Rising To The Occasion

Just about done reading The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read. One point in the chapter on kindness and goodness stood out more than the rest for me, centering on this passage in Scripture:

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB)

We are created to do good, wired for it, and we should seek to do it for the glory of God. But the interesting point is that we are to walk in them, giving the sense of them becoming part of our everyday life, not some special thing we rise to the occasion of doing.

I think it is easier for us to do good in the mission field as opposed to the marketplace, on a battlefield instead of our backyard. Maybe it is pride, we rise to the occasion when we sense the heat of a spotlight on us, no matter how dim. We can go and model Christ on a mission trip or in a ministry, but let's face it, others know what we are doing and why. Can we model Him as easily when we go to buy a quart of milk or grab a bite at a local restaurant when we are just ourselves in our everyday existence? I am not sure I warm up to the good works of Jesus as easily when the warmth of the spotlight is not heating me up. Seems to me a bit of a pride issue that I have like a lot of others.

Rising to the occasion of doing good, in walking in good works create din Christ Jesus should be like rising from bed in the morning. You do it as part of your everyday life.

You should do it with about as much ceremony as getting out of bed. Maybe it is not always the praise inducing, ceremonial occurrence, but you get it down each and every day.

Peace

Continuing in my reading of Jerry Bridges' The Practice of Godliness. Enjoyed the chapter on Peace. Bridges brings up a great point at the beginning of the chapter which I feel drives the whole topic quite nicely. To have true peace you have to start with peace with God. Then you can make peace with yourself and finally with others.

As I thought about it, I realized he has it right. You have to start with God to have true peace, because that is where you want to wind up in the end. With God, but after a journey to reach Him through His Son. Not our usual course of action. We normally start with self and move out from there. This takes an acknowledgment that we are not the cente rof our lives, God is.

The other point Bridges makes is that peace does not mean running away from issues and problems, but facing them squarely and in a Christ-like fashion. If Jesus chose not to face His problems, He never would have been in the garden the night they arrested Him. He would have been like Jonah, running in the opposite direction. But being God, He knew you could not run and faced squarely what He had to face. Running didn't work for Jonah in the end and it will not for us.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith
2 Timothy 4:7 (NASB)

Fighting and peace do not seem to go together, but fighting for peace is what seems to be called for. The peace that begins with God. Let me battle my own sinful nature and win through to that peace first, because it is the peace that lasts.

Self Control

I continue my read of The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. I am enjoying it and would recommend it as an easy, but thoughtful read. The chapter on self control was interesting to say the least. I will not do it justice by summarizing, but a key take away is that self control is essentially sound judgment (the ability to discern the right decision or action) and inner strength (the ability to carry it out). Self control comes from a lack of self indulgence.

The beauty of Bridges' book is that it is soundly grounded in Scripture, making it a profitable read for self examination and development.

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB)

Self control is required in both body (think of gluttony or laziness) and mind (think of pride and lust). Bridges quotes passages of Scripture, I like these two as good summaries of what to do to develop self control:

²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
¹¹But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:11 (NASB)

While I usually use the NASB, I like the NIV action verb for the Proverbs passage more, guard. We are to guard against sin, to guard our hearts. When necessary we are to flee the sin (and this is something none us want to admit a need to do, even less actually do it).

What did I learn from this chapter? Self control requires judgment, strength, diligence. Self control requires the wisdom of when to stand and fight, when to run in flight, from sin.

Above all else, while the control required is self control, we cannot achieve it alone. We need turn to Scripture for wisdom and guidance, we need turn to the Lord for strength and conviction.

Contentment

I have started reading again from my personal pile instead of seminary pile. It is a nice switch. I am reading The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges, a book I have picked up several times and am now thoroughly enjoying.

Just read the chapter on contentment and it really made me think. We have a hard time being content, no matter how hard we pursue the Lord. Bridges talks about contentment with position, possessions or power. About contentment with the providence of God. The point he makes is that the word rendered content or contentment in the Bible has the meaning sufficiency. That is the key to contentment from Bridges perspective as he draws on 2 Corinthians 12, specifically God's response in verse 9 to Paul's pleading to remove the thorn in his flesh:

⁹And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

God's grace is sufficient. If we accept that, our place in this life will render us contentment no matter the circumstances. So it seems to me that when I struggle with being content with where the Lord has placed me, it is an issue of trust and faith in His grace.

Once again, it is me, not Him. As usual, as always, in all ways.

That does not surprise me, but it is not easy to bear things at times even if I reflect on that.

It is a good thing God's grace is sufficient, for it is sufficient in my times of impatience, selfishness or mistrust in his will.