Author: Michael Wine
What We Have In Common With Rocks
“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Matthew 3:9
Let us agree that God has a plan for your life that will result in blessings for many people and glory to God.
Now, the question is, could God accomplish his purposes without you? Could he instead do everything with, say, a rock?
Imagine for a moment that, instead of creating you, God created a rock. Could God still do everything he wanted to do in this world with that rock? Is your absence the fatal flaw in his plan?
The anser is obvious and Jesus’ words above leave no doubt about it. God can do anything he wants.
He doesn’t need you or me or anything else. He could do it all with just a rock.
This is very humbling! We like to think our actions are imortant because they are necessary, and without our valiant efforts, everything would fall into ruin, as if God could somehow be less glorious if we weren’t there to help him.
Yes. It is good to be humble. However, it isn’t enough to stop once your ego and pride has been crushed. There is another truth to consider.
In spite of the fact that God does not need us, he still inludes us. Even though he could exist quite happily in a universe of stone, partaking of his glorious Triune fellowship forever, he instead chose to create you and me and give us the honor of contributing.
It is a strange thing, this dance of pride and humility. By grasping for the lofty position and hanging on to pride, we miss the grace of God that seeks to life us precisely to the very mountain peak we could never have reached on our own.
God’s Garbage
1 John 2:17 “This world is passing away…”
God’s garbage is the perfect spring day. Blue sky, green tree, birds gliding far away.
It’s the smell of bacon and coffee with a good book before me on a Saturday morning.
I laugh along with friends at night around a table of hot, homemade food.
God’s garbage.
It’s going away like trash, refuse, dung, a pile of moldy rags. He’s throwing it all out one day.
Even God’s waste bins are glided.
When you live in the dump, you gotta enjoy what you can get.
I smile at an evening with a good show, or a long walk, or time with my kids. There is beauty and meaning in the scraps, twisted as they are by sin and the curse.
Some have been in the dump so long, they’ve forgotten that there is more than the trash. They climb to the tops of the garbage piles, collecting all the gold they can find.
But no matter how high they go, they never win. It’s not their garbage.
The Importance of Being a Beggar (or a child)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:13
In this verse, our Lord Jesus gives us a rock-solid foundation for our hope, so that we will trust God to give us the Holy Spirit. That foundation is the goodness of God. And to help us understand the goodness of God, he compares God to us, evil and fallen human beings.
Jesus called his disciples evil. There’s no getting around that fact. And we are no better than they were. Do you see the evil that exists in your heart? Or do you go around thinking of yourself as a good person, someone who deserves something, deserves to be happy and healthy, and successful?
But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that admitting your own wickedness is itself a virtue to be commended, making you somehow less evil for the admission. No, even our confessions of sin are wicked, self-serving, and half-hearted.
There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. they have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Romans 3:10-12
If you still see yourself as a good person, you will never trust in God, because you will never see just how beautiful God is in his goodness. The diamond shines most gloriously when it is placed on a black cloth. The goodness of God is most glorious in contrast with our sin.
And yet, though we are wicked, fallen creatures, we can still do things that seem good. We can work productively and give to others. We can serve those in need and give good things to our children. Though our natures have been twisted and marred by sin and rebellion against our creator, there lingers in us a remnant of the good image of God, which he gave to us.
When my child comes up to me and asks me for food, I give it gladly. I want him to eat and be healthy because I love my him. Just because we are sinful, it doesn’t mean we can’t create good outcomes in this world. It only means all the good things we do fall short and ultimately fail to measure up to God’s standard of goodness.
Because of this, we fail in our attempts to love others. We love yes, but imperfectly. We serve others, but not always in the most useful ways, and often for our own glory. We give good things to our children, but we also give bad things to them in turn.
The ironic and tragic thing is that when we look at ourselves, we often refuse to see the failures and instead dwell on the good. We think we know best. We think we have high moral standards that make us capable of discerning what is good and what is not. We pronounce judgements on others for doing what is wrong in our eyes, and we complain against God when he allows evil to befall us. “How could a good God give us these evil days?” We spit bitterly at the sky.
