Forget Not His Benefits

Unsplash: Jon Tyson

As I've grown up in the church, somewhere along the line I've been taught to love God for "just being God" and not for what He can give me.

Several scriptures echo this sentiment as well: 

Paul encourages us to love and worship the Creator and not the creation in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans (see Rom 1:21-23).

James makes it clear in his letter to the church that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above (see 1:17).

And so it came as a refreshing surprise this week as I was in the Psalms to realize that David encourages us as God's people to "forget not God's benefits" in Psalm 103.  Look at verse 1 and 2 with me:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and all that is within me,

    bless his holy name!

 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits..."   Ps 103:1-2 (emphasis mine)

What follows these verses is a catalog of all the "benefits" we have as the covenant children of God that we can thank Him for:

• forgiveness of sins (v. 3, 10, 12)
• healing from diseases (v. 3)
• redemption from the pit (v. 4)
• a crown of streadfast love and mercy (v. 4, 11, 17)
• renewed energy and youthfulness (v. 5)
• justice and the working out of righteousness for us (v. 6)
• God's revealing of his ways to us (v. 7)
• His mercy and grace toward us (v. 8)
• God's compassion (v. 13)
• His seeing our weaknesses and loving us with compassion (v. 14-16)

When I think upon it, this concept of loving God for who He is AND for all the benefits He imparts to us makes sense. 

While I love my husband for the man that he is, I also love and appreciate how he provides for our family through a full-time job. I am blessed by the military and veteran benefits he and I both receive through income, health care, and life insurance. Do I love him because he provides a roof over my head and allows me to have adequate health insurance coverage? Of course not!  I would still love him if he suddenly became unemployed and we had to sell our home and live out our days in our minivan. BUT I can be thankful for him AND for all the benefits I enjoy as his wife (and be grateful I don't have to live out of a car!).

So today, dear friend, let's endeavor to praise God for who He is, yes, but also for all the benefits we enjoy as His children because of His deep and indescribable, unearned, and never-ending love He has for us.

Let us, in David's words "forget not His benefits" and may our day, our week, our year, our lives, never be the same for it!

Sipping Downstream

Unsplash: Matthieu Petel

It wasn't long ago when I was chopping up vegetables to put into a tossed salad. The house was quiet; it was that awkward hour before dinner and evening activities, but after the school day for my teenagers.

My mind wandered. I was bored.

Like a roulette wheel, my mind shuffled through all the options that could brighten this late afternoon and give me a lift after the salad was assembled and the table set...

a scroll down social media, a glass of wine, online shopping for that graphic tee I'd been eyeing, a sweet treat...

And then, I felt the Lord tell me--in my heart of hearts--that these things weren't bad, but that'd I'd be "sipping downstream."

I thought about that image in my mind.

You see, if Christ is our ultimate source of satisfaction and comfort, then I liken him to a fountainhead. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a fountainhead as the starting point, the principle source, of a stream or river, and to sip downstream from that could only mean two things: 

You are sipping diluted water (at best) or polluted water (at worst).

I think of all those minerals that come from natural springs that become diluted the further out you gather up a glass to bottle it up and enjoy its medicinal qualities.

I think of all the cities, power plants, and landfills that rivers ultimately pass by to empty into the Chesapeake Bay, close to my house. I'd never want to drink from all that toxic pollution!

Instead, God draws us to Himself to enjoy the REAL deal--the true source of pleasure, delight, comfort, peace, and rest. He created us to be unsatisifed with diluted or polluted sources of these things.

So in that moment, as I pivoted to the sink to wash up my knife and cutting board, I prayed. I prayed that the Lord would meet my need and be my cure for restless boredom. I asked Him to soothe my buried stress, calm my anxieties, give me peace and rest in Him alone.

A few days later, as I studied the book of Jeremiah, I found this challenge within it's pages:

"And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?"  Jeremiah 2:18

To God's people in the Old Testament, Egypt was a place of great wealth, stability, political power and military strength. But the Almighty God was in covenant with His people and called them to love and fear Him, to depend upon Him to lead them, provide for them, and strengthen them.

I am left to think about how I turn to "Egypt" for comfort and solace, strength and peace, when I'd only be sipping downstream from the Fountainhead of my Lord and Savior.

I am still working out how drinking from the Fountainhead...and not sipping downstream...looks, day to day, hour by hour, and I know I am not alone. I smile to hear a song from Forest Frank on my Pandora station: 

"Give me faith to move mountains

How could I be thirsty, when I'm sippin' from Your fountain..."       Thank You song

How about you, dear friend? Will you join me in considering ways you "sip downstream" in your life...in big ways...in small ways...diluting God's peace and joy in your life? May we not settle for diluted or polluted sources of strength and comfort, but turn to God in prayer and seek His Word each day to refresh and guide us at the deepest level.

 

Carried vs Carrying

Unsplash: Alexandra Tran

Over the past years, as I've made my way through my 40s, a little passage from the book of Isaiah has been particularly dear to me:

" 'Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

        all the remnant of the house of Israel,

    who have been borne by me from before your birth,

        carried from the womb; 

   even to your old age I am he,

        and to gray hairs I will carry you.

    I have made, and I will bear;

        I will carry and will save.'"  Isaiah 46:3-4, emphasis mine

 

This image of God carrying me--from the womb and on into "old age and gray hairs"--has been profoundly encouraging to me, especially on days that feel out of control or overwhelming. I've also been struck by the reality that God is near to me and is faithful to me, through difficult times, yes, but also in all those ordinary and mundane times that never cease to exhaust me as a mother of three teenagers.

And yet, what I've never noticed until this week is the startling juxtaposition that exists between this passage and one just a few verses before it: 

"Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;

        their idols are on beasts and livestock;

    these things you carry are borne

        as burdens on weary beasts."  Isaiah 46:1, emphasis mine

You see, these two passages, when taken together, demonstrate the stark contrast between our one true God and all of the lesser, counterfeit gods (aka idols) that we erect in our lives:

One carries us.

The others we must carry ourselves.

While reading this short passage, I can just feel the weight that all those things that I chase after for fulfilment and meaning that are really just heavy burdens that complicate my life, weigh me down, and leave me weary and exhausted.

I find the late pastor Tim Keller's definition of idols to be particularly helpful:

 "An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give"  --Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

An idol that I erect in my life could include my relationships, hobbies, food, alcohol, working out...the list could go on and on.  Many of these things are wonderful gifts from God, but if I turn to them for comfort or satisfaction in life, instead of turning to God, then they just become burdens--like wooden or stone idols the people in Isaiah's day carved out and had to carry. Not only do these idols fail to serve my life, but instead, they detract from it and hamper me from running the race God has for me. 

This reminds me of the exhortation we've examined before in the book of Hebrews: 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:1-2

Will you continue to cling to and carry all those idols that ultimately fail you and weigh you down? 

Or do you, like me, long to be carried through it all in the arms of the One who is stronger than us?

Together, let's ask God to examine our hearts and show us how we can continue to let go and follow Him fully. May we relish the freedom and joy of being carried by our Almighty God, who will never leave or forsake us, this week and beyond!