The Danger of Comparison

II Corinthians 10:12  "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."

Psalm 40:8 "I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”

Jeremiah 31:33 "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Lord Jesus,

I see the danger of comparing myself to others. Self-comparisons to others may lead to a sense of debilitating discouragement. This sort of debilitating discouragement creates a sense of deep satisfaction. Advertisers have discovered how to create an emotional dissatisfaction and leverage it into corporate profit! Commercials scream the despairing gospel of dissatisfaction: "You are inadequate! Buy me! Then you will be a happy person!"

Self-comparison is based in pride. We long to be adequate, if not superior, in comparison to others. The drive to compete begs for victory at all costs over our competition--other people.  

The danger of self-comparison is crippling. The latest fashion, gadgets, biggest house, newest car, prettiest wife, smartest kids, best athletic team... Our celebrity culture creates pop icons of singers, movie stars, and victorious athletes. Time after time we learn of our heroes deep personal flaws. Alcoholism, broken homes, serial relationships, suicide, depression, fatherless children, waning popularity, premature deaths. 

Each morning after a triumph, one still has to look oneself in the mirror. All too often, we don't like what we seek. Victories fade, vanishing into despair. Applause, once deafening, diminishes into haunting silence. Yet, the same face stares back at us in the mirror. Self-comparison leaves us empty. 

Lord, Jesus, what are You trying to tell us about ourselves? Are You saying that self-comparison is an inevitable feature of being human? Is self-comparison a glimmering remnant of Your stamp of imago dei upon Your creation? Are our flawed attempts at self-comparison failing to fill the void within because we are comparing ourselves to false and fleeting standards? Are You calling us to something permanent, real, and enduring? Are You calling us to Yourself?

French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) said: "Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."

You call me to Yourself. You call me to be compared to Your character. Then You invite me to embrace the transformation of Your character in my life. You call me to Christlikeness. I want to be like You.

Compare me to Yourself. Shape me. Make me. Conform me to You. Write Your law upon my heart. Shape the core of my identity in You. Never lead me to despair my failure to look like You, but in faith, draw me deeper into relationship, surrender, and conformity to Your will,  so that I may reflect Your character.

In the Name of Jesus, the One I long to be like,
Amen.

God Never Wastes Our Sorrows

II Corinthians 1:3-7 NKJV "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation."

Father in Heaven,

Thank You for never wasting my sorrows. 

This past week I learned of a 21 year old who died from a drug overdose. I knew him. I have visited with him. I knew him when he was showing sensitivity and hunger toward You. Nihilism and darkness seized his soul. Drugs and partying were his attempts to fill the inner void. 

Sorrows.

Two years ago I learned of Cassandra's death. She had been like a daughter to Beth and me. Only 32 years old, she died of a heroin overdose, and left behind two sons.  

Sorrows and grief.

All too often, I feel responsible for the death and loss of someone I have loved when they die tragically. Hopeless. 

But You never waste our sorrows.

Empower me to bear with love and compassion the inevitability of suffering in a sin-cursed broken world. Homes are broken. Relationships are shattered. Lives are destroyed by sin. The very sins that we imagine will bring us a moment of pleasure and comfort turn to ash in our hands and slip away, leaving behind emptiness and pain. Help me to love empty, hurting people with Your love today.

Grant me courage to suffer for righteousness sake. Help me to exercise the boldness of a Spirit-filled life to speak, to engage, to love, even when truth exposes deep sin and brokenness. May I be present to strip away sin with one hand and to pour in grace with the other, just as You have done for me.

I pray that You will fill my heart with love and grace. Transform my sorrows, tribulation, suffering, and pain through Your comfort. Teach me to embrace Your comfort and then share the same with others.

Holy Spirit, You are my Comforter. You are the Breath of God. As I inhale You, Breath of God, I exhale Your comfort to the sorrowful and hurting all around me. I don't exhale empty words or meaningless comfort, but Your consolation, grounded in repentance and faith.

