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To Grow Up, Look Back & Look Forward By Massimo Lorenzini 1 Samuel 30:1-6 1 Now it happened, when David and his men
came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag,
attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and
had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they
did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So
David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and
their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then
David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until
they had no more power to weep. 5 And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and
Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been
taken captive. 6 Now David was greatly distressed, for the
people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved,
every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the
Lord his God.[1] The text doesn’t explicitly tell us, but it seems reasonable to believe that David strengthened his faith in God by reflection on past experiences of God’s grace and the promises of God’s grace for the future. Question: How do
you keep going in a world of pain, suffering, disappointment, etc.? Answer: You keep
on going by looking back in gratitude and looking forward in faith. Do you ever feel like the victorious Christian life is a mirage? Do you struggle in your own heart to know how to live in a way that pleases God? Do you wish you could gain victory over temptation? Do you want to overcome the discouragements of life and resist the natural tendency to mediocrity in your Christian life? The answer is found in the your comprehending and apprehending the grace of God through gratitude for past grace and faith in future grace. Foundational
Assumptions
We are all motivated by our longing for happiness. “All men seek happiness,” says Blaise Pascal. “This is without exception. Whatever
different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going
to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with
different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This
is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” Does seeking your own happiness sound self-centered? Aren't
Christians supposed to seek God, not their own pleasure? To answer this
question we need to understand a crucial truth about pleasure-seeking
(hedonism): we value most what we delight in most. Pleasure is not God's
competitor, idols are. Pleasure is simply a gauge that measures how valuable
someone or something is to us. Pleasure is the measure of our treasure. If I come home with a bunch of a dozen red roses, my wife
swings open the front door, sees the flowers, flings her arms around me and
says: "Darling thank you so much they are wonderful, you shouldn't
have". Would I as a husband respond: "Well, that's the kind of thing
a husband should do, it is my duty". Immediately a response like that
would deflate the event and would be crass. But if I respond as a loving
husband would, "My darling I love you and I can think of nothing I want
more than to do this. It is my pleasure to give you flowers!" She is not
going to turn to me and say "You egotist, it isn't about you!"
Rather, my delight in doing this dignifies the act, and such pleasure-seeking
devotion is a greater indication of love than an unmoved fulfilment
of duty. We know this intuitively. If a friend says to you, "I
really enjoy being with you," you wouldn't accuse him of being
self-centered. Why? Because your friend's delight in you is
the evidence that you have great value in his heart. In fact, you'd be
dishonored if he didn't experience any pleasure in your friendship. The same is
true of God. If God is the source of our greatest delight then God is our most
precious treasure; which makes us radically God-centered and not self-centered.
And if we treasure God most, we glorify Him most. God is most glorified in
us when we are most satisfied in him. God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but
by its being rejoiced in.—Jonathan Edwards. Application: Do
you rejoice in God? Do you ever have a pleasant sense of satisfaction in God?
