“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2 NIV)
Most of us are experienced in self-condemnation. Even those of us who appear self-confident on the outside, have no problem berating ourselves from within. Recently, I was talking with a student who does just that. It is a habit and it has been long established.
Our Enemy is known as the accuser. The thoughts in our head—“You’re no good;” “You’re unworthy;” “You’re so stupid;” “You’re a hypocrite.”—come directly from him. He wants to fill our minds with accusations, all of which, if we are followers of Jesus, are false. This is his game and he plays it oh so well.
So many of us struggle with our self-worth. Our minds are filled with the accusations cited above or ones similar. And the way we often handle them plays right into the Enemy’s hands. He wants us to continually doubt our worth in order to tempt us to resign ourselves to a life with no hope. If we are not worth much, why have hope, why try?
I have met many students like this over my years on campus. They embrace the accusations in their heads and live accordingly. They either reject God outright, spend their energy trying to prove their worth, or live in a perpetual state of guilt.
If this is you, then look at this passage, print it out and put it on the bathroom mirror, have it on a card and carry it with you wherever you go, or just memorize it. In whatever way will work, get these words into your head and into your heart. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST, YOU ARE NOT CONDEMNED! And then REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT every time an accusation comes into your mind.
The truth is the Accuser is telling you lies. He condemns you and wants you to condemn yourself. And, likely, that is what you are doing. But here is a question for you: If the God of the Universe and your Creator doesn’t condemn you, what right do you have to condemn yourself?
Today, when the accusations come and you are tempted to believe them, repeat these words: I am a child of God and loved by Him. Because I am in Christ, He does not condemn me. If you are a follower of Jesus, no truer words can ever be spoken.
© Jim Musser 2016
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4 NIV)
Before you start reading this, go back and read these words from James again. Find anything surprising, or even astounding? How about (this is my paraphrase), “Consider it a joyful privilege when you have to endure various trials…”
Let’s think about that for a minute. So James is saying when you have a difficult roommate situation, you should be joyful. When you are out of a job, you should embrace the situation. When you suffer a great loss, your grief should be enveloped by a greater joy. Any trial or difficulty, in other words, should be welcomed with an attitude of hope and resolve.
In my life of faith, I have encountered numerous trials of significance—including the deaths of my parents while in my 20’s and abandonment by my first wife—and I learned a lot from those experiences, but I can’t say that, at the time I was going through them, I embraced them with joy. Yet, looking back at those experiences, I can see James’ perspective. I do find joy in what I learned and the spiritual growth that came as a result. In fact, I have grown more during the trials of my life than at any other time. And that, I believe, is the point James is making.
We should embrace trials in our lives because it is during those times when the Lord can do His most significant transforming work. His goal is to make us mature and complete. The difficulties that we face in our lives help to achieve that goal.
Today, if you are facing a difficult time in your life, don’t seek to run away from it or become embittered. Instead, embrace it with joy as an experience God will use to help you mature in your faith.
© Jim Musser 2016
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24 NIV)
We live in a “move on, move forward, ready to leave it behind” culture. If a star athlete or a politician is caught up in some type of controversy or illegality, the typical response is, “I’m ready to move on;” “I’m ready to move forward from here.” In other words, the person usually is saying he is ready to get out of this uncomfortable situation as fast as possible. The Christian culture is becoming no different.
People in churches become upset about something or someone, complain about it to others, but when needing to actually reconcile the situation, the common response is, “I’m ready to move on.” And they often do, to another church.
What’s interesting about this command of Jesus is it is very hard to follow in a move on, move forward, ready to leave it behind culture. Because when you do realize someone has something against you or is angry with you and you seek them out, you are likely to hear, “I don’t want to discuss it. I’m ready to move on.” Nothing has been settled. There is no reconciliation. The conflict is merely brushed aside, but certainly not forgotten.
Paul tells us that, as followers of Jesus, we have a “ministry of reconciliation,” bringing people back into a right relationship with God. (II Corinthians 5:18) That is the theme of the whole Bible—God seeking to be reconciled to His people. It makes sense then that Jesus would place a huge emphasis on believers being reconciled with each other, to the point of putting the burden on the one who is not angry to seek out reconciliation with the person who is.
