What do the Psalms look to? What is the theme that courses its way through psalm after psalm? What gives the Psalms their meaning and depth?

Well, the thing that the Psalms point to again and again isn’t a “thing” at all. No, it’s a person, and his name is Jesus. It’s not as though some of the psalms are Messianic — all of the psalms point to the person and work of the Savior in some way!

Consider Psalm 27:2,

When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.

You can’t help but think of the cross when you read these words. There was a dramatic moment in time when evil men advanced against Christ. It was a moment …

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In my last post, I looked with you at the grace of forgiveness. Here we will consider the other aspects of God's gracious work in our hearts.

The Grace of Enablement

Once confidence in God’s forgiveness has called you out of hiding to confess that you have lived the wrong way, something new will greet you: the fear that you don’t have what it takes to live as you should. Your fear will be well-founded. Sin not only leaves us guilty, it leaves us unable. It cripples our ability to be what we are supposed to be and do what we are supposed to do. This is why we need the grace of enablement. Along with forgiveness, we need power.

That power does not come through some impersonal force. It does …

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Grace enters your life in three powerful forms. These aspects of God’s grace really do have the power to undo you and rebuild you once again. I will look at one in this post and the other two in a post to follow.

The Grace of Forgiveness

Perhaps it will take an eternity for us to understand the extent of the grace we have been given, and the significance of the forgiveness that flows from that grace. But this much is certain, no other force in this life compares to forgiveness in its power to change the way you live. There is a wonderful moment in the life of Christ that powerfully exhibits this. Jesus is having dinner at the house of a Pharisee:

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesu…

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It was a wonderful opportunity. I was asked to participate in an open discussion about death and dying from a patient’s perspective. The event was held at a local medical college. It was the first ministry situation I had ever been in where I had sat between a rabbi and two imams. My Jewish and Islamic colleagues were all very warm and articulate, but I had an unfair advantage. My advantage had nothing to do with my gifts, ministry experience or skill. My advantage was simply this, I came armed with the gospel. I carried something into the room that no one else had, and as the evening went on, the practical real-life glory of the gospel glistened with greater and greater beauty.

Gentle, Ca

…

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Why don’t people just forgive? That is a very good question. If forgiveness is easier and more beneficial, why isn’t it more popular? The sad reality is that there is short-term, relationally destructive power in refusing to forgive. Holding onto the other's wrongs gives us the upper hand in our relationship. We keep a record of wrongs because we are not motivated by what honors God and is best for others but by what is expedient for ourselves.

Five Dark "Benefits" of Unforgiveness

1. Debt is power. There is power in having something to hold over another’s head. There is power in using a person’s weakness and failure against him or her. In moments when we want our own way, we pull out some …

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God’s Word really does open up to us the mysteries of the universe. It really does make us wiser than we could ever be without it. And yet, having said all this, it's sad that we don’t take more advantage of this wisdom God has given us. It's sad that we don’t think his thoughts after him, that we don’t require ourselves to look at life through the lens of his revelation. It's sad that we swindle ourselves into thinking that we are wiser than we are. We're not irritated by his foolishness, nor are we motivated to seek his help. One of the places you see this most clearly is in the struggles we experience in our relationships.

Why have I reminded you of all this? I encounter people everywh…

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A friend tells you he wants to talk to you, and when you get together, you realize that what he really wanted to do was confront you. You’re not really excited about being told bad things about yourself, but this is your friend, so you’re willing to listen. As he lays out his concerns, you feel pain. You can’t believe what you’re being told about yourself!

The Art of Self-Preservation

Silently and inwardly you quickly give yourself to well-developed self-defense tactics, marshaling arguments that you’re a better person than the one being described. You want to believe that what you’re hearing is a distortion, lacking in accuracy and love, but you know you can’t. You’re devastated because…

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Read Part 1

A properly functioning conscience is a grace

Many relationships travel a one-way road in the wrong direction—the direction of a hardened heart. In the early days of the relationship we’re concerned with winning the other person, being loving, kind, serving, respectful, giving, forgiving, and patient. 

But before long we let down our guard. We quit being so solicitous. Selfishness replaces service. We do and say things we would have never thought of at the relationship’s beginning. We become progressively less giving, patient, and forgiving. We look out for ourselves more than for the other person. 

At first, our conscience bothers us. Eventually our heart hardens and ou…

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I often wonder how many people are stuck in their relationships in a cycle of repeating the same things over and over again. They repeat the same misunderstandings. They rehearse and re-rehearse the same arguments. They repeat the same wrongs. Again and again things are not resolved. Night after night they end the day with nothing reconciled; they awake with memories of another bad moment with a friend, spouse, neighbor, co-worker or family member and they march toward the next time when the cycle will be repeated.

It all becomes predictable and discouraging. They hate the cycle. They wish things were what they once were. Their minds swing between nostalgia and disappointment. They want th…

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So, what happens inside of you when you are asked to wait? Is waiting, for you, a time of stengthening or weakening? Have you ever stopped to consider why God asks you to wait?  Let me point you to one of his purposes.

Waiting Is Giving You Time

When God asks you to wait, what happens to your spiritual muscles? While you wait, do your spiritual muscles grow bigger and stronger or do they grow flaccid and atrophied? Waiting for the Lord isn’t about God forgetting you, forsaking you, or being unfaithful to his promises. It’s actually God giving you time to consider his glory and to grow stronger in faith. Remember, waiting isn’t just about what you are hoping for at the end of the wait, bu…

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