In step

[RiverOL]

A great soul battle

For reading & meditation: Psalms 69:1-12

"I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold." (v.2)

Having shared with us the conviction that God is good, the psalmist now proceeds to tell us what caused him to move away from that belief so that his soul became filled with such desolating doubt: "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (Psa. 73:2-3). Here begins what Spurgeon described as "a great soul battle, a spiritual marathon, a hard and well-fought fight in which the half-defeated became in the end wholly victorious". The psalmist seems bothered by the apparent contradiction between what he had been taught in the Scriptures - that God is good to those who are pure in heart - and his experience in life.

He was envious, he says, of the arrogant and deeply upset over the fact that the wicked appeared to be more prosperous than the godly. He had been told that when you were righteous, then God would take care of you and prosper you.

Obviously things had not been going too well for the psalmist and when he compared his situation with that of the ungodly who appeared to be so prosperous, he came close to giving up his faith.

Am I talking to someone who is in a similar situation at this moment? Is your faith so badly shaken by what you see around you that you are tempted to give up? Then this is the word of the Lord to you today: hold on. It is a dark tunnel you find yourself in at this moment, but God will bring you through. He never fails. Never.

Prayer:
Father, thank You for speaking to me today. Help me not to form my conclusions from what I see around - the immediate - but from what I see above, in You, the Ultimate. I wait in quiet confidence for Your word to come to pass. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Be honest with yourself

For reading & meditation: Psalms 51:1-9

"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts '" (v.6)

Even the most casual reader of Psalm 73 cannot help but be struck by the openness and honesty of the psalmist. He says: "My feet had almost slipped ' for I envied the arrogant" (vv. 2-3). This again is one of the great values of the book of Psalms - it brings home to us the importance of acknowledging what is going on in our hearts when we are caught up in the midst of conflict. I cannot stress enough how spiritually damaging it is to ignore or deny our true feelings. There is a form of teaching going around in some Christian circles today which holds that one should never admit or acknowledge a negative thought or feeling - not even for a single second.

Life must be lived positively, it is said, and that means refusing to consider or even glance at anything negative. What nonsense! The people who advocate this approach to life can never have read the book of Psalms. I am all for a positive approach to life, but positivism first involves facing things realistically no matter how negative they may be. How can you know what you need to be positive about until you have clearly seen what is troubling you?

Once an issue is faced, and faced realistically, then the matter can and must be dealt with in a positive way. But to try and be positive without bringing into clear focus what is wrong is like building a house on sand. No matter how much cement is poured into the foundations, and no matter how well the walls are reinforced, when a storm comes it will sink without trace.

Prayer:
Father, drive this truth deeply into my spirit, for I see that it is not enough to be honest with You and others, I must also be honest with myself. Help me get there and stay there. In Jesus' Name I ask it Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

If you're thrown - admit it

For reading & meditation: Psalms 22:1-11

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (v.1)

We continue looking at the attitude of the psalmist, who does not hesitate to tell the truth about himself. As we saw, he admits that his feet had well-nigh slipped and his faith had almost gone. I find the psalmist's honesty both stimulating and refreshing, especially when compared to the tendency of many in today's Church to pretend that things are not as they are.
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones said in one of his sermons: "I know of nothing in the spiritual life more discouraging than to meet the kind of person who seems to give the impression that he or she is always walking on the mountain top." I agree. You see, it is far more important to be honest than to appear to be the sort of person who is never thrown by problems. If you are not thrown, then fine; but if you are then admit it. But can't openness be a form of exhibitionism? Yes, it can. Some people may confess to failure as a means of drawing attention to themselves.

But I do not believe that this was the psalmist's motive, for quite clearly he wrote the psalm to glorify not himself but God. The pathway to spiritual growth begins when we realistically and honestly face up to the struggles that are going on inside us. If we are so concerned about developing or preserving pleasant feelings that we ignore the negative feelings within us or pretend that they are non-existent, then we end up demeaning ourselves. An honest look may involve a struggle, but there is more hope in that for growth than there is in pretence or denial.

Prayer:
O God, teach me to be unafraid to look at anything - myself included. Make me strong enough in You not to need the defences of pretence and denial. You are on the side of honesty; I am on its side too. Help me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Why we are sometimes drained

For reading & meditation: Psalms 19:7-14

"' Clear me from hidden and unconscious faults." (v.12, Amplified Bible)

We said yesterday that exposed problems are the only ones that can be resolved. Is this just an interesting theory, or is it something that can be supported from Scripture? Let me see if I can convince you that this statement has a biblical basis.

