Psalm 19: The Meditation of My Heart

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Good Seed, Good Soil, Good Fruit

“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. . . . But these are . . . those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:8, 20)

Nothing beats rich, loamy dirt, horse-manured, compost-fed, and broken-up two feet deep. Well-watered and well-drained, warmed by the sun and comforted by a blanket of mulch to hold moisture down and weeds at bay, such soil is a seed-bed for wonderful things. Wonderful fruit-bearing things.

Like apricot trees and watermelon vines, nine-foot-long tomato “trees” and elephant-ear summer squash. Things like okra spears thrust into the sky and gigantic jewel-drops hanging from the eggplant plants. Wonderful things like grapevines filled with bright and juicy reds ready to explode with flavor, green beans poled and granny smith apples stretching a tree’s limits. It all begins with good soil.

Christ makes it clear: Where the Spirit and the Word of God are, there is such a thing as “good soil,” and there is such a thing as “good fruit.” There may be variations in quantity from vine to vine or branch to branch, but good soil results in good fruit. When the fruit is poor or non-existent, check soil conditions.

What makes for good soil? Not only ears that hear but hearts that receive the Word of God for the truth, law, and promise that it is. Not only lips that confess but hearts that embrace and love and obey. Pray for such hearts, long for them, work for them, and use the organic material of the Word of God to enrich them. Such hearts are tilled and turned over, clods broken up, stones cast out. Such hearts are made soft over time and with experience rather than hardened and left fallow through disuse (or misuse). Such good hearts receive the Word of God and produce.

What is the fruit? The apostle Paul gives us this list as representative: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Those who are full of the Spirit are full of these things, and those who are full of the Spirit are drinking from the well of living water the Spirit has authored, that is, the Holy God-breathed Scriptures. Pray for this fruit as well, look for it, hope for it, long for it. Pray for a never-ending supply of love for God and love for others. Pray for God-given peace externally (between you and others) and internally (in your own breast). Pray for increasing crops—the hundredfold variety—of charity and goodness and purity and faith. Pray for the blessed fruit of patience produced by trials, itself producing perfections and completeness. But in all your prayers remember these things spring only from the seed of God’s Word planted in the receptive soil of the heart.

“God, grant us such fertile hearts as receive Your Word and find it growing healthy, fruit-bearing vines that extend to every corner of our lives. Fill us with Your Spirit, and by Your Word produce within us the fruit of the Spirit, dropping from our branches and lying all about us on the ground. Give us ears to hear, hearts that accept, lives that bear fruit—hundredfold—we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Thorny-vines

“And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. . . . Now these are the ones . . . who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:7, 18, 19)

Weeding is a reality in life. If you want tomatoes and squash and beans and okra and any other good thing, pulling up the other stuff—the grass, the weeds, the thorny vines—has to happen. If you want a nice lawn, something has to be done about that ragweed, those thistles and briars. Leave a garden untended, and the wilderness will take over in no time and with no help from you.

Such is life for the Christian. It may be true the tares and wheat grow up together, i.e., the wicked and the righteous are left to share space in the world; but this cannot be true of our hearts. There is a garden that must be kept weed-free. There is no place there for anything other than that which bears the fruit from the seed of God’s Word.

Three things are specifically pointed out by our Lord, three varieties of thornies. First is mentioned “the cares of this world,” which cares we all know all too well. These must be replaced by or transformed into the cares of the kingdom of God. It is not that we are not to care about things, as if the Christian life were simply a “don’t worry, be happy,” laissez-faire sort of affair. We have plenty to care for—lots of healthy, fruit-bearing, life-enriching plants that need watering, nourishing, guiding, encouraging, pruning, and so forth. But the cares of this world are cares for things other than what God cares for, things that distract us from the work of the garden-kingdom rather than promoting it.

The second thorny-vine mentioned is “the deceitfulness of riches,” which is a major theme in Christ’s teaching, the rest of the New Testament, and throughout Scripture. God knows, even if we are slow to admit, money and the love of money and the lust for money—the hope and belief that more money will answer our deepest longings in life—drives a big chunk of what goes on in the world and what goes on in our lives. But such a belief and hope is deceitful, a bald-faced lie. It bears no fruit but chokes the life out of true life and leaves us bare and broken and empty. This thorny-vine must have its ugly little head clipped off every time it pokes through the surface, and its root of covetousness and envy and self-love dug up and thrown on the burn pile.

Then there are “the desires for other things.” Our chief desire and the root and stock of all other desires in our lives must be the desire to know and love and cherish God Himself and the revealed will of God in His Word. “One thing have I desired,” writes the psalmist: “That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” All other desires will choke out this one desire if this one desire is not cherished above all others. Guard against this and any and all other thorny-vines that threaten the fruitfulness of God’s Word in your life.

“Dear God, grant us repentance, and help us to nip in the bud all worldly cares, the love of money, our desires for worthless things, and replace them with utter devotion and love for You and Your will as found in Your Word. So we pray in Christ’s name and for His kingdom. Amen.”

Roots in the Rocks

“Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. . . . These likewise are the ones . . . who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.” (Mark 4:5, 6, 16, 17)

I live in the South and have lived in the South practically all of my life. I find it humorous to hear the comments each year: “It’s never been this hot before!” “I can’t believe how dry it is!” “It’s gotten a lot hotter earlier this year”—and on and on the complaints and seeming amazement roll out every time there is a gathering. But, as I said, I have lived in the South all of my life, and it always gets hot, pretty much from April to October, and we almost always have a drought (there have been exceptions) or at least what can be called a “dry season.” Grass stays green in your lawn if you water, but brown and yellow can generally be expected to take over at some point if you don’t. It has always been that way and always will be, “global warming” or not.

I have lived in the world all of my life too (as we all have, of course), and there is another certainty I have found: trouble comes to everyone, and persecution comes to all who love God’s Word enough to live by it (2 Timothy 3:12). Christ says in this passage there are “rainy-day Christians” who find it easy to be Christians when things are going well for them, when it is easy to flower and blossom and look promising. But when summer comes, and the sun gets to glaring, and the long haul of 100˚-days sets in—when sickness takes hold, relationships get tough, or the Christian thing to do goes contra “cool”—where is their faith and hope and love now? It has found no root, Christ says, in the stony soil of their hearts but is far more like the pretty spring wildflower-weeds that spring up today and wither tomorrow.

A well-balanced soil makes for not only happy but healthy plants. All green on top but no root results in a flashy but short show. Hearing the Word of God, believing it, committing to it, obeying it, and living according to it in every nook and cranny of life, come hell or high water and through thick and thin, means growing the deep roots that will survive any trouble/trial/tribulation or the sure persecution that comes from loving the Word more than the world. Survive, not “make easy.” Trouble and persecution by definition exclude “easy.” But while the heat of life destroys some, it is life and even joy to others—the difference being the roots that can reach the water of the Word of God through faith, hope, and obedience.

