What Do You Hope For?

This is the fourth instalment in my series entitled The Heart of the Matter.

The heart contains our hopes and aspirations.

What is it we hope for in life? What do we strive to attain or achieve? Are we seeking health, happiness, status, title, wealth, family, contentment, peace, security?

We as humans have a tendency to make good things ultimate things above God. Being lost leaves us empty and enslaved. It leads to us doing damage to others, including wounding and insulting our maker. It also leads to self-deception i.e. I am fine, but actually not really, if I dig below the surface.

There is a connection between the pursuit of wealth and the level of your anxiety – the less you have or the more that is involved, the more anxious you are.

What we place our hope in influences our ability to endure difficult times. If we cling to something that can be taken away from us, our lives could crumble.

There is something within human beings that, no matter how good it gets, or no matter how senior or well-off or connected I am, there is another level I need to attain. The Bible tells us that it is because, as human beings, since Adam and Eve’s sin, since we were until then in blissful union with God, we are seeking to no longer be excluded from the Garden of Eden, to be in the favour of God again, to be back in the presence of God. Most people feel that this is unattainable, so we pursue the ability to be ‘in’ on an earthly basis (the desire to get into the inner ring of the earthly sphere) instead of on a heavenly basis. You are trying to peel an onion. When you succeed, there will be nothing left.

We make the mistake of comparing the 90% of our ordinary life to the 10% that contains all the fun bits of other people's lives, and we then feel boring and inadequate.

In the long run, instant gratification leads to disillusionment, emptiness and despair, as it is not lasting, and you can seemingly never get enough of it. Listening to God and building a relationship with Him leads to deep spiritual satisfaction, joy and purpose.

Ladder-climbing: as you become fanatical, you think you become more morally perfect, and then you look down at people who you feel are your moral inferiors. The gospel is not about meeting God at the top of the ladder, but rather at the foot of the cross.

Don’t climb the ladder that is leaning against the wrong wall. Live in orbit around what God is doing in the world.

We need to learn to walk with instead of walking over others, i.e. we should care for others and not use them to get ahead in life. We should learn what we can give versus what we can get from others.

Living with no restrictions, or ‘life without limits’ are today’s definitions of freedom. This is very shallow and superficial, as it means doing what you want, when you want, how you want, and that leads to shallowness and pain. Becoming good at music requires commitment, focus and dedicated practice over time that entails restrictions on one’s activities, but it pays off in becoming a master musician who is free to express himself with improvisation off the foundation of sound knowledge and principles of music, rather than just making noise. True freedom involves the appropriate restrictions in your life to allow you to maximize your life. A fish needs water to survive, so it cannot live outside of water even if it feels the water is restrictive. The bible will teach me about how God’s love for me will lead me to a good life to live. God so loves His creation that He invites us to learn the way He intended for everything in our lives to work for maximum joy, effect and fulfilment.

Wisdom is seeing what is in front of you right now, realizing what you have and faithfully stewarding that, as opposed to looking for more, or for what you don’t have.

When we live our lives from acceptance and not for acceptance, everything changes, i.e. we don’t need to seek acceptance in life, because God has fully accepted us already.

Whoever you give the power to legitimise your life, they also have the power to illegitimise your life, e.g. sportscasters opinions of who is good can change from week to week, and can control your success. Don't be focused on appearance, as this fades (your chest drops into your drawers). Focusing on achievement leaves you empty when success leaves you.

God gives you your identity and there is nothing in you that can disqualify you from your identity in Christ.

The core/root of sin is discontentment. Don't look to or lean on any other human for your contentment or fulfilment. Lift your eyes higher. When we look vertically, we don't experience anxiety or despair, because that's not part of God's character.

Set your heart and mind on things above. As you set your mind, so your heart follows. Things will not defeat you if you focus on Christ, as those things are not that important or controlling in your life.

If you focus on what God’s will is for your life, you will have less unanswered questions because God’s will for your life is wisdom and peace/contentment. Focusing outside of this is being unwise and foolish.

Be satisfied with where God has put you, rather than obsessing about what you don’t have or what others do have.

Be content with what you have, because God said in Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Only God can exalt and uplift us; we cannot do it ourselves, and so we shouldn’t strive for our own glory, but rather trust that God will raise us up.

We need God’s grace to change. God is more into your transformation than you are. His love will smelt your heart into the shape He wants you to become. The knowledge of His goodness and glory is the melting power for your heart.

When your heart starts to change, your motivations start to change. Say ‘no’ to stuff that isn’t serving Him and your growth.

James 4:7 advises us to “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Resist, and, in so doing, escape temptation.

We need to note that no change is possible if we are not open to it and do not participate in the change. Also, we cannot rely on God to do everything. “Let go and let God” does not work – we need to do our part and play our role actively cooperating with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s wind blows in our life, but we need to put up and adjust our sails in order to harness His wind, and in so doing we work together.

