Tag Archives: Joy

THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 8

Devotion, ,

RESTORE!

Psalms 51:12 NIV
[12] “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

“Did you know that the word “restore” appears 136 times in the Bible? The Bible is filled with examples of healing and restoration. It is a consistent theme in both the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis all the way to Revelation.”
(https://theredeemed.com)

If I could give God a middle name that describes something about Him that is deeply embedded in His character, I would call Him “Yahweh Shoob”, the God who restores.

“Shoob” is one of the multifaceted Hebrew words with a multiplicity of meanings according to the context. However, when it comes to the character of God, one word above all others fits the bill… RESTORE!

Unlike our human tendency to destroy, and we do it all the time when our inborn selfishness crashes into the selfishness of others, God’s passion is to restore. He loves to fix situations and people so that His kingdom of love and light can become the real way for us to live on the earth.

The trouble is that we are more focused on the brokennes in our world than about the people who caused it, including ourselves…and that means ourselves first. When we keep playing the blame game, nothing will be restored.

Let’s examine David’s prayer in context.

His guilty secret was out! He had created a mess through his selfish behaviour. He had stolen another man’s wife and then tried to cover it up, first, by trickery and then, when that didn’t work, by murder! By “diminishing” Uriah, his mistress’ husband, by having him killed, he had conveniently forgotten that God never, ever let him down, and that he was to treat others in the same way.

God knew! He told His prophet, Nathan, to confront David with his sin. David was mortified. Instead of making excuses, like many of us would do, he came clean.

In two of his well-known psalms, David revealed the turmoil of his guilty conscience.

Psalms 32:3-4 NLT
[3] “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. [4] Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.”

David agonised over the terrible weight of his guilt. In his despair, he turned to the Lord, throwing himself on God’s mercy, knowing that no amount of animal sacrifice could make up for what he had done.

Psalms 51:1-4 NLT
[1] “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. [2] Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. [3] For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. [4] Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.”

David acknowledged that he deserved everything God’s judgment would bring on him. Crushed by his sinfulness, he hurled his pitiful self on “chesed”, the covenant love of God.

Psalms 32:5 NLT
[5] “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”

GONE! All his guilt, all his agony…gone! In an instant! He felt as if he had never sinned. His soul and l conscience were power washed, clean, white as the driven snow.

However, there still lurked in his heart one anxious thought, one misgiving. Would God restore his position with Himself, that favoured position of intimacy he had lost through his foolishness?
Forgiveness was one thing, and that was already a given, but what about restoration? He had forfeited something very precious and he wanted it back. He had begged for forgiveness, and God had forgiven  him. Would He also restore to him His presence and his favoured position of a son?

Since, as David had learned, in God’s presence there is fullness of joy…

Psalms 16:11 NIV
[11] You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

…the return of this joy would confirm to David the restoration of God’s presence in his life. He wanted more than the experience of joy. He wanted to be assured of God’s presence with him and the restoration to full salvation that his joy would signal.

There were serious consequences to David’s moral failure in his life and the life of his family which he could not dodge. However, for the rest of his earthly life, David continued in humble trust and obedience to God, even through the horror of his son, Absalom’s abominable behaviour, murder and treason. God restored David’s throne and the respect and loyalty of his subjects and…the greatest honour God afforded him, the honour of being the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah.

Yes, God restores, and even in the aftermath of our sin, His mercy triumphs over judgment. Falling into sin, as terrible as it is, never cancels our standing with God. Rather, it releases a flood of mercy and grace that indelibly imprints on our hearts the truth that God restores!

In conclusion, how I value this aspect of God’s character because I know that my appeal for restoration will never fall on deaf ears. No matter what the context, I am assured that God restores!

“RESTORE” IS God’s middle name. On the day when Jesus returns, He will clean up every last mess we have ever made of God’s earth. God’s plan to unite heaven and earth into one glorious, eternal kingdom when He makes His dwelling with us, will happen. He has already written the last chapter.

Revelation 21:1-5 NLT
[1] “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. [2] And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. [3] I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. [4] He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” [5] And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

Hallelujah!

PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD – 2

Christian Life, ,

Before we examine the pieces of God’s armour, we must first answer the question, “What is our strategy in this war?”

Our position in the battle will determine our strategy.

