Archives – April, 2010
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
Isaiah 26:3-4
Most kind and trustworthy Father, you haven’t promised me a storm-less, hassle-free disappointment-empty life. You offer me no formulas for decreasing the probability of sad things happening around me or disillusioning things happening to me. But you have promised me something that transcends the chaos and fear of uncertainty.
Father, you’ve promised to keep me in perfect peace, in the midst of whatever happens. O, how I treasure the promise of being kept by you. For there are times I simply cannot keep myself… I have no boot straps to pull up… no magic happy pill to take… no fix-it button to push. Thank you for being a Father who will never forget or abandon your children… who will never forget or abandon me.
And how I praise you for the promise of being kept, not just in peace… but in perfect peace… as I mind and mine your trustworthy-ness. For you are the LORD—the eternal Rock that is higher than me… the Rock of refuge… the Rock of ages! This leads me to cry out for greater steadfastness of mind… for more gospel-sanity… for more power to bring my wandering, distractible, unbelieving thoughts into captivity to you.
Yet I will not despair when I am weak in concentration and focus. Indeed, Father, you’re not calling me to trust in my ability to trust, but to trust in you… in yourtrustworthy-ness, not in my trust-ability. For you’ve even promised your children a peace that passes… surpasses… even by-passes all understanding. Hallelujah!
What a God you are! There is none like you, Father, no not one! How great are your mercies… how profound your kindnesses… how more-than-sufficient your grace! So very Amen, I pray, in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace… the basis and bounty of all my peace.
April 30, 2010
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. Psalm 19:7-10
Dear heavenly Father, apart from the gospel, there’s no way I would be able to join King David in singing this robust praise-song about loving your law. Indeed, if Jesus hadn’t offered his law-keeping as my own, and if he hadn’t taken my law-breaking as his own, I would not be singing, I would be despairing.
For apart from the gospel, the law didn’t revive me, it condemned me. Apart from the gospel, it didn’t give joy to my heart, it brought terror to my soul. Apart from the gospel, the law wasn’t like the sunshine lighting my way, it was like a searchlight exposing my sin.
The law didn’t lead me to fear you with an affectionate reverence, but to beafraid of you with a guilty conscience. Apart from the gospel, I didn’t value the law like precious gold, I avoided it like a deadly plague. It wasn’t sweeter than honey from the comb, but more bitter than zest from a lemon.
O, but Father, when the law drove me to Jesus—when you gave me faith to trust Jesus as my forgiveness and my righteousness, everything began to change. I’m now learning to love your law… as Fatherly instruction to his beloved children—as a revelation of the good, the true and the beautiful,NOT as a formula for merit, acceptance and favor. What a difference… what a life-giving liberty-fueling difference!
Father, may the gospel continue to free me from “cheap-grace” which ignores your law, and from grace-less legalism which ignores your Son. I want to continue growing in the obedience of faith and love… until the Day when Jesus, who has perfectly fulfilled the law for me, perfectly fulfills the law in me. So very Amen, I pray, in His holy and loving name.
April 29, 2010
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers… Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Most holy and gracious Father, like every day, this day begins with the bodacious promise of your steadfast love and new mercies for me. Yet I am still foolish enough, at times, to look for some generating basis… some causal motivation… some rooted explanation in me for why you love me as much as you love any and all of your people. Here my cry for mercy…
Where do these moments of temporary insanity come from? Why in the world do I have days when I think there’s something I can do to prompt you to love me and stimulate you to even greater affection?
Isn’t it because I want to manipulate and control you? Isn’t it because I want less mystery and more predictability in my walk with you? Isn’t it because I’d rather spend the Monopoly money of self-salvation than declare my real bankruptcy? Isn’t it because I’d rather work my way out of guilt than be shut up to sheer grace? Isn’t it because I want to make you responsible for my bad days and hard circumstances? Isn’t it because I want to justify my critical attitude towards other less-disciplined more-irresponsible people? Oh, how much I need the gospel, today and every day…
Indeed, Father, all day long, I will rehearse this good, humbling and liberating news. You have set… settled… secured your affection on me NOT because of anything in me… not because of anything I have done, do or ceased doing. You have chosen me not because I am choice, but simply because you have chosen to redeem and restore me for your glory. It’s only because of your covenantal faithfulness-promises you have made that you alone can keep, that I have the absolute assurance that I am loved with your everlasting unwavering love.