We don’t even know what good means.
And this seems to be the point. If we, in our sinful condition, still manage to produce some level of goodness toward others (Jesus uses children as an example here), how much more will God?
God who is all good, and righteous, and holy. God who is life and love and truth. There is no evil in him. Everything he does is good. He alone is able to define what good is, in fact. And he is so good, that when he gives a gift, it isn’t just any old gift. When God gives a gift, it is the best one there is. God never settles on mediocre when it comes to giving. He is fully generous and abundant in grace.
He gives us himself.
In this verse, specifically, Jesus says that he gives his Holy Spirit.
What? You mean he doesn’t give me more money? He doesn’t give me a new job, or relief from pain, or a relationship to ease my loneliness. I’m not saying he doesn’t give those things. He does give them often (though not always)!
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17
But all of those earthly gifts pale in comparison to the gift of his Holy Spirit. God himself, living in us, producing faith in us, teaching us how to love God, how to follow Jesus, filling us with real joy and real peace. Without him, all the other gifts mean nothing. And they are actually turned into problems in our lives. For God is so good, that when we foolishly get distracted by his lesser gifts, thinking that they are better than God himself, he allows those little things we love to rot away right in front of us.
He doesn’t remove the things we love out of hate or vindictiveness. No, he is simply helping us turn back to him again and see that he really is the worthiest object of our love and desire.
Do you want to know how you can receive this gift from God? Jesus said it. Simply ask. Ask like a child asks for a sandwich. Believe in God. See yourself in all your evil, helpless, sinful ways, so that you can see just how good God is. When you see God’s goodness, you will trust Him to give you what you really need, what he promises to give. Ask and you will receive his Holy Spirit.
But you will never ask God to give you himself, unless you see God as wonderful, good, generous, and beautiful. And you will never see him that way as long as you are distracted by your own false greatness.
Abdullah
His name was Abdullah. He walked briskly, head forward and back slightly bent, down the dumpster ridden alley behind a row of apartments. He wore the same old, tan jacket he always wore. There was a satchel hanging from his right side, the strap draped over his left shoulder which did not come higher that the lips of the dumpster bins he passed by. As he walked, his left hand swung in a determined manner. He knew where he was going, and how long it would take to get there.
His right hand didn’t swing at all, for it lay protectively over the satchel.
The crumbling asphalt of the alley crunched under his feet.
I had just heaved the overflowing trash bag from the kitchen into one of the dumpsters near my apartment. When I turned to go back inside, I saw Abdullah coming down the alley from the east. I wasn’t surprised to see him. He always came down my alley around the same time every evening. I never knew why, or where he was going. I assumed he was homeless. I’d seen him elsewhere around the city. He was always walking, always wearing the same thing. He always carried the satchel with him.
Normally, I would wave and then go about my business. This time, however, something (or someone) stopped me.
I waited there by the dumpster and pretended to admire the sunset. I didn’t need to pretend for long. It was a jewel. Big, ripe clouds hung heavily in a pale blue sky. Streaks of orange and pink decorated the background.
The crunches of his feet grew louder, and I turned and smiled.
I hadn’t seen his face up close for a while. It had gotten older, more wrinkled. The white hair that still grew from the sides of his head had gotten thinner.
He gave me a gapped but friendly grin in return.
I said ‘hi’ and something about the beautiful sunset. He never stopped walking, but nodded and chuckled. Then he spoke. He had a voice like a rusty motor, all grinding gears and metal, but it still got the job done.
“Finally starting to cool down.” He said, continuing on his way.
I laughed and started to walk back. “What is your name?” I asked, in passing.
The crunches stopped. He turned to look me in the eye, a surprised smile brightening his face. “Abdullah! And yourself?”
“I’m Michael.”
“Ah! A common name! A pleasure to meet you.”
We exchanged farewells. He turned and walked back down the alley.
