Three Goals For Life

Did Paul lead a quiet life?

I mean, he gave this advice to the Thessalonians, so we would assume that he would not ask someone else to do what he was not willing to do himself, right? But do you think of Paul's life as quiet? I sure don't.

Paul stirred up passions and emotions, called upon people to be bold in their faith, and stood up to authorities everywhere he went. He was beaten, thrown in prison, and ultimately killed for not being quiet. So what did he mean?

In Greek, this passage of Scripture has the meaning of not being ostentatious, proud, or boastful. Paul isn't saying to be a wall flower; he's saying our goal should be to prove ourselves not through what we have, but what we do.

Leading a quiet life, then, means not showing off. In the next verse, Paul tells us the goal of such living is to win the respect of outsiders. Not by what we have, but rather by how we live.

That makes a little more sense.

But what about minding your own business?

Paul is all about telling people what they're doing wrong, and what they should be doing instead. Many of his letters are written to groups of people who are living sinfully, and Paul isn't having it! Is that minding your own business?

To get a sense of what Paul is saying, I think we need to back up a few verses, to I Thessalonians 4:3. If you start reading there, you see that Paul spends some time talking about sexual immorality, and not taking advantage of our brother or wronging him in such a manner.

Some translations say we should strive to mind our own affairs, and I think that's an interesting play on words, given what Paul just said. He's telling us to keep our nose out of our brother's tent. Let's face it: if our goal is to win the respect of others, it's hard to do that with your pants around your ankles. Blunt, but applicable to today's world, wouldn't you say?

Finally, work with your hands.

Paul's logic behind this one is plain, as seen in verse 12: So that you will not be dependent on anybody. I know some people can't work for a variety of reasons. Paul isn't talking to them. He's talking to the able bodied who can provide for themselves. Paul was a tent maker, and he worked throughout his ministry. Could he have lived off the generosity of others? Sure. Would he have gained as much respect? I don't think so.

You're not going to win much respect if you're able to earn your own way and simply choose not too. Nobody I know likes leeches, either the black, slimy ones or the other kind.

Three goals to strive for.

Lead a quiet life. Mind your own affairs. Work with your hands.

Seems to me like pretty good advice.

God Knows

You might fool yourself, but you can't fool God.

Want to talk yourself into doing something? It's not that hard. Spend enough time thinking about something, even something you know is wrong, and you can convince yourself it's not wrong after all. If it feels good, and no one gets hurt, then what's the problem, right? After all, it's not nearly so bad as what that other guy did.

You can also convince yourself that as long as you do the "right thing," it doesn't matter how you feel about it. It doesn't matter that you're mad at the world because you had to give up your golf outing to go to your kid's ballgame. You did the right thing; that's all that matters, right?

It's pretty easy to convince yourself. It's something altogether different to fool God.

God doesn't just look at what we do.

God looks at our heart. He investigates our motives. He sees down deep inside us, all those unspoken thoughts, all those dark musings about what we'd rather be doing. What we do is just the tip of the iceberg. God knows what lies beneath the murky waters.

Isn't that a scary thought? Knowing that God not only sees what we do, but why we do it, and what we truly would have rather done? It's scary to me, because that means I can't just do the "right thing," I have to do it for the right reasons, or not do it at all.

Yesterday I said, "Just do it . . . for the right reasons."

Today I say, "If you can't do it for the right reasons, don't do it at all!" You might think your ways are innocent because you did what you were supposed to do. But why did you do it? Did you do it so other people would see you? Did you do it to win favor? Did you do it so you wouldn't have to sleep on the couch that night?

Motives matter. Doing the right thing is important. You cannot, however, do the right thing with the wrong motive. The "why" is as important as the "what."  

Before you decide to do something, check your heart. If your motivations are less than pure, don't do it. What are pure motivations? A desire to serve and please God, obedience to His Word, compliance with what His Spirit is telling you to do.

Go outside that box, and God will surely know.

Today, as you are deciding what to do, remember this:

God's not only going to see what you do, He's going to know why you're doing it.

 

Just Do It . . . For The Right Reasons

What should I do?

How often do you face that dilemma in life? I face it every day. One day its a small decision, the next a monumental choice that has far reaching repercussions. Should I make that phone call or not? What should I say? Is this the right job for me? Relationships, money management, kids, time, and even what I'm going to wear in the morning--the decisions are endless.

I've come to the conclusion there is not a "right" answer or a "wrong" answer for every situation we face. At least not in God's eyes. I don't think He really cares if we wear plaid with stripes (though my wife certainly does!), nor do I think He agonizes over our decision to choose between two equally good job opportunities.

