The Real Cure

Have you ever prayed like this?

O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!  Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather.
--Psalm 39:4-6

Words like that don't often constitute my morning prayer.  "God, remind me of how short my life is.  Amen."  Why would someone pray for a reminder like that?

When he spoke these words, David was in a time of personal trial, physically and spiritually.  But in this particular trial, his prayer wasn't "comfort me, God," but "humble me."

God's prescription for David's trial was a humble perspective.

So often when we face disappointment, our prayer is that we get what we want.  We identify the sadness we feel as being caused by something we wanted that we didn't get, so we identify the cure as getting that thing back, or gaining it for the first time.  But our diagnosis, like all earthly thinking, is only skin deep.  David saw past this.  He saw that all of his "getting" was ultimately futile.  His possessions wouldn't last long, and were easily lost--and so was the happiness they provided.  So instead of trying to remedy his disappointment with more getting, he decided to remedy his attitude that thought getting was the answer.

Oh that we would be quicker to come to this point!  How many trials, how many disappointments does it take for us to realize that getting what we want will not make us happy?  The very frequency of these disappointments ought to remind us that more are coming.  We will never be free from loss--not on this side of heaven.  So all we can do is pray, as David, that we will be freed from a mindset in which gain is god and loss is devastation.

David was disappointed, and he refused to hope in an earthly remedy.  That hope, he knew, was pointless.  So at the point of emptiness, he prayed this:

"And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?"
Not to get back what I lost.

"My hope is in You.
Deliver me from all my transgressions."
They, not the loss, are my real trial.

"Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
for it is You who have done it."
I won't instruct You to do what I think will make me happy.
--Psalm 39:7-9


I want to respond to pain the way that David did here.  That earthly blessing didn't, doesn't, wouldn't make me happy.  God did, does, and will.  Remind me, Father, of my transience and how short-lived all earthly blessings are.  And be the one thing I truly hope in.

Joy in the Morning

I will extol You, Oh Lord, for You have drawn me up

and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

O Lord my God, I cried to You for help,

and You have healed me.

O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol;

you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints,

and give thanks to His holy name.

For His anger is but for a moment,

and His favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes in the morning.

--Psalm 30:1-5

We believe in a God who brings joy in the morning.  A God who hears us when we cry out to Him from a place of brokenness.  A God who does not let us stay incapacitated, but who draws us up from the mire.  Our enemies--sin, death, the devil--will not be allowed to rejoice over us, as they surely would if we stayed dejected forever.  Instead, God heals us, and equips us to again wage war against the adversaries we face.

So praise Him!  If you believe in Him, and You have witnessed His healing firsthand, as I have, then give thanks to His holy name.  He does not stay angry with us, but lavishes His favor and forgiveness.  And though we may weep for a night, there is always a joyful morning beyond the horizon.

Plans

Planning is a part of human nature.  Much of this tendency comes from God.  He created us in His image, and gave the first two people a hopeful plan for accomplishing much with their lives.  Many of our plans involve creative and exciting ways to carry out His mandate.

But there is a darker side of our tendency to plan.  Because of the fall, human planning cannot be perfect.  In fact, it is profoundly imperfect--as far from perfect as the post-sin earth is.  For one thing, now that sin is our nature, sin is in our plans.  We contrive darkly creative schemes to carry out our wrong desires.  But even if our plans themselves are not sinful, living in an imperfect world means we are sure to be disappointed.  This is something that we can count on every day.  You won't get everything that you want.  No matter how much time, energy, and hope we invest in these plans, our future is ultimately not in our hands.

The penniless and the powerful have this in common:

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 

This is the truth, no matter how much we curse the fall and rage against it.  Many of our plans will come to nothing.  How sad.

But there is good news.  For while all our greatest desires have been affected by the fall, there is One who remained unchanged.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, 

the plans of His heart to all generations.

And this is emphatically good news for a frustrated, disappointed people.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, 

the people whom He has chosen as His heritage.

God has chosen us as His heritage.  And I'll tell you one reason He didn't.  God didn't look at me or anyone else and think, "Wow, I could really use someone with that kind of vision.  Carly's ability to think ahead will really be an asset in my continued world-leadership."  What a joke would that be!  When God chose me to be His heritage, you want to know what I had to offer Him?  A heart in love with sin.  Plans to sin more.  Plans to try and sin without being caught by people, with no thought to the God who would see it all.  Plans to promote myself at any cost.  Plans to indulge in every pleasure possible.

And God saved me, and gave me the awesome hope that I am His heritage, His child, forever.  And He gave me a new set of plans--to honor Him.  To bring Him glory by any means.  He gave me creative plans to spend my life on Him in a thousand little ways.  And I've never, from the beginning, carried out a single one of those plans perfectly.  But His choosing of me never depended on that anyways.  It was His plan all along, quite independent of mine.

And what about those other plans and desires (unsinful) that I want, and don't get?  There is no easy way to convince someone (yourself included) that not getting what you want is a good thing.  Yet there is some comfort to be found in this:

The Lord looks down from heaven;

He sees all the children of man;

from where He sits enthroned He looks out

on all the inhabitants of the earth,

He who fashions the heart of them all

and observes all their deeds.

God sees.  God knows.  He knows when our hearts are broken.  He knows when our plans come to nothing and we get so disappointed we can hardly speak.  And He intimately knows exactly what it is that we desire--because He fashioned our hearts.  It feels good when you have pain just to remember that God knows.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him

on those who hope in His steadfast love.

When your plans come to nothing, you can count on this:  God's eye is on those who fear Him, and those who hope in His love.  So let your new plans revolve around that love.  The one constant in an unpredictable world is God's character.  And His love is steadfast.  So whatever your plans are today, just remember--they can fall apart, but God's love will always hold you together.

