Tag Archives: Sovereignty

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit, Meditations

Chosen to be trophies of His grace

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16 ESV)

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19 ESV)

In case you have forgotten, the bible explicitly proclaims from Genesis to Revelation that He chose us, we did not choose Him.  He was the initiator, He was the one that sought us – we did not seek Him.  No one seeks God (Romans 3:11), we were spiritually dead (Genesis 2:17, Ephesians 2:1-10).  This means that if you are a Christian, then you were chosen according to God’s sovereign electing purposes which are mysterious to us.  You were not chosen because you were more spiritually attuned, more moral, had the right upbringing or because of what you would become after God saved you.  You were chosen to be a trophy of His grace.  You were (and still are) undeserving.  When you present yourself as worthy before God, He finds it disgusting (Isaiah 64:6) because you are not and the fact that you are trying to present yourself that way indicates that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of grace.

He foreknew you and predestined (determined before He created anything) you to be conformed into the image of His Son.  He predestined, He called, He justified and He will be faithful to glorify (Romans 8:29-30).  There is nothing about you doing anything in Romans 8:29-30, the emphasis is upon a gracious, saving, adopting God who redeems enemies and adopts them as family.  The more we understand this, the more that we worship God with hearts of gratitude.

A few passages to consider:

  • Deuteronomy 4:37-39 (God loved & chose Abraham & his offspring), 7:6-9 (it is not because we are awesome that He set His saving affections upon us, but because of His love & sovereign choosing), 10:14-15 (God owns everything and yet, He set His heart upon us), 14:2 (the Lord chose you as His treasured possession out of all of the people of the earth)
  • Isaiah 41:8-10, 44:18-20 (God blinds those who worship idols), 48 (God uses Cyrus, a pagan king), 57:18-19 (God creates repentant hearts), 65:1 (sought by those who did not ask for God)
  • Ezekiel 33:11 (God desires that all be saved and finds no joy in those who reject the Gospel)
  • Luke 24:31 (their eyes were opened, and they recognized him)
  • John 3:27 (A person cannot receive one thing unless it is given to him from heaven), 8:47 (those of God hear God), 10:26 (you don’t believe because you aren’t part of Jesus’ flock), 13:18, 15:16 (You did not choose me, I chose you), 15:19 (I chose you out of the world), 18:37
  • Romans 10:20 (Gentiles, who did not seek God found Him)
  • Ephesians 1:4-11, Ephesians 2:1-9 (But God, being rich in mercy, made you alive)
  • Colossians 2:11-15 (He made you alive)
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14 (God chose you to be first fruits)
  • 1 Peter 1:3-5 (He has caused us to be born again)
  • 1 Timothy 2:4 (God desires that all be saved and finds no joy in those who reject the Gospel)
  • 1 John 4:6
Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Law doesn’t inspire the heart

““You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 11:18–22 ESV)

The way to avoid our hearts from wandering is to lay up the words of God in our hearts and souls, teaching them to our children and placing practical reminders around us.  This isn’t just the law (or a moral checklist) because the law, on its own, does not inspire the heart.  God is after a heartfelt love for Him.  This has to also include the constant, persistent recalling of God’s goodness, faithfulness & provision to an undeserving people (you & me).  This is a major theme in Deuteronomy – Moses continually unpacks the majestic power & greatness of God and the Israelite’s rebellion & hard heartedness. He anticipates that they will be prone to rob God of His glory by attributing the abundance in their lives to something else – and they did.  We do the same thing today.

Perhaps, we should follow the pattern of intentionally recalling God’s goodness, faithfulness & provision to us despite our persistent hard heartedness toward Him.  We need constant reminding that we are not deserving, but objects of His mercy – not because of anything that we did or will do.  He chose us because He is gracious and is working good, not because we did/do good.

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

I Believe…

This excerpt from a post last January from John Piper is a good way to start the new year of right!  Enjoy!

I believe I am so spiritually corrupt and prideful and rebellious that I would never have come to faith in Jesus without God’s merciful, sovereign victory over the last vestiges of my rebellion. (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1–4; Romans 8:7).

