Purity 327: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 327 01/28/2021 

Good morning!

Today’s photo comes from friend’s hike earlier this month on the Rail Trail near Hilldale NY, I suspect.  It looks like our friend was the first person to encounter the trail after a snowfall as the path seems to be unmarked by footprints, still, and serene.      

I share it because I spent the morning yesterday clearing the snow off my driveway and at times, I wasn’t feeling the beauty of the moment as the snow was of a certain consistency that defied my expectations and equally gave me gratitude and frustration.

 The snow was light and fluffy, so it wasn’t heavy to shovel but there was just enough depth of snow that it was too much to just easily push out of the way in long broad strokes with a shovel, as the ethereal snow would pile up on the shovel and just fall over the edge of the shovel before I got to the edge of the driveway.   

 So I used my snowblower, which was efficient, but seemed to take too much time as my property demands that I clear snow one straight path at a time rather than doing a circular route.   

 If the snow had just been a little less deep, I could have easily pushed it aside with a shovel, but instead I was constrained to a slow and deliberate pace with the snowblower.

 And as it was, when I started working, the snow was still falling in a slow dwindling pace that seemed to promise the end of the storm but at the same time seemed to threaten that it would add another inch or two to clean up. Sure enough, after I finished snow blowing, I had to go over the driveway again with a shovel to clear another inch of snow that had accumulated while I worked. 

 So clearing the driveway was just like life, I knew what I had to do, I knew how to do it, but, man, the process of doing it was a mixture of gratitude and frustration.

 In days past, I probably would have been quite angry or lamentable as I did this routine maintenance but now my faith balances things out, as while I was dealing with the chore at hand, I reminded myself that I was fortunate for countless reasons:

• I was physically able to do it,
• I had been gifted the snowblower, that was operating and doing this work.
• Because I have to work Saturday, I actually had the day off. 
• I was at the home that the Lord brought me to.
• I had a view of the River and the silent peace that is always available
• I know the Lord and have the assurance of eternal life, meaning, and purpose. 

 In this stretch of winter, frustration will come but if we keep our eyes on the Lord and our hearts and minds full of His presence, we will make it through with a peace that rises above our circumstances.   

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This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 145:18 (NKJV)
¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.

 I love the double truth of faithfulness that rings through in this verse. 

 

1. God is faithful to be near to all who call upon Him. 
2.  We must be faithful to call upon Him in truth.  

 You know, lip service to God just doesn’t do it.  We can say whatever we want, but God knows our hearts and He knows what we have been doing and He knows what we have been thinking. 

 So if we ignore God’s counsel and have no interactions with Him in our day to day lives, we can call upon Him in distress and He will be with us in our desperate moments, but He may not deliver us. He might deliver us, but He may only come to comfort us. He also may come to convict us.  

 I used to do life my way and left God out of my life.  When tragedy or calamity came, I would run to God and pray for divine miraculous intervention to change outcomes.  While I was assured that God heard me in those moments, sometimes I got the feeling that I had reaped what I had sown and that while He would be with me, God was not going to change the events that my actions had led to.  If this happened, I usually got angry with God and would dismiss faith as useless. 

 Sometimes God would actually deliver me from bad circumstances but unfortunately before I surrendered my life to Him, I never learned from His mercy.  I took His blessings as “good luck” and didn’t recognize His sovereign hand and I would carry on with life no wiser than I was before.     

 Fortunately, after years of suffering by doing things my way, I sought the truth about life and God revealed the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.  By imparting me with this truth, God gave me a much larger view of life and showed me that our priority in life has to be Him. 

 We have to live life in His context and when we come to Him, we have to come to Him in truth.  Jesus paid the cost for us all but in order to be redeemed we have to come to Him sincerely and authentically. When we call on God, He hears us, but He also calls on us to follow Him in spirit and in truth.  

