Every day in my inbox I receive a little text-based email from E-Word Today that has in it a little thought from the previously-mentioned RBC Ministries’ Our Daily Bread, a quote from illustrious nineteenth-century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and a chapter or part of a chapter out of the Bible. There are a few good little quotes I’d like to share here, and they all deal with stress.
One sin rationalized becomes two.
This is very interesting. Think about it for a minute: when I rationalize something, that’s just like lying to myself. If I believe the lie I tell myself, I’m just adding to my own stress load because whenever it comes up in my mind I have to remind myself of my own explanation for why I did that–and so of course this feeling in my gut couldn’t be conviction for that sin, because hey, it’s not, right? Hmm. And yet, the Lord won’t let His kids get away with that for very long before He brings down the consequences. Why do the wicked prosper while the people that believe in God suffer? Maybe it’s because He’s trying to teach you and me something. Don’t rationalize it: deal with it, it’s easier on your G.I. tract and your psyche.
One beauty of Christ’s life was that he kept to his calling and did not go beyond his commission. And you will be wise if you do the same.
I think we’re all guilty of this at some point, of taking more onto ourselves than we can really handle: “Sure, I can be there,” or “Absolutely, I’ll be glad to head up that committee,” or “Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it.” Essentially what this kind of overburdening amounts to–as long as it is really too much and we’re not being lazy about it–is pride. We believe that we can do more than we’re really capable of, or we knowingly commit to something we know we can’t afford to do because it makes us look good, committed, solid at the time. Jesus didn’t do that, and sometimes I forget that. I think “Well, He’s God, so of course he could have done anything.” Yes, but He also came to Earth in the flesh, and He had the wisdom to know when to say when. When the crowds came and He became sick with exhaustion from healing them all and teaching them, He didn’t stick it out until He was a puddle of hyperactive neurosis on the ground, He went to the other side of the lake! What a good lesson for us when we’re feeling overwhelmed–and what a good lesson for me at exam time! (Of course, if I were really wise I’d be studying right now, and not exerting all my caffeinatedness into posting these things to the ThinkBlog….)
The prodigal son was resolved to come, yet he was half-afraid. But we read that his father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness.
One thing I find myself facing in my walk with Him is that I’ll often wonder, after I’ve sinned, if God’s not furious enough with me to strike me down with lightning bolts. Well, that’s a lie: He’s not. He loves me enough to die for me, so why would He get His hackles up at this point? Sometimes we forget that God is never disappointed: He knows what you’re going to do before you do it! So when you make a solemn committment to Him and then, try as you might, you break it, you might be disappointed in yourself, but Jesus saw it before you did it, and He loved you as much when you prayed the prayer of committment as He did when you asked for forgiveness–again.
Those who only sample the Bible never acquire a taste for it.
How true that is, even for Christians! I know when I’ve been away from the Word for a long time, as frankly I have even recently, when I go back down to it to really dig into the teaching, I get distracted by how arcane it all sounds, how so very far away. Stick with it, Christian, you know that the living water is in a deep well: when your rope is short, ask for more to get to the bottom of that well and draw out your fill to satisfaction. Because, and I’ll leave you with this quote of Spurgeon’s,
We are happy when God blesses us, but not so happy as God is. We are glad when we are pardoned, but he that pardons us is gladder still.
Why stress over the things of life when God is happy to uplift us if we’re just willing to humble ourselves before Him? Why stress that He won’t accept us when He has more patience than we can imagine?
