The Lord Will Be At Your Side

proverbs 3-25-26 image The YouTruth in Proverbs 3: 25-26

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the LORD will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.”

Yikes! Sudden disaster doesn’t sound like very much fun. Ruin doesn’t either. God has much to say about avoiding both in today’s passage. To get the full blessing of God’s message it will be important to dial in to the context provided by this passage so we don’t “over-apply” it and face disappointment as a result.

In this chapter of Proverbs, a father instructs his son in the seeking and application of wisdom. As a reader of this chapter today, you get to live vicariously through this father and son relationship. You can also understand that, at its core, the passage reflects the relationship your Heavenly Father longs to have with you. The preceding 24 verses instruct the son that Wisdom is found in God alone, and to vigorously seek after Him to attain true Wisdom. So our passage above relies heavily on this context. Therefore, if you seek after God for Wisdom, He will be, by definition, by your side. And if you have God by your side, He will keep your foot from being snared.

Think about snaring for a minute. When an animal gets its foot snared in a trap, there are usually deadly consequences. Even if the animal can somehow wriggle free, it escapes with significant injuries. In either case, disaster and ruin are good descriptors of the outcome. There are similar consequences for you, if you disregard God’s Wisdom and pursue a path without it. God does not want this for you! He knows how devastating the consequences will be. He loves you so much and desperately wants you to avoid this disaster and ruin. He also wants you to live a life without the debilitating effects of fearing these things.

Seek after God for wisdom today, and fear not, for He will be at your side. Make today a “snare-free” day!

Use The Gift You Have Received

1 Peter 4-10 image The YouTruth in 1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

What are your gifts? Are you good at working with young children? Are you musically inclined? Are you good with tools and building projects? Do you feel like you don’t have any true gifts? I can assure you, that in God’s economy, everyone has gifts and in those gifts, however small or insignificant they may seem at times, there is a great and glorious purpose.

There are some important things to remember about your gifts: you did not earn them and they do not belong to you! They are gifts, entrusted to you, and they belong to God. Adopting this understanding about your gifts goes a long way to understanding how to use them. Their use should be directed towards others and not just used for self-serving purposes.

Another thing to remember is that your gifts, and the countless gifts of others, are all various expressions of God’s grace. God’s grace and your gifts are wrapped up together in a great, big care package He has freely given to you. When you use your “grace gifts” to share God’s love with others, you become part of God’s wonderful grace delivery system.

So, be a grace gift deliverer today! Use whatever gift you have received to serve others.

Give and Stand – Let Nothing Move You

1 Corinth 15-58 image The YouTruth in 1 Corinthians 15:58

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Working for the Lord can be a hard thing to do. God promises that work done in His name is never done in vain. The world will marshal a lot of resources to discourage you from believing this and to encourage you to move away from His work.

The world will start by telling you, “There is no reward for the Lord’s work!” The evidence may be quite compelling; lack of praise or encouragement from others, lack of financial gain, lack of comfort or ease. This can be discouraging indeed. The world will follow by encouraging you to change, “Give it up already and join us in this worldly work! See what fun and success we are having?” The world’s pressure is designed to move you away from God’s work.

Paul had the answer: Give and stand.

Giving yourself half-heartedly to the work of the Lord makes you an easy victim of the world’s discouraging tactics. You will not be on firm footing, and it will be easier for the world to knock you off your spot. Giving yourself fully to the work of the Lord guards your heart against the pressure the world applies, keeps you standing firm, and opens your heart to the eternal rewards that flow out of doing His work—the glint of gratitude in a homeless mother’s eyes as you provide food for her and her hungry children, the joy in the voice of an elderly shut-in during your visit to his home, the smile on a child’s face as you tell the story of Jonah. These are rewards that eclipse anything the world can offer!

So, make today a “give and stand” day. Give yourself fully to the work the Lord has for you today, and nothing the world can muster up will be able to move you from it!

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

The YouTruth in John 14:1

“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.'”

