Looking through Thorn-Covered Glasses?

Imagine trying to live with a log in your eye. Think you’d have some blind spots?

Jesus seemed to think so, saying:

                “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? 

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” 

–Luke 6:41-42

We all have blind spots. When we try to see without removing them, we see differently, as if through a filter. Instead of having “rose-colored glasses” at times, we have “thorn-covered” vision.

Our prejudices block out some of the truth of the matter. Assumptions we’ve made, beliefs we maintain, and feelings that we haven’t handed over to God obstruct our view, distorting our perspective.

That filter can cloud everything else we see.

Imagine if Old Testament Israel had not closed their eyes to the rule of the Lord and looked instead upon the reign of earthly kings.

Imagine if the New Testament Jews had seen that their perception of the coming Messiah –a blazing, mighty warrior- had not prejudiced them against the lion coming as a lamb.

The disciples, at times, revealed their blind spots, too. Peter was notorious for making his known, even earning himself the rebuke from Jesus “get behind me, Satan.”

Trouble comes swiftly when we, like the oh-so-human characters we witness in Scripture, begin to act on those distorted views.

Making decisions, forming opinions, and taking control of things we don’t understand, we are quick to become “the blind leading the blind” and find ourselves soon in the pits of judgment, hypocrisy, and offense.

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever made your mind up about someone or something based off of a prejudice you had? Ever ended up regretting that opinion or losing out on something because of that attitude?

It’s hard for us to accept what Proverbs 20:24 has to say:

“A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?”

We’re not the captains of our own ships, ultimately. Praise the Lord for that.

Knowing that we have blind spots, it is best to truly “live by faith, not by sight.”

What does that mean?

·         Keeping our hearts tender toward those who frustrate us

·         Listening for the Spirit to prompt us

·         Acting with discernment, but not judgement

·         Submitting to commands, verses, and the Lord’s work even when we don’t understand

·         Relying on Him instead of our own understanding

·         Avoiding hypocrisy by examining our hearts and asking the Lord to cleanse us

·         Seeking forgiveness for our prejudices and resulting sins

·         Emphasizing other’s blind spots only as ours are dealt with too

·         Refreshing our hearts daily with His Word and wisdom, which corrects and teaches

Let’s take off our thorn-covered glasses and expose our blind spots to the light of the Lord. His view is always better than ours. We can trust His direction and remove the filters that we’ve created to protect us –even from that which we don’t understand about Him.

This post is being shared on: #TestimonyTuesday, #RaRaLinkup, Intentionally Pursuing,Titus2sday, Woman to Woman Wednesday, Women with Intention, andTellHisStory.

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Has God Established Your Work?

www.letstalkaboutwork.tv

5. 5 lousy views. Hours of labor and prayer and love just for 5 measly people to read it and care.

You know how it goes. Weeks organizing a ministry event that next to no one attends. Days carefully pouring over the plans so that everything runs smoothly and then bad weather forces a cancellation.

Sometimes work, even Godly work, seems futile doesn’t it? Solomon understands:

“Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied…

Whatever exists has already been named,

and what humanity is has been known;

no one can contend with someone who is stronger.

The more the words, the less the meaning,

and how does that profit anyone?”

–Ecclesiastes 6:7, 10-11

Returning day after day to work we were called to do can be downright disheartening. It doesn’t seem fair, especially as people whose work is unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23).

When you work for the Lord, your tasks seem a little more important. Suddenly, having the correct response to your toddler’s simple question is tantamount. Writing up elaborate answers to life’s greatest trials using God’s Word correctly while also being pure of heart and clearly reaching a wide audience lovingly through your homemade blog seems utterly necessary.

So it’s pretty frustrating when it seems like, for all your efforts and care and all that you do is for the Lord, He isn’t using it.

Let’s get a little perspective.

In Psalm 90, we read a prayer of Moses concerning the Lord’s greatness and our lowly lots in life. The Psalm begins:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the whole world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

We know that part. God’s been around through it all, and He will be forever. He’s where all rests and occurs that ever has or will.

“You turn people back to dust,

saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

A thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night.”

Right. We’re getting a sense of the big picture. Not only is God above and beyond time, He created time. He sees it all at once. From the 5 people who read your post to how your child’s sense of confidence is distantly but strongly connected to your loving, Biblical explanations when he was 2.

Given all that, we’re reminded: we’re from dust, and we go back to it.

“Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—

they are like the new grass of the morning:

In the morning it springs up new,

but by evening it is dry and withered.”

Getting a sense of finiteness? Our time is short, and the cycle of life on earth fleeting. We’re bound up in the cycle of life, in our circumstances, and in the inevitability of being human. Compared to what we’ve been reading, this is humbling. God is forever, above all. We’re like grass or dust.

This doesn’t sound encouraging, I know, but keep reading…

“We are consumed by your anger

and terrified by your indignation.

You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

All our days pass away under your wrath;

we finish our years with a moan.”

Not only are we like grass or dust in God’s bigger picture, but we’re totally unworthy. Even the secret sins of our heart cause us to moan before the Lord. We’re that sinful and that incapable of standing before the Lord ourselves. Life wears us down and we’re terrified by the Lord’s might and justice and righteous wrath concerning sin. With Christ, we can stand before the Lord confidently –but that’s because of Jesus, not our worth!

