pointing in the right direction

one thing i've thought about and i want to dig into this year is the idea of glorifying God. i've thought about it before and had revelations on what it means and how it looks and how we can do it in all and any area of our lives. but i want to dig deeper and better understand the motivations behind it and how to allow a desire to glorify God to permeate every area of my life...

a few years ago i read the amazing book "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer. If you haven't read it yet, read it. It'll take you a while because it is extremely pithy, but it'll definitely be worth the read.

here's a quote from it that i had written in a journal entry a few years ago...

“I can no more do justice to that awesome and wonder-filled theme (God’s love) than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. So, as I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God, someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.”
~A. W. Tozer

how am i pointing people toward God? sure, i can never do justice to truly explain Him. but, like a child pointing at a star, i can direct people toward Him. how am i doing that? how am i glorifying God?

a lesson from 3500 years ago

I had a professor in Israel who loved studying the biographies and stories of godly men. He lead a weekly guys' morning Bible study and took us through studies on godly men of Scripture. One of those studies focused on Joseph. I'm working on reading through the Bible again this year and tonight I read about Joseph being sold to Potiphar, being unjustly accused by Potiphar's wife, and his following time in prison.

I've thought about and been taught about Joseph's moral integrity during the time while he was being tempted by Potiphar's wife. And I've thought about and been taught about how God blessed him in Potiphar's house and in the prison because of his faithfulness to the Lord. But just tonight as I was reading it struck me...Scripture has a way of doing that. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that Scripture is indeed "living and active...it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Scripture is able to speak straight to our hearts. Its amazing how God uses it to speak to us no matter how familiar we may be with the passage.

It struck me...how much I see other people's lives...and I want their life. Because their life seems to be perfectly in line and together. They seem to have it easy. A good job, or maybe they're retired, and they don't have hard work to do. They have all they need and they don't struggle in fulfilling their job or they don't need to worry about finances, they have a nice car and a house. They don't have the worries that I have. Their life is so much easier than mine. If I only had their life, THEN I would be able to serve God better. THEN I could spend more time with Him. THEN I would really live for Him because I wouldn't be distracted by all these things. I wouldn't have a hard life and I would be able to focus on Him and have a better attitude about life in general.

But it struck me...look at Joseph's life! His brothers hated him and wanted to kill him! Instead they SOLD him into the slave trade and convinced his father he was dead. He was sold to Potiphar and had to live in a foreign country and didn't know if he would EVER make it home again, or see his father again. Then he gets somewhat comfortable as he is promoted to basically rule Potiphar's house (but still he's a slave in a foreign country and doesn't know if he'll see his family again). When he gets to that point his owner's wife falsely accuses him of adultery and he is thrown into prison! Prison wasn't nice back then! So what does he do? Complain that his life is horrible? Complain and ask God why He put him there? Compare his life to Potiphar's life and complain and be frustrated? No way. Joseph is faithful. Joseph continues to work hard and to do his work for the LORD. Look at Genesis 39:23, "The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed." When does God give success? When we acknowledge Him in all our ways He makes our paths straight (Prov. 3:6). When we delight ourselves in Him, He gives us the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4). Joseph was doing things with the right attitude. He was living for God and serving Him. He was acknowledging God in all things, and delighting himself in God.

I noticed in Gen. 40:8 that Joseph's focus was on God and not on himself. The baker and the cupbearer have dreams and are troubled because they do not have an interpreter to tell them the meanings of their dreams. Joseph responds but he doesn't say, "Well, tell them to me and maybe I can interpret them." No, his focus is not on himself and what he can do. Rather, it is on God. His faith is in God's omniscience (God knows everything!) and His ability to reveal the interpretation to Joseph. Joseph must have had a close relationship with God even through this time. His response is, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me."

In the margin of my Bible I wrote, "your life is easier than joseph's was...look how he handled it."

peace

I know how to have peace. You follow God's Word. Sounds somewhat elementary...but the Holy Spirit cleared away the fog for me the other day. I have Philippians 4:4-7 memorized, but that doesn't mean I understand it.

The other day I was getting ready for work and I was not at peace, so I started quoting those verses to myself over and over again...

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It helped to quote it over and over again, but it didn't give me complete peace. I started to mull it over in my head and meditate on what these verses meant...and I began to realize just how essential were EACH one of the things mentioned in order to obtain the final result: "the peace of God, which suprasses all comprehension [guarding] your hearts and minds"...

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"...in order to obtain perfect peace you must be rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing because of the issue that is causing you to be anxious? No, rejoicing IN it. Rejoice during it. Rejoice at all times. why? well...what's going to cause us to rejoice? when we know who God is and what He has done. I'm a wretched and filthy sinner, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me], even when [I was] dead in [my] transgressions, made [me] alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5)! God created the heavens and the earth and "[His] eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in [His] book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139:16) When I understand these truths, how can I not rejoice in who God is and what He has done? And, when I understand truths like these I realize who I am in Christ and that begins to bring me peace...but there are still more pieces...

"Let your gentle spirit be made known to all..." We need to have a gentle spirit, as opposed to an irritable or easily angered spirit. How can we have peace when we are irritable? Relax, God is in control, not you.

"The Lord is near"! What a comforting truth! Our God is not far off! He is very near. He hears us when we call! (Jer. 23:23-24)

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication..." A while ago I was studying this passage and I didn't know what 'supplication' was, so I looked it up. Basically it conveys the idea that we need to come to the Lord as a dry, parched ground desires the rain. We need to come to Him destitute. ...if we come to Him with the attitude of "God, I need some help here. Can you give me a hand? I've kinda got this figured out I just need a little help." Then we aren't coming to Him with the right attitude and we aren't going to obtain that peace. Because the truth is that we are worthless on our own and until we give it ALL to Him, we won't be able to obtain peace.

"let your requests be made known to God" ACT! we need to act! we can't just sit around and hope we will obtain peace. we need to do something about it. bring it to God. ...how can we have peace if we don't bring our needs to God and lay them at His feet? if we just keep our struggles to ourselves...we are never going to be able to solve them on our own.

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds..." this is what we desire. The peace of God. But don't forget the last part.

"...in Christ Jesus." don't miss this part, don't just let your eyes pass over those words. without the truth these three words communicate, none of the rest of this passage would be worth anything. without Christ Jesus and what He did, we would have no basis for rejoicing (see 1 Cor. 15:12-19). without Christ and what He did for us we would be eternally separated from God (Rom. 3:21-26). without Christ and what He did we would not be able to "let [our] requests be made known to God" (Heb. 4:14-16). we must place our faith and trust in Christ Jesus and what He did on the cross. without that, we will never be able to have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guarding our hearts and our minds.

but with it, peace is near.

see also this entry

trust...growth needed

How many times will it take
until I know and am confident
that Jehovah Jireh isn't simply words
but a name, an explanation of character
of essence, of an attribute

He provides. without fail.
He comforts those who are His.
But I do not trust
I am slow to rest
in the Truth.