I don't think the decisions themselves are what God is concerned about. Now, don't get all flustered at that. Stay with me, and I think we can come to an agreement here.

I think we're asking the wrong question.

I don't think we should ask ourselves, "What should I do?" I believe the more important question is, Why am I doing it?" 

Why am I pursuing that promotion? Why do I want to wear that tight fitting outfit instead of the baggy sweatshirt? Why am I going to call that person, or not pick up the phone?

If I want the promotion to better provide for my family, that's not wrong. If I want the power, attention, and pride-satisfying accomplishment of climbing the corporate ladder, on the other hand, I'd better take a step back and think about it.

Good choices are not so much about what we do, but rather why.

It is really hard to make the wrong choice when you honestly pass the decision making process through the filter of do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Imagine if every word you said, every thing you did, and every thought you formed first had to meet that standard. How many bad choices do you think you'd make?

Not very many, I'd say.

I truly believe our wrong choices, our sins, come about when we get our motivations and priorities screwed up. Put yourself first and you will drive the decision making bus off a cliff. Put God first, and you'll keep your ride between the lines.

It really is as simple as that.

Simple, not easy.

If I truly did this all the time, the pile of decisions I make every day would be so much simpler, because the hard part of making a decision is often the question, What's in it for me? Take that out of the equation, and all of the sudden the field of choices is greatly narrowed. Call it dying to self, if you will. When I'm out of the picture, choosing what to do becomes a whole lot easier.

That's simple, not easy. Running a marathon is simple--one step, one mile at a time. Is it easy? I can't say from experience, but those who have done it say not hardly.

The same is true of putting God first. It sounds so simple, but it's awfully hard to do.

What to do, what to do?

I think the answer is just do it, but do it for the right reasons. Whatever it is, if done in the name of the Lord, for His glory, and with thanks to God, it will be the right decision.

If You Could Ask God For Just One Thing . . .

I ask God for a lot of things.

This isn't wrong. It isn't necessarily selfish or self-centered. I'm not a bad Christian because I lay out to God the desires of my heart and ask Him to provide for me according to His will. That's Biblical.

What if, though, I only asked God for one thing. What would it be?

Would I pray for my marriage, or the health and well being of my family? Would I pray for security, safety, success? What is the one thing I would lift up to Him?

I'm not sure.

Really, I'm not. Some might say I should pray for salvation,  which is certainly true if you don't have it. Others may say I should pray for faith, which isn't a bad thought at all. There's obedience, and strength, courage and perseverance, love, hope, humility . . . The list goes on and on.

None of these are bad. I'm just not sure any of them are the one.

What did David pray for?

In Psalm 27:4 David said there was one thing he asked of the Lord, one thing which he sought. He wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to see Him in His temple.

That sounds good. But what does it mean?

David spent a lot of his time fighting with Saul, the Philistines, and other enemies. This often put him at a distance from the tabernacle, from the physical representation of God's presence on earth, from the site of communal worship and fellowship with his people. David missed that. At the time he wrote the 27th Psalm, it seems to be the one thing he missed the most, the one thing he asked God to give him.

David wanted to be in the presence of God. He desired, more than anything, to be as close to his Lord as anyone could be. In His house. No wonder God considered David to be a man after His own heart.

David knew what was important.

He didn't lift up his kingship. Winning a battle didn't come first to his mind. Even his own safety and security were secondary to this one request. God, I want to be with you.

That's insight. That's faith. That's having your priorities in the right order. Because if you have that, if you have a closeness with God, everything else is going to be just fine. It may not end up how you thought you wanted it, but when you are in the presence of God, you have a different perspective.

I'm going to try to follow David's example. I'm going to try to put being in God's presence at the top of my prayer list every day. I'm going to try to get my priorities straight, to realize and understand that the one thing that really matters is God in my life.

I believe, when I do that, everything else will be just as it's supposed to be.
 

God Doesn't Think Like Me

Thankfully!

The verse above from Isaiah is often quoted or paraphrased when life doesn't go our way. When we experience hardship or loss, we pull out this truth from Scripture, and rightfully so.

But have you read Isaiah Chapter 55 to understand what that verse means in context? If not, you might be surprised.

You see, it's about forgiveness. When you read Isaiah 55, I hope you'll understand why I am so thankful for this verse.

God thinks in terms of truly forgiving.

The chapter begins with an invitation to all who are spiritually thirsty to come to the fountain of God. Beginning in verse 6 we see to whom God is truly calling out. Not the righteous, nor the godly. He is calling out to the wicked, and the evil.

