The God Who Does Not Weaponize Our Sins

Have you ever felt the sting of people bringing up old faults, failings, or sins that you thought had already been dealt with? Have you ever watched the deadly and divisive dominos begin falling as their spreading of gossip and slander about these things steals, kills, and destroys relationships you thought were yours forever? 

This morning I was getting to know God in a Higher/Deeper experience relating to how he deals with me regarding my sin, and I suddenly came to this realization: God does not WEAPONIZE my sins! 

Let me show you how I got there because it may very well be the journey you need to make as well. It began with this scripture: 

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

    and passing over transgression

    for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

    because he delights in steadfast love.[1]

First, the question is, “Who is a God like you?” 

The answer is, “no one!!!” 

However, the effect of this reality is wonder, and worship, and praise, and relief, and thanksgiving, and peace, and joy, and rest, that this God, the one who has no counterpart in any other religion or people, is OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN!!![2] 

Second, what is it about this only true God that is the focus of Micah’s praise and worship? 

Answer: that this only and true God pardons iniquity and passes over transgression. 

Third, what is the impact on me that the God who has made sure I know him wants me to know this about him? 

Answer: that I can face how utterly sinful I am in the glory of his presence because he does not bring up my sins to condemn them, but to pardon them. 

Here is the piercing wonder for me this morning: for God to pardon my iniquities, it means he does not hold them against me. For God to pass over my transgression, it means he does not stop and build a monument to my sins so I can never forget them. 

Not only do I say, “Who is a God like you?”, but I also add, “Who is a PERSON like you?” 

Among people, and especially among those claiming to be God’s people, there is no one like our God who only addresses my iniquity to pardon it (not use it against me), and only confronts my transgressions in order to pass them over, and to let me know he is doing so. 

And then it hit me: God does not WEAPONIZE my sins! 

I’m sure you can imagine how it feels when our sins are weaponized against us. Too many of us have had people who have turned our sins against us (even sins they have imagined or manufactured). But God wants us to know this about him, that he does not weaponize our sins to club us to death with them. 

Now, if you’re wondering how “bad” our sins are, consider these scriptures: 

·         “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”[3]

·         “without faith it is impossible to please him”[4]

·         “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”[5] 

And yet, with such a hopeless measurement of what is sinful, God wants me to know my poverty of spirit, mourn my not-good-enough condition, meekly admit my failure by surrendering to Jesus’ authority, and let myself hunger and thirst for the righteousness of faith in the faith that he will satisfy me with the faith I long for![6] 

Application: I am going through a season of grieving that is every bit as real as losing loved ones. However, any self-dependent trying to fix what is broken is not by faith, therefore it is sin. Trying to get back what God has taken away is not by faith no matter how grief protests.[7] 

Which means that, somehow, in all my grieving and attachment-pain, God’s one concern is that I attach to him in faith, do only what is joining his work by faith, and leave everything else in his hands, also by faith, and all with the faith that none of my sins and failures are being held against me by him! 

I feel a big sigh of resignation. I am a grieving child who is loved in my incompleteness and immaturity. I am loved as I talk with Father about my childish ideas and perceptions while he already knows what he is doing with thoughts and intentions and ways so infinitely above my own. 

All of this is a wonder to me, and I go into this day truly wondering what he is going to do with this work of his: to silence my heart in its striving to fix my grief and to help me experience knowing him as “who is a God like you?” more than I have ever known him like this before. 

Now I must join him by letting go of all others and resting only in what he himself is doing. It is too big for me. However, knowing this is today’s blessing. And my childish grieving heart is comforted.

 

© 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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[1] Micah 7:18

[2] I mean this only for those people who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior so they are born-again into the adoption that is theirs forever.

[3] Romans 14:23

[4] Hebrews 11:6

[5] James 4:17

[6] Based on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12

[7] I say this based on the book of Job where Job responded to all his losses by saying, “‘Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh’” (Job 1:21).

Many Thoughts About God’s Thoughts About Me

 

First thought: God’s knows my thoughts so intimately that he knows the difference between my praying and my thinking, between my meditating on his word and my racing down a rabbit trail, between my surrendering to his will in patient expectation and running ahead into my preplanning propensity. 

Second thought: that I had to look up the expression, “discerns my thoughts from afar,” because it just jumped into my head. 

Third thought: looking up Psalm 139:2 expanded my awe and wonder as I read this verse: “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” I particularly wanted to know what “discern”[1] means in the Hebrew and smiled as I knew that God knew I was wondering this! 

Fourth thought: that the whole paragraph in context blows my mind with wonder and worship at God’s word to my heart that he knows me more intimately and personally and lovingly and caringly than any human being ever could satisfy. 

O Yahweh, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

    you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

    and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

    behold, O Yahweh, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

    and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

    it is high; I cannot attain it.[2]         

Fifth thought: as I put this scripture alongside what I have been exploring in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 3, it emphasizes in blazing clarity that THE BATTLE IS FOR OUR MINDS!!! The whole armor of God listed in Ephesians 6 (truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, word of God, prayer, proclamation) happens in our minds. 

Sixth thought: God is emphasizing this morning that his attachment to what goes through my mind calls for deliberate and devoted attachment to what comes from his mind. This is seen in: 

·  The fact that his focus is what is going on in my mind[3]

·  The fact that the scriptures, no matter which ones, are all speaking truth in love to our minds so our minds will attach to God’s mind[4]

·  We have been given the mind of Christ in the church[5] which requires us to deliberately and willfully attach to Jesus personally so we can know the mind of Christ in the mind of the Spirit

·  And, as we let the scriptures invade our minds, they all lead us to “Set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”[6] 

Seventh thought (conclusion): whoever is winning at getting the attention of our minds determines whether our actions are the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of the flesh.[7] Although we may irritate each other with loving challenges about what goes on in our minds, even this willingness to stay together in negative emotions is affected by who has the attention of our minds. 

Which brings me to one more thing, something I was reminded of yesterday on my prayer walk when I was praying through Colossians 3 for everyone. Although verse 3 was the one that originally drew me to this chapter (“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”), it is so clear that the whole section[8] is Paul appealing to the minds of the believers to direct them to godly actions and behaviors. 

Which led me to this expression that so clearly is a focus on where we put our minds: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (vs 16). 

I was particularly drawn to “admonish” because it is the thing that the majority of church people (home churches included) have not wanted from me. It means, “to warn or counsel in terms of someone’s behavior.”[9] This immediately brings a replay of so many situations where my warnings have been treated with contempt, and my counsel has been utterly rejected, and with no repentance or reconciliation even after people experienced the fruit of the world, the flesh, and the devil, instead of the fruit of the word, the spirit (ours), and the Triune God they were invited to. 

As I look at what I know I am doing today (as far as anyone can know such things), I get a sense of how God is directing me to keep my thoughts on him in preparation for what I will face. I hope for divine appointments to invade my day as well because I love God’s surprises of what was on his mind for me that I had no idea about. I also expect to have to battle sarky (fleshly) thoughts in order to choose where I set my mind because these battles literally come with the territory.[10] 

However, I know I will be so blessed as I set my mind on all these things because it will increase my awe and wonder that God so intimately knows my mind and loves me through everything that goes on in there, always leading my lamby little thoughts to hear his voice and follow him where he leads. 

And, I set my mind on, “Yes, Lord!” to the glory of God and the good of his people.

 

© 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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[1] Discern: “to understand (cognitive) v. — to perceive (an idea or situation) mentally” (Bible Sense Lexicon from Logos Bible Systems).

[2] Psalm 139:1-6 with “Yahweh” (God’s personal name) replacing “the LORD”.

