God Wants Your Heart

Numbers 14:24 "But my servant Caleb––this is a different story. He has a different spirit; he follows me passionately. I'll bring him into the land that he scouted and his children will inherit it. (The Message)

God has just finished telling Moses that none of the Israelites will enter the Promised Land because of their lack of faith and constant contempt for what He has done for them.  But then he singles Caleb out as being different.  He says that because of Caleb’s heart after Him, because of his passion and desire to follow God, he will inherit the Promised Land.  That’s all God focusses on, not Caleb’s intelligence, or physical strength, or anything else.  He looks at Caleb’s spirit, his passion for following God.  And because of Caleb’s heart after God, he blesses Him.  We see this so often in the Bible.  The story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) is another example.  Jesus walks into Jericho, and Zacchaeus is so determined to see Jesus and to know more about him, that he climbs a tree to get a better look.  Jesus recognises Zacchaeus’s desire to know him, walks up to the tree and tells Zacchaeus that he wants to go to his place for a meal.   Zacchaeus was not a popular guy, in fact he was despised by the Jews because he was a tax collector who took more than he should, yet Jesus ignored this and responded to the heart that he saw was after Him.  And when Zacchaeus had spent some time with Jesus he responded to Jesus’s love by making a real change in his life.  He stood up in front of everyone and made a commitment to give half his belongings to the poor and pay back 4 times anything he had taken wrongfully.  Then there’s the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43).  Here was a guy that literally had nothing left to give.  He was dying, only hours left to live.  He recognises Jesus as the Son of God, and asks Jesus to remember him.  From a human perspective we would think this guy was clutching at straws, hedging his bets.  But Jesus didn’t think like that, he saw the thief’s heart.  He saw a heart desiring relationship with him, and he honoured it.  He showed love and compassion to the thief even while they were both hanging on crosses dying.  He said to the thief “Today you will be with me in paradise”.  Jesus sees hearts after Him and he loves them, responds to them and blesses them.  He meets them where they are and ministers to them.  He never leaves them, always honours them.

We see time and time again scripture examples of God responding to hearts which are genuinely seeking Him.  When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment is, his answer was that it is to love God with everything we’ve got (Matthew 22:37).  And God wants us to be passionate for him, in Revelation 3 Jesus rebukes a church for being lukewarm towards him, and says that he wishes they were either hot or cold because anything would be better than lukewarm.  But then he goes on to say:

‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.’ (Rev 3:20 TNIV)

Again, all he asks for is for us to have a heart after him, and then he will come into our lives and bless us.

It can be easy to get distracted in our day to day lives.  It can be easy to get busy and not make time for God.  It can be easy to be more focussed on getting through each day, making ends meet and trying to find times for ourselves.  But the more I learn to “Run the Race” the more I realise that in order to get through life I need my heart to be after God.  I need to seek Him first in all that I do, to make Him my number one each and every day.  I need to keep my eyes on Him, and not let anything get in my way.  I need to be disciplined, focussed and committed to Him.  By doing this I know that He is at work in my life, true to His promise to work for my good in all things (Romans 8:28), and I know that by seeking Him first He will meet all my needs (Matt 6:33).  My daily prayer is that He will help me to seek Him first, to grow in Him each day and be able to show His love to those around me.  And I would encourage you to do the same.  Set your heart after Him, make Him number one in your life, and watch how he meets with you, gives you what you need, and blesses you beyond comprehension!

There is NO Condemnation!

