It is good to end the week by gathering the
puzzle pieces of each day’s time with God and consider the picture that has
come together. This week the pieces seemed to come through much digging in the
quarry, and painful discoveries of heart and soul. As usual, and as promised, God
worked it all together for good (Romans 8:28).
Lesson one: Beloved (I John 4:1)
As I read the New Testament letters to the
churches, I am to read as one who is beloved, not only to God, but to my elders
in the church.
Lesson two: Beloved (I John 4:1)
John was writing as an elder who saw the
rest of the church as “beloved."
As I grow up, I must open my heart to the beloved identity of my whole family
in Jesus Christ.
Lesson three: Our Joy (I John 1:4)
John’s aim in writing his letter was, “to make our joy complete." John’s
joy could only be complete as his readers joined in fellowship with God and his
people in order to live by the words that God has given us through the writers
of Scripture.
Lesson four: Joy-walk (III John 1:3-4)
John explains why his joy is affected by “our joy” when he writes, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children are walking in the truth.” When we receive the words of God
through John’s letters, and the other writings of the New Testament, and we all
walk in the truth together, the leaders who are leading us to walk in the truth
share in the fullness of joy that we also experience as we find our joy in walking
in the truth.
Lesson five: God-lessons in prayer (Psalm
86:11)
“Teach
me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your
name.” As God stirs our hearts with this hope of completeness of joy
through the fellowship of walking in the truth (who doesn’t like a good walk
with friends?), he also teaches us how to pray that he would teach us how to
walk in his truth. It was of very special interest to me that David asked God
to unite his heart to fear God’s name. Our divided hearts need such a prayer,
and such a hope.
Lesson six: God-lessons in answered
prayer (I John 5:14-15)
“And
this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” God
teaches us to pray that he would teach us to walk in his truth because he
answers such prayers that are so clearly according to his will. And, he does
this so that we can know complete joy in fellowship with him and his people.
Lesson seven: Heart-to-heart joy-sharing
Two things happened this week that encouraged
me in the practical necessity of seeking out the kind of fellowship that leads
to completing our joy.
First, I was encouraged to share with our
home church more personally than usual. The result was that others felt a lot
of encouragement in knowing how I was doing. It made my processing of God’s
word all the more real to them, and had this strange effect of doing something
unusual to build up our mutual joy. Hmmm…
Second, on a day when I seemed plagued with
a strange degree of negative thoughts (likely something to do with God teaching
me that being beloved had nothing to do with good behavior), when I mentioned
the troubling thoughts, the response immediately exposed that I didn’t have a
clue what I was thinking about. My sark/flesh was busted (once again), and I
realized in a far deeper way why we must seek the most honest fellowship with
God and his people. Devoting ourselves to this kind of fellowship (Acts 2:42)
makes sure that the sarky thoughts have no time to take root in our souls. God
has much better things for us to think and do (Philippians 4:8-9).
Conclusion: After a week of prayerful
meditation on God’s word, along with the interaction of the church family helping
me see how God was doing the things he was speaking about, I found that my
joy-levels had gone through a bit of a Beatitudinal journey (Matthew 5:1-12).
First, I had to face the poverty of my
spiritual experience of “beloved.” It was bad enough that I found myself
mourning whatever was wrong inside me. In short order, I was meekly aware that
there was no way I was the one to fix this. And that led to me hungering and
thirsting to know the deepest possible experience of what this whole “beloved”
relationship is supposed to feel like.
The result was that I could see how the
experience of mercy conditioned me to be more merciful. The cleansing of sarky
thoughts brought about greater heart-purity. This maturing purity of heart made
me want to be a true peacemaker (instead of peacekeeper). And, the desire to
bring people to know the kind of peace with God that completes our joy added
shape to my increasing freedom to rejoice when fellowship with God and his
people brings about unjust and unfair suffering.
It all left me feeling another wave of
wonder at the real, daily, transforming, experiences God’s children have in his
word and prayer. As Paul said, “And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18).
This week showed that the journey to Christ-likeness
will traverse painful discoveries about ourselves that are necessary to our
transformation. Poverty of spirit leads to the hungering for righteousness by
faith that God can satisfy. The more we feel the satisfaction of a
righteousness that comes by faith, the more we will move closer to God and his
people in the kind of fellowship that completes our joy.
Your move.
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures
are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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