“That’s not fair!” “Too bad. Life’s not fair.” How many time have you had that conversation with your child? How many times have you heard that exchange? How many times have I said that to myself?

Life isn’t fair. The good guys don’t always win; the bad guys don’t always lose. HERE. The righteous don’t always prosper; the wicked don’t always flounder. NOW. Our mindset is “let him/her get what he/she deserves.” No villain would ever win in my scenario; no virtuous person would ever lose. Not only is that not practical, it is unreasonable. Rain falls on the just and the unjust, the good and the bad. (Note: That is bad news for the prosperity people)

What is true in the material realm is also true in the spiritual realm. No special favors are given to the one who serves God. YET. The follower of Christ should never take his eyes off the “not yet.” God does not play favorites. HERE. But one day there will be a separation of sheep and goats when God’s justice will be meted out. Fairness will be realized. THEN. There is no partiality here on earth, but the reward for God’s children will happen. SOMEDAY. And it will be worth it!

“Father, I need to keep my eyes on the ‘not yet’ instead of the ‘now.’ You are Just and you are Fair. There is no partiality in you now. LATER. You will separate. My reward is then. Help me, while here on earth, to remember you never play favorites. EVER.”

What would it be like to be totally satisfied? Well, in one sense that would be good. Materially, I would never want for another thing. I would be content. But that would be dangerous spiritually.

I once heard Baptist preacher, Charles Stanley, use the phrase “We too often settle for settled for.” It sounds like double talk but it’s not. Settled for is that state of satisfaction where there is no challenge, no adventure, no forward movement, no “giddy in our giddy up.” This satisfaction has just settled in. So when he says we have “settled for settled for” that is not compliment.

That’s what I thought of as I read this devotion. All of Tripp’s thoughts are focused on NOT settling for settled for.

• I will continue to need his transforming grace.
• I will continue to need his intervention.
• I will continue to need the forgiving, enabling, transforming power of his grace until every thought is captive.
• I will continue to need his deliverance and protection.

Because of the above “movement” and need, I will find myself in a never-ending chain of events that will keep me dissatisfied in my walk and always moving me toward Him.

“Father, help me not to ‘settle in.’ Help me to always be moving forward- moving toward you- toward a deeper, richer and fuller relationship with you.”

What am I all about? Why am I here? What is my purpose here? All questions most of us/I have asked at one time or another.  Combine that with the Scripture from Luke 1:67-79 and it raises the bar.

I know when I was a baby I was dedicated to God. Mom and dad stood before the church and vowed to raise me to God’s honor. The pastor then prayed over me a prayer of blessing. (I remember all this). 🙂 I wonder if he took his cue from Zechariah’s prayer over his son, John. What a fantastic prayer of blessing! “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way.” Kind of hard to miss that! Zechariah gave the blessing on John’s purpose before John even knew any better.

God has a purpose for me. It is not to have a wonderful life. His purpose for me is to know Jesus and to let Him be known. My work here is not to earn my salvation. My work is lead others to Him. But this responsibility does not buy me heaven; it doesn’t let me sit in the Holy of Holies; it doesn’t let me sit in a place of honor and prominence. No. I can’t earn anything at all. He’s done all that needs done. I just need to accept it. My work then is not drudgery or have to, but want to with a heart of joy.

“Father, there is no need to try to impress you. What could I possibly do that could top what you did? There is no need to try to repay you. It’s an unpayable debt. So help me to serve you with a heart of gratitude, with a heart full of love for the price you paid. And let my prayer be like Zechariah’s over John: preparing the way for you.”

Is God trying to tell me something? 🙂  Another devotion on relationships? Just yesterday NMM was about “Love Friends; Use People.” (My interpretation). Today’s is about corporate worship.

Corporate worship is meant to so enthrall me with God’s grace that I want to be an instrument of that grace in the lives of others.

