I started off my final teaching on Ephesians chapter 6 with a quote from the epic movie, “The Usual Suspects” (because I’m old but I am also cool and Bible study can be cool!) that goes like this:
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.
This is a true saying. Most of us make two errors when it comes to spiritual warfare. We either see it everywhere or don’t notice it anywhere. We either underestimate the spiritual realm or we overestimate it. Some of us live so out of step with the Spirit that our discernment of patterns and events has become muted, like the volume is turned way down on the spiritual reality around us. Others of us tag a “no weapon formed against me shall prosper” from Isaiah 54 on anytime we’ve proved someone wrong, recovered from a stomach bug or almost missed a flight but then didn’t.
My husband always says, if you’re not getting shot at, you’re not in the war. It’s possible that in our woeful carnality, we can miss the spiritual battle taking place around us. It’s also possible that we are constantly feeling “under attack” when in fact what we are simply finding ourselves living out consequences or living in a sinful fallen world where people are going to sin against us and stuff is just gonna go wrong. Scripture tells us that spiritual warfare (general) is a consistent reality, but also that spiritual attacks (specific) can be expected in the life of a believer.
We know that we have the victory in Christ, because He was victorious over sin, death and Satan, but at the same time, we also know that these things are still a reality, and they still trouble us this side of heaven. Christ came into the world to overcome sin, to overcome death, and to overcome Satan, but He also came into the world so that sin, death, and Satan would be overcome in our lives. And thát He has given us the power to do. But that overcoming is a progressive reality for us, not an instantaneous reality and that is very often where the battle lies. Yes, we have the victory in Christ, but we need to appropriate that victory to our own battles as His Kingdom comes more and more in our own lives.
And so, because Satan cannot undo the work of the gospel for our sake, he will want to undo its manifestation in our life. The enemy cannot destroy us but he can distract us, diminish our progress, damage our testimony and derail our maturity. And this understanding of his game plan (Eph 6 v 11), also helps us understand the key places where we might experience a spiritual attack, namely:
Our identity
Our purpose
Our territory
Our unity
Identifying specific areas of spiritual attack:
A spiritual attack will often take place in these areas of our lives because these are the areas where, specifically, we are called to glorify God and experience Him, where Kingdom dynamics will mean we engage so differently that salt and light become evident. These are also the areas where we can expect God to be at work in our sanctification. So you see, the battlefield is clearly laid out.
Identity:
as we find more and more our identity in His acceptance instead of that of the world, as we find ourselves more and more desiring to bring him glory in our purpose and work instead of ourselves (Eph 2 v 10),
Purpose:
as we shift from selfish ambition (Phil 2 v 3 – 4) to kingdom-minded service (Matt 6 v 33), from success to faithfulness, from status to significance, from fan to follower.
Territory:
as we take ground in our families, breaking past generational patterns, making disciples, healing from the past and stepping into new places of Kingdom effectiveness, particular places of fruitfulness and breakthrough and finally
Unity:
as the closest relationships in our lives start to reflect more and more the unity through the bonds of peace (Eph 4 v 3) and a love that is different from that in the world around us (John 13 v 35) that the Bible calls us to!
In these areas, we are called to be specifically watchful (1 Pet 5 v 8) using the protections afforded us in Scripture (Eph 6 v 14 – 17), on our guard against the devil’s chief weapons, namely lies and deception, attacking them with our single biggest weapons – the Word and prayer (Eph 6 17 – 18) when we find ourselves under attack!
Discernment markers of a spiritual attack
Ok so it’s a word I made up ok, I don’t know if “discernment markers” is an actual thing, but it’s the best way for me to describe the below points as things to prayerfully take note of in a particular season that may indicate we are experiencing a spiritual attack.
An exhaustion of our critical thinking
An incapacitating lack of soundness of mind and or body
Events of calamity that seem to form a pattern or seem insidious, with often a specific starting point or trigger
An atmosphere of pressure or oppression
A sudden and noticeable lack of the sense of righteousness, peace and joy that are ours as members of the Kingdom of God (Rom 14 v 17) .
An unshifting sense of condemnation instead of conviction, a pattern of thinking that brings you to doubt of your salvation.
Unexplained yet abnormal difficulties in key relationships, for example, a distortion of communication between people or consistent miscommunication that cannot be clearly explained.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive, they are from my own and collective experiences in ministry these last 2 decades, from what I’ve observed in scripture – for example in the story of Job, and from talking to people ahead of me on this journey…..and simply on looking back at this year it has helped me understand some of what has occurred in my own life. And please note, this is not a formula. God’s Spirit does not work in formulas. He works in patterns and principles, signs and promptings, rhythms and roadsigns. In our struggles, His goal is our refining, perfecting, maturing (James 1 v 4), and conversely, the devil also has a goal when our days of disaster come – our discouragement, derailment and ultimate deception.
