Month: January 2014

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God wants us to be happy?

I wish I had a dollar for every counselee who said to me that they just wanted to be happy. I would have quiet a nest-egg. I don’t mean to seem critical of someone desiring to feel happiness in their life. Everyone wants to be happy. But the primary need of every believer is not to strive for happiness but to surrender their life to the will of the Father in order to realize inner peace.

When we make our happiness the primary issue we have a tendency to abandon God’s plan for our plan. There are several problems with making happiness our focus. C.S. Lewis said, “When happiness is identified as the most important thing, it is self that we seek above all else.”

The concept of seeking happiness above all else causes us to adopt a creed that gets us out from under the controlling arm of God. It is an attitude that says we are free to pursue that which is pleasing to us regardless of the consequences. We then develop a Cain mentality of self-satisfaction and performance based acceptance. Cain knew what God’s standard was but chose to make his own way in his own strength.

If it is true that we have a divine destiny from the foundation of the world (2 Tim 1:9), then our first response shouldn’t be the pursuit of our happiness but the pursuit of God. It is only through pursuing Him that we can realize our true destiny. The Scripture clearly teaches us that in Christ we are made complete (Col. 2). In other words true satisfaction, contentment and inner peace comes from focusing on the inner Christ.

Happiness should not be our pursuit, but rather inner peace should be our goal. Inner peace is not the sum total of good circumstances and happiness but inner peace is the result of seeking Him. I often illustrate this principle by the following two formulas:

World’s perspective: Happiness + good circumstances = Inner peace

God’s perspective: Jesus = Inner peace (regardless of circumstances or feeling of happiness)

In the first formula we have to possess a feeling of happiness and all good circumstances in order for inner peace to be a reality. How many times in your life are all your circumstances good and you have a feeling of complete happiness? The first formula sets up for failure. The second formula leads us to inner peace and then as a result we experience happiness as a by-product.

Does the Lord want his children happy? Sure he does. But he doesn’t want us to pursue happiness, because in doing so we will automatically fall into a self-gratification mode that leads to a self-absorbed life. He wants us to pursue Him and in doing so our life is filled with His joy – a joy that fills us with inner peace and a feeling of happiness and well-being.

The next time you sense a feeling of unhappiness stop and ask the question, “Is my source of unhappiness a need for self-gratification? Am I unhappy because I am not able to get my way? Do I feel something is being taken away from me?” This is your queue to surrender you situation to God’s control. Surrender and abandonment is God’s method of delivering us from our need to control every situation. When our goal is pursuing God then the outcome will be joy and a deep sense of happiness.

“…and in Him you have been made complete.” Colossians 2:10

People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks:
1. They are facing only one direction,
2. They can never turn back, and
3. They no longer have plans of their own.
–A.W. Tozer

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God Has a Plan

Some would like to think that the whole human race is the children of God, but not so. It is true that we are a creation of God, but from a relationship perspective, all are separated from God by sin. The Scripture tells us that before salvation we were children of wrath; “…you were by nature children of wrath, but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:3-5)

When we put our trust in Christ we became someone we have never been before. We passed from death unto life. We are now a new creation with a new worldview. We once followed the world’s perspective on life, now we have a new perspective.

This new perspective/worldview affects everything in our life. We now see the world through the eyes of God’s Word. Our reaction to the world’s disappointments and failures now has a spiritual component. We realize God is involved in every aspect of our life, and with that involvement He has a divine plan and purpose. When we hurt or suffer a great loss God is there to comfort us, but sometimes He often reveals a divine purpose in our suffering.

To illustrate my point I want to share a story recently sent to me by a dear friend. It’s the story of how the old gospel song “Precious Lord” came about.

“Back in 1932, I was a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago’s south side. One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting. I didn’t want to go; Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child, but a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis. I kissed Nettie goodbye, clattered downstairs to our Model A and, in a fresh Lake Michigan breeze, chugged out of Chicago on Route 66.

