Stepping in the Light

“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalm 75:6-7

Many people dream all of their lives of making it to the top. They want to experience the heady rush of adrenaline associated with being well-known, famous, and important. From the first day on the job, they are looking for a promotion. They want a new title, a new office, or a new position. Inevitably, this desire to get ahead drives them to seek the favor of man. The scripture above is clear. East, West, and South are horizontal directions from which we might search for someone to help us become important; but God is above all, and He is the One Who decides who will be promoted and who will not. His prerequisites are different from those generated from the human perspective, and His discernment of personal character and qualifications is unimpeachable. If we are looking for an important person to give us an inroad into the next level, we are looking in the wrong direction. If we are scouring the landscape to find people who will follow us and make us feel more important, we are going about it the wrong way. The One we need to worry about impressing is God. He will decide how far we make it in our career and how high we will be able to climb. Jesus taught us that the servant is greatest of all and that the person who wants to lead must learn to serve. The Lord is going to decide how far we go in life. Are we doing our best to impress Him? 

“But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Psalm 73:2-3, 17

It is almost universally assumed that good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people. We naturally think that actions should dictate outcomes. This inborn expectation of fairness demands that justice be served posthaste and that rewards be bestowed swiftly and displayed prominently. Our sense of morality leaves little tolerance for exceptions to the rule; and while basic logic causes us to lean toward an inherent insistence that good deeds should be rewarded and evil deeds should be punished, reality does not always reflect this idealistic sense of order and sanity. Sometimes we have to wait a long time for the outcome that we expect, and, in some situations, it seems that a satisfactory result is completely impossible. Bad things can happen to good people. Whenever we see this, we can begin to become disoriented to right and wrong. The psalmist is pointing out our tendency to become fixated on the exceptions and begin to lose our ability to make right decisions in our own lives. In verse seventeen, he indicates what enabled him to make sense of it all; considering the end. One day we will all stand before God. When we consider the judgment day, we can easily decide the way that we should live our lives.

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27

The word infirmities in the passage above refers to feebleness of body or mind. It says that the Spirit of God helps our weakness because we do not know what we ought to pray for. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Thy will be done.” Of course, God knows what His will is, but many times we do not. Parts of God’s will are spelled out clearly in the Bible. We know that it is God’s will for every person to be saved. We know that it is His will for us to love others, to forgive, and to be kind. However, there are many specific questions in our lives that the Bible simply does not address. God still wants us to speak to Him and pour out the desires of our hearts, but sometimes we ask for things that are not in His will. In these cases, the Holy Spirit goes between us and God the Father and intercedes on our behalf. What a comfort to know that we have an Intercessor who helps us in our prayers! Even when our feeble attempts to reach out to the Father go astray and we ask for things that are outside of the Father’s will, the Holy Spirit represents us to the Father and asks that the Father would give us what we really need instead of what we want. These verses should encourage us to come boldly to the throne of grace!

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2

The word condemnation in the verse above refers to a sentence or a verdict. Because of our sins, we are condemned. Not only are we condemned before God; our own conscience condemns us, and sometimes the people around us condemn us for the things that we do wrong. God’s gift of salvation frees us from the eternal consequences of sin, but sin still has a devastating effect on us. If it is true that we are sinners by nature and that we still have our carnal nature after we are saved, how can we ever hope to please God at all? This passage gives us the answer. We must walk in the Spirit. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within our being. God’s Spirit works within us to convict us of sin, to aid us in understanding the Bible, to guide us in making decisions and interacting with others, and to empower us to tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit, we have the continual possibility of pleasing God. In any given situation, we have the ability to choose to do the right thing. When we evaluate our options based on God’s Word and make our choices following the influence of the Holy Spirit, we are walking in the Spirit. As we walk in the Spirit, we will please God, and thus we do not experience condemnation. The secret to the Christian life then, is walking in the Spirit. 

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Romans 7:22-23

In the first several chapters of the book of Romans, Paul thoroughly demonstrates that every person is a sinner. He makes it clear that we must realize our sinful condition before we can truly understand our need for salvation. After we accept Christ, our sins are forgiven. We are justified in the sight of God. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, our sins are no longer recorded to our account. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, and we become a new creature in Christ. In the verses above, however, Paul points out that we still have a problem. The law of sin still reigns in our flesh. We still have our carnal appetites, attitudes, and desires. We are still capable of being angry, bitter, unkind, lustful, untruthful, vengeful, hateful, and even murderous. A careful reading of this chapter reveals a struggle between our old nature and our new nature. Many would regard the Apostle Paul as the greatest Christian who ever lived, and yet he says that the things that he wants to do, he doesn’t do; and the things that he doesn’t want to do, he does. He expresses a deep desire to please God with his actions, but he acknowledges the challenge that he personally faced in dealing with his own carnal nature. If we are going to experience success in obeying God’s Word, we must remember that we will never achieve sinless perfection. Every moment of the day, we face a battle against our sinful nature.