Unfortunately again, those who believe that we must fight for new ground are mistaken, and their strategies are misleading. We are not in this war to gain new territory. We are participants in this war to protect the territory inside us that Jesus won for us.

What is the territory we now occupy with Him? Salvation, eternal life, the practical ways in which we live under His authority, and the power to overcome Satan’s strategies. Let’s look at what He has done to deliver us from Satan’s domain.

Colossians 2:13a NLT
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away…”

Did you get that? From birth, Satan has held us captive to sin because…

  1. We were dead to God and could not respond to Him in any way.
  2. We were slaves to sin and could not obey God’s laws.
  3. We were condemned to eternal death and could do nothing to save ourselves.

So, we had a lifetime of charges against us, we were accountable to God, and guilty as charged. Satan had a foothold in our lives we could not shake off and a grip on our inner man we could not escape. We were just like him in nature, doomed to eternal death, and utterly cut off from God. We lived in Satan’s territory, trapped and unable to escape from his power.

Romans 8:7-8 NLT
[7] “For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. [8] That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”

Only God could intervene and change the situation. How did He do it?

Colossians 2:13b-15 NLT
[13]”Then God MADE YOU ALIVE with Christ, for he FORGAVE all our sins. [14] He CANCELED the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he DISARMED the spiritual rulers and authorities. He SHAMED them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

He sent Jesus who obeyed God’s laws perfectly then died in our place to take our punishment for failing to obey God’s instructions. He delivered us from Satan’s grip. Now Satan has no power over us because…

  1. God made us alive to Him so that we can hear and respond to Him.
  2. God rescued us from Satan’s domain, brought us into His kingdom, to live under His authority and standards.
  3. God cancelled our debt of disobedience and nailed it to the cross.
  4. God gave us His nature to want to be and do what He wants us to be and do.
  5. We died to sin and our old nature, self. We are free to live in, under, and for God.

Tha battle continues in us because Satan still tries to convince us that God is lying, that He is unreliable, that His promises are not true. He tells us that he is still in charge, that we belong to him, and that we must still do what our old nature tells us to do.

We still have the old nature in us. The desires of our old nature towards Satan and evil and our new nature towards God and good pull us in two opposite directions.

The Apostle Paul realised how powerful this struggle was once he became a believer in Jesus.

Romans 7:9-12, 14-20 NLT
[9] “At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, [10] and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. [11] Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. [12] But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good….
[14] So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. [15] I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. [16] But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. [17] So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. [18] And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. [19] I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. [20] But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”

How was he ever to escape sin’s grip?

Romans 7:4-6 NLT
[4]”So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You DIED to the power of the law when you DIED WITH CHRIST. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. [5] When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. [6] But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”

By dying to the old life of sin through his identity with Jesus’ death, Paul was made alive to Jesus’ life in him. He died to Satan’s power and rose to a new life in and under Jesus’ rule. He was living in new territory.

Can you see, then, that our struggle is not to gain ground but to hold the ground which Jesus gained for us?
We are to STAND, not to fight for the territory in which we now live… righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14:17-18 NLT
[17] “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness, (righteousness), and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
[18] because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.”

The Christian’s armour, then, is mostly defensive because our strategy is to STAND against lies by holding on to truth. We are never to give ground in our thinking and believing to the lies we once believed and followed.

Ephesians 6:13 NIV
[13]”Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

To be continued…

9 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF JOY

Christian Life, ,

9 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF JOY

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…” Romans 14:17 NIV 

Believers tend to think of joy as an emotion that we feel or should feel all the time, especially when things are not going well. We are encouraged to hold on to the truth that “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The Hebrew word for strength actually means “a place of safety, a fortress, protection”. Joy is God’s protection against… what? Emotions don’t give us protection. They only tell us what our state of mind is.

I think, therefore, that we should look at joy from another angle, i.e., not as an emotion but as an attitude, especially as we are exploring the powers of the kingdom that God has provided for us to overcome the world.

If God’s peace is His protection against the anxieties and fears our present circumstances produce, joy is prophetic of the outcome of our future.

“Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” Romans 5:2 NLT

To understand the meaning and power of joy in our lives, we must look at the power of joy in Jesus’ life. Jesus was the most joyful man who ever lived.

