Posts Tagged: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
“Believing We’re Forgiven, Provided . . .”
I believe that God can forgive anybody, even me. However, I also believe that there is a proviso. A proviso is a condition that must take place for an agreement to be kept.
Many people think that God’s love and forgiveness are unconditional. In a deep sense, that is true. There are no provisos in God’s love.
However, in order for us to actually experience God’s loving forgiveness, one of my recent twelve-step readings pointed out that there is a proviso. Here is part of that reading:
“Meditation for the Day
‘One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press onward toward the goal.’ We should forget those things, which are behind us and press onward toward something better. We can believe that God has forgiven us for all our past sins, provided we are honestly trying to live today the way we believe He wants us to live. We can wipe clean the slate of the past. We can start today with a clean slate and go forward with confidence toward the goal that has been set before us.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may drop off the load of the past. I pray that I may start today with a light heart and a new confidence.”
(From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)
I was struck by the sentence, “We can believe that God has forgiven us for all our past sins, provided we are honestly trying to live today the way we believe He wants us to live. We can wipe clean the slate of the past.”
How we live our lives—which is mostly made up of the choices we make—matters in many ways. One way that making good choices matters is in the realm of assurance of God’s love and forgiveness. Sure, we are forgiven! Good news indeed! Our past does not have to determine our present or our future! More good news!
But all of this good news won’t mean much unless we are honestly striving to live the best lives we can. So, how about if we get busy fulfilling this proviso today? It isn’t about God fulfilling God’s part of deliverance. That part, we can take to the bank. It’s about the proviso.
Living out the proviso is hard work, but it is also good work. And doing good work gives us all kinds of assurance—including the fact that our past does not define us.
“Compassionate? Then Do Something!”
“Jesus was moved with compassion . . .” (Matthew 9:36, 14:14; and elsewhere)
“Having sympathy and compassion for all who are in temptation, a condition which we are sometimes in, we have a responsibility towards them. Sympathy always includes responsibility. Pity is useless because it does not have a remedy for the need. But wherever our sympathy goes, our responsibility goes too. When we are moved with compassion, we should go to the one in need and bind up his wounds as best we can.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)
My brother used to say, “I feel for you, but I can’t reach you.” But a pity, or sympathy, or compassion, or empathy that doesn’t do something, doesn’t amount to anything. Whether you make a distinction between pity, sympathy, compassion, and empathy, what really makes the difference is acting. Love not only reaches; love reaches out.
God felt for his people who were slaves in Egypt. I’m sure of that. But God didn’t stop with his feelings. He did something: He freed them from slavery. Moses was God’s hand reaching out to God’s people.
Jesus felt compassion, but he didn’t stop there. He healed, he taught, he cast out demons, he fed the hungry. Jesus reached and he reached out.
Do I feel badly about racism in our society and in my heart? Then I need to do something about it! Am I grieved by sexism, Covid-19, hunger, war? That’s nice. Now, I need to do something about it!
What can I do today to embody my compassion for others? That is the question. My answer is either action, or my answer means nothing.
“Still on the Design Board”
“As you look back over your life, it is not too difficult to believe that what you went through was for a purpose, to prepare you for some valuable work in life. Everything in your life may well have been planned by God to make you of some use in the world. Each person’s life is like the pattern of a mosaic. Each thing that happened to you is like one tiny stone in the mosaic, and each tiny stone fits into the perfected pattern of the mosaic of your life, which has been designed by God.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not need to see the whole design of my life. I pray that I may trust the Designer.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)
Even though I am sixty-nine-and-a-half, I am still on the drawing board. The Great Designer continues to work on me. He is very creative and very patient.
The problem is that his work on me feels like radical surgery without the benefit of an anesthetic. I am not usually aware of his desires for the final product, but I am keenly aware of the pain.
But of course the pain hasn’t killed me yet. Maybe it won’t.
Sometimes, I get really discouraged when I think of how many years and days I’ve had on this planet and how few years (?) or days (?) I may have left. But then I remember that the Designer who is working on me is eternal himself, and that what he designs is also eternal.
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:11-13, English Standard Version)
So, I say a very reluctant “Get on with it, LORD! Don’t mind the whining and screaming. You know what you’re doing, even when I don’t.”
“God Won’t Dump You Now!”
“Meditation for the Day
If you believe that God’s grace has saved you, then you must believe that He is
meaning to save you yet more and to keep you in the way that you should go.
Even a human rescuer would not save you from drowning only to place you in other
deep and dangerous waters. Rather, he would place you on dry land, there to
restore you. God, who is your rescuer, would certainly do this and even more.
God will complete the task He sets out to do. He will not throw you overboard,
if you are depending on Him.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day: The Little
Black Book)
“Psa. 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3, English Standard Version)
God is a God who rescues, but God is not only a God who rescues. God does not rescue me, just so that I can go back and try to drown again. No. The author of my 12-step reading for today points out this fact.
What would we think of a member of the coast guard who rescued people from drowning at sea, only to let them slip over the railing of a raging sea and drown? I’m not military, but I think that might be called “dereliction of duty.”
As soon as I did the 12-step reading that leads off this post, I thought of Psalm 40. The psalmist praises God for rescuing him from horrible danger, but the psalmist doesn’t stop there. He also praises God for following through. God not only rescues the psalmist from a slimy pit, but also sets the psalmist’s feet upon a rock. And then, God enables him to walk securely.
God’s deliverances are very thorough. God has thought of everything. We need to refuse to be minimalists when it comes to God’s ability to rescue us.
“No Reproach in God’s Healing”
“But he as pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:5, English Standard Version
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans 8:1–2, English Standard Version
If you read my blog posts regularly, you have no doubt picked up on the fact that my own musings are often provoked by my 12-step readings. Today’s post is another one with the same origin. This is from today’s reading from Twenty-Four Hours a Day.
“God has no reproach for
anything that He has healed. I can be made whole and free, even though I have
wrecked my life in the past. Remember the saying: ‘Neither do I condemn thee;
go and sin no more.’
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not carry the burden of the past. I pray that I may cast it
off and press on in faith.” (From Twenty-Four
Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation)
I was especially struck with the words, “God has no reproach for anything He has healed.”
Sometimes, I don’t feel very healed. But is it really about my feelings? I believe, at least in my better moments, that Christ was God with skin on. I believe, at least in my better moments, that Christ died for all my sins. I believe, at least in my better moments, that I need to—and can go to God each day, each moment of the day, for the forgiveness of my sins. And in that moment, no matter how I feel about it, God does in fact forgive and heal me.
I need to quit picking the scabs off wounds that God is healing. I need to let the wounds become scars, scars that are as beautiful as the God who gave his life to heal my wounds.
“Life Apart and Life Impart”
In an A. A. book titled Twenty-Four Hours a Day: The Little Black Book, today’s meditation talked about the life apart and the life impart. What do the two words “apart” and “impart” mean in this context?
The life apart refers to “. . . the life of prayer and quiet communion with God.” Whether we speak of prayer and communion with God, whether we even believe that there is a god, we all need some time alone. We may call it “time to recharge the batteries,” or “me-time,” or anything else, but we all need it. Some of us (who are introverts) need more time apart. Others of us (who are extroverts) need less. But we all need this kind of time.
Strangely enough, I consistently come out as an introvert in the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment. This surprises all my friends. It surprises me, too. I like people, and I like to talk.
On the other hand, I like people in small doses. And I only like to talk after several hours of silence, very early in the morning. I’m writing this post at 5:00 a.m. Reading and writing, like talking, are aspects of communication. However, reading and writing are also solitary, quiet activities.
But the life apart needs to be in balance with the life impart. What I gain in the silence, I need to share with others. One way that I do that is by teaching. Another way is by writing for my Down to Earth Believer website.
I am not the only one who has things to impart. Everyone does. A lot of people think that their insights and stories would be of no interest to anyone. They are dead wrong. Little children who can barely talk can make the most interesting comments in the world, and can ask the best questions in the world. So can the very old. So can everyone in between. Your story is unique to you. It can also help countless others in the world—if you impart it.
This life apart and impart involves a daily routine for me. I need balance. And although I strive for that balance, I rarely feel that I have achieved it.
When I was about nine or so, I watched a lot of shows on TV that involved circuses. (Yes, that was a thing a very long time ago.) So, I decided to become a tightrope walker. When my dad wasn’t around, I started walking on our wooden fence, south of our house. However, I pretty swiftly discovered that balance isn’t as easy as it seems. I fell . . . a lot. One day, I got off balance and came down hard straddling the wooden fence. That was the end of my tightrope career.
In a sense, we are all tightrope walkers, and balance isn’t easy in any area of life. For example, sometimes, I talk too much. I’ve known this for a very long time. I need to respect my own self by practicing the fine art of silence more often. Listening attentively and deeply to another person is also a form of communication.
But I will continue to need these quiet alone times as well. While solitary confinement is one of the worst forms of torture known to humankind, continual interaction with people is not far behind it, as a means of torture.
Balance is exceedingly important. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about tightrope walking or life itself.
God, please help me to balance my apart and my impart today.
“NO REPROACH FOR ANYTHING GOD HAS HEALED”
“God has no reproach for anything that He has healed.” (http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/thought-for-the-day, accessed 06-30-2017. The quote is from the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day.)
“Some people think of scars as the sign of a wound. I think of them as a sign of healing.” (The source is unknown, though it may be my own. More likely, I have reworded someone else’s thought a bit.)
I woke up this morning feeling pretty self-reproachful concerning my past. Then, I turned to the Hazelden twelve-step reading quoted above.
It set me to thinking about various verses in the Bible that talk about what God can and does do with our sins. Here are a few of those verses:
Psalm 103:12: “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (New Living Translation).
1 John 1:9: “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (New Living Translation).
But one of my favorite verses is:
Micah 7:19: “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!” (New Living Translation).
Years ago, I hear David Seaman say in a sermon something to the effect that God throws our sins into the depths of the ocean, and then God puts a sign on the shore. The sign says, NO FISHIN’ ALLOWED!
Whether your sins are ancient history or pretty much current news, the NO FISHIN’ sign still applies. If Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, then our scars, even those from self-inflicted wounds, are signs of healing, rather than simply of the wounds.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “The Process in Miracles and the Miracle of Process” March 11, 2024“2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids […]
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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