Month: November 2011

When We Almost Can’t Believe God Would Still Love Us

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Have you ever had jumbled emotions? Have you ever known a fact to be true from a rational perspective, but your heart could not wrap itself around the concept? Have you ever hoped for something, but were unable to completely believe it could happen? Have you ever been caught between belief and disbelief? If so, then you fit right in with the human race, including Christians throughout the millennia.

So how does God deal with these lackluster emotions of ours? In His perfection – His holiness – does He understand our wavering and our doubts? Let us go to a Psalm of David to investigate. Since every word of the Bible is God’s Word, we shall see from His heart how He reacts to our raw emotion.

Remember that David is in the lineage of Jesus. In fact, the very first verse of the book of Matthew proclaims, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, . . .” God spoke of David early in his life that he was, “A man after [God’s] own heart” (I Samuel 13:4, NIV). David slew Goliath with a motivation to defend the name of the Lord. As king, David denounced idolatry. His overall being exuded a love for God and a trust in His providence.

However, David allowed his own fleshly desires to get the best of him at one point in his life, and he committed adultery with Bathsheba. In a futile attempt to dismiss his sin, David then had Bathsheba’s husband murdered. To what depths the man of God sank! Had he not grasped the grace of God, how could he have survived the horror of his sin? Yet, we find David to be a man fully repentant, crying out to God in Psalm 51 as he confesses his sin and trusts God for his future hope and restoration.

Keeping all this in mind, we move to Psalm 138, a song David wrote in affirmation and adoration of his Lord. It is the last verse, however, on which I want to focus. Psalm 138:8 (NIV) says, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever – do not abandon the work of your hands.” What a beautiful and strange statement. It seems just a bit paradoxical that David would both affirm God’s providence in his life and beg God not to desert him. The shepherd boy-turned-king seems to have some juxtaposed emotions here. He boldly declares that the Lord will fulfill His purpose for David’s life. He reminds us that God’s love never fails. Then, in the very next phrase, David pitifully asks God to not abandon him – since David is the work of God’s own hands.

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever proclaimed God’s truth to yourself, but then turned around and asked God if He would really stay? Have you ever wanted to believe, but then you needed to express your weakness in believing? By including this passage in His inspired Word, I think that God wants us to know that He understands our mixed-up emotions. He hears our human hearts. He is allowing us to see – through David – that our Lord is faithful to even wavering people. Of course, David knew God and put his ultimate hope in the Lord; but David also knew the pangs of unworthy feelings.

Surely, as David penned the words, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me,” he recalled his terrible sin. Perhaps tears welled up in David’s eyes as he declared God’s unfathomable love to make sense of the life of a man who failed so miserably. Just to know that God had a divine purpose for a sinner could have driven David – as us – to a fountain of cleansing tears. And so, David continues by reminding himself that God’s love “endures forever.” The Lord’s love continues through failure, heartache, rebellion, hopelessness, attack, instability, and disbelief. Despite everything that would seem to push back its tide, God’s love rolls on.

Finally, the frailty of David’s sweetly broken heart comes through as He asks God to not abandon him. How Jesus longed to wrap His arms around David at that point and assure Him that He died to recreate David. Jesus gave His life to make David a beautiful creation – despite his weakness. How fitting it is that one of Jesus’ titles is “The Son of David.” What grace God has to identify with someone such as David. God is declaring that He does not give up on us. Even when we cannot quite grasp His grace – even when we waver between emotions – God is there holding us. I can just hear Jesus saying, “No, David, I will not abandon you.” Similarly, the Lord reminds us in Hebrews 13:5 (NIV), “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

In this verse tucked away at the end of Psalm 138, it’s as if David could hardly believe in the love of God to continue with him. It seemed too good to be true. But, we know that David did “get it” way down deep inside. We, too, know that God understands His love’s almost unbelievable nature. God is patient with us, and He allows us to express our need. He loves us over all the range of emotion that His grace produces.

Life-Building: Will You Crash or Stand?

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What do followers of Jesus have in common with those who do not follow Jesus? Two things are for sure: we both invest in our lives and we both suffer. Jesus directly addressed these two issues when He taught the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders. He also clearly expresses the one thing the wise and foolish builders do not have in common – the end result of life as a whole. At the surface – and from a bird’s-eye view – much can appear similar when it comes to working through life and enduring all the nasty things the world can bring. However, a marked difference exists. For one person, the result is everlasting endurance; for the other, it is final destruction.

Keep in mind that Jesus is not simply a storyteller or a kindly teacher. Jesus is God . . . and the Creator and Designer of reality. When He speaks to the issues of life, He knows what He is talking about! This parable is not just an inspirational speech; this teaching is Truth. Do you want to be hit square between the eyes with what matters? Do you want to face actuality head-on? Do you want to take the blinders off and be real about your soul and destiny? Then listen to the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV):

    Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had is foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

My mathematical mind so prone to symmetry immediately notices the similarities and differences between the two types of “life builders”:

    1) Both types of people hear the words of Jesus. So, hearing or reading or even knowing God’s Word is not the answer to a secure life.
    2) While one group hears and does not put the words into practice, the other type actually lives out the Word of God. This is no little thing. The wise builders do not simply read the Bible in order to feel good about themselves or to appease church-going onlookers. The wise builders actually apply God’s Word to the inner workings of their minds and the outer working of their lives. They do not just hear Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” (Luke 9:23) or scan publicly that sobering statement in the Bible, they really rise in the morning with a consciousness of death to self and life to Christ! They lay aside their selfish desires to obey God’s voice in the big and small stuff of everyday living.
    3) Both types build. Both are at least spending minutes, hours, days, and years doing what is necessary to survive. Both must toil, eat, relate, and plan for the future. Both are occupied. One, however, is immersed in his own desires. The other is going about the business of living according to authentic biblical principles.
    4) Both experience hardship. Notice the careful wording of Jesus here. The wise and the foolish builders each experience the same three difficulties: rain coming down, streams rising up, and winds blowing and beating against what they have built. Building a life wisely on the Word of God is no guarantee of a carefree life. This world system is broken by sin, and everyone in it experiences adversity. Do not think God has abandoned you because distress arises. No, think rather that – for now – you are stuck in a broken world.
    5) The major difference between the two groups emphasized here is the ultimate outcome of life-building. Living out God’s Word is likened to erecting the house of your life on a solid, rock foundation. The rain, streams, and wind cannot destroy such a life; for the foundation is the Rock Himself, Jesus! The Maker of weather is greater than weather’s effects. So, too, Jesus is the Maker of life. He is certainly greater than life’s effects. When we build according to Him, no tragedy can annihilate us and no annoyance can dissuade us. Our lives will stand! In great contrast, the life of one who hears but does not actually obey will fall; and the crash, says Jesus, will be great. That final demise is assured because any foundation other than Jesus is likened to sand. Sand subsides in the end. As the rains come down, sand begins to shift. The house built without adherence to the Word of God gives way; it is not able to withstand the accumulation of blasts from this broken world. In the end, its crash is great; its demise is sealed. How great is the disintegration of a life completely lost because of the refusal to walk in alignment with the God who made everything and defines the parameters for true and successful living!

Which kind of builder will you be? Wise or foolish? Both hear the Word of God. Both build and endure hardship. Only one kind actually lives out the Word, and only the same survives.