I received this email today from a friend, Dave McCarty, who leads a ministry called Gospel Frienships.  I found his counter-intuitive insights helpful.

"When I'm discouraged by circumstances, I'm always confident of what's best for me and those I love.  [It is when I lean on my] own understanding. My biggest need is not changed circumstances, but a changed heart: fresh conviction of the sin of independence and unbelief in His promise to work all things together for my good, and His glory. Unbelief in the perfectness of His plan for me.   Discouragement is not a picture of humility, but of... pride."

Wow. I had never thought of discouragement as a fruit of selfish pride. I wonder if what I call being discouraged may often be a form of adult whining over my will not being done. Maybe discouragement is another opportunity for fresh repentance and simple, childlike, gospel faith in a all-good, all-loving, all-sovereign and all-wise Father.  

Now, when Dave speaks of being discouraged, he is not saying that there is not a time to be sad or to grieve. Those are normal emotional responses to the brokenness of living in a fallen world. The discouragement he is talking about is the experience of not getting my own way and pouting about it like a spoiled child. It is a type of frustration produced by prideful anger. 

So, I think Dave is right, and especially about this: I am more in need of a changed heart than I am of changed circumstances. Can you relate to that?

Today I had lunch with a friend who made a comment that rocked me. He said something to the effect, "The key to sanctification is learning to get used to my justification." That idea really struck me: I am called to get used to being the recipient of extravagant grace. I am called to get used to the fact that I have been fully forgiven, declared totally righteous and am dearly loved as a son. I am called to let that sink in and define me. But to be honest, it is so hard getting used to extravagant grace. I continually feel as if I need to merit God's favor or earn his approval or do pennance when I've blown it so that I can be on God's good side again. However, the cross tells me that there is nothing I can do to improve my status with God and nothing I can do to diminish it. Because of the gospel, I am on God's good side—forever. I am forgiven, righteous and loved—and all by grace. Period. Believing (i.e., getting used to that) is the calling of the gospel in my life every day. Grace. Period. Get used to it!

I received an email yesterday from friend, Dave McCarty. Using the Shepherd and sheep analogy that Scripture draws between Jesus and the believer, he said: 

"Tis so sweet to be a clueless sheep. Asking about everything, thanking about everything. Curious and expectant to see what the Shepherd will do next—which doors He’ll open and which He’ll close.   Sheep don't know what’s best.   But they believe their Shepherd does.  Ahhh, carefree living."

Maybe the low-stress life comes from being more clueless, not less. More helpless, not less. More dependent, not less. It's just another application of how the gospel reverses everything. 

To read more of Dave's gospel reflections and ramblings, check out his blog here. 

Yesterday, during the twice monthly phone discipleship meeting that Kristy and I have with our mentor, we discussed the meaning of faith.  When we boiled it down, we discovered that faith essentially is a mechanism that receives—a conduit, or feeding tube, of sorts through which the riches of God's grace in the gospel flow to us who believe. Faith is a posture of helplessness and need. It is a confidence that what God promises in the Gospel is true for me. I am forgiven and have no need to make up for my sins. I am declared righteous and have no need to impress anyone. I am a beloved son and have a sovereign, wise, and good Father who loves me dearly and is devoted to my good. I possess the indwelling Holy Spirit, who enables me to do what I could never do in the flesh- things like confess my sins freely and quickly, forgive others gladly and fully, tell the truth when it costs me, listen to someone's pain and really care. The experience of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control... Stuff like that.

So to live by faith is to live by receiving grace upon grace, day by day, moment by moment. Grace that secures us forever and empowers us today. And I think it helps to be reminded that there is an endless supply to the riches of grace... therefore we should never receive sparingly!  

Isaiah 55:1 is the LORD's invitation to feast on the promises of grace in the gospel as if we've been though a famine. He says, "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." AND, PLEASE, WHEN YOU EAT and DRINK, DON'T JUST SIP and NIBBLE. God is the host of the banquet, and bids us to glorify His name as the Great Giver as we feast and believe. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) night's Creekstone message is going to be one of those "when the rubber hits the road" messages.  Looking at Matthew 14:22-33, we are going to talk about what it means to live by faith rather than by fear. The reality is that we are faced with many reasons to fear. However, when we embrace the truth of the gospel and live in the context of God's sovereign, grace-filled agenda, we are able to let go of our fears, control, and despair, and live with the trust of a child who has a really strong Daddy. It is a faith that sets us free to walk through the valley of the shadow of death (or job loss, or failure, or embarrassment, or whatever)... without fear... because He is with us. This just might be a life-changing message.  Hope to see you then— 6:00 p.m. at the Park and Rec Center in Dahlonega. Here is a map. 

Here is last nights message handout from Campus Outreach/Beach Project in Panama City with the blanks filled in.