I walked up the steps to my apartment somewhat stunned. There in the dirty alley, amid the crowded cars and trash bins, I’d seen an artistic masterpiece. Abdullah was made. He was crafted by God to be totally unique, original, different from anyone else on earth. He had his own story, his own treasures, and his own pain.
And he was real. He wasn’t wearing a mask, or trying to impress anyone, or asking for handouts. He was walking, with head down and feet steady, and hand guarding his satchel. And he’d looked me in the eye and shared a piece of himself with me.
His name was Abdullah.
Stop using the gospel and start believing it.
Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Satan can be so subtle and deceptive. He can make us think that the purpose of the gospel is merely to awaken us, to turn us into stronger, more spiritual versions of our sinful selves, so that we have some new power to keep the old law.
The union with Christ that comes through faith is no mere battery pack for the soul that simply gives you strength to be a better follower of Moses.
The “law of sin and death” is the Mosaic Law. Earlier in Romans (in chapter six and seven) Paul shows how from the law comes the knowledge of sin. When I tell my five-year-old not to play with the soap, he is instantly tempted to do just that. A simple command or law merely informs the hearer of what is required (and what is the opposite of that – sin) without providing any means or power with which to actually meet the requirement.
The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that He is the perfect fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. Through faith, we can be united with Him, obtaining God’s pardon for all our sin, adoption into His family, and access to Jesus Himself through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. This means we are no longer obligated to keep the law, as if we still need to please God by keeping all the rules.
Instead, we are obligated to Christ by way of our relationship with Him, because of His love for us that stirs up our own hearts to love him in return. This obligation to Christ, whose life was the purest picture of what the law meant, is far greater and higher than any previous obligation to the law.
What does this actually look like in real life? If I were trying to keep the law, my day may look like this: I wake up to my alarm, and dutifully get up because it’s what I should do, even though I’d like to sleep a bit more. I make my bed and brush my teeth because I’ve been told those are good things to do. I may not tuck the sheets in perfectly because, let’s face it, I don’t really care about the bed. But this failure to be perfect, however small, may start to nag at me on a subconscious level. Next, the big one, it’s time for me to read my Bible. This is where I really prove how spiritual I am or not. I’ve had a good streak going for a month now. If I don’t read my Bible again today for at least twenty minutes, I’m going to regret it all day.
Need I go on?
Anyone can see that I am only doing all these things because I am trying to follow a list of rules, and not because I really want to.
And here is where Satan can get so tricky. He likes to sneak in like an angel of light and offer me the “gospel.” He first capitalizes on that nagging guilt that builds up inside as I fail to keep all the rules perfectly. He whispers that if I really wanted to keep the rules better, perhaps even perfectly, I need to use “gospel power!” I need to “trust God” and maybe even get into an accountability group. He tries to get us to see the gospel as just a means of keeping the law better.
We think we have to use the gospel to be better versions of ourselves, when in reality, we simply must believe it.
In reality, the gospel frees us from the law completely. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” When I wake up in the morning, I can immediately approach God with full confidence, knowing that He loves me in Christ. I am now joyful and eager to grow closer to him each day. This relationship with Jesus Himself makes me want to know Him more and see more of Him through the study of His Word. That gives me even more joy and peace which then energizes me to obey God’s commands, not because I must obey in order to remain in God’s love, but because obedience is itself just another way of receiving God’s grace toward me. (God only commands what is by definition good for us in the first place)
“So many people are seeking sanctification from the “law of sin” and life from the “law of death”! But the gospel speaks of life. Its doctrines, its precepts, its promises, its exhortations, its rebukes, and its hopes are all infused with spiritual life, and come with quickening power to the soul. “The words that I speak unto you,” says Jesus, “they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). There is life in the gospel because it is the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2). It testifies of “Christ who is our life” (Col 3:4) and declares that there is no spiritual life outside of Him. Although “the letter killeth” (2 Cor 3:6) when it works by itself, yet in the hands of the Spirit it gives life. Thus clothed with the energy of the Holy Spirit, the gospel proves a “savour of life unto life” (2 Cor 2:16) to all who believe in it to the saving of the soul.”
