The Real Problem with Anxiety

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30)

Jesus says that the root of anxiety is inadequate faith — “little faith” — in our Father’s future grace.

One reaction to this might be: “This is not good news! In fact, it is very discouraging to learn that what I thought was a mere struggle with an anxious disposition is rather a far deeper struggle with whether I trust God.”

My response to this discouragement is to agree, but then to disagree.

Suppose you had been having pain in your stomach and had been struggling with medicines and diets of all kinds, to no avail. And then suppose that your doctor tells you, after a routine visit, that you have cancer in your small intestine. Would that be good news? You say, emphatically not! And I agree.

But let me ask the question another way: Are you glad the doctor discovered the cancer while it is still treatable, and that indeed it can be very successfully treated? You say, yes, I am very glad that the doctor found the real problem. Again I agree.

So, the news that you have cancer is not good news. But, in another sense, it is good news, because knowing what is really wrong is good, especially when your problem can be treated successfully.

That’s what it’s like to learn that the real problem behind anxiety is “little faith” (as Jesus says) in the promises of God’s future grace. And he is able to work in wonderfully healing ways when we cry out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

John Piper 

What are you worth to Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It is the evening of the Last Supper. Jesus is with His disciples for the final time before His crucifixion. He raises the cup and says, “For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). The word “testament” comes from the Greek word diatheke, which means “covenant.” Our Lord purchased us, but not with silver or gold as a bridegroom would have in that day long ago. He purchased us with the silver of His tears and the gold of His blood. Through His blood we have entered into a covenant with Him. The church is the bride; He is the bridegroom. We are betrothed to Him in a covenant bought with His blood.

ACTION POINT:

Listen to these powerful words from “The Church’s One Foundation,” a great hymn we sing: 

“The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by Spirit and the Word. From Heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.”

Let this powerful truth sink deep into your heart today. Meditate on what it means that Jesus came and sought you, then bought you with His blood.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Meaning of Suffering

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. (Hebrews 11:26)

We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but because the One who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy.

He beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty, or to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, or to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain, but rather to manifest, in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of his all-satisfying promises — the all-satisfying greatness and beauty of his own glory as the fulfillment of all of them.

Moses “[chose] to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. . . . For he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:25–26). Therefore, his obedience glorified the reward — all that God is for him in Christ — not the resolve to suffer.

This is the essence of Christian Hedonism. In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. God himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain.

If we do not communicate that he is the goal and the ground of our joy in suffering, then the very meaning of our suffering will be lost.

The meaning is this: God is gain. God is gain. God himself is gain. That’s the meaning of our suffering.

The chief end of man is to glorify God. And it is truer in suffering than anywhere else that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper 

Got integrity? Here’s what you risk…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:48

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

As Christian citizens, we must abstain from all that’s wrong and approve all that’s right. 

It is character that produces liberty. The reason Americans live in freedom today is because they began as people of character. Don’t let that go past you.

Responsibility and character are two ways of saying the same thing. They’re inseparably linked with liberty. For example, a little baby has no responsibilities. He doesn’t have to worry about anything. Everybody takes care of him. But he has no liberties. He does what he’s told to do. He eats that bland oatmeal and those strained beets. He is bathed and put to bed. No responsibilities…but no liberties.

As he grows in responsibility, he gets more and more liberty. There will come a time when his father will give him the car keys. But if he acts irresponsibly with the car, the father takes the keys and his privilege away. If he acts really irresponsibly, he may wind up in jail and all his liberties are taken away. Liberty is responsibility assumed.

ACTION POINT:

A republic is a government for people with character, and only people with character can maintain it. If we lose our character as a nation, we are going to lose our liberty. If we want to remain free, we must be men and women of character, and raise young men and women of character.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Rejoicing in Pain

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” (Matthew 5:11–12)

Christian Hedonism says that there are different ways to rejoice in suffering as a Christian. All of them are to be pursued as an expression of the all-sufficient, all-satisfying grace of God.

One way of rejoicing in suffering comes from fixing our minds firmly on the greatness of the reward that will come to us in the resurrection. The effect of this kind of focus is to make our present pain seem small in comparison to what is coming: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:16–18). In making the suffering tolerable, rejoicing over our reward will also make love possible.

“Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great” (Luke 6:35). Be generous with the poor “and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). Confidence in this promised reward cuts the cord of worldliness and frees us for the costs of love.

Another way of rejoicing in suffering comes from the effects of suffering on our assurance of hope. Joy in affliction is rooted not only in the hope of resurrection and reward, but also in the way suffering itself works to deepens that hope.

For example, Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

In other words, Paul’s joy is not merely rooted in his great reward, but in the effect of suffering which solidifies the hope of that reward. Affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces a sense that our faith is real and genuine, and that strengthens our hope that we will indeed gain Christ.

So whether we focus on the riches of the reward or the refining effects of suffering, God’s purpose is that our joy in suffering be sustained.

John Piper 

A 3-cent pat of butter cost him a promotion…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I heard about a man who was an executive in a company. They were going to move him up and make him one of the chief executives. The Board of Directors had talked it over, and it was a done deal. It was a monumental advancement. But in the company cafeteria one day, the owner of this company just happened to be behind this man in the cafeteria line. Unbeknownst to him, the CEO saw him take a pat of butter costing about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so the cashier couldn’t see it. The CEO went back to the Board and told them they had the wrong man—he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents, the man lost a monumental promotion and multiple thousands of dollars!

If you have integrity, how much more will your heavenly Father be able to bless you! But if you live like this almost-executive, your Father must say, “I can’t bless him. He doesn’t have integrity in the small things.” God help us to be faithful.

Be faithful in the small things, the secret things. What you are in secret is what you are, nothing more, nothing less.

ACTION POINT:

Are you faithful in the little things? Let this be the beginning of a new day of faithfulness in your life. Remember the little things. God is watching to find you faithful.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Cry Out To You Lord

I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  - Isaiah 43:11

"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.  - Isaiah 43:10

15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. 

16 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. 

17 But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. 

18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. 

19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.' I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. 

20 "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 

21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 

22 "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 

23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.'  - Isaiah 45:15-23

1 With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. 

2 I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.  - Psalm 142:1-2

I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."  - Psalm 142:5

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 

2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 

3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 

4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;  - Psalm 130:1-5

13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 

14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?  - Psalm 88:13-14

1 O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. 

2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! 

3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.  - Psalm 88:1-3