Stopping God

April 8 (1 Corinthians 2:13)

[W]e speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.  (ESV)

Do you realize how much power human beings have?  We can be laid low by a cold or a papercut, but we are so powerful that we can actually stop God from accomplishing His will.  We only have to say no.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, and so He did.  The Holy Spirit lives within us and, among other things, He speaks to us the words of God.  When we need to offer a word of encouragement or rebuke, when we need to explain or teach a matter of spiritual significance, God does not leave us on our own.  He speaks through the Holy Spirit and gives us what we need to say.  Yet unbelievably we thwart this divine guidance with our second-guessing.  We waffle, we reconsider, and we hesitate.  We become Prufrock, the pathetic character in Eliot’s poem, for whom “in a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

Bold is the life lived in Jesus Christ.  When we are fully surrendered to Him, when we see everyone and everything through His gaze, we can speak and act confidently in this world, for it will not be we who speak and act, but rather God working through us.  Yet we can always resort to weakness, and with fear and timidity halt the very plans of God.

Lord, may every inspiration of the Holy Spirit find its fulfillment in my words and deeds.  May I die to myself so that, fully alive in You, I may be Your willing servant on earth.  When I pray as You taught, that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, may I be Your good instrument and never an obstacle to the working out of that will.  In the name of Jesus, Who was obedient even to the cross, amen.

Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

Successful Or Godly?

March 5 (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, “Let us go after other gods,” which you have not known, “and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your Godis testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  (ESV)

You have a flat tire.  What do you do?  You could call roadside assistance for a tow.  You could put on your spare.  You could use a patch kit you keep with you.  You could run across the highway, sneak into a neighborhood, steal a tire from someone else, return to your vehicle, hold up another motorist at gunpoint, force him to put the stolen tire on your car, and go on your merry way.  There is nearly an infinite number of ways to do anything, but which one is right?

A method that leads to success may not be one that honors God.  A popular, tried and true way of doing something, one that everyone else thinks is a good idea, may not be what God wants.  We live in an increasingly godless age.  Strategies and programs in our schools, our businesses, and our governments may indeed produce results and get success, yet do they honor God in the process?  Worse still, is there some aspect of them that actually leads people away from God?

Hopefully we try to make decisions for our lives based on scriptural principles.  But what about out in the world?  Will we follow the plan that the board or committee comes up with, even if it stands opposed to His word?  What if it is our supervisor’s idea?   What if it is the way they have always done things in our child’s school or sports team?  Will we love God more than a successful idea?

Jesus, there are so many things that look good and seem right.  May the Holy Spirit guide me to see which ones truly are.  Help me to have the strength to do what is right the way You did when You stood up to the leaders of Your day, even though it cost You Your life.  Amen.

Copyright © 2017 by Steven R. Perkins

To Do Only God's Will

February 26 (Numbers 22:18)

But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more.  (ESV)

I love things that are bold and in your face.  It’s why I like aggressive music by bands like Stryper, King James, and Chaotic Resemblance.  It’s why I like the strong rhythm and rhymes of Alexander Pope’s poetry and a basketball game with run-and-gun action that goes down to the buzzer.  It’s why I have always admired people like Balaam.

Messengers from Balak, the king of Moab, approached Balaam to ask him to curse the Israelites, and this was his answer.  I love his quick, uncompromising response.  Notice, however, that he does not say, “I will not go beyond what God says,” but rather, “I cannot do it.”  For Balaam it is no longer a matter of choice.  He stood on the command of God and could do no other.

I don’t know about you, but I think too much sometimes.  Should I do this?  Should I do that?  Would it better if I went one way or another?  How wonderful it would be to walk so closely with God, to feel the slightest impulse of His will, to love Him so deeply that it was simply not possible to do one thing more or less than what He wanted.

Lord, I pray no less sincerely by using the words of another, but your servant and poet John Donne simply said best how I feel.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you 

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; 

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend 

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. 

I, like an usurp'd town to another due, 

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; 

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, 

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. 

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain, 

But am betroth'd unto your enemy; 

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, 

Take me to you, imprison me, for I, 

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, 

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. 

Copyright © 2017 by Steven R. Perkins

Letting God Work In You

August 14 (Ezekiel 2:1-2)

And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.  (ESV)

I imagine that if you heard God telling you to stand up, you would stand up, but that is not what happened with Ezekiel.  God told him to stand up and then God put him on his feet.  Notice that as God was speaking, the Holy Spirit entered him and accomplished God’s will.

This passage is like an oasis in the desert for those who are driven, high-energy, do everything all the time people.  God calls us to do this or that and then very often is quite willing to do that very thing through us.  Too often we hear a call from God, whether through Scripture or through a direct word in prayer or through someone else, and think to ourselves that it is too much, that it is just one more thing we have to do in an already burdened life.  Instead, God may simply be waiting to see if we will respond in the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, “Let it be to me according to your word.”  (Luke 1:38)

What has God called you to do?  What have you put off because you thought it was beyond your means to accomplish?  It likely was indeed beyond your means, and that is why God is pleased to do it Himself through you.

Lord, I thank You for the gifts and abilities You have given me.  At the same time I want to stop relying on those gifts and abilities and rely directly on You.  Do with me and through me whatever You please.  In the name of my Savior, Jesus, Who modeled the perfect life of surrender, amen.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins