Hope and Grace in Every Season Part 4: On Love and Rejoicing in Your Lot

Welcome back to the fourth part of Hope and Grace in every season!

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39.

To love God in loving others is very different from the teachings of the world that always teach us to prioritize ourselves, who always teach us to prioritize our happiness for our own comfort. All the fullness of our own welfare.

From the beginning, when Jesus called his disciples, He never made false promises. Christ openly said, take up your cross and follow me. Men were created to love God and to love others. How beautiful is it when everyone lives not for themselves? Imagine for a moment, where no one is concerned with themselves but everyone serving one another; that’s beautiful right? Maybe this is what needs to be a challenge for each and every one of us. But if I’m going to be honest, friends, this is something difficult for us to obey; it's easy in theory for us to say this, but in everyday life – to constantly kill the flesh and to no longer demand our rights but to live to serve and love God and others – it is not.

That’s the call of every believer, not only when we first meet Christ when we know him for the first time, but every day, every moment as long as we are given a breath of life.

This is a heavy demand, but we need to know that God never requires us to do impossible things because everything impossible is made possible! How can we get that strength to live according to God’s design and word?

We are reminded to not be carried away by the world. I know, it’s not easy. But the Gospel is so clear from the beginning that as a follower of Christ we are called to be different from the world, the salt and light of the world. The Gospel has shown us the path we should take that we can always apply despite our world constantly changing. Our whole lives are so wholly dependent on God. We love because He loved us first.

How can we do this? It’s such a hard task, it’s hard to put down our ego every day. I pray that when we realize all our sins, we know that we can walk in repentance because God’s word says “When we repent and turn back to Him, He forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).” When as humans we realize our depravity in the face of God, we see his never-ending love which continues to approach us the same when God approached Adam and Eve, the same when God approached Cain.

Lord Jesus approached us: He came and laid down his rights, and his rights as the son of God should be enforced. But Jesus emptied himself, came as a servant, even obedient until his death on the cross. This was not the result of his fault or his own actions but as an offering of sacrifice, like a lamb that Abel slaughtered, like an animal that was slaughtered by God to try to help Adam and Eve. Jesus, the only Son of God, became a lamb who volunteered himself to be slaughtered, to atone for your sins and mine. The question is now, will we follow him?

The people He places in your life: love them as those He had entrusted you. The work He gives you: toil tirelessly as you know the Master whom you serve. The many fears and weaknesses you have: know that you are who you are by the Grace of God, and so trust in Him, not in yourself. The seasons He brings you to: oh rejoice in them. For He never leads us to bring us destruction, but rather, life abundant in Him who is sufficient.

Maybe there would be seasons that you long to enter, but always remember that the Lord sets out all our paths differently. Yet also soberly and humbly acknowledge those times when it had been difficult to rejoice in your apportioned lot—when you would kneel at the close of the days and cry out as Martha did before Christ. And in those times, remember to fall back on the Truth that the Lord does not delight in your striving, but that He delights in you, His child (Psalm 147:11). Know that He withholds no good thing from you, for God did not even withhold His Dearest for the sake of you (Psalm 84:11) and so whatever that Good Hand gives you, is indeed, good (Spurgeon, A Good Start, p.129).

My prayers are so that whatever season the Lord desires to bring you to in future years—may you rejoice in your lot. For His will is perfect, even if it is against your own wishes. The flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing (Matthew 26:40-43), so heed to the Spirit, who blows as He pleases (John 3:8). Let Him be your guide, even when it would seem odd and counterproductive in the eyes of the world.

My hope is that you would seek the Comforter, for the Lord indeed is near. Oh, how He never forsakes His children who seek Him with all their hearts. Ponder upon how Christ prayed alone in Gethsemane, while His disciples slept. And remember that you have a Heavenly Father who hears you. Always bring your worries, your burden, your doubts, your questions to the Lord.

Especially because God has dreams for each and everyone of us that is beyond our capacity and above our abilities (2 Corinthians 8:3-5). If we focus on our relationship with Him first then everything will fall into place. His plans will unfold and things will happen.

Being in love with God is a gain. Because no matter how much love we have for God, it will never be enough to return His love for us. So rest in the leading of the Sovereign One. Whatever it is that you have faith in God for, don’t stop! Keep believing, keep praying, and keep trusting because He is trustworthy! May we always love our neighbour, regardless of who they are, wherever the Lord may lead us. May we fight for every single person like Jesus. For every single person the world has looked past, to fight for every single person that other people say “they don’t matter” because to God, everyone matters.

Thank you for sparing time to read this. Writing this for you has been a blessing for me.