You are worthy. I worship You. Don't waste our sorrows today. 

In the Name of the Triune God who is every faithful,

Amen.

Identity in Christ

I Peter 2:9-10 NKJV "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

Dear Heavenly Father,

I spend my life longing for identity. In the 60's, people searched far and wide to "find themselves." They discovered that the pursuit of self-definition is futile apart from relationship. The only way that I can know who I am, is to know who I am in You. Saint Augustine said, "We were made for thee, and we cannot rest until we rest in thee."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself (a sinner, a penitent, or a saint) on the basis one some method or other, but to be a person--not a type of person, but the person that Christ creates in us" (from A Testament to Freedom, 508-509).

Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. They lost not only their innocence and holiness, but also something of their identity. Bill Ury says that they lost their lungs the day they sinned in Eden, and could no longer breathe the life of God. The entire human record of history since Eden is a story of desperation and longing for identity. 

We desperately seek to define our existence in everything except You.  All of the while, You long to give us life.  Bill Ury says “God wants to give us his life by breathing the Spirit of Christ into us.”  You want us to be people with lungs, breathing in the Holy Spirit, and breathing out perfect love. You want us to be people who know who we are, because we know You.

I want to live in an intimate relationship with You, in which I find my identity in You, to the point that others identify me as belonging to You. I want to be recognizable as Yours.

I have attended conferences where I must wear a badge. The badge grants me access. It identifies me as a member of the conference. It might even secure a first name greeting from the barista at Starbucks! 

Dennis Kinlaw asked: “How is it possible for one to identify with God in such a way that one can share in the fellowship of the Trinity without actually becoming God?”  He says that in ISLAM, no fellowship is possible with God.  He repudiates relationship with us.  In Eastern Religions, Hindu, and New Age, people become god.  In TRUTH, God’s otherness is never lost, yet we may have relationship and fellowship with You.  “Our fellowship with God makes us more truly human than we have ever been before.”  

That's what I want! That's what I need! That is the need of all of humanity, to be "more truly human than we have ever been before." Certainly, that is what it means to have identity in Christ, to find oneself, to become a whole person.  

Lord, You have me on the path to wholeness and identity in You. Heaven will culminate this journey. Seeing You face to face and knowing as I am known will be secured in Your eternal reality. 

The Apostle Peter said of the Church of Jesus Christ, "Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God” (Peter 2:10a). Help me to become everything You intend me to be. Help me to embrace this journey as a part of something larger than myself, Your Church.

In the Name of the One who is the Source of my life, my identity, and my belonging, Jesus Christ,

Amen. 

Patience

Luke 8:15 "But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."

Luke 21:19 "By your patience possess your souls."

II Thessalonians 3:5  "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."

Dear Lord,

It seems that You are emphasizing one theme repeatedly in my life over the past few hours.  Patience.  

None of us likes it when patience becomes the virtue of the day in the divine classroom of life. I don't like it. It feels disciplinary! But I yield to the convicting pressure of Your Holy Spirit's insistent instruction. This truth is apparently my need.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Impatience makes for division... Impatience disrupts community... it is a failure in the testing of faith... But our patience depends not upon people, but upon Jesus Christ and his patience on the cross. He bore the impatience of all people and so can forgive them... How little importance we attach to constancy, firmness, and faithfulness! In the Scriptures they are right at the top of the list." (from A Testament to Freedom, 444).

Lord, I want to live in unity, faith, and love with Your Body.  Teach me enduring patience as a witness of a life lived with self-giving love and generosity to my brothers and sisters. I want to reflect Your character of patience.

I have always liked the lines from Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, 

and I--I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.

Chris Lohrstorfer: "We think it's romantic to take the road less traveled. No. The road less traveled is hard. That's why it is less traveled. The easy way, though, has lots of traffic" (There's No Place Like Home).

Patience.