The question: am I? When I come into corporate worship am I enthralled with God’s grace? Q#1. Q#2: Am I an instrument of grace in the lives of others? Q#3: If not, why not? Q#1 is a personal question. Has God’s grace gripped my heart? When I am in my private QT and when I am gathered with others, has God’s grace gripped my heart? Q#2 has to do with my relationship to those with whom I am gathered. Am I standoffish? Am I judgmental? Am I aloof? Do I show God’s grace to each person?

Q#3: IF NOT…WHY NOT?

“Father, relationships can be complicated at times. But no matter whether it is easy or not, grace needs to be shown. Help me to be an instrument of Your grace to all who are there. Help me to not be aloof or to look at people cross-eyed.  Let me be an instrument of your grace to all who are there.”

My first thought when I read this was the old saying which came to mind:

Love friends; Use things.

As you well know, so it is no surprise when I say this, we tend to “Love things; Use people.”  Why were these my first thoughts? Because of what Tripp writes in the first paragraph: “Our relationships don’t belong to us. They belong to God for his use for his purpose. We cannot allow ourselves to have an owner’s view of our relationships, as if they exist for the sole purpose of our happiness.”

Many of us have what we call friendships but they are, in reality, a means to end for us. We have this friend because of what I can get out of it. Sadly, in the Greek language view of “love” that is one of them. It is called philos, a conditional type of “love” defined by the Greeks as different from real love, but misinterpreted by us as being love.  So I think the very first thing we must do is make sure we have the right view toward others.

Okay…so much for the Greek lesson. 🙂  Now for further comment on what Tripp has written. The passage in Col.3:12-14 speaks of our need, our identity, and our calling. The one which spoke the most to me was the statement he made in identity:

The best word for that identity is ambassador. Every believer is called to be an ambassador of the Savior King…the only thing an ambassador does is represent the king who sent him. This means that Jesus makes his invisible presence visible through his people, who represent him in one another’s lives.

All I can say to that is “Father, I am your representative. Help me to do that well. Help me to represent you as kind and gracious, loving and truthful, patient and compassionate. Help me to find my identity not in my preaching, my teaching, my job, my family, my achievements, or anything else. Help me to find it in you.”

I wear glasses. I have a love/hate relationship with them actually. I have been wearing them since 4th grade when Miss Kutzer noticed me squinting to see the board. So my mother took me to Dr. Braveman and he said, “Son, you’re going to need glasses.” When I got them it was amazing how close and how sharp the carpet was. In spite of this, I did not wear my glasses to school because I thought they made me look ugly. (No comments). But Miss K saw me and said, “Bill, weren’t you supposed to get your glasses yesterday?” “Yes ma’m.” “Where are they?” “At home.” “I want you to wear them tomorrow.” I did. She could have asked me anything! 🙂

My eyes have continued to get worse. Glasses. Contacts. Glasses. Contacts again. Glasses. Maybe surgery for cataracts. Astigmatism. But with each exam a new scrip. Even though I hate those glasses, they are absolutely essential. They help me see. Things are clearer, sharper, more definitive than before. And without them? Can you say “blind as a bat?”

The gospel gives perspective on life. Things change. Things become clearer. Sharper. I’m certainly not perfect so there are time my vision clouds or gets fuzzy. But God keeps drawing me back to Him. He gives me a new scrip to help my sight and my perspective.

“Father, you placed me where I am, right where you want me to be. Thanks for the eyes and thanks for the glasses (the gospel) to see more clearly.”

I’m pretty good at relationships. But at times I can be annoying, at best a nuisance. Say it ain’t so!!Why? Because of several reasons. 1) Someone once described me as “assuming a familiarity that is not there.” What he meant by that is that because I am an extrovert and want to be friends, I assume the same is true of others. Boy, have I got that messed up! And I have made a fool of myself in the process because not everyone wants to be my friend. 2) I can be pushy If I want to be friends and assume others want to.  I stay in contact. I write. I call. I text. I did that with Paul. He lived in Ohio; I lived in IN. I got to know him on a week-long bike tour and wanted to continue the friendship after it was over. I assumed he did also. It took close to a year before he would reciprocate. Oh…he was an introvert. But when he moved away to GA, correspondence pretty much died.

