thoughts...

At some point since I've been here I've looked over at dan hames' blog (click here) and I came across a post that has been a real help to me in Malaysia, and will surely be a great help when I get back, and possibly even for the rest of my life...

Dan simply posted a quotation from John Piper's book Future Grace...

Sin is:

"... what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God."

So I've been thinking about this a lot... and whilst here... there has been a lot of temptation, especially when I've been feeling really tired, to think about things that are not Glorifying to God.

To explain - Jesus said the greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your mind and with all of your soul and with all of your strength" (Matthew 22 v 34-40 click here) this is a command from God, disobeying a command from God is considered to be sin... How little then are our hearts satisfied with God then if Piper's thought is true?

Sin begins in the mind, we see this in James 1 v 14-15 (click here) "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Serious business then.

Back to Matthew 22 v 34-40. Our minds and thoughts are precious to God. Psalm 37 v 4 (click here) has also been of inspiration. The verse says "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." It can be seen that God is not wishing to punish us by dominating our thoughts.. He will is to bless us, to enable us, as Jesus put it, "have life to the full" (John 10 v 10 click here). This is good news, we learnt in alpha that the word "gospel" means "good news".

It is often so hard to delight in the Lord, and think of Him and His glory. However it is referred to again and again in the new testament so I feel it is safe to say that it is an important practice. We these instructions in Paul's letter to the Colossian church "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ... set your mind on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossions 3 v 1 and 2 click here).

Its not a new thing, just for people of our generation, to find this to be hard. I've started reading The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, which was written in 1678 and was interested by this short poem conscerning Christian's effort to climb the Hill called "difficulty":

"This Hill, though high, I covet to ascend,
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the Way to Life lies her:
Come pluck up Heart, let's neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the Right Way to go,
Than Wrong, though east, where the End is Wo."

I feel that this poem encaptulates effectively (once you can get past the old English) what I'm aiming to communicate. Jesus also didn't cover up the difficulty encountered in the Christian life: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7 v 13-14 click here).

We can take comfort in knowing though (if we do indeed know Christ - if you're not sure about this read this) that Jesus is with us every step of the way. "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Jesus speaking in Matthew 28 v 20 click here) also see Psalm 73 (one of my favourites!) verses 23 to 28 (click here) He is continually with us, holding our hands and guiding us with His counsel :-)

I'm thinking back to Psalm 37 (see above), and thinking of how good God is (for an in your face example of God's love click here and here) that He would wish to bless us and give us the desires of our heart, all the mores so that He would wish to know us and have a relationship with us despite what we've done and how many times we've broken that most important of the commandments. When I catch myself thinking of the things of the world I'm finding myself asking "why am I not satisfied in God right now? What is there I could want that He can not give me, either now or at a time and in a circumstance that is much better for me?

When I was in Southampton for the orientation day for this trip I went to a church there and the man preaching said "So often we pray that God would change our circumstances because we are not entirely satisfied with them, rather than asking God to change our hearts" God puts us through tests to refine us and to help us grow to be more like His Son Jesus, who certainly didn't have an easy and comfortable life. Please pray that I would learn to delight myself in my Lord, and I will pray that you will too...

Our thoughts matter