Picture this:  You’re sitting in sludge.  Deep, dark, smelly sludge.  It covers you from head to toe.  You’re clothes are worn and tattered, and you can’t see any way to climb out or clean up.  Then you look up and see someone standing there, offering to lift you out of the sludge, offering to help you get clean and free of it.  And not only is he offering to help you out of the sludge, he is holding a brand new set of clothes for you.  Clothes that suit you perfectly and fit better than anything you have ever known.  You know that the clothes cost him more than you could ever have paid, but he is offering them to you for free; all you have to do is accept the offer.  Not only that, but he has a path for you to walk on, a solid, firm path which leads to a luxurious mansion that he has prepared for you.  And he will walk with you along the path to help guide you.  You jump up, you accept the new outfit, and when you do you look down and realise that the sludge is all gone.  You’re completely clean and free of it.  The new clothes look amazing on and you feel the most free you ever have.  You walk along the firm path with your new friend guiding you and encouraging you along the way.  Then one day you look down and realise that you have drifted off the path a bit, you’re walking on the edge of the sludge again.  The bottoms of your new clothes are getting dirty, you feel a little guilty for getting your new clothes dirty but you think “it’s ok, it’s only a little muck, and I’ve been in worse”.  Your friend is there, encouraging you to get back on the path.  He says he can clean the muck off and it will be like it was never there, but you choose to keep going, thinking that you’ll be fine.  Then it starts to rain, a dirty, dusty rain.  You notice that now the top of your new clothes is getting dirty and the sludge is getting deeper and harder to walk through.  Your friend is still there, encouraging you back onto the firm path.  He’s holding an umbrella to protect you from the rain and reminding you that if you let him help you back on to the path he will clean your clothes off and they’ll be like new.  But you persist, you tell him you’ll be fine, you know what you’re doing, it’s nothing you haven’t coped with before and there are other people covered in more muck than you so it’s all good.  Then you trip and fall.  You’re down in the muck, covered in it again from head to toe.  You realise that you made a mistake, that you should have gotten back on the path earlier and then you wouldn’t be where you are now.  You feel frustrated, ashamed.  You think about your new clothes and the price that your friend paid so you could have them.  How could you have let him down so badly?  Yet your friend is still there, hand out to you, offering to lift you back onto the path, to clean you up again and set you free.  His umbrella is in his hand to protect you from the storm.  He tells you that it doesn’t matter that you stumbled, that you got your new clothes covered in muck.  He says that he still cares for you, that the price is paid for the clothes and that if you take his hand he will wash you clean again and you can continue on the journey; no need for guilt and that if you just take his had it will be like it never happened.  You reach up, take his hand and find that it is true.  You are clean again, free again, and your feet are back on solid ground, what an awesome friend!

While this analogy is somewhat simplistic and clumsy, it is the analogy of our lives and what Jesus does for us.  Before we are saved, we are covered in sin, represented by the sludge.  It covers us, invades every aspect of our lives.  When we accept salvation, Jesus frees us from that.  Psalm 40 says that

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.

Jesus puts us on a path, the plan he has for us is a good one (Jeremiah 29:11), he washes us clean and gives us new clothes to wear.  We are, in fact, new people (2 Corinthians 5:17).  And not only does he put us on the path, he walks with us to help us along.  The trouble is, life has challenges.  Sometimes it can be easy to wander off the path a little bit, to walk away from what Christ has for us.  This is where we see in the story that we are walking off the path, that the bottoms of our new clothes are getting muddy.  Sometimes we see what we are doing and correct it, we jump straight back on the path.  Other times we don’t see it, we ignore it or we justify it.  Life also has storms, the dirty and dusty rain.  We get tempted, the devil throws his fiery darts at us.  Jesus has given us an umbrella for these storms, or more appropriately, armour (Ephesians 6:10-17).  He has given us a means to avoid getting wet and stay safe.  But again at times we choose not to use it, or we forget it’s there.  The rain gets through to us, the storms slow us down.  And often that is when we stumble, when we fall into the sludge again.  So often when we fall it is easier to stay there.  To stay in the sludge and feel sorry for ourselves.  The devil tells us that we don’t deserve to be clean, that Jesus can’t possibly love us now.  He tells us that we should just stay there, wallow in it and dwell in self-pity.  Or even worse, dig deeper, enjoy the sludge, after all, it’s not that bad.  But this is not what the Word of God says.  This is contrary to the truth that sets us free (John 8:32).  Romans 8:1-2 says this:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Notice that, there is NO condemnation for us in Christ.  When we sin all we need to do is confess it and ask for forgiveness and God will forgive us and “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  It’s that easy!  No tricks, no gimmicks, no catches.  So what about our feelings of guilt?  John 3:20 says:

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Even when we get caught up in self-condemnation we can be assured that God still doesn’t condemn us.  And since God knows everything, we can trust Him over our feelings which can be swayed so easily.  Does this mean we can just do what we want and not worry about sin?  Not at all!  Paul talks about this in Romans 6 and says:

Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

Jesus has paid a great price for us, he has given us an amazing gift.  Go back to the analogy.  If someone has given you an outfit of great value, more than you can ever hope to pay, are you going to go walking through the mud with it?  Or are you going to stay on the firm, solid path to look after such a precious gift.  It is the same with what Christ has done for us.  He has set us free, he has given us the gift of eternal life.  He has won a victory for us that we could never win for ourselves.  Paul goes on in Romans 8:37-39 to say that:

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So next time you are struggling, next time you have stumbled and feel like giving up, remember that.  Remember that there is NO condemnation for you in Christ Jesus, and that nothing can ever separate you from his love!  What an awesome promise and an amazing victory! 

