Author: Megan Langan

Hesed

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 89 (day four)

In verse 1, the psalmist says, “I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever.” This word “lovingkindness” is almost always translated from the Hebrew word “hesed.”

Hesed is one of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture, but English doesn’t quite do it justice. It refers to the unidirectional, covenantal love and mercy that God has towards his people. It is a steadfast love, built entirely on the character of God, not on the worthiness of his people. It’s a love that we can put all our weight on, knowing that it is trustworthy and true. It is the love that is seen in God’s covenant with his people, which is described here in Psalm 89.

This is the covenant that Christ came to fulfill. This is what we celebrate at Christmas – that love came down. Hesed became known to us. Through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, we were brought into the covenant of love.

Joy!

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 98 (day four)

Reading this Psalm again caused The Isley Brothers’ song “Shout” to get stuck in my head. You just can’t read Psalm 98 without feeling energized. The Israelites felt this as they lifted this song of praise to the Lord. They had finally been delivered from exile, and they celebrated God’s faithfulness with a joy so palpable that all the earth was invited to join in.

The Lord is worthy of our joy. David danced with joy before the Ark of the Covenant. John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when in the presence of the preborn Christ. And how much more reason do we, who live after the resurrection, have to shout for joy? The joy that springs up in us as a fruit of the Spirit is a steadfast joy. It is available to us even in our darkest days, precisely because of what we celebrate at Advent: Christ has come, and Christ will come again. Even if we have nothing else, there is reason to rejoice.

In Our Midst

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 85:1-3, 8-13 (day four)

It’s tempting to think we have to escape in order to find peace. We go on vacations, have personal retreats, or even tip-toe off to a quiet room away from holiday house guests in order to “find some peace.” To be sure, finding time away from the hustle of life is essential. I am constantly looking for little pockets of peace in my day, my week, and over the course of the year.

But the peace that Christ offers us isn’t something we have to escape in order to find. The Israelites in this psalm receive God’s promise of peace in the middle of their dire circumstances. This prophetic psalm is fulfilled when Christ takes on human form, entering straight into a dark world full of chaos, offering peace unlike what anyone had ever experienced. And when Jesus comes again in glory, he will break into the middle of our bleak, disordered world with lovingkindness, truth, righteousness, and peace in their fullest forms, once and for all.

Because Christ humbly took on human form and lived among us, the peace we reflect on at Advent is not far off on a mountaintop or on a remote beach somewhere. It’s in our midst now, constantly available to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hope

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 (day four).

Happy Thanksgiving, church family! Alright, let’s be honest, who already has their Christmas tree up? Are you the type that says “the earlier, the better”? Or do you strictly wait until tomorrow? When you finish your turkey today, how do you prepare for Christmas?

On a more serious note, how are you entering this season of Advent that begins on Sunday? Are you feeling joyful and ready to celebrate? Are you entering this season with some heaviness in your heart, either over your own sin or the brokenness of the world? Have you felt distant from the Lord?

Advent is certainly a season of joy as we anticipate the birth of our Savior, but it’s also a time to examine our hearts, and bring the depth of our human emotions before the Lord. We acknowledge that though Jesus, the light of the world, has come and will come again, there is still darkness. In this season, we’re invited to lament alongside the ancient Israelites who cry out, “How long, O Lord?” as they do in this psalm. We’re invited to acknowledge our own sin and yearn for the return of our Savior.

But we who are of the Lord do not lament without hope. Even if you’re at the bottom of the deepest valley, as the Israelites were in Psalm 80, we know that Jesus is the only one in whom we find hope. However you come as we enter this season of Advent, come with hope. The Lord is worthy of it.

 

Pray

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 6:17-20 (day four)

Paul had a lot to say to the church in Ephesus and to us through this letter. We learned that though we were born as outsiders, we’ve been adopted as sons and daughters of God and made blameless through the sacrifice of Christ. We learned that Jesus – his life, death, and resurrection – was the Father’s plan from the beginning. Christ stands at the center of the cosmos, and all things are through him and for him. We also learned that he is the cornerstone of the church, making us part of God’s temple. In the second half of the letter, we learned what it means to be apart of God’s temple – how to live together in unity, purity, and gentleness. We even learned that there is far more to life than the physical reality in front of us – there are spiritual realities and battles that we are often blind to, but have been outfitted for nonetheless through the Spirit.

After all this that Paul has taught us, as if he knows that we might feel overwhelmed, he gives us one simple command  – to pray.

