Tag: identity

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Tell Yourself the Truth

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The Lord upholds us with His hand. These are statements of faith and trust. These come from Psalm 37, which sits among the poetry and hymnody God supplied for us. He gave these words to us through a variety of writers to help says the things that we are feeling. These words also serve to address our feelings.

For example, in Psalm 42 and 43, we read of a conversation that David has with his soul. He asked his soul a couple of important questions:

“Why are you cast down? Why are you disquieted within me?”

These are real things that we all feel. We become downcast. We live in the disquiet. There’s noise all about us. We hear so much. We read so much. Our smart phones, if we let them, can steal Sabbath from us. Rest becomes elusive. Our sleep is uneasy at best, nonexistent at worst.

What did David do? He prayed his despair. He spoke his doubts – out loud at some point for he turned this time of turmoil into song. He gave these lyric lines to the choirmaster. It is labeled as a “Maskil of the sons of Korah.”  From what I understand, these words were turned into contemplative poem by these servants at the Temple. Another form of maskil speaks of how to serve with discretion.

Here, I see the way to handle despair, defeat, and doubt so that it does not swallow us down into full-blown depression. Sometimes you just have sing and sing things that are troublesome and unpleasant. There should be place in our lives for lament.

Pour Out the Pains

Jeremiah the prophet never would have survived if God had not allowed him to pour out his pain. Lamentations is book of funeral songs sung over the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people of Israel. And, yet, what do we discover there at the heart of this wilderness of dirges?

Why, we read these very words:

“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him” (Lamentations 3:21-24).

There’s our answer. Speak things into your soul that form a frame of reference built upon the Rock and fortressed with towers from the Truth. Jeremiah did this, and he kept delivering the message of God to the people of God. So very few heeded what he preached, but he carried on. His life here on earth was one of little joy so it seems. Still, his soul held hope.

Please, don’t do damage to yourself by allowing your disappointment and discouragement to become an idol. This happens, and I know an idol is being formed when I hear this: “You could never understand because you have never been through what I have been through.”

True, so, so true. But what of Christ? Who do you say that He is? Do you believe in the records of His life and words? He was tempted in all ways in order to be our representative High Priest. He lived as a man, died as a man, and was resurrected as a man. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer is faithful and true, knows everything that we are about.

The Redeemer Lives

Job knew this and held fast to it. His series of trials befuddled and frustrated him. The strange and accusatory counsels from his “friends” added to the burden of pain he carried. He felt alone and forsaken at times. His integrity was all that he had.

Integrity is drawn from the word “integer” that is used in mathematics. An integer is a whole number. Job rested in the wholeness that he knew God had given to him by grace through his faith. Like Jeremiah in the middle of his laments, Job spoke truth to himself in the midst of his troubles:

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

Job’s expectation was that Christ would stand triumphant on earth, and that he would see this Day of the Lord. Still, he remained honest and confessed the weakness and heaviness upon his heart.

Let’s return to Psalms 42 and 43. We read of how David ordered his soul with what he had in his mind and spirit. His words mirror what Job and Jeremiah declared. They are full of hope and expectation.

“Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

This is what David said to the feelings. And, I am thinking that he said these things in a whisper, at least at the start. I am not sure he was so ready to shout them.

Assurance is a remarkable, wonderful, and elusive thing, even for the most spiritual among us. I imagine that Peter, John, Paul, Mary, Martha, and the others weathered crushing seasons of doubt. Like the man in Mark 9, all of us have had moments where we cast our cares upon Him with these words: ““I believe; help my unbelief!” (see Mark 9:24).

I think David was having this kind of doubtful moment in these psalms. But he knew his Redeemer and sought his comfort.

Darkness can suffocate us. In those hours, may we let His night song form our prayers to the God of our lives.

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A Bold Heart to Serve

Martha deserves better. She’s taken a lot of hits from preachers and teachers over the centuries because of a small bit of Scripture in Luke: “But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me” (Luke 10:40).

The phrase “cumbered about” has stuck to Martha. The Greek word used here is katargeo, which speaks of an over-occupation with cares or business. It also refers to the fruitlessness that comes with such a mindset. She was doing a lot and not really getting anything done. And she was missing out on what Jesus was saying to the group packed into her house.

Martha’s skills at organization and hospitality were such that Jesus and His disciples visited her home often. She and her sister and her brother, Lazarus, always made room for the Master and the crowd that followed after Him. The detail work of such visits, it seems, fell mostly to Martha. And on this occasion she felt the weight of the moment and made her feelings known.

Given the context of the passage, Martha was guilty as charged. Her own actions incriminate her. She did, after all, interrupt Jesus and His teaching to make her plea to Him.

The scene captures an inglorious moment in one life. All of us have had these moments for sure. Martha’s problem is that hers was recorded in one of the four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ. Her frustration with her sister and the way that she asked Jesus to intervene are known to millions of Bible readers everywhere.

Let’s think about it a little more carefully. Martha did go to Jesus with her issue. We do not read of her backbiting behind Mary’s back. It’s not recorded that she sighed aloud to whoever would take heed, “I cannot believe my sister’s not helping with this party.”

Martha had a problem and she spoke to the Lord about it. He gave her an answer: “…Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

Perhaps, this wasn’t the answer Martha wanted to hear; it was one that she needed to hear, however. “Open rebuke is better than secret love,’ so reads Proverbs 27:5. Jesus withheld no truth. His love He never kept secret. He spoke to Martha out of love, just as He did in Mark 10 to the rich, young ruler who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life – “Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me” (Mark 10:21).

We gain a fuller picture of Martha when we consider passages about her from the gospel of John. There she is in John 11, just after her brother Lazarus has been laid in a tomb. She goes right to Christ, intercepting Him before He reaches her home in Bethany. She was bold and straightforward:  “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she said.

Jesus promised her that Lazarus would rise again. Martha knew this and she believed it in the general sense. Resurrection Day was coming for all who believed, she said. We read also that she told Him that she believed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God (see John 11:24-27).

This passage tells me that Martha did a lot of listening when Jesus was around. She was no casual hearer either. The doctrines related to the Person of Christ and to the life that is to come were things she held dear.

Later, at Lazarus’ tomb, Martha’s pragmatic bent prompted her to caution Jesus before He ordered the stone to be taken away. “Lord, he’s been dead four days – there’s going to be a stench” (see John 11:39).

Some may see her protest as an interference with the work of the Son. I don’t see it that way; I think it was Martha being Martha.

To me, this is the beauty of Martha. She never tried to be someone else. These raw and brash moments before Jesus reveal, I think, the sense of security she had in the presence of the Lord. Hebrews 4:16 does tell us “to come boldly to the throne of grace.”  Martha spoke boldly to the One who would sit on that throne of grace while He walked on earth.

Martha told Jesus what she thought and was unafraid of doing so. There’s a lesson for all of us in this.

Another telling sentence can be found at the beginning John 12, a chapter that opens with Jesus again at Martha’s house in Bethany. The sentence can get lost because here we also read of how Mary anointed Jesus with costly spikenard, an act that drew the scorn of Judas and set up his betrayal of the Son.

“There they made him a supper; and Martha served. …” reads the start of verse 2 of John 12.

Yes, there may have been times when Martha got a little too busy, or became preoccupied with what needed to be done. To the Lord, however, Martha’s way was precious to Him, as precious as any of the other things done for Him.

Martha served Him, Mary anointed Him.

To Christ, both sisters – Mary and Martha – did what they did because they were moved by love for Him.