Month: June 2018

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed. Genesis 12:1-4

All Abraham had was a promise. That’s it. He didn’t get a certificate or earnest money or any collateral. All he had was God’s word, the word of a God he didn’t necessarily even know.

Actually, Abraham had something else. Something even better than a bank note. He had faith – belief in something unseen, not yet realized, that caused him to move. His belief that God would make good on His promise precipitated an incredible journey.

If we trust that goodness and mercy are coming after us, we’re free to leave everything that’s familiar, whatever is in our past. Our bondage to what is can be broken so that we can pursue what God promises will be.

Abraham didn’t know the specifics of God’s plan for him. At times his way seemed not just clouded, but completely obscured. And so God appeared to him again.

“He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6). God put credit for right-ness in Abraham’s account because he took God at His word.

Even still Abram’s next question is, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know?” (Genesis 15:8) We understand this question, even as we strive for faith. The promise looks so good – how can we know that it’s more than words? God says, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God knows, but we don’t.

So the question is, do we believe Him? Will we make the gamble that God is always planning the next chapter for our joy? He can’t help Himself – love, mercy, kindness are His very character. Will we stake our lives on the promise that He’s writing us into the magnificent story of His redemption of all things? In ALL His works, the impossibly hard ones as well as the pleasant ones, His purposes are for the good and happiness of His people. Of you. Of me.

He will come through for you. He will never leave you. He will never abandon you. He is always, always, always, working for the good and blessing of His beloved children. This is the way, the manner in which God loves us – He gave His only Son to purchase our freedom and forgive our debt SO THAT we won’t be destroyed, but we will live a full, rich, abundant, soul-satisfying life.

It’s good that God planned for Abraham, and for us. More good than his lifetime could contain. More good than our lifetime can contain. Only heaven is big enough to store the whole harvest of abundance God has planned. It says so in His word – “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

He is able to accomplish infinitely more (immeasurably more, far more abundantly, exceedingly above, exceeding abundantly, so much more, above and beyond, greater, infinitely beyond, superabundantly more) than we would ever dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:20, my amplification

 

We were in the home stretch. The finish line was so close, it should have been cakewalk. Our family devotions were drawing to a close. We were sitting around the table after dinner – well, most of us were sitting. My son was lying on the floor under the table. He often does and I don’t mind as long as he’s following along. But that night he was more interested in something else, so I asked him to sit in his seat and he could join us.

He said no. And when I asked him again, he got up and pushed his chair as far away from the table as he could, turned it to face the other direction, and sat down.

In that moment of rebellion, the finish line moved far down the road. Because our time around the table isn’t about reading a certain number of verses or completing a specific devotional. It’s about cultivating hearts. It’s about ingraining the word of God deeply into each of us. And that takes more than a moment, or an evening. It takes a lifetime.

My son’s actions perfectly illustrated outward obedience and inner defiance. When I asked him to join us at the table, I was inviting him to be close to us. His sin caused him to miss that entirely.

How many times do we find ourselves with our backs to the table? God calls us to come near. He desires to nourish us. He wants good things for us. He wants to be close to us. But we resent His asking and hope obeying “the letter of the law” will be good enough to avoid punishment. All the while we keep our hearts as far away as possible.

In our stubborn rebellion, we cut ourselves off from others, from God. This can’t be good for our hearts. The cut flower looks good, stunning even, for a little while. But eventually it can’t hide the fact that it’s dead. Nourishment and life are no longer flowing to it. No wonder Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine” (John 15:4).

It’s about your heart. It’s always been about your heart. Your heart is the prize in the battle between heaven and earth. Sin separates, divides, and isolates. It’s only destination is death. But God has made a way out of that grave. Through Jesus, He calls us back to the table, back to unity and intimacy. To connectedness. To life.

Paul wrote the church at Colosse, “Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught” (Colossians 2:6-7).

It’s love that draws us to turn from our stubbornness and be restored to relationship, to bring our hearts back to the table.

If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.  John 15:10 MSG