Octavius Winslow, Evening Thoughts, November 22nd.
Our Godlike Qualities: Imagination and Speech
And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. Genesis 1:3
Caleb squinted his eyes tight and groaned. “Ugh! I can’t imagine anything right now!” He complained. He sat cross-legged on the tan carpet, dressed in black shorts covered in the stuff seven-year-olds normally get into over the course of a day (dirt, food stains, sticky stuff from somewhere). His eyes opened in a scowl of frustration and connected with mine. They seemed to plead with me, “Can I please be done now?”
I had, a minute ago, asked him to sit down and imagine something, and then tell me what he saw. He seemed taken aback by this strange request and, to my surprise, appeared unable to do it. Strangely enough, the same task had proven difficult for my younger son Noah just a few minutes before.
I sat back in my chair somewhat confused, thinking. Aren’t children supposed to be good at imagination? I studied them for a while. In the silence, they had taken to talking about a video game character named Sonic (now a major motion picture!).
In the course of a minute, I watched in amazement as they proceeded to act out a make-believe scene between Sonic and one of his friends. They included super-powers, dialogue, and action in the scene. Not only that, but the emotions of the characters were clearly visible on their faces.
Imagination, in other words.
“Wait a second!” I stopped them. “You guys are doing it right now! You’re imagining!” They didn’t really get it.
I had discovered something. It isn’t that my children are bad at imagining. They, in fact, do it so naturally that it is basically their default state of existence. They are constantly imagining.
So, what was the problem when I asked them to imagine something and then tell me what it was?
Personally, I think one reason is that I was effectively asking fish to swim; birds to fly. When I asked them to imagine something and then tell me what it was, I had probably interrupted them doing that very activity naturally, on their own.
They apparently weren’t able to do the task because I had interrupted their default activity of imagination to ask them to do something: imagine. In other words, I had told them “Stop your imagination so that you can imagine something.”
ERROR: Logical contradiction detected.
That being said, I think something else is going on at the same time. I noticed that when they played, they acted out their imagination bodily, running around, gesturing wildly and shouting, with sound effects. That isn’t exactly what I wanted. I wanted them to simply tell me what they saw in their mind.
I think they had trouble doing that, not because the imagination muscle was weak, but because they imagine without words. They simply become what they imagine. They wear their creativity like a costume, putting it on and playing the role. They have not yet fully learned the skill of capturing imagination with words. Otherwise known as the skill of writing.
Writing allows us to capture a living, breathing imagination with words, save it on a page or a screen, and share it with someone – with everyone potentially. Words are the tools we use to touch the minds of those around us. We can create something in our minds, and then use our words to create that same thing in the minds of those who listen to us or read what we write.
In opening scene of the Bible, we read that God created the physical universe with words. He said, “Let there be light.” And suddenly, light appeared out of nowhere. But what did ‘light’ mean? The word ‘light’ is a name for the thing God was thinking about when He spoke the word. The word ‘light’ captured God’s imagination.
In fact, all of the words in the sentence did. “Let there be.” What does ‘be’ mean? What does ‘let’ mean? What does ‘there’ mean? Is God talking to someone? Is He instructing whoever it is to allow light to exist? Was there a prior discussion between God the speaker and another party about what the word ‘light’ meant in all its intricate details? Then, when the final decree came down to “Let the light be,” the one being spoken to knew exactly what was being said and carried it out. I wonder.
And what does it mean in Colossians 1:16 when it says of Jesus, “For by him [Jesus Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”?
If God’s words were the things through which He created, then how is it that Jesus is the one through whom God created all things?
The answer, it seems, is given by the Apostle John who speaks of the Messiah and calls Him ‘The Word.’ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Honestly, all of this is getting to be a bit beyond what I have fully thought through or could ever hope to fully comprehend (let alone adequately cover in this post). But the point is that our twin abilities to imagine and speak are intricately linked and are tied to the very nature of God and how He created the world.