Come back with me to the Garden of Eden and think again about the questions which God put to the first human pair: "Where are you? ' Who told you that you were naked? ' What is this you have done?" (Gen. 3:9-13). Does anyone believe that God needed to ask those questions in order to gain information for Himself? Of course not; being omniscient (that is, having all knowledge), He already knew what they had done. Then why did He put those searching personal questions to them?

Surely the answer must be that the direct questions encouraged them to face something that they preferred not to look at. God knew that before the problem could be dealt with it must be brought out into the open. Some people may think that by far the best way of dealing with unacceptable thoughts and feelings is to push them back into the unconscious but, as we are now seeing, that is a fallacy. Problems that are buried inside us rather than brought out into the light work to drain us of spiritual energy.

It takes a lot of emotional energy to keep things repressed. This is why people who repeatedly use the defence of repression end up feeling overtired. Healthy people are those who, like the psalmist in Psalm 73, bring their thoughts and feelings into awareness - no matter how "unspiritual" those thoughts and feelings may appear to be.

Prayer:
Father, I now begin to see why You bring me face to face with so many disturbing questions, for You know the havoc that is wrought within when issues are ignored or denied. Help me face anything and everything. In Your Name. Amen.

 

[a39t8rI4]

Galatians 2:11-21

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me ..." (v.20)

Paul tells us about his "secret" death in the passage before us today. In the main, there are two divergent views on this passage. One view is that Paul is referring here to the teaching he expounded in Romans 6 -- that when Christ died at Calvary, we all "died" in Him, but because

 

[a39t8rI4]

When God Looks on Us with Favor

Isaiah 66:1-2

Believers are always under the canopy of God’s grace and love. Nothing we do can change that. At the same time, our behavior and heart condition do determine whether we receive the fullness of His blessings. Today’s passage teaches us how to experience the Father’s favor.

 

[a39t8rI4]

Galatians 2:11-21

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." (v. 20)
We saw yesterday that the apostle Paul claimed his labors were energized by the grace given to him by God. He says something similar in the text before us today: "I no longer live ... Christ lives in me." The apostle had learned that it was not enough to give all of his strength to the work of Christ, though he certainly did that; he had to receive Christ's strength in order to do work

 

[a39t8rI4]

The eight points of testing

2 Corinthians 2:12

"... thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ ..." (v.14)

 

[a39t8rI4]

What peace is not

2 Thessalonians 3
"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way ..." (v.16)
It will be easier to bring out the true character of peace if we seek to show how it differs from other states of mind with which it has a superficial resemblance.

 

[RiverOL]

The roots of some perplexities

For reading & meditation: Isaiah 55:6-13

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord." (v.8)

We continue examining the psalmist's graphic description of the so-called successful "man of the world": "Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish, and the imaginations of their minds overflow with follies.

They scoff and wickedly utter oppression; they speak loftily - from on high, maliciously and blasphemously. They set their mouths against and speak down from Heaven, and their tongue swaggers through the earth - invading even Heaven with blasphemy and smearing earth with slanders" (Psa. 73:7-9, Amplified Bible).

How perfectly these words describe the person who brazenly flaunts his arrogance and rides roughshod over the rights of others. Note the phrase, "their eyes stand out with fatness", or, as the International Bible Commentary puts it: "Their beady eyes bulged through folds of fat as they busily schemed. Superior and cynical, they engaged in malicious talk and threats." We see the same kind of people today -irreligious, self-centred men and women who live only for themselves and view God as an irrelevance.

Why does God allow them to get away with such attitudes and behaviour? Perplexing, isn't it? We must realise, however, that it is only perplexing because we are dealing with the ways of an eternal Being whose thoughts and designs are infinitely greater than our own - as the text at the top of this page clearly tells us. Think about this as you make your way through the day: half our perplexities would never arise if we were prepared not to understand immediately the things that God does or the things that God allows.

Prayer:
O Father, what unnecessary perplexities we carry within us because we try to trace the reasons that lie behind Your designs rather than just trust them. Help us in our quest for a more confident faith. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

What's happening!?

For reading & meditation: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

"' perplexed, but not in despair '" (v.8)

Today we stay with the thought that half our spiritual perplexities would never arise if we started out by being prepared not to understand immediately the things that God does or allows. We must accept that one of the fundamental principles of the Christian life is the truth that there will be many times when God will work things out in a manner exactly opposite to the way we think He should. If I had been taught this in the early days of my Christian life, it would have saved me from many spiritual struggles.

