Humbly Seeking His Word

 

Psalm 119 is known as the longest chapter in the Bible. 176 verses! One of the hardest chapters to read when you’re in a hurry. But all 176 verses sing of the law of the Lord, His statutes, His word.

It is from this psalm where we find a well known verse:

Psalms 119:105 NIV Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

For a disciple of Christ this is a truth that never leaves our heart. His Word is our lamp that gives us light. Walking without His word in our hearts leaves us walking in darkness. We need His Word, which is why we seek to read, meditate, and study His Word daily. Without His Word, we are lost.

No wonder the psalmist will begin his psalm with:

Psalms 119:1-2 NIV  Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.  (2)  Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

The rest of the 176 verses that we read in this psalm are all anchored on this premise – that the one who walks according to His Word, His law, are blessed. Isn’t this what we desire in our lives - a blessed life? Sadly we seek this blessing in other things, other people, other sources of wisdom, apart from God and His Word. When we seek blessing from other sources we are walking in darkness. And we are all prone to this, tempted to follow other "lamps" when we are attracted to their light. All the more we need to humble ourselves and ask for God’s strength and prompting to seek His Word daily, day and night.

Look how the psalmist ends:

Psalms 119:176 NIV  I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. 

This psalm was not written with pride or boasting in the psalmist's  heart. It was written with humility, with a deep sense of dependence upon God, knowing that the only way for someone to truly seek His Word and keep it is for God to seek us, for we are lost sheep who go astray every day, all the time.

May God and His Word be what we seek today, as we humble ourselves before Him who alone can sustain and strengthen us.

ENTICED TO HAVE MORE

 

I saw this advertisement in a news website:

We’ll double your deposits!... 100% deposit bonus… Get up to $500 in minutes!

With a catchphrase like that, who is not going to click on the ad? And, who is not going to be tempted, or enticed, to want their deposits doubled, and getting money quickly?  But that is the very reason why they put catchphrases like that in their ads.  This is what makes people gullible to scams. But assuming that this is a legitimate offer from a licensed company, their advertisement preys on the very same desire, or lust, that makes people not just gullible to scam artists, to want to have MORE MONEY. It preys on the very discontent and materialistic nature of a sinful heart. We are never satisfied, always wanting more. The sinful heart will always ask - "And what’s wrong with doubling what you have in your bank account, or for earning quick money?". 

Sadly, it's a question that many Christians ask in their hearts. Doesn't God want us to have more, to get more, to double our money? What they don't realize is that they have plunged into the lifestyle of the world. And those who are in that lifestyle have plunged themselves into a life of trouble and worry.

One of the areas of our heart that God works in a heart of His disciple is that very issue – our desire for more money, more things. God calls it the love of money. Yes…love. Not just having it, or using it, but loving it. 

How do we know that we love money?  How do we know we love someone?

·         We can’t live without him/her;

·         we will risk anything for him/her;

·         anything he/she asks, we give;

·         we are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for him/her.

 How do we know we love money? It’s the same thing.

·         We can’t live without it;

·         we will risk anything for it;

·         anything it asks us to do to get more, we will do;

·         we are willing to sacrifice anything and everything, even our walk with God – our love for Him, our obedience to His word, our time and effort spent with Him and for Him.

 Our Lord was clear when He taught His disciples in the sermon on the mount:

Matthew 6:24 NIV No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

 From time in memorial, the Lord has always taught His disciples, His people, that He is their treasure, He is their first love, and to be wary of money or material things. He taught His people, the Israelites, that with manna.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 NIV Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. (3) He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

This was a nugget of wisdom that Solomon had in his book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 23:4-5 NIV Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. (5) Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

 The apostle Paul’s teaching rightly summarizes it:

1 Timothy 6:9-10 NIV People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

 What happens to Christians who want to get rich?

They fall into temptation and a trap, into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. One of the reasons many believers are eager to get rich is because they see those who are rich in the world and they THINK that they are living lives free of ruin and destruction. All they see is how much the rich have, how they are SEEMINGLY enjoying life. What they don't see is how many are living in ruin and destruction, and how ALL OF THEM have HEARTS that are in ruin and destruction - because they have loved money more than God.

 The love of money is the root of all evil. Christians like emphasizing the word "love" - it's the love of money, and not money, that is the root of all evil. Yes, that's true. But be wary and alert about that money that comes into your bank account or your wallet - because it is so enticing that you don't realize that you're already in love with it.

The warning for believers is that those who love money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  Take a "spiritual inventory" - how many of us, have wandered from the faith, have stopped trusting God for our provisions, and are now trusting in ourselves, our work, our business, rather than God.  How many of us are being pierced with many griefs because we have made money our god, rather than the Lord who gave His life for us, to enjoy His life.

Despite all the admonitions of the Lord there are against money, there are so many Christians who fall prey to advertisements, offers, to have more, to borrow more, only to plunge themselves into deeper trouble and hardship.

