FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Text:

Psalm 18:1-3, 31-33, 49; Lamentations 3:19-24; Philippians 4:10-13

To assure that we keep standing, when in our strength we will surely fall, we need God’s strength, too. So why refuse it? Reaching out for help or an arm to lean on is not weakness. Weakness is refusing to reach for help when we need it, and we do need it daily in the Christian life. Weakness is falling because we won’t take the help that is available to us, and God’s extra measure of strength is always available to us.

Jeremiah, the writer of the Book of Lamentations was not too proud to ask for God’s help:

The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. – Lamentations 3:19–22 (NLT).

George Fox, founder of the Quakers, related the moment that this reality first dawned upon him. He said,

. . . when all my hopes … in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,” and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.

Let us rejoice today that strength is available to us right now for facing whatever life has brought us, and that strength is in Christ Jesus. Claim it! Let it work in you!

Paul claimed it and wrote about it for the benefit of the Christians in Philippi. In Philippians, Paul said triumphantly, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” He wasn’t talking in abstractions or generalities. He was talking about real and hard experiences of living. He had been persecuted. He had been hungry. He was in prison when this letter was written. Eventually he would die because of his unswerving commitment to Jesus Christ.

If he had tried to face all these situations in his own strength, he would never have made it with his emotional and spiritual health intact. Because he saw the real source of strength through God in Christ, was willing to reach out for it, and let it work in him, he had real life, abundant life, in spite of innumerable hardships—hardships that would have defeated those of us who think that it’s a sign of weakness to depend on God and the power He offers us so that we can be victorious people in the world.

The bottom line is this: Without God’s strength we do not have the power to face life, much less live it. Life as it was meant to be is not some pronounced spiritual independence which tries to become, for all practical purposes, self-sufficiency. Life as it was meant to be is a shared journey—day-by-day living in the close company and companionship of God. The shared journey is not simply to enjoy the presence of God, though that is a joy and an added benefit; it is, rather, an intimate relationship in which each person gives and takes and wherein we receive—for the willingness to receive it—strength to live.

I urge you to claim this strength because I believe we all need it. But how can we get it? When Paul says, “All things I am strong to do through the One who strengthens me,” he is thinking of the result of intimate relationship. He is able to draw strength from Christ because Christ intimately shares life with him. Christ is able to empower him and make him strong enough to deal with the rough places and the tragedies of life because Paul is willing to receive the strength from outside himself. This essential power is not something that can be claimed by one who occasionally bumps into God; it can only result from a continuing, dynamic relationship with God. That’s it! Strength from God is not a neatly wrapped gift or something we can receive on demand. It is an outgrowth and inevitable result of depending upon God as we share the journey of life day by day with God. Don’t you need that?

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Text:

Psalm 18:1-3, 31-33, 49; Lamentations 3:19-24; Philippians 4:10-13

Psalm 18 is a poem or hymn for worship, and verses 1–3 are the invocation. The poet comes right to the point: “I will love You, O LORD, my strength.” In this sentence, we find the confession of faith that this person makes in the one who strengthens and empowers him. We know without reading further that this writer believes he has not and does not have to face life and its tasks in his strength alone. God helps him meet the demands of life, and he knows it. He doesn’t feel any pressure to be fiercely independent. He doesn’t feel that if he reaches out for help from God he becomes a weakling. He knows that the sign of weakness and carelessness is in trying to live life without the guidance and strength of the One who made life, the only one who has real strength to offer.

The poet, in this invocation, pictured God as his rock—his foundation for living. He saw God as his protector. We can see that this poet is a warrior, probably King David. David—as is the case with us—obviously was not shielded from all the effects of evil, but as God’s child he could not be overcome ultimately by evil. The place he could put his trust in life—the place he could really put his weight down—was with God. God is the only worthy foundation for living, but not a passive foundation, a wistful wisher of goodwill. God is actively at work in our lives to help us do His will and meet the demands and challenges of being human without being overtaken by the evil in the world.

In verse 31, the psalmist asks, “For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?” Make no mistake about it! This God is the one God, the God of Israel; He is both the foundation of our being and—if we are wise—the source of our guidance and the one in whom we trust.

The psalmist was convinced that the God whom he praised in worship was the God who girded him with strength. The help he needed to live as God’s person was so real it was like armor; it was like something he wore, and, therefore, his way was safe. Evil, no matter how great it was and no matter in what form it came, could not ultimately overcome him.

