“So let God work His will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.” James 4:7-10 The Message
“…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Thanksgiving week comes and we hear people talking about the things they’re thankful for. Maybe you sit around the Thanksgiving table and tell one another what you’re thankful for. But maybe you’re a little hard-pressed to think of anything to be thankful for this year.
God tells us to give thanks in all circumstances. All is a pretty inclusive word.
Not just the good stuff. But all the stuff. Now, I know that’s a really hard to thing to do sometimes. When you’re missing family members, when your health is bad, when the money is tight. Sometimes it’s an act of sheer will, of obedience, of faith that God is going to do something in and with those circumstances.
It’s easy to give thanks once that circumstance has passed and we can see the good the Lord has wrought in it. But we are to give thanks when we’re in the middle of the mess.
When we don’t see what God’s doing.
When we don’t know how long it’ll last.
When we don’t know how we’ll get through it.
But why is this God’s will?
Giving thanks in the storm makes us humble and crushes our pride. It keeps us from allowing bitterness and resentment to settle in, creating a Grand Canyon-sized gap between us and God. It keeps those vital communication lines open and that allows for His peace to flow into our hearts. It keeps us following Him, allowing Him to do the good He desires to do with those circumstances instead of going through them with no fruit at the end.
It’s no coincidence that God tells us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6
Continually placing all circumstances in the Lord’s hands gives us His peace and assurance, and naturally – or more accurately, supernaturally – the thankful heart will come, and we can confidently go through any circumstance with hope and the joy of the Lord.
Once we’ve walked with the Lord a while, and I don’t just mean knowing who He is, or going to church on Sundays, but really walk with Him, day by day, circumstance by circumstance, conversation to conversation, we’ll see more and more that He is a Father we can trust. We can rest assured that He is with us no matter how far down in the pit we are, no matter how bleak the circumstances feel.
Remember, Jesus knows what it’s like.
For the One who gave His life for us, we live a life of worship, and all great acts of worship start with the first one – a thankful heart that’s trusting our Father’s goodness and grace to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life…
Psalm 23:6
It is the goodness of God that overflows into this world and makes it habitable. It is His goodness we experience that make our lives bearable, even enjoyable.
But sometimes that goodness becomes overshadowed by pain, grief, disappointment, disillusionment.
Like thick billows of never-ending clouds, they can block out the light. And sometimes there’s rain for days, weeks on end. Maybe it’s like living in Seattle.
I’m sure it can get dreary, and even depressing, and yet, there’s a certain beauty to Seattle.
The frequent drizzles allow for some of the most beautiful growth in the world, and also some of the most diverse, life-giving wildlife.
No matter how many weeks the shadows overtake the city, no one wonders if the sun is still there. They know it is, and they trust they’ll see it again.
I have to remember that when my world has been darkened with shadows for too long. The Son is still there. And His goodness will shine whether there are rain clouds that bring new growth, and maturity, and life, or He moves them away.
I have to remember that when everything in me, all my feelings and understanding want to tell me that because I don’t see or feel the Son He isn’t there.
I have to set aside my understanding and believe in what I know to be true – surely His goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…
Because that’s who He is. What I feel doesn’t change that. What I see doesn’t change that. And I am thankful.
“Lord Jesus, help us hold onto our confidence that you are who you say you are. That you are good, and that you love us, and no matter what’s happening in our lives you’re still there, and you are still pouring out your goodness into our lives, and we are thankful.”
“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26.2
The timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was no coincidence. God’s timing never is.
It was Passover, a seven-day holiday commemorating the day some 1336 years before when God delivered His people out of Egypt from the bonds of slavery.
In the last plague carried out before their freedom, the Destroyer would pass through Egypt, striking down every firstborn.
But to the Israelites He gave this command: kill the Passover lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts, remain inside, and the Destroyer will pass over the blood-stained homes and spare the firstborn.
This action more than a 1000 years before Christ’s death foreshadowed the freedom from slavery to sin that would be given to anyone who would choose to find refuge in the blood of the Lamb of God.
“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”
John 19:14-15
It was the day before the Sabbath. In the Hebrew culture, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so all the arrangements for it – the cooking, cleaning, everything, had to be done by sundown the day before, known as Preparation Day.
Christ died on Preparation Day.
The work given to Him by His Father – His arrest, trials, beating, and His death on the cross to pay for our sins – was completed that day.
And He rested on the Sabbath.
Because Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, completed the work given to Him – the shedding of His blood as payment for sins – anyone who takes refuge in Him, who believes in Him as Lord will be forgiven and freed from the slavery of sin.
And those souls can rest in their freedom.
But God wasn’t finished.
Then came Sunday morning. The guards, the seal, the stone, even death itself could not hold Him.
He triumphantly rose from the grave, showing His power over death. And because He did, not only do we have freedom from sin, but freedom from spiritual death.
Could there be any greater love? Any greater gift?
Though we are free from the punishment of sin and death, we still wrestle in our flesh until we are brought into the presence of Christ and fully enter into our eternal rest from these earthly bodies.
As we walk toward that day, let us remember that nothing in Him is a coincidence. His timing, His choosing of our trials, are all to prepare us for that great and glorious day.
Until then, in this preparation time, let us “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” as we “continue to work out {our} salvation with fear and trembling” in expectation of the day we enter our complete and eternal rest.
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins in our place. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for obediently finishing the work The Father gave to you. And thank you, Holy Spirit, for all you do to help prepare our hearts for our day of eternal rest when you bring us Home. We are so grateful, LORD, for your love and grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
The apostle Paul wrote these passionate words in a letter to a church he founded in Corinth, Greece. I can imagine the pleading of his heart as he wrote to encourage them to not be lured back into the materialistic and immoral world that churned around them.
