More Joy, prayer, and God's word

I just wanted to put up a post to say how amazing these three things are! Firstly, from spending time in Isaiah 12, I was struck by verses 2-3:

Surely God is my salvation; 

       I will trust and not be afraid. 

       The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; 

       he has become my salvation."

 ³ With joy you will draw water 

       from the wells of salvation.

Verse three is echoed by Jesus in John 4, with the Samarian woman at the well. But note how God tells Isaiah that he will draw water from the wells of salvation "with joy". Just knowing that through christ, we have been reconciled with the living god, who turns from his anger to love and comfort us, is just an amazing free gift. And it should fill us with joy! (you can probably tell i'm stuck into "Desiring God" at the moment!). I've been asking God to fill me with the joy of knowing him, and that He would be my treasure above all, and it's working! It's just a heart bursting thing to know that. If you haven't prayed that yet, I seriously recommend that you do! 

I guess that was an aside (although an uplifting one). I really wanted to say what a benefit spending a long time reading the bible, mulling over and chewing on God's word, and then praying (again, for not a short while) is. Although we may find it hard to do in our busy lives, the benefits of growing closer to him, leaning on him in childlike trust and delighting in a living relationship with a loving father are just priceless. I've been finding that over the last two weeks. This also ties closely to what I've been saying about idols really. When we realize what a privilege it is to know God personally, and have him speak to us in his word, and being able to cast our anxieties, and pour our hearts out in praise, repentance and need to him, all the worldly things we desire just seem to pale into insignificance, given all the spiritual blessings we have in the heavenly realms, and the future hope of glory set before us. This should (must) also spur us on to tell our friends and colleagues about this wonderful free gift of grace, this salvation they can have! How much better, and more permanent it is then the counterfeit gods this world offers!

So go for it!

Idolatry, and joy in God

I was listening to a talk by Tim Keller on "Removing Idols of the Heart" this week, and was devastatingly peirced by his definition of our idols. He roughly said "What thing, or person, that if you didn't have it, or lost it would cause you to think that life isn't worth living, and makes you want to kill yourself?. That's your idol". 


This cut me to the core, how true it is! We may say with our lips that we only treasure Jesus, but in our materialistic, western culture, I'm not sure how many of us actually worship Jesus in 'spirit and in truth' all of our lives! Remember in my post on "Desiring God", I said that John Piper said that this is idolatry, to say to God that something satisfies you more than him. 


Well, with this damning verdict on my (and probably your) life, how to break this spell? Well, Keller said that the only way to get rid of an idol is "with the expulsive power of a new idol". However we can't just replace the idol of say, power, with the idol of sex, or money. They too will disappoint us. No, we need the expulsive power of Jesus Christ in our hearts. To seek, and treasure him, and to know his love. I'm finding this true as I read more and more of the word of god, and ponder and meditate over it this week, it's starting to work! I'm delighting in that, and find that when I leave it to get on with the tasks of the day my heart still longs for it more! Praise God for that. However it's not easy, so we need God's help (ask him in prayer). Stay tuned for more on this, as I've recently got a copy of "Counterfeit Gods" by Keller!