However, outside the city, I discovered that in my anxiety at leaving, I had forgotten my music case. I wheeled around and headed back. I found Nettie sleeping peacefully. I hesitated by her bed; something was strongly telling me to stay But eager to get on my way, and not wanting to disturb Nettie, I shrugged off the feeling and quietly slipped out of the room with my music.

The next night, in the steaming St. Louis heat, the crowd called on me to sing again and again. When I finally sat down, a messenger boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. I ripped open the envelope. on the yellow sheet were the words: YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.

People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out. I rushed to a phone and called home. All I could hear on the other end was “Nettie is dead. Nettie is dead.'”

When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy. I swung between grief and joy. Yet that same night, the baby died. I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket. Then I fell apart. For days I closeted myself. I felt that God had done me an injustice. I didn’t want to serve Him anymore or write gospel songs I just wanted to go back to that jazz world I once knew so well. But then, as I hunched alone in that dark apartment those first sad days, I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis.

Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie. Was that something God? Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day, I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died.

From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him. But still I was lost in grief. Everyone was kind to me, especially one friend. The following Saturday evening he took me up to Maloney’s Poro College, a neighborhood music school. It was quiet; the late evening sun crept through the curtained windows.

I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to browse over the keys. Something happened to me then. I felt at peace. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody. Once in my head they just seemed to fall into place: ‘Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn, through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light, take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.’

The Lord gave me these words and melody, He also healed my spirit. I learned that when we are in our deepest grief, when we feel farthest from God, this is when He is closest, and when we are most open to His restoring power.

And so I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home.”

Tommy Dorsey

(For those too young to know who he is, Tommy Dorsey was a well-known band leader in the 1930’s and 40’s.)

God’s answers are wiser than our prayers.

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Dealing with Fear

As I look back on my counseling career one of the most prevalent problems I discovered among believers is the issue of FEAR. I do understand that most everyone has some sort of fear. The level of fear ranges from simple fear, like loud noises, to severe phobias like the fear of being touched.

Sociologist tells us that every person is born with two fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is man-made. How each person develops the different types of fear has been debated for years. I think it is a combination of how you were raised, and your worldview, as well as your primary influences such as friends, culture, and your life experiences.

Regardless of how we developed our various fears the bigger issue is how we handle our fears. Fear left unchecked will control us and will be a major factor in our day to day inner peace and our general sense of well-being. If you don’t learn to contain and control your fear your life will be characterized by fear. Fear could become a way of life.

There is not enough space in this short article to go very deep on the subject of how to deal with fear, but maybe the following observation will help.

Fear is based on the future and is generally characterized by “what might be”, rather than what is true at this moment. God’s intention for us is to live fully in the present but not in the past nor the future. When we live in the past we have a tendency to be an angry person. An angry person is usually an argumentative soul. Normal for them is to stir up disharmony and create a stressful situation.

When we live in the future we become fearful. We tend to worry about “what might be” rather than what we are experiencing in the present. When you are fearful and live in the future it causes you to “hoard or run.” You have a tendency to hoard because you fear what you might not have in the future. You run because you think if you can change the location the fear will go away.

The opposite of fear is trust and rest. Hebrews tells us that “there is a rest for the people of God…let us make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fail by following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:9-11) Through Christ’s redemptive work on the cross we are given a unique opportunity to draw on God’s provision of supernatural rest. That means we now have a choice, we can worry or rest. There are not psycho-mind games to play when dealing with worry, we just learn to rest in Christ’s provision. Christ is enough.

As a committed follower of Jesus, living in fear is the ultimate insult to God’s character. I know that sounds a bit harsh but God’s provision of “Christ in us” gives us the ultimate power and ability to live victorious over fear’s domination. Fear is opposite of trust. When we choose to fear rather than trust, we are in danger of offending God’s character.

If God is all powerful, and He is, and He is all knowing, and He is, and He is everywhere, and He is, then why live in a world of “what if”? If you are living in fear then you are enslaved. It doesn’t matter what you are afraid of, or even if you don’t know what you are afraid of, the enemy is using fear to enslave and control.

