sufficiency

  • ministry, friendships & loneliness: “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me”

    Philippians 4:11  Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

    Up until recently, I pretty much considered these words of Paul primarily in regard to Paul’s physical needs, and certainly the surrounding context implies Paul had been writing about some physical provision the Philippians had made for him.

    But now as I’ve been thinking more about the loneliness of ministry I’m looking at Paul’s words in a new light.

    Didn’t any and every circumstance for the apostle Paul have to also include his emotional needs, specifically those circumstances in which there were no friends left to support him?

    Hadn’t Paul learned the secret of facing plenty (in friendships) and hunger (in friendships), abundance and need (in friendships)?

    Hadn’t Paul learned he could do all things (regardless of whether he had many friends or no friends) through Christ who strengthened him?

    II Timothy 4:16 …but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17  But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

    As much as I treasure my friends, as much as I know they are a gift from God to stand by me and strengthen me, I know that inevitably, in contrast to the Lord, either unintentionally or intentionally, all my friends, yes, each and every one of them, will eventually let me down. The best of friends cannot stand by us at all times. The best of friends cannot strengthen us at all times. (For example, consider how in spite of their best intentions, Peter, James & John fell asleep while the Lord prayed alone in the garden.) I know that in my head, but I sometimes forget that in my heart. God has to keep reminding me of how I often begin to rely on friends rather than Him alone.

    I’ve also found myself murmuring too much lately (well, once is really too much), “No one really understands this calling, this burden that God has given me.” Things like that…Nonsense…

    Well, how can anyone else understand it, really…apart from the Lord Himself? It’s certainly true that as believers we’re all called to Christ, so we have that common bond in Him, we share in His life and in His Spirit.  But beyond that we have different callings on our lives and we’re uniquely gifted (e.g. – see John 21; I Cor. 12-14, etc.). Yes, there are always fellow believers who have similar passions and burdens and similar gifts and similar personalities. But yet…we still have to consider…

    Who gave me this calling?
    Who gave me this burden?
    Who gave me these gifts?
    Who gave me life in the first place?

    As wonderful as they can be, our human friendships are never going to compare to our friendship with and relationship to Christ.

    Christ gave me this calling.
    Christ gave me this burden.
    Christ gave me these gifts.
    Christ gave me life in the first place.

    Besides all that, if our friends were able to be there all the time to stand by us and strengthen us (which they can’t), if our friends could understand completely (which they can’t), would we really rely on the LORD as He intends? Would we be able to say without Him we can do nothing? How could He ever be our all in all if our friends took that role?

    I like Caedmon’s Call’s song “You Created.” Here’s the chorus:

    But You created nothing
    That gives me more pleasure than You
    And You won’t give me something
    That gives me more pleasure than You

    That includes friends. God will not give us friends if we will end up finding them more pleasurable than the Lord Himself.

    Don’t get me wrong here. The apostle Paul cherished his Christian friends and treasured them. That’s evident as we read his many commendations toward his friends as well as his tender care and concern for them. And we’re to do likewise. God has given me some wonderful friends, but they still aren’t God…And I always get in big trouble when I try to substitute them for God or when I begin to say that God Himself isn’t enough for me. It’s just like going to the broken cisterns to drink rather than going to the living waters. Idolatrous? Yes! Foolish? Yes!

    Friends are a gift from God to stand by us and strengthen us, but they are only that – a gift from God, never to be a substitute for God. (Doesn’t the devil love to twist the gifts of God to us?!)

    Friends will stand by us and strengthen us…to a point…

    …all deserted me…

    There’s only one Friend who will stand by us and strengthen us all the time…


    But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me


    The psalmist wrote:

    Psalm 57:2  I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

    In other words, whatever God’s purposes are for us, He will fulfill them.

