Where Do You Put Your Hope?

John Piper

From The Pleasures of God by John Piper:

“God is not displeased with the strength of a horse and the legs of a man as good things that He has made. He is displeased with those who hope in their horses and in their legs. He is displeased with the people who put their hope, for example, in missiles or in make-up, in tanks or tanning parlors, in bombs or body-building. God takes no pleasure in corporate efficiency or balanced budgets or welfare systems or new vaccines or education or eloquence or artistic excellence or legal processes, when these things are the treasure in which we hope, or the achievement in which we boast. Why? Because when we put our hope in horses and legs, then the horses and legs get the glory, not God.” (Piper, The Pleasures of God, 208)

Benjamin Rush On The Education Needed In A Republic

Benjamin Rush

In 1806, Benjamin Rush wrote the following “On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic”:

[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

Unexpected Blessings?

Gabriel & Mary

Our personal prayers are often answered by God in unexpected ways. The expectations with which we begin the Christian walk may often be disappointed. God, however, has His own timing and plans for your life. Dr. M. Craig Barnes offers us his perspective below:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:42-45 ESV)

Just as Jesus Christ was born of Mary 2,000 years ago, so by his Spirit does he continue to be born within each of us. Receiving this new life will be as wonderful and painful for you as it was for Mary.

Elizabeth and Mary were quite a pair. Elizabeth was not a young woman. After years and years of praying for a child, after becoming used to not having a child, and after getting to the age where giving birth to a child was not a good idea, she gets pregnant with a baby she and her husband will name John who will prepare the way for Christ. By contrast, Mary was a very young woman. She too hoped for a child someday, when it would be appropriate. But not now. Not before she was married. Not while she was still a virgin. So we meet two women who are pregnant. One of them is too old to be a mother and the other is too young. But both are in the hands of God.

As the Bible constantly illustrates, God’s timing usually takes us by surprise. Sometimes, as with Elizabeth, God moves too slowly. Sometimes, as with Mary, he moves too quickly. Like Elizabeth, some of you in church today have been praying for a long time for something to happen. You think now that it may never happen. Obviously you can’t make it happen, because if you could have, you would have. Clearly, you are not in control. Like Mary, others of you find that your lives are all disheveled this year. God has conceived something in your life that you didn’t ask for. It doesn’t make any sense. . . .

The new life God creates in you may give you a calling that scares you. It may give you gifts, passions, dreams you never expected to have. It may take loved ones away you would rather keep or give you new loved ones you would rather not have. Don’t be surprised if you don¹t understand it. You’re not the Creator. You’re not supposed to be. You’re supposed to simply receive it, and wait while it develops.

Waiting is one of the most important elements in receiving new life. . . . Maybe you are waiting today on a relationship that is slowly changing, or a new job offer, or for word about healing that just won’t come. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes. That is only because each day God has continued to move you closer to a new life. . . . Eventually, you get to a point of saying, “God, stop teaching me about patience. I can¹t handle any more lessons on that.” “God, stop teaching me how to love difficult people. It was easier being mean.” “God, stop teaching me to depend only on you. I’ve given you all there is to give.” “God, please stop breaking my heart with the needs of other people. I can’t keep caring so much!” When you say things like this, it is only because the new creation within you has almost matured to full term. You’re almost there. . . .

God has conceived something in all of our lives. Maybe it is something like an old hope that has come back to life. Or something that we didn’t really even want, but it is back in front of us again. Or maybe it is a new mission or restlessness about where you are. This time of year, when we hear about the arrival of Christ, the thing that God has conceived within us comes alive. It jumps for joy, reminding us that God is still at work within us. At Christmas it is hard to ignore the holy thing God is doing in our lives. . . .

We are a people who want to make sense of our lives, and to find cause and effect explanations for why life turns out the way it does. The hardest things to understand are not the tragedies, but the blessings that have come to us without reason. “Why me,” we ask. The explanations are not there. That is because to try to explain life is only another way of trying to control it. One of the central messages of Christmas is that you are not in control of the blessings. There is no logic to a blessing, only gratitude.

Why you? Why has God chosen to bring something creative and life changing to you? It is not a bad question, but it is not exactly the right one either. The only pressing question is will you receive this new life that is coming and give thanks? (“Why Me?”)