Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” —Lamentations 3:22-24

Someone once told me that my main theme of my preaching could be summed up in one word—vindication. I didn’t know what to think of that, but I think it could be summed up in the words “letting God do it.” Then I realized something: I wished it could be said that my preaching was summed up in this phrase: “letting God love us.”

There is a connection between the principle of vindication and the principle of letting God love us. “Vindication” means to have your name cleared. God alone wants to do that. The moment you and I start to clear our own names, God backs off and says, “OK! Now you do it!” Immediately we are in trouble, and we see the absurdity of trying to do it ourselves. So unless we let God do it, it won’t really happen in the right way.

The same is true when it comes to this principle of letting God love us. In much the same way, we don’t let God love us. Instead, we compete with Him by trying to perform for Him so that we feel worthy of that love. This message is intended for those who feel that God doesn’t love them because they haven’t matched His standards and feel, therefore, they don’t have His approval.

You see, there is so much wrong with all of us, and if we knew just how much, we wouldn’t hold our heads high. How is it that we manage to get through the day? How do we manage to come to the Lord’s Table when we are all so unworthy? It’s because Jesus shed His blood on the cross, and that means infinitely more to God than our getting it right. At the end of the day, despite all our obedience and our efforts to please God, nothing matches the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Any one of us can hold our heads high in the presence of God, not because in ourselves we have come up to standard, but because of what God has done for us.

You see, that is what makes God, God. He’s different. It’s a wonderful thing when we come to the place where we just let God love us without our having to perform.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. —Isaiah 6:3

The most perfect worshipers in all His creation inside or outside the universe are the angels. Angels are created, nonmaterial, spiritual beings who cannot be seen with the naked eye unless they choose to reveal themselves to us. There are various categories of angels. We know the names of two prominent angels, Michael and Gabriel, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that every angel has his own name.

The first thing we can learn about angels with reference to worship is that angels adore God alone. The prophet Isaiah was given to see with his spiritual eyes what is going on in heaven all the time (Isa. 6:1-3).

Everything is done out of love for God. Whatever feeling angels may have for us, their priority is the glory of God. Angels exist to do God’s will. As we have seen, they are God’s messengers to us, and they reveal God’s will to us. You can’t argue with or bargain with an angel: they do what they are ordered to do. Angels never tire of worshiping God.

The focal point of the worship of angels is the triune God. They worship Him though they do not know the joy of redemption. They know nothing about the shed blood of the cross being applied to them. Another thing about angels is that they perceive the true essence of God’s character. They know that God is holy. God will never cease to be God throughout eternity. Though they have been in His presence and have been worshiping Him for millions of years, the angels still show great reverence for God.

We can learn from angels. And the more we learn, the better we will worship God and the more they will rejoice.

Excerpted from Worshipping God (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. —Isaiah 6:3

The most perfect worshipers in all His creation inside or outside the universe are the angels. Angels are created, nonmaterial, spiritual beings who cannot be seen with the naked eye unless they choose to reveal themselves to us. There are various categories of angels. We know the names of two prominent angels, Michael and Gabriel, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that every angel has his own name.

The first thing we can learn about angels with reference to worship is that angels adore God alone. The prophet Isaiah was given to see with his spiritual eyes what is going on in heaven all the time (Isa. 6:1-3).

Everything is done out of love for God. Whatever feeling angels may have for us, their priority is the glory of God. Angels exist to do God’s will. As we have seen, they are God’s messengers to us, and they reveal God’s will to us. You can’t argue with or bargain with an angel: they do what they are ordered to do. Angels never tire of worshiping God.

The focal point of the worship of angels is the triune God. They worship Him though they do not know the joy of redemption. They know nothing about the shed blood of the cross being applied to them. Another thing about angels is that they perceive the true essence of God’s character. They know that God is holy. God will never cease to be God throughout eternity. Though they have been in His presence and have been worshiping Him for millions of years, the angels still show great reverence for God.

We can learn from angels. And the more we learn, the better we will worship God and the more they will rejoice.

Excerpted from Worshipping God (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. —Luke 18:1

Did you ever let go when you had a struggle? Did you ever feel you were taking the right course of action, only to hear someone suggest otherwise, and so you gave up?

There comes a time when we all need to be confronted with the fact that we don’t know God as well as we may think. God has a way of putting us in our place lest our preconceived ideas and our small way of thinking keep us from seeing Him when He comes.

