The Spiritual Practice of “It Could Have Been Worse”… 40 Day
Journey with Martin Luther – Day 29 – Purity 1302
Purity 1302 03/18/2024 Purity 1302 Podcast
Purity 1302 on YouTube: Coming Soon!
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun’s light emerging through the
cloud-filled blue sky over an otherwise unremarkable and perhaps bleak late winter/early
spring upstate NY landscape comes to us from yours truly as I capture this
scene from the clearing at the end of “Freedom Road” last Wednesday.
Well, It’s Monday and while today’s photo may not
look like much I took it because I was thanking God for the mild winter we have
had thus far in both the “real upstate” and my place down by the River, knowing
that it didn’t necessarily have to be this way and while we may have had a lot
of rain over the last couple of weeks, I have thanked God for that too because I
know it could have been snow!
That’s the spiritual practice of “it could have been
worse” coupled with gratitude that can cause a low mood to be raised to
baseline contentment if not raised to the heights of joy. “It’s grey and raining! Isn’t this great!!!” It’s better than it could have been because
it could have been worse, and I have lived through days when it has been worse –
which I survived through, mind you, thank you Lord, and so I will rejoice… I will
rejoice and be glad!
The state of the weather doesn’t have to affect the
state of our minds if it can be seen from its proper perspective. Circumstances don’t give us peace or joy. True
joy and peace are fruit of the Spirit and so they only come through abiding with
and following the Lord, so walk in it.
It just happens to be the season to walk with the
Lord – to repent and believe in the gospel – it’s the season of Lent, and
speaking of Lent…
It’s the twenty-ninth day of Lent and so we continue
my personal walkthrough of Gracia Grindal’s 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther
to observe and celebrate the Lenten season.
In this walkthrough of Grindal’s devotional, it is our hope that we will get to know
Martin Luther a little better as we seek to draw closer to the Lord on our
journey to Resurrection Sunday – Easter.
And so we continue.
“Journey
Day 29
May
your kingdom come.
How
does this come about?
Whenever
our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through his grace we
believe his Holy Word and live godly lives here in time and hereafter in
eternity.
(God)
desires nothing more from us than that we ask many and great things of him.
And, on the contrary, he is angered if we do not ask and demand with
confidence. Imagine if the richest and most powerful emperor commanded a poor
beggar to ask for whatever he might desire and was prepared to give lavish,
royal gifts, and the full asked only for a dish of beggar’s broth. He would
rightly be considered a rogue and a scoundrel, who had made a mockery of the
imperial majesty’s command and was unworthy to come into his presence. Just so,
it is a great reproach and dishonor to God if we, to whom he offers and pledges
so many inexpressible blessings, despise them or lack confidence that we shall
receive them and scarcely venture to ask for a morsel of bread.
Biblical Wisdom
Do
not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that
do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and
no moth destroys. Luke 12:32-33.
Silence for Meditation.
Questions to Ponder
· Why
is it “a great reproach and dishonor to God” when we “lack confidence” that God
will provide for us and fail to ask for all that we are commanded to ask for?
It’s a great reproach and dishonor to God when we
lack confidence that He will provide for us or fail to ask Him for all that we
are commanded to ask for because it shows a lack of trust and faith in Him to provide
for us or to bless us. While I can
understand the hesitancy to make “prosperity gospel prayers” and to put all of
our faith in receiving their fulfillment, God does not want us living in the
fear that we won’t be provided for or to doubt that He can’t or won’t bless us
with good things in life. When I was picking
up the pieces of a life broken by divorce I would have been content with a “shack”
for a new home and confessed as much to my pastor at the time, Jaron Halsted, professing
that I didn’t need anything fancy and that I could be content with a “dump”. To
which Jaron corrected me about being specific in prayer and to trust God for
good things by simply stating “If you pray for a dump, you’re going to get a
dump.” So trust the Lord to provide and
ask for good things, because my prayers for a good house that would meet my family’s
needs (and not be a dump), came my way and it just happened to be the first
real estate transaction that any of the agents sitting around the closing table
had in the early days of emerging from the pandemic in 2020… God is good so ask
Him for good things.
· Jesus
speaks of the Father’s “good pleasure”? Luther talks about God’s anger. How would you put these two emotions together
in your picture of God?
God is complex, surprise… He is, but seriously, God
is holy, and His “good pleasure” is to bless those who seek to know Him and who
honor Him with their love and obedience. However, God has given us the free will to choose
to reject Him and live contrary to His word – to be rebellious and to do evil
in the sight of the Lord. We are free to do that, but a just and Holy God can
and will make us accountable for the things we say and do that go against His
purposes. His anger is an appropriate
response to the evil rebellion that some of His creatures freely choose to live
in and thus we can know God by His “good pleasure” or by His anger, it depends
on our understanding of and relationship with Him.
· Why
is the beggar who demurs from asking God for anything not living a “godly
life”?
