What Are You Afraid Of?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Matthew 25, we read the parable of the talents. When the master who had distributed the talents came to see the stewardship of those talents, one fearful man had taken his talent and hidden it in the ground. It did not go well for him.

You may have a buried talent, but you’ve been covered up by the sinister minister of fear, who keeps you from achieving your dreams. You say, “But what if I fail?” You can be so afraid of making a mistake that your entire life will be a mistake. The fear of failure keeps so many from competing that they never even get in the race. They just lose by default!

ACTION POINT:

Sir Walter Scott was called a “dunce” by his teachers. Napoleon Bonaparte was next to last in his military class. Thomas Edison’s teacher said he was too “addled or mentally ill” to learn anything. Walt Disney was fired as a cartoonist because the newspaper said he couldn’t draw! It’s not bad to fail. We all will fail. But may God deliver you from the spirit of failure, which is a spirit of fear.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God-Given Foes and God-Given Faith

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ . . . not frightened in anything by your opponents. . . . For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (Philippians 1:27–29)

Paul told the Philippians that living worthy of the gospel of Christ meant fearlessness before enemies. Then he gave the logic of fearlessness.

The logic is this: God has given you two gifts, not just one — faith and suffering. That’s what verse 29 says. “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Granted to you to believe, and granted to you to suffer.

In this context that means: Both your faith in the face of suffering, and your suffering are gifts of God. When Paul says, don’t be frightened by your opponents, he had two reasons in his mind why they don’t need to be frightened:

One reason is that the opponents are in the hand of God. Their opposition is a gift from God. He governs it. That’s the first point of verse 29.

And the other reason not to be afraid is that your fearlessness, that is, your faith, is also in the hand of God. It too is a gift. That is the other point of verse 29.

So the logic of fearlessness in the face of adversity is this double truth: Both your adversity and your faith in the face of adversity are gifts of God.

Why is this called living “worthy of the gospel of Christ”? Because the gospel is the good news that Christ’s blood of the covenant infallibly obtained for all his people the sovereign working of God to give us faith and to govern our enemies — always for our eternal good. That’s what the gospel secured. Therefore, to live that way shows the power and goodness of the gospel.

Therefore, fear not. Your adversaries can do no more than God grants. And he will grant all the faith you need. These promises are blood-bought and sealed. They are gospel promises.

John Piper 

Ready to Make an Honest Confession?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What does it mean to “confess your sins”? It doesn’t mean to simply admit your sin. Lots of people have admitted their sins, but they’ve never confessed their sins.

I’ve spoken to people many times and asked, “Do you know that you’re a sinner?” And they respond, “Yes, I know. We’ve all sinned.” But those people aren’t confessing; all they’re doing is admitting. There is a difference.

The word “confess” is a compilation of two words, “con” and “fess,” which together mean “to agree with,” “to say the same things as….” To confess your sins is to say with God the same thing God says about them.

ACTION POINT:

As you go before the Lord in prayer today, rather than just admitting you’ve sinned, agree with God about your sin. Then ask for His grace to overcome.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Present and Powerful Love

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:35)

Notice three things in Romans 8:35.

1. Christ is loving us now.

A wife might say of her deceased husband: Nothing will separate me from his love. She might mean that the memory of his love will be sweet and powerful all her life. But that is not what Paul means here.

In Romans 8:34 it says plainly, “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The reason Paul can say that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ is because Christ is alive and is still loving us right now.

He is at the right hand of God and is therefore ruling for us. And he is interceding for us, which means he is seeing to it that his finished work of redemption does in fact save us hour by hour, and bring us safely to eternal joy. His love is not just a memory. It is a moment-by-moment action by the omnipotent, living Son of God, to bring us to everlasting joy.

2. This love of Christ is effective in protecting us from separation, and therefore is not a universal love for all, but a particular love for his people — that is, those who, according to Romans 8:28, love God and are called according to his purpose.

This is the love of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” It is Christ’s love for the church, his bride. Christ has a love for all, and he has a special, saving, preserving love for his bride. You know you are part of that bride if you trust Christ. Anyone — no exceptions — anyone who trusts Christ can say, I am part of his bride, his church, his called and chosen ones, the ones who, according to Romans 8:35, are kept and protected forever no matter what.

