How to Respond When You Falter

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)

Christians do not live only in defeat. But neither do we live only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:13–25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond.

We should say:

I love the law of God. (verse 22)

I hate what I just did. (verse 15)

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (verse 24)

Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord. (verse 25)

In other words, no Christian wants to live in defeat. No Christian settles for living in defeat. But if we are defeated for a time, we shouldn’t lie about it.

No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality.

And even more, God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others.

God, help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

God, give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text! “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25).

John Piper

Have you found your seat?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Why is the empty tomb so glorious? Because it signifies more than just the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. He raised you, too, to walk “in newness of life” (see Romans 6:4).

I have come out of that grave. I have ascended. You have, too, if you are saved.

Where is Christ today? Seated in the heavenlies. Where are you seated? In the same place. You don’t have to die to go to heaven. In Christ, you are seated in the heavenlies right now.

We encourage our brothers and sisters by telling them to “keep looking up,” when we should be saying, “Keep looking down!” You’re already seated in the heavenlies, so you can look down on your problems. You, dear friend, have a brand new life!

ACTION POINT: 

Take a moment and ask God to give you a brand new life or thank Him for the one He has already given you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Better Than Everest

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28, all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty. Outside this promise of God’s all-encompassing future grace, there are straw houses of drugs and pornography and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans. There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and antiballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28.

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakable structure of Romans 8:28, everything changes. There come into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can’t be blown over anymore. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life.

When God’s people really live by the future grace of Romans 8:28 — from measles to the mortuary — they are the freest and strongest and most generous people in the world.

Their light shines and people give glory to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

John Piper

Are Christians just nice people or something else?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus had a life that the grave could not keep. While He carried your sins to the grave and left them there, Jesus came out of that grave living, risen, and victorious!

When Jesus rose, you rose with Him. Christians are not just nice people, they are new creatures. We have the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. We have come out of the grave of the old life. Our old master has no more hold on us. The old debt has no more penalty that we have to pay.

When Jesus came out of that grave, we came out with Him and we have been raised to walk in newness of life.

ACTION POINT:

Are you walking around in the grave clothes of your old life? Shed them, my friend! Jesus came to give you new life! Believe that you are now a new creation in Christ!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Did Jesus literally come out of the grave?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“He is not here: for He is risen.” Matthew 28:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It is a disturbing truth that Jesus Christ literally came out of the grave. You just can’t be neutral about the resurrection. If you are a thinking person, you’re going to have to face the fact of the resurrection.

Either it is true or it is not true. Either He came out of that grave or He did not. Now which side are you on?

You can’t just ball it all up and say, “It doesn’t really make any difference. Let’s just put our arms around everybody. We all believe the same thing.” No, no, no! When you take a stand for truth, you’re going to have a head-on collision with the darkness that doesn’t want the light shining in!

ACTION POINT:

Pray for those in fulltime ministry as they proclaim the truth to a lost world. Pray for God’s protection as they go to the frontline and battle for souls!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Two of Our Deepest Needs

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:1)

We as a church are “in” a Father and “in” a Lord. What does that mean?

The word “Father” implies primarily care and sustaining and protection and provision and discipline. So, to be “in” the Father would mean mainly to be in the care and under the protection of God as our heavenly Father.

The other designation is Lord: We are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Lord” implies primarily authority and leadership and ownership. So, to be “in” the Lord means mainly to be in the charge, under the authority, and in the possession of Jesus as our supreme Lord.

So, Paul greets the Thessalonian church in such a way as to remind them that they are a family (in the care of a Father) and that they are servants (in the charge of a Lord). These two descriptions of God as Father and Lord, and thus of the church as family and servants, correspond to two of our deepest needs.

Every single one of us has a need for rescue and help, on the one hand, and the need for purpose and meaning, on the other.

We need a heavenly Father to pity us and rescue us from sin and misery. We need his help every step of the way, because we are so weak and vulnerable.

We also need a heavenly Lord to guide us in life and tell us what is wise and give us a great and meaningful charge to fulfill, and reason for existence, some usefulness for the way God made us. We don’t just want to be safe in the care of a Father — as precious and needed as that is. We want a glorious cause to live for.

We want a merciful Father to be our Protector, and we want an omnipotent Lord to be our Champion and our Commander and our Leader in some great cause. So, when Paul says in verse 1, You are the church “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” we can take rest and help from the one — God is our Father! And we can take courage and meaning from the other — Jesus is our Lord!

John Piper 

What Binds the Hands of Love?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world. That’s not happening! The people of God are not so full of love to God that they spend half their days in his word.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half loving and repairing what they spend it on.

It’s not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love for the lost and hurting of this world. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles from the dollar store, and the entertainment of the world feels empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

To be sure, he is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love. By expanding my joy in God, no matter the cost, if by any means possible I might include others in it.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love and make them ineffective. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords of selfishness that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4–5).

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.

John Piper