Reading church history reveals that God turns up in different ways. Take, for example, Hebrews 11. Not one of the people described there—Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Elijah—could have the luxury of seeing God as He had appeared in previous times. They each had to accept that which was different to them and be regarded as a fool. That is what made faith, faith.

We have to come to the place where we see when God is at work for ourselves, and if no one else believes it, we do. That is how real God must become to us. The difficulty is that in knowing Him a little, we assume we know God better than we really do.

Perhaps you are seeking God, and someone, perhaps a person whom you greatly respect, has persuaded you to give up. Perhaps you have prayed about something, and because God didn’t answer you within a short time you gave up. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you had held on?

The point Jesus made in the parable of the importunate widow was to keep praying and not to give up. Wrestling in prayer isn’t all that much fun, and I wonder how many of us have given up too hastily, feeling God was not going to answer.

God graciously comes again. Seek God again with all your heart, and you will find Him.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. —Nahum 1:7

Although we often do not see it at first—and for some it takes a longer time—all of our bitterness is ultimately traceable to a resentment of God. This may be an unconscious anger. Some “good” people would be horrified at the thought that they could be harboring bitterness toward God. But we often repress this, too; such knowledge is too painful to admit.

The truth is, our bitterness is often aimed at God. Why do we feel this way? Because deep in our hearts we believe that He is the one who allowed bad things to happen in our lives. Since He is all powerful and all knowing, couldn’t He have prevented tragedies and offenses from happening? What we ultimately believe is that God is to blame for our hurt.

God does turn evil into blessing. He causes things to work together for good. God did not send His Son into the world to explain evil, but rather to save us from it and to exemplify a life of suffering. Jesus, who was and is the God man, suffered as no one else has or ever will. One day God will clear His own name from the charge of being unjust, but in the meantime, we need to trust Him and take Him at His Word that He is just and merciful.

For all of us who struggle with God’s right to allow evil to exist in the world, there still must be a genuine forgiveness on our part, for any bitterness toward God grieves the Holy Spirit. He was never guilty in the first place, but because He sometimes appears to us to have been unfair, we must relinquish our bitterness and wholly forgive Him before we can move on with our lives.

Excerpted from Total Forgiveness (Charisma House, 2002).

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” —John 11:20-21

Perhaps you know the feeling of God letting you down. Do you know when it usually happens? Not only will it be at the worst moment that it could possibly happen, but it will be at the very time when you are doing your very best to get things right—the moment you seek to do God’s will.

Take the Christian who has strayed away or who has become lukewarm, who suddenly feels God talking to him and he answers, “Yes, Lord. I’ll do what You say.” They fully expect God to say, “Wonderful! Let Me tell you what I am going to do to reward that act of obedience: I am just going to bless you; I am going to fill you with love, and you are going to feel My presence. I am going to cause all sorts of good things to happen to you because you are doing the right thing!”

That is the moment when God lets us down. Why? Well, it’s always with a good reason. For example, when Lazarus was ill, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick,” and Jesus did nothing (John 11:3). They were convinced that Jesus would stop everything and go heal their brother—just like that. Instead, Jesus turned up four days after the funeral. The Lord let them down. They felt betrayed, only to find out later that the Lord had a strategy in what He did. What He ended up doing was far greater than what they wanted to happen.

We are not promised that God will deal with those who have hurt us in this life.

If you have been mistreated and have been hurt, and you wonder if God sees it happening, I want you to know that God doesn’t like it any more than you do, and one day He will correct the situation. It is only a matter of time.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. —Matthew 14:23

Loneliness isn’t for nothing. If you are in a situation of enforced solitude, there is a reason. God does not send the thorn in the flesh for nothing. Moreover, it is not punishment. Don’t say, “Oh, I am getting my dues!” Wrong!

God got even at the cross. The thorn in the flesh is preparation. We all need preparation in some way. Part of my own preparation has been learning to cope with loneliness.

There is loneliness in leadership. Every church leader knows the pain of having to make unpopular decisions, the pain of not getting very close to those you minister to, the pain of treating everybody the same. The loneliness of leadership is part of the job.

But there are advantages to loneliness. For example, you have time to pray; you may never have such time again. One reason for enforced solitude is that God wants you all to Himself. He loves your company, and you could be lamenting the very thing that He has designed in order to have your company.

