“Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God.”

Deuteronomy 9:3 (ESV)

When the Israelites were to enter the promised land of Canaan the first time, they should have been bold and gone up as instructed. Instead, they carefully evaluated the circumstances and figured out that they were unable to conquer the residents and therefore they resisted Moses’ instructions.

After 40 years of wilderness wandering as a punishment for their unbelief and disobedience, when Moses spoke the words quoted above, the Israelites had a second chance to enter into the land.

Even though the task was still daunting, they were to go with boldness because their God is a consuming fire and God will go before them. Without God’s help and provision, the task would be impossible.

How does this apply in 2024?

I am reminded that God asks us to do all sorts of things that seem impossible to do. I will focus on one.

Jesus commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). Yes, it is a command, not merely a suggestion.

I cannot do that on my own, I need the Holy Spirit to be working in my heart to even be open to the idea of loving my enemies.

My observation of the rest of humanity demonstrates that others share this difficulty. One must look no further than a typical social media feed to see that most of us, rather than looking for ways to love our enemies are instead looking for justification to hate them.

This ties together for me because our God will not call us to do anything that he will not empower us to do. He is the consuming fire that will make a way for us to accomplish what he commands.

I can love the one who speaks lies about me. I can love the one that knowingly or unknowingly seeks to do me harm. I can do this only because God will empower me to do it.

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This afternoon, the following passage stood out for me as I was reading Tim Keller’s, The Meaning of Marriage:

“The Holy Spirit ‘will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you’ (John 16:14). What does that mean?

‘Make known’ translates a Greek word meaning a momentous announcement that rivets attention. The Holy Spirit’s task, then, is to unfold the meaning of Jesus’ person and work to believers in such a way that the glory of it – its infinite importance and beauty – is brought home to the mind and heart. This is why earlier in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul can pray that ‘the eyes of your heart be enlightened’ (Ephesians 1:18), that they might ‘have power . . . to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ . . .’ (Ephesians 3:17-18). The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to take truths about Jesus and make them clear to our minds and real to our hearts – so real that they console and empower and change us at our very center.

To be ‘filled with the Spirit,’ then is to live a life of joy, sometimes quiet, sometimes towering. Truths about God’s glory and Jesus’s saving work are not just believed with the mind but create inner music (Ephesians 5:19) and an inner relish in teh soul. ‘Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .’ (Ephesians 5:19-20). And because teh object of this song is not favorable life circumstances (which can change) but rather the truth and grace of Jesus (which cannot), this heart song does not weaken in times of difficulty.”

– Tim Keller

I know this is a long quote, but it is so good, that I considered it worth reproducing here. I like the last part even though I struggle to live it out.

To paraphrase, because Jesus demonstrates grace toward us and provides a means of dealing with our sin and rebellion, we have a reason to have joy even when our life circumstances are not what we would like them to be.

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In my youth, I found verses like these to be difficult:

“because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.”

Romans 8:13–14, CSB

The difficulty arose from what I now know to be a misapplication of these verses.

Whether I was taught this explicitly, or if I merely inferred it on my own, my understanding was that I am responsible for putting to death the deeds of the body and to borrow the well-known phrase from Nike, I had to “just do it.”

The problem is that I find that I can’t do it. And I found that those around me can’t do it either. Without God’s help, putting the deeds of the body to death is impossible. We can at best produce the illusion of control.

This may be a bit of an oversimplification. Still, the problem with legalistic, religious societies is that to avoid the discomfort of having their sin confronted, they find ways of covering it up or outright justifying that sin.

Jesus often confronted the Pharisees for looking down on others while they justified their own bad behavior. And the ironic thing is that current-day Pharisees, do the same while looking down on the Biblical Pharisees.

My point is not to blame or condemn anyone; I think this tendency is due to a misunderstanding of how real spiritual growth takes place. The shame of all this is that I am now in my mid 60’s. I am finding that much of what I was taught about spiritual growth missed the whole point and misapplied Scripture by using it as a tool to attempt to beat people (including themselves) into obedience and conformity to their understanding of what “Christian” behavior looks like.

But, there is a better way that I am just beginning to understand.

You see, our Enemy, who is called the accuser of the brothers, is the one who wants to keep us operating under shame for our lack of progress in what we understand to be holy living. When we get angry and express it inappropriately, when we gossip under the guise of sharing prayer requests, when we treat “sinners” as second-class people to avoid, and when we pretend to have our act together even when we know we do not, we place ourselves under the power of that enemy.

The solution to this is a deeper application of the gospel, the good news. The good news tells us that we can’t save ourselves or produce anything of real value on our own. Paul reminds us of this is his letter to the Ephesians:

“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8–9, CSB

Our spiritual progress is a gift from God, not something I can produce.

I can rest in that.

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See if these words give voice to what you might be feeling as you watch or read your favorite news outlet:

“How long, Lord, must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.”

Habakkuk 1:2–4, CSB

As Christians, we know and trust that at some point Jesus will return and clean up this mess, but until then we want to ask, “When?” Or we ask, “Why not now?”

God’s response to Habakkuk gives us a clue as to how God might answer today if he were to speak to us directly:

“For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it.”

Habakkuk 1:5, CSB

In other words, we, as finite humans, cannot possibly understand how God is working in the world. From our perspective little of what we see around us makes sense.

The question comes down to whether we will trust that he is working even when the opposite seems to be true.

Part of my struggle with this is a myopic view of things. I struggle to see past today when God, who is outside of time, has eternity in view.

The Apostle Paul speaks to this when he writes,

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”

2 Corinthians 4:17, CSB

Dare I trust that God will see me through the hardships I am called to endure? Dare I trust that somehow even the nasty things that life brings are used by God for my good and his glory?

I believe, help my unbelief.

If you are encouraged by this post or would like to join in a conversation, please use the comment form below to offer your feedback. If you are reading this in an email and would like to comment, you can reply to the email or click on the “Read in browser” link below to go to the web page where you can enter a comment. I enjoy hearing from you.