Healing Takes Action

Review

Returning to our Philippians series on June 27th. Matt is preaching next week, and then we’ll pick up right where we left off in Philippians.

Grief is not optional. It’s not just about death… It’s about loss.

If we choose not to grieve, or to speed through it, we will reap sinful consequences.

Hope must be Held Onto

Christian Grief Remembers Hope

Hope has a healing factor

The Hope of Jesus carries us through life’s most difficult trials.

I Must Heed God’s Word

Let’s take a look at the words of Jesus.

Matthew 4:4 ESV

But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Jesus is telling us right here that our deepest needs can’t be found on Maslow’s Hierarchy. Even more than a good diet and nutrition, we need Jesus. What He’s also telling us is that we are not limited by the material needs of our bodies. Rather, we are made for so much more.

That’s when He brings up the fact that we must live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

FROM… GOD

The object at hand is the Word of God. It’s important to start with that definition before we go any further. Everyone who’s been around church for a while should know right offhand what Jesus means here. He’s speaking of the Word of God as in Scripture. Scripture, the Bible, is the Word of God.

When Jesus was speaking, there was yet to be a New Testament, but the Old Testament, Jesus affirmed over and over again as Scripture.

LIVE BY

Then, the next thing I want us to look at is this idea of living by the Word of God. This is your most vital sustenance, Christian. It’s not the pork chop you had for dinner last night. It’s not the crockpot you’ll dip out of after service today. It’s His Word. That is what sustains your living being as a Christian.

EVERY

In saying that we are to live on every word, Jesus is telling you and me that there is no word which comes from God that is not life-giving and vital to the Christian. As a matter of fact, ALL of God’s Word is what we are to live by. We don’t pick-and-choose the Scriptures we live by. Rather, we submit all of us to all of God.

Now, understand when I say that we submit to all of God’s Word, there’s a caveat there. There are certain things in the Old Covenant that are no longer directly applicable to believers in Christ. That was a covenant for another time. That’s why I could mention eating a pork chop just a moment ago. We were given freedom in Christ in regard to certain Laws in the Old Testament. With the price of beef being so high, praise God for pork.

But back to the point… Understanding that we are to live in submission to God’s Word is vital. It’s not an option. If we are to seek God in the midst of troubling times, we must see what His Word has to say to our situations! And it does have much to say about our situations.

I Must Not Be Passive

Isaiah 40:31 ESV

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

One of last week’s scriptures. To be sure, this is NOT merely a passive verse. Our waiting upon the Lord ENABLES us to active pursuit.

In Scripture, there’s this tension between accepting our circumstances and taking godly action that we must walk in.

The question often comes up: “How much is God responsible for, and how much am I responsible for?” The answer is, “Yes.” God is sovereign, and you are responsible for your actions. Both can be true. It’s not either-or. It’s both-and. Sure, it’s a mystery. Sure it makes your eyes twitch. But when we look at Scripture, notice how much God’s Word tells us about waiting on Him… And just as much, notice how the Bible exhorts us to do things that honor God.

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

This is an active obedience of deciding to follow God. It’s a command. It’s not passive, it’s how we ought to orient our lives. The reason I bring this up is because oftentimes, when we undergo grief, or anything that causes us to lose heart, we find ourselves in a very passive state. And we have to remind ourselves that even in the midst of a trial, we are to be actively obedient.

So find ways to engage in obedience, even in the midst of sorrow. You may only be able to engage in small acts of obedience. That’s okay, God understands where your heart is. Those small steps of obedience in the midst of grief are His Holy Spirit at work in you.

The reason we do this is because a spiritual passivity will lead us into sin. Spiritual passivity makes excuses for drifting from God. Spiritual passivity just says, “eh, whatever, I can take my moment to drift. I’ll make up for it later.”

I Must Own What’s Mine

I’ve spent some significant time over the last few weeks in this series and in the Philippians series speaking about how we deal with circumstances that arise in our lives, and I’ve talked about the importance of receiving our circumstances.

Let me reiterate. In order to ground ourselves in reality and follow Jesus to the full, we must recognize and receive our circumstances. And this is true for so many times in life when things happen to us externally. But what I’d hate for us to do is to assume that ALL circumstances are beyond our responsibility. Sometimes we have to come to terms with the fact that some of our circumstances have been brought on because of our decisions.

And while those circumstances may be brought about by what’s happened in the past… We have to come to terms that our decisions often influence the circumstances we find ourselves in.

For Christians, we have every reason to be hopeful about the future, because we know the One who holds the future in His hands! And He has told us He is for us. And knowing that the God of creation has called you His own should give you what you need to carry onward.

If you haven’t seen America’s Got Talent in a while, I was made aware of a singer with an amazing testimony. 30 years old, and she’s already on her third round of cancer. She’s been given a 2% chance of making it to the other side of this cancer alive. This woman did not choose for cancer to strike her. Not even once. And her response to the judges on American Idol when they asked her how she is after finding out she’s got cancer in all kinds of places was, “It’s important that people know I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me.”

Turns out this young woman is a follower of Christ, and in the midst of cancer returning over and over again, she chooses to praise the Lord. This post was shared this morning on a newsletter I receive:

I see mercy in the dusty sunlight that outlines the trees, in my mother’s crooked hands, in the blanket my friend left for me, in the harmony of the wind chimes. It’s not the mercy that I asked for, but it is mercy nonetheless. And I learn a new prayer: thank you. It’s a prayer I don’t mean yet, but will repeat until I do.

This singer, given the worst news, living through difficult trial of life and death, responds by utilizing her gift of song for the Lord. His glory, His love, His purposes. This is the kind of action that results in our spiritual grip on reality and healing through difficult times. She can’t control cancer. But she can control her response in the midst of it.

Understanding this, then, it is important how we interpret these next two passages of Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Romans 14:12 ESV

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Both of these scriptures show us something about following God. It’s not a passive act. It takes ownership. It takes saying, “You know… With all of the decisions that I am given responsibility for, I will seek after God and the things that please Him!”

And the truth of it all is this: Jesus did all of these things. One particular passage where I think all of these aspects of seeking God in the midst of a difficult circumstance is this:

Luke 22:39–44 ESV

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.