The truth is that often we will not know if we are being refined, attacked, punished or tempted. We will need to rely on God either way, lean into His Word for a quickened word (rhema – a particular word or verse – which is the word Paul uses in Ephesians 6 to describe our sword) to wield against attacks on our minds, our hearts, our people and places, and hold up the shield of faith – what Paul says we need “above all” (Eph 6 v 16) – because faith has the power to produce dynamic results (Mark 9 v 23). God’s word is pure, and He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him (Prov 30 v 5). I hope you can find as much refuge in that as I have these last few months.
You only have to spend 30 minutes on Instagram or Pinterest to become acutely aware that you are not effortlessly whipping up gooey gluten-free brownies or whipping off to the South of France at a whim in your #oldmoneychic capsule wardrobe. And to add insult to injury, you and I both know that the likelihood of either of us trying that pinned ab workout or test-driving that kale smoothy for breakfast with our kids is pretty slim too. So just a little bit of “downtime” on social media has the immense potential to make us feel not only like our kitchen is blah, our wardrobe is bland and we have nothing to look forward to, but also to make us feel like in inadequate wannabee at the same time whose friends are all living their best lives while we roam around in last seasons sneakers. Thank you Third Industrial Revolution.
What is meant to inspire has not only enslaved, indebted and indoctrinated us, but it has also made many of us ungrateful, dissatisfied and stuck. And social media is not the only culprit – although it’s a big one. Hand in hand with easy access loans, our ongoing competition with the Jones’ (everyone has “that one family” right?) aggressive marketing tactics and celebrity culture, it has normalised things that aren’t even normal, like custom kitchens, wardrobes that seem bottomless in their #ootd options, professionally organised closets and perfectly filtered vacations. And it has – from what I can see – successfully morphed the aspirations of even the most down-to-earth among us into thinking, well, if only I had MORE of this or a BETTER that or LIVED here and VACATIONED there. I have become more and more aware of the restless discontent that marks so many conversations that I am in, conversations with people just like me, who in truth (and certainly in the SA context) have very very little to complain about and much much much to be grateful for. Our cravings have pierced us with many pangs (1 Tim 6 v 10) and we not only live like that’s normal, justifiable even, but these cravings are costly – most especially in terms of our relationship with Jesus. Maybe this is why the Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs spoke of “The rare jewel of Christian contentment”. A restless discontent is at the root of so many of our struggles. Our debt. Our dissatisfaction in our marriages and other relationships. Our disproportionate (again, considering our context) ingratitude over the roofs we have over our heads, that we may finally be satisfied with if only we could put in those screed floors or stacking doors. For many of us contentment seems not only unrealistic but also, sadly, unimportant.
But if your life, like mine, has changed drastically in the last 4 years, you have maybe discovered, as I did, that what the Bible says about contentment is not only fascinating but certainly worth deeper consideration. Paul – in the famously misquoted verses of Phil 4 v 11 – 13 tells us that he had learned to be content both in the worst of times and the best of times, in being degraded and being exalted, in having more than enough and in having too little. And that this learning is based on being strengthened by Christ. And the writer to the Hebrews warns us in Heb 13 v 5 to keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have based on the promise of the presence of God.
From these 2 verses, let’s unpack what contentment is, and isn’t!
What contentment is…….
What it isn’t……..
Contentment is utter dependence on God and delighting in Him as a daily decision.
Contentment is not legalism or some inverted spirituality
Contentment requires supernatural strength (see point 1)
Contentment is not something we will gain in the absence of God’s help
Contentment is trained within our circumstances and is not independent of them.
Contentment is not stoic independence from our circumstances or obliviousness/ pretend disregard of trial and difficulty
Contentment is learned in diverse circumstances
Not learned in buying into the prosperity gospel and believing that a Christian’s life graph must only ever go “up and to the right”.
Contentment is contingent on dealing with our love for money
Contentment is not acting like we don’t desire anything or have goals or dreams. God knows we have those, but are they rightly ordered below His goals and dreams of us as set out in His word?
Contentment is something that can be learned.
Contentment is not a personality trait or based on a person’s temperament.
Contentment is commanded of all believers
Contentment is not something for only hyper-spiritual or super-disciplined people.
Contentment is independent of our circumstances. It is, more than just being happy with what we have but is, above all, being thrilled that we have him.
Contentment is not finally getting to a place where our lives are finally perfectly balanced, the bucket list and the bank account are looking good. Discontentment is a product of our striving, so even the best circumstances will not breed in us contentment.
Contentment is learned in seeing our greed for what it is, seeing Jesus for who He is, and ordering and surrendering our desires and cravings under His Lordship and worthiness.
Contentment is not “settling” or acting like we don’t have desires or cravings.
Contentment is a satisfaction dependent on the person and promises of Christ.
Contentment is not satisfaction dependent on a particular outcome.
Contentment is learning to trust God despite our circumstances.
Contentment is not mere shallow positivity despite our circumstances.