“Our days may come to seventy years,

or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

If only we knew the power of your anger!

Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

We have the chance of living longer if we can hold on and stay strong. But whether we live long or not, our lives will go quickly and will ultimately end. In the mean, we’ll face trouble and sorrow. Even with Jesus, this is true!

Don’t be mistaken, even resting in and following Christ faithfully, we’re to fear the Lord. We are counted worthy to be reconciled with God because of Jesus, we’re still not on par with the trinity. Our days on earth are still limited. Our sin is still abominable.

But the end of this section carries also an exhortation: number your days so that you can gain a heart of wisdom. In other words, look rightly on your labor, your toil, your relationships, yourself. Take stock in light of who God is, what His greater plans are, and what He’ll be doing long after your gone (hint: His work began long before you arrived, too.)

That’s wisdom, my friends. A right perspective on life. Are you making your work and your life out to be more than it is? Less than it is? Take stock.

“Relent, Lord! How long will it be?

Have compassion on your servants.

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen trouble.

May your deeds be shown to your servants,

your splendor to their children.”

Finally, an outcry we really understand. Lord we want to be satisfied in You! Lord let us worship you and help us to be thankful and pleased with the life you’ve given us…even the trouble and afflictions! Help us to understand, Lord, Your deeds.

Because the Lord’s deeds are perfect. Splendid. Holy. Unfailing. Compassionate. They don’t always make sense to us. But we’re grass, we’re dust. He’s been around for all of it, sovereign over everything. As we endure the seeming futility of our lives and try to look at our lives as the Lord does, we need our perspective to be of Him and of His ways.

At last,

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;

establish the work of our hands for us—

yes, establish the work of our hands.”

We can’t make our work worthy. We can’t make it last. Our work, like our bodies, will wither and pass away. Our lives, wrought with all sorts of turmoil, not the least of which is the work of our hands at times, will be before Him….and established by Him.

Your work, in the Lord, can be established by His hands. His hands that don’t fail. Hands that were around before time, are at work throughout all time and space and earth. The same hands that will be lovingly, compassionately, and righteously at work long after we’ve entered eternity.

You can’t earn that favor from the Lord. You can’t hide away secret sins to make your work more credible before Him. But you can turn it over. You can set it out for the Lord to set up as He sees fit. And your toddler’s misinterpretation of your words, and your 5 lousy views, will be established in a Kingdom far bigger, far more organized, and far more splendid than anything you could create yourself.

The same King who “establishes the work of your hands” is “your dwelling place

throughout all generations. From everlasting to everlasting…” He’s God.

At a Price: The Relationship Between Love and Freedom

“Why do the innocent suffer? Because of love. God designed love to be based on our free will. He didn’t want to be loved out of fear, or out of compliance. He wanted to be loved out of gratitude. But love has a price tag. If love is free, then a lover is free to be unloving. Otherwise love is forced. Because we are free to be unloving, many of us have been run over…” –Pg. 71. Safe People by Cloud and Townsend

Love and freedom are inextricably connected. The two are interdependent.

Without love, you cannot experience true freedom. Without freedom, love isn’t love.

That’s the way God designed it, and the implications are many:

What Love Gives Us: Freedom

• ·         Because He loved us, we are free

“The truth will set you free.” But what is the truth? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The truth is revealed by the loving character and actions of our Lord. That’s how He gives us freedom.

• ·         His love gives us the freedom to truly love others

1 John 4:19 says it concisely: “we love because he first loved us.” The love we have to give, in and of ourselves, is limited by our sinful nature. Our natural love is flawed and distorted. But the love of God, instilled in us and flowing through us by the Spirit –that’s perfect. In Christ, we are free to truly love others as He intends, in His timing, as His children.

• ·         The love of God frees us to be who He made us to be

Sin, as exemplified by Satan’s temptation tactics, tells us that who we are isn’t enough and that we can change who we are in order to be like God. We’re enslaved by the sinful conviction that we must take the place of God in our lives. When we ground our hearts in the love of Christ, we find that we can be who we are and that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What Love Costs: Freedom

• ·         For God, love meant giving up freedom temporarily

In the person of Christ, God “Himself bore our sins” (1 Peter 2:24). The Lord who created everything and lives forever died for you and me before rising again. He “gave Himself up,” temporarily surrendering His freedom and rightful place. And He did that because of His great love for us.  

• ·         Loving God means becoming a slave to righteousness

When Christ died and rose again, we were redeemed. Each of us was “bought with a price; do not become slaves of human beings” (1 Corinthians 7:23). Instead, your freedom means being a “slave to righteousness” (Romans 6:18). When you love the Lord, you surrender your will and your freedom to Him that you may gratefully serve Him as an expression and a natural result of your love.

• ·         Emulating His love requires that we allow others their freedom

The Lord’s love sacrifice’s self. Those who love the Lord plead “take this cup if you are willing” and obey when the answer is “no” (Luke 22:42). Often encumbrances on our freedom are the result of loving others as the Lord does.

Consider the fruit of the Spirit. Those fruits aren’t conditional on those you love behaving how you would like them to. To love like the Lord, you set aside your freedom to sinfully manipulate others or to seek personal gain, and you emulate Godly love (patiently, gently, meekly) as others use their freedom (even in ways you don’t like)!