Tag: relationship with god

The Most Important Thing

The Most Important Thing

Marissa

I think God’s trying to give me a gentle reminder about what’s most important. This past Sabbath, the minister spoke about developing a Biblical worldview that begins with recognizing God is the highest authority in your life. Then the very next morning, the devotional I’m reading this year focused on making God “our primary passion” (Daily Moments of Peace: Inspiration for Women, p. 36). Together, those also make me think back to a video I watched on modern idolatry not that long ago. And thinking about this prompted a question.

What’s the most important thing in your life? And does what you just answered line up with how you prioritize your time?

I would answer God, of course. We know that’s what we’re supposed to say. And I could pat myself on the back if I liked since I read a devotional page and a few scriptures every morning, a chapter of the Bible every night, and I spend time studying and working on these blog posts almost every day. But right now, I’m spending more time thinking about and planning my upcoming wedding or fretting about trying to teach math to high schoolers.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean my priorities are out of whack. Pretty much all of us have to spend more time at work, for example, than in the Bible each day. Spending a quality half-hour in Bible study and eight hours on your workday doesn’t mean you don’t put God first; it’s just a necessity of how modern life is structured. But if you’re trying to Bible study or pray and you want to think about your to-do list, or your wedding, or whatever else (good or bad, happy or stressful) that you have going on instead, then maybe you’re not really putting God first.

Part of this I think just has to do with modern attention spans. We have more trouble focusing on one thing than we used to. It takes discipline and help from God’s holy spirit to focus and spend quality time with Him. But I think we’re also way too easily distracted from that one thing which is most important. And it’s a struggle people in the Bible had as well, even without smartphones to get in the way.

Image of a woman looking up at the sky overlaid with text from Psalm 63:1-3, WEB version: “God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.”
Image by Brightside Creative from Lightstock

Choose the Best Part

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he said. But Martha was distracted with all the preparations she had to make, so she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.

Luke 10:38-42, NET

This is probably the best known example of someone in the Bible being distracted from spending time with God. I never actually read Joanna Weaver’s book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, but I remember it coming up at young adult retreats I went to years ago. Women broke down crying, torn by desires and pressures to stay busy serving and the call to spend time with Jesus. No one wanted to be like Martha, who was so gently rebuked by Jesus, but someone has to make sure the food’s made and served, and the church hall is clean, and the kids aren’t getting into too much mischief.

Notice, though, that Jesus didn’t say it was wrong to do the work Martha was doing. It was wrong to be worried and troubled about things, resent that her sister chose to focus on something else, and let her work become a source of bitterness and a distraction. Serving is a good thing; “service” is itself a spiritual gift and even if our gift is something else we’re supposed to use it in serving others (Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Pet. 4:9-10). But unless we have the right priorities and keep our service in perspective, we can start to resent the time we’re spending on it.

This can extend to other situations too. For example, someone came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” If you had one question you could ask Jesus in person, I dare say you wouldn’t pick that, but we can see where this man’s focus and priorities were. Jesus told him arbitrating disputes like that isn’t His job, then said, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” It’s far better to focus on being “rich toward God” than on anything we could own in this human life (Luke 12:13-21, NET). In other words, focus on the more important things. When we remember what’s most important, then the rest of it will fall into its proper place.

Image of a man reading a Bible overlaid with text from Luke 12:32-34, NET version: " “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out—a treasure in heaven that never decreases, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Image by Anggie from Lightstock

The Danger of Forgetting

It might seem well-nigh impossible to forget about God, but we know from the Bible (and sometimes from personal experience) that people have done that many times. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that Israel’s history is recorded in the Bible “as examples and were written for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11, NET). One of the things we can learn from is how quickly they forgot about God’s importance. Even the ones who literally saw the plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea were worshipping a golden calf only a couple months later. If they could do that having seen so much evidence of God’s involvement and reality, then we’re in danger of doing the same and the warnings to Israel’s descendants apply to us as well (Deut. 4:8-10; 23-24; 6:10-13; 8:10-20; 9:6-8).

Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage … and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” …

It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17, 19-20, NET

I know this doesn’t describe all of us, but based on what I know about the countries where most of my readers live (U.S., U.K, and Canada, among others) I’m guessing most of you can eat enough to be full, live in some type of house, and have money enough at least for necessities. Many of us are in a position where we could say, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me to the place where I am today.” But if we did say that, it wouldn’t be any more true than when ancient Israel said it. We’re where we are by the grace of God and every good thing in our lives comes from Him (James 1:17). We must guard ourselves against forgetting that.

“Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
    Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.”

Jeremiah 2:32, WEB

Forgetting God is as insane as me forgetting to put on my pretty wedding dress when I get married in June. Yet people did forget Him and it broke God’s heart, as He said over and over to prophets like Jeremiah and Hosea. We also looked at this in our in-depth study of Isaiah 40-66 last year. In particular, I’m thinking of the first post, “God is Incomparable and Irreplaceable.” There, we studied passages where God addresses the insanity of Israel’s idolatry in the light of His incomparableness (Isaiah 40:12-31; 43:10-13; 44:6-20; 46:5-11; 57:3-11; 63:7-14; 64:4). The Creator of the Universe wanted to claim them as His people, yet they bowed down to carved wood or stone instead? It just doesn’t make sense.

For he said, “Surely, they are my people,
    children who will not deal falsely;”
    so he became their Savior. …
But they rebelled
    and grieved his Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 63:8, 10, WEB

Way Too Important To Forget

Image of two women reading a Bible with the blog's title text and the words "With God as the true center of our lives, many of the things that could become distractions turn into reasons to remember His presence as we pray about the hard stuff and give thanks for the good things."
Image by Ryan Klintworth from Lightstock

We’re not likely to toss out our Bibles and pick up some statue to worship instead. But we might not spend as much time in God’s word as we ought. In the U.S., only about 50% of adults are “Bible Users—defined as individuals who read, listen to, or pray with the Bible on their own at least three or four times a year” (Barna, 2021). Three or four times a year isn’t that much–you’d lose your job real quick if that’s how often you bothered showing up for work, and we ought to honor God a lot more than we do our bosses (Mal. 1:6-8).

According to the same Barna report, the number of near-daily Bible readers is increasing–“one in six U.S. adults (16%) reads the Bible most days during the week, up from 12 percent in 2020.” That’s the group we ought to be in. You can’t have a close relationship with someone unless you spend time with them, and prayer and Bible study are two of the primary ways we can spend time with God. We also need to spend time in the Bible to understand how we ought to live and deepen our understanding of God’s way of life.

But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:22-25, WEB

We need to do something with the knowledge God gives us about Him and His way of life. We need to be actively involved in our relationship with Him. Forgetting to put our faith into action means we’re forgetting the whole basis of our faith.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. But concerning the one who lacks such things—he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin.

2 Peter 1:5-10, NET

The Christian life is a growth process. Without that growth, Peter says it’s like you forgot Jesus died for your sins. People who remember what is most important spend time cultivating their relationship with God and becoming more and more like Him. That’s not the only thing they do, but it is their top priority. When God is truly the most important thing in our lives, His supremacy contextualizes everything else. With this perspective, when I think about the difficult things, I also remember to pray about them. When I think about the good things, I thank God for them. Instead of distractions, they can become reasons to remember God’s presence.

God is way too important for us to forget. At the end of our lives, it’s not going to matter what color the tulle was at the wedding, whether Mary helped in the kitchen, if you get an A or a C on that test, that your brother divided the inheritance with you, how many followers you had online, or if your wealth multiplied. It matters far more that the marriage grows from your relationship with God, that you treated the people you interact with well, and that you used your possessions in a godly way. And all of those things happen when we properly prioritize God as the most important and respect Him as the one who’s in charge.

Featured image by Shaun Menary from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns

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The Glory, Importance, and Victory of Other People

The Glory, Importance, and Victory of Other People

Marissa

While I was writing last week’s post, I noticed I’d come back yet again to the idea of other people’s importance to our lives with God. I feel like I’ve been writing about that a lot lately, starting with “The Glorious Weights We Carry” over a month ago, then in “Building People Up in Christ,” “The Reason For Relationship,” and most recently “The Crown of Victory.”

It’s clear that God cares deeply for people. We all benefit from His love immensely as recipients of grace, mercy, salvation, and ongoing relationship. Yet as human beings, we have a tendency to think about how much God cares for me and how His love changes my life. We think less often about what His care for all people means for how we should interact with others. But we’re supposed to become like God, and that means learning to see other people the way He does.

As I’ve studied the Bible over the past month, it struck me that the glory we anticipated is connected to other people. When Jesus builds us up, He expects us to respond by building others up. The type of relational oneness that Jesus and the Father want with us is the same type of oneness we should want to have with others in God’s family. Even the crown of victory we’re promised after faithfully completing our mortal lives is linked with other people who are also living lives of faith. Our individual lives with God are inescapably contextualized by our relationships within His church.

Carrying Others’ Glory

If we’re going to follow Jesus’s example, then we need to spend a lot of time focused on helping other people toward a good outcome. Paul says, “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2, NET). The word translated “burdens” here is baros (βάρος), the same Greek word that’s translated “weight” in this verse: “For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17, NET). I suspect C.S. Lewis was connecting these two scriptures when he spoke of our neighbor’s glory in a sermon from 1941.

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p. 8

I often think about this sermon, and this passage in particular. We know that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and as a result “whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15; John 3:16). God deeply desires for all people to know the truth, repent, follow Him, and receive salvation (1 Tim. 3:4; 2 Peter 3:9). If we want to be like God, then we should deeply desire that as well. We need to remember that the people all around us have the same glorious potential that God grants to us.

So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.

Galatians 6:9-10, NET

We’re supposed to be doing good to other people. God never intended for there to be quarreling, backbiting, pettiness, and rivalries among His people. We’re supposed to care so much about other people, especially those in “the family of faith,” that we’ll carry their burdens and shoulder the weight of their glory along with our own.

Image of people in a circle holding hands overlaid with text from Colossians 3:12-14, NET version: “Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.”
Image by Claudine Chaussé from Lightstock

Build Others Up First

In 1 Corinthians, Paul counsels his readers to “flee from idolatry” in the context of whether or not they should eat meat sacrificed to idols. Paul answers that specific question like this: you’re free to eat the meat as long as you’re not participating in idol worship and thereby having dinner with demons (1 Cor. 8:1-13; 10:14-33). But Paul also points out there’s a much deeper issue here. The question is about an individual choice, but that doesn’t matter nearly as much as the question of how the choice to eat this meat affects other people.

With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. … With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”  …

But this knowledge is not shared by all. … be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak. For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened” to eat food offered to idols? So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed. If you sin against your brothers or sisters in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 

1 Corinthians 8:1-2, 4, 7, 9-12, NET

Paul shifts the conversation. The most important thing here isn’t whether you have the freedom to eat the meat sold in the market place without asking about its backstory. The thing you need to worry about it how your choice affects other people in the family of faith.

“Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up. Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person.  … So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Do not give offense to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also try to please everyone in all things. I do not seek my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33, NET

I’m a Star Trek fan, so this makes me think of Spock’s statement that “The good of the many outweighs the good of the one.” That’s the attitude Paul is describing here. What does it matter whether you get to eat meat in the grand scheme of other people’s salvation? If you decide to do something because it’s technically allowed, even though you know it’s going to hurt someone else who might be “weaker” in the faith, then you’re sinning against Jesus Christ Himself. When we love as God loves, we’ll focus on the things that build other’s up before we focus on our own desires. In fact, just a little later in this same letter, Paul says, “Let all things be done to build each other up ” (1 Cor. 14:26, WEB). We need to make doing good to others the main goal of our actions and interactions, particularly in the church.

Copying Christ’s Attitude

Last week when we were studying the crowns of victory that God promises us for living faithfully, we looked at two verses where Paul describes other people as our glory, joy, and crown (Phil. 4:1; 1 Thes. 2:19-20). This description emphasizes that there’s no competition among believers. Even though our Christian lives are described like an athletic game that we need to strive to win, we’re not competing against other believers but alongside them.

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had

Philippians 2:1-5, NET
Image of two people holding hands with the blog's title text and the words "If everything goes according to plan, we'll be spending eternity with other people in God’s family of faith. We can't wait until then to care about them, though. We need to be loving, encouraging, prioritizing, and building each other up now."
Image by Jantanee from Lightstock

Paul goes on to describe Jesus’s attitude as humble, service-oriented, sacrificial, and obedient (Phil. 2:6-11). Just like He and His servants admonish us to do, Jesus built other people up. He put their needs first, whether that meant correcting them sternly or showing unexpectedly generous mercy (Matt 16:22-23; Luke 7:36-48). He even died for all of us. And He expects those who follow Him to be similarly humble, forgiving, service-oriented, and sacrificial (Eph. 4:31-32; Col. 3:12-13; 1 John 3:16).

He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:10-11, NET

Notice that while Paul charges his readers to encourage and build each other up, he also points out they’re already doing this. We might already be doing this as well, but a reminder is always good to help us continue doing the right thing. Supporting others in God’s family is important enough that even if we’re already doing it, we need reminders of it’s importance.

If we’ve stopped encouraging and building each other up–for example, started avoiding some people at church because we don’t like them–then we can take Paul’s words here as a nudge to get back on track. There will be people in God’s family and our local church groups we don’t get along with very well. There may even be some that, in extreme cases, we need to stop associating with for our mental or spiritual health (Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 5:11; 2 Thes. 3:6-14). However, that’s the exception rather than the rule. God’s intention and command is for us to live in peace with others in the church and invest in good relationships with them.

 Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25, WEB

Nearly two thousand years ago, the apostle John wrote, “Little children, these are the end times” (1 John 2:18, WEB). That was true then, and we’re even closer now. This makes the admonition in Hebrews to assemble together and encourage each other as the Day of the Lord approaches even more urgent. (Of course, this includes the caveat, “if it’s possible to assemble;” health problems, location, and persecution can make assembly in person very difficult or impossible for some of us.)

If we can get together with other believers and participate in a church group, though, we should. We simply don’t have time to waste bickering, competing, or holding petty things against each other. We need to forgive, to encourage, to show love when we speak truth, and build each other up. And we ought to enjoy spending time together. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be spending eternity with these people. That thought should make us excited–it’s what Jesus and the Father want, and it’s what we should want as well.

Featured image by Ben White from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “City On The Hill” by Casting Crowns

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The Reason For Relationship

The Reason For Relationship

Marissa

The New English Translation is one of my favorite Bible versions to use for study. I’ve been reading it for a couple years now, but there are still times when a particular translation choice catches my eye. It’s just different enough from some of the other translations I’m more familiar with (like KJV and WEB) that it makes me think more deeply about a verse. For example, look at these translations for a verse from 1 Corinthians:

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30, NKJV

Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30, WEB

He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30, NET

The “of Him you are in Christ Jesus” version doesn’t match sentence patterns we use in modern English, and so the meaning is a little fuzzy. “Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus” strikes a good balance between literally translating the Greek and getting the point across in English. The NET is less literal, but really makes the main point clear to English readers: you have a relationship with Jesus Christ–you’re in Him–because of what God does.

Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence. He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31, NET. Bold italics in original; quote from Jer 9:24. 

God Himself chose each of us. He’s the reason we can have a relationship with Jesus. We know that, of course, but it’s still good to meditate on “the circumstances of your call.” We owe Him everything.

Image of a man reading a Bible overlaid with text from John 6:44 and 14:6, NET version: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Image by Matt Vasquez from Lightstock

The Closeness of God

It’s vital that we value our relationship with both God the Father and God the Son. They’re a family and They call Themselves “one.” While studying things like the question of which God-being talked with people in the Old Testament helps us understand God’s nature and plan, in many cases it’s not useful to try separating Father and Son. The Hebrew word for “God,” elohim, is plural and the Greek theos is used much the same way. Even when they make distinctions between their roles, it’s usually to show how closely They’re working together (John’s gospel is full of these).

So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.”

John 5:19-27, NET

Look how closely they work together. No rivalry, no concern over who does what or who gets credit. There’s closeness; oneness between them. They fill some different roles and relate to us in different ways, but they’re so close that Jesus said the most important commandment is, “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29, NET).

Image of a woman reading a Bible overlaid with text from Mark 12:28-31, NET version: “One of the experts in the law .. asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Image by Pearl from Lightstock

Can’t Have One Without the Other

There aren’t many Christians who completely deny either the Father or the Son. However, there are some who question Jesus’s divinity, or who try to avoid the Father because they think He’s the scary God from the Old Testament. Both of those views are dangerous, and so are any others that deny or devalue either member of the God-family.

Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

1 John 2:22-24, NET

We need to stay close to the Son and the Father, recognizing both are God and working to build a relationship with them. We need to understand that the Father enables our relationship with the Son, and no one gets to the Father except through Jesus (John 6:44; 14:6).

Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting

2 John 1:8-10, NET

We might think there’s no danger of losing Jesus or the Father, but John gives his readers a serious warning. He tells us to “watch out” so that we don’t lose the things we’ve worked so hard to learn and the relationships God is building with us. Denying God or walking away from Him disrupts relationship. He can forgive us and welcome us back, but He doesn’t force us to stay with Him if we decide to walk away. So we need to be on guard against our own boredom, discontent, doubt, and anything else that might tug us away from God.

Pursue Oneness

Image of two people holding hands with the blog's title text and the words "The sort of oneness that Jesus says He longs to have with us is the sort that we should want to pursue as well, with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and with all the people in their church."
Image by Jantanee from Lightstock

Understanding God helps us draw closer to Him. We’re supposed to imitate the sort of oneness the Father and Son share, and we can’t do our best to be like them unless we know what they are like. Our participation in their oneness–in other words, becoming part of their family–is so important that Jesus made it a central part of His prayer in the garden before His crucifixion.

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.”

