Tag: Worship

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Faithlessness, Idols, and Such

Dear Sister,

We live in a land of opulence. Look around. Everyone has a cell phone, a car or two or three, houses, yards, food in abundance, leisure time to spare. Look in your closet. Count your shoes.  But wealth is also relative.  I’m wealthy compared to so-and-so but a pauper compared to that one. It is the same with you. And when we in the U.S.A. compare ourselves to billions of people on our earth our personal wealth becomes obvious. So why are we so discontent?

A plethora of people have written about idols of late. I will join the crowd. As painful as it is to admit, we all struggle with idols. Not the stone and wood kinds but the ones in our minds which vie for our affections, the dastardly ones in our hearts which seek to rule us. Even good things…

I’ve read all sorts of definitions of idols/idolatry. The most concise in my mind is this: An idol is anything that rules in my life—apart from God.  To rule means to have authority over, to control. The government of the United States, according to the Declaration of Independence, “rules” us, but only with the consent of the governed.
Idols in our lives rule because we have consented to be ruled or governed by them. It can be good (in theory) in government, but not when it refers to idols and our consent to their rule in our personal lives.

I like to the think of idols in the motif of master and slave. If we meditated in that context about our lack of satisfaction with the Lord and Him alone, of pursuing the things of this world which will burn up in the final analysis and refuse to satisfy for more than a few minutes in the here and now, the insatiable appetite we often have for the perishing ornaments of the domain of the enemy of our souls, of being a groveling slave to trinkets, of how we malign the name of the One we profess to love when we seem to adore other things and people more than Him, when we realize we are grieving the Lord who bought us when we submit to our lusts—perhaps we would repent more quickly of our unfaithfulness to our always faithful God, the One who is faithful to reprove, faithful to convict, faithful to discipline, faithful to forgive, faithful to restore.

A great antidote to our seasons of discontent and yielding to the idols we are prone to worship is thankfulness to our Creator and the lover of our souls. Let’s try it. Make a list of all He is, all He has done for us, all He gives, all the things we would find dreadful that He does NOT give because of His patient mercies, all His promises in Scripture. I could go on. Think on these things. Spend time meditating on them. Give the Father your thanks and praise and worship. Be overwhelmed with this and not the love of the world.  I have found that in the doing of these things, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

During this season of Thanksgiving, just prior to what can often be an unchecked, obsessive, and unrelenting sprint toward Christmas,  let’s make an effort to slow down, spend time in the Word, spend some extended time in prayer of intentional and genuine thanksgiving to the One to whom we owe our lives, our breath, our eternal souls.

“Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways.”
Psalm 119:36-37

May Christ be put on display in our lives this season in a way we have never known before.

Love,
Cherry

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Kings, Subjects and Faithfulness

Dear Sister,

My Old Testament readings lately have been in the Kings and Chronicles–the recounting of the rise and demise and obituaries of the kings of Judah. It’s easy to think that the longer we walk with the Lord and see His mighty acts and His faithfulness it most certainly ensures that we will be found faithful in the end. Alas, it is not necessarily so…

As I read these stories about the Kings of old my thoughts focus on finishing well. Some started with so much promise, so godly, so obedient, and each time we want the Scriptures to report that this king or this prophet remained faithful to the end, but not always so. There seemed to be that one thing, that one little sin, that one idol that was not torn down completely. I’d rather the report of my life, when I’m dead and gone, state, “She started shaky, but she finished well, all to God’s glory,” not,  “She started well, but her ending crumbled.”

In my Bible Study a while ago, as we broke into small groups, one of my precious sisters, in answer to a question about our greatest fears before God, answered something like, “I’m always concerned I’ll walk away,” and she mentioned someone in her life who had walked away and it frightened her for herself. I have had that same fear. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”, says the old hymn. How often I have sung those words and sensed the dread of them. Then comes the plea, “Take my heart, O, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”

It is reassuring and comforting to know that if we are indeed in Christ, true believers, there is no condemnation, but we can still bring shame by our disobedience. We can dishonor our husbands, our children, our friends, our brothers and sisters in the Church. We can bring disgrace upon our once bright testimony and bring untold glory to Satan. Just ask the fallen pastors if they would relish a godly do-over. Would they check their sin in its beginning buds? Would they be more vigilant over their own souls and not just the souls of others? When did they stop consuming the Scriptures for their personal hearts instead of just checking it off a to-do list or to prepare for a sermon or Bible Study? When did that first dishonorable thought refuse to be brought under the Spirit’s control? When did the horror of a particular sin become a thing to cherish in the mind and eventually an action? Rarely, perhaps never, is a grievous sin in a believer who is faithfully walking in love and obedience, a quick thing. It results from a mind and heart continually left unchecked.

