Feeding the Wolves

What do you feed yourself? Weird question to start off a Christian blog if you’re not checking this out with the right mindset, but I’m not talking about the food that goes in your stomach to provide sustenance for your body. I’m talking about a spiritual sustenance, a metaphysical food plan. Because you’re feeding your heart, mind, and soul something, even if you don’t realize it, so let’s talk about what you should and shouldn’t be feeding it.

There are a ton of ways to go about this subject, but I’ll start you off with a story of unknown origin, though it is sometimes attributed to the Cherokee or Lenape Native Americans. It’s been adapted and worked into a number of popular movies and shows, and it goes something like this: “There are two wolves inside you who are always fighting. Which one wins? The one you feed.”

This applies pretty well to spiritual battle for us. There are two sides: Good and evil, God and Satan, and they’re fighting for control over your very being. They are literally warring inside you just like those two wolves. But because of free will, it’s not up to them who wins this battle, it’s entirely up to you. And it all depends on which one you feed.

But this can be a problem because the evil wolf is an incredible scavenger. He can feed off the dregs of pretty much anything. In fact, he gets sustenance merely by you being alive in this world thanks to the evil that occurs in it every day. This world itself creates food for the evil wolf and shoves it down your throat. Sometimes, this food is foul language, sometimes it’s lust, sometimes it’s greed, jealousy, murder, bullying, anger, pain, sadness, loss. Seriously, think of anything bad that happens in this world, anything that hurts you or someone else, anything that causes you to think something bad: it all feeds the evil wolf.

You don’t even have to try to give him food; he’ll just take it. You have to try and stop him from getting food. You have to lock him outside, away from the table, so he can’t get the scraps off the floor.

The good wolf, however, is picky. He only drinks pure milk and eats pure meat. The milk has to be at the perfect temperature, the meat cooked flawlessly, otherwise, he won’t eat it. Things that feed the good wolf include generosity, gentleness, peacefulness, kindness, joy, love. Basically, the Fruits of the Spirit. He’s pretty picky. But that’s because eating anything else makes him sick and keeps him from fighting. It’s detestable to him.

But there is a way to stop the evil wolf from getting any food. And it takes time, hard work, and dedication to the task, but it will work. And it involves you blocking out all the things that tempt you to sin.

Matthew 5:30 says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” These are the kind of measures you should go to: If watching a TV show causes you to lust or be jealous or curse, cut that off. Stop watching it. If your phone or computer tempts you to watch porn just by being near it, throw them away. If playing and losing sports or games causes anger, stop playing sports and games. The only way to effectively weaken the good wolf is to completely cut him off from any chance of food, kind of like a siege.

The verses that brought this whole thing on actually come from 2 Chronicles 32 with Sennacherib’s invasion of Jerusalem. Verses 2-5 say, “Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he planned war on Jerusalem, so he consulted with his officials and his warriors about stopping up the waters of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. Many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land; they said, ‘why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?’ Then Hezekiah strengthened his position by rebuilding the entire broken-down wall and heightening the towers and the other outside wall. He repaired the supporting terraces of the city of David, and made an abundance of weapons and shields.”

Most important are the verses about cutting off the water access to Assyria. Typically, a siege works the other way around. By surrounding a city, an attacking army can cut off their supply of food and water so the city will have to survive from only what is stored inside its walls. But Hezekiah turned this around on Assyria by removing access to any water for the Assyrian army but granting his city access through means of a reservoir that channeled water from outside the city directly into its walls.

Instead of his people starving and thirsty, the Assyrian army was cut off from any sustenance and likely would have been forced to abandon its siege had God not stepped in and removed them Himself as indicated in verse 21.

It is to this extreme we must go to stop the evil wolf. We have to wall ourselves in with the good wolf, with God, and lock the evil wolf out, cutting off his access to our problems, fortifying ourselves until the good wolf is strong enough to go beyond the walls and defeat the evil wolf in battle.

The evil wolf brings despair and death with his victory. After he’s grown strong enough to defeat the good wolf, he will devour you and slink off to scrounge up his next meal somewhere else.

The good wolf, however, brings joy and satisfaction with his victory. After he’s grown strong enough to defeat the evil wolf, he follows you everywhere and hunts at your side. He helps you track down his food and food for yourself. And because you have help in the hunt, you both grow stronger and stronger the longer you work together. And one day, he will grow strong enough that he will hunt down the evil wolf and he will tear it limb from limb so it cannot hurt anyone anymore.

Not Your Mistakes

One of the greatest lies of the world is that you are what you do. This sentiment is expressed in hundreds of arguments, such as “well, I’m a good person, so I’ll get to heaven,” or, “he cheated on her, so karma will get him,” or even in seemingly innocuous phrases like, “once a thief, always a thief.”

But the Bible tells us that what you do is merely a product of who you are, of how you think, of where your heart is. Sin comes from a broken heart that is focused on selfish pleasures. Goodness comes from a heart that is the home of Jesus Christ. But another thing the Bible tells us is that, when you are saved from your past, you are saved into a new being, one that is defined not by who you are, but by the God who has claimed you.

I briefly touched on this topic last week with Casting Crowns’ “Who am I,” but I wanted to expand on the idea of God’s claim on us and how a life after that moment can look from Tenth Avenue North’s “You Are More.”

There's a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, how did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love

Here are some thoughts that, personally, I’ve had before. And I think many people probably have thought some of these things. Constantly, I think back to choices I made that I would like to have again to change who I am now. I can pinpoint the day and the time that caused me problems for ten years and changed who I was, and who I became to be. And I think many people feel this way, and the fear that comes from these thoughts can be incredibly crippling when you try to move forward.

Sometimes, it feels like you’ve messed up one too many times. And I actually think that’s something we don’t discuss a lot in the Christian community, especially if you grew up in church. We have a problem of trying to tackle actions and past choices but not actually discussing and confronting the issues that are from the heart and the mind. And pardon me for saying it, but that’s kind of pharasaical.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade

Two things I love about this: it covers the past mistakes and the current problems that are created. For believers, who you are is not found by adding up every choice you’ve ever made. You are not your thoughts and your actions combined. You are not defined by your sins or your good works. And you are most certainly not defined by the sinful thoughts and actions you still struggle with. As a follower of Christ, you have been spiritually and mentally remade, formed into something new.

Well she tries to believe it
That she's been given new life
But she can't shake the feeling
That it's not true tonight

And here’s where we get into the practical application of this song and the message I’m bringing tangentially through it. Even when you know you’ve been given a new life. Even when you know that God has saved you and you know the results of that, sometimes, you still doubt. Maybe you don’t doubt God, but you doubt that you’re doing the right things, that you’re thinking the right way.

And here’s the important thing: these things don’t just magically go away when you get saved. The process of sanctification, of being made like Jesus, isn’t immediate. It takes time for you to be fully transformed, some people take longer than others. And these doubts will always be present. The heart is misleading and untrustworthy, so of course it will occasionally lead you astray, and no amount of knowing you’ve been remade can combat that sometimes.

She knows all the answers
And she's rehearsed all the lines
And so she'll try to do better
But then she's too weak to try 

Sometimes, it’s just not enough to know the words and actions. I can speak to that from experience. This idea that salvation comes from effort is not new, but it’s so close to how Christians are supposed to live that it seems like it’s real. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in, “well, if I just knew more of the Bible,” or, “if I just didn’t give into sin that one time, then God would help me more, then God would save me from it.” But you’re too weak, I’m too weak, we’re all too weak to do these things, so we are trapped by our lying heart into thinking we’ll never be okay. 

'Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved

But here’s the thing: there’s only one thing you need to know, and it’s not the Bible by memory, it’s not the mistakes you’ve made, it’s not how you’re going to do better in the future. The one thing you need to know is what’s been done for you. The one thing you need to understand is that it’s not about feelings or thoughts, it’s about the one action that Jesus Christ made, and that no matter what, once you’ve chosen to believe in Him and what He did, you are claimed by Him and nothing can change that. No mistakes, no thoughts, no feelings. Nothing. Take refuge in that.

In a sense, who you are is not about you at all. Who you are is all about God and how He loves you enough that He would sacrifice His son, over and over and over again if that was what it took, so that He could say, “You are mine.”

Now, here’s a call to action for the Christian community out there. Let’s stop doing the things that cause people to think this way. Let’s stop making our thoughts and actions and gossip about who did what and what happened from that (let’s just stop gossiping anyway). Let’s stop thinking that once someone confesses belief in Jesus that everything’s perfectly fine for them.

Let’s start leading people to grow closer to Christ. Let’s start encouraging those who make mistakes. Let’s lean on the gospel and not on our feelings of Jesus. Let’s aid those who are lost in their thoughts and emotions and don’t know where to go. Let’s tackle the heart and the mind, not the actions. Let’s dive deeper into how we can help others rather than stick to the surface because we feel like it’s not our problem.

When Jesus died, He didn’t just wipe away the actions of sin. He changed who we are and how we thought and felt. He didn’t stick to the surface and do an incomplete job. He fully and thoroughly cleaned us and made us whole. We’re supposed to follow the example of Christ, so let’s follow this example first.

Solomon's Wise Sayings

Chapter seven of Ecclesiastes begins with a Proverbial section of text—it has a number of wise sayings, many of which sum up the previous six chapters in some way. Some are fairly simple, but others carry a lot of weight and require some understanding of the first six chapters to make the connection, so let’s just dive into them.

Verse 1 says, “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.

What’s important to understand is that one’s name is synonymous with their reputation. In essence, it’s your character. In some cases, it’s character that is somewhat delineated from your family’s reputation and position in society, in others, it’s the reputation you’ve built up for yourself. But the important idea being conveyed here is that, even if you can cover up an ugly character with perfume, it will wear off. It’s better to make a good name for yourself by establishing good character than to attempt to cover up your actions when you need to look good.

This fits pretty well with a key theme of integrity from Ecclesiastes 5. It’s important to establish yourself as someone who does good rather than someone who does bad. The second part of that verse is similar to the topic I discussed last week and fits well with Philippians 1:21. Life after death will be beyond conceivably better than life on Earth for the believer.

Verse 2 is a request to take this life seriously and not to live it as though it’s an 85-year party, even though this life isn’t the end. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.”

For the importance of this life to sink in, it is necessary to understand that it does end at some point. Similar to the phrase, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” you don’t know how valuable this life is until you understand that it is limited. It’s far better for your eternal health to understand that there is importance to this life beyond just having a good time.

Verse 3 says, “Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.” This refers back to joy. It’s an outlook on life that allows you to go through hard times and still be glad. It’s a perspective shift granted by a life reliant on God that only allows circumstantial events to affect you on the surface.

And on the flip side of this statement, though likely not intended here by Solomon, it’s possible for someone to appear happy but in reality be sad—something that our society today faces and understands better than most. So, don’t fool yourself, or let yourself be fooled by, an appearance of happiness. You’re looking for a root of happiness rather than a flower.

Verse 4 takes us all the way back to chapter 1. “The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.” Those who truly understand the position people on this Earth are in mourn for it. We believers should be mourning for the state of the world, for the lost, because we know the end result for those who do not know our God.

And now more than ever we see the second half of verse 4 being lived out wherein people gleefully cheer and celebrate about going to Hell. They exclaim that Satan is for them because they’ve found pleasure on this Earth.

In light of the explanation of verse 4, verses 5-6 are fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll leave those to you and move on to verse 7. “Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe destroys the mind.”

