And the God of all grace …., after you have suffered a while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you

The words suffer, sufferings or suffered appear 13 times in 1 Peter. And this is not to mention related issues such as “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12). And the admonition not to think it strange, is needed, at least in my life. We have this tendency to think that life owes it to us to go smoothly, and to be without problems. Perhaps I’m just talking about me, but when we think this way, we are fooling ourselves.

The Scripture says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and we will suffer whether we are Christians are not. The difference is that we have access to the God of all grace, and to His promises. The verse at the title of this post (1 Peter 5:10) is one of them. It’s a promise worth meditating on.

I like the phrase “will Himself.” in particular He does not leave us to suffer alone. He suffers not only for us, but He also suffers with us. And in Christ, our suffering is not in vain! In particular when we cooperate with Him, then he uses our suffering to make us more like Himself. In particular He will perfect and establish and strengthen us.

He will also settle us. I experience this over and over, as I come to Him morning by morning. In particular I am not always at peace when I wake up. I have discovered however, that if I am willing to wait before Him, He will always, by His grace settle me, and bring me back into peace. And He does this no matter what is going on in my life!

Father, thank You for Your grace, and the amazing tools and promises that You have given us in Your Word that allow us to live the life You call us to live. Thank you for reminding me over and over, that I cannot do this without You. Thank You for Your peace, thank You for Your grace, thank You for your love. In Jesus Name Amen

If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here

What is it that makes us Christians different? What is it that makes me different? It’s not my natural charm, it’s not my dazzling wit nor my ability to overpower with theological arguments 😊, no it’s His presence. In the context of this quote from Exodus 33:15, Moses asks the Lord “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

If it’s his presence that makes the difference, and it is, how shall we then live? As Bill Johnson is fond of saying, the Holy Spirit is in us for us, and on us for others. He illustrates this by saying that if we have a dove on our shoulder, we will walk around very carefully if we wish him to stay. It’s the same with the Holy Spirit. It’s not for nothing that we are told to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18?). We definitely have a part to play, and we need to walk accordingly!

At a recent conference I had a word spoken over me that the spirit of Caleb is upon me. The distinguishing thing about Caleb, is that he fully followed the Lord. I have a lot to live up to, but it resonates with my heart, and I want to do this very thing. You see when we carry His presence, we carry grace and peace and hope and love and joy and healing. It is in His presence that all these things abound.

Father, Lord I greatly desire on that day to hear “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” So please help me Father day by day, to commit my day to You, to surrender to Your will, and to walk in Your Spirit moment by moment throughout the day. I can’t do this without You, but with You all things are possible. In Jesus Name Amen

the mystery of His will.. that… He might gather together in one all things in Christ

Having asked Him, with fear and trembling, to break my heart with the things that break His, I felt some of His yearning this morning, as I meditated on this extract from Ephesians 1:9,10. There is a timing for its fulfillment. Part of the NKJV expanded version of these verses says that it is in the dispensation of the fullness of time. As with the privilege of being able to bow the knee now, before we will be forced to, so too we have the privilege of cooperating with Him now in this primary objective of His. But what does that look like?

When we have His heart on a matter, it motivates us to pray. Over and over in the Gospels we read of Jesus, that moved with compassion He did this or that. The involvement of our compassion and emotions in prayer is vital to their effectiveness. But it is no easy matter to enter into the pain that He feels over separation and disunity and disharmony. But when we do, then once again it brings us into the fellowship of His sufferings!

Father, give me the courage to enter into the level of intercessory prayer that You are calling me to. Thank You that You do not expect me to do this alone. Help me to open my heart to all those You are calling to Yourself in my circle of influence. In this, as in all things, I need Your help, Your grace, Your strength and Your peace. In Jesus name Amen

I am made in the image of God

There are two extreme positions we can take with regards to the nature of mankind. The first is to say that man is basically good, the other that man is totally depraved. The biblical view is that mankind is made in the image of God, but that image is fallen. In particular man is capable of being the the devil incarnate, or an angel from heaven.

Thus the cartoon characterization of the devil on one shoulder whispering into the ear, and the angel on the other whispering into the other ear, is more Biblically accurate. And it is a tug-of-war. Paul puts it this way “ Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5). In other words what do we feed, the devil on the left, or the angel on the right?

Actually the default is to feed the devil on the left. You see we can appear to be good, but we may be doing it either out of fear, or a desire to look good, or because we are a people pleaser. In either case the good is actually feeding our self-centredness. Jesus clearly tells us, that if we do our good deeds before man in order to be seen by them, then we already have our reward (the approval of man).

What I have just said makes no sense to someone who does not have faith. If God does not exist, then doing things in secret so our nonexistent Father in heaven is the only one who sees, is useless and futile and empty. But if he does exist, and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, then it makes perfect sense.

The phrase at the head of this post came to me last night during our fellowship time. Having studied Jesus, and so having studied God, I see the beauty in the character of God. And I am attracted to that beauty, and now when I read that I am made in the image of God, I want to feed the Spirit who I know dwells within me, so that I might be more like Him. In other words hearing these words calls me up to all that I can be in Christ Jesus.