Imagination is a kind of pre-creation. It is creation of a thing before it is. It is a creation that exists only in our minds. To prove it, try to imagine something that does not yet have words to describe it. It’s easy to do. I am doing it right now. I can’t tell you what it is because… well because then it would have words. This is for example what every novelist does before the novel is written.
Words are the vessels of creation. They bring what we have imagined into a new domain – the physical domain. When God speaks, reality changes as His imagination overwrites what exists. When we speak, mere children imitating our Heavenly Father, we can transmit our mind creations physically into the minds of others. And we can even change the fabric of our reality too, albeit on a smaller scale and over a longer timeframe, and with far more sweat, blood, and tears.
Don’t underestimate the power of your mind and the words you use. As someone far wiser than I said thousands of years ago, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” – King Solomon, Proverbs 18:21
Why Trust God?
Or to put it another way, why believe in what God says? Why believe in God at all? Why trust what is written in some old book?
I wrote those questions as if an unbeliever were asking them to me. It is interesting, isn’t it, how the questioning of God’s trustworthiness cannot proceed very far without the trustworthiness of the Bible being questioned.
And with that transition question the unbeliever will perform a magic trick with his next question (or a variation of the following), “Why trust the words of men written in some old book?”
What has happened is similar to a magician’s subtle slight of hand. The original question is left forgotten, while a new one takes its place, all the while the magician wants you to believe there is no difference between the two questions.
To make it clear, the first question was “Why trust God?” and the second one is “Why trust man?”
It may seem obvious that these are not the same question. However, it is no exaggeration to say that many have left the faith (an act often labeled today as deconstructing) because they confuse the two.
It seems that by harnessing the obvious, pervasive, and undeniable treachery of man, to make us doubt the faithfulness, goodness, and love of God, the devil has won over many souls.
Yet, the cruel irony is this. By forsaking God out of doubt in man, man is left with no one to trust at all. For who is left for man to trust (if God is not) but untrustworthy mankind? Without God, we are left with nothing but our peers, our friends, our enemies, and our own brain (which often feels like a combination of all of the above).
We are told to trust science – an exercise performed by men, who we are so adamant in refusing to trust.
But I originally set out to answer a question – Why trust God?
You see this question, simple as it is, rests on an unspoken assumption – a presupposition. God exists.
Given this assumption, there is a choice we all have to make – to trust God or not.
I trust Him.
You ask me why? Why does a newborn trust her mother? Why does a dog trust its master? Why does a man trust his wife? Why does a whale trust the sea?
The answer, of course, is because the newborn knows her mother. The dog knows his owner. The husband loves his wife. The whale and the sea are old friends.
Trust, or belief, or faith, is not an academic thing you can isolate and study without getting your hands dirty with the messiness of a relationship.
I trust God because I know Him. And, more importantly, because He knows me.
By the way, people don’t trust God for the same reason they don’t trust a stranger who offers to house sit. Not, as they claim, because they don’t think God is real, but because they don’t know each other.
And then I will declare unto them, ‘I never knew you; depart you from Me, those working lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:23
Why Would Forgiveness Be Scary?
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Psalm 130:3-4
Why does the forgiveness of God enable us to fear Him?
We often fear what can hurt us. We go to the doctor and listen to his words and peer at x-rays because want to make sure we are ok. We don’t want to be afraid of an unknown disease that could take away our lives.
Doesn’t this verse turn that on its head? God’s forgiveness frees us, pardons us, restores us to Himself. So, how can it be that there is a connection between God’s forgiveness of our “iniquities” and our fear of Him?
It makes you wonder. What is fear really for? Perhaps we were never meant to fear disease, or wild animals, or the unknown, or the dark, or anything else that could take away our life. I think we were designed to only ever really be afraid of the one who gives life. The one who forgives.