Run the Race - Part 3

Often in life we can have great intentions to be positive, productive and achieve great things, but so often life throws challenges at us which slow us down and make it difficult to achieve all the things we want to.  It can be easy to get discouraged and think there is no point.  At the end of my last post I talked about how we can keep our motivation, how we can persist despite the challenges.  In this post I want to expand on that a bit.  Going back to the passage I have been working through, Hebrews 12:1-3 says:

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

 

So how do we keep going?  We look to Jesus and the example he set us.  Jesus faced opposition from day 1.  Even as a baby he was targeted (see Matthew 2:13-18).  Throughout his ministry he was challenged and attacked, it seemed like the more good work he did the more people came after him, and often it can feel the same for us.  It can feel like the harder we work the more we get challenged.  The more determined we get to do the right things, like eat healthy and exercise, the more life seems to try and stop us with sickness, busyness or other difficulties.  But this is when it’s most important to push through.  Have a look again at the passage from the second part of verse 2 onwards:

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Jesus’s primary focus was not on the challenges he faced, but on the final outcome.  He knew that no matter how hard things got, the outcome would be worth it.  He knew that by tackling the difficulties he faced each day, he would achieve victory.  There must have been times in his life when it all seemed too much, but he kept going, he refused to be stopped.  And we need to do the same thing.  It is important not to give up when life gets tough, strength can only be built through challenge.  One of my favourite quotes is “a challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it”.  So we need to keep our heads up, our focus on the goal and keep moving.  From our biggest challenges come our biggest victories and our biggest growth, what an awesome motivation to keep going!  When we do this, when we focus on the goal, the challenge suddenly becomes less of an issue because we can see through it; we know that it is only a temporary step on the path to victory.

So where does that leave us?  The encouragement to "run the race" is something we can all apply to our lives.  It is a calling to try and be the best we can be.  It's a calling to try each day to do better than the day before.  It means that we stay focussed on our goals, not allowing ourselves to get caught in unhealthy things which can slow us down.  It means that when we get discouraged or times get tough we persist in the knowledge that we will overcome the obstacles and enjoy the successes.  It gives us a purpose, a drive to motivate us to continually improve and not give up, to get up each day and live with determination and positivity.  And when we when we do this, when we run the race, we are able to push through challenges and enjoy the victories that follow!

Run The Race - Part 2

In my last blog post I started going through one of my favourite Bible passages, Hebrews 12:1-3.  In that post I talked about the first part of the passage and the importance of throwing off “everything that entangles” so that we can be free to live. This leads to the next section where the writer encourages us to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:1b-2a).  What does this mean?  It means we need to live our lives with determination.  It means we need to follow the path that God has laid out for us with discipline.  The Bible tells us that God has plans for us which give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11); it also says that God works through everything for our good (Romans 8:28), meaning that we can be assured that if we follow God, He will lead us to good places, even though things may get tough at times.  I also believe that running the race means we need to be holistic in our approach to life.  It's no good focussing on one area exclusively at the expense of everything else, there has to be a balance.  A successful athlete does not just focus on one aspect of training, they train everything.  They work on strength, cardiovascular fitness, endurance and mental toughness.  They concentrate on their diet and nutrition.  They do everything they can to be the best they can be so when it comes time to compete they are ready. 

For me that's exactly what running the race means.  It means training and trying to be the best I can be in every area of my life.  In order to run the race that God has for me, I need to look after my physical health.  If I neglect that, it reduces my ability to impact others because I am not at my best. I'm not saying we have to be super fit or healthy to serve God, but we have a responsibility to maintain our physical selves as best we can. The Bible tells us that as Christians, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), which gives us even more impetus to look after them.  I don't know about you, but I don't want my temple to be full of junk.  We need to exercise regularly and eat healthily.  And for me I don't just want to get by.  I want to be the best I can be.  I want to run the race, not walk it.  I want to get fitter and stronger every day.  I want to do things better each new day than I did the day before.  And I believe this is what God has for us.  John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came so we could have "life more abundantly".  This means not just a ho-hum life of getting by, but a life of abundance and fullness.

Similarly I need to train myself mentally and spiritually.  I need to discipline myself to spend time in the Bible and in prayer.  I need to make sure that the things I am watching and listening to don't fill my head or heart with rubbish.  The verse also tells us to run with perseverance.  Life is a marathon, not a sprint.  We need to make a daily decision to stay focussed on our goals and be strong in what we do, and to keep going through tough times.  We can't give up just because we get tired or face a challenge.  It is important to keep pushing through.  It is when we tackle these challenges and push through the difficulties that we see the greatest victories and get the greatest satisfaction.

