Brokenness— The Plan
JOHN 12:20-26 

Do you desire God’s best in life? And do you hope to become the person He created you to be, able to accomplish all He has planned? Most likely, your answer is affirmative to both questions. But are you willing for the Lord to do whatever is necessary to bring about full submission in your life?

This third inquiry oftentimes does not receive a resounding “yes.” Yet in order for us to enjoy the best of God’s blessings and to blossom into the people we were designed to be, we have to surrender our will. Let me be the first to admit that it is not an easy process.

All of us have certain desires and habits that we simply do not want to relinquish. Today’s passage teaches us that dying to ourselves is necessary before we can truly live for God.

As you would expect, that is inevitably painful. It would be much easier if we could just choose to give up our stubborn wills. But according to Scripture, when we become believers, we retain unrighteous behavior patterns, which can be rather ingrained. God has to permit enough difficulty to enter our lives so that our old “flesh” tendencies are broken. Only then can we yield our hearts to the Lord without reservation.

Though it is hard to understand, our heavenly Father allows pain because of His great love. Just as a parent hates for his child to hurt, God takes no pleasure in our difficulty. But He so desires that we experience fullness of life in Christ that He allows hardship to shape us

A Spider’s Web    –    They weave the spider’s web.

Isaiah 59:5

Observe the spider’s web and find in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite’s religion. It is meant to catch his prey: The spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish people are easily trapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more discerning cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose deceitful declaration of faith was so quickly exposed by the stern rebuke of Peter. Routine and reputation, praise and promotion, along with other flies, are the small game that hypocrites take in their nets.

A spider’s web is a marvel of skill: Look at it and admire the tricks of this cunning hunter. The deceiver’s religion is equally seductive. How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel look so much like gold?

A spider’s web emerges all from the creature itself. The bee gathers her wax from flowers; the spider doesn’t, but still she spins her material to great length. In the same way hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their rope twisted by their own hands. They rest upon their own foundation and carve out the pillars from their own house, scorning the thought of being debtors to the sovereign grace of God.

But a spider’s web is very frail. It is curiously constructed, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant’s broom or the traveler’s staff. The hypocrite does not need a battery of cannons to blow his hope to pieces; a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the broom of destruction begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought-namely, that such cobwebs are not to be tolerated in the Lord’s house: He will see to it that the webs and those who spin them will be utterly destroyed. My soul, make sure to rest on something better than a spider’s web. Take the Lord Jesus as your eternal hiding-place.

The family reading plan for August 8, 2011

Ruth 1 | Acts 26