But how does that work? I’m not exactly sure. But here’s one thought. Let’s say you lived your whole life as a miserable thief. You robbed and stole and spent it all on drugs and sex, living a wasted life. Then, as you are dying in the hospital from overdosing, you call out to God for mercy, believing in Jesus and accepting his sacrifice for you, and He gives it. You are saved. None of your sins will be held against you.
What kind of Being has the power to do that? The power to forgive, and forgive without being unjust, is what true power really is. There is nothing more awesome, or breathtaking than’ that.
The forgiveness of God can pardon a murderer, a thief, a pedophile. It never quits, though you sin and fail in the same ways. Though you will never be able to measure up, God’s grace in Jesus Christ never runs dry.
The power of forgiveness is the power of God to save our sinful souls. And it is the power, if withheld, to damn them forever.
So, let us humble ourselves and admit that we are completely powerless to escape His anger toward our sin. Let us go to Him, ask for and accept His forgiveness. But let us tremble as we do. The gift we receive is not some insignificant toy. It isn’t a free pass, or an “it’s all good man.” It is a mighty weapon, a force of inexaustible power, forged in the fires of God’s wrath that were poured out on His own son as he hung beaten and bloodied on a rugged cross.Yes, there is forgiveness with God, that we may fear the One who holds our eternal destinies in His hand, and recieve life from Him.
The True Power to Change
By Jim and Michael Wine
Would a man drowning in the ocean calmly get his cell phone, type in the screen lock password and call 911?
OR, would he scream as loud as he could for help every chance he could before he sunk down to death?
Would someone experiencing a heart attack proceed to give himself CPR? Or would he desperately call out for help?
As obvious as these questions seem, they highlight an important fact of life – physically helpless people need to depend on others.
No one denies that there are times in our lives when we are physically helpless. However, we resist the idea that we are mentally, morally or spiritually helpless. After all, the body may fail but the human mind and will remains under the sovereignty of the individual, right?
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl discovered this as he suffered in the camps of Nazi Germany. No matter what his captors did or said to him or forced him to do, he was free within his own mind. They could not take that away.
This idea is, in fact, the cornerstone of the massively popular ‘self help’ genre. How do we tap into that individual freedom of our minds, and use it to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps?
It gives a certain amount of hope to people because it is partly true. We are free within our own minds in the sense that no one else can control our minds if we don’t want them to.
However, are we free in our own minds from ourselves?
Here are some facts to consider:
- “Suicide rates increased 33% between 1999 and 2019.”
- “…there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.”
- “Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year.”
But even without these statistics, we all feel deep down that there is a problem. We have to fight against our own demons constantly. We are not the men or women that we want to be. We aren’t the parents we feel our children deserve. We go into debt when we should save. We can’t stop eating things that are bad for us. We tell lies to our trusted friends. We don’t measure up to even our own standards of where we should be in life.
The fact is that we are physically helpless to some degree in every stage of life. We all know this and deal with it. That is why societies exist – so that we can help each other get through life.
But the truth is that we are also morally helpless as well. And while we are free (for the most part) from other people who try to control how we think, we are never free from ourselves.
We are constantly locked in a deadly battle with our own darker nature. And the darker nature is stronger. It always wins. It always drags us down into the depths of the ocean where we can no longer breathe.
This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) There is no way that we can overcome our own sin. We must instead call out to another for salvation.
The Good News
The Bible says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Great! Problem solved, right? Simply place a call to God and you’re all set? Not exactly.
While it is good news that there is someone we can call out to for mercy, it has been misunderstood in our day. How?
First, it must be said that ONLY those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Second, the “call” we are speaking of is not like making a phone call, but rather an urgent and profound plea for mercy while hating the thing that is killing you. Third, when God grants us mercy, He changes our identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.
The exclusivity of the call for help.
Only those who call on God will be saved in the end. No one else.
The primary reason God has not wiped the human race off of the face of the earth is that He desires to show mercy (2 Pet 3:15). And He ONLY gives mercy to those who ASK. Those who will be saved are the ones who “call on the name of the Lord” and not those who refuse to call.
