Wilderness Wanderings

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:19-25)

How are the de-formed desires of our flesh re-formed in the ways of Christ? James has some thoughts.

When talking about the righteousness God desires, James seems to say: if we don't have the capacity to listen to the person sitting in front of us, if our words sometimes fly out unchecked, or if our temper controls us more often than we control it—if that's how our day to day life looks in relationship to others—then how can it be any different in our relationship with God (and vice versa)?

Our daily life and our spiritual life have a lot in common, and so practicing things like listening more and speaking less in our relationship with God helps us do the same in our relationship with others and vice versa. That's because the practice slowly forms our desire to really listen and hear well in all of life.

As it is with any human endeavor, beginner's luck and raw talent only get you so far. Most of us play like we practice, and practice is hard work! There's not a professional athlete out there who hasn't done thousands of times already what you'll see them do on the court, field, or rink in competition. That's why they're good at it.

Habitual repetition is how muscles learn their movements: it's also how our heart, mind, and soul learn theirs. Repetition of the actions of loving another person, like confessing, forgiving, and reconciling with that person is the way of training ourselves not only how to love someone, but it also trains our desires to want to love someone in just that open, honest, reconciling way.

When it comes to training our desires, you really do have to fake it 'til you make it. Which is what that habitual repetition of practicing something is all about. That's why God commands it—so that we do practice these things and get them into our bones.

It's only those who know the rules of the game, the boundaries of the field, and who have disciplined themselves in the fundamentals who are free to play and enjoy it to its absolute fullest. That's true whether you're talking about athletes, tradespeople, jazz musicians, or Christians.

So look into God's perfect law that gives you this freedom and continue in it. Don't forget what you've seen and what you've heard there—but do it. Practice it with your friends. Practice it with your families. Practice it with your God. You'll be blessed if you do. Indeed, you might eventually even find yourself wanting, or desiring, to do these things.

Of course, all of this comes through the work of the Spirit who sanctifies us and empowers us to practice what God calls and commands us to. He slowly conforms us, our lives, and our desires to the likeness of Christ and forms fruit within us: like gentleness, love, and self control.

That's what it's about—becoming, through the power of the Spirit at work within us, more and more from our desires up, who we already are in Christ.

We welcome Mr. Rick Verkerk as guest to Wilderness Wanderings. He is bringing us a five-part series on praying for others.

Prayer is the way that we connect with God and keep in contact with him. It is the most important relationship in our lives. We can experience intimacy with God, confess our sins to restore the relationship, express joy through praise, and partner with Jesus by interceding for others. Great example of how to pray for others is found in John 17, where Jesus shows us what an intercessory partnership looks like, starting with prayer for Himself, then intercession prayer for those close to him, the disciples, and then others.

Let's begin by looking at the importance of faith when we pray. Today's Scripture is: "Elijah was a man like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops" (James 5:17-18).

In 1 Kings 18:43–44, Elijah and his servant are having a conversation. "Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back." The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."

Whenever I have read this conversation, I am initially in awe. One man earnestly makes numerous prayer requests and they are granted. First, he prays for no rain. Then he prayed and it rained. Not a hundred men praying, not five men praying, one man praying! But there was an indispensable condition to the prayer requests being granted. It was Elijah's faith. Prayers without faith are incomplete. Faith is the second requirement of prayer after confession and it comes with an amazing promise in Mark 11:22-24 if you have faith. Elijah had faith. Simple prayers of faith, all answered. But what if Elijah had quit after, say, three attempts or six? He didn't. Rather, he prayed 'earnestly'. Earnest prayer gained the results.

James points out in the text that "Elijah was a man just like us" – meaning he was an ordinary guy, not someone extraordinary. The importance of this: the power of God is released through prayer by people, ordinary people like us. It was God who held back the rain, caused it to rain again, not Elijah. The message for us? Simply, an ordinary person who has faith, who prays earnestly and persistently, will release tremendous power – God's power. God is seeking people of faith to intercede on behalf of others. When you think about Elijah and what he prayed for, do you think "I could never pray like that." Are you in awe of him? Then remember what happened when one ordinary person prayed earnestly and start praying earnestly.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. (James 1:12-18)

There are significant enemies that we face in this Christian life, namely the world, the flesh, and the devil. We've mentioned them before.

Each of these three enemies was a good creation of God at the start though—especially our flesh with its desires and our world. The world and the flesh have not always been our enemies, nor will they be forever. God has set about in Jesus Christ to redeem all of creation, including our own fleshly humanity, our desires, and the culture that arises from humanity's living and working together in this, our world.

So, our desires are not inherently evil—our ability to desire and the proper objects of our desire are good gifts of God. But within a sin-broken world, these desires fall out of proper proportions and we begin to desire good things too much or too little. Or, our desires find objects other than the ones they were intended to aim at, becoming idolatrous.

Some examples might be… A desire to succeed that keeps us from accepting God's grace in failure. A desire to control our happiness or security that keeps us from surrendering to God. A desire for intimacy that finds its end not in desiring the consummation of the kingdom or even in a committed marriage relationship, but in pornography or adultery instead.

Now, we've begun this journey of redemption in Christ. God has given us new birth into this Christian life and God will crown us with life at its end. But between those two moments lies a lifetime of discipleship—that work of following Jesus and becoming more like him each day.

On the way, God reveals the motives of our heart which need to die in order for the new life of Christ to more fully take root. It's a work of re-forming of our fleshly desires: re-aligning and re-aiming them to their proper ends and in proper degrees.

This is not just a journey of discipleship that we walk, but is the work of Sanctification that the Spirit works in us as we walk. The journey of sanctification is a lifelong cure slowly administered by the Holy Spirit for all that is sin-broken in our fleshly desires. The Spirit reveals the evil in our hearts, and together with Him, we participate in putting it to death through the power of Christ's death: finding new life again and again on the other side.

With the Bible to guide, the Spirit to empower, and the Lord's Prayer of "lead us not into temptation…" on our lips, we find this to be the daily prescription for the rest of our lives—dying and rising. Taking up our cross and following.

After giving us new birth into this Christian life, our loving Father hasn't left us on our own to fight the world without and the temptations within. No, through the power of the Sanctifying Spirit He accomplishes it within us.

1. God told both Abraham and Moses to "go." They responded differently. What was the difference?
2. What is Jesus teaching about faith in this parable?
3. Why should we listen to Jesus?
4. Where are God's fields?
5. What does it look like to work in the particular fields God has called you to work in?

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong" (Eccl. 5:1).

As you may have noticed, today's devotion is not based in Nehemiah. I might come back to that book later. This is my last Wilderness Wanderings for until the second week of November. I will be on a two-week vacation. While I am away, we will have a special guest who will give a series of devotions on praying for other people. Stay tuned for that.

Today, from the devious little book called Ecclesiastes and the "sacrifice of fools". Put simply, that is religious talk about ourselves. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee who offers the sacrifice of fools. Jesus point there is also simple, "God isn't listening."

Our text is followed with these words: "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few" (Eccl. 5:2). Which of us is not guilty in the face of this wisdom?

Why is it that we need to speak so much, even in the presence of God? Mostly to justify ourselves. We need to convince God that we are not as bad as we know that we are. We make excuses for our bad behaviour and present to Him all the reasons why we shouldn't have to love that one person.

Why can't we remain silent in God's presence? Often because we believe that God's laws are really unfair. We need to explain to him that He needs to lower the bar. No one can really measure up to those standards.

Since we have so much to talk about, why should we be silent? The obvious answer is: so that God can say something.

Silence is the discipline that puts a stopper to our self justifications. When we stop talking, God has time to speak. He will tell us that there is no justification for our wrong, nor for our lack of love. He will tell us that we are as evil as we think we are. Maybe that is why we don't want Him to talk.

But then God will also tell us that our sin is gone. He remembers it no more. There is no excuse for our sinful behaviour, so God forgives us. Christ died for our sins. We are deeply loved. When we stop talking, we give God an opportunity to tell us this.

There is a further reason to stop talking. Our tongues are our most powerful weapon in our attempts to control ourselves, others and our reputations. Our tongues are full of manipulation and control.

In the silence God can remind us that our sense of control is just an illusion. Isn't that really what's behind God's question to Elijah, "what are you doing here?" Elijah had come to the point where he thought he was in charge of Israel's spiritual wellbeing, and things were in freefall. Essentially, God says to Elijah, "I got this, don't worry" (1 Kings 19). There is one who is truly in control and that is God. Only in that silence can our souls truly find rest.

This is why Sabbath is so important. Work often becomes an avenue by which we control our lives. Only in Sabbath silence do we discover that we cannot control our lives through work. Only God can control.

James reminds us that the tongue is difficult to control. We know this to be true. Yet we must not forget that Paul wrote that we have been set free for freedom's sake (Gal. 5:1). An element of that freedom is the freedom to be silent.

In our silence we hear the small still voice of God that our fears are unjustified, just like Elijah. In silence we discover the most profound truth: we are not god. God is.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?" I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it." (Nehemiah 2:19-20)

Indeed, opposition came as the Jews began to rebuild the defences of Jerusalem.

We've mentioned the traditional enemies that the Christian tradition has long recognized as those lined up against the journey of faith in Christ: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The opposition that inevitably comes.

It's not always so easy to pull them apart to understand where attacks are coming from in the moment. Certainly all three could have been in play as the taunts came to Nehemiah from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. These were representatives of "the world" around God's people. "The world" mocked and ridiculed the Jews for rebuilding the wall, beginning to put social pressure on them to stop the work.

"The flesh" of our internal desires and motivations can indeed become weak and lose resolve in the face of such pressures and taunts from our external "world." And our final enemy, "the devil" seeks to enhance and exploit both these forces to just that end. His work is all about helping the "world's" external taunts and pressures to find just the right internal insecurities, doubts, and weaknesses within our "flesh" so as to knock us out of faith and trust in God.

No doubt the enemies of "the world" and "the devil" were at work against the Jews in Nehemiah's day. But God had strengthened the hands of His people: had strengthened their flesh, their trust, their commitment and surrender to Him, such that Nehemiah could reply without flinching: "The God of heaven will give us success."

And so lest we think that all of these enemies are always bad, we need to remember that this is very much God's work: redeeming through Christ and sanctifying through the Spirit our "flesh" so that our desires become more readily fixed on Him and less swayed by the pressures of "the world" and the prowling opportunism of "the devil." God is continually at work restoring our "flesh" to the image it was meant to carry: His.

So yes, that means that eventually, our "flesh" will cease to be an enemy as the likeness of Christ is restored in us. Eventually, even "the world" will cease to be an enemy as it is set free from its current bondage in the renewal of creation. Eventually, "the devil" will be cast down in defeat. This is the promise whose fulfillment we await with longing in the second coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We will not see it this side of eternity, at least not completely. But every now and then, we catch a glimpse.

A glimpse, like this one in Nehemiah, of God's people standing firm with flesh and hands strengthened in their God: full of trust and full of hope.

There are other glimpses too. A glimpse of beauty in the world around us where creation sings or people live together in reconciled harmony. A glimpse of a person at peace with their God, with themselves, and with the others around them.

Most of us probably aren't there today. And that's ok. The glimpses we catch around us can be enough to remind us that God is trustworthy indeed, bringing about his redemption of this world and our flesh, even now.

Be encouraged. The God of heaven, in the end, will indeed give his people success, for the battle with our enemies will end in redemption, restoration, and victory. Indeed, God is at this work even now.

"Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So, they began this good work." (Nehemiah 2:17-18).

During a war soldiers don't jump up from behind their protective barricades with hurt expressions and ask the other side, "Was it something I said?" That would be silly to the extreme.

