My Premise or God’s? Part 1

Sometimes the Bible tells us what people are thinking.  It tells us what they thought, and how that leads to their subsequent actions.  And that is when I noticed: if they get the premise wrong, then everything else will be wrong too.

II Peter 3 is talking about the Day of the Lord.  That is a certain Day that is coming. God tells us about it ahead of time not to scare us, but rather that we would be prepared for it. He starts out by telling us to “recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through the apostles”.  Recall? You cannot recall something if you never knew it. And that was me.  I am literally just learning the things that the holy prophets said, and they are making an impression on me!  But you must read the Bible for that to happen.

So, here is the first premise I noticed: creation. Or rather, whether there is or is not a Creator.  The day that my life started to change, I had this thought: you have a Creator…why don’t you find out what He thinks?  I talk about that in other places too. But here in 2 Peter 3:5 we read this: ‘But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.’  See, when God brought me back to Himself, He had to remind me that He created me.  That He created everything!  If we stop to think about this, it forces us to take a humble look at our very existence.  Someone created me, and they created me for a reason!  But, if for some reason that offends you, it will also force you to stuff away the truth. To deliberately forget.  The fact that the earth is just perfectly gently rotating at the exactly perfect amazing distance from the sun, is allowing us to live on this planet. Hmm.  But if you do not want to honor God in your life, or to at least go on a search to find Him and to ask Him why He created you,  then you will need to deliberately forget that fact.  In my case, I believed that, so that was not my first problem.  My premise was a different lie. (I will include this in Part 2)

Another premise: God’s slowness means that He does not care or notice.  “They will say: ‘Where is this coming’ he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4).  So, they are skeptical.  Scoffers.  Continue to live life to please themselves.  They do not stop to think about the fact that the same Word that destroyed the entire world by a flood is holding up the present heavens and earth which are being reserved for fire on the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:6,7).  But this is what God’s slowness really means: patience.  He is giving us time to reach out and find Him.  He does not want any of us to die but is patiently waiting for all who will to come to repentance.  That is kindness.

Another premise: I can interpret the Bible to say whatever I want.  Well, technically I guess we can, but it will be to our own destruction if we are wrong.

When I first started to read the Bible, on my sincere search for God, this thought came to my mind: ‘help me to read this Book through the lens of your love’.  I have no idea why I had that thought, and looking back, I now realize that it was a gift from God.  See, I was not trying to ‘make God a liar’ by something that I read that I did not understand. In other words, I was not trying to make God ‘mean’ or ‘unfair’ by something I did not understand.  I asked God to help me remember what I know to be true about Him as I read His letter.  And He did that for me! I pray this particular prayer almost every day, and I believe that God put this thought in my mind as well: ‘God, YOU are God!  You are Good!  You are for me you are not against me!’  and then I bring my requests to God with a thanksgiving that I never had before because I was so focused on my problems that I forgot to give thanks for all the good things God has already done for me, and continues to do for me.  And when I read this in 2 Peter 3:16b: ‘his letters contain some things that are hard to understand which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction.’  When I read this, I literally said ‘wow’.  It takes the pressure off.  Some things are hard to understand!  It is ok.  I do not need to understand everything or to be proud about what I DO understand.  If God created me, then He also created my mind, and He will give me the understanding of any passage at just the right time for me.  I only need to remain humble to receive these blessings. And if I remember this from a conversation that God had with Job and we get to listen to all these years later…God is speaking to Job here: ‘Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?’ (Job 38:36).  Who do you think? God.  Only God.  God is the only One that we can credit with anything that we understand.  That really ought to make us humble!  And not only that, there is a kind of person that God thinks highly of.  Think about it….the God of the universe will hold you in high esteem in His mind if this defines you: ‘this is the one I esteem:  he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.’ (Isaiah 66:2b).

Next premise:  Now that I know who I am in God and that He loves me and forgives me, I can relax. No!  Do not make the same mistake I did!  I relaxed so much that when ‘the day of trouble’ came my way (as it will for all of us) I was not ready for it. When my marriage and my husband were falling apart,  I had nothing to stand on, and so I believed all the lies of the enemy that he fed to me.  I had become careless.  I was not on my guard! I was not growing in the grace and knowledge of out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  In fact, the little that I did know about Him I was starting to forget.  It is called complacency and it is deadly.  So when Jesus Himself came and got me from the desperate place I had gotten myself to and restored me, I now know what the psalmist meant when he said this: ‘It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.’ And ‘Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.’ And my most favorite of these counter-intuitive verses: ‘I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.’  (Psalm 119:32).

If we say that we believe God and that we agree that there is a time of judgment coming for those who turn their backs on him, we need to be careful.  That is the opposite of complacency.  I know I talk about this a lot, but it is something that God is impressing on me every day: ‘be careful and stay close to Me’.

‘Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.’ (2 Peter 3:17,18).

When I first read the Gospels, it was in early 2018.  I had never read them all before.  Just bits and pieces.  But when you are drawing near to God, and wanting to know Him, He promised to reveal Himself to you. He did that for me, and He is still doing that for me.  I wanted to read them now!  And here is what I saw:  God is good.  Jesus is God! if you have seen Jesus then you have seen the exact representation of the Father! We get to know the God of the universe who created us and loves us. Jesus’ very first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding that He was invited to.  There is so much here, but the first time I really read this, I was like: wow…so kind! So generous! So good!  I like wine!  So, I sat up and took notice of this.  But for the first time, I did not confuse the gift with the Giver!  I wanted to know Him more!  I saw His goodness and that is when I began to really trust Him, and that is when my life began to change.

Here is the thing: we have an enemy who is devoted to our destruction.  And the only way to protect yourself from him is to be immersed in the truth.  The word is truth.  Keep the truth in front of you, around you, in your mind and on your lips. Resist the devil and he will flee.  But no matter what happens, stay on your guard. 

And never forget WHY.  Because Jesus died for us to bring us to a kingdom that we cannot even imagine. I do not want my life to end this way: ‘At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and body are spent.  You will say, ‘How I hated discipline!  How my heart spurned correction!  I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors.  I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.’’ (Proverbs 5:12,13).  But this does not have to be my story. Or yours.  It is not too late to change, because it is still Today.