 

I believe that God chose me to be his child before the foundation of the world, on the basis of nothing in me, foreknown or otherwise. (Ephesians 1:4–6; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29–30; 11:5–7)

 

I believe Christ died as a substitute for sinners to provide a bona fide offer of salvation to all people, and that he had an invincible design in his death to obtain his chosen bride, namely, the assembly of all believers, whose names were eternally written in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. (John 3:16; John 10:15; Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 13:8)

 

When I was dead in my trespasses, and blind to the beauty of Christ, God made me alive, opened the eyes of my heart, granted me to believe, and united me to Jesus, with all the benefits of forgiveness and justification and eternal life. (Ephesians 2:4–5; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Philippians 2:29; Ephesians 2:8–9; Acts 16:14; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:9)

 

I am eternally secure not mainly because of anything I did in the past, but decisively because God is faithful to complete the work he began—to sustain my faith, and to keep me from apostasy, and to hold me back from sin that leads to death. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 1:25; John 10:28–29; 1 John 5:16)

Depravity, Growth/Pursuit

The goodness in our lives is not because we are awesome & obedient, the goodness in our lives is because God is gracious

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““Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” (Deuteronomy 8:11–17 ESV)

When we are in times of relative prosperity, ease, comfort and blessing, we must be aware that we don’t forget the Lord, who benevolently gave us all that we have.  Our hearts run the risk of being “lifted up” and forgetting the Lord.  Remember, remember remember that God delivered you, led you, provided for you, loved you – even in your rebellion.  Beware and remember the benevolence of God and your weak, frail, depravity, “lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” (Deuteronomy 8:17 ESV).  We deserve nothing, not EVEN breath!  Everything is a gift from on high, it is not because we unlocked the secret spiritual code, executed better than others, worked harder, were wiser or did something on our own to deserve the good that we have.  God’s grace is the reason that you have any of these things.  REMEMBER AND BE OBEDIENT OUT OF GRATITUDE FOR GOD’S GOODNESS AND PROVISION FOR YOU!

The people are warned not to say in their heart, “‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’” (Deuteronomy 9:4 ESV).  If the Israelites were prone to forget God’s miraculous provision even though they had experienced profound miracles, how much more are we prone to forget.  The Lord is the One who thrust their adversaries out of the land because of their wickedness and because of His covenant to Abraham.  It is “not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land” (Deuteronomy 9:5 ESV).  These people are the recipients of God’s grace – unearned, undeserved, unmerited.  They are not receiving the land because the followed well enough, trusted deeply enough or were more spiritually attuned.  No!  They were being given the land because of God’s righteousness, glory and grace.

The goodness in our lives is not because we are awesome & obedient, the goodness in our lives is because God is gracious – we deserve nothing except wrath because of our rebellious nature.  The Israelites would have viewed their military victories as a result of their righteousness and God rewarding them for that – this is the same way that we think today, but God completely obliterates that thinking.  “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.” (Deuteronomy 9:6 ESV)  He reminds them of their rebellion every since He had delivered them from Egypt.  We are cut from the same cloth as these ancient people.  We readily take credit for the good in our lives as if we deserve them and quickly cast blame (often times on God) for hardships in life.

We must work to remember & believe that God is good, does good and is able to accomplish His purposes.  When we believe this then we are able to handle good & bad things because we know that our good Father is sovereignly reigning over all things – even things that we can’t understand.  We no longer have to carry the weight of being god in our world because we know that there is a God who is on the throne.

Gospel Centrality

The “how” matters

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“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39–40 ESV)

You will find no mature Christian that will not tell you that one of the foundational ways to grow in your faith is to read the bible.  This has always been one of the foundational disciplines that leads to authentic spiritual transformation, especially since the scriptures have been translated and available to the common man.  But how we read our bibles matters greatly.  According to the the text above, it is possible to read our bibles and miss the Author all together.

It is not uncommon for us to read our bibles and see how we should behave, what we should feel and what we need to be doing.  Yes, indeed, the bible is full of these things, but if this becomes our primary focus in our bible reading, then we miss the entire point of the bible.  The bible is not about us and what we must do, the bible is about a good, sovereign and holy God and what He has done on our behalf.  The more that we read the bible through this lens, the more we will begin to see a God who is sovereignly ruling over what often times seems to us like an “out of control” world.  The more that we read through this lens, the more we will begin to experience the peace that transcends all understanding that Paul talks about in Philippians.  If you read your bible and hear “do more, try hard, run faster” then you will ultimately be worn out by what seems to be a litany of commands that you must follow to appease God.  Jesus perfectly obeyed on your behalf because you can’t.  Jesus said, “it is finished;” Hebrews tells us that the alter is closed and that we no longer need to drag our sacrifices into the temple.  All that is required now is your sacrifice of praise.