Likewise, the spiritual battles we Christians face are not really about us—our enemy is raging against Christ in us. He is opposing Jesus and his church, pitching various weapons and human obstacles against us. Our task is not to take it personally and wonder if we did wrong—our task is to suit up in spiritual armor, show up on the battlefield, and persevere for Christ. We need to know that resistance is just part of the story when we are being obedient to God.

Of course, opposition always makes things more difficult. As Christians, we often need to be prepared to go the extra mile. Reaching the world with the truth and love of Christ will involve inconvenience and personal sacrifice at the best of times, but especially when others are creating obstacles.

Sometimes God allows things to proceed relatively easily, as when Nehemiah makes his requests to Artaxerxes. But other times it is more of a struggle. In chapter 1, everything goes smoothly. As we saw, he was anxious and did significant fearful praying. But God paved the way for him.

When things go well, we tend to get over confident. We might think that, since God is on our side, nothing can go wrong, all obstacles will be removed. Many Christian organizations have become so enamored with their success that they have lost their way. We make compromises because we believe that success is always necessary.

But not Nehemiah. He knows there is opposition to his work. He has not become over confident. At night, in the darkness, with only a few others, he scouts the broken walls around Jerusalem. The rubble and burned out gates were a sign that Jerusalem had been defeated. In ancient culture, this meant that Jerusalem's God had been defeated too. That was the disgrace. A rebuilt wall around the city would be a symbol that God was with them and had not, in the end, been defeated.

Thus, Nehemiah speaks with the Israelite priests, officials and nobles (2:16) inviting them to join him in rebuilding the wall in order to remove this disgrace. Along with this invitation, he tells them all about how God's gracious hand had brought him to this point and how the king had made provision for him.

The NIV then says, "So, they began this good work," which is a fair translation. However, a more literal translation of this phrase would be "And they strengthened their hands for the good." Their starting point was to encourage each other to do this good work.

It's interesting that the opposite happened in Ezra 4:4. In that story, the enemies of the Jews discouraged them from re-building the temple. The phrase translates as "weaken their hands". Later, God changed the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he gave permission and provision for rebuilding. The effect this had on the Jewish settlers was that "their hands were strengthened" or as the NIV says, "they were filled with joy" (Ezra 6:22).

Throughout Ezra-Nehemiah when Israel overcomes opposition to restoration, it is because of the things that God does. But we see the people encouraging each other as well. None of them can go it alone.

The same is still true today. We can expect to face opposition. Satan does not want Christians nor the church as a whole to succeed. One of his great strategies today is causing us to think that we are alone. That we can go it alone. But God calls us to encourage on another. "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing", Paul writes (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Take some time today to ask God whom you can encourage, whose hands you can strengthen, so that they can continue in the good fight.

By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. (Nehemiah 2:13)

Sunday evening, our high school youth gathered for a (socially-distanced) campfire to worship and talk about Spiritual Disciplines—on this particular night: the discipline of gratitude (click or tap here to learn more about this spiritual discipline!).

We started that Spiritual Discipline conversation by recognizing that the methods of being formed in the Christian faith that we've long relied on, like Sunday worship, are not quite as reliable as they once were. Some might even say they've been broken down.

Just think of all the spiritual disciplines we practiced together in worship as a Christian community pre-COVID-19: Prayer, Scripture Reading, Giving, Confession, Gratitude, Song, Community/Fellowship, Silence, etc. This weekly practice of all these disciplines in worship forms us in the Christian life and in Christian character over the years, it really does! Worship is not only something we offer to God, it's also one of the means through which God forms Christ in us!

But now, this central practice of Sunday worship which once carried so much of the freight of our Christian discipleship has broken down. Not completely of course. We worship, we really do. But it's also not quite what it was. And while technology is a good stand in, some things (like the support, encouragement, and accountability of Christian community) simply cannot be digitally mediated forever.

