Take 2...

So, I've missed a few days. Thing is... it's not that I didn't do my devo's (not saying that in a proud, sort of duty bound way), but just that I don't like being on the computer over the weekend. I find the weekend is the time I get to really spend with my wife Amy. I enjoy chatting with her, running errands together and basically just getting in that quality time that seems so easily to slip away during our busy week days. So, I'm not trying to make any excuses, just to simply say that sometimes other things are just more important.

With that, here is today's little reflection.

Psalm 53

Sometimes it seems that my own "foolish" heart denies God. In practice, I often deny the reality of God's work and His very presence. If I'm honest, I quite frequently function as if God were somehow absent from this life. Thus, I act and look much like one of those who lacks understanding and heavenly knowledge. I presume that this is not an isolated feeling or reality significant only to me. It is perhaps the honest affirmation of most people who are genuinely seeking God. Our daily lives are much like the life of the "fool" in verse 1 - we say in our hearts (likely subconsciously) that there is no God. And so, when God looks down from heaven, I am rightly counted among the "none who does good, not even one."

However, there is a great difference between myself and the fool. The fool denies God b/c his heart is hard and he does not know the God who might soften it. I, on the other hand, have had my dark and hard heart transformed by the radical and wonderful grace of God! Though, I may at times functionally "act the fool," I am not a "fool" through and through. God has regenerated my heart and is in the process of making it more and more like His own.

So, when God looks down from heaven, He does not see Chris Perry in myself, He sees me "in Christ!" I have been joined to Christ; I in Him and He in me! I am now a Son of God; an heir with Christ Himself! I am one of "His people!" This is both perplexing and freeing all at the same time. Perplexing b/c I do not daily see myself as God does. I see the sinner, poor and needy, weak and wounded. I live with a constant understanding of my own "functional foolishness." Thus, I am driven to God daily in confession and repentance; seeking a refocusing of my attention and life upon Him. This reality is also freeing b/c I know God sees me different than I see myself - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has com." (2 Cor. 5:17). He sees me as His own! In Christ I have been redeemed, accepted and made new. God is at work in me, on me and through me! Thus, "when God restores the fortunes of His people" I will too sing and rejoice and be glad along with all His people.

For His Kingdom...