“Lord God, we give You thanks for the gift of Your Word, the sound of Your voice that has come to our ears. We pray our thanks would not be short-lived or fair-weather only but that we would love and cherish Your Word always, when the pressure is on as well as off. Help us to endure when all the world seems against us. Help us to rely upon You, trust in Your promises, hope in Your grace and mercy, when life is hot and dry and troublesome or mundane. Keep us from stumbling, dear God, and grant to us the strong roots of trees that bear fruit, whose leaves do not wither, because their delight and every thought is grounded in the Word of God. So we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Tidy Sidewalks

“And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. . . . And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.” (Mark 4:4, 15)

Birds eat seed. I have three birdfeeders in my backyard, and the birds keep me busy filling them up with sunflower seeds. This is great, of course, if you are trying to attract birds, but it is a whole ’nother story if you are trying to grow sunflowers. Put out bean “seed” in the garden and wait and watch. Before long, here comes rockin’ robin to see what you left him. Plant enough for the birds.

Just as surely as the birds are going to eat some of your seed, the devil’s purpose in life is to take away the Word of God out of your heart. That has been his line from the very beginning. When God had given His word to Adam and Eve, Satan came along and twisted it and questioned it and tried to rub it out altogether.

So guard your heart. The first step is to plant the Word of God there. But if it is not guarded and cherished through faith and obedience, Satan will come waltzing in through an open door, robbing you of its benefit, strewing doubt and lies and temptations in its stead.

Sometimes we allow the Word of God to lie bare upon our soul like so much seed on the sidewalk. To use another metaphor, it is like we walk up the front steps of the Word, take a look around, pick up an item or two and turn it over curiously like we would a museum piece, place it back neatly on its little table or stand, and walk back out again. If we are not using the cutting board and knife, eating the food out of the refrigerator, sleeping in the bed, taking clothes off the hanger, etc., we are not living in the Word of God, from the Word of God, through the Word of God, by the Word of God.

To return to Christ’s picture, the Word of God must penetrate into the hard clay soil of our hearts (which needs softening up by the Spirit of God) and take root there, bearing fruit, else our hearts begin to run the risk of having it taken away altogether. This may sound ominous, but, sadly, there are too many once-orthodox-but-now-agnostic-or-atheist “believers” to be counted, whose lives each tell the same story. They heard the Word, but through disobedience their hearts were hardened to its life-changing message, and they have had less and less use for it until it is gone from their lives altogether. They have tidy sidewalks, thanks to the birds, who are all too happy to gobble up all that unused seed lying about and making such a mess of things. But the birds leave their own mess, of course, and in the end there is no true life where the voice of God has disappeared.

“God, we pray for better things in our own hearts. Break up the fallow ground, these stony hearts of clay, and cause Your Word to take root and bear fruit in our lives. Guard us from the evil one, dear God, who would rob us of Your Word and the life it brings through Christ our Lord. Move our hearts to respond to Your Word always in faith and obedience, and revive us, O God, according to Your Word, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Sowing Good Seed

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. . . . The sower sows the word.” (Mark 4:3, 14)

God is a gardener. And when He made man, He made him a gardener too. He gave him fingers to dig in the dirt, fingers for sandy loam to run through. He gave him taste buds and a growling stomach to drive him into the dirt to plan, plant, and wait. He gave him eyes to behold the beauty of peach orchards, corn fields, and fat red tomato slices on the white plate before him. God made man with a hoe and a rake and a shovel already waiting for him in the shed out back.

God Himself is a sower of seed. His way is the way of life. He dreams of life, plans life, prepares for life, and makes life happen. When He makes dirt, He makes it for seeds to grow in. When He makes it rain, He rains life on His seed. When He calls for the sun to come out and blaze, the hot sun that sometimes also scorches and kills, He is calling forth the life in the seed. When He pulls weeds, leaving them to dry up and disintegrate and turn back into the dust from which they sprang, He is pulling for the seed. He does all He does for the life of the seedling: nurturing, caring, tilling, fertilizing, watering, praying for life and health and a good return for His labor.

Want to see life flourishing at your fingertips? Sow the Word of God into it. Do all you do to nurture the success of the Word of God in your life. The voice of God called forth all things into existence, and it is nothing other than the voice of God that brings forth life and goodness and causes all things to thrive. Beautiful fruit will come—through wind and rain and summer sun—where the Word of God takes root. If we want to see life and love and happiness and fruitfulness in our lives, in our families, in our world—in our “garden”—it will only come by way of the seed of the Word of God sown and grown and nurtured over time. When we pray according to the Word of God, think, dream, plan, work, speak, feel, and act according to the Word of God—when every square inch of the dirt floor of our lives is covered with the seed of the Word of God—“eye has not seen, nor ear heard” what God has in store for those who love Him in such a way.

“Great God in heaven above, we give thanks this day for Your sowing Your seed of love in our hearts and bringing forth the fruit of love for You in our lives. Thank You for the Word of God in which we find life, and thank You for causing it to take root in us. Grant to us life and fruit through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and make us good and hearty sowers of the Word ourselves, in our own lives and in the lives of all whom our lives touch. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Psalm 119:153-176: Great Peace Have Those Who Love Your Law

"Consider my affliction and deliver me,
For I do not forget Your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me;
Revive me according to Your word.
Salvation is far from the wicked,
For they do not seek Your statutes.
Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord;
Revive me according to Your judgments.
Many are my persecutors and my enemies,
Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.
I see the treacherous, and am disgusted,
Because they do not keep Your word.
Consider how I love Your precepts;
Revive me, O Lord, according to Your lovingkindness.
The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

"Princes persecute me without a cause,
But my heart stands in awe of Your word.
I rejoice at Your word
As one who finds great treasure.
I hate and abhor lying,
But I love Your law.
Seven times a day I praise You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
Great peace have those who love Your law,
And nothing causes them to stumble.
Lord, I hope for Your salvation,
And I do Your commandments.
My soul keeps Your testimonies,
And I love them exceedingly.
I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies,
For all my ways are before You.

"Let my cry come before You, O Lord;
Give me understanding according to Your word.
Let my supplication come before You;
Deliver me according to Your word.
My lips shall utter praise,
For You teach me Your statutes.
My tongue shall speak of Your word,
For all Your commandments are righteousness.
Let Your hand become my help,
For I have chosen Your precepts.
I long for Your salvation, O Lord,
And Your law is my delight.
Let my soul live, and it shall praise You;
And let Your judgments help me.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
Seek Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments."

Psalm 119:129-152: Direct My Steps by Your Word

"Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
The entrance of Your words gives light;
It give understanding to the simple.
I opened my mouth and panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.
Look upon me and be merciful to me,
As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.
Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity have dominion over me.
Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.

"Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are your judgments.
Your testimonies, which You have commanded,
Are righteous and very faithful.
My zeal has consumed me,
Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.
Your word is very pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.
I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is truth.
Trouble and anguish have overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.

"I cry out with my whole heart;
Hear me, O Lord!
I will keep Your statutes.
I cry out to You;
Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.
I rise before the dawning of the morning,
And cry for help;
I hope in Your word.
My eyes are awake through the night watches,
That I may meditate on Your word.
Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness;
O Lord, revive me according to Your justice.
They draw near who follow after wickedness;
They are far from Your law.
You are near, O Lord,
And all Your commandments are truth.
Concerning Your testimonies,
I have known of old that You have founded them forever."

