Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a 'fool' so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.
— 1 Corinthians 3:18-19
The Christian soon learns that if he would be victorious as a son of heaven among men on earth he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary. That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy; he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it. He goes down to get up. If he refuses to go down he is already down, but when he starts down he is on his way up. He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong.
Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes. He has most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most. He may be and often is highest when he feels lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge. He sometimes does most by doing nothing and goes furthest when standing still. In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow.
thought
Strong when weak and weak when strong! To embrace that truth ? not just in mind but in heart and life expression ? is to take a giant leap in spiritual maturity!
prayer
Lord, Your pattern of life for me is antithetical to that of this world. But it is in You I live. Deliver me from the enemy's deception that I may see clearly Your way and follow it. In Jesus' name.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
— 1 Corinthians 1:18
The cross stands in bold opposition to the natural man. Its philosophy runs contrary to the processes of the unregenerate mind, so that Paul could say bluntly that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. To try to find a common ground between the message of the cross and man's fallen reason is to try the impossible, and if persisted in must result in an impaired reason, a meaningless cross and a powerless Christianity.
But let us bring the whole matter down from the uplands of theory and simply observe the true Christian as he puts into practice the teachings of Christ and His apostles. Note the contradictions: The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before and he fully expects to live forever. He walks on earth while seated in heaven and though born on earth he finds that after his conversion he is not at home here. Like the nighthawk, which in the air is the essence of grace and beauty but on the ground is awkward and ugly, so the Christian appears at his best in the heavenly places but does not fit well into the ways of the very society into which he was born.
thought
The message of the Cross?Christ dying for sinners?is perceived so differently. It is foolishness to those who are perishing. It is the power of God to those who are being saved. Faith makes the difference; faith that recognizes personal sin and God's
prayer
You are the crucified, risen Christ. I thankfully receive Your forgiveness of my sin and Your life for my daily living. Praise Your name!
After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. . . . One of those listening was a woman named Lydia . . . The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
— Acts 16:10, 14
It is useless to ask God for something we could obtain with a bit of effort properly directed. No instructed Christian will waste his time praying for things that are within his own power to obtain. To do so is to deceive ourselves and make a farce of the whole concept of prayer. If work will get it for us, then work it is or we can go without it. God will not contribute to our delinquency by supplying us with gifts which we could get for ourselves but have done nothing to obtain. But there is a third category consisting of desired objects which work alone can never secure.
They lie far enough out of our reach that it will take something supernatural to get them for us, yet near enough that we must labor to obtain them. This adds up to work and prayer, and it will probably be found that the greatest majority of desired objects and objectives fall within this category. And this situation brings us close to God and makes us His co-laborers. Whether it be a desire to open a closed field, win a hostile tribe, obtain a better job, build a new church, have a successful meeting, rear a family, get through school or do any one of an almost infinite number of legitimate things, the method is likely to be the twofold one of work and prayer.
We might paraphrase the famous exhortation of Dr. Simpson and say that when faced with these borderline tasks which we must work at but which we can never do alone, the thing to do is to work as if we had it all to do and pray as if we expected God to do it all. But wishing-let the vain dreamers and the builders of Spanish castles spend their time at it if they will. We know better than to waste our time and efforts at anything so useless.
thought
Paul would never have experienced the demonstration of God's power in Philippi had he not obeyed God and gone there. Yet Paul could not open Lydia's heart to respond to the message. Only God could do that. There is that for us to do and that for God to do.
prayer
O Lord, give me sensitivity to Your direction as to what You want me to do and what only You can do. In Jesus' name.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
— Matthew 7:7-8
Every desire should be brought to the test of God's will. If the desire is out of the will of God, it should be instantly dismissed as unworthy of us. To continue to long for something that is plainly out of the will of God for us is to prove how unreal our consecration actually is. If, however, the desired object is legitimate and innocent, then there are three possible ways by which it may be obtained: one is to work for it, another is to pray for it and a third is to work and pray for it. These are clear methods by which God gives His good gifts to His people. They are not to be confused with each other and may be distinguished in practical living.
Some things are altogether out of the sphere of possibility for us, and yet altogether within God's gracious will for us. What to do? Prayer is the immediate answer. God has planned that we should go to Him for impossibilities when those impossibilities are a part of His eternal will for our highest good. Under such circumstances we should press our petitions upon Him with all the boldness and ardor of an obedient and trusting child. God loves such praying and has given every reason for us to believe that He will hear our prayer and in due time send the answer.
thought
Ask, seek and knock. God delights in answering our prayer, especially those things we view as "impossible." But it is for us to ask, seek and knock. He may answer quickly or after many years. Or He may simply and clearly say "no."
prayer
Lord, I'm sometimes impatient in prayer and sometimes I even give up. Forgive me. You know how best to answer my prayer and when. Thank You that You delight in granting the impossible.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.
— 1 John 5:14-15
The word wish in its modern sense has little or no place in the Christian's vocabulary. The word occurs rarely in the Bible, and when it does it seldom means more than to will or desire. It is hard to conceive of anything more completely futile than wishing. It is significant that wishing is done mostly by children and superstitious people. However sweet and innocent it may appear to see a child going through his little ritual of wishing, it can become something far from harmless when carried over into adult life. And even the child should be taught very early that wishing gets him nowhere.
The evil of the empty wish lies in the fact that the wisher is not adjusted to the will of God. He allows his desires to play over things that are entirely out of God's will for him and dreams of possessing what he well knows he should not have. Five minutes of this futile dreaming and he has lost the fine edge off his spiritual life. Should the act ripen into a habit, his Christian life may be seriously injured. The man soon comes to substitute mere longing for hard work, and unless he corrects his fault sharply, he will degenerate into a spineless dreamer of empty dreams. Every desire should be brought to the test of God's will. If the desire is out of the will of God, it should be instantly dismissed as unworthy of us. To continue to long for something that is plainly out of the will of God for us is to prove how unreal our consecration actually is.
thought
God invites us to petition Him boldly, assuring us that He hears us and will grant our requests. However, those petitions are to accord with His will. In some areas His will is crystal clear; in others somewhat unclear. Are our prayers according to His w
prayer
Lord, I'm sometimes guilty of asking what I know is not Your will for me. Forgive me. Your will be done in my life as it is in heaven!
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
— Ephesians 4:32
But there is another kind of friction which retards spiritual progress and does real injury to the soul. It is the friction created by inward maladjustment. Our Lord had this in mind when He spoke of the value of the "single eye," and James referred to the same thing when he told of the wavering man of double mind who was unstable in all his ways. While the heart is at cross-purposes with itself, there can be no inward harmony, only discord and carnal heat that slowly wear out the life.
One source of friction is resentfulness. To hold bad feeling against another is to put the brakes on; no matter how sincerely we desire to go on in the holy way, we are held back by the grinding of resentment within us. Morally resentment is static and will brake to a stop any soul that will harbor it. It is vitally important to remove the pressure that is checking forward motion. This we can do by forgiving our enemies and taking pardon and cleansing from the Lord. To name all the possible causes of inward friction would be to list the works of the flesh in their entirety. The flesh warreth against the spirit: that is, it seeks to stop the motions of the growing heart and bring it to a standstill.
Or, failing that, it will put as much pressure as possible on the life and slow its progress as much as it can. The sad thing is that so many of us seem willing to let things go on that way. We "grovel here below," creeping forward painfully and at a snail's pace, when we might be racing unhindered toward the prize. Let's check up on ourselves. Possibly we may need to take the brakes off.
thought
Resentment and unforgiveness can eat away at love and peace. The solution is simple enough. Forgive others as Christ has forgiven you.
prayer
Lord, help me run the race with the brakes off. By your Spirit highlight those areas of life where I am yielding to the flesh rather than to You.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
— Philippians 4:6
Many Christians live like a man driving with his brakes on. It is, of course, friction that retards the car's progress, for all brakes work by friction. The car is temporarily at odds with itself; one surface wants to revolve and another surface in contact with it wants to stand still. This clash of purposes sets up friction; and friction always wins at last. Nothing can continue to move if it is opposed by enough friction. Even the most perfectly operated car cannot escape some resistance to its forward motion.
There will always be gravity, air pressure and the unavoidable pressures of working parts that will tend to slow it down. But these are figured in and overcome by the steady application of energy to the wheels. It's the brakes that give a car a hard time. Now all this would seem to be a parable of some kind. The Christian need not expect to escape opposition. As long as Satan stands to resist the sons of God, as long as the world and the flesh remain, the believing man will meet opposition. Sometimes it will be sharp and obvious, but mostly it will be just the hidden and unsuspected friction set up by circumstances. No one need be anxious about this, however, for God has figured it in and made allowance for it. That kind of friction does little real harm. It will not retard progress much, and the very necessity of overcoming opposition will but add strength to the Christian's moral muscles.
thought
There are circumstances that we feel we can control yet fail to do so. Then there are the circumstances beyond our control. It is that circumstantial friction that slows spiritual progress, causes us to veer off the path or detracts our attention from th
prayer
Forgive me, Father, for falling into anxiety when You invite me to throw all my cares on You.