Personally, I think a better word to use for “mind” in this verse is “heart.” The Hebrew word used here could mean both. Using wisdom to take advantage of others or accept bribes is, in essence, incredibly unwise. It destroys your heart and changes who you are as a person. It’s degrading to your character, which changes how you can employ wisdom. To say it another way, wisdom without morals is tantamount to folly. We’ll expand on that in verse 12.

“For wisdom is protection as money is protection, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.”

The thing about money is that it’s a finite resource. Yes, it can be used to protect you, but only until it runs out. The advantage of wisdom is that it is endless, and the one who owns it automatically uses it to his/her advantage. It’s a biased resource to be used, whereas money is completely unbiased. But that’s also why you should use it wisely because the tool of wisdom is only as good as the actions it is used for.

For all the procrastinators out there, verse 8 is for you, and me, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.”

The beginning of anything is difficult, whether it’s because of an anxiousness for it to start but having to wait or it’s because you know you need to start but are too anxious to do so. But once you get over the hump of doing it, the thing itself, and the conclusion of the thing, is well worth the satisfaction of starting it.

I like the idea of reading the second half of verse 8 as “give time for others to notice your work rather than being quick to justify your own skill.” We sometimes have this sentiment that no one else will notice what we do, so we have to be the ones to announce all our accolades. But it’s far better to wait—people don’t like prideful people, so be patient and others will notice.

Verse 10 says, “Don’t say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ since it is not wise of you to ask this.”

I like this one a lot because it covers the grass is always greener idiom. It’s not right to dwell on the past or the lives of others. Comparison is the root of jealousy, which is often the root of greed. You’ll never have joy in good or bad times if you’re constantly comparing your current situation to times you thought were better. We’re tasked to live in the moment so we do not rob ourselves of joy.

Verse 11 says, “Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what He has made crooked?”

This verse has a hefty meaning behind it, and it’s one that we often overlook in our fervor for righteousness. But there are some things in this world that are just unchangeable for us. And instead of railing against the immovable object, we should learn to work with what we have. There are some avenues of sharing the gospel that just won’t work. Think of it this way: there are just some avenues for sharing the gospel that have a roadblock on them. People have been made fully obstinate in this way, but often, we try to beat the dead horse to prove God when God’s saying, “try another way to reach this person’s heart.”

Finally, verse 14 says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man cannot discover anything that will come after him.”

And I think of that simply like this: God has made times for us that are easy, and He has times for us that are hard. But both are under God’s domain. Both are under His control. There is nothing that happens in this world that He does not see, know, and have power over. In times that are rough, be reminded that the Lord is still in control, and place your joy in that.

Spiritual Warfare Tactics

I’ve brushed over this topic a few times so far in these last few months blogging, but I want to hit it from a new angle today. Thanks to a study my Sunday School class has done in Ephesians, I’ve viewed the ordeal of our spiritual battle in a new light, and it’s put some other verses into a better context in my mind; I hope it does the same for yours after reading this explanation of my revelation.

Spiritual warfare is a complex topic. There’s a lot that needs to be talked about, a lot that needs to be prepared, and a lot that needs to be done. The difficult part is that the subject matter is complex and often rather difficult to discuss in concrete terms simply because spiritual warfare can be incredibly far from concrete in its essence, which is that it rarely appeals to the five senses. It’s more of a metaphysical attack on the heart and mind, and that’s hard to quantify.

On top of the actual attacks themselves being hard to describe, it’s also difficult to tell when you’re being attacked. One of the key things to remember about Satan and his demons is that they are not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent like God is. They are finite, created beings, so they can’t level attacks against you all the time. But even more important than the knowledge that we are not fighting this battle 24/7 is the knowledge of what to do in the downtime to prepare for each fight.

Ephesians chapter 6 gives us a lot to go on regarding spiritual warfare and how to go about doing it. First, from verses 10 and 11, we must acknowledge that we cannot stand against the devil on our own.

“Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil.”

Only with God’s help can we stand firm against Satan. As we are, we have no protection, but God provides us with armor that is specifically designed to combat the ways of Satan.

Earlier, I said that it’s hard to quantify exactly what our battle is against, and verse 12 explains why. “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”

This verse separates the concrete from the abstract. Our fight is not against other people. It’s more akin to a fight against ideas. Without broaching the political bubble, it’s a lot like wars on common nouns, such as drugs. There’s a general idea of what you’re fighting against, but your enemy is more conceptual than physical.

Our fight is against concepts that invade our minds: things such as, stealing under certain circumstances (from the rich or to provide for yourself when things get rough) is perfectly okay; greed is fine so long as I use some of it to help the poor; lust and adultery are okay so long as I marry the person I have sex with afterward; it’s okay to gossip because I’m asking for somebody to pray about it; or one of the more deadly concepts, that it’s okay to sin whenever we want because God forgives us anyway.

Our fight is against things that we cannot see or hear. It is against ideas that are in direct contrast to the character of God. So, in order to know what it is you’re fighting against, you have to know what is in direct contrast to God’s character, which means you have to know what God’s character actually is, as verse 13 says.

“This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”

But how do I know what God’s character is? Specifically for newer Christians, it would be difficult to truly know a lot about God’s character, which can be dangerous because the more intimately you know God, the better you can defend yourself, and newer Christians will likely be attacked harshly and often due to being the most vulnerable. Well, Paul kindly gives us a shortcut to what we need to defend against by explaining what our defensive strengths are in verses 14-17.

“Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with the gospel of peace. In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.”

Our five main characteristics we must be ready to defend with are truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. The antonyms of these things, the concepts in direct contrast with God’s character, are falsity, wickedness, unrest/conflict, disbelief, and damnation.

Satan will attempt to twist the truth to convince you that you don’t know what is right and what is wrong. He will attempt to pervert this world with wicked deeds, such as murder, rape, and slander. He will attempt to bring about disagreement between people and ignite anger to cause conflict and war. He will attempt to infect your trust in God by bringing about disaster in your life and the lives of those around you. And he will attempt to convince you that nothing can save you, that you are too far gone into the darkness for God to reach.

These attacks will take on many forms. Some of the most prevalent, on a large scale, today are wickedness, like abortion, and conflict, like the one between U.S. government and its people. And the most difficult part of it all is that each attack can vary based on who you are and your weaknesses. For some, Satan may fire dozens of arrows to attack your faith. For others, he may attempt to pierce through your righteousness by causing you to sin. For yet others, he may disrupt your peace with God by causing anxiety and depression. For yet more, he might attempt to convince you that your salvation isn’t legitimate, that God did not speak truth.

And he will attack until your armor is in disrepair and you are too weak to defend. That’s why the next verse is just as important as the armor of God. It describes how to properly care for the armor of God so that it can defend you every time you put it on to do battle.

18 “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” And I’d like to add to this verse since it’s not explicitly mentioned here, but reading your Bible is also something you must do to care for your armor.

Praying to God, speaking to Him, and hearing from Him by reading His Word is like sharpening your sword, banging out the dents in your helmet and breastplate, and reinforcing your shield so that it maintains its integrity. If your armor is in disrepair, it cannot protect you from attacks. A dented shield will lead to concussion. A dented breastplate could cave in your chest if struck. A shield that has taken too many arrows without being replaced is no more than pulp—another arrow would go right through it.

Remember that we are soldiers in this battle. When a soldier has downtime, his first job is to repair his gear so that he can trust it in the battles to come. For us, we do so by refreshing ourselves in the presence of God via prayer and studying the Bible.

But now, I want to take us back to the last part of verse 13, because the setting of the battle is incredibly important. Paul’s words here, “so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.” These aren’t the words of a man who is insisting we charge at the enemy to wipe them out. These are the words of a man imploring us to stand firm where we are until the fight dies down.

Here’s why: we know that the war is already won from John 16:33, 1 Corinthians 15:57, Colossians 2:15 (which explicitly mentions two of our enemies), and 1 John 4:4, among others.

When Jesus died on that cross, He won the war for us. The end result is guaranteed, so charging at the enemy would only hurt us. All we have to do is survive.

Oftentimes, when war is fought, battles are waged after the peace treaty is signed because news of the war’s end hasn’t reached the entire army yet. Even after Hitler’s death in WWII, Nazi soldiers still fought in an attempt to take a holding from American and Austrian military.

Much like the Nazi soldiers, Satan’s army has already lost, they just don’t know it yet. Meanwhile, we know the plans that God had for the war, we have a defensive location set, and we have the provisions to last through a siege. Our goal is not to win, to wipe out Satan’s army, but to merely survive until word of God’s victory reaches our ears and those of our enemy.

Whose We Are

There are a few giants when it comes to the Contemporary Christian music world. Bands like Elevation Worship, Hillsong and all its variants, and Bethel Music pretty much own the worship music industry in my experience. Folks like Chris Tomlin, TobyMac, Lauren Daigle, and Jeremy Camp run the radio world with their musical brilliance.

But on top of all these groups, there stand a few lyrical giants, including Matthew West, who I have mentioned before as being a master of the rhythmic word. But another very popular group does a fantastic job of making music that can be dissected spectacularly, and that is Casting Crowns.

(What a fancy introduction I’ve written just so I could hype up one of the earliest Casting Crowns songs written all because I love the absolute weight behind the seeming simplicity of some of the lyrics.)

“Who Am I” was, indeed, one of the earliest songs performed by Casting Crowns, written by member Mark Hall. When I talk about lyrical genius, I’m really not stretching the truth. There is so much emotion conveyed by the words in this song, and many of their songs, along with a startling complexity if we really break down what’s going on behind all the words.

While what I really want to talk about is the pre-chorus, we’ll start from the top. Mark Hall stated that the emotion behind this song stemmed partially from this question: “Who am I to think that I can just call up to God whenever I want, from the middle of nowhere, and expect Him to hear me?”

Speaking for myself, I never really had this thought, but I also grew up in church being taught that God loves me and wants to hear from me, but I try to imagine this now: what is it like to not know that God cares for you so much that He wants to hear from you, and indeed, seeks you out when you’re in the middle of nowhere? I think it’s integral to get the background of this song to truly understand where the lyrics come from.

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the bright and morning star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever-wandering heart?

To one who doesn’t know our God, these questions seem incredibly valid, but even to those who do know our God, doubt sometimes causes us to feel this way. Because, really, who are we to receive such special care from an infinite being who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent? How does He even notice us? To Him, we are smaller than ants.

But the great part of these lyrics is that they ask these questions without ever denying the intrinsic truth behind the actions the Lord takes. We know from the Bible that He forms us in our mother’s womb; He knows the number of hairs on our head. We know that He felt our hurt as Jesus who came and felt not only all our hurt, but all the eternal hurt that we should feel from the consequences of sin.

We know that we have a God who chooses to be the lamp to our feet and light for our path not because we follow the path well, but in spite of our inability to walk in a straight line. 

But we know what God has done and continues to do for us. That subject fills a majority of the time spent teaching, preaching, and proselytizing. But what we oh so rarely consider, beyond the surface truth of being sinners who are either relishing sin or saved from it, is who we are in comparison to God. Really: who are we in comparison to omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence? With our lifespans of 85 years and our meager strength and will that isn’t even capable of consistently choosing to do what is right, who are we?  

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind 

Let’s not shy away from this, because it’s incredibly important in helping us realize just how gracious our God is. These are things that, to our perspective, pass by quickly. A flower can be bright and blooming one day and ripped to shreds by a strong wind or swept away by floods the very next day. It is so weak. A wave peeks out from the endless mass of the ocean, looking separated, only to be tossed back down into the frothing waters of the sea. It is important, distinct, for all of a second before it no longer matters. A vapor, a wisp, of material in the wind is tossed about, unable to control itself. It cannot decide where it goes or stays; it just gets whisked by wherever the wind takes it. 