John 17: 20-23, NET

The idea of us all being one in Christ is one that Paul expresses using a metaphor. We’re all parts of Jesus’s body, and He is the head (1 Cor 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:15-20). If you’re an ear or a pinky finger you don’t just go running off; you stay as part of the body. If not, well, body parts that get cut off just rot into a pile of flesh; they’re not alive on their own. And I think we can stretch the metaphor far enough to say something similar happens to us if we’re not connected to the Head and to Our Father.

The sort of oneness that Jesus says He longs to have with us is the sort that we should want to pursue as well, with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and with all the people in their church. “All” is a pretty tall order (and also impossible to do in our physical lives), but we can start with our local congregations. We likely have some people in our church groups that we get along with better than others, but we also get to have a deeper-than-blood relationship with them because we’re all part of Jesus’s body. The value that God the Father and Jesus place on relationships with us and between us is extremely high, and that shows us how much we ought to value the relationships we have with them and with each other. With God as the central point of our relationships, we can deepen the level of relationships we have and our appreciation for how precious those relationships are.

Featured image by Claudine Chaussé from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: You are Holy (Prince of Peace) – Michael W. Smith (this as been playing through my head for a week)

Click here to learn more about these books or to order a copy.
Isaiah Study: Doing A New Thing

Isaiah Study: Doing A New Thing

Marissa

Today’s article is the fifth blog post since I started studying Isaiah 40-66. In the first post, I made a list of key themes that I want to study more extensively in this section of scripture. The list included (among other things) the message that God is doing and making something new. This theme is very closely connected to the one we discussed in last week’s post about looking toward the Messiah. It’s also connected with another point we touched on a few weeks ago; that one way God proves He is God is by revealing His new plans to the prophets before they happen.

I can only imagine how awed Isaiah must have been to receive this revelation. How encouraging it must have been to learn that God has such an amazing plan to set things right; to realize that a Messiah would soon come to usher in the salvation of the world! I wonder how much of the timing he understood. Did Isaiah know we’d still be reading these words thousands of years later, joining him in marveling at all that God has done in the past and will do in the future? Peter seems to think he did.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. To them it was revealed, that they served not themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

1 Peter 1:10-12, WEB

Here, Peter tells us that people like Isaiah did know they were speaking to us–we who know the Messiah and have received His salvation. Peter was also among those to whom Jesus said “many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them” (Luke 10:24, WEB; see also Matthew 13:14-17). The prophets didn’t see everything as clearly as we do know. God has revealed to us things so glorious that the angels desire to look into them. We see His future plan for “glories that would follow” more clearly, particularly as we look back on the prophets’ words about the new things God still has in store for us.

Image of an oasis in a desert overlaid with text from Isaiah 43:18-19, WEB: "Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."
Image by Gero Birkenmaier from Pixabay

Declaring a New Way to Save

At the end of the first Servant Song prophecy, God says, “Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up” (Is. 42:9, WEB). That’s one of the main things that God is doing in this section of Isaiah. There’s so much emphasis on the Messiah and on the new things God will do through Him. Jesus’s coming changed things dramatically for God’s people. Once we were sinners condemned to death, now we’re redeemed from that penalty. Once we were under the Law as a “guardian” of our conduct; now we keep the Law from the heart on a spiritual level (Gal. 3:23-25; Rom. 8:1-14). Once we saw God’s plan only dimly, now He’s revealed it to His people more clearly (Matt. 13:10-11; 1 Cor. 2:9-10; Eph. 3:4-6; 1 Pet 1:10-12).

When Isaiah’s original readers heard God “declare new things” about the Messiah, Jesus’s first coming was still in the future. At this time, God told Israel “from this point on I am announcing to you new events” (Isa. 48:6, NET). Knowing there’s a Messiah bringing a new way to save isn’t news for us anymore–from our perspective, He arrived here on earth nearly 2,000 years ago. However, we can still get excited for what His coming meant for us and for other new things that God is planning.

Look, I am about to do something new.
Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it?
Yes, I will make a road in the wilderness
and paths in the wastelands.
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and ostriches,
because I put water in the wilderness
and streams in the wastelands,
to quench the thirst of my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself,
so they might praise me.

Isaiah 43:19-21, NET

The context for this passage is redemption. God is revealing that He will rescue Israel from the Babylonians, but then the language shifts to declaring a future redemption as well. The “road in the wilderness” and God’s work with the wild animals foreshadows Millennial imagery in Isaiah 65 (which we’ll get to later in this post). God began His new work of bringing peace to earth with Jesus’s first coming, and He’s still working on that exciting project today as we–and all of creation–await Jesus’s second coming.