“My brethren, the reason why you have not got contentment in the things of the world is not because you have not got enough of them. That is not the reason. But the reason is because they are not things proportionable to that immortal soul of yours that is capable of God himself. Many men think that when they are troubled and have no contentment, it is because they have but a little in the world, and if they had more then they would be content. That is just as if a man were hungry, and to satisfy his craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in the wind, and then should think that the reason why he is not satisfied is because he has not got enough of the wind. No, the reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach.” – Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
But can we really be content…..like, really? To be honest, I am not sure. But I for one desperately want to be! So I have come up with some personal methods to practice contentment that I am happy to share with you:
Learn to tell yourself the truth. For me that has not meant necessarily setting aside things I long to have or do, it has meant simply accepting that, in this season of my life, there are things that I can’t afford to care about. It has become somewhat of a mantra for me. This has been particularly helpful for me in light of the lifestyles of friends who are not in self-funded ministry as I am and therefore have more disposable income than I do.
Interrogate your aspirations in light of the truth of God – not the “truth” of the world. We cannot make what we strive for a higher priority than a pursuit of the Kindom of God (Matt 6 v 33), nor make the achievements of those aspirations the bar for our personal peace and satisfaction (Ps 37 v 4). It will be easy to see if we have – if we are willing to do some hard introspection and look past our own justifications about how we have made “desires” into needs. Repent of selfish ambition that may have caused you to become out of step with the Kingdom you are a part of (Phil 2 v 3) and lose sight of it as a priority in both a spiritual and practical sense.
Ask God to give you divinely set aspirations and a desire to view them as something more worthwhile to be gained than anything on your Amazon wishlist (1 Tim 6 v 6 – 8).
Simplify your life. Contentment takes courage in a culture caught up in consumerism and excess.
Delight in God as a daily decision. Maybe take a break from Social media and turn off the Amazon and Superbalist notifications, both of which will give you an endless stream of “things to delight in”. In light of our pursuit of contentment, those are, in the words of Puritan Burroughs, “distracting, heart-consuming cares”.
Wow this blog was hard for me to write! The truth is this is an ongoing wrestle for me. But in some ways, I am glad to be wrestling. I believe it’s better than the alternative.
AW Tozer said, “Contentment with earthly goods is the mark of a saint; contentment with our spiritual state is the mark of inward blindness. ” May – with God’s help – our religious complacency and consumerist striving swap places in our hearts – because we will be, in the end, the sum total of our hungers.
I have wrestled with unforgiveness in some of my closest relationships.
And I know that many of you have too, because when I told y’all that this was the theme of this month’s newsletter on Instagram the questions and comments started rolling in. As believers, of course, we should take forgiveness seriously. But I am not too proud to admit that my own rebellion in this area of my life meant I had wasted many years living a life that lacked the power of God. Here’s why: Because forgiveness is the single biggest power that disempowers Satan. The cross and the empty tomb remember? We can therefore expect many things including personal emotional baggage, yes, cultural narratives about autonomy and boundaries undicerningly and unbiblically applied, to all work to subvert any effort we may otherwise have made to be obedient in forgiving as scripture directs us. The devil much prefers unforgiveness to thrive! Speaking from personal experience, we easily miss the effect this has on us, relationally, emotionally and spiritually. We easily miss that this is indeed an area of spiritual attack, meaning we can expect to be consistently tempted not to forgive and to be justified in it, to boot! But the pragmatic realities of forgiveness is not something we talk about much. so the questions we will look at today include:
How do you know you’ve forgiven someone, like, what does it feel like? Is it simply a choice? How do you know your forgiveness is complete?
I have forgiven, but I am still struggling with triggers and emotions
How do you forgive someone who isn’t sorry?
How to manage the practicalities of having forgiven someone with whom you no longer desire a relationship, because you can’t cut them out of your life (for example extended family or mutual friends etc).
If you are consistently forgiving issues in friendship, how do you know it’s time to call the friendship quits?
But before we go there, here is something important for us to remember:
Forgiveness is more than anything and virtually always an act of obedience. It is one of the few things in the Bible that can both be considered a command and a condition. Jesus spoke about it in plainly in His teaching on the Lord’s prayer, telling us in no uncertain terms: request forgiveness from God only in the context of the forgiveness you yourself have granted (v12), or understand the consequences (v 14 and 15). So if we see forgiveness primarily as an act of obedience, (i.e not an act of justice or fairness, not an act of emotion or even righteousness, not an act of logic or reason) we must admit this: We can’t be obedient to God if we don’t trust that He will do right by us. We often hold on to unforgiveness because we think letting it go lets people off the hook, we hold on to our arguments about justice and fairness, subconsciously acting as though we are better at dealing with this issue than God. Why? Because we don’t trust Him to make things right. And we don’t trust Him because we don’t know him closely and intimately enough. Because remember, you cannot trust someone you don’t know. Often our wrestle with (un)forgiveness is in fact a wrestle with God and what is possibly a perfunctory or superficial knowledge of the only One who knows us fully and yet loves us completely. Struggling with unforgiveness? I have help! Start here!