Our primary work is to abandon our work and believe in the One who worked on our behalf.  Jesus was asked “what must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28).  That sounds like us, doesn’t it?  What do we need to do?  Our identity is far too often tied up in what we do – even spiritually – rather than whose we are.  Jesus answers their (and our) question in the following verse (29), “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  Martin Luther said it like this, “It ought to be the first concern of every Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and increasingly to strengthen faith alone and through faith to grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him, as Peter teaches in the last chapter of his first Epistle (1 Peter 5:10).  No other work makes a Christian.  Thus when the Jews asked Christ, as related in John 6:28, what they must do “to be doing the work of God,” he brushed aside the multitude of works which he saw they did in great profusion and suggested one work, saying, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent John 6:29.”  Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings by Martin Luther, Timothy F. Lull, William R. Russell and Jaroslav Jan Pelikan.  Page 395, chapter 32, The Freedom of a Christian.

That sounds good, you might say, but how in the world do I develop that kind of belief (faith)?  As a friend of mine put it, “you stare until you see it.”  Paul says it like this, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV).  We become like that which we worship.  Worship is an old English word that means worth-ship.  Whatever captivates and occupies the upper most affections of our heart is the object of our worship – and our lives will be marked by it.  It might be a relationship (or relationships), financial success, athletics, marriage, Christian service or a litany of other things.  John Calvin said that our hearts are little “idol factories.”  Unfortunately, in the church, these idols are good things that we turn into “god things” – these are secondary things that we make primary things.  Paul tells us that being transformed is the work of God (“for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”)  Our work is to stare, to beg God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18-21), to root out those things which we have come to rely upon other than Him, to see Him as the ultimate Treasure (Matthew 13:44) and to give us the faith to believe (Mark 9:24).

For most of us we know what we should and should not do, but lack the fuel to actually obey.  Who among us would say that fear, anxiety and worry are a good thing?  And yet, fear, anxiety and worry rule the hearts of far to many Christians.  Didn’t Jesus tell us not to worry about the things of this life in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-33).  We know we shouldn’t, and the advice that most people give us is to just “seek first the kingdom of heaven.”  Is there any more ethereal and abstract counsel than that?  We miss the entire middle part of the text – the birds don’t worry about these things, the lilies don’t work to be clothed in all of their splendor.  Why don’t they?  The real power to overcoming worry is understanding what the birds and lilies intuitively understand – that there is a good God on the throne that is in absolute control.  For me, I began to actually win the battle with anxiety when I began to believe at a deeper level that God was actually in control of all things – despite how things currently looked in my life.

How do you start?  “What can I do,” you might ask?  Pick a book of the bible (try the gospel of John) and start reading.  Ask God to show you who He is, what He’s like and what He’s done.  Then take some notes, write down everything that you notice about God’s character, nature and behavior.  Avoid writing down what you should be doing (you already know that).  Try this for a month or two and see if the Creator of the universe does not reveal Himself to you in new ways!

Growth/Pursuit, Meditations

Moses’ Farwell Address

The book of Deuteronomy is a sermon given by Moses just before the people cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land.  We can learn a lot from the man who met face to face with the Living God.  Here are a few things that stand out:

  • Moses intends to instruct and inspire the people that their God is both faithful and able to do what He says! Moses shows that God is faithful to a sinful people because of the promise that He made to Abraham. They are a people of His choosing, not because of their own effort, striving or obedience.
  • God’s sovereignty and grace are in focus. He is sovereign over all nations. He is gracious to those who do not deserve it.
  • Moses explains how the Law is the outflow of the Great Commandment given in 6:5 (Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might).
  • “Deuteronomy constantly addresses the “heart” of its audience: embracing this law, seeking the good of this people, is the right response to God’s grace and the embodiment of virtue.”  ESV Study Bible
  • Moses recognizes that God must act in the heart of the Israelites if they are to be faithful.
  • Israel exists to love God with every fiber of their being which is the means by which the world will learn of the one true God.
  • Remembering God’s faithfulness & the people’s unfaithfulness AND looking forward to God’s continued faithfulness & warning the people not to fall in to idolatry.  The theology of Deuteronomy provides the fuel for the reforms instituted by Josiah in 2 Kings 23.
  • The heart and the need for full embodiment of the Law through heart felt affection and obedience.  Deuteronomy recognizes that God must move in the hearts of men if they are to faithfully obey Him and His law.
  • The Sovereign hand of the Almighty is in focus.  God provides Egypt as provision in the midst of drought to Joseph (who acknowledges the sovereign hand of God by working out for good, what his brothers meant for bad), God protects and raises up Moses – even raising him under Pharaoh’s own roof.  Then God calls Moses, who is weak of speech, to lead the people out of Egypt.  God commands control over all things with the plagues, parting the sea and provisions for His rebellious people in the wilderness.  He continues His display of His sovereignty as the people take the land.  It is not because they were faithful or special of their own doing, it is because He is mighty and will glorify His name.
Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

