a vessel for his mighty work and power.

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What did Jesus mean when he said things like, “you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”? or “until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”? or “truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven”? I believe that these, along with several other examples, are Jesus explaining to us that he is willing to exercise for us a little of the authority that he granted his disciples. We may not have blanket authority to command sickness to leave by our will. But God may choose to honor the words that Jesus spoke many times in the Bible; that if we ask anything of the Father in his name, then he will do it. We are never in a position to command God, but he has given us permission to appeal to him. So I encourage you to have the faith to believe that God can, and will, do the miraculous through you. Not for your glory, but his. Not by your will, but by his. And not by your power, but by his. Allow him to filter your appeal through his divine holiness and, like a Father who knows what is best for his children, trust that he will use his divine power, wisdom and authority on your behalf.

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Love and Fear

There are numerous commands and principles highlighted within the Bible. Some of them are black and white do’s and don’ts, and others are righteous guidelines that we should follow. Some come with earthly consequences, and others we may not feel this side of heaven. But if we are able to understand the character of God and the spirit behind what we are taught, there are instances where our heart, over our actions, protect us from the wrath or the judgment of God. It is true that we are to confess and repent when we sin, by First Peter also teaches that “love covers over a multitude of sins”, because as one of my Bible commentators put it, love can turn away the wrath of God. Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 6 goes on to say:

“Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” 

And earlier it says in chapter 14, verse 27:

“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.”

Love and reverent fear are attributes of the heart that influence God. I believe that if we have love in our heart, our sinful and selfish desires are stripped away. We begin to take on the likeness of Christ which can soften God’s heart and soothe his anger. After all, God is love. And when we reflect more and more of his nature, our confessions of sin are authentic and transparent even before we open our mouth. Likewise, when we fear and reverence the Lord, with a humble and contrite heart, we are inevitably able to avoid evil. Because this, too, helps us to have the right heart; a heart of obedience. And the act of obedience, by definition, is the opposite of sin. I don’t believe that these verses are saying that love and fear, in and of themselves, can wipe out sin. But they are necessary ingredients if we are to truly repent and to truly obey.

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Love and reverent fear are biblical attributes that every believer should try to attain and maintain. Proverbs reminds us that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. And it also reminds us that through love and faithfulness, sin is atoned for. So I would challenge you to examine your heart today. We should all ask ourself, “how much love do I have for others?”, and “do I reverence the Lord as almighty and sovereign?” These are things that shouldn’t occasionally be on our heart and in our mind. They should be ever present, from when we rise in the morning to when we go to bed at night. Because the absence of these attributes mean that we are out of step with the Spirit. When we try to live life without love, we are inevitably selfish, which leads to sin. And when we try to live life without the reverent fear of the Lord, we become prideful and arrogant which also leads to sin. So I encourage you, as I encourage myself, to remember that love covers over a multitude of sins and through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.

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Sin While Fasting

I believe that fasting is one of the most powerful ways we can get God’s attention. As we deny ourselves food for a period of time, sacrificing our basic physiological need, with every hunger pang, we are reminded of our goal to press into God as we appeal to him. Some fast out of desperation, crying out to God for an answer to a pressing issue or for deliverance from something or someone, while others fast regularly as a spiritual discipline, beating their flesh into submission as they also refine and hone their spiritually submission to God. Whatever the reason for our fast, our behavior, and our actions, during our fast are just as important as the act of fasting itself. Isaiah puts it this way in chapter 58 of his book, in verses 3 and 4 which says:

“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” 

God honors the fast. I’ve seen it with others and I’ve experienced it myself. There have been times when I’ve fasted where God has given me a clear answer to a problem I’ve been facing, when he has redirected my ministry work, or when he has moved mightily on my behalf. You may have experienced the same. But, as we learn in Isaiah, our heart and our actions must be in step with the Spirit during our fast for our efforts to be most effective. God said, “you cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” We cannot walk in sin, or disobedience to God, and expect our fast to move God’s heart. So denying ourselves food for a period of time is only part of the fast. We must also walk in step with the Spirit by disciplining our heart and our will. And I believe that this can best be accomplished if we are in regular communication with the Father through prayer and the reading of his word. That way, not only will he influence our actions and our countenance, but God can uses these two communication methods to speak back to our heart and answer our cries.

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Isaiah reminds us that fasting is more than an act of sacrifice. I believe it is also a purification process, and an act of spiritual submission in obedience and humility. To most effectively move God to action through our fast, we must have our entire self involved in the process; body, mind, soul and spirit. After all, Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is for us to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. So it would track that our fast should engage these parts of ourself as well. And if we fast the way that Jesus modeled; denying ourself while honoring God, I believe that it would be his pleasure to move on our behalf.

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