providence revisited

Back to the year-long learning theme of God's sovereignty and providence.....

"The primary purpose is for us to become so convinced of ...[the sovereignty, love, and wisdom of God]...that we appropriate them in our daily circumstances, that we learn to trust God in the midst of our pain, whatever form it may take" (19).

"God's providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people" (23).

Jerry Bridges' Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2008).

New book, new post :-)

New school year, new book, new post - how exciting! :)

I recently purchased Jerry Bridges' Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2008). A foundational premise is that so often it is easier to obey God than to trust Him, especially amidst difficult situations, but that trust is just as essential and God-glorifying. I appreciate the call to examine our hearts and to again look at the wisdom and the sovereignty of God in various spheres of Creation, based on the Word.

Speaking to the reason why it is sometimes hard to trust through difficult times:

"Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God's revealed will. Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries. We do not know the extent, the duration, or the frequency of the painful, adverse circumstances in which we must frequently trust God. We are always coping with the unknown.

"Yet it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him....In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense....It is only from the Scriptures, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that we receive the grace to trust God in adversity" (16).

May we obey AND trust our great God and Father!

don't waste it!

"Regret and worry are two incredible wastes of your imagination."
~ Paraphrase of Mrs. B's wisdom (from a Dutch saying?!)

Of course, there are also Biblical commands not to worry and to leave things to the Lord.
All the same, I found this quotation striking. Our imagination and brainpower are drained by fruitless regret over things that we can't change and worry over things that are yet to come.

Needless to say, we need to live careful, thoughtful, reflective lives, but most often the worry and regret distract from the present; too often they invite opportunity for doubt, self-pity, anxiety, etc.

So how are you using your imagination these days (especially you teacher-folk starting school again!)

Summer

TIME and ownership

Last one from C.S. Lewis. Hopefully you've either gleaned enough to be challenged or are motivated to put The Screwtape Letters on your reading list! :)

Time.
We know it is limited.
And not our own.
Do we use it that way?
I found this passage totally convicting!

You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own.' Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours....The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels (112).

The "advice" from the senior devil was to make the human angry whenever something "interrupted" his plan for how he would use his time. Angry that someone stopped him for guidance. Angry that there was an unexpected visitor.

When we remember that time is not our own, and that this life is so fleeting, it surely puts time in a whole different light!

the need for change

Continuing to share from this brilliant piece of work by Lewis (The Screwtape Letters), below is a section referring to the desire for incessant change. The "devils" are discussing how they think they can exploit this idea to cause dissatisfaction and to draw people away from asking if things are righteous, prudent, possible, necessary....

Only by our incessant efforts is the demand for infinite, or unrhythmical, change kept up. This demand is valuable in various ways.

In the first place it diminishes pleasure while increasing desire. The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns.

And continued novelty costs money, so that the desire for it spells avarice or unhappiness or both.

And again, the more rapacious this desire, the sooner it must eat up all the innocent sources of pleasure and pass on to those the Enemy forbids (137, emphasis mine).

Variety is good and, of course, not in itself sinful. Our Lord has created such a bountiful Earth with such incredible, imaginative sources of diversity and creativity. But when pure novelty and change is sought for its own pleasure, we should stop and think.

humility

"Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor." Proverbs 18:12 (ESV)

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." Philippians 2:3 (ESV)

Humility is one of those interesting "virtues." Often people strive to be humble and end up feeling proud of how humble they are. Or, on the contrary, their humility becomes a sense of self-loathing. Neither is Biblical.

True humility, of course, comes from looking to Christ. By understanding His perfection, we recognize the gravity of our sin and the consequences of it. Yet, by looking at Christ, we see the incredible love our LORD has for us - so great that He sends Jesus to atone for our sin.

In my journey through Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (which I have long since devoured but will continue to share with you), I came across an interesting passage where the "senior demon" is talking to his "young nephew demon" about this issue.

"The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love - a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own...." (Lewis, 71).

To be rejoicing in something as much if someone else does it excellently as if I had done it myself.
Wow - that is going to take work, and prayer.

But when we recognize that this world is not all there is (something that has been on my mind a lot lately), that makes perfect sense.