The birth of a church, the miracle that still happens today

“So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.” (Acts 16:11–18 ESV)

Paul and Silas witnessed the birth of a new church in Acts 16.  It was quite the whirlwind as they arrived in the Roman colony of Macedonia.  They walked in to Philippi and ended up talking with an affluent woman from Thyatira, Lydia, who was a worshiper of God.  This was a commonly used phrase to describe Gentiles who believed in the God of the Hebrews, but had not converted to Judaism (see Cornelius in Acts 10:2).  But something happened to Lydia that is often read right over at the end of verse 14 –  “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”  It was not by Paul’s persuasive powers or his wisdom – it was by the supernatural work of God, by whom all are drawn to Him.  And we know that no one comes to God unless God draws him (John 6:44, 6:65).  If you are a Christian today, it is because God drew you to Himself, regenerated your heart and gave you faith to believe.  Don’t gloss over that – allow it to sink in.

The excitement continues as Paul & Silas are heading to Lydia’s house to stay for a few days when a demon possessed slave girl, who earned a lot of money for her owners by fortune telling (Acts 16:16), began following them saying, “these men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.””  Paul finally gets annoyed with her and casts the demon out of her in the name of Jesus (Acts 16:18) – what a power do you walk in when you get annoyed and cast out a demon?  Paul was probably annoyed because he did not want the gospel message to be identified with a demon possessed girl who told fortunes.  The girl’s owners became angry because their source of income was now gone so they call on the city officials, complaining that Paul & Silas were causing a commotion.  A miscarriage of justice occurred when the magistrates gave orders to have them beat with rods and thrown in to jail (Acts 16:22-24, 2 Corinthians 11:25, 1 Thessalonians 2:2).  This was just a prelude to the real action, though.  While they were in jail, they began singing and praying and a great earthquake shook the foundations of the jail and all of the doors burst open.  The jailer was shocked and attempts to take his own life, but Paul stops him.  The jailer then asks what he must do to be saved.  He believes and is baptized.

What an exciting way to see a church come in to being!  Fights, earthquakes, doors bursting open!  It is easy for us to read this and be unmoved by all of the miraculous things that are going on because most have never experienced these types of miracles.  But, the most miraculous thing that happens in this text, still happens today:  God opens the hearts of rebellious creatures to believe the gospel.  Why would a perfect, holy, all powerful Creator make peace with creatures who want nothing more than to take His throne?  Why would He draw such people to Himself?  Why would He justify them?  Why would He adopt them into His family?  Why would He do this for you and me?  For your joy and His glory.  The real miracle in this text – and one that still happens today – is that God has called you, justified you, adopted you into His family and will one day glorify you.  Allow this truth to move you!

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

The fuel for being bold

“In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.” (Nehemiah 2:1–8 ESV)

Nehemiah takes a bold step by “being sad” in the king’s presence.  Part of his job was to be uplifting and positive, not sad and downcast.  The king notices and asks what is the cause of Nehemiah’s sad heart.  Nehemiah instantly prays before responding to the king – Nehemiah was acutely aware that this was God’s mission not His.  The king asks what he is requesting and Nehemiah boldly lays out his request for his endorsement and safe passage and all of the resources that will be required to complete the rebuilding of a wall.  He wants time off, with the king’s blessing & support and the king to provide the resources required to rebuild Jerusalem.  What a bold request!