A beggar who demurs from asking God for anything is
not living a “godly life” because He is not trusting God and not giving himself
completely to God by refusing to be “obligated” to the Lord for the things God
provides. By asking for just enough we limit our relationship with God, we are
not putting our whole heart in our trust of the Lord, or we are living in
disbelief – we don’t think God can do it. Also if the beggar receives an abundance,
he may feel obligated to surrender to the Lord abundantly and so he holds
himself back and is not “godly”.
Psalm Fragment
O
taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. O fear
the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. The young
lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm
34:8-10.
Journal Reflections
· Reflect
on a time when you acted more like the poor beggar in your relationship with
God, asking only for a little when you really wanted much more. Why did you
refrain from asking more?
As I stated above when talking about praying for a
new home in 2020, I was being beggarly. I was looking at houses that were “dumps” and
was ready to buy one but was saved by a wake-up call from the Lord who used my
pastor, a building inspector, and common sense to think and pray again. I
wanted more but didn’t think I was worthy or able to get something good. But God used my hard work and willingness to “go
and see” the house in Stuyvesant that didn’t look so good online only to
discover much to my delight – that “this could work!!!” and then had the Lord
confirm to me in prayer that “This is the place – and this will happen,” So don’t refrain from asking for more, the Lord
wants to bless those who follow Him and you never know what you can receive
unless you ask God to help you. So ask and receive, knock and let the door be
opened to what God has for you.
· Meditate
on your image of God and how that affects your prayer life.
The image of God… Getting “an image” of the Father
or Holy Spirit can be difficult – they are Spirit after all, but that doesn’t stop
me from speaking to them. The best image of God is to imagine Jesus and the
picture of Him that is painted in the pages of the Bible – the same goes for
the Father and the Holy Spirit of course. It is the robust picture I get from
Scripture of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit that informs me about God
and drives me to trust Him and to follow His will for my life. God of course is
real and active in the world and in my life specifically and it is through all
of this that I love God and go to Him in “prayer” and walk and talk with Him,
literally, every day.
· Does
it surprise you that your failure to ask for everything from God is a reproach
or dishonoring of God? If so, reflect on how you might learn to honor God by
presuming more from God.
This does surprise me a little I suppose. We think that God wants us to be humble and
content but our failure to ask God for more could be seen as our not trusting
Him to provide for or bless us… So let’s trust Him and ask Him to bless our
socks off! He has already blessed us by saving former sinners like us, we are
saints now. so why not see what else the
Lord has in store and ask for more?
Prayers for the Life of Faith
Think
of some things you have wanted from God but did not dare ask for. Think of
another who might also have the same timidity. Pray that you both will be given
the grace to overcome your fear.
Lord,
I have dared not to ask You to bless my ministry or to provide me with a full-time
ministry that would allow me to retire from my current day job and spend my
work hours in service of You but I am now asking You to supernaturally bless me
with that now, In Jesus name. I also pray
for my brother in Christ, Rafe, that you would bless his heart’s desire to have
a business that will provide for Him and that would give you glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer For Today
Good
and gracious Lord, you are rich and I am poor. Send your Holy Spirit to
befriend me so that I dare to come to you and ask for all things.
Amen.
(Gracia M. Grindal. 40-day
Journey With Martin Luther. Kindle Edition.
(We encourage you to purchase Grindal’s book and
take the 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther for yourself by purchasing Grindal’s
book wherever books are sold. You can find it online at many different sites
and purchase it new, used – paper or electronic for less than $15.00).
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Contentment, Coveting
& and Priorities.
Proverbs 23:4-5 (ESV)
4 Do not toil to acquire
wealth; be discerning enough to desist.
5 When your eyes light on it,
it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.
Today’s
verses are the first of three passages of scripture that fall under the fifteenth
point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Contentment, Coveting, and
Priorities.
15. Don’t wear yourself out to get rich.
Today’s
verses teach the truth about the ability for wealth to leave us as quickly as
it comes. In my life, I have had times when an abundance of financial windfalls
has come my way only to see those funds vanish into the ether as my spending or
unforeseen expenses made the money “fly out of my pockets”!
So don’t
toil for riches because they don’t ultimately satisfy us and unless you submit to
the Lord and be a good steward of your finances, the money you gain today will
be flying away like an eagle toward heaven tomorrow.
———————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.
EVENING READING: LUKE 18
“See, we have left all and followed
You.”
– Luke 18:28
Peter must have had a poor conception of his Lord when he
said these words. No doubt, the words were true enough, humanly speaking. But
when compared to the preciousness of the blessed Lord, such words should never
have been uttered. “We have left all.” What was the all anyway, when compared
with “all the spiritual blessings … in Christ” (Eph. 1:3, KJV)? He obviously
had not risen to the experience of the apostle Paul when he could say: “I count
all things … as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). Or again, “My God
shall supply all your need” (Phil. 4:19).
O Lord, grant that I shall never
consider
that I have given anything up for You.
For You have become ALL the world to me.[1]
—————————more
tomorrow————————
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional
Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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