desire

1 Chronicles 29, Psalms 133-135

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Read 1 Chronicles 29 and Psalms 133-135.

This devotional is about 1 Chronicles 29.

The large number of commands and rules in Moses’ law can make us feel like serving God is merely a matter of “dos” and “don’ts.” If people did everything the Lord commanded them to do and didn’t do what he commanded them to avoid, they may have thought that God was pleased with them. And, when they sinned, if they merely “did” the offering God commanded, all would be well again. The Pharisees seemed to believe this to be true and possibly many Christians do as well. 

But 1 Chronicles 29 argues against such an objective, works-based approach to God. David spoke to the assembly of God’s people in 1 Chronicles 29 and described for them the wealth that he had provided for the materials in the temple Solomon would build (vv. 1-5a). David then invited the leaders of Israel’s tribes to contribute to the Lord’s work in the temple as well (v. 5b).

The people responded well to his invitation and gave generously to the stockpile of materials that a magnificent temple required (vv. 6-8). All this was done with joy–“the people rejoiced”, “they had given freely and wholeheartedly” and “David the king also rejoiced greatly” (v. 9). Then David prayed a magnificent prayer of praise in verses 10-19 and led the people to praise the Lord with him (v. 20). David’s prayer took no credit for the abundance of the Lord’s provision but instead marveled at how God’s abundant provision for them enabled them to give so much wealth to him (v. 12a, 14-16).

Then David focused on the heart: “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (v. 17a). It is not our performance of giving or righteous good works or religious ceremonies that God wants; it is a heart that desires him, is devoted to him, and obeys and gives and serves him out of awe and worship and thanks and love. All of these things would have come naturally to us if sin had not entered the world, but we did sin. Therefore, selfishness and wicked desires invaded the space God created in us to be devoted to him.

David recognized that it was only God’s gracious work in the heart that enabled true devotion to Him so he prayed that God would do this work in the people (“keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you”) and in Solomon (“give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, statutes and decrees”). As believers in Jesus, we’ve received a new nature that leads us toward a holy life. But we need God’s continual work to “keep these desires and thoughts” (v. 18), just as David prayed, because of the constant battle we do with sin. 

Your obedience to the Lord may be spot on today in the sense that you’ve been consistently doing the Lord’s commands and have avoided sinful choices as far as you know. But what is the state of your heart? Habitual obedience is good but it only pleases the Lord when it comes from within. May God purge our hearts of our sinful desires, open our eyes to our spiritual blindspots, and give us a heart that is increasingly devoted to him.

2 Kings 21, Zephaniah 1, John 13

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Read 2 Kings 21, Zephaniah 1, and John 13.

This devotional is about Zephaniah 1.

The prophets and the historical books of the Old Testament document for us centuries of idolatry, injustice to the poor, violence, sexual misconduct, and many other sins among the people of God.  God’s punishment for these sins came when the Assyrians defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel and–later–the Babylonians defeated the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 

But God was not only displeased by the sins of his people; he was also angry about the lack of spiritual desire and growth among the people. In verse 12 here in Zephaniah 1 God said, “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent…” A complacent person is one who is stagnant. It is a person who is not growing or getting stronger; instead, the complacent person has given up. He or she is someone who has concluded that “the way it is” is “the way it always will be.”

The next three phrases in verse 12 tell us that the complacent “are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’” They think, “God won’t judge us” but also “God isn’t going to bless us.” They are resigned to the situation as it is and have no expectation that it will get better or worse.

The reality is, however, that unless you are striving to get better, things are getting worse. You know this as an adult; your level of physical fitness declines as you get older unless you work on getting stronger and fitter. Your diet may stay the same for years but your health does not stay the same; it gets poorer. It may take a long time before it gets really bad, but it won’t get better without effort.

The Bible teaches us to be content but that is not at all the same as being complacent. Contentment means being satisfied with the results God gives you for your work and your effort. It is the opposite of being jealous or envious or materialistic; it is not the opposite of working hard or striving for improvement. God sees complacency as a sin to be addressed as well (see verse 13). It isn’t the same as idolatry but neither one is glorifying to God.

