Reluctant Retiree

When children are young, good parents teach their children to say “Thank you!” Saying “Thanks” for gifts and kindnesses received is considered a customary and polite response. Children should be taught this behavior as a matter of respect and gratitude. It is a taught behavior because it does not come naturally to us. Giving thanks requires that we first humble ourselves and acknowledge that we were given a gift. We naturally rebel against anything that requires that we put aside pride and self-centeredness.

So too, we naturally reject the idea of giving thanks to God for both the supernatural and routine gifts we receive from His hands. When was the last time that you thanked God for a sunny day, good health, a smile from a stranger, a kindness from a friend, rain to produce good crops, or any other of the good gifts that God has given you?

Psalm 50:23 says, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” When we remember to thank God for His gifts, He receives glory. It becomes a glimpse of His salvation to us. Take some time today to thank God for His gifts to you. It will change your attitudes and mindset.

When I look in a mirror, I am surprised by my appearance. Somehow I am older, more bald, frailer, and not nearly as good looking as I think that I am during the day. When I am interacting with people, I view myself a certain way and think that I am communicating certain things. However, the picture I have of myself is not always what is actually communicated. If my actions contradict my words, we call that hypocrisy.

Jesus confronted the great hypocrisy of His day. The Jewish leaders had burdened the people with a great many traditions and moral laws in the name of their religion. These laws did not usually draw people closer to God, but actually drove people away from God. Even worse was the fact that these same so called spiritual leaders did not keep the traditions and laws that they professed.

Jesus rebuked the leaders when He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

We all fail sometimes, but consistent failure in some area is a danger to ourselves and to those who we may influence. We all should look in a spiritual mirror, God’s Word, daily and evaluate whether we are living up to the words we speak and whether our actions conform to the truth of God’s Word. God’s Word is the mirror that reveals the truth about our hearts. It is only by the power of God’s Spirit that we can hope to eradicate hypocrisy from our lives and begin to live in truth.

This morning I had a minor surgery to remove squamous cell carcinoma from my ear. If caught early, this type of cancer can be removed without progressing into more dangerous conditions. So the doctor scraped off the bad stuff and stitched me back up to prevent complications and promote the growth of good cells.

The apostle Paul wrote about something even more dangerous within us. He said that sin dwells within each of us and seeks to rule over us, thus destroying our lives. We must deal with sin in the same way that the doctor dealt with my cancer cells. We must give sin no opportunity to rule over us by instead giving ourselves to God. Paul put it this way in Romans 6:12-12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

We must not let sin continue to have its way with us so that we follow its passions. Instead we must surrender ourselves to God, so that we can walk in righteousness. Sin’s passions will destroy us like cancer destroys the body. Righteousness leads us in the lives we desire and provides healthy spiritual growth.

Two years ago I went to the Emergency Room twice with a rapid heart beat. Subsequently my doctor tried to do a heart ablation to correct the problem, but it was unsuccessful. So they embedded a loop recorder into my chest to record and report abnormalities in my heart rhythm. Everything has been fine until a couple weeks ago when irregular heart beats were reported. Now I am formally diagnosed with aFib and am taking a blood thinner medication.

This got me thinking about the idea of a spiritual heart monitor. It would work by notifying us, by an internal beep perhaps, of our real intentions. So whenever I am tempted to deceive others in order to promote myself, I would hear an internal beep warning me of my bad intentions. Or perhaps when I want to overeat to hide some pain, the beep would sound off. A spiritual heart monitor would help keep me from doing the wrong thing.

Psalm 44:21 says, “For he (God) knows the secrets of the heart.” To be honest, the fact that God knows the secrets of my heart is both comforting and scary. I cannot hide my sins and bad intentions from my holy God. He suffers in my waywardness. This is good in that this knowledge can help me resist temptation. God’s knowledge of my heart’s secrets is also encouraging. He understands my weaknesses and the hurts I have suffered. He feels my pain. In His mercy He eagerly desires to heal my brokenness. I find great comfort in knowing His mercy.

Since God knows the secrets of our hearts, it behooves us to walk in righteousness and integrity. Let us walk in such a way that our secrets will not embarrass us or the God who knows. Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his way crooked will be found out.”

Yesterday I received some bad medical news from my doctor. It threw me for a loop. I woke up today feeling a little down and discouraged. But then I read the Scriptures and found God’s promises and received a new dose of encouragement and hope.

Psalm 42:11 says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God: for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

When life overwhelms us, as it surely will at times, we can sit and stew in our discouragement. That rarely helps us feel better and certainly doesn’t do much to help us. Or we can choose to turn our eyes back to God in faith. If we ask Him, He will restore us and give us hope. That is not to say that our problems will go away instantly. However, we will be more ready to address our concerns in the power of the living God. After all, He is far more capable of bringing comfort, hope and healing than we are.