Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 ESV God doesn't want half-heartedness. We're to be wholehearted in our devotion to him. He is worthy of our everything. God is worthy of our thanks for giving us life. Above all, he gives us newness of life through faith in Jesus. Because Jesus died and rose again, we took can die to self and live for God. Ingratitude is ugly. Half-heartedness is unattractive. We are wise to be grateful for all God's goodness to us. We're not simply fast-tracked to glory by God. He gives us his Holy Spirit to enable us to live for him each day, until he calls us home. It's good to shout his goodness from the rooftops! 'Gracious Father in heaven, we're grateful for your goodness to us in Christ. Please help us to be grateful to you for all of our days and forevermore, in his name, amen'.

 “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ” Philippians 1:3 ESV I think of my brethren in the faith of God. I thank my God in all my remembrance of them. I echo the Apostle Paul's affection greeting to the Philippian church. To be honest, we're commanded elsewhere to give thanks in everything. So even when we remember difficult people, we should give thanks to God for them as souls made in the image and likeness of God. Everyone is either a 'blessing or a lesson' as the cheesy half-rhyme goes. People either bless us with the remembrance of their love, or they give us a lesson, a warning to not be hateful like them. I want to be someone people bless God for. I want to be for those I know like the Philippian church was for Paul, a cause for joy. Thanksgiving is a great North American tradition. Sadly, we're not so thankful in the U.K. Traditionally we remembered harvest in old fashioned churches and thanked God for it, yet even that tends to be forgotten nowaday...

 “ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3:7 ESV I'm sure we've all met people who are wise in their own eyes. I'm sure we'd recognise that such pride and arrogance is an ugly thing. We're little creatures in a vast universe; to think we're the fount of all knowledge is delusional! The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. So, brainy atheists haven't even started to be wise. They might have a lot of knowledge, but they're clueless about spiritual things. Fear of God isn't a blind terror that cringes away into the darkness. It's the fear of a child who is afraid to displease his dad, so he comes into the light. A wise son turns from evil and confesses his evils to his dad. Apparently 98% of men get caught in sexual sin and only 2% preemptively confess it. Better to be honest with the Omniscient (all knowing) One rather than to foolishly try and mask our evils. May God have mercy upon us.  'Heavenly ...

 “ The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it.” Isaiah 60:22 ESV My cynical, unbelieving nature initially assumed this verse is too good to be true. Yet this is God's way. He chose Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau for example.  Even Jesus was a humble Carpenter for most of his life. Humanly speaking he didn't have any children. Yet by faith, his people are a mighty throng. Anti-Semitism is a pandemic in the world today. Yet the Jewish Messiah is the Saviour of the world, our only hope. From a despised people comes the means of our deliverance. God's timing isn't ours. A thousand years is like a day to the Everlasting One. Yet Jesus has now achieved our deliverance. All we need to do is to trust in him. 'Dear Lord, we thank you for counterintuitively choosing nobodies like us to shame the rich, powerful and proud. Please help us to trust you to vindicate us. For your glory...

 “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ” Romans 8:6 ESV The flesh looks different to different people. There's different symptoms but the same disease. For some it's lust, for others greed and for some it's pride.  This is an interesting verse. We could be tempted to focus on the flesh to try and overcome things like lust, greed and pride. The Apostle Paul tells us to focus on the Holy Spirit of God. There's some old quote about the 'expulsive power of a new affection'. Where once we were consumed by fleshly things like lust, greed and pride, now we're to shift our focus. We're to zoom in on spiritual things like life and peace. A good place to start would be to ruminate on the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy and peace etc. are to define us. If we can be called spiritual, these virtues are to characterise us. 'Holy Father in heaven, please help us to overcome the flesh and to become spiritual....