What is the fuel behind Nehemiah’s boldness? Nehemiah understood that this was God’s mission, not his.  Nehemiah knew it was not up to him to accomplish it, he was just a tool in the hand of the Almighty.  Nehemiah knew that the king’s heart is in God’s hand – “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” (Proverbs 21:1 ESV)  Just like a skilled farmer who directs an irrigation stream wherever he wishes so it is with God and the hearts of man.  Regardless of what you face, remember that God is in absolute sovereign control of all things – even the hearts of man.  Yes, we have free will, but only inasmuch as they are subject to the Sovereign will of God.  You have no reason to fear any man – regardless of power, prestige, or position – because no man has anything without it being allowed by the Creator and Sustainer of all things!

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Hope is the fuel for joy in the midst of hardships

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:3–11 ESV)

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself; Jesus is our model.  When it comes to suffering, hardships and difficulties, we need to reflect on Jesus and all that He endured on our behalf – and not only the physical difficulties that He endured.  Jesus was the center of worship and He made Himself nothing, Jesus was the sovereign Ruler of the cosmos and He became dependent upon humans as an infant, Jesus was the Maker of all things and He became like created man, Jesus had never experienced limitations and He put on flesh and was bound by it, Jesus had never experienced pain and He lived life in a broken world, Jesus had never known the rejection of His father and He became separated from Him as our sacrifice, Jesus never knew sin or wrath and He took on the sins of the elect and the due wrath of God.  Regardless of how difficult things are or become, our struggles have not yet resulted in martyrdom, so persevere with Jesus as your inspiration.  Our focus is to remain on Jesus, who endured the hostility of his creatures; He is our pursuit and inspiration.  God has called us to nothing that He was not willing to undergo Himself – and much more!

Remember that you have not only been forgiven, but adopted as sons and daughters of God.  We are more than servants – we are now sons!  We are children, and children receive their father’s discipline.  However, this discipline is not punitive, it is corrective.  We should be encouraged by our difficulties because God is using them to cause growth in holiness and to authenticate our sonship.  God loves us so much that mere surface happiness that is devoid of soul level holiness is not an option.  We all have been disciplined by our earthly fathers and it was painful for a season, but we ultimately learned that it was for our good.  What father would let his kids play in the street because they wanted to?  How much more, the discipline of our Father in heaven – who is conditioning our souls for holiness that “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11 ESV).

The readers of this epistle had endured much suffering and persecution (10:32-36) as a result of their faith.  And yet, they were compassionate and “joyfully accepted the plunder of their property” (Hebrews 10:34 ESV).  What was the fuel for that joy?  Hope.  Hope that a better, eternal, perfect inheritance was in store for those who believe.  Hope is the fuel for joy.  Hope helps us to see that this world is fleeting and short, like a mist (James 4:13).  In light of this, endure, persevere, stay faithful, make your salvation sure, stick with it, do not lose hope – because “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 ESV).  The righteous live by faith and do not shrink back:  “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:39 ESV), “but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:39 ESV).

In light of a good, sovereign heavenly Father who disciplines His kids, we are called to endure suffering and hardships and to view them as discipline.  Viewing them as discipline forces us to understand and recognize that the difficult circumstances in our lives – whether brought on by our own doing or not – were specifically designed by God for our good and for His glory.  If we can grasp this truth, we are better able to walk freely and joyfully in the midst of great difficulties.  It is easy to think that difficulties are only for a season – and sometimes they are – but, more often than not, they do not quickly go away.  Sometimes our suffering & hardships last our entire lives.  These take on all sorts of flavors:  a persistently difficult marriage, a wayward child, a hard hearted parent, a difficult or unsatisfying job, difficulty in finding close friendships (feeling alone), persecution for your faith or countless others.  Viewing these as God’s loving discipline reveals to us at least four things:
1)  The world is broken and no part of it is unaffected by sin,
2)  The things that we are really trusting in to make live work, provide significance or create or identity.  It reveals our idols – those things that hold the ultimate affections of our heart,
3)  It forces us to spend more time dwelling on ultimate, eternal realities instead of temporal, trivial things,
4)  It causes us to long for a better kingdom where life is not broken and we are uninhibited in our love for and obedience to Jesus.

Regardless of the difficulties that you are walking in (and many are walking through horrifically hard things), find rest in God’s sovereign goodness.  He is using them for your good and His glory – even though you may never understand it this side of glory.  View them as God’s good discipline and allow them produce holiness in you and fuel an increased fervor and passion for Jesus and His kingdom.