John Maxwell: "God prepares leaders in a slow-cooker, not in a microwave oven. More important than the awaited goal is the work God does in us while we wait. Waiting deepens and matures us, levels our perspective, and broadens our understanding. Tests of time determine whether we can endure seasons of seemingly unfruitful preparations, and indicate whether we can recognize and seize the opportunities that come our way."

Patience.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "The freer we are from ease and indolence and personal claims, the more ready we shall be for patience."

So, Lord, everything I am reading over the past two days repeats Your one word sermon of love to me: "Patience."  

I confess that I need Your gift of patience in my marriage, my home, my work, my worship, my quiet time. I hear You saying that any defense of my impatience which says, "That's just the way I am" defies Your aim and desire to transform my character more into Your likeness.  I love You. I need You. I want to be like You.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

Knowing You

I Corinthians 2:1 "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

Philippians 3:7-11 "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Lord Jesus,

Thank you for the privilege of knowing You.  The moment I feel like I know You completely, I realize that I have barely known You past an introduction. But, oh, how I long to know You.

Thank You for Your invitation into Your Presence. Thank You for the welcome I find in You.

Remove any obstructions from my life that prevent me from knowing You. Empty me of other relationships, hobbies, attractions, habits and interests that compete with knowing You. Leave only that which complements the intimacy of my knowing You. 

Lord Jesus, may the light of Your Presence, the light of knowing You, illuminate any trash in my life that You demand to incinerate in Your blazing Presence. Then, like Moses' burning bush, set me aflame with Your consuming power, not to destroy me, but to use me for Your glory. 

Consume me with the the effusiveness of elation, the constancy of conviction, the delight of Your drawing, the magnetism of Your majesty, the happiness of knowing Your heart, and the joy of Jesus. Enfold me in the intimacy of knowing You.

Then launch me out into a hurting world with the radiance of Your grace, the winsomeness of Your holiness, the beauty of Your character, and the attractiveness of Your witness. Fill me with You so that I carry the aroma of Your fragrance into my world. Draw the spiritually hungry to the Your scent upon me. Convict Your enemies with the nausea of their revulsion to Your character upon Your child, until they come to You for relief from the the spiritual sickness of sin. 

Lord Jesus, I want to know You. Deepen my walk. Intensify our passion. Increase my knowledge. Help me to recognize Your softest whisper, Your nearly unnoticeable nudge, Your gracious gift of Yourself to me. I want to know You now, until I see You face to face in heaven, where I experience complete knowledge of You. Fit me today for that glorious day to come.

Walk with me in that knowledge today. I love You. I need You.

Amen

"For such a time as THIS."

Esther 4:14

I Corinthians 1:27-31

Dear God,

I am pondering the challenge of living in this world today. Police shootings, social chaos, family upheaval, the decline of order, political candidates without character, and a total loss of civility in our national discourse. We live in challenging times.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from a German prison in the latter months of World War II: "I can only say that I have no wish to live in another time than our own, even though it is so inconsiderate of our outward well-being."

Bonhoeffer was executed, a martyr for his faith in Christ, on April 9, 1945. One short month later, on May 8, 1945, V-E Day was declared. The Allied forces had defeated the demonic Third Reich.

These words of Bonhoeffer call to mind the words of Mordecai to Esther: " For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

You blessed those words of Mordecai to my mother when she was carrying me in her womb. They are ever with me as Your banner over my life, motivating, challenging, inspiring, and warning me. Thank you for the promise and hope I find in them.

This morning I am pondering the words of Paul to the Corinthian Church: "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.'" (I Corinthians 1:26-31).

So, I confess to You that I don't feel terrifically wise, significant, or important. But I know I am called. I know that You do the calling. Certain that I furnish weakness, I depend upon Your strength. Certain of my baseness, I assert Your glory. I trust Your righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to be all of the glory I need today. 

I love You. I worship You. I praise You, and thank You.  I will serve... "for such a time as this."

In the Name of my ever-living Lord,

Amen.