    So, at any particular time, we can trust that God will fulfill His purposes for us in His way. At times that may be by giving us many friends. Other times through a few friends. Other times through a single friend. And, yes, at other times, no friend. But no matter how many or how few friends we have at any time, we can be sure of this: the Lord will never fail to stand by us and strengthen us. (Yes, we all have friends all the time, but I think you know what I’m saying there…there are passions too fiery, burdens too heavy, heartaches too deep, joys too high that no human friend can really come alongside us in some of those times…) Therefore, depending on the particular season of life and season of ministry, sometimes we’ll have an abundance of friends, other times, a few, other times, none. Like the apostle Paul, we must (I must) learn to trust God to be our all in all in abundance and in need. Just as the Lord did. All ended up forsaking Him in the end. In the garden, during his trials and passion and then on the cross, could any friend help Him but His Father? The Lord Jesus completely entrusted Himself to His Father’s keeping, and God’s intent is for us to do the same…at all times. Isn’t Christ there with us when we cry endlessly in those night seasons or when our hearts burn brightly with passionate fire for the Gospel? Is our God not working for our good at all times? When no human friend is there for us, can we not trust Him to stand by us and strengthen us?

    Going back to Psalm 57 once again:

    I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

    Isn’t one of God’s great purposes for us to proclaim His Gospel for His glory? Look once again at II Timothy 4:16-17:

    II Timothy 4:16 …but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17  But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

    One of God’s purposes in giving us Christian friends is that they will stand by us and strengthen us so the Gospel might be fully proclaimed in the same way Christ stood by and strengthened Paul. Yes, I do know there are many, many other godly purposes for the gift of friends but let’s not lose sight of that glorious purpose God has for us in our friendships. God is all about His glory. And when His Gospel is proclaimed, He is glorified!

    May we trust the workings of our sovereign Lord and God from whom all good gifts come. May we trust His wisdom and His love for us at all times: that He gives friends when we need them and withholds them when we do not need them, and may He give us grace to bless His name at all times. No matter what happens, may we continue to sing that it is well with our souls. May we trust our God in His time to give us godly friends who will stand by and strengthen us to proclaim Christ.

    And let us always remember that God has given Himself to us to stand by and strengthen us forever.

    Romans 8:31 …If God is for us, who can be against us? 32  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?


    How often do we become restless when we forget God’s bountiful dealings with us? Consider that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He became sin for us so we might become the righteousness of God. He died on the cross for us while we were yet sinners. While we were strangers without hope and without power, His mighty power worked to draw us to Himself, to bring us out of darkness into His marvelous light. His kindness led us to repentance. His Spirit imparted life to our dead souls. We forget those first things…Let us heed the words of the Psalmist:

    Psalm 116:7  Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

    O souls, let us return to our rest as we see that the LORD has dealt bountifully with us and continues to deal bountifully with us! We become restless whenever we forget Whose we are! I so quickly become restless when I forget God’s bountiful goodness to me! He is our Beloved and we are His! Amazing grace poured out at Calvary that allows us to have fellowship with God the Father Himself through the body and blood of His Son and His indwelling Spirit!

    As I have blathered this and that to God about my not having the friends I think I need (or blathering about whatever I think I need; I’m focusing on friends here because that’s been my most recent struggle, but you can fill in the gap with whatever you keep telling God you “need”…), my Father has never failed to be merciful and gracious to me. He never fails to brings me back to my senses to remember His bountiful blessings to me in Jesus Christ. As I look back on how I’ve been whining and pouting and lamenting because I don’t have this or that, the words of Psalm 73 come to mind, to humble me so I have to pray:

    “Forgive me Father. Once again I have been foolish and brutish. You have already given me everything in Christ Jesus, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother, and yet there I am saying to You, ‘Um, sorry that isn’t enough. I want more!’ How abominable. For me to say that Christ isn’t enough! This is foolishness and brutishness to the n-th degree! Forgive me, O God, for Jesus’ sake. I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve You. I thank You for loving me in the first place and then for continuing to love and keep me for my heart is prone to wander. But for You, my feet would have slipped irreparably. All praise and thanks to You for You alone keep me from falling and will present me before Your throne one Day. For me not to be fully satisfied that You are my best Friend shows how wretched I am. Thank You, Lord God, for Your amazing grace and manifold mercies that You continue to shower down upon me!”

    I’m no different than the Israelites who murmured and grumbled in the desert, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

    Of course, the Lord is among us! And, not only that, but the Lord is in me. He has promised never to leave me or forsake me. His Spirit has come to abide with me forever.

    John 14:15  If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…


    This is the same Holy Spirit who helps with our weaknesses and intercedes for us…

    So what does my Father think when I say to Him, “No one understands this calling. I have no one to talk to….”

    Not much…

    Our Father is good and wants to give us good gifts:

    Psalm 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
    the LORD bestows favor and honor.
    No good thing does he withhold
    from those who walk uprightly.
    12  O LORD of hosts,
    blessed is the one who trusts in you!

    If the LORD is withholding friends from us at a particular time, we know that is for our good. Our LORD will never withhold anything good from us. Never! He is our loving Father. He wants to give us good gifts. And His best gift to us is Himself. How easily I forget that in so many ways, including this area of my friendships. We will be blessed as we trust in Him and in His ways and in His will for us during those times of loneliness. May He give us grace to draw closer to Him and be ever-mindful that no matter what the Lord will supply all our need, that He will stand by us and strengthen us at all times.

    I was looking back at some of William Williams’ (1717-1791) hymns this week (in Sweet Singers of Wales) and found this one which God used to speak to my soul. I hope it will bless you as it has me.

    In Lonely Desert Place

    In lonely desert place,
    Without one human friend,
    If God would daily show His face,
    I could my lifetime spend.
    He is in every thing,
    All-present every hour;
    There is no creature that can bring
    Its strength to help His power.

    The fearful desert night,
    Perils in every place,
    And fear of death–all take their flight,
    Where God reveals His face:
    His beauty passing fair,
    His peace, and perfect love,
    Make holy festivals, where’er
    He shineth from above.

    Where Thou art, in all things
    Immortal life abounds;
    Like streams from out the rock it springs,
    And reaches heaven’s bounds:
    From Thee alone have come
    All dawns of shining white,
    To guide, through wastes and lowlands home,
    The children of the light.
     
    Ye sun and moon, farewell;
    Farewell, ye stars of night;
    Where God’s sweet presence comes to dwell,
    There needs no other light:
    A vast eternal day
    Comes from His smiling face;
    A better, greater light than they–
    The radiance of His grace.

    The Lord will stand by us and strengthen us!

    Philippians 4:11  Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

    Related:

    Photo credit: I edited DesertQatar (public domain photo).

  • Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for? (deer retreat update)

     
    I read George Whitefield’s Journals last year and have wanted to reread them (I’ve dabbled in them a bit since that time), but I did take them along with me on retreat last week (see here and here for more on my time away).

    Luke Tyerman (quoted by Iain Murray in the Introduction to George Whitefield’s Journals, p. 19) wrote this about Whitefield:

    Half a dozen men like Whitefield would at any time move a nation, stir its churches, and reform its morals. Whitefield’s power was not in his talents, nor even in his oratory, but in his piety. In some respects, he has no successors; but in prayer, in faith, in religious experience, in devotedness to God, he may have many. Such men are the gift of God, and are infinitely more valuable than all the gold in the Church’s coffers. Never did the world need them more than it needs them now. May Whitefield’s God raise them up, and thrust them out!

    After reading those words I wrote the following reflection/prayer in the margin and at the bottom of the page:

    Is He [the Lord] not the Giver of every good gift? Can we not ask Him for half a dozen? Are not half a dozen sufficient – so long as they are animated by the Spirit of God, devoted to the glory of God and driven by the zeal of the Lord of hosts? Matthew 7:7. He can save by many or few. His glory is magnified when it is but few.

    He provides workers with an eye and aim to HIS glory first and foremost. He will never provide a single worker more lest it obscure His glory.

    Let us rejoice in the workers He has provided.

    Let us pray He would send more workers into His harvest.

    Let us not question His ways, nor presume to be His counselor. All things are from Him, through Him and to Him and His glory. Romans 11:36.

    A worker He will not withhold should that soul in concert with the others work to magnify His Name.

    Let us trust His ways > ours.

    Amen.

    So there I was praying in faith for half a dozen workers, trusting God to work through that small number…I thought that was a pretty strong prayer of faith…

    But God showed me otherwise…

    During one the services I attended while I was away, Scripture was read from Isaiah 51…

    1  “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
    you who seek the LORD:
    look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
    2  Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
    3  For the LORD comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
    and makes her wilderness like Eden,
    her desert like the garden of the LORD;
    joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.
    4  “Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
    for a law will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
    5  My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
    the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.

    I had been asking the Lord for a half a dozen men and had been thinking that was a bold step of faith since in the big scheme of things half a dozen men is not very many, yet God rebuked and humbled me and reminded me all He needs is a single man. He doesn’t need half a dozen men! He needs but one!

    Look to Abraham your father…
    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.

    Aren’t God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours?

    for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.

    We think (I think, anyhow) we certainly need more than one. We think (I think, anyhow) we need half a dozen men (or more, often many more). I continue to fall into the trap that we need more, more, more. More people to pray. More people to preach the Word. More. More. Grrr!

    Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, of course not!

    Can the Lord save by many or by few? Yes and yes!

    Is not the Lord among His people wherever they go? Certainly yes!

    Is the Lord’s arm shortened or His power diminished because the numbers of men He chooses to enlist in His work are small? No, of course not!

    On a retreat last spring God pretty much reminded me of this very same thing as I read Joshua 3 and reflected on His call to Israel to step out in faith:

    There God is saying to the priests and the people (and us) (my paraphrase, see also Psalm 78):

    “Yes, the Jordan is ahead of you. Yes, I see the Jordan is overflowing its banks because it is harvest time. Yes, I have eyes to see that. I see that. Of course I do. I see all things. Do you not know I created the Jordan River? But do you not also know I am the God of the Jordan River? Do you not remember that I created the seasons and control them all? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Have you forgotten I am the living God? Have you forgotten all things exist because of Me and all things were created through Me and for Me and that I am before all things and in Me all things consist?

    “Do you not see Me high and lifted up? No, you may not see me with your naked eye but do you see me with the eye of faith? Will you not trust in Me, the God who is invisible, but the God who abides in and with you? Will you trust me with a heart of faith? Do you not see that I am going before you and beside you and behind you? I am with My people whithersoever they go. You are My people. I have redeemed you and I have set my love on you because I loved you. I have promised to never leave you or forsake you. The Jordan is flooding now. But I command you to go on, to begin. “How can we go on?” you ask. “How can we begin?” you ask. I tell you, you go on by faith in Me and My promises to you. You begin by faith in Me and My promises to you. Don’t limit me as your fathers did in the wilderness did.

    “Do you not remember My power, on the day I redeemed you from the enemy with the precious Lamb’s blood and worked signs and wonders in Egypt and made you to go forth. Did I not guide you like a flock and lead you safely through the Red Sea? Will you not remember I am your Rock and I am the Most High God, your Redeemer? Will you be like your fathers? Will you limit the Holy One of Israel? Remember My power! Remember the day I redeemed you from the enemy. I am the God who did wonders then and I am the God who does wonders today and I am the God who will do wonders among you tomorrow. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty God.”

    Once more I’ve been reminded of how small my view of God is, how puny my faith is, and how I continue to limit God.

    Did not God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul like Abraham our father?

    Did not God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?

    Cannot God’s Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single one of us today?

    I confess I find that hard to believe at times. (“O, Karen, ye of little faith!”)

    Yesterday on my other blog I was reflecting on Kingdom vision and posted some quotes from David Livingstone (from Rob Mackenzie’s biography “David Livingstone: The Truth behind the Legend”). Here’s one of them:

     
     
    A quiet audience today. The seed being sown, the least of all seeds now, but it will grow a mighty tree. It is as if it were a small stone cut out of a mountain, but it will fill the whole earth. He that believeth shall not make haste. Surely if God can bear with hardened impenitent sinners for 30, 40 or 50 years, waiting to be gracious, we may take it for granted that His is the best way. He could destroy His enemies, but He waits to be gracious. To become irritated with their stubbornness and hardness of heart is ungodlike.

    I know Livingstone meant this in a different way, but my friends in Christ, aren’t we are that seed being sown, aren’t we that small stone…

    John 12:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

    Yes, it’s true that we are the least of all seeds now and we are a small stone now…seemingly insignificant in the eyes of men (and in our own eyes)…

    However, because we are called by God and because we are filled with the Spirit of God … Will we not grow a mighty tree? Will we not fill the whole earth?

    Has God not called us like He did Abraham … so He might bless and multiply us?

    We see how we are so much like Abraham. Abraham was weak and powerless, his body was as good as dead and Sarah’s womb was barren (see the last part of Romans 4) and yet we see how he trusted God’s word and was justified by faith and lived by faith and God wrought through him a great nation, of which we are now a part by faith in Christ.

    Romans 4:18  In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20  No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

    This is the same type of faith we’re to have in God and in the promises of God. Yes, we are as good as dead. Yes, we are the least of seeds now. Yes, we are the small stone now … Yes, that’s us. But what do we know about God? Is not our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4:17.

    Just as the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, died, was buried and rose again from the dead to be the firstfruits of many creatures, so too we have been buried with Christ and raised by His resurrection power and filled with His Spirit so we might bear fruit to God – much fruit, fruit that will last (John 15). As we put to death our fleshly desires and live the life by His Spirit He intends, as we die to our own interests and live to His Kingdom interests, to seek to serve rather than be served, there is no doubt the Lord Christ will bear fruit through us (e.g.- see Romans 6). That is God’s intent for each of His children, not just the George Whitefields of the world, not just the ordained pastors, not just the worship leaders, etc., etc. If we are Christ’s joint-heirs, we cannot help but bear fruit like our Brother because we have His same fruit-bearing Spirit dwelling within us.

    As Abraham was but one, we are but few when He calls us, but God’s intent has always been the same for His people: to bless us and multiply us and bear fruit through us throughout the whole earth! Was that not Jesus’ commission to us? Has our Lord not given us all we need to bear fruit as He commands?

    Luke 24:46  …“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48  You are witnesses of these things. 49  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

    Matthew 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

    Returning back to the title of this post…

    Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for?

    Perhaps it is too many. Perhaps not. No matter. Let us ask our Lord first and foremost to circumcise each of our hearts by His Spirit so we might die to self to live to Him, to hate our lives in this world so we might keep them for eternal life, so we might bear much fruit to His glory. By His grace, may we trust His ways and His timing, knowing that He is working all things for His glory, whether it takes 30, 40 or 50 years or more, for we can be assured that He waits only so He might be highly exalted (Isaiah 30:18)! And, by His grace, may we (I) not limit Him but leave the numbers to Him! For indeed He doeth all things well, does He not?

    Never did the world need them more than it needs them now!
    May Whitefield’s God and our God raise them (us) up, and thrust them (and us) out!
    Soli Deo Gloria!

     

    If you have a burden and calling from God to pray for revival, please visit my website tent of meeting, dedicated to prayer for revival.

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    Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  • afflictions, crosses and sorrows (William Williams)


    “I thank my God that there is no affliction, cross or sorrow laid upon me, but that my heavenly Father gives me the power to bear it and to be willing.“

    –William Williams, “The Experience Meeting,” (Vancouver: Regent College, reprinted 1973, orig. published 1777)
    What current affliction, cross or sorrow has been laid upon you?
    How has your heavenly Father been helping you to bear it and be willing?

    I Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.