A troubled heart. I’m pretty sure you’ve had one of these. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve had one of these several times. You may be experiencing an ongoing “troubled heart condition.” If any of these statements is true about you (at least one them is surely true), Jesus has the remedy.

In this chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus is reassuring disciples with deeply troubled hearts. He’s been telling them that He is going to die, one of them is going to betray Him, and that one of them is going to deny he even knows Him. This is troubling news indeed! And then Jesus issues the encouragement above and lays before them the path to a trouble-free heart.

You believe.

This is your path to a trouble-free heart too. Believe in God. Believe in the One who created the universe and all that is in it: majestic mountain peaks, roiling oceans, birds in flight, peaceful evening breezes, all of it. Believe in the God that is eternal and outside His creation, not bound by the confines of space and time, but in all places at all times. Any trouble you may be facing, He saw coming before you were even born. He’s got it. He can handle it. He can guide you through it. Don’t let that trouble into your heart. It will do damage in there.

The path continues. Believe also in Jesus. Jesus is one quite familiar with trouble! He faced betrayal, denial, and a savage death on the cross. And despite these horrible troubles, He overcame them and sits at God’s right hand forever. Therefore, He can guide through your troubles too. He’s “been there, done that.”

God and Jesus are a package deal, part of the Triune Godhead. They are together. They completely know of your trouble, and know the way out of it. Believing in this, shuts and locks the door to your heart when trouble comes knocking.

“I Will Write My Law on Your Heart”

Thousands of years ago, God promised the people of Israel a new covenant. Today, as we begin another new year, our thoughts tend towards new things. Yet, just as with Israel long ago, if we try to match old with new, the hope and promise of the new covenant will fail and the same old, same old will continue.

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Jeremiah 31:33 (NLT)

The new year brings to mind the prospect of new beginnings. A new start. The hope of shedding those things that have brought us down in the past that we may rise to new heights in the future. Jesus was, among many other things, the bearer of new beginnings for many during His time on earth. We hear many stories of Jesus turning lives around in incredible ways. Why was He able to do this? Can He do this for each of us still today?
Let’s answer these two questions.

Jesus fulfilled God’s promise for a new covenant.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant. When Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died and was raised from the dead, He fulfilled God’s promise. But many did not recognize that Jesus was the standard bearer for the new covenant. Why did they miss it when it was right in front of them? For the same reason many today miss it. You see, the new covenant required then, and still requires today, that something else also be new in order for it to work. Without this something else, anything that might masquerade as new is really just the old in disguise, frustratingly ineffective for any who stick to it. Jesus found many bound and determined to stick to the old components and taught them to recognize that the new covenant needed to be truly new in order for it all to work. What He taught them was…

The old covenant is static; the new one isn’t
One day Jesus was asked why His disciples didn’t fast as many other righteous men of the time did. Jesus immediately saw people stuck in the old covenant and used an example to illustrate His point. Just using old rituals (fasting) to enable the new covenant was like putting new wine into an old wineskin. In those days, new wine was placed into goatskin flasks to ferment, which stretched the skins out. Once stretched to their limit, the skins could not be used for new wine again because they would burst, spilling the wine and ruining the skin. The new covenant, like new wine, must have room to grow. The new covenant was not just about rituals, but about a dynamic, growing relationship with God. This required something that was new and pliable that could grow along with it.

Old hearts are hard; we need new hearts that aren’t
Our hearts, in old covenant mode, are described by God as hardened, stony, with sin chiseled into them. (see Jeremiah 17:1) This doesn’t sound like something that can stretch and grow as a relationship with God grows, does it? Trying to approach a relationship with God with a hard heart doesn’t work. It would, if God would allow it, ruin both the covenant and the heart. Imagine the new covenant spilling uselessly on the ground among the shattered pieces of an unyielding heart. God knows the new covenant is far too precious to be placed into such a predicament. The old covenant rituals, such as fasting, are temporary, imperfect ‘band aids’ that need constant reapplication. They help us know about God, but they don’t fundamentally change hard hearts, they just serve as reminders of our sinful nature and our need for redemption. The new covenant is not an old reminder, it’s a new heart. A ‘new covenant’ heart allows God to live within us, in a personal relationship, so we can exchange the old, distant, knowing about God with intimately knowing God. In response, God puts His will in our minds and writes it permanently on our hearts. From this point forward, our relationship with God can grow and expand to meet all that God has purposed and planned for us.