Why?

So that He can pardon them. Forgive them. Give them a new start.

Because His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways.

We often think of rewarding and serving those who please us. God thinks of saving those who are His enemies. That is a fundamental difference in thinking, a completely different modus operandi. We tend to reach out to those with whom we have much in common. God seeks those who don't know Him at all.

Who among us would actively seek out those who have wronged us so that we could forgive them? Not I, at least not of myself. My thoughts are dark and evil when I am wronged. I may act out of the presence of the Spirit in my life, but those are not the thoughts of my human nature.

That's one way God doesn't think like me.

Thank you, Lord! For not so long ago, I was your enemy, too!

Who Am I To Question God?

Job questioned God.

Many of us are familiar with the story of Job. In short, he was the most righteous man on earth during his time, and because of that he caught the attention of both God and Satan. God holds Job up as an example, and Satan contends that if God were to take away what He had given the man, he would curse God.

God disagrees, and allows Satan to torment Job by destroying all his possessions, his family, and even his health. That happens in the first two chapters. The rest of the lengthy book records conversations between Job and three of his friends as they discuss the matter of his fall from might and grace to desolation and despair.

Now, Job is usually held up as the standard for how to act in difficult times, and I don't argue with that. What is not often talked about, however, is the fact that Job questioned God. He goes to great lengths to explain why he should not be suffering because he has been righteous his whole life. He closes his argument at the end of chapter 31 where, in verse 35 he says, Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense--let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

That's pretty darn bold! And, as it turns out, dangerous.

God answered.

Job laid out a great defense for himself. He gave to the poor, cared for widows and orphans, was faithful to his wife, feared God, served Him--everything he was supposed to do. He saw no reason for God to be treating him the way He was.

God saw it differently.

Chapter 38 is the beginning of God's response to Job, and it is as expansive as Job's defense of himself. What it boils down to is this: God told Job to brace himself like a man and prepare to get the answer for which he asked. God then basically said, I created everything. I control everything. I am everything. What are you?

Job got the point.

Four chapters later in Chapter 42, sufficiently chastised, Job gets it. The Bible doesn't say, but I'm pretty sure Job is down on his knees as he says, more or less, I get it! You're everything, I'm nothing! I'm sorry!

The end of the story tells how God, after Job had repented of his questioning, returned to him all that had been taken away and more. He survived the test and came out glowing. Just remember that part of that glow was the red-faced embarrassment of being put in his place by God Almighty.

What's the point for us?

The point for us, or at least me, is in God's answer to Job's lament that he was being treated unfairly. It doesn't matter how good I think I am, how important I think I am, or how well I think I'm doing. Compared to God, I am nothing. If God chooses or allows me to go through this or that trial, who am I to complain?

Who am I, who is nothing, to question God, who is everything?   

Someone's Always Watching

Ever make a stupid mistake, and hope no one saw you?

Here's the bad news. They did. I know. I've been there, and done that.

Here are some examples. Some of them are mine, some are anonymous. I'll let you decide which is which.

We're all harebrained at times.

Ever pull in to the gas station with the pump on the wrong side and try to stretch the hose over the top of the vehicle? Usually doesn't work.

Ever push the button on a vending machine about 50 times before you realize you haven't put in enough money? Forget your PIN at the ATM? Go to the store, get to the checkout, and realize you don't have your wallet/purse? Or not enough money?

Ever been caught with your fly open, shirt buttoned wrong, or a hole in your pants? Get out of the house with your shirt on backwards, or inside out and someone will notice. Every time.

Lock you keys in the car? Guarantee someone will be there to witness it. Get pulled over by the police? Half the people you know will drive by, even if you're out of state. Lose your car in a mall parking lot and at least a dozen people will see you wandering around, pushing the lock button trying to hear the horn.

Get a flat tire in rush hour and no one will look your way, but stop to utilize God's latrine in the middle of the night and 3 people will stop to see if you need help.

When I get it right, no once notices. But one little slip . . .

Someone's always watching.

Like the person who buried their car in wet concrete in a highway construction zone. They ended up on the news, and about a million Facebook shares. The person who ran their convertible--with the top open--through a car wash? 5 minutes of fame--or rather infamy.

Drive your car in a lake, leave your kid at the store, enter an exit ramp on the interstate (I know someone who did that!), send a get-well card on funeral flowers (it's happened),  or a sympathy card to a wedding and someone's cell phone will capture the moment.

The moral of the story?

There is no such thing as privacy out there. Keep that in mind, or you just might end up on Facebook.