How do you know you’ve forgiven someone, like, what does it feel like? Is it simply a choice? How do you know your forgiveness is complete?
I think it’s important to just say this: Forgiveness does not come naturally to anyone. Because there is nothing natural about forgiveness. Forgiveness is radical. So if I had to say what forgiveness feels like, I would say it feels like surgery. Like going under a knife and having our right to ourselves, our offences and positions and high moral ground, our ideas about what is good and right and what we deserve, removed. Forgiveness feels harsh and sore. What the Bible says about forgiveness is that our feelings cannot be trusted or relied upon, only God’s mercy can. That is why THAT is the basis of forgiveness and NOT our feelings. And so if you are someone who has made a decision of the will to forgive, this is what is helpful to know: Forgiveness is a practice, a lifestyle – both of which are choices, not feelings. And for most of us, it’s something we might even need to do daily, even moment by moment until the space between the moments gets bigger. To keep going back to God, asking Him to turn our heart of stone into a heart of flesh, to cut away at the self-righteousness and bitterness that wants to keep sprouting up there. That is why I often share about turning forgiveness into a liturgy and a discipline, because as holistic people, we need the physical, mental and spiritual act of re-doing, again and again, so our emotions about what was done to us don’t become our undoing. So yes, forgiveness is a choice – but not a once-off one. Rather one we usually have to make over and over and over again. Forgiveness feels like fitness. Depending on the offence, you are unlikely to ever get to a place where you are “just fine” with what was done to you. If that is the feeling you are waiting for, I think you will wait in vain. But I think when we have made work of the work of forgiveness, the spaces between the moments of wilful obedience in the act of forgiveness, the spaces between you feeling triggered by an event or person and you needing to return to the foot of the cross over it specifically, will become less. And your ability to pray for the person who had made themselves your enemy will become more. And you will know you are done forgiving.
I have forgiven, but I am still struggling with triggers and emotions.
As I said, we are holistic people, so for us to have made the decision to forgive and to still struggle with anger, to still feel triggered and upset, is normal and to be expected. That does not mean that you haven’t forgiven, it just means you’re a human being. One part of this is understanding that we may need to decide to forgive many times over. Many people speak of forgiveness as handing people over to God to deal with, and that is true. But I often add that we are also handing ourselves over to God to deal with. When we have been sinned against the the point where we need to forgive, that means we have been hurt to the point where we need to be healed. And that is God’s domain. Forgiveness is letting go of a hot coal of anger and hurt, and allowing the healing balm of Jesus to come and bind our wounds. So one of the biggest reasons we may continue to feel triggered is that our healing is also a process. Have you taken the time to seek God out for healing from your hurt? Has this been something you have been as intentional about as forgiving the person who hurt you?
Another reason we may continue to feel triggered is that it’s still happening. As believers, we often think forgiveness must mean a restored relationship, and forgiveness must mean trust. It is up to us, in partnership with the Word and the Spirit, to discern how to proceed in a relationship with someone who may be stuck in broken and hurtful patterns of behaviour or who remains unrepentant. In a marriage that may mean counselling, learning to be quick to forgive (remember, I said forgiveness is a fitness) until you are both also learning to simply have better, braver conversations. In friendships that may mean courageously addressing the hurtful behaviour, or maintaining better personal boundaries to protect yourself.
Another reason we may continue to feel triggered is that we have the wrong expectation. Forgiveness will change us, but it will not necessarily change the other person. And often when that is what we had hoped for, we set ourselves up for disappointment and for a cycle of having that list of things to forgive just growing. When we forgive we release the offender, but we don’t change them. But, I do believe that the act of forgiveness creates space for God to move in the lives and hearts of those who hurt us – because otherwise, they stay in jail too (Matt18 v 21 – 35). I have seen this happen – don’t delay forgiving so you can too!
How do you forgive someone who isn’t sorry?
Our forgiveness of others is not contingent on their repentance, simply because Jesus’s forgiveness of us was not contingent on our repentance (Rom 5 v 8). So in one sense the first step for all of us when it comes to forgiving someone is looking at what is happening between us and God and if we are willing to forgive as an act of obedience. The thing is that for most of us, we can just about manage to forgive someone who IS sorry, but when the person doesn’t believe they are in the wrong, is unaware of the hurt they caused, or simply does not care, the act of forgiveness starts to feel near impossible. But here is what I know from personal experience: The cost of not forgiving someone is immense for us, spiritually, relationally, mentally and yes, even physically.
A meta-analysis by Drs Lee and Enright (2019) published in Psychology Today, saw a correlation in the degree to which participants forgave those who treated them unjustly and the following kinds of physical variables, among others: sleep quality, stress levels, physical ailments such as lupus, fibromyalgia, cholesterol and hypertension to name a few.