  

Today we will continue to share from Dr. June Hunt’s Biblical Counseling Keys on “Self-Worth: Discovering Your God-given Worth”.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Hunt’s books for your own private study and to support her work:

C. What Is an Inferiority Complex?

How could Dorie not feel inferior when for years she was continuously treated as inferior? Emblazoned in her memory are scenes of her mother tucking her sister into bed saying, "Marie is a pretty girl — she's not like you." Then after tenderly kissing Marie, she would callously walk past Dorie. Repeated times of rejection are the building blocks of an inferiority complex. Someone with such low self-worth could easily think ...

"Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors and an object of dread to my closest friends — those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery."
(Psalm 31:11-12)

• An inferiority complex is a painful, debilitating feeling of being less valuable than others.

·    — Inferior means less valued than others.

·    — A complex is a group of beliefs based on the past that has a powerful influence on present behavior.

• An inferiority complex is an acute sense of low self-worth, which has two very different results:

·    — Fearfully timid attitudes and actions as a result of giving in to others or feeling rejected by others "I'm nothing. ... I know I don't matter."

·    — Overly aggressive attitudes and actions to compensate for feeling rejected "Since people hate me, I'll give them something to hate!"

In the orphanage, Dorie became the bitter bully who punched and pinched the other children just to make them cry. Openly hostile, Dorie used fear tactics to get her way ... and get her way she did! Although she was young, her life mirrored this Psalm ...

"When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you."
(Psalm 73:21-22)

A Self-Worth Struggler

Biblical Illustration

2 Samuel chapter 9

Mephibosheth felt like the weakest link in the royal chain. Crippled in both feet at a young age, he never felt able to live up to the accomplishments of his family. His grandfather King Saul was a fierce warrior. His father, Jonathan, was an accomplished soldier.

But Mephibosheth was unable to stand on his own two feet, let alone to do battle. Following the deaths of both Saul and Jonathan, when David claimed the throne, Mephibosheth sank into financial and emotional quicksand. He lived in the land of Lo-Debar, which means "the House of No Bread." While his family had ruled a nation and enjoyed substantial wealth, he ended up with nothing. From the palace to poverty ... since he could not even afford his own lodging, he lived in another man's home.

King David summons Mephibosheth to appear before his throne. Mephibosheth knows his life has no value. After a change in dynasty, the custom of the day was to execute the previous royal line. He knows King David can kill him on the spot to eliminate any competition for the throne.

Mephibosheth feels helpless and hopeless. He shuffles on his lame feet, crawling into the new king's house to answer David's summons. He throws himself on the ground before David declaring himself to be nothing more than a "dead dog." David's response shocked the young cripple who had known little kindness in his life. "'Don't be afraid,' David said to him, 'for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table'" (2 Samuel 9:7).

Imagine his astonishment! David — the feared warrior-king — had demonstrated compassion to a cripple. But why — why toward this weak invalid who was, in his own words "a dead dog" ... one who could offer no service to the king ... one who was a reminder of his grandfather's murderous vengeance directed toward David? Because long before, David had entered into a covenant relationship with Jonathan ... a covenant commitment, a covenant vow of loyalty that extends even to the family of Jonathan. And as David promised, "Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons" (2 Samuel 9:11).

Picture the household of David gathering for an evening meal. The aristocratic and selfish yet powerful Amnon, the proud and handsome Absalom with his beautiful sister Tamar, the scholarly, withdrawn, and poetic person of Solomon. Then shuffling along behind them and taking his place among the king's sons and daughters at the finest table in the land is this "dead dog" Mephibosheth. He may have once felt worthless and utterly without value, but because of the king's grace, he discovered his infinite worth.

If you suffer from feelings of inferiority — feeling like an emotional cripple — know that the King of Kings has graciously reached out to you with care and compassion to adopt you into His family and take you as His own. As a member of the family of Christ, you have a place reserved at the King's table ... forever. Make no mistake, you are no mistake ... not only are you wanted, but you also have immeasurable worth. The Bible even says ...

"In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
(Ephesians 1:4-5)

Biblical Counseling Keys - Biblical Counseling Keys – Biblical Counseling Keys: Self-Worth: Discover Your God-Given Worth.

 

-----------------------------more tomorrow--------------------------

 

God bless you all!