Author: KingdomLink

Jesus is preparing His disciples to go into the harvest field. Having told His   disciples the spiritual principle of ripples, Jesus tells them the spiritual principle of compensation; “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.”

In the upside down and twisted way of life we have since the Fall of humankind, a person earns their reward for effort toward a task. It might be called a wage or a salary or cash-for-service or piecework or by some other term, but it is very clearly compensation. You earn what you get for doing something. 

Of course, that compensation is not always in direct proportion to what you’ve done. There are inequalities. While for the most part, those who do much get much, it is also true in our world that sometimes those who do hardly anything get most, and those who do most everything get almost nothing. 

We see those inequalities in every field of work. Some sports players give the very best of their bodies and youth to the game and get basically nothing. Others find their way to the spotlight and earn hundreds of millions of dollars. Some who enter the world of finance labor all their lives for a meager income. Others find their way to the top of the salary chain. The same is true in the fields of arts, medicine, science, education, etc. This is part of God’s judgment on fallen society, where inequality is seemingly a function of chance much more than effort. 

As a result the human system of compensation results in poverty alongside excessive wealth. This itself mandates another inequality – the need for some to give a far greater proportion of their wealth than most to benefit those who lack. 

In God’s Kingdom there are no real inequalities because our compensation is related only to our faithfulness in honoring Him. Jesus tells us that any who receive a prophet on account of who they are receive the prophet’s reward, and likewise those who receive the righteous man on account of their rightousness. The prophet and the righteous are about Christ’s cause. So, just as receiving the one who Christ sends results in receiving Christ and therefore the one who sent Christ – so also receiving the one about Christ’s cause results in a receiving the same reward as the one who was commissioned in Christ’s cause. That is, they receive Christ. They earn the right to know His presence, His peace and His power, and one day to look upon His face. This is the true genius of God’s system of compensation. That those who purpose to honor Him will be blessed with Him, and along with Him, all that He represents and does. Those who do not honor Him simply will not. 

What we ‘get’ is only what God speaks over us. He alone is the creator and our creator, and He alone assigns skills and ability, and He alone rules over circumstance. So the stuff we typically think of when our fallen minds think about wages and compensation is but the smallest of blessings God provides. The real blessing is Himself, which He gives to all who faithfully honor Him. 

Every temporal hardship will earn a more than adequate eternal compensation.

M.S. Mills

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

The God who numbers the hairs on your head also watches over you. A cup of cold water given in His Name cannot go unrewarded. In what manner then will He reward a life of faithfulness?  Let us thank God for the daily opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness to Him. 

One of the wonderful things about Jesus is that He often gives away profound spiritual   principles in His everyday teaching. In fact, even that is a spiritual principle of itself; Those who walk very closely with God (and so have God’s thoughts in their mind) will often share those thoughts in off-hand comments. This is one of the significant blessings of hanging around godly people. Profound things and life-changing truths are bound to be shared through normal conversation! How much more so then, when Jesus is speaking!

In the course of teaching His disciples about the value of following Himself, Jesus says, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.” The truth of that statement is obvious to all who have entered the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. They “received” someone who told them the Gospel. They then “received” Jesus, and as a result of knowing Jesus have “received” God Most High. 

Each reception – each welcome – brought on another subsequent and more significant welcome. Like a pebble thrown into still water, every decision we take has implications that ripple out. In the physical, such implications lessen as they ripple out. In the spiritual realm, those implications grow larger the further they ripple out; A decision to welcome a Gospel messenger leads to a decision to hear the Gospel, which leads to a decision to accept the Gospel, which leads to a decision to receive Jesus as Lord, which leads to one ultimately meeting and ‘receiving’ God Himself, which leads to a profoundly changed eternity. This is truth. The principle that underlies such a truth is also truth.  