Unforgiveness affects our authority in prayer and our relationship with God. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness which will have a defiling and crippling effect on our faith and Christian witness (Heb 12 v 14 – 15).
All that to say, unforgiveness has a huge cost. Disobedience to God’s command on this is simply not worth it. In my experience, 9/10 times, the people I have to forgive don’t even know how what they had done or said hurt or affected me and they may even live the rest of their lives oblivious to that fact. But that does not exempt me from forgiving them, because forgiveness is an act of faith and obedience between me and God 100% of the time, and may only be an expressed action between me and someone who owns up to their wrongs 1% of the time.
How to manage the practicalities of having forgiven someone with whom you no longer desire a relationship, because you can’t cut them out of your life (for example extended family or mutual friends etc).
I want to be clear on something here. Jesus himself told us that there is no end to the number of times that we should forgive someone (Matt 18 v 21 – 22). So there is no such thing as coming to a place of wanting to “forgive someone for the last time”.
Then I want to say something about cutting ties. There are many nuances here, but to me, there are 2 situations where cutting ties with someone whom you have forgiven is appropriate:
The one is if it’s required for the safety and protection of you or someone you are responsible for.
The other is where the relationship is so unhealthy that it consistently bests your best efforts at making it healthy or better. You know your own heart and actions, you know what you did and did not try. In my personal example, I have a whole lot of missing casserole dishes testifying to the lengths I went to foster and grow a relationship where the other party just remained stuck in a pattern of jealousy, competing, narcissism and gossiping, no matter what I tried. You know if you tried and you should also know when to stop trying. You can forgive someone and still remove yourself from further hurt.
But most often our situations are not this extreme, and we need to find a way to check our own emotional and mental health and purity of heart both before and after engaging with people that we cannot cut out of our lives without abjectly affecting other people/ relationships or abjectly affecting our own conscience. For example:
Prepare in prayer and debrief in prayer
Ask for help from an ally and wisdom from an accountability partner.
Gauge your emotional, physical and mental capacity to engage and so not to situations where you know you won’t be able to bring your best until you can.
Remember that your forgiveness of them is primarily an act between you and God and your future management of that relationship, whatever form it takes, is also something you will be accountable to God for. So it really is up to us to, for example:
Understand what triggers us and why and deal with it in our own hearts instead of expecting others to change.
Ask for help, support and prayer from those who are walking the path with us.
Take responsibility for our mental health by daily mind-renewal and taking thoughts captive lest sin leads us astray.
Remember, I am the only problem I can fix. It’s up to me to become aware of the devil’s schemes to trick us and trip me up (2 Cor 2 v 11) and manage myself, my personal space and time, and my emotional, mental and spiritual health, accordingly.
If you are consistently forgiving issues in friendship, how do you know it’s time to call the friendship quits?
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, I think you know what I am going to say. That what matters most to God, more even than what we do, is why we do it. If you are considering walking away from a friendship, a thorough bit of self-exploration is called for. Remember as per the previous point, there is no biblical basis for ending a relationship because we have come to the end of our ability to forgive. Scripture, and Jesus himself, does not give us that option. Sometimes, in a friendship, we are the ones who need to change, and we need the sobering guidance of the Word to expose thoughts and attitudes that might need to be addressed in us (Heb 4v12), first, before we look at what we feel needs addressing in someone else (Matt 7 v 3 – 5). Sometimes we need to be honest and say we want to end a certain relationship because we want to avoid God working on us through a difficult person. Just because a relationship is uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it can’t be beneficial. But sometimes, the other person needs to change. The Bible is clear that we are not to pursue a deep friendship with people who will pull us away from Jesus (Prov 12 v 26), that bad company corrupts good character (1 Cor 15 v 33) and that we should not consider any form of meaningful partnership with people who are not believers. None of this precludes us from healthy friendships where we can be salt and light, but it does call us to be circumspect in these and the access we allow to those we walk with. But if you have addressed hurtful words or behaviours and the person has either refused to listen, has disagreed or has not made any move towards improving things, if you have tried to communicate as honestly and graciously with the purest motives you can muster, and things have not improved, it would likely be appropriate for you to create space between you and this person. To forgive in a biblical sense is to recognise and regard someone and their actions towards you in light of and through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This does not require you to continue on in close fellowship with this person. Even if differences have been reconciled after you have forgiven, that does not mean a relationship must continue. An ongoing relationship is not always healthy, called for, nor commanded. But forgiveness always is. It’s up to you to understand what your desire to end the friendship is based on. If you need help navigating a friendship break-up, I got you!
“Those who have been touched by forgiveness and new life and have thus entered into God’s rule become, like Jesus, bearers of that rule.” — Dallas Willard.
The most worrying trend I’ve noticed as I have ministered among believing women is how many even long-time Christian women have difficulty with studying the Word of God in a direct way for themselves. And sadly there is a definite correlation between our lack of biblical depth, breadth and fidelity and our inability to respond in faith to our problems, challenges and our culture.