Psalm 119:105-128: A Lamp to My Feet

Make this the prayer of your heart and will:

"Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
I have sworn and confirmed
That I will keep Your righteous judgments.
I am afflicted very much;
Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.
Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord,
And teach me Your judgments.
My life is continually in my hand,
Yet I do not forget Your law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me,
Yet I have not strayed from Your precepts.
Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever,
For they are the rejoicing of my heart.
I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, to the very end.

"I hate the double-minded,
But I love Your law.
You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in Your word.
Depart from me, you evildoers,
For I will keep the commandments of my God!
Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live;
And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
Hold me up, and I shall be safe,
And I shall observe Your statutes continually.
You reject all those who stray from Your statutes,
For their deceit is falsehood.
You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross;
Therefore I love Your testimonies.
My flesh trembles for fear of You,
And I am afraid of Your judgments.

"I have done justice and righteousness;
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
Be surety for Your servant for good;
Do not let the proud oppress me.
My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation
And Your righteous word.
Deal with your servant according to Your mercy,
And teach me Your statutes.
I am Your servant;
Give me understanding,
That I may know Your testimonies.
It is time for You to act, O Lord,
For they have regarded Your law as void.
Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!
Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way."

Psalm 119:89-104: Oh, How I Love Your Law!

Pray with the passion of the psalmist if you can; if you cannot, pray for the passion too!

"Forever, O Lord,
You word is settled in heaven.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
You established the earth, and it abides.
They continue this day according to Your ordinances,
For all are Your servants.
Unless Your law had been my delight,
I would then have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget Your precepts,
For by them You have given me life.
I am Yours, save me;
For I have sought Your precepts.
The wicked wait for me to destroy me,
But I will consider Your testimonies.
I have seen the consummation of all perfection,
But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

"Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies;
For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the ancients,
Because I keep Your precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
I have not departed from Your judgments,
For You Yourself have taught me.
How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way."

Psalm 119:65-88: Better Than Thousands of Coins of Gold and Silver

Psalm 119 is one of the most wonderful prayers in all of Scripture. Pray with mind and heart fully engaged--which often means slowly and meditatively.

You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,
Because I have hoped in Your word.
I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,
According to Your word to Your servant.
Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live;
For Your law is my delight.
Let the proud be ashamed,
For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood;
But I will meditate on Your precepts.
Let those who fear You turn to me,
Those who know Your testimonies.
Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes,
That I may not be ashamed.

My soul faints for Your salvation,
But I hope in Your word.
My eyes fail from searching Your word,
Saying, "When will You comfort me?"
For I have become like a wineskin in smoke,
Yet I do not forget Your statutes.
How many are the days of Your servant?
When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?
The proud have dug pits for me,
Which is not according to Your law.
All Your commandments are faithful;
They persecute me wrongfully;
Help me!
They almost made an end of me on earth,
But I did not forsake Your precepts.
Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

Psalm 119:41–64: I Will Delight Myself in Your Commandments—Which I Love!

Another prayer from God’s Word: a confession of our love for God’s Word and His ways.

“Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord—
Your salvation according to Your word.
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me,
For I trust in Your word.
And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,
And will not be ashamed.
And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
Which I love.
My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments,
Which I love,
And I will meditate on Your statutes.

“Remember the word to Your servant,
Upon which You have caused me to hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.
The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord,
And have comforted myself.
Indignation has taken hold of me
Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
Your statutes have been my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
I remember Your name in the night, O Lord,
And I keep Your law.
This has become mine,
Because I kept Your precepts.

“You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten your law.
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.
Amen.”

The Source

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:16, 17)

Everyone, without exception—every man, woman, and child; rich man, poor man; Christian, non; despairing or content—everyone without exception devotes his or her life, thoughts, feelings, and actions to the pursuit of happiness, to getting the good and perfect “gifts.” Those who get up in the morning and do whatever they do—eat breakfast, go to work, laugh and play—do so because they think it is the right thing, the good thing, the thing that will bring them pleasure. Those who stay in bed—to mourn, to run away, to indulge, to rest—do so for the exact same reason, because they think it is what will bring them the best good. We are all looking to satisfy the aching in our soul for good and perfect gifts.

And even those of us who know better and know what this verse in the Bible tells us, that all things good—again without exception—come from God, even we struggle frequently (daily? moment-by-moment?) against the deception the damned serpent presented to our parents in the Garden (where everything was Paradise, right?): God is holding back. Somehow somewhere something outside God’s plan and God’s law and God’s ways (outside God Himself?) is going to bring me more pleasure, more delight, more satisfaction, more power, and more glory than what comes down from above.

In other words, the essence of sin is the disbelief of this verse. If we would go to the Father of lights, the Father of all things light and pure and good and true, if we would ask of God, the God who gives liberally and without reproach to all who ask for the good, we would avoid the shipwreck of wrong desire and temptation and sin and the death that ensues. But we teeter back and forth much of the time, unfortunately, between such faithful asking-looking-trusting-and-waiting and the utterly foolish response of lusting for the fruit forbidden if not sinking our teeth into it altogether.

God is the source of all things good, and He is good Himself, neither empty nor stingy, and with Him there is no variation or shadow of turning. The source—and nothing but the source—will always bear what it bears, give what it gives. God alone can be trusted for the goodness and perfection for which we long and live and pursue. Go to Him, beloved, and abide in Him, look to Him, and delight in Him, and He will give you the desires of your hearts.

“Father of lights, Source of all good, Goodness Himself, forgive our disbelief, deliver us from deception, draw us to Yourself, grant to us Yourself. Keep us from looking for love and joy and happiness and fulfillment and wisdom and comfort in all the wrong places, and by Your Holy Spirit guide us in the way that leads to You and all things good, true, and beautiful. We pray believing and trusting in our Lord’s most holy and precious name. Amen.”

Made Alive

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1)

I was once a dead man
Dead in my trespass and sin
Cold, unfeeling
Without breath or blood
No song on my lips
No beat in my breast
No sight in my eyes
No warmth to the touch
I was a lie
A body with no soul
Creation in wilt
Form and no substance

I was once a stillborn
Brought forth unnaturally damned
A grave for my cradle
Innocence spurned
No promise of growth
No hope of affection
No dreaming of futures
No memories to build
I was surreal
A world turned sideways
Seed gone bad
A child of wrath

But God is a world full of mercy
His self-purposed love giving cause
Entirely by grace
And for His good pleasure
With life in His fingers
And fire in His eyes
With kingdoms to build
And kindness on tap
He made me alive
A breathing spirit
Garden restored
Life after death

“Lord God, we give thanks for life after death, for forgiveness of sins, for Your undying mercy, for grace and faith and Your holy purposes in and through Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 57: Until These Calamities Have Passed By

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.

I will cry out to God Most High,
To God who performs all things for me.
He shall send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

My soul is among lions;
I lie among the sons of men
Who are set on fire,
Whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.

They have prepared a net for my steps;
My soul is bowed down;
They have dug a pit before me;
Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen.

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise.
Awake, my glory!
Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing to You among the nations.
For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens,
And Your truth unto the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.