 Isaiah 41:13 ESV  For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” To encourage someone is to help someone to be brave. That's what God himself does here for his people in this verse. He's leading us by the hand; we simply need to follow. Apparently, one of the most common commands in the Bible is to not be afraid. If we rightly fear the Lord, we'll have no need to fear anything or anyone else. We don't need to be scared of oppressive superpowers for example like Babylon for Judah. God doesn't just give empty encouragement to not be afraid. He actively helps us. He sent Jesus to give his life for us. Because Christ died and rose again, we too can rise again to newness of life. The risen Lord walks with us by his Holy Spirit, until he calls us home. We just have to keep in step. 'Heavenly Father, help us not to be afraid. May we trust in you instead to help us get to glory. In Jesus' name we ask ...

 Matthew 12:35 ESV The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.  Jesus is brutal in this passage. He calls religious people a 'brood of vipers'. Even in his day, some sins, like pride and self righteousness and slander were seen to be 'acceptable' culturally, even as such people looked down on undesirable tax collectors and overt sinners. If evil spills out of our mouths, we betray the fact that we are naturally evil. Even the good we do is tainted by mixed motives. A drop of poison in an otherwise pure glass of water still contaminates it. Jesus called his own followers evil. He didn't flatter them. Yet he said if they gave good gifts to their kids, how much more will Father God give good gifts to those who ask him? The power of the gospel is that through the humanly speaking evil of Christ's crucifixion, God made a way for evil people like us to be made good. It's a lifelong pro...

 Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations is, as the name suggests, a lamentable book. Gods people were at their lowest ebb. Yet here, in the midst of the darkness, it's as though the sun came out. God's love never fails. He never has failed his people and he never will. Even in the midst of intense suffering, God's love for us endures. Even if our nation is in ruins like ancient Judah, God's mercies never come to an end. We deserve hell. Anything better than that is a bonus. Every time the sun rises we can be reminded of God's mercies new each day. The sunrise is pregnant with possibility. The preacher Chuck Swindoll said that people rarely kill themselves at sunrise because it's a hopeful time of day. 'Faithful God, we praise you for never failing us. Please reassure us of your unfailing love for us in Christ, in whose name w...

 Deuteronomy 31:8 ESV It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” I think this verse could easily be misled. God could have been seen to have been the means to the end of getting to the promised land. God isn't the means to an end; he is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End. I love this promise of Moses to Joshua. It's such a godly encouragement that God himself echoed it later on, after Moses had entered God's eternal presence. If this verse was true for Joshua, it's certainly true for us new covenant believers who have the indwelling Holy Spirit. For us as new covenant believers, God isn't simply the means to the end of getting to the promised new creation. We don't then abandon God and focus on ourselves. God isn't simply to be paid lip service to. God won't leave or forsake us, even in eternity. This verse is true of those who, by his grace, don't ultimately lea...

 Genesis 1:3 ESV And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  When God speaks, things happen. God himself is Light, and in him, there is no darkness at all. When God switches the light on, no one can switch it off. The God who created light continues to brighten up our lives to this day. Jesus is the Light of the world. When we trust in him, we ourselves become the light of the world, reflecting his Light to others. Once we were in the domain of darkness. God has brought us into the Light however. We're like Augustine, who once had his back to the Light, focusing on what the Light reflected on; but finally he turned and came into the Light. If we're in the Light, there's no room for being all self congratulatory. It's because God has switched the light on in our hearts that we're lightened up, if we are at all. God forbid that we would assume we're in the light if we're actually in darkness. 'Light of the world, please brighten up our lives ...

 Matthew 11:28 ESV Come to me, all who laboúr and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Life isn't easy. It's often laborious and burdensome. Jesus offers rest to those who come to him. To be honest, I don't think life necessarily becomes easier if we trust in Jesus. He does empower us though. Spiritually speaking, we no longer need to toil and be burdened. We don't need to earn God's acceptance. We just need to trust in Jesus. We simply need to come to him by faith. This is a powerful promise. If we come to Jesus, he assures us that he will give us rest. We can leave our burdens at the foot of the cross. 'Dear Lord, may we come to you, and so find rest for our souls. We ask this for your honour and praise, amen'.

