Are You Moving in the Right Direction?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“For by Him [Jesus], all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him, all things consist.”

Colossians 1:16-17

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Verse 16 in today’s passage states that all things were created both by Jesus and for Jesus. The word “for” in this verse is a preposition that speaks of direction. It’s the Greek word for “moving in the direction of.”

The western world has been invaded by Eastern religions. Eastern religions are circular; they believe everything just goes round and round. But it’s not circular. This world is headed in a direction. The Bible is linear. We’re moving—moving to that time when the kingdoms of this world will become “…the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

ACTION POINT

Friend, it is all headed to Jesus. It is all for Him, for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the key to the mystery of history. When people ask you, “What is the world coming to?” tell them: “It’s coming to Jesus.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Root of Ingratitude

Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

When gratitude springs up in the human heart toward God, he is magnified as the wealthy source of our blessing. He is acknowledged as giver and benefactor and therefore as glorious.

But when gratitude does not spring up in our hearts at God’s great goodness to us, it probably means that we don’t want to pay him a compliment; we don’t want to magnify him as our benefactor.

And there is a very good reason that human beings by nature do not want to magnify God with thanksgiving or glorify him as their benefactor. The reason is that it detracts from our own glory, and all people by nature love their own glory more than the glory of God.

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.

The natural person, apart from saving grace, hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of his glory by giving it all to God.

Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God as he ought, but only himself.

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Jesus did not come to minister to those who insist they are well. He demands something great: that we admit we are not great. This is bad news to the arrogant, but words of honey to those who have given up their charade of self-sufficiency and are seeking God.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Glorify God

3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. 

4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 

5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. 

6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. 

7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. 

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. 

9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. 

10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 

11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. 

12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 

13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.  - Psalm 86:3-13

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

16 He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."

19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me." - John 21:15-19

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. - Romans 15:4-7

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Are You Depending on Your Circumstances?

BIBLE MEDITATION

"Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength'” (Nehemiah 8:10). “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

(Nehemiah 8:10 and Philippians 4:4)

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Where does your joy come from? Your job? Your health? Your friends? I hope it comes from the Lord, not circumstances. If you depend on circumstances, you can’t say “rejoice always,” because your circumstances could change. You might lose your job, health, friends, prestige. If you’re getting your joy from your job, we can find out if we take your job and see if you still have your joy. Maybe you’re getting your joy from your health. You say, “No, it’s from the Lord.” If your health fails, see if you still have your joy. The only secure joy anyone can have is in the Lord.

ACTION POINT

It’s not wrong to find joy in your health or your job. But that’s the kind of joy that can be threatened. You need a joy which supersedes that. Psalm 16:11: says, “You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Rejoice in the Lord always—continuous joy.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Magnify God

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:30)

There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.

When David says, “I will magnify God with thanksgiving,” he does not mean, “I will make a small God look bigger than he is.” He means, “I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.”

We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is.

That’s why we exist, why we were saved, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.

This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can’t magnify what you haven’t seen or what you quickly forget.

Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, “Open the eyes of my heart!” (Ephesians 1:18), and we preach to our souls, “Soul, forget not all his benefits!” (Psalm 103:2).

John Piper 

Bible Study

3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! 

4 "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.  - Deuteronomy 32:3-4

10 "Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. 

11 For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. 

12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. 

13 Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? 

14 If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 

15 all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.  - Job 34:10-15

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.  - Isaiah 30:18

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? 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.

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

36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:31-39

Do You Have Blessings?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” (Psalm 100:4). “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful” 

Psalm 100:4 and Colossians 3:15

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

If worry is the opposite of faith, then giving thanks is the expression of faith—in fact, the highest expression. You say, “I don’t know if I have as much to thank God for as some other people.” Well, the apostle Paul was in a filthy Philippian jail waiting to possibly be beheaded when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6)

You see, God has blessed you. You may not think so because you’re measuring blessings by the barometer of health, wealth, and happiness. You say, “Oh, those are blessings!” Not always. Some people are cursed with wealth. Some people don’t know how to use health. And happiness keeps some people from seeking the Lord.

My friend, let me tell you what blessings we have: “Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits…” (Psalm 68:19). God has loaded your wagon. How often? Daily! “Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Every day you wake up to blessings. Thank Him for spiritual blessings and thank Him for simple blessings: good, clean water. Enough food. Shelter. The simple things. We are so blessed.

ACTION POINT

Unthankful people are never happy people. They’re always filled with bitterness, fear, negativism, selfishness, and self-pity. Refuse to worry, but carry everything to God in prayer. Rejoice in the presence of the Lord. Rely upon the power of the Lord. Reflect on the provision of the Lord. Rest in the peace of the Lord. Do everything with thanksgiving.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers