Choose Life

There's a constant battle raging within each one of us.  It's the battle of the mind and heart.  My devotion this morning said something profound.

"Your mind shuttles back and forth, hither and yon, weaving webs of anxious confusion.  As My thoughts rise up within you, they become entangled in those sticky webs of worry.  Thus, my voice is muffled and you hear only 'white noise'.  Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can think My thoughts."  Sarah Young, Jesus Calling . 

Think My thoughts?  Wow!  What a thought...we know that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours...can we actually think His thoughts?  Amazingly, we have His Spirit in us...so it must be possible to think His thoughts.

But how?  My thoughts are raging and so much louder than the sweet small voice of the Spirit.

A visiting teaching pastor, Jared, said yesterday that the living of this new creation is not a one time event...don't we wish it was? 

When we invite Christ in, God's Word says that we instantly become a new creation...Barah!...the greek word for making something new.  It conjurs up the image of a magician throwing his hands wide and declaring something done...BARAH...a new creation...an instant and forever change...the old is gone, the new has come.

But living this new creation isn't complete in this one amazing, miraculous action.  And this is a hard one to wrap the mind around. 

We are a new creation, but we are also becoming a new creation. 

Ann Voskamp says, "Christianity is a lifetime of becoming who you really are."

And so the living of this new creation is a daily...step by step journey.  Jared said, "...maybe not the first time you choose to encourage that co-worker that persecutes you and makes your life a living hell (not sure Jared said hell in church...my version of what he said), and maybe not the tenth or one thousandth time, but eventually your nature will become one who encourages."  The same is true when you choose grace instead of retaliation, trust instead of fear, kindness instead of a sharp tongue.  Eventually, those things become our natural response.

He quoted Cicero who said, "Virtue is what happens when wise and courageous behavior become second nature."

Then this morning, along with reading what Sarah Young wrote in today's devotion, I found this portion of scripture. 

The Lord is speaking to the Israelites...they have been disobedient, fearful and not trusting...they find themselves in between the leadership of Moses and Joshua.  And the Lord says this:

Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraam, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."  (emphasis mine)

Choose life...by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and by holding fast to Him. 

This is the living of this new creation.

This is how we begin to silence our own raging thoughts...so that we may think His thoughts.

This is the practice of becoming who we already are.

And it's a daily choice. 

"Choose life in order that you may live..."

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Chatting with my brother the other day, he shared something his life group had discussed.  “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”  The sermon on the mount starts with this very interesting assertion.  It is the first big sermon of Jesus’ ministry…thousands have gathered, eager to hear what he has to say…and he starts with that. 

 Poor in Spirit…needy…weak… as Eugene Peterson puts it in “The Message”: “You are blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.”  Can’t count on your own strength…ready to give up…not knowing how you’re gonna get through the day…poor.

 It’s a very interesting concept.  You have to be at the end of your rope…the end of yourself to have the kingdom of God.  I know we all get this in terms of our salvation.  Anyone who has accepted Christ as savior and Lord, had to be near or at the end of their rope in some way or another.  But I think this is more than just the recipe toward salvation.  It seems to me that Jesus wants us to live like this…every day. 

Poor.

 I have spent a good deal of time rich in spirit…feeling in control, feeling strong, I had the answers,  I could plow through.  I have also spent a good deal of time trying to pretend I was rich in spirit…don’t tell me how to solve this problem…I know…I can handle it…but really feeling like I was caving in.

This year…God is making me poor in spirit.  He’s yanking up fears and anxieties…long held insecurities…tearing it out and laying it next to the stress, the mistakes, the failures and…the worst of it all…the “what ifs” and “what does it means”.   He’s forcing me to look at it all…over and over until I reach my own poverty.

 I am absolutely nothing and have absolutely nothing without you, Jesus.  This…is the start of the kingdom of God.

 Because, as Jon’s life group discussed, all the rest has to start here.  Once you’re poor in spirit then you can:

        Mourn

        Be gentle

        Hunger and thirst for righteousness

        Be merciful

        Have a pure heart

        Be a peacemaker

        Be the salt of the earth

        Be the light of the world

And if you take many a misstep in any of those…stop being those things…it all has to go back to the beginning…being poor.

He tells us that we’re blessed when we’re persecuted, blessed when men cast insults because of Him…to consider it joy when life sucks.  But it doesn’t work unless we’re poor in spirit.

 I think poor in spirit changes everything.  If you read verses like “Rejoice in the Lord always” or again, “consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials”, or “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer …with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” without the poor in spirit, you think that a true Christian never doubts, never worries and always “chooses joy! (Insert happy face)”. 

But I think the poor in spirit part negates that.  Reading those verses with poor in spirit says this instead. 

This life is brutal and you can’t do it. You won’t have the strength or the confidence, and most of the time it’s just a lot of hard work.  But…rejoice…remember…hope…you have the kingdom of heaven which means I am with you, I will help you and I am making it all into a beautiful tapestry of glory.

Isn’t that what “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” means.  God’’s kingdom at our fingertips, right by our side.  Unfortunately we misunderstand what that means and how that feels.  I don’t think it is supposed to feel that good…and certainly it doesn’t feel that comfortable.  We’d much rather feel strong and confident, yet the kingdom of God…the power that raised Jesus from the dead…the grace that brings life from death…the hope that soothes the wounds…that belongs to the poor in spirit.

If I think about it, I am much more likely to have patience with the little old man going 20 mph on the freeway in front of me, or much more able to empathize with another’s pain, even shedding tears at the sound of their pain, or much slower to anger when confronted with another’s weakness and demands when I am at the end of rope.

When I am not…when I am confident, strong, ready to conquer the world, I am much less patient, empathetic and quick to anger.

 It’s that descending into greatness that I’ve heard pastors talk about, if you want to be strong you must be weak.  If you want to be first you must be last.

And I think when we are poor in spirit, somehow all the burdens we carry start to fall from our shoulders.  We know we can’t handle them, so lay them down.

 But I really prefer to be strong.  I like packing all my responsibilities, cares, expectations, and stresses into my backpack…strap on the “what ifs” and “what does it means” as if I can take care of the future myself…and carry it all on my back.  It feels really good until my back breaks, my knees buckle, my emotions seem to run wild, and my stomach is in knots.

 Poor in Spirit. 

I think it’s what Jesus really wants from us…more than joy, more than confidence, more even than perfect assurance of our faith…He wants us poor…

at the end of ourselves…

laid out before Him…

ready to let Him fill with all things good…

to have the Kingdom of Heaven.