How to Understand the Bible 5

How to Receive Spiritual Revelation

More Help in Understanding the Spiritual Side of Bible Interpretation

Part 5

Start at Part One

Often we must find the heart of God about matters on which the Bible seems to say frustratingly little. These are not opportunities to put the Bible aside. Rather, they are invitations to plunge deeper than ever into Scripture and the heart of God.

One such subject is the morality of solo sex. It is not appropriate to deal with it here. I have addressed sexuality in depth elsewhere on this site. Here, I will select and adapt just those parts that provide insight into how we should use Scripture to enlighten us on issues the Bible seems not to specifically address. In order to move from the known to the unknown I will also briefly mention other behaviour that the Bible says more about. If you have already read my several webpage's about solo sex and prefer not to read the relevant parts a second time, you can skip this section by clicking here.

Scripture’s Silences

We all have a tendency to read Scripture’s words in a way that least threatens our comfort or our presumptions. How much more, then, are we likely to twist Scripture’s silences, reading into them wrong conclusions. Once we concede that Onan’s sin was not solitary sex, nor does this common practice even rate a mention in the Bible, nor does it cause obvious psychological or physical injury, it might seem we can give it the green light. But such a conclusion would be dangerously premature. To demonstrate that neither apparent harmlessness nor the Bible’s silence are sufficient to suggest God views a matter as morally neutral, we will briefly consider two acts that clearly have divine disapproval: sex outside marriage and lesbianism.

Especially in the past, some Christians’ teaching against sex outside marriage used to strongly emphasize the possibility of disease and unwanted pregnancy. Many people hearing this wrongly concluded that it must be these dangers that make sex outside marriage immoral. This is not what the Bible says. It is a human attempt to second-guess God’s reasoning. That’s dangerous because the next move down the slippery slide is to start regarding our speculations as fact.

In the era just before AIDS, when medical advances had lowered the physical risks, those who believed they had figured God out assumed that sexual looseness must now be morally acceptable. They thought anyone thinking otherwise must be adhering to a morality that applied only to less technologically advanced eras. Christian morality, however, has never been based on a crude and selfish analysis of the physical dangers to the offender. The Lord Jesus emphasized the sinfulness of lust, even though mere lust carries no possibility of disease or pregnancy, nor even the possibility of the victim being emotionally hurt. Similarly, the relatively modern rediscovery that self stimulation does not cause obvious physical harm, has led people to leap too soon to the assumption that it must therefore be morally acceptable.

To understand that the Bible’s silence about a matter does not automatically make it acceptable, consider lesbianism. In contrast to same-gender sex among men, the entire Old Testament is without specific mention of the female equivalent. The same is true for the Gospels and almost all the New Testament. Romans 1:24-28, however, affirms that God regards lesbianism as a serious perversion. So the Old Testament’s silence – God choosing for thousands of years not to put it in black and white – in no way implied God’s acceptance of this particular abuse of sex. That’s scary. God left it up to his people to read between the lines, and anyone getting it wrong would be guilty of gross perversion.

It is staggering to realize that throughout the Bible even the sin of sexual intercourse between unmarried people is not spoken against as forthrightly as we might expect. Scripture definitely pronounces it to be a serious sin, but to find this clearly spelt out, one must search the Bible carefully and prayerfully. For the most part, Scripture is content merely to condemn “sexual immorality” without specifying exactly which sexual acts fall under this black umbrella. In the original language, the broad term used is porneia. The word is found 25 times in the Greek New Testament. It could be that when speaking so strongly against porneia,the range of sexual sins God had in mind includes masturbation. But if we have to seek long and hard to be sure that in God’s eyes porneia includes premarital sex (and it certainly does), we have to go even further into the heart and mind of God to know whether it includes solitary sex.

As we saw with lesbianism, even under the Law, the only way to truly know right from wrong was through fellowship with God. Devout Jews, however, typically poured enormous effort into knowing the Word of God, but little into knowing the heart of God. They ended up knowing Scripture so well and understanding it so little that they could “prove” emphatically that the Son of God was guilty of blasphemy and that it was their holy duty to murder their Messiah.