[3] Philippians 4:8

[4] Romans 8:6; Ephesians 4:23

[5] I Corinthians 2:16

[6] Colossians 3:2

[7] Galatians 5:16-26

[8] Colossians 3:1-17

[9] Bible Sense Lexicon in Logos Bible Systems

[10] The larger context of my time in the word is still Paul’s focus on our battle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 in context of Ephesians 6:10-20)

God’s “But as For Me” Clause

This is the verse I am praying through:

7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD;

    I will wait for the God of my salvation;

    my God will hear me. (Micah 7)

This is a summary of how I meditate on God’s word (give deep, serious, wondering, explorative, and prayerful thought), and how meditating on this testimony from God’s word has helped me this morning. 

“But as for me”

This tells me that, even in nations and churches that has so much corruption in them, and that are so deserving of judgment for the one and discipline for the other, God has provided a “but as for me” clause that allows us to be and live differently no matter how lonely (and scary) it may feel to do so. 

“I will look to the LORD”

While the world and the worldly church look to their idols, we are just as free to look to Yahweh in the name of Jesus Christ as were all the prophets who saw God’s judgment on the way, in the midst of its application, or in its aftermath. We cannot be stopped from setting our minds on the Spirit and fixing our eyes on Jesus except by our own willingness to look elsewhere. God’s invites us to be mentored by Micah and the other prophets to look to Jesus no matter what anyone else is doing and no matter what it costs us to do so.

“I will wait for the God of my salvation”

While we are mocked for this, Jesus’ servants are the ones who will not be ashamed in the end. And it is the end that matters. We all see how quickly time passes. Our lives truly are but a dream. The end of the wicked is so horrible that it doesn’t matter how much success they appear to have in their evil and idolatrous pursuits, we must not be them. At the same time, the end of the righteous is so gloriously wonderful and joyful that we can and must wait for our God to fulfil the completeness of our salvation.

“my God will hear me.”

Sometimes this is where we must put our hearts to rest. We cannot stop the judgment coming on the world, and we obviously cannot guarantee what any other church-folk choose to do, but we can rest in the confidence that our God does hear us and he will continue to do so even if we must bear the consequences of the judgment coming to others (like Joshua and Caleb, along with all the prophets, had to endure what others had brought on their people).

There are lots of thoughts of the personal application of this to our situations, but the testimony of Micah resonates for all God’s children. No matter what anyone does to dishonor our Lord Jesus Christ, the “but as for me” clause gives us an out. We have a way to walk in the obedience of faith to the glory of God, and even to the good of those people who are too afraid to follow him, by BEING who we are in Christ so that others will want to know how we walk in hope when the world around us is so utterly hopeless.

 

© 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.)

 

The Heart of What is Good

Here is a good dose of encouragement in point-form.

 

1.     Encouragement to see the wonders of what these Scriptures tell us of the heart of God for our hearts.

2.    Encouragement to have our own daily time with God in his word and prayer so that we can find his treasures of wisdom and knowledge for ourselves.

3.    Encouragement to share your testimony of spending time with God with fellow believers to see how your puzzle pieces and theirs together show the picture of God’s good, acceptable and perfect will.

 

Theme verse:

         

8 He has told you, O man, what is good;

    and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6)

 

1.     There is no excuse for idolatry since God has already spoken of what is good.

2.    None of this can be done outwardly while the heart is inwardly turned to idols.

 

22 And Samuel said,

 

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

    as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

    and to listen than the fat of rams. (I Samuel 15)

 

1.     God speaks. He doesn’t wait to hear from us, but speaks for us to hear from him.

2.    God has “great delight” in relation to his children and guides us to attach to him in his great delight for our joy.

3.    Listening and obeying are his greatest delight because we are attached to him.

4.    Burnt offerings and sacrifices performed while our hearts are attached to idols mean nothing to him even though he prescribed them. They cannot be done independent of loving Yahweh our God.

