Surely
goodness and mercy shall
f o l l o w me
a l l t h e d a y s o f m y l i f e
and I shall
ll dwell in the house of the Lord ll
...forever...
~Psalm 23:6
I'm on the lookout for my promised goodness and mercy. At times, I see it clearly, although as likely as not, as soon as I've had a clear view, it fades into fog and doubts crop up like the crabgrass I found in my lawn after two weeks away.
And yet, God is good. How could He not be good, when He humbled Himself to become human and die on a cross in order to rescue our struggling souls? How could He not be good, when He loved us enough to die for us while we were still sinners, helplessly entangled in our natural sinful state? And if He loved us enough to give His only begotten Son for the salvation of our eternal souls, how will He not also, along with the gift of Christ, graciously give us all things?
Indeed, God promises to give us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). The Apostle Paul writes, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:19). King David wrote, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want," (Psalm 23:1). Jesus taught, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him... Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ...your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you," (Matthew 6:8, 31-33).
Last night I was so tired, I struggled to balance as I washed my feet before bed, just my feet, because I was too tired to wash my whole self. I stumbled on the bathmat and felt angry because every movement was difficult, everything felt too hard.
Too hard to turn the faucet handle and feel for the water to get hot. Much too hard to avoid splashing as my hand drifted under the flow. Too hard to reach for the soap. Too hard to bend, too hard to step over the edge of the tub. Too hard to fetch myself a glass of ice water, even though I was very thirsty. So I sat, face cupped in my hands, forcing myself to will the energy to take deep breaths, feeling the anger well up and violently erase any remnant of patience I might have had for this hampered existence.
Lupus is limiting, it cannot be denied. I am so incredibly fortunate to have a life that is normally very low key, a life I can usually handle. Ordinary days, I rest and read, garden and maybe go to a store, make the bed, fix a meal, vacuum a rug, brush a toilet, wash some dishes, fold some laundry. I can forget that I have lupus, until I come upon days when I have to travel far and work breathlessly, hard and fast, doing many tasks in a day instead of only a few. I get angry when I remember that I have lupus, but that is irrational, because I should be thankful for so many days when I am able to forget.
Man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires for us. That's from James 1:20, right after the part that admonishes us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19). I've been thinking about these verses lately. It occurred to me that we usually pull out that part: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. We apply it to the way we ought to communicate with other people. This is certainly a good and helpful application; we all need to be better listeners.
Yet, I think it may miss the primary intent of the passage. I think the passage is about listening to God, coming to Him with a humility that is ready to hear what He has to say, putting aside our own arguments about how we think things should be.
I think the passage is about listening to God, and accepting God's truth, God's wisdom. I say this because of what comes both before and after this statement.
Before this statement, James has been writing about persevering through trials and temptations and coming through victoriously. He explains that God never tempts us to sin (James 1:13), but that we are tempted to sin when we indulge our own evil desires, when we allow ourselves to be enticed by the devil's lie that there exist good things which God is withholding from us, that God would deny us joy and satisfaction, and so we must grasp for what we desire outside of His will. We decide that we know better than God what will make us happy.
This is, of course, foolish pride. Just as a parent knows that too much candy and too late a bedtime will make a child sick and miserable, just as a doctor knows that sunburns and cigarettes result in cancer, God knows that sin, no matter how much people think they enjoy it, results in death.
James writes about the deceitful allure of sin, how we are enticed by our evil desires to follow the pathway to sin and death.
But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after sinful desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. ~James 1:14-15
James counters the lies of the devil (whose goal is to deceive and draw everyone into his death-trap), by explaining the truth: everything good comes from God. God loves us and gives us His perfect gifts. God is good, generous, and full of love, life and light, holding them out to us, offering bountifully and kindly.
Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created. ~James 1:16-18
And this is where we come upon the famous verse about being quick to listen, and slow to speak or become angry.
"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers," James has exhorted. Don't be deceived by the fraudulent allure of sin. Underneath the frothy whipped cream and glistening cherry, there's deadly poison. Don't be deceived, because every good and perfect gift comes from God, who has given His children new birth through the word of truth that enables them to unmask their enemy,
enables us to unmask our enemy.
"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers..." and then James continues, tenderly, winsomely (1:19), "My dear brothers, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." We should be quick to listen to God, to the word of truth, to the merciful warnings God gives us to stay away from sin, to flee from immorality, to guard our hearts and minds from the tactics of the evil one.
You can see how this meaning, that we ought to be quick and eager to listen to the Lord, derives from what comes before this famous verse.
The same interpretation is supported by the verses that come after it:
For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ~James 1:20
While this has some bearing on the peace and righteousness which result when people communicate well and listen sensitively to one another, the clearer meaning, in context, is that anger against God's truth does not help a person avoid temptation or gain victory over sin, which is James' main point here. The next verse makes it even more obvious:
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. ~James 1:21
When a person believes in Jesus, it means that the person has accepted the truth about God. The truth about God is the word of truth (James 1:18). It is the word planted in us which saves us (1:21).
Jesus is the Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ~John 1:1-2, 14
Jesus Himself said,
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ~John 14:6
When we are born into the kingdom of God, God implants us with the Word of Truth, the very Spirit of Christ, to transform us from the inside out, in a way that no external behavior modification program ever could.
When we repent and agree with God that He is--indeed--God, and we are not,
When we understand that we are fallen, broken creatures in a fallen, broken world,
When we see that we have nothing to offer Him, but He offers us everything,
When we perceive the destructive nature of sin, and long with all our hearts to be set free from its control,
When we comprehend the all-surpassing love and beauty of Christ and run to Him with outstretched arms, ready to be washed of our sins and clothed with His righteousness and life,
Then, right then, immediately, He gives us His own Holy Spirit to abide in us and help us from that day forward. There is a sudden and immediate change which may or may not be visible. And there is a progressive and long-acting (some may say "slow release") change that will become increasingly more apparent over time.
But because of His great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions--
it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the coming ages
He might show the incomparable riches of His grace,
expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
~Ephesians 2:4-7
And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image,
from one degree of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord
who is the Spirit.
~2 Corinthians 3:18
Now we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit,
interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual...
For who has understood the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct Him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
~1 Corinthians 2:12-13, 16
This is why I believe that James meant we should be quick to listen to God, slow to insist that God should consider our point of view (as though He did not already know all our thoughts anyway), and very slow to become angry with God (why do we forget that He is never wrong?).
We need to learn humility, to humbly accept the truth of God for what it is: Truth. When our ideas, our perspectives, even our experiences do not line up with the truth of God, these are opportunities to grow our faith muscles. Like any other discipline, it is hard, but it is good. And unlike other disciplines, this one comes with special divine help for success. God implants His Spirit in us to help us. We can't do any of it without Him.
We need Him desperately, and it will be okay, because He delights to meet our needs.