What Tripp writes make sense. Flawed people will have flawed relationships. Weeds will grow. Weeds have grown in the friendship with Paul. I gave up trying to clean out the weeds. My friendship with Jim started because of cycling and is still current, although weeds of neglect are growing. My friendship with Doug is over 45+ years. The death of his son in 2006; his withdrawal because of that and subsequent retirement has put some distance between us, but in my mind it is worth saving.

“Father, I celebrate you. I celebrate your ability to make two people who don’t know each other find common ground. I thank you for that. I thank you for my friends today, the ones who have my back and will fight with and for me. I thank you for infusing your grace into those friendships by taking flawed people and making them compatible. Help me to be a friend who brings grace to that relationship.”

As part of my morning devotions I have been reading another book by Paul David Tripp called A Shelter in the Time of Storm…subtitled meditations on God and trouble. Each devotion is focused on Psalm 27.  There are 52 devotions and I am taking one a week to read and digest it. The following is from this week’s reading.

In answering the question, “Why would God respond to me?” he gives 5 answers:

1. His love
2. His grace
3. His faithfulness
4. His kingdom
5. His glory.

Under his faithfulness he writes this:

He doesn’t change his mind. He doesn’t ride the roller-coaster of the rise and fall of emotions. His heart isn’t a battle zone of conflicting motivations. He doesn’t get bored, exhausted, or distracted. He won’t quit what he has begun. He won’t forsake those upon whom he has placed his love. He won’t harden his heart, shut down his mind, and turn his back. He won’t take a break or go to sleep. He will never tell you that you have asked too much or that you have come to him too often. You never have to work to figure him out. You never have to wonder if his response to you will change. He is absolutely faithful to every promise he has made and every provision he has offered. Your hope and prayer is rooted in his faithfulness, not yours. (p.54)

Those are some powerful words. Take them with you today.

Somehow, some way, my little kingdom will look very attractive to me today, but it is, the very kingdom from which grace works unrelentingly to rescue me.

Once again I’m confronted about my kingdom vs. His kingdom. For the sake of clarity I’m going to compare them. Each kingdom demands my loyalty and worship. Each promises me life. His vs. mine.

• Leads me to the king of glory vs. setting me up as king.
• Works to dethrone and decimate my little kingdom vs. seduction with promises it can’t deliver.
• Gorgeous from every perspective vs. deceptive and dark.
• Pray this kingdom will come and His will be done vs. I work to make my will and way victorious.

On my kingdom: can you say, “Effort in futility”? I fight for my kingdom but Jesus came to dethrone me. He came to free me from myself. He is trying to show me there is a king and I am not him.

“Father, you are the king (big ‘K’) and I am, at best, my little king (little ‘k’). Forgive me when I think I should be on the throne and I put me there. A throne on which only You belong. Help me to stop fighting You-your rule and reign. You be the king; I’ll be your servant.”

“He will never turn a deaf ear to my cries and has the power and willingness to meet me in my need.” That’s the way Tripp ends his devotion. A timely one.

I don’t about you but I’m not too proud to admit a vacuum exists from time to time between me and God. Oh, it’s not like I’ve lost my salvation or anything like that. Maybe it’s a  lack of concern on my part. Maybe it’s a belligerence on my part. Maybe it’s sin that I haven’t dealt with. Maybe it’s (as Tripp points out) who I’ve been complaining to. And how much complaining.

I can’t help but think of Job. After chapter after chapter of listening to his “friends” drone on and on, of listening to speech after speech hearing it was all his fault, Job and his “friends” grow silent as God speaks. It isn’t a “I’m sorry you hurt Job and your friends are jerks” speech. No. It’s a “I’m in control here and no one can compare or understand me” speech. He is totally capable of taking care of His children. The psalmist said he was an ever present help in time of trouble. A refuge and a strength.

“Father, there is nothing that comes my way you can’t handle. The good thing is when it comes, all I need to do is cry out to you. You will not turn away. You not only know the reason I cry, you also know what I need. Help me to remember you are the one I need to take my cares and concerns to because You really do care and YOU ARE big enough to handle them.”