A General Prayer by Richard Baxter (Part Three)

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

“We pray, dear God,

• That You would keep us from murders and violence, as well as from injurious passionate words and actions;
• That You would keep us from fornication and all uncleanness, from adulteries and immorality, from lustful thoughts and filthy talk, and from all unchaste behavior; we pray
• That You would keep us from stealing or wronging our neighbor in his property, from perverting justice, from false witnessing and deceit, from slandering, backbiting, or any other wrong to the reputation of our neighbor; and
• That You would keep us from coveting any thing that is our neighbor’s; we pray
• That we would love our neighbors as ourselves and do to others as we would have them do to us;
• That we would love Christ in His members with a pure and fervent love; and
• That we would love our enemies and do good to all as far as we are able and especially to the household of faith; we pray
• That You would give us our necessary provision for Your service and that we would be content with it;
• That You would bless our labors and the fruits of the earth in their season and such temperate weather that would be supportive of them; and
• That You would deliver us and all Your servants from such sickness, wants, and other distresses as may unseasonably take us off of Your service; we pray
• That You would keep us from gluttony and drunkenness, slothfulness, unlawful gain, and from making provision for the flesh to satisfy its lusts; we pray
• That when we sin, You would restore us by true repentance and faith in Christ;
• That we would loathe ourselves for our transgressions;
• That You would forgive all of our sins and accept us in Your well-beloved Son;
• That You would save us from the curse and punishment which our sins deserve;
• That You would teach us to forgive others from our hearts; and
• That You would convert our enemies, our persecutors, our slanderers, and that You would forgive them; we pray
• That we would watch against temptations, and that we would resist and overcome the flesh, the devil, and the world;
• That by no allurements of pleasure, profit, or honor we would be drawn away from You to sin;
• That we would patiently suffer with Christ that we may reign with Him;
• That You would deliver us and all Your people from the enmity and rage of Satan and all his wicked instruments; and, dear God,
• That You would preserve us for Your heavenly kingdom.

“For You alone are the universal King: all power is Yours in heaven and on earth. All things are of You, through You, and for You, and all the glory will be Yours forever and ever. Amen.”

Psalm 23: A Prayer to the Good Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Amen.

A General Prayer by Richard Baxter (Part Two)

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

“We pray, dear God,

• That You would put it in the hearts of the rulers of the world to submit to Christ and rule for Him as His stewards;
• That You would save them from temptations that would drown them in sensuality or would break them on Christ as a rock of offence by engaging them against His holy doctrine, ways, and servants; we pray
• That You would have mercy on the President of the United States, protect his person, illuminate and sanctify him by Your Spirit; we pray
• That the President would seek Your honor, the increase of the true faith, and holy obedience to Your laws; and
• That he would govern as Your minister, appointed by You for the terror of evil-doers and for the praise of those who do good; we pray
• That under the current leadership we would live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty; and
• That You would have mercy on all the other leaders in the land: the members of Congress, the members of the Supreme Court, and all of the other magistrates; we pray
• That they would fear You and be examples of holiness and temperance; haters of injustice, covetousness, and pride; and defenders of the innocent; and
• That in their eyes a vile person would be condemned and that they would honor those who fear the Lord; we pray
• That every soul would be subject to the higher powers and not resist; and
• That they would obey all in authority, not only for wrath, but for conscience’ sake; we pray
• That You would give all the churches able, faithful pastors who would soundly and diligently preach the Word of God and guide the flocks in ways of holiness and peace;
• That these pastors would not oversee and rule the churches by constraint but willingly, not for money, not as being lords over them but as the servants of all and as examples to the flock (that when the Chief Pastor shall appear, they may receive the crown of glory); we pray
• That the people of the churches would know those who are over them and labor among them preaching the Word of God; and
• That they would highly esteem them in love for their work’s sake, consider them worthy of double honor, and obey them in the Lord; we pray
• That parents would bring up their children in holy nurture so they will remember their Creator in the days of their youth;
• That children would love, honor, and obey their parents;
• That husbands would love their wives and guide them in knowledge and holiness; and
• That wives would love and obey their husbands; and we pray, dear God,
• That all others in authority would rule in the fear of God, and that those under their authority would obey in the Lord;

This we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

A General Prayer by Richard Baxter (Part One)

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

The great Puritan pastor Richard Baxter used the following prayer as a general prayer in public worship (I have revised it slightly and organized it here into “points” as well as into three parts). Lending itself to “effectiveness and fervency,” not only is it useful for public worship, but it is a great prayer for us to use on a daily basis, as well as a model for our own prayers. Of course, a goodly portion of the fervency is up to you!

“O Holy God, righteous Father, Creator of all things—You alone are our deliverer, our hope, our sustainer: we lift up to You our petitions and pray that through Christ You would hear our prayers. We pray first of all:

• That You would help us to make our calling and election sure,
• That our faith and repentance would be genuine, and
• That we might have peace with You through Jesus Christ; we pray
• That Your would fill us with Your Holy Spirit, that You would sanctify us and dwell in us; and we pray
• That we would deny ourselves and give ourselves entirely to You as being not our own but Yours; we pray
• That Your name would be glorified throughout the world,
• That self-love, pride, and vainglory would be destroyed, and
• That You would cause us to love You, fear You, trust in You with all our hearts, and live for You; we pray
• That all the earth would subject themselves to You, their King,
• That all the kingdoms of the world would become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ,
• That all atheists, idolaters, Muslims, Jews, and other unfaithful and ungodly people would be converted;
• We pray that You would send out more laborers into the harvest, and that the gospel would be preached throughout all the world; and
• That You would preserve and bless these missionaries and ministers in Your work; we pray
• That You would sustain those persecuted in other countries and in ours, that You would grant them perseverance and deliver them from the oppressor; we pray
• That You would unite all Christians in Jesus Christ, the one true and universal Head, in the true Christian and catholic faith and love; we pray
• That You would cast out heresies and corruptions, heal divisions; and
• That You would cause the strong [in the faith] to receive the weak and bear their infirmities; we pray
• That You would restrain the spirit of pride and cruelty, and let nothing be done in strife or vainglory;
• That You would keep us from atheism, idolatry, and rebellion against You;
• That You would keep us from infidelity, ungodliness, and sensuality; and
• That You would keep us from false security, presumption, and despair; we pray
• That we would delight to please You, and that Your Word would be the rule of our faith and lives;
• That we would love Your Word, and understand it, and meditate in it day and night; we pray, dear God,
• That we would neither corrupt nor neglect Your worship;
• That we would not take Your holy name in vain;
• That You would keep us from blasphemy, perjury, profane swearing, and lying; we pray also
• That You would keep us from a contempt of Your ordinances (worship, the Lord’s Supper, etc.);
• That You would keep us from false, unworthy, and unreverent thoughts and words about God and holy things; and
• That You would keep us from the neglect and profaning of Your holy day

Through Christ our Lord and for His sake. Amen.”

Psalm 107: Oh, That Men Would Give Thanks for His Goodness!

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He delivered them out of their distresses.
And He led them forth by the right way,
That they might go to a city for a dwelling place.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons—
Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down, and there was none to help,
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He has broken the gates of bronze,
And cut the bars of iron in two.

