Megan Langan

Without Ceasing

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 3:5-7 (day four)

We often ask the Lord for wisdom in life’s big moments – before a big decision, during a crisis, or before a difficult conversation. But Proverbs tells us that God’s wisdom is just as much for the small, daily, common moments. After all, these are the moments that add up to the significant times in life.

When Solomon says, “In all your ways acknowledge him,” he’s asking us to look for God’s presence, listen for God’s voice, and seek out God’s wisdom in everything we do and everywhere we go. He foreshadows what we see later in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.” When we pray without ceasing, we invite the Lord into our everyday, ordinary moments, acknowledging that even in these moments, his ways are higher than ours, and he has wisdom to offer us. He is the fountain of wisdom that we’re invited to drink from all day long.

God is inviting you to be in constant conversation with him – it’s that conversation that will make your paths straight.

Reputation

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 3:1-4 (day four)

How much time and effort do we put into crafting our reputation? Probably more than any of us would like to admit. We all want to be viewed in a certain way by others; we want to be admired, to be considered smart or strong or talented. Scripture speaks about how to build a reputation, but it looks far different from how we normally go about it.

When we grow in intimacy with God, when we know his character and his words and “write them on the tablet of our hearts,” we gain wisdom. We gain the ability to walk in kindness and truth. As Solomon says, this will allow us to be in good repute with men, and more importantly with God. The more we spin our wheels trying to craft a good reputation on our own, the more self-absorbed we’ll become. It’s no wonder that we gain a better reputation the less we think about ourselves and the more we think about God. By the power of his Spirit, he’ll make us more like him, giving us the wisdom to walk in kindness truth.

2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Protection

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 2:1-15 (day four)

“He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones.”

The more we pursue wisdom, the more God’s world opens up to us. What was formerly black and white becomes full of color. As we push closer and closer into God’s ways and live in his wisdom, we see more of God’s power and provision. Highlighted here in chapter two is God’s protection.

Solomon says God is a shield to those who pursue wisdom, he guards their paths as they pursue justice, he preserves their way. Of course, this doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen to Christ followers, but it does mean that as we encounter adversity, God will continue to give us the supernatural wisdom it takes to handle it in a way that honors him. He protects us from the schemes of the enemy.

Just a few weeks ago we read in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” When we walk in wisdom and grow in godly discernment, we find ourselves protected from wolves in sheep’s clothing. We don’t fall victim to the enemy’s schemes because we have seen for ourselves that God’s way is higher. Wisdom helps us live in the light of God’s protection.

Logic

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 1:1-7 (day four)

One of the most challenging aspects of Christianity is that at times, it goes against logic – our earthly logic, at least. Christianity asks us to believe in a miraculous God who behaves in miraculous ways that will always be somewhat mysterious to us. There will always be aspects of God that we can’t wrap our heads around.

But that’s also what makes Christianity beautiful – the more we walk with God the more we see that his mysterious, logic-defying ways are better than our ways. His wisdom is better than our most sound arguments. As we learn to live well in God’s world, we have to walk with humility knowing that God’s ways are higher. Proverbs helps us do that. Proverbs helps us take the inward change we experience after finding Christ and express that change on the outside. Proverbs helps us unlearn the “wisdom” of the world (which is no wisdom at all) and replace it with God’s amazing, illogical wisdom.

It even tells us where to begin – if we want to have godly wisdom, we have to fear the Lord. We have to recognize that he is limitless and we are finite. We have to surrender to his Lordship. Only then can we start the journey towards wisdom.

Demolish

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:24-29 (day four)

Jesus ends this sermon with a metaphor that delivers a word of warning. He says that the teaching he gave us should become the new foundation for our lives, just like the foundation on which an entire home is built. Too often, we want to take Jesus’ words and graft them into our already-constructed worldview. We find ways to fit them into our life like filling in cracks in the walls, or building an addition on our house. We try to fit Jesus into what we’ve already built.

But Jesus does not mince words. Any other foundation for life will wash away as soon as a storm comes. If we encounter Jesus’ words and realize that we have built a house for ourselves on the sand, then we don’t just add another room founded on the gospel, we have to tear the whole house down and start anew, building on the firm foundation of truth.

This takes a great amount of faith and patience. Demolishing what we have built on the shaky foundation, on the ways of the world, is challenging, even heartbreaking. But it’s in our newly built home that we’ll find an appreciation for the storms – they remind us what a firm foundation we have in Christ.

