What He said!, Pt 1: Joy Into Sorrow
Administrative Note: This posting marks the beginning of a new series focusing on a more personal application of God’s Word. This series will be longer than the others, written more frequently in the first person, and dedicated more completely to drawing all of us into closer relationship with Father and Son.
James 4:7-10 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Luke 6:24b Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
Psalm 24:3-4 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
It is easy to grasp that the believer should submit himself to God and that the devil will flee and equally we can understand that God will bring comfort to those who are mourning. But are Luke and James killjoys? Do they really mean that we should not be happy?
I have recently had the opportunity to purchase a new car and part of the closing process was the offer by the dealership to purchase ‘gap’ insurance. The gap referred to is the difference between what is paid by regular insurance should the car be deemed a total loss because of an accident and the amount still owed on the car. Gap thus refers to the difference between where we are now and where we wish we were. This is a good description of the believer’s spiritual walk. I think there is a difference in most believer’s relationships with God in where they are now and where they wish they were. It is this sense that James and Luke most speak to me.
Laughter in the Old Testament frequently referred to the scornful derision of sin expressed by the fool.
Ecclesiastes 7:4,6 4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure… [But] 6Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools.
I wish I could say I was at full relationship and intimacy with God, but such is not the case. Like most believers, I am frail and fragile and much too much in love with the world. Do I have clean hands and a pure heart? Am I burdened by trusting in idols or false gods? These are questions we all ought to be asking ourselves. Am I so happy with the world that I am laughing in the face of sin? What about you, dear reader? What is your relationship with God?
I live a life marked by seemingly opposite extremes, and as a church elder and small group leader, this can cause concern in my soul. More than half of my week, about 50-60 hours, is engaged in work and during that time I am fully engaged in the world. Often another 5-10 hours is spent re-centering my soul and ‘coming down’ from the work high. The rest of the week is devoted to God, praying, ministering to hurting people, and that sort of thing. Customers ask me what I do with the rest of my week and my answer usually is that I tend to cram my work-week into 4 days so that the balance can be devoted to God. They are always impressed, and so my tendency is to consider that I am doing well and that my relationship with Father and Son is on solid ground.
But the truth is that even on our best days we believers are not as intimate with our Father as we think we are. This is where our spiritual gap comes into play. Lord, I covenant with You to enter into a single-minded allegiance to You that is unpolluted by enticement by the world. I chose, by an act of my will to relegate the world to a secondary place, necessary to provide financial and physical support, but only a tool to be used to further Your Kingdom. And so I choose to ‘wash my hands’ of the world’s contamination and use it only to further my spiritual walk with You. I repent of allowing this sin into my life. I choose to ‘purify my heart’ through aligning my thoughts with Yours. Lord, let me see as You see, hear You speak to me, and understand Your words.
I see Father that my problem is self; I think I am all that and a bag of chips. I see that I am in deep need of the repentance of the sin of pride. I am joyful in my worldly success when I ought to be sorrowful at my lack of more fulfilling submission to You. What can be more foolish for me to do, than to refuse to submit to God? Why would I not submit to God when His subsequent outflow of blessing would be beyond my understanding? The problem is not You; it is me. My own pride blinds me to my own self-centeredness and to the reality that I am the problem. So the gap is not some philosophical adjunct, but a real outworking of my own failure to submit.
I have grieved much in my life, but it has always been for the loss of things or people. After 2½ years I am only now rising above the gutter of grief at the loss of my beloved wife. How come I don’t grieve for the potential loss of You? I know that in the parable of the prodigal son you present yourself as always willing to accept back a wayward child. Do I think that because I have accepted Jesus as my Savior that I am guaranteed eternity with You? Perhaps, but that eternity would be an eternity of association rather than an eternity of intimacy with You. Today I am renewing a commitment to cleanse my heart and purify my hands from the world’s contamination. I am choosing to fill the wasted hours formerly filled with TV, Netflix, and social media with more fulfilling time with You. I read somewhere that Cory Ten Boom once asked, “Do you use prayer as a steering wheel, or a spare tire?” The thought is right, but the metaphor is slightly off. Lord, I don’t want to steer anything; I want to follow. I want to let You lead. Lord, I chose to submit.
So Lord I choose to turn my laughter to sorrow as I consider how far it is I am from You. My holiness and righteousness do not even show on the horizon of yours. I am frail and weak and prone to distraction. Lord help me stay centered on You; lead me to that joy everlasting.