3. This omnipotent, effective, protecting love does not spare us from calamities in this life, but brings us safely through them to everlasting joy with God.

Death will happen to us, but it will not separate us. So when Paul says in verse 35 that the “sword” will not separate us from the love of Christ, he means: even if we are killed, we are not separated from the love of Christ.

So the sum of the matter in verse 35 is this: Jesus Christ is right now mightily loving his people with omnipotent, moment-by-moment love that does not always rescue us from calamity but preserves us for everlasting joy in his presence even through suffering and death.

John Piper 

I’m Not Proud—Not Me!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great.

Psalm 18:35

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know what our churches could use a little bit more of? Courtesy among the brethren. Love in the little things. Love that says “please” and “thank you.” Love that steps back and gives the other person first place. We could use more of the gentleness of our Lord.

It never ceases to amaze me how people so quickly lose their religion when they leave church on Sunday morning. They go to their cars in the parking lot, then cut people off in traffic. If we set up video cameras in the church parking lot, how would you fare? And don’t commit the crime of taking someone’s regular seat in church. You’ve just “stolen” their place in the worship service!

May God cleanse our churches of self-righteousness and pride! May He purify us from anything that seeks to elevate self over others. May we take on the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ when He took on the form of a servant.

ACTION POINT:

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than themselves” 

Philippians 2:3

Read

Philippians 2:1-11

today. 

Here is the example you are looking for.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Welcome! You're Now a Priest!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Christians are a kingdom of priests, so in order to understand what that means, let’s look at what someone had to do to become a priest in the Old Testament:

First, a priest had to bathe from head to toe, symbolizing he was saved (see

Titus 3:5

). When we are saved, we are bathed from head to toe in Christ’s cleansing blood.

After his bath, he received a linen garment, symbolic of the righteousness provided by our Lord.

Then he was anointed with oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit’s anointing.

In the Old Testament priesthood, you see

(a) the atoning blood

(b) being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ

(c) being anointed with the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word flows in beautiful harmony from the Old Testament in analogy into the New Testament in reality as Jesus Christ becomes the fulfillment of the Law and our atoning sacrifice.

ACTION POINT:

Have you been bathed in the cleansing blood? Are you aware you’re wearing the righteous robe of Christ and the Holy Spirit lives within you? As you go through your day today, be ever mindful: you are a priest. You are chosen, royal, holy, set apart for Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Goal of Christ’s Love

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” (John 17:24)

Believers in Jesus are precious to God (we’re his bride!). And he loves us so much that he will not allow our preciousness to become our god.

God does indeed make much of us (he adopts us into his family!), but he does so in a way that draws us out of ourselves to enjoy his greatness.

Test yourself. If Jesus came to spend the day with you, sat down beside you on the couch, and said, “I really love you,” what would you focus on the rest of the day that you spend together with him?

It seems to me that too many songs and sermons leave us with the wrong answer. They leave the impression that the heights of our joy would be in the recurrent feeling of being loved. “He loves me!” “He loves me!” To be sure, this is joy indeed. But not the heights, and not the focus.

What are we saying with the words “I am loved”? What do we mean? What is this “being loved”?

Would not the greatest, most Christ-exalting joy be found in watching Jesus all day and bursting with, “You’re amazing!” “You are amazing!”

He answers the hardest question, and his wisdom is amazing.

He touches a filthy, oozing sore, and his compassion is amazing.

He raises a dead lady at the medical examiner’s office, and his power is amazing.

He predicts the afternoon’s events, and his foreknowledge is amazing.

He sleeps during an earthquake, and his fearlessness is amazing.

He says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and his words are amazing.

We walk around with him all afternoon, utterly amazed at what we are seeing.

Is not his love for us his eagerness to do for us all he must do (including die for us) so that we can marvel at him and not be incinerated by him? Redemption, propitiation, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation — all these have to happen. They are the act of love.

But the goal of love that makes those acts loving is that we be with him, and see his jaw-dropping glory, and be astounded. In those moments we forget ourselves as we see and savor all that God is for us in him.

So I am urging pastors and teachers: Push people through the acts of Christ’s love to the goal of his love. If redemption and propitiation and forgiveness and justification and reconciliation are not taking us to the enjoyment of Jesus himself, they are not love.

Press on this. It’s what Jesus prayed for in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”

John Piper