Most of my perplexities arose because I failed to realise that I was dealing with a mind that is omniscient - that God's mind is not like my mind. The ways of God are inscrutable; His mind is infinite and eternal and His purposes are beyond understanding. When we are dealing with such a great and mighty God it should not surprise us that He allows things to happen which we find perplexing. If we insist that everything in life should be plain, we shall soon find ourselves in the state in which the psalmist found himself - full of doubt, disillusionment and fear.

We should note, however, that perplexity is not necessarily sinful. It only becomes wrong when we allow our perplexity to drive us to despair. The apostle Paul, as our text for today shows us, was perplexed but he was not in despair. Make sure you understand the distinction. It is not foolish or wrong to say: "I don't know what is happening." It is only foolish to say: "God doesn't know what is happening."

Prayer:
O Father, how comforting it is to realise that I can be perplexed and yet not fall into sin. Help me to keep this distinction clear. Drive the truth deep into my spirit today that You always know what is happening. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

I hadn't even seen the accident!

For reading & meditation: Job 9:21-35

"When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges '" (v.24)

The more the psalmist contemplates the condition of the ungodly, the more his perplexity increases. The next verses show him to be upset over the fact that people treat the ungodly with such admiration: "Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, 'How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?' This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth" (Psa. 73:10-12).

He observes that because they are so well-admired and well-treated such people say: "Look at how good life is to us! If there is a God, then He doesn't appear to have much interest in the way we live." A Christian tells of a work colleague, a successful man of the world, who said to him one day: "On my way to work this morning a man stopped me and said 'Are you a Jehovah's Witness?' Why would he ask me that? Why, I hadn't even seen the accident!"

The man was quite unaware of who Jehovah was and the question had him completely puzzled. This is what troubles the psalmist in this section of Psalm 73 - he sees people living with no concern for God, yet everything seems to be going so well for them. One can feel his indignation burning through the words he writes. Do you feel indignant about this, or a similar problem? It's not surprising if you do. Be careful, though, that you dont allow it to become your focus of concentration, for it is a law of the personality that you become like the thing you dwell upon.

Prayer:
O Father, if it is true that I become like the thing I focus upon, then help my focus of life not to be indignation at the prosperity of the ungodly but gratitude for the fact that I am an heir to eternity. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

The heart of the issue

For reading & meditation: Job 21:11-16

"Yet they say ' 'Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?' ' But their prosperity is not in their own hands '" (vv. 14-16)
We come now to the heart of the issue with which the psalmist is struggling in Psalm 73: "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning" (Psa.73:13-14). Permit me to paraphrase what I think he is saying: "Here I am, living a godly life, keeping my heart and hands clean, avoiding sin, meditating on the things of God and devoting myself to a life pleasing to God, yet despite this I am facing all kinds of troubles.

What's the advantage in serving God if He doesn't protect me?" The problem, then, is not so much the prosperity of the wicked as the fact that he himself is passing through a period of great trial while they are getting off scot-free. We begin now to see the roots of the envy to which the psalmist referred earlier: "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (v.3). Envy is born out of two things: ignorance and a wrong comparison.

Take, first, a wrong comparison. "Almost all our problems," said Dr W.E. Sangster, "begin in a wrong comparison." How true this is. We compare our looks, our height, our income, our homes, our training and our abilities with those of others and soon we lose sight of our own individuality and specialness. To compare ourselves with Christ is a healthy spiritual discipline, but to indulge in comparison with those we think are more prosperous and fortunate than we are is the direct road to envy.

Prayer:
O God, save me, I pray, from the habit of wrongly comparing myself with others. Help me to satisfy the impulse I have for making comparisons only in a way that will yield spiritual gain - by comparing myself only with You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Don't forget the parenthesis

For reading & meditation: Isaiah 11:1-9

"He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes '" (v.3)

Yesterday we said that envy is born out of two things: ignorance and making wrong comparisons. Having seen how a wrong comparison can produce envy, we focus now on ignorance. How can ignorance give rise to envy? Far too often our judgments of people are based only on what we see, and we fail to take into account other things that may be going on in their lives. Years ago, A.C. Gardiner wrote a little essay on Lord Simon and spoke at length of his many successes. In one place he described him as "prancing down a rose-strewn path to a shining goal".

Gardiner thought that success, in the measure Lord Simon had experienced it, was free of all sorrow. Then he remembered some of the bitter disappointments that Lord Simon had faced and so he added in parenthesis: "I speak here only of his public career." Many of us forget the parenthesis. We see simply the surface of our neighbours' lives and know nothing of their secret sorrows.