In the mid 1963 Edward Lorenz published a paper based on findings gathered after a startling discovery. He had previously entered some computer data into a program he was using to simulate weather patterns. It was the same data he had previous entered, but he made a single very small change to one of the twelve variables the program worked on. “To his surprise, that tiny alteration drastically transformed the whole pattern his program produced, over two months of simulated weather. The unexpected result led Lorenz to a powerful insight about the way nature works: small changes can have large consequences. The idea came to be known as the “butterfly effect” after Lorenz suggested that the flap of a butterfly’s wings might ultimately cause a tornado.” Edward’s work on chaos theory would fundamentally change the way we understand our world. Small changes can have large unintended results.

Every time we pray, there is a change in the heavenly realms. Every prayer for His Kingdom come is a piece of evidence in God’s courtroom. Every prayer for a circumstance or a need that we lift up to heaven is a scent in His nostril that calls to His mind a situation, person or place needing His action. Every prayer of praise is a fragment of a mirror that reflects some of the light of His glory to those all around. 

They might be small things, and certainly from a limited human vantage point they seem insignificant things. All the same, they lead to very large consequences!

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

William Cowper

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What small change can you make to your weekly schedule that might just have an outsized impact in eternity? 

A popular verse to quote to those who want to ‘find themselves’ as they mature is Jesus’   comment immediately following His teaching on worthiness. He said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  The quote is usually given at face value to those who are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The intention behind giving it is to gracefully note that all they really need to do is find Jesus, and the impact and significance of their lives will become clear (making their existential search moot). Yet to quote it with this intention is to lift the words of Jesus out of context. Jesus isn’t talking here to those who haven’t found Him. In fact, this verse is in the middle of His commissioning of the twelve disciples. Jesus is speaking this quote to those who do know Him, have committed themselves to Him, have left everything behind to follow Him and are preparing to go on a missionary journey for Him. 

The context is that Jesus is speaking about His own worth. That knowing Him and following Him and obeying Him – even unto suffering and death – is worth losing everything else. Recall how He just said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Seen in context, the meaning of His statement about loosing our lives for His sake becomes clearer. 

The reader must then ask, “Why would Jesus say that to those who have left everything to follow Him?” The answer to that question is hidden in the wider context of the full text of Matthew’s Gospel. In 4:20 we read of Simon and Andrew, “At once they left their nets and followed him.” In 4:22 we read of James and John, “…immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” So we know that the disciples have left their careers, and in some cases their families, so that they could follow Jesus. Yet it is not until chapter 19 that Peter could confidently say, “We have left everything to follow you!” Here in chapter 10 they are not there yet. 

The reality is that we really haven’t left everything until we have literally left everything. Leaving something significant to follow Jesus is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning. To leave family and business and career behind is but the first step. 

To walk on further with Jesus you will have to cross your internal reluctance barrier, and bring the Gospel (which is within yourself) to those who do not have it yet. To do that you have to leave your insecurity behind. You have to leave your fear behind. You have to leave your comfort behind. You have to leave all the security your own culture gives you behind, and go. 

Jesus was preparing His disciples for missionary service. To do that effectively, they’d have to step forward in faith in ways they had not done before. 

The application of that lesson to our lives is as obvious as the day is long. Jesus’ comment hangs ever before us. Are we ready for the next step in following Him? Because to take that next step, we first have to loose something of ourselves. 

True freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. But God made me for loving, and loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself, and give myself in love for God and others. In order to be free, I have to serve. In order to live, I have to die to my own self-centredness. In order to find myself I have to lose myself in loving. I have read somewhere that Michelangelo put it beautifully in these words: ‘When I am yours, then at last I am completely myself.’ For I am not myself until I am yours.

John Stott

 APPLICATION: Intentionality

Read John Stott’s quote again. Let that idea sink into your soul, that today you might live more for Christ than you ever have before. 

Every relationship is built on trust. When that trust is fractured, the relationship is in   serious danger. That is because trust is to relationships what bones are to the body. A fractured bone is a serious problem that cannot be ignored. It gives immediate rise to concern for the life of the body. If the fracture is severe, the body is at risk of going into shock – a life-threatening condition of itself. If the fracture results in bleeding (internal or external), that body is still at risk of death, even if shock doesn’t immediately set in. Fractures can also give rise to infection. At the very least, it takes a long time to heal. These things are also true when the trust in a relationship is fractured. 

For these reasons, someone who is not trustworthy is considered “not worthy” of the other. This is a fundamental fact that even the courts in the land recognize. It is obvious to all that a spouse who is not consistently faithful is not worthy of their partner. An employee who is dishonest in their dealings is not worthy of their employer. The circumstances of each case may be different (that is, the reason given for the breach of trust), but the fact that the breach is ‘life-threatening’ and probable cause for permanent separation is a given. It is just impossible to reconcile with any who repeatedly give in to their predilection for breaking the fundamental trust so key to a relationship. 

The same could be said for our relationship with Jesus. Those who violate His trust by putting a different relationship ahead of Him are not worthy of Him, and likewise those who prioritize their own comfort. To this very point Jesus said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Jesus is not saying that we should disown or otherwise destroy our family relationships. He is saying that any who choose any other relationship – even that of parents or children – over that with God, are not worthy of a relationship with God. 

To ignore God’s call is to commit idolatry to God’s face. It really doesn’t matter why we’re ignoring His call, just that we are choosing another relationship over that with Him. It likewise doesn’t matter what God’s call is – whether it is to live here or there, or to do this or that, or even to suffer and die. God’s call must be preeminent. This is how we demonstrate our worthiness to know Him and to one day gaze upon His face. We must be completely loyal and completely obedient. “[Jesus] insists on such a fierceness of loyalty to himself that the significance of normal bonds and commitments, and specifically family ones, is undercut. The ties that bind are relativized in favour of a newly found, more fundamental tie.”  

That truth is obvious even when we are first presented with the Gospel. To say yes to Jesus is to say no to all else. But that truth also has application every day of our lives, for it is lived out in the daily decisions we make, and it is seen in the trends of those decisions over time. 

The truth is that we’d be turned off if he was less demanding. Why is it that we tend to stay away from “cheap” stuff? Because we feel that those things that place a low demand on our wallet are inferior. […] God demands that we love him even more than those nearest and dearest to us. That tells us something about his worth.

Alan P. Stanley

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Are you putting Jesus first today? How will you keep Him ‘first’ today? 

Jesus came to save sinners. This much is true, as 1Tim testifies, “Here is a  trustworthy  saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 

As with everything God does, there are multiple viewpoints to His actions. To one it means this, to another it means that. Even the act of saving sinners can be seen as clearly uprooting the plans of the evil one. Saving sinners means decimating the customer base of drug pushers and pornographers. It means mass abandonment to the co-workers of thieves and gang leaders. It may even be seen as the threat of job insecurity to detectives and the judiciary!  That much is also true, for when Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom, there will be no more immorality, greed or vice. What even will be the need for pharmacists and doctors, “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality[?]” 

Multiple viewpoints are one thing, but multiple purposes are another. The Scripture records, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” So it is not only a salvation that Jesus comes to usher in. It is also a destructive work. Just as salvation has implications to our great benefit and the blessing of society as a whole, so also His destructive work has implications. Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’” 

Jesus quotes the prophet Micah. Micah lived and worked during a time of societal collapse. A time not unlike our times, when the compass of society is thrown away and people call wicked ‘good’ and the good, ‘wicked’. Any who dare to stand up for God’s standard are immediately labeled enemies of society. One commentator wrote, “Tragically many within our own society today have fractured, fragmented, and hostile families that seem bent on self-destruction.” Kenneth L. Barker wrote that in 1999, but the same could be said at any point in the timeline of the godless. The implication of Christ coming into a household through only part of the family (an individual or couple) in a spiritually divided family is that the household immediately has a divided loyalty. Some are for God. Some are not. A division occurs. The sword is doing its work. Enemies are made. 