 

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6)

 

1.     There is a way in which keeping the externals of the old covenant without love and attachment to Yahweh is not even the old covenant (as all the religiosity of the Roman Catholic church is not truly Christian).

2.    God’s “desire” means, “to delight (take) v. — to take a high degree of pleasure or mental satisfaction in.” This is what he WANTS with us!

3.    Steadfast love is the loyal hesed-love God reveals in the Old Testament that corresponds to the agapè-love we read about in the New Testament.

4.    The “knowledge of God” is a complete package, as we would think of someone really knowing us. It cannot be done without heart-attachment.

 

6 “So you, by the help of your God, return,

    hold fast to love and justice,

    and wait continually for your God.” (Hosea 12)

 

1.     The Repentance part: God is ready to help us “return”, which means, “to repent ⇔ return v. — to turn away from sin, conceived of as returning to God or returning from a location.” What a wonder this is that he wants such sinful idolaters to return to him to have the same level of intimate attachment as we could have had if we had never sinned!

2.    The Faith part: to attach to hesed-love and justice.

3.    The Hope part: to wait in faith regarding future things.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

    I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

    I will not look upon them. (Amos 5)

 

1.     God is not denying his covenant, that if we were to come to him according to all his provisions in the law he would not receive us.

2.    God is denying the fake religion, where people want to have their safety with God while their hearts are attached to idols (what James refers to as adultery).

 

24 But let justice roll down like waters,

    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5)

 

1.     Instead of outer observances with sinful hearts, God wants to see the reality of justice where his people want what is right without favoritism, partiality, or self-justification.

2.    The righteousness is not good behavior that earns his favor, but hearts that are genuinely flowing with righteousness because of our attachment to him.

 

Conclusion: Everything is telling me/us that God knows our hearts. Even if we don’t see him sifting everyone before our eyes, he is testing hearts. He may come to a different assessment about us or others because he alone knows each person’s heart. He alone knows how to factor in the heart-condition that is traumatized in relation to the sinful outward behaviors. None of us have that ability.

 

Which means:

 

8 He has told you, O man, what is good;

    and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6)

 

Yes, Lord!

 

         

© 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.)

 

 

 

My Early Prayer for What is Good

I woke early with to the sub-conscious sound of my alarm going off. This has happened before where I was aware that I could hear my alarm ringing in my dream-world and awoke to realize it was real. This time I awoke to quiet. No alarm ringing. I took it that God had set an inner alarm for me to get up and pray. 

I am always curious if God wakes us up because there is some individual who is in spiritual trouble and needs our intercession, or whether there is some event about to happen the wrong way and he wants his children to be part of his work to intervene with the fellowship of our prayers. Whatever the case, even if we never know the answers to such thoughts, God has us up to be who we are in Christ, and to add our prayers to the glorious fragrance of the incense that rises to his throne.[1] 

The Prayer-Theme 

As I settled into some intercessory prayer-journaling, I began expressing myself to our Father in heaven according to my theme verse from Micah:  

       

He has told you, O man, what is good;

    and what does Yahweh require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God?[2]

 

The Prayer for What is Good 

My first focus on prayer was for God himself to do whatever good he deemed best for anything at all, and to lead me into his good towards others. Since “good” means morally excellent, my request was for God to teach this to all his children, particular ones who aren’t getting along, and guide us into the goodness of our God. There was a sense in which I both knew what to expect in his reply while knowing that I couldn’t guess where I would see him answering my prayer. 

The Prayer For What is Required 

My next focus was to ask God to let the feeling of “requirement” fall on us all. If he has already told us what he requires of us, we need the sense that there is an obligation for us to go looking for what it is. In this case, there is the sense that grace does require obedient faith and does everything needed to take our hand and enable us to do so.[3] Since so many church-folk struggle with the performance-mindset, my intercession included the focus on this being something we understand as the gracious gift of relationship rather than the law-based burden of rules and regulations. 

