Category: The Christian Life

God Loves and Sustains Us … In Surprising Ways

Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 47:4)

This verse is one of the most beautiful statements in the Bible about God’s care. It has extra meaning now that I have so much gray hair, but it applies to you too even if you don’t have a single gray hair yet.

But there is one danger in dwelling on a verse like this. We may drift into thinking that we’ll have no difficulties…. or at least that if there are any, they will be quickly resolved in the way that we want! We start to think we know exactly how God should act to fix it for us.

Not so fast! Compare our opinion of how we think God should serve us to what God says about his character.

I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’ (Isaiah 46:10)

You mean God is not going to take care of my immediate needs?? You mean God might contradict what I know I need and want in my life.

Yes.

I like Tim Keller’s view that when we pray and don’t get the answer we want, God always answers our prayers in precisely the way we would want them to be answered if we knew everything he knew.

I do agree that God always gives us what we would ask for if we understood the whole story.

Personal example: I planned to excel in my age group as a runner as I grew older. I believed God would provide, and if anyone asked how come I was so fast for my age I would give credit to God.

But then, I got a heart rhythm issue a few years ago: persistent afib. My great senior running career plans ended. Now I can only jog, yet somehow it is part of God’s plan. I now tell people that being able to even jog at my age is truly a blessing!

Yes, God is definitely caring for me and sustaining me… just not in the exact ways I initially thought he would.

No Condemnation

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1)

What a strong declaration! Before we were in Christ, we lived under a sentence of condemnation. If the evidence were presented in court the verdict would be: guilty.

But thanks to the atoning work of Christ that sentence is vacated. Unequivocally and totally. Can’t be undone!

But here’s a problem: what happens if you do feel condemned anyway?

We have an enemy who often attacks us with an overall generalized unlimited sense of condemnation, wanting us to feel like a piece of filth. These allegations come fast and furious in an overwhelming crescendo. The tone is harsh, accusatory, unloving and unkind. Not too long ago I endured a day filled with such a blistering attack.

The nasty voice tells you: Think of when you did ___________ and ________ and ________. It goes on and on. These blanks are tailored to whatever it is you feel the guiltiest about. Then the accusing enemy says: “How dare you think you are forgiven for those ???How can you even call yourself a Christian?? You disgusting creep.”

Thankfully, I had help recovering from the vicious onslaught and regaining a restful heart.

Consider 1 John 3:19-21: This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:  If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

First, I saw how “If our hearts condemn us” does not contradict “no condemnation.” Here’s why:
The condemnation we are freed from in Romans 8:1 is the eternal the doom of hell. We have been set free from that and given eternal life.

But even as Christians, there are ways we still can offend God. We are then temporarily guilty. So, our hearts condemn us means there is a specific offense to which God is drawing attention. This is quite different from the bogus shotgun blast that comes from our enemy…of us being a worthless unforgivable piece of garbage.

There is a much better truthful exchange that God offers. An example:
God: You are harboring a real bitter & nasty & unforgiving attitude towards ___________.
Me: Yes, I am. I repent. Forgive me.
God: Christ already paid the penalty for that. You are forgiven.

Being led to this genuine repentance leads to something sweet. After I repent, my heart stops condemning me and my rest and confidence before God are restored. What a freedom repentance brings! With my heart again at rest, I return to the joy of living in freedom and forgiveness. There is no condemnation!

Dirty Magazine

 “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10b

I heard a story in a sermon a couple of years ago that had an eerie parallel to my own past.

The sermon story: Success
My own story: Failure (but not permanent!)

(Do note: the following incidents happened before the days of all this stuff being readily available on the internet!)

Our pastor told a dirty magazine story.

At the end of the semester, cleaning up in the dorm, he found a dirty magazine under a mattress and threw it away. He had a conviction against keeping the mag, even if no one would see or know that he took it. He threw it away, thinking how it would be a wrong against his fiancée and God.

At first, I felt discouraged after hearing our pastor’s dirty magazine story, remembering I had done the exact opposite back then! At the end of a semester, as the dorms were emptying, I found dirty magazines in the trash bin for the building, and I kept them.

Without making an excuse for what I did back then, I do see how my weak understanding of how Jesus works let me do it so casually. Back then, I viewed it as OK to take the magazines. It’s only a magazine, I thought. I’m not actually doing any of the stuff that is shown there. If someone from church had seen me taking the magazines, I would have felt embarrassed that I was caught, but my discomfort would be from being caught and exposed, and not because I viewed taking the magazines as wrong.

What kept me from remaining discouraged for being so far below the level of maturity and obedience during college that my pastor described, was to admit that I was wrong back then, and to be thankful that I am forgiven for it.

So, the big question is how am I handling it now? Jesus has been after my heart. It’s taken a long, long time to shift to a deeper level of obedience where my most private actions and thoughts are brought more into conformity with what Jesus wants. And I am driven not by fear of punishment as much as seeking something better in life.

I am glad when I do pass a similar test today…. yet I am warned to not get overconfident. I cannot blithely guarantee that I will pass every test for the rest of my life. But I do know that I really am quicker to turn from crummy thoughts and attitudes than I used to be, because Jesus really does provide forgiveness and abundant life.

My Spiritual Birthday

November 30 is my spiritual birthday. That’s when I was first touched by amazing grace! Back then, I experienced a day and night difference. My world was turned upside down with feelings of happiness. I was a new creation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

As John Newton said, “How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed”

This meant (I thought at the time) that I would enjoy my best life now with no major obstacles. I’d complete my doctoral dissertation with no sweat, and I’d quickly be married to an excellent Christian wife.

Wasn’t that what it meant to be a child of God? Nope, it didn’t quite work out the way I thought it would.

Why?

Because without realizing it, I was focused more on what I could get from God than on who he was. Indeed, what my attitude really amounted to was “Lord, if you won’t quickly meet my needs, don’t expect me to go out of my way to change my way of doing things or bother too much with learning what it means to please you.” 

With that attitude, God allowed me to enter a very dry time. (While at the same time continually protecting and preserving me much more than I realized!)  

God used many ways to change my attitude, but today I want to focus on just one. He brought me into fellowship with some strong Christian helpers. Amazingly, I first met them on April Fool’s Day! (I love how it says in 1 Corinthians 4:10 We are fools for Christ) 


Even with a renewed attitude, it still is taking much time for God’s beautiful truths to better percolate through more of my life. I knew the Bible was doctrinally true but was pretty poor at connecting it to the life changes God was calling for in a stubborn, independent man. 

So, it’s been helpful to have Christian friends who connect the truths of God and scripture to daily real life and who lovingly let me know when I am full of baloney. 

I never did complete my doctoral dissertation. And it took nine years until I married the love of my life. And another 10 years after that before I finally found my true vocational calling from God (Not a professor but a computer geek!)  

My story shows how we have a patient and longsuffering God who cares enough to spend decades molding and shaping us to be more like what he wants. And the more I grow, the more I see I still need to grow. Wherever you are on your journey, be encouraged that God ain’t done with you yet!