As the practice of Sunday worship has weakened in our communal life therefore, and all these weekly reinforcements of the Spiritual Disciplines with it, so have our "defences" against our "old enemies" that Pastor Michael mentioned yesterday: namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The World: we get busy and distracted with all the other pressing demands of work, school, life in a pandemic, and the ever-urgent notifications on our devices and eventually we start to slide away from worship and Christian practice—slowly. Never all at once. But, bit by bit, Sundays easily get filled with all the other things that have always been vying for our attention and adoration.

The Flesh: we sleep in on Sundays, don't feel like doing worship, or just plumb forget to engage in worship and the other Christian practices. Discipleship is hard. Lots of other things are easier.

The Devil: as C.S. Lewis reminds us in the Screwtape Letters, there are indeed forces at work in this world that give aid to the seemingly benign churn of our fleshly lives and our world's pressures, helping them to erode our Christian practice with the relentless force of waves that pound the shore.

Perhaps it's time to take a silent walk with God to go out and "examine the defences," as Nehemiah did.

Are the "walls" of Christian habit and discipline broken down in your life? Have the gates to your heart and mind that put a conscious check on what gets in and what comes out been burned up?

The restoration of our spiritual practices starts at just that same place that Nehemiah started his restoration of Jerusalem's defences. First, we have to take honest stock of where we're at, what we've lost, and what we're up against.

Take time to examine just those things in your life today. What spiritual habits and practices have been lost or broken down in your life since the beginning of this pandemic? Take stock, and bring it to God in prayer.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites (Nehemiah 2:10).

Nehemiah has finally made it to Jerusalem. He has letters from the king. He is official – coming with the king's authority. And he did not come alone. He came with an escort of officials and cavalry. There is no indication that Nehemiah requested an escort. This appears to be a provision that God supplied through the king.

Earlier, Ezra and his company had fasted and prayed for a safe journey because he did not want to ask the king for military protection (Ezra 8:22). Thus, some have suggested that Ezra showed more faith in God than Nehemiah. However, Ezra was not offered a military escort, and Nehemiah did not ask for one. The point is likely that God provides in different ways in different situations.

His coming did not go unnoticed. His coming as an official of the king was particularly noticed by Sanballat and Tobiah. These two had power in the area. They had been working hard to keep Israel weak, because that secured their positions of power and influence. When they saw that Nehemiah was coming to promote the welfare of the Israelites, they recognized that his coming was a threat to their power in the neighbourhood. So, "they were very much disturbed."

And they would continue to be a thorn in Nehemiah's side, seeking to undermine both the physical and moral progress Nehemiah sought to bring.

We may find this a mere curiosity. We may think that it has no relevance for us today. After all, we are far removed from this story in both time and place.

It seems to me that Sanballat and Tobiah are included in Nehemiah's story to edify us as well. They remind us that there has always been resistance to God's kingdom. And that resistance will continue until Jesus returns. As he said to his disciples, "Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy" (John 16:20).

He also taught us to pray, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Sometimes we may face people like Sanballat and Tobiah: people who really do not what to see God's church grow and thrive. More often our enemies are not physical. That is why the Heidelberg Catechism includes the line, "our sworn enemies-the devil, the world, and our own flesh-never stop attacking us" (Answer 127).

The truth of this is seen in the exposure of hidden sins committed by Christian leaders. The church as a whole, bears the shame of such things and many have given up on the church, and even on God, because of these failures.

But we, who fly under the public radar, are no less afflicted by 'our sworn enemies'. There is some evidence already that churches have lost members during COVID. Where are they? No one knows yet, but they are not responding to the invitation to come back to worship services.

How about you? How have you experienced the attacks of our enemies? Has your faith weakened in the preceding months? If so, are you going to do something about it?

Nehemiah keeps writing that 'the gracious hand of God was on him.' Here is the key. As the Catechism says, "By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment." So, when I ask, "are you going to do something about it?', I'm asking the wrong kind of question.

The Catechism gives us a better avenue when it teaches us to pray, "And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory."

Like Nehemiah, we can do no better than to trust in God, and pray to him to strengthen us.