The Prayer to Do Justice 

Thirdly, I began praying God’s “do justice” into my personal situations. I asked him to do the justice he requires for this day, but to also lead me into doing justice myself. I know that we will not see ultimate justice towards the world until the Great White Throne judgment.[4] However, there is still a sense in which we cry out to God for justice all the time anyway.[5] 

The definition of justice is: “judgment involved in the determination of rights and the assignment of rewards and punishments.”[6] My praying is that God would determine the precise reality of rights in all the situations he wants me to pray for, and all the circumstances I will face today, and that he would assign the rewards and punishments that are required for justice to be done. 

The Personal Application of Prayer 

I asked the same for myself, that I would have the freedom to relate to everyone justly, not showing favoritism to anyone based on any kind of preferred relationship, but to have such a love of justice, rightness, realness, and truth, that I am free to attach to those who love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ no matter who they are, and treat all who are against Jesus with the same prayers that his kindness would lead them to repentance[7] so they can turn or return to God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strengths.[8]

God’s Preferences in Prayer 

I then looked at a variety of Scriptures that affirm the realities expressed in the context of Micah 6:8, particularly that God repeatedly tells his people that he isn’t interested in their burnt offerings, sacrifices, worship, and songs while they are serving idols. The real worship is in repentance and faith, summarized by these expressions: “obeying the voice of Yahweh,” and “to listen”;[9] “steadfast love,” and “the knowledge of God”;[10]“by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God,”[11] and, ”let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”[12] 

The point is that God is looking for our hearts, that we would experience him working in all of us without favoritism or partiality. He will address idolatry in all of us as he answers our prayers. He will lead us to trust and obey, to walk in agapè-love, to prefer the personal knowledge of God to any idols, and to love expressing justice and righteousness in all that we do. 

Submission to God’s Answers 

There are situations I am facing where I am grieved by what I see happening among God’s people. Some of the circumstances have a very clear expression of God’s will in his word and yet no opportunity to carry it out as described. God has given his solutions that fulfill doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God, but they are not desired. The idol of self-protection has far more authority than the clearly revealed will of God[13] and I must pray accordingly. But God’s thoughts are still higher than my thoughts and his ways higher than my ways,[14] so I can’t tell him how exactly to respond. I only know that I must pray according to his will and then wait patiently for him to answer however is best. 

The Prayer of Faith 

Because it is clearly God’s will for us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God, we can pray in faith that we ourselves would live this to the full, and that the body of Christ with us would unite in such fellowship. We will then see how our hearts respond to each person without favoritism and partiality, seeking God’s best for each one while humbly watching for his surprising way of working. 

A Day’s Encouragement 

My praying this morning was encouraged along by a divine appointment I had yesterday where someone trying to sell me on donating to a cause heard the good news of the free gift of salvation for the first time in his life. I felt such joy in introducing him to the reality of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” and explaining the wonders of what this meant. It feels like an open door to continue, and so I must wait patiently for another opportunity. However, there is no doubt that the sharing of the good news of great joy fills us with joy because of the richness of God’s gift of grace. 

Conclusion 

The bottom line is that, the way God satisfied his own justice on the cross so he could express kindness towards us for our repentance and faith calls us to ask God to do justice, to express his love of kindness, and lead us to humbly walk with him while we submit to his will that we ourselves would do everything in justice, love expressing kindness, and walk humbly with our God however he leads. The longings we pray in intercession for ourselves and others will be answered in Jesus’ name.

 

© 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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[1] Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4

[2] Micah 6:8

[3] Romans 1:5; 16:26

[4] Matthew 25:31-46

[5] Luke 18:7

[6] Bible Sense Lexicon of Logos Bible Software

[7] Romans 2:4

[8] Deuteronomy 30:2

[9] I Samuel 15:22

[10] Hosea 6:6

[11] Hosea 12:6

[12] Amos 5:24

[13] Larry Crabb warned me about this in his book, “Inside Out”, back around 1990.

[14] Isaiah 55:9