For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

Romans 8:19-21, NET
Image of a sunset over the desert overlaid with text from Isaiah 62:2-3, WEB version: "The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which Yahweh’s mouth will name. You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh’s hand, and a royal diadem in your God’s hand."
Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Something New For Us

In addition to God’s new revelations about how He plans to save and transform the world, He also revealed something new that’s happening in each of us. He promises He’ll give His people new names as He does the part of His new work that takes place inside each of them.

For the sake of Zion I will not be silent;
for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines brightly
and her deliverance burns like a torch.
Nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your splendor.
You will be called by a new name
that the Lord himself will give you.
You will be a majestic crown in the hand of the Lord,
a royal turban in the hand of your God.
You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”
and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”
Indeed, you will be called “My Delight is in Her,”
and your land “Married.”
For the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married to him.

Isaiah 62:1-4, NET

Here, we’re told two of the new names God gives to the people He’s working with. We’re also told “you will be called by a new name that the Lord himself will give you.” If we were just looking at this verse on its own, we might think that refers to the new names Hephzibah (“My Delight is in Her”) and Beulah (“Married”). However, we also learn more about other new names in the book of Revelation. Jesus mentions two of His letters to the seven churches.

To the angel of the church in Pergamum write the following: … The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give him some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on that stone will be written a new name that no one can understand except the one who receives it.’

Revelation 2:12, 17, NET

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following: … The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well.

Revelation 3:7, 12, NET

The first new name mentioned is highly individual; only the person who receives the name even knows what it is. The second new name is one that we’ll share with Jesus Christ. I don’t want to get too off-track from today’s topic, so we’ll keep this discussion about names brief. For now, let’s remember that names in Hebrew thought are closely tied to a person’s reputation and character. When God puts His name on us, He’s trusting us with His family’s reputation and claiming us as people who are like Him.

God also has a long history of giving new names to people He works closely with, including Abraham, Sarah, Israel, Peter, James, John, and Paul (Genesis 17:4-5, 15-16; 32:28; Mark 3:16-17; Acts 13:9). There’s something very special about getting a new name from God, and it seems that it has to do with receiving a new position in life. New names come with a new way of living or a new attainment of something that God is working on in us. It’s fitting, then, that we’re told we’ll get new names when God is handing out rewards to faithful people after Jesus returns to this earth. That’s also when we’ll be revealed as the glorious children of God (Rom. 8:18-24).

Image of a night sky over the desert overlaid with text from Isaiah 65:17-18, NET version: “For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create!”
Image by Venrike Artworks from Pixabay

New Heavens and New Earth

Isaiah has a lot to say about the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the new earth which will follow. In Revelation 20, we’re told that after Jesus’s second coming Satan will be locked away for a thousand years, the faithful will rise from the dead, and they’ll “be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years” (Rev. 20:6, WEB). Then in Revelation 21-22, we learn of “a new heaven and a new earth” that will come after that. We don’t get many details about what the Millennium or the world after that will look like here in Revelation, but we learn more through God’s descriptions through Isaiah of His future holy mountain (Isaiah 2:1-4; 11:1-10).

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
    and the former things will not be remembered,
    nor come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;
    for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight,
    and her people a joy.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
    and delight in my people;
and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying
    will be heard in her no more.
    “No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days,
    nor an old man who has not filled his days;
for the child will die one hundred years old,
    and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.
They will build houses and inhabit them.
    They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They will not build and another inhabit.
    They will not plant and another eat:
for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,
    and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain
    nor give birth for calamity;
for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed
    and their descendants with them.
It will happen that before they call, I will answer;
    and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
    The lion will eat straw like the ox.
    Dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,”
    says Yahweh.

Isaiah 65:17-25, WEB
Image of a desert coast with the blog's title text and the words "In Isaiah 40-66, God talks about a new and exciting thing that He’s doing. Part of that “new thing” is still in our future as we look forward to the “new heaven and new earth” of His coming kingdom."
Image by svetlanabar from Pixabay

Isn’t this an incredible picture of the future? This is what we have to look forward to after Jesus returns to earth. It’s this future that we’ll be picturing when we observe Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) in just a few months. Given the connection between Sukkot and the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, it’s fitting that the last thing the Lord says in Isaiah about His new heavens and new earth relates to God’s holy calendar and His Sabbath days. This verse also connects to our post about Sabbath-keeping in Isaiah 40-66.

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain. From one month to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people will come to worship me,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 66:22-23, NET

These verses promise that in the midst of all this newness, there will also be a reliable stability. God is still on His throne. His character and the way He wants to do things are not going to change. We’ll still have patterns of worship to follow. We’ll still have relationships with Him, though they will then be closer than ever before.

