Romans 7

For I delight in the Law of God, in my inner being (verse 22)

Like all people, the Apostle Paul struggled with sin. He found himself doing things he didn’t want to, and ignoring the things he did want to do. His victory over sin was not complete until his death.

What made Paul so great was not, therefore, his victory over sin. It was not his relative perfection. It was his delight in the Law and the things of God.

How much do I delight in the Law of God, in my inner being? How much do I meditate upon Scripture, memorise Scripture, read Scripture? How much time do I spend in worship, in prayer?

It is not enough to compare myself to my failing peers, those who pray for five minutes before sleep. I need to be comparing myself to the great Saints of the past, to people like the Apostle Paul and Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael. I need to see where I need to improve.

The fact is, my delight is not sufficiently on God. I am still too easily distracted from Him and turn my own way. I follow after the ways of the world.

This needs to change, and God alone can (and will, and is) change(ing) me.

John Piper

Christians who spend time in prayer do it because they see that God is a great Giver and that Christ is wise and merciful and powerful beyond measure. And therefore their prayer glorifies Christ and honors His Father. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Therefore, when we become what God created us to be we become people of prayer… Prayer is the very heart of Christian Hedonism. God gets the glory; we get the delight. He gets the glory precisely because He shows Himself full and strong to deliver us into joy. And we attain fullness of joy precisely because He is the all-glorious source and goal of life. Here is a great discovery. We do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours – and trusting Him to answer.
From Desiring God.

Romans 6

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its natural end, eternal life (verse 22).

We are no longer slaves to sin, but have become slaves to God. Yet how little we seek to follow Him, to obey His every word. We spend valuable time chasing after our old master – maybe not in the same way as before, but we chase after sin nonetheless. How little we spend our time truly chasing after God and His kingdom! Think on how much time has been wasted on trivial pursuits this past week, and compare it to the time spent in His Word, or in prayer, or in service to the Saints or the needy of this world. I know that I am spending far too much time on matters that will have no eternal significance.

Yet the more I chase after the things of God the more fruit I see in my life. I want ot see the fruit of the Spirit in my life; to see a growing degree of piety, of love for God, of selflessness. In order to grow this fruit as well as possible, I need to be nourishing it with Godly things, and above all, by offering my life as a sacrifice to His glory.

I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a slave to righteousness, to my Lord Jesus Christ. I am to obey Him, and no other master.

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Romans 5

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (verse 8)

Christ died for us, and He died for us while we were still sinners. He did not wait for us to “clean up our act” enough for us to love Him – we could never clean up our act enough for that. Instead, He came and died for us while we were filthy, diseased, wretched sinners, rebels against His rule, and He rescued us, reconciling us to God the Father by His death.

It is so tempting to attempt to get to God by our own works – after all, that is what the religions of the world are based on: do enough good works, make enough sacrifices at the altar, and maybe, just maybe, God will accept us.

But Christianity is different. Christianity is not us reaching up to God, it is Him reaching down to us. It is us being saved to do good works for God’s glory, not being saved by our works for our glory. God is first and foremost in the world, and one of the ways that He shows this is by dying for us, showing that only His perfect death can turn away His wrath from us unrighteous sinners, and make us pure and blameless in His sight.

Oh LORD, thank You that You died on the cross for me, while I was a sinner, that You did not expect me to fix my life first, but that You came down and rescued me. I thank and praise You in Jesus’ name.

Nate Saint

And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

Review: Don't Waste Your Life

Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper is such a fundamental book that I think everyone should read it at least once. As the title states, it is about not wasting your life, but instead pouring it out for the glory of God.

Beginning with an analysis of what a wasted life is, and how so many people both inside and outside the church waste large proportions of their lives, this book is a wake up call to test us to see if we are truly using our lives for the advancement of God's kingdom.

Here is a quote from inside:
The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full… Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life about Christ is a tragedy.

Missions is obviously one of the most important ways that we can lose our lives for Christ's sake. Reaching all the world is the last command that Christ gave before He ascended to heaven. How many hear the call to the mission field, either for the short term or the long term, but refuse to follow God's call in order to have more of the dross that the world has to offer?

This book is available for FREE at Desiring God.

Randy Alcorn

As thunder follows lightning, giving follows grace. We give because he first gave to us. If your life doesn’t resound with the thunder of giving, doesn’t that suggest that you’ve not been struck by the lightning of God’s grace.

From his chapter in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper

Are We Commanded to Be Good Stewards?

I have been reading a lot of criticism of different expressions of Christianity, and it’s interesting how often one comment comes up about any type of Christianity that really seeks after God’s will in a counter-cultural way… they all get told how God really couldn’t have meant xyz, because He wants us to be “good stewards”.

It seems so right. It seems so reasonable. You shouldn’t have more children than you can afford. You shouldn’t have to tithe. You shouldn’t give to missions. You shouldn’t dedicate your life to staying home with your family, or helping others when you can have a well-paying job. You shouldn’t use your spare time in a way that helps others without making sure you receive adequate remuneration. Because those things are not being a “good steward” of the gifts that God has given to you.

The thing is, God actually doesn’t ask us to be good stewards. That command is nowhere in Scripture. The command to give up all we have and follow Him – that makes it in there… several times. We need to give all that we have in order to follow Christ more closely.

In many cases, this is going to look like “wasting” things to the world. It is going to look like the opposite of good stewardship. It’s going to be having more children than you can afford to give soccer and ballet classes to. It’s going to be giving more than you think you can afford to missions. It means turning down a job that pays better so that you have more time to invest in God’s kingdom. It means going yourself when it would be cheaper to get someone else to.

It means giving our all to God.

I don’t want to be a good steward. I want to live recklessly for Christ. He is my treasure, not anything in this world. And when that makes me look foolish in the eyes of the world, then I will remind myself that the wisdom of God is beyond that of man. And I will continue to follow Him with all I am.

Gladys Aylward

I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China…I don't know who it was…It must have been a man…a well-educated man. I don't know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing…and God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward…And God said - "Well, she's willing."