OUR IMAGE OF GOD

What comes into your mind when you think about God?  The great preacher A.W. Tozer wrote that "we tend, by a secret law of the soul, to move toward our mental image of God."  So it's crucial that our idea of God correspond as nearly as is possible to the true being of God.

Certainly, in our limited human condition, we cannot think of God as He really is.  But if we are drawing our image of God from the wrong sources, then He'll be too small.

Today, since "spirituality" is so big in our culture, celebrities and people of influence often talk about their relationship with God... but for many, God seems to be a vague deity they've made up, a personalized edition of a spiritual force who exists to make people feel good about themselves.

We need to take care not to be squeezed into the mindset of the culture around us.  In every situation of each day, we have a choice.  We can fix our attention on ourselves, and recast God in our own image.  Or we can fix our attention on God, as the Scriptures really reveal Him to be. 

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Exodus 34:6)

-- Ellen Vaughn in “Daily Seeds from Women Who Walk in Faith” 

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OUR ESTEEM IS GRACE-ESTEEM

“Now God has us where He wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.”  (Ephesians 2:7-9 MSG)

The greatest need of any person is to be known and loved. The cry is strong; the human desire is deep. "I want to be somebody. I want my life to count." Closely related to the feeling of worth is the perception of who we are. When we esteem something or someone, we highly value it or the person. To esteem ourselves is to have high regard for ourselves. Many of the problems in human relations stem from a person's lack of self-esteem.

[However,]... our worth and value is given. We are called not to muster it up within ourselves, but to receive the gift given to us, a gift of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. God has declared our value. Our value is not rooted in self-esteem, based only on ourselves. Our value is discovered in grace, which is rooted in the greatness and graciousness of God...

God's love makes it possible to know we are valued. We cannot put ourselves down or debase ourselves. We can know our true worth because we are children of God. Our esteem is rooted in the amazing grace of God. Our esteem is grace-esteem.

-- H. Eddie Fox in “Grace-Esteem” 

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THE PRACTICE AND ART OF GRACIOUSNESS

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  (Ephesians 4:32 NIV)

Graciousness is not accidental. It is a practice -- a deliberate way of moving through the world -- and it is an art -- something shaped, refined, and expressed with beauty.

Paul’s words in Ephesians remind us that graciousness is never self-generated. It begins with God. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We show compassion because compassion has been shown to us. We extend kindness because kindness has already been poured over our lives in Christ. Grace received becomes grace expressed.

But this is where the art comes in. Because extending grace to others is rarely simple. It requires patience when someone is short with us. It requires humility when we feel justified in our frustration. It requires restraint when our emotions want to run ahead of our faith.

Graciousness is the quiet choice to treat others not according to how they’ve acted, but according to how God has acted toward us. As God had been gracious toward us in Christ, we should be gracious toward others.

And when we practice it -- again and again -- it becomes something lovely. A faithful witness. A sweet fragrance. A beautiful reflection of the God who has been endlessly gracious with us. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™ 

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MARY’S SONG – Part 2 of 2

“From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me -- holy is His name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.”  (Luke 1:48b–50 NIV)

Second, Mary focused on the holiness of God by simply putting breath to four little words: “holy is His name” (v. 49b). For Mary to trust in an uncertain future, she had to look back at the certainty of a holy God. As Mary sang of the holiness of God, her song resonated with David’s song found in Psalm 111:9 that reads: “He provided redemption for His people; He ordained His covenant forever -- holy and awesome is His name.” Mary was looking back and remembering the unchanging nature of God. The God who was faithful and holy then, is still faithful and holy now.

Last, she sang of the mercy of God by declaring: “His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation” (v. 50). Again, perhaps Mary took a cue from the Psalms and made it her own. The psalmist David wrote:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
      slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
      nor will He harbor His anger forever;
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
      or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
      so great is His love for those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
      so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
      so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him…” (103:8–13)

Whatever stressors you have in your life today, take some notes from Mary. Remind those stressors about the mightiness of God, the holiness of God, and the mercy of God. Then look forward to what God has in store. 

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with Mark Sorensen 

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NO PERFECT PEOPLE

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8 NIV)

God loves us not because we are good but because He is good; not because we are perfect but because He is; not because we are worthy, but because He is gracious. And God wants us to imitate His generous spirit in our dealings with other people. If you can’t love other people for their sake, love them for God’s sake! Let the love of God flow into you and out to others, because there are no perfect people. 

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!” 

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BECAUSE GOD IS GRACIOUS

“The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  (Psalm 145:8 ESV)

The two great features of Protestant theology are its doctrines of justification by faith and the law as the rule of life.  This is a synthesis of New Testament grace and Old Testament ethics.  With this synthesis, Protestants have solved the problem of finding a gracious God, but they have not solved the problem of finding gracious neighbors.  They can fellowship with God because He is gracious; but they find it difficult to fellowship with one another, because they are not so gracious.

-- Robert D. Brinsmead in “Justification by Faith” 


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PRAYER FOR PEOPLE I DISLIKE

Loving God, Mysterious Wind-like Spirit,
blow strongly if You will
and surround with joy all those people whom I dislike.
Be gracious to those whose giftedness I envy.
Bless with wealth and success
those already annoyingly more successful than myself.
They deserve my encouragement, never my scorn.
I pray especially for all those
who do not particularly reverence me,
or may, in fact, dislike me and shun my company.
Give me eyes to see beauty and winsomeness
where I have not seen it before,
and give us all the self confidence to believe
that we would have no enemies at all
if we were known as You, Holy Wisdom, know us.
Amen.

-- William Cleary, as quoted in “When in Doubt, Sing” by Jane Redmont


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