It is true that Jesus gives us peace. But “Jesus’ peace does not preclude wars between nations, conflicts among unbelievers, or the persecution of Christians which Jesus has already predicted. In fact, not only does Jesus not come to eradicate all human conflict but he actually promises hostility.” 

This is the price of choosing to serve the King; the prince of this world immediately deploys his servants and the ignorant against you. Advances for His Kingdom inside of you and outside of you rarely come without spiritual attack. To this end the mature disciple arms themselves with the Word of God, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

If you have not faith enough in the power of the gospel, if you have not faith enough in the promises of God, if you have not faith enough in the power of prayer, then be in earnest in asking for more faith—such faith as will stand firm in the day of temptation, of trial, of conflict, of opposition.

Henry D.M.S. Jones

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Are you able to stand in the day of testing? How are you preparing yourself for that day?

The story of the birth of Jesus is a story of great news and much celebration,  “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  

It is story of celebration because in this way the Prince of Peace entered our world – the only One who can give us peace. As Jesus later said, “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you.” It is not an overstatement to say that the whole reason Jesus came to die for us on the cross is that He might establish a lasting and eternal peace for us. Yet for all the peace Jesus does give us, He does not come to give peace to the system we are under. In fact, He said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The paradox of that comment is underwritten by the rest of Scripture. On the one hand Jesus is obviously about the work of salvation, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” On the other hand, Jesus is also obviously about a destructive work. 1 John 3 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” 

To this the Scripture testifies, “…the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”  And, “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.” Indeed, the heavenly beings worship God in glory for it, saying, “The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” 

So there is peace – much peace – for those on whom God’s favor rests. There is great peace for all those who repent of their wickedness and turn and call on His Name. Both Old and New Testaments affirm, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

But on those who refuse to repent – on those who refuse to turn from their wicked ways and deny the King of Kings His rightful place in their lives – to them comes destruction. Not mere frustration or a significant setback, but total destruction. And destruction by the very One who was sent to save them, no less.  

On the last day, Jesus Christ will be glorified in us on account of what we have become by his grace, and we will be glorified in him on account of what he has done for us.

D.A. Carson

APPLICATION: Intentionality

In light of the coming end, we must do all we can to reach all we can. Who are you speaking to about salvation in Christ?

Statistics help us manage risk. Knowing the likelihood of an outcome helps  us to prepare  appropriate to our circumstance and resources. But the ultimate statistic is death. 1:1 dies. The day comes to all of us. None of us can escape it. 

After death we all innately know we will be brought before God. The Scripture confirms, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” That judgment will prove to be either our complete undoing, or our final salvation. For either we are fit to be before God on account of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, or we are set ablaze by the presence His holiness. Knowing this, we can easily see the value of Jesus’ promise to respond to our faith in Him when He said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” To have Jesus testify to the Father that we belong to Him is to know we will be able to stand in God’s presence unafraid when that ultimate statistic comes to us. That reality brings comfort to many as the day approaches.

Yet Jesus’ affirmative statement of our acknowledgment of Him also carries with it a powerful warning to those who refuse to acknowledge Him. For He added, “But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” That thought brings fear to the hearts of the many who at one point or another had disowned Jesus.

Matthew will later record what happened at Jesus’ crucifixion, “Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.” 

Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”  

One might think that in light of Jesus’ comment about disowning Him, Peter’s fate was eternally sealed. The Scripture proves otherwise; Peter was restored after Jesus’ resurrection (see John 21:15-19). So the outcome of disowning Him that Jesus spoke of prior to His death is not a blanket statement of despair. Rather, it is a pointed warning that our lives are on a path that leads to a firm conclusion – one way or the other. The only way to change that outcome is to change our minds about Jesus and then live that repentance out in our daily life. 

