God’s Love…or Lists?

by Susan Sampson

Jesus, I want to love you.

But I can’t.  Only you can enable me.  “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

This is how the Lord used the lecture to speak to my heart and encourage me greatly.  I have always struggled to read the Sermon on the Mount.  I am a list maker.  So initially it seems this is super helpful.  Ta-da!  Jesus has given us a list!  I love lists.  I love to check things off of my list.  It makes me feel a sense of accomplishment which in turn makes me feel good about SELF.

But in the lecture we were reminded of how Jesus began teaching His disciples on that mount.  He spoke vitally important truths that cannot be rushed through in order to get to the list. He began what is arguably the greatest sermon ever preached with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).

For myself and I’m thinking for many Christian women, these words have remained largely pushed to the side.  We continue to focus on the list.  And even when we read the list, we know there’s no way we can do it.  But we still try.  In our own strength, we try and try and try.  And the weight gets heavier and heavier.  Paul diagnoses us perfectly in Galatians.  “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3).

So what are we to do with this pressure?  This weight?  This burden?  We have two choices.  Continue to rely on self, walking in self-righteousness or go back to the beginning where we hear Christ say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  We must turn in prayer to the Lord and confess our bankruptcy.  There is nothing in us that is lovely except Christ alone!

I am not good enough and never will be.  I can’t live up to these standards.  I’ve been trying to.  I’ve been building, constructing, and crafting my house on self-righteous sand!  And now, by God’s grace, I see the cracks in the foundation.  Praise the Lord for His grace!

“All I Have is Christ.”  I was running my hell-bound race and He rescued me by grace!  I didn’t choose Jesus, He chose me!  He looked upon my helpless state and had mercy on me.  He lifted me out of the miry pit.  He set me free from the power and penalty of my sin.

I was on death row.  Awaiting execution.  A just punishment that I deserved for the crime of cosmic treason.  But our King was merciful.  Out of the riches of His love, He took pity on me.  In the greatest demonstration of love the universe has ever seen, the King sent the Prince, His only Son, to take my place.

Though I was His enemy, the Prince loved me and humbly and willingly agreed.  He took my hand and said, “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away” (Song of Sol. 2:13).  He gave me a “beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isa. 61:3). 

And then He went back into the executioner’s chamber and sat down in my seat.

“And I beheld God’s love displayed, You suffered in my place.  You bore the wrath reserved for me, now all I know is grace.  Hallelujah!  All I have is Christ.  Hallelujah!  Jesus is my life.”

The Lord knows me.  He knows I’m a sinner and He loves me right where I am.  He understands I’m weak.  He loves watching His Spirit at work in me.  He wants me to know His great love for me so that I can walk in His love and be a vessel of His love.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). 

“Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone, and live so all might see.  The strength to follow your commands could never come from me.  Oh Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose.  And let my song forever be, my only boast is you.”

Jesus, we want to love you!  Lord, help us run to you.  Help us run into you, into your perfect love.  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Prov. 18:10). 

You are love and your love is safe.

S – surrender all to Christ

A – Ask Him to give us grace and a desire to please Christ over self

F – Focus on Jesus, believing He loves us

E – Entrust our hearts and lives to the Lord, trusting Him for the outcome

Learning to trust His love,

Susan

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The Deadly Foe of Worry

by Angie Thomas

Worry.  It is a subtle, insidious sin.  It is like a black ninja that stalks us wherever we go.  For most of us, it is like a bad habit that we know we should kick, but feel powerless to overcome.  We can acknowledge that it wreaks havoc in our lives, causing stress and anxiety, and is often rooted in fear, and yet we don’t take it seriously.  We buy into the bad mantra of  “Everyone is doing it, so why can’t I?”

It is interesting to contemplate, because Jesus frequently reprimanded the disciples for their fear, worry, and lack of faith.  For example, there was the time when they were on a boat with Jesus and a horrible storm developed and they were afraid for their lives and cried out to Him.  After he calmed the storm He turned to them and said, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matt. 8:26).

Another time Peter started walking to Jesus on the water.  He had his eyes fixed on Jesus and was walking on water! But the second he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to look at the wind and waves instead, he began to sink.  Again Matthew 14:31 says, “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’”

I believe Jesus’ words to us today would be the same.  “Why are you so ridden with worry and fear? Dear daughter, you have so little faith.”  I don’t know about you all, but I am tired of “little faith” and the lack of joy and confidence in my Lord that is a consequence of my sin of worry.

