In His Grip

Have you ever made New Year's resolutions? How successful have you been in making (and keeping) them? If you are like most people, you start out fast, but your success rate is poor. What does it take to bring about real and lasting change? You may have realized by now the very real limitations of human resolve. In fact, you may have given up on the whole idea of resolutions altogether. If our resolutions are self-centered - that is, centered upon self-generated goals and effort - it is only natural that they fail. Sure, they may have the outward appearance of success for varying lengths of time, but failure is certain. Jeremiah 17:5-8 gives us a long term and eternal view of the contrast between trust in self and trust in God. The apostle Paul, despite all of his human credentials, recognized that, as a true worshiper of God, he 'put no confidence in the flesh' (Philippians 3:3) and counted his past accomplishments as dung compared to the surpassing value of knowing Chris...

Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. (Psalm 119:67, 71, 75 NASB) In my previous blog entry I spoke from Romans 8:28-30 on how God works all things for His children to become like Jesus in their character. As I thought about this, it seems to me that two questions or issues immediately arise from this assertion: What about those who do not ‘love God’ and are not ‘called according to His purpose’? (from Romans 8:28) What will it cost me to fully participate in God’s purpose for my life? In short, I believe the common answer for both is joyfully submitting to God’s Lordship in their lives, that is, His absolute control over all things. Let me explain: For the unbeliever, we see God’s goodness to all people in creation (Acts 14:17), and that He has orchestrated all things so that people would ...