Devotional and Bible

God!

Welcome to the 5th post in our series, which is answering the question – what is the most important thing?  So far we’ve talked about three things that, though important, aren’t the most important.

The first was results, which, though very important, didn’t win the prize.  What about doing?  Is the most important thing doing good things?  Obviously that’s very important – but not the most important.  How about being?  Surely character is the most important thing.  Well, yes, it’s important, but there are still problems with saying it the most important.

Now, after all this suspense, you’re feeling betrayed – you’re feeling cheated!  God is the most important?  Of course! you say.  We were expecting something profound!

Not so fast.  Sure, we all think it’s obvious – after all, if there is a God, by very definition God must be the most important!  But the truth is, we often don’t think this way, and we more often don’t live this way.

Too often we put all the focus on results.  If things aren’t going well, we feel helpless.  Or we focus on what we’re doing – and if we can’t do anything we think is useful, we feel useless.  Perhaps we put the focus on who we are – pretty important, I agree.  But too often we find that we’re not even living up to our own expectations, never mind God’s!  And if we fail here, what hope is there?

Well, there is hope, because ultimately, it doesn’t depend on us.  It doesn’t depend on you or I, and it’s not all about you or I.  It all goes back to the Creator, the One who started it all, and the One who has it all under control.

We talked in previous posts about the dangers of over emphasizing each point.  Well, it’s hard to over emphasize God, but you can run into trouble if you ignore what God has said about the other three things – results, doing and being.

Let’s say you things are going poorly for you.  You might start to be fatalistic – "oh well, it’s all up to God anyway".  A fatalistic attitude ignores the fact that we personally have responsibility.  Or we might be angry at God – as if all our problems are His "fault".  And yet, again, the Bible makes it clear that we are responsible for the fallen state of the world – humankind has sinned, and we personally have sinned.  Recognizing that God is the most important doesn’t mean that none of us have a part to play in His purpose.  But it does mean that He has a purpose, and that He is in control of the ultimate results.

And what if things are going well for us?  Well, it may just become and intellectual game; we may become detached.  Again, we should have ultimate confidence in God, but we shouldn’t misunderstand God and the part we play in showing the world His glory.

Let me give a couple of illustrations from Scripture.  First, a story – the story of Lazarus.  It’s a good illustration of all 4 points.  Jesus raised him from the dead (God – in ultimate control).  Lazarus became alive (Being), and he obediently came out of the tomb (Doing).  The result?  Many believed in God!

As you can see (and we’ll talk about this when we sum up in our next post on this subject), there’s a circle here – it all goes back to God in the end, and His glory.

If you really want to delve and see how these 4 things work, an interesting place to start is John chapter 14.  Write down what parts relate to each.  Appropriately, the chapter starts with believing in God.  Jesus interweaves all these things throughout the passage.  For example, If you love me (a focus on God, and on being), keep my commandments (doing).  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever (back to God again).

Of course, these things are all throughout Scripture – it’s interesting to read with these in mind.

It’s so important to keep things in order, whether in success or failure.  In the midst of success, we must remember to bring the glory back to God (in other words, realize and verbalize the fact that God is really the one who brings success).  In the midst of failure, we don’t need to despair – God has things under control.  It doesn’t all depend on us.  Better still, He can pick us up and give us another chance.  He can use us even when we feel like we’ve made an impossible (and I mean impossible) mess of everything.

Or there may be times we just feel confused, out of control, or useless.  When we’re sick in a hospital bed and others must care for us, isn’t it great to know that God still has a plan for us?  When we’re sick and so confused of mind that we can’t even pray, isn’t it great to know that the Holy Spirit can pray on our behalf?  God loves us and cares for us even when it seems there is nothing we can do.  And quite often when we can do little in the eyes of the world, He still uses us through our prayers and our endurance under trials.

He has a plan.  And He’s a God of love (He wants what’s best for us) and a God of power (He’s able to deliver!).  Isn’t it good to really know the grace and peace of God?

Recently, I was surprised by sin.

Oh, I know I shouldn’t be surprised.  The Bible teaches us that everyone sins, everyone still sins, and that sin leads to death.  The idea itself of rejecting, ignoring, and spitting in the face of the God of the universe is hard to even understand.

I’m not usually surprised anymore when I see horrors in the news.  Most of us have seen what mankind is capable of.  I’m not generally surprised when I see sin around me, or even when a friend fails me.  And of course, I’m not surprised when I see sin in my own life.  That’s something God continues to point out to me, and He continues to forgive me and set me on the right path.

But actually, it was my own sin that caught me by surprise.  It started with something I would consider very minor.  And it wasn’t that itself that shocked me.  It was my reaction.  All of a sudden, I realized I didn’t want to confess.  I didn’t want to do anything to make it right.  The shock was that suddenly, over something very small, my flesh seemed ready to give up everything just to protect something small and insignificant.

Every once in a while, we need to realize just how powerful sin itself is.  Sometimes we think in the back of our minds that, if we just had enough time, the right program, the right environment, we could reform.  We think of sin as extra fat we can just work off.  Or perhaps it’s something mainly in the past.  Sure, we need a Saviour because we did this and that way back when.  But if we had the chance, we wouldn’t do it again.

It’s not that we simply need to "reform".  It’s not so much that we need God to clean our hearts even.  We need Him to give us a whole new heart.  The old one is beyond reform.  And its power is incredible, even in the life of the believer.

We have to realize how powerful sin is before we can really appreciate the cross.  Before we came to the Lord, we were dead in our sins.  That’s pretty hopeless.  Not much you can do when you’re dead.  But even now, we still feel the pull of evil.  It’s all the worse because we really want to follow Christ now.  And yet we still fall again and again if we down allow the Spirit within us to keep us on the right track.

We need the cross and the empty tomb at the centre of our lives.  As Christians, we need to remember the forgiveness there, remember that a victory over sin and death was won.  We need to recognize the power of the cross in our lives again and again.  We need to allow the Spirit to make the power of Christ’s victory real in our lives each moment.

We also need to recognize the power of sin in the lives of others, and live with compassion and humility as we point them to the Lord.  Understanding sin from God’s point of view changes our view of those around us.

It’s almost impossible to underestimate sin.  But then again, that power is nothing compared to the power of Jesus, and the good news of His forgiveness and new life.  We would be totally, completely helpless and without hope if it weren’t for what Jesus did on the cross.  Then again, we are saved completely because of what He did there.  The cross is never just for my past, or just for someone else.  It’s the transforming power of today.