The frightening thing is that most of us imagine we could never make the same mistake as the clean-living, Bible-revering, Christ-killing First Century theologians. Tragically, those devout murderers were equally certain they would never make the same mistake of their forefathers who murdered the prophets.

Every day, we walk though a spiritual minefield, foolishly unaware that at any moment just one false step could be disastrous. The entire Christian life must be lived in total dependence upon our Lord. We either cling to Christ, trusting him alone – not our intellect, knowledge and experience – or the consequences are unthinkable. The Limits of Logic

It is hard to resist the powerfully persuasive logic that says God gave us sex for marital union and that, like prostitution or bestiality, solitary sex must therefore be a perversion of God’s gift. But is this God’s logic? I dare not steer my life – much less the lives of others – while intoxicated by my supposed cleverness.

I have a deep distrust of human logic – be it the product of my intellect, or anyone else’s. Human attempts to fit together pieces of biblical revelation caused the greatest theologians and devout Jewish leaders to arrange the murder of their Messiah. Logic inspired Saul to conclude he was serving God by torturing Christians in the hope they would blaspheme the Son of God. Human logic might conclude that lust is morally harmless.

The biggest limitation of human reasoning is that we have at our disposal only a tiny fraction of the facts. Our understanding of human sexuality and of God’s purposes renders human attempts to see things God’s way like trying to see the picture in a million piece jigsaw when we have only a dozen pieces. When railing against masturbation, a respected Bible commentator’s attempt at logic fell to the ground because it was founded on the medical knowledge of yesteryear, which, like most things human, time has revealed to be inaccurate. Many of my own thoughts will fall if solitary sex does not program our sexual response to the extent that I believe it does, or if it turns out that God puts sexual self-stimulation in a totally different category to anything else to do with sex.

To illustrate the limitations of human reasoning, let’s delve deeper into the implications of applying human reasoning to an indisputable perversion: lesbianism. The Old Testament gets no closer to mentioning sexual relations between women than this:

Leviticus 18:22 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Everyone to whom the Old Covenant applied knew that when the Bible said anything about men, the statement often – but not always – applied with equal force to women. Who would be so stupid as to think that the Tenth Commandment – “you shall not covet your neighbour's wife” – means a woman is free to covet her neighbour's husband? In many Old Testament contexts, “man” simply means human. This is obvious from the very beginning of the Bible: Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In short, “ . . . God created man . . . male and female . . .” “Man” here clearly applies with equal force to both genders.

Nevertheless, the context sometimes indicates that the word is applied solely to males. So logic says, look at the context. And logic also says female sexuality and psychology are not entirely identical to that of males, and lesbianism involves different sexual acts to male homosexuality, so different rules might possibly apply. So let’s examine the context:

Leviticus 18:22-23 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

Oh dear! In the very next verse, when referring to bestiality, it is deemed necessary to specifically mention women. Logic would suggest that the omission of reference to women when forbidding same gender sex must have been very deliberate. The obvious conclusion is that it was omitted because lesbianism is deemed by God to be morally neutral. Even though I could argue against this on the basis of the apparently random way Old Testament laws sometimes specifically mention women and sometimes not, it is hard to resist the force of the logic that says lesbianism must be allowed by God. In other words, human reasoning – even when applied to the very Word of God – could cause someone to wander so far off track that they end up condoning perversion.

Christianity is not the product of human reasoning. It is the revelation of the most powerful Intellect in the universe – the God who made our brain cells. Christianity is not a vain attempt to use tiny human brains to guess the mind of Almighty God. True Christianity is about connecting to the God of the universe, the Designer of our bodies, the Creator of sex, and letting him reveal his ways, which are infinitely superior to our own, and letting him rule in our lives in the perfection of his love and wisdom.