Fools, because of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
Their soul abhorred all manner of food,
And they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And declare His works with rejoicing.

Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters,
They see the works of the LORD,
And His wonders in the deep.
For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea.
They mount up to the heavens,
They go down again to the depths;
Their soul melts because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits’ end.
Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
Then they are glad because they are quiet;
So He guides them to their desired haven.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people,
And praise him in the company of the elders.

He turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
A fruitful land into barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.
There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place.
And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest.
He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly;
And He does not let their cattle decrease.

When they are diminished and brought low
Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
He pours contempt on princes,
And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction,
And makes their families like a flock.
The righteous see it and rejoice,
And all iniquity stops its mouth.

Whoever is wise will observe these things,
And they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.

Leaders of Choice (Part Two)

“Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” (Exodus 18:22)


One of the reasons, obviously, it is so important for us to choose such men is because they, after all, are to be rulers over us. And rulers rule. As sinners, we tend toward rebellion against this idea. On the one hand, we like to call the shots ourselves when it is to our advantage—in other words, we each like having the rule at times—but for precisely the same reasons we often object to the idea of ruler-ship in others. At yet other times we want others to rule over us because we have no desire to take up our own responsibility and want someone else to “do” for us. But then we grow to resent this also, and we simultaneously grow unhappy with rulers once again.

But God has set up the universe in hierarchy, and it is inescapable. God the King is at the top (even the Trinity has a Father and a Son): all things are under His rule. He sets the sun in the sky to rule by day, the moon by night. He appoints man as sub-sovereign over His creatures on the earth; and there is a hierarchy in each man’s family: the man is head of the woman, and children are to honor and obey father and mother. God has set things up with rulers in mind. If we are smart, we will follow suit.

So again this is why it is so important to get the right leaders in place when we have the choice. If submission and following and judgment and laws are going to be involved, and they all must be for true leadership to take place, then we want good leaders to follow. If our desire is to be the best sort of men and women ourselves, it is wise for us to place over us, when we have the choice, those who are “the best” among us. Just as a student will be like his teacher, so a people will be like their rulers.

If we are to be God-fearers ourselves, if God is to be our Sovereign in all affairs, then we must have rulers who fear God above all others, who look to God, trust God, love God, serve God, and long to be like Him in all of His character, more than anyone else. If we desire justice and mercy and truth and honesty and integrity in all of our own dealings, we must have leaders who will set that standard for us.

For rulers not only rule, but they are the rule, so to speak. And they will rule according to their own standards as well. If our rulers are prone to be adulterers, then adultery will be winked at in our culture. And so it is. If our rulers are covetous and desire to gain at others’ expense, we will live in a society pronounced by greed and theft and bribery and injustice. We must have rulers, we need to have rulers—that is the way God has made the world, and it is what God calls for. But we do not need any rulers other than the kind for which God calls, and we would do well this day to pray for God to grant us such, to make us such, and to choose such leaders when the opportunity is given us.

“Sovereign God, we give You thanks for the way in which You have made the world, and we give thanks for Your own righteous and holy and just rule over us and all creation. We pray, dear God, You would make us like You, that You would help us to choose wisely those who are to rule over us, and that You would in Your own wisdom and kindness exalt those to places of leadership over us who will lead us in paths of righteousness because of their own righteousness and desire for good. Have mercy on us and grant such to us, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Leaders of Choice (Part One)

“Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” (Exodus 18:22)

God is a God who selects men. Moses himself was a man chosen by God to lead His people. And although God can use and has used donkey breath to do His bidding, and although aside from His own Son He must use mere men, predominantly it is recorded in the Scriptures that the man of choice God places in leadership is a man who fits the description here: “able” (which word in the original language means far more: man of excellence, man of virtue, man of valor—the cream of the crop in every aspect), a man who fears the God who calls him, a man of truth and integrity, a man who deplores greed, envy, and lust.

But God is not the only one who selects men. God calls us to imitate Him and select leaders for ourselves. We must do this—it is hoisted upon us, we have the responsibility. If we are passive in choosing leaders for ourselves, men will seize such a golden opportunity and select themselves—and most of the time for all the wrong reasons: power, pride, and personal gain. When we take up the responsibility, however, we have the added responsibility to choose the right men, men such as God would choose Himself.

These opportunities arise in various arenas at various times in our lives. We may not get to choose our own parents—God does that for us—but we do have the immense responsibility to choose the leaders in our family when we choose a mate. When a man takes a wife, among other things, he is choosing a “leader” in his own little kingdom, and he should choose a woman who fits the bill. Obviously, the woman has just as much responsibility to choose wisely for herself and for her future children: she is called upon to choose the excellent, God-fearing, truthful man who hates covetousness.

God also tasks us with choosing leaders in our civil government—from the most local magistrate (“ruler of tens”—think alderman, police chief, town mayor) to the highest offices in the land (“rulers of thousands”—our legislators, judges, and the President and all his men). When we go to the polls, do we use the criteria given by God here for choosing those who are to rule over us and judge our affairs? If not, why are we surprised or upset when we get what we generally have?

“God, grant to us leaders such as You Yourself choose, and grant us the wisdom and courage to choose such ourselves. Help us in all of the choices continually before us—whether leadership in our homes, in our churches, in our communities, in our businesses, in our nation, or even in our friendships—to select the best, the most virtuous, those who love You above all else, men and women of integrity, those we can trust, those who are not controlled by money or greed or envy or lust. And make us such ourselves, we pray, dear God, in the name of the greatest example of such a Chosen One, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Psalm 66: Praise to God for Answered Prayer

Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
Say to God,
“How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name.”

Come and see the works of God;
He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.
He rules by His power forever;
His eyes observe the nations;
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.

Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

I will go into You house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows,
Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
With the sweet aroma of rams;
I will offer bulls with goats.

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!

The Call (Part Four)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

God called Abraham (1) to leave and (2) to follow, and He promised (3) to bless him and (4) to make him a blessing to others. These are God’s call and promises to us.

Much of the time, however, we get focused on #3 to the exclusion of the others. It is not wrong but altogether right for us to look to God for His blessing. “Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights,” and God wants us to look to Him for every good thing and to give thanks to Him for every good that comes to us. (That is the essence of “prayer” and “thanksgiving.”)

But it is inextricably woven into the woof and warp of the universe that the blessing of God is all tied up with loving and leaving—loving God above all else and with all your heart, loving your neighbor and desiring his good as much as you desire your own, and walking away from your own sin, the world of sin, and the devil who keeps calling you back to it.

Adam’s eldest son Cain is one who desired the one without the other. He was all about the blessing of God. And when he saw it falling on his brother Abel and not himself, he responded with anger and envy. “How come—he got—why didn’t I—?” God’s answer was simple: If you do well, if you do what is right, the blessing will come—trust Me. Cain was called to leave his sin behind, including his anger and envy, to seek the pleasure of God (“find out what is the will of God and do it”), and to love his brother as himself—to rejoice in his blessing as much as he would rejoice in his own. Cain resisted, however, and blessing eluded him the rest of his long and lonely life.