 Galatians 6:2 ESV Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  We all have burdens. They aren't only necessarily besetting sins. They could also include the concerns we carry for loved ones for example. We are to care for one another. It shouldn't be a 'dog eat dog' world in the family of God. As Jesus bore our burdens, so we are to share one another's burdens. The law of Christ in summary is to love. Love isn't just a mushy feeling. Love is action: to bear one another's burdens. Interesting, the Apostle Paul goes on to say that each one must bear their own load. We can only carry each other's burdens so far. There comes a point where we have to carry our own weights of responsibility. 'Dear Father God, please help us to carry each other's burdens as best we can, whilst learning to bear our own loads too. In Christ's name we ask this, amen'. 

 Hosea 10:12 ESV  Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. Taken in isolation, the first half of this verse could sound like we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and earn our own righteousness and love. Even in the context of this verse, we see that isn't true. The Lord is the One who rains down righteousness upon our thirsty souls. In the new covenant, Jesus describes God as the Sower and his word as the seed. So we need to sow Gods righteous word in our hearts to reap a harvest of love. Righteousness and love aren't contradictory; if we're righteous we'll be loving. We reap what we sow. If we sow God's word, well reap a good harvest. If we sow to our fleshly, worldly desires, we'll reap weeds as it were. We need to break up old weedy habits and seek the Lord to make us fruitful and blessings to him and to others. Unfaithfu...

 Psalm 30:5  For his anger is just for a moment, and his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning. God gets angry. We mustn't gloss over this truth. He's rightfully angry at all that is unlovely.  Thankfully, God's anger is momentary, and his favour is everlasting. He's like a loving father who gives his unruly son the rod for a moment, but then embraces him and welcomes him back into loving communion with him. We need God's discipline. If we're not disciplined ourselves, God will discipline us. He might drive us to tears through the night, but with the morning he will bring joy to us. Even if this life is a vale of tears, the next one is eternal joy. Thankfully, we can know much joy, even in this life. Every sunrise is pregnant with the promises of God. His mercies are new every morning.  'Dear Lord God, we're grateful not just for the joy you bring, but also for your discipline. Please help us to look for...

 1 Peter 5:6 ESV   Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  God hates pride and loves humility. Even the Lord Jesus Christ himself is humble. He humbled himself from the throne of heaven to the cross for us, only to be exalted back to his rightful place. We deserve God's condemnation. Yet if we humble ourselves before him, we can be assured that he will ultimately exalt us. Even if it isn't until glory, God will raise us up. God is sovereign. If we're doing well for ourselves, we should give him the glory. If we're struggling, we should cry out to him to uphold us. If we don't humble ourselves, God may well do it for us. He can use life circumstances to humble us. Ultimately, if we reject him in the end, he will banish us to the ultimate humiliation of hell. 'Almighty Father God, please humble us, so that we can ultimately be exalted. Thank you for the example of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen...

 John 8:32 ESV and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Some people think the truth is unknowable. How they think they know that is beyond me! That idea seems like a convenient way of trying to avoid having truth to which we are accountable. Jesus is the Truth personified. He is knowable, through his word, by his Spirit. If we want to get to know him we can ask him to reveal himself to us. As Christ said elsewhere, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me'. If we want to know the truth of God, we need to look to the Lord Jesus. Truth isn't just some intellectual exercise. The Truth will set us free from the lies of the enemy of our souls who wants to keep us bound. By getting to know Christ, and him crucified, we find out how we can be liberated from our sins. 'O Lord our God, please set us free from our sins. Help us to get to know you and your Truth, for your honour and praise we ask this, amen'.

 Psalm 121:2 ESV  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Helping others is humble. We might think it's better to be helped than to help. Yet it's more blessed to give than to receive.  A home help is basically a servant. The idea that God helps us seems almost blasphemous. Yet he isn't ashamed to help us. God created Eve to help Adam. Before we conclude that this makes woman subservient to man, we should bear in mind that God helps his people. A helper is a co-labourer in the work. The Lord made heaven and earth. Yet he isn't too proud. He doesn't refuse to help us. 'Sovereign Lord, we're so grateful for your help. We acknowledge you have made all things well. Please help us to help you redeem broken people back to you. For the glory of Christ, amen'. 

