Year: 2015

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley

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We need not fear those who are in conflict with us without good cause. Many of us are afraid of interpersonal conflict and do whatever we can to avoid it. Sometimes it can be avoided and when that is true we are wise to do so. At other times a clash of human wills is inevitable.

When it is impossible to steer clear of such a clash anxiety and unease about it can become just as debilitating as the thing itself; especially if our antagonist is not a believer and perhaps more apt to fight viciously. In fact the way we feel prior to “the battle being joined” may actually cause us more harm than the battle. What is sad about this reality in the lives of many believers is that it reveals an immaturity and ineffectiveness in the quality of our faith in God. How can we develop that faith to find courage in the face of conflict?

The most important thing to remember is that our Lord is infinitely more powerful than any human adversary. If we are holding, as best we can, to a fair and righteous position in an appropriately humble spirit He will go before us into the fight. He will also be with us in the midst of it, working on our behalf to bring about a satisfactory resolution. The reality is that we cannot be really harmed, in the truest sense of the word, if we have a divine Ally. The conflict at hand may be painful but it can never be fatal to our souls. Truly knowing this reality is one antidote to the unnecessary dread we may be feeling.

In the light of this truth it is vital that we be in contact with that Ally preparatory to an expected argument. Prayer is the key to both reducing fear and becoming ready to act in a Godly way if and when conflict becomes inevitable. Jesus taught us to lay our burdens upon Him. This cannot happen without talking to Him about those burdens. We must then give them over in continuing conscious prayer. We need to either literally or figuratively be on our knees whenever we see an interpersonal battle on the horizon.

Part of that prayer needs to include something else we are commanded to do in scripture: asking for God to ultimately bless our enemy of the moment. To achieve this it is always helpful to remember that the person who we are at odds with is not the real enemy in spiritual reality. Our true foes are the powers and principalities behind them (this is particularly true if the person does not share our faith.) Angry people often are playing into the Enemies hands without the slightest awareness that they are being manipulated. Remember also that their susceptibility to such manipulation might be caused by emotional damage they have sustained in life. This should be kept in mind when spiritually preparing for a potential quarrel. Sincere and fervent prayer can disarm the malevolent spirits influencing the person in question and give us the victory in a conflict. Hopefully those same prayers will also minimize any damage that might be done to our human adversary in the heat of verbal battle.

As Christians, we must approach any human disharmony with awareness that the problem is largely spiritual and has largely spiritual answers. In learning to trust in God’s power, praying for a just outcome, and petitioning our Lord on behalf of our, hopefully temporary, human enemies we will find release from unnecessary fear. Conflicts are an unavoidable part of living in a fallen world with fallen people (as we ourselves once were and, in some ways, still are.) What is avoidable, with God’s help, is dreading those conflicts once they are unavoidably upon us.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

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Even during this yuletide season I’m not sure that we who call ourselves followers of Christ often give much thought to the supreme miracle that we are about to celebrate, the miracle that exists at the very center of our faith. The advent on earth of the universal God in human form is a mystery both unfathomable and blessed. We are all far the less if we do not take time at this season, or at any time of the year for that matter, to ponder the sublime reality of God becoming a man.

No other religion in the world puts forth the idea of a Supreme Being so willing to identify with His deeply fallen human creation as to literally become one of them. That He would do so out of love, because only such an “incarnation” would make possible our rescue from spiritual death, can become for us an incredibly sweet and compelling truth if we but ponder it for a while. It is mind-boggling, yes, but even though we cannot completely comprehend the full glory of our Lord becoming incarnate we can apprehend it in such a way as to open a door to one of the greatest and most transcendent blessings that we can know in our Christian walk.

Just think about it. We belong to a God who so loved us as to become one of us to make that “belonging” possible. What indescribable condescension must that have entailed for One who is infinite, eternal and uncaused Being? I once wrote that it is somewhat akin to a man becoming a flea to save a world of fleas, but that barely begins to cover the magnitude of the descent we now consider. It is truly the miracle of all ages.

But do not just use your intellect in your endeavor to experience the truth of the earthly advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, use your heart as well for this is also nothing if not an affair of the heart. How can our hearts not love Immanuel, “God with us”? Christmas testifies to the beginning of a new and profound opportunity for human intimacy with God, an intimacy with God as man. How can we remain unmoved by a Holy God, One “Wholly Other” as one German theologian once described his innate separation from us, becoming us? The mere fact of the Son of God becoming also the Son of Man is enough, in my opinion, to make Christianity the most compelling belief system on the planet. No one has a God like ours, no one, and it is Jesus, the God-Man who makes this so.

Perhaps the only thing more compelling than the Advent itself is the reality that the God who arrived on earth as one fully human over two-thousand years ago then proceeded to go to the cross and defeat death for what were now His fellow human beings as well as His creation. Contemplate that. He made us but, because of Christmas, he also died for us, as one of us.

But then that is a story for another Holy Day, a few months from now.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

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Nothing a believer is allowed by God to go through is more than that believer can bear. To be more specific nothing that God allows us to experience that is part of our sanctification will be too much for us to stand if we depend on Him and His resources moment by moment for strength.

There are times in life when circumstances can seem like mountains of the Mt. Everest class. Perhaps some problem that has been present for years finally has to be faced. Or maybe the thing in question is completely new. Sometimes it might even be a combination of both, a new situation that forces us to deal with old demons. Whatever the nature of the challenge it is one that cannot be ducked. We are faced with two choices, beat the problem or be beaten by it.

One of the reasons believers sometimes feel defeated in the battles of life is because the trouble looming before them seems unbearable. If something feels unbearable, we are tempted to assume it is. Giving into that temptation is usually a big mistake for three reasons. The first reason is that what we think we can survive and what we actually can survive are often two different things. The second is that we forget that nothing truly worthwhile in life is gained without much travail. The third reason is that Jesus told us faith “like a mustard seed” can move mountains.

If the author had a dollar for every time he thought he was being stretched beyond the breaking point he would be a multi-millionaire. The challenges of existence in a fallen world can sometimes seem overwhelming in the extreme. It can feel like the pain that results from our wounds and wounding is about to destroy us. But at such moments we call out to God for mercy and help and somehow He brings us through, every time. Know, struggling believer, that what you feel often does not reflect reality.

Nothing that has enduring value is easily attained. One might feel tempted to claim that the free gift of salvation is but, in a sense, it is not. When Paul talks about working out our salvation with fear and trembling he is not kidding. We do not earn our salvation but, paradoxically, walking it out is the most costly thing we will ever do. The same is true of the other valuable things in life. Think of the difficulty married people have in keeping their marriages healthy or parents have in raising their children. Neither is easy yet good marriages continue to thrive and good children continue to be raised.

Finally there is the mustard-seed principle. Our Lord means what He says and He told us that even what seems like a little faith can cause incredible things to happen. It is of great importance that we really take Him at His word on this. It sometimes takes less faith than we think to effect profound change. People who forever are trying to summon up some kind of superhuman belief under the assumption that only perfect faith will achieve anything for them are some of the unhappiest individuals around. I do not believe God is surprised that not everyone has the faith of a Paul or a David all the time (and even these men had their times of struggle). He works with the faith we have and gently helps our trust in Him to grow through the patient love He manifests towards us. What may seem like little faith can sometimes go a long way simply because He honors the faith we have at the moment.

Nothing is insurmountable that God permits for our good. It may seem that way during our worst times, but those times pass. If we truly love and follow Jesus Christ we will have eventual victory over every challenge that faces us. This is the enduring birthright of the children of God.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

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“Though the command to hate oneself in order to follow Christ can be grossly misinterpreted, it makes perfect sense if it is understood as a relinquishment of the biopsychosocial and ethical self who lives autonomously in relation to God”.

-Eric L. Johnson

Through the centuries many pathologically masochistic believers have taken the “die to self” counsel of scripture apart from its true meaning and used it as justification for all kinds of destructive practices. While one might only think of ancient desert hermits and monks scourging and starving themselves as they walk around wearing hair shirts the truth is that many contemporary Christians are still caught up in harmfully inaccurate thinking about what the word “self” means here.

The problem is not with the self per se. Self-consciousness is a gift from our Lord and is integral to being made in His image. As believers we are not to hate ourselves in our totality. Rather we are only to hate the rebellious capital “I” self that continues to dwell in our hearts and resists the One who created and redeemed us. It is this part of our make-up, perhaps most biblically described as “the flesh”, which still tempts us towards functional independence from God. It is this part that we must not only oppose, but actually put to death.

While at one time the flesh controlled us we who are called by the name of Christ are not defined by that flesh anymore. Our deepest, truest heart now belongs to Him. We are “new creatures”, sons and daughters of the Father, and we are certainly not to despise our new self because that self is identified with Him. In a sense to hate ourselves now is to hate the God we have become one with through the cross.

Today many conservative Christians fear the word “self-esteem”, a term that has become the mantra of secular pop psychology. To the degree that the expression has come to mean a sort of self-worship among those who continue to reject God’s sovereignty over their lives this fear is not without some justification. However a sense of self-worth is not out of place in a child of God if that worth is grounded in the imputed worthiness of the Son of God. In fact we are specifically told to “love others as we love ourselves”. If we are simultaneously called to, in some sense, love ourselves and hate ourselves in Scripture then obviously the definition of “self” is different in each case. In the former the definition is our self in Christ, in the latter the self of our past, the “flesh-self” that rejected God’s rightful claim on our lives.

We are not commanded by the Bible to pathologically despise ourselves and do ourselves harm. Instead we are commanded to hate and crucify the dying residue of what we once were, that “old man” who was not instantly wiped out experientially by our conversion to Christ. In the eternal sense we have already been made perfect in God’s sight, but in the temporal sense we still need to progressively root out the remnants of our former rebellious autonomy. This is what it means to “put to death” the flesh and progressively submit every part of our being to the One who has redeemed us. We are to only hate that within us which resists Him.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

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“How poor are those who have no patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” –Shakespeare

One of the most enduring proverbs in the popular mind is “time heals all wounds”. The problem with this idea is that time is not the primary agent in healing. If that were true there would be no bitter old people and, unfortunately, such individuals exist in abundance in the world. In truth it is the grace of God, be it common or saving, that is the agent which binds up emotional wounds. That God most often cures our ills over time is, to some degree, incidental.

But even so qualified the fact is that healing most often does take time, thus the saying.

No doubt God can and sometimes does heal in a moment. As an omnipotent Being it stands to reason that He must have this ability. If He so desired all resolution of our problems, large and small, could be accomplished by Him instantaneously. However common human experience teaches that this is rarely the case. To our flesh’s frequent frustration God uses time, sometimes long period’s of time, in His healing of our souls.

The obvious reason for this is that He wishes to teach us the virtue of patience. Few of us particularly want to hear this. Learning patience is one of the harder tasks of the spiritual life, particularly in a day and age when instant gratification is incessantly advertised as our right. We also have trouble figuring out why God so values time when He Himself is not ultimately subject to sequential existence, but the Author of it. Why, we ask, should anything have to wait if He, as Master of time, can simply abrogate time?

There is mystery here. We cannot completely answer the question of why grass grows in a week, while a Giant Redwood takes hundreds of years. Both a lawn and a forest of Redwoods are created by the same God. But the solidity of the trees that make up that forest, their beauty and majesty, is obviously not comparable to blades of grass. Neither is their worth. The worth of things is often connected with time in God’s economy of creation and, for that matter, re-creation. The redemption of Humankind is no exception.

Beyond that the development of patience is simply the way that we bring our fallen, and thus imperfect, view of time into harmony with God’s view. It is probably safe to say that in their innocence Adam and Eve had no need to learn patience because their perception of time was the same as their Creator’s. It is only the Curse that has made us hate waiting for anything. Our first parents may well have had no sense of frustration in waiting because time had not become associated with scarcity. Scarcity of time only means something to creatures that face death and in the Pre-Lapsarian Garden of Eden death had not yet visited God’s finest creation.

So time does not heal all wounds, but time does have a role to play in that healing. This is certainly its place in the lives of a redeemed people who have yet to experience their coming full and final liberation in eternity by Jesus Christ. If it seems imperfect that is a residue of our fallenness and its resulting distortion of God’s purposes.

Of course that purpose will most likely be made known to us on that Great Day when all things are summed up in our Lord….and time itself ceases to be.

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley

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It is a biblical truism that we should never be so satisfied with our spiritual growth that we stop seeking it. However is it also possible that we can become so dissatisfied with the perception of our “growth rate” that we are robbed of the joy and peace that God wants us to know? I believe this is a vital question for the Christ-follower to ask and one that needs a definitive answer.

The Church has no shortage of perfectionist believers. These are the perennially frustrated people who are forever trying to be holy in their own strength; either with or without a conscious recognition that this faulty approach to the Christian life is what so frustrates them. A compulsion to try to earn the acceptance of God is the bane of their spiritual existence and this compulsion is widespread in the Body of Christ today (especially in a Church often unknowingly influenced by the often performance-oriented culture that surrounds it.)