God is fair: It is not the person who rejected God after hearing the Gospel who is hopeless, but the one who rejected God after hearing the Gospel and dies without repenting. That one is lost forever, for there is no repentance after death. Once we step out into timeless eternity, there is no longer any time to repent. There is just the consequences of a life that has ended.

To that end the Word of God preaches to our hearts, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Amen. 

We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.

The wise woman of Tekoa (from 2Samuel 14:14)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Today, live like you are dying. 

One of the most famous scenes in history is that of the three crosses of  Calvary. We all  know that Jesus was crucified along with two thieves. One of the thieves hurled insults at Jesus to his dying breath, but the other sought Jesus’ help. That thief could see by faith that Jesus was not just another sinner dying on a cross, but the Lord of glory, saving His people. So he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” The Scripture records, “Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”  

What Jesus meant by that single sentence has been considered a proof text of the doctrine of Sola Fide (salvation by faith alone). That is, that the thief was saved in that moment, entirely by faith. For obviously he could not have been saved based on anything that he had done, or could do. So rather than rely on anything he could do, the thief had confessed faith in Jesus. That simple faith was enough. For Jesus Himself had said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” 

One understands from that, that as the thief acknowledged Jesus as His Lord in a public way, Jesus would acknowledge the thief before God at his judgment (for Hebrews 9:27 testifies, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.)” Ephesians 2 makes it even plainer, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Of course, this divine principle goes against rational thinking, which demands that we establish a clear trajectory toward God in order to be accepted by God. Every other religion embodies such, demanding that you in some manner or by some action ‘earn’ the right to be in heaven. Of course, that’s impossible. The one and only living God knows that there is an impassable chasm between our ability to earn righteousness and His manifest holy presence. As children of Adam, we are just as guilty as Adam was after disobeying God. Firstly on account of our own personal sin, which everyone can recognize when they reflect on their own character and behavior; We have all done something and dwelled in thought on something that is clearly against God’s character. In doing so we have brought dishonor to the one whose image we bear. 

But we are also sinners on account of our forefather Adam. For the people of a nation are never judged apart from their ruler, and the children of a household suffer the same fate (or blessing) as the head of their household. As Adam our forefather has gone, so also do we go. Sin is literally in our genes. 

To this point Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross are a beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation. Jesus’ single sentence communicates the profound truth that because of His death, He washed away the charge against us. Those who accept His sacrifice are changed, immediately and on the spot, into people acceptable to Him – and therefore – to God Most High. 

That isn’t just a staid fact. Given in the context of His teaching about God’s providential care for us, it is a refreshing daily reminder. Forgiveness is only as far away as our own repentance!

When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.

Oswald Chambers

APPLICATION: Worship

How can we respond to God’s great grace to us in any other way but worship?

If the thought of a little brown bird being the object of God’s care was not  pedantic  enough to illustrate the depth and breadth of God’s care for His people, Jesus also mentions the hairs on our heads. He said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Of course, none of us even know how many hairs we have on our heads, because to count them would be an onerous exercise in futility. Not only would someone need to physically count individual hairs, but also discern when a hair becomes a hair to start with. Is it when the hair goes from translucent to opaque or when it reaches a particular length? Should a hair only be counted when it is clearly outside of the follicle that formed it? What if the follicle is just resting before putting forth a new hair? 

One researcher noted, “All hair follicles are formed during fetal development, then new hair is generated in the hair follicle by continually undergoing phases of recession, rest, and growth throughout life. The length of the hair is determined by the duration of the growth phase; for example, the growth phase for scalp hair can proceed for a number of years, while the growth phase for eyebrows last a few months. After the growth phase, hair formation ceases, and the follicle recedes and enters a period of rest. After a period of rest, a new growth period starts, and the old hair is ejected and lost from the body. The reason for this complex regulation of hair growth is not understood.”