If that’s how we see these things, how much less could our infinite God see us as? We could go to sleep healthy and never wake up. We could seem like we’re important to this world for a moment, but how much do we matter in the grand scheme of things, in even just the timeline of humanity on Earth? 85 years isn’t a lot compared to roughly 6,000. With all the conflicting forces bouncing us around in this world, how much power do we truly have to get where we want to go? 

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me? 

But out of all the dreariness, the tone starts to change. Because if you know our God, you know that even though we should be insignificant, we aren’t. Even though we mess up, sometimes, maybe often, more than we get it right, our God loves us. Our God picks us up from where the winds ripped us apart and pieces us back together. Our God sees every last wave and counts it as important to the ocean. Our God calms the wind and guides us through the breezes to where we belong.

The one with the power to calm raging oceans and stormy gales uses his mighty power to quell the tiny whirlwinds that go off in our hearts as we struggle through this life.

Why? Such a simple question with an incredibly simple answer that is complicated by our human nature. It’s not because of who we are or anything we could do. But because of the one we belong to.

Still you hear me when I'm calling
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling
And you've told me who I am
I am yours

Even though we are tiny and insignificant, our God directs His ears towards us. He’s always listening, always watching, always waiting. To hear and speak when we call out to Him. To hold us by the hand when we stumble. To pick us up when we fall. To carry us when we are too weak. Because we are not left out here on our own. We are His.

But again, why? Why does the Almighty God choose to call us His own? Here’s the lyrics I really wanted to talk about to answer that question:

Not because of who I am
But because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who you are

Four lines that seem so simple at first glance reveal myriad truths about who we are, why God claims us as His, and why He continues to fight for us. Literally, these four lines are the pinnacle of precision when it comes to explaining the Gospel.

God chose us, but He did not choose us because of who we are or who we could be. None of us are so special as to be chosen over any other. We were saved because of what Jesus did. Because He did what we could not do, and He lived perfectly and died, taking on the wrath of God we could not handle. He provided a way for us to be with God for eternity, but He does not provide us eternity because of anything we did, do, or could do. He provides us salvation because it is who He is. Because His very nature is good. Because His very nature is love. And because we are His, He loves us.

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God is Goodness

I feel fairly certain in saying that the phrase “don’t beat a dead horse” came around long after Solomon lived. Perhaps, someone came up with the phrase after reading Ecclesiastes for the first time, because it sure does feel like Solomon is absolutely demolishing the dead horse that is the troubles of wealth. Thankfully, it’s only for awhile longer to lead into the second topic he discusses in chapter six: goodness.

I won’t lie to you; this chapter gets fairly dark, and I will be discussing a very heavy topic that might be difficult for some and will sound extremely harsh. Unfortunately, though, it does make sense with what we understand of life and eternity. For those affected, I understand your pain, as my family and I have been affected by similar circumstances. The good news is that there is hope.

The first two verses of chapter six are merely a transition from the last subject into Solomon’s final statements on the matter, so we’ll jump straight into verse 3, which says, “A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.”

I think a lot of people recoil from that because of our perspective of live on this Earth being good. How can someone who lived, was rich, and had a large family here ever have it worse off than a child who came into the world dead and never got to experience what could be had on Earth?

First, we have to understand what happens to a stillborn child, or indeed, any person who passes away without having knowledge of good and evil. This can extend to young children whose brains cannot yet comprehend such things, or those born with genetic and mental diseases that prevent them from grasping the subject.

This is an issue that becomes rather clear if you can understand even a portion of God’s character: that He is just. He gives punishment where it is deserved, and He provides salvation where it is deserved. Punishment comes because of knowingly committing evil acts. Salvation comes from having never committed an evil act in the sight of God—being washed clean by Jesus’s sacrifice is how this works for most people.

But for those who cannot knowingly commit evil, well, can they really sin against God? I argue no, and for a couple of reasons.

The first is that Adam and Eve could not commit sin until they had the knowledge of evil. Because they knew God, they already had knowledge of good, but until they knew what was evil, they could not commit evil. Really think about why the tree is called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That name is important, and I think it’s likely for this very reason, among a few others.

The devil’s advocate argument for this belief is that we are born into a sinful world and thus must suffer the price of sin no matter how long we exist in it, but we know from Ezekiel 18:20 that no child is punished for the sins of their parents. And we know from multiple places in the NT (2 Cor 5:10, and Rev. 20:11-12, to name a few) that we will be judged by our own actions.

So, what really happens to that stillborn child? They experience no evil. Their first experience will be Jesus’s arms wide open accepting them into Heaven. The only thing they will ever experience is pure goodness and joy from being in the presence of the Father.

And that child is much better off than the man who lives a long life on Earth without knowing good because all it will know is good while the man experiences the evils of this world.

Furthermore, the real importance comes when we talk about what he is satisfied by. What is a “good thing?” From our perspective, there are a lot of things we consider “good.” Grades, jobs, cars, houses, kids, parents, restaurants, clothes, food, views…I think you get my point. But are those things actually “good?” From God’s perspective, not really. The things that are good are the things that are godly. If something is not in line with God’s character, it cannot be good. Put simply, this is because God is the only thing that is good.

So, if he is not satisfied by good, thus by God, then what happens to him to make a stillborn child better off? Verse 4-6 explain.

“For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness. Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he. And if he lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place?”

Now it’s time for me to test your memory of what I’ve been writing about all this time: what things can satisfy us? Nothing on this Earth can satisfy us. Nothing we do here that is spawned from here can light up the world around us. The only thing that can satisfy us is God and his goodness. Without that, there is not joy; there is no true happiness.

So, this man who lives a long time with a large family and incredible wealth is stumbling around in darkness if he does not allow God to satisfy him. Life is evil for him and there is no rest in this world for him. Everything he does has no meaning.

And from there, we can interpret verse six two different ways. The first is that the “same place” Solomon is referring to is the grave. As simple as that, he just meant they both die. On the other hand, he could be referring to a man who will go to Heaven just as that stillborn child will, but he did not enjoy life because he did not lean on Him strong enough. You can take your pick because the meaning of the comparison doesn’t change either way, but the imagery does get stronger depending on which interpretation you choose.

If the man does not get to Heaven because he did not believe in God, then the stillborn child is far better off. On top of the fact that it did not experience evil on Earth, it will never experience evil or suffering. On the other hand, the man will forever suffer on top of experiencing the evils of the world.

For the second interpretation, while both get to experience the ultimate good that is being in God’s presence, the man still had to go through the suffering and evil on Earth wile the stillborn child did not. Both ways, the stillborn child has it better.

The rest of the chapter pretty much just doubles down on this illustration, but there are a couple more verses I want to talk about in particular.

Verse 8 says, “What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?”

I really like these illustrations Solomon uses because, to me, they indicate the great equalizer that the gift of salvation really is. The way to salvation isn’t to be wiser than someone else. You don’t get any advantage for that over someone who isn’t as intelligent. Likewise, knowing how to work social circles will not get you to the front of the line to receive salvation. No matter your lot in life on this Earth; poor, rich, wise, foolish, capable, incapable, strong, weak, whatever it may be, not one of these has a better chance at salvation than any other.

I like verses 11-12, too. “For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for man? For who knows what is good for man in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell man what will happen under the sun?”

I read this almost as Solomon being facetious. It’s like he’s saying, “You can talk and talk and talk about what life’s purpose is and what happens after you die, but you don’t know, and you won’t figure it out by yourself.”

The only one who knows what is good and who knows what happens after we die is the one who created us. We can deliberate about it all we want, but unless we’re getting our information from God, we’ll never know anything good.

If you would like to read through a more complex argument for children going to Heaven than I included, you can check out the excerpts from an essay written on the topic at this link: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/do-all-infants-go-to-heaven/

When Motivation's Gone

I’ve come across a number of people recently who have expressed that their “burning passion” for God is deteriorating. Many struggle to find the feelings that they may have had when they felt God close. Some feel like God is distancing Himself from them. Others lack the expressed feelings of joy and happiness that they had when they were on fire for God and feeling the comfort that comes from that emotional high.

And when times like these come, the common question is, “How do I get that fire for God back? How do I get motivated to continue chasing after God?”

And the very simple answer is that you choose to do the hard work that comes with love. When you lack the motivation to read your Bible, choose to read it anyway. When you lack the motivation to pray, choose to pray anyway. When you lack the motivation to attend church, choose to go anyway. When you lack the motivation to fight temptation, choose to fight temptation. Because let me tell you, a feeling is not strong enough to get you through the harsh realities that will try to destroy your love for God. No feeling will ever be strong enough to support love when things go bad. The only action that can support love is choice.

The long answer is this: Let’s take the idea of a relationship, specifically marriage. Now, I’m not married, but nonetheless, I believe that I can provide an accurate representation and breakdown of what is required to make a marriage work using Biblical principles. I’m just going to do it in reverse, so bear with me.

Ephesians affirms that the concept of earthly marriage is meant as a reflection of the church’s relationship with Christ.

Chapter 5 verses 22-29 say that wives should submit to their husbands in the same way that the church should submit to Christ. Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He is to give himself to her. Husbands are also called to love their wives just as much as they love themselves to see her as his own flesh such that he provides and cares for her, just like Christ does for the church. He clothes us in His own righteousness so that we may be seen as righteous like Christ and not the sinners we are because we have been made one with Christ.

I don’t think Paul could have written it any clearer without literally writing, “God made marriage so that you could get a glimpse of what your relationship with Him should be like.”

I’ve been listening to a number of podcasts about marriage recently to prepare myself for when I, hopefully, get married, and one of the most consistently spoken about conflicts is how to handle separation between husband and wife. What do you do when life gets busy and the butterflies disappear? Even generally speaking, you’ll likely hear married couples talk about the disaster that is the ending of the “honeymoon phase.” What do you do when you’re no longer pursuing each other like your relationship is new?

The most spoken answer? Act. Do something about it. When a husband and wife are distant from each other emotionally, things won’t magically fix themselves. One or the other has to step up and begin pursuing their spouse in an effort to love them. When husband and wife get into an argument and neither of them feel like loving the other, the way to resolve that issues is not to wait until the feelings of love return. The way to resolve the issue is for one of them to sacrifice themselves, despite their feelings of shame, embarrassment, anger, whatever, and choose to love through the hard times.

Here’s why you can’t rely on emotions to get you through rough spots in marriage. When the rough spots come, the only emotions you are going to feel are ones that will make it that much harder for you to do what you know is right. You will be angry. You will be sad. You will be distraught. You will be ashamed. And none of those are conducive in motivating you to love. All of those things are conducive in motivating you to hate.

Okay, I know I’ve given some very vague examples. Sorry! When I get married, I’ll revisit this topic and give y’all some very clear situations in which you will have to choose love over emotional motivation, but until then, you’ll have to settle with these and one more passage of scripture that gives the clearest example of how this works as there could ever be.

Matthew 26:38-39 says, “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is swallowed up in sorrow—to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me.’ Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.’”

Do you really understand the deepness of this passage? Jesus is in emotional distress. He knows what is coming. He knows what He should do. Yet He desires another way. His emotions are saying, “I don’t want to do this.” He’s feeling unmotivated. He was so stressed by His feelings that He was literally sweating blood.