I do not want to be so arrogant as to shatter the divine silence in Scripture by sounding off as if my presumptions were the Word of the Holy One to the entire body of Christ. Instead, I urge all Christians who imagine they have divine approval to indulge in any form of solo sex to get down on their knees and seek the face of God about this.

At times, Scripture gives us examples to help us grasp a divine principle and leaves it to us to connect the dots. For an obvious example, consider Exodus 23:4:

If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him.

Scripture says nothing about an enemy’s horse or sheep or finding his stolen computer. What if his house is on fire? What if he is sick and his crop needs harvesting? God obviously expects us to use our brains and extrapolate general principles from Scripture’s specific examples. Anyone having the attitude of avoiding only those things Scripture specifically names as forbidden, does not have a heart for God. More than once the Bible tells us to meditate upon Scripture and to discuss it with each other. Clearly, God expects us to think things through as we prayerfully pursue the mind of God.

I can by no means trust my finite intellect. Nevertheless, everything God does is perfectly rational and consistent. I would therefore need to be particularly cautious about any “guidance” that seems contrary to rational thought. This is especially so when on one side looms the danger of sexual perversion and on the other is merely the possibility of missing a little pleasure (and even the possibility of pleasure is doubtful, since solo sex seems to aggravate one’s frustration and the carrot of satisfaction it dangles before our eyes is largely an illusion). Add to this the fact that our natural tendency is to try to convince ourselves that self-indulgence is acceptable.

Furthermore, if solo sex is sin, the Evil One has a vested interest in deceiving us and he is not beyond giving supernatural “proof” to try to convince us that sin has divine approval. One would therefore need exceptionally clear guidance to go against rational thought and be certain that a decision in favour of Do-It-Yourself sex is not being influenced by our own cravings or by the cunning of the Enemy of our souls.

Hidden Agendas

I don’t think I’ve heard anyone preach more powerfully against sexual looseness. He kept it up year after year – until it was discovered that he visited prostitutes. I don’t believe his preaching was blatant hypocrisy. I suspect he was preaching at himself, trying to bolster his flagging resolve to fight temptation.

This raises two issues: whether we should have Bible teachers at all (we’ll address that shortly) and the distorting effect that personal experience has on one’s interpretation and exposition of Scripture.

Personal experience cannot change God’s truth, but it can hinder one from discovering the truth or from accurately conveying that truth to other people. Not even a genius can think straight about an activity that enslaves or entices him. Even people who are now free from a previous addiction often have clouded thinking. Ex-smokers, for instance, are legendary for the emotive way they react to people smoking in their presence.

Ideally, no one should be teaching about the morality of an action for whom it is an emotive subject. People yearning for a clear conscience while wanting to continue indulging themselves, or to keep questionable behavior as an emergency backup should their lives suddenly go haywire, will be strongly pressured to interpret the Bible in a way that justifies their secret longings. On the other hand, people wanting to argue the sinfulness of a behaviour, to bolster their fight against a habit, or fearing a return to the habit, will be pressured to come out strongly in the other direction, overstating their case and making loud noises like the evangelist just mentioned.

No one peering through the haze of guilt feelings, defeatism and fleshly cravings can hope to see clearly. If you have a vested interest in, for example, “discovering” that God approves of a particular behavior, try to approach the issue as if it means little to you personally. If you find yourself strongly drawn to something, try to approach your search for God’s will about it as if with a simple prayer you would never again feel the slightest inkling to have what you currently crave and that everything positive would remain untouched. In short, seek to be as neutral as you possibly can and fervently pray that our gracious Lord override the frightening possibilities of any lingering bias.

When seeking God on such issues, it is good to pray along these lines:

I come to you, the all-knowing Lord of the universe, seeking truth. I ask that in your mercy you lift from me legalism, fear of pleasure, worldliness, selfishness, undesirable cravings, a know-it-all attitude, and anything else that could fog my mind from detecting and delighting in your truth. Give me your heart so that I might be worthy to be given your mind on this important subject.