We know Jesus is coming back, but it’s easy to let that slip our minds as we go through our day-to-day lives. But if we hold onto the vision in Isaiah and other future-pointing passages of scripture, we can also hold onto the excitement of being part of the “new thing” God is doing. And that can help us stay encouraged and joyful as we move forward into the future.

–

Featured image by Inbetween from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “The Holy City” by Stanford Olsen and The Tabernacle Choir

Bonus song I found while searching for a different “New Heaven, New Earth” song: “Новое небо” by Simon Khorolskiy

Click here to learn more about these books or to order a copy.
A Song of God’s Vineyard

A Song of God’s Vineyard

Marissa

I want to start today with a scripture passage. It’s a bit long, but it sets the stage perfectly for what we’ll be talking about in this post.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up,
gathered out its stones,
planted it with the choicest vine,
built a tower in the middle of it,
and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
please judge between me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
I will lay it a wasteland.
It won’t be pruned or hoed,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant:
and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression;
for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

Isaiah 5:1-7, WEB

Love songs like this are one reason I love the book of Isaiah so much. It starts out sounding like something from Song of Solomon, with someone singing to Yahweh, their beloved. Then the song turns sour (like the grapes in this vineyard) as Israel turned their hearts away from their lover. God Himself interjects to finish the story. They turned their back on Him even though He did everything right, and for Him this isn’t an empty claim. No one can do more than God to show love and to provide fertile ground to grow in. It wasn’t unreasonable of Him to look at a people He “planted” and expect they’d yield fruits of justice and righteousness instead of oppression and distress.

I recently started reading a new one-year devotional called Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen. January 15-19 are all based on Isaiah 5:1-7, and one of the things Tiegreen points out is that, God’s question, “What more could I do?” is in some ways rhetorical. There was one more thing He could do, and He did it when He sent Jesus to die for our sins (p. 18). If you’ve ever wondered why Jesus spent so much time talking about agriculture and vineyards in His parables, this is it. He’s continuing a metaphor God started using in the prophets to show how He fits into God’s love story.

Image of one grape on a red-leafed vine, with text from Jeremiah 2:21, WEB version: “Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
Image by lizzymay from Pixabay

Vineyard Parables

There are three primary vineyard parables that Jesus shared during His ministry. One is focused on reward for workers in a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16), and another on two sons whose father told them to work in his vineyard (Matt. 21:27-32). Then, right after that parable where only one son did his father’s will by working in the vineyard, Jesus says this:

“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

Matthew 21:33-40, WEB

The people Jesus is talking with are pretty sure they know the answer to that last question. The master will kill the servants and “lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.” In response, Jesus points them back to a scripture predicting the Messiah would be rejected by the people who should have been looking for His arrival (Psalm 118:22-23). The other servants who came before Him were prophets like Isaiah and many others whom Israel ignored. Now, the Master’s Son is here.

Jesus doesn’t point His listeners back to Isiah’s song about the vineyard, but we can easily see the parallels. Here in Jesus’s parable, though, the link between Him and the vineyard is made more explicit. God has a vineyard like the one Isaiah sang about. Jesus coming as the Master’s Son is the one thing more that God can do to receive the fruit His vineyard owes Him. And then the leaders of His people killed Him just like the wicked workers in this parable. Jesus points beyond that death when He says, “God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit” (Matt. 21:41-46). That doesn’t mean Jewish or Israelite people won’t be in God’s kingdom (as Paul points out using another agricultural example in Romans 11). It does mean that staying in a fruit-producing relationship with God is far more important to your long-term spiritual wellbeing than whether or not your ancestors had a covenant with Him.

Our Role as Vines

Image of grapes in a vineyard with the blog's title text and the words "We need to stay rooted in Jesus as the Vine. Only then will the Father be glorified by the fruit that we produce and the love song that we sing to Him."
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Fruitfulness is something God comes back to again and again. In another vineyard song from Isaiah, God speaks of a time when “Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit” (Is. 27:2-12, WEB). Even in this song, though, it speaks of issues with the vineyard that must be forgiven before the vines can thrive. As other prophets point out, the vines that God cultivated for thousands of years weren’t always as fruitful as they should have been (Jer. 2:19-22; 12:10-11; Ezk. 19:10-14). It’s an issue that could really only be solved by Jesus’s sacrifice. Even after that sacrifice, though, fruitfulness requires our participation. Jesus addressed this idea in another parable, this time about a fig tree.