If we are called to be a part of God’s work of reconciling people to Him, then doesn’t it make sense we should be more adept at reconciliation with fellow believers? Instead of moving on, we should be going back to the person toward whom we have hard feelings and be reconciled. There is a time to move on, but it is definitely not before making every attempt to restore a relationship that has been broken.
Today, if you have something against a fellow believer, or know of someone who is upset with you, then make it a priority to go to that person and talk through the issue. You may instead want to move on, but it is clear from Jesus that is not an option for those who follow Him.
© Jim Musser 2016
“When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your unfailing love, LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” (Psalm 94:18-19 NIV)
When you are walking along a narrow mountain trail or climbing a rock wall, the greatest fear is that your foot will slip and you plunge hundreds of feet. Years ago, I was hiking in Colorado and was attempting to climb onto a rock ledge, but it was a little icy and my feet started to slip. For a few moments, I froze in fear. I didn’t fall, but I still remember the brief feelings of terror. A few years ago, a student recounted the story of a friend who lost his footing on a trail and fell literally head over heels more than 1000 feet down a rocky slope. Miraculously, he survived and recovered. But hundreds of people fall to their deaths each year because they lose their footing while hiking or climbing.
So the Psalmist’s metaphor conveys a dire situation, one in which he is overwhelmed with fear. This Psalm has been a comfort to me at times when I have been overwhelmed by life. “My foot is slipping,” is the perfect description of those times when life is too much. Yet the words that immediately follow, “your unfailing love, Lord, supported me,” are the exact words needed to bring calm and comfort to a fearful heart.
Life comes at us very hard sometimes and it is easy to feel like our feet are slipping beneath us; yet when that happens, we need to realize that we are not alone in our situation. The Lord is there with us. In the midst of our fear, He will console us and will not let us fall.
Today, if you feel like your foot is slipping, know the Lord is right there to comfort you and to keep you from falling.
© Jim Musser 2016
“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5b-7 NIV)
I can’t count the number of times I have quoted to stressed-out students the last part of this passage. And I have often grabbed their attention by telling them worrying is a sin. I have found it a necessity in a culture consumed by worry and anxiety, where it is considered a normal part of life.
Yet, while reading this passage recently, something struck me that I had never before realized—that being in a state of anxiety or worry is the result of pride. Before you dismiss this out of hand, look at the context of this passage. Leading up to verse 7 is Peter’s call to humility, both before one another and before God. And the result in doing both is finding God’s favor.
In trying to explain worrying, I have often told students it is the attempt to control something (test results, job prospects, a romantic prospect, etc.) over which, in reality, we have no control. We worry because it gives us some sense, albeit false, of control. But I have never connected it to pride, until recently.
The biblical understanding of pride is one where humans insist on being in control, thinking of themselves as the authors of their lives, and doing what they please. God is left out of the equation (Psalm 10:4). The opposite of pride is humility, the act of putting God back into the equation.
So when we think why we worry and are anxious, is it not because we take God out of the equation? We instead wrest control of the situation because we can’t trust God with it. We are too proud to release our grip on it.
The challenge is we rarely think of worry and anxiety in this way, as I did not. Rather, we think of it as normative to the human experience, perhaps even a sin with which we struggle, but if we begin to look at it in terms of our pride, maybe that can change our perspective when we begin to worry or become anxious. To we as followers of Jesus, to remove God from the equation of our lives should be the last thing we ever want to do.
Today, if you struggle with worry and anxiety, humble yourself before the Lord, confess your bent toward self-reliance, and give back control of your daily life to the Lord. Only then will you be free of the burdens that weigh you down. While they are too much for you to bear, He can easily carry them and He wants to.
© Jim Musser 2016
“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’
He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ (Luke 10:25-29 NIV)
I once had a student e-mail me asking if going to bars was wrong. She wrote that other Christians had been critical of her, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it. And then she added, “Jesus hung out with people who drank.” With that, she joined the expert in the law and so many others who seek to justify their behavior by adapting a biblical truth to fit their own desires.