If we saw beneath the surface of those lives we tend to envy - the hidden hurts, the emptiness, the heartaches, the guilt and the fears - then I doubt whether the emotion of envy would ever rise within us. But even if there were no secret sorrows we would still have no reason to envy others. God is the rightful Lord of all life: "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves" (Psa. 100:3, NKJ). Let us keep our eyes fixed only on Christ and resist all other attempts at comparison. Practise comparing yourself with Him, and only good will come out of it.

Prayer:
Blessed Lord Jesus, I see how easily the spirit of envy can filch away my peace and happiness. Uproot this rank weed in my heart and teach me to compare myself with none other but You. For Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

A recital of experiences

For reading & meditation: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." (v.13)

Having spent the past days identifying the nature of the problem which almost caused the psalmist to give up, we pause today to focus on another great value of the book of Psalms - the fact that it presents its teaching in the form of a recital of experiences. We have exactly the same kind of teaching in the New Testament, but there it is presented in a more directive fashion.

Sometimes our hearts grow weary under the stresses of life and we are not open to receiving direct instruction from anyone. I remember when I was a young Christian going to church one evening feeling tired and worn down by the strong temptations I was experiencing. As the visiting preacher announced the title of his sermon - "Fifteen Principles for Overcoming Temptation" - I felt my heart sink within me. His sermon might have been what I needed but at that moment I was too weary to concentrate on principles.

When I got home that evening I turned to the book of Psalms, and as I read the experiences of some of those men and found that they too had been through what I was going through, my strength returned and my spirit revived. This is why the book of Psalms is one of the most important and valuable books of the Bible. Learn to turn to it whenever you feel battered and beaten by the waves of life. You will find, as millions have found before you, that it speaks to your condition because the men who wrote it have been in your condition.

Prayer:
O Father, I am grateful to You beyond words for giving me that part of Your Word that reaches me when perhaps nothing else might reach me. Help me to make good use of it and avail myself of its unfailing resources. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Starting at the bottom

For reading & meditation: Lamentations 3:19-27

"' my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." (vv.20-21)

Now we come to the turning point of the seventy-third psalm - the point where the psalmist takes the first step toward the resolution of his problem. We must not forget that the purpose of this psalm is to show us how the writer solved his problem, so that when we get into the same kind of difficulty we can apply the same solutions. Here, then, is his first step: "If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed your children.

When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me" (Psa. 73:15-16). We see in these words what it was that arrested his feelings of doubt and despair - the thought that if he were to speak out of his discouraged heart he would put a stumbling block in someone else's path.

"If I did that," he thinks to himself, "I would be untrue to the generation of God's children. So, rather than discourage others with my doubts, I will not say anything at all." Some might regard it as strange that the first step the psalmist took on the road to recovery should be one with such a low motivation. Indeed, there are those who have said it was unworthy of him and that he should not have allowed himself to get into that condition.

Similarly, when people in the Church today confess to having "unspiritual" feelings, I am sure you have heard judgmental advice-givers address them with words like: "You ought not to feel like that!" But the point is that they do feel like that, and reality demands that we begin right where they are and not where we would like them to be. Personally, I do not care how low a person's stand might be as long as he or she is standing and not slipping.

Prayer:
Gracious and loving Father, teach me how to handle myself in a crisis and help me not to be too proud to begin at the lowest level. Better to have my feet on the lowest rung of the ladder than to be struggling in the mire. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Stop and think!

For reading & meditation: James 1:12-20

"' Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry '" (v.19)
Yesterday we saw that the first step the psalmist took, the step which helped to save him from spiritual disaster, was most surprising. In the midst of overwhelming temptation, he says to himself: "If I give expression to my doubts and speak out of my envious, discouraged heart, I will put a stumbling-block in someone else's path - hence I will not say anything at all" (paraphrase mine).

Now as we said yesterday, many people may find it difficult to accept this as the first step on the road to recovery - but it worked, nevertheless. Listen to what one commentator says about this first step: "Our reaction to the discovery of what his first step was in his process of recovery will be a very good test of our spiritual understanding." What does he mean? He means that if we fail to see that the steps of faith are sometimes very ordinary, then we are not as spiritual as we imagine. It's all right to have your head in the clouds, but make sure your feet are firmly planted on the earth!

Keep in mind, then, that the thing which stopped the spiritual slide of the psalmist was very simple and ordinary - he made a decision not to say what was on the tip of his tongue. He stopped to think. Rather than spread his unbelief, he determined to keep his mouth shut; rather than threaten someone else's spiritual understanding, he resolved not to act on impulse. It might not have been a particularly high spiritual motive, but it was the thing that prevented him from falling.

