Sovereign Grace

John Piper | Desiring God

The Payout for Patience

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.” (Genesis 50:20)

The story of Joseph in Genesis 37–50 is a great lesson in why we should have faith in the sovereign future grace of God.

Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, which must have tested his patience tremendously. But he is given a good job in Potiphar’s household. Then, when he is acting uprightly in the unplanned place of obedience, Potiphar’s wife lies about his integrity and has him thrown into prison — another great trial to his patience.

But again things turn for the better, and the prison-keeper gives him responsibility and respect. But just when he thinks he is about to get a reprieve from the Pharaoh’s cupbearer, whose dream he interpreted, the cupbearer forgets him for two more years.

Finally, the meaning of all these detours and delays becomes clear. Joseph says to his long-estranged brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Genesis 45:7; 50:20).

What would have been the key to patience for Joseph during all those long years of exile and abuse? The answer is: faith in future grace — the sovereign grace of God to turn the unplanned place and the unplanned pace into the happiest ending imaginable.

My Redeemer

Everlasting to Everlasting

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

Ps 103:17-18

Help?

God Works for You | Daily Devotional by John Piper

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber. (Psalm 121:1–3)

Do you need help? I do. Where do you look for help?

When the Psalmist lifted up his eyes to the hills and asked, “From where does my help come?” he answered, “My help comes from the Lord” — not from the hills, but from the God who made the hills.

So he reminded himself of two great truths: one is that God is a mighty Creator over all the problems of life; the other is that God never sleeps.

God is a tireless worker. Think of God as a worker in your life. Yes, it is amazing. We are prone to think of ourselves as workers in God’s life. But the Bible wants us first to be amazed that God is a worker in our lives: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

God is working for us around the clock. He does not take days off and he does not sleep. In fact he is so eager to work for us that he goes around looking for more work to do for people who will trust him: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

God loves to show his tireless power and wisdom and goodness by working for people who trust him. Jesus was the main way the Father showed this: “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Jesus works for his followers. He serves them.

This is what we must believe — really believe — in order to “rejoice always” (Philippians 4:4) and “give thanks in everything” (Ephesians 5:20) and have the “peace that passes understanding” (Philippians 4:7), and “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6) and “hate our lives in this world” (John 12:25) and “love our neighbor as we love ourselves” (Matthew 22:39).

What a truth! What a reality! God is up all night and all day to work for those who wait for him.

Open Our Eyes

DesiringGod:  Marshall Segal

Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, I do not cease [praying for you, that God] may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. (Ephesians 1:15–18)

If I heard someone pray for God to open the eyes of my heart, I might think they doubted if I was really a Christian.

Paul’s prayer for these believers seems kind of unusual, even inconsistent at first. “Because I have heard of your faith,” Paul writes, he prays that God “may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” If Paul believes these people are already believers, why does he ask God to open the eyes of their hearts? Don’t we just pray like that for unbelievers?

So Much More to See

He prays this way — and we ought to, as well — because God is not done showing us himself and his work when we first believe the gospel. Even though we have known Christ — really known him — and surrendered ourselves to him, we have not even scratched the surface of who he is and what he accomplished for us with his death on the cross.

“We need help from God to hold onto the hope we have in God.”

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It’s like any other relationship in our lives. We don’t stop trying to get to know someone after we’ve loved them, as if that’s the end of our relationship with them. No, our love drives us to know more of them, and more deeply. In the same way, there will always be new aspects to know and love about our Savior, if we have eyes to see them.

Paul prays specifically that believers would see three realities and know them more and more as we walk with Jesus: our hope in God, our wealth from God, and our safety with God.

1. Our Hope in God

Paul asked God that these loved ones know “the hope to which he has called you” (Ephesians 1:18). They needed help from God to hold onto the hope they already had. Like the disciples in the boat during the storm, we’re far too easily frightened by the circumstances of this life. The darkness surrounds us, the winds blow violently, the waves come crashing into our lives. It often feels helpless, but that’s only because we’ve forgotten we’re with Jesus now.

Nothing can ultimately harm or destroy us because we’ve been saved and secured by God himself in his Son. And this God — whose wrath once burned against our sin and promised to punish us forever — this God has become for us “the God of hope” (Romans 15:13). Now, by faith, “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).

2. Our Wealth from God

Secondly, Paul prays that they would know “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). Paul loved his heavenly inheritance and relied on it daily to get through the poverty, persecution, and temptation he experienced in this life. Nothing that could be given to Paul, and nothing that could be taken from him, could compare with all that waited for him with God in glory.

“Nothing that could be given to us and nothing that could be taken from us compares with all that waits for us.”

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Think about all we could suffer and lose if we had any idea of the true wealth and happiness we will have for millions of years after just a little while here on earth. The hope of an eternal inheritance will strengthen you to sing in the midst of loss, and it will help you deny the deceitful desires of this world. It’s a sure defense against the lesser, competing pleasures constantly warring against Christ for our heart and devotion.

May God open the eyes of our hearts to see the worth of what we have in and with him, and the emptiness and futility of the other things and people we’re prone to worship.

3. Our Safety with God

God has saved you, and he has secured an infinite, eternal inheritance for you. Thirdly, Paul prayed that we would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19). Do you feel weak? We all do — some much more often than others. But we are all weak people.

You might be falling again in the same old patterns of sin, or struggling to believe that God could forgive your past, or seeing your inadequacies as a spouse, parent, or child, or feeling physical, emotional, or psychological burdens you can’t even explain, or experiencing any number of a thousand other weaknesses.