Certainly God has blessed us without our having to do a thing, just as Cain had been blessed prior to his own downfall as well. And God is gracious and merciful to offer us forgiveness and second chances when we get off track. For these things we give thanks, and without the grace and mercy and initiative of God, there is no blessing and no expectation.

But Abraham would never have received what God had promised—blessing to him and through him—if he had not responded the way God calls us to respond, namely, through repentance and faith, through turning from idols to serve the living and true God, through giving up all to follow Christ. But thank God he did, and thank God for the grace He gives for us to do the same.

“Grant us Your blessing, O Lord, and make us a conduit of blessing to others. Lead us not into temptation but into your paths of righteousness, and grant to us a persevering faith and a thorough repentance. We give thanks to You for all good things, dear God, and we look to You for all blessing and happiness and goodness in this life and throughout eternity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

The Call (Part Three)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:
‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

So does God promise us everything He promised to Abraham? Well, in one sense, of course, these promises are Abraham-specific. God does not call every single individual Christian to be the father of many nations, the father of all the faithful, the progenitor of the race that produces the Messiah. But in another sense, there are some general observations that are applicable to us.

For one thing, as has been pointed out, those who follow Christ, to the extent they follow Christ, have a tremendous impact for good, for blessing, not only on their own direct descendents but on the countless others their lives and the lives of their descendents touch. In this way, by either following Christ or not, we choose to be either more or less a blessing or a curse to our family and the “families of the earth.”

This is easily seen, but it goes down hard for the atomistic, individualistic, taking-care-of-me-and-nobody-else culture and society we have inherited in the West over the past century or so. Abraham’s example shows what one man’s faith combined with the blessing of God can do to affect not only the course of history but the salvation and redemption and restoration of the whole world. We are called to be faithful, and the measure of our faithfulness, by God’s grace, shows up down the line.

Another general principle we see in Abraham’s call is the fact that, while God pours out blessings on His followers in abundance, there are always going to be those who pour on the curses as well (fortunately without the same effectiveness!). Jesus told His disciples that if the world hated Him (and it did for the most part), then the world was certain to hate those who walked closely in His steps. This “enmity” all comes by degrees, but no matter the opposition, no matter the persecution, no matter the sin-full treatment received by the followers of the call of God, you can count on God to take care of it—somehow, some way. Those who pray for the blessing of God’s children will be blessed themselves, God guarantees. Those who call on God to curse them will not only have their prayers turned aside but they will receive back on themselves the very curses they send out. Like the apostle Paul said, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

God is going to take care of His own. Our part is to trust the One we follow, obey the One we trust. If all the world stands against us, seeks on the one hand to lead us down paths of unrighteousness and then just as passionately seeks on the other to make us pay in spades for walking down any other, God will stand by us and help us to stand in the face of temptation and trouble from any quarter. He who calls is faithful and will do it.

“God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we call upon the God of our fathers, asking that You make us faithful fathers in our turn. Help us to be faithful to You, to this generation, and to the ones following by following ourselves Your call and in Your steps. Protect us from our enemies, dear God: keep us from falling into temptation on the right hand or the left, keep us from following the world itself as well as from fainting under its rejection of us when we don’t. Thank You, heavenly Father, for the greatest blessing of all, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray for His kingdom to come in might, blessing all the nations of the earth to the great glory of the Trinity, in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Call (Part Two)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

The call of God comes to a person where he is. Abraham did not go out to meet God and introduce himself, looking for a job or a place in His graces. God went looking for Abraham, and He found him sipping tea alongside a bunch of idol-worshipers at Ur of the Chaldees. And we like this part of the call, because we want to be taken as we are, where we are, with the clothes we have on, “just as I am,” nothing I have to do to receive the grace of God—except receive it, that is.

The catch is, the call doesn’t leave us there. That is exactly what the call is all about—it is a call to leave, to go out, to change, to do something, and to do something different from what we have been doing. Abraham had to leave the tea sitting on the table and follow God into the unknown, “a land that I will show you,” a land he had never seen before. Yes, God came to him first, and God is going to take him where he needs to go. But Abraham cannot follow the call of God and also stay where God found him.

Some who thought they wanted to follow Christ got snagged on this part of the call. “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Seems like a reasonable request to us—“honor your father and mother,” and all that. But Jesus replied, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” This man wanted to stick around and take care of business when the call of God led him across the lake. On one side were the spiritually dead; on the other was Life Himself.

Abraham had his choice, and we have ours. Will we follow or stay? We cannot have it both ways. Following Christ means leaving a lot behind—pet sins, “innate” personalities, long-held relationships, otherwise justifiable loyalties, comforts, and identities. But what an exchange! Following Christ also means becoming a son of God, inheriting the blessing of God, becoming a blessing to the rest of the world, and living as a citizen of the truly Eternal City. It means radical change from who we were to what God calls us to be, from a life that is doomed to a life full of never-ending love and joy and peace and holiness.

God calls. We follow. And the blessing of God follows us!

“God, we give thanks for Your call on our lives, and we pray we would be faithful followers. Do not leave us where we are, dear God, but take us where You want us to be, make us what You want us to be, mold us and shape us into the very image of Christ. Grant to us the grace to leave behind the world and our sins and whatever else that keeps us from following You; and grant to us the blessing You promise to all those who follow You, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Call (Part One)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

The call to Abraham was a specific call, but, as we can see clearly, both God’s call and Abraham’s answer had an impact, direct and indirect, on countless others, including you and me. Because God chose Abraham, because God honored His word, and because Abraham obeyed and followed God, your family and my family and all the world have received the blessing given in this one call.

God calls each one of us in a similar way. God may not call each one of us to leave our native land—especially at age seventy-five when most folks are thinking more about settling down! But God does call each of us, at least in one sense, to “leave his father and mother” (Genesis 2:24), begin to live his own life responsibly before God, and leave his own mark on the world. And we will, you know, one way or another. Whom I marry, how I raise a family, how I respond to life as it comes to me, what I do with both the little things and the big will all have an incredible effect on those whom my life touches in some way—those around me now, my own descendants, and all of the others (a lot more than one might think) who are affected indirectly by my obedience and disobedience, my maturity or lack thereof, my living-by-the-grace-of-God and faith.

God also calls each one of us to leave “the world” behind in following Him, just as He called Abraham to do. Abraham left behind a lot more than relatives. When he chose to answer the call and follow Jehovah, he left behind his gods. And he left behind an entire culture shaped by those gods. He left behind a life lived by faith in gods who cannot and will not deliver and began to live by faith in a God whose blessing reaches not only his life but throughout the world and throughout eternity.

As I said, this is our call as well. God has obviously called us to live in the physical world—that is the one He has created and the one in which He has planted us—so that is not the world from which He calls us. Rather, God calls us out of the world of sin/the flesh/and the devil that we might live in the world as citizens of another Country, blazing lights shining in what is otherwise darkness, citizens of the New World for which Christ has died and risen again, members of a New Family, a New Humanity, with Jesus Christ as our New Adam and faithful Father of All Nations.