You are no killjoy, precious Lord. In the extravagance of your love and creative genius you have crafted for your children a stunning array of exquisite delights. Before sin’s pollution, when everything sparkled with your perfection and purity, pleasure was an integral part of the creation that you pronounced to be very good. But I know it is not good to be a slave to pleasure, nor to be defiled.

May I delight you and thank you by enjoying all the thrilling things you have lovingly planned for me. And may I avoid every treacherous imitation of eternal fulfilment; every enemy of lasting joy.

I can escape disaster and find truth only by you breaking my infatuation with sin. So cause me to be so in love with you that my highest joy is to see you honoured. I want to be so swept off my feet by the dazzling beauty of your holiness that I recoil in horror from the smog of the world; so captivated by the perfection of your ways that I would rather suffer a martyr’s death than experience the exquisite pleasures of sin.

I am surrounded by deadly traps – both satanically inspired license and equally satanic legalism. Only you can show me where the dangers lie. I cannot trust my own intellect nor even my conscience. As your Word says, “The heart is deceitful” (Jeremiah 17:9) . Open my eyes to the way you view my self-worth, my sexuality, and every other aspect of my being, so that I may be one with you on this vital issue. May your light burst through the fog of my upbringing, cravings, prejudices, fears, past experiences, faulty logic, lack of faith and whatever else could keep me from knowing and living your glorious truth.

When used as you intended, all of your gifts are perfect. May I not dishonour you by spurning your gifts, nor by misusing your priceless gifts. In your mercy, show me the difference between holy pleasure and Satan’s bait. Should We Even Have Bible Teachers and Bible Commentaries?

We have hinted at the dangers of Bible teachers influencing others while themselves driven by prejudices and inner turmoil. Another serious issue is teachers or preachers wanting to be seen as authorities on various issues. Ideally, we all should trash trying to sound authoritative and infallible, and instead seek the higher honour of pointing people to the Authority.

Matthew 23:10-12 Nor are you to be called “teacher,” for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Rather than seek to impose my personal views on anyone, I much prefer the undeserved privilege of being used of God to assist others in reaching their own, divinely-inspired convictions. A leader’s greatest joy should not be self-exaltation but, as it were, carrying people’s bags, while they pursue their own personal adventure in discovering the beautiful and perfect will of God.

But should we even have Bible teachers?

The role of Bible teachers is emphasized in the Old Testament. A powerful example is:

Nehemiah 8:7-8 The Levites . . . instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

Other Old Testament examples abound. I’ll limit myself to two more:

Leviticus 10:8,9,11 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons . . . must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses.

2 Chronicles 17:7-9 . . . [Jehoshaphat] sent his officials . . . to teach in the towns of Judah. With them were certain Levites . . . and the priests . . . They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD . . .

The role of teachers has not diminished under the New Covenant:

Matthew 28: 19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. . . .

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . .

Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers . . .

Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers

Colossians 1:28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Hebrews 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you . . . all over again. . . .

There are very many more New Testament references to the importance of Bible teaching.



The Importance of Bible Teaching

Deuteronomy 33:8,10,11 About [the priestly tribe of] Levi he said: “ . . . He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. Bless all his skills, O LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands. . . .”

Malachi 2:7 For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction – because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.

Matthew 23:34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

Acts 8:29-31 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?”

Acts 13:1 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers . . .

Acts 18:11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

Romans 12:6-7 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . . if it is teaching, let him teach 1 Timothy 4:6 . . . brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

1 Timothy 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

Titus 2:7 . . . In your teaching show integrity, seriousness

James 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Since our Lord has ordained that there be teachers in the body of Christ, it would be an insult to the wisdom of God to imply that we do not need them. This does not mean, however, that the Lord has given us teachers to indulge our laziness. We each have a responsibility to prayerfully seek truth and personally study God’s Word. Neither does the importance God places on teaching mean that everyone who assumes that role does so under God’s direction. Nor does it mean that sitting under teachers protects us from all error.

