Category: Bible promises

God’s Purposes for You (Yes, You!)

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Our present struggles must be seen in God’s own light. As broken believers that is the exclusive method of seeing them, as our own flickering candle isn’t bright enough or strong to illuminate our issues.

“We were created for God’s pleasure. In these closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose purpose for living is to please God with their lives. In them, God finds His own reward for creating man. They are His worshipers. They are on earth only to please God, and when He is pleased, they also are pleased.

The Lord takes them farther and through more pain and conflicts than other men. Outwardly, they often seem “smitten of God, and afflicted,” yet to God, they are His beloved. When they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels weep in quiet awe at their surrender. They are the Lord’s purpose for creation.” 

Francis Frangipane

“…struck down, but not destroyed.”

2 Corinthians 4:9

We battle to understand. We seldom find anyone who can help us. We’re the broken believers of Jesus Christ. We are the struggler, the mentally ill, the chronically ill, the overwhelmed. And yet we have been loved and chosen by God.

The chasm between the present and the future is broad and deep. We live with issues that others can seldom comprehend. Many of us have given up trying to explain. Yet by an amazing grace we stand in God’s presence, by faith.

But God has His promises. They are read from a leather-backed book (or an app) and are to be secured by faith. When we hear the Spirit speak through them we make them our own.

“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

2 Peter 1:4

My “life verse” is the promise found in Philippians. It assures me, that although the process is long and arduous, the Lord will finish His work in me. There is coming a definite day when all will be completed. I take this by faith. I’m sure because He promised.

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 1:6, NASB

We must see the temporary moment pitted up against the eternal forever. What we must deal with now is just a “blip” and heaven is never-ending. Something awaits us that can’t be described. Perhaps the Apostle John had the clearest insight into eternity, writing the Book of Revelation. Paul would describe his own experience in the third heaven as “I heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak” (2 Cor. 12:4.)

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.”

2 Corinthians 4:17

I’m really looking forward to arriving in Heaven. Just thinking about it now gives me a strong hope (as it should). The trials now are tough. But more and more I long to see Christ, face-to-face.

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How to Win

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“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Romans 8:18

If you’re depressed and defeated, the roof just collapsed, your laptop is crawling with “bugs” and it can’t be fixed, you win.

If your Christian life is either good or bad depending on how you look at it, and the pastor has asked you to head up a new children’s ministry in church, you win.

Perhaps you’ve been ill for a long, long time. You’ve forgotten what it is to be normal, you win.

If your boss goes back on his word and you feel used and you feel like a vacation is long overdue, you win.

If your spouse is distant and your children ignore you and the dog just pooped on the carpet, that’s all right, you win.

If everything is finally coming together and your dreams are beginning to be realized, you win.

”…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Romans 9:37

We engage every situation, every trial with the innate knowledge that we win. This defies conventional wisdom. Especially if you feel a bit besieged by life’s strange twists. But if the truth be told, we’ve already won through Christ.

In the bitter face of circumstances (often beyond our control) we can, by faith begin to discover that we’ve already won. (We become “teflon” –nothing sticks to us).

All you may have is wounds and a shredded faith. But if the Lord Christ is at the center of your life, you win. We carry a real hope that He can lead us through everything in His triumph. We can manage every circumstance when Jesus is fully in control.

No matter what happens, no matter what bizarre turn of events you face, “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

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When Your Soul is Helpless

Psalm 86:1, A Cry for Help

(A prayer of David)

1″Lord, listen to me and answer me.
I am poor and helpless.”

There is a poverty that far exceeds anything physical.  It is not tied to our checking account or our investment portfolio.  We are poor people; quite destitute as a clear matter of fact.  We are penniless, and truly destitute of all things spiritual.  We don’t have, rather we  owe.

We are really nothing more than helpless beggars.  

Some of us gather at the King’s gate, truly assured we are nothing more than “sinners saved by a wondrous grace”.  We have to admit, we can never earn or achieve a spot in heaven.  This is quite embarrassing for us, that there is such a social pressure to be good and proper. (Funny, but yesterday I went out for a bit and when I got home I discover my pants were unzipped.  I was mortified.  But this brought home to me the embarrassment of being “undone”).

In some infinitesimal way, I was tapping into this deep feeling of being undone and shamed. But without knowing this sensation (spiritually speaking) we will go to our graves trying to excuse ourselves, and trying to avoid admitting our sin.  We point to our environment, trying to divert attention to something or someone else.

Jesus told us in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… and blessed are those who mourn.”  It seems we are not suppose to attain, but obtain.  To take a certain forgiveness and a sincere mercy from Him.  He will give it freely to any who sense their need.  If you don’t ask, you simply will not receive.

King David spiritually understood his own poverty before the Almighty.  In spite of his deep weakness and evil, he knew that God was still approachable, and that He was listening to anything and everything David shared with Him.  This is a whole another level of faith.  It strikes us as arrogant and slightly outrageous.  “David, the cold and unfeeling murderer– the ugly adulterer?  How can this be?”

But it takes poverty to become “poor in spirit.”  What I mean is this.  To be a sinner, we must’ve sin.  We become beggars, by begging.  We need to stand at the corner, with our cardboard sign and our cup and confront others with our desperate need. We must do this spiritually.

In our discipleship, we simply can’t unhitch the wagon from our spiritual poverty.  We are exactly who we are.  Luther once said, “Sin boldly, but believe in God more boldly still.”  If we think that he was permitting sin, we are being astonishingly stupid.  Through this quote we come to a truth, allowing us to just accept who we are– “world-class” sinners! But also to believe, deep down, in a God who loves us profoundly and completely.

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Man on Fire

man-on-fireOne morning in January 1984 I set myself on fire. I was in my cabin up on the ridge and I was trying to build a fire. Alaska can be a cold place. I had also started a coffee pot and because it was so cold I opened up the oven door a couple of inches to get some heat.

The oven started getting the place warm, and I gratefully backed up my butt to it. That is when it happened. My sweater ignited from the front burner. At first I didn’t realize that I was on fire, but when the flames started spreading over my head I panicked.

I couldn’t put it out! I dropped to the floor and tried to roll. All that seemed to do is embed that burning sweater into my back, and set the carpet on fire. I ran to the bathroom with the idea of getting under the shower. Somehow I knew that was my only hope.

Needless to say I ended up in the local hospital with second and third degree burns on most of my back. It took months to recover and I still have the scars. It was something that changed my life.

Ironically, I had been thinking of a verse in Hebrews just the night before. I wondered what it meant.

“He makes his angels spirits, and his servants flames of fire.”

Hebrews 1:7

 As I healed I prayed for understanding. Why did the Lord allow this to me? I was in my third year at a Bible college and had given my life over for the Gospel. Why did this happen to me?

I’ve never gotten a complete answer from the Lord, but it did confirm my call into the ministry. It also made me aware of the precariousness of our lives. It taught me to appreciate life.

The doctor told me that if I had run outside instead of staying inside I could have died. God preserved me for His own purposes. We have no way of knowing “our time.”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

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