He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?’ He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”

Luke 13:6-9, WEB

As vines and trees in God’s vineyard, we have a say in whether or not we produce fruit. He provides fertile ground where we can thrive. He prunes and forgives us, keeping us spiritually healthy. He feeds everyone connected to Jesus–the Root that we all rely on as branches who are part of Him as the Vine (John 15:1-16). But we’re human beings, not vines that always stay exactly where we’re planted. Whether or not we stay in that good soil is our choice. We need to keep seeking God’s correction and forgiveness as we grow to be more and more like Him. And we need to stay rooted in the vine. Only then will the Father be glorified by the fruit that we produce and the love song that we sing to Him.

–

Featured image by alohamalakhov from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “Dance With Me” by Paul Wilbur

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Overcome Evil With Go(o)d

Overcome Evil With Go(o)d

Marissa

There are a lot of terrible things in this world. If your phone isn’t letting you know about them in news story notifications or you don’t find out when watching TV, a quick Google search or a trip to a news website is all you need to realize the world’s not in a great place right now. As I write this, the homepage for BBC world news has stories telling us the UK and France are fighting over fishing rights, it’s impossible to estimate the death count in Sudan following a coup, global “battles” over climate change continue, and (earlier this week) China forced Amnesty International out of Hong Kong.

When we see stories like this we often feel overwhelmed–overwhelmed by a desire to help, or by the problem being so big it seems impossible to help, or by the sheer number of terrible things. We may think of the verse that tells us to “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21), but wonder how we could possibly do enough good to overcome the evils of oppression, wars, persecution, slavery, famine, disease, and more.

Fighting the Evil One

I’ve written before about a little pocket devotional by Chris Tiegreen that I really like. On Day 232, he points out that evil is the result of “a relentless, malicious intelligence,” not simply an “abstract principle” or a “force in this world.” This observation comes straight out of scripture, and it’s accompanied by an interesting implication.

“When the Bible tells us to overcome evil with good, it is not speaking about abstracts. It means we are to overcome the evil one with the Good One.”

Tiegreen, p. 199

If we’re trying to overcome this world’s evil simply by doing good things in hope of tipping the scales so good outweighs bad, then it’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed and burned out. We’d be trying to fight an enemy that’s out of our league without armor or backup. In order to be part of overcoming evil with good, we need to understand that overcoming doesn’t happen on our own. It means combatting an evil one with the power and support of the Good One.

Image of a hiker standing on top of a mountain, with text from 1 John 5:4-5, WEB version: "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

You Have Overcome

When John writes to believers, he encourages them by saying, “you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:13-14, WEB). This is made possible by us staying in close relationship with Jesus, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world” by faith “that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5). This same Jesus told His followers, “In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, WEB). He has already proved He can overcome the evil in this world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4, WEB

With God on our side, no power in the universe can stand against us (Rom. 8:31-39). That fact ought to humble us while also giving us confidence. Without God we have no hope of overcoming, but so long as we stay with Him there’s no risk of us failing. All that “extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor. 4:6-10, NET). The only possible outcome in the battle between good and evil is that, ultimately, the Good One will overcome the evil one. When the Father and Jesus dwell in us and we’re staying faithful to them, we can be overcomers as well. As Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13, WEB).

Continue Overcoming with God

Image of a hiker standing on a mountain with the blog's title text and this quote from Chris Tiegreen: "When the Bible tells us to overcome evil with Good, it is not speaking about abstracts. It means we are to overcome the evil one with the Good One."
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Paul reminds us several times that we’re part of a battle between good and evil. It’s not a battle we can–or should–try to fight alone. To do so would be foolish, especially when God is eager to fight alongside us and equip us for battle.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.

Ephesians 6:12-13, NET

The evil forces at work in this world are powerful and can seem overwhelming, but only when compared to us human beings on our own. God’s power totally eclipses anything the evil one can do and He is already giving us victory through Jesus (Rom. 8:37; 1 Cor. 15:57). It is His power and His love for us which enables us to overcome the forces of evil during spiritual battles. It is also His power which enables us to combat evils we deal with on a personal, day-to-day level.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:18-21, NET

Though we’re part of a large, cosmic-scale fight against evil, we also deal with it on a personal level as well. Part of overcoming the evil one with the Good One involves choosing peace and goodness in our actions. We might not be able to stop others from doing evil, but we can choose not to contribute to the wickedness of the world. By aligning ourselves with God and choosing to act according to His goodness, we fight against evil getting a foothold in our lives. And we do make the world a little bit brighter by shining Jesus’s light into dark situations.

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Featured image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “I just need U” by TobyMac

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