No time spent in prayer is wasted. There is no subject that is too big, too small, or mentioned too often when it comes to prayer. We are meant to pray at all times, through the power of the Spirit, so that we might experience the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love for us.

How has our study in Ephesians caused you to pray?

Warfare

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 6:10-17 (day four)

When we read verse 12, it’s easy to imagine the “authorities of the unseen world” and “evil spirits in heavenly places” like something out of a paranormal horror movie. To be sure, there are horribly dark and evil things that occur in this world. However, I think a lot of the spiritual warfare we experience is more subtle, and more insidious than that.

When we believe lies that parade around as truth, when we allow apathy to creep in, when we are blinded by pride, when we allow a sinful habit to take hold – these are also the realities of spiritual warfare. But before we are overcome by fear at how present these things seem, Paul reminds us – we’ve been given everything we need for life and godliness, we’ve been given the armor of God.

It is a powerful thing to pray the armor of God over yourself, your spouse, your friends, and your children. It is impenetrable, fashioned by the God of the universe, and stronger than anything we may face.

Lift Up

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day four)

One of my favorite professors in seminary taught a class on worship. He shared a thought in that class that has stuck with me ever since: in the gathered worship service, for some that are present, it took all they had just to get through the door. Life’s hardships have become too much to raise their voice, but they sought the presence of Jesus and got through the door. For the rest of us, whether we know their hardships or not, we sing on their behalf. Our song of praise lifts them up and wraps them in love as they seek the Spirit’s presence.

There will also be days where the roles are reversed. Where we give our last bit of strength to simply get through the door on a Sunday morning. But the song of those around us ministers to us and lifts us up. They sing on our behalf. I know I have had days like this, and the sound of the congregation’s singing carried me into the presence of God.

Paul isn’t being cute here when he tells us to sing. He knows that this is one of the ways the body of Christ can minister to one another. Our song to the Lord is also a ministry to our neighbor.

Exposed

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:8-14 (day four)

In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis beautifully depicts God’s light. When the narrator steps into the heavenly realm and into the light, he experiences it’s warmth and freedom, but it also makes him feel exposed. This tension of freedom and exposure runs throughout the book, and it is exactly the tension that many of us feel as we wrestle with sin.

When we get things out in the light, confessing and repenting of our sin before God and others, the truth is that we are exposed. We are vulnerable and we feel the tension of taking what was once hidden and putting it in the light. But the good news is that our vulnerability is met with the kindness of Jesus. He meets us where we are, removes our sin and shame, and replaces it with freedom.

Exposing our sin to the light is uncomfortable, the light might hurt our eyes at first. But it is the only path to freedom.

Ignorance

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:17-24 (day four)

The phrase “ignorance is bliss” hadn’t been coined yet, but Paul is already proving how untrue it is. The Gentiles were living in ignorance, hardening their hearts towards God and searching for satisfaction through lusts of the flesh. Their lives were anything but blissful. Anyone who has ventured down that spiral of sin would say they felt shameful, not satisfied.

Paul is telling us, ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s death. But we, the redeemed of the Lord, aren’t living in ignorance – we have seen Christ and we have heard his teaching. God’s plans for heaven and earth have been revealed to us and we’ve been given all truth through Christ. Therefore, we can no longer claim ignorance. We have seen the light and we can’t unsee it. We have seen the better way.

When our flesh inevitably tries to lure us back into that spiral of sin, when we’re tempted to put the old self back on, we must stand firm knowing that we have seen the fullness of light and witnessed the fullness of love.  After seeing the truth revealed in Jesus, we can’t go back to how we used to be, no matter how hard gravity pulls in that direction. We are accountable to what we know, so stand firm in the new self – it is through life in the Spirit that we find bliss.

Likeness

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:11-16 (day four)

“…to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” v 13

We are meant to become like Christ. That isn’t just an inspirational saying, it’s our calling. Paul means this so much he says it again in verse 15, “we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ..” Regardless of your vocational calling, our highest calling in life is to be transformed more and more into Christ’s likeness.

As soon as I’m reminded of this calling, I think about my shortcomings, limits, and sins. I still struggle with things that seem like they should have been conquered long ago. This transformation into Christ’s likeness can feel like it’s two steps forward, one step back. When I attempt to gain spiritual growth on my own, I end up just walking in circles.

But the Apostle Peter tells us that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness. What have we been given? The very Spirit of God. We can’t attain Christ’s likeness on our own, but the Spirit will always move us towards Christ. What are you struggling with? With whom in your life do you struggle to represent Christ? Bringing that to the Lord in prayer is the first step in becoming more like Christ.