A Life Worthy

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8).

Your heart is not pure.

You will not see God.

Happy Monday.

Well, aren’t we glad that there’s more to the story than that.  Of course your heart is not pure; you know good and well what goes on in there.  I’m in the same boat, and so is everyone you know.  And everyone you don’t.

Praise God that he doesn’t leave us in that boat.

God wants us to see him.  He wants us to have fellowship with him.  And he knows that’s not going to happen if we are left to ourselves.  So he cleanses us, he renews us, he gives us that pure heart that allows us to see him.

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive 

our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Before you go out into your Monday, do us both a favor—get your heart right before God.  Confess what needs confessing, address what needs addressing, let him purify your heart, so that you will see God.

Because, how are you supposed to walk with God if you can’t see him?

Happy Monday, Beloved.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).

Father, grant me the hunger that only you can satisfy,

the thirst that only you can quench.

Create in me an emptiness that you alone can fill.

Sometimes I think I’m complete

but I’m not;

I’m just crowded.

Father of all desire

let me crave

You.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

It’s good to mourn.

Oh maybe not good in the sense of, “Woohooo, my heart is breaking, I’ve lost everything I love—let’s get ice cream and cheesy puffs!”

Not good in that sense.

Good in the sense that it’s a natural part of who we are.  It’s healthy; it shows that we love.  After all, we don’t mourn that which we did not love.

God mourns.  Jesus mourned Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37).  He wept at the grave of Lazarus.  I believe that the Father mourns those who choose to live and die apart from him. When we mourn, we show that we are made in his image.  We reveal the stamp of our Creator.

And when we mourn, we are comforted.

There’s the promise.  The God of all peace, all healing, all love, stands ready to comfort us in our loss.  And that comfort outweighs our pain.

Eventually.

So, once again God invites us to be vulnerable and rest in his protection, to be weak and draw on his strength, to be empty and let him fill us, to be broken and allow him to restore.

When we are weak, he is strong—in us and through us.

What have you lost, Beloved?  What do you mourn?

Walk in his comfort today.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).

Tomorrow is Independence Day.  The day we celebrate our freedom.  Of course, as Americans we celebrate our national and political freedom. As men and women of God, we celebrate our spiritual freedom.  Christ has set us free from our bondage to sin.  He has set us free from our need to try and earn our salvation, to somehow save ourselves.  He has set us free from the stress and worry and angst and anxiety which so often attack us.

Hear me, Beloved.  I’m not saying that those things are gone.  On the contrary, sin and self-righteousness and anxiety are still very much evident in this world and, at times, in our lives.  What I am saying is that you are no longer in bondage to them.

When Paul wrote the above verse to the Galatians he was talking about freedom from the Mosaic Law.  Some Jews had chosen to follow Christ, but still felt compelled to meet the demands of the old covenant.  Paul was pointing out that a person who has Christ no longer needs the old law, and to try and follow it is to be like a slave who, once free, returns to his chains.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that, for some of us, worry and stress operate in the same way as the Mosaic Law.

It’s about power.

The Judaizers liked the Law because it gave them a sense of control over their destinies.  They had rules to follow, stuff to do, that they thought would get them to Heaven.

“But Michael, I don’t worry because I feel powerful.  I worry because I feel powerless.”

Yes, but it’s still about power.  About control.  You worry because you know you are not in control, and you desperately want to be.  Because if you’re not in control, someone else is, and there’s a part of you that just cannot handle that.

I’m in the same boat, by the way.  May I steer?  Of course not.

Sometimes trust seems beyond our grasp.  And without trust, there is no rest.

So let’s pray for trust today, shall we?  I’ll pray for you, and you for me.  Maybe we can both get some rest.

Today is the day to celebrate your independence.

And your dependence.

Happy Fourth, Beloved.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:16-17).

He doesn’t want your stuff.

He doesn’t want your show.

He wants you.

Chew on that for a bit, Beloved.