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Worry is a failure to understand God’s priority, [Luke 12] verses 22 and 23. “He said to His disciples, ‘For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat nor for your body as to what you shall put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing.’”

Now here’s the point: God didn’t create you just to survive. God didn’t create you just to have you eat and wear clothes so that you can make it. God did not create you to fulfill some physical goal, or objective, or purpose or design.

Your life is far more than eating. Your life is far more than clothing. You must understand the divine priority…if you belong to God and you are in His Kingdom, He has a plan and a purpose for your life. That’s the reason you live. And as long as God has a plan for your life, He will feed you and clothe you until the plan is complete. So what is there to worry about?

There is really no place for worry and no place for fear, and no place for anxiety if you understand that the priority with God is far more than just surviving, it’s far more than making it through the winter, it’s far more than getting at least one or two meals a day, far more than that.

God’s purpose in giving you life, God’s purpose in giving you a body is not material, it’s not physical, and it’s not earthly, it is immaterial, spiritual and heavenly. We were made for His glory.

We were made to serve His glory, to serve His purpose, to honor Him, to bring attention to Him, to proclaim the gospel, to live out Christ and the power of the Spirit in the world. And as long as that’s the divine priority…for us, He will sustain us to the end of His purpose.

~John MacArthur in “Anxiety-Free Living, Part 2“

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God’s continuing presence is a shield against overwhelming temptation. Any time Satan wants to get to a believer, he has to go through God. First Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able endure it.”

God is present personally and individually with every believer to defend him against temptation he can’t handle.

That God is present everywhere ought to motivate us to obey Him more carefully. When we sin, whether it is a sin of thought or a sin of words or a sin of actions, it is done in the presence of God. Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses, and in verse 8, Moses acknowledges the implications of God’s omnipresence with regard to our sin: “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”

In other words, when we sin, it is as if we ascended beyond the clouds, came into the throne room of God, walked up to the foot of the throne of God and committed the sin right before His face. That is a sobering thought.

~John MacArthur in Worship: The Ultimate Priority

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Is it true that God is love to me as a Christian? And does the love of God mean all that has been said? If so, certain questions arise.

Why do I ever grumble and show discontent and resentment at the circumstances in which God has placed me?

Why am I ever distrustful, fearful, or depressed?

Why do I ever allow myself to grow cool, formal and halfhearted in the service of the God who loves me so?

Why do I ever allow my loyalties to be divided, so that God has not all my heart?

John wrote that “God is love” in order to make an ethical point, “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11). Could an observer learn from the quality and degree of love that I show to others–my wife? my husband? my family? my neighbors? people at church? people at work? –anything at all about the greatness of God’s love to me?

Meditate upon these things. Examine yourself.

~J.I. Packer in Knowing God

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What comes to mind when I say the word “father”?

…If you’ve been wounded by a father or another man that you’ve trusted, you may find it hard to trust God. Can I tell you that God is unlike any man you’ve ever known? Even the best earthly father is only a pale reflection of Him.

We need to look to the Scripture for an accurate picture of God. In God’s Word we see a heavenly Father who’s compassionate, merciful, and tender toward His children; a Father who loves to give good gifts to His children; a Father who disciplines His children, but never rejects them.

Regardless of what kind of earthly father you may have had, if you’re a child of God, you have a heavenly Father who loves you dearly and can be totally trusted.

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss in “Just Like My Father“

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No Child Left Behind

Don’t you love the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing something you’ve started? Cleaning out your email inbox, submitting a final paper, folding the last piece of clean laundry, crossing the stage to take your diploma in hand—something just feels so right about reaching the finish line of any project.

The problem for me is, I don’t get that feeling nearly as often as I would like. My house could easily double as a museum for unfinished projects. If you were to come over for a tour, you’d find partially read books, half-completed paintings, unassembled craft projects, and a wide assortment of other good intentions gone bad.

The Frustrating Reality

Believe me, if I could blame my lack of follow-through on anything outside of myself, I probably would, but I know the truth—I am the only reason that after two years, that autumn wreath is still in pieces in a bag in the closet instead of ready to hang on my front door.

If my distractibility and lack of discipline only affected my attempts at seasonal decorating, then things wouldn’t be all that bad. What’s really discouraging to me is thinking about all of the unfinished business in my spiritual life. After all these years of following Christ, shouldn’t I be further along in my pursuit of holiness? 

Sometimes in the midst of struggles with particular sins or sin patterns, I can’t help feeling like I’ve made just about as much progress in my sanctification as I have with that bag of wreath parts in the closet.