But what does He do? He chooses to do what He knows is right, what He knows must be done. And He goes and sacrifices Himself on the cross so that we could be saved. And that is the most perfect example of what you should do when you don’t feel so good about God.

In retrospect, what we sometimes lack the feeling to do is such a minuscule sacrifice when we compare it to what Jesus did. How hard is it, really, to read your Bible every day? Does it really take that long? Does it really take so much out of you to pray in the morning, at night, before meals? Does it cut a huge swath of time from your day to just be with God? I don’t think so.

And you know, the greatest thing about choosing to love God when you don’t feel like loving God is that the feelings come back. You might not notice it at first or it could hit you like a flood. But when you genuinely pursue God, you will find the joy that allowed Paul to live in a nasty dungeon while writing letters to encourage believers all around the known world. You will find the peace that comes with knowing that our all-powerful God has everything under control and is right there beside you at all times.

It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

How He Loves

How do you see people? Do you even notice others when you’re out and about? Or are you so absorbed in yourself and what you’re doing that you’d miss a crime if it happened right in front of you? How do you love?

I’ve been on a kick about how we, as Christians, should love recently. Why? Because it’s the most important thing for us to get right because without us showing love as we are called to, we have no purpose here. Literally our sole purpose is to be an extension, a visual representation, of God’s love on Earth, and I write about it a lot because we fail to be that far more often than we succeed.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. Are we loving like He first loved us?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.” Matthew 5:13.

I’ve been thinking about this verse a lot when it comes to determining how nonbelievers see us. Have you ever thought that the world has denied Christianity so hard because we’ve become useless? Because we’ve lost our taste? They’ve thrown out God because the salt he’s using isn’t changing the taste of the world.

That’s because we see too much with our own eyes and hearts. When we look at others through our own eyes, they’re hard to love. All we can see are faults and issues. That’s why we need to look at things through God’s eyes and love people through His heart.

Brandon Heath is one of my favorite artists, and one of his top songs is “Give Me Your Eyes.” And in it, he covers this subject fairly thoroughly.

Breathe in the familiar shock of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere, why have I never cared

This goes back to my opening point: are you really seeing those around you? Do you actually care about them? Is your goal to show as many people as possible to Jesus? Do you care enough about them to reach out and attempt to save them from eternal damnation? Because all the people you come across daily are going somewhere after they die.

Step out on the busy street.
See a girl and our eyes meet.
Does her best to smile at me.
To hide what's underneath.
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie.
Too ashamed to tell his wife he's out of work, he's buyin time.

There are two ways you can take these lyrics. One interpretation is that, if you pay attention, you’ll find that many people wear their hearts on their sleeves, and you can see right into their lives if you actually try to see them and not just glance past while moving about your day.

The other is that you don’t know what people are going through just by passing them by on the street. We are incredibly crafty when it comes to hiding the things that hurt us because we don’t want people to know what it is that hurts us. We don’t like being vulnerable. And here’s the point: it takes time, effort, and love to learn of what troubles people you meet. It’s hard to do, but it’s one of those things that makes us like salt, makes us different enough that the world will recognize it needs us, and more importantly, the God we serve.

It’s difficult, and we can’t do it on our own. Thankfully, He first loved us and gave us the ability to love like He loves.

Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me Your love for humanity.
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Three key things are here: eyes, arms, and heart. We have to see others the way God sees them in order to see what’s troubling them. We can’t see people as a liar or a thief. We have to see them as a person who is broken and lost in sin.

We have to reach out for them with the arms of God to show them the love that only He is capable of showing, to comfort them, and to hold on when our own grip is too weak to drag them out of the hole they’re in.

Finally, we have to love with God’s heart for mankind. We have to love with the kind of heart that had God sacrifice his own son for the sins of all. Sacrifice the humanity in yourself that says, “well they deserve it because they did—insert crime here—”and dedicate yourself to loving to save them from what they deserve because Christ saved you from what you deserve. We cannot afford to forget any. We cannot afford to forsake any. Christ did not; we should not.

Just moving past me by, I swear I never thought that I was wrong
But I wanna second glance so give me a second chance
To see the way you've seen the people all along

I know it feels like it’s not wrong to treat people like the crimes and wrongs they’ve committed. I know that I will never live up to what I’m writing here perfectly, and neither will anyone who reads this. But how much better off do you think the world would be if we stopped viewing people as the sins they’ve committed and started viewing them as God sees them?

What if we saw people as broken rather than horrid? What if we treated people as fixable rather than permanently destroyed? What if we were actually the salt of the Earth, meant to make this place so much better than the sin that permeates it?

Corruption of Wealth

I find it disturbingly ironic that the wealthiest king in the history of kingdoms hated wealth so much that he dedicated more page space to it than any other worldly pursuit of happiness in Ecclesiastes. Of all the things that Solomon could have pointed out as failures in attempt to reach the joy that only Christ can give, he spent the most time railing on wealth. The page space is ridiculously disproportionate.

Solomon even goes so far as to say, “When you see people being bribed and swayed by money to oppress others, don’t be surprised! If it gets them more profit, they’re going to do it.” In his actual words, it reads like this:

Ecclesiastes 4:8-9, “If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them. The profit from the land is taken by all; the king is served by the field.”

And while I generally want to avoid talking about current times in an effort to make this blog friendly to all individuals and a break from the ridiculousness that is our world, there is no more perfect example than America’s current government. There really isn’t.

We’re dealing with judges who let rich kids get off easy for raping a girl after three months of jail time but sentence poor kids to years for a drug charge. We have a system designed to allow people to get away with murdering unborn children because it brings in more tax money. The upper government appears to be infested with a pedophile ring that covers for each other. (This is not a statement of my political affiliation or thoughts in any way, for the record. I will avoid stating any of that here. It’s merely a report of facts for the sake of proving Solomon’s point from Ecclesiastes.)

But really, you shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve been dealing with the wealthy and powerful breaking systems and taking advantage of others since the beginning of sin. Be righteously upset and work to end it, but don’t be surprised it’s happening. People will do anything for money, even though it never satisfies.

Verses 10-12 say, “The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. Those who love and have money will never be satisfied with it because it is empty. What is money but paper? What is wealth but metal coins? It can’t buy happiness. It can’t buy salvation. It might as well be useless. At some point, even, you may end up with so much wealth that you can’t buy enough to put a dent in your stockpile of cash. Then what good is it for but to stare at?

Interestingly enough, too, another conundrum around wealth appears from verse 11. The more money you have, the more you need to spend. Think about it this way: the more money you have, the more luxuries you can afford, but the more money it costs to keep those luxuries functional, so the more money you need. As a further example, say you’re married, and you desire to make enough money to have a child. Once you get there, it requires money to continue to raise that child. The more you get, the more wants you can have, but the more you need to satisfy the upkeep on those wants. It’s a fairly futile circle if your whole goal for money is to satisfy your desires.

Another point Solomon makes is the satisfaction of a hard worker in contrast to the despair of the rich, who likely no longer needs to really work to maintain his riches. That’s a pretty simple connection; the harder you work, the better you relax. If you never work, you’re always high strung, especially if part of your wealth goes towards the corruption and oppression of people.

I don’t know about y’all, but I always sleep better if I had a busy day working my body and mind. It keeps me from wasting time in bed overthinking and gets me right to dreaming, whereas a day of relaxation gives me time and energy for my mind to worry and obsess over problems, making the relaxation pretty difficult. That’s the concept Solomon was aiming for. If all your time is relaxation, is relaxation really relaxing?

Another thing that plagues the rich is the heartbreak and disaster that can come from mismanaging wealth.

Verses 13-14 say, “There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. That wealth was lost in a bad venture, so when he fathered a son, he was empty-handed.”

A lot like the example of the prodigal son, mismanagement of wealth can be horribly detrimental, and many a wealthy person has found themselves without any money at all from a lack of discretion when it comes to spending.

Then Solomon attacks the popular Egyptian worldview of death again in verses 15-16:

“As he came from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands. This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?”

The Egyptian idea of the afterlife was that anything you were buried with could be enjoyed in the next life, and this is a refuting of that idea. What is the point of hoarding your wealth? You can’t use it when you’re gone, and there’s no guarantee that your kids will manage it wisely either (not that this means you shouldn’t leave them something).

But the most powerful verse, to me, in this section of chapter 5 is verse 17:

“What is more, he eats in darkness all his days, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.”

I could unpack this verse for a long time in a lot of detail, but suffice it to say that this is, once again, Solomon saying that without the joy of the Lord, everything is dark and futile, void of satisfaction. Literally speaking, if God is light, which He is, then believing that money is satisfaction and joy will literally leave you sitting in the darkness—that is, without God—living in sorrow, sickness, and anger at your lack of joy.

Solomon ends this section of his rant against wealth with a reminder that we shouldn’t take wealth or lack of wealth to extremes in verses 18-20:

“Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward. God has also given riches and wealth to every man, and He has allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God, for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.”

This is a great reminder that joy can only be found in God, but that He has also given us the opportunity to have some happiness in the things of this Earth. But we can only have fun with what’s here because we are not occupied with the existential dread that comes from worrying over wealth and other pursuit of this world.

Resisting the Devil

This last week has been a week preaching to my heart about resisting temptation. My pastor’s been teaching on it for the last three weeks, and though it wasn’t the focus of my Sunday School lesson last night, it did come up in the verses we covered, and I had a pretty neat revelation that I felt I needed to share (yeah, we’re doing Sunday School on a Tuesday because of Coronavirus, but it’s working quite nicely).

There is a small joke that has been running around the Gen Z-younger Millennial Christian community about being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and repenting from it. The joke that follows this line of thought regards being convicted of your “favorite sin,” and not wanting to give it up because it’s comfortable or feels good or whatever.

And let’s face it. We all have a “favorite” or “pet” sin that we constantly fall prey to. For some of us, it’s lust, for some it’s anger, for others greed, for others jealousy, for many, it’s gossip. Whatever it is, I feel confident in saying we’ve all got one; I’m sure you’ll find yours if you properly examine your thoughts, words, and actions.

I would argue, however, that it is less our “favorite sin” and more our most common, and easily given in to, temptation. It is the one thing that Satan can trick us with that he knows will get us more often than it won’t. Just as much as I guarantee you that you have a “favorite sin” as it were, I guarantee you that you are tempted by far more things than just that one you happen to give in to.

Just take a few moments to go through your day and all the things that happen in it; mark down all the times something that could have led to sin occurs. I’ll give you a typical example of what could happen by describing a potential day I could live through:

I could wake up in the morning and lie in bed until I’m almost late for work—laziness. I could rush out the door, jump into my car, and drive ten over down the road—Failed to be subject to governing authorities. I could get stuck at a stoplight and yell a few choice words—foul language. I could arrive to work late and tell my boss I got stuck in road work—lie. I could see a pretty girl at work and fantasize about her—lust, adultery. I could hear of my coworker getting a raise and bitterly wish he were fired because I was supposedly next in line for promotion—jealousy. I could arrive home and be short with my parents and refuse to do chores—disrespecting my father and mother.

See what I mean? You can be tempted hundreds or thousands of times a day. But you’re not likely to pay most of those temptations any mind thanks to the renewing of your mind by the Holy Spirit as a believer. This also serves to back up the point that temptation isn’t the sin. Even Jesus was tempted, as seen in Matthew 4:1-11. Temptation is something we cannot control; it’s our reaction to it that we have to work on. And that leads me to the verses that prompted this whole article: Ephesians 4:26-27.

“Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.”