It is a stinking battle, girls, but one we must cry out to God for His grace to fight.

The Lord has allowed many situations that would cause me to worry, but He also graciously led me to this simple yet powerful truth in Psalm 18:1: “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” It has served as a reminder to my heart and mind in those daily battles to choose worship over worry.

When my baby wakes up in the middle of the night with a fever, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

When I am looking at our finances and medical bills and there is a stark deficit, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

When I feel like I am failing as a wife and mother, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

When my heart is hurting for a friend in a difficult situation, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

When my to-do list is mounting and my time is dwindling, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

My dear sweet sisters, I pray Jesus will lovingly and tenderly give you the courage and wisdom to stand up and fight, by His grace, this deadly foe of worry.  Our friends and family will see our joy, despite our circumstances, and the beauty of the Gospel will be powerfully proclaimed in our lives!

 

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Sing to the Lord a New Song

by Susan Sampson

Sing to the Lord a new song.

I always want to encourage you all.  That is my heart’s desire.  This semester has I think been harder than any before in trying to write the weekly email for me.  To be honest I struggle to sit myself down at the computer, not knowing what to write.  I pray and ask the Lord to be my help, to give me His words.  He always helps me, every single time, and yet I continue to feel this way.

Today this is true more than ever.  How can one who has lived a lifetime of fear write an email on “Worry or Worship?”  All I know to do is share my struggle and speak God’s words to my own soul.

You may or may not remember the 1st day of our study when asked what we hoped to get out of the study this semester?  I wanted to be done with my anger and fear.  So guess what has happened?  Has the Lord magically made me no longer get angry or be afraid?  No!  This is, of course, exactly what I wanted to happen.  Because that would involve no pain.  Of course I completely know God is not a magician, yet my life and thoughts would sadly show otherwise.

Instead the Lord has graciously and kindly allowed very difficult circumstances in my life this past year. While I do believe this to be true, it is easier for me to say “graciously and kindly” at this moment because I am alone at home and it is nice and quiet.  As these things have happened, it is, I confess, very difficult for me to acknowledge His grace and love in those moments.  Things do become clearer as the smoke fades and I can see the Lord and His love for me more clearly.

He says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8).

He sees the garden of my heart and the roots of sin that remain and His ways are not my ways.  Thank goodness!  He is the vinedresser (John 15:1).  “O Lord, you have searched me and known me!  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue you know it altogether” (Psa. 139:1-4). 

As my good Shepherd, He knows what it is going to take to remove the root of fear, pride, unbelief, and idolatry.  He is in fact answering the cries of my heart and I am learning to thank Him.  In fact, thanksgiving is worship.  “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:5-7).

I thank the Lord for bringing us together to study His word and to learn from one another.  We so desperately need one another, the body of Christ.  Sin clouds are thinking.  The fog of fear I have chosen to live in has been dense.  I have needed a precious sister in Christ to speak the truth in love to me to help clear the fog, to help me be able to see.  What a gift of grace we have been given to be in a discipleship study with one another.

The Lord used this servant and sister to show me that the outcomes I desire matter more to me than the Lord’s will.  I am not trusting God with my children.  Confessing my sin is of course absolutely necessary, but confession alone is an incomplete work.  I must believe by faith God’s words to be true and then walk in them and rest in Christ.

Then my friend said something to me that I have heard a hundred times (probably more like thousands of times) before: “sing to the Lord a new song” (Psa. 96:1)  I cannot tell you how many ways this message has come to me probably over years.  Yet I have not heard.  Or more accurately, have not wanted to hear and so closed my ears and hardened my heart.

I looked up Psalm 96…

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!…For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.  For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens” (Psa. 96:1, 4-5).

Worry or worship?  What will our response be?  Will we continue to respond in sin or sing to the Lord a new song?  I want to worship the Lord and bow in humble adoration because He has been merciful to me in not treating me as my sins deserve and given me amazing grace, the gift of new life in Christ.

Heavenly Father, we all need your grace moment by moment to turn our hearts, eyes, and minds to you.  Please enable us to stop walking in worry and instead choosing to BOW in worship

Believing your Word

Obeying your Word

Worshiping you in all we say, think, and do moment by moment.

Thank you, Lord, that your grace is sufficient for us.  Thank you for loving us right where we are and for sanctifying us to make us more like Christ! In your name, Amen.

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