We can’t all be a Mother Teresa, or a Terry Fox, but we can all be great in God’s eyes. The challenge then is to aim to be all that I can be in Him, and this is life and health and peace.

Father, help me not to settle for anything less than all You call and want me to be. This is not about striving, I know that, it’s largely about operating out of peace and rest in You. As in all things, I need You for this, and I ask this morning that You would indeed continue to work in me to will and to do Your good pleasure. In Jesus name Amen

I have you in my heart

It’s interesting that when you get a fresh revelation from the Lord, inevitably within the next few days you find yourself tested in this area. After hearing a teaching on this passage from Philippians 1:7 over the weekend, it was not long afterwards that I felt the chickens come home to roost!

I was talking to a sister who is struggling in many ways, and I admonished her to get mad with the devil who was seeking to kill, steal and to destroy in her life. She needed to get mad enough to see his traps for what they were, and to determine, with His help, not to fall into them.

We can fall into two equal and opposite traps in dealing with the devil. The first is to be overly preoccupied with him, constantly rebuking him, shouting him down and the like. The second is to ignore the fact that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but is a spiritual battle. We do need to close the doors we may have opened up to him, and like Jesus tell him to get behind us.

When I got off the phone, the Lord basically said to me “What about you, will you get mad with the devil?” And I did, “Not on my watch I told him. You don’t get to take her down on my watch!” And I realized I have her in my heart, and the principal I was being taught applies. In particular, Paul in verse 6 says that he is confident that He who began a good work in his hearers, would bring it to fullness and completion on the day of Jesus Christ. And he could do this precisely because he had them in his heart (verse 7).

The point of the teaching is that, as it is so often in the kingdom, it is a heart matter. When we hold someone in our heart before the Lord we are in fact putting a hedge of protection around them. It’s strong stuff, and praise the Lord it worked, there was relief!

Father, please give me the wherewithal to choose to allow my heart to be stretched to include all of those You put before me to hold in my heart. I need Your help for this, I cannot do it without You, I cannot bare the pain without You. But Lord I am thinking, that You intend this to be part of the fellowship of Your sufferings, sot that it draws me even closer to You. I need You grace, I need Your love, I need You! In Jesus Name Amen

Truly, you are a God who hides Himself Isaiah 45:15

When my eldest grandson was about 3 or 4, I took him into the house I had just bought to show him around. There was not a stick of furniture in the place, and he asked me if we could play hide and seek. “You hide Grandpa, and I’ll come and find you.”

I went into the furthest room, and hid in the closet. “I’m coming Grandpa are you in this room?” No! “Are you in this room Grandpa?” No! Eventually he comes in to the room where I was hidden in the closet. “Are you in this room Grandpa?” Yes! Remember there was not a stick of furniture in place, and he comes over to the closet opens the door, and his little face was shining. “I found you Grandpa!”

I was hiding for him, not from him. It’s the same with God, it’s all about the divine romance. He speaks to backsliding Israel in Jeremiah 29:13 and tells them “You will search for me and find me, when you search for me with all of your heart!” Note that this is not about searching with all of our mind, it’s all about searching with all of our heart.

My grandson had given everything that he had age appropriately. The Lord understands what we are capable of giving, and what we are not. He’s not looking for a limp lover, He is looking for someone willing to respond to the passion that He has for us. And truly that passion is great! But He does not expect what we cannot give, and will reward our giving our all no matter how feeble!

Father, help me to continue to pursue You with everything that I have, heart, mind, soul and strength. You are worthy of it all In Jesus Name Amen

Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart

The Lord use this verse in my life from Proverbs 20:30 years ago to convince me to go back to the help I so desperately needed at the time. As I was reminded of this recently, a companion verse came to mind “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Psalm 119:71). it caused me to think again, about the fact that pain at times, has purpose!

I know in my own life, it was feeling the consequences of my own poor choices (and wanting to escape), that led to my conversion. But it didn’t stop there, because the hurts, habits and hangups that were part of my life didn’t suddenly disappear. And my acting out of these hurts, habits and hangups continued to have consequences in my life. And some of these consequences were and are painful. So what would motivate me to change? There are two recovery saying that come to mind. The first is “We will not change, until the pain of being stuck becomes greater than the fear and pain of change,” and the second is "We do not change when we see the light, we change when we feel the heat."

I have come to realize that, out of love, the Lord designed reality this way. The biblical principle that we reap what we sow, cannot be broken. So then, if we let these things do their job, and if at the same time we read the principles and decrees of Scripture and obey, then indeed the blows that hurt will cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.

Father, I thank You this morning that though You love me exactly as I am, You love me far too much to leave me that way. I thank You this morning for the decree “Whom the Lord loves He chastens,” because this helps me feel secure. I know my own propensity to fool myself, and it is comforting to know that when I do, You will not simply let me go, but will use the consequences to bring me back on track. Abba, I am Your little boy! In Jesus Name Amen