Do you give Him thanks and praise for who He is and what He does? If not, this
is a serious problem for you. 18 For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because,
although they knew God, they did not
glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts,
and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be
wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and
four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God
also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor
their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of
God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen (Rom If you do not acknowledge the glory of God and you are not
thankful to Him and you do not rejoice in Him, God will give you up. But if you
seek Him, you will be rewarded: “But without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6). Growing in Godliness So for me, I express gratitude to God when I think of the
great work of salvation He has done in my life and how He has been faithful to
lead me since. And now, as I live the Christian life, I find myself
increasing in my desire for holiness, in my desire to obey God, etc. Holiness
is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind
described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgement—hating what He hates—loving what He loves—and
measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most
entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man. – J.C. Ryle Doubtless, every
true Christian’s heart gives hearty approval to Ryle’s
definition of holiness. For most of us, personal holiness is something we
desire but struggle to attain. For me, as I grow in my relationship with God I find myself increasing
in my awareness of indwelling sin in my heart and life. How do I increase in
obedience and decrease my sinning? Gratitude as Motive for Obedience? If you ask
Christians today, “What is the biblical motive for Christian obedience?” great
numbers would say, “Gratitude to God.” And yet this way of thinking seems
almost totally lacking in the Bible. We reject the
“Debtors Ethic,” that is, obeying God out of gratitude for the salvation He has
provided. For example, it might say, “God has done so much for you; now what
will you do for him?” Or: “He gave you his very life; now how much will you
give to him?” This is like having a good meal at a friend’s house and insisting
on repaying him. We would be horrified to have someone get out a check book at
the end of a nice meal and be offered payment. Similarly when Christian service
is motivated by a desire to “pay God back” we are doing much the same thing. What we should be
doing, rather than seeking to pay God back with our obedience, is trust in God
to continue providing the resources for future living—“future grace.” Why gratitude alone is not enough to live a holy life: 1. If I seek to obey
only out of gratitude, “paying God back,” then I turn my relationship with God
into a business transaction and rob Him of the credit and glory He deserves. 2. We cannot pay God
back for the grace He has given. Every step you take in obedience does not pay
God back; rather you are able to take each step by the grace of God. So in
every step you take in obedience you get deeper in debt to grace. So let’s just
plan on getting deeper in debt to grace with every good work we do. May the
hole be deep and you be at the bottom with grace all
over you. The following verses
show us that God is always the giver and we are always the getter in how we
relate to Him. Nor
is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives
to all life, breath, and all things (Acts 17:25). For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His
life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for
every good work (2 Cor 9:8). “But
by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain;
but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me” (1 Cor 15:10). “10 As
each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of
the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him
speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the
ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through
Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen”
(1 Pet While gratitude has
a backward orientation in looking to the past, faith has a future orientation:
“Now faith is the substance [or “assurance”] of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen” (Heb 11:6). Gratitude for
yesterday’s grace can provide a foundation for confidence in future grace. But
when I’m faced with challenges today and tomorrow, I need to know that God will
be there to meet me with fresh deliveries of grace. The apostle Paul
argued from the lesser to the greater to give God’s people confidence to know
that if He has already worked on our behalf in initiating our redemption, then
we can certainly rely on future grace to see us through to glory: He
who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things? (Rom But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,
much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And
not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Rom 5:8-11). We need to daily
exercise fresh acts of faith in the grace of God for each new day’s challenges.
Christian obedience is a “work of faith” (1 Thess 1:3; 2 Thess Faith is the root of
obedience, while unbelief is the root of all disobedience. Faith is the
motivation for works of righteousness, while unbelief is the drive behind all
evil works. We are justified by
faith alone, but that faith never remains alone. Justifying faith is always and
inevitably accompanied by good works (see Jas 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But
someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith
without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (Jas When you are faced
with temptation to sin; when you are in the heat of battle with sin, take the
promise of God and stab it to death. Faith severs the root of sin. Sin has
power by promising a better tomorrow (or at least a better this evening) and by
promising superior satisfactions. But true faith is of such a nature that it
severs the root of sin by embracing a better future and providing a deeper
satisfaction. The future grace of God is the deeper satisfaction and the better
future. When you live by faith in future grace, the power of sin is broken by
the power of a superior satisfaction and a better future. A Proper Understanding of Gratitude Gratitude that is
pleasing to God is not first a delight in the benefits God gives (though that
is part of it). True gratitude must be rooted in something else that comes
first, namely, a delight in the beauty and excellency
of God's character. If this is not the
foundation of our gratitude, then it is not above what the "natural
man," apart from the Spirit and the new nature in Christ, experiences. In
that case "gratitude" to God is no more pleasing to God than all the
other emotions which unbelievers have without delighting in him. You would not be
honored if I thanked you often for your gifts to me, but had no deep and
spontaneous regard for you as a person. You would feel insulted, no matter how
much I thanked you for your gifts. If your character and personality do not
attract me or give me joy in being around you, then you will just feel used,
like a tool or a machine to produce the things I really love. Illustration: Imagine a wife who was secretly in love with
another man who was not her husband. Imagine her giving thanks to her husband
for bringing home paycheck, taking care of the home, vacations, buying her
gifts, and giving her all of his love and faithfulness. Now imagine that he
knew all about her secret love affair that she was having with another man. How
would he feel when she gave him thanks for all he did for her? Would he feel
satisfied with that? This is how God
feels: 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may
spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses!