First, let’s note that anger is not sin. Anger may lead to sinful behavior, but being rightfully upset by something is not, in and of itself, wrong. Even Jesus was rightfully, and righteously, angry at times—flipping tables in the temple comes to mind. But anger is a temptation to give in to incorrect behavior, just like all the actions I mentioned earlier are temptations to give in to sin.

The important part is not necessarily that you were tempted, but how you react to the temptation, and verse 26 gives us the method. It says to not let the sun go down on your anger. One of the most common things associated with the movement of the sun is the passage of time. So, how do we avoid falling prey to temptation? Deal with it in as short a time as possible. Don’t let it be present in your heart and mind for any longer than it takes you to recognize that it’s temptation. Turn away from the thought, separate yourself mentally from the setting, and turn to Jesus.

There are a number of methods to doing this, though the best is obviously having scripture at hand to quote and remind yourself of the God who can give you all things and provide for you in every way. Whatever works for you, do it. But don’t give Satan time to work, chipping away at your defenses.

If there is one thing the devil is, it’s an opportunist. He’s not omniscient, he’s not omnipresent, and he’s not omnipotent. But he is incredibly sneaky, quick, clever, and dedicated. His only goal is to make sure you suffer with him in Hell. And he’s great at taking advantage of any openings you give him to work at you. While he may not be able to punch a hole in the armor you wear for protection in one hit, give him enough time and he’ll find the hold and slip a blade through.

That’s why verse 27 is so important. To avoid giving the devil an opportunity, you have to make sure you give him as little time as possible to study you while you’re in duress from temptation. If a lustful thought comes across your mind, don’t play around with the idea and flirt with fantasies. Cast it away from you as quickly as you can. The longer you ponder that lust, the more likely you are to give into the temptation and actually commit adultery. (Doing inappropriate things with someone in your head is just as much adultery as doing it physically—Matt. 5:28.)

When your friends start gossiping, either get them to stop or remove yourself from the conversation so that you’re not convinced to join in. Even if your resolve is strong at first, you will break down eventually just to become part of the conversation. For every second you remain, you give Satan an opportunity to get you to sin.

Combat jealousy with encouragement, greed with thankfulness, anger with love and understanding. And do it quickly so that you don’t sit and stew in the feelings and opportunities to do what you know feels good temporarily, what appears to satisfy.

The reason I love verses 26-27 so much is because the whole picture lends itself to this lesson so easily. When you’re really angry at someone, it’s so easy to sit and stew in your emotions and imagine all the mean things you’d say or do to get back at them for how they wronged you. The longer you stew in that anger, the easier it gets for your “justice” to become harsher, and the harder it becomes to show them love and forgiveness as we are called to do.

It’s the exact same with sin and temptation. The longer you play with that temptation, the easier it is to give in to the sin, and the harder it becomes to do what you know is right. So, don’t let time pass in temptation. Hurry and turn to Jesus, rebuking Satan all the while so that you can be protected by the righteous shelter that is Christ.

What Christian Means

Just this last weekend I was introduced to Christian rapper Nathan Feuerstein, otherwise known as NF, by my little brother. I’ve only heard a few of his songs thus far, but I’ve found quite a lot of valuable information in them to mine, especially in “Therapy Session,” which I want to talk about today.

I want to discuss a few ideas before I get into the lyrics and the themes in this song. The first is the meaning behind music. A lot of times, I think people forget that music is a language—it is meant to convey things: feelings, thoughts, experiences, dreams, life. It’s not just entertainment, and it’s usually not single-minded in purpose. One song can portray a variety of things when you analyze it as you should. My point in this is that you shouldn’t dismiss music just because it’s not something you enjoy listening to.

It’s something we, meaning the Christian community (and others) do far too often. The older generation typically doesn’t like contemporary music during worship because they prefer the style of hymns. The younger generation typically doesn’t like hymns because they’re too slow and boring, or they’re hard to sing during worship, or whatever. And, to be honest, the argument between the two groups has left worship music in kind of a dark place of extremely simplified lyrics sung loudly to appease both.

I say all this because I don’t want anyone dismissing the message from music like this because it’s “not their style” or because NF doesn’t necessarily define himself as a Christian rapper and his music isn’t always the prettiest in terms of sound. Therapy session is actually rather dark at surface level. But when you go deeper, there’s a ton of God-given wisdom behind the words.

So, into the lyrics.

This music is more than you think
Don't book me for just entertainment, it's entertaining
Hearing these parents, they telling their kids
My music is violent, you gotta be kidding me
I guess that your definition of violence and mine
Is something that we look at differently

These verses go back to the topic discussed earlier and breach into the next. A lot of times, we Christians have an incredibly bad habit of railing harshly against things that don’t look, smell, taste, feel, and sound Christian right off the bat. Rap is a prime example in and of itself. Wider sects of the Christian community hate it because sometimes it sounds angry or too loud, and the words aren’t straight from Bible verses. Heavy metal is another genre that tends to get the stink eye from us because of similar reasons.

But this causes a ton of problems when the rest of the world sees it. Trust me when I say that we often have this reputation as practitioners of “cancel culture.” If you don’t know what that is, it’s the name behind the practice of blacklisting something because it doesn’t fit your idea of “good,” or because it made a mistake and said or did something “wrong.” I’m going to avoid getting technically political here, but just go search up some news articles about “Christians boycotting companies,” and just see what’s pulled up.

I won’t deny that there are certainly groups and companies we shouldn’t give our business to, but we exercise the “that’s satanic” thing way too much. We’re talking about those who don’t allow their kids to read Harry Potter because it has witches and magic in it or Percy Jackson because it’s about Greek mythology. In all honesty, Christians are becoming rather like the Pharisees in practice, disallowing things like video games, certain books, movies, songs, bands, etc.

Want me to smile, you want me to laugh
You want me to walk in the stage with a smile on my face
When I'm mad and put on a mask, for real though
I mean, what you expect from me?

Another thing we do far too often as Christians is attempt to come off as perfect. We sugarcoat ideas, we put on masks to hide our true identities and feelings when we go to church on Sundays, we live double lives because we think that’s what it means to be Christians. But I think the rest of the world actually has it right when it comes to talking about how you feel.

It’s okay to be real with your emotions and thoughts. It’s okay to admit that sometimes you doubt God. It’s okay to acknowledge how hard it is to love how Christ loves. It’s okay to admit your struggles. And it’s high past time we started making the body of Christ a safe place to be imperfect humans.

I'm taking pictures with thousands of people
But honestly, I feel like nobody knows me
I'm trying to deal with depression
I'm trying to deal with the pressure

How many people do you actually know? How many actually know you? Who can you genuinely say you are vulnerable with? That’s what’s being expressed here. How many times do you walk out of church on Sunday, talk to some people on the way out to your car, and then not speak to them again until the same time next week? Are you connecting? Are they? It’s so superficial, and most certainly it is not what God wanted for us when he declared that we should meet together and fellowship.

How many Christians deal with depression and anxiety but no one in the church knows? No one is there to help them? It goes back to some of my earlier points—we’re too willing to judge and not willing enough to learn. Personally, I fall victim to not connecting with others well. I have anxiety—talking about myself and being vulnerable is akin to jumping out of an airplane in my head, but these are the things that we must do better, even if it’s difficult, or else we risk failing at the mission God has for us.

I ain't gon' walk on these stages in front of these people
And act like I live my life perfectly
That doesn't work for me
Christian is not the definition of what perfect means

I love that last line more than any other line in this song for a number of reasons. Being Christian does not mean to be perfect. It means to follow the only one who lived a life of perfection. We strive for perfection knowing we will never reach it. The problem is that we pretend to be perfect far too much.

I’ve said this more times than I care to count at this point, but I’ll say it again. I honestly believe that most nonbelievers have no problem with God. If they knew Him, they’d love Him. They all have a problem with us. Because we do an absolutely miserable job of showing them who He is. Nonbelievers don’t hate God; they hate us. We’re judgmental and prudes and snobby and rude. We hate and despise them and then act like we’re better than them because we’re “saved.” They don’t want anything to do with that, and I don’t blame them.

What you probably don’t know, unless you’ve heard this song before, is that pretty much the entire song is NF venting his thoughts and emotions at fellow Christians. Why? Because, not only has he gotten death threats for his music, but someone, and I can almost guarantee it was a “Christian” threatened to slaughter his entire family. Why? Because he didn’t fit their idea of being saved.

That has to stop. NF has likely done more to spread the kingdom of God by the age of 29 than many Christians will manage in an entire lifetime. Now, I’m not trying to be high and mighty about this. This message applies to me, too, as all of my blog posts do. But it needed to be said, and it needs to be said over and over and over again until we get it and start changing how we live.

Listen to Therapy Session on Spotify. NF · Song · 2016.

Approaching the Lord

The first seven verses of Ecclesiastes chapter five express the need to approach God and your relationship with Him with caution. As with any significant relationship, our relationship with God is one that must be intentional and guarded so that we do not cause any undue issues.

And, in fact, this must be stressed more so with God because He is perfect and just and has a standard higher than we can ever reach, unlike our earthly relationships. You can’t afford to be lackadaisical when it comes to being righteous. Even though God forgives when we ask, the damage that it can do to you on Earth is significant.

The first verse opens up with how our relationship with God should look; it should not be something that is done by obligation, but by obedience and desire. It describes a mindset with which we should chase after God. “Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they are ignorant and do wrong.”

I’d like to note that my Bible version translates the Hebrew word “shama” differently than most versions, which use “to hear” or “to listen” in place of “obedience” in mine. However, the meaning remains the same. The use of obedience in my translation likely serves to highlight the difference between the “this or that” proposition Solomon was making here.

The two options when you approach God as Solomon presents them are “to hear/listen/be obedient” or “to talk/do/sacrifice.” You can either come to God with a heart of obedience that desires to do what He would have you do, or you can come before Him with a heart that says, “Look, I recognize that you’re God and all, but I’m just going to do what I want.” This is a cautionary statement to not let your own desires be placed higher than God’s calling for your life.

This is quite similar to the introspective actions we should take before partaking in communion, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32. We must examine ourselves as we come to God, humbling ourselves before Him and recognizing who He is and who we are in comparison.

Verse 2 and verses 4-6 say, “Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because He does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands.”

There are plenty of reasons why it’s important to not make promises to God beyond, but the main reason is that we can’t keep them. If you say, “I will not sin,” you will sin. If you say, “I will pursue you wholeheartedly for my entire life,” you will fail to do so in a moment of weakness. We’re not good enough to live up to our promises like that.

James 5:12 says, “But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.”

But another reason is that God knows so much more than we do that it’s not worth trying to claim we will adhere to whatever our fickle minds decide on in this moment. Where our God is unchanging, we are constantly in a state of flux, moving from one desire to the next as fast as a hummingbird’s wings flap.

“God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few,” is pretty clear in meaning: you don’t know enough to make promises about what you will do. Let your words to God be, “Yes, I will do as you say.” You don’t need more than that. He knows your heart, anyway.

One final reason, if the first two don’t satisfy your curiosity, stems from the fact that God is omniscient, all knowing, and sometimes the consequences of your vows to satisfy your own desires don’t turn out for your benefit. A great example comes from Jephthah in Judges 11.

Jephthah, following pagan customs, proposed a bargain with God in order to win a battle against the Ammonites. Why, exactly, he chose to make this bargain when the Spirit of the Lord was with him is unclear to me, but the results of the vow were very clear. The bargain was that the first thing that came out of Jephthah’s house when he returned home from his battle with the Ammonites would be sacrificed to God. Unfortunately for him, the first thing that came running out of his front door was his only child, his only daughter.

