Month: February 2024

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A Different Kind of Clutter

My wife, Peggy, gave me a wonderful present two months ago. It had been on my mind for a while, so when she asked what I wanted for Christmas, I was ready. “I’d like to go through the house together, room by room, and throw away the stuff we no longer want or will never use again,” I said. We are not packrats by any means, and our house is kept tidy. But when a family lives in the same space for 25 years and goes through several life stages in the process, stuff accumulates. In part, yesterday’s desire has become today’s clutter, so we have begun to toss it aside. And. It. Feels. So. Good.

To believers in Corinth, Paul exposed a different kind of clutter— so called “good works” originating from our own will and pursued in our own power. “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” he wrote, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.”1 Through metaphor and contrast, the nurturing apostle exposed a dichotomy of deeds: the throw-away kind (wood, hay, and straw) originating from our own flesh; and the firmly established type (gold, silver, and precious stones) grounded in obedience to the Spirit’s call. This is not to suggest our eternal salvation is based on the origin of our works, for Jesus himself is the unassailable foundation of all who trust in Him. Paul continues: “If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives [i.e., gold, silver, and precious stones], he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up [i.e., wood, hay, and straw], he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”2 What authority! And such grace!

We are “[God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” for a certain kind of works— the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”3 Long before we were even conceived, God prepared meaningful tasks for us to do. Jesus said to His disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command,”4 and “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”5 These are the works of the “gold, silver, and precious stones” variety, those of deepest meaning and lasting impact. So, watch for them and listen; ready yourself in prayer and the Word to be used for eternal purposes. For when we walk in obedience and faith . . . It. Feels. So. Good.

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”—Isaiah 6:8 ESV

Yes, Lord, today send me. Amen.

1 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 ESV
2 1 Corinthians 3:14-15 ESV
3 Ephesians 2:10 ESV
4 John 15:14 NIV
5 John 15:16 NIV

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Better Prayer

In a recent post—”Act. Trust. Rest.”—I shared this confession: “For far too long—and too much still— my conversations with God have involved more angst than seemingly they should.” Certainly, I am not alone in this regard, for believers often struggle with prayer in one way or another. So, today, let’s expose a few prayer perceptions and see what the Bible speaks to each.

Sometimes we pray as though God were fickle, waiting to hear just the right words in just the right sequence while we suffer in our need. But listen to the plain petition of Bartimaeus, shouting above the crowd: “Son of David, have mercy on me!”1 When Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” the blind man replied simply, “I want to see.”2 There was no “right formula” here, just an honest and trusting exchange. What a great model of prayer for us.

Sometimes we anxiously intercede for others, as though trying to convince God to care about them as much as we do, or to step up and match our level of compassion for them in their crisis. But God loves people far more than we do; Paul writes, “the love of Christ . . . is too great to understand fully.”3 Not only does God love suffering people more than we do, the love we have for them actually “comes from God.”4 We pray better when we pray in this understanding.

I had coffee recently with a young man who had been taught that, as an act of faith, we as God’s children must demand our desires from Him. Over the decades I’d heard others profess this theology, but such a prayer attitude actually exposes a shortage of trust in God’s wisdom and His fatherly love toward His children. So, I asked my friend, “When you are married and have a family of your own, what will you do when your four-year-old comes to you and demands you buy him the bicycle that is rightfully his as your son?” My friend laughed in concession; he got it.

Do you tend to suggest to God what He might want to do in certain situations and how He may want to go about it? Once when Samaritans didn’t welcome Jesus into their village, His disciples James and John asked Him, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”5 Putting it mildly, this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. Likewise, over time, I have found that God’s surprises outshine my suggestions.

Pray honestly. Pray joyfully. Just pray.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.”6 Guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus.7 Amen.

1 Mark 10:48 NIV
2 Mark 10:51 NIV
3 Ephesians 3:19 NLT
4 1 John 4:7 NLT
5 Luke 9:55 NIV
6 Psalm 139:4 ESV
7 Philippians 4:7

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Conduits, or Clogs?

I ignored the doorbell, expecting “whoever” to go away. In our cul-de-sac, a knock on the door is almost always an activist with a petition, a window replacement evangelist, or a tree service eager to get at ours. This time, however, the pounding persisted, followed by the unsettling sound of one determinedly trying to open our latched front door. My irritation turned to fear, but when the noise stopped, I looked out the window and saw a familiar face. It was the father of an international student we had befriended in our weekly Bible study. The student had been struggling, and his dad had come from China to help him get his life back on track. During his weeks-long stay, he had attended our Friday night study with his son, and though he spoke no English, we had developed a silent, respectful acquaintance. I now went out to greet the man.

He had borrowed a bicycle and ridden it nine miles from the campus area to our house for a singular purpose: into my hand, he pressed a note, his thoughts anonymously translated into English; he had come to thank us for investing ourselves into his son’s life. We exchanged nonverbal expressions of affirmation and gratitude, after which he turned his bike around and peddled nine miles back to his son’s apartment. All of this to say thank you. I could not have been more humbled.

Luke tells the story of ten men with leprosy, all loudly calling out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”1 Jesus commanded them to show themselves to the priests, “and as they went, they were cleansed.”2 Yet of the ten who had by prayer and petition presented their requests to God3, only one—a Samaritan—returned with thanksgiving, an active expression of faith. “Were not all ten cleansed?” Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”4

People are not built to be the endpoint of praise, rather conduits through which praise and thanksgiving flow to its rightful place, the throne of God. The psalmist rightly exclaimed, “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”5 So no matter how God works in and through our lives—whether giving or receiving—ours is to direct our gratitude to the One to whom it is due. In faith, give thanks.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV

“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”6 Amen.

1 Luke 17:13 NIV
2 Luke 17:14 NIV
3 Philippians 4:6 NIV
4 Luke 17:17-19 NIV
5, 6 Psalm 115:1 ESV