Answer the call as Abraham did: by faith and in obedience. You have answered the call by following Christ and being separated from the world. Be a faithful follower, travel the course, plant yourself in the new land, lead your own family as those who inhabit a new culture and a new world, and look for the blessing of God not only to be poured out on your own family but to overflow to the whole world.

“Great and heavenly Father, we thank You for Your call to Abraham, for Your choosing him and blessing him, which blessing has reached to us. We give You thanks for Abraham’s faithfulness and obedience, and we pray You would make us like him, answering Your call to us, following You into new worlds, leaving behind the gods who do not satisfy. Thank You above all for our faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who also answered Your call with faith and obedience, resulting in our salvation and the salvation of the world; and we pray gratefully in His most holy and wonderful name. Amen.”

Like Weeds on a Spring Day

“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, an all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.


“Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, ‘I am with child.’’’
. . .

“So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’”
(2 Samuel 11:1–5; 12:13)

David’s sin involving Bathsheba was a progression of sins as so many of our sins are. Early sins were likely pride and self-satisfaction as he looked upon his accomplishments and basked in his own glory in Jerusalem. Next his basking turned to sloth and irresponsibility—in “the spring of the year, that time when kings go out to battle,” this king was at home in his leisure: idleness really is the devil’s workshop. His idleness turned to lust, his lust to theft and adultery, his adultery to deception and eventually murder. Had God not graciously stopped him in his tracks, his sin could have progressed to apostasy and self-destruction.

Just so, our sins can progress from bad to worse and to the unthinkable when they are not confessed, abhorred, and repented from. Confess sin quickly and thoroughly before your sins get the foothold they need to grow like weeds on a spring day. Nip sin in the bud through confession and genuine repentance. But just as with David, wherever you find yourself and your sin in that progression—at bud or full bloom—God stands ready not only to point the finger at your sin but to offer forgiveness, mercy, and the grace to do better, if we will come to Him freely, sincerely, and humbly, asking and looking for these things from His hand.

“Have mercy upon us, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin. Move us, dear God, by Your Holy Spirit to repent early and often, to know our sins and acknowledge them before they lead to yet other and more and worse sins. We give thanks to You, O Lord, for Your mercy towards us through our Lord Jesus Christ, for Your faithfulness to us, for the forgiveness of sins we have through Him; and we pray that mercy would continue throughout our lives and throughout all eternity; for Christ’s sake and in His name. Amen.”

Psalm 71: You Are My Trust from My Youth

In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
Be my strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.

I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
Let them be confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.

Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?
You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.

Also with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.

Psalm 65: Morning Rejoicing for the Forgiveness of God

Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion;
And to You the vow shall be performed.
O You who hear prayer,
To You all flesh will come.
Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions,
You will provide atonement for them.

Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Or Your holy temple.

By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us,
O God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of the far-off seas;
Who established the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power;
You who still the noise of the seas,
The noise of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs;
You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.

You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.

You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,
And the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.

Psalm 36: Like the Great Mountains

An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes,
For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He ceased to be wise and to do good.
He devises wickedness on his bed;
He sets himself in a way that is not good
He does not abhor evil.

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is  like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In your light we see light.

Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been cast down and are not able to rise.

Psalm 30: Joy Comes in the Morning

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.

Now in my prosperity I said,
“I shall never be moved.”
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
“What profit is there in my blood,
When I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!”

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Psalm 40: Wait Patiently for the Lord

I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.

Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust,
And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You n order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”

I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.

Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord;
Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.
For innumberable evils have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion
Who seek to destroy my life;
Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor
Who wish me evil.
Let them be confounded because of their shame.
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

Like Water from a Rock

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2–8)

Here is another of those paradoxes God seems to throw at us sideways: when trouble comes, count it a joy. How insensitive of Him! Doesn’t He know trouble means sorrow, not joy? God might as well command water from a rock as to command joy in the midst of trials.

Come to think of it, God did command water from a rock. And it was indeed in the midst of a trial. When the children of Israel grew thirsty in the wilderness, their response was to complain, whine, despair, panic, and blame. Surely we cannot blame them—I mean, after all, there were millions of them, livestock as well, in the middle of a desert, hot sun scorching them, Arabic winds blowing sand into their eyes and throat, tongues clinging to the roofs of their mouths. Surely if anyone had excuse to complain, it was these poor, suffering, displaced people.

But the God who brought water from the rock in order to quench their thirst is the God who brings joy in the midst of the worst of troubles. Sound impossible? With man it certainly is—goes directly against his grain and grates against the fabric of his soul—but with God all things are possible. God give us no choice: we must walk through the desert, we must pass through the fire, we must fall into various trials—and we must count it all joy. But wherever God calls us, He also gives the power to follow.

That is why we must ask from God—God, who gives liberally and without reproach. If God is the one who brings water gushing from rocks enough to satisfy millions, turns gallons of water into gallons of wine for the delight of partying wedding guests, and throws open tombs and gives life to the dead, then certainly He can and will grant to us the wisdom and joy and patience and faith we need in the middle of our own trouble, whatever the case may be.

Leave it to God to command the impossible; leave it to God to bring it about. With God, sorrow becomes joy, trouble gives birth to strong faith and patience, and wisdom is poured out from above just for the asking. As for us? We are to believe and obey, trust and follow, ask and receive—and count it all joy!—knowing God is up to something big and good and full of wonder.

“Lord God, we give thanks to You for Your wise use of the trials You have brought into our lives, and we pray You would grant to us joy and patience and wisdom and faith as we encounter each of them. Grant to us grace, dear God, to follow You and trust You through the impossible, looking to You to perform the impossible, looking to You to do all things right according to Your own wisdom and good purpose and glory. Great, benevolent, and liberal God! please hear our prayer and grant these things to us for Your own name’s sake, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Lights Shining in the Darkness

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14–16)

There are approaches to “good works” that are just plain wrong, of course. First, we should not do good works in order to earn our way into God’s grace or somehow build up enough “credit” to win our way into heaven. Grace is exactly what we don’t deserve, and grace is the only way to be saved. We are being saved from our sins and the punishment they deserve, and all the good works in the world cannot help one iota but only the grace of God.

We also are instructed by God not to do good works in order simply to be seen by men or to win the praise of men. Later in this same sermon (the famed “Sermon on the Mount”) Jesus says specifically, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1) If our only goal in doing good is to win the praise of others or to stoke up our own ego or merely to “keep up appearances,” i.e., do enough to make sure people think well of us, then our good works are all for the wrong reason.

But here Jesus says our good works themselves are to be so abundant, so remarkable, so evident, and so representative of our lives overall that they shine out as lights in this dark world of evil. We Christians are to stick out simply by being good Christians. We are to love God and others so much that people can’t help but notice. We are to live by such faith in every circumstance—and especially the bad ones—that people are amazed and perhaps even long for (and hopefully pray for) that kind of faith themselves. Our good works should be so profuse, simply because that is what the Spirit of God is doing in us, that they can’t help but be notable.

Motive matters, of course. Jesus says here the end result will be that men “glorify your Father in heaven” when they see your good works. Our desire should be that God receives the praise and the glory and credit for anything good done in us or through us. But if we are not doing any good works, or if our good works are done in a corner somewhere—perhaps for fear someone might mistake us for being a Christian, heaven forbid—then no light is shining, the darkness is still winning out in your arena, and the God of all glory and wonder is not being glorified.