For these reasons, and the fact that hairs can be of various widths and lengths (making counting via weight impossible) no one is actually capable of counting the exact number of hairs on a particular human head. We can make generalizations (between 90 and 150 thousand, depending on natural hair color), but we cannot count to the number. 

But God does count them. God formed each of us in our mother’s womb (Job 31:15, Isa 44:2, 24, 49:5, Jer 1:5). In doing that God set our genes such that the exact number of hairs He determined would grow (or not, as He determined). 

The most minute details of our lives are not beyond God’s notice. In fact, they are part of God’s great care. 

The practical implication of that fact (specially in the context Jesus mentions it in) is that we must know that God does care for us, no matter our circumstances. 

It may take faith to remember that. But the circumstances we face – no matter how difficult – are not inflicted upon us without His care. God is good – all the time – and the harshest circumstance cannot overcome His care. The truth of those facts may not be obvious, but they are nevertheless true. The reality of our own hair (or lack thereof) is a testimony to it. 

God’s care for us is real, and that reality must be enough to sustain us when circumstances set us to doubt. Amen.

They who are solicitous to number their money, and goods, and cattle, yet were never careful to number their hairs, which fall and are lost, and they never miss them: but God numbers the hairs of his people, and not a hair of their head shall perish (Lu. 21:18); not the least hurt shall be done them, but upon a valuable consideration: so precious to God are his saints, and their lives and deaths!

Matthew Henry

APPLICATION: Intentionality

The next time you feel abandoned by God in your distress, look at the top of your head and consider anew His providential care for each of us!

Someone once pointed out that if you glide your hand across a large  beautiful dining room table and encounter a single micro-sliver, you no longer remember how smooth the table was for the very great majority of its surface. You will probably not even remember the color or the beauty of the table. But you will remember that you got a sliver from it! The one small hurt is more than able to overwhelm the many impressions otherwise. This is what the fall of mankind did to us. It reversed the way certain things are supposed to work. One should in fact remember the beauty and the worth and the smoothness of the table and discount the one very small imperfection. 

Likewise, we ought to remember that God loves us with an everlasting love. He provides for us for eternity. He comforts us by His presence and His Spirit forever and ever. That our short lives in this fallen world might include a temporary injustice for His sake is not something that ought to define our impression of Him. 

Mrs. Civilla Martin once visited a bed-ridden saint and asked her if she ever got discouraged because of her condition. Her friend responded quickly: “Mrs. Martin, how can I be discouraged when my heavenly Father watches over each little sparrow and I know He loves and cares for me.” [Struck by that thought, Mrs. Martin later wrote the hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow”], which has since been a source of much encouragement to many of God’s people.”  She wrote, “Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise, when songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies, I draw the closer to Him; from care He sets me free; His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me; His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

Every Christian who has ever wrestled with self-worth or feelings of hopelessness turns at some point to the words Jesus said in Matthew 10:29-31. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

That Jesus said those words in the context of preparing His disciples for persecution makes them all the more meaningful. For who second-guesses their worth to God more than the one who is being persecuted because of their testimony about God? If the thought, “Does God even care about me?” is not far off when we are lonely or sick, how much more readily does it spring to mind when one is in prison for year upon year, mistreated and uncomfortable? 

But to illustrate that God’s love for us is far greater than our circumstances, Jesus used the image of a little brown bird. Something that is very common in almost every culture across the globe. Something that provides almost no value to hungry people or to bird-watchers, yet is an object of God’s care and affection  all the same. 

That thought should encourage us on the days we feel alone and defeated. If we yet breathe, God is still for us; whatever manner of trial or suffering we are enduring is not His punishment against us, but ultimately part of His judgment against His enemies. 

If God’s compassion is great enough to induce him to lay man’s punishment upon his own Son, it is surely great enough to induce him not to lay it upon the believer.

William G. T. Shedd

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

God cares for the least of His creation. How much more does He care for us! Give thanks then for this day. His grace is yet upon you.