Important: If we refuse to ask God for mercy, then we are negating the basis of God’s provision of mercy. God loves truth! (Psalm 51:6) And what is the basic truth of the human race? Are you ready? Here it is: We are broken in such a way that it is impossible for us to fix ourselves; in fact, God Himself has determined that “fixing ourselves” will never work (Rom 11:32). FLASH: If you don’t get this, then you will NEVER understand the universe.
And you will never understand your own life with all its shortcomings and failures.
God is in control. He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isa 64:7). Why is this the BEST news you could ever hear? Answer: because it opens the possibility that you might tell God the truth, and ask Him for His mercy – which He ALWAYS grants! ONLY those who call for mercy are the ones who get it.
How should one ask God for mercy?
The plea for mercy, this “call” we are speaking of is not the casual call to your landlord that a drain is plugged. It is not a transaction, as though God were gaining the pleasure of your company through saving you.
The plea for mercy is not just a philosophical contemplation. It is the certain and clear understanding combined with a sense of urgency that if I don’t get help from outside myself, then I am doomed.
The picture of a drowning man is very helpful. The drowning man HATES the thing that is killing him and wants immediate deliverance. Knowing that he must be rescued or else perish, he wholeheartedly gives up any false notion that he can save himself and urgently and energetically devotes his whole person to crying for help – in other words, for mercy.
Mercy is not something you deserve. It is not something you can demand. You must ask for it, or you will not get it. If you ask for it, you will receive it. If you do not receive it, you are lost. So ask.
Can we say it any clearer? If you maintain any hope that you can make progress in life by “self-improvement” then you are a liar, and you are maintaining the very self-delusion that will PREVENT the God of the universe from helping you.
How the Mercy of God Changes Us
When we make this plea to God, and He graciously responds (as he promises to do), He changes our deepest identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.
The foundation for all personal growth is a call for mercy. “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)
Only those who walk by the Spirit will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So I ask you: Will your fleshly lust for “self-improvement” be honored by God? OF COURSE NOT! Whenever we make an attempt at earning our own righteousness, we revert back to making ourselves an enemy of God! Such efforts guarantee that we will fail (Jas 4:6).
We cannot do a single thing to make ourselves better in anyway. In fact, the very desire to change can be the thing that keeps us from changing. The desire to improve can turn into what is most important to us, an idol, something that is more important than God. And when our personal growth takes God’s place, it actually becomes sin.
Imagine a man wants to go on a journey from his home to some destination on the other side of the country. But, to get there, he must travel through an impassible desert, save for the single train that snakes through it.
To cross the deadly sand, he must abandon the idea of attempting to cross the desert using his own two legs. That will never work. He will die without ever reaching the other side. Instead, he must get on a train, and sit still for hours, not moving a muscle (except perhaps to stretch his legs and admire the view from the window).
In fact, the only way to cross the desert is to stop trying to cross it on your own. You must give up on the idea of effortful change and sit down on the train.
The train is the mercy of God. The only real way through this life to the other side is through resting in that mercy.
Our sin makes us enemies of God. He will surely unleash his wrath against us unless we ask Him to show us mercy. If we ask, He will. Why? Because Jesus Christ, God’s perfect son, died on a cross, taking God’s wrath in our place. When we look to that sacrifice, and ask that God show us mercy, He will not refuse to do so.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
Now we are forgiven of our sin. Now we are on the train. Our whole situation has changed. Our very identity has changed. (Colossians 3:1-4)
As we continue to look to Jesus and trust in the power of God, we receive the power to live life differently than we used to before. The word “receive” is important. Life is no longer about trying to change or “grow” or improve. It’s about resting in the mercy of God and receiving the grace that allows us to live in a way that pleases God.
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
So what is the path forward? It is simple. Ask God for mercy. Tell Him the truth about your situation, and delight in the fact that the very reason you are struggling is that God wants you to know (again) that you can only move forward by resting in His mercy.
Won’t you call out to God today?