Destruction results from longing for things other than God.

Accept the challenge to change per Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” How do we do this? There are four things God gives us to use against culture’s influence:

1) Scripture. If the Word of God isn’t in you, the world you will permeate you.

2) Music. Worship music exalts God, and uplifts us to places we want to be.

3) Service. When we serve as Jesus did, we experience solidarity with Him.

4) Fellowship. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts as we gather to worship, pray, etc. We are transformed simply by positioning ourselves amid the faithful.

See also Colossians 3:1,5,12-13. Remove and replace. Put to death old habits and adopt new ones. Stop pursuing money, sex, tiles, things. Start pursuing kindness, humility and forgiveness.

If you prioritise any of your spouse, children, career, money, or success over God, they will all cause sacrifices and ultimately leave you with nothing. These things all become like an addiction that ultimately stands over you, judges you, and leaves you empty and unfulfilled.

Spiritual immaturity is when you confuse your circumstances with God's love, e.g. if you don't get what you want, you blame God.

God wants to develop and fill you to find that sweet spot of feeling the reality of God working through you to touch lives.

One of the most debilitating things to believers is thinking that you are not that important to God, that he barely likes you and does not really love you. Christ-followers should live with the knowledge that no matter how much they have messed up or other people have de-affirmed them, they should live in the reality of God’s affection and affirmation, knowing that they are treasured, and not just tolerated.

Your salvation has nothing to do with any subjective feeling you might have.

What does justification mean? Just As If I ……never sinned.

There is no sin, pain or anger that can keep us from God’s unconditional love, and hence we need not feel despair or anguish.

Jesus’ resurrection drives out despair and converts it into hope

Misery, bitterness and anger are the result of you trying to ‘go it alone’ – rather allow the Holy Spirit to help you and walk with you along life’s journey.

We make time for stuff we value, and so we should thus make time for God’s Word. Reflect on what you read and ask God to clarify how it applies to your life.

(Core 52 pp 285-289) Freedom from temptation?

Once you come to salvation, your past is no longer a barrier to your best future. Per 1 John 1:19 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Belief and confession lead to transformation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come.”

It may seem as though the odds are against us. We have internal impulses that feel too strong to master. We have a culture saturated with seduction. We have an invisible enemy (Satan) who is ancient, crafty and powerful. How can we possibly overcome these obstacles?

1) God’s love overcomes our internal impulses. Anyone who has ever fallen in love knows this to be true. A guy who couldn’t spell potpourri starts adorning his apartment with lavender, cinnamon and honeysuckle because of a lady. A woman who never liked sports falls in love and suddenly finds herself accessorizing with her beau’s favorite team jersey. Likewise, when we experience the transformational power of God’s acceptance, it alters our interests.

2) Our Christian community overcomes our culture. God made us insatiably social. We just can’t help ourselves – it’s instinct. That can be a terrible thing, as in your teen years if you were not part of the ‘in crowd’, causing us to follow fools into self-destructive behaviour. Yet on the whole it’s advantageous. Our commitment to family, team, unit or community causes us to conform to the values of those we value. Be part of a small group because crowds are great for inspiration, but groups are effective for transformation.

3) God’s Spirit in us overcomes the demons against us. 1 John 4: 4 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

Proverbs 8:10-11 “Choose my instruction instead of silver,knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.”

Matthew 6:33 “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Righteous means to be in right standing with God. You get this by believing in Jesus and confessing and repenting from your sin.

Chase after God like he chased after you, and He will give you what you need, as well as placing you in right standing with Him, for all eternity! Do you want to gamble with your eternity?

Go BIG. Identify your central governing ambition that shapes all of your other ambitions. Find an ambition that entails becoming something, rather than doing things: increasingly resemble Jesus in your life and ways. God’s holy ambition is to conform you and I into the image of Jesus (Romans 8).

Go WIDE. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 “…whether we are home or away…” We must aim to please God in this life and in the eternal life hereafter, i.e. in time and space, and generational/across generations, and across all cultures. Let your family grow up under the shade of your gospel tree. Expand your horizons to include all peoples; stretch your relational range and become multi-cultural.

Go DEEP. V9b “…we make it our aim (ambition) to please him.” Do what the scripture says; don’t be selective or play dodgems with certain aspects thereof. Man’s delays are man’s denials. God’s delays are God’s plans and timing. Be generous, even if it means scaling back on how much you spend on yourself versus on others. Be like Jesus in the way He sacrificed Himself for the benefit of others. Recalibrate our personal and economic ambitions to be like His. Being radical should be the norm for us (cut to the root).

Go HIGH. V10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” Don’t seek to be legitimized by what you have done, but rather by the person you have become – like Christ.

Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”