There are perhaps few things more corrosive to human souls than the nagging feeling that we will never “measure up.” This is the primary source of a sense of dissatisfaction with our rate of growth in the things of God. Spiritual perfectionism is, at best, deadly to our sense of well-being. At worst it can shipwreck our faith. Human perfectionism short-circuits the healing power of divine grace and it is exactly that grace which makes all true progress in the faith possible.

Some will assert that an opposite problem is just as spiritually harmful. This is what might be called “spiritual laziness”; the tendency to take grace for granted and not be at all concerned with growing in the knowledge and righteousness of God. I’m sure this is a real issue for many believers as well, but I cannot speak to it. The reason is that, on a personal level, I have only known the deleterious effects of “Christian Perfectionism” (an oxymoron, by the way, if there ever was one.) The truth is I have been guilty of it myself.

The answer I have found, even if I too often forget it, is that all growth is a process. This is true in both the natural and supernatural realms. Human beings do not come to spiritual maturity in a day any more than they do in regards to physical maturity. We, hopefully, do not expect young children to take on adult responsibility for the simple reason that they are not adults. What we are at 10 years of age and what we are at 40 are simply not comparable. So it is for the earnest Christian who is 10 years in the faith versus one who is 40 years in. A long process of growth is built into God’s creation. There are no instant short cuts to maturity, as much as we might prefer that to be the case.

This is not to say that spiritual growth is automatic. We do play a role in our growth, but not in the sense of being its source. The motive power, again, is always the grace of God. It is He who wills and works true change in us. Our primary role is to surrender to His power, never trying to generate it on our own. In that sense the role we play is a passive one. We must choose not to try to work for our sanctification because, in doing so, we actually impede it. For real sanctification to occur we must “get out of the way” and truly let God be God in our lives. If we have been caught up in perfectionistic self-effort for a long time this will not happen overnight. The surrender of our perfectionism is itself a process.

It is in the ongoing acceptance of this reality that we find the needed answer to a joy and peace-robbing dissatisfaction with our spiritual progress. It is in that answer that we will progressively restore both of these deepest of blessings to our lives.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

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In periods of spiritual growth we sometimes find ourselves consciously aware of standing on a higher plateau in our Christian journey. When we are awake to having arrived at this new level it is cause for joy, a time to rightfully celebrate what God has done in our lives. But, like so many blessings in this existence, there is an accompanying danger of which we must also be conscious.

It is all too easy to look down at others who have yet to reach the place that we feel we have reached in our own sanctification.

The temptation to pride is always increased whenever a human being succeeds at anything in life. This is as true in the realm of the sacred as it is in the profane. In fact believers who might have long ago given up the kind of hubris that once accompanied worldly accomplishment sometimes now find themselves succumbing to a sort of “pious conceit.” In some ways giving in to this kind conceit is even more dangerous than the earlier type. Jesus reserved His most scathing criticism for the Pharisees, a spiritually prideful group if there ever was one. It is bad enough to think oneself better than another because of secular achievement. To be arrogant because of the religious kind is even worse.

Some might assert here that true spiritual maturity cannot lend itself to this kind of temptation. While it is indeed accurate to affirm that a vital part of authentic growth is the development of humility such humility is not a foregone conclusion. For instance someone can acquire a virtue like patience or discernment and start to think that they have far more patience or discernment then other “less spiritual” people around them. Modesty may accompany an increase in these qualities, but such is not always the case. Humility is a separate quality, one that is not automatically attached to whatever others a believer may be in the course of acquiring.

It is vital that we consciously take care to nip such spiritual arrogance in the bud. But how do we cut off the root of pride that might come along with legitimate growth? Here, as in other vital areas of the Christian journey, prayer is essential. As we thank God for our newfound “elevation” we do well to ask Him to help us not let it go to our head. Praying for sensitivity to others, as far as our testimony of what God is doing in our lives, is also helpful. Another good check for our spirits is to employ friends who will tell us if we come across as even slightly “holier than thou.” Meditating on the humility of the Man who was infinitely more holy than the best of us is another safeguard we can employ.

Perhaps the best thing we can do with our increased spiritual maturity is to help bring our brothers and sisters along with us, to the same place that we have been blessed to attain. The very grace which made it possible for us will make it possible for them, and there is great joy in store for the one who voluntarily becomes an instrument of that grace. In endeavoring to lift others onto the same plateau that we have reached we forsake pride for something far sweeter, the satisfaction of loving others.

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley
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We live in an age that often seems to embody the idea that the only evil which exists is that which impedes individual human beings from having their own way. This idea is then combined with an unshakeable conviction that there is no such thing as objective, transcendent and absolute truth. The result of this is a cultural metanarrative in the West that deifies the self while simultaneously providing a sort of secular religion that has as its only goal the glorification of radical personal autonomy.

This is particularly evident in the words we once lived by that now evoke either ridicule or self-righteous anger from the cultural elites of the 21st Century West. A number of these words and phrases come to mind. They include: honor, morality, religion, humility, authority and obedience.

“Honor” is a term often used to describe a way of life that involves respect for a long-standing code of conduct that requires both self-control and self-denial. It seems that, with the possible exception of the military, the classical sense of honor is increasingly seen today as nothing but a hypocritical fiction put forth by overbearing moralists who have the temerity to suggest that human beings restrain their worst instincts for a higher good.

Speaking of moralists the word “morality” has become one of the most politically incorrect words in the land. This is because, more than any other word describing what human beings should and should not do, morality smacks of the idea that there is an overarching Reality which determines that some action is always right or always wrong. Few like such a word in an era of situational ethics designed to free people from any thought of ultimate responsibility for their actions in this life.

“Religion” has become another verbal bogey man in our society. Perhaps the worst thing that can be said of someone in 2015 is that he or she is “very religious.” Often the assumption is that such a person must be extremely narrow, repressed and ignorant. This is likely because such benighted souls must have somehow been brainwashed into thinking that human destiny is determined by whether or not we have surrendered our self-sovereignty to a Creator who might actually expect the allegiance of those he has created. Even worse, such a religion usually involves a call to radical humility and “humility” is another déclassé word in the Post-Modern world. Why should any of us consider ourselves somehow less than anyone or anything else? Are we not all deserving of the very best as the advertising ceaselessly reminds us? Are we not all, in fact, absolutely equal in maturity, integrity and character? To disavow ourselves of this kind of pervasive pride is increasingly looked upon as a form of psychological and intellectual suicide today. That doing so was once seen as one of the paths to true happiness seems to have been forgotten in the wake of the much vaunted social revolutions of recent Western history (and the pervasive Political Correctness they have spawned.)

Then there is the despised word “authority.” Those in authority are considered corrupt by the very nature of having a power that we can’t veto. Power is, of course, ok for us….just not for those who we think presume to be in any way above us. We live in a time when authority only exists to be questioned and often torn down as an impediment to self-determination. “Don’t trust anyone in authority” seems to have become the mantra of the age. Meanwhile; if that is generally true then no one should, of course, dare to ask us to abide by the last of the discredited words of the past: “obedience.” Obedience? This word is so out of favor that some of us will not even apply it to the training of our pets. Why should we be obedient to any authority since, as noted above, authority is not only inherently corrupt but demands we surrender our absolute right to being completely our own?

So Western Civilization is well on its way to disposing of all these “archaisms.” Other words that imply human beings are not the measure of all things are going as well. In the long (or not so long) run we will see what the lexicon of our brave new world will end up being. In the meantime I can think of two words that, when combined, may be among the most accurate to describe where we are heading as a culture.

They are “self” and “destruction.”

Copyright by Shea Oakley

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“Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person’s sin.”

There are doubtless numerous definitions of forgiveness. Because the imperative to forgive is so primary to living an authentic Christian life believers through the centuries have tried to describe its essence in different ways. There are many facets of forgiveness that must be gleaned to make up an overall definition.

One of those facets is described well by the above quote from Christian author Neil Anderson. In fact his characterization of granting pardon is one of the more profound in its simplicity. It is also one of the most difficult to accept. I suspect this is because “agreeing to live with the consequences” of someone else’s careless or malevolent wounding of our spirits seems like the height of unfairness. There is no way around the reality of that perceived iniquity. But we need to recognize that the world we live in is no longer fair. We also have to leave the blame for this reality where it belongs, on our own race’s corporate doorstep.

Human beings cry “unfair!” for a reason. We have an innate understanding that things should be equitable in relationships. This is no accident. Each of us is made in God’s image and so we have, somewhere deep down in our very being, the sense that ultimate reality is void of relational wrongs. This is true. There is no unfairness in the perfect unity of the Trinity. While some might interject here that it was unfair for God, the Father, to will His innocent Son to die the horrific death of the cross the truth is that Jesus went to Calvary willingly. His Father did not bully him into it. It was an act of love, designed to bring the potential for our forgiveness, and therein lays the rub.

Love and forgiveness trump unfairness.

The world knows iniquity only because the first human beings choose to cooperate with the one who might be called the “Essence of Unfair”, Satan. Thefall of our race is what has made the lives we now live on Earth subject to injustice. We have no one to blame but ourselves, both collectively and individually. If we let it stop there the result could only be despair. We would face the prospect of an ongoing existence as evil beings with no recourse but to forever wound and be wounded by each other and eventually die in that condition. Our now intrinsically unfair natures would see to this and all the while our lying egos would assure us that only we have been untreated unfairly. In a sense this is what the idea of “Hell on Earth” means.

But because of Jesus bearing the greatest unfairness of all, His wholly undeserved death and bearing of sin that was not his own, we who believe are on the road to ultimate redemption from the presence and results of our inequity. Divine love is more powerful than unfairness and it can set the human race free from the captivity of our fallen nature.

This brings us back to the question of forgiveness. The reason Christians can forgive others is twofold. Reason one is because we come to know that “the consequences of another person’s sin” against us may not be worse that than the consequences of our own sin against someone else. In short, we reckon with the fact that we are not always fair ourselves, both to others and to the perfectly fair God we have vowed to serve. Reason two is that we who have put our faith in Jesus Christ know that the destructive consequences of other people’s sins in our lives are not permanent. Even if we do not experience complete healing in this life God promises to “wipe away every tear” when our redemption is completed and we stand before him in Glory. In the meantime, because of this hope, we have access to the grace we need to bear temporary pain and to consciously extend forgiveness to the people who caused that pain. Received grace, the unmerited favor of God through Christ, is the wellspring of forgiveness. This is true even in the midst of still-experienced relational hurts. By an act of grace-empowered will we can live with the consequences of their sin, and our own, letting love and forgiveness alter the equation. In doing so we will begin to free ourselves to find a degree of healing even in the here and now.

There is no better way to trump unfairness then in knowing the beginnings of the healing of our hearts.

Copyright by Shea Oakley
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What is the place of human happiness in the economy of God? The world often tells us that nothing is more important than its pursuit. In fact “the pursuit of happiness” is so important in the national zeitgeist of America that it is literally enshrined in our nation’s constitution. But seeking happiness at any cost is not the counsel of Scripture. Seeking God at any cost is.

When good feelings are put at the center of our aspirations we become Hedonists and Hedonism is a form of idolatry. In fact the argument could be made that the all-out quest for personal happiness may, in and of itself, constitute a complete false religious system in our times. If seen in that light it may not be too far from the mark to suggest that this system is the de facto majority religion of the 21st Century Western world. If you ask the average person on the street in the United States or Europe today what they want most out of life it is a fair bet that he or she will tell you that they “just want to be happy”. Even a less self-seeking answer to the same question usually revolves around happiness. Often the hope is expressed that someone near and dear may achieve it, most often the inquiree’s children.

Of course gladness of heart is not intrinsically evil. It may be presumed from the Bible that it is even a large part of God’s ultimate will in offering redemption to his fallen human creation. Yet the Bible is also quite clear that the chief purpose of man is to glorify God above all other goals. Whatever true happiness we can hope for here is a direct function of worshipping and obeying God simply because He is our Creator and He is holy. We must love God primarily because of who He is intrinsically, not because of what He can do for us.

Such devotion may sound patently impossible to we who are essentially born with self-fulfillment as our natural “default setting”, but it is not impossible if the perfect beauty and righteousness of God captures our hearts. This is only able to happen because, in Christ, He loves us with a love so pure and powerful that our hearts can be awakened to that beauty and righteousness. When this occurs we end up loving Him above all things, including our own temporal happiness, because He first loved us. The place where that kind of love was most perfectly made manifest is at the cross, and it is only there that we learn to exchange our demand for bliss for the higher goal of blessing Him.

The sweet paradox in all this is that, in first seeking God’s glorification in our lives, we obtain much temporal happiness in our earthly existence and ultimately the promise of eternal happiness as well. The degree to which our hearts are truly surrendered to God in this present life will determine how happy we will be in the here and now. The happiest people on Earth are those who are in intimate union with Jesus Christ and, in grace beyond all measure, they are further promised perfect and infinite happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So being happy is not a bad thing if it is not elevated above God as an object of worship. When rightly seen as a byproduct of knowing our Lord as our first priority it is put in its proper place, and then released into our hearts.

That very prospect is something to be happy about!