And how do we keep the motivation to keep going?  By “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith".  Jesus faced massive challenges and trials, he was opposed every step of the way, yet he kept going and kept living and loving all those around him.  Even on the cross he never stopped loving, he welcomed the thief (Luke 23:43) and asked God to forgive those who had crucified him (Luke 23:34).  What an example!  When we face difficulties we can look to Jesus knowing that he knows what we are going through and that in him we are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37).  We know that he is the one who has set the path for us to follow, so we can be assured that if we keep our eyes on him, staying focussed on our goals, he will always help us through. 

Run The Race - Part 1

For most of my life I have been fairly unhealthy.  While I've almost always played a sport of one sort or another, my diet has been pretty average, and at times downright terrible, and any time not spent playing a sport was spent on the couch in front of the TV or playing computer games.  At different stages of my life I have been more active, and my diet has been healthier, but as a general rule I couldn't claim to have been fit or healthy.  Just under 2 years ago I weighed 84kg, or 185 pounds, (I'm 5ft9in or 175cm tall), had a 34 inch waist and was living on a diet of chocolate, pasta and easy heat meals.  Any meals I did cook were generally steaks that were way over portioned.  I was playing basketball in a couple of social rosters, but doing very little other physical activity.  My stomach had gotten to the point that I was getting sores on my skin from where it was rubbing on my belt.  It was not good at all.  In about September 2011 a friend and I decided to join a gym to try and get more fit.  I went in and signed up and was going regularly but did little to change my diet.  After about 6 months of going to the gym and starting to see some change I decided it was time to take things a bit more seriously.  I decided there was little point in going to the gym if I was going to be drinking coke every day and eating MacDonald's on a regular basis.  At around the same time there was a phrase from the Bible that I could not get out of my head.  A phrase which seemed to be demanding my attention, which would become my life motto.  That phrase was "Run the Race".  There are a couple of places in the Bible that this phrase or similar ones occur, but the one which spoke to me was in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 - 3 which says:

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (NIV)

So what does it all mean and what relevance does it have to fitness?  Over the next couple of blog posts I'm going to work my way through the passage to talk about what it means to me and hopefully along the way provide you, even if you're not a Christian, with some inspiration and encouragement to run the race as well.

The first part of verse one refers to a "great cloud of witnesses".  This refers back to the previous chapter where the writer discusses a number of examples of people in the Old Testament who had shown great faith and ran the race that God had for them.  He uses examples such as Moses, Noah and Abraham who had faced significant challenges to walk the path that God had determined for them, and yet had persisted knowing that God was with them and would get them through.  They serve as models for us to look to and follow.  In life we should also find examples to follow, people to look up to.  These people serve as examples of having faced some of the difficulties we may face and having gotten through them.  They show us that determination and discipline can pay off.  We should also have positive people in our lives who can mentor us and guide us, who have experience in walking the paths we are hoping to follow.  These people can encourage us when times get tough, and guide us when the path isn't clear.

The next part of the passage encourages us to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles".  This means that we need to ensure that we keep our lives free from things that can distract us from our goals, or things that can hold us back.  In the physical sense, this means we need to stay away from the things which prevent us from reaching our goals.  You can't continue to eat junk food and expect to be healthy.  You can't sit on the couch all day and expect to get fit.  We need to avoid junk food, we need to break bad eating habits, we need to stop making excuses to avoid exercise and finding ways to cheat.  You won't see progress or results if you don't make the effort to make the change.  In a spiritual sense the meaning is much the same, we need to monitor what we take into our minds and spirits, and stop making excuses to avoid doing the right thing just because it might be a bit harder at times.  There's no point saying that you want to stop thinking lustful thoughts if you sit down and watch porn on a regular basis.  There's no point saying you want a closer relationship with God if you're not willing to put the time in to pray and meditate on his Word.  Laziness, whether physical, mental or spiritual is just one example of something that can hinder and "easily entangle" us. 

So how can we apply this?  The first step is to set your goals, to know what you want to achieve.  Then find people who inspire you, people who have led the way in areas that you want to pursue.  Find examples of leaders and others who have worked through adversity and succeeded.  Also find people who can mentor you, positive people who can encourage and support you on your journey.  Find wise, mature and stable people who will stick by you and help you on your way.  Then work out what the things are that are slowing you down.  What are the things that are "entangling" you that you need to break free of?  Is it bad habits, bad choices, bad influences?  Take responsibility for these things and make the changes.  Break free of those things and run the race!