brianrushing.net

My God, without merit on my part, of His pure and free mercy, has given to me, an unworthy, condemned, and contemptible creature, all the riches of justification and salvation in Christ, so that I no longer am in want of anything, except of faith to believe that this is so. For such a Father then, who has overwhelmed me with these inestimable riches of His, why should I not freely, cheerfully, and with my whole heart and from voluntary zeal, do all that I know will be pleasing to Him, and acceptable in His sight? I will therefore give myself, as a sort of Christ, to my neighbour, as Christ has given Himself to me; and will do nothing in this life, except what I see will be needful, advantageous, and wholesome for my neighbour, since by faith I abound in all good things in Christ.
–Martin Luther

This quote from Martin Luther is straight from God’s Word which tells us…
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Consider others as more important than yourself.
Do nothing with your freedom that would cause someone else to stumble in their walk with God.

Therefore, because of how Jesus served us and has blessed us so much, we are to embrace this final sentence of Luther’s quote so very closely:
I will give myself to my neighbors (my fellow man) as Christ has given Himself for me – willing to be an absolute servant to them – and I will do nothing in this life except what is helpful to others.
Wow, that is a tall order. But it is my calling.

A prayer for us to repeat numerous times throughout today:

Father, I want to know You.
But my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from You the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please dig out from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that You may enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shall You make the place of Your feet glorious [as I come to bow before You as Lord]. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for You will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
–A. W. Tozer

Amen and Amen.

Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, who created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists.
–Thomas à Kempis

Updating the wording a bit, I think I’d say it this way:
Use material possessions, but desire the things of God. Because you cannot find true satisfaction in material possessions, because you were not designed to find contentment in these things.

God did create us to enjoy the excellent things he created for us, but they cannot bring full satisfaction. Only the Creator can do so. And we know that many people who achieve exorbitant wealth are able to possess all the things they ever wanted and yet still find themselves miserable and looking for satisfaction in something else… some of them even committing suicide when they realize that the things they most wanted in life left them empty.

Each of us has a God-shaped hole in our hearts and only He is able to fill it up perfectly to bring us full contentment. Make sure that you are not trying to be satisfied with the things of this world, instead seek to be satisfied by the Creator of this world – who also created you and knows how to meet your deepest longings!

It is true, of course, that none of us can encompass the depth of all God’s desires for us as expressed in Scripture. We are finite. But what we know we must obey.

It is only by such a sweep that we can help prevent the sort of blindness evidenced by some of the Pharisees.
–Rebecca Pippert

Paul indicated that he provided to others the whole counsel of God.
Preachers must know and preach “the whole counsel” of the Bible.
And Christians must study and grow in their understanding of “the whole counsel” of God’s Word.
To do so will require us meditating on all parts of the Scriptures.
Otherwise we will be blind to some truths and more easily taken in by false teachings that sound good, but aren’t actually in God’s will for us.
How well are you doing at becoming an expert of God’s Word?

Two quotes that work together for today, written some 500 years apart, that tell us God has concern for us:

…what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to God can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is this, than either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth — that is, to attribute truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and levity? In doing this, is not a man denying God and setting himself up as an idol in his own heart?
–Martin Luther

Do you have doubts about God? Find someone who will help you investigate the reliability of the Bible and answer your questions as you seek to know His truth. (Josh McDowell’s book, More than a Carpenter, is an excellent quick read to help you walk through some of these types of questions.)

Maybe you don’t doubt if God exists, but you doubt His character and love for you? Maybe you are going through a difficult time and you don’t feel that God is listening to your prayers? Maybe you are doubting if He truly is a God who cares?

One question, however, no longer gnaws at me as it once did, a question that I believe lurks behind most of our issues with God: “Does God care?” I know of only one way to answer that question, and it has come through my study of the life of Jesus. In Jesus, God gave us a face, and I can read directly in that face how God feels about people…. By no means did Jesus eliminate all suffering — he healed only a few in one small patch of the globe — but he did signify an answer to the question of whether God cares.
–Philip Yancey

God cares, and He shows us this truth through Jesus. If you are struggling with doubts about God’s character and His care for you, follow Yancey’s recommendation and study the life of Jesus. In doing so, you will be reminded that God is a God of deep compassion, care, and love for you.