The Reassuring Promise

In those moments, I’m encouraged to remember that God is the polar opposite of me. He knows how to get things done.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

God’s good intentions always result in finished products. When Paul says in this verse that God “will perfect” His good work, he means God will accomplish, complete thoroughly, and bring what He began in us at the moment of salvation to a successful finish.

What a promise! Although our progress on earth is slow, intermittent, and sometimes difficult to identify, we, like Paul, can have confidence that God never begins something He won’t eventually bring to completion.

He is at work in us, and by His grace is providing us with the power to join Him in that work (Phil. 2:12-13). According to Scripture, the reason God saves us is to make us like His Son (Rom. 8:29). We can rest assured that in the end, no child of His will be left behind.

The Completed Picture

Do you know Christ as your Savior? If so, be encouraged that what is now incomplete in your life will one day be brought to perfection. Praise the Lord, He always gets the job done!

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him”
(1 John 3:2) 

Image: Billy Alexander

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While writing a book on holiness, I began to pray this prayer:

Oh God,
Show me more of Your holiness.
Show me more of my sinfulness.
Help me to hate sin and to love righteousness as You do.
And make me holy as You are holy.

God answered that prayer by starting to expose sin in my heart—things like not controlling my tongue, my appetite, or my spending habits, and loving myself more than I love others. The more we see God’s holiness, the more we’ll be grieved by sin.

First Corinthians 15:34 says, “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin.” God can awaken a new love for righteousness in your heart. Could I challenge you to pray a prayer like that for the next thirty days? Ask God to give you a deeper conviction of sin and to show you more of His holiness.

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss in “Seeing God’s Holiness“

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Remember that the mind is the watchman of the soul, commanded to judge and determine whether something is good and pleasing to God, so the affections can long for it and the will can choose it. If the mind fails to identify a sin as evil, wicked, vile, and bitter, the affections will not be safe from clinging to it, nor the will from giving consent. 

This is one side of the castle wall, the first line of defense: to keep in mind that every sin is a forsaking of God (Jeremiah 2:19), to never forget the polluting, corrupting, defiling power of sin—to be shaken to the core by how much God loathes sin.

When Paul said Christ’s love compelled him (2 Corinthians 5:14), he described the other side of this first defense: the mind must stay fixed on God, especially on his grace and goodness toward us. His love propels, fuels, drives us to obey. It is the fountain of our obedience, and our highest motive to finding out what pleases the Lord and doing it.

In order to walk before God, this is the mind’s first duty: to know and hold on to the evil of sin and the love of God.

~Kris Lundgaard in The Enemy Within

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Trusting Our Father’s Driving

“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust,
O LORD, from my youth.”

Psalm 71:5

Comforting and convicting words from J.I. Packer…

“Do not worry about your life,” says the Lord, “what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Mt 6:25). But, says someone, this is not realistic; how can I help worrying, when I face this, and this, and this? To which Jesus’ reply is: Your faith is too small. Have you forgotten that God is your Father? “Look at the birds of the air; …your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (v. 26). If God cares for the birds, whose Father he is not, is it not plain that he will certainly care for you, whose Father he is?

The point is put positively in verses 31-33: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ …Your heavenly Father knows that you need [these things]. But seek first his [your Father's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

“We might have a crash,” said the small girl anxiously, as the family car threaded its way through traffic. “Trust Daddy; he’s a good driver,” said Mommy. The young lady was reassured, and she relaxed at once. Do you trust your heavenly Father like that? If not, why not?

Such trust is vital; it is in truth the mainspring of the life of faith, which without it becomes a life of at least partial belief.

[Knowing God, p. 213; emphasis added]

Although we may not know what’s ahead, we do know our Father, and
that is enough.

Photo: Denise Docherty

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When I used to ride horses, I had a special relationship with my thoroughbred named Auggie. Because I fed him, brushed him, and exercised him, he knew me and trusted my judgment when I guided him through fences in the show ring. It was the joy of his heart to do my will because he trusted my wisdom.

Well, First Peter chapter 4 says, “…those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” To commit ourselves to our Creator is to trust Him; to do good is to obey Him.

Trust and obey! Oh, that we would be like a simple horse and trust the wisdom of the one holding the reins in our lives. If we’d only take the time to really know our Master (like my horse knew me), we’d trust Him and obey Him more easily, more faithfully.

Join me in yielding to the One who holds the reins. 