Cheap Grace

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:15-23 (day four)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrase “cheap grace” in his famous book, The Cost of Discipleship. He describes cheap grace as a grace that requires no repentance, no sacrifice, and ultimately no cross. We want Jesus’ free gift without having to do anything in response. I think this is what Jesus is warning us about here. There will be people who talk like they know Jesus, but never truly surrender their lives to him, never suffer with him, and never know him intimately.

Of course, grace is given to us freely by a gracious God. We don’t have to earn it or “purchase” it on our own, but that doesn’t mean it’s not costly. Grace calls us to become more like Christ. Grace calls us to rid our lives of sin so that we can make room for the Spirit. Grace calls us to participate in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Grace calls us to lay our lives down so that we may have life abundant.

This is a great passage for us to meditate on as we begin the season of Lent. A season where we’re challenged to pray, “more of You, and less of me.” This creates the room for the Spirit to work in us and produce this good fruit by which we are known.

Shortcuts

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day four)

We’ve all heard it said that “nothing worth having is easy.” Yet, we’re constantly drawn to things that offer an easier, seemingly effortless way to reach our goals. We fall for commercials that say their product can make us lose weight without any effort on our part. We search for the magic pill that will heal all our ailments. We’re duped by schemes that promise us we will “get rich fast!”

But there are no shortcuts to the things in life that really matter. And our spiritual life follows the same pattern. There are no shortcuts to sanctification. There are no loopholes to having an intimate relationship with God. There’s no magic pill or “become godly fast!” scheme that gets us closer to Jesus.

That’s not how God designed us. Rather, it’s in the hour-to-hour, day-by-day, walking with Christ that we find we slowly but surely go from glory to glory. This can be maddening at times, as it often feels like we’re going one step forward and two steps back. But we can have faith that the God who created us for the day-by-day way to glory also has the patience to walk that road with us, as slow and winding as it seems, through the narrow gate and into eternity.

Known

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:7-11 (day four)

There is much about Christianity that involves mystery. There are some things about God, the universe he created, and the spiritual reality we live in that are too great for us to understand.

But at the same time, we also serve a God who knows us and wants to be known by us. He invites us to know him here. What grace, that the eternal God of the universe desires for us to know him like this!

Having trouble loving your neighbor? Ask God what he loves about them. He loves to answer that question. Having a hard time knowing God’s plan for your life? Seek how God is already moving – we see it through Scripture, in history, and the movement of the Spirit around us. He doesn’t hide his will from us. Need somewhere to run with your anxieties and fears? Knock on God’s door – he has an open door policy and he’s ready to receive you.

Though there is mystery, our Lord wants to make himself known to you. Ask, seek, knock. He’s ready for you.

Confession

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:1-6, 12 (day four)

Jesus uses the analogy of eyesight a lot in this sermon. In the opening beatitudes, he says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Now he’s showing us what it takes to be able to see God and live with a pure heart, and it’s not easy.

When I used to read this story as a kid I would think, “How do they not know there’s a log in their own eye?! Wouldn’t that hurt?” But that kind of impairment isn’t the sort of thing that happens overnight. Hypocrisy doesn’t spring up out of nowhere. It starts with a small problem of sin, but the longer we go with an unrepentant heart, the more it builds on itself. Eventually, our sin has blinded us so effectively that we look as ridiculous as someone walking around unaware of the log in their eye.

This is why a daily time of confession before God is so essential to the Christian life. We need God’s help in recognizing our own sin. If we’ve developed a log in our eye through years of resentment, pride, and stubbornness, then the only way to remove it is through God’s grace. The act of humbling ourselves in confession every day before God keeps us from haphazardly judging others, as that kind of judgment only happens in the dark. His grace brings us back to the light, where we can see clearly again.

If you want to follow the golden rule, confession is the first step.

Grip

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:25-34 (day four)

Jesus had us check in on our relationship with money last week. How did that go for you? Was it as convicting for you as it was for me? I hate to break it to you, but it’s not over. Jesus continues the conversation and expands his thoughts on the matter in these verses. He says, “You cannot serve both God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life…”

When we focus on and strive for the things our flesh wants: comfort, security, peace of mind, social status – all of which often involve money – we’ll soon find that the harder we try to get it, the harder it is to take hold of. The tighter the grip we try to have on our circumstances and livelihood or our comfort and security, the more we find ourselves backed into a corner by fear and anxiety. A life pursuing creature comforts on our own won’t get us the real peace that we’re after, we’ll just find that those things don’t satisfy.

We hear a similar message from Jesus in Luke 9:24-25, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”

Ask the Lord to help you loosen the vice grip you have on your life. That’s when you’ll find life abundant.