Ask, Seek, Knock
I love it when God weaves different sources together to impress something on my heart. I have just finished reading chapter 11 of Yancey's book and the first two chapters of a book by C. J. Mahaney, "Humility: True Greatness." In addition to my reading, the theme of my pastor's sermon this weekend is fresh in my mind.
Our pastor talked about hate this weekend. Not in the usual sense of hate being bad. He talked about things God hates and invited the congregation to consider whether or not we hate what God hates. It is impossible to embrace or excuse what God hates and also love God as we are commanded by God's Word.
Proverbs 6:
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
I'm not real comfortable with anger, let alone hate. It feels wrong to hate. But God hates. He is not just a God of love. He is a loving, merciful God of justice and judgment. He will right all wrongs in the end.
Yancey writes, in chapter 11, "Justice will surely reign one day. Appearing this time in power and great glory, the Son of Man has pledged to turn the tables on this violent planet, righting every wrong and restoring the world to what God intended: a world without unjust judges and neglected widows; without any poverty, or death, suffering, or rebellion. Until that future day, some will be tempted to doubt, to disbelieve in God completely or to see God as a merciless judge." When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Will my faith be tangible? Do I hate what God hates? Do I look the other way when innocent people are harmed? Do I stand against injustice, hating it as God hates it? Do my choices and actions -- or lack of actions -- condone anything that God hates? Do I tolerate or excuse in myself any of the things God hates? These are questions we cannot afford to ignore.
Yancey focuses in chapter 11 on persistence demonstrating the genuine desire for change. He writes, "Although I bring my honest concerns to God, over time I may come away with an entirely different set of concerns. When Peter went on a roof to pray (Acts 10), he was mainly thinking about food. Little did he know that he would descend from the roof convicted of racism and legalism. In persistent prayer, my own desires and plans gradually harmonize with God's."
Further down on the page, he quotes Simone Weil, asking the question, "Isn't it the greatest possible disaster, when you are wrestling with God, not to be beaten?"
"Jacob the cheat walked cockily on two good legs; Israel limped into history as the father of nations. The real value of persistent prayer is not so much that we get what we want as that we become the person we should be."
I love the picture he painted of humility accompanying greatness in God. And then I picked up Mahaney's book, Humility.
In the first chapter, Mahaney explains that, contrary to popular belief, it is not "those who help themselves" whom God helps. "It's those who humble themselves." And then he addresses "The Perils of Pride" in chapter two. He quotes the same passage my pastor quoted this weekend about the things God hates; "haughty eyes" heading up the list.
Proverbs 16:5: "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished." Mahaney writes, "Stronger language for sin simply cannot be found in Scripture."
Mahaney explains that a biblical definition of pride's essence is "contending for supremacy with God, and lifting up our hearts against Him." He tells how he began to adopt this definition of pride after he came to realize that, to some degree, he had grown unaffected by pride in his life. He confessed pride, but he explains that he was not sufficiently convicted of it. So rather than just confessing to God that he was proud in a situation, he learned to say, "Lord...with that attitude and that action, I was contending for supremacy with You." When we seek self-glorification, we rob God of His legitimate glory.
"No wonder God opposes pride. No wonder he hates pride. Let that truth sink into your thinking."
And then Mahaney asks the reader: "What do you hate?" He lists a few of the things he hates and then follows his list with, "You and I hate nothing to the degree that God hates pride. His hatred for pride is pure, and His hatred is holy."
Pride is at the core of all sin. And the issue, according to Mahaney, is "not if pride exists in your heart; it's where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life. Scripture shows us that pride is strongly and dangerously rooted in all our lives, far more than most of us care to admit or even think about."
It struck me, as I contemplated the different ways God focused my attention on hating what He hates, that this is a sin I have to hate in myself. But before I can hate it, I have to recognize that it's there.
Our pastor talked about hate this weekend. Not in the usual sense of hate being bad. He talked about things God hates and invited the congregation to consider whether or not we hate what God hates. It is impossible to embrace or excuse what God hates and also love God as we are commanded by God's Word.
Proverbs 6:
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
I'm not real comfortable with anger, let alone hate. It feels wrong to hate. But God hates. He is not just a God of love. He is a loving, merciful God of justice and judgment. He will right all wrongs in the end.
Yancey writes, in chapter 11, "Justice will surely reign one day. Appearing this time in power and great glory, the Son of Man has pledged to turn the tables on this violent planet, righting every wrong and restoring the world to what God intended: a world without unjust judges and neglected widows; without any poverty, or death, suffering, or rebellion. Until that future day, some will be tempted to doubt, to disbelieve in God completely or to see God as a merciless judge." When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Will my faith be tangible? Do I hate what God hates? Do I look the other way when innocent people are harmed? Do I stand against injustice, hating it as God hates it? Do my choices and actions -- or lack of actions -- condone anything that God hates? Do I tolerate or excuse in myself any of the things God hates? These are questions we cannot afford to ignore.
Yancey focuses in chapter 11 on persistence demonstrating the genuine desire for change. He writes, "Although I bring my honest concerns to God, over time I may come away with an entirely different set of concerns. When Peter went on a roof to pray (Acts 10), he was mainly thinking about food. Little did he know that he would descend from the roof convicted of racism and legalism. In persistent prayer, my own desires and plans gradually harmonize with God's."
Further down on the page, he quotes Simone Weil, asking the question, "Isn't it the greatest possible disaster, when you are wrestling with God, not to be beaten?"
"Jacob the cheat walked cockily on two good legs; Israel limped into history as the father of nations. The real value of persistent prayer is not so much that we get what we want as that we become the person we should be."
I love the picture he painted of humility accompanying greatness in God. And then I picked up Mahaney's book, Humility.
In the first chapter, Mahaney explains that, contrary to popular belief, it is not "those who help themselves" whom God helps. "It's those who humble themselves." And then he addresses "The Perils of Pride" in chapter two. He quotes the same passage my pastor quoted this weekend about the things God hates; "haughty eyes" heading up the list.
Proverbs 16:5: "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished." Mahaney writes, "Stronger language for sin simply cannot be found in Scripture."
Mahaney explains that a biblical definition of pride's essence is "contending for supremacy with God, and lifting up our hearts against Him." He tells how he began to adopt this definition of pride after he came to realize that, to some degree, he had grown unaffected by pride in his life. He confessed pride, but he explains that he was not sufficiently convicted of it. So rather than just confessing to God that he was proud in a situation, he learned to say, "Lord...with that attitude and that action, I was contending for supremacy with You." When we seek self-glorification, we rob God of His legitimate glory.
"No wonder God opposes pride. No wonder he hates pride. Let that truth sink into your thinking."
And then Mahaney asks the reader: "What do you hate?" He lists a few of the things he hates and then follows his list with, "You and I hate nothing to the degree that God hates pride. His hatred for pride is pure, and His hatred is holy."
Pride is at the core of all sin. And the issue, according to Mahaney, is "not if pride exists in your heart; it's where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life. Scripture shows us that pride is strongly and dangerously rooted in all our lives, far more than most of us care to admit or even think about."
It struck me, as I contemplated the different ways God focused my attention on hating what He hates, that this is a sin I have to hate in myself. But before I can hate it, I have to recognize that it's there.
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