I first began to write this during my flight from Chicago to San Francisco on my way home from London in 2015
What a fantastic trip to England! I was able to reconnect with some dear friends in Bromley (one of the 33 boroughs of London) and enjoy exploring London and Canterbury. I’m a total church history and historical theology geek so it was like a week of Heaven. This might seem like a strange way to introduce the above noted topic, but I did that on purpose.
I can honestly tell you that I enjoyed every single minute of my trip - well, other than the fiascos I faced at three of my four airports that day (Heathrow, O’Hare, and SFO) - and that my enjoyment was very important to God. Maybe that’s a strange thing for you to hear. Perhaps you’ve grown up in a church that emphasizes nothing of God’s delight in His people. I want to tell you right now that if you’re in Christ, the Father delights greatly in you. Don’t believe me? Read Zephaniah 3:17. That is one of the most amazing verses in all of the Bible.
I dare you to read that verse and then tell me that God does not delight in you or care about your joy. All throughout the Bible we read about God as a father, delighting in and rejoicing over His covenant people.
I’m writing this because I sincerely believe that many of us who are Christians live under a burden that has been placed upon us by the enemy of our souls, and that burden is a constant, underlying sense that God is not happy with us. I know that I have struggled with this for most of my Christian life, and that it is a crushing burden at times. It can quickly and easily suck the joy out of even the best day. If you and I do not know deep down that our Father is happy with us and that He delights in us because we have been accepted by Him in His Son (Ephesians 1:6) we will spend our days in introspection and self-condemnation. I can tell you from personal experience that this leads to despair and hopelessness.
So why do we walk around, carrying this heavy burden of shame? I believe it has to do, at least in part, with the fact that it is so difficult for us to reconcile the twin facts that God is infinitely Holy and that we have been corrupted by sin. I know that God sees every thought, every intent of the heart, every bad attitude, every action, etc, and I start to freak out. How could He not be angry with me when I’m so full of sin? I echo the words of our brother, the Apostle Paul, when he said,
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14-25).
Let that paragraph of Scripture really hit you and sink in deeply. Paul laments the fact that he finds himself constantly doing what he does not want to do (sin) and not doing what he wants to do (walk in holiness). Do you ever feel this way? I know I do. I love the Lord and sincerely desire to walk in a manner pleasing to Him, to serve Him, to keep Him and His Kingdom first and foremost in my life. But so often I find myself falling back into old sinful patterns of thinking, behavior, treating others without love, being selfish rather than others centered, etc.
Next time, we'll continue this thought and finish up with another look at the Good News.