So the way to “shine your light” is not to put a spotlight on yourself so others can see you and ooh and aah. Rather the way to shine as lights in the world is to trust God, obey God, do His will, and seek His glory, in every circumstance and before all men, and the rest will take care of itself.

“Great and glorious God in heaven above, we give You thanks for sending our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Light of the world, to shine in the darkness, that we might know You and come to the Light ourselves. Make of us, dear God, lights that shine in the world, exposing evil, driving out darkness, bringing glory to You , O God. Move within us by Your Holy Spirit in such a way—fill us with Him, dear God—that we are overflowing with such good works that they incite the praise and wonder of men for the great works of God done in and through mere men. For we are saved entirely by Your grace—not of works, lest any man should boast—and we are saved for good works, that You might be glorified forever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Psalm 80: Restore Us, O God!

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
Stir up Your strength,
And come and save us!

Restore us, O God;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry
Against the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.
You have made us a strife to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
You prepared room for it,
And caused it to take deep root,
And it filled the land.
The hills were covered with its shadow,
And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
She sent out her boughs to the Sea,
And her branches to the River.

Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
The boar out of the woods uproots it,
And the wild beast of the field devours it.

Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see,
And visit this vine
And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted,
And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
Then we will not turn back from You;
Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Five)

18“Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with love.
19For my husband is not at home;
He has gone on a long journey;
20He has taken a bag of money with him,
And will come home on the appointed day.”
21With her enticing speech she caused him to yield.
With her flattering lips she seduced him.
22Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23Till an arrow struck his liver.
As a bird hastens to the snare,
He did not know it would cost his life.
24Now therefore, listen to me, my children;
Pay attention to the words of my mouth:
25Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,
Do not stray into her paths;
26For she has cast down many wounded,
And all who were slain by her were strong men.
27Her house is the way to hell,
Descending to the chambers of death.
(Proverbs 7:18–27)

• Consider the emptiness (v. 18). Though you take your “fill of love” all the night long, you will come up empty in the morning. There is no lasting satisfaction to any sin, and certainly none in the sexual sort. The delight is short-lived, while the trouble and sorrow may last a lifetime (or longer). Instead, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the [true] desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4), i.e., delight yourself in passionate love for God (which always includes obedience to Him), since only He can provide that true satisfaction for which your soul is seeking.
• Consider the theft (v. 19). Lust desires what God has not promised; fornication and adultery take what God has not given to you but to another. Covetousness and theft are born of the same root sin: dissatisfaction with God and His gifts. If you lust for an unmarried woman or, worse, actually engage in some sort of sexual sin with her, remember, she belongs to others. For one, she has a father on earth, who has not given her to you or any man until the “I do” at the altar. For another, she has a future husband, whose precious lamb you rob and ruin before he even has sight of her. And lastly, she has a heavenly Father, who sees all and knows how to avenge. If your lust is for a married woman, it is all that, only far worse. “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding;/He who does so destroys his own soul./Wounds and dishonor he will get,/And his reproach will not be wiped away” (Proverbs 6:32, 33)
• Consider the end (vv. 22–27). Ox to the slaughter, fool to the stocks, arrow in the liver, bird in the snare. Any way you cut it, the man who gives in to sexual temptation is on the downward slope and gaining speed. You may think you are strong enough, you may think “it won’t happen” to you; but every fool who found his way to her house thought the same fool thing. Take the warning of Solomon and the Holy Spirit: “Do not stray into her paths.” Do not go—do not start—down that road for anything—it leads to certain loss of some sort (damaged marriages, ruined reputations, etc.) and the possibility of apostasy and damnation to boot. Repent, guard your heart, discipline yourself to godliness. By God’s grace pursue blamelessness and holiness in this area as in all others. Not only your happiness (and that of others), but your very life and salvation could well depend on it.

“Great and sovereign and merciful God, have mercy on us and lead us in paths of righteousness. By Your Holy Spirit remind us continually of the folly of sexual sin and all sin, and keep us from all covetousness, adultery, and theft. Instead, dear God, fill us with Yourself, fill us with an overwhelming desire for You and Your will, and grant to us complete contentment with all the good gifts You have given us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

 

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Four)

13So she caught him and kissed him;
With an impudent face she said to him:
14“I have peace offerings with me;
Today I have paid my vows.
15So I came out to meet you,
Diligently to seek your face,
And I have found you.
16I have spread my bed with tapestry,
Colored coverings of Egyptian linen.
17I have perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.”
(Proverbs 7:13–17)

• Don’t be fooled by the “good girl” syndrome or a religious façade (vv. 14, 15). The woman Solomon mentions here came straight from church. There are women as well as men who use religion not only as a cover for their sins but as part of their seduction. Just as Satan can appear as an “angel of light” in order to deceive, so can “a good Christian girl,” seeking religious approval on the one hand while she tempts sexually on the other. And of course, a man can lust for a woman who truly is a good Christian. But you must remember that, were she to live out your fantasies about her, she would be a “harlot,” “adulteress,” “immoral woman,” just the same.

• Don’t be fooled by a false understanding of the gospel (vv. 14, 15). A distorted understanding of the grace and forgiveness of God can trip up man and woman alike. If we find ourselves falling into sexual sin (mental or otherwise), confessing it regularly to God, asking for forgiveness, feeling a bit of relief, and then running out to commit the same sin all over again, part of the gospel message and life is not getting through, namely the part about repentance and holiness. God forgives us so we can live righteously, not so we can have a relieved conscience and then open ourselves right back up to temptation. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1, 2) “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators . . . nor adulterers . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. 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 and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

• Don’t be fooled by the accompanying attractions of sexual sin (vv. 16, 17). The smells, the sights, the tastes, the “joy,” the “satisfaction,” etc., are all as fleeting as a wisp of smoke. John Bunyan appropriately named one of his sexual-temptation characters in Pilgrim’s Progress “Bubble.” “Oh! Look how pretty!”—pop! It is a dream, and when you wake up, it may well be too late, you may be in the claws of misery, destruction, and death itself. Instead, look always to the beauties of Christ and the beauty of holiness to which He calls you. Sexuality is beautiful and full of joy but only in the context of faithful, monogamous, sacrificial, and loving marriage. Sex outside the boundaries set by God always, without exception, has a nasty, wormwood bite to it in the end: “For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,/And her mouth is smoother than oil;/But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,/Sharp as a two-edged sword.” (Proverbs 7:3, 4)

“Lord God, we give thanks this day for Your saving grace, a grace that goes so far as to save us from sexual sin as well as any other. Thank You for the forgiveness of sins in our Lord Jesus Christ and for Your patient longsuffering with us as we stumble along in our repentance. Grant us the grace to believe the whole gospel, to repent fully and desire holiness; give us wisdom to see the emptiness and futility of sexual sin regardless the overwhelming attraction; and make us to despise anything that is apart from Your holy will. Grant us instead, by Your grace, happy homes with happy marriages, and by Your Spirit help us to do the hard work such marriages require. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”