 

[RiverOL]

We do what we choose to do

For reading & meditation: Proverbs 18:15-21

"The tongue has the power of life and death '" (v.21)

We are seeing that the first step the psalmist took to save himself from falling was stopping himself from saying what was on the tip of his tongue.

In other words, he took himself in hand. This is an extremely important issue. What a lot of heartache would be saved if Christians would take heed to this and learn to put a bridle on their tongues. Expressions which convey the idea that the Lord acts unjustly or unkindly, especially if they fall from the lips of men and women who have a long experience in the Christian life, are as dangerous as sparks in a timber factory.

Despite his doubts, the psalmist recognised the importance of self-discipline, and that proved to be a saving virtue.

People sometimes claim: "It is impossible for me to control what I say. It slips out before I realise what I've said." This is nonsense, of course, for what we say is the result of what we choose to say. Sometimes we may feel as though we have no control over what we say, but that is all it is a feeling. Dr Lawrence Crabb, a Christian psychologist, tells us: "The loss of felt choice does not mean the loss of real choice."

When you give a person "a piece of your mind", as we say, there is always a moment, albeit a split second, when you can choose to speak out or stay quiet. We cannot hide behind the excuse that our tongue is not under our control. What we do is what we choose to do. The psalmist, though beset by many doubts and difficulties, chose to control his tongue - and so can you.

Prayer:
Father, help me see that the things I do and say are not the result of compulsion but of choice. I am free to obey or free to disobey. Help me to use my freedom in the right way. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Selective expression

For reading & meditation: John 2:13-17

"How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (v.16)

We continue thinking about the psalmist's decision to take himself in hand and refrain from relaying his doubts to others. I feel it important at this point to say a further word about repression and expression. Christians, we said earlier, are never to pretend about anything. Whether we worry, covet, resent, hate, we are to acknowledge the reality of who we are at any given moment.

Fully admitting to ourselves and to God that we are angry, worried or full of doubts, is not sin. It becomes sin when we constantly focus on it and allow it to drag us down into despair. But does this mean that in order to experience emotional health we must let everything out and tell everybody exactly how we feel? The clear answer to that question is "No", but it is an answer that must be qualified. For example, when seeking help from a counsellor or minister, it would be right to share exactly how you feel.

The principle I suggest we adopt in relation to this is as follows: we may express our acknowledged emotions only when such expression is consistent with God's purposes. This is a critical point and it must be understood. The cure for repression is not to "let it all hang out" but to be selective, expressing only those emotions that are in harmony with God's will. We must freely admit to ourselves and to God what is happening to us, but then we must carefully and selectively consider whether it is right and in line with God's purposes to share what we feel with others.

Prayer:
Gracious and loving Father, help me to be honest with my feelings, yet willing to subordinate the expression of them in both timing and manner to Your perfect will. In Jesus' Name I ask it Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

A mature response

For reading & meditation: Galatians 5:16-26

"But the fruit of the Spirit is ' self-control." (vv.22-23)

So important is the point we raised yesterday - the need for selective expression - that we will spend another day considering it. Listen to how the Amplified Bible translates Psalm 73:15: "Had I spoken thus and given expression to my feelings, I would have been untrue and have dealt treacherously against the generation of your children" (emphasis mine). Notice that although the psalmist experienced strong feelings of uncertainty, he refrained from expressing these emotions because they would have had a negative effect upon his brothers and sisters. He acknowledged his emotions, but he refused to express them because he knew they would hurt and hinder the family of God.

Expression of our feelings with no thought of another's welfare amounts to sinful, selfish indulgence. We must allow ourselves to feel the full weight of our emotions but then subordinate their expression to the purposes of God. Only if it is Gods will for us to share those feelings with others must we do so. Thus the apostle could write stinging words of rebuke to the Corinthian church because his words were in harmony with God's purposes.

We have to be on our guard here, because whenever we feel angry, and vent our anger on someone, it is so easy to justify our angry feelings by saying, "God wanted to use me to teach you a lesson."It more often than not, if we examine our hearts we will find that our goal was not the will of God but the desire to get those angry feelings out from inside us. Selective expression of feelings is a mature and spiritual response; indiscrimate expression is immature and unspiritual.

Prayer:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father, forgive me for the times I have hurt others by the indiscriminate expression of my negative feelings. Help me understand and apply this principle of "selective expression" In Jesus' Name. Amen.