Checking the Owner's Manual

The warning light on the car's instrument panel was one I had never seen before. My ignorance of what it meant at the time did not change the fact that it was "telling me" something was wrong. I had two choices. I could ignore it and hope it went away, or I could investigate and find out what it meant and take the necessary action. There was a good chance the first option could cost me much more than I would bargain for, my safety and wallet included, so that was not very appealing. It was also irresponsible. So considering myself a responsible person, I took the second option. There was only one place to check what the light meant and that was in the car's manual. There I discovered that the light indicated low tire pressure. I took a walk around the car and the tires looked fine. Nevertheless, I figured that while it could have been a malfunction, the car manufacturers knew far more about the vehicle than I did, so at the nearest gas station, I put in the recommended pressure in all four tires. Sure enough, once the car started, the warning light went off.

As I settled into my seat, it occurred to me that this particular experience had a couple of significant spiritual lessons. The Holy Spirit is like the car's instrument panel and because a part of his role is to guide us into all truth (John 16:13a), when something is wrong he warns us that we are straying or have strayed off course. That warning comes in different ways; maybe a check or feeling of restraint in our spirit, a discomfort with a particular decision, a "no" where we were expecting a "yes," to name a few. How do we respond then? We can either ignore what He is saying, or we can refer to the Christian's manual, The Bible, for corrective action. Either way, the choice is ours.

What is interesting about the Holy Spirit's warnings is that they usually "stay on" for quite some time. Just like when I looked at the tires they seemed fine, we may do our own self-check and feel everything is fine. The thing we are pondering seems very advantageous to us; the decision we made seems and feels right. Yet, the warning is still there. It is God's way of alerting us to something we need to attend to.

As you make your way along your Christian journey, have you checked your "instrument panel" lately? Are there any "warning lights" that you have been ignoring? If so, I encourage you to check your "owner's manual." It is far more reliable than your feelings.

Little In Your Own Eyes

For some people, success is very difficult to handle. The more successful they become, the more they become strangers to humility. Irving Berlin shone a spotlight on the dilemma of the successful when he observed, "The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success." In other words, it comes with its own seduction. Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates summed it up well when he said, "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."

King Saul found himself in such a situation. God had sent him to destroy the Amalekites, but he felt he could do as he wanted instead of what God had instructed (1 Samuel 15). Drunk with his success, the narrative tells us that he left for Carmel to set up a victory monument in his honor (v.12). Matthew Henry observes, "By his wars and victories he hoped to magnify and perpetuate his own name and honour." The narrative tells us about God's conversation with Samuel which resulted in Samuel's conversation with Saul. Totally ignorant of his haughtiness, Saul boasted to Samuel of his obedience (v.13) which the prophet immediately challenged (vv.13) before pronouncing judgment upon him (vv. 16-31).

The primary verse of interest is verse 17, "And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?" The most convicting words, "when thou was little in thine own sight." While Saul was still humble, God made him king, but as success came he forgot to remain humble. He started working his agenda instead of God's; he forgot that it wasn't about him, but all about God. Unfortunately, this problem is not unique to Saul. Many, including ministers of the Word, have become caught up in the success that God has allowed them. Believing their own hype and that of others around them, they lose sight of the fact that the God who promotes is the same God who demotes. None of us, no matter how successful, can afford to forget where we are coming from. We are where we are all because of God's grace.

As you move in the realm of success, how do you see yourself? Are you still little in your own eyes and following God's agenda, or are you all grown up and following your own?

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

We find His first recorded words from His first sermon in Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (KJV). Before He arrived on the scene, John, his cousin, was preaching in the wilderness of Judaea saying, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:1-2). The introduction of Jesus' sermon shows a passing of the baton. No longer was the kingdom of heaven at hand, it was now here and Jesus was teaching the principles of that kingdom.

When Jesus talked about poverty in spirit, He was not talking about the opposite of being materially rich. To this end, Luke 6:20 - which seems like a contradiction - must be understood in light of the fuller statement of Matthew 5:3. James M. Boice, in his exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, observes, "To be poor in spirit is to be poor in the inward man, not in outward circumstances. Consequently, to be poor in spirit is to recognize one’s spiritual poverty before God. . . . [It] is the opposite of being rich in pride; it is to be spiritually bankrupt before God."

A prudent study of the verse, and what it means to be poor in spirit, reveals two very important truths. Firstly, sinful human beings cannot achieve the standards of God’s righteousness and the requirements for the kingdom of heaven. The first principle of Christian ethics is that a new nature, given by the Lord Jesus Christ, is required in advance. Secondly, there must be an emptying in our lives before there can be a filling. We must become poor in spirit before we can become rich in God’s spiritual blessings. In other words, the old wine must be poured out of the wineskins before the new wine can be poured in (Matthew 9:17).

A true poverty of Spirit is unnatural to man, and therefore impossible. Nothing but a direct confrontation with the holy, just, and loving God will produce it. It is impossible to create a true poverty of spirit by looking within or by looking around at other people. True humility and a true sense of need come when we look to God for the basis of our self-evaluation. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: How do I (my life, my words, my thoughts, my actions, my desires) measure up against the Word of God? When we look to God and His Word for the basis of self-evaluation, a true response is like that of Isaiah’s, who when He saw God, cried, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Have you checked your spirit lately?