Had he remembered who God was and what strength was given to him by the Lord’s divine power, he would not have lost his only daughter because he was too quick to speak to the Lord. (Granted, I’m not saying every time you make a promise to God, something like this will happen, but you should know that our God is a just God, and your words have power, meaning. Failing to go through with a promise is a lie to God, and His punishment must be just. I think I speak for us all when I say that I’m thankful He is also a forgiving God and Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins.)

There are a ton of verses on guarding your mouth, guarding your speech, guarding your tongue, but the one I like most is certainly in verse 6: “Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you.” Don’t let what you say make you guilty before God.

My dad is rather fond of this saying, and we can, and should, all take this to heart a little more: “Better to keep your mouth closed and let everyone think you’re a fool than to open it and prove that you are.” The tongue is a betrayer, it’s lashing at the bit to make you mess up—it cannot be tamed and made to say only what is good. Sometimes, the best thing for us to do is shut up.

Finally, verses 3 and 7 say, “For dreams result from much work and a fool’s voice from many words. For many dreams bring futility, also many words. So, fear God.”

This is fairly simple, yet complicated at the same time, but the essence of the message is that rewards come from effort, not from words. It’s very much like our common phrase “If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk.” If you’re going to talk the talk of being obedient to Christ, you must then walk the walk He has set before you. The rewards come from actually doing what He says, not from saying you’re going to do it.

Verse 7 leans its meaning more towards the ideas expressed in verse 2 about God being in Heaven and us on Earth. Humans, especially compared to God, have an incredibly small attention span. It’s so small that I probably lost eighty percent of the people who clicked on this article by now. We are so easily distracted that when we try to decide what we’re going to do instead of listening to God’s plan, we change our minds 300 times in the span of our lives. Why? Because we don’t know what God knows.

We’re like a child who is presented with five of their favorite desserts but is told they can only choose one of them. That child is going to point at the first, then the second, then the third, and so on, over and over and over again without ever actually sticking to a choice. Then, that child will attempt to eat all of them instead of choosing.

We are too fickle to decide what we will do. That’s why, when we approach God, we should approach Him with obedience and our ears open to hear what He has to say to us, then we should endeavor to do as He asks with as much effort as we can give because that’s where the rewards come from.

Preparations for Courage

One of the things I love about reading the Bible is finding the parallels between New Testament and Old Testament scripture, even, and especially, when it’s not just a NT author quoting the Old Testament, but when the two align even though the reference may not have been intentional.

In the case of John 14 and 1 Chronicles 17:25, the parallel wasn’t quoting OT scripture, but it is very likely that Jesus made the allusion purposefully.

When you take a look at it, it’s actually rather neat how similar the covenants are that the Lord made with Jesus’s death and resurrection and with David. Of course, this makes sense because from the covenant God made with David came Jesus, who was of the house and line of David.

But what I want to talk about specifically is God’s promise to David to build and establish a house for him as he prepared to lead Israel and glorify God in his life.

1 Chronicles 17:25-26 says, “Since You, my God, have revealed to your servant that You will build him a house, Your servant has found courage to pray in Your presence. Lord, You indeed are God, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.”

To really get into the feel of what I’m trying to teach, put yourself in David’s position. David was 30 years old when he became king, when he became the ruler of an entire nation. Keep in mind that he was a shepherd for a decent portion of his life—that’s not quite adequate training to be a monarch. Ruling the kingdom of Israel, and especially turning it back from its idolatrous ways under its previous rulers, would have been quite the daunting task.

Even someone groomed to become the ruler of such a nation would have been stressed and afraid of taking on that task. But these verses indicate that the covenant the Lord made with David gave him courage to work through that? Why? Because he knew something great would come of it. He knew that the Lord was before him, preparing the way for success and peace.

This is incredibly important to our understanding of John 14.

Verses 1-6 say, “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way where I am going. ‘Lord,’ Thomas said, ‘we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

These verses are meant as encouragement. To the disciples, it was meant to give them peace about the days and weeks to come after Jesus’s death on the cross and the subsequent resurrection and return to Heaven.

But this is more than just timely encouragement for the disciples. This is meant to give us peace over the plan God has for our lives just as much as it was to give them peace about God’s plan for Jesus. It was meant to give us courage that, no matter what, we have a place prepared for us with the Father.

David was encouraged to go through all the trials of his kingship, all the wars and politics, all the idolatry of the Israelites, the troubles with the Ark of the Covenant, and anything that came up to oppose him because he knew that God would not let it fail.

Far too often, we Christians fail to fully understand that God does not fail. We’re afraid to tell the Gospel to a coworker because we might get fired. We’re scared to witness to a friend because he/she might refuse to speak to us afterwards. We don’t help the homeless guy who needs food because we’ll be late getting home, or we think he might go spend the food money on drugs. We don’t speak to the woman on the street who looks like she’s been down and depressed because we’re afraid of potential public outcry or that someone will perceive it the wrong way.

But why are we so scared? We know that God does not fail. We know that he always has our best interests at heart. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him. We know that this place is only temporary, that there is far better waiting for us. So, why are we scared?

But whatever you do, understand this: Jesus has a place prepared for all those who know Him. We should take heart and have peace in that statement. We should have the ultimate peace knowing that no matter what happens on this Earth, even if it is the worst torture imaginable, there is the ultimate peace and love waiting for us on the other side. Have courage because no one can take away that reward! No one can separate you from God’s love.

Go back to verse 1: “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Don’t let any of the potential circumstances you could find yourself in stop you from reveling in the fact that your potential to do good is endless. Never stop relishing in your knowledge that to die is gain.

Yeah, even if things go wrong here and you’re killed for your faith, is that really that horrible? In some ways, no, it would not be good. We would hate to leave behind loved ones, but when you’re afraid of the small things like helping out a homeless person or showing love to a friend or even an enemy, keep in mind that to die is to gain all the benefits of being with Jesus. What’s a little fear in the perspective of eternity?

No Good Alone

In my blog post Bible study on Ecclesiastes, I mentioned the song, “It’s No Good to be Alone” by Brandon Heath along with the theme of the necessity of companionship for us. Today, I’m doubling down on that and bringing in the song, “No Man is an Island” by Tenth Avenue North to talk about some good things that can be done with companions that you can’t find when you’re throwing others to the wayside to chase down a dream.

Biblically, I think it’s pretty clear that we need socialization. We need intimate, vulnerable, human connection to survive and thrive on this Earth. Whether that is through close friendships or a spouse, it is, quite simply, necessary to our existence, our nature.

The songs I’m talking about today I won’t spend too much time going in-depth into the lyrics because they’re pretty straightforward, and I explained a lot of it in Friday’s post. But these songs are more recommendations that you can have on hand to listen to whenever you feel overwhelmed. Hopefully, they’ll remind you that you need people you can count on so you aren’t alone.

One of my favorite verses from “It’s No Good to be Alone” comes after the first chorus.

It's been a little while, you've been outta the scene
Spending all your time chasing down a dream
Takes a lifetime, takes a lifetime
It's a short life, it's a short life

This is, personally, one of the things I struggle with a lot. When I was in middle and high school, I would talk to my friends every day. It wasn’t difficult, but when we all split off to college, I spoke to them maybe once a semester. We were all so busy that we couldn’t even bother with each other for 90 percent of our year. Thankfully, we’ve all been good friends since elementary school and don’t have any problem starting back where we left off, but it’s important to not forget connections like that.

One of the things I think we, as Christians, tend to forget is that life is short, and we don’t have to live it all business-like. The things we will accomplish, either for ourselves or for God, will take our entire lives to achieve. You can’t, and shouldn’t, rush it, and mentally, you can’t handle the strain of dedicating yourself solely to it. Sometimes, we have to let loose and live, experience life with our friends. To me, that’s why part of the opening of this song hits so hard.

We're leaving you a message on your telephone
Everybody's wondering what you're doing home
Yeah, we're starting and you're missing the party
Can you hear it playing your favorite song
Everybody's singing but something's wrong
'Cause you're missing, 'cause you're missing

Just as much as your friends should be a vital part of your life, you are likely a vital part of someone else’s life. Sometimes, you need to give up on the extra hours of work on the weekend and spend some time with people who love you. Otherwise, those connections die, and speaking from experience, it really sucks when you let them go.

Tenth Avenue North’s song, on the other hand, speaks about the things friends can do rather than the necessity of having them. I like “No Man is an Island” because it’s coming from the perspective of a friend reaching out to another rather than the other way around.

I believe the best way to have good friends is to be a good friend, a lot like the adage, “You can’t hate someone who is always nice to you.” You can’t have bad friends if you’re a good friend. Barring an incredible lack of empathy in a person, a bad friend won’t be able to put up with the guilt of being a bad friend to a good friend. They’ll either change to be better or leave the friendship entirely.

But the problem with this is that becoming good friends requires vulnerability. It’s a hard thing to get past.

I see fear in your eyes, there's no safety here
Oh, my friend, let me in, I will share your tears

This is a commonly experienced thought, I believe. Often, we lack the courage to break through the fear of opening up to someone because of potential judgment. But being a good friend is showing empathy and understanding, and then being there for the person who shows that vulnerability, whether that means to be a shoulder to cry on or someone to help them get through the issues.

I wish you never thought you had to go,
Wish you never thought you had to leave!
Together we can lift each other up,
We can build a shelter for the weak!

More biblical truth, which is also why I like Tenth Avenue North so much. A good friend provides a human version of what God provides. It’ll be imperfect, but it’ll help so much for your friends to know that you are a safe place, a shelter, for them to come to and weather the storms of life. But one of the best things about the lyrics above is that you can lift each other up. When one part of a friendship goes down, the other can lift them up in prayer, or lead them to a Biblical answer to the trouble.

I think one of the biggest struggles we feel when attempting to actively find companionship is the belief that no one will ever see us for who we are inside, that no one will find us. And that if they ever do, they won’t understand us or love us in that identity. But here’s the thing, as the song says, we can be found. God is the perfect seeker and He can always find us, but even among other people, there are those who will see you for you and love you.

Even though, as humans, our love is finite because we are not God, we love because He first loved us, and that includes loving in the same ways He loves us.

No man is an island, we can be found
No man is an island, let your guard down!

Listen to No Man Is an Island on Spotify. Tenth Avenue North · Song · 2014.

Listen to It's No Good To Be Alone on Spotify. Brandon Heath · Song · 2011.

Success and Companionship

The second part of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 in my personal Bible is titled “The Loneliness of Wealth,” and I don’t know about y’all, but that hits deep.

There’s a song by Brandon Heath titled “It’s No Good to be Alone,” and one of the lines from that song says, “You know it doesn’t matter how high you climb if no one’s there to share the ride when you get there.” (You can listen to this song down below.) To me, this sums up the pursuit of wealth as an ideal, and really, the pursuit of a lot of things on this Earth. Humans have a need for companionship, for socialization. God knew this at the beginning. It’s why he created Eve for Adam.

We were designed to have perfect companionship with God and other people, but sin entered the world and that perfection in companions was lost. Things like jealousy began to intervene as soon as Cain and Abel. It’s interesting to me that Solomon touches on that subject right off the bat when he starts talking about wealth in-depth.