A rich young man (see Matthew 19:16-22)
A young man came to Jesus and asked “what good things must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus recognized the ‘old covenant’ at work immediately. Eternal life is not something earned by good deeds, but established in a personal relationship with God. Jesus steered the conversation to reveal this to the young man. In response, the young man sadly walked away. This new covenant did not fit into a stony heart that the young man was unwilling to open up to Jesus.

Another rich young man (see Luke 19:1-10)
A man named Zacchaeus sought out Jesus also. Now Zacchaeus had an occupation that required a hard, stony heart—he overcharged his fellow Jews for the taxes they owed to the Roman government and got rich pocketing the difference. After Jesus spent an evening with him, Zacchaeus agreed to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times what he had cheated out of others. Zacchaeus got it! He entered into the relationship that the first young man turned down. He received the new covenant with a new heart!

Jesus’ new covenant offer still stands today. The requirement remains the same, something else must be also be new— it’s the heart . If we will toss aside our old, hard hearts and accept a supple, tender, new heart, the new covenant can live and grow in us. That’s the truth.

“But this is the new covenant I make with you. I will put my laws in your mind, and I will write them on your heart. You must receive My covenant with your new heart so the you can come to truly know Me as your God. Then you will be all Mine and I will be all yours!

That’s the YouTruth – I Will Write My Law on Your Heart.

Happy New Year!

So That You May Overflow With Hope

The YouTruth in Romans 15:13

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

There are good days and there are bad days. Or are there?

For those without Jesus as their Lord and Savior, I’d say this statement is very true. But for those with Jesus in their heart, it can be different. The key is planted in this passage from the Apostle Paul.

During our good days, it is easy to experience the joy and peace of the Lord. It just comes naturally. But there is one thing that is important to remember about this experience. If we rely on our “good days” to provide joy and peace, then they will be fleeting things that come and go quickly.

During our bad days, it is hard to experience the joy and peace of the Lord. This is natural too. It is also helpful to remember that bad days are temporary things too, and while you may string together several bad days in a row, a good day will one day come.

This sounds like a roller coaster ride, doesn’t it? Would you like to get off the ride? It can be simply done, by deciding not to have good and bad days. Have “trust days” instead.

During your traditional good days, trust that what God is revealing to you, by the power of His Holy Spirit, is only a thin slice of the joy and peace that is part of your eternal relationship with Him. Remember that your trust days (that happen to be good days on Earth) really aren’t that good! Trust in the hope of eternal good days to come.

During your traditional bad days, trust that what God is revealing to you, again by the power of His Holy Spirit, is that the world can’t offer you what eternity with Him offers. During trust days of this type you can trust that all days on Earth are temporary, that a good, Earthly day is probably on its way and that an eternity of the best days ever is around the corner as well.

You Have Been Raised

The YouTruth in Colossians 3:1

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

You have been raised.

That doesn’t seem right, does it? You are clearly still here on earth, breathing the earth’s air, standing upon its ground, driving on its roadways, fighting against its nastiness and challenges. If you’re like me, you’d love to be raised, and are looking forward to that day. But until then, you keep on slogging through life in the world.

God has a different perspective. It is God’s perspective that Paul relies on in this passage. God is the God of eternity. God is not bound by space or time, so He sees things from outside those constraints. And in His eternal view, if you have received the gift of His grace, through faith in Jesus, you are there with Him. What is in the future for you, is in the “now” for Him. Isn’t that crazy and exciting to think about?