“You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.” Hebrews 1:9 NLT

What was the reason for Jesus’ joy? Isaiah saw Him prophetically as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.” (Isa. 53:3 – NLT).

How could two such powerful emotions be present on one person?

The answer is the cross.

Despite His overriding joy, Jesus felt the agony of impending suffering for the sin of the world.

“He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” Luke 22:44 NLT

He felt the pain of His people who would have to face the horrors of Roman invasion and the cruelty of war because they had rejected Him.

“But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.”Luke 19:41-42 NLT

He wept over Mary’s disappointment and disillusionment because she didn’t understand what He was about to reveal.

‘When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled… Then Jesus wept.” John 11:33, 35 NLT

As real as the sorrow Jesus felt for the self-inflicted suffering of His people because they failed to understand who He was and why He had come, and the agony of His own suffering, His overriding attitude to life was pure joy.

All His sorrow would be swallowed up in one great event – the cross.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT

It was the outcome of His sorrow and suffering that produced the joy that kept Jesus going to the end. Our salvation was His goal and He did it because He never gave up.

“When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.”Isaiah 53:11 NLT

It is true that there are many experiences in life that produce a surge of joy in us… falling in love, marrying the one we love, carrying our first child, successes and achievements and many more, but these are earthly and temporary.

The true joy that will sustain us through every bad experience is the anticipation of our future.

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while…. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:6, 8-9 NLT

In a world of people who have no hope, we have the power of Jesus’s joy to sustain us through every trial and bad experience because we are convinced of God’s promise…

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT

Therefore, when we choose to maintain an attitude of joy, we have a powerful weapon against Satan’s attempts to drag us into depression and hopelessness when we confront present circumstances.

Confidence in God’s promises enables us to persevere with joy, no matter what, and we can rejoice because we know that our future is secure.

“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” Romans 12:12 NLT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All Scripture quotations in this series

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

THE BOOK OF ACTS – IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

Bible Study, , ,

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

“Some of the Jews convinced the most respected women and leading men of the town that their precious way of life was about to be destroyed. Alarmed, they turned on Paul and Barnabas and forced them to leave. Paul and Barnabas shrugged their shoulders and went on to the next town, Iconium, brimming with joy and the Holy Spirit, two happy disciples.” Acts 13:50-52 (The Message).

Well, now that’s a strange way to react to bad treatment! Why didn’t they fight back to protect their fledgling disciples? These young believers needed much more teaching before they could leave them on their own, yet they had to get out and leave them.

They didn’t have much option, really, if they wanted to stay alive. Their Jewish opponents were ferocious enough to do them in if they resisted. It would seem that law and order was not very well maintained if a mob was allowed to take action against individuals without repercussions.

The attitude of the two missionaries is also astonishing. At this point in their missionary enterprise they didn’t seem to turn a hair at the treatment they were receiving from their fellow Jews. Surprisingly enough it was their own people who harassed and hounded them from city to city, not the pagan Gentiles from whom one would have expected the most resistance.

Instead of being angry and upset at the treatment they had received, they simply moved on to the next city and carried on their work as though nothing had happened. Were they becoming bitter and hardened inside? Not at all! Luke specifically informs his reader that they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

There is a place in God that allows one to bypass the emotional upheavals that accompany life’s reverses and remain at peace in the middle of them. Like the chicks that are safe and dry under the mother hen’s wings in the storm, these two men knew where to go and what to do when adversity hit them and they found themselves in a hostile environment.

The prophet Isaiah, living in turbulent times with Assyria, a powerful enemy empire from the north bent on world domination and harassing Israel, knew the secret of perfect peace. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:3-4 (NIV).

Paul’s experiences on his journey through life taught him the same great lesson. How could he write words like “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.” Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV), had he not been permitted to go through the things that shaped his confidence in God?

Wherever you are on your journey right now, what is it in your life that is giving you the opportunity to find that resting place in the eye of the storm? You can so easily miss the grace of God and throw away the opportunity to learn to trust, if you are too busy fretting and bucking at your circumstances. God intends for you, in whatever comes your way, to find His peace that covers you in a blanker of protection and confidence in the midst of it so that no storm can ever bother you again.

Like Paul and Barnabas, you can walk away from conflict, opposition, adversity and even rejection with your heart filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit because of your trust in God’s unfailing love.