When we received Christ we became someone that we have never been before. We received a new nature, became the “tabernacle” of God, and were given the ability to dominate every fear that comes our way. In Christ we are both positionally and literally fearless. (Romans 8)

So the next time you are tempted to give in to fear remember the following steps:

1. Acknowledge to God that you are indeed fearful. You realize that fear is a lack of trust in God’s ability to control your future.
2. Declare with an act of your will that this fear is inconsistent with who you are in Christ. Then cast your fear upon Christ. (1 Peter 5:7)
3. By faith, walk in your identity in Christ and take God’s peace, rest and provision.

Now here is the question you must ponder. Will you “put on Christ” and draw on the rest that is yours and be fearless, or will you choose to be controlled by fear? The choice is yours.

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…for in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” (Colossians 2)

“If we are to better the future we must disturb the present.”
-Catherine Booth

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When God is not Speaking

“And yet it is true that this God, who desires to give Himself to you, will often conceal himself from you – from you the very one who seeks Him.” (Guyon)

If you have been a “God Seeker” very long, you have experienced the above statement on at least a few occasions. Why does a God who loves us so intensely seem to close a deaf ear to our prayers, especially in times of great need? There are at least three reasons.

First, God wants us to be on a track of continually pursuing Him. If you are the typical Christian then you, like me, have a tendency to get spiritually lazy when things are going great. We may have our daily devotions and shoot up a few prayers during the day, but we lack passion in our pursuit of Him. We may not say it, but we sometimes live like, “God I am ok now, but I will be sure to get really serious about prayer if I hit a snag I can’t fix. You will be the first one I call on.”

Every committed follower of Jesus is quick to call upon the Lord when things begin to get out of control, and it should be that way. However, God’s higher desire for us is to pursue Him even when times are good. God created us for fellowship with Him. It is the instinctive nature of a child of God to pursue a deeper and richer fellowship with the Father. So when we sense those times when God seems to turn a deaf ear to our prayers it could be a sign that we need to examine our passion of pursuit.

Secondly, it is a test of our faith. Do you really believe, even when you can’t “feel” His presence? As a faithful follower of Jesus our faith is continually tested in numerous ways. The deeper our walk the greater the test. It’s like the old story about the man who was chased by a bear. In his attempt to outrun the bear he ran over a cliff and on the way down latched onto a limb. While hanging there in midair (hundreds of feet from the valley floor), he called out to God to help him. God said, “Do you trust me? The man quickly declared, “Yes, I believe and fully trust you.” Then God said,” Let go of the limb.”

Sometimes trusting God when we don’t see a logical way out is like the above story. We must trust God and be willing to let go of the limb. We must trust Him because of who He is and because of His proven faithfulness in the past. Each time we come to one of those moments and we trust God, even though our emotions are all over the place, our faith is increased. How does our faith increase? Because in the end God gives us what we really need – even though it is not what we prayed for. Faith must be tested in order to grow and have real value. Now you better understand what Paul said concerning his weakness and suffering. “I thank God for various temptations.” He knew that faith produces faith-building endurance.

Thirdly, during times of dryness we learn something about ourselves. There is a point in my conference presentation when I ask the audience,” Who is the person that gives you the greatest problem in life?” A few may answer the “devil”, and some may say it is their spouse. But the overwhelming majority of people answer, “It’s me”. When we turn toward pursuing God during times of Spiritual dryness, we begin to see ourselves as we really are. We quickly realize how our whole world is revolving around ourselves. We see our unforgiveness, our quickness to set someone straight, our self-protection and all those things that point to a lack of brokenness.

I vividly remember military boot camp. The best way to describe it was they took all my rights away. I couldn’t go and come as I pleased. I couldn’t talk unless spoken to. I had to go to bed and get up when they said, even when it meant getting up in the middle of the night just to march until daybreak. I had to march in the rain, crawl through the mud with my rifle under barbed wire with machine gunfire buzzing above my head. It wasn’t fair; why was I treated so badly, and subjected to such dangerous circumstances? I didn’t sign up for this! I just wanted to join the military. And to top it all off, they wouldn’t let me do things my way.