The only mirror I want to consistently stand in front of is the mirror of your Word, where I behold Jesus, the author and perfecter of my salvation. For Jesus is your “Yes!” to every promise you have made on my behalf. So very Amen, I pray, in His matchless and merciful name.
April 28, 2010
A Prayer About MY Sickness
Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17
Most persistent and loving Lord Jesus, it occurs to me today that I often read this text looking in the rear view mirror, as though I no longer need your medicinal doctor-ly care… as though I used to be a big sinner that needed the great physician to heal me, but no longer. Oh, how I wish that was the whole diagnosis.
Hear me shout for joy and watch me dance with glee… I am thrilled that you’ve already given me the perfect and permanent “health” of justification. I cannot and will never be more justified than I already am in you, Jesus. I’ve been completely healed of my cancerous and condemning guilt. The gospel is my declaration of a clean bill of righteousness-health. In that sense, I am no longer a sick sinner… but only in that sense.
For the more I see of you, Jesus, the more of your beauty I behold in the Scriptures, the more I realize I have congenital heart disease. I am a sick man that needs a mighty and merciful Physician. So I come before you today acknowledging my sin-sickness that you alone can heal.
Jesus, as you have freed me from the guilt of my sin, please heal me of the shame of my sin. I still battle with the disease of shame, and it often paralyzes me. I cannot love others as you love me while thinking about me and my brokenness too much of the time. I’m not asking for greater self-esteem, but for the health of loving well.
Jesus, you have freed me from the penalty of my sin, please heal me of the power of sin at work in my thinking, emotions and choosing. I’m not a victim making excuses, but your beloved crying for greater gospel-health.
Heal my thinking from the ever-present disease of unbelief. Heal my emotions from the disease of self-interest. I want godly anger, not destructive pouting. I want gospel joy, not circumstantial happiness. I want sadness born from a heart of mercy, not melancholy born from simply not getting my way. Heal my choosing from the disease of stubbornness. Jesus, may your will be my bread, and your grace my potion, and your glory my portion. So very Amen, I pray, in your holy and healing name.
Scotty Smith
Pastor for Preaching, Teaching and Worship
Christ Community Church
1215 Hillsboro Rd.
Franklin, TN 37069
615-468-2230
It’s good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9
April 27, 2010
A Prayer About Depression
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 43:5
Most gracious and kindhearted Father, my heart goes out and my prayers reach up today on behalf of those who struggle with various degrees of depression. There are people I deeply care about who live all along the axis of mild seasonal melancholy to the relentless pangs of suicidal depression.
Father of mercies and God of all comfort, lead me in my praying and my caring for this wide range of friends. Thank you for rescuing me from a way too simplistic view of depression by which I used to judge those who experience darkness and despair of soul. It saddens me to realize the pressure I put on people to get better… to “get over it”… and just to be happy.
But David asked the right question, Father—the question I want to ask as I seek to love well. What are the various reasons for a downcast disturbed soul, and what does hoping in you look like for each?
Father, for my friends who are depressed for no other reason than living with a grace-less gospel-less heart… keep them miserable until they rest in the finished work of your Son, Jesus. May they despair of their own unrighteousness and their wanna-be-righteousness, until they are driven to the righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus.
Father, for my friends who suffer from depression generated by anatomical anomalies, lead them to the right kind of medical care. And help us in the community of faith be patient and understanding of the complexities involved in their care. The risk of abusing “meds” is always there… give us wisdom together.
Father, for my friends who suffer from demonic induced depression… I really need humility and wisdom about this one. A part of me doesn’t even want to acknowledge this is a viable issue, but how can I read your Word and dismiss the demonic so lightly? I know his condemning… blaming and shaming voice is enough to generate the deepest forms of despair. But teach me more about the “schemes of the enemy,” and how to care for those under the spell and sway of the “defeated-yet-fury-filled” one, who knows “his time is short.” (Revelation 12:12)
I do and I will yet praise you, my Savior and my God. My hope is in you, Father—for me and for all of my broken-hearted friends. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ compassionate and victorious name.
Scotty Smith
Pastor for Preaching, Teaching and Worship
Christ Community Church
1215 Hillsboro Rd.
Franklin, TN 37069
615-468-2230
It’s good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9
April 26, 2010
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