Where in your life are you complacent? Have you put your ministry in our church on autopilot? By that I mean that you’re still showing up and doing it but not with the same level of excellence or creativity or heart that you once had? 

Is your walk with God hindered by complacency? How about your family life or your financial health? Is it your physical body or your work that you’ve given up on? 

Complacency stems from a lack of faith. The last phrase of verse 12 teaches the mindset of the complacent; this person thinks, “The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.” That’s the motto of a man or woman who doesn’t expect anything from God–either judgment or blessing. Is that where you are?

What would your life be like if you expected to be disciplined by the Lord for your sin or to be blessed by him for your faithfulness? Repent of your complacency and ask God to breathe fresh life into your life by faith.

1 Kings 9, Hosea 12, Psalm 119:1-40

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Read 1 Kings 9, Hosea 12, and Psalm 119:1-40.

This devotional is about Psalm 119:1-40.

People have a hard time with rules—even ones they agree with—because rules are incapable of changing human desires. Our hearts long for the freedom to do what we want; we are deceived and deceive ourselves into thinking that we can sin without consequences. We tend to see God’s laws, then, not as lights to illumine our choices so that we know right from wrong, truth from error, or wisdom from folly; rather, we perceive God’s laws as fences that would seek to restrict our freedom to run.

The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 had come to think just the opposite way about God’s law. In verse 32 he wrote, “I run in the path of your commands, for you have broadened my understanding.”

This lengthy Psalm is an acrostic poem. Each stanza begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetical order. The subject of this poem is God’s law; someone once called it a “love letter to God’s law,” and that is a good description.

Nobody in our culture writes 26 poetic verses—one for each letter of our alphabet—extolling the virtues of federal law but some inspired Psalmist did that with God’s law.

Why?

What made the difference between the writer of this Psalm and the vast number of Israelites who worshipped idols and disregarded God’s laws and its promised blessings?

The answer is a changed heart. The Psalmist who wrote these lines had experienced the new birth we call salvation. He had received regeneration—the gift of spiritual life to someone who is spiritually dead. One result of that regeneration was a changed attitude toward God’s word. Instead of experiencing God’s commands as fences that restrict freedom, the believer now sees God’s laws as a flat, smooth footpath that provides moral and spiritual guidance. He can “run in the path of your commands” like a child runs across the backyard—free, happy, and secure.

He could do that because “you have broadened my understanding” (v. 32b; see also verse 45). This is what God’s grace does; it teaches us to understand that God’s word is a blessing to be treasured, loved, and most importantly obeyed. A believer receives and obeys God’s word with joy because it frees him from the bondage of sin and its consequences.

It also holds out the promise that, if the believer does what God says to do, there will be rewards. Those rewards may be in eternity rather than this life, but they are guaranteed because God promised them.

That’s faith—obey first to experience blessings later.

This is not to say that the Psalmist never struggled with the sin nature any more. In verse 29, he begged the Lord to keep him “from deceitful ways.” In verses 36-37 he asked the Lord to turn his heart and his eyes away from sin and toward God’s word.

Your struggles with obedience are proof that God has not completed his work of salvation. Salvation is a fact if you’re in Christ. It is certain because it is based on God’s promises. But it won’t be completed until we are with Christ. Until then, we need God’s word to guide us and we need to ask the Lord continually to give us the desire to obey his word as he changes us within by its power.

Some of you have been reading God’s word more faithfully than you ever have before this year. Keep showing up each day to read with me; much truth still awaits. But let’s be sure to do what the word tells us to do so that we can grow in our faith and be liberated to follow the Lord.

Ruth 3-4, Ezekiel 13, Ephesians 2

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Read Ruth 3-4, Ezekiel 13, and Ephesians 2.

This devotional is about Ruth 3-4.

Once again we see the godly character of Boaz on display in today’s two chapters from Ruth. His actions protecting and providing for Ruth in chapter 2 may indicate his personal attraction to her, but he was aware of the age difference (v. 10) as well as the existence of another man who was a closer relative to Ruth than Boaz. This other relative, then, had the first right to marry her (vv. 12-13).