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever
therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or
do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us
yearns jealously”? (Jas 4:3-5) Who did the
adulterous woman really love? She loved herself. So giving thanks to God for
His gifts without rejoicing in the Giver is a slap in the face. We should do all
things—including giving thanks—to the glory of God (1 Corinthians Application: Cultivate a heart of thankfulness to God as a
strategy against sin in your heart and life. A truly thankful heart will love
and serve the Creator rather than the creature (Rom Question: Why does a thankful heart help us worship the Creator rather than the
creature? When we give in to
temptation, we usually do so because we are not being thankful. We either think
we deserve something or we are having a pity-party thinking we shouldn’t have
to go through this. Both of these attitudes are the opposite of a grateful
heart. Pride exalts self.
Pride tells me I deserve good things; I’ve earned it and I’m the real judge of
what is good for me. Self-pity is the
other side of pride. Self-pity says I got a bum deal, I deserve some comfort. A
grateful heart is not going to pity itself or think “I deserve a little
reward.” A grateful heart
recognizes we are not entitled to a life free of problems. A grateful heart
says, “I don’t have to reward myself because God has already given me so much
more than I deserve. God loves me as evidenced by the good things He has given
me and I love Him for it.” Application: Spend more of your prayer time in
thanksgiving. Seek to uncover attitudes of self-pity or pride and repent of
them. An ungrateful heart
draws us into ourselves and that’s where the problem is. A grateful heart
connects us with God, our source of all things that are good. Summary Gratitude is our
response to God’s past good-will in helping us. Faith is our
response to future promises aimed at helping us. Both gratitude and faith can be used by God to increase our
love for God. It is our strong and passionate love for God that drives out the
comparatively weak and petty desires for sin. Thomas Chalmers was a great pastor, seminary professor, and
leader in the Free Church of Scotland in the 19th century. He
mentored men like Robert Murray McCheyne and Horatius Bonar (the hymnwriter),
and he preached a landmark sermon entitled, “The Expulsive Power of a New
Affection.” It is a wonderful sermon in which he points out how we never lose
our hold on one love until a new love comes along. He says that the only way to
dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new
one. The point is that there is no better way to overcome a bad desire than to
push it out with a new one. It is in prayer that we summon the divine help to
produce in us that new desire for God. A person never really gets over a crush until a new love
comes along. Our hearts can be drawn from one affection
to another, but they will never lose their longing to cling to something. This
is why John Calvin said that our hearts are like idol factories. We will
worship something. We will love something and until a new more
beautiful, more believable, love comes along, we will
inevitably cling to idols! But the Gospel comes to us and it brings an
expulsive power—the expulsive power of a new affection. A new affection comes
in, as we see Jesus as more beautiful and believable and it drives out these
other affections! It is in worship, through the preaching, the singing, and the
sacraments, that our hearts are drawn from other “beauties” as our eyes are
opened to see Jesus for who He really is. How do you keep
on going? By grace, by faith in God’s grace in your past and in your future. Here’s a
suggested prayer outline to give you some guidance communing with God and
including time for thanksgiving for past grace and trust for future grace. The
outline follows the acronym ACT SIT:
Imagine what your life could be like if your regularly pondered God’s grace in your past and future? If you can make this a habit of your heart you will find power over discouragement, carnality, selfishness, and pride. God is looking for people He can use to make an impact in this generation. He is looking for people through whom He can make His glory known. Will you be one of them? For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him (2 Chron 16:9). |