Psalm 33:10-15, 18

Undiscouragement

This post is kind of personal. What I am writing about is something that God has been working in my own heart. My prayer is that this is encouraging to you, although it applies specifically to me. Thanks to a great friend for encouraging me to write this out :).

Discouragement. It sinks in from time to time. Regardless of the cause (there could be any number of culprits)--the feeling is the same. You feel sad, weak—possibly even useless or unappreciated. This last week discouragement sunk in with me in a worse way than it had for some time. But God never leaves me to drown. He is far too good for that. And His purposes are good—good enough that I wouldn't want to escape the trials He lets into my life. Not even if I could.

Through a godly believer, God gave me a spark of encouragement. I believe this spark has not only caught on, but is slowly burning away the discouragement I've been feeling. The spark came from a man I don't personally know, but admire quite a bit. On page 124 of my copy of John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life I read these words:

“For your tomorrow, I gave my today. Not just for your tomorrow on earth,
but for the countless tomorrows of your ever increasing gladness in God.”

These two sentences express what Piper believes should be every believer's attitude towards the other people on earth. I agree with him. Why would I want to spend a single “today” or even a “this minute” on feeling sorry for myself when all around me are people whose “tomorrows” are in question? While I am feeling discontent, and wishing for things I want and don't have, there are people all around me who will never, ever get the happiness they truly want because they will never hear about Jesus. And it isn't wrong to feel sad sometimes. But what about the awesome joy of being glad in God, and watching as through your influence others find that gladness for themselves?

Oh magnify the LORD with me,

and let us exalt His Name together!

These words from Psalm 34 speak the desire of my heart. And in this I find escape from discouragement and sadness. The only thing more exciting than magnifying the Lord is magnifying Him to and with others so that they see Him bigger than they ever have—and then they magnify Him on their own and with more people in turn.

This is big. It's something that will take a lifetime. And it's something I've neglected before out of laziness, apathy, or feelings of insufficiency. It's also something that I'll never quite perfect.

But what better time than now to try? I have free time, energy, youth, singleness, Christian friends, non-Christian friends, a church, a school, a workplace, a car I can drive, and some spending money. I have a Bible and a God who hears me when I pray. Astoundingly, I have the Holy Spirit inside of me who directed me to this truth and who through Christ strengthens me to do all things.

So long discouragement. I think I'm due for a few exciting, useful, encouraging todays.

A Kingdom Not of this World

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to Him,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"

Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did  others say it to you about Me?"

"Am I a Jew?  Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You over to me.  What have You done?"

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world."

Pilate (just like every person who is alive today) had a fundamental problem with believing in Jesus.  Because of his mind's compulsive acceptance of the way the world was (and is), he was irreconcilable to Jesus' awesome power.  People are just like that today.

Pilate heard "king" and thought "Caesar."  He thought of power, and the accolades of men--himself included in the worshipers.  He thought of the military might that was able to subject an entire people group to Roman control.

And what he thought of didn't match up with what he saw.  A man in plain clothing--supposedly possessed of great healing power, yet now helpless to His captors' every whim.  A man who had been bound up, led away, and struck in the face.  No armies of loyal followers fighting for his release.  Just an ordinary, weak, normal man.  This could be no king.

Then the King spoke: "My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world."

This where Pilate and a whole lot of us get lost.  Because we as people are fighters.  Nobody has anything worth having who didn't have to fight for it.  We have these desires and urges that control us, and so we fight. Desperately, madly, we will fight to get our way.

But we serve a God who doesn't need to struggle.  God speaks, and it is done.  He forms substance out of nothing.  He can open up canyons from flat ground to swallow His enemies.  He can bring the entire sea down on armies that rage against Him.  When Jesus said His servants would be fighting, He is assuming the kind of power that Pilate thinks of as power.  The people kind of power; the struggle and get what you can kind.  The true power that our God possessed was far greater than some servants with swords.

Yet on this night, our King did not open up a chasm to swallow the soldiers.  He didn't rain down fire from heaven to consume the wicked.  Tonight, the power Jesus showed was the awesome, terrible power of submission.  Because He did not fight back.  He didn't struggle.  He let the weak and helpless fighters of this earth whip Him, hit Him, drive nails through His hands and feet.

And power was displayed.  The King and His kingdom shone in radiant glory that night like they had on no other.  Because our King showed that in His otherworldly strength He was mighty to die.  Mighty to sacrifice. Mighty to save.

This is our King.  And our kingdom is not of this world.

Magnify the Lord With Me

I want to praise the Lord, all the time.  I want to be that person who can't stop talking about Him.
I want Him to be the only thing I boast in.  Then I will be truly humble, and encourage others in humility.
I want to make God seem huge and present, not vague and distant, to the world.  And I want to influence those who are not of the world to exalt Him with me.

Because every time I've called ought to Him, He answered me.  Every time I've been afraid and have sought Him, He's given me confidence.
Any person who looks to God will never be ashamed.
God hears, saves, delivers, protects.
Taste and see that He is good.

Psalm 34:1-8

God's Delight

His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
Nor His pleasure in the legs of a man,
But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His steadfast love.
--Psalm 147:10-11

I am so thankful that I don't follow a God who is as easily awed as I am.  A strong person, a famous person, an able or talented person can easily turn my head.  In contrast, God does not delight in human strength.  Instead, He takes pleasure in people who revere His strength.  The humble, fearful servant is God's delight.  The one who hopes fully in Him is a pleasure for Him to know.

I want to be a humble, hopeful, God-fearing human being--a person who God is happy to know.