Sometimes, I think, when we come for worship, we want the event to be something like a pep rally or a transfusion. We look at it as something that will get us going for a few more days of service. It’s as if we leave God at our public or private place of worship. Then, we see ourselves as going out to face the world on our own. This is incorrect. We don’t leave God anywhere. God is with us, not just watching what happens to us but actively involved—if we permit it—in our dealing with all facets of life. God is with us offering us strength to use in bearing the burdens, facing the disappointments, serving wherever we are led, and doing the tasks necessary to serve the Lord well. We don’t have to go it alone, and—in truth—spiritually, we really can’t. We need God and the strength God gives like a warrior needed armor for battle.

David said in verse 33, that “He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.” That is, God gave him a firm and careful stance in the insecure places of life, like a doe who is surefooted on uneven and unpredictable terrain. It’s the same picture the psalmist had in mind in verse 36: “You enlarged my path under me, So my feet did not slip.” David was thinking of battle situations, but we can have the same assurance in the situations we face. The situations may change, but God is the same.

There is much insecurity and vulnerability about our lives. There are many times when we think we’re going to slip and fall because of the terrain, situations that come to us over which we have absolutely no control, and even because of bad situations that we bring upon ourselves. The ground becomes very uncertain along the way. The causes may differ, but the results are the same. We think we’re going to fall; we don’t know if we can keep standing. You know exactly what that feels like, don’t you?

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Text:

Psalm 18:1-3, 31-33, 49; Lamentations 3:19-24; Philippians 4:10-13

One of the traits we obviously value most in ourselves and others is independence. Few accomplishments are more admired among most people than that of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and rising to the level of virtual independence through personal effort and ingenuity alone. In fact, we probably consider this as our ideal.

The people we seem to admire most are those who are least dependent on others—the foreman more than the person on the assembly line, the administrator more than the administrative assistant, or the owner of the business more than those who work for her. This adoration of independence goes beyond the working world.

In the academic world we admire the student who needs the least amount of help in—and outside—the classroom or who makes it without a tutor more than the one who needs the tutor. I’ve heard parents make remarks indicating that they most admire the child who makes it on his own—without their help—the fastest or does the best, the quickest outside the nest. Our love of independence—because we think that independence means strength—causes us to have higher regard for those who appear to make it through life without the help of a psychiatrist, psychologist or pastoral counselor than for those who do have this need and do something about it. Our high regard for independence has national and international implications, too. We want to be the greatest power in the world, not “beholden” to anybody. We think we’re superior to all the other nations that the thought of an apology when we’re wrong is taken as an affront. We take the need to say, “We’re sorry. We’ve made a mistake,” as a sign of weakness and thus a lack of independence.

This love of independence is all around us. It even affects our spiritual lives; perhaps we should say that it especially affects our spiritual lives. Somehow we’ve let the drive for independence convince us that depending upon God is not good—that really strong, mature Christians learn to make it to a large extent on their own.

Independence is good, if it means doing or being what you can be in your own strength and through your own efforts. There is certainly unhealthy dependence. Independence is not good, however, if it means that we come to believe that we are totally sufficient in every way unto ourselves and can do all we need to do in every way in our own strength. We begin to believe that we don’t need others at all, and that may be a step or two away from deciding that we can make it without God’s help, too. I’m not talking about those who separate themselves from the church, having decided that they don’t need God anymore. I’m talking today about those of us in the church who are trying to live as if we don’t need God’s help in our day-to-day achievements and struggles, as if spiritual maturity means going it alone and merely “checking in” with God from time to time.

There is not a time in our lives—not even a day—when we can be at our best without the active presence of God, not only guiding us but also strengthening us for the tasks we undertake. Refusing or neglecting to receive the strength God is willing to give us is not spiritual maturity; it is spiritual carelessness. Spiritual maturity never means independence from God. Theodore Parker Ferris said, “You don’t grow out of this sense of dependence upon God; you grow up into it.”

Throughout the Psalms there are references to dependence upon God and His help. One such psalm is Psalm 18. This passage avoids two unhealthy extremes: (1) on the one end of the continuum, it avoids the suggestion of passive dependence—the state of assuming that God will do everything, even what we should be using our own abilities—strengthened by God, of course—to accomplish; (2) it also avoids the suggestion of independence from God.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.