When someone we highly esteem knows the Bible thoroughly and deeply loves the Lord, it is hard to keep in mind that he/she can sometimes be mistaken. The reality, of course, is that nothing – not even the noblest assortment of gifts, graces and devotion – makes a person infallible. Just because a much loved Bible teacher is persuasively passionate about a subject does not, of itself, mean he/she is right, no matter how authoritative, how used of God or how much genuine revelation the person has received on other subjects.

On the other hand, we should not reject a certain understanding of Scripture just because people who are often wrong in their beliefs and/or behaviour happen to believe it.

We must neither blindly accept nor blindly reject a teaching on the basis of what others believe.

A Spiritual Law for Bible Interpretation

You reap what you sow. The measure with which you dish out is the measure used to pay back to you. Scripture uses many different expressions to describe this fundamental spiritual law that applies not just to money but to judging others and virtually every area of life. In fact, it seems to apply to the way we treat the Word of God. In reference to the attention given to Jesus’ teaching, we read:

Mark 4:24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. . . .”

Another way of describing this law is whoever is faithful in little will be given much.

The more faithful we are with God’s Word, the more divine revelation we will receive. There are two key areas in which Bible readers should display faithfulness:

1. Intense Effort to Understand

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Note how loving the Lord – the greatest command, taught Jesus – is linked not just to revering the Word, but to actively and habitually mentally processing it by discussing it, teaching it to your children and continually reminding yourself of it.

Consider the vast amount of time the Lord expects us to devote to studying and applying one’s mental powers to Scripture:

Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 119:97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

Psalm 119:148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. Why would the Lord put such emphasis upon devoting so much prayer, time, meditation and discussion to the Word if it is his intention to reveal truth to Christians no matter how lax they are?

Why did Jesus plead with us to ask, seek and knock? Because he felt like spouting some empty words or because of the grim truth that unless we do it we’ll miss out?

For three full weeks Daniel prayed and semi-fasted for divine revelation about the meaning of what, like the book of Revelation, is now part of Scripture. Who knows how long this determined man of God would have kept this up had the answer been further delayed? We might read, puzzle, and consult Bible commentaries but do we with steely resolve set ourselves to pray and fast for understanding of a passage of Scripture?

When we consider spiritual heroes who pressed on to great achievements in God despite immense opposition, do we think to include in our personal hall of fame those who, rather than leave a matter on the too hard shelf or settle for anything less than God’s best, wrestled in prayer until they received divine understanding of a portion of God’s Word?

2. Putting It Into Practice

In addition to being faithful in intensive, prayerful study, we must be faithful with what we do with the knowledge gained. In any course of study, there is no point in undertaking more advanced studies if you have not mastered the basic lessons. Why should God reveal new truths to someone who is not even applying what God has already revealed to him? Master what you have so far received by living the truths you know and you will be given new truths.

Under the Old Covenant, each king was to have not just his own personal copy of Scripture, but: Deuteronomy 17:19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees (Emphasis mine). He was to read the Bible “all the days of his life,” not for mental stimulation or religious ritual but for the highly practical purpose of applying it to his life and living it daily.

Again we read:

Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Matthew 7:26-27 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash (Emphasis mine)

If a doctor prescribes medication, you can study the directions on the label, religiously read them three times a day and memorize them word perfect, but all your effort will achieve nothing unless you actually follow those directions and consume the medication as instructed.

If we are faithful in devoting time and prayerful effort into Bible study and faithful in prayerfully seeking to live what God is revealing to us, then we can expect our revelation to be continually expanding.

Soaring to a New Level

One cannot find love, joy or goodness by scientific analysis. Neither can one find spiritual truth by intellectual analysis.

Limit yourself to studying a painting with an electron microscope or X-ray machine and you might pride yourself in going far deeper into the painting than the average person but you will completely miss what the artist intended to convey. Similarly, if you limit yourself to the tools of Bible academics you might pride yourself in your great knowledge, but you will completely miss the message God wants to convey.

To explode to new heights in biblical revelation we need an invasion of the supernatural that hinges on us praying along the following lines. It is worded to help us glimpse the breath-taking beauty and wonder and joy of our calling.