It wasn’t until the end of boot camp that I realized their overall purpose. They were breaking us down so they could make productive soldiers out of us. They were breaking down my self-sufficient, undisciplined will. Their goal was to make me a good soldier, one who followed orders without question and was ready for conflict in a moment’s notice. Wow, what a proud moment when our barracks came together as a unit.

In a similar manner, that’s what God is doing in our life. He allows us to experience trouble we can’t escape, people we love whom we can’t fix, and failures and disappointments we think we don’t deserve. In addition to all of that, there are bouts of loneliness and despair… all because He wants to break our stubborn self-will. He wants us to give up on our self-sufficiency and fully cast ourselves on Him and Him alone. Life in the Lord’s army is paradoxal. To receive, you must first give. To save your life, you must give it away to others. But the rewards are heavenly; there is rest for the soul, joy (inner peace), and daily fellowship with the Creator of the universe.

Next time you feel God has withdrawn from you remember these three things: (1) God is testing your faith: (2) He is showing you your self-sufficiency and; (3) it is His cue for you to readjust your priorities and pursue Him like never before. As we gaze on Him we are transformed.

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” (2 Cor. 4:18)

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Union with Christ

For some reason, the typical follower of Christ falls into the trap of living their life under the umbrella of Performance Based Acceptance (PBA). That means in order to sense a degree of acceptance from God we must perform acts of service and devotion. For example, some feel that they must be involved in every program of the church, read a certain number of chapters in the Bible daily, set aside a designated place and time for daily prayer, and give a certain amount of money to the church in order to feel God’s acceptance.

Don’t get me wrong, all the above activities are things that every committed follower of Christ should be involved in. However, the problem is that when we do those things in order to feel accepted by God we fall into the devil’s subtle trap of believing that we must do something in order to receive God’s acceptance. It is better known as the “Cain mentality”.

Instead of receiving God’s acceptance through the blood sacrifice, Cain attempted to earn his own righteousness by bringing to the altar something he created instead of a blood sacrifice. We all know how that turned out for him. God never intended for man to earn His acceptance by good works. God’s ultimate intention is for us to receive His grace and acceptance through the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. Our works and service should be a reflection of our love and devotion, not an effort to earn His favor.

God offers a package deal. Christ and His sacrifice took care of all that separates man from God. Jesus paid our sin debt in full. All our sin is forgiven, past, present, and there is even a provision for our future sin. (1 John 1:9)

Union with Christ
We have eternal acceptance because we have union with Christ. Matter of fact, it is better to refer to our daily walk with the Lord as “fellowship” rather than “relationship”. Relationship smacks of something we have to do to maintain our position. Our relationship is eternally settled. We are in the family of God, we are joint heirs, we are grafted into the vine, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus – all because of our union with Christ. (Romans 6-8, 12:1-39 Ephesians 2:6, John 15)

In one spiritually judicious act (the death, burial and resurrection), we have been united with Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Here is a key Scripture in the form of Jesus’ prayer to the Father:

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone,(the disciples) but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me'” (John 17:20-23, NASB).

The above verse is a snapshot of God’s ultimate intention for His children. We are to be in Union with Him. That’s the reason Paul says in Colossians 2, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so (now) walk in Him.” In other words, since you are one with Christ, now walk in that oneness. We are to live with a moment to moment assurance that God’s indwelling never leaves us. We are never apart from His presence.

What does understanding and living out of our Union with Christ do for us? We have the potential of living from a position of victory and rest no matter what is going on in our life. We can rest assured that whatever we are going through, Christ is taking every step with us. He understands our frustration, our pain, our loneliness, our fear, our doubt. He is saying, “Yes, I know, just trust me and I will see you through.”

What a great way to begin a New Year, walking in your Union with Christ, knowing that because we are one with Him, all is well. Will you covenant with me this year to walk by faith in your Union with Christ? And will you choose, in the power of His strength, to trust God in every area of your life during 2014?

I pray that 2014 will be the best year ever for you and your family.

“May the God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead, now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please Him, make us into what gives Him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! (Hebrews 12:20-22 “The Message”)