According to Old Testament law, the other man was supposed to marry Ruth and, with her, produce a son who would be heir to Elimelek’s estate. This nearer relative (plus the age thing) may have been why Boaz did not make a move for Ruth himself. Regardless, Ruth came to him secretly, at night, and requested his protection for her and Naomi through marriage. Although some have suggested that Ruth’s actions of “uncovering Boaz’s feet” was a sexual act, the text indicates the opposite. The wording in the passage was “uncovered his feet and lay down” (3:7) so this would have to be some kind of Hebrew idiom/euphemism for sex, such as when we say two people “slept together” in modern English. But the fact that Boaz slept through Ruth’s actions and, later something “startled him” (v. 8), indicates that the plain reading of the text is the correct one. Ruth pulled the covers off Boaz’s feet, laid down on the ground by his feet and waited for him to wake up. Her reason for doing this was to create an opportunity where she could speak privately to Boaz without anyone else knowing.

Although the passage does not say so, it seems clear that Boaz was an unmarried man. Singleness was highly unusual in Israel, so perhaps Boaz was a widower whose original wife died before giving him any heirs, but we do not know. What we do know is that his blessing on Ruth (3:10) indicated his desire to be married to Ruth. Given that life during the period of the Judges resembled the wild west, Boaz might have been able to get away with undercutting the nearer relative of Ruth by marrying her before the other guy was aware of her existence. However, Boaz wanted to do the right thing. And, in chapter 4, he did. He gave the closer relative the opportunity to do right, then got what he wanted when the other man refused to do his duty. 

You have to admire Boaz and give him some style points for how he approached Ruth’s nearer relative. Boaz mentioned the benefit of doing the right thing first when he asked the man if he would redeem the land that Elimelek owned (4:3). Only after the man stated his intention to buy the land from Naomi did Boaz mention the string that was attached, namely the responsibility to marry Ruth, too (4:5). Notice how, at the end of Ruth 4, when Obed was born, the women said, “Naomi has a son!” (v. 17). The reason they said this is that Obed was the legal heir to Elimelek’s land. That legal entanglement was the reason the closer relative to Ruth did not want to buy the land if it required marrying Ruth, too. If Ruth were to have a son before the other man’s original wife had a son, there would be “firstborn issues” and Obed might get everything. That is what the other man meant in verse 6 when he said, “…I might endanger my own estate.”

Boaz had thought about this before he invited the man to buy Naomi’s property. In other words, although Boaz was determined to do the right thing, even if that meant losing Ruth, he still presented the situation in the best possible way to get what he wanted, namely the legal right to marry Ruth.

The lesson from this, for us, is this: As you pursue what you want in life, will you do that within obedience to the moral will of God?

It is so easy for us to see situations like this in clear black and white terms when we are looking at the responsibilities and actions of others. But, when we ourselves want something that maybe outside of God’s will for us, we can easily make excuses that justify doing what we want to do. Couples who are considering marriage can do this kind of justifying when it comes to crossing lines of sexual activity. “We’re planning on getting married,” they might reason, “so it’s not wrong for us as long as we do get married anyway.” It is so easy to justify what we want to do and so hard, when our desires are engaged, to do what God commands us to do. But a man of moral character like Boaz and a woman of godly character like Ruth will seek to do right, then wait to see what God has decided to do.

Exodus 7, Job 24, Psalms 24-26

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Read Exodus 7, Job 24, and Psalms 24-26.

This devotional is about Psalm 25.

Psalm 25 began in verses 1-3 with David reminding God that David was trusting in him. David then asked God to make his trust pay off by not letting David be put to shame (v. 2).

But David wanted more than a tit-for-tat relationship with God. He didn’t want to do right just so he would be well-treated by God. Instead, he wanted to serve God so that he could know God. That’s why he prayed in verse 4, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.” This expresses a desire for God himself–to know what he loves and hates, how he works, and why he does what he does. 

Where would God do that teaching of his paths? Verse 5 says, “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior.” He wanted to know God, to soak up his truth because “my hope is in you all day long” (v. 5c). It was his love for God, his desire to know God and live in close fellowship with God that motivated his godly life, not his desire to succeed. 

David also didn’t hide the fact that he was fallen. In verse 7 he pleaded for God to give him full pardon, complete forgiveness for his sins. “Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.” This, too, is an indication of a person who is walking with God. The better you know God and his ways, the more apparent your sinfulness becomes. But as our “Savior” (v. 5), we know that God will be faithful and forgive the sins we confess to him. 