~Joni Eareckson Tada in “Trust and Obey“

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The biggest lie about grace that Satan wants the church to buy is the idea that it’s dangerous and therefore needs to be kept in check. By believing that lie, we not only prove we don’t understand grace, but we violate gospel advancement in our lives and in the church by perpetuating our own slavery. The truth is, disobedience happens not when we think too much of grace, but when we think too little of it.

As a pastor, one of my responsibilities is to disciple people into a deeper understanding of obedience—teaching them to say no to the things God hates and yes to the things God loves. All too often I’ve wrongly concluded that the only way to keep licentious people in line is to give them more rules—to lay down the law. The fact is, however, the only way licentious people start to obey is when they get a taste of God’s radical, unconditional acceptance of sinners. Grace alone melts hearts and changes us from the inside out. Progress in obedience happens only when our hearts realize that God’s love for us does not depend on our progress in obedience.

~Tullian Tchividjian in Jesus + Nothing=Everything

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C.S. Lewis observed that what most distinguishes the gospel from legalism is that legalism says God will love us if we are good, while the gospel tells us God will make us good because he loves us. That’s a big difference—and getting your heart and mind around it will change your life. In the light of gospel grace, we’re liberated by the recognition that God loves us in order to make us lovely, not because we are lovely (we know we really aren’t) or could ever be lovely on our own. Love precedes loveliness in God’s economy; and his love is plenty big enough to actuate within us all the loveliness we could ever dream of.

Legalism keeps insisting that Christianity is all about how we perform for God; the gospel keeps proclaiming that Christianity, ever and always, is all about how God in Christ performs for us. When we transfer trust from self-performance to Christ and his performance, we finally leap out from under the burden of having to measure up on our own.

~Tullian Tchividjian in Jesus + Nothing=Everything

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You really have no idea what’s in store today.

“Mom, I spilled . . .”

“With parts and labor, it’ll come to $527.”

“I forgot to tell you; my science project is due today.”

“I’m calling from the hospital. Dad had an accident.”

There’s one basic issue that will determine how you respond to anything today: What’s your purpose in life? If your goal is to be happy or accepted or loved, then you’ll face a lot of obstacles in meeting it.

But if your purpose is to exist for God’s glory, then you can accept whatever comes as part of His plan and purpose. You’ll embrace the hard things knowing that they were designed by God to make you more like Jesus.

Have you settled that issue? Would you say, “Lord, it’s not about me—it’s about You. All that matters is that You are glorified”?

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss in “One Basic Issue“

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There’s a wonderful truth that’s sometimes hard for us to grasp. That is that God doesn’t make any mistakes.

Other people sometimes may make serious mistakes that affect our lives. But God is always fulfilling His eternal purposes, and they can’t be stopped by any human failure. If we’re in Christ, our lives are in His hands, and nothing can touch us that hasn’t first been filtered through His fingers of love.

Someone has said, “God’s will is exactly what we would choose if we knew what God knows.” When we stand in eternity, we’ll see clearly what we now know only by faith: He truly has done all things well.

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss in “Filtered through His Hand“

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When Does God Love You?

“There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

Do your children know the biblical answer to this question?

Of course, it’s not only children who need to understand this truth…

Moms, you need to believe it too!

Photo: Cecile Graat

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I used to think that the doctrine of omniscience was anything but reassuring. When I was young, my parents often said, “We may not know what you do, but God does. He sees everything.” I thought of that as a threat, something that only made me fearful of doing anything wrong. 

To be sure, God’s omniscience is an effective deterrent to sin. God is one teacher who never leaves the room. Second Corinthians 5:10 tells us that someday we will be called to account for all the things that we’ve done in the body. And 1 Corinthians 4:5 says that the Lord will “bring to light the things hidden in darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts.” That is a powerful motivation to live righteously.

My parents were right; God knows everything we do. And yet His correction is always with love. Peter denied the Lord three times at His crucifixion. In John 21, the Lord confronted Peter and asked, “Do you love Me?” (v. 16). Peter assured the Lord that he loved Him. The Lord asked again—a total of three times. Finally Peter said, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (v. 17). Peter appealed to Jesus’ omniscience rather than his own visible behavior to verify his love.

First John 3:19-20 says, “We…will assure our heart before Him, in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” God’s omnipotence does more for us than merely act as a watchdog; it is a source of our confidence and assurance, for by it He sees beyond our disobedience and failure, to a heart of love for Him.

~John MacArthur in Worship: The Ultimate Priority

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