The student wanted to go out to the bars, not because she sought to minister to “sinners” like Jesus (Luke 5:30-32), but because she wanted to be like her friends and do what they did without guilt. So by citing what Jesus did, she sought to justify her behavior, just as the expert of the law did. He was steeped in legalism, and so after answering Jesus’ question with the two greatest commandments, he wanted Jesus to break down His meaning of “neighbor” because when we parse the meanings of words, it is easier to find loopholes by which we hope to justify behavior that deep down we know is wrong. With His parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus eliminated the loophole he was looking for.
Justification comes easily to us. In our hearts, we so often want to do what we want to do, so we seek to find ways to justify doing it. I know a woman who wants to do what she wants right now and is justifying herself by saying God wants her to live in freedom. He indeed does call us to freedom (Galatians 5:1), but she is conveniently avoiding the biblical fact this freedom has limits (Galatians 5:13; I Corinthians 10:23) because she wants to live without restraint or obligation.
We also employ justification when we are caught in sin, by seeking to minimize it in some way. I struggle when sometimes disagreeing with my wife. My response sometimes is too harsh, but I have a tendency to justify myself by blaming her for how she says something. People caught viewing porn will often say, “It’s not really a problem for me like it is for other people." I have had unmarried couples who have spent the night with each other tell me “nothing really happened.”
Another common justification in response to knowing we should do something when in fact we just don’t want to do it is, “ I’m too busy.” We find plenty of time to do the things we want to do, but when it comes to things that in our hearts we don’t want to do, this becomes a convenient way to justify not doing it.
Today, think about in what ways you attempt to justify sinful behavior. It’s not that you don’t do it, but, instead, what are you going to do about it?
© Jim Musser 2016
“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 1:3 NIV)
This semester at our large group meetings we are focusing on Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. As I told the students this week, I think it is a timely letter for us as followers of Jesus. Increasingly, our culture is less for us and more against us. Particularly on university campuses, we are seen as a hindrance in their push for tolerance and diversity. We are often stereotyped as “haters” and viewed with suspicion by many. So there is much to learn from the believers who lived in Thessalonica at a time when discrimination and persecution were rampant towards Christians. Both the Romans and the Jews considered followers of Jesus a threat.
But what we learn from Paul’s letter is the faith of the Thessalonian believers was steady in the midst of many trials and they became known throughout the region for the lives they lived (vss 7-8) , so much so that Paul calls them a model for all believers in how to live for Jesus.
So what was it about the lives of these believers that made them so outstanding and resilient in how they lived for Jesus in the face of so much resistance? First, Paul says the work, or fruit, of their lives was produced by faith. Many times we try to make things happen out of our own strength. We’re going to go out and convince people to follow Jesus with our great arguments and persuasive skills. Or we’re going to go do “great things” for God and change the world. Or, we’re going to create some exciting new project or ministry to demonstrate the love of God. Many of these things can be good, but often they are not done in faith but rather out of our own strength. In essence, we are trying to do things on God’s behalf instead of allowing Him to do things through us. The Thessalonians didn’t make this mistake. They trusted God to do the work through them.
Secondly, they labored for the love of the Lord rather than out of obligation or for their own glory. So many people do good things because they feel obligated to do them, either from guilt or a desire to earn favor with God, or for what attention it will bring them. The former leads to burnout and is not sustainable over the long haul, while the latter has no eternal value (Matthew 6:2-4)
Finally, the believers in Thessalonica didn’t put their hope in present circumstances or worldly things. Rather, their hope was in an Eternity with Jesus. Life in a fallen world has many ups and downs and, eventually, it comes to an end for each of us. The Thessalonian believers recognized this and so put their hope in something far more solid and lasting. Thus, when things were bad for them, which was often, their faith remained steady and their relationship with the Lord continued to grow.
What about you? How does your faith and life compare to that of the Thessalonian believers? If they are a model for all believers, as Paul says, then we each would benefit from studying and following their example. Today, consider how you are living out your faith in comparison to the Thessalonians. They were able to thrive even in the tough times. Will your faith enable you to do so as well?
© Jim Musser 2016
