Ukraine and the Goodness of God

This is Ukrainian currency, 7 hryvnia. It was a special gift to Ezra. It means so much to me: the thoughtfulness and the time spent in conversation, the encouragement for a short interaction. But it means more to Ezra and his tender little heart for the nations. It’s not more than 25¢ USD, but it might be one of the most valuable things in Ezra’s life. He sleeps with it positioned carefully next to his most prized books on animals and his nearly-full drawing pad.

This morning I tried to explain the devastation currently happening in our broken world. The lump formed and tears made their home in the corner of my eyes, not really being able to speak in full sentences. So much pain. So much destruction. So much separation. So much sin. So much I just can’t understand.

But what I know and what I cling to is that God is in control and he is not surprised (Ephesians 1:11, Psalm 115:3, 135:5-6). God is not haphazardly making up or even simply responding to the events we see unfolding today—no, he knew from before the foundations of the world what would take place (Ephesians 1:4-6). He knows the end from the beginning, and though I don’t understand ‘how’ that is all happening, his Word tells me it’s so (Proverbs 19:21, Isaiah 46:10). That offers me great hope as I live through what I can not finitely comprehend. I know that through heartache and pain and even grievous sins, God is working and purposing all things for his good pleasure to bring glory to his good name and ultimate good to those in his flock (Romans 8:28). We look no further than the cross to see this reality play out. Even when I can’t see what he’s doing—I know he’s working (2 Corinthians 4:17, Philippians 2:9-13). He is supreme light in very grave darkness (John 1:3-5). He is making all things new (Revelation 4:11, 21:5, Colossians 1:16).

And so while we plead to our good God to end affliction and suffering and conflict, we know that our prayer will ultimately be answered when he makes all things new (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Final justice will be served, man will be held accountable for his sin and punished accordingly, and death will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26), but those who are in Christ, those who have called on the name of Lord will not ever be put to shame (Romans 10:11, Psalm 25:3, Isaiah 25:8-9).

Lord Jesus, please come.

 

God Delights in Me

I remember where I was when he rebuked me. We remember things like that—the place where you were changed. So I remember when the kind, pastoral rebuke with gentleness and unwavering commitment to God’s word came at me. I was going off (read “the highly unattractive quality of arrogantly complaining no matter how true said topic may be”) on the abundance of weak and fluffy material that is spoon-fed to women and how utterly stupid it was (because I was somehow sooo above it??) that women get high on being told they are the apple of God’s eye and “you are enough” and blah blah blah. That’s a conversation for another day because at that point in time, when I desperately clutched to my hot-headed knowledge, I had not yet experienced the darkened course of paranoia and anxiety—but sure is funny how the Lord humbles the proud isn’t it?

But when the steam subsided from my nostrils and the fire ceased spewing from my mouth, that’s when the arrow pierced this dragon’s scales. After he patiently endured my painful soliloquy and agreed with me far less than I had hoped, he started reciting verses that were engraved on his heart. Verses he has recounted to himself in times of his own deepest need, I’m quite sure of it.

Isaiah 62:4
Proverbs 8:30-31
Zephaniah 3:17

He pushed back hard and said that if anyone is in Christ, God does delight in them, because he delights in Christ (Isaiah 42). “God delights in himself and in all that reflects his character” (Systematic Theology, Grudem, 218).

I felt smaller and smaller the longer he talked. The painful reality of my own blinding ignorance.

So maybe it wasn’t the ‘delight’ in the way so many women’s curriculum denote—where sinfulness can be diminished and personal value apart from Christ tends to reign supreme—but nonetheless there remains the biblical truth I was blatantly ignoring—God does delight in me. Make no mistake believer, God delights in you and rejoices over you not because you are somehow deserving or have anything to offer, but because Christ is worth delighting in. God the Father delights in believers because He delights in His Son. When our faith alone rests in the person and completed work of Jesus, Christ imputes His own righteousness to us and now when God looks at us, He sees the perfect righteousness of His Son. “When we reflect his character, he delights in us and finds us beautiful in his sight,” (Grudem, 220) but God doesn’t just delight in us primarily because we now reflect all things excellent in Christ, but because He sees us as perfectly righteous (2 Cor 5:21, 1 John 3:1). We delight in God for he delights in the Son and we delight in Christ for saving helpless, hell-bent sinners which makes us aware of God’s delight in us as we are in Christ (Romans 5). And the delighting never ends as we behold His glory with unveiled faces (2 Cor 3:18).

It was a moment I will never forget, and I forget most things within a week. It’s where my pride was revealed and a softer heart was produced. I really don’t know a lot; certainly not as much as I thought I did. And I have (had?? by God’s grace) a tendency to “always be up on arms about something” (Mel, Parks and Rec). But this isn’t the way of Christ. This isn’t what the Lord delights in. This is not a reflection of God’s beauty.

And so I can rightly mourn the fluff I see, but more productively, I can spotlight the truth of God’s delight in those he has called and justified, and will one day glorify. I can be a marquee pointing to the gospel to help the hurting, wobbling women off their crutch of the man-centered, sin-minimizing perspective.

So when my sin condemns me (like the nasty sins of complaining, pride, and ungenteel speech I like to conveniently minimize in my own zealous way) I remember: in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1); I repent for God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:8); I am a new creation in Christ(2 Cor 5:17); and “when God rejoices in his creation, or even when he rejoices in us, it is really the reflection of his own excellent qualities in which he is rejoicing” (Grudem, 219) that dead, unholy, unworthy sinners are now completely righteous, pure, and justified in the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord.

There really is no better place to be than in Christ, and oh, how good it is to delight in and be delighted in by the Father (Psalm 84).