When we are indifferent to our sins, unconcerned about knowing God’s truth and his ways, and only care about God’s blessings, we are not walking with God. These are clear signs that our spiritual life is drifting rather than growing. Fortunately, God is gracious to sinners. Verses 8-11 describe what God does for sinners when we humble ourselves before him. He “instructs” (v. 8b) us, “guides” us (v. 9a) and “teaches” us “his way” (v. 9b). When we fear God (vv. 12, 14), he blesses us with knowing him, forgiving our sins, watching over us for good and delivering us from our troubles (v. 22).

How is your relationship with God? Are you walking with him, desiring to know him and follow his ways? Or is your spiritual life adrift?

As a believer in Christ, you have the assurance that God’s love and salvation are yours forever. But the blessing of knowing God comes from following him and walking with him daily. Take time to assess your walk with God. Change your mind in repentance and ask for God’s forgiveness and a renewed desire to live for him.

Genesis 5, Ezra 5, Matthew 5

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Read Genesis 5, Ezra 5, and Matthew 5.

This devotional is about Matthew 5:1-12.

Matthew chapters 5-7 record what has been called the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s sermon begins with “The Beatitudes.” The word “beatitude” is transliterated into English from the Latin word that begins each line. Since the only available translation of the Bible for hundreds of years was the Latin Vulgate, this Latin word for “happiness,” beatitudo, stuck as the title of the first section of Christ’s sermon. The beatitudes are eight statements of Christ about who is really happy; his list is quite surprising.

If we were to commission the Gallop organization to do a nationwide poll of ordinary Americans and ask them who is happy, I don’t think the list we would get would be anywhere close to the one Jesus made here in Matthew 5:3-10. Even if we polled most Bible-believing Christians, my guess is that there would not be one answer in the top 10 that would correspond with anything on Jesus’ list. Each verse in the beatitudes is worth thinking deeply about, but let’s focus on one for today. Verse 6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

We humans long for so many things. We long for love, for security, for prosperity, for peace. We long for youth, or good health, or just a really great mocha. (OK, maybe that last one is just for me and few others of you…).

Sometimes our longing for these things is palpable; we talk about “starving for attention” or “thirsting for more.” But, think about people who have what you’re starving for. Are the wealthy so happy that they never get divorced? Are the famous so satisfied with the attention they receive that they chase the paparazzi, begging to have their pictures taken? If you wish you had your boss’s job and all the perks that come with it, think: Is she deeply satisfied with that station in life, or is she longing and plotting to take her boss’s job?

In contrast to all the things that we think will satisfy us, Jesus said that those who are truly happy are the ones who long to be righteous. They thirst to live a life that is pleasing to God. The hunger within that drives them is a hunger to think like God does, to act like God does, and to radiate the greatness of God in their words and actions. Instead of wanting to “Be like Mike” (as the old Gatorade commercial put it), they want to like Christ. THESE are the people Jesus said would be satisfied; he promised at the end of verse 6: “they will be filled.”

When we talk about being righteous people, we have to remember two things. First, our own righteousness is detestable to God because it is, at best, imperfect and incomplete. In reality, it is tainted through and through with our sinful attitudes and our other sinful acts. The only way we can ever be accurately described as “righteous” is if God gives us credit for being righteous even when we’re not. And, that is what he has done in Christ! When we trust God’s promise of life in Jesus, God treats us as if we lived the perfect life Jesus lived; he also forgives us for our sins through the payment Christ made for us on the cross.

Once we’ve been credited with righteousness by God, God goes to work on our longings. Over time and through the gifts of the scripture, the church, and the trials of life, God uproots our longings for sinful things and replaces them with a desire to BE righteous in reality. As we grow in Christ, we long to be more like him. The payoff for this, though, comes in the future. Jesus said, “they WILL be filled” not “they are filled.” In other words, the experience of happiness will be fully delivered when we see Christ and are transformed perfectly and finally into his likeness. Until then, we have the peace and joy of the Spirit as our downpayment, giving us a delicious taste of what it will like to feel full of righteousness when we are with Jesus.