This is your moment to develop two things: (1) to become an intercessor, where you can start praying for people, and (2) to get to know God with an intimacy beyond anything that you dreamed possible.

Another value of loneliness is to make you sympathetic toward others. That is one of the main purposes of any trial. As Paul put it, “And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort” (2 Cor. 1:7). It produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings. You will be able to sympathize, and you will be able to identify with another person. Pray you will never forget what it was like, should this thorn be withdrawn from your flesh.

Excerpted from The Thorn in the Flesh (Charisma House, 2004).

When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. —Ecclesiastes 5:4

Jacob made a vow to God: “If God will be with me … and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear … of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Gen. 28:20-22). Twenty years later, God turned up and said, “I am the God of Bethel. That was the spot where you made a vow to Me.” The interesting thing is that when Jacob made a vow to tithe, he didn’t have anything. But we read in Genesis 30:43 that he “grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.” And now the Lord said, “I will remember your vow.”

Jacob could have said, “Oh, I didn’t think You took notice of that!” But I think as soon as Jacob heard the words, “I am the God of Bethel,” he knew exactly what that meant.

Maybe, at this moment, God is taking your mind back to a vow you made to Him. Maybe you took a vow to pray, and He took care of you. But God remembers your vision. He is saying to you, “Come back to Me! Renew that vow!”

That is something God shouldn’t have to do, because when you break a vow, that is a serious thing, and in so doing, you effectively release God from having to do anything for you. But God is so gracious, and He is saying to you, “Here I am again. Life is not over yet. There’s still time, and if you will turn your life over to Me, I will restore the years the locusts have eaten. I will forgive all that has happened, all the mistakes you have made and the sins you have committed. And not only that, if you will begin now, I will cause everything that you have done in the past, everything that haunts you, that leaves you terrified, to work together for good.”

I guarantee that if you return to Him, you will find out that there was a purpose in everything that happened. God has not deserted you. There was a reason He let certain things happen. God meant it for good.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. —John 15:1-2

It is necessary to remember that as God’s field, the true vine, we have the responsibility to be obedient. For if there is no obedience, there will be no fruit to grow on that field. We are told in John 15:8 what the gardener wants: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.” What is required is abiding or remaining in Christ.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. —John 15:4

We cannot do things our way and still abide or remain in Him. Abiding in Him means obedience. So you can see why the mystery of God’s sovereignty is not limited to His saving work. He alone makes things happen in the work of sanctification, but without my obedience there will be no sanctification. It is, as I say, a mystery.

The second aspect of the believer’s responsibility is observation of what we are within ourselves. The crops in a field are observable, are they not? What is required, therefore, is that I examine myself. Is there fruit?

If I examine myself, it means I must have objectivity about myself. It is as though I stand back and look at myself; I observe myself. And if I see something that is not right, I deal with it. Paul calls this “judging” ourselves. He says, “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment” (1 Cor. 11:31). If by the Word of God or by external chastening I judge myself, I will not have further chastening. Yet Paul does say that when we are judged, it is chastening: “When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (v. 32). Even when God steps in like that, it proves the person is a Christian.

Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land. —Genesis 31:13

There are things about you that only God knows. You have told nobody, but God has a way of getting inside your heart with a single word. This is the way He conquers the hardest heart and the greatest skeptic with his closed spirit.

Nobody but Jacob knew about Bethel. Bethel was a place so special to Jacob, and God knew exactly what to say. Jacob was so discouraged; he felt he had nothing to live for. And then God turned up with these words: “I am the God of Bethel.” God could have introduced Himself by saying, “I am the God of your father, I am the God of Abraham, I am the God of Isaac.” But He chose to introduce Himself in such a way that Jacob knew it was the true God.

You may ask why Jacob waited twenty years to hear these words. I can’t explain God’s timing, but I know it is perfect. God sees the end from the beginning, but He knows we want answers now. It must hurt Him to see our pain, and He longs for the moment He can speak to us. But it will be at the time when it is best for us, and when He finally steps in, we will have no complaints.

It could be that you are struggling with a situation that is very painful, and you ask, “Lord, can You see what they are doing?” You may think you cannot go on because of the pressure you are under. But the God of Bethel is the God who sees. He knows what you are feeling. He sees what they are doing.

God said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). The God of Bethel will speak, and He will withhold nothing from you that is good.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).