I get that the Bible is intimidating. Believe me! It’s why I wrote my 5 day free email course, DWELL, to address this very thing. It’s why I designed the Dwell Journal and the “Wandel Joernaal”, to help us push through our intimidation, overwhelm and reluctance around the direct study of God’s word. I know first-hand that devotionals are so much easier to understand, with the content often crafted to answer one specific need or question. And especially newer devotionals feel so much more relevant to us, chiefly because they often make us, the reader, the main character in every single story.
The Bible is no lazy man’s book! Much of it’s treasure, like the valuable minerals stored in the bowels of the earth, only yield up themselves to the diligent seeker.
Arthur W Pink
Here are 4 dangers we are consistently exposed to when we don’t learn to read the Bible for ourselves:
Disconnections & Distance:
Biblestudy is not primarily a pursuit of head knowledge, although, as I always say, you can’t trust someone you don’t know. It is primarily a pursuit of God himself. God’s word is his primary revelation about himself. It’s where he speaks to us most directly this side of heaven. Our time in God’s word should grow not just our understanding but also our intimacy.
Think about it this way: There is a marked difference between the intimate relationship between a husband and wife who spend time together doing both meaningful and mundane things and a teenage romance where the communication consists of text messages and memes. The first and most important danger of our dependence on devotionals is the effect it has on our personal relationship with God. When we think that we should get a specific message out of every interaction with God it robs the relationship of its joy and it becomes unnatural – because it becomes all about feelings and experiences. If marriages were dependent on feelings and experiences they would not last very long.
Our reliance on devotionals has created in us a strange expectation when it comes to “quiet time”. Instead of simply enjoying time with God, we constantly assess if it’s “doing something” for us. Instead of seeing it as intimacy and relationship building, we measure it for its “impact” and “self-help”. But when we ditch devotionals and come to the word with the understanding that we are growing closer to God through it, we allow ourselves to be free to enjoy our relationship with God as the gift of grace that it is. That is so much better than the devotional-driven mindset that causes us to be constantly morbidly introspective about the relationship and whether it makes us “feel good” or what it “does for us”. What if we chose devotion to God over devotionals? Devotion reflected in a dedication to spending time with Him regardless of how “personally relevant” or “exciting” that felt.
Deception:
When bitesized theology is all we have, it only takes someone who dresses in a relatable way and speaks in a confident way to convince and sway us. But if you know your Bible, you will not by swayed by tone and trend, but by truth. If you want to know how to test a teacher, know your Bible. Knowing God’s word for yourself is your best safeguard against false teaching. The blame for the growth of movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation (Bill Johnson and Bethel), the popularity of emergent (Rob Bell) and affirming (Jen Hatmaker) teachers, can be squarely blamed on our lack of Biblical literacy. Even though these teachers and their content present to us a version of Jesus almost unrecognisable from his portrayal in the gospels, we remain unable to apply the scriptural proof test to what they say and write because we simply do not know the Bible well enough!
Here’s something crazy. AW Tozer, in his book THE CRUCIFIED LIFE, spoke about applying a Scriptural Proof Test to “phrases and mottos that on the surface look great but are not rooted in Scripture or that mostly bolster one’s self-image,”. Nearly 60 years after his death, as we see more and more “self-help spirituality” in devotionals and “Christian” books marketed to women, you have to wonder, would any of them pass the Scriptural Proof Test?
If you are using human teachers as the sole means of understanding God’s word, by what will you judge the teachers?
John Piper
Dehydration:
Relying on second-hand revelation as the filter through which we get to know the heart and character of God is like relying on predigested food to sustain us in this marathon that is life. Pre-digested truth will not ultimately feed the truest and deepest longings of our souls and they won’t be enough when the trials come. God’s desire is for us to abide in his word, to actually live there, not to always only rent space from other people who live there.
But so many of us are unknowingly malnourished. And after a while, if we keep skipping meals, a page-a-day devotional here, an inspirational Instagram post there, we eventually do not feel hungry anymore. And it’s when the storms of life come upon us, as they inevitably will, that we realise that second-hand revelation is not enough to sustain us. We should see time in God’s word as a waterpoint, a feeding station for the race we are all called to run. It’s the waypoint we need to persevere because it is where we grow in our (first hand, experiential) knowledge of and confidence in God. That is why David can say Psalm 119 v 11: because I have treasured your word in my heart I can do your will.
Our ability to keep running our race is directly linked to our ability to keep returning to God’s word for sustenance.
Diluted Witness:
The number one accusation made about Christianity is an accusation made against Christians. Against us. That we are hypocrites. And we are. It’s the human condition. Even the people who call us hypocrites are hypocrites. But our inability to apply our faith to how we interact with our neighbours (or the guy next to you in traffic), pay our bills (or don’t pay them), exercise integrity in our business dealings and compassion in our context and, in general, the lack of the fruit of the spirit in our lives, can all be chalked up to us having very little by way of an authentic daily walk with God and a clear picture of what we really need to be obedient to.