God calls His disciples to love Him, to make His kingdom and His righteousness what we seek and live for. He works in our hearts so that we are content with what we have, and trust the Lord to provide for everything we need and even for our enjoyment.

 Let’s continually heed the call of the Lord to make Him our source of satisfaction and contentment. More of Him, and nothing else.

John 6:35 NIV Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

THE DANGER OF RESTING IN OUR REPUTATION

 Revelation 3:1-6 NIV To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (2) Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. (3) Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. (4) Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. (5) He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (6) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

(This was the passage of Scripture I shared in one of our Congregational Prayer gatherings a few months ago.)

Why do we need to continually pray for our church, for our leaders, ministers, workers and members? We pray because we may have a reputation of being alive, but we may be dead. That's the deception of having a "reputation", either in our own eyes or through the eyes of others. Do we feel that we are doing alright in our church? Are we judging our church according to the "success" of our ministries, our church building, our the system that is running smoothly in our church?

Or, are we continually opening our hearts to our God, allowing Him to judge our life, our hearts?

The figurative meaning of Jesus holding the seven spirits of God refers to the perfect, omnipresent Holy Spirit who knows everything and sees everything. Our Lord sees everything that is happening in the church. He sees every member. He sees our hearts. Do we have a reputation of being alive, and yet to Him we may be lacking?

The seven stars are the seven "messengers". The Greek word is "angelus", which refers either to a spirit or human messenger. These "stars" in Jesus' hand are the human messengers whom God uses in the church. Do we heed His word that is brought to us through His messengers? Are we present in our Sunday worship, but absent in our hearts? Do we take to heart what we hear, learn, in our discipleship groups?

(3) Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. (4) Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

The Holy Spirit works in the church, through His messengers, so that we may be a people whose clothes are not soiled, walking with Christ dressed in white.

Everyday we need to open our hearts and life to our Lord, remember what we have received and heard from Him, obey it and repent. We need to be a people who are constantly awake, aware of the work of the Holy Spirit in His church, whose very purpose is that we be a people prepared to walk in white with Him in eternity.

This is why we continually pray for our church.

How Long O Lord?

Psalms 13:1-6 NIV For the director of music. A psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (2) How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? (3) Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; (4) my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. (5) But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (6) I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

There is so much debate concerning whether a Christian, a believer in Christ, can become depressed, afraid, anxious, and even, for just a moment, wonder if God is with him or her. How quick we are sometimes to judge someone's faith when they lose hope, or when they question the timing of God. Sometimes we expect Christians to be supermen/women, forgetting that we are still in our frail and sinful bodies.

We all know David. A man after God's own heart, anointed king of Israel, a man of faith in the Lord and with a courage that only God could give. When David wrote this song in Psalm 13, it is obvious what he was feeling at that moment. He began with "how long, O Lord?". Whatever it is he was going through, it was taking a while for the Lord to answer his prayer, to see the deliverance of the Lord against his foe. And so he asks the Lord "how long?".

He had struggles with his thoughts.

He had sorrow in his heart.

It seemed like his enemy was winning.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? When circumstances are right in our lives how easy it is for us to pray, to praise, and to proclaim our trust in God. But when things don't go our way, when circumstances seem to linger on, and it seems like there is no solution, then our faith wavers. And, like David, we ask the same thing - "how long, Lord?". We wrestle with our thoughts of fear, of doubt, anxious about our situation. Sorrow fills our hearts, and it becomes hard to hide from others.

But the song of David changes tone...

(3) Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; (4) my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 

From his circumstances, he turns to the Lord. "Look on me and answer, O Lord". In the depth of his heart David knows that there is no one else he can trust except his God. And so, in the depth of his circumstances he cries out to Him.

"Give light to my eyes", he sings, so that he may see God's hand in the midst of his dark circumstances.

Then he finally proclaims what his heart knew all along. 

(5) But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (6) I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

Even in the midst of this circumstance, David knew of the unfailing love of his God, His salvation from all circumstances in life.

And then he remembers that his God has been good to him, and so he will sing.

As human as we are, no matter how long we've been believers in Christ, or how mature we think we are, there will be circumstances in this world that will rock our faith, trials and situations that will linger on and make us ask "how long, O Lord?". But this will be the time for us to reach out towards the depth of our hearts and call upon the Lord that we know and trust in.

This is why it is so essential that we read God's Word, meditate on who He is, grow in our knowledge of His unfailing love, as He strengthens our faith and trust in who He is. 

In the end, it is our trust in God and our knowledge of His goodness that will prevail.

Luke 22:31-32 NIV Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. (32) But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

Do not rest in your own strength or faith, but rest in the truth that it is God who is not only the object of our faith, but the One who strengthens our faith, as He fills our hearts with His promises, His Word.