Humility

September 9, 2024

 We don’t hear much about humility these days. Listen to the presidential candidates and all you hear is arrogance—how a vote for the other side means the end of all we hold dear, but “I can make everything better.” Humility is seen as weakness. Except in the Bible.

 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” —I Peter 5:6-7 

Remember that these verses precede Peter’s mention of Satan as a lion. Humility is something the devil doesn’t know how to handle; after all, his sin was pride. He thought he could displace God himself:

““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.” —Isaiah 14:12-15 

You will never outwit or defeat the devil with any kind of boasting or arrogance. Some Christians speak of him as if they were going to mop the floor with him. If you hear that kind of talk, walk away. That’s the devil speaking. He is defeated only through the kind of humility that Jesus had when he endured the cross for us. 

Silencing the Roar

 September 8, 2024

I got a bit ahead of myself yesterday with the reference in Revelation 5, so I want to go back to 1 Peter for a bit.

 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” —I Peter 5:6-7 

Peter is writing to Christians who are enduring some pretty serious persecution, so much so that he tells them not to be surprised at the fiery trial they are experiencing. His words here give an interesting twist to the story: they are to “humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.” In other words, the troubles they are having are not outside God’s plan for them. It’s his hand on the steering wheel, not the devil’s. 

All this means that the only way to get through our troubles is to say with Jesus, “Not mine, but Thy will be done.” That’s never easy, but if we fail here, we are vulnerable to the trickery and deceit of the devil who tries to convince us that our troubles are evidence that our Heavenly Father doesn’t really care about us.

But when we humble ourselves before God, he lifts us up, carries us, and cares for us as no other can. And when he does that, the Enemy roars, but can do little more than make noise.

Lion vs Lion

September 7, 2024

Last month I got to thinking about lions. Specifically, about “adversary the devil,” who walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Then, about that greater lion, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5), who alone is able to bring history to completion.

We see many representations of Jesus the Lion in current literature and art. I think it really began to take hold with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia tales about Aslan, the lion who represents Christ. When Lewis describes him as “dangerous, but good,” we get this picture of him, strong and powerful, defeating the White Witch with a swipe of his clawed paw. But that’s not how Aslan defeated her, and it’s not how Christ defeats Satan.

Listen to the rest of his description:

Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…” —Revelation 5:5-6 

The Lion of the tribe of Judah is the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world for our sins.” Satan is defeated not by a show of muscular or military strength, but by Jesus submitting himself to death that he might overcome death in his resurrection. 

The power of the enemy in our lives today is defeated the same way. We submit ourselves to the will of God, surrender our right to determine our destiny, even swallowing injustice ourselves so the love of Christ might be manifest in and through us. It’s not easy, but Jesus himself said if we would truly live, we must die to ourselves, pick up a cross, and follow him.

Worries

I’ve been thinking about 1 Peter 5:8-9 for quite awhile now. But before Peter counsels us to be on the alert for our enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion, he has a word of encouragement that I suspect many of us need today. 

 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” —I Peter 5:6-7 

We may talk about the first part of that sentence at another time, but it’s the last part that I think is so needful today: “Cast all your care upon him.” We live in an almost unprecedented time of anxiety. It’s dangerous to assume our time in history is worst than any other, but a ubiquitous media which seems to believe its primary purpose is to instill fear, coupled with a fragile faith foundation, causes anxiety even among Christians. 

Peter tells us there is a remedy for our anxiety: “Cast all your care upon Christ.” Not just some of it—ALL of it. We can give our anxiety to him because he cares deeply for us and will instill his peace within us if we simply leave our troubles with him. Our problem is that we give our anxieties to Jesus, but as soon as we finish praying, we pick them up again.

There’s an old gospel song that goes, “Take your heavy burdens to the cross; and leave them there.” It’s good advice that helps us access the Good News.

 

Imputation

 September 6, 2024

“The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.”

—Proverbs 28:1 

I left you yesterday with a clear statement: “If you want to be bold, be righteous,” which begs the question, “What does it mean to be righteous?” 

The first thing most people think when they hear this word is someone who is stuffy and has a “holier-than-thou” attitude. The Biblical word is not as much a moral or ethical term as it is relational. To be righteous is to be in a right relationship with God. This has moral implications, but isn’t something we can attain by trying to be good.

The only way we can be in a right relationship with God is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We admit that despite our best efforts, we fall short (Romans 3:23), and place our faith in what Jesus did for us when he took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross in our place. 

The word Paul uses to describe this is “imputation” (Romans 4:5-8). It’s a financial term. I have no money in my account, so someone else puts his money in for me. That’s imputation, and it’s what Jesus did. We were not only bankrupt, we were hopelessly in debt, but God placed Christ’s righteousness in our accounts when we repented and placed our faith in him. That’s righteousness. That’s why we can be bold. We aren’t trusting in our own goodness, wondering if it’s enough. We’re trusting in Christ’s righteousness, which we know is enough.

Lion-Hearted

 September 4, 2024

More than a month ago I detoured from talking about lions; specifically, Satan the roaring lion who seeks to devour us, and Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. I detoured to talk about the protection, the defense God gives us to deal with that counterfeit lion.

Today I want to look at a different lion…YOU. 

If you want to know how to live your best life, read the book of Proverbs…again and again. here’s a gem from Proverbs 28:1

“The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.”

—Proverbs 28:1 

There have been times in my life when I wanted to be able to act boldly, to stand firmly amidst opposition, but caved at the last moment. Looking back, I realize that whenever that happened, I had sinned, causing my confidence to evaporate. I was like Samson who when Delilah shaved his head, didn’t realize that the Spirit of the Lord had left him. He tried to do the mighty things he had done before, but was weak and powerless. 

Sin undermines confidence. We may put on a smiley face and strut around like a peacock, but if we let jealousy, anger, melancholy, fear, unforgiveness, and the like have a place in our hearts, our confidence gets stripped away. If you want to be bold, be righteous!

Enough

 September 3, 2024

\“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—” —Ephesians 6:18 

For me, one of the hardest parts of prayer is found in these last four words—“for all the saints.” I have a prayer list that’s all dog-eared and worn. It has all your names on it, along with little notes to remind me what each of you need. Linda’s list is much more detailed than mine; she’s a much better pray-er than I. 

Here’s my problem: I know a lot of people, but I don’t know specific needs many of them have. I know generalities about my Cuban brothers and sisters, and of my friends Tsoogii and Tsengel in Mongolia, but I don’t know for them the day to day kinds of things we pray for you. This is where Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 1:2, and Philemon 1:4 are helpful to me.

In these three letters, Paul speaks of “making mention” of his readers in his prayers. I take this to mean he didn’t know all the details that would have informed his prayers so they could be specific. Instead, he simply remembered them by name before the Lord, knowing that God knows the details that are unknown to Paul. And if God knows, that’s enough.