This has been my experience. When I have spent time in God’s word and in prayer: It is like putting on a pair of glasses at the start of the day that influence how you see the rest of your day. It changes your expectations, your outlook, and your thinking, and therefore influences your actions, reactions and feelings. When our eyes are opened in that way, we see God operating in our lives more clearly, and we become first-hand witnesses. And our witness becomes authentic, fresh and relevant because it’s not the well-fitting story written by someone else at the start of every devotional chapter but your lived experience of walking with God. What if we tried that every day? Maybe then they will say about us what was said about Peter and John in Acts 4, that we are ordinary people made extraordinary just because we have “been with Jesus” (V13).
How are we to respond as believers to everything that is happening in our country? Is there an alternative response that is deeper than “you have to stay positive” and more nuanced than “just trust God?” Most South Africans find themselves in a state of either despondency or desperation when it comes to the state of our nation. There seems to be this corporate anxiety that every water-cooler convo is feeding and every “kuier” around the campfire is stoking. I have found a few things more challenging in the last 3 years than navigating my fear for the future in the context of my faith as a South African. And when I am braving traffic at stage 6 load shedding where it seems everyone forgot how a 4-way stop works, while my food rots away at home in my fridge, it’s hard to feel or act like a Christian, much less think like one.
Listen, the irony that I am writing this to you in a month where we are up to stage 6 load shedding (we all know it’s actually stage 8 right?) and our crime stats have just been released is not lost on me. It has meant that what I share with you here is what I have had to wrestle through and wrestle down in my own spirit first, as I struggled with wave after wave of fear, frustration and hopelessness, same as you.
As believers, we live in this tension, between what we know about life and what we know about God. Between what we see and what we believe. Between faith and fear. And we are always either feeding one or the other. Given greater credence to one or the other. Allowing the one to shape/ influence/ guide us (and our conversations) most, or the other. It’s no wonder we are always called to take our thoughts captive (2 Cor 10 v 3 – 5), to focus on what is good (Col 3 v 2), to practice gratitude and persistent prayer (1 Thess 5 v 16 – 18), to trust in God’s reasonings and abilities over our own (Prov 3 v 5 – 6). It’s for this very reason. Because God knows how fragile our faith is, our egos, and our minds. Because the alternative is for our peace to be completely dependent on and for our faith to ultimately be derailed by our circumstances. I have never come closer to this reality as in this season of my life.
But what does this look like practically, in our feelings and responses around where we are at as a country?
We are afraid:
Let’s be honest. For many of us, this fear is based on facts…on first hand experiences. Many of us represent the actual faces of the actual people that make up the actual (and frightening) crime statistics of our country. I do not talk about fear metaphysically anymore. For me is a visceral thing as much as a mental thing. So please don’t think I am going to flippantly throw around “faith over fear” slogans and just tell you to try harder not to be afraid. I know what it means to be truly afraid for my life and the lives of those I love. But that means I have been confronted with this argument that, because I have a legitimate reason to be afraid, I should have that fear govern my next move. My every move.
But the Bible calls us to live carefully, not fearfully. The Bible uses words like prudent, circumspect and wise when it comes to making decisions. Not fear. Never fear. The only worthy form of fear that Scripture acknowledges is fear of the Lord – i.e having God in His rightful place in my life based on an accurate acknowledgement of who He is. And that tracks, because when (fear of) the Lord is in the right place in our lives – we are not likely to be slaves to any other forms of fear and we are more likely to live lives of practical wisdom and insight (Prov 9 v10) We are often much more knowledgeable of the things we should be afraid of – swopping “did you hear what happened to so and so” stories – than we are of the character and nature of God. We often put fear first instead of putting God first. But what if I allowed what I knew and understood about God to govern the way I live, instead of all the things I was afraid of? I refuse for my decisions to be governed by any fear other than a fear of the Lord. I refuse to have my emotional well-being dictated to me by Load shedding and my spiritual stature to be stunted by crime stats. And I refuse for decisions based on fear to misalign me with God’s will for my life.
“The way we make our anxious thoughts smaller is by making our awareness of God’s greatness bigger. “
Louie Giglio
We feel uncertain:
There are just so many “what ifs” right now. What if the grid does collapse? What if our businesses go under because of load shedding or corruption? What if commercial opportunities dry up and our children can’t find jobs? In fact, “We need to give our kids better opportunities” is one of the key (fear) factors that it the motivation behind people leaving. Uncertainty fuels fear. We as believers can deal with uncertainty not because we know the future but because we know the God who holds our future. We know what He is like. We know what He has purposed for us, not a life of prosperity and pleasure, but a life of passion and purpose inside His providence and provision, even in the darkest times. And we know these are not empty promises because God put the weight of His love behind them when he sent his Son. If he has already done the hardest thing, can we not then trust Him with the details of our lives (Rom 8 v 32)?