Seeing As God Sees

When Abram received his marching orders to leave the idolatrous region of Mesopotamia for a land he did not know, for his obedience the LORD promised him, in part, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing" (Gen. 12:2, KJV). As he and his household made their way through the plain of Moreh, again the LORD assured Abram, "Unto thy seed will I give this land" (vv. 6-7). The promise of heirs made a lot of sense for Abram's name meant "high father". The fly in the ointment was that Sarai, his wife, was barren (Gen. 11:30); she could bear him no children.

We are not told that Abram thought about the reality of his situation and how that fit into the plan of God. However, when God reassured him "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (15:1), he did not hesitate to bring it up. "And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir" (vv. 2-3). The LORD countered, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir" (v. 4). He then took Abram out of his tent and said to him, "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be" (v.5). I would imagine that for a moment there was silence. As Abram gazed up into the skies looking at the countless stars, the promise of God echoing in his ears, something happened to him for the narrative tells us, "And he believed in the LORD" (v. 6a). In other words, he was able to see what God was seeing.

We do not know for sure if he understood everything at that point. Outwardly, his situation had not changed. Sarai, his only wife, was still barren, but in spite of that he believed in the promise of the LORD. He did not know how his LORD was going to pull off what He had promised, but they had traveled this far together and he was learning that his task was to trust and leave the outcome to Jehovah, the LORD.

We are in the same position today. As we journey with the LORD we find ourselves facing seemingly impossible situations. There are times when in our moments of weakness, like Abram, our faith wavers and we devise our own solutions (Gen. 16:1-4). However, "let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)" (Hebrews 10:26). Let us change our perspective from being circumstances-centered to being God-centered. Let us remind ourselves of His promises and start to see as He sees. It is the only perspective that matters.

Tried and Refined

The narrative of Job's life and experiences, as recorded in the book bearing his name, is one with which some of us are familiar. With divine permission, Satan unleashed a wave of events that saw Job - whom God described as unique in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and shunned evil (Job 1:8) - losing his family, his wealth and his health. Unknown to Job, he was like a pawn in a cosmic chess game. Satan had called his integrity and fidelity into question, and God was confident that Job would stand firm against the onslaught. Satan could do whatever he wanted to do with Job, but God had set the boundaries within which he could operate.

Standing firm against Satan's attacks was not easy. Job knew that his life was in the hand of a sovereign God who not only had the power to give but also to take (1:21), and that whatever happened to him had to be permitted by God. To go through difficult times feeling the presence of God can be very comforting, but what happens when God seems nowhere to be found? In reality, God's presence is everywhere, but many are the saints who can voice the words of the Psalmist, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?" (Psalm 22:1a).

As he struggled under the weight of Satan's hand upon his life, Job lamented, "Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him (Job 23:1-3; 8-9, KJV). However, instead of becoming despondent, he recognized that even if he could not see God, God could see him; even if he did not know where God was, God knew where he was, and so he encouraged himself, "But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (v. 10).

 Job knew something we need to remind ourselves of - nothing touches our lives that do not pass through the hand of God first. Though what had befallen him was Satan's doing, He recognized the hand of God at work in his life. The sovereignty of God meant that there was nothing Satan could do that was not permitted by God. Job knew at the end of his time in the valley, if he remained faithful, he would come out "golden". The same goes for you; the same goes for me. Our challenges can be likened to the refiner's fire. The aim is to purify our hearts, to cleanse us from within, set apart for God and ready to do His will. With this perspective, we will not spend time blaming the devil, but we stand strong, trusting God even when we cannot see Him. He is there working things out, all for our good and all for His glory.

"Not As I Will"

The place was Gethsemane, a garden outside the city, a place planted with the olive and other trees, across the Kidron brook and on the Mount of Olives. It was a place that Jesus and His disciples were familiar with (John 18:1-2), and so on this night it would not have been unusual for them to be have gone there. According to Matthew's narrative, they had just finished their last meal together and Jesus, knowing what was imminent, spoke to them about a number of things. The narrative continues, "And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:37-39, KJV).

It is hard to imagine the "weight" that was on Jesus' shoulders. He who was born to die, in His humanity felt the deepest anguish, and there in the garden with His friends close by He seemingly struggled with the burden of what was ahead. This was He of whom the angels declared to Joseph, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Here He was, pleading with the father, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." The word "cup" is often used in this context in Scripture to point out sorrow, anguish, terror, and death. In essence Jesus' prayer was, "If the world can be redeemed - if it be consistent with justice, and with maintaining the government of the universe, that people should be saved without this extremity of sorrow, let it be done" (Albert Barnes). However, He did not stop there but continued, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

For sure that has to be the hardest part. Yielding our will to that of the Father. Giving up what we want to do, for what He wants us to do. Giving up what we would like to have, for what He wills for our lives. Giving up where we would rather go, to go wherever He sends us. Giving up the known for the unknown. His will versus our will - the two are not always the same. Left to our own ways we would take the easy way out, we would take only the best of what life has to offer. However, where is the growth in that? How is God glorified on “Easy Street”? How do we put Him first if we are not prepared to surrender our will for His? Yet, as His representatives on earth that is exactly what we are called to do. There is nothing to say that His way is easy and comfortable. Lest we forget, it is never about us but all about Him and Jesus demonstrated that to the fullest.

"Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." As you strive to please God in your service and obedience to Him, do you finish your prayers with that sentence?