Verse 4 says, “I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to a man’s jealousy of his friend. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

Why do you want to be wealthy? I don’t think anyone says they want to be wealthy for a pure, selfless reason, though I admire anyone who can truthfully say that’s the case for them. Likely, the reason you want money is to satisfy your desire for what you’ve seen others have. You want that nice car, the big house, the boat for the lake, a new set of golf clubs, your own personal library, an in-ground swimming pool, a massive yard, the ability to fly to Hawaii for a week-long vacation, or even something as small or simple as your friend’s easy to use and fantastically clever coffee machine.

Regardless, the point is that you want something you don’t have. You’re jealous of someone else’s possessions, so you work to get what they have that you don’t. But obviously such a thing is futile because getting what they have won’t satisfy you. Speaking personally, I’ve bought things my friends had because I thought they were cool, and within two weeks I was bored of it completely. After a brief honeymoon period with that item, it just became a waste of money.

Verses 7-8 say, “Again, I saw futility under the sun: There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with his riches. ‘So who am I struggling for,’ he asks, ‘and depriving myself from good?’ This too is futile and a miserable task.”

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s lonely at the top.” And that’s a pretty true standard in the world we live in. It’s cutthroat. To get to the top, you often have to cut others down and climb the mountain of metaphorical bodies to reach higher than those who lost to you. It’s a grim image, I know, but it’s a grim reality. When you strive solely for wealth and career, you have to give up everything else, including making relationships with other people.

As Solomon often does, he recommends a middle-of-the-line approach to this because extreme reactions in this area tend to not work well. Verses 5-6 say, “The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. Better one handful with rest, than two handfuls with effort and pursuit of the wind.”

You should neither be lazy in the pursuit of wealth such that you rely totally on others to take care of you, and you should not pursue wealth so fervently that you do not take time apart from that ambition to spend in other areas.
Rest is important to us. Taking time away from our goals is important. All you achieve when you refuse to take breaks is stress and failure. To put it this way, a guy graduated my high school with a 5.2 GPA and got a full ride to Yale, but by graduation, he had given up hours and hours of sleep, likely a large portion of his social life, and created undue stress for himself to the point his hair was graying as a high school graduate. There’s no satisfaction in pushing yourself so hard that you hurt yourself.

A lot of this chapter actually leans towards a saying many of us have heard often: “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Verses 9-12 say, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if somebody overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

It’s about how you achieve your goals. How you overcome your struggles. How you lean on God and your companions. This is why you need others by your side in this life. We’re not capable of doing this life on our own. We’re just not. There will be times when we are unable to stand under our own power, but by sharing our burdens with our friends, we can lift the weight pressing down on us. But if you don’t have anyone there when you’re being crushed by a burden, you’ll be saddled with that weight for good.

The cord example Solomon provides is actually such a great illustration even today. Let’s expand on it:

Now, I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to ropes and cords, but I do know that, essentially, the more strands a rope has, the stronger it is. That’s because, to break a cord made of three intertwined strands of rope, you have to create a force greater than the strength of all 3 strands combined, rather than just the individual strength of one strand because the strands compensate for each other and share the burden of weight. So, if one rope can hold ten pounds, then a cord with three strands that rope can hold 30 pounds, basically.

This works because of the distribution of force and tensile strength. I won’t get into a detailed explanation, but I’ll try to express the essence of it. A rope fails at a point that gets stretched too far for it to hold onto itself any longer. This weak point, however, can be negated, in a cord with multiple strands of rope. The multiple strands of rope work to distribute the force better such that the tensile strength of each individual strand increases. That weak point on each strand gets stronger because when one strand takes up too much force, it can pass some of that force on to the second and third strand.

So, bringing that back around to the comparison: where you would snap under the load, intertwining yourself with a companion or two will help you hold strong under weight you wouldn’t be able to carry alone. Now that I’ve beaten that horse six feet under, let’s move on.

One of the more important functions of companionship is the ability to have a somewhat objective view on decision making. Your friends serve as people whom you can and should be accountable to and who can help you see things from perspectives that you wouldn’t consider. This idea is all over the New Testament and within the Christian community, so I don’t need to touch on it too much, but Solomon mentions it here in verse 13, “Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings.”

It’s better to be have good friends who can advise you than it is to be wealthy and think the advice of others is beneath you. To broaden it a bit, it’s better to avoid thinking wealthier or more influential people are superior to others because of their lot in life. A poor man can be just as wise as a rich man. A mildly successful friend is just as good as a wildly successful friend.

But even more so, Solomon stresses the idea that recognition does not come from wealth. Verses 14-16 say, “For he came from prison to be king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who move about under the sun follow a second youth who succeeds him. There is no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

Even the most heroic stories of prevailing against unfortunate circumstances won’t get you true companionship by its own merits. As soon as one successful person is gone, another will rise up in their place and the people will jump on that bandwagon. That’s why good, loyal companions are more valuable than wealth. People who will never abandon you are a rock on which you can find strength, even if they aren’t the rock on which your foundation should be built. Wealth can be lost in a moment, but a good companion will stick by you through rich and poor.

Listen to It's No Good To Be Alone on Spotify. Brandon Heath · Song · 2011.

Body of Christ

To me, one of the most frustrating things about certain groups of Christians is their insistence on the importance of denomination. I grew up a Baptist, and I still attend a Baptist church, but it’s not like I hold any kind of pride towards being a Baptist over being a child of God.

But that’s something that far too many Christians do. We act like our denomination is of singular importance, as if we owe allegiance to it. Some denominations do it worse than others, but almost all of us are doing it completely wrong. We’re buying into a division that God didn’t put in place. We’re separating the Body of Christ because we can’t fight our own sin nature and Satan’s meddling to split us up and weaken us. We have so much infighting over doctrine that doesn’t really matter that we’re not being as capable of bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth as we should be.

Doctrinally, at least seven of the major Christian denominations: Anglican/Episcopal, the Assembly of God, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic all hold to almost the same fundamental beliefs. All express the same view of the Trinity as one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All believe Jesus was fully God and fully man on Earth and that he died to redeem us and save us from our sins.** And while there are some discrepancies between things after that, the important stuff we all believe.

What does it take to be a Christian? Let’s analyze that before we go any farther. A Christian is a follower of Christ. A Christian is one who believes the following:

That God is the only true God who created the Heavens and the Earth and all life on Earth. He formed mankind out of clay and breathed life into us, making us in His image. In the Garden of Eden, mankind sinned against God and brought death into the world through disobedience. Yet, God graciously sent His own son who was fully man and God, born of a virgin, to live a perfect life on Earth, die and suffer God’s wrath for our sins, and resurrect three days later, fully alive. Upon His return to Heaven to be with the Father, He left us His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to reside in and with us. In His sacrifice on the cross, He provided eternal payment for the sins of anyone who chooses to accept the gracious gift of salvation such that they may have eternal life. It is not by any person’s own merits that they might be saved, but fully by faith in the God who provided the sacrifice.

That’s it. I know it’s kind of a long paragraph, but that one paragraph is literally all there is to it.

Let me point you to a verse real quick that Paul wrote concerning the church in Corinth: in 2 Corinthians 11:3, he says, “But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.” Contextually, Paul is referring to false teachers here, but I want to just leave the hint that, perhaps, the denominations are the false teachers, the deception that is keeping us from the pure and complete devotion to Christ. And if you hold devotion to your denomination over Christ, you can be assured that you are resting your salvation in your denomination and not Jesus.

Now, listen, I’m not writing this to vilify any denominations of Christianity. There are some differences in them that are somewhat important to how you live your life, and if you want to be a Baptist because you prefer how they interpret verses regarding drinking and women as pastors and deacons in the church, go ahead. If you want to be Pentecostal because you believe speaking in tongues is perfectly normal, go ahead. But never make your loyalty to your denomination such that you make it an idol and despise Christians from other denominations because of it.

Because anything besides the tenets of salvation are extraneous beliefs. They serve to supplement the faith that we have in God such that we can do better work for Him. Believing it’s okay or not okay to drink doesn’t change your salvation. Believing it’s okay or not okay for women to be pastors doesn’t change your salvation. I like what Paul says about these kinds of things in 1 Corinthians 8:7-9.

“However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now, that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.”

And then let me give you a few verses before that in 1-3: “About food offered to idols: We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

Okay, now do me a favor and let me have a little bit of a creative expression teaching moment here. Let’s substitute the phrases that have to do with idolatry and food with denominations. Read it like so:

About denominations: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him … However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to denominations up until now, that when they devote themselves to their denomination, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Denominations will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we join one denomination over another. But be careful that this right of yours to join a denomination in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

We all know about the unsaved that, when they are judged by Christ at the judgment seat, that they will be told, “I never knew you; depart from me.” So, keep that in mind as you go back and read 1 Cor. 8:3. “But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” Those known by Him are those who will reside with Him in Heaven.

It never says, “Well, because you’re Baptist and not Catholic, I don’t know you, go away!” or “Well, you’re a Presbyterian and not an Assembly of God believer, so I’m afraid you don’t get into Heaven.”

If you love God, you are known by God, regardless of anything else.

Satan loves to twist the Word of God. And even more than that, he loves tripping us up in doing so. He tried tripping up Jesus in this way, as seen in Matthew 11. What makes you think he’s not doing it to us? What makes you think he’s not trying his absolute hardest to split up the Body of Christ so that we are less successful in showing lost souls the only way to Heaven.

We are all one body: the Body of Christ. There is no Lutheran Body or Anglican Body. No Catholic Body or Orthodox Body. There’s just the Body of Christ. The churches Peter started are no better than the churches Paul started. The churches James led are no better than the ones Timothy led.

I’ll leave with this: 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

** My source for the denominational beliefs: https://www.learnreligions.com/comparing-christian-denominations-beliefs-part-1-700537

Should've Been Us

One of the things I don’t think we consider enough is how things would have gone if God didn’t love us as much as He does. Just for a moment, imagine that you don’t know what you know about the Bible. Imagine that God didn’t have everything, like Jesus’s sacrifice for our salvation, planned beforehand. Put yourself in a world where the intended plan was for you to suffer and die for your sins. Because instead of Jesus, it really should have been you. That’s why I love the song “Should’ve Been Me” by Citizen Way. To the lyrics we go!

I've read the story; I've seen the movie
I give to charity and tithe my ten percent
These I remember
But I so easily forget
All these years never heard it like this

It’s easy to remember the sacrifice that God planned so that we could be cleansed from our sin. We know the story of how it all played out and what we’re supposed to do. We have a clear understanding of what we were saved to, but do we really have a clear understanding of what we were saved from? We really do easily forget that, without God’s intervention, the intent was for us to be on that cross to face the consequences of our sin and shame through suffering, torture, pain, humiliation, death, and the endless, justified, powerful wrath of God.

It should have been us up there bleeding out. It should have been us carrying our instrument of death up that hill. It should have been us locked away in a tomb, fully separated from God. But we forget that. We forget that we’re supposed to be chasing after a relationship with the one who saved us. And while I won’t expand on this too much because it’s not the point of this post, we far too often use our salvation to judge and ridicule others instead of remembering we would be in their place, too, if we hadn’t accepted Jesus’s sacrifice for us.

And the last line of that verse is poignant. We talk about what things should have been like before Jesus died for us, but we don’t talk about it like this. We always view the sacrifice objectively, not personally. That’s why this song is so powerful to me. It’s a personal, put-yourself-in-the-position-of-Christ viewpoint.