The promises of God are not a myopic and thoughtless response to reality, a band-aid for the melancholy of the masses. They are declarations of ultimate truth, ultimate reality, that we can direct our thoughts towards every time someone sends us a doomsday newsletter or traps us in a fear-ridden conversation. They are what is most true about us, even in our circumstances.
It is there, in those moments, that I remind myself (and others) that my children are safest in the hands of an all-knowing God (Ps 37 v 25), that I can trust that He will show me which steps to take when I stay surrendered to Him (Psalm 143 v 8).
We are negative:
How long have we wallowed in this perpetual state of mind that believes that everything is bad? It’s all we see and all we hear. From potholes to the failing Rand, from Andre De Ruyter’s truth bombs to the ANC winning another election – Lord help us. We wonder about how the land appropriation or labour laws will affect our children, how the ever growing public wage bill and grant burden will pressurize the dwindling number of taxpayers and whether inflation is going to turn us all into vegetarians (no offence to the vegetarians). The state of our country (and the world) means news channels are never short on clickbait. If being the spokesperson for Eskom is currently the worst job in the country, then being a journalist is probably the best. And easiest. They have a consistent stream of fodder for their fear machine.
And no doubt, things are very very bad. And there is no indication that they will improve. But when we buy into this idea that it’s ALL bad ALL the time, we risk missing what God is doing. God doesn’t not only work on a cosmic canvas. He is also always at work in the micro and the minuscule, where He knows our meaning lies. That is what we read about in Hebrews 11 v 1 – 4! The Bible does not propose gratitude in all things as a self-care strategy, but because gratitude cements our faith. It makes our well-being dependent on something more than just our circumstances and our eyes open to something more than just the tangible and terrible. That is what faith is after all (Heb 11 v 1). Don’t allow the “everything is bad” narrative to steal your zeal and drain away your readiness to see God at work. When I have gotten stuck in one of those “everything is bad” conversations I remind myself of what my friend Lisa Whittle said, that things can be good and hard at the same time. In fact, it’s what Jesus himself said that in this world we WILL have trouble, but that we can’t take heart, He has overcome the world (John 16 v 44). There is a danger in the lie that we are actually supposed to have this trouble-free life. Or worse that it is our right. It makes us think the goal of life is to exert energy to get rid of all and any struggle or risk or discomfort and it makes us ineffective for God’s Kingdom. Beware the unbiblical pursuit of a trouble-free life dear friends.
“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer. Because the smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is in the end the one who suffers most.”
Thomas Merton
We feel frustrated:
Probably because we feel powerless. Frustration is a type of energy that pents up in us when we feel there is nothing we can do. Many of us feel stuck in a state of perpetual, anxious disempowerment. But I think we’ve missed a trick.
Jordan Petersen in his study of human nature rightly encourages us to not forsake the good we can do (as does Gal 6 v 10), and yet, every day, we make thousands of choices that place our good (our comfort, our goals, our lives) above the greater good. And that, in the way we foreswear our responsibility to the highest good, we tear something out of the fabric of being that is of inestimable value.
For us as believers, we should feel this more than most. Because we know we are called and sent. Nothing about our lives, not even where we live and raise our kids, is random. Because we are planted in particular places at particular times to accomplish particular things (Eph 2 v 10). Robin Hood said one man fighting for his home is better than 10 hired soldiers. I believe one (wo)man answering the call of God right where (s)he is, is better than 50 overpaid, unproductive civil servants. I believe if instead of moaning and moving we started investing and improving we could do what God has asked all of us to do, which is to expend effort for things to be better because we were here. And I don’t even mean tons of time, effort or money! I just mean a little more than we are expending now waiting for someone to come and complaining that no one is coming! If we spent half the time we did complaining and half the money it takes to move to greener pastures to fill in a pothole, clean up a park or report a traffic light, our communities would start changing. When the righteous thrive our cities rejoice (Prov 11 v10), when we are blessed cities are built up (v 11) and when we pray for our cities to prosper instead of cursing them, we will prosper too (Jer 29 v 7). What if we intentionally supported small businesses and paid our bills on time? What if we encouraged entrepreneurship and creativity in our kids? What if we prayed for civil servants and government officials? What if we took back that park or that street corner? What if we were generous with the people we employed and diligent with the work we’d been given? What if we saw every conversation about the hopelessness of load shedding and the future here as an opportunity to share about where our hope and peace come from?
Only God’s promises can help us look at our realities differently. Only an ever-deepening understanding of His character and nature can help us trust Him more even in all of this. It doesn’t mean we act like these things don’t affect us. But they don’t have to afflict us. Our present circumstances can call us into a greater state of anxiety and distress or into a greater desire and dependence on God. But let’s not kid one another that we don’t ultimately get to choose one way or another. Uncertainty is always an opportunity for greater surrender to the one Who knows the future. And fear is always an opportunity for a deeper faith in the one who loves us perfectly.
And I am praying for you in these things as much as for myself.