Don’t for a minute think that we girls are off the hook because we are not tempted like some pastors or leaders or ordinary men have been tempted because women certainly can fall in like areas also. Adultery, pornography, embezzlement, and the like. But sin is usually more subtle than this. Materialism–just one more unsatisfying item bought. Anger and bitterness–you don’t know what I’ve had to put up with.  Ruining reputations with our tongues–cutting to shreds with our lips those made in His image. Food. Even making idols of good things (children, spouses, grades, jobs, clean houses) so they become our god rather than worshipping our God.

Oh, Father, may my private, inward life match my outward profession. Remind me, as the old Puritan wrote in his prayer, “I have often loved darkness, observed lying vanities, forsaken Thy given mercies, trampled underfoot Thy beloved Son, mocked Thy providences, flattered Thee with my lips, broken Thy covenant. It is of Thy compassion that I am not consumed.” May I hate my sin more than I despise the sin of others, prays my pastor. “Sin is always crouching at the door,” God warns Cain. Peter’s sober admonition is that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion intent on devouring God’s own children. Check that sin. Stop it. Do not allow it to encroach and grow. Wage war against it. That is the battle of the faithful life. Do not fight this war with broken down walls allowing easy entry for the enemy of our souls. Build those walls, not with twigs and sticks and branches but with bricks and mortar and steel, partaking of His ammunition, His building blocks, His means of grace…the Word, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship with godly people, worship. You must not neglect these or you cannot, will not, stand. You cannot love the world and its things and its friendships and love God at the same time.

We are unable to do this in our own strength. Let God’s Word have its way with you. Pray.  Do not dismiss the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Repent. Hold on to Christ for all you’re worth, and in the clinging, you will discover He is holding you in His strong hands and will not let His very own child go.

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Look at Jesus daily in His Word and become like Him.

May we finish well, loyal and steadfast to the end of this life, until we are ushered into His presence because of His faithfulness to us. May our epitaphs read, “The faithful God kept her faithful.”

Love,
Cherry

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I Shall Yet Praise Him…

My Dearest Sister,

You know those days where you wish you could just start over? Well, it’s been one of those days. I’ll spare you the gritty details, but let’s just say it involved a stressed husband, a screaming baby, and a long list of errands to run with said screaming baby. The headache I woke up with got worse as the day wore on and our apartment seemed to get messier before my eyes. The last thing I felt like doing in the midst of my frustration and tiredness was praising the Lord. Yet as I reflect back on my day, the words of Psalm 43:5 come to mind: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”

As my life seems to get busier and full of more responsibilities, I am learning that just because I am stressed or burdened, praising the Lord should still be a priority. In fact, it happens to be the very purpose for which we were intended. Psalm 148 tells us that all creation from the heights of the heavens to the depths of the sea are designed to praise God. Remember the story where Jesus was entering Jerusalem riding on the donkey? He told the disgruntled Pharisees that if His disciples were to stop proclaiming Him as Lord and King, the rocks would immediately cry out His praises. If the stones of the earth are intended to worship God, then how much more the man who was made in His own image?

It is important to remember sister, that not only were we created to proclaim God’s praises, but we do so because He is worthy of them. As Psalm 145:3 says “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” It goes on to list all the many reasons why He deserves our praise, from the wonderful works He has done among us (vs. 4-6), to His unfailing goodness, grace, and compassion (vs. 7-9). The Lord is mighty (v. 11), He keeps his promises (v. 13), and He lifts up those who fall (v. 14). Our magnificent Father provides for us (v. 15), is righteous and loving in all His ways (v. 17), and watches over and protects us (v. 20).

Of all these reasons to proclaim God’s greatness, let’s not forget the one that allows us to know Him in the first place: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). When sin entered the world through the fall of man, it became a barrier between us and our most perfect Creator. However, in His infinite wisdom, God provided a way for us to be united with Him once again. By sending His precious, sinless Son to take the consequences of our iniquity, He provided a way of salvation from spiritual death and an eternity separated from Him. What could be more deserving of our endless praise than that?

If my attitude had been one of praise today, even though my soul felt cast down, my day would have turned out very differently. Times of frustration would have been opportunities to grow. My son’s inconsolable crying would have been a time to show compassion and love, just like the compassion and love God has shown me. The long list of things to do would have been a chance to thank Him for the family He has given me to clean up after and care for. Praising God through each and every hiccup of my day would have turned my focus from myself and my problems to Him and His glory. And that’s the whole point of praise, really. It’s turning our attention to the One who has created us in His wisdom, redeemed us in His love, and sustains us in His strength. For that, He is most worthy of our praise each and every day, from now until eternity.

“I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” – Psalm 145:1-3

In His love, ~ Lauren