 Proverbs 1:7 ESV The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. We tend to think of fear as a negative thing. After all, there won't be any fear in the new creation. Yet fear of getting burnt for example makes us careful around fire. Our God is a consuming fire. He's able to cast soul and body into hell. He's fearsome. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the love of God is the heart of wisdom. Our fear of God should drive us to him for mercy, not away from him in terror. We should fear to displease him like a child fears to displease their father. We should be brave, but we shouldn't have bravado before the Lord God Almighty. We should reverence him as we ought. He deserves our awe. 'Almighty Lord, please help us to revere you as we ought, and so to gain hearts of wisdom. For the honour of your name, amen'.

 Galatians 5:22-23 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  When we receive the Holy Spirit, we begin to change from seeking to gratify the flesh to wanting to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit doesn't grow overnight. Nevertheless, we are to be increasingly defined by love, joy and peace etc. Jesus epitomises these virtues. If we want to know what love, joy and peace etc. look like, we need to look no further than him. His love look him to the cross; his joy enabled him to scorn the cross's shame as he anticipated his glorification; and he's at peace with Father God, in the centre of his will. Christ is patient with us: he doesn't expect to see fruit overnight necessarily. He's both strong and kind, as the song reminds us. He's good: we can trust him in the hardships of life. The Lord is faithful- he doesn't give up on us. He is gentle- ...

 Psalm 18:2 ESV  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Jesus commands us to build on himself and his words as the Rock. Jesus is Lord. When the storms of life and death come, if we're built upon him, we will stand. We're to take every thought captive and bring it to Christ. He is our fortress. He's our safe place, whatever life throws at us. Christ is our deliverer. Sometimes, thoughts capture us rather than the other way round. Thankfully, Jesus is able and willing to set us free from negative thought patterns. The Lord is our shield. When our faith is in him, we are strong to withstand the fiery arrows of the evil one. Even in our weakness, in God we are strong. 'Lord our God, we're so grateful for the safety, strength and salvation that we find in you. Please forgive us for times we go astray, and bring us back we pray. In Jesus' name, amen'.

 Matthew 6:34 ESV  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Anxiety is pointless. It achieves nothing. It worries about different possible eventualities that may or may not come to pass. Jesus didn't give his followers pills for anxiety. He simply commanded them not to be anxious. In a sense he's saying to live in the moment rather than for tomorrow. There's no point wishing or worrying our lives away. Jesus tells us to take each day as it comes. There's no need to get ahead of ourselves. In the context, instead of selfishly worrying, we're to be otherishly concerned for God's Kingdom and his righteousness. God provides our daily needs. Worrying about them doesn't make our needs to be met.  'Lord God, please help us not to be anxious. May we prioritise your Kingdom and your righteousness. In Jesus' name, amen'.

 2 Peter 1:3 ESV His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence We've got everything we need in God to live Christlike lives. How do we unlock the door to becoming like Jesus? By getting to know him, through his word and his Holy Spirit. Without God's word we rely on our feelings. Without the Holy Spirit we are legalists. With both we get to know God, not just intellectually, but relationally. 'Show me your friends and I'll show you you'. Jesus isn't ashamed to be nicknamed 'friend of sinners'. If we're friends with him, we'll become like him. Why does Jesus befriend us? Because he's excellent like that, turning enemies to friends. It's for his glory, which isn't arrogance, because he is worthy. 'Glorious God, we honour you for befriending us. Help us to know you and to become increasingly Christlike, in his name we ask th...

 Daniel 12:3 ESV And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.  Biblical Wisdom is bright and attractive. Worldly 'wisdom' blends in with the darkness around. True wisdom is distinctive. Wisdom should make us shine, not to be dull. We ought to be winsome, not unattractive. Wisdom encourages others to live rightly too. True wisdom isn't just to know the right thing, but to choose to do it. Not only so, wisdom calls others to righteousness as well. We're to attract others to the Light of Christ. We're to reflect the Light of the world in our lives. He is the Source of all brightness. We can display that to others through our witness. 'Light of the world, please make us wise, not just for our own sakes, but to call others to righteousness too. For the glory of your name, amen'.