Lord,

Like a finger on a hand, I was created to be in exquisite union with you. As a body needs its head, only with you am I complete. You are my love, my life, my joy, my hope. Only with you can I soar to my glorious potential. Without you I am pathetic. With you I am everything. So keep me ever mindful of my glorious dependence upon you. May I not frustrate myself, harming my Christ-bought potential for eternal greatness, by trying to see, be or do things without you. In you I am free.

Only you can open my eyes to the spirit realm as you did to Elisha’s servant who suddenly saw the so-close but invisible armies of God (2 Kings 6:17). Likewise, only you can open my eyes to the exciting mysteries in your Word.

I thrill in the knowledge that because of Jesus’ priceless sacrifice I have the mind of Christ and am indwelt by your very Spirit. Nevertheless, I shudder to consider how little this is so far manifested in my life and thinking. I beg you to deal with everything within me – most of which I am probably not even aware of – that is refusing to let you rule in me in the powerful, non-human way that you long to operate.

I can understand your truth only to the degree that I have your heart. Only when your beauty becomes part of my lifestyle can I hope to appreciate the beauty of your ways. That necessitates letting you rip everything ungodly from my life. I know I must abandon the soft life and embrace the way of the cross. I am scared about what that might entail but it is the only way to the abundant life that you freely offer. You alone are the God of all comfort. Any other apparent source of comfort is a vapour that will turn to poison.

Not only are you passionately and selflessly devoted to my eternal welfare (as demonstrated by Christ crucified), you alone have infinite knowledge of the past, present and future and can match that with infinite wisdom. Like a fish out of water, so am I when I’m out of your will. Help get this critical truth into my head. Etch it into my brain.

Like the ugly duckling discovering he is a beautiful swan, so I am discovering my true identity whenever I find in your Word more of how you want me to live. I am only fully alive, achieving my highest when, empowered by your Spirit, I am living your glorious Word.

To shrink from your liberating truth is like a shivering child fearing warmth, and yet too often this is how I live. Not to obey your commands is like money never spent, food never eaten, warm baths of pleasure never luxuriated in. Change my whole way of thinking that I might continually relish discovering and doing your will. To see as you do, I must, as it were, see through tear-filled eyes at a God-hating world. Fill me with compassion for those who despise me. Make my heart tender.

I must take on your nature or I will always find bewilderingly incompatible your love and wrath, your mercy and judgments, and so many other aspects of your perfection. Either I yield to your longing to make me pure, selfless and righteous, or else biblical concepts like turning the other cheek, it being more blessed to give than to receive, and so much else will seem nonsensical to me. Without your holy, eternal perspective, I’ll never understand even fellow humans like the apostle Paul who, despite horrific torture and deprivations, kept talking of joy and “light, momentary” afflictions so inconsequential as to be beneath attempting a comparison with future glories.

As I’ll never see what lies ahead unless I keep moving forward, so I’ll languish in ignorance unless I’m daily living more and more of your Word.

As a vine bursts into seasons of fruitfulness only if it endures times when it seems nothing but a dry, twisted stick, so I must persevere, seeking your face and reading your precious Word no matter how dry it sometimes seems. May I cherish your word more than a starving man with his last crumbs.

Keep prodding me to courageously press against the tide of popular thinking – even popular Christian thinking – whenever it clashes with your full and glorious truth. Break me out of the straight jacket of human thinking so that I might soar with you. Stop me from swallowing half-truths. Take me way beyond my natural intellect and morality. Give me no peace while I’m content to settle for second best. One by one, expose my blind spots and deal with everything within me that saddens you. Don’t let me get away living a shallow life. May my every moment bring you joy. May I give you my best and receive your best.

I can do none of this alone – and I thank you that I don’t have to – but in your love for me you wait for me to cooperate. And in my love for you I want to dedicate to you my every effort. I yield to you, like a brush to the artist, like a drowning person to his rescuer, like a lover to caresses.

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