He reminded them, and us, that this life is not all there is. There is a resurrection, Christ being the first, and because of Him, we will follow.
We no longer belong to this world, and our victory is not here. Our victory has already been won through Christ – the gift of our immortal souls and our resurrection to the next life with Jesus Christ, our Great Reward.
There is no shortage of attention-grabbers whether it’s social media, or the news, or just the busyness of our own lives. They can suck us in, altering our perspectives from spiritual matters to earthly ones, and rob us of doing the work for which we’ve now been called.
Not much has changed in the 2000 years since Paul wrote to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
All of us who have put our faith in Christ know how difficult it can be to keep our hearts and minds focused on the Lord, especially when the world revels in sin all around us.
After all, sin looks fun, and we can feel like we’re missing out on something. Well, we are, but nothing good. We miss out on the consequences of those sins; we miss out on feeding our flesh but not our spirits; we miss out on a life of fruitlessness. We miss out on leaving our faith behind.
But Paul reminds us there is so much more given to us in its place.
We have a real Christ-given hope that when our bodies die, our immortal souls will live on for eternity in the joy and peace of the presence of God.
While, tragically, those who lived for the temporary thrills of this short life will abandon all joy and peace when their mortal bodies die, and their souls will be given over to judgment and eternal death.
While we who have put our faith in Christ may have to give up a few things here, we already have the ultimate victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, what do we do? We get back to work. We let go of the distractions of this world and stand firm in the faith, being about our Father’s business and fulfilling the calling given to each of us just as our brothers and sisters in Corinth did almost 2000 years ago.
“Let nothing move you.”
Nothing. Don’t look to the left or to the right at what others are doing. Don’t worry what others may say about your faith in God. Don’t worry about what can be done to you, even if it means your earthly life, because we already have the victory.
Look to Christ and “give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”
The text in the Greek puts it like this: “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
Abounding is the Greek word perisseuō which means “to superabound, be in excess, be superfluous; to excel, abundance, be the better, enough and to spare, exceed, excel, increase, be left, redound, remain (over and above).”
If there’s anything we should strive to do with excellence, it’s our work in the Lord.
He’s not only given us life, but He’s give us an abundant afterlife. He sees our labor in His name, and He will reward us with eternal treasures worth far more than the trinkets of this life.
Heavenly Father, please help us keep our minds focused on you and not get sidetracked by the world or even by fear. Help us serve you with all our hearts, with the excellence that you deserve, that through our lives the world may see your love and grace and you may be glorified in the salvation of many. Thank you for the victory you’ve given us by clothing us with immortality and preparing a home for us in heaven with you. We praise your glorious Name, Jesus, and pray it all in your Name, amen.
Why is it so hard for some of us to go to God when we’re hurting?
I know for me at least, when I’m feeling down or anxious I naturally want to retreat from everyone and everything. I don’t want to have to put on happy face and pretend everything’s okay. I want to find my corner of the world and hide, and that can mean from God, too.
But instead God says to be “…casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
The word “casting” is the same word that’s used in Luke 19:35 when the disciples cast or threw their garments onto the colt that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem.
We are to take our garments of anxiety and worry and grief and discouragement – all that we care about, big or small – and lay them upon our Savior.
Why?
Why can’t I huddle in my dank little corner of the world until I feel like coming out again?
Because Jesus tells us in Mark 4:18-19 that if we hold onto the cares of this world, we will be consumed with them instead, and the Word will be choked out and rendered unfruitful in our lives.
So I have to decide to walk in the Spirit, doing what is supernatural instead of what is natural, come out of the darkness and into God’s light, giving Him those things and people and circumstances that I care so much about knowing and trusting that He cares for me.
I hope you know that He cares for you, too. Everything that concerns you, concerns Him. Nothing is too big or too small or too old or too anything.
And the thing with God is, we don’t have to put on a happy face. He knows our heart’s pain anyway, and He hates hypocrisy. We can be real with Him. He wants us to be real with Him. We can trust Him with our deepest desires and emotions and conflicts. And then, in place of our garments of anxiety, He’ll give us a garment of praise.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12
By the demonstrations of His love, God has shown us that it’s more than a feeling. It’s more than an emotion or romance or sexual attraction or affection or flowers. It’s more than friendship or being able to get along when things are good. It’s more than a commitment until…
It’s doing what’s good and right and noble, in a spirit of humility no matter what.
He showed us what love is on the hill of Calvary when Christ died for us; He shows us what love is when we’re having our very worst days and yet He doesn’t give up on us; and He’ll show us what love is when we meet Him face to face when all is done and His promise to remake us is fulfilled.
Because of His love for us, we can love.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23
Jesus prayed this prayer for you and for me. The abundant life Jesus had talked about stems from this one thing: that we yield ourselves to God with such fullness that we become one with Him. That it is His life that flows through us – His mind we think and make decisions with, His heart we love unconditionally with, His eyes of grace and mercy we see others through, His strength we serve with.
I pray that Jesus’ prayer for us is answered more and more in the coming year, and that we come to live the abundant life He promises to us. Everything we search for, everything we use in this world to try to fulfill our desires stem from our inherent need to be reconciled fully to Christ.
He is our abundant life.
And not only is that abundant life for ourselves, but the world needs to see us living it. It needs to see a compass that points to true life. The world desperately searches for hope and it needs to see that hope is found in Christ and in Him alone. We are the chosen lights to point them to Him, if only we will.
May the Lord fill your lives in the coming year with faith and hope, strength and courage, love and peace. May He be yours and you His.
In the mighty Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Anointed One),
May your new year be filled with an ever-deepening awareness of the presence of Christ and of rejoicing with Him in all things He is making new!
In the love of Christ,
