I was up early and literally overwhelmed with how many
treasures of wisdom and knowledge God was revealing in his word!
First, I still have in mind Paul’s prayer of Colossians 1:9-14.
I have it printed out on 4x6 file cards to share with others. My copy is taped
to the side of my computer where I pray through it on a daily basis. It is
shaping my heart, and soul, and mind, to long for my heavenly Father’s name to
be hallowed around me, his kingdom to come into everything I do, and his will
be done in real life here and now as it is done in heaven always.
Second, I am in awe of God regarding the way he is using the
example of the evil king Manasseh to show how he will hear and answer the
prayer of any sinner who repents and returns to God in faith. I
shared about this yesterday in my Vlog post about him. It
is so encouraging to know that God receives any sinner who repents and calls
out to God in Jesus’ name.
Third, this uncovered a vein of gold in the book of Hebrews
regarding how to relate to the hardship of hostility by attaching to God as the
Father who lovingly disciplines me as his son.
And, fourth, I suddenly found myself worshipping the Lord Jesus
Christ for the gift of thinking! Yes, THINKING!!!
It came from the first word in this verse:
“CONSIDER him who endured from sinners such hostility against
himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”
Consider: to
think about carefully v. — to think about actively, with effort and precision.
I am in awe of God that he would let me feel the negative
and positive of this at the same time. I feel like a seasoned veteran of the
Beatitudinal Valley who bears with the downside of all the humbling that takes
place because the reality of the upside of becoming like Jesus is such a
treasure of grace.
The negative side of this thinking and considering is to be
reminded of all the hardships and heartaches people have gone through under my
watch because they have not wanted to THINK. They have been so afraid of hidden
and secret things inside them that they would rather turn off their mind and
brain from thinking about anything to do with God at all than to endure the few
moments of thinking about the festering pains of the past in order to know Jesus
Christ as the healer of the brokenhearted and the binder of our wounds in the
present.
As a pastor, I grieve the damage that not wanting to THINK
has done to people! I have experienced a lot of hurt from people who have rejected
me because they were rejecting where God was taking them. However, that is
minor compared to the hurt they have caused themselves by hardening their
hearts against the mercies of God that are new every morning, even in our valleys
of discipline.
This is a huge lesson in life for me, that not THINKING causes
far more pain than anything I have ever had to feel by letting myself think
about what I have done, or what has been done to me, or how my relationship
with God and people has been affected by the wounds and the sins of life.
On the positive side, this tells me how I can overcome the
daily grind of hostility that tends to wear us down so we “grow weary or
fainthearted”. It is by CONSIDERING Jesus.
Using the definition of “consider” as above (“to
think about carefully v. — to think about actively, with effort and precision”):
- I am to think about Jesus “ACTIVELY”. In the Bible, meditation means to think actively about God and his word. It is like a cow chewing its cud, bringing up thoughts, thinking them over, coming back to them again, processing them through new experiences, so that we get as much spiritual nutrition out of the word of God as is possible. The writer of Hebrews is calling us to this meditation on Jesus, where we actively give ourselves to all kinds of thoughts about him all the time so that we are transformed through the renewal of our minds.
- I am to think about Jesus “WITH EFFORT”.
A fear-based identity that has never faced the pain of childhood trauma has
difficulty with this. I get it. I know all about it. However, I also know the
value of effort in pain. The older I get, the more I am aware that I need to
put up with pain to maintain good health. My exercise routine gets more
difficult with age, but I am regularly quite thankful that I put in the effort
to press through something I wasn’t enjoying in order to get the good results. If
there is a reward to effort in such mundane (and temporary) earthly pursuits,
how much more in giving effort to our thinking about the hostility our Savior
endured from sinful people so we will grow in our health for enduring the same
kinds of things.
- I am to think about Jesus “WITH PRECISION”.
This has been such a blessing to me as of late, that everything to do with God
and his word is true. Even my hobby-horse of exploring creation science has repeatedly
proven the world’s beliefs false while glorifying the word of God for being
true. There is no benefit in people giving a lot of thought and consideration
to Jesus when they are following the lies and deceptions of the evil one. We
MUST let God change our minds from all that is false about Jesus and think hard
about him with precision that holds to the whole counsel of God about our
Savior (and everything, of course).
When I look at the
hostility that has been expressed in churches over the decades, I see a pattern
of people suddenly deciding they do not want to THINK. They do not want to
FEEL. They do not want to THINK about FEELING. This is particularly painful for
me because one of my earliest lessons about pastoring included the warning that
God’s people would be more committed to self-protection than to knowing and doing
the will of God. I will just say that I have felt this as
personally as anything could be felt as people beloved to me have walked away
because the pain of thinking was greater than any benefit of attaching to me,
or to God with me.
However, the grace
of God continually calls me to THINK about Jesus, to CONSIDER him, and to let
myself FEEL the weight of the hostility he experienced against himself. And in
the consideration of what HE endured, I will find his strength keeping me from
growing weary or fainthearted on one side, but then leading me in the positive
focus of “running with endurance the race that is set before us” while, “looking
to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despise the shame, and is seated at the right hand
of the throne of God.”
Do I wish that the hostility
was outside Jesus’ church rather than inside? Yes.
Do I wish we were
enduring the world’s hostility together as local expressions of the body of Christ
and letting God’s discipline make us like Jesus? Yes.
However, does God
reward us individually as we press on to keep THINKING hard about Jesus and his
suffering so that we can endure the injustices we face even when we are
disowned, slandered, and rejected? Yes.
Here is Jesus’ invitation in his own words:
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous
and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
My time with God this morning was gladly opening the door to Jesus
so I can consider what he endured for me to help me endure hardship and discipline
for him. I know the fellowship with my Savior will grow stronger as I persevere.
However, I share this in the hope that it has helped you consider our Savior
with me, so you can also “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his
might.”
© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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