Being Easter weekend, there was so much content between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. I’d encourage you to call to mind something true that impacted you and work through how to apply it deeper.
One principle that has occurred to me this week that I didn’t delve into over the weekend is how the cross and the resurrection give us a wholly new orientation to life.
Paul talks in Romans 6 about the old self having been put to death on the cross with the result now that we are “alive to God (v.11),” due to the resurrection.
The whole of our life is now alive in orientation to God. Everything we do is to God and for God. Recording the words of Jesus, Luke communicates to us that love for God must outweigh love for anything else, even love for things that are good.
Luke 14:25-28 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Coming to understand this truth brings cataclysmic war upon the soul, as the soul feels the weight of moving from a self-interested to a God-interested life.
Old habits die hard as they say. It’s not easy to put to death the self-interests that once defined us. Jesus likens this process to bearing a cross.
This process in my own life has felt like experiencing and grieving the death of a loved one. There are dreams I had that will never go realized because of sacrifices made to follow Jesus and live the life he desires for me. Of course, God gives new desires and new joys but nevertheless, dying to self is massively difficult and painful.
On the other side of releasing the old self and embracing the new life is freedom and joy, but it takes a lot of suffering by way of emotional turmoil to align with God.
Though God is constantly at work in the righteous to change our desires from self to God, I think this process produces a weariness. It’s a weariness that comes from trying to live the spiritual life in the flesh but also a weariness that comes from long days of trying to put aside the old self and often not finding much victory (or at least not having the appearance of victory). But God promises renewed strength – strength that will last until the work is done.
Isaiah 40:28-31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
If you have grown faint, weary, and have fallen exhausted, it’s because you are walking, running, mounting up to ride the day in your own strength, still living in the old habits of self.
But the Lord is everlasting. He’s the creator. He does not faint nor grow weary.
Those who wait for the Lord will be renewed in strength, spiritually speaking, as we know physical strength will one day be brought to nothing.
Now, to wait for God does not mean sit around and do nothing. It’s an active pursuit. King David understands this.
Psalm 56:6 KJV They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
As David’s enemies “waited” for him, they gathered together to plan for his demise, watched David to learn his patterns, and they set out to hide in places where they knew David would pass through. Simply said, to wait means to prepare expectantly to apprehend someone.
When we wait for the Lord, we gather together to plan out our steps that will lead to the Lord, we gather intelligence about his ways, how he moves and responds, and we put ourselves in a position to meet with him when he passes through.
Learn to wait for the Lord, to lie in wait for him with prepared expectation.
Learn his ways, how he appears and reveals himself and makes known his power.
One particular application would be to apply Psalm 103 as we did on Friday evening. Psalm 103 calls for the righteous to “bless the Lord.”
To bless means to grant power and strength to someone to accomplish something.
Call to mind the works of God and bless him. Declare to him his power and strength to do the works. Declare to him his power and strength to bring you the benefit (see some of his benefits in Psalm 103:2-8).
Maybe you need to search out the scriptures to be reminded of the goodness, joy, and freedom of doing the God-oriented life and be reminded of the foolishness of living the self-oriented life.
The Lord is good. His goodness is satisfying. So be encouraged this day to put aside the self-interested life and continue to orient the whole of your life to God. It will produce its eternal dividends.
Grace and peace,
Aaron
