Last
December this writer posted a blog based on Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know
that I am God”. Since that posting, as so often is the case when someone
preaches on something, times and events provided circumstances that have tested
my faith concerning the things I wrote. Yesterday, one more opportunity to
learn in the School of Trust has presented itself following a routine visit to
my doctor. My yearly check-up revealed something that needs immediate
attention. While arrangements for treatment for this condition have been made,
along with much prayer, concerns over how serious the matter could be, along
with guarded statements from my doctor, have fed my natural inclination to
panic. Amid the countless thoughts swirling inside my brain since the hour of my visit to my doctor, I hear the still small voice of God’s Word saying,
“Be still.”
It
seems, sometimes that it takes circumstances such as these when I am forced to
face my own mortality, to remind me of what is the basic principle of the
Christian life—be still and know that God is God and I am not. When problems
come up, whether they are my own or those of others around me, I want to fix
things, to make everything right. And so, I begin my mental calisthenics
through which I attempt to work out solutions to problems I soon find I am ill
equipped to solve. So much futile effort
and much frustration on my part could be avoided if I can only learn to first
go in complete faith and trust to my Heavenly Father, Who has been and always
will be, in complete control. In fact,
this is what the Gospel that leads to salvation is all about.
To
fully understand why this matter of being still and knowing that God is God is
so central to the whole teaching of the Bible we have to go back to the Garden
of Eden. It was there that the old serpent made the promise that man did not
need God. In fact, by disobeying God man would know good and evil and would “be
as (on the same level—equal to) God (Genesis 3:5).” This is now the state of
man, having cast God out of our lives we substitute our own selves attempting
to be little gods. While the knowledge of what is good is still within us according
to Romans chapter one, we all “like
sheep, have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; Isaiah 53:6a. The Bible is clear that there is none
that is truly good (Romans 3:12). This then, is why there is so much evil in
this world. Men, having rejected divine authority, do what is right in their own eyes (judges
17:6). While many esteem themselves to be good, this is only by comparing
themselves to others. God, however sees our hearts and has declared that the
heart of man “… is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked:…(Jeremiah 17:9”.
This indeed is the hopeless situation of man
until we consider the rest of Isaiah 53:6, “and the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The New Testament more fully
explains what this all means. Man has sinned (Romans 3) but Jesus died for our
sins, blotting out the ordinances that were against us, “… and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross (Colossians 2:14)”.
Man can be restored to his intended relationship with God by receiving God’s
Son, trusting and relying upon what He did for us on the Cross (John 1:12;
3:16). This is what Jesus meant when He said “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John
3:3). Man died in the Garden of Eden, just as God promised in Genesis 2:17.
Man’s spiritual death was immediate. His physical body began to die immediately
as well. Paul calls man’s present condition as being in a body of death from
which he (Paul) yearned to be freed. (Romans 7:24). And so, the words of Jesus
make sense, “we must be born again.” This is the great salvation from man’s
sinful condition offered to each and every one of us. We begin a new
relationship with our Heavenly Father which includes a new nature that is alive
to Him. We have a promise concerning our physical bodies as well. They too will
be changed at the coming of Jesus Christ and “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54)”. What a wonderful salvation we are promised.
There are two words in the New Testament that
are used in relation to receiving this salvation. In John 1:12 we see them
both. There we are told to receive and to believe. The connection between these
two words is strong. We are to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and
to believe in Him, by accepting Him to be Who He said He is, God the Son John 8:58,
and trusting in His provision for us on the Cross. Romans 10:13 says, it
clearly, “For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Where man died in
the Garden of Eden by rejecting God’s authority over him, he now has the
opportunity for new life through receiving God back into his life by trusting
the Son of God to do what we cannot. When we make such trust, the words of
Psalm 46:10 resonate within us. “Be still”—cease from your own efforts to
achieve what I have promised, and “know”--understand and acknowledge—“that I am
God”.
Unfortunately, we have versions of the Gospel today that promise
a relationship with God on man’s terms instead of what God has outlined for us.
Foremost is religion where men seek to earn God’s favor through works. Instead of placing faith in what God did for
us on the Cross at Calvary, religion binds men to a system of dos and don’ts in
an effort to earn God’s favor. More insidious though is a very common teaching
that sounds close to the Gospel but would have us remain as little gods. Naming
a Jesus that is anything but God the Son described in Scripture, this false
gospel contains the concept that we have the authority of God to name what we
desire and to claim it. While some who teach the “name it—claim it” practice of
faith, do not openly hold to the doctrines of a false Jesus, they do reduce
God, to the subservience of men, subjecting Him to men’s wishes. While claiming
to hold to the principles of salvation by grace, the name-it, claim-it teachers replace
works religion in which man seeks to earn God’s favor, with one that demands
it. This is so far from the teaching of Psalm 46:10 as to be its
direct opposite.
The teaching if Psalm 46:10 is clear, not only in the matter
of salvation where I am to trust that He has done for me what I cannot do for
myself, but also in my daily walk. When I receive the Lord Jesus Christ into my
life, I acknowledge that He is God and I am not. This is salvation, the new
life and the rebirth that I so desperately need. However, I don’t always live
accord to this faith. Paul in his tongue twister section of Romans seven
described the situation as knowing what to do but not always doing it. Living
in the new life that God gives is something of a battle between my old and new
natures. So often do I forget and begin to take back control of my life. So
often do I forget to be still and to know that God is God and I am not.
And so this morning, as I reflect on the circumstances
before me, I am reminded of Who God is. He is the One Who created all there is
to see. He made me. He brought me to saving faith in His Son. He has supplied
all my needs and has promised to continue doing so. He knows my circumstances,
and while I do not know exactly what he will do, I do know He loves me and has
promised to work all things together for good to those that love Him. I can
only pray, “Lord, I love you. Help me to love you more. Help me to love You
enough to trust Your love for me. Help me to be still and know that You are
God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment