Tag: Travis Peterson

2 Samuel 22:29-32

29 For you are my lamp, O LORD,
and my God lightens my darkness.
30 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
31 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
32 “For who is God, but the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?
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It is verse 30 above which drew my attention to this particular passage in my reading this morning. David has clearly seen the LORD’s deliverance in a battle, and this psalm is his joy-filled response to God’s faithfulness. In the middle of the song, David declares that, if God was with him, he could attack an entire troop of soldiers on his own and be victorious. He could leap over a wall, if only God would be the one to lift him up.

The question that I feel myself asking in my heart is, “Do I believe that?” Do I really believe that, in God, I could charge a troop? Do I believe that, in God, I could leap over a tall building in a single bound? Do I truly believe that God can empower me, as his servant, to do all things as he gives me strength? I had better believe these things. I had better have such a view of God that says that all things are possible through him. Because, if I do not believe such things, I have a faith that does not honor the Lord.

David’s words above sound like the words of a fired up young believer. If I heard someone make such a declaration today, I would immediately think, “young Christian.” But this faith that God can do in my life and with my life anything he wants must not be something bound up with new Christianity. Instead, such a faith is bound up in real Christianity. Real faith in God believes that all things are possible for the one who is following the Lord. Real Christianity is not jaded by worldly thinking that limits what we believe God can do even through us.

The fact is, I feel refreshed and challenged as I read this passage this morning. God wants me to remember that, in his power, I can take on the world with the gospel. In his strength and for his glory, I can see lives, families, and nations changed. By his mighty hand, I can see a church that is vibrant and alive, actively seeking him and his kingdom before anything else. Nothing is impossible for our God except to act in opposition to his character. No deed is too difficult. No circumstance is impossible for him.

Dear Lord, I thank you for this passage this morning. Here, in your living and active, inspired and holy word, you remind me that all things are possible in you. You challenge me to open my heart to trust you to accomplish the supposedly impossible. You truly are God, and no one can stand in your way. You are able to accomplish your will, because you have the power to do anything. Please forgive me for living even a single moment without the strong confidence that David displayed in these verses. Forgive me for allowing my heart to be captured by the dull thinking of this world and what the flesh believes is possible. Please break me out of such a mold, that I might declare with David that in you, I can leap over a wall, pull down a tower, charge an army, and depopulate hell for your kingdom’s sake.

Mark 8:23-25 – And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Mark 8:31-33 – And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
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In the account of Jesus healing the blind man, I think there is more present than a simple miracle. Without question, we must never overlook the fact that Jesus had the power to do things that no human being has the power to do. He could heal diseases that no physician of his day could heal. He has the power to do anything, because Jesus is God, and he has all the power of God. But, the reason that I say that there is more here is because Jesus intentionally healed the man partially, and then he healed him completely. The question is, why?

Right after Jesus healed the blind man, he took his disciples aside and asked them who the world and they believe that he is. Peter is the one of the disciples who first answered that Jesus is the Christ, God’s promised anointed one. Then, after the disciples knew Jesus to be the Christ, Jesus explained to them that, as the Christ, he would be rejected and put to death.

Peter, for his part, then took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him as we see above. Peter did not want to hear Jesus talking about death, because Jesus is the Christ. Peter believed with all his heart that Jesus was the Christ. His problem is that he did not understand that the first calling of the Christ is not to sit on David’s throne and rule forever, but the first calling of the Messiah is to die for the sins of those who would be in his kingdom as God described in Isaiah 53. Peter rebuked Jesus, because Peter could not see God’s real plan. He was thinking about a spiritual matter from a worldly perspective.

Notice, before we apply the previous point, that Jesus rebukes Peter, but only after he turned and saw his other disciples listening in on the conversation. I wonder if Jesus would not have been able to be more gentle with Peter were there not a danger that Peter’s presumptuous words would lead astray the others following Jesus?

Now, how does the miracle with the blind man connect to this passage, and how does this passage connect with our lives? I think the two-part healing of the blind man is symbolic of two levels of understanding. Peter was about to see Jesus as the Christ, but he was going to miss completely the purpose of the Christ. This was just like the blind man seeing people, but not seeing them clearly and needing another healing. The fact is, it is very important for you to know God’s word well, and to prayerfully seek to know God’s will in his word. His purposes are important, and we can miss them if we are not careful. Those who believe that Jesus exists to meet our unmet needs and to give us a happier life may be partially right, but are really deeply missing the purpose of Christ to save us from sin and to bring glory to his own name. Let us not assume we know the purposes of God without seeing those purposes revealed with clarity in his holy and inspired word.

We also need to learn, from Jesus’ rebuke of Peter, not to think with a this-worldly focus. Peter could not imagine Jesus suffering and giving up his life. Many today can not imagine that God would ever want them to suffer or give up their lives. However, as we would see if we read the next paragraph of scripture, God’s call to his followers is a call to give up their lives here on earth. We do not live for this world or its comforts. We do not live to keep ourselves safe. We give up our lives in this world, and we gain from Christ life eternal in his eternal kingdom. Such a way of living, living the call to die, is totally contrary to the mindset of the flesh. We need Jesus to open our eyes, and to open them completely, in order that we can see the beauty in his call to turn from this life toward eternal life in him.

Lord, I come to you this morning, and I pray that you would open my spiritual eyes, and not just halfway. I ask that you would make my heart see the truth of your plan in your word. I ask that you would help me to recognize the beauty of the call to die, to give up my life here for a better eternal life. Jesus, I thank you for coming, not just to rule, but to die as the sacrifice for my sins. I look forward to the day when you will return to reign. I pray that you will set my heart on that day, and let me live in the hope of your coming kingdom instead of living for the comforts of this life. I desire to honor you, not to require your rebuke for thinking with half-opened eyes. Open my eyes, that I might see you and your will in your word for your glory.

Mark 8:15-18 – And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?”
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This exchange between Jesus and his disciples came after two important events: Jesus’ feeding of the 4,000 with 7 loaves and his encounter with the sign-seeking Pharisees. When Jesus tried to warn his disciples against the infectious and ungodly thinking of a generation that was seeking self-satisfaction over the truth of God, the disciples got lost in his metaphor about leaven. They began to worry about the fact that they only had one loaf of bread for the 13 of them.

Jesus’ response to the disciples looks a bit hard, and it rightly should have been. The disciples had already seen Jesus feed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 4,000 with 7 loaves. They should have known better than to think that they might run out of bread for the trip. Thus, Jesus rebukes them for being blind in their hearts to truth.

What strikes me is his asking them “Do you not remember?” and “Do you not understand?” This should strike us all. When we forsake the will of God for temporal pleasures, cultural norms, or the approval of men, should we not say to ourselves, “Do you not remember?” When we get caught up in worry about how we will make it from day to day, should we not ask our selves, “Do you not understand?” When we fail to view this life through the lens of the glory, power, provision, and goodness of God, we have failed to remember and understand everything that is important. We will dramatically misinterpret our circumstances if we view them outside of the plans and purposes of God.

Next time you find yourself tempted to give into cultural pressures or to try to rationalize your way out of a right action, remember. Remember that God made you, bought you at a price, loves you deeply, knows what is truly best, and is the only one who can truly satisfy your soul. Next time you are tempted to despair, remember that Jesus died to purchase your relationship with God, that God has made you his child, that God is good, and that God is certainly strong enough to overcome your greatest struggle. Next time you find yourself drawn into the world’s mold of selfishness, victim mentality, or relativistic morality, remember that God is the one who defines righteousness, who judges all humanity, who knows your heart, and who is the one for whom the universe exists.

While I do not want to belabor the point, I believe that to stop without repeating this call would be unfruitful for those who read it. Add the question, “Do I remember,” to your vocabulary. If you do not actually change the way that you think and the way that you talk to yourself, you will not actually change. When you get angry, frustrated, afraid, depressed, or disillusioned, ask yourself, even aloud if necessary, “Do I remember,” or “Do I understand?” Ask, “Am I remembering the truth of the gospel and the character of God?” Inquire, “Have I understood God’s sovereignty and his purposes in my situation?” find out, “Am I remembering truth more than feeling emotion?” then, return to God, remember what is true, understand his word, and let him change you and your actions and attitudes from the inside out.

Dear Lord, I recognize that I so often fail to remember the truth. I pray, however, that you will remind me every day. Help me to remember you by looking into your word. Prompt me, by your Holy Spirit, to understand and remember what is real in place of the false and worldly thinking that endeavors to dominate my mind. Help me to remember, and to take captive every evil and ungodly thought. Help me to honor you by thinking with an eternal perspective.

Mark 7:6-8 – And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
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The teachers of the law had spoken out against Jesus for the way in which his disciples did not follow their traditions. Jesus’ disciples did not do the ceremonial washings in the way that the Jewish teachers wanted them to. They thought that this impugned the character of Jesus, but it was something that Jesus used to display the empty hearts of the teachers.

In his response to the teachers, Jesus pointed out that they eagerly set aside the commandments of God to follow the traditions of men. While they claimed to follow God, they would actually reject God’s word in order to follow religious-looking teaching that fit into their culture. In doing so, these men dishonored God greatly by rejecting his authority for that of their traditions.

Today, we think of ourselves as far removed from such a failure as we see in the Jewish leadership. We think that we are most certainly not the kinds of people who would reject God’s commandments for the sake of traditional ceremonial religion. But, if we examine our own lives and hearts, we will see that we need to hear this rebuke from Jesus as sharply as did the Jewish teachers. It is very tempting and very easy to blindly follow man-made tradition while ignoring the scriptures.

One example that I will give of men ignoring the word of God for our own traditions and beliefs comes in the field of my study, biblical counseling. It is very common to see, in the church, the people of God actually deny the power of God to change lives. Often Christians believe the lie that the word of God lacks the power to help someone who has a “real” problem. “Sure,” they say, “the Bible is helpful for those who need a little relationship advice, or who have a ‘religious’ problem. But let’s not think that we can send someone who is addicted to alcohol or who is actually depressed to only the Bible for help.” The statement of such people almost looks logical, but it denies the fact that God has given to us in his divine revelation (the word of God) and his Holy Spirit everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The word of God tells us that it, the Bible, is useful—not useless—to make the person of God adequate and equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). In contrast, the secular systems to which we are tempted to turn for help for those with “real” problems deny much of what the scripture teaches about the power of God, the sinfulness of man, and the way that people are made whole. Thus, to attempt to “fix” someone without turning to the word of God to see what a whole person should look like or to see how God commands that person to be made whole is to follow the tradition of men above the word of God.

Of course, not everybody is ready to think of counseling as a legitimate example of how we follow the traditions of men above the word of God, but there are other good examples too. Another example is in the way many people fail to take any sort of rest from labor as God commands. While I do not want to become legalistic about Sabbath regulations, I recognize that God commanded his people to live by a pattern of six days of work and one day of rest. This was included in the Ten Commandments, God’s covenant contract with Israel, along with nine other commands that we eagerly affirm as still applicable for good Christian living. How, then, do we live lives full of 7-day work weeks with no day set aside for rest and reflection on God? The way that we do this is that we have denied the word of God for our current cultural traditions. Such traditions and worldly thinking include a valuing of material possessions over obedience to God, a lack of trust in God to provide for our needs if we should rest once per week, and a selfish preoccupation with our own little worlds above a right focus on the glory of God above all things.

I asked my wife for a third example, and she brought to my attention the way that people reject God’s standards for family living for the cultural norms of the modern day. God’s word makes it clear what the roles of husbands and wives should look like in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. God has challenged men to exercise Christlike servant leadership in their homes. He has called women to follow their husbands as a picture to the world of the way the church follows the self-sacrificial leadership of Jesus Christ. Such roles, however, are not socially acceptable in our modern cultures, and so many Christians reject the word of God for the sake of new man-made traditions of how the family should be defined.

The fact is, we could find a thousand other examples of how we reject God’s word for the traditions of men. Every time we sin, but excuse our sin away with thoughts of what people do as opposed to what the word of God says, we deny God’s word for the traditions of men. Let’s be honest, it is easy and it is tempting. However, it is time that we put a stop to it. It is time that we live by the word of God alone as our guide for how to live rightly. The wisdom of the world, though it may look logical and progressive, is not the way that we are made right before a holy God. Instead, though it may seem right, it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12).

Dear Lord, I come to you this morning, and I ask that you will continue the work that you are already doing in my heart. Please help my life to be completely reoriented. May I learn to follow your word, and never to bow to the traditions of men who neither know you nor love you. I desire to glorify your name by obeying your word, even when that word is different than what is prescribed by cultural norms. Lord, I acknowledge that your word is everything that I need to know you. It is perfect, without error. Your word contains in it everything I need for righteous living. Please help me to live righteously by it for the sake of your name and your glory.

Daniel 3:16-18 – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
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If I were asked to make a list of the most inspirational accounts in all of the holy scriptures, this one would be very close to the top of the list. This account is that of three young men who stood their ground for the glory of God in the face of a godless king. They were never disrespectful. They were always faithful to God. They believed God could deliver them And, they were ready to deal with it if he did not deliver them.

After the king ordered that everyone present bow down and worship thee idol he had set up, these three young men, perhaps teens, though that is hardly for sure, refused to disobey the command of God not to bow down to any image. They refused to worship the king’s statue, and thus put themselves in a precarious position.

When the king addressed these men, giving them a second chance to do what he had commanded, they responded with the words we read above. What strikes me in their response is the phrase “but if not.” They knew that the God who created the world, who had established the nations, who set the stars in place could most certainly take care of them. They understood that God would have no difficulty in rescuing them from the hand of the king, though they likely did not know exactly how God would do that. However, though they knew God was able to deliver them, they did not know whether or not he would. They trusted in God, and fully had faith in his ability, but they were not presumptuous, assuming that they could say what God might choose to do. But, they were ready to die if that were necessary, rather than dishonoring God’s name by bowing to the statue.

First of two things we need to take away from this account is that we, like these three young men, dare not assume what God will do. If God has not specifically revealed it in the scriptures, we must not think that we can read his mind. For example, we know that God will never again destroy the earth by a flood, because he revealed it in the scriptures. However, we can not assume that God will not let flood waters overtake a city or two, as we have no divine revelation in that direction. We know that Jesus will return someday, because it is revealed in God’s word. We do not know, however, what that day will be. We know that God has the power to heal any diseases, as we saw in each of the Gospels; but we dare not assume that we know whether or not he will choose to heal anyone that we know today. God does not let us presume to know his will. We only know that what he will do is best. So, let us not assume we know what he will do. Let us say that he is able to deliver, but if he does not, we still will follow him.

The second thing is what followed the “but if not.” These three men were not willing to sin against God, regardless of the outcome. So many of us are the kind of people who think we have the right to sin against God if things are not going our way. “I know I said things I shouldn’t have said, but I was really upset,” we rationalize. “I know this is wrong to do, but I deserve a break,” we excuse our selves. Let us be clear, there is no excuse for us to sin against our God. His word is perfect. His law is perfect. His ways are perfect. We never have the right to sin against him, even if that sin would keep us out of trouble. Instead, we need to follow God’s will, and trust him for the outcome. And, let me be clear, that does not mean that the outcome will be easy. The “but if not” means that we may suffer because of our willingness to follow God and to not bow to the idols of the world. We may be hurt, tortured, scorned, ridiculed, or killed for the simple fact that we will not bow to what the world has set up. But let us remember that it is better to be tortured, scorned, ridiculed, or killed than it is to sin against our God who made us and who saved us.

Dear Lord, I have a deep desire to be like these three young men. No, I do not want to suffer or be put in a situation where I have to make a life or death decision. However, I want the kind of character that would make the right statement were I placed in that predicament. I pray that you will help me to choose always to risk danger above sinning against you. help me also not to assume I know your secret plans, because that is presumptuous and dishonoring to you. Help me to trust you, and to willingly suffer if that be your will. I most want to honor you. Please help me do that.

Daniel 2:10-11 – The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

Daniel 2:19 – Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
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The wise men of Babylon were exactly correct in their statement above. No man on earth has the power to know the thoughts in the mind of another man. No one can tell you what you dreamed last night without you revealing it to them. The wise men were right, that no one could obey the command of King Nebuchadnezzar. The king had demanded that they not only interpret his dream, but that they must first tell him what it was that he had dreamed.

Looking at verse 19, however, we see something that we as believers ought to rejoice in. The Lord made known to Daniel the mystery. We are not bound by human limitations. We are not limited to what men are able to do. We are the children of God. We serve the God who created the universe with a word, and who knows all things from start to finish. We need not fret as the lost fret when things seem hard or impossible. No, we trust God, and we know that he can do all things for the glory of his name.

Dear Lord, I thank you for this simple account of how you did something that no one can do. You helped Daniel to survive when his death had been decreed. You revealed truth to Daniel that no man could ever discern on his own. You proved to Daniel and to the king that you see into the thoughts and hearts of men. You are holy, awesome, all-knowing, and perfect in power. You can do the things that my earthly mind says are impossible. I pray that you will help me to have an even greater trust in you and your ability to do the impossible. May I never again fret over the circumstances of life. Instead, let me trust you and know that you are God.

Mark 1:12-13 – The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
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There is a popular, but drastically inaccurate, theory which has spread a long way in the church of today. The idea goes something like this: God loves you and wants the best for you; therefore, you must never believe that he would ever lead you into a painful situation. Proponents of such a theory tell Christians that, if they will just believe God, they will never suffer.

Apparently, it is sad that such teachers never had an opportunity to tell their ideas to Jesus, because Jesus suffered. Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived and the true Son of the Living God suffered greatly. He suffered in many ways over a variety of settings. And, when we think of Jesus’ suffering, we most generally point to his death on the cross, a death which, incidentally, was planned by God for him.

In our passage for today, we see Jesus go through a great trial immediately after his baptism. We all likely know the story of how, after Jesus was baptized, he went into the wilderness to be tempted. How many of us, however, have noticed who drove Jesus out into the wilderness? Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into a situation of difficulty, pain, trial, and temptation.

If the Spirit of God would lead the Son of God into a setting of trial, pain, and temptation, how much more should we believe that we, sinful people, will also face trials? We need to learn that our comfort and ease is not at all high on God’s priority list. God is much more concerned about our glorifying him. He is concerned about our growth in him. He is concerned about our having opportunity to prove our loyalty to him through our enduring trials and temptations. And, so he will, on occasion, lead us by his Spirit into times of difficulty for the sake of our glorifying his name.

True believers in Christ must battle the errors that are promoted by the “name it and claim it” teachers in our world. We must never embrace a false doctrine that says that we are children of the king, and thus we will never suffer in any way. We must never even strive for such false comforts. Instead, we need to set our priorities as the priorities of God. Let us learn to put him and his glory first. Let us be willing to suffer loss and pain for the sake of honoring him in our suffering. Let us live to give him praise, and even when things hurt, let us give that praise with all our hearts.

At the end of Jesus’ trial, he was ministered to by God’s angels. This is not to say that he got rich, drove a BMW, was given a nice job, or never felt hunger again. All it says is that, when things got tough, God took care of him. That is a truth upon which we can count. God never promises comfort, but he will provide for our true needs.

Dear Lord, I recognize here and now that your top priority is not my comfort. I know that you love me, and that you will never try to hurt me out of evil motives; but I also know that my pain can be what glorifies you. I pray that you will help me to have a heart set on you and your glory. I want what is best, not what is easiest. Help me to glorify you in whatever way most honors you and grows me. Please lead me, by your Spirit, wherever will most accomplish your will for your name’s sake.

1 Samuel 29:6-11 – 6Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords. 7“Now therefore return and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8David said to Achish, “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9But Achish replied to David, “I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us to the battle.’ 10“Now then arise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light, depart.” 11So David arose early, he and his men, to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
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One of the very common themes that I am seeing in the life of David is the way that God provides a way out for David during his times of trial. In this instance, David had been living and hiding among the Philistines. It finally came about that the Philistines were to enter into battle against Israel, and David and his men were to be in the battle on the Philistine side. However, along with the other accounts of David’s life we have read, we can be certain that David would not have actually fought against Israel. So, what was David to do? Was he to reveal his loyalty in the middle of the battle? Was he to run and hide?

God solved David’s dilemma. The other Philistine lords recognized that David might not be on their side, so they sent him away. With that happening, David was protected by God from having to make a very dangerous or sinful decision. Not only that, we can also find out by reading the next couple of chapters that God sent David back to his city of residence just in time for him to rescue his people from a raiding band of evil men.

How can we know that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to escape it without sin? We know this by reading God’s own promises to us.

1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Let me say that we can not be absolutely sure that, in every instance, God will provide for us an easy way out. But we can be sure that he will give us a way out that will keep us from sin. God always gives his children a way out of situations that will enable them to do what is right, even if what is right is very difficult.

Dear Lord, I thank you for showing in this account how well you provide for and take care of your children. I thank you that I know that, as life circumstances get complicated, you will always provide a way for me to follow you without breaking your biblical principles. Please help me to be so committed to you and your word that I will never fall into the temptation to take any shortcuts through paths of sin.

Romans 10:1-4 – Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
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This text is Paul’s description of the nation of Israel’s rejection of Christ. These people, who had a “zeal” for God, did not receive the one truth, the Truth, who could actually bring them into a true relationship with God. These people did everything they could to be right with God, but they did not actually come to him humbly through Christ.

If you talk with people very much, you will usually hear a good Christian person talk about one of their lost friends as though they might be saved. They will describe their friend or family member as having a heart for God, even though they do not go to church or have not expressed a true faith in Jesus. The problem with this is exactly what Paul addresses in the above verses. Though it may seem that the lost person has a heart that is seeking God, or perhaps even that they may have their own form of religion that seems good, they only have a zeal that is not according to truth. Such a zeal will not save you, but will simply condemn you.

Satan is a great deceiver. His first attack on humanity included a trick, a twisting of God’s actual command. Today, he still tries to trick us. He tries to convince us that our lost family members are OK, even though they do not know Jesus like we do. He tries to tell us that they “might” have faith, and that we just haven’t seen it. But we do not want to rest with such a false sense of security. It is time that we check our zeal and that of our family and friends. We want to have a zeal that is according to knowledge, not one that is full of the enemy’s deception.

Today, check your own faith. Have you truly placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul? Have you believed in Jesus, and let that trust be your true hope of heaven? If you are trusting in your good works or your religious activity, you are missing the point just like the people in the above verses. Do not fall prey to such a deception. Come to Jesus by faith, and receive salvation. Then, challenge your friends and family members to come to Jesus the same way.

Dear Lord, I do not want to have a zeal that is not according to knowledge. I want to know you for real and trust you for real. I acknowledge that my only hope is in Christ. I have no righteousness to bring to the table. I can perform no good deed that would make you want me. I simply cry out for your grace, and I receive the gift of salvation in Christ. Help me to live according to that truth. Help me to bring others to know you in the same way. Never let me forget the centrality of this saving faith.

Psalm 53:2-3 – God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
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Throughout the world, there is fundamental disagreement among people as to the basic goodness or lack of goodness natural to man. Some people argue that people are basically good, but are corrupted by the world around them. Others argue that man has a basically evil nature. Psychologists tend to blame the immorality of man on his environment, his childhood, or his physiology. But this psalm, which is also cited by Paul in Romans 3, makes it plain that the nature of man is corrupt from the very beginning.

The Bible says that God looks down on humanity as if to test to see if there is any good in humanity. What he finds is pretty disappointing. It is not that few people seek god; it is that absolutely no people seek God. By our nature, we are corrupt, and so much so that we will never seek God by ourselves. This means that there are no true seekers of God. While lost people may appear to be seeking God, we can be sure of this: if they seek God, they do so because God has done something in their hearts, because no one seeks God on his own. No lost person, according to verse 3, does good—not even one.

What does all this teach us? It most certainly teaches us of man’s utter inability to save himself. No human being does good or seeks God on his own. Thus, no human being could ever come to God on his own, because to come to God requires that we seek him and do good by believing in him. Also, even when things look good in the lives of the lost, they are not. Lost people do not do things for the glory of God. They do not do things based on the truth of God. Thus, nothing that a lost person does is actually and truly good. This is one of the reasons that we can not trust worldly philosophers, teachers of false religions, or psychologists to define for us how people should live or be made whole. They simply do not know, and they simply can not do what is most important—they can not glorify God.

It is wise for us to recognize the inability of the lost to glorify God, because it will help us to turn in the right direction to get to know God and his will. God’s word is how we get to know God. The rest of the world, even when they offer us things that are apparently true, can not lead us to God. While they may stumble across a fact or two and even do things according to basic moral principles, the lost can never lead us in the most important direction, because, as the psalm says, “there is none who does good, not even one.”

Lord, while I find it a bit discouraging to recognize the sinfulness of humanity, it is also very freeing. I need not seek truth from the lost. The lost do not know you, the one who said, “I am the truth.” Jesus, I believe that you not only know truth, you are truth. I trust in you for all that is good. I need you and your word to teach me what is right. I need you to lead me to what is good.

I also acknowledge, Lord, that I have never done anything good without it being to your credit and glory. Since I know that I never sought you on my own as your word clearly says, my salvation is a gift from you. Any positive response I ever made to you was from your gracious working in my heart first. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for taking me, one who had become totally corrupt, and making me into your child. Please lead me, now, into your will. Help me to do your work, for only you can accomplish good in me even now. I will work, but that work will only be done in your power and through your motivation. I depend on you, but I will not excuse myself from the work I am called to do. Please help me to work for the honor of your holy name.