Equipped with this understanding, you can set your heart on that state of being—the state of being eternally in God’s presence, forever in His Kingdom. With this “heart-setting” firmly in place, you can adopt this state of being in your life on earth each and every day, being the presence of God for those hurting souls around you and advancing the borders of His Kingdom wherever you go.

To God, today is always the day. Set it as the day for you too.

God Is Able to Bless You Abundantly

The YouTruth in 2 Corinthians 9:8

“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

In this passage Paul teaches about two attributes of God, one that is fairly obvious and one that can be a bit hidden.

First, you hear about God’s ability. God is able to bless you abundantly. This is good news, indeed! God’s ability to bless you is unequaled! Those who have chosen a personal relationship with God draw themselves into direct contact with all of God’s abilities. That might cause you to infer that, as a Christian, you can sit back and gorge yourself on His non-stop blessings. It doesn’t take long to figure out that it doesn’t work this way. So, what does this say about God’s ability? Is He not as able as we are led to believe? No, that’s not it at all. The rest of this passage reveals the other attribute at work here—God’s will.

God’s will is that you “will abound in every good work.” Therefore God’s abundant blessings are designed to be an abundant means to that end. When blessing are not forthcoming, it is never evidence of God’s inability to bless you, but His unwillingness to bless you. The function and purpose of God’s blessings is to equip you to be the loving hands and feet of Jesus in this world. If you are engaged in this work, in accordance with His will, then He will purposefully bless you. In the abundance of these blessings, you will never be without what you need to do incredible, otherworldly good works.

Abound in good works today and experience God’s unequaled ability to abundantly bless you.

Because You Are His Child

The YouTruth in Galatians 4:6-7

“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”

When you were born into this world, you entered it as a loved, cherished, creation of God. That’s no small thing! And yet, it is. Because, when you give your life to Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, you are elevated to the status of a member of God’s family. This is huge because your status as beloved creation is enslaved by the temporal, destructive nature of our broken world, whereas your status as a child of God breaks free of those shackles and reaches into eternity.

But it gets even better! As a child of God, you also share in the inheritance that is due to each of God’s children. Now, your earthly parents may accumulate enough assets that they can pass some on to you (and your siblings) when they die. The reason they leave an inheritance is that they can’t take the temporal assets they accumulate into eternity with them. Those assets are stuck here on Earth. God’s inheritance is fundamentally different. It is an eternal inheritance that you receive once you proclaim Him as your Savor and Lord and you can take with you into eternity. It is an inheritance of endlessly valuable love, grace, peace, and hope. It won’t run out no matter how fast you spend it here on earth. It won’t run out no matter how many people you share it with. And when you enter eternity, you’ll find you have no less of it than when you started. It doesn’t get any better than that!

So see today as a “break free” day with your pockets full of His inheritance. (A little hint: your pockets will be overflowing, so spread His inheritance around!)

Offer Your Bodies As a Living Sacrifice

The YouTruth in Romans 12:1

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Worship can have many components and styles—singing traditional hymns or contemporary praise songs, silent prayer or reciting the Lord’s Prayer, liturgical responsive reading, reciting creeds, sermons or messages, audio-visual aids. There is one component that is often overlooked—sacrifice.

Paul cites that offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is true worship. Does that mean that all of our usual forms of worship are untrue and unpleasing to God? No, of course not. But what it does mean is that sacrifice must be included in the mix or none of the rest of it matters.

Corporate, Sunday-morning worship is a vital part of a life of faith, so much so that God designated a Sabbath day each week during which we are commanded to worship and rest. Without a Sabbath for this purpose, we are ships without a mooring, we are wanderers without direction. But Sunday worship that does not launch us into six days of sacrificial living, is not worship at all. The two must go together.

Remember that the key word is sacrifice. You know your Sunday worship is effective when Monday through Saturday contain regular instances of forgoing self-interest, experiencing inconvenience or even suffering at times, to love and help others in Jesus’ name.

Be a “sacrificing worshipper” today! (Don’t forget to go to church and worship next Sunday, too.)