Action Steps For Anxiety

Paul Tripp’s six action steps for anxiety:

Remind Yourself That God Is In Control: When you convince yourself that your world is out of control, you are on the verge of paralysis. Watch your self-talk. Are you saying to yourself: “God is in control of this circumstance, He is my Father, and He is ruling this for my benefit”?

Accept Confusion: Believing in God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean life will make sense. Believing in God’s sovereignty is needed because life doesn’t make sense. Your rest is not in figuring out your circumstances–your rest is in the God behind the circumstances.

Don’t Allow Emotions To Rule: As much as the emotions you experience will be right, good, and appropriate, don’t let them set the agenda. There is a temptation to do that, but allowing yourself to be pulled away by the emotions of the moment could cause you to regret your decisions later.

Distinguish Needs From Wants: Be very careful what you put in your catalog of “need.” The minute you tell yourself something is a need, you’re saying it is essential for life. Then you are going to determine that you can’t live without it. It’s easy to attach yourself and your sense  of security to the gift rather than to the Giver.

Know Your Job Description: God promises to provide. Your job is to live the way God has called you to live. Instead of giving way to discouragement, look for ways you can contribute to God’s people at the moment.

Run To God, Not Away From Him: God’s promise to us is not first the relief of the suffering–His promise is to give us Himself. He will never turn a deaf ear to the natural cries of a person of faith when life doesn’t make sense. God hears and answers and works and comforts.

(HT: Tullian Tchividjian)

Filed under: Discipleship, Evangelical, God centredness, God the Father, God's goodness, Paul Tripp, The Christian Life, The word of God

The Loving Meaning of the Leftovers

I love this from John Piper:

After Jesus had fed both the 5,000 and the 4,000 with only a few loaves and fish, the disciples got in a boat without enough bread for themselves.

When they began to discuss their plight, Jesus said, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand?” (Mark 8:17). What didn’t they understand?

They did not understand the meaning of the leftovers, namely, that Jesus will take care of them when they take care of others. Jesus said:

“When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Understand what? The leftovers.

The leftovers were for the servers. In fact the first time there were twelve servers and twelve basketfuls left over (Mark 6:43). The second time there seven basketfuls left over—the number of abundant completeness.

What didn’t they understand? That Jesus would take care of them. You can’t outgive Jesus. When you spend your life for others, your needs will be met.

Filed under: Christian Ministry, Discipleship, God's goodness, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Missional living, The word of God

Oh to love, to believe, to hope, to delight in God!

“Oh to love the Saviour with a passion that can never cool; Oh to believe in God with a confidence that can never stagger!  Oh, to hope with an expectation that can never be dim!  Oh, to delight in God with a holy over-flowing rejoicing that can never be stopped, so that we might live to glorify God at the highest bent of our powers, living with enthusiasm, burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who worketh all things in us according to His will!

Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time, confess and acknowledge our responsibilities, but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are.  Oh God of the eternal choice, O God of the ransom purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son and Spirit, our adoration rises to heaven like the smoke from the altar of incense.  Glory and honour and majesty and power and dominion and might be unto the one only God, for ever and ever, and all the redeemed by the blood will say, Amen.”

- Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Personal Touch” in The Pastor in Prayer: A Collection of the Sunday Morning Prayers of C.H. Spurgeon (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 4.

(HT: Timmy Brister)

Filed under: CH Spurgeon, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God the Father, God's Glory, God's goodness, God's grace, Gospel-centred, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Love for Christ, Love for God, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, Worship

Come to me… and I will give you rest

I love this from Todd Pruitt:

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.” – Isaiah 42:3

We all know what it is like to feel like a bruised reed and a smouldering wick. They are both images of weakness. Relationships, work, loss, and pain can all sap our strength and rob us of strength. It is in those times when we need to know the tender touch of God.

I am tired today. Certain burdens are weighing especially heavy. Too often I depend on the approval of others which always results in wounds and disappointment. I am a sinful man and I live among other sinful men. The reality can be overwhelming. But what I need is not more approval or to work harder. What I need is Jesus.

Thanks to Ray Ortland for the following post. I needed this today (and a lot of days for that matter).

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28

The sacred centre of Christianity is Christ himself. Coming personally to the Person. Coming directly to the Mediator. No one but Jesus can call us with such authority, and no one but Jesus can encourage us with such a promise. No one else can give us rest.

If our functional purpose in church is to connect with one another and build community, that’s what we’ll get — one another. And we’ll end up angry. Only Jesus gives us rest. If we will put him first and come to him first, we’ll have something to give one another.

If our functional purpose in church is outreach and mercy and justice and all those good missional things, we’ll end up exhausted and empty. Only Jesus gives us rest. If we will put him first and come to him first, we’ll be renewed for endless mission.

Only One has ever said and can ever say, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” His offer stands. But he comes first.

Filed under: Christ-centred, Communion with God, Discipleship, God's goodness, Jesus Christ, The Christian Life, The word of God

It Is Well With My Soul

My thanks to Erik Kowalker this:

For those of you not familiar with the background of this famous hymn “It is well with my soul” by Horatio Spafford, take the next three minutes to listen and view the severely traumatic events that led Spafford to pen this influential hymn in 1873 that has stood the test of time. May God bring this powerful hymn to your remembrance when difficult seasons in your Christian walk come your way.

Filed under: Christ our treasure, Christ-centred, Christian Hope, Death, Evangelical, God's goodness, Grace, Jesus Christ, Suffering, The Christian Life, The Gospel

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things

Filed under: Attributes of God, Doctrine, Evangelical, God centredness, God's Glory, God's goodness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, Renewing the Mind, The Bible, The Trinity, The glory of Christ

Your Father Knows What You Need

Time for one last post before I leave. I love this from John Piper. I needed this today!

Jesus wants his followers to be free from worry. In Matthew 6:25-34 he gives at least seven arguments designed to take away our anxiety.

One of them lists food and drink and clothing, and then says, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6:32).

Do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (vv. 31-32).

Jesus must mean that God’s knowing is accompanied by his desiring to meet our need. He is emphasizing we have a Father. And this Father is better than an earthly father.

I have five children. I love to meet their needs. But my knowing falls short of God’s in at least three ways.

• Right now I don’t know where any of them is. I could guess. They’re in their homes or at work or school, healthy and safe. But they might be lying on a sidewalk with a heart attack.
• I don’t know what is in their heart at any given moment. I can guess from time to time. But they may be feeling some fear or hurt or anger or lust or greed or joy or hope. I can’t see their hearts.
• I don’t know their future. Right now they may seem well and steady. But tomorrow some great sorrow may befall them.

This means I can’t be for them a very strong reason for not worrying. There are things that may be happening to them now or may happen tomorrow that I do not even know about.

But it is totally different with their Father in heaven. He knows everything about them now and tomorrow, inside and out. He sees every need.

Add to that, his huge eagerness to meet their needs (the “much more” of Matt. 6:30). Add to that his complete ability to do what he is eager to do  (he feeds billions of birds hourly, Matt. 6:26).

So join me and my children in trusting the promise of Jesus to meet our needs. That’s what Jesus is calling for when he says, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

Filed under: Assurance, Biblical exposition, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God the Father, God's goodness, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Sovereignty of God, The Bible, The Christian Life, The Gospel, The word of God

Lloyd-Jones: Living Water

I’m just about to leave to preach in a friends church. My text is, 2Tim.1:6,7. My title is, ‘Fanning the flame’. I pray that preacher and people alike share this expectation and encounter described here by the Doctor.

My thanks to Justin Taylor for posting this:

Crossway has now published Living Water: Studies in John 4–56 previously unpublished sermons by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Here is an excerpt:

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go ‒ and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory? Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life?

Or let me put it like this. You may feel and say ‒ as many do ‒ ‘I was converted and became a Christian. I’ve grown ‒ yes, I’ve grown in knowledge, I’ve been reading books, I’ve been listening to sermons, but I’ve arrived now at a sort of peak and all I do is maintain that. For the rest of my life I will just go on like this.’

Now, my friend, you must get rid of that attitude; you must get rid of it once and for ever. That is ‘religion’, it is not Christianity. This is Christianity: the Lord appears! Suddenly, in the midst of the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly, surprisingly, he meets with you and he says something to you that changes the whole of your life and your outlook and lifts you to a level that you had never conceived could be possible for you. Oh, if we get nothing else from this story, I hope we will get this. Do not let the devil persuade you that you have got all you are going to get, still less that you received all you were ever going to receive when you were converted. That has been a popular teaching, even among evangelicals. You get everything at your conversion, it is said, including baptism with the Spirit, and nothing further, ever. Oh, do not believe it; it is not true. It is not true to the teaching of the Scriptures, it is not true in the experience of the saints running down the centuries. There is always this glorious possibility of meeting with him in a new and a dynamic way.

Update: Tullian shares another good quote from the Doctor.

Filed under: Communion with God, Discipleship, Evangelical, God's Glory, God's goodness, God's grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sanctification, The Church, The glory of Christ, The word of God

Without the New Birth…

1. Without the new birth, we won’t have saving faith, but only unbelief. (John 1:11-13; 1 John 5:1; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29; 1 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 1:3).
2. Without the new birth, we won’t have justification, but only condemnation. (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:17 Philippians 3:9).
3. Without the new birth, we won’t be the children of God, but the children of the devil. (1 John 3:9-10).
4. Without the new birth, we won’t bear the fruit of love by the Holy Spirit, but only bear the fruit of death. (Romans 6:20-21; 7:4-6; 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 5:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:14).
5. Without the new birth, we won’t have eternal joy in fellowship with God, but only eternal misery with the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41; John 3:3; Romans 6:23; Revelation 2:11; 20:15).

— John Piper,  Why Do We Need to Be Born Again? (Part 2)

(HT: Adrian Warnock)

Filed under: Conversion, Doctrine, Eternal Punishment, Evangelical, God's goodness, God's holiness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Man in Sin, New Birth, Regeneration, Salvation, Saving faith, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Cross, The word of God

How God glorifies himself toward his creatures

Jonathan Edwards:

“God is glorified within Himself these two ways: 1. By appearing..to Himself in His own perfect idea [of Himself], or in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. 2. By enjoying and delighting in Himself, by flowing forth in infinite love and delight toward Himself, or in His Holy Spirit…. So God glorifies Himself toward the creatures in two ways: 1. By appearing to their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their heart, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestation which He makes of Himself… God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and the heart. God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive his glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.”

(HT: Recover the Gospel)

Filed under: Attributes of God, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's Glory, God's goodness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The word of God, Worship

The goodness of God

My thanks to Ray Ortlund for these Sibbes quotes:

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

Richard Sibbes, Works, I:47.

“Another way to love God is to consider his wonderful goodness. He is good and doth good. It is a communicative goodness. Let us think of his goodness and the streaming of it out to the creature. The whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. What are all the creatures but God’s goodness? We can see nothing but the goodness of God. What is all the creation but Deus explicatus, God unfolded to the senses? He offers himself to our bodies and souls; all is God’s goodness. . . .

He hath fitted every part of us, soul and body, with goodness, all the senses with goodness. What do we see but goodness in colors? What do we hear but his good in those delights that come that way? We taste and feel his goodness. . . .

But then for our souls, what food hath he for that? The death of Christ, his own Son, to feed our souls. The soul is a spiritual substance, and he thought nothing good enough to feed it but his own Son. . . . The soul, being continually troubled with the guilt of some sin or other, feeds on this. . . .

Then, as God’s goodness is great and fit, so it is near us. It is not a goodness afar off but God follows us with his goodness in whatever condition we be. He applies himself to us, and he hath taken upon him near relations, that he might be near us in goodness. He is a father, and everywhere to maintain us. He is a husband, and everywhere to help. He is a friend, and everywhere to comfort and counsel. So his love is a near love. . . .

And then again this goodness of God is a free goodness, merely from himself, and an overflowing goodness and an everlasting goodness. It is never drawn dry; he loves us unto life everlasting. He loves us in this world and follows us with signs of his love in all the parts of us, in body and soul, till he hath brought body and soul to heaven to enjoy himself forever there.

These considerations may serve to stir us up to love God, and direct us how to love God.”

Richard Sibbes, Works, 4:195-196.

Filed under: Attributes of God, Communion with God, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God the Father, God's goodness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God, Union with Christ