God wants you to know that the power to heal, the power to press on, the power to love and minister, the power to obey — any power you need — does not come from within you, but from within him. And if God’s power is in you, then you have an infinite, merciful, and invincible strength that will keep you and grow you in every circumstance. His divine power is for you, and not against you.

Remember, the Lord himself said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

We Want More

“Even in heaven, we will never exhaust everything there is to know and love about him.”

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We can spend the rest of our lives asking God to give us new glimpses of himself. Even in heaven — free from sin — we will never exhaust all there is to know and love about him. That’s the main thing that will make heaven so satisfying. We will constantly be meeting more of the infinite God — our Creator, Redeemer, and Father — and never getting to the end of him, never seeing everything there is to see.

God, open the eyes of our heart again.

Reminders

Matt Reagan | DesiringGod | Ten Big Daily Reminders

I wake up lost every morning. At least that’s what it feels like. Perhaps something similar is true of you.

Somehow during the night I’ve forgotten the big realities about God and the universe and myself and the gospel. I desperately need to steady myself with biblical truth rather than stumbling forward to live from unbelief.

I tend to forget the big realities during the day as well. I regularly catch myself living on the idiotic assumption that I will constantly remember the things that really matter — and that I will act in line with them. I assume that the realm of the seen and touched will not overwhelm the realm of the unseen and hoped for.

But in reality, whether it’s night or day, I don’t stay awake to what’s truly important for very long. I am like that college kid who sits in church on Sunday morning trying to keep his eyes open after an irresponsibly late Saturday night. My eyelids droop by default, and my mind wanders from the glories of the Bible to superfluous, naturalistic daydreams (that may or may not end with an embarrassing full-body twitch that snaps me awake again).

“When I wake up, I desperately need to steady myself with truth rather than stumble forward to live from unbelief.”

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So, I’ve learned over time to put structures in place that remind me of those unseen things, especially during my bleary-eyed, half-conscious mornings.

One effort is this list of ten truths. I hung it up next to our dining room rocking chair (my preferred spot for study and contemplation). It’s developed over the years as a list of the daily reminders I need most. Many of them overlap substantially, but a double reminder only reinforces the original purpose.

I’ve added a short commentary for each in hopes that something here might help you in your pursuit of remembering the biggest truths that we can be prone to assume and forget.

1. God exists. (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58)

It seems so simple, so basic, but I tend to wake up a naturalist, and a narcissistic one at that. I assume that all there is in the world is what is in front of my face. My bed, my wife, my kids, and most importantly myself. The simple yet ultimate existence of God immediately clears my lens, makes me small, and infuses meaning into every step. God exists — and that changes everything.

2. God loves you. (Romans 5:8; John 16:27; Jeremiah 32:40–41)

Another massive biblical reality, this immediately counters my hesitation to embrace God’s ultimate authority, reminding me that he has set his affections on this little speck of a person. He is far from indifferent toward me.

3. Jesus died for you, and the Father has now bound himself to give you only good things. (Romans 8:28, 32)

This draws me quickly to the central reality of all history: the cross. It is an objective truth set in time and space, so it immediately draws my gaze away from my own capacity to garner acceptance from God through my efforts. Furthermore, the outworkings of the cross make clear that even the harshest trials will come to me as blessing, for my ultimate good, no matter how bad I feel at the time.

4. God sees you as perfect. (Hebrews 10:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

My self-absorption, anxiety, and self-pity know no bounds. They must be beaten into submission by the beauty of imputed righteousness. The question “How am I doing?” is met head-on with the answer “Perfect.” In that regard, every day is a good day.

5. That is because of Jesus’s perfection, not yours. You deserve hell. (Romans 3:10; 1 Timothy 1:15)

There are two main purposes here: first, to counterpunch when my flesh looks for a way to subtly claim credit for the perfection that is mine only in Jesus; second, to maintain a sense of trembling gratitude for my salvation. While I enjoy the glory of the gospel, there should always be an awestruck voice in the back of my mind that is whispering, “I shouldn’t be here.”

6. You will die. (James 4:14; Hebrews 9:27)

Nothing brings clarity to me like this simple and straightforward reminder. How quickly I assume my earthly immortality, and how often I need to think of myself as a terminal cancer patient.

7. You will live forever in the new heavens and new earth. (Romans 8:18; Hebrews 10:34)

I don’t want to be a clearheaded fearer of death, like some atheistic poet. I want to glory in the guarantee of indescribable bliss that is just around the corner. And I want to live like it’s real — because it is.

8. For now, you are an exile on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13–16)

This keeps me from feeling at home when I’m not at home (especially in my own home). It prepares me for not fitting in, for weird looks when I speak with conviction about Jesus, and for holding loosely to every bit of earthly life.

9. Nothing on earth is truly worth putting your hope in. (Jeremiah 2:13; Galatians 6:14)

This is a practical specification of #8. It is right for me to remember that I will inevitably be disappointed by every earthly pursuit or relationship or emotional experience. It runs me back to my true Home and the true Bridegroom.

10. You have no right to be unhappy. (Philippians 4:4; 1 Peter 1:8–9)

This is a summarizing application of all the previous reminders, but it merits its own slot. How quick I am to become “blah” when there is a treasure trove of happy reality at my disposal! I must beat this into my discontent little brain. I can be plenty unhappy, but I have no right to be.

These reminders flee from my mind like stray socks in an armful of laundry. Every time I pick one up, another falls. By the time I read #10, #1 is beckoning again. What a grace that #4 is still true!