It should've been me; It should've been us
Should've been there hanging on a cross
All of this shame, all of these scars
Should've been stains that were never washed

The first part of this chorus is so powerful. Like I briefly touched on earlier, really consider a life and a world without Jesus’s sacrifice. Take away the plan that God had in place and put yourself in that world. Take all the things you’ve ever done wrong: take every lie you’ve ever spoken; every insult you’ve ever said; every time you’ve lusted after someone; every time you were jealous of what someone else had; every time you cursed; every time you didn’t listen to your parents; every time you gossiped; every time you ever sinned against God. Now remember the worst pain you’ve ever felt, multiply it by 10,000, and subject yourself to it for every single one of those things you did. Because it would’ve been you.

And that doesn’t even come close to comparing how painful it would be to suffer and be condemned by God’s just wrath for your sins and the separation from Him for eternity you would endure had Jesus not died on the cross.

Why do I hide; why do you try
Over and over and over again
I guess it just leaves me saying thank God
It leaves me saying thank God, thank God
For the should've been

I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t even wrap my mind around a world without a chance to be wiped clean from all of my mistakes by a God who loved me so much he took the would’ve been and made it the should’ve been. Citizen Way nailed the feeling of that. All you can do is thank God for changing everything so that it was a should’ve been moment.

So, don’t forget the should’ve been. It helps keep things in perspective. We’re so ready to say that it’s hard to read our Bibles or do the right thing. It’s hard to really pursue a relationship with God. But use the perspective of the should’ve been. Is it really so hard to read your Bible every day and spend time with the one who made it so your judgment for sin is a should’ve been? I don’t think so. Remember, it should’ve been us.

Listen to Should've Been Me on Spotify. Citizen Way · Song · 2014.

Are we Animals?

This is a topic often considered when discussing apologetics with those who believe in Darwin’s evolution theory. Are we just animals? Or are we something more? What does it mean if we are just animals? How many differences are there if we are no different, no better than the soulless creatures that roam the Earth around us, that we were given to command?

Well, God says we are different, special. We were formed out of clay by God’s hand as he breathed life into us while he merely spoke animals into existence from the earth. We were designated as God’s special creation while animals were not given such a position. We were made in the image of God while animals were not.

And in creating each in the manner they were created, God designated an important distinction between human and animal: one has the character of God imprinted in its very nature—humanity—one has earthly character imprinted in its nature—animals. It doesn’t seem that important at first, and I’m sure many of us have just glossed over these verses in Genesis before, but they are incredibly valuable when we talk about our nature, and especially in the argument of morals and death.

Solomon had to deal with this in his time thanks to Egypt’s worship of animals, and he does so in a form of mocking, but there are some important things to take from his mocking of Egypt’s mythology in Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

First, let’s establish the relationship of animals, humans, and God. Animals are representative of a sin nature. They lack the likeness of God and as such they can only perform in a manner of sin (you’ll see what I mean later). Humans, now, sit in this middle ground. We have the capability to live and be like God in our behavior, but we also have the ability to act like animals. And God is the ultimate good. He only acts within His character.

Now, we must ascribe a spectrum of morality because that is the key difference separating each of these three groups. Animals have no morals. They act to benefit themselves or their offspring. There is no altruism in animals. Humans have the capability to be animalistic—acting selfish—or Godly—acting selfless. And God is the ultimate morality. Everything He does is morally perfect. He was the ultimate morality when Jesus died on the cross for us.

Ecclesiastes 3:16-18 says, “I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness. I said to myself, ‘God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.’ I said to myself, ‘This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.’”

As with all things in Ecclesiastes, the purpose of this is to remind us that we need God. Earlier, I said that animals are a moral representation of sin. They only act to benefit themselves. They have no moral system. If an animal kills another of its kind, no other comes to punish it. If an animal steals, it receives no justice. Revenge, perhaps, but certainly not justice. But especially, there is no quandary that occurs when an animal does something morally incorrect like killing or stealing. An animal does not concern itself over whether it does right or wrong because, to it, nothing is objectively wrong. Everything is subjective to its place.

But humans have an innate moral compass. This was imprinted on us because we were created in God’s image. A person will feel perplexed when confronted with a situation that would have them compromise that compass, such as killing or stealing. And upon performing such an action, a human will feel convicted that they did wrong, ideally.

But because of sin, we have injustice just like the animals. We have people who can kill, steal, lie and do all manner of harm and not feel as though they have done wrong. But, even worse, we are all capable of doing wrong and feeling no remorse. It is only through just judgment that we see through God’s character that we have done wrong. That’s what Solomon is describing. When we see that we are like animals, we see that there is a God who can help us to be more like Him and less like soulless beasts.

So, no, we are not animals, though we certainly can act like them at times. The existence of our morality is clear evidence there is a distinction between us and God’s other creations. That distinction is important because there is no hope without it. If we are animals, there is nothing after life here. There is nothing but a meaningless life and then death, as Solomon describes in verses 19-20.

“For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals, for everything is futile. All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.”

Again, this is Solomon picking at the Egyptian worldview that when you die, life after is the same as life here. But at an even larger scale, this is Solomon talking about existence without God. Without God, the reality of these verses is all you have to look forward to. You live and you die. You are meaningless dust. If we are merely animals, this is all there is.

Personally, I thank God we are not merely animals, but that we are special creations of one who loves us.

Tell the Gospel

You know, there are a lot of lost people out there, wandering around with pain and suffering, but they don’t know where to go to heal. Some don’t even know there’s a chance to heal. I’ve not written about this as much as I probably should have, but now’s the time. Somebody has to tell them about the one who loves them enough to heal their suffering, and to be honest, we don’t do it enough.

One of the most striking lines in the song “Somebody Tell Them” by City Harbor is the fourth. Here it is in context:

There's a child on the subway
His story is written on his face
And the pain he's felt, is enough to fill a lifetime
But he doesn't know any other way

If there is nothing else that could motivate you to share the gospel, this line right here should be plenty. Clearly, something horrible has happened in this child’s life for it to be so visible, but the last line makes this situation even worse.

Most children are happy, joyful—no matter what happens in the world around them, it’s difficult to steal a child’s sense of wonder about the world. The hypothetical child—who is all too real in many situations around the world—has had his joy stolen so thoroughly that all he knows is pain and loss and suffering. He literally does not know anything about the world other than “it hurts.”

I hope you understand how saddening that is. I hope you understand that it shouldn’t be that way. I hope you understand that because you hold the key to the door that can fix it, as the next few lines are about.

Somebody tell him that the lost are saved
Somebody tell him that his debt's been paid
And let him know, love is calling out his name
Somebody tell him, he's a child of the king
And there is an end to this suffering
And hope that never fades, through grace that's made a way
Somebody tell him, somebody tell him now.

It’s your job to step in and comfort those people, especially children. I could make the metaphor about all of us being children who are lost without the Father, but I think it’s fairly clear that such is the case. So, as believers, it’s our job to share the love of Christ.

There’s another point to make in this situation, too. Notice the setting the opening lines take place in: the subway, and the last line: “Somebody tell him now.” There’s a time crunch here. You only have so much time to share the gospel with those you meet. Sometimes, people are in our lives for the entirety of it, and sometimes, they are only there for but a few brief moments, but you impact everyone you ever meet, no matter how long you spend in their presence. It’s your job to make that impact a good one.

I’ve said before that love is sacrifice, but it’s time to reiterate that. Sometimes, love’s sacrifice is death on a cross to save all people who choose to accept the gift. But sometimes, love’s sacrifice isn’t that large. Sometimes, love is just sacrificing your comfort in exchange for a little bit of awkwardness as you speak to a stranger who looks like they’ve been going through a mess. It’s just a little bit of time and a little bit of energy to listen and empathize with someone who’s hurting. It’s just telling the actions of someone who loves them endlessly.

I’m just going to end this with more lyrics from this song, because, truthfully, I don’t think I could write anything better:

Too many times we've all held back
The truth from those put in our path
So let us be the voice of love to them.

God Works Differently

Have you heard the phrase, “God answers prayers in three ways: yes, no, and not yet?” It’s fairly accurate and a good way to comfort those who feel like they aren’t hearing from God at a time when they feel lost or are asking something of Him.

But sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect. Sometimes, His yes looks different than our own. Occasionally, He points our lives in directions we never even considered to go. Often, when we expect giant miracles, we overlook the small, but equally useful, ones God provides. And when that happens, we can respond one of two ways: we can accept His direction and receive the blessings that come, or we can rebel against it because it’s not what we thought he was going to do.

This is the situation that a man, Naaman, in 2 Kings found himself in when he went to the prophet Elisha to be cured of a skin disease. Naaman’s story is a classic example of how we often find ourselves dealing with God.

When Naaman heard of a way to have his skin disease healed, he immediately took off to find Elisha and receive that healing, but when he got there, Elisha told him something he didn’t expect.

2 Kings 5: 10-12 says, “Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, ‘Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be clean.’ But Naaman got angry and left, saying, ‘I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and will wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and left in a rage.”

Naaman’s expectation was that of a showy miracle the likes of which Elijah had performed when he called down fire in the challenge against the prophets of Baal. As the Bible says, he was expecting Elisha to make a big show of things to heal him. He was expecting something different, out of the ordinary. But what he got instead was, essentially, “go take a bath.” It would have been considered a ritualistic bath, but it was a bath nonetheless. And, contextually, the river Jordan might not have been the cleanest river to go bathe in, anyway.

So, because Naaman didn’t get what he expected, he basically stormed off in a rage. For a lot of people, the story would end here. Many of us would likely have a prayer answered in a way we didn’t like and we’d ignore the answer, missing out on all the blessings that would have come from it. Thankfully for Naaman, he had some very good servants.

Verse 13 says, “But his servants approached and said to him, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean?’’”

They basically called him out on his idea of what a miracle should look like. The weird thing about all this is that if Elisha had asked him to do something ridiculous to be healed, like, for example, to catch and kill 37 chickens and cut off one toe from each foot, slather them in oil, pin them together and wear them as a headdress for three years, Naaman would likely have done it without hesitation. But because it was something so simple as “go take a bath,” he thought it wouldn’t do anything and wasn’t worth his time.

But his servants convinced him, and verse 14 says he went, dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, and was healed of his skin disease.

But it’s not just one person, or even just a few people, who do this. When Jesus, the son of God was born and walked the Earth, people refused to believe he was who he said he was, not because he didn’t perform miracles, but because they expected God to grant them a warrior king who would slaughter Israel’s enemies and bring about the restoration of the Israelite nation. But because they got the Jesus who wanted to save and not the Jesus who wanted to destroy, they refused to acknowledge his claim as the son of God.

I’ve said similar before, but as believers, we are far too willing to lean on God working miracles in the fashion of deus ex machina, wherein He does these massive miracles that are grandiose and spectacular in every way when, really, God works intricately for the good of those who live Him. We expect God to step in and fix all the bad things that go on in the world like he didn’t place millions of tiny miracles, His people, on Earth to do it for Him.

We are all too ready to ignore the small things because they don’t necessarily look like what we expect God to do for us. And we are all so reluctant to do small things because they don’t seem grandiose enough. But what if we didn’t? What if we stepped up when we were called? What if we stopped looking for what we want God to do and start looking for what He is actually doing?

If you change your mindset about how God works, you’ll find that you’re far more blessed than you think you are. You’ll see God doing so much that you never would have noticed. He’s always working; you just need to be looking in the right place.

As a final note, take a listen to the song attached below. Strive to change your mindset to think of life this way, to realize that you are one of God’